poem, and in this case, when they do occur, the feelings which they will excite, merely pass through the mind, without heating the imagination, or greatly disturbing the curiosity with which it still looks forward to the general catastrophe. But when the interest of a poem is principally founded upon the fortunes of individuals as all novels and romances, whether in prose or verse, ought to be-nothing can be more contrary, we conceive, either to prudence or propriety, than to attach those fortunes to the fate of states and empires: because, when the imagination is filled with great events, we are always apt to calculate things in the gross, and, as common experience shews, to estimate the value of particular interests, not by themselves, but with reference to the importance which they possess, as items in the great account. Thus, had Mr. Scott introduced the loves of Ronald and the Maid of Lorn as an episode of an epic poem upon the subject of the battle of Bannockburn, its want of connection with the main action might have been excused in favour of its intrinsic merit; but by a great singularity of judgment, he has introduced the battle of Bannockburn as an episode in the loves of Ronald and the Maid of Lorn. To say nothing of the obvious preposterousness of such a design, abstractedly considered, the effect of it has, we think, decidedly been to destroy that interest which either of them might separately have created; or if any interest remain respecting the fate of the ill-requited Edith, it is because at no moment of the poem do we feel the slightest degree of it, respecting the enterprize of Bruce.

We have now put our readers in possession both of the story upon which the poem is built, and of our opinions as to its merits. The many beautiful passages which we have extracted from it, combined with the brief remarks subjoined to each canto, will sufficiently shew, that although the Lord of the Isles' is not likely to add very much to the reputation of Mr. Scott, yet this must be imputed rather to the greatness of his previous reputation than to the absolute inferiority of the poem itself. Unfortunately, its merits are merely incidental, while its defects are mixed up with the very elements of the poem. But it is not in the power of Mr. Scott to write with tameness; be the subject what it will, (and he could not easily have chosen one more impracticable,) he impresses upon whatever scenes he describes so much movement and activity-he infuses into his narrative such a flow of life, and, if we may so express ourselves, of animal spirits, that without satisfying the judgment, or moving the feelings, or elevating the mind, or even very greatly interesting the curiosity, he is still able to seize upon, and, as it were, exhilarate the imagination of his readers, in a manner which is often truly unaccountable. This quality Mr. Scott possesses in an admi

rable

rable degree; and supposing that he had no other object in view than to convince the world of the great poetical powers with which he is gifted, the poem before us would be quite sufficient for his purpose. But this is of very inferior importance to the public; what they want is a good poem, and, as experience has shewn, this can only be constructed upon a solid foundation of taste and judgment and meditation.

ART. II. Travels in South Africa, undertaken at the Request of the Missionary Society. By John Campbell, Minister of Kingsland Chapel. London. 1815.

WE

E shall not be classed among those who affect to despise or ridicule the labours of the missionaries; though we may sometimes have felt it necessary to hint at their failings. To the Baptist missionaries of India and China, the European world is indebted, in no small degree, for the extension of its knowledge of oriental literature: the philological labours of Carey and Marshman, and the translations of Ward and Morrison must always be considered as valuable monuments of great talent and perseverance not uselessly applied. On the literary works of men like these, self-taught and unpatronized, criticism would be employed with an ill grace, by dwelling on every little violation of taste in composition, or fault of expression; or by refusing to pardon any want of judgment in the selection of materials. To the Moravian missionaries, a considerable share of merit, though of a different kind, is also due. Waving all pretensions to literature, their avowed object is, first to make the savage sensible of the benefits to be derived from the useful arts of civilized life; and afterwards to instil into his mind the divine truths of the Christian religion. A third kind of merit, varying in its nature and degree from either of the former, is likewise due to the Evangelical missionaries, who seem to have no other object in view than that of preaching Christ and Him crucified.' Nor do we think that Mr. Campbell rates the services of these Gospel missionaries too high in claiming for them the merit of philanthropy, and a most exalted display of the power of Christian principles, when they consent to leave European society and retire to a gloomy wilderness, like that of southern Africa, merely to do good to its scattered and miserable inhabitants, from love to Jesus Christ and the souls of men.' Cold and fastidious indeed must the heart of him be, who can witness unmoved the personal dangers and privations of every kind to which these Evangelical preachers voluntarily surrender themselves, for the sole purpose of instructing the lowest of the human species in the one thing needful.' It were to be wished, at the same time, that their zeal

U 4

was

was tempered with a little more of worldly wisdom and human prudence than they sometimes exhibit. But these are qualities which the present publication, among many others, gives us reason to suspect are not always to be found even among the directors of the missions, and can hardly therefore be expected in their in

struments.

The death of Doctor Vander Kemp, who superintended the African missions, and of whom we gave a brief account in our review of Lichtenstein's Travels, made it expedient, in the opinion of the directors,

To request one of their own body, the Reverend John Campbell, to visit the country, personally to inspect the different settlements, and to establish such regulations, in concurrence with Mr. Read, and the other missionaries, as might be most conducive to the attainment of the great end proposed-the conversion of the heathen, keeping in view at the same time the promotion of their civilization.'-(Adver. p. vi.) Such readers of Mr. Campbell's book as may be led to expect something more than the conversion of the heathen,' will not consider the directors to have made the most happy choice of a minister. From his own narrative we have not been able to discover that he used any exertions, or indeed possessed any resources, for promoting the secondary object of his mission- the civilization of the native Africans.' We are not sure, indeed, that his talents at all suited the first and main object of the society. He seems to us to want zeal, which we always understood to be an indispensable ingredient in a Gospel missionary. On his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope in November, the spring of the year, he suffers himself to be diverted from his journey into the interior, 'till the sultry summer months should be over, as his constitution had been weakened by the tropical heats'-tropical heats on a passage to the Cape! In the interim, he prepares himself by short journies-little jaunts of pleasure, from the Cape to Stellenbosch-to the Paarl-to Drakenstein-to Groene-Kloof; and on the 13th February, the most sultry of the summer months, he sets out on his tour. This however is no affair of ours; really did expect that he would have employed the four months on the passage, and the three thus spent at the Cape, in acquiring some little knowledge of the Dutch language, which is the key to those of the people whom he was proceeding to convert.-No such thing-even after a nine months journey with companions who spoke little else than Dutch, he cannot give us a word of it correctly; and we fear, from this circumstance, that the many sermons which he preached to the Dutch, and Hottentots, and Coranas, and Booshuanas, and Namaquas, may, according to his own account, be set down as vox et preterea nihil. I preached,' says

but we

he,

he,' through two interpreters to the Coranas. When I had spoken a sentence in English, Mr. Anderson repeated it in Dutch, and a third person in the Corana tongue. The Corana interpreter stood with his coat off, and seemed fatigued by speaking so often.' In preaching to the Booshuanas, the sermon had a fourth transfusion to undergo. Another objection to the choice of Mr. Campbell is the evident absence of every qualification with which, in these days, a traveller is expected to be gifted. The most common objects of nature he is either unacquainted with, or affects to consider as beneath his notice; and the reader who looks for information as to the natural history or the geography of that part of south Africa, hitherto but little travelled by Europeans, will meet with disappointment; false nomenclature, and vague and confused description, are all be is to expect. In justice, however, to Mr. Campbell, it is right to state that we believe his veracity to be unquestionable; and that there are in his book traits of character and insulated facts which, with all its drawbacks, stamp a certain value upon it even as a book of travels-of its other merits we must leave the Missionary journals to speak; but we would by all means recommend to the society to leave out, in the next edition, that hideous, full-length portrait of Mr. Campbell, which we would fain hope bears no resemblance to the original: for though we mean not to profess ourselves disciples of Lavater, we do not think that, in the choice of persons to deal with savages, personal qualifications are altogether to be disregarded.

The expedition, which on the 13th February left Cape Town, consisted of two waggons, one drawn by twelve, the other by fourteen oxen; two drivers, Cupido, a converted Hottentot and a preacher of the Gospel, and Britannia, a Gonaqua; two Hottentot ex-leaders, John and Michael; and two Hottentot ladies, Elizabeth and Sarah, who were hired in the capacities of cook and washerwoman. We find but few occurrences worthy of notice during the first eighteen days. They killed a grey serpent which shone in the dark, and emitted a rattling sound, evidently intended by Providence to warn people of its approach'-they found shells of the land tortoise which had lately been killed by the crow, who raises them into the air, when she lets them fall, either upon stones or hard ground, by which their shells are broken, and they become an easy prey; they caught a scorpion, and surrounded him with fire to put to the proof the vulgar opinion that so circumstanced he would sting himself to death; but it died as quietly as any other animal, only darting its sting from it, as if to oppose any ordinary assailant;' and they saw another animal resembling an animated piece of straw, which the boors called the Hottentots' god.' These and a few similar observations, with some hair-breadth

escapes

escapes from rugged rocks, precipices, and deep rivers; an occasional sermon in Dutch from Cupido, and a profusion of moral and religious reflections on the scattered and miserable inhabitants of the wilderness, make up a tolerably long chapter, at the end of which we find ourselves at the New Drosdy of George Town, founded by Lord Caledon.

A more pleasant situation I have not yet seen in Africa. It abounds with wood, water, and majestic scenery. The neighbouring wood is extensive, full of all kinds of trees belonging to the climate, and sufficient to supply them with timber for a thousand years. The ground is good, either for corn or pasture; there is plenty of clay for making bricks, and abundance of lime on the sea shore, which is only a few hours distant. The Landrost's house is building-the prison and the court-house are finished-the Secretary's and some other houses are nearly finished-the two principal streets are to cross each other at right angles, and the church is to stand in the center. The streets will be 200 feet wide; on each side of them is to be planted a row of trees, not only for ornament, but for defending passengers from the scorching rays of an almost vertical sun.'

Lord Caledon deserves the thanks of the colony for this first attempt at building a distant town, drawing the inhabitants together, and creating a market for the interchange of commodities. Independent of local conveniences, the situation is judiciously chosen. It is midway between Zwellendam, and Plettenberg's bay, in that choice district of country formerly known by the name of Autoniequaland, which was reserved especially by the Dutch government for rearing and supporting its numerous horses and oxen. Why it had not before been settled, and why English settlers are not encouraged to cultivate the rich and extensive tract of land, well wooded and well watered, that stretches along the sea coast of the colony for many hundred miles, is to us quite inexplicable. quite inexplicable. The discouragement of colonial population is degrading to the age we live in, and unworthy of that liberal conduct which generally distinguishes the British government.

Here Captain Dik-kop, (in other words, Captain Thickscull,) a Hottentot chief, brought about sixty of his people, mostly females, to hear a sermon from Cupido; after which the party visited the captain's kraal. A very old man, nearly in a state of nature, welcomed the missionaries with lively expressions of joy and gratitude-but, on being asked if he knew any thing of Jesus Christ, he replied, I know no more about any thing than a beast.' One would naturally conclude that such an answer was rather discouraging; but not so Mr. Campbell. 'Could I have brought,' says he, the great missionary meetings of the month of May to this kraal, to witness the scene that passed, I think they would have thrown in handfuls of gold to aid the Missionary

6

funds,