holttil ai g (The speeches delivered at the whig convocation. formed such a strange medley, so often interrupted by the impatience of some of those present, that it is doubtful whether our reporter will be able to decypher his notes in time for the grand public. meeting to-morrow. But if he can put his notes into any printable shape, we shall not fail to give, "the inhabitants" this preparation for so great an event.) TWO LETTERS ΤΟ THE REV. DR THOMAS M'CRIE, AND THE REV. MR ANDREW THOMSON, ON THE PARODY OF SCRIPTURE, LATELY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. BY CALVINUS. EDINBURGH : Printed by Abernethy & Walker, FOR JOHN FAIRBAIRN, SUCCESSOR TO MR CREECH. 1817. TWO LETTERS, &c. LETTER I. "Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, "I myself should be a cast-away." 1. CORINTH. ix. 27. SIR, TO THE REVEREND DR M'CRIE. Ir is suggested by Horace, as a consolation for the overcrowded and impoverished state of the republic of letters in the age which he adorned, that the empire, at least, of honour and humanity, was enlarged by every accession to the ranks of authorship; and that even those scholars who could not improve the literature of their country, were themselves improved by it, and formed a valuable addition to the living depositary of elevation of sentiment and refinement of mo. rality. The cultivator of letters, (says he,) is at least exempt from covetousness, and supe rior to the mean passions and artifices engendered by gross pursuits; non fraudem socio incogitat; Torquet ab obscoenis jam nunc sermonibus aurem ; Recte facta refert. If Horace could have foreseen such a redundance of literary population, and such a perplexing multiplicity of literary productions as the present aera has exhibited, it might perhaps have occurred to him that there are limits to the consolation which he has so beautifully suggested; that the refined and liberal sentiment which he considers the corporate spirit of scholars, will be diluted and weakened by extreme diffusion; and that when the pursuits of literature, like any other avenue to public favour and emolument, are so crowded as to make advancement difficult to all, and disappointment the portion of the majority, some of the competitors will endeavour to get forward by jostling the rest, and some will forsake the high road of honour and fair play, and seek mean bye-paths and tricking short cuts to their object. There was indeed a period in the literary history of this |