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'
Suff out' and in- O Pyes
suff'-
and Porter, Pyes and Porter O!'
Hail, nine o'clock the long, long-wish'd.for hour
Of shutting shop! Hark, how the full-toned bell,
With lingering solemness, the long hour tolls!
O when thou clappest nine, I love thee, bell,
With all thy solemness; and joy I wish
To him who made thee-ever for the sweet news
Which thou, when striking nine, dost tell to me.
Attend, ye youths of Glasgow-writer's clerks,
Or merceramen, or whatsoe'er may be
Your occupation, calling, character!
Attend the strain, in which your poet will,
With art supreme-with wonder-working wit,
Make known to you a great and glorious set
Of reasons, emblems of man's wisdom! which
Make him, and you yourselves, perhaps,
Like nine o'clock, the hour of shutting up!
Lab'ring all day with packing stick or pen,
With head, or feet, or tongue, or hand, or naught,
How tired are we of working, at the time
When the stars rise, and the sun goes to bed!
Then, then, also; then, then's the time, ye youths
When Mutton-Pyes, of delicate make, are hot!
And. O to cut them so, and to drink then,
From pewter pot, fine Porter from the butt,
Most surely is the summum of all happiness!

feelings of peculiar delight, in the so-
ciety of strangers; but you enter the
company of your countrymen, whom
accident or choice has assembled in
a stranger's country, with spirit and
enthusiasm. Faces that you never
saw before are greeted in the kindliest
tone-in the friendliest voice and in
the cheering words of welcome. The
conversation is home. Occurrences
that formerly had but little intrinsie
become valuable from the
importance,
places in which they fell out. This
is a band of brothers, whom
company
distance has endeared to cach other
by the tenderest ties of nature. Here,
we revise and give utterance to those
passages of early life which were, ori-
ginally, either amusing or distressing
Our hearts are nourished by the re-

These are the reasons, these the wise-like whys,' membrance of the past. And here,

Which make me love aye the nine-striking bell!
There's quantum suff of them-think ye not so?
Yes,And the hour is past, the shuts are on;
Out is the Gas, and we must go, or else
In shall be lock'd-

Away! the Pyes are hot,

The Beer is running in the Pewter Pot.
Away, away! and sing as ye do go,
O Pyes and Porter, Pyes and Porter 0!

T

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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
it is this delusion that animates the
breast of the patriot, and that makes
every one fond of prolonged existence,
and this delusion is a consolation
fondly to be indulged..

Anderston Walk,
5th November, 1822.

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,
Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks

In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'er-
threw

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
the tragic Muse." We seldom indeed these conjectures seem to be insuffi-
find an author, who has the one in cient to explain convulsions só exten-
any considerable degree without the sive, produced at the same time over
other. At the same time we must such large portions of the earth, as
observe, that the loftiest of the facul- those which take place during earth-
ties is that of imagination. There is quakes. The most probable opinion,
absolutely no part of the first order of the only one which seems to us to
genius who has it not in a high de-reconcile, in a certain degree, the
gree. The most splendid images of energy, the extent of these phenomena,
poetry-the intricacy of every situa- and often their frightful correspondence
tion, and the spell which binds the in the most distant countries of the
whole, are all brought about by the globe, would be to suppose, conform-
play of a vigorous fancy. But this able to many other physical indications,
talent, the prerogative of genius, is that the solid surface on which we
denied in any potency to more hum-live is but of inconsiderable thickness
ble minds, whose powers are rather in comparison with the semi-diameter
strong than comprehensive, and exer- of the terrestrial globe; is in some
cise themselves with vigour, though measure only a recent shell, covering
in a narrow range. Whence we may a liquid nucleus, perhaps still in a
account for the fact, that the greatest state of ignition, in which great che-
poets please less, universally, than mical or physical phenomena, operat-
those of a secondary order, and that ing at intervals, cause those agitations
the pages of Milton can be perused, which are transmitted to us. The
by many persons of strong minds and countries where the superficial crust
acute feelings, only as a task in which is less thick or less strong, or more
the judgment is bewildered and lost, recently or more imperfectly consoli-
in a maze of incomprehensible gran- dated, would, agreeably to this hypo-
deur.
thesis, be those the most liable to be
convulsed and broken by the violence
of those internal explosions. Now, if
we compare together the experiments
M. Biot, in a paper on earthquakes, on the length of the pendulum, which
which he lately made public, concludes have been made for some years past
with the following passage:- In the with great accuracy, from the north of
infancy of Chemistry and Natural Scotland to the south of Spain, we
Philosophy, it was imagined that earth- readily perceive, that the intensity of
quakes might be easily explained: in gravitation decreases on this space, as
proportion as these sciences have be- we go from the Pole towards the
come more correct and more profound, Equator, more rapidly than it ought
this confidence has decreased. But, to do upon an ellipsoid, the concen-
by a propensity for which the character tric and similar strata of which should
of the human mind sufficiently accounts, have equal densities at equal depths;
'all the new physical agents which have
been successively discovered, such as
electricity, magnetism, the inflamation
of gases, the decomposition and re-
composition of water, have been main-
tained in theories as the causes of the

H

EARTHQUAKES.

and the deviation is especially sensible
about the middle of France, where too
there has been observed a striking it-
regularity in the length of the degrees
of the Earth. This local decrease of
gravity in these countries should seem