course know very well what a code of political economy means; but, to our mind, it does not convey any more precise notion than a code of longevity, which, by some, has been thought not very far off from nonsense; we are not speaking of the work which was published under this title, but of the title itself. It may, however, be as well to say a word or two on that memorable treatise, as to which Sir John's recollections are perhaps not of the pleasantest. People with less wisdom than Sir John would have thought, that his total inexperience of medicine and medical treatment did not particularly qualify any one for enlightening the world on the subject of health. Not so our philanthropical knight. He has recorded that he deemed himself peculiarly fitted to write on this subject, precisely because he was not a medical man. One of Beattie's inducements for undertaking a work which should support the Christian faith was, that arguments coming from a layman were likely to be received with less suspicion than from a clergyman, who, the scoffers say, must have an earthly interest to maintain Christianity. This reasoning was not bad, and Sir John seems to have applied it to his own case. If a medical man writes a book on health, nobody will believe him, because he has interest to promote-not health, but sickness: whereas no one can suspect me, as I have no interest but the good of my fellow-creatures. This was conclusive: and behold the goodly tomes which were ushered into the world as "The Code of Health and Longevity." The careful student of Sir John's works had some foretaste of his lucubrations on health and long life, in one of his agricultural treatises so far back as 1802. Nobody would have expected a dissertation on these subjects in this essay, but Sir John has always been signal for giving much more than his title promises. Pleased with the success of that essay, which is now entirely forgotten, or absorbed in some of his other agricultural works, Sir John eagerly applied himself to the gathering of materials for his Code. The reader of that work will find information from all the ends of the earth: it would be difficult to name any country which was not laid under contribution. The wall of China presented no barrier to his progress, and much of the learning of that highly philosophical country has been impressed into the Code. It may seem strange, but it is nevertheless the fact, that Sir John did actually procure the assent of more than one man of sense, to the notion which cherished him throughout his labours, that not being a medical man, he was the man adapted to this undertaking. Among this number was the late Dr. Baillie. We shrewdly guess that these assents were given in mere thoughtless good-nature. It would be impolite to tell a gentleman of Sir John's rank and understanding, that his designs are foolish; and he seems to have had much reason to be misled by the complimentary billets which were addressed to him on all occasions. It was not often that he was addressed in the same strain of good sense which pervades the following letter, from a worthy Scotch baronet, who resided on his estates, lived well, and did not think long life the most desirable of God's blessings :

"With regard to the subject of the pamphlet with which you have favoured me-longevity, it is certainly one which, considered as a point of natural history, is curious in itself, and deserving of investigation. As a political problem, I confess myself not to be sanguine in my hopes of its being brought the length of much practical utility. In the present advanced state of our knowledge of this globe, we have opportunities of seeing man in every state and condition, from the savage in the wood to society in its highest improvement; and, amidst all that diversity, I have not observed any marked diversity in the duration of human life, In every part of the earth, and from the time of David to this day, threescore and ten years seem to be nearly the limit of active life; and the comparatively few examples of men who have lived ten, twenty, or even thirty years more, seem only to be such deviations from the usual course of nature, as must be expected in all cases of an average calculation.

Besides, how few of these extraordinary circumstances of prolonged life have been of any consequence to the world, or the country to which they belonged. Mere existence, of whatever consequence it may be to the individual, is of none to the world, if the individual, whose life is so prolonged, can neither by his bodily labour profit his country, and by the exertions of his mind improve it; or by the production of children add to its population. If we can quote a Mutius Scævola, who, as I recollect, at the age of ninety, when rendered blind by age, sat in his hall, and gave advice gratis to all who came to consult him upon the civil law, and was called the oracle of Rome; how few instances of extreme old age have been any thing else than instances of weak impaired infirmity—how few of any advantage to mankind! But I admit, that if human life can, by any general methods learned from experience, be prolonged, the presumption is that the melioration of health will probably accompany it. It is certainly, therefore, an enquiry not to be neglected." This letter is worth the whole host which Sir John received from small doctors and flattering clergymen. Sir John tells us that his work was very favourably received on the continent, but says nothing of its reception at home. Therein Sir John is prudential; for according to our recollection, no reception could be less flattering. The readers of the Edinburgh Review will remember a most tranchant article by Henry Brougham against the book. In fact it was a perfect smasher. We shall not say that the criticism was as just as it was merciless, but Sir John had brought it all on his own head by adventuring on a task so much out of his way. Whoever wants a half-hour's excellent fun, may take up the Chancellor's article with the certainty that Liston never excited a heartier laugh. Sir John thought that this good office was done him by Jeffery, whom he thereafter shunned; and though the book, which he has now published, contains epistles from every lion in Edinburgh during the long period of Sir John's residence there, yet there is not a scrap from the editor of the Review-one of the greatest of them all. It should teach Sir John to place little faith in the humbug of complimentary notes, to find that in saying the civil to him-Brougham, the author of the article aforesaid, rather gives him to believe that he entertains a great notion of the value of some of Sir John's works. Accordingly, Sir John publishes a letter from the Chancellor, in which the latter is so much taken with some performance on Education, which has been submitted to him, that he cannot even think of returning the proof-sheets. Sir John felt much glory in the Chancellor's compliments, and he rejoined in a fulsome note, which contained, inter alia, the following sentence :-“ A few hints from a person of observation and talent are worth much more than a volume from a mere plodder, in the same manner as a small diamond is intrinsically more valuable than a large lump of glass or crystal." There is no question that this brilliant simile was refulgence itself in Sir John's eyes, and it is preserved as a very precious treasure. The allusion to the plodder is rather personal; and as for the similitude, Sir John might have said, with quite as much point, that a bit of diamond was more valuable than a cart of coals. Nobody but a very "large lump" could have vented such folly. Sir John publishes some other letters, which have given unbounded satisfaction, and which he considers the voice of the public, pretty much in the same way as Lignum and the quacks give their correspondence as proofs of their cures take the following from some unnamed clergyman:- "From indolence and improper diet, I had become inconveniently corpulent and drowsy, and very nervous. In November, 1815, I was induced to purchase a copy of your Code of Health, and happily had resolution to practise what I found applicable. From rigid adherence to the excellent rules you have laid down, I am now as well, &c."

(To be concluded in our next.)

A VIEW OF MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Read at the ROYAL INSTITUTION, Albemarle Street, June 19th, 1830; and at the LONDON INSTITUTION, Finsbury Circus, June 2nd, 1831.

BY JAMES MONTGOMERY.

Characteristic Sketches of English Literature under the Tudors, the Stuarts, and the first sovereigns of the House of Brunswick.-The Revolution in English Literature towards the close of the eighteenth century, its principal changes during the last five-and-thirty years, and a brief survey of its present state. THE discovery of the mariner's compass, the invention of printing, the revival of classic learning, the Reformation, with all the great moral, commercial, political, and intellectual consequences of these new means, materials, and motives for action and thought, produced corresponding effects upon literature and science. With the progress of the former alone, in our own country, have we to do at present. From the reign of Elizabeth to the protectorate of Cromwell, inclusively, there rose in phalanx, and continued in succession, minds of all orders, and hands for all work, in poetry, philosophy, history, and theology, which have bequeathed to posterity such treasures of what may be called genuine English Literature, that whatever may be the transmigrations of taste, the revolutions of style, and the fashions in popular reading, these will ever be the sterling standards. The translation of the Scriptures, settled by authority, and which for reasons that need not be discussed here, can never be materially changed, consequently can never become obsolete,-has secured perpetuity to the youth of the English tongue; and whatever may befall the works of writers in it from other causes, they are not likely to be antiquated in the degree that has been foretold by one, whose own imperishable strains would for centuries have delayed the fulfilment of his disheartening prophecy, even if it were to be fulfilled.

Our sons their fathers' failing language see,

And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be.-POPE.

Now it is clear, that unless the language be improved or deteriorated, far beyond any thing that can be anticipated from the slight variations which have taken place within the last two hundred years, compared with the two hundred years preceding, Dryden cannot become what Chaucer is; especially since there seems to be a necessity laid upon all generations of Englishmen, to understand, as the fathers of their mother-tongue, the great authors of the age of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I.; from Spenser (though much of his poetry is wilfully obscured by affected phraseology) and Shakspeare, (the idolatry to whose name will surely never permit its divinity to die,) to Milton, whose style cannot fall into decay, while there is talent or sensibility among his countrymen to appreciate his writings. It may be confidently inferred, that the English language will remain subject to as little mutation as the Italian has been, since works of enduring excellence were first produced in it ;-the prose of Boccaccio and the verse of Dante, so far as dialect is concerned, are as well understood by the common people of their country, at this day, as the writings of Chaucer and Gower are by the learned in ours. Had no works of transcendent originality been produced within the last hundred and fifty years, it may

be imagined that such fluctuations might have occurred, as would have rendered our language as different from what it was when Milton flourished, as it then was from what it had been in the days of Chaucer; with this reverse, that, during the latter, it must have degenerated as much as it had been refined during the earlier interval. But the standard of our tongue having been fixed at an era when it was rich in native idioms, full of pristine vigour, and pliable almost as sound articulate can be to sense,-and that standard having been fixed in poetry, the most permanent and perfect of all forms of literature, as well as in the version of the Scriptures, which are necessarily the most popular species of reading,-no very considerable change can be effected, except Britain were again exposed to invasion as it was wont to be of old; and the modern Saxons or Norwegians were thus to subvert both our government and our language, and either utterly extinguish the latter, or assimulate it with their own.

Cotemporary with Milton, though his junior, and belonging to a subsequent era of literature, of which he became the great luminary and master-spirit, was Dryden. His prose (not less admirable than his verse) in its structure and cadence, in compass of expression, and general freedom from cumbersome pomp, pedantic restraint, and vicious quaintness, which more or less characterized his predecessors, became the favourite model in that species of composition, which was happily followed and highly improved by Addison, Johnson, and other periodical writers of the last century. These, to whom must be added the triumvirate of British historians, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, who exemplified, in their very dissimilar styles, the triple contrast and harmony of simplicity, elegance, and splendour, these illustrious names in prose are so many pledges, that the language in which they immortalized their thoughts is itself immortalized by being made the vehicle of these, and can never become barbarian, like Chaucer's uncouth, rugged, incongruous medley of sounds, which are as remote from the strength, volubility, and precision of those employed by his polished successors, as the imperfect lispings of infancy, before it has learned to pronounce half the alphabet, and imitates the letters which it cannot pronounce with those which it can, are to the clear, and round, and eloquent intonations of youth, when the voice and the ear are perfectly formed and attuned to each other.

From the Restoration in 1660 to the time when Cowper had risen into full fame in 1790, may be dated the second grand era of Modern English Literature, reckoning from Elizabeth to the close of Cromwell's protectorate, already mentioned, as the first. The early part of this period (the reigns of Charles II. and James II.) was distinguished for works of wit and profligacy; the drama in particular was pre-eminent for the genius that adorned, and the abominations that disgraced its scenes. The middle portions of the same period, from the Revolution of 1688 to the close of the reign of George II., was rather the age of reason than of passion, of fine fancy than adventurous imagination in the belles lettres, generally. Pope, as the follower of Dryden in verse, excelled him as much in grace and harmony of numbers, as he might be deemed to fall below him in raciness and pithy originality.

In like manner he imitated Horace in Latin, and Boileau in French, rivalling, perhaps equalling either in his peculiar line, and excelling both, by combining the excellencies of each in his own unique, compact, consummate style. It is to be remarked, however, that though Pope gave the tone, character, and fashion to the verse of his day, as decidedly as Addison had given to the prose, yet of all his imitators not one has maintained the rank of even a secondrate author; the greatest names among his cotemporaries, Thomson and Young, being those who differed most from him in manner, subject, and taste,-especially in those of their works which promise to last as long as his own.

Between Pope and Cowper we have the names of Collins, Gray, Goldsmith, and Churchill. Of these the two former have nothing in common with Pope, but they produced too little, and were too great mannerists themselves to be the fathers, in either line, of a school of mannerists: it is only when mannerism is connected with genius of the proudest order or the most prolific species, that it becomes extensively infectious among minor minds. As for Goldsmith and Churchill, whatever they appear to have owed to Pope, they are remembered and admired for what they possessed independent of him, each having wealth enough of his own to be a freeholder of Parnassus, after paying off any mortgage on his little estate due to that enormous capitalist. The greater stress has been laid upon the utter mortality among all the numberless imitators of Pope, because it exemplifies the impossibility of any imitator ever being a great poet, however great his model, and however exquisite his copying may be. Nothing in the English language can be more perfect than the terseness, elegance, and condensation of Pope's sentiments, diction, and rhyme. Of course the successful imitation of these might be expected to prove an infallible passport to renown, because such a style involves the happiest union of diverse requisites, and its charm consists far less in any one peculiarity, (as is the case of other eminent bards,) than in the perfection of those principles which are common to all poetic composition; yet in our own day, there has been an example of this successful imitation, which in every other respect has been a total failure. The Paradise of Coquettes, published a few years ago, was a work of much taste and genuine talent in its mechanical construction, as well as in the playful, delicate, pungent satire with which it abounded; yet this piece, worthy of the highest admiration in its way, though elaborately criticized and profusely commended in the reviews, never shone beyond their precincts, and was scarcely read except in quotations, or in their pages. This miscarriage afforded also an encouraging proof to ill-treated authors, or authors who imagine themselves ill-treated, that permanent fame depends not upon cotemporary criticism; for whatever reviews may effect in advancing or retarding the hopes of a candidate under their examination, final success depends upon a tribunal, whose decision they cannot always, with their keenest sagacity, anticipate.

With the exceptions already named, there was not a poet between Pope and Cowper, who had power to command in any enviable degree, or even for a little while, that popular breath of applause, which the aspirant after immortality inhales as the prelude of it.