From Scott's "Lay of the Last

Minstrel."

We make the following extracts from the Edinburgh Review of a work, the original of which we prefume has not yet reached this country. It is defcribed as an attempt to transfer the refinements of modern poetry to the matter and the manner of the ancient metrical romance. We firkt extract the defcription of the Minstrel, from the introduction.

THE humble boon was foon obtained; The aged Minstrel audience gained. But, when he reached the room of ftate, Where fhe, with all her ladies, fate, Perchance he wished his boon denied; For, when to tune his harp he tried, His trembling hand had loft the ease, Which marks fecurity to pleafe; And fcenes, long past, of joy and pain, Came wildering o'er his aged brain

Amid the strings his fingers ftrayed,
And an uncertain warbling made-
And oft he shook his hoary head,
But when he caught the measure wild,
The old man raised his face, and smiled;
And lightened up his faded eye,
With all a poet's extacy!

In varying cadence, soft or frong,
He fwept the founding chords along ;
The prefent fcene, the future lot,
His toils, his wants, were all forgot;
Cold diffidence, and age's frost,
In the full tide of fong were loft.
Each blank, in faithlefs memory void,
The poet's glowing thought fupplied :
And, while his harp responsive rung,
'Twas thus the LATEST MINSTREL fung.

After concluding one canto with an account of the warlike array, which was prepared for the reception of the English invaders, he opens the fucceeding one with the following beautiful verses :

Sweet Teviot! on thy filver tide

The glaring bale-fires blaze no more; No longer fteel-clad warriours ride

Along thy wild and willowed fhore; Where'er thou wind'ft by dale or hill, All, all is peaceful, all is still,

As if thy waves, fince Time was born, Since first they rolled their way to Tweed, Had only heard the fhepherd's reed, Nor started at the bugle-horn.

Unlike the tide of human time,

Which, tho' it change in ceafeless flow, Retains each grief, retains 'each crime, Its earliest courfe was doomed to know;

And, darker as it downward bears,
Is ftained with paft and present tears.

Low as that tide has ebbed with me,
It still reflects to memory's eye
The hour, my brave, my only boy,

Fell by the fide of great Dundee. Why, when the volleying musket played Against the bloody Highland blade, Why was not I befide him laid!— Enough he died the death of fame ; Enough-he died with conquering

Græme.

We add a fpecimen of the fongs, which Mr. Scott has introduced in the mouths of the minstrels, in the concluding canto. This is intended to represent that wild ftyle of compofition, which prevailed among the bards of the northern continent, fomewhat softened and adorned by the minstrel's refidence in the fouth.

O liften, liften, ladies gay!

No haughty feat of arms I tell ; Soft is the note, and fad the lay,

That mourns the lovely Rofabelle. "Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew!

And, gentle ladye, deign to stay! Reft thee in Caftle Ravenfheuch,

Nor tempt the stormy frirth to-day. “The blackening wave is edged with white;

To inch and rock the fea-mews fly; The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite, Whose screams forebode that wreck

is nigh.

But that my ladye-mother there
Sits lonely in her castle-hall.
" 'Tis not because the ring they ride,
And Lindefay at the ring rides well,
But that my fire the wine will chide,
If 'tis not filled by Rofabelle."-
O'er Roslin all that dreary night

A wondrous blaze was feen to gleam; 'Twas broader than the watch-fire light, And brighter than the bright moonbeam.

It glared on Roslin's castled rock,

It reddened all the copfe-wood glen; Twas feen from Dryden's groves of oak,

And feen from caverned Haw

thornden.

Seemed all on fire that chapel proud, Where Rollin's chiefs uncoffined lie; Each baron, for a fable shroud,

Sheathed in his iron panoply. Seemed all on fire within, around, Both vaulted crypt and altar's pale ; Shone every pillar foliage-bound,

And glimmered all the dead-mens' mail.

Blazed battlement and pinnet high, Blazed every rofe-carved buttress fair

So ftill they blaze when fate is nigh The lordly line of high St. Clair. There are twenty of Roflin's barons bold I Lie buried within that proud chapelle;

Each one the holy vault doth hold

But the fea holds lovely Rofabelle ! And each St. Clair was buried there, With candle, with book, and with

knell ;

For much he loved to ope his door,
And give the aid he begged before.
So paffed the winter's day—but still,
When fummer fmiled on fweet Bowhill,
And July's eve, with balmy breath,
Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath;
And flourished, broad Blackandro's oak,
The aged Harper's foul awoke !
Then would he fing achievements high,
And circumstance of Chivalry,
Till the rapt traveller would stay,
Forgetful of the closing day;
And Yarrow, as he rolled along,
Bore burden to the Minstrel's fong.

EPIGRAM.

From the Life of Gilbert Wakefield. "OMNE IGNOTUM PRO MAGNIFICO EST." On which fubject the Bishop of Cloyne once repeated to me an epigram incomparably excellent. It was faid to be the production of a young man at college, the mafter of which, who had fet him this impofition, kept a pair of coach horfes, perfect Rofinantes in condition; thin almoft to transparency.

HIS nags, fworn enemy to pamper'd fteeds!

On hay and stubble old Avaro feeds. Bred in his fields, and in his stables born, What waft ideas must they have of corn.

ARTICLE 80.

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for the year 1798. Vol. V. Boston. S. Hall. pp. 290.

THE history of a nation can seldom be accurately known but from its records, memorials, and the relation of facts by unquestionable authority. Foreigners in writing the annals of nations are often misled by false information, are sometimes willingly deceived by favourite prejudices, and are seldom able to discriminate justly between the respective value of different statements of the same affairs. As we can ascertain only from history the pas sions, follies, virtues, and senti, ments of governours and nations, it becomes a subject of serious consideration to every people, to know how far they will probably be represented fully and impartially to the inquiries of contem, porary mankind and succeeding generations. Princes and subjects are therefore bound by no common obligation to be certain, that neither prejudice nor miståke, nor perversion of facts nor barrenness of materials, shall fur, nish any excuse or extenuation of the criminality of historians. As by the moral law every individual is under bond to act virtuously, so by the political law which grows out of the former and

conforms to it by easy analogies and

necessary consequences,

every nation is under bond to govern its conduct by the laws, applicable to its nature. Hence it results, that as the municipal law of vicinage authorizes the citizen to notice the conversation and courses of his neighbour, so the nations of the world are legally commissioned to observe the practices of associated communities; and therefore these practices ought to be faithfully, recorded, impartially published, and suitably represented, as the agents are perpetual cor porations, not transitory individuals. We believe that the com mon law of England will punish a libel on the memory and repu◄ tation of the dead, and we also believe with Burke, that an indictment cannot be drawn up against a whole people. Here indeed there is no apparent resemblance between the subjects, but the dissimilarity results from impracticableness of execu tion, not from deficiency of analogy. But if Paley and Puffendorf can furnish no precedents of process against nations, let em perours and kings, the citizens and the people, know, that "history makes a durable re cord" of their conduct; that Tacitus, Machiavel, and Humę will represent them to all ages and political congregations

in black or bright tints, accordingly as they have done well or ill, and have transmitted to the painter of history materials for colour and composition.

This kind of reasoning is considered by the multitude inapplicable and metaphysical; but as we know its justness and feel its importance, we trust that it will meet with welcome and courtesy from individuals of wealth and education, from the legislatures of our country and the separate states, from all corporate institutions, from princes in government and patrons of learning; we address it to them for assistance and encouragement and liberal donations to the Historical Society of Massachusetts. This association we believe to be among the most important in the United States. It is every where acknowledged as eminently useful and essentially necessary in the youthful period of our country. From this society alone, do we expect much information on the colonial history of America. The exertions of individuals must always be very limited, compared with the wide grasp and illuminating views of a tiberal corporation. If therefore this country feels any obligation to perpetuate an impartial remembrance of its founders, their virtues, policy, conduct, and refigion; if it is essential to know well its commercial history, the laws of its colonization, its early systems of finance, its modes of husbandry and generally the important statisticks of rising communities, we are not presumptuous in saying, that these objects can be attained only by the honourable spirit, the laudable per

severance, and the liberal know ledge of a society of gentlemen and scholars, like that which is the subject of our prayers and commendation. We have reason to think from good authority, that this institution has not met with powerful patronage; its means are small, its funds are nothing, or less than nothing, and its prospects are not more cheer: ing, than its actual situation. The Society has already published nine volumes of collections at their own expence, for the reimbursement of which they rely on the sale of the books, and they are now printing a new edition of the three first volumes, for which they are obliged to borrOW the necessary funds. This is noble, if it is not prudent; it is an instance of magnanimity, not common in literature; it is heroick chivalry, it is knight-errantry of letters. The field is full of danger; but of old,applause and good wishes accompanied the cavalier, whose enterprize was honourable, and whose atchievements had been illustrious.

In reviewing the fifth volume of the Historical Collections, we notice

A letter from Dr. Kippis to the editor of the European Magazine for September 1795. Dr. Kippis candidly acknowledges his wrong information respecting the orders of the American Congress to capture Capt. Cook, and is perfectly satisfied with the demonstrative evidence of the errour, afforded by Dr. Belknap.

General Lincoln's observations on the Indians of North America, in answer to some remarks of Dr. Ramsay's.

General Lincoln agrees with

Dr. R. as to the impracticability of civilizing the Indians and adds various satisfactory reasons why their population will continue to decrease for many years. He thinks however, that in time the Indians will be driven towards the northern regions, that they will never be followed thither, and being in quiet possession of hunting grounds of great extent, and in a country abounding with all kinds of game, that they will there subsist until time shall be no more. But we think that the General has extended his speculation too far, in supposing that they will never be annihilated. When we consider the civilization and progressive improvement of the Russian empire, we do not despair of the hope, that the cold regions of N. America may one day be the residence of laws, politeness, and religion. No assignable limit can be put to the progress of population, agriculture, and commerce. But we can see no reason why the Indian tribes should retire, faster than the white men force them by arms or by trade; there will therefore always be a kind of intercourse, and we well know that the consequences of this communication are disease, want, indolence, and continual decrease of population.

Report of a committee of the board of correspondents of the Scots Society for propogating Christian knowledge, who visited the Oneida and Mohekunuh Indians in 1796.

This valuable paper is long, and apparently very correct. It is in the form of queries and answers. The queries proposed respecting these Indian tribes,

were only sixteen in number, but the Committee, Rev. Dr. Belknap and Rev. Dr. Morse, extended them to twenty four, and in the answers have given a large body of information on almost every subject relating to the situation, religion, arts, civilization, and probable future condition of those tribes.

Rev. Stephen Badger's letter upon the Indians in Natick.

Mr. B. had excellent means of information on the subject, be cause he had been in the ministry at Natick, during forty-five years. Much irrelative reason ing and reflection are introduced, but the letter adds to the general stock of knowledge of the Aborigines.

Few in number

Law cases. and badly reported.

Account of the great fire in Boston in 1711.

Memorabilia of Yarmouth, by Timothy Alden, jun.

Mr. Brattle's letter on the delusion, called witchcraft, in Salem 1692, dated in October 1692.

This account of witchcraft was written by an eye witness of the horrible transactions related, and is therefore entitled to some credit; but his ridiculous superstition and absurd belief of the actual interference of the Devil、 at the trials; of his power and active influence upon "the afflicted," operating through confessors or self acknowledged witches, take from his reasoning all merit and throw a foolish obscurity and nonsensical appear ance over the whole narrative.

Vocabulary of the Narroganset language, by Roger Williams. Some future Bochart or Bryant may hereafter investigate with