as him- Nine o'clock, the hour of we place the pleasing thought of spending the declining years of life shutting up at #tel Speaketh of being in labour the amidst those scenes that delighted sun goes to bed' then, then our younger days. Far from home, Mutton Pyes, of delicate make, all in a strange country, the mind glows hot-eating and drinking' Por- at the sight of a prospect, which bears ter from the butt'- the summum of a resemblance to those views that surall happiness.' rounded the objects of our earliest reQuantum collection. You may mingle with Wise, like whys' feelings of peculiar delight, in the so- These are the reasons, these the wise-like whys,' membrance of the past. And here, Which make me love aye the nine-striking bell! Away! the Pyes are hot, The Beer is running in the Pewter Pot. T 1234567890 we enjoy, in recollection, what for merly imparted but a slender pleasure. If should have occasion to over-, you haul your trunk-this pair of Bibles, I got from my mothermy sister gave me these neckcloths this is her marking on my shirts and this broach she used to wear my brother bought this case of razors this pocket-book was my father's and my uncle made a present of this watch to me. For hours together, you take pleasure in reviewing the contents of your trunk; and every time you-reMr. EDITOR The pleasures of turn to it, some one object, or anrecollection, though perhaps not so other, recals forcibly to your mind a varied as those of imagination, are train of the most pleasureable ideas. yet, as, exalted in their nature. Next Should you pass on year after year, to our religious feelings and hopes, the mind freshens at the sight of the . THE PLEASURES of RECOLLECTION. To the Editor of the Melange. same objects-new trains of thought are suggested-new recollections arise. They take fast hold of the soul; and they become the joy and the rejoicing of your heart.: 1 stitution, and it is a part of yours Anderston Walk, D. M. J. A SAILOR'S JOURNAL. Your return home after a long absence. The aspect of the town and the country is changed. The recollections of past days are, however, the subjects you take most delight in talking of. You ask for this person and that. You are told they are dead. Then you remember some interesting occurrence, in which you. Hove out of Portsmouth, on board, and they were concerned. He is the Britannia Fly, a swift sailor-an dead! you say, when died he? I outside birth-rather drowsy first had a strong liking to him. I met watch or two-like to have slipt off once with a good-hearted fellow, to the stern-cast anchor at the George whom I was very much attached on took a fresh quod, and a supply of account of a similarity of character. I am sorry for him. grog-comforted the upper-worksspoke several homeward-bound friYou avail yourself of the first op- gates on the road-and, after a toler portunity of perambulating those able smooth voyage, entered the port scenes which delighted you, in re- of London at ten minutes past five, collection, when far distant. You post meridian-steered to Nan's lodg visit the places that in youth you fre- ings-unshipt my cargo-Nan adquented. Their presence recals many mired the shiners-so did landlord an interesting occurrence, many an gave them a handful a-piece-emptied amusing past-time, and many a fro- a bottle of the right sort with landlord, licsome diversion. The eddying pool to the health of Lord Nelson-all where you learned to swim-the three set sail for the play-got a birth fields in which you used to chase the in the cabin to the larboard sidebutterfly, and the wild-hee-the woods wanted to smoke a pipe, but the boatand hedges in which you had disco-swain would not let me-) -Nan called vered the nest of the linnet, and of the the play Pobzaro, with Harilkin Ham black-bird the streamlets from which let-but d- - me, if I knew stem you were wont to take the timorous from stern-remember to rig out trout, and the lake on which you, in Nan, like the fine folks in the cabin the winter season, had learned to right a-head-saw Tom Junk aloft in skate. These are the places that de- the corner of the upper deck-hailed lighted you in recollection. You him-the signal returned-some of the saunter among them with more heart-lubbers in the cock pit began to laugh felt enjoyment, than all the fields of Tipt them a little forecastle lingo Elysium have ever produced. The till they sheered off emptied the grog beauties of your birth-place never lose bottle fell fast asleep dreamt of their power to charm. Call all this, the battle of Camperdown my landMr. Editor, a delusion, if you choose; lord told me the play was over glad it is a delusion to which I yield with of it-crowded all sail for a hackney out a grudge it is a part of my con- coach-got on board-squally weather 7 rather inclined to be sen sick-ar-with all their divine eloquence, they fived at Nan's lodgings gave the pi- are nothing more than men. The lot a two pound note, and told him endless compass of Milton's genius not to mind the change supped with the world of imagery with which his Nan, and swang in the same hammock mind was stored, and his acquaintance looked over my thing in the morn- with every species of literature, have ing great deal of it to be sure but proved, in many instances, more than I hope, with the help of a few friends, a match for his judgment, leading to spend every shilling of it in a little him away into digressions which his time, to the honour and glory of old admirable taste would have enabled England. him to avoid. This is nowhere more remarkable than in his speeches. The beauty of some of these have obtained universal applause, but the tediousness, CRITIQUE ON CERTAIN PASSAGES OF pedantry, and prolixity of others, are his PARADISE LOST. lang sdr * gave justly liable to censure: witness that of the angel Raphael to Adam, Book V. line 404 et seq. In that beautiful hymn, from which Thomson, a century after, took the idea of his no less beautiful one to the Seasons, Adam speaks of the fixed stars, the planets, and other circumstances, far too removed from his simple knowledge. There is a curious conceit in Book V. line 215 et seq. Every person of taste, who has read this immortal poem, must have risen from the perusal with sentiments of profound admiration. The grandeur of the subject, the astonishing fertility of invention the daring flights of fancy, and the heavenly spirit which prevades the whole-have stamped it, not merely as the first of British poems but as one of the greatest intellectual performances ever atcheived 1-1i+ 9:1 al -' or they led the vine by the mind of man. But, in this To wed her elm; she spoused about him twine, Her marriagable arms, and with her brings poem, so honourable to Milton, and Her dower, th' adopted clusters to adorn to the the country which His barren leaves." him birth, there are a thousand faults intermingled After all, conceits of this kind: are: with its beauties, and a thousand not unfrequent, and produce a very omissions and inconsistencies, which a incongruous figure in such a dignified lesser, but more correct genius, would poem as Paradise Lost. Milton had have avoided. These errors, in truth, undoubtedly a wonderful genius for are attached to every p man of great ori-amplification; but the exercise of this ginal mind. They are mingled like faculty, it must be admitted, rather exweeds in a garden of flowers, and cites admiration at his fertility, than stand up as foils or reliefs, to the more any real feeling of pleasure. In his beautiful objects which surround them, similes, the main objects are frequently: There is not a page of Shakespeare noble; but by amplifying and narrating or Homer without blemishes of this circumstances connected with the ob description. Even when the minds jects assimilated, he is apt to tire the of f these divine writers are elevated on memory, and prevent us from perceivi the pinions of the highest genius, fre-ing, at one glance, the true nature oft quent bursts bursts of error and absurdity his comparisons. We are told by all t break forth to spoil the purity of their critics, that the power of every smile emanations, and to remind us, that, lies in its briefness, aptness, intelligi ༈ A bleness, and power-that it should son, weaken its force, and render it strike us at one glance and not difficult to be understood. Unless a merely enoble, but as it were, illustrate simile is comprehended at once, its the subject. The Osianic similes are magie is broken instead of enligh every where of this description-so are tening the mind, it spreads over it the sublimest.comparisons of the sacred nothing bnt, mystery and confusion. writings so are those of almost every There is hardly an author, against great poet. Milton must be allowed whom so many charges of the same to stand, an eminent exception; but kind may be brought, If, in many his singularity is to be made no rule cases, the circumstance alluded to profor imitation nor does it, in any degree, duces an agreeable effect, and, if in affect the soundness of the remark, all, it enhances, in our opinion, the that every simile to be strong, should authors fertile faney, yet we must be be short and simple. The complexity allowed to say, that it is extremely of Milton's comparisons is not their liable to weaken the main objectto beauty, but their fault. They are draw off too much the attention, and great amidst all their expansion, and weary it by searching for the real would undoubtedly be greater, if they bearing of the passage. Besides such were of a simpler kind. clipping down is often inconsistent The following is a very striking il-with the fervour, and conveys an idea lustration, book I. line 301. "His legions, angel forms that lay entranced, In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades Busiris and his Memphian cavalry.' of the poet rather purposely expanding! his subject than composing, as Milton undoubtedly did, under the very inspiration of poetry. oned It may be observed, that poems! which interest the passions chiefly, are more generally read and relished! In the first place, we are here apt to than those which touch the imaginaforget the objects to which the multi-tion. Almost every one has a heart! tude of his followers are compared. capable of understanding appeals di Not contented with comparing them rected to it but every one has not to autumnal leaves,' he says, they that brilliancy of fancy which can folfights were thick as autumnal leaves that low after, and relish the ideal strew the brooks in Vallombrosa, of imagination. Fancy and passion, where Etrurian shades high over- are different faculties. Often they are! Din arch'd imhow'r. This last circum- found blended powerfully stance has little connection with the mind-but sometimes they are com-“ objects of comparison, leaves. It pletely separated each exercising therefore amplifies the scene, and, by unrivalleled empire. Hence the an over-gorgeousness of objects, dis- grand division of poetry into that of tracts the mind, as to the one body fancy and pasions. The former, wide compared to the other. The same and varied, is the product of a mindremark applies to the introduction of glowing with imagery and invention. the Red Sea, and of Busiris, and his The latter issues purely from a warm, Memphian cavalry, with other circum- ardent heart-brings home every thing stances which follow after these. Now to our bosom, and makes us witnesses these are very beautiful, when ab- of feelings we ourselves have often? The former astonishes the strictedly considered; but it is quite felt. obvious, that they clog the compari- latter delights. The first is more” -nearly allied to the epic, the last to great phenomena of nature. Now all H EARTHQUAKES. and the deviation is especially sensible |