known to the public, by his advice and commendation; and along with Lord Byron, was the principal means of bringing "Bertram" on the stage. Such conduct was worthy of the "Mighty Minstrel," and consistent with that true nobility of mind by which he is characterized, and which makes him rejoice in the glory of contemporary genius. Mr Coleridge speaks with delight of the success of his own Tragedy—of his enlightened audience, and the smiling faces of those he recollected to have attended his Lectures on Poetry at the Royal Institution. How does he account for the same audience admiring Bertram? Let him either henceforth blush for his own fame, or admit Mr Maturin's claims to a like distinction.[1]
We have done. We have felt it our duty to speak with severity of this book and its author and we have given our readers ample opportunities to judge of the justice of our strictures. We have not been speaking in the cause of Literature only, but, we conceive, in the cause of Morality and Religion. For it is not fitting that He should be held up as an example to the rising generation (but, on the contrary, it is most fitting that he should be exposed as a most dangerous model), who has alternately embraced, defended, and thrown aside all systems of Philosophy—and all creeds of Religion,—who seems to have no power of retaining an opinion,—no trust in the principles which he defends,—but who fluctuates from theory to theory, according as he is impelled by vanity, envy, or diseased desire of change,—and who, while he would subvert and scatter dnto dust those structures of knowledge, reared by the wise men of this and other generations, has nothing to erect in their room but the baseless and air-built fabrics of a dreaming Imagination.
CURIOUS METEOROLOGICAL PHENONOMENA OBSERVED IN ARGYLLSHIRE.
MR EDITOR,
The meteorological phenomenon described in a paper read before the Wernerian Society, and given in the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, No V. p. 471, though it may have been singular in the neighbourhood of Leadhills, is not a solitary instance of the same appearance; and if you think it worthy of notice, I shall transcribe from my note-book its occurrence to me on two different occasions.
Having resided for several years in the West Highlands, my profession often obliged me to be on horseback in the night as well as during the day. From the western situation of that country, in the immediate vicinity of the Atlantic Ocean, the climate is generally moist and variable, occasioned by the prevailing winds, which, for the greater part of the year, blow from that quarter, and carry along with them immense volumes of clouds collected over that immeasurable expanse of water, which, being attracted by the great altitude of the mountains, are broken upon their summits, and pour down their torrents on the surrounding country;—of this description was the 6th of October 1799. I mounted my horse in the morning, to encounter—what I often had done before—a long ride with a wet skin. Along with the rain there was its usual accompaniment, a breeze of wind, which continued till dusk, when it became calm. The rain also gradually abated, and at last disappeared, but left in its place a dense, humid vapour, so that at the distance of a few yards no object was visible. The night became dark and dreary, but I continued my journey.
In passing along a road that leads by the margin of an extensive moss, and not far from a considerable river which intersects a great plain, I was surprised, and I confess startled, by the sudden illumination of my horse's whole mane and ears, which rapidly appeared as if thickly covered with burning sulphur, or ignited phosphorus, and partially spread over the breast of my great coat, and edge of my hat.
Having never before seen any thing of the kind, I believed that I was enveloped by an electric cloud, and felt considerable alarm lest an explosion
- ↑ We may here make mention of an admirable essay on this Drama, read before the Royal Society of Edinburg, by Mr McKenzie, the illustrious Author of the Man of Feeing. The knowledge that high praise was bestowed on him by such a man, may well comfort Mr Maturin under the mean abuses of an envious Rival.
