pence of many pleasures and amusements, which no young man will be perfuaded to forbear, but upon the most cogent motives, and the ftrongest conviction. He that is to draw truth from the depths of obfcurity, must be fully informed of its value, and the neceflity of finding it; he that engages in a ftate, oppofite to the pleasures of fenfe, and the gratification of every higher paffion, muft have fome principle within, ftrongly implanted, which may enforce industry, and repel temptation. But how fhall he, who is already wife in bis own conceit, fubmit to fuch tedious and laborious methods of inftruction? Why should he toil for that, which, in his own opinion, he poffeffes; and drudge for the fupply of wants, which he does not feel? He has already fuch degrees of knowledge, as, magnified by his own imagination, exalt him above the rest of mankind; and to climb higher, would be to labour without advantage. He already has a wide extent of fcience within his view, and his willingness to be pleafed with himself does not fuffer him to think, or to dwell on the thought of any thing beyond; and who that fees all, would wish to fe farther? That fubmiffion to authority, and that reverence for inftruction, which fo well becomes every man at his first entrance upon new regions of learning, where all is novelty, confufion, and darkness, and no way is to be found through the intricacies of oppofite fyftems, but by tracing the fteps of thofe that have gone before; that willingness to receive implicitly, what farther advances only can enable him to prove, which initiation always fuppofes; are very little to be expected from him, who looks down with fcorn upon his teacher, and is more ready to cenfure the obfcurity of precepts, than to fufpect the force of his own understanding. Knowledge is to be attained, by flow and gradual acquifitions, by a careful review of our ideas, and a regular fuperftructure of one propofition on another; and is therefore the reward only of diligence and patience. But patience is the effect of modefty; pride grafps at the whole, and what it cannot hold, it affects to defpife; it is rather folicitous to difplay, than encreafe, its acquifitions; and rather endeavours, by fame, to fupply the want of knowledge, than by knowledge to arrive at fame. That thefe are not imaginary reprefentations, but true copies of real life, most of those, to whom the inftruction of young men is intrufted, will be ready to confefs; ince they have often the dissatiffaction of finding, that in proportion as greater advances have been made in the first period of life, there is lefs diligence in the fecond. And that, as it was faid of the ancient Gauls, that they were more than men in the onfet, and lefs than women in the fhock; it may be faid in our literary contentions, that many, who were men at school, are boys at the college. Their ardour remits, their diligence relaxes, and they give themfelves to a lazy contemplation of comparative excellence, without confidering that the comparifon is hourly growing lefs advan tageous, and that the acquifitions which they boat, are mouldering away. Such is the danger to a learner, of too early an opinion of his own importance; but if we fuppofe him to have efcaped in his first years this fatal confidence, and to be betrayed into it by a longer feries feries of fuccefsful application, its effects will then be equally dangerous, and as it hinders a young man from receiving instruction, it will obftruct an older ftudent in conveying it. There is no employment in which men are more easily betrayed to indecency and impatience, than in that of teaching; in which they neceffarily converfe with those, who are their inferiours, in the relation by which they are connected, and whom it may be fometimes proper to treat with that dignity which too often fwells into arrogance; and to restrain with fuch authority as not every man has learned to feparate from tyranny. In this ftate of temporary honour, a proud man is too willing to exert his prerogative; and too ready to forget that he is dictating to thofe, who may one day dictate to him. He is inclined to wonder that what he comprehends himself is not equally clear to others; and often reproaches the intellects of his auditors, when he ought to blame the confufion of his own ideas, and the improprieties of his own language. He reiterates, therefore, his pofitions without elucidation, and enforces his affertions by his frown, when he finds arguments lefs eafy to be fupplied. Thus forgetting that he had to do with men, whofe paffions are perhaps equally turbulent with his own, he transfers by degrees to his inftruction the prejudices which are first raised by his behaviour; and having forced upon his pupils an hatred of their teacher, he fees it quickly terminate in a contempt of the precept. • But inftruction extends farther than to feminaries of students, or the narrow auditories of fequeftered literature. The end of learning, is to teach the public, to fuperintend the conduct, watch over the morals, and regulate the opinions of parishes, diocefes, and provinces; to check vices in their firft eruption, and fupprefs here fies in the whispers of their rife. And furely this awful, this arduous task, requires qualities, which a man, wife in his own conceit, cannot easily attain; that mildness of addrefs, that patience of attention, that calmness of difputation, that felection of times, and places, and circumstances, which the vehemence of pride will not regard. And, in reality, it will generally be found, that the firft objection and the laft to an unacceptable paftor, is, that he is proud, that he is too wife for familiarity, and will not defcend to the level with common underStandings. Such is the confequence of too high an esteem of our own powers and knowledge; it makes us in youth negligent, and in age ufelefs; it teaches us too foon to be fatisfied with our attainments; or it makes our attainments unpleafing, unpopular, and ineffectual; it neither fuffers us to learn, nor to teach; but withholds us from those, by whom we might be inftru&ted, and drives thofe from us, whom we might inftruct.' The general approbation, which we have expreffed of thefe difcourfes, must not be understood in fo unlimited a fenfe, as to imply an entire concurrence with the Author, in all the fentiments which they contain. We think that he fometimes leans toward fuperflition, particularly in the ftrefs which he lays on voluntary mortification; and we are of opinion that his zeal for old inftitutions has rendered him too apprehenfive of the hazards attending 10 attending free inquiry. On the whole, however, the fpirit, as well as the compofition, of thefe difcourfes, is excellent; and, we have no doubt, they will be of fervice to that caufe which Dr. Johnfon had always at heart,-the caufe of religion and virtue. ART. XVI. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; continued. See Reviews for June, and July. THE HE rife of the Society in 1731, its progrefs from that period, and its incorporation by his Majefty's royal charter, 1783, have been ftated in an account of part of the volume before us in our Review for June left. When we confider the ftruggles of that infant Society, the difficulties which it has furmounted, and the utility which may hereafter arife from its labours, we cannot refrain from offering our mite of applause to that part of our inland, for the zeal fo nobly difplayed in the cause of literature and useful fcience. The French, befide many other fimilar inftitutions, have long had their Academy of Sciences, and alfo that of Belles Lettres. The gentlemen added to philofophical enquiries knew the value of the former, and the Memoirs of the Academy of Inferiptions and Belles Lettres forma body of criticifm and curious investigation not equalled by any other polite nation in Europe. We have, indeed, in this country, the Royal Society, and the hiftory of their Philofophical Tranfactions. Why polite literature has not been thought worthy of fome public inftitution, no good reafon can be affigned, The true caufe, perhaps, is, that political ferments, party difputes, the violence of faction, and the interefting objects of trade, which naturally engrofs the thoughts of a great com, mercial country, may have contributed to make the poets, the hiftorians, and the orators of antiquity appear too frivolous, and unworthy of attention. Letters, it is true, have been cultivated in England, notwithstanding all difcouragements; but it must be allowed, that they would have been cultivated to more advantage by a body of men aflembled under the royal patronage. The want of fuch an inftitution has been always confidered as a reproach to this country. Even in the prefent age, which, to its honour, has given encouragement to the arts, and, indeed, has raised them to a degree of unrivalled perfection, the idea of an academy, fuch as we have been fpeaking of, has never been ftarted, or, at leaft, never purfued with effect. It is referved, it feems, for our fellow-fubjects of the north to take the lead in this important business. The honour of originating this ufeful projet belongs to them, and if we may judge from the fpecimen before us, the hiftory of their Tranfactions bids fair, in procefs of time, to rival the admired publications of the French Academy. Our Our Readers will remember, that after the hiftory of the Society, this volume of Tranfactions is divided into two parts; namely, the Phyfical, and the Literary. Of the former, we have already given a compendious ftatement; the latter now remains for our confideration. In this part we have fome valuable tracts, fuch as, The Origin and Structure of European Legislatures; The Principles of Historical Compofition, with an Application of thofe Principles to the Writings of Tacitus; On the dramatic or ancient Form of historical Compofition; with fome other curious effays. Thofe which we have mentioned require a feparate confideration. It were injuftice to difpatch them in that curfory manner, prescribed by the narrow limits of a work like ours, while fuch a number of various performances prefs on us, and demand attention. We shall therefore poftpone to another opportunity thofe pieces, which by their researches into antiquity, and their depth of thinking, deferve to be prefented to the reader in their juft proportion. For the prefent, we can only give attention to a pofthumous poem, by that excellent but unhappy genius, the late Mr. Wil liam Collins. It appears to be the firft draught of an Ode, On the popular Superfitions of the Highlands of Scotland, confidered as the Subject of Poetry. This Ode was written in the year 1749, addrefled to Mr. John Home, the author, afterward, of the tragedy called Douglas. By a paffage in the poem, it feems, that a tragedy on that fubject was then on the anvil. The Ode did. not receive the laft touches of Mr. Collins's pen. Doctor Johnfon informs us, in his life of this poet, that in his laft illness, he fhewed a copy of it, then in his poflefion, to the reverend Dr. Warton and his brother, and that they thought it fuperior to his other works; but no fearch had found the manufcript. It happened, however, that Dr. Carlyle had the original manufcript in the hand- writing of Mr. Collins; evidently the prima cura, or firft sketch of the poem, as appears from various interlineations, and even words omitted. Mr. John Home had been made acquainted with Mr. Collins by Mr. John Barrow (the cordial youth mentioned in the Ode), who had been a volunteer with Mr. Home in 1746, and was taken prifoner with him at the battle of Falkirk. The performance, though haftily compofed, and unfinished, was left in the hands of a gentleman in Scotland, the author intending, at his leifure, to look it over with care. Perhaps he had done fo, when he fhewed it to Dr. Warton; but, confidering the unfortunate circumftances that attended his laft illness, it is no wonder that the copy is entirely If we are not mistaken, this gentleman afterward became Paymafter of the English forces in America; where he died, during our late unhappy conteft with that country. loft. loft. The mention, however, by Dr. Johnfon, of fuch a poem, occafioned a fearch to be made by Dr. Carlyle among his papers. He found the original draught, but in a mutilated form. fifth stanza, and half of the fixth, were not to be found. Whether that charm was in the manufcript, when it firft fell into the reverend Doctor's hands, he cannot now bring to his memory. To give, however, a continued context, he prevailed on Mr. Henry Mackenzie to supply the fifth ftanza, and half of the fixth. In a few places, fome words, either omitted or grown illegible, were added by Dr. Carlyle, and marked with inverted commas. In this ftate, he thought that fo curious and valuable a fragment could not appear with more advantage than in the collection of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. We must add, indeed, that it could not appear to fo much advantage in any other periodical publication. News-papers and magazines are the only vehicles known among us: in England there is no Royal So ciety for polite literature. We fincerely with that Mr. Pitt may, in fome favourable juncture, take this matter into confideration. After ferving the effential interefts of his country, the patronage of literature will add an unfading laurel to his brow. In the meantime, it remains for us to lay before our Readers the obfervations that occurred to us in perufing the poem. It is to be regretted that the copy fhewn by Mr. Collins to Dr. Warton and his brother is not fomewhere extant: it had, probably, received the laft touches of a mafter's hand: the lofs at present leaves on the mind that gentle impreffion mentioned by Pliny, who, as well as we remember (for we have not the book at hand), calls it, defiderium deficientis manus, a tender for- row for the drooping hand that left its work unfinished. It is observed, in a note, to the Edinburgh edition, that Collins was perfectly acquainted with the popular fuperftitions of the HighJands. He derived this knowlege from Martin's Account of the Western Islands of Scotland, and the fame writer's defcription of St. Kilda, the most wefterly of all the Hebrides. With these ftores in his mind, the Poet conceived the idea of an Ode to his friend John Home, then returning to his native country. The first stanza fhews at once the fentiments of his heart for his friends, and his tafte for poetical fubjects. The whole defign of the Ode is gracefully introduced. HOME, thou return'ft from Thames, whofe Naiads long Have feen thee ling'ring, with a fond delay, Mid thofe foft friends, whofe hearts, fome future day, Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic fong. Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth, Whom long endear'd thou leav'ft by Lavant's fide; Author of The Man of Feeling. Together |