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nious confectionery architecture, on which my name was afterwards, at the head of his regiment, carried the dainscribed in spun sugar! My name written in sugar! Ye ring project into execution. In 1812, he, at considerable Quarterlies and Blackwoods, and tu Brute, false and faith-hazard, introduced a new system of drill into his regi less Westminster!-ye who have never traced my proscribed name but in gall,-think of Lady Morgan' in sugar; and that, too, at a table surrounded by some of the great supporters of the Holy Alliance!-Je n'en revenais pas! "All I could do under my triumphant emotion, I did. I begged to be introduced to the celebrated and flattering artist, and promised, should I ever again trouble the public with my idleness, to devote a tributary page to his genius, and to my sense of his merits, literary and culinary. Carême was sent for after coffee, and was presented to me in the vestibule of the chateau by his master. He was a well-bred gentleman, perfectly free from pedantry, and, when we had mutually complimented each other, he bowed himself out, and got into his carriage, which was waiting to take him to Paris."

Of all the tributes paid to Lady Morgan's talents during her late visit to France, this strikes us as decidedly the most delicate and appropriate. The mawkish sweetness of the sugar, rendered unwholesome (as all comfits are) by the colouring matter, and the filigree nature of the structure, are most happily emblematic of her genius. The names of Carème and Morgan will now descend the stream of time together,

ment, (the first battalion of the third native infantry,) training it as a light infantry corps. Sir Samuel Auchmuty having consented to review Major Welsh's men, upon whom the title of the Pallamcottah Light Infantry was afterwards bestowed, was so convinced of the utility of the system, that he immediately established four battalions of that kind of troops. The honour, therefore, of having given to the Madras army this additional and invaluable arm justly belongs to our author. Many other instances might be stated of good and soldier-like service done by him, between the years 1790 and 1829, for, during the whole of that long period, he was almost constantly in the field, but the few which we have selected seem to us the most important.

Colonel Welsh's Reminiscences are told in the style of a man who has not paid much attention to the turning of periods; but in our eyes, they derive a stamp of authenticity from their want of polish, which amply compensates for any occasional roughness. They consist of detached sketches of the country and inhabitants of India, both native and European, executed, in general, after a most graphic fashion. But the work has this drawback, that from the author's extreme anxiety to relate nothing that he did not witness, there is a want of continuity and connexion in the view that it gives of Indian affairs. To those who have not studied very minutely the moderu history of our Eastern dominions, the Colonel's narrative must frequently appear disjointed and tedious. Those, it is true, who are more at home in the subject, will know exactly where to dovetail his information into the great body we already possess, and to such, the very abruptness of which we are complaining, will be welMilitary Reminiscences; Extracted from a Journal of come, as an additional warrant of the authenticity of the nearly Forty Years' Active Service in the East Indies. facts narrated; but a work published for the purpose By Colonel James Welsh, of the Madras Establish-stated by the author in the passage we have quoted above, ment. In two volumes. 8vo. Pp. 354, 347. London. ought to have been so arranged, as to stand a chance of Smith, Elder, and Co. 1830. being palatable to all.

“Like Juno's geese, link'd, and inseparable." There is a portrait of Lady Morgan prefixed to this work. Were we to make any remarks upon the features, there would be an immediate outcry about " unjustifiable personality." And yet we cannot for our lives see why an author should be more exempt from criticism of a published face, than of a published opinion.

THE object of the author, in publishing this work, be has well expressed in its concluding paragraph, which, although it be rather an Irish way of beginning a review,

we here quote;

extent and accuracy of the information it conveys respect-
To us the most interesting feature of the work is the
ing the passes and hill-forts of central India, and the na-
tive army. The attempt would be vain to convey any
adequate idea of the former subject to our readers, unless
we could transfer to our columns the numerous sketches
and plans with which our author has illustrated his state-
Welsh says early in his first volumes amer
ments. The latter is a more tractable subject.

Colonel

acquaintance
"I may as well, in a few words, introduce to the reader's

If I have anywhere inadvertently introduced my own history, I must plead in excuse the private nature of the materials from which this book has actually been compiled, without any kind of assistance from men or books, in the course of a few months; and the anxiety by which I have| been impelled, since landing, to give immediate publicity to a plain and unpremeditated narrative, although entirely free from politics, at the moment when our eastern possessions are made the subject of general enquiry and animadversion. THE COMPANY'S NATIVE ARMY 5 The more especibjly when so many disappointed and inte- which, being composed of five distinct castes, or classes, of rested individuals are misleading the minds of the public, men, differing most essentially in manners, in religion, and on a question of such vital importance, not merely to that in customs; who never unite, even at a meal, or in marCompany, which has so long, so judiciously, and so exclu- riage; the discipline and harmony, which have ever distinsively, managed those valuable possessions, but to the mil-guished those native forces, are truly wonderful the more lions of inhabitants, now happy under their just, concilia- especially, when the bigotry of one class, and the supersti ting, and liberal control, who would so materially suffer tious prejudices of three others, are taken into consideration. by any change of masters; and, I think I may confidently But, in order to render these remarks intelligible to those venture to add, to the nation at large. I am no partisan, who have never visited India, it may be as well to describe and I believe few of my fellow-servants in India have had the different castes above alluded to. less reason to be individually pleased with the treatment they have experienced, in a long period of, I trust, faithful and zealous, if not distinguished service; but I cannot, on that account, withhold my testimony to the general sound policy and justice with which that Body has so completly subjugated, and continues to rule, a territory as diversified in its interests, as it is almost unlimited in its extent."

He has kept his word; for although he narrates but little that did not fall under his own immediate observation, he does it in such a manner, that we are never obtrusively reminded of his personality. Yet, Colonel Welsh has served with distinction in the Indian army. It was he who suggested, in 1809, the carrying of the Arambooly lines by a coup de main; and it was he who

"First, the Mussulman, of whom at least one-third of the army is composed. The class is again subdivided into four particular sects; viz. the Sheik, the Syed, the Mogul, and the Putham, or Pattan as they are usually called. They are generally brave, enterprising, and intelligent; and, upon the whole, being free from religious prejudices, make excellent soldiers.

"Second, the Rajahpoot, or descendants of the ancient Rajahs, the highest caste of Hindoos; a race not very numerous, but extremely scrupulous; and, when their preju far surpassing all the other natives, in a romantic, but some dices are humoured, the bravest and most devoted soldiers, times mistaken, notion of honour.

"Third, the Telinga, or Gentoo, a race of Hindoos generally remarkable for mildness of disposition and cleanli

¡ness of person; obedient and faithful, but not very intelli- | gent or enterprising soldiers.

army.

rior, that a naire, meeting one of them on a road, was authorized to cut him down, if he encroached on the esta"Fourth, the Tamoul, or Malabar; similar to the blished distance. A long intercourse with Europeans has, former. however, very materially softened these regulations, and "Fifth, the Pariah, or Dhire, as they are called in the no man dare attack the life of another, however inferior; The latter class, poor Chowry Mootoo, brave, ac- but the feeling is still alive, and at times discovers itself in tive, and attached, as they were, to their officers and the the most annoying manner. For instance, I was sitting |_ service, with a few European failings, such as dram-drink- at my window, one morning, at Calicut, when a man of |ing, and eating unclean meats, &c., have of late years been one of the three inferior castes, I cannot distinguish them excluded from the line, in order the more fully to conciliate by sight, entered the public road, close to my house, which the higher classes; who, however they may differ from each might be about twenty feet broad, with hedges on both other in many points, are all united in considering any mix- sides, and was several times forced to return again, on ture with these as a contamination. They are now enlisted perceiving a superior approaching from the other end. I only in the pioneers, and as artillery and tent lascars. The ought, however, to premise, that all these inferiors, when 1 former corps, one of the most useful in the army, is com- turning a corner, are now obliged to howl in a most unposed almost entirely of this degraded class, than whom, pleasant manner, to warn the superiors of their sudden there exists not in all India, a braver, more efficient, or approach, and prevent contamination; and this unfortunate zealous body of troops. I beg it to be understood, however, individual did certainly howl to such purpose, that he atthat though the preceding remarks are intended, in parti- tracted my attention to a scene as novel as it was ludicrous. cular, for the Madras native army, yet they are almost After some minutes wasted in fruitless attempts to run to equally applicable to those of the two other Presidencies." the other end, he seemed all at once determined to make We may add, that the native forces of the Madras esta-good his passage, and had actually reached the centre of the blishment amount at present to eight regiments of cavalry, and fifty-two of infantry, completely and permanently officered. These troops are the most orderly, tractable, and willing soldiers in the world; and their discipline is not behind that even of the king's regiments. A friend of ours who knew them long and intimately, still loves to dwell upon the unflinching manner in which a line of them cross bayonets with the enemy. But an anecdote told by our author will serve best to illustrate the spirit by which they are animated :

Hoosein Cawu, the subahdar of my company, a young man of a respectable family at Madras, who was raised at once to the rank he held, by bringing two hundred recruits for a new regiment, had been but lately transferred to our corpsy and was therefore eyed with considerable jealousy by the native officers in general, as a young upstart, who had seen no service. Fully aware of this feeling, he was the more zealous in the performance of every duty, and frequently entreated me to keep an eye upon him in action, and report his conduct accordingly. I had previously been detached with him for some months, and therefore became completely acquainted with his character, which being most exemplary, induced me to more friendly intercourse than is general between European and native officers, and we had occasionally beguiled a wet and tedious evening with a game of chess. This morning, on the march, he had again reminded me of my promise; but being suddenly called to lead the corps, by my commanding officer putting himself at the head of the Europeans, we were separated to some distance. I had, however, scarcely reached the top of the ladder, when I heard a voice behind me, calling out, Oh, sir! remember your promise!' and looking round, I perceived my little friend at my heels, he having contrived to scramble through the crowd, in his eagerness to perform some signal service. The words were scarcely spoken before a cannon-shot from the fort fractured his thigh, and broke the ladder. I got off, but he fell, and was carried into the hospital, where he died a few days afterwards."

line, it being about one-hundred yards, without any turning when a nairchee, or female naire, met, and called out to or cross-road-the most convenient for these kind of gentry him to abscond. He turned to fly, but found himself followed by a teer. Thus placed between two fires, he appeared to waver in doubtful meditation, when, all at once, raising his voice to an extra pitch, he told the teer to make way for the smiling beauty, or he should run over and pollute him in his retreat. I must own, I was first at a farther consideration, my mind confirmed his decision; loss to guess how the struggle would terminate, but, on and the teer, after some short expostulation, was fain to make way for both. Had these two come to an opposite decision, a more extraordinary breach of their established etiquette must have been the result, by the wife of the highest caste making way for two of her inferiors at once; for she would have instantly scampered off, to avoid contamination from either; and it would probably have ended in something very unpleasant, from the extreme haughty spirit of this fine race of heathens, who might not at the moment have weighed or considered the consequences of taking the law in their own hands, instead of applying to British justice for absurd, but less severe and summary redress. The strange procession then marched off in regular array; viz. the teer in front, followed by the puneer at forty feet distance, and the nairchee bringing up the rear, fiftythree feet behind him. Had this party been met by a single naire, on their retrograde route, I am really at a loss to guess how it would have terminated; that no such untoward misfortune befell them was evident, by the almost immediate re-appearance of the indefatigable puneer, who, bellowing out lustily as he turned the corner near my house, dashed on at a furious rate, and at last disappearedat the opposite end of the lane."

We need scarcely repeat, what we have occasion to say every time we notice a work upon India, that one great charm about the narrative of every traveller in that country, is derived from the magnificent scale upon which nature there carries on her operations. We cannot con

folding themselves as we accompany our author through

the wild and fantastic defiles of the Ghauts. But in

The Colonel's attention was not, however, confined to such of the natives as had been manufactured by all-ceive more magnificent pictures, than are constantly unpowerful discipline, into something nearly resembling European soldiers. Wherever he was sent, it was a matter of anxiety with him to study and conciliate the inhabitants. To this praiseworthy disposition we are indebted for many interesting details of the habits and characters of the native princes, and of the social and domestic arrangements of their subjects. The following extract we have selected as an example, partly because of the ludicrous picture it gives of the excessive rigour with which the natives of Malabar act up to their notions of caste, and partly because it conveys a pretty fair notion of some of the peculiarities of the author's style. His hand is evidently more accustomed to finger the bridle and broadsword than the pen.

“A teer, in days of yore, dared not approach within thirteen feet of a naire; and, of course, could not enter his house; nor could any of the inferior sects come within forty feet of a teer, or fifty-three feet of a naire, Indeed, so absolute was the power of the superior caste over the infe

tropical regions, the wilderness is not, as with us, the region of sterility. In these genial climates, beauty clings with a close and never-failing embrace to the very bosom of danger. Life, too, is more intense than in the north; more fierce, it is true, when excited, but also more delicately susceptible of pleasure. Colonel Welsh is a great sportsmani, and his adventures have not unfrequently reminded us (by the force of contrast) of Mr Lloyd's Northern Field Sports. The active and beautiful tiger does not differ more from the lumpish bear, than do the accompaniments under which they are found. In the north, the earth lies torpid and ice-bound; even in the heat and excitation of the chase, our feet falls noiselessly upon the universal covering of snow. But we follow the tiger through a vegetation, whose luxuriance is such that we can almost fancy we see it growing, and exposed to the danger of tornadoes, compared with which, his mus

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cular power, eager howl, and lightning spring, are a mere p joke. Our last quotation from the work before us shall be an adventure with a tiger wat

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"We had not been many days at this place before word was brought me, while sitting at tiffin, that a tiger had just been seen very near our residence. Five of us being together at the moment, of whom all but myself are now no more, we agreed to attack him with our fowling-pieces, without any sepoys; and out we sallied. We traced the monstera large panther-to a small rocky hill under the eastern side of Nundydroog; and, having lent my doublebarrel to Lieutenant Dawson, I took a single gun, and made one of my servants carry a hog spear, We got one glimpse of the beast ascending the hill; and, pushing up

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We intended to subjoin to these extracts an analysis of the plot of this dramatic poem, but its ravelled thread has fairly baffled our ingenuity. We only add, that the work is dedicated to the Duke of Sussex in à prettilyturned paragraph, which tells him that "the heroine has one strong claim on the interest and that the author

different ways to meet him on the top, Lieutenant Dawson that she is the child of misfortune. Mustrious patron,

and myself, with my servant, Syed Oosmaun, reached a rock on the very summit, which was barely sufficient for us to stand on, with a large chasm on one side, where it had been severed, most likely by lightning, from a similar fragment; whilst on the opposite side was a perpendicular precipice. My boy, leaning forward to look down the chasm, told me, he was sure that the animal was there. The words were scarcely out of his mouth, ere a roar, that nearly petrified us, was accompanied by a spring. The poor fellow had hardly time to turn his body half round towards us, when he received a blow that laid him flat, and hurled him several feet down the chasm ; but, by good luck, across a narrow aperture. I fired at the same instant; and, when they had both disappeared, Lieutenant Dawson fired both barrels, by good luck without effect, for the panther, perforated by my ball, had fallen undermost, and disappeared down the entire chasm. All this was but the work of a moment; and we found poor Syed Oosmaun, who declared I had killed the beast at the instant he received the blow, as yellow as saffron, with a fearful gash, seven inches astunder, on his right shoulder, the marks of the panther's delicate digits, of which I had considerable difficulty to cure him afterwards. The creature was seen no more, dead or alive; no made to little purpose."979 ton en fejusde

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Colonel Welsh is equally at home in the battle and the hunting-field; and the determining where it were has been the cause of no small

not to

hesitation on our part, best to place him, so as derange the symmetry of our library. After mature deliberation, we have stuck him, at the junction of two shelves, between Captain Kincaid and Mr Lloyd. If this situation do not please him, we are quite at a non plus, and must, in utter despair, set him down beside Miss Hannah More.

The Bride of Sicily a Dramatic Poem. By Harriet Downing, 8vo. Pp. 105. London. Hurst, Chance, and Co. 1830. ↑

This is a tale of love, and yet we feel much inclined to characterise it in the words of honest Nick Bottom: “This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more condoling." "We select a few of the tit-bits for the edification of our readers?? die dat acea ide,

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Oh! I could scourge with cords my erring fancy, For having fix'd its young hopes so intensely On one who could not breathe responsive passion.”

What!-shall I feast my eye, like fiend of Hell, On quivering limbs, on parting life's convulsions ? Is this a banquet for the immortal soul, To gorge itself on human blood like Vampire?"

"I have not sworn to love the Lord Alberto; Nor need he care if that my love lack measure; He has enough, methinks, in this our Sicily, Might make a flaming beacon, big as Etna, That thither mariners should steer their barks, And wreck them, like to thee, on such brave island, Might swell them into greatness in an hour.”

«'Twas evening, Barto, and the moon did wear Across her brow a hood of violet clouds."

"Be calm, Rogero; Lash forth these sickly and unwholesome thoughts; Treat them as reptiles, whose foul slime would breed

has a claim “equally effective, for she is the WIDOW OF, A The capitals are the author's, not ours. FREEMASON."

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We adverted to this clever little work, last week, as on the eve of publication. The author's aim is to co-operate with the Society whose history is narrated in his pages, in their praiseworthy attempt to awaken a discerning love of the fine arts in Glasgow. He writes in a good spirit, and not without knowledge of his subject, although he occasionally vapours a little about his acquaintance with the Vatican. Where the general feeling of a work is proper, however, we do not like to cavil at trifles and we wish to part with our Dilettante, expressing a sincere esteem for his talents and acquirements, and wishing

139

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THE first of these works continues to evince, in general, the same correct taste which was visible in its earlier numbers. Tried by any very high standard, it might fall short; but this would be unfair. All that it pretends to do is, to present us with three respectable pertraits of distinguished characters, together with a short narrative of each, for three shillings, If many of the plates are commonplace, this is not to be wondered at; but it is matter of wouder, that some of them as, for example, the likeness of Dr T. Young-should be well worth the price of two or three numbers. Still, we could wish that the "eminent personages were occasionally a little more select, and that Mr Jerdan's Memoirs had occasionally a little more meaning. 11/

The Landscape Illustrations of the Waverley Novels ought to find a place upon every drawing-room table, where taste and luxury are united.

I

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cidedly false. Let him cast aside the twaddle of the
circle he belongs to, and think and speak for himself.
The best cut is that which represents Satan standing on
Canning's grave-there is true sentiment in the gloom
about the person of the fiend. sende eblon Tudo di
4 .998 bato Tid 1st. It i

The Elements of Practical Arithmetic simplified: Intended ~, as an Introduction to the Counting-house. In the form 1.1 of Question and Answers By G Morrison, Accountant, Glasgow. Edinburghn Stirling and Kenney, 1830. yatanud eilst abɔidw.dgasin 1 BOND *shatgi adt no min

component ideas of a proposition. In the investigation, however, the mind is active; in the perception, passive. The one is the result of volition, and as such may be either meritorious or the reverse; the other is an involuntary effect of our mental constitution, and can neither be the one nor the other. It depends upon ourselves whether we will enquire and examine; but we have no control whatever over our mental perception of the agreement or disagreement of the constituent ideas of the proposition into which our enquiry or examination ultimately resolves itself. In the latter case, the mind is wholly passive. It cannot believe or disbelieve, because it wills to do so, any more than it can attempt to remove THE ingenious author of this elementary treatise, the obstacles which sometimes prevent distinctness of which may be considered as an introduction to his sys- perception, without an act of volition. With reference tem of practical book-keeping, has laid commercial teach- to this matter, in fact, the mind is in a situation someers under strong obligations. He has compressed within what analogous to that of the eye, which we may shut very narrow limits, all the ruies necessary for mercantile practice. He has also, by reducing many rules given is altogether passive in receiving impressions, or rather or open at pleasure, but which, when voluntarily opened, ~by former writers, under one general principle, greatly pictures, of external objects. The power of volition is facilitated the progress of the tyro in commercial arith-limited to the preparatory or preliminary process seeing metic.. His examples and exercises are in general deduced is altogether beyond its reach. And so it is with the from real business. In short, for systematic arrrangement, mind. The power of volition extends no farther than enunciation, and practical utility, we know of opening as it were its eye; but whether the result of this ntroduction to arithmetic that deserves to stand be- voluntary act be distinct vision or utter darkness, in fore Mr Morrison's. RONG PULA bonne protid sedz p other words, belief or disbelief, depends upon causes over sabreib a mis which the will exercises no manner of control. Nor can this principle suffer any modification, whatever be the nature of the component ideas of the proposition submitted to the mind, or whether their agreement or disagreement be necessary or contingent: Necessary truths are those, the opposite of which implies a contradiction;

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The Practical Baker and Confectioner's Assistant; being Comprehensive View of every thing relative to the Baking of Loaf and Fancy Bread, on both the Ancient and Modern Systems; with a great variety of Practical bia Receipts in Pastry, Confectionary, Candies, Preserves,

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Cordials, Wies, &c. By John Turcan, Baker. gow. W. R. M'Phun. 1830.

Glas

while contingent or probable truths may be derived without involving any such consequence. But, supposing a mind so constituted as not even to perceive necessary truths, it is clear that શૈ t can never be accountany more hat home in the details of the kneading-trough, the re- when the eye is open; and if this hold in regard to ne searches of the chemist, or the enquiries of the antiquary.cessary truths, a fortiori it must also hold in regard to He dashes off receipts for the manufacture of all sorts of bread and confections;-follows the moonlight glimpses which history affords of his profession, even to the cradle of infant society, and talks scholarly and wisely about carbonic acid gas. He is a wag, too, withal; for he tells us, slily The first authentic notice we have, is of PhaTraoh's Baker, who was rather an unfortunate one. "Like other witty men, he seems unable to keep his own secrets, for his sixteenth chapter is entitled," Baker's Profits, Assize, and Price of Bread." Amid such a flower-garden as he presents us with, it is hard to choose; but we recommend to the perusal of the judicious epicure, the interesting dissertation upon Gingerbread." Seriously, this work will be found, by such as are not startled by a name, to contain much useful and amusing information.

VERILY, Mr Turcan is the greatest prodigy of a baker that it has been our fortune to encounter. He is equally ed morally blameable than an inability to see

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BELIEF.-Is belief voluntary? No. This may seem paradoxical to some, and heterodox to others, but, in reality, it is neither the one nor the other. When a proposition is enunciated, the mind perceives the agreement or disagreement of the ideas of which it is composed. A perception of their agreement constitutes what is termed beliefd But many obstacles frequently prevent this perception being immediate; and these the mind attempts to remove, imorder that the perception, at first obscure and confused, may become clear and distinct. This is talled investigation, the object of which is to perfect the state of perception of the relation subsisting between the

contingent or probable truths, where, independently of the state of mental perception, there is always more or less ground for doubt. How comes it, then, that men have so generally attached ideas of moral approbation or blame, to certain kinds of belief or disbelief; that faith has been considered meritorious, and infidelity criminal? The answer, we think, is plain: Superficial thinkers, confounding the investigation with the perception, that which is voluntary with that which is not, have, in consequence of this error, been induced falsely to imagine, that the mind is active in belief, or that belief is an act of volition, in consequence of which it may be regulated by the mind. This distinction, which we regard of vital importance in the philosophy of mind, has been almost entirely overlooked; and hence all the absurdity, intolerance, and dogmatism, which ever characterise zeal without knowledge. But let us not be mistaken. Many of the truths most important to man are only discoverable by investigation: they require labour and research to get at them; and, as it depends upon every one whether he will bestow the necessary pains on the enquiry or not, it follows that the use or neglect of the proper means for attaining a perception of the truth, constitutes a subject of moral approbation or disapprobation, and that, in so far as belief or unbelief depends upon such use or neglect, the one is meritorious and the other criminal. Upon the same principle, ignorance, or that neutral state of the mind which is equally removed from belief or unbelief, may be brought within the scope of moral judgment; for he who remains unacquainted with truths which it concerns him to know, when the means of knowledge are within his reach, is certainly liable to moral censure, although perhaps in a degree inferior to him who doubts without reason, or disbelieves without enquiry.

THE SYLLOGISM.-It has long been a fashion among certain disciples of the school of Dr Reid, called by

courtesy philosophers, to decry the syllogistic method of order in which the mind arranges these propositions with reasoning, as proceeding upon a radical fallacy, and as a view to arrive at the conclusion, and necessarily prefitted rather to amuse with canning quibbles, than to supposes the very methods of probation which it has been serve as an instrument for the discovery of truth. In ignorantly held to exclude. A better illustration of this every case, say these persons, it assumes in the major cannot be given than by referring to Bishop Warbur proposition that which is affirmed in the conclusion, ton's Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated, which is a and thus taking for granted the very point to be proved, magnificent syllogism of the first mode and figure, ultimately resolves itself into an identical proposition. evolved with a strictness of logical precision that has But if these objectors had known any thing at all of the never been surpassed, and displaying, in the proofs of the general principles of reasoning, and particularly of the major and minor propositions, an extent of erudition system which, in imitation of Dr Reid, they have been which has never probably been equalled. Finally, all so forward to condemn, philosophy and common sense reasoning, strictly considered, resolves itself ultimately would have been spared the disgrace which such igno- into an identical proposition; and it is never so satisfacrant and silly objections have brought upon them. The tory as where this identity is most apparent; as, for exsyllogism is not, as they suppose, a trick or artifice to ample, in geometry, where every demonstration virtually supply the place of reason, or to enable an expert dialec- issues in proving a≈a. tician to mystify or bamboozle an opponent, but an exact technical expression of the form which all reasoning must necessarily assume. It was Nature, not Aristotle, that invented the syllogistic process; for all that the latter did, was to expound or interpret the invention; a task which he performed with such perfect skill and success, that his successors, during the two thousand years which have elapsed since its completion, have been able to add nothing material to his exposition. Hence, it follows, that if this method be objectionable, it is Nature, and not Aristotle, that is in fault; for, constituted as we at present are, it is impossible to reason at all without reasoning syllogistically. Take any proposition in geometry, for example, and, upon analysing its demonstration, you will find that, in every case, it resolves itself into a syllogism or series of syllogisms. But it is said that in every syllogism the thing to be proved or deduced is taken for granted in the major proposition. If it be meant by this that in all reasoning, the conclusion is involved in the premises, the statement is unquestionably true; and it would be obliging if those who put it forward in the shape of an objection, would show us in what way it would be possible to reason at all if the case were otherwise; for, according to every idea of logic which we have been able to form, the very essence of reasoning consists in that which is here stated as an objection to the syllogistic method. But if the meaning be, that every syllogism is a circle, in which the thing to be proved is first assumed, and afterwards formally deduced from this assumption, the assertion is manifestly false. The major proposition of every syllogism is either universally affirmative or negative, or particularly affirmative or negative; and it is manifest that to this proposition any or every species of probation may be applied. The minor proposition is, in every case, particularly affirmative or nega- It was the merry month of May, when Charles and tive; and it also may, or rather must, be proved, except- Adrian encamped with a mighty army between the ruins ing where it is self-evident, or so clear in itself that no of Florence, and the city of Fiesole, which had long sat proof can make it clearer. And from both, taken in con- | like a bird of prey on its eyry, watching over the mutijunction, the conclusion follows as a necessary conse-lated carcass beneath it, flapping its wings and whetting quence. Let us produce an example of the simplest kind, in illustration of what has now been said: All tyrants are insecure: the Emperor of Germany is a tyrant: therefore the Emperor of Germany is insecure. This is a syllogism of the first mode and figure containing an universal affirmative in the major, and a particular affirmative in the minor proposition. But it is manifest that the insecurity of all tyrants, and the fact of the Emperor of Germany being a tyrant, are two things which must be proved aliunde, before they can be affirmed in the syllogism: history must sanction the one, and observation or experience establish the other: which being done, the conclusion, that the Emperor of Germany is insecure, follows as a necessary consequence, not from the major or the minor proposition separately, but from both taken together. To describe this as a circle, therefore, is virtually to hold that all reasoning is impossible; for it is in the nature of things that the premises, that is, the major and minor propositions, must involve the conclusion, hile the syllogism is nothing more than the form or

BUONDELMONTI; A FLORENTINE LEGEND,

THE traditions of Florence speak of a flourishing town on the banks of the Arno, which was destroyed by Attila, and all its magnificent temples and pagan idols trampled under foot. A lingering attachment to the scene of their ancestors' splendour, lured the descendants of the Florentines to linger in the neighbourhood of the ruins, although the jealous Fiesolans, mindful of the obscurity into which their town had been cast by its rival's glory, took care to prevent them from rebuilding it. Florence remained a heap of ruins for upwards of two centuries. About the end of this period Charlemagne came to Rome, in order to have the iron crown of the... western empire placed upon his brow by Pope Adrian. In the midst of the ceremony, the delegates of the Florentines, clad in robes of mourning, threw themselves before the spiritual and temporal heads of Christendom, beseeching them to approve themselves worthy of those high stations to which God had called them, by extending their protection to those who had none to help them. They told how the citizens of Florence had been driven from their ruined and plundered homes by the fierce Hun-how the community had for successive generations hovered around the prostrate city, as an untimely dissevered spirit was said to loiter beside its body, in the vain hope of effecting a re-union-how the proud Fiesolans had frustrated all their attempts to rebuild the ruined walls. Charles and Adrian were moved by the sad story of their wrongs, and swore before the high altar, in the face of assembled Christendom, and invoking the God who looked down with complacency on his two chosen ones, to redress them.

its beak, to scare away those whom filial piety instigated to restore to the ruined one its original comeliness. But now a mightier power encircled Florence with its protecting arms, and the foe could only look in sullen silence at the glad labour of those who were again rearing up the walls of its dismantled dwellings, or wheel around the guardian lines, to discover some unguarded post where he might pounce upon his prey. The full dark-green foliage of summer began to fade into the autumnal brown, and still the Franks remained immovable in their camp; but Florence now showed like a city, and in a few weeks it was expected that the bishop of Rome would return to his diocese, and the warrior monarch to the banks of his beloved Rhine.

Among other stupendous works of ornament and use, was a bridge, spanning the Arno, intended to facilitate the intercourse between the inhabitants of its opposing banks when the storms of winter had swelled the stream. Adrian was one evening wandering, without any definite aim, through the new and already bustling streets, ac

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