From one who took from scripture nearly all his subjects, it were impossible not to expect, at times, some scintillations of pleasing poetry, but an unhappy facility in composing rhymes seems to have deceived Boyd, into the idea he was favoured by the muse more frequently than his works will allow us to believe.

We shall now present our readers with a few exextracts from the Poetry of Z. Boyd, merely premising, that his faults may in some measure be attributed to the period in which he wrote, and the peculiar manner in which the writers of his day always endeavoured to express themselves.

I see king, priest, and people all are clad
From sorrows wardrop-with a colour sad,
They silent stand-deep silence sure affords
Grief 's sharper accent, then most eloquent words.
FROM THE HISTORIE OF SAMPSON.
Ho! Manoah's wife, I willing come to thee,
Whom I so modest, and so humble see;
Not like vain women, who have greatest speede,
To curl the cockers of their frizzled head.
The diamonds dancing in their hair like spangles,
As pearly dew that on the branches dangles;
Though they be base, they'll counterfit the queene,
In rich gold tissue, on a ground of greene:
Where, here and there, the shuttle doth encheck
The changeant colour of a Mallard's neck;
They are so vaine, each part of them descries,
That art and cunning strive to get the prize.

A volume, containing "The Last Battle of the Soul in Death," and several excerpts from the manuscripts. of Boyd, ably edited by Mr. Neil, has been lately published. It is, in every way, creditable to the talents of the Editor. The engraved portrait, by Woodrow, is amongst the very best specimens in that department of art, we have seen published in Glasgow for a long time, and the book is altogether worthy of the public patronage, whether it be valued as a literary curiosity, or an interesting relic of a distinguished Scottish

Author.

ON THE CAUSES WHICH INFLUENCE OPINION.

An analysis of the secret causes, which influence the sentiments of mankind, affords a melancholy view of the weakness of human nature. Even upon subjects, purely intellectual, there is but little of unbiassed conviction. Those circumstances which the logician would call the mere accidents of our nature, as our parentage, neighbourhood, or locality of abode-unimportant as they may appear, and little connected with the peculiar powers and faculties which distinguish our rational being, nevertheless, too frequently operate, to form, or at least modify, the most serious and deliber

ate opinions of men. Nor would it be fair to allege that weak minds alone are subject to such influences. They affect every degree and shade of intellectual endowment. It would, no doubt, be equally misanthropical and untrue to maintain that, in no instance, have powerful talents soared, superior to all disadvantages, and defied every adverse influence which might have contracted the sphere, or limited the expansion of lessgifted minds. For the honour of human nature, we hope that the instances are not few where men have both clearly discerned, and zealously followed, the guiding light of truth, uninfluenced in their pursuit by other motives than the dictates of reason and conscience. It is, however, but too apparent that, if we except the exact sciences, and the reasonings of experimental philosophy, truth is but seldom sought, or valued, for its own sake. Moral science, as cultivated even by its most gifted professors, whenever it would practically enforce its doctrines, or shew their application to the life and manners of mankind, at once comes down from its high eminence. The code of the philosopher, assumes the colour of his age; and his voice, which should only be eloquent with the lessons of wisdom, is too often but the echo of the passions and prejudices of the men among whom he may chance to dwell. Of the great mass of mankind, we may make this assertion in still stronger language. With them, moral principle, of whatever kind it may be, is matter of mere chance. The locality of their animal life gives They pro

the colour to their intellectual existence. fess the faith of their fathers, they adhere to the government of their country, without choice or investigation of the creed which they adopt, or the form of rule to which they unreservedly give up both their allegiance and their affections. With the same vacancy of thought with which the ox and the ass browse on their native pasture, they assume the leading peculiarites, and adopt all the distinctive shades, in manners and in sentiment, which prevail around them, not unfrequently boasting themselves of the success with which the copy has been made. Thus it is, that national character is formed and perpetuated, and those shades of difference arise, which constitute the discriminating moral characteristics in smaller communities. And thus it is, that the progress of human knowledge is so much retarded, that the crust of prejudice is hardened from age to age, and that, as we advance onward in the world's history, we too frequently find that each succeeding century is only the reflection of the ignorance and barbarism of those which have gone before.

These causes, it may seem, would render the improvement of society utterly hopeless; and so they would, did there not occur, from time to time, those great moral revolutions, which, agitating the minds of men, like the storms of the natural world, impart a new and vital influence to the inert mass of human opinions. But how seldom can the admirer of intel. lectual power and accomplishment venture to believe that the will of any one individual, however gifted, ever contributed, in any great degree, to the production of those important changes, which have formed, at different times, remarkable epochs in the history of the human mind. Was it the commanding talents of Luther, or the corruptions of the Romish hierarchy, which chiefly contributed to the reformation in Germany? was it the rapacity of the Scottish nobles, or the ardent zeal of Knox, that produced the same effect among ourselves? was it the trumpet-toned eloquence of Mirabeau, or the tyrannical exactions of an oppressive government, that spread that flame of liberty through France, which, though once almost quenched in blood, she yet so sacredly cherishes. Once more, was it poverty, was it national, all-pervading poverty, stealing alike their necessaries from the low, and their luxuries from the high, or was it the theories of our wise and far-sighted politicians, which raised the national voice into that loud and unanimous call for Reform, which is echoed from every hamlet, and elo

quent on every tongue?

Effects such as these are produced by no one individual. These are the master springs by which the universe is governed, and that man philosophises with but a narrow vision who cannot rise from the effect to the cause, and see all things subordinated to Him, whose omniscient eye can perceive the spiritual operations of mind, and direct its subtle influences, with the same ease and certainty as the grosser revolutions of the material world. It is not consistent with the purpose of this paper, to carry our investigations into the metaphysical difficulties presented by the question-whether our sentiments and trains of thought are governed by the same necessary laws, which most men are disposed to admit regulate the changes of the material world. Whether we adopt the opinion that man can, or cannot, controul the operations of his own mind, we find neither of these rival theories contains much that is flattering to human pride. If we say, with the necessarian, that we can neither controul our own volitions, nor carry these volitions into action, we, on the one hand, make a most humiliating confession of the weakness of our nature; and, if we maintain that the mind is sufficient to itself, independent in its action, and capable both to perceive, and to will, of its own underived energy, we open up, on the other hand, a still more humbling display of human character, in the too obvious misdirection of those heaven-born powers with which we are endowed. Without reference to this somewhat abstruse enquiry, we would content ourselves with remarking, that, in the great majority of cases, the causes which act upon mind are little less palpable than those which govern matter.

We can trace, every day, and in every rank of life, the operation of those causes which influence the most grave and serious opinions of men, and, unfortunately, in so tracing them, we seldom can arrive at conclusions favourable to the dignity or purity of human motives. On the contrary, we are constantly reminded, that selfish passions interfere to cloud the understanding, and that indolence and timidity combine to strengthen that phalanx of circumstances, which, from earliest youth, is forming around every individual, and, in the end, acquire sufficient strength to controul alike the intellect and the will.

The causes which principally operate in forming what passes current in the world as opinion, or, perchance, may be even dignified with the high-sounding epithet of principle, we may take occasion, hereafter, more fully to specify. In the mean time, we cannot better illustrate our meaning than in the following quotation from an essay of the justly celebrated Foster: "It is amusing to observe, how reason has, in one instance, been over-ruled into acquiescence, by the admiration of a celebrated name; or, in another, into opposition, by the envy of it; how most opportunely reason discovered the truth, just at the time interest could be served by avowing it; how easily the impartial examiner could be induced to adopt some part of another man's opinions, after that other had approved of some part, especially if unpopular, of his as the Pharisees almost became partial even to Christ, at the moment he defended some of their particular doctrines from the Sadducees. It is curious to see how a professed respect for a man's character and talents, and concern for his interest might be changed, in consequence of some personal inattention received from him, into illiberal invective against him and his intellectual attainments; and yet the railer, though actuated solely by petty revenge, account himself the model of equity and candour all the while. It is every day seen how the patronage of power can elevate miserable prejudices into revered wisdom, while poor old experience is mocked with thanks for her instruction; and how the vicinity or society of the rich, or, as they are termed, great, can melt a soul that seemed of the stern consistence of early Rome, into

the gentlest wax on which corruption could wish to imprint her venerable creed, the right divine of kings to govern wrong, with the pious inference that justice was outraged when virtuous Tarquin was expelled."

Such was the opinion which Foster entertained of the candour of the learned, and the patriotism of the loyal; and such is a specimen of that train of reflection which must be familiar to the observant mind in the intercourse of the world. It would be most untrue to say, that disinterested principle is nowhere to be found, though it may be well worth considering what portion of the alloy of selfishness enters even into such high pretensions; but of the mass of mankind, it may be asserted without scruple, that an impartial scrutiny of the grounds on which their opinions rest, would make them glad to conceal, even from themselves, the polluted sources from which they spring.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE ARK AND DOVE. "Tell me a Story, please."

My little girl

Lisp'd from her cradle-so I bent me down,
And told her how it rained, and rained, and rained,
Till all the flowers were covered and the trees
Hid their tall heads, and where the houses stood
And people dwelt, a fearful deluge rolled-
Because the world was wicked, and refused
To heed the words of God. But one good man,
Who long had warned the sinful to repent,
Obey and live-taught by the voice of heaven-
Had built an Ark, and thither, with his wife
And children, turn'd for fafety. Two and two,
Of beasts and birds, and creeping things, he took,
With food for all-and, when the tempest roar'd,
And the great fountains of the sky poured out
A ceaseless flood, till all beside were drown'd,
They, with their quiet vessel, dwelt secure-
And the mighty waves did heave them up,
And o'er the bosom of the deep they sail'd
For many days. But then a gentle Dove
'Scaped from the casement of the Ark, and spread
Her lonely pinion o'er that boundless wave.
All-all was desolation-chirping nest,
Nor face of man, nor living thing, she saw;
For all the people of the earth were drown'd
Because of disobedience.

Upon the child, to see if her thoughts
Wearied with following mine-but her blue eye
Was a glad listener, and the eager breast
Of pleas'd attention curl'd her pouting lips-
And so I told her how the waters dried,
And the green branches wav'd, and the sweet buds
Came up in loveliness—and that meek Dove
Went forth to build her nest, while thousand birds
Awoke their songs of praise, and the low ark
Upon the breezy breast of Ararat
Reposed-and Noah, with glad spirits, rear'd
An altar to his God.

Since, many a time,

When to her rest, ere evening's earliest star,
That little one is laid, with earnest tone,
And pure cheek pressed to mine, she fondly asks
"The Ark and Dove."

Mothers can tell how oft
In the heart's eloquence, the prayer goes up
From a sealed lip, and tenderly hath blest,
With the warm teaching of the sacred tale,
A voiceless wish, that when that timid soul—
Now in the rosy wish of infancy

Fast bound-shall dare the billows of the world,
Like the exploring Dove, and find no rest,
A friend a pitying, a redeeming hand,
May, quietly, guide it to the Ark of Peace.

ment:

Abraham.

Isaac.

Jacob.

Abia.

Judas.

A sa.

Phares.

Esrom.

Josaphat. Joram.

Sadock.

SIR,-As you are a person of some consequence, well read, and well informed, you will do a poor fellow, like myself, a great deal of favour, by informing the LADIES, of how great an inconvenience these monstrous Bonnets are, they are wearing in church. Do, give them a slight hint on this subject; and, if they be not advised in a week, threaten them with a visit from Mr. SPECTACLES.-I am, Mr. DAY, your most obedient servant, Glasgow, 23d March, 1832.

TIMOTHY SHOrtridge.

MISCELLANEA.

DEATH-BED REFLECTION.-O, what matter of melancholie is this, that within a fewe dayes, where are my two beautifull twinkling eyes, shall be nothing but fearfull eye-holes in a rotten skull, which shall be nothing but a nest of clockes and abominable creeping things? Within a few years, this head, which now lyeth softlie upon this pillow, shall be roulled and trinnelled up and downe by the feete of the posteritie. Here a bone and there a bone, and not a bone together, all shall lie scattered here and there; the dogges shall play with some, and children shall play with others; some shall lye drying before the sunne, and others shall be bruised into pieces, and ground into pouder. O what a change is in this our mortalitie! Beholde, presentlie, what a starveling I am, being nothing but skinne and bone!-Boyd.

If life be compared to a journey, how often is religion, though the bosom friend of the early stage, only the occasional associate of thy next, is degraded into the formal attendant of the succeeding, and, at last, is viewed as a stranger, who is met in coldness, or a as a troublesome intruder, who is repelled in disgust. If life be compared to a voyage, how often, at the setting out, is the anxious eye drawn, incessantly, by the constraining power of religion, toward heaven, and the vessel is steered by the light from above; and, yet, while the course extends, and the ocean widens, and the necessity of sure direction is greater than before, a fatal boldness is engendered the star of Bethlehem is no longer contemplated— pride and self-sufficiency usurp the helm, and the devoted bark is driven along the tracks, whose end is ruin. Or, if life be compared to the seasons, how often, in the spring of existence, does religion apparently take a deep root, and the heavenly plant rises, and, attractively, as well as rapidly, it ascends, and, far apart are the circles on the stem which mark its growth, and bright is its verdure, and, of the fruit, luxuriant is the promise. And, yet, it is afterwards oppressed and choked with a thousand vain productions, till, in the summer and autumn, it is utterly lost, under the broad and deadly umbrage of "plants which our Heavenly Father never planted."-Dr. Muir, Edinburgh.

T the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the PROPRIETORS of the NORTH BRITISH INSU RANCE CORPORATION, held within the Company's Of fice, Hanover Street, on Monday the 5th instant, the following Noblemen and Gentlemen were elected PRESIDENTS and DIRECTORS, and a DIVIDEND was declared payable on Monday, the 4th day of June next.

PRESIDENT. His Grace the DUKE OF GORDON.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.-The Right Honourable the EARL of ABOYNE.-The Right Honourable the EARL of CAMPERDOWN and GLENEAgles.

EXTRAORDINARY DIRECTORS.-The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Strathallan.-The Honourable Lord Moncrieff.-Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, Bart.-Sir Robert Dundas of Dunira, Bart.-George Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Ballendalloch. John Cunninghame, Esq. of Duloch.-William Trotter, Esq. of Ballendean.-Henry Monteith, Esq. of Carstairs. Thomas Guthrie Wright, Esq. Auditor of the Court of Session. Richard Alexander Oswald, Esq, of Auchineruive. - Henry Houldsworth, Esq. of Cranstonhill, Glasgow.*Colin Campbell, Esq. Possil.

ORDINARY DIRECTORS.-Robert Cockburn, Esq, Chairman.— Robert Wright, Esq.-William Young, Esq.-Robert Menzies, Esq.-James Nairne, Esq.-Hugh Broughton, Esq.-James Hay, Esq. James Farquhar Gordon, Esq,-* James Gillespie Davidson, Esq.-Gilbert Laurie Finlay, Esq.-Alexander Monypenny, Esq.-Thomas Richardson, Esq.

JAMES BORTHWICK, Manager.-JOHN BRASH, Secretary.
Those marked are New Directors.

The following advantages are offered to the Public, by this office :The Assured may either participate in the Profits, guaranteed against risk by the Capital of the Company, or they may secure to their heirs a precise sum at a reduced rate of premium. On the 4th May, 1831, an addition was declared to the participating policies in force on the 31st December, 1830, of £1 per cent, on the sums insured for each year they have been in force within the Septennial period, ending that day.

Policies when transferred in security of Loans are relieved from the Duelling clause.

Every facility is given to parties going Abroad, and no charge for travelling in Europe.

No extra premium required from Naval or Military Gentlemen, unless called into actual service.

No admission fees or entry money charged.
North British Insurance Office, I
Edinburgh, 15th March, 1832. [

Messrs D. BANNATYNE and D. MACKENZIE, Agents,
Glasgow.

N. HODGART, Union Bank, Agent for Paisley.

NO SELL or LET, Furnished or Unfurnished, the VILLA

TO SEAR OF ALLOW LODGE, near Duo, XRTLE

SHIRE.

The HOUSE consists of Dining Room, Drawing Room, Five Bed Rooms, Kitchen, Pantries, Scullery, Store Room, Cellar, and Two Rooms for Servants-an abundant supply of excellent Water, Offices consist of Stable, Coal House, and other conveniencies.

The Grounds extend to somewhat more than One and a Half Scotch Acres, consisting of Shrubbery, Romantic Wooded Banks, with a productive walled Garden, and about two Roods of excel lent Pasturage.

The House was recently built, and since occupied by the Proprietor is perfectly dry, free from smoke, completely furnished, and every way adapted for the Residence of a Genteel Family, most conveniently situated for Sea Bathing, and commands one of the finest and most extensive views on the Frith of Clyde.

For further particulars, apply to the PROPRIETOR at the House; or to Messrs. GRAHAM, House Agents, 90, Argyle Street, Glasgow.

PUBLISHED, every Morning, Sunday excepted, by JOHN FINLAY, at No. 9, Miller Street; and Sold by JOHN WYLIE, 97, Argyle Street; DAVID ROBERTSON, and W. R. M'PHUN, Glasgow; THOMAS STEVENSON, and the other Booksellers, Edinburgh: DAVID DICK, and A. GARDNER, Booksellers, Paisley: A. LAING) Greenock; and J. GLASS, Bookseller, Rothsay.

PRINTED BY JOHN GRAHAM, MELVILLE PLACE.

HOGG IN LONDON.

MORE IMITATONS OF SCOTTISH BALLADS.

London, 23d March, 1832. MY DEAR EFFULGENT,-The noble Pistol, that pattern of pennyless ancients, hath, in the true "Ercles vein," said, "base is the slave that pays," and I fear, exceedingly, that you have subscribed to his opinion. If that be the case, then may I be a "soused gurnet," if this good quill of mine is ever again wielded, for the delight and instruction of your world of readers. When you published my letter, why did you not also make public that most important portion of it, the postscript? There, Sir, lay the kernel of the whole. It was pithy and brief, and, though couched in unEnglish phraseology, still, as the highest, as well the most vile of society, affect a knowledge of slang, it might have been, methinks, transferred to your columns, more especially as you are not such a precise purist yourself, in the matter of style. My postscript ran in these terms, "tip me the blunt." It was an admirable laconism, inasmuch as it was one word fewer than that of the honest Cornubian clergyman, who begged of his congregation of wreckers to listen to his five words of parting counsel, "let us all start fair." That you can afford a “summat" is flat, and, therefore, I stuck in my delicate P.S. Day after day, I have been looking for a draft on your banker, but every day only presented a fresh draft on my patience and forbearance. These being now exhausted, I beg to advise you, in true mercantile language, that another bill, drawn upon Retiring Modesty, Patience, Forbearance & Co. will not be honoured by that firm. So, if you wish to hear from me again, in the way of London Literary Intelligence, you must really attend to my very intelligible postscript. Some understrapper, I see you have got, to pick up a few trifles; but he has no recondite sources of information as I have. He is but a retailer of small wares, and knows no more than a cat with three legs, of what is really going on at head-quarters. Look ye, his intelligence is not fresh. However, I shall not say a word more in disparagement of your penny a-liner. If The Day can't stand it, hang me, if I obtrude myself, and my services upon it again. Ere we depart from this subject, however, let me call your attention once more, and for the last time, to these emphatic words, TIP ME THE Blunt.

Now, my dear fellow, having got over a few disagreeable, but necessary preliminaries, I shall do what I can to fill up the remainder of my sheet with more lively matter. Being now always at home, and very securely lodged, at the national expense, I find myself capable of filling two or three sheets, with the greatest possible ease. The truth is, a number of my considerate satellites, out of regard for the scantiness of my wardrobe, which I shall never forget, have ac commodated me with a stone doublet, which, I daresay, will stand the tear and wear of wind and weather, and other accidents terrestrial, for several months. It was a little heavy at first, but use has made it sit easy and light. Awkwardness, in a new suit, is a sign of elownishness and vulgarity: your Sunday suit men are the pink of would-be gentlemen. The true elegant is the gentleman of one coat, as the best scholar is frequently the man of one book. I must confess,

however, that when my attentive clients fitted me so very well, without even taking my measure; their doublet hung as heavily about me, as any of the drapery with which your Scottish free-stone sculptors choose to invest their "dusty-millar" looking figures. Hogg, kind soul, when he learned that I, like Captain Bobadil, was living retired, and unto myself, immediately paid me a visit, and, after swallowing three noggins of gin twist, I ventured to tell him that, had he been as handsomely dealt by, he might have then boasted that he was, in truth, a Hogg in armour.

You would, no doubt, be scolding me in your heart, for not sending you a true, full, and circumstantial account of the grand feed, got up in honour of the Ettrick Shepherd. It was a cursed failure, and the more so, because I failed in getting there. It was a failure, in so far as regards feeding, and the voracity of an Englishman's stomach, next to a Frenchman's, is proverbial; and, if we may trust the daily papers, Jamie got a little into his dreamy altitudes, and gave the gapers, grunters and listeners a very nice dose of his doctrine of special coincidencies. Had I been there, that night, by Pharaoh's toe, there would have been two moons in the firmament. But there, I did not get, and why, you shall hear.

Anxious to obtain my patronage, a number of ambitious tradesmen had, for years, been pestering me, to avail myself of their various commodities. Being one of the kindest and most obliging creatures under the sun, never, to the best of my recollection, ever being able to muster resolution to utter that naughty monosyllable No, I, out of the amiable susceptibility of my heart, and, from motives of the most exalted philanthropy, had to burden myself with their civilities. They were quite delighted with my affability and condescension, and I was most happy that it was in my power to diffuse joy amongst them. Things went on in this agreeable fashion for a good while, when I declare, one of the miserables, whom I had been at such infinite pains to oblige, poked into my hand a bill of sales about a mile long, to the credit side of which I put down, under the several heads of courtesy, good will, condescension and other sweet terms, as much in pounds, shillings and pence, as covered the amount of his claims, and left a small balance in my favour of two shillings and sixpence halfpenny farthing, a sum, however, wholly inadequate to pay the numerous two-penny postages with which that diligent correspondent had favoured me. Imagine my astonishment and indignation, when the surly beast positively refused to grant mutual discharges! Not wishing to hold further communication with such obtuse understandings and disengenuous minds, I retired from public observation, determined to avoid coming any more in contact with creatures whose very touch was pollution. In a state of seclusion, rivalling that of an anchorite, or of an alchemist, busied upon the last projection which is to put him in possession of the lapis philosophorum, and no mistake, I finished, in an incredibly short space of time, a noble Epic upon the subject of rail-roads. Satan Montgomery's balderdash was a mere flea-bite to the grandiloquent roll, of my sonorous hexameters. Pleased with my literary toils, and, at the same time, anxious to honour Hogg, I left my retreat, and wended my way towards the tavern

where the luminaries of the day were to hold their symposium. At the threshold an ugly faced fellow tipped me on the shoulder, saying, "if you be Mr. so and so, here be's a summat arter your consarns." With an incredulous smile and the most perfect gravity, I pointed to Sir George Murray, Sir John Malcolm, or Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, I forget which, who were just disappearing up the stair-case. "No, Sir, "No, Sir, I am not Mr. so and so, but I believe that tallish good looking gentleman is. If not, that punchy, comfortable looking fellow, buttoned up to the chin close at his heels, must be." The fellow sprang up after them, and I bounced out, but my retreat was cut off by another waiter on providence, who, observing the rapidity of my retrograde movements, laid violent hands upon me, swearing, "that he wern't, by no manner of means, to be gammoned by any such shy." I surrendered at discretion, and was carried off into the interior, as a matter of course. By this activity on the part of a clever rapscallion, I was saved the trouble of paying for what, all have concurred in saying, was no dinner at all. It was very bad in some of the Reporters to get up the cry, that the feast was a political one. No such thing, believe me. Men of all parties were there-Tory, Whig and Radical, and, as Meg Dods well observes, wherefore no? But there are a number of mischievous wasps always on the wing to mar the harmony of such literary meetings, by identifying them with party politics; and, on this occasion, there were not a few of these incendiaries at work.

"ye've cheated me out of as mony punds sterling as there are verses in the sang. If I had ye in the forest, instead o' this black reekie Babel, little wud haud me frae hinging ye up at the first tree we met." "Now, don't be angry Hogg," said I, "and I'll endeavour to recall to my memory, some ancient, positively ancient, ditty, never before printed, which, by receiving a touch here and there of your fine fancy, and after being transmogrified into your vicious and unreadable orthography, will sell as well as the tripartite trifle concocted at Abbotsford." Well, we had a stiff argument as usual about ancient song, and Hogg went away satisfied with my promise, that, by the next time he visited me, he should have a fair transcript of my traditionary ballad.

Subjoined, I send you the hoax I played off upon the Shepherd as a genuine antique. You may publish it; for, when it appears with the Shepherd's name affixed, I am morally certain, it will be impossible to recognise their identity. Nay, I don't believe he, himself, will be able to discover, that in this he has been also anticipated by The Day.

Hogg really has a vast store of wild legendary strains upon his memory; and, when I read over to him my ballad, he was quite in raptures with it. “Ou, man, that's really auncient-I mind o' that being ane of my auld mither's sangs-it, and Auld Maitland,' ye ken-the very words, Sir. We lads o' the forest hae mony stories about the Ettins or Giants, sae hae the Danes. But this is the indentical ballat that my mither minded only bits o' here and there—the ballat was just riddled fu' o' holes. What wudna Sir Walter no hae gi'en, had he had this precious piece in his Border Minstrelsy-or what pains wadna our friend Kinningham have bestowed in dressing it up for his Sangs of Scotland!' Od, Sir, I mak'na doubt that it's the very story of the Red Ettin, that the Shepherds sang or recited, as mentioned in the Complaynt o' Scotland;' and, then, man, the words it begins wi' are twa lines of an auld sang supposed to be lost. But, come, give it me

6

toddy betwixt them, and the impertinent sun unceremoniously lighting them the true path to their respective mouths. As a peep-of-day-boy, (nothing like early rising for study,) I had a very kind card from the Captain; but, being laid up in ordinary, I could not put to sea without orders, and, consequently, missed all the fun, frolic and enjoyment of that night turned into morning.

66

These explanations being given, I may now mention, that it gives me infinite pleasure to trace a parallel betwixt myself and Socrates; both of us having been scurvily treated by those whom we took a pleasure in obliging, and instructing in the humanities of life. The equanimity with which Socrates bore the impertinent civilities of the polite citizens of Athens has been more than surpassed in my own case. But the comparison holds still further. My worthy archetype, as we learn from the Phado of the Divine Plato, amused himself in his solitude, with turning the fables of Esop into verse, and I have been pursuing an equally congenial employment, in writing old ballads. My mind to me a kingdom is," and, though the ten toes cannot travel, the pinions of fancy are as lusty and unshorn as ever. For one of the "Libraries," I am getting up a rare collection of voyages and travels. The remarks of the several writers, I take care generally to contradict or confirm from my own personal observation. Indeed, there is scarcely an inch of the earth, or the sea, but what I have visited in my mind's eye, and that is quite as good as any other mode of travelling. But, as to the ballad making, I must confess, that to that shift I was partly driven by Hogg, who has been, good honest soul, mad as a march hare with me, for innocently despatching to you his fine "auld ballad," which, as I conjectured, he was about to dispose of to a Magazine. "Man, deevil I should rather say," exclaimed the Shepherd to me the other night,

There are twa or three holes in the ballat, that maun be clouted up, with a touch of the sooblime and terrific. My certy, this will confute some of our writers on national superstitions. There's just a bleeze o' new licht flung upon them in this ballat."

More talk we had, of a strictly private nature; therefore, not interesting. Entre nous-Murray is a bit of an aristocrat, and Hogg's leonising being over, he is inclined now to view him in the light of a Bore. The Shepherd, however, is not to be done in this way, and enjoys his mercies with the true relish of a man of How long he means to sorn on the Lordly Bibliopole of Albemarle Street is yet a mystery. He brought with him, from Scotland, four chests, every one the size of a meal girnel, stuffed with manuscripts and clothes, and till he gets the first disposed of, and the last worn out, I suppose he means to make himself a fixture.

sense.

Regarding his novels, tales, &c. he has struck a bargain, with Cochrane's house, for their monthly publication; and, as it will bring him in a few mopusses, we all should rejoice. They will be out this month, and be sure to give vol. first of Altrive Tales, an honest review, for once in your life. My own great and philosophic work, entitled "An Apology for Tick," I am happy to say is nearly completed. Some interesting extracts will, probably, soon appear, in the Literary Gazette, Athenæum, and other prints. It comes home to the business and bosom of every man. wretched whacker, surreptitiously, obtained a stray chapter of it, which, under a few alterations, and a change of title, he got stuffed into Lytton Bulwer's Magazine, a month ago. Never mind, however, the true Guzman will make his bow to a discerning public, all in good time, and shame the plagiarists. Cruikshanks illustrates my labours with a few characteristic etchings.

Some