FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 1816. CONTENTS OF No. LIII. Patrick's, Dublin: Containing additional Letters, Tracts and Poems, not hitherto published: With III. Der Krieg der Tyroler Landleute im Jahre 1809. Von IV. The Principles of Fluxions, designed for the Use of Students in the Universities. By William Dealtry, B. D. F. R. S. late. Eellow of Trinity College, Cam- V. Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland. Quatrième Partie. VI. The law of Libel, in which is contained a General History of this Law in the Ancient Codes, and of its Introduction and successive Alterations in the Law of England: Comprehending a Digest of all the leading Cases upon Libels, from the earliest to the present Time. By Thomas Ludlow Holt Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law VII. Introduzione alla Geologia, di Scipione Breislak, Am- VIII. The History of the Church of Scotland, from the E- stablishment of the Reformation to the Revolution, illustrating a most interesting period of the Political ART. IX. A General View of the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy, since the Re- THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1816. N°. LIII. ART. I. The Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., trick's Dublin: Containing additional Letters, ems, not hitherto published: With Notes, and a thor, by WALTER SCOTT, Esq. 19 vol. 8vo. 1815. Dean of St Pa BY By far the most considerable change which has taken place in the world of letters, in our days, is that by which the wits of Queen Anne's time have been gradually brought down from the supremacy which they had enjoyed, without competition, for the best part of a century. When we were at our studies, some twenty-five years ago, we can perfectly remember that every young man was set to read Pope, Swift and Addison, as regularly as Virgil, Cicero and Horace. All who had any tincture' of letters were familiar with their writings and their history; allusions to them abounded in all popular discourses and all ambitious conversation; and they and their contemporaries were universally acknowledged as our great models of excellence, and placed without challenge at the head of our national literature. New books, even when allowed to have merit, were never thought of as fit to be placed in the same class, but were generally read and forgotten, and passed away like the transitory meteors of a lower sky; while they remained in their brightness, and were supposed to shine with a fixed and unalterable glory. All this, however, we take it, is now pretty well altered; and in so far as persons of our antiquity can judge of the training and habits of the rising generation, those celebrated writers no longer form the manual of our studious youth, or enter necessarily into the institution of a liberal education. Their names, indeed, are still familiar to our ears; but their writings no long VOL. XXVII. NO. 53. A |