ployed about it were enlightened by the red gleams of the furnaces in different recesses were figures partially illumined, and partially lost in obscurity; whilst the upper part of the building, being open, admitted a bright golden ray of the setting sun, which mingled, and gradually died away in the gloom below. This, however, was vastly inferior to a scene described by Mr. Nasmyth, in which Art seemed almost to have rivalled the mighty operations of Nature, in her combination of the grand and splendid with the terrible and sublime. In the centre of an immense apartment, belonging to the Carron works, a bank of sand was raised, on which several ladies and gentlemen stood, while the streams of molten iron, from three different furnaces; were poured all at once into as many moulds, flashing over the whole building the glare of their flames. Nor was this operation unattended with danger; a single drop of water, thrown by any accident amongst the fluid ore, would have produced, by the rarefaction of the air, a most fatal explosion; and the very possibility of such a circumstance must have inconceivably heightened the sublimity of the scene.' Vol.i. F.112.

We must confess that this scene would not have impressed us with ideas of sublimity, but rather with a sensation wholly painful-great anxiety for the safety of the parties. We do not remember (p. 129) any cave at Hawthorn Den which is called by any other traveler the Cypress Grove. Drummond is said to have composed his prose work entitled A Cypress Grove in one of these caves, whence the confusion may arise. Our author, though a disciple of Mr. Gilpin, points out some gross mistakes of that reverend traveler; such as a false delineation of the bridge at Edinburgh: and in p. 251 we are told the reverend artist has applied all the characters of Glen Kinglas to Glen Croe, thus reversing the accounts of both. The rest of this first volume contains trivial remarks on the most trivial objects of every tourist in Scotland. To swell his own consequence, the author dwells largely on the risk of a visit to Staffa; while, in the opinion of others, it is a most safe and easy expedition.-In this, as well as in the second volume, there are several passages which indicate the writer's firm belief in Ossian's Poems; yet in others he regards them as of modern invention. We wait with great anxiety till this supreme judge shall have made up his mind upon the subject.

Our author's visit to Glenco presents nothing memorable; and his route thence extends to Inverness, through a tract familiar to most readers; while a visit to the northern counties might have conferred some degree of novelty. It is also to be regretted that he did not, before his expedition to an Alpine country, read De la Saussure's Journey to the Alps, where he might have learned the scientific objects of such a tour. Where, in his great learning, he produces Erse words, he should have acquainted the illiterate with the pronunciation. Thus, vol. II. p. 16, we should have been informed whether the word linne be

accented on the last syllable, or be only monosyllabic. This puzzle is not unfrequent in books of voyages, where the English final is adopted. It ought either to be accented or omitted. We were not a little surprised to find our tourist pass Ben-Nevis, which he calls Nivis, the highest mountain in Great-Britain, when it was to have been expected that such an object would have attracted the chief attention in a journey of this nature: but perhaps the picturesque is inseparable from highways. The author designated by our traveler as a Mr. J. Williams' is well known by a useful production called the Mineral Kingdom; and, in the scale of both learning and utility, Mr. Williams might rather have spoken of a Mr. John Stoddart. Without any study, and by mere intuition, our author is an antiquary, historian, &c.; and we doubt not that he could, like our occult doctors, answer all questions by sea and land. His reasoning is, as usual, on a par with his knowledge, of which an instance occurs in p. 88. A river called Varar by Ptolemy is still denominated Farrar, which, Mr. Stoddart says, is a remarkable instance of permanence in the spoken language of distant periods of time; that is, as the context explains, the Gaelic was here spoken in the time of Ptolemy. By this argument, as the English in America retain many Indian names, they must of course speak the Indian language. We shall not stop to point out the many gross historic errors that occur, as they are of so puerile a nature that they cannot mislead any reader of common information.

The example of De la Saussure, and many other travelers in Alpine countries, might have taught our author that the study of mineralogy should be indispensable to his pretensions, and that of botany very necessary; while he is equally unversed in both. In p. 130, he calls the serpentine of Portsoy marble; and in p. 133 occurs the following sentence.

Thus a judicious friend of mine once pointed out the value of the old German chronicles, to some of their literati, who did not dream that any use could be made of records like the following: "In this year was composed the popular ballad, beginning so and so;""About this time lived the famous Harper, who introduced such or such a measure." Vol. ii. P. 133.

These German literati must have been of our author's standard; and it would be difficult to find such passages in any chronicles whatever, as every one conversant in the literature of the middle ages must immediately perceive. With equal ignorance, the author, in the next page, says a nobleman of his acquaintance composed the ballad Cauld Kail in Aberdeen ;' which ballad has perhaps existed for a century and a half.

Ballindalach, the seat of General Grant, is an old but considerable edifice, seated, as its name is said to imply, in a level plain, near the discharge of the Avon. Here we were hospitably entertained, and found much amusement in tracing the wooded winding

banks, through which paths have been led, with great judgement, We had a proof, that the impetuous floods which give name to the Spey also characterize its tributary streams. Shortly previous to our arrival, the Avon had poured from its mountain sources so tremendous a torrent, that in a few hours it broke down the stone bridge, covered the whole meadow with sand, made some breaches in the garden wall, and rushed into the lower part of the house itself. The mischief was great, and the danger serious; but the picturesque effect was highly improved. The broken bridge, and dashing river, formed an admirable fore-ground, to the old mansion, whose spiry summits peeped, at some distance, from the midst of its venerable plantations. Vol. ii. P. 147.

Bravissimo! So much for the picturesque !-There is but one shade of difference between this insanity and that of Don Quixote.

We believe there is some confusion or inaccuracy (p. 161) in the account of Mr. Macpherson, the translator of Ossian, as we never understood that he visited the East Indies: he is probably 'here confounded with his nephew. In speaking of Braemar (p. 170) our author says, 'Many charters of Malcolm Canmore are dated here--a position so false, that from this, and several similar passages, it may be pronounced that the author has not even seen the commonest books on Scottish history or antiquities. He wishes (p. 181) to retain the national distinctions of the highlanders; while such distinctions form mere barriers against the progress of civilisation; and a benevolent mind would wish to abolish every thing of the sort, and to spread the blessings of industry and prosperity through all parts of the British empire. As weakness is often united with malignity, and the last is frequently perceived in the imputation of bad intentions to others, we do not wonder at this tourist's improper method of attacking writers who differ from him in opinion; but we beg to remind him, that, while authors of great learning have in all ages attacked each other with asperity, no man of taste would introduce discussions of that nature into a work on picturesque beauty.

It is proverbial, that insolence and servility go hand in hand; and our author's arrogance of censure is equalled by his fawning adulation to any peer or peeress who happens to be in his way. In p. 253, to 256, his serious etymologies are on a par with the ironical ones of Dr. Swift. Sometimes, as p. 259, &c. scraps of poetry are introduced as generally known; while we suppose them to be the composition of the author himself, as they are totally unlike any thing of the kind we have yet ever met with. In p. 268 we find that co-herds is an evident corruption of the Latin cohortium.' The author does not seem to know 'his cases and his genders.' Upon the spirit and effect of the drawing, p. 279, we cannot determine; but in the print it is impossible to determine clouds from mountains, or water from sand. This last defect, as we have before observed, pervades all the prints, which are

executed by a foreign artist; and would have some merit, if it were not for this glaring error. Our picturesque author passes the Hill of Kinnoul without any knowledge of the Travels of St. Fond, and visits Taymouth without seeing the paintings of Jamieson! In vol. II. p. 317, we are told Crossregal Abbey. was founded by Duncan in 1260, whereas it ought to have been in 1244; nor was this Duncan the king, as any reader would infer from the absolute position of the name.

At the end of the second volume the author condescends to impart to his readers what he calls General Principles of Taste.'

In the preceding pages, I have endeavoured to delineate, with fidelity, the impressions made on my own mind by the scenes and occurrences of my journey. I wished to make my reader the companion of my way, and the sharer of my thoughts-passing over some parts, as I myself did, with a hasty, unregarding eyestopping at others to enjoy, and drink in the impulses of the scenecomparing present feelings with past-and, finally, referring them

both to some common standard.

• Taste, in its most just, and comprehensive sense, is that stapdard. The more interesting and important are its general principles, the more necessary it becomes to try them again, and again; to take their heights, and distances, and bearings, by the sure chart of experience; to ascertain their mutual relations to each other, and their general dependance on some one, great leading-star,

"Which looks on tempests, and is never shaken.”

No person is more deeply impressed, than myself, by the merit of the systematic writers on this subject; no person reads their works with more admiration, or a deeper sense of indebtment; but I may be allowed to say, that in the perusal I have usually desiderated a something firm and comprehensive, a more fundamental principle, a wider scope of argument and illustration. Taste is defined by the greatest writer of modern days, as "that faculty which is affected by the works of imagination, and the elegant arts;" but this defi nition (to say nothing of its unintelligible distinction between imagination, and art) overlooks many, and those the most interesting speculations, which it ought to include. By wiat violent perversion of all the analogies of language, is the pleasure, which we derive from contemplating the beauties of Nature, to be denied that denomination, which the same pleasure receives, when communicated through the medium of the elegant arts? or why should our admiration of the sublime and beautiful in morals be less justly entitled to the name of Taste, than a similar affection, springing from similar sources, in the works of imagination?

• Were I to point out one cause, which, more than any other, has contributed to narrow and pervert our notions of Taste, it would be that attachment to science," falsely so called," which is so distinguishing a characteristic of modern days. Since the time of Lord Bacon, Natural Philosophy has been so thuch, and so successfully pursued, that it cannot but have produced some effect on our notions concerning the mind. It deserves, indeed, within due limits, our CRIT. REV. Vol. 35. May, 1802. F

high esteem, and attentive cultivation; but we make idols of the golden seraphim, when we enthrone the science of material objects in the seat of mental knowledge, and transfer the strict definitions, the analytical distinctions, and the logical deductions of the one, to the undefinable, and complex sensations of the other.

It is a curious, circumstance in the history of society, that as men have devoted themselves to physical analysis, they have neglected those nice shades, which constitute moral discrimination. We are too busy with crucibles, and air-pumps, and shells, and butterflies, and topographical charts, and statistical calculations, to attend to the ever-varying beauties of nature, and the engaging intricacies of the heart. We are apt to divide and cut up the mind with experiments, anatomical, pneumatic, Galvanic: we account for every thing by vibrations, and vibratiuncles, animal spirits, sensorial fluids: we distinguish our whole being into actions automatic, voluntary, mixt; into ideas of irritation, sensation, volition, association. But even though "the observers of some distant generation should enjoy a view of the subtle, busy, and intricate movements of the organic creation, as clear as Newton obtained of the movements of the heavenly masses," the mystery of mental existence would remain concealed; the sacred statue would be dimly shown, as to the uninitiated; but its divine and dazzling beauty would be hidden by an 'impenetrable veil.

When I contemplate human life, I perceive that its endless diversities of contrast and similitude accord in a general harmony produce a ONENESS, of which every person is conscious, when Ive looks into his own bosom; but which he is apt to lose sight of, while his attention is engaged by the verbal reasoning of others. This melting and mixing of all our thoughts, moods, knowledges, fancies, senses, feelings, into one living nature, is a contemplation so delightful in the whole, and so interesting in every its minutest branch, that it could not but frequently and forcibly strike those great writers, to whom I have alluded. It is, indeed, discoverable in their speculations: it is traceable among all the splendid profusion of their imaginations, and descriptions; but as it was not the primary object, which they had in view, it has entered less than might be wished into their systems. The chief aim, therefore, of the present essay, will be to develope that subtile, cementing, subterraneous unity, in its application to the chief diversities of our -being; to show how far it coincides with, and how far it contradicts the commonly received distinctions; in fine, to deduce from it the outline of those general principles which may justly deserve the "name of Taste.' Vol. ii. P. 323.

C.

But, in mercy to our readers, we shall not produce any more of this unintelligible jargon, which the author probably thinks sense and fine writing. Among the errata, we find an admonition, or rather a confession, of the want of accuracy in the drawings. But the prints and the book are worthy of each other.

• None but itself can be its parallel.'