canopy of a free home, settles itself down in the heart as a guest, that continues to flow with the flow of life, and ascend in the ascent of prosperity. The mere cessation from physical toil is soon forgotten by the slave, in the higher feeling of momentary enlargement that swells his shackled soul. His delirium is the exuberance of the freed spirit, rushing into communion with a thousand thoughts, of which the memory durst not be awakened amid pain and excruciating labour. Hence it is also strikingly obvious, that very little, if any time can ever be directed by individuals so situated towards the invitations of religion. This little moment granted to self, is assailed by it with immediate and exclusive demands, of which the most rapid dispatch, in a space so brief, must disappoint a great many. Or, if somehow all the wished-for consummations have been attained, and gratitude is then dictating a becoming acknowledgment, how probably the clank of a chain and the crack of the tormentor's lash nips it all in the bud, and exiles every emotion in which love is the slightest ingredient, till the periodical moment when self again requires, and is master of, the first obedience to its wishes. It is precisely because the nature and execution of our toil is so much the reverse, that the character of our joys is so widely distinguished. We labour with independent hands and uncontrolled spirits. No prying and mischievous interference of a suspicious government hovers round to divert, nor does any forcible attempt obstruct our operations. We can laugh heartily all the week, while we are busy, and are not therefore forced to compensate for restraint by a vociferous merriment when permitted to be at rest. After such constant devotion, too, to the advancement and happiness of self, we can turn with grateful relief to an open avowal of thankfulness for the infinite benevolence which encircles us. And if our joy be very serene, it is because its range is too broad, and its stimulant is too sublime, to be conveyed by rude sallies, or dissipated in a transient flash. SPRING. THE Spring is hovering now, With fragrance on her wing, And smiles upon her sunny browThe Spring, the glorious Spring! And, in her flight, she showers Upon the longing earth Soft dew, to nurse the sleeping flowers, Till they awake in mirth. The icy spell is broken That held the world in chains, Across the ocean foam, Is fill'd once more with song, Or love's first timid sigh, The fresh and fragrant southern gale, On noiseless wing sweeps by. Upon the meadow's breast The daffodil is blowing, And, like the stars in evening's crest, Deep in the solemn woods, AFTER a long and gloomy tract of inclement season, there are perhaps few enjoyments more delightful than the first warm breath of a spring day-the first awakening, as it were, of nature-with all the green budding of vegetation, the song of birds, and the bounding joy of the animal creation. Few such days, unfortunately for us, have we had this ungenial spring-yet we have had a few; and in such it is pleasing to steal from the smoke and din of the city, to wander into the fields, and with Milton, "taste the smell of dairy." Towards "the dairy," however, I would not advise the rural rambler to proceed; for however poetical be the smell of country dairy, the rural retreats of our city cows will be found to be no more than prosaic. Besides, the traveller going eastward encounters the full odours of a stagnant and pestilent, though we will allow a most profitable, grass meadow, or rather, morass. We would advise him, therefore, to accompany us to the left, and it will bring him to a calm and secluded retreat ycleped Lochend. The day is not sunny, but the air is soft and balmy. There is somewhat of a haze, and the landscape is steeped in a calm, still, and deep blue. The lake is as smooth as a mirror, there is a cow standing on the bank, inhaling its pure waters,-a boy, sitting cross-legged on a few stakes some way into the loch, is busily employed angling for little fishes, and towering above, in the background, is the projecting rocky mound, with the antiquated house, or castle it may be, on the top, surrounded with its few scraggy trees. A Though the air be still, it is not altogether silent. few insects, the earliest of their race, have already roused themselves from their wintry tomb,-and here is an humble bee already out and plying her busy labours; she has slept all winter, the only tenant of a desolate nest; her summer family of workers and drones, and her diminutive daughters, all perished at the commencement of winter, having lived and enjoyed their regular age of one On her alone now devolves the important task of constructing new combs, laying eggs, and rearing up the young of a future generation, so that the race of humbles may not become, like many of our greater and mightier families on earth, extinct. season. Among the green springing clover is also heard the well-known cry of the corn-rail, (Rallus crex.) Many a one has traversed these and many other fields, we doubt not, and listened to the rail's incessant sound, and yet, strange to say, very few of those you meet with will tell you they have ever seen the bird itself -perhaps not one out of twenty may have chanced in a lifetime to have seen them. And yet yearly, when the proper season arrives-when the spring is so far ad "If for me some spot like this did smile," vanced that thick vegetation has covered the ground-on tendence of his highly-cultivated farm, so that the lake a sudden-in one single night-the whole fields are is left in its pristine simplicity, to delight the occasional tenanted with great numbers of these birds. All night passenger. But long, for many weeks, they ply their shrill pipe, busy themselves in rearing up their young, and then, when the chills of autumn commence, as suddenly-at one general signal and agreement-they make a moonlight flitting, and young and old decamp and are heard no more. The rail is a beautiful bird, gracefully formed, finely and delicately streaked, with a mellow, chaste, and subdued colouring, not vulgarly and gaudily decked out ;—perhaps the only objection to its claim to be considered graceful consists in its legs, which may be reckoned too long. Yet this form is suited to its habits; it runs along in quest of fast creeping insects, and rarely flies, which is the reason of its being so very seldom visible. Its colour, too, corresponds remarkably with the brownish mottled earth and decayed grass among which it creeps, so that unless very hard pressed by dogs or men, it rarely or never takes to the air. Its cry, constantly heard as if very near, yet as constantly shifting as you approach, has perplexed and tired out many a juvenile pursuer. It is curious, too, that a bird so little inclined to fly, and with wings small in proportion to its body, should twice a-year take such long journeys or flights, as from the south of Europe to these northern regions and back again. That they do so, however, is indubitable, for the vague stories of their lying dormant in holes, and even under water, are utterly unfounded.* If we turn to the water of the loch, we shall find it too beginning to swarm with new life. The frogs are croaking in innumerable multitudes, and both ladies and gentlemen popping up their heads above water in all the gay flirtation of love. But the marriages of the season are utterly beyond the limits of the fashionable list, and the lawyers have nothing to do here with their long rolls of settlements and pin-monies. The surface of the water swarms with various minute animals, each of which, if attentively examined, would afford no little curious speculation. There is here a small species of shell snail, which floats along on the waves by a very simple contrivance,—it withdraws itself entirely from the spiral part of the shell, fills the space with air, and closes up the mouth or entrance of its shell with its whole expanded body; in this manner, the shell, filled with air, becomes buoyant and floats on the surface; when the animal chooses, it retracts its body and sinks. Many little fishes sport amid the transparent waters; among others, the stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus) in great numbers. These diminutive fishes, considering their helpless condition and their liability to be constantly preyed upon by larger ones, are furnished by the all-bountiful and considerate Creator with very efficacious means of defence. Whenever they are attacked, or apprehend danger, they thrust out from their back and sides five sharp bony spines, which deter their foes from seizing on them; hence, probably, they derive the name of sticklebacks. They must not be confounded with the minnow, which is quite a distinct species, and a gayer and more brilliant tinted little fish. I would thus dispose of it:-Around the margins, I would plant the silver willow and poplar, and such trees as delight to bend and drink the translucent wave. I would grub up the seeds and bushes of the muddy and oozy banks, and strew gravel around, and place rocky juttings at convenient distances. I would rear up one small island in the midst, from whence would spring a little grove of trees. These would form inviting habitations for the blackbird and the linnet. A tiny skiff would be kept moored at the side for skimming over the waters. And high above would be the home, smiling over the scene; sufficiently removed from the noise, and yet within hail of the smoky city. The Editor of the Literary Journal would perhaps occasionally open the latch of the friendly door, and, in exchange for his news of books and men, would receive intelligence of "Plants, trees, and stones, and many rural things." THE BRAVE WILL BE FREE. By William Wilson. HEAR ye the hurricane sounds that come Where legions marshal to bugle and drum, And bondsmen bare their brands? Like the desolating locust cloud, The spoilers blight the plains, And the blaze of Freedom's sun would shroud How spurn the brave at the name of slave, The deep-voiced winds with freedom roam, To the quaking cliff-bound shore; LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. MR D. E. WILLIAMS announces "The Naval and Military Battles of England during the last two reigns." Miss Jane Porter edites Sir E. Seaward's narrative of his shipsea; with wreck and discovery of certain islands in the Caribbean a detail of many extraordinary events in his life from 1733 to 1749. Pike are found here, and the silvery perch are in abundance. Were this loch in the neighbourhood of enterprising London, it would soon be converted into a regular fish-pond, and stocked with numerous inhabit. ants for the supply of city aldermen. But, thank Heaven, it is not likely to be appropriated to such vile purposes; the active and intelligent occupier of the domains around, has sufficient employment in the superin-Courts of Germany; written during a personal attendance upon The distances passed over by migratory birds are perhaps not so immense as is often imagined. At all events the tract of ocean is not so great. For instance: no transatlantic birds come to this country, or to Europe; the migrations of American birds are only from the south to the north of that wide-spreading continent --they follow the tract of the land, and most likely take advantage of it for resting at intervals. See much curious information on this subject in the highly interesting work of Wilson, now presented to the British public, in a cheap and convenient form, through the medium of Constable's Miscellany, Thomas Moore's Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald is nearly ready. Dr Southey has in the press, Select Works of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Johnson. Dr W. Beattie is about to publish, Journal of a Residence at the their present Majesties, in 1822, 1825, and 1826. The Supplement to Stair's Institutes, by George Brodie, Esq., Advocate, is now printed. A very copious index to the whole work has been carefully compiled, and is about to be sent to press. The profession may confidently expect the entire work in June. COLONIAL PRESS.-A large collection of newspapers from our numerous colonies is at present lying upon our table. It is extremely gratifying to see the ability and neatness with which they are got up. Those from the North American settlements, from Sidney and Hobart Town, are decidedly the best. We are rather at a loss to account for this. At first it struck us that the baleful effects of slavery might be the cause, weakening the intellect and enfeebling the taste. This opinion is not, however, warranted by other circumstances. There is evidently as great a demand for our new and standard literature in the West Indies as elsewhere, and the learned societies of the islands are as active as those of the other provinces. Perhaps the superiority of the North American and Australasian journals, is owing to the constant influx of new settlers in independent circumstances. Few resort to the islands except in an official capacity, or to push their fortune in a menial capacity. The Royal Jamaica Gazette boasts the most extraordinary form of any newspaper we are acquainted with. It regularly appears in the shape of The Gazette-Sup. plement to the Gazette-Postscript and additional postscript. Sometimes an extra postscript is added. All these are printed upon separate sheets. The contents are generally a selection from the best English periodicals, (evincing considerable taste and reading,) the debates in Parliament, local news, and advertisements. The advertisements respecting slaves form, to one unhabituated to the forms of West Indian society, a most revolting feature of this publication. The Nova Scotian and Colonial Herald is the cleverest of the Colonial papers we are in the habit of seeing. It contains more original matter, and affords us a better in sight into the structure of society in the province where it is published, than any of the others. We are perhaps apt to be rather unreasonable in our demands on this head. In our anxiety to learn what is doing in the colony, we forget that the great use of a journal published there, is to convey to its inhabitants news of other climes. Still, we think, the editors might advantageously follow the example of the able editor of the Nova Scotian Herald. Nearly equal in interest is the Colonial Patriot, which dif. fuses information over the neighbouring province of New Brunswick. Its original matter has however less of nerve and beauty, and its typography is by no means so elegant.-The Montreal Herald is infinitely the most elegant colonial paper of our acquaintance. The Hobart Town Courier is an able and intelligent paper, in which are reflected in a satisfactory manner the features of the society among which it circulates. Altogether, we view with no inconsiderable degree of pride the manly and intelligent spirit which is working its way in our colonies. There must come a time when, in the course of nature, they will drop like over-ripe fruit from the parent stem; but while the connexion can be made mutually advantageous, what a glorious attitude does Britain assume! The centre of a social system co-extensive with the world! What a responsibility theirs who sway the destinies of such an empire! It is pleasing to mark the different characteristic features of the colonies we have adverted to. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are almost exclusively Scotch, -sharp, hard, and intelligent. They have only to contend with nature, and are not of a warlike disposition. The facilities of the lumber-trade is apt to attract them from other pursuits. But mining speculations and manufactories having created a demand for provisions, they are becoming more agricultural. Their intellectual discussions are, like those of all true Scotsmen, chiefly anent theology and church discipline. Temperance societies are much in vogue. They are a sturdy race, and constantly squabbling, with their Upper House-a most unnecessary appendage to their government, there being no aristocracy in the province, and the supreme legislature of Britain forming as effective a check upon over-hasty legislation as our House of Lords does at home. These Upper Houses in our colonies have been established by men better acquainted with the form than the spirit of our constitution. There is a greater mixture of John Bull in the society of Van Diemen's Land. The convict population is another peculiar feature. The neighbourhood of savage tribes keeps alive in the inhabitants a martial character. They are a busy, practical race, and not averse to intellectual pursuits. They receive the newest publica. tions, have circulating libraries and literary societies. There is a greater stagnation in West Indian society. The land is sub. divided, appropriated, and overstocked, as in an old country; and having only in part the management of their own affairs, the inhabitants want one stimulus to exertion, one formative of manly habits, which an independent empire, however old, possesses. GEOGRAPHICAL.-We learn from a letter published in the second edition of the Literary Gazette, that the Landers have succeeded in tracing the Niger to its embouchure in the Bight of Benin.-A new county map of Jamaica is about to be published at Kingston. -A new map of Van Diemen's Land has been published at Hobart Town.-A correspondent in the Hobart Town Courier, describing the habits of the Ornythorynchus paradoxus states, that it burrows on the banks of rivers, and that the only entry to its abode is under water. He asserts, that on dissecting the only female of the species he ever met with, he found an udder under the skin. His curiosity had been excited by seeing a small quantity of milk oozing out when he compressed the body.-M. Parchappe, an artillery officer driven from France at the restoration, has passed the period of his exile in exploring the less known countries of South America. In conjunction with another traveller of the name of D'Orbiguy, he has made important discoveries in their natural history. He proposes to publish his collections and observations. FINE ARTS.-The eleventh annual exhibition of the Northern Academy of Arts, Newcastle, opens in a few days.-The Liverpool exhibition opens on the first day of August; that of Glasgow on the 30th of the same month.-Our own exhibition has closed. The receipts have been good, but the sales, compared with those of other years, dull on the whole. This can only be owing to the excited state of public feeling, which renders men inattentive to every thing but the one great absorbing question; for an exhi bition of more general excellence has never been seen in Edin. burgh. And yet we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that all the trash sold at public auctions, under the name of pictures by the old masters, finds a ready vent. This is most lamentable.-Etty has exhibited this year, at the Royal Academy, the other wing of his great work, Judith. The London critics praised it. Consider. ing the manner in which they abused that which we already pos. sess, this is rather a bad omen; but we have confidence in Etty. CHIT-CHAT FROM GLASGOW.-The handsome and really smart Montague Stanley is with us, and is pretty well attended. The article Glasgow, in Chambers's Gazetteer, just out, gives great satisfaction here, and Dr Cleland, the first authority on the matter, has declared it to be the best article on Glasgow that has ever been written. We now have five unstamped Periodicals,-all of them, though occasionally coarse, are conducted with very consider. able ability.—I met lately a gentleman who dined with the king on the occasion of his entertaining the Officers of the Guards. He assures me that his majesty is in the highest health and vigour of body, mind, and animal spirits. He spoke often, long, and well, but not a word of politics was uttered, and Lord Hill was the only person who replied. The narrator is a pretty good judge of dignity, and his testimony is, that our sovereign is every inch a king.—Our summer classes of medical science have opened in Anderson's University, and are absolutely crowded Great enthusiasm must surely animate the teachers and taught, to induce them to devote themselves to such studies in such glorious weather. Theatrical Gossip.-The great object of attention in the theatrical world at present is the dispute between Laporte and Paga nini, which is most to blame for the exorbitant charge for the entrée to the Signor's concerts. In our opinion, it is neither—it is the most worshipful British public, which has allowed them, and their like, to lay on such charges that they thought the donkey could bear any burden. We are glad to see little sturdy begin to kick at last. Warde has been figuring at Covent Garden as Napoleon, in Napoleon's own imperial hat, "which he borrowed from its present owner, under an express pledge that it should be returned at the end of the season." This is not quite so disgusting as bringing Thurtell's gig on the stage, but the same principle is at the bottom of its success. Astley's has another Napoleon, and the Surrey another, and Drury Lane has one in preparation. Yet do we not despair of the theatre. Even Shakspeare's age had its spectacles like to those of our own, in every thing but the excellence of their machinery and the splendour of their decorations. That there were also silly plays in the days of Queen Bess, the said plays are still extant to bear witness. Have we not Knowles? And we will have yet a greater ere long.-The actors at Drury Lane got a sad fright last pay-day. No person was forthcoming at the ap. pointed hour. At last a messenger appeared to intimate that the delay was not occasioned by an empty chequer, (it is not quite empty yet,) but by a quarrel between the acting manager and one of the committee, which terminated in the resignation of the for. mer gentleman. Up to the date of our dispatches, however, the salaries had not been paid.-The will of Quick, the comedian, has been proved in the Prerogative Court. It is in a very dilapidated condition, owing to his having carried it, until a very short period previous to his death, in a side-pocket of his coat.-Mr and Mrs Wood have been performing successfully at Birmingham. They proceed next to Liverpool, where they commence their perform. ances with Cinderella. Great exertions, we are told, have been making there in the departments of the scenist and machinist.— As our readers may have no objections to see a specimen of colonial criticism, we extract the following tidbits from the Jamaica Courant. Speaking of a Mr Costello, in the character of Ollapod, the critic says:-" His powers are gigantic, and capable of exalting us to Olympus, or plunging us in the lake of death." Announcing his principles of criticism, he tells us, "We have constituted ourselves dramatic censors, and in the exhibition of our infuriate madness, we will continue our animadversions," We learn from this gentleman that Dr Pangloss is performed at Kingston by a lady.-At home, Murray's benefit was, of course, a bumper. Mrs Pettingall's takes place to-night. As this lady is one of the season's recruits whom we are anxious to retain,' we hope the public will do her justice.-Yates and Matthews open in the Cale. donian on the 6th of June. We anticipate lots of fun. LITERARY CRITICISM. London. The Family Library. No. XXII. Lives of Scottish . The Family Library. Dramatic Series. No. IV. We need say little in praise of the former of these volumes. The name of the author is a sufficient guarantee for the style of its execution. No one is better qualified, either in respect to natural talent or knowledge, for writing a series of popular biographies of the more prominent characters in Scottish history, than Mr Tytler. We feel confidence in the accuracy of his details, because we know that he has thoroughly studied his subject; and yet we are relieved from the whole ponderous apparatus-revolting in a work of this kind-of notes, reference, and citations, with which the historian must bolster up the credit of his story. Without deviating in the slightest degree into the regions of romance, Mr Tytler brings his heroes before us with a boldness and relief equally startling. His sketches are at once valuable as individual portraits, and as specimens of the age in which the originals lived. The first volume contains the biographies of Alexander III., Michael Scott, Sir William Wallace, and Robert Bruce. It is difficult to say which of these historiettes we prefer. On the whole, however, the life of Sir William Wallace is our favourite. The title of the book is extremely happy, and its execution being equally felicitous, we have no doubt of its suc cess. such coadjutors at hand, the work has been confided to We do not know whether we should most admire the weaknesss or the complacent ignorance of the manufacturer of the literary portion of this volume. He an nounces with the most startling gravity that " doubtless the difficulty of the language, which is indeed great, is one principal reason why the Greek drama is so little known or relished." A few pages later he tells us," Mr Mitford observes, that even in our own language the word song is still a generic name for all metrical composition." Was Mr Mitford the first who made this profound remark? or is the fact so obscure and questionable as to require the weighty sanction of his name to gain our assent ? In the same philosophical vein he goes on to inform us that "moral sentiment, in its best and highest sense, was unknown to Pagan antiquity;" and why? because they had no hospitals. But we are tired of enumerating his commonplaces and absurdities, which he has beat out, dull and heavy as sheet-lead, over so many pages. His very first position,' when he addresses himself to his immediate subject, when he at last "leaves his damnable face-making and begins," did not astonish us, for it is a commonplace which we have often enough heard repeated, but it gave us a shrewd suspicion that though he might have read the Greek dramatists, it was with the eyes of his body alone, not of his understanding. "There is a want of the inner man of the heart, the simple reality of mere ordinary humanity, and a strain We wish that we could speak in terms equally favourable of the volume of the Dramatic Series of the Family Library now before us; but that is impossible. The conception of the book is good-its execution contemptible. The plan of the projected work was to present the reader with translations from the most striking passages of Eschylus, connected by a prose narrative, so as to rendering after something beyond it, in Greek tragedy, which the economy of each drama intelligible. To this was to be prefixed an introduction, explanatory of the nature and origin of poetry in general, and the drama in particular, and of the design of the work. This was to be followed up by chapters on the rise and progress of Greek tragedy; the life and works of Eschylus; the dramatic festivals of Athens; the Greek Theatre; and Aristotle's Poetics. The plan, we repeat, was excellent, and calculated to furnish the mere English reader with a delightful book, a valuable addition to his store of ideas, and a great extension of his knowledge of human nature. But the execution has been intrusted to incompetent hands. The word of promise has been kept to the ear, and broken to the hope. This is most strange, and utterly unpardonable in the conductors of a miscellany, whose literary connexion includes all the finest scholars of Britain. We do not speak of mere scholars, but of men who, to accurate and extensive classical acquirements, add delicacy of taste to appreciate the poetry of their author-of such men as Mitchell, Milman, Lockhart, &c. Why, with often prevents us from being deeply and permanently affected. The secret depths of our hearts can rarely be stirred by writers who seldom dip very profoundly into their own." This is the language of one who knows the Greek dramatists only in the chilling commonplaces of Potter, or the dry outlines which critics have given of` their plots. Did he ever read the Edipus Coloneus, with its beautiful picture of quiet, modest, deep, and unwearied filial affection, in the person of Antigone? Did he ever read the thrilling strains in which Euripides has expressed the shuddering and uncomfortable feeling of the Theban brother when he feels himself alone, without a claim to the rights of hospitality, amid a hostile nation? Did he ever read the Medea, with its tremendous delineation of an outraged woman's wayward vengeance? Nay, has he read the Suppliants of the author be professes to translate, and not felt how beautifully the poet had rendered that chaste and timid shrinking from the ardour of man, which, mingling with the love of woman, elevates her to an ideal being? Oh yes! these old mas But he tells us moreover that there is in the Greek dramatists" a straining after something beyond mere ordinary humanity." In our ignorance we had always believed that one of the chief excellences of these writers consisted in the simple and unaffected honesty with which they uniformly called things by their own names, never attempting to enforce a thought or emotion by repetition or exaggeration. Even Eschylus, the most gigantic of all, so far from straining his conceptions, is evidently overpowered by them. He expresses the grandest thoughts with the utmost brevity and simplicity. The author must surely mean that the mythology of the Greek drama is forced and unnatural. But before he expressed his belief, he ought to have endeavoured to transpose himself into the situation of a man of strong imagination and passion and apt fancy, living when that long train of observation, carried on through ages by successive generations, which has treasured up our present knowledge of natural phenomena, was but commencing. Had he done this could he have done this, the mighty day-dreams of Eschylus would have appeared to him far within the limits of the modesty of nature. In this translation, either Potter, from whom our bookmaker confesses he has borrowed much, or himself, have taken strange liberties with the original. We have not Potter at hand just now, and it is a matter of little consequence where the blame ought to rest. It is enough for our purpose, that Eschylus has been unfaithfully rendered. We may instance, among a crowd of examples, the strange liberties taken with the alternation of Strophe and Antistrophe in the first Chorus of the Agamemnon. Another case occurs in the dialogue between Clytemnestra, Cassandra, and the Chorus, in which several speeches most important, as tending to the developement of character, are omitted. Finding ourselves unable to attach any sense to these lines, we are under the necessity of consulting the Greek version. We there find a passage of which what follows is a literal version. "Jove-whoever he be, if it is delightful to him to be so called, I give him the name. Looking around, I have no one but Jove upon whom I can throw this vain load of care." This is a simple and intelligible expression of a state of emotion, and as such a grand picture of a care-oppressed mind, unenlightened by revelation, feeling all worldly props broken reeds, and looking round for an eternal supporter. It is one of humanity's first affrighted convictions, that it is not allied to matter, and cannot rely upon it. There is only one advice that we can give Mr Murray respecting this book. That is, to call it in immediately, burn the letterpress, and employ a scholar to write another work on the same plan, worthy of Eschylus and Flaxman. The designs of the latter are, indeed, above all praise, sublime and classical as the author who sug gested them. They are worthy of a whole article ta themselves, and shall have it some day. Journal of Voyages and Travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyer. man and George Bennet, Esq., deputed from the Lon don Missionary Society to visit their various Stations in the South Sea Islands, China, India, &c., between the Years 1821 and 1829. Compiled from original documents, by James Montgomery. Two volumes. Pp. 566, 568. London. Westley and Davis. 1831. WE adverted lately, when reviewing Ellis's Polynesian Researches, to the important additions to our ethnogra phical knowledge for which we were indebted to the unostentatious labours of the missionaries sent forth by the various nations of Europe for the conversion of the hea then. The work now before us is, even in this point of view, none of the least valuable of these contributions It contains, as the titlepage indicates, the travels of two reverend gentlemen, deputed by the London Mis sionary Society to visit the stations maintained by that body throughout the Pacific Ocean, The London Missionary Society, as must be known to most of our readers, was instituted in autumn, 1795, and admits as members Christians of various denominations. Its first undertaking was to send missionaries to the Pacific. In 1796, Captain Wilson sailed in the ship Duff, with twenty-nine missionaries, and arrived next year, in the month of March, at Otaheite. Already has idolatry been renounced in most of the islands. In 1821, Messrs Tyerman and In plain English, "the unnumbered smile of ocean's Bennet were deputed to visit the various stations in the waves." This bold metaphor is, in the English translation of the missionary system, and to report how much had South Sea, and to perfect as far as they could the organization, transmuted into this affected and silly piece of pret- been effected. Having performed the first part of this duty As a specimen of the translation, the reader may take what follows. Prometheus, when left alone chained to the cliff, adjures the different elements of his nature to witness the wrongs he suffers. Among others he addresses tiness: ποντίων σε κυμάτων Ανήριθμου γέλασμα. "Ye waves That o'er the interminable ocean wreathe Your crisped smiles." This one instance is sufficient to show how completely the translator has been possessed with the spirit of his author. These words, however, enjoy one advantage in having some meaning, which is more than we can say of the following passage, in which the sense of Laura Matilda seems embalmed in the melody of Sternhold and Hopkins. O thou, that sitt'st supreme above, Whatever name thou deign'st to hear, Else vainly tost, the anxious mind in a most satisfactory manner, they visited the society's establishments in China, India, and Madagascar. While there, Mr Tyerman was removed by a sudden death; and Mr Bennet was shortly after obliged to leave the island by a political revolution. Their travels occupied a period of nearly eight years. A journal was kept jointly by both members of the deputation during the two first years, and afterwards by Mr Tyerman alone, down to the day of his death. Mr Bennet had likewise made a large collection of miscellaneous observations. From these voluminous materials Mr Montgomery has compiled these two interesting volumes. The compiler has taken great care to preserve as many personal, national, and moral traits of character, traditions, fragments of history, and anecdotes of the South and North Pacific Islanders, " as could be published without offence to decorum." We are certainly no friends to indecorum, but we fear Mr Montgomery's feelings on this subject are of that extremely precise character, that makes him ofttimes startle unnecessarily. The work gains on this account, as a family book, but loses much |