read less of the commission, and more of the punishment of adulteries, and the many crimes that occupy the attention of magistrates and the hundred mouths of scandal. We find a people from whom complaint was universal,-who had lost their independence and even buoyancy of spirit, the manners, the character, the habits of a free people, elevated at once to a position, from which they could look proudly around on the depression of continental serfs. The orgies of superstition were followed by the celebration of the mysteries of that religion, which they left to a late posterity. They established schools, and purified our colleges; and learning, which had hid itself in long retirement, came forth from its inglorious retreat. Out of the grave of fallen superstition and ruined barbarous philosophy, emerged a gentle spirit, which amalgamated a society convulsed, and created institutions harmonious in their parts, simple in their pretensions, and pure in their character, which still exist, as living testimony to the just and philosophical foundation on which they rest. It was through them that the happy change came over the moral and mental character of society. Through their instrumentality the universal law of decay, which makes establishments, like life, decline, and whose corrosive influence was gnawing away the vitals of the commonwealth, yielded to the medicinal influence of a better system, which has given us so much healthy feeling, many centuries of ever increasing prosperity, the civilizing influence of literary and commercial greatness, and enabled us to outstrip the nations of the world in all the essentials which constitute a country's happiness. And yet the change was accomplished within the compass of a single life, by a people arriving at maturity, without the dull season of probation, or the inconveniences of adolescence. Mr. Tytler, in drawing the character of Knox, has no sympathy with moral greatness. He feels not the high supremacy of the virtue of adherence to truth, amid the sneers of friends, the depression of exile, or the terrors of persecution. His heart is cold to the heroism of principle. He cannot appreciate the scene, when the humble minister confronted the Privy Council, deriving additional lustre from his intended degradation, and showing us how a great man may be ill-treated, but not dishonored. For the ruin of rank, and beauty, and ancient name, he excites our sympathies, and invokes the full volume of our compassions and our sorrows. He changes the accuser into the accused, and inverts the morality of actions to obtain a judgment consistent with his prejudices. "On many occasions," he tells us, "Knox acted upon The placid stream which now flows in a gentle current, bearing on its breast the fruits of an enlightened freedom, had once been scattered in fruitless waste in a thousand rills. To direct their powers to a right convergence, was the duty to which the Reformers in resigning themselves, acquired their honorable immortality. It may be true, that in the herald's college they have no blazonry of arms, and their labors cannot therefore extract from sentiment a word of commendation, or their sufferings cause one tear to flow. But they had a pedigree to render them illustrious, and descendants to keep their spirit in existence. the principle (so manifestly erroneous and They could point for ancestors to the pic-unchristian) that the end justified the ture gallery of the wise of past generations, means."—(Vol. vii., p. 331.) In vain have who had preceded them in rescuing man- we read the History for occasions when he kind from the degrading thraldom, by which is said to have exemplified the principle, priests and kings, or the prejudices of a peo- except the death of Rizzio; and in vain ple, have kept in bondage human thought; will Mr. Tytler urge that charge again and for descendants, they will find myriads upon a startled public. He will deal with ready to defend their memory when ma- it, as he did with his attack on the memoligned. The degradations they suffered, ry of the martyr Wishart, whom, in an were neither caused by forfeiture of public early work, he accused as accessory to the confidence or public affection; they were death of Beaton-a charge which in his neither courted by folly nor merited by history he has abandoned, or frittered away crime; they arose from that iniquity of for- in insinuation, which carries with it its tune, which, in the mixed lot of human life, antidote; and there we leave it. But he will attend the best of actions, and which, farther tells us, that Knox was "fierce, unendured with patience or met with forti- relenting, and unscrupulous."-(Vol. vii., tude, become the visible rhetoric of their p. 331.) Fierce and unrelenting he ever virtues. was-but nothing more than a good man ever must against any thing that had the ters. Do not sink into oblivion the fact, appearance of the conventional moralities that flattery could not diminish his perseof Mr. Tytler's heroes, or the crimes of verance; that threats increased his ardor; which his heroine was accused. But that that hatred, obloquy, and scorn - from he displayed such feelings, as is intended power, that had the instruments to avenge to be conveyed, against what was right, is from friends, whose attachment was the a charge which not one among the thou- first object of his affections--and from “his sand calumniators, who have exhausted very familiars," whom his generosity had their time in invective and investigation, enriched-were the result of the sacrifice can place upon other authority than their to duty; how he knew the cost, and, to the own assertion. In the like spirit we meet eternal honor of his memory, paid it to the the charge of being unscrupulous, which, full. resting as it does in the vagueness of gene- An impartial writer would narrate how, rality, may be safely left with a general in the grand carnival of the age, strange contradiction. masquerades were seen. It was through Nine-tenths of the Scottish people will the Reformer's influence that feudal enmi. read such things with indignation, and-ties disappeared-ancient party shibboleths were it not for the high respectability of were forgotten- ancient enemies resigned the author with feelings of contempt. their hatred. The people heard-became They will find some palliation for them in convinced-and, by their actions, told the his hereditary prejudices. They will con- sincerity of their convictions. All former sider it natural enough, that one who has contests were cast aside; all the past worked eighteen years amid the moulder- wrongs of clanship, transmitted from age ing records of other days-without being to age as a family inheritance-all the li able, after all, to see the importance of that cense of a demoralized society. Reformation, which renders its history in-swept away in the new current of enthusi teresting, not only to Scotland, but to man- asm, which left the deserted churches of kind-has no sympathies with the recollec- popery, the funeral mementos of departed tions of departed worth, which shone out superstition. in a high and single-minded philanthropy to the last. They will look upon the au- We have now exhausted all our space for thor's performance, as they would upon any any particular examination of Mr. Tytler's other of a school, which speaks any lan- history. We could have wished, had we guage of religion and morals consistent been able, to follow him during the reign with the innocence of Mary and the infamy of James, when the tide of religious fervor of her accusers; and when the interest had subsided, and the whole power of Goattached to a new publication, by sub-vernment was employed to raise a bulwark siding, shall have allowed this history to sink to its place of rest, the author will find, to his regret, that his fierce invectives have ruined nothing but the fame he is so anxious to acquire. were against its flow a second time. This, however, we must leave to the judgment of Mr. Tytler's readers, and shall, at present, close our strictures with a few observations on the general characteristics of the later volumes of this History. Far be it from us to act as the indiscriminate eulogists of Knox. Let his faults be In reading the account of the Reformacensured with unsparing rigor, but let not tion, its causes and its results, one's feelhis generous sacrifices and his manly cou-ings of indignation at the perverted narrarage be forgotten. In condemning justly tive yield to an artistic feeling of anger, at the severity of his language, let it be re- the mode in which the author has spoilt membered that it was a common failing, so fine a subject. We would have subinto which even Erasmus fell; and in an mitted to abuse had it been boldly done; impartial estimate of his character, do not and the history of the Reformation would omit the loveable nature of the man-his not have appeared so utterly distasteful if humor-his vigorous human-heartedness- we could find a thorough appreciation of the absence of all cant, or affectation, or its importance, whether for good or evil. maudlin extravagance-the utter want of But the historian seems entirely to have all selfishness, which made him decline a overlooked it. He gives us a few biograbishopric from the best of princes-and his phies, and forgets the history of a people; Christian humility, though the correspond- and the parties honored are, of course, the ent and friend of monarchs and their minis-illustrious who had handles to their names. added, at the same time, a short account of the mode of generation of new saints, and the concoction of holy relics; and a graphic narrative might be given of the mode in which the humble votaries at the many shrines gazed with wonder at the priestly jugglers, deposited their offering before the image, received a nod from it, and in pious ecstasy retired. Of all this, however, there occurs not a single word ; and one, after the perusal of its history, will rise with the most dreamy impression of the gorgeous establishment of the old Papal religion, and with no impression at all of the jolly fathers who gave it a "local habitation and a name." Mr. Tytler is a lawyer, and upon his professional theme it becomes us to be silent. At the same time, the general unprofessional reader cannot help regretting, that many of the interesting events connected with the history of our legal institutions have been sunk into oblivion. We might, with advantage, have received some information in regard to those dens of iniquity, termed Ecclesiastical Courts, in which the clergy administered "justice," and gathered their tithes, and taught the learned out of an immense book of laws. The subject could have been made amusing, by a few of the causes célébres they decided; and the historian would have found, that the history of private morality and oppression, as there exhibited, would have reflected a far brighter light on the condition of the country, than the most horrific murder story he has told It is absolutely amazing, with Robertson's introduction to the history of Charles V. before him, how he missed the finest subject for historical dissertation yet left to modern industry. What a noble chapter it would have made, if, instead of all this rubbish of quotation from the letters of Lord Mighty and the Duke of Craft, and the Queen of Policy, he had patiently set himself down to inform us of the state of social existence, and religious feeling and learning, in the eventful years which preceded and followed the Revolution. How interesting it would have been had he followed the example of Robertson with regard to the state of Germany in the days of Luther; had he taken each class of the community and told their story-the private lives of the clergy, for example-their virtues or their venalty, their ignorance, their profligacy of manners, their persecuting spirit. How admirably he could have displayed his learning, and amused his readers, by entering their libraries and giving us a peep of the foolish literature lying there; or by introducing us to the Conversation of these gross and lazy priests, who slumbered and woke to eat and drink and slumber again. His readers would have laughed with him at their mutual accusations and recriminations; and following them into their private chambers, he could have told us many a moral lesson from their secret doings. People are never so wicked as during a general mortality, or the ravages of the plague; and sailors get drunk as the vessel sinks. Hence the riu- us. merous incidents such as that which markBy an easy and natural diversion, he ed the close of the Popish Bishopric of could then have introduced us to the Civil Aberdeen, in which the holy bishop ac- Courts, and given us some idea of their cused the Chapter of lukewarmness tow- constitution and their privileges, rendered ards heresy, and they retorted by calling interesting by a few anecdotes as to their upon him to cause his churchmen "reform corruption and venality, so highly prized their shameful lives, and remove their open by the old barons who hated Cromwell's concubines ;" and more especially that he, Commissioners, because "they had no natthe Apostolic Father himself, "would have ural feeling, and decided all the same, the goodness to show an example by ab- though one of the parties were of their staining from the company of the gentle-kith and kin." The nature of the governwoman with whom he was greatly slan- ment of Scotland might also have received dered."(Keith, pref., p. 11.) Nay, it a passing notice. Some information could might not be uninteresting to add a sketch have been afforded as to whether there were of that most consummate of Popish abomi- Officers of the Crown-a Chancellor, a nations, auricular confession: and the Secretary of State for the Home Departclamorous canon of a provincial council ment, and one for Foreign Affairs, one for might be quoted, wherein the confessors were directed to hear the penitent patiently, and not to look too often in the face, particularly if a woman.* He could have "In audiendo confessionem, sacerdos habeat | lished by Hailes. vultum humilem, et oculos ad terras demissos; nec sæpius indiscrete faciem respiciat confitentis, et maxime mulieris."-Can. 76 of the Canons pub the Borders, and another for the Highland | roistering baron, whose castle overtopped reivers. their city or their hamlet. Was there not, too, a common people The subject is, however, too mean for in that perished age, and had they not a the Scottish historian, who is above telling history, like the lords and ladies, of whose us any thing of the manners, habits, pleadoings these nine diffusive volumes are the sures, trades, feelings, opinions of this industrious record? They appear, in the busy, persevering, and intelligent people; historian's estimation, to have been born of nor will he give any information as to their cblivion, and destined to oblivion; and literature. Here, too, a fine chapter has their names make no figure in history. been thrown to the winds. Oppression, Still, it would have been interesting to weariness, and disgust with the utter abomknow, if the blood warmed their hearts, and inations of the Romish faith; convictions if they spoke and felt as did the great. In as to its falsehood, and hatred to its shamewhat manner did Donald MacIan Mhor, in less ministers, were the principal causes of the far north, amid the mists of his native its downfall. But the influence of poetry hills, wear away the dull monotony of life? was brought in to excite the fancy; and Was he clothed in sheep-skins, and did he the ridicule and sarcasm of Lindsay, and live by sheep-stealing? Were there wise "the gude and godlie ballads," and other men, and magicians with the second sight, productions of the same school, rendered hard by the Tummell or the Spey, and was ridiculous what had already been declared that the native land of whiskey then? Farm- sinful. It is said that the songs of Béraning, too, was in use surely, in these old ger overthrew the elder Bourbons; it is undays; but we cannot extract from Mr. questionable that the keen wit of the poetTytler, whether our worthy fathers, in the asters, who satirized the priests, effected patriarchal style, employed bullocks for the the strongest impression on the popular plough, and trod out the corn by the feet of mind of Scotland. Yet all that is said upon oxen. O! that he had kept in mind the this subject is contained in three linessaying of the worthy gentleman, commemo- more perhaps than might have been exrated in the Voyage to Brobdignag, when pected; and then the author proceeds to unravelling his everlasting court intrigues, the staple subject of his treatise the de-"He gave it for his opinion, that whoever scription of a border excursion-some gross could make two ears of corn, or two blades oppression, or exquisitely exciting murder. of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." We can scarcely ascertain from this history of his country, who was Sir David Lindsay, one of the most illustrious men of letters of ancient Scotland; and the man whose works have delighted many a reader, Or, if we come to the Lowland towns, now shines with an obscure lustre, at the where dwelt the substantial burghers, ply-side of some feudal ruffian who had exhibing the busy industry of their respective ited the superlatives of inhumanity. Gavin crafts, why will the historian not tell us Douglas, the Bishop of Dunkeld, the transsomething of their quiet happy existence? They courted, surely, and they married; and sometimes they committed crimes, and as often exhibited generous and noble virtues, as the proudest high-born Hidalgo of them all. Were shirts, and shoes, and stockings, among the luxuries, or the comforts merely, of burghal existence? What an interesting story has Guizot, in his history of European Civilization, contrived to rear out of the prosaic existence of the denizens of the cities, who stand amid the gloom of the middle ages, as something superior to the brutality and ignorance of the times; and how admirably does he follow them to their workshops, and to the bosom of their domestic affections, contrasting their happy comforts with the squalid greatness of the Vol. VII.-No. I. 5 lator of Virgil and part of Ovid-a gentle- fertility of imagination, not to be found in any English poet since Chaucer and Lydgate." and intolerance of Presbyterian ministers, a better idea would be entertained of its character and its object. This is our History! We grudge not the author the pension it has gained him; he will, perhaps, never receive either from his pension or his profits, remuneration for his labor of eighteen years. It is, therefore, all the more galling to his friends, that we cannot recompense him by our admiration and our gratitude, and are driven to the painful conviction, that the History of Scotland remains to be composed. We need not name others. They have all been contemptuously left in the obscurity of their antiquated phraseology, and their country's historian will not condescend to tell us any thing of their language and ours. There never was a history which has acquired such a name as this, so defective upon nine-tenths of the subjects necessary for its construction. Materials, too, lie at hand in inconvenient abundance, for enabling the historian to unroll the history of that world of old, the habits and customs of our fathers, their literature and their religion, their language and their origin, the humble destinies of perished generations, whose hum of busy labor we would hear ANIMAL MAGNETISM AND GHOST-seeagain, mingling with the chant of the monkish miserere. By judicious compression all this might be contained within such a compass as not to extend the work a single page, provided a number of inhuman atrocities were left out, and only a few retained as examples of the rest; and also under the condition, that two or three hundred of the five hundred pages of dull quotations from State Paper Office correspondence were consigned to the obscurity from whence it has been dragged. Mr. Tytler expresses his gratitude to Lord Melbourne for allowing him "a full examination of the Scottish correspondence in the State Paper Office," and which he tells us was an event "the most pleasurable in my literary life."-(Vol. v., p. 377.) We cannot express the same gratification. There can be no doubt, that several Court intrigues have been thereby divested of their mystery; but, in opposition to that, we have to set a deluge of matter, on uncontroverted points, told with amazing periphrasis of phrase, to the utter exclusion of half our history. To adopt the simile of Burke, the historian seized a handful of grasshoppers, which he presents as the riches of the land, while altogether unmindful of the noble oxen quietly browsing around him. Like any other collection of old correspondence, this book will, however, be useful, and it is needless now to continue our wailings as to its omissions. But if, instead of denominating the four last volumes a history, they were described as the biography of Mary Stuart, of Regent Murray, and of Morton, interspersed with sketches of other grandees, and solemn denunciations of the coarse vulgarity From the British Quarterly Review. ING. The Sceress of Prevorst, being Revelations concerning the Inner-life of Man, and the Inter-diffusion of a World of Spirits in the one we inhabit. Communicated by JUSTINUS KERNER, Chief Physician at Weinsberg. From the German, by Mrs. CROWE, Author of Susan Hopley,' 'Men and Women,' Aristodemus, a Tragedy,' &c. London. 12mo. pp. 338. 1845. Ir is now many years since, enlightened and reduced to a state of rational and philosophical incredulity by the sober science of Dr. Ferrier and Dr. Hibbert, we bade a sorrowful farewell to all our faith in ghosts, that last lingering fiction of the brain.' We felt ourselves reluctantly compelled, one after another, to relinquish each strange tale, to open our eyes to the cold and dismal realities of observation and induction, and to consign all the spectres of our earliest faith to the dreamy regions of romance and fiction. Nay, we may as well confess, that with the exception of a few rare occasions, on which we happened to find ourselves alone, at unseasonable hours, in churchyards, or houses that were really known to be haunted, we had almost forgotten that there were such beings as ghosts. We had been looking at objects with microscopes, and dissecting them with scalpels and needles, and analyzing them with acids and alkalies, and spirit lamps, and peeping at them through the far distance with reflecting telescopes, and, in short, as we thought, had been prying into all the holes and corners of this external world with most inquisitive eyes, and the torch of science blazing bright in our hands |