which he has, or pretends to have, fitting him for the employment he has assumed, are, the possession of some little powers of discernment betwixt right and wrong, sense and nonsense; an anxious desire to give merit its due, in whatever rank or station it appears. And he recommends it earnestly to all the curious throughout the nation, to keep a scrutinizing eye upon our literary, rural, and national economy; and to pick up whatever is excellent on the one hand, or reprehensible on the other, for the purpose of communicating it to the public, by the means, and under the sanction of the Spy. There is certainly at least some probability, that by their united efforts I may contribute somewhat to the laudable intention of bringing light out of darkness, and order out of confusion.—I think the above sketch, which is fair and impartial, is sufficient to give a perfect idea of my character, and the nature and extent of the entertainment my genius is calculated to furnish. Neither can I relate any more circumstances of my life without breaking in upon some excellent stories, which I have laid up in store, on purpose to supply future deficiencies of matter. As to my plan of conducting this publication, it must of course be ruled considerably by concurring circumstances. The subjects must be varied; and it will not be possible at all times to command an essay or tale, the length of which is exactly calculated to make up a complete Number. But as none who purchase for the sake of reading will probably approve of white paper for that end, consequently the remainder of the sheet will always be filled closely up with elegant, or comparative extracts, illustrative of the preceding subject.

I am very fond of comparing one author, or one public character, with another; as I look upon that to be the surest way of ascertaining their several degrees of excellency; consequently in the course of this publication, I intend to compare all the Scottish poets, reviewers, &c. with each other, and to cite their several ways. of defining the same or similar subjects.

This is a very curious study; but it is even still more curious to remark the singular changes which take place in the taste and opinions of the same person. Whether this be occassioned by the influence which the different seasons of the year have upon great and capacious minds. or by the impressions and prejudices left upon them by former studies, is not so easily determined; though it appears more than probable, that the former is in part the cause, for a winter review by certain people, is generally severe and capricious in the extreme, and worse to suffer by a great deal than either their spring or summer ones. But to whatever changes in climate or constitution this may be ascribed, there is nothing more certain than that it frequently happens: and as I have dwelt too long on vague and unprofitable subjects, I shall cite an uncommon instance of it in a celebrated literary character of this town. In No 31. of the Edinburgh Review, we are presented with a criticism on Grahame's British Georgics, which is certainly a most excellent one,. and gives as fair and candid an estimate, not only of the poem in question, but of Grahame's poetry in general as it is possible, for an unbiassed mind to conceive.. Nevertheless I think it will scarcely ever be disputed, whether the Sabbath or the Georgics be the most complete, or excellent poem: nor yet, which of them dis

plays the most evident marks of genius. Let us observe and wonder how differently they affect an ingenious and decisive critic. In his review of the Sabbath, after charging the author with diffusion, want of originality, and of borrowing his ideas from an indefinite number of poets both English and Scotch, he gives the following general view of the poem, and the talents of its author

"The greater part of it is written in a heavy and inelegant manner. The diction throughout is tainted with vulgarity, and there is no selection of words, images, or sentiments, to conciliate the favour of the fastidious reader. The author has evidently some talents for poetical composition, and is never absolutely absurd, tedious or silly; but he has no delicacy of taste or imagination: he does not seem to feel the force of the sanction against poetical mediocrity, and his ear appears to have no perception of the finer harmony of versification. if he be a young man, we think there are considerable hopes of him; but if this be the production of maturer talents, we cannot in our conscience exhort him to continue in the service of the muses.

"This volume, however, at all events, has ncthing but its poetical merit to stand upon. It contains indeed a good deal of doctrine and argumentation both in the text and in the notes, but nothing that is not either very trite, or very shal'!ow and extravagant. The author talks very big about the inhumanity and injustice of imprisonment for debt, and about the cruel monopoly by which the Highland shepherds are driven from their mountains. He dogmatizes in the same presumptuous stile on the character of Bonaparte, and on the most advisable plan for recruiting the British army; and seems as perfectly persuaded of his own infallibility on all these subjects, as his readers, we apprehend, must be of his insufficiency. In a poem with such a title, it was certainly natural to expect some consistency in the ecclesiastical tenets of the author; but we have been completely baffled in our attempts to discover to what persuasion he belongs. He seems in many passages to be desparately enamoured of the old Covenanters, Cameronians and Independents, and gives some obscure hints of h's intention to immortalize the names of their

chief pastors in another poem; but by and by we find him talking with great enthusiasm of the funeral service of the Church of England, and of the lofty pealing of the organ, both of which would have been regarded as antichristian abominations either by the old Covenanters or by the modern Presbyterians of Scotland."

But, speaking of the Georgics he says,

"In thus putting the whole year into blank verse, it was evidently next to impossible to avoid clashing with the author of the Seasons;-and those, accordingly, who are jealous of Thomson's original invention, will find frequent occasion to complain of the author before us. At the same time, there are many points in which we think his merits must be admitted by all lovers of poetry, and his originality confessed by the warmest admirers of Thomson. The singular fidelity and clearness of his dercriptions, prove him to have studied all his pictures for himself, in nature;—2 certain simplicity of thought, and softness of heart, give a peculiar character to his manner, that excludes all idea of imitation; and his fine and discriminating pictures of the Scotish landscape, and the Scotish peasantry, are as new in their subject, as they are excellent in their execution."

"Mr Grahame's descriptions appear to us to be remarkable for their great fidelity, minuteness and brevity, for the singular simplicity and directness with which they are brought out,-and for a kind of artless earnestness in the manner of their execution, which shows the author to have been entirely occupied with the care of rendering faithfully and exactly what was present to his eye or his memory. There is no ambition to be fine or striking, and no great concern, apparently, about the distant effect or ideal perfection of his landscape, but an honest determination and endeavour to give his readers precisely what was before him, and to communicate faithfully to them what had actually made an impression on himself. In this way, he seldom thinks it necessary to call in the aid of exaggeration, or to invent any picturesque or extraordinary circumstances, to bespeak an interest for his delineations; but presents his scenes successively in all their native plainness and simplicity, noting down all the features that really occur in them, without concerning himself whether other poets have represented them or not, -and stopping when these are exhausted, however

abrupt or imperfect the composition may consequently appear. The effect of this plan of writing is, that his descriptions are almost always strong and impressive, and present the most distinct and vivid images to the fancy; although they are not often heightened by any great glow of genius or animation, and are frequently broken and irregular, or deficient in that keeping which may be found in the works of those who write more from the love of the art than of the subject.

"The great charm, however, of Mr Grahame's poetry, appears to us to consist in its moral character, in that natural expression of kindness and tenderness of heart, which gives such a peculiar air of paternal goodness and patriarchal simplicity to his writings,-and that earnest and intimate sympathy with the objects of his compassion, which assures us at once that he is not making a theatrical display of sensibility, but merely giving vent to the familiar sentiments of his bosom. We can trace here, in short, and with the same pleasing effects, that entire absence of all art, effort and affectation, which we have already noticed as the most remarkable distinction of his attempts in description. Almost all the other poets with whom we are acquainted, appear but too obviously to put their feelings and affections, as well as their fancies and phrases, into a sort of studied dress, before they venture to present them to the crowded assembly of the public: and though the stile and fashion of this dress varies according to the taste and ability of the inventors, still it serves almost equally to hide their native proportions, and to prove that they were a little ashamed or afraid to exhibit them, as they really were. The greater part of those who have aimed at producing a pathetic effect, have attempted to raise and exalt both the characters of their personages and the language in which they are spoken of; and thus to seek an excuse as it were for their sensibility in the illusions of vulgar admiration : others have aggravated their distresses with strange and incredible complications,-that it might appear that they did not disturb themselves on light and ordinary grounds and some few have dressed out both themselves and heroes in such a tissue of whimsical and capricious affectations, that they are still less in danger than their neighbours of being suspected of indulging in the vulgar sympathies of our nature. Now, Mr Grahame, we think, has got

over this general nervousness and shyness out showing the natural and simple feelings with which the contemplation of human emotion should affect us-or rather, has been too seriously occupied, and too constantly engrossed with the, feelings themselves, to think how the confession of them might be taken by the generality of his readers, to concern himself about the contempt of the fastidious, or the derision of the unfeeling. In his poetry, therefore, we meet neither with the Musidoras and Damons of Thomson, nor the gypsywo. men and Ellen Orfords of Crabbe; and still less with the Matthew Schoolmasters, Alice Fells, or Martha Raes of Mr Wordsworth ;-but we meet with the ordinary peasants of Scotland in their or. dinary situations, and with a touching and simple expression of concern for their sufferings, and of generous indulgence for their faults. He is not ashamed for his kindness and condescension, on the one hand; nor is he ostentatious or vain of it, on the other-but gives expression in the most plain and unaffected manner to sentiments that are neither counterfeited nor disguised. We do not know any poetry, indeed, that lets us in so directly to the heart of the writer, and produces so full and pleasing a conviction that it is dictated by the genuine feelings which it aims at communicating to the reader. If there be less fire and elevation than in the strains of some of his contemporaries, there is mo: truth and tenderness than is commonly found along with those qualities, and less getting up, either of language or of sentiment, than we recollect to have met with in any modern composition."

It is impoffible for a literary Spy to pass over a change of taste so palpable as this: and though it is but one instance. of many which I have observed, it may tend to show how little dependence ought to be placed upon the discriminating and appreciating powers of any one mind. It will be impossible ever to persuade me, that this popular editor always sets the real merits of every book he reviews in their proper lights; yet there is no man whom I would less suspect of saying what he does not think. There is no other way, then, of accounting for