acknowledge the manifold temptations strewed around his feet, the enthusiastic and the generous ran into the other extreme, and weakly -I must not say wickedly-strove to extenuate them into mere trifles,-in too many instances to deny them altogether; and when too flagrant to be denied, dared to declare that we were bound to forget and forgive them, on the score of the poet's genius,-as if Genius, the guardian of Virtue, could ever be regarded as the pander to vice, and the slave of sin. Thus they were willing to sacrifice morality, rather than that the idol set up before the imagination should be degraded; and did far worse injury, and offered far worse insult, to Virtue and Religion, by the slurring over the offences of Burns against both, than ever was done by those offences themselves-for Burns bitterly repented what they almost canonized; and the evil practice of one man can never do so much injury to society as the evil theory of a thousand. Burns erred greatly and grievously; and since the world knows he did, as well from friends as from foes, let us be lenient and merciful to him, whose worth was great; but just and faithful to that law of right, which must on no consideration be violated by our judgments, but which must maintain and exercise its severe and sovereign power over all transgressions, and more especially over the transgressions of those to whom Nature has granted endowments that might have been, had their possessors nobly willed it, the ministers of unmingled good to themselves and the whole human race."-Vol. ii., pp. 229-231.

We must not put aside this brilliant and original production without briefly examining a few objections to which it is apparently open. Some of them, we think, are founded in justice and propriety. The work is not without grave defects and blemishes, though deserving that praise of general truth and literary merit, which has been so liberally awarded. The occasional unfairness and inaccuracy of some of its political and personal strictures may be referred partly to its peculiar plan, and partly to the circumstances of its production. The editor truly describes it as "a wilderness of rejoicing fancies,"-and brambles as well as wild flowers are encountered in its devious and romantic paths. The freedom and undress in which the characters appear at these re-unions is, at least, as patent as the raciness of their convivial humour, or the splendour of their poetic flights. It could hardly fail to happen that, in a composition of this kind, written with extraordinary speed, and adapted to the occasions of a monthly journal, there should be traces both of hasty judgment and transient but unworthy feeling. Effusions so copious and so unpremeditated may be expected to evince the author's human weakness, as well as to manifest his extraordinary powers; and such is actually the case. Scattered through these pages are many observations, criticisms, and conclusions, which most readers will not hesitate to reject as crude, or doubtful, or untenable. Even on literary subjects,-where the author is most sound and catholic,-some partialities are easily discerned to be

the unconscious source of critical delinquencies, as when a very indifferent copy of verses by Delta is pronounced "beautiful," while the poetry of Southey is captiously dissected and scornfully contemned. The coarseness which is frequently and intimately blended with the humour of these volumes is still more to be regretted; for we know of no process of excision by which it could have been removed by editorial hands, without destruction of their characteristic merits. Neither are the author's religious sentiments, or the allusions and descriptions bearing upon sacred topics, in which his characters indulge, quite unexceptionable, or in the purest taste. The moral tone of the work we hold, indeed, to be sound and Christian in the main. Revelation is never for an instant doubted or depreciated; religion is ever recognised as the source of our most ennobling sentiments; Christianity is acknowledged to be the only basis of social and national prosperity; and, if little is surmised or said of its power over the individual life and heart, still we would not undervalue the sincere and lofty homage which the author pays to the holy truths of our religion. But we are not quite pleased with the tone in which the Shepherd is made to speak of professing Christian people. We give up to his graphic ridicule the fea tures of the hypocrite and the sensualist; we do not find much fault with his description of the sleeping congregation at the kirk; but why are all the most unbecoming vanities and indulgences here charged upon "religious ladies," while the worldly young lady is represented as the very emblem of cheerful innocence and truth, beaming with natural piety the most amiable and refreshing. It is charitable to suggest that dramatic consistency extorted this grave aspersion and delusive theory; for they are quite in keeping with the Shepherd's favourite sentiment, that poetry is true religion.

But objections may be felt to certain features of these volumes, which are yet not insusceptible of a legitimate ground of defence; and those we shall consider, and this we shall propose, with all frankness and sincerity.

There is one feature of the Noctes Ambrosianæ for which the sober reader should be specially prepared; namely, the great devotion, both practical and theoretical, which the members seem constantly paying to the pleasures of the table. The Shepherd and his companions do not hesitate to interrupt the most entertaining theme, or finest sentiment, with a greedy anticipation of the supper; and when it comes, there is evidently nothing lacking. By sudden transformation is then presented the feast in season and the flowing bowl. The critical discourse, the moral censure, the eloquent appreciation of the charms of nature, cease on their lips, and are succeeded by the welldrawn merits of a Scotch haggis, and the heart-felt praise of punch. The conversation is retained only as an intellectual

condiment by these devoted men. Hearty as gourmands, yet delicate as epicures, they quicken the zest of appetite by the indulgence of a learned fancy, and heighten the relish of most sumptuous viands by the flavour of choice Attic salt. Presently, as the night advances, a boisterous mirth succeeds to the quiet interchange of pleasantry and wit; and North-the stately and the sage is not unfrequently supported in unvenerable plight to the coach or couch awaiting him. From a picture so undignified as this some readers will be apt to turn with very natural dislike; they may even hastily pronounce it to be of pernicious and immoral tendency. But we submit that these imaginary revels must be wholly misconstrued before they can be totally condemned. To our minds there is a fine Shakspearean humour in these scenes, which gives them the immunity of shadowy artcreations, so that they evade, by their buoyant unreality, the weight of serious rebuke. We see that all this animal excess is purely supposititious; and though the humour which conceives it may fail by repetition, (as indeed it does,) we must not forget the origin and sphere of that conception. There is here no call for the verdict of a committee of the Temperance Society; for the whole proceeding is removed beyond the limits of their practical commission, removed even beyond the limits of " this visible diurnal sphere," into the region of imaginative art. The most temperate of us all would hesitate to ground a serious charge against the character of Charles Lamb, simply upon his unctuous praise of young roast-pig (for which dish it is very possible the author had no actual preference); and it would be equally unjust, or, rather, equally ridiculous, to condemn altogether the imaginary revels which, in the present instance, supply the occasion of so much agreeable and "large discourse."

The same consideration will serve greatly to modify another questionable feature of these dialogues. Written at a time of great political activity, and inspired, as we have seen, by the highest energy of animal spirits, they abound in freedom of remark too often bordering upon personal abuse. But some critics have exaggerated, we think, both the number and character of these injurious passages. With one or two exceptions, the abuse of North is not personal, in the offensive sense of that term. His invective is generally a matter of pure humour, and no more indicates malice or uncharitableness, than his delightful self-glorification betokens a degrading vanity. Hence the genius of exaggeration which seems to inspire the whole tirade. It is the practice of an able archer on an indifferent target; and though he plucks his keen-headed arrows out of the vocabulary of ridicule and scorn, and launches them with equal force and truth of aim, it is not that he may wound the apple of the eye before him, but rather that he may empty the quiver of his own excited genius. Even when Christopher is in a really splenetic

mood, and speaks with downright injustice of some contemporary book or author, it adds something to the dramatic charm of these symposia; and, after all, there is not much harm done: the well-read reader still judges for himself of merits which are evidently disparaged from accidental and temporary feeling, and remembers that the convivial chair is not the seat of measured and impartial justice. Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt are perhaps most subjected to opprobrious language, which certain of their principles might excusably call forth from the northern moralist; yet even they do not fall into the reader's serious contempt; for the author himself, though he shows them no mercy in their characters of free-thinking whig or cockney, is shrewdly suspected of feeling for them still some literary respect. Of Leigh Hunt Professor Wilson subsequently spoke with kindness. He favourably reviewed his drama of the "Legend of Florence;" "and when," says Mr. Ferrier, "indignantly repudiating an offer made by some low hireling to run down Leigh Hunt and his London Journal,' he exclaims, in words worthy of being written in letters of gold, 'THE ANIMOSITIES ARE MORTAL; BUT THE HUMANITIES LIVE FOR EVER.' Nothing can be more just than this distinction, or more characteristic of its author. Complaisance and benevolence are the very habit and atmosphere of every noble mind, while displeasure and animosity are but transient obscurations, and leave no more trace upon its features than the shadow of a summer cloud when it has rolled from the mountain side, or peeled off the sunny meadow.

In conclusion, our thanks are due to Professor Ferrier for his editorial tact and vigilance. His Preface evinces superior literary taste; and the brief notes which he has supplied-chiefly of a glossarial nature—are a real service to the English reader. Under such able and conscientious superintendence, the works of Professor Wilson will come before the world with every possible advantage; and we believe the entire series will both merit and obtain acceptance. In reference to the writings next to follow, we must offer one remark. We hope it is the editor's intention to re-publish the Dies Boreales, contributed by Professor Wilson in later life to Blackwood's Magazine. Though proceeding only to six or seven numbers, they form a valuable supplement to the Noctes Ambrosiana: less brilliant and hilarious than those, what they lose in animal spirits, they gain in chastened wisdom and in moral power. As the Odyssey to the Iliad, such is the mellow beauty of the Dies to the extravagant and festive glory of the Noctes. The fine analyses of Shakspearean character are quite inimitable; and the illustrations of Butler's argument are not less beautiful and just. Our recollections of these noble conversations make us anticipate an equal satisfaction in their re-perusal.

ART. V.-The Paris Conference.-Evangelical Christendom. October, 1855.

"THERE was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." It was thus the Apocalypse prepared its awe-stricken readers for one of the great historical crises revealed in its pages. And there is partial silence now. The rigour of winter has suspended the shock of battle, but it has not interrupted the privations of a dear season, the strain upon public and private resources, and the gloomy expectation of its continuance; while but recently sounds of menace and selfish calculating irritation were wafted across the Atlantic, from a quarter whence they were neither expected nor deserved. These are circumstances to force the pious mind to look up as well as to look around: it is a relief to turn away from the dreary prospect presented by the political world to that sphere in which hope becomes a duty.

Unreflecting religious people in every age are inclined to suppose their own generation worse than any which has preceded it; and for this very simple reason,-their knowledge of contemporaneous evil is experimental. They suffer in observing the irreligion, the false religion, and the moral degradation of their own times, to a degree to which they are not affected by even greater evils, which have become mere matters of history. However, when one has succeeded in climbing above the narrow valley of personal experience, and surveys from an eminence the long and weary way by which the hand of God has guided the human race, the impression is very different. It is true that sin has changed what ought to have been happy and unbroken progress into a fearful conflict. It is true that no tongue of men or angels can express the sum of guilt and suffering that renders history hideous, and the irreparable woe of the multitudes that have fallen by the way. Yet progress there is. What the Apostle says of individuals may be applied to man collectively. Now is his salvation nearer than when he first received the Gospel. We have to deplore at this moment many partial triumphs of superstition and unbelief, and their inevitable ally, despotism; we recognise the symptoms of an increasingly earnest struggle between the powers of light and darkness: but for that very reason the prospect is hopeful. We follow the banner of a Captain accustomed to victory.

One striking feature of the present moment is the importance attached to religious interests. In one shape or other, more or less directly, they are at the bottom of all the questions that agitate the world. Even the most secularly-minded statesmen are obliged to reckon with them to an extent that would astonish their predecessors of the last two centuries. Nor is it merely in political spheres, and when mixed up with national or party