494 Speculations on Literary Pleasures. Hutton, La Place, or Professor Cuvier, we examine the system of the world, and the coherence and adaptation of its various parts to the whole, or the support of animal life;-whether, with the adventurous Humboldt we climb the highest summits of the Andes, and with intense curiosity pursue the narrative of his botanical and atmospherical researches in regions before untrodden by the foot of man since the creation; or whether, finally, we raise our eyes from the surface of this globe upon which we vegetate, and with Newton and Kepler, and Herschel, mark the revolving bodies of our planetary system, and the host of mysterious luminaries which tremble so magnificently in the arch of heaven; -the same feeling of admiration, for the most part, attends us. We gaze in silence, or we ruminate with a full sense of the matchless economy and provision of nature. While, with St. Pierre, we trace the harmonies of nature in a thousand of her works, diversified in an amplitude of forms, a pious sense of devout acknowledgment often strikes upon the soul, and whispers that the vestiges of admirable contrivance, and of all-consummate skill, which are so much the more visible the farther we trace them, bespeak with the most irresistible evidence an all-beneficent, and, spite of the logical cavils of the school of Hume, an all-powerful Deity. But many circumstances tend to admonish us that it is high time to bring these rambling" Speculations' to a close. And we hope that they have, sometimes, proved not altogether powerless in the object chiefly contemplated by their author-that of adding a page of illustration concerning the high and permanent pleasures which await the human mind in the intellectual exercise and cultivation of its powers. [Dec. the rules of literary legitimacy, notwithstanding the so-long-complainedof evils of Bibliomancy, to “throw a mite into the treasury" of ideas connected with this subject. When we glance round at the present state of knowledge connected with physiological researches, as displayed in Encyclopedean and other philosophical works, the gratuitous and discursory exercise of an occasional practitioner may, in the eyes of the long initiated, (having reference to this part of the present "Lucubrations,") appear vain redundancies. "The further we advance in knowledge and experience (says Adam Smith, in his illustrations of the Principles which lead and direct Philosophical Enquiry,') the greater number of divisions and subdivisions of these genera and species (speaking of the classifications of natural history) we are both inclined and obliged to make." “We observe," he proceeds, "a greater variety of particularities amongst those things which have a gross resemblance, and having made new divisions of them according to those newly-observed particularities, we are then no longer disposed to be satisfied with being able to refer an object to a remote genus, or very general class of things." So, in like manner, it may be said that within the wider precincts of natural and experimental philosophy, so many able professors have treated of mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, optics, electricity, chemistry in all its ramified departments, geology in all its branches and relations, and astronomy, with all their sister sciences, that the notice of their elementary characters, or of any of their details, in the fugitive periods of an occasional contemplator, is barely admissible. The detection, however, of truth (whether it "lie in a well," or nearer the surface of things), and a capacity of judging, is not always confined to him whose life is consumed at his desk, or in his laboratory. Such a commentary, perhaps, it may be said, was not wanting; although we are fain to believe that we have not altogether, in our attempts, come under the character of our learned friend of pleasant and facetious memory, Democritus Junior-by generating a "labyrinth of INTRICABLE questions, and unprofitable contentions;" much less have fallen into another error which he notices in some, of "making books dear, themselves ridiculous, and doing nobody any good." But it is, Burton's " nevertheless, perfectly accordant with introductory chapter. It may also be said, upon a general view of them, that to hazard opinions upon such a variety of subjects, connected with men and things, as are here brought under notice, argues in a pra titioner not regularly initiated, son thing like presuming impertinence. A celebrated French critic, we Anatomy of Melancho 1829.] Visit to the Falls of the Clyde. As we proceeded we observed heavy showers on our right and left, hovering over the Corstorphine Hills on the one side, and the Pentlands on the other, while we passed between them perfectly dry, in a sort of milky way, bounded on either hand by clouds and thick darkness. Still proceeding, we arrived at a residence of Sir William Forbes, on our left, in an apparently fertile and romantic situation, with abundance of wood and water, through the whole extent of the valley. Here, by the side of the road, were growing the most beautiful heaths, and wild thyme, in the greatest abundance. Further, on the left, is a neat white house, belonging to Mr. Davison, near to which the road was rough and hilly. At a hut, a little onwards, the coach changed horses, and the road improved. Unfortunately I cannot say the same of the weather. The clouds thickened and lowered around us, the whole horizon was darkened, and there came on one of the most tremendous storms I ever witnessed. Not even the whiskey or witticisms of our companions on the roof, could render it bearable. After passing the house and lodges of Lord Armadale, on our left, we rejoiced to set foot in Lanark. We found there nothing particularly attractive. It is, in fact, a Iniserable Scotch burgh, and I believe the chief thing in it which arrested our attention was the town pump, which surprised us by its enormous handle, with an excrescence at the end of it, in dimensions considerably surpassing the skull of poor Yorick! The country about New Lanark, nearly a mile from the old town, is extremely beautiful, varied by the most picturesque hills and woods. This is the route to the Falls of the Clyde, which we were so eager to visit, that we proceeded to them though the evening was far advanced, and in defiance of some heavy showers. We took shelter at one of the lodges in the demesne, about a mile from the first and largest Fall. At a second lodge we were obliged to take a guide, in the shape of a bare-headed and barefooted damsel, tripping through the wet with the greatest alacrity. Under the direction of this Hebe, we came to a sort of gloomy-looking summer house, from the window of which you have a fine view of the first Fall, Corra Lynn, of eighty feet. 487 The Fall here is wonderfully grand. The incessant and deafening noise of the water, approaching to the roar of thunder, the yesty and enchafed foam from which there arose a continual spray, the inconceivable graudeur of the surrounding rocks and woods, inspired the mind with feelings novel and most gratifying, and it was with the utmost reluctance that we forced ourselves away from this enchanting scene. I was much stricken with the irony appearance of the water in many parts, like the mane of a chesnut steed." While iny friend was employing himself in sketching Corra Lynn, I wandered on to the lesser Fall of Boniton. This, though certainly not so magnificent, appeared to me at least equally pleasing. as a In the summer house I was much pleased at recognising the names of several friends and condiscipuli in au album kept by the owner of the domain; many a Gyas, and many a Cloanthus; also of Lord -, whom, at this remote spot, I looked upon sort of friend, merely because he came from an adjoining county in England. But, before showing us the album, our little conductress directed us to place ourselves in an arm chair, from which ceiling, where there are placed two we were to look up to a corner of the mirrors, one reflecting the Falls, the other the Cotton Mills and town of New Lanark. From our guide, though not particularly communicative, we obtained the important information that this delightful spot was the property of Lady Ross, a widow, with two sons, one a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army. After our return from the Falls we both appeared uncommonly serious or vapourish. But, perhaps, while each fancied the other unusually grave and taciturn, he was in his arm-chair silently enjoying a second edition of the ravishing scenes of the former part of the evening, or, while apparently wrapped in somnolency, his eye, "in a fine phrenzy rolling," was carried from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. These our twilight visions, however, were not greatly prolonged. We speedily retired to our couch, perchance to dream" more leisurely. I am, Mr. Urban, yours, &c. VIATOR. 488 Mr. Brockett's Glossary. Hymn for Christmas Day. Mr. URBAN, Staffordshire Moor lands, Dec. 11. LET. Bassure y Up. 408) that my ET me assure your Correspondent fancied oversight respecting his Glossary should be attributed to any cause rather than that of superficially examining a work, from a reference to which I frequently derive both amuse ment and inforination. The simple fact is, that the anecdote in question does not occur in his first edition; and as the Review in your number for August, which called my attention to the subject, made no allusion to any thing of the kind, it never occurred to me that a second had appeared. I am glad, however, that the misunderstand ing has taken place, since it has led to my acquaintance with a reprint still more valuable than its predecessor. Mr. Brockett, I find, will not allow that the use of foot for bottom is, in any sense, a provincialism, and upon this point we are at issue. The language of well-educated people in the Metropolis must, I suppose, be received as the standard of polite conversation and though it is common, even amongst them, to use such expressions as "the foot of the stairs," the foot of a hill," &c. I certainly think it would be deemed a rank provincialism to say that a person resided at "the foot of a street." Mr. Brockett must excuse my mentioning an error, into which, in common with all compilers of provincial glossaries, he has fallen, viz. the insertion of numerous words by no means local, and which therefore appear with as little propriety in a vocabulary of the Northumberland dialect, as they would in one of Essex or of Cornwall. Two or three instances will suffice to show the truth of this remark: Addled-decayed, rotten. Daddy-a childish name for father. Helter-skelter-in great haste, dis- The compiler of the "Craven Glossary" has not steered clear of a similar fault; but Major Moor, in his "Suffolk Vocabulary," is the chief offender in this way, nearly one-third of the phrases he styles local, being quite as common in all other parts of the country as they can be in Suffolk. To avoid such oversights altogether, is [Dec. perhaps impossible; but it would lessen them considerably, if every provin his work, were to submit the MS. to cial lexicographer, previous to printing the examination of two or three friends, in various distant parts of the kingdom, with a request that they would expunge all phrases, which, though deened by him to be local, might be "familiar in their mouths as household words." Had Mr. Brockett's book undergone this expurgatory ordeal, it might have been somewhat lessened in bulk, but would scarcely have been decreased in value. Of its cleverness no one entertains a higher opinion than myself, spite of this trifling blemish, which, I beg Mr. Brockett to believe, is pointed out in a spirit of perfect good-will; and, as I hope ere long to present him with a volume of our Staffordshire dialect, he will then have an opportunity of criticising my defects in return. Yours, &c. JAMES BROUGHTON. HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY. HARK! the herald angels sing, Ye nations all rejoice; An A Of royal David's race, Shall consecrate the place. But angels hover o'er his head, And glory shines around. He suffered to redeem From sin and death man's fallen state, His mercy so supreme. Then let us bend with suppliant knee, And loud hosannahs sing, To Him that was, is, and shall be, Our Saviour and our King. N. R. |