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of worthy citizens who walk about the coffee-room here, without thinking of you or your Magazine. Nobody can like this sort of notoriety; and for my own part, I fully expect some day or other to plump upon my own name in some dark corner of your Work, and to find myself publicly celebrated for qualities, which I would rather were admired by a more limited circle. Your Miscellany is very much read and admired here; do not therefore, good Mr Editor, alarm your subscribers in this way. If you and your correspondents must write about us folks in Glasgow, give us a local habitation," but if you please

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their friend than for themselves. One of them with whom I supped last night, said it was ridiculous to cry out for a mere toothach.

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I have now, Mr Editor, protested generally against all personalities whatever of this nature; but you will allow me to add, that in this particular case, Dr Nicol Jarvie's offence is of an aggravated kind. Had he been jocose upon a man of wit, and humour, and sarcasm-some formidable punster-some mason-lodge orator-some everlasting strutter of the Trongatesome attitudinarian of the Tontinesome demigod in the misty heaven of the Dirty Shirt (once a celebrated Believe me that there is a great deal of club in this city), his sallies would veracity in these observations. have been enjoyed by the whole of our A question, I understand, has arisen," reading population. But to fall how far this mode of writing is action- foul of the modest-the retiring-the able, and it is rumoured in the coffee- unassuming the courter of the shade room, that one of the much-injured gentlemen mentioned in Dr Jarvie's letter, intends to sue the Publisher for damages in the Jury Court. Many parties of ladies and gentlemen have already been formed to attend the court on the great day of trial, and we hear that a public breakfast is to be given to the spirited prosecutor, who comes forward to vindicate the rights of private citizens against the licentiousness of the press. This ebullition of feeling may serve to shew you on what dangerous ground you are treading, and points out the propriety of an apology. If you are wise, you will forthwise publish some such palinode as the following:

"It having been incautiously asserted in this Magazine, on the authority of Dr Nicol Jarvie, tertius, of the Saltmarket, Glasgow, that Mr (here insert the learned gentleman's name) is fond of a good dinner, and tells witty stories; the Editor begs his pardon for having been duped into the belief and circulation of such unfounded calumnies."

Some such manly apology as this would, I am confident, sooth that gentleman's wounded sensibilities, and restore him to that peace of mind which, previously to the publication of your last Number, he apparently enjoyed. I believe that all the other gentlemen jocosely, but coarsely, quoted by the doctor, though somewhat flurried and flustered at first, as they might well be, now laugh at the whole affair as an absurdity, and feel much more for VOL. III.

the bashful and the shamefaced! with rude hands to grasp the leaves of the sensitive plant! To withdraw the veil, as it were, from the blushing bride! this, Mr Editor, was indeed coarse, unfeeling, and unmanly, and therefore, sir, be not surprised, though the days of chivalry are gone, that a courteous knight like myself issues forth from the bar of the Buck's head, to break a lance with the Paynim vile," who hath insulted modesty, innocence, and beauty.

Witty, Mr Editor, as you may think yourself and friends, more especially the redoubtable Dr Nicol Jarvie, tertius, beware of retaliation. Though in this instance the injured person may want talents to defend himself, yet we have other wits among us to avenge his wrongs. Duncan Whip is "bang up to the mark,"--Helvidius Priscus may rise up against you, flushed with victory over Scott, Chalmers, Malthus, Bentham, and Jeffrey, and armed like Samson of old,—the Editors of the Glasgow Chronicle will harness themselves for the battle, with their famous prentice at their head,-and to secure your discomfiture, who knows but JAMES GRAHAME, ESQ. ADVOCATE, HIMSELF, will barbarously scribble you to death, and enshroud you in a winding-sheet of his own pamphlets.

Mr Editor, however fond of personalities you learned folks in Edinburgh' may be, instructed as you have been in that kind of lore, by 57 Numbers of the Edinburgh Review, unquestion

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ably the most scurrilous Periodical of the day, such writings have, at all times, been most offensive to the better taste of the citizens of Glasgow. Of this take the following example. Last summer, your excellent townswoman, Mrs Grant, author of so many admirable works, paid a visit to a gentleman's family in this neighbourhood. All who know her, and I am proud to be of that number, love her for her gentle and unassuming private character, as much as they admire the strength and originality of her genius. Soon as it was known that this lady was in our vicinity, some unfeeling clown" began to abuse her in the Glasgow Chronicle, and to drag her, day after day, before the public, in all the wanton insolence of ignorant brutality. When the Editors of that paper were requested, in the most gentle terms, to desist from such unprovoked attacks, they printed in their volumes the request itself, as they received it, and then went on more grossly than ever insulting a lady! Though we pretend to no great delicacacy of feeling in this good town, yet, believe me, that a Glasgow merchant has his heart in its right place; and we all, learned (will you allow me to use the word?) and unlearned, flung these odious Chronicles from our hands with loathing and disgust.

I recollect, however, that there was one person, even here in our Glasgow coffee-room, who seemed to delight in the dirty dulness of the Chronicle. I think I see him sitting in his accustomed chair, with all becoming stateliness and pomposity, like a great gander that seats himself on a heap of addled eggs, during the absence of his mate who has laid them, and keeps stretching out his long neek, gaping and hissing towards every passer-by, as if they cared for him, and the sniffling silliness of his sedentary occupation. It is persons of this stamp who are most clamorous when attacked themselves; and I have no doubt, that if the hero of whom I now speak, and who kept daily rubbing his elbows with the very itch of chuckling enjoyment, extending his chest, and leaning back his broad, rosy, grinning face over the vile insults heaped upon a respectable lady,-I say, Mr Editor, that such a creature, if retorted upon himself with the mere threatening of castigation, would retreat with loud

gabble and uplifted wings, like the gander aforesaid, when some impatient pedestrian turns round suddenly on the "feathered fool," and sends him waddling back, on his great splay-feet, into the dirty puddle of the village pool, to solace himself with his yellow billed paramour.

Had Dr Jarvie attacked such a person as this-good and well. But is it so?

Mr Editor, I have done. I may say of you what Cowper the poet said of England, "with all thy faults I love thee still!" and I may add, as Burns the poet said to the devil, "gif ye wad tak a thought and mend," that you might yet get over all the little peccadillos of yourself and the doctor, and firmly establish yourself in the good graces of the people of this city, who (though I say it that should not say it) are as warm-hearted, upright, and intelligent a set of citizens as any in the kingdom.

MUNGO.

SONNET TO JOHN CARNEGIE, ESQ.

[We have received from Mr John Carnegie of Glasgow, a poem, entitled, "Largo's Vale." It is, we fear, rather long for insertion in our Magazine, though we hope to find room for it soon. Meanwhile we

publish with much pleasure the following beautiful Sonnet, from a distinguished pen, to the Bard of the Largs. EDITOR.] SWEET Bard of Largo's Vale! yet once again Strike that wild harp of thine, and to the gale, Casting the volume of its melody,

The Zephyrs on their wings shall waft the

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attentions to M. Say. It is doubtless, as Milton says, "of greatest concernment to have a vigilant eye how bookes demeane themselves as well as men. For bookes are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them, to be as active as that soule was, whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve, as in a violl, the purest efficacie and extraction of the living intellect that bred them." In the case of a writer like M. Say, all this applies forcibly, not only from the intrinsic reason of the thing, but because of the influence which a justly great name like his may be supposed to exert over those who read, not merely that their fancies may be tickled with light reading, but that they may receive an excitement to deep thought from the speculations of a solid understanding like his, conveyed in an attractive yet unpretending form. Before the appearance of his beautiful and profound System of Political Economy had made him famous all over Europe, he was known to the literati of France by a small work, entitled, OLBIA, or an Essay on the Ways of improving the Manners of a Nation. It however had more interest as the initiatory thesis of an ingenious, speculative, and highly informed mind, than from any thing actually done in it. M. Say was then (in the eighth year of the republic) a member of the notorious Tribunate; and that tract may be considered as his mite to the reform which was at that time the chief end held in view by almost all the speculative spirits in France. He was latterly known, rather disadvantageously, among ourselves, as the author of a pamphlet On England and the English, which dealt mainly with our mistakes and embarassments. In that tract, his objections against our moral and political systems have been flippantly, but rather closely, summed up by Mr Hobhouse. "His complaint or pity was chiefly directed towards us, because we had given a pension to the family of Nelson, an admiral killed in battle; because there were no workmen des œuvres to be seen in our coffeehouses; because the studies at Oxford were un peu Gothiques, and books were getting so dear that few could read; because there were no people in Great Britain idle by profession; and, lastly, because we drank bad port."

We have looked over this little volume, to see that there be " no offence in't." It is something in the style of Bruyere and Rochefoucauld, but consists rather of remarks on tastes, manners, and opinions, than of aphorisms tending to a system of human action, like Rochefoucauld,-or sketches of a period, and a place, and a brilliant circle of ambition, wit, and devotion, like Bruyere. Bruyere had lived much about a court, and was therefore very minute and circumstantial in his delineations of character. He knew auricular confession, and had caught from it the spirit of a prying power and a too indulgent allowance. He was caustic and fault-finding, even to personality, in his discriminations. Rochefoucauld had neither patience for those who were to understand him, nor interest enough in mankind, generally, to waste many words on them. He was therefore condensed, enigmatical, severe, and not unfrequently even mystical. M. Say is a man of science and of the world, full of the light of modern ideas, and much accustomed to see things that had been considered as most stable turn round on their axes and assume new complexions. But, for all that, he has more of the inestimable quality of moral admiration than either of his predecessors. His observation may possibly not have been so keen as theirs; but it has been better-for society is better: and if he be not so witty as they, nor have such an exclusive power over his materials, there is, beyond all doubt, a great appearance of good faith about him. His sense is not only excellent, but it is practical. It is not ascetic. It does not smell of the cloister. It is in the manner of one who cannot help sporting ideas, because he is so intellectual that he cannot be without them. If they do not produce their effect simply, he is quite convinced that no singularity of enunciation could make them more valuable to him, or more useful to others.

Whether, after having experienced more than Grecian suffering from the great evils with which these times abound, there be something of relief in the very title of a little book, we cannot possibly determine just now. But it is clear, at any rate, that there is a great temptation to like, as well as to say, wise, and witty, and agreeable things, in the aphorismatic shape

even though, for the sake of shortness, they are so divested of breadth and explanation as to expose them to be mistaken for truisms. This enigmatical way of giving shape to an adventurous thought or a smart observation, possesses attractions for those who love the agreeable mystification which there is in venting a moral truth by way of antithesis. The exertion and the pleasure too consist in couching it in such terms as cost just so much trouble in the apprehension as to make it pass at least for wisdom, under the guise of a painfully and well-chosen contrast. There is fully more pleasure and almost as much utility, in hunting for the thought in this way, and adjusting its relations in that glancing and rapid manner which it incites, as there is in the possession. One great beauty, too, is, that the thought is expressed, and the idea hit off, without any after trouble of trimming or garnishing. The mode speaks to our fancy; the thing makes a frank demand on our judgment; and, though it may sometimes ask too much, yet we are under no pain in denying it; and, having set it down as either incomprehensible or ineffective, may pass on to the next. M. Say's views must be seen.

But

"The author who is a man of the world and a good fellow is rarely known to posterity. Does he want knowledge, or mind, or talent? No, certainly; but the centre of his combinations is the taste of his circle, which he wants to please. Observe, that it is the same thing where the author is a man of merit, and his private society remarkable for genius and information. Private interests, attachments and opinions of the moment, are what each of its members has constantly an eye to, and to which he cannot help attaching more importance than they are deserving of. The world goes round; the present generation disappears; other interests, new connexions, succeed to the former.See what an immense advantage the retired author possesses! He has not received a glance merely moment ary: he has observed in morals, and described in physics, those natural relations which never change, but always interest.

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"Moral philosophers seem to believe that selfishness and interest direct action more than self-conceit or vanity. I believe, on the contrary, that vanity has more influence, generally speaking, than selfishness. stances men act, through vanity, in a manIt is enough to observe in how many inner opposite to their interests; from the child, vexed by contradiction until he refuses his victuals, to the sovereign prince, made to enact so many follies by dint of flattery, who sacrifices a country (I mean the groundwork of his power) to avenge an insult in the gazette.

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"A translator, to understand the lan

guage which he explains, ought to feel its delicacy and beauties. How can he give an equivalent for a beauty which he does not perceive? He ought to write well in his own language, that he may be able even to read. He ought also to have a flexible turn for taking forms analogous to those of his model, and to know when it is necessary to replace expressions, ideas, images, by others conformable to the genius of his language, and which shall excite in the minds of his readers sentiments similar to those which the original author has raised in his. After all this, are you surprised that good translations are so rare ?

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"The cause of several revolutions has sprung from the finances, commencing with that of the United States, which is dated from the duty on tea. So will others come again. Well, what do you conclude? Shew us a way of preventing them! The way is simple, it is evident, but I don't mean to point it out. Why so? For there is nothing so foolish as to give to all the world a piece of advice which nobody will follow. What then? Take it; one word will do the business. WHAT WE CANNOT PRODUCE' WITHOUT TROUBLE, DO NOT LET US SPEND ON FOLLY. Add some accessories to that. Change the scene whenever you please; give names to the personages; propose the intrigues; and,-the winding up

will be always the same.

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"If any one asks from me an explica. tion of the words produce and consume, I shall be obliged to refer to a small definition, in two volumes, under the title of a Treatise on Political Economy; or, a simple Exposition of the Manner in which Riches are PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED, and CONSUMED."

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is not necessary to effect a co-ordination of ideas, to establish a connected and graduated system, which is the highest effort of written eloquence. Pay more attention to the persons you address than to the subject. Draw your argument from the opinions of the person spoken to, even allowing it to be done by sophisms. The persuasion to be effected is only a mode of perceiving. Conversation requires this artifice, in as much as we have to do with contracted minds, with personal feelings, with prejudices. In writing it is otherwise. You must express yourself in the best language you can get. You must be clear and candid too, for you have the impartial public for a judge, and posterity, which is yet more impartial.

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"Men are made of the same stuff,-but their nature manifests itself in different ways. The vanity of the savage consists in shewing his figure, and in having his body well daubed with uneraseable spots, with fine plumes on his head. The vanity of the Italian is manifested in wearing, if he is able, laces on the same parts. The vanity of the Englishman and the Turk lies in not compromising their national dignity,-in wrapping themselves up in defiance and gravity, and, above all, in never permitting you to believe that you can be of use to them, or instruct or amuse them. They speak, as well as think, ill of foreigners; and that which is valued by foreigners, is always inferior to that which is found among themselves, disdainful silence, large strides, and a supercilious inattention to what is passing under their eyes. The vanity of the French is not so exclusive. Without secking to humiliate others, they love to display the advantages they have, and sometimes even those which they have not; and if convicted of boasting, they laugh among the first, provided you do not affect to humble them. Render justice to their bravery, and all will be forgiven.

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merous virtues, as well as faculties, we wish we could adequately display. We beg leave to say a few words on what seem to be the distinctive points of their character as men of letters and sentiment.

They are all cool-headed men, with little imagination, and no great quickness of apprehension,-but so clear in the ideas which they receive, that they never lose sight of them if they think them worth retaining,-nor mistake one of their relations when they come attached to knowledge, and submit to to apply them. They are uniformly such labour in its pursuit as to appear to like it in most instances merely for its own sake. They would study on, if it were for nothing else than the gratification of a vigorous and enduring propensity to mental exercise, which acts with a springiness and effect, that read hard lessons to the ima ginative men of fine taste and quick feelings, who have in youth cultivated their moral affections more than their intellectual faculties. They are eminently calculated to excel in the accurate sciences. They are more actuated, in their exertions and inquiries, by ideas of utility, than by that undefined ambition, which, although it be often of the unproductive kind, lingers, with the last remains of their scholastic enthusiasm, about men of a literary turn, even to a pretty late period of life. In short, every thing that they say, or think, or do, bears about it evident marks of " appropriate probity, appropriate intellectual aptitude, and appropriate active talent.'

They are greatly more improveable than men of fancy and feeling,-and without seeming to be elated, or conscious of any internal excitement,make progresses in taste, as well as on the boundless road of mere know→

ledge, which would astonish any one who observes narrowly and compares attentively.

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