After the wind, with rending roll
A crash was heard from pole to pole,
As if the Almighty's hand had rent
The ample yielding firmament;
Or split with jangle and with knell
The adamantine arch of hell;

And lo! from out the heavens there came
A sea of rolling smouldering flame,
Which o'er the sinners' heads impended,
And slowly, dreadfully descended;
While with their shouts the welkin broke,
'Great Odin comes! our god, our rock !'-

Just while their horrid sacrifice
Still flamed with incense to the skies;
Just when their hearts were at the proudest,
And their orisons at the loudest,

The liquid sounding flame inclosed them,
And roll'd them in its furnace bosom!

That city fill'd with loathsome crime,
With all its piles of ancient time,
After the fiery column broke,
Scarce gave a crackle or a smoke,
More than a heap of chaff or tinder,
But melted to a trivial cinder!-

Scarce had the eye of trembling hind
Regain'd its sight-with terror blind,
His heart began to beat in time,
Or shudder'd at the heinous crine,
Ere the appalling scene was o'er!
One single moment, and no more,
All glitter'd with a glowing gleen,
Then pass'd as they had never been.
Walls, towers, and sinners, in one sweep,
Were solder'd to a formless heap,
To stand, until that final day
When this fair world shall melt away,
As beacons sacred and sublime

Of judgment sent for human crime.

We must not omit to mention, that Haco and "winsome Wene" are safe. They became King and Queen of Scandina via, having first entered into that ancient league

"For wisdom, peace, and justice famed

For many ages-Blest is he,

Thus hallowed by posterity!"

Such is the poem of Queen Hynde. The extracts which we

have made, do not constitute a selection of the best passages; but we advise our readers to read the whole of the poem for themselves, and they will find treasures still more valuable, for all that we have accomplished, yet unsunned as miser's gold. But Hogg is no miser; he has printed his book : we are no literary larceners to abstract the better portions; and then, like some critics, tell all the world that the remainder is not worth perusal.

Such is the poem of Queen Hynde,-not a faultless production, but the production of a man of genius, and worthy of him and it. The spirit of poetry shines through him and his productions, as it can never shine through the compilations of the mere student of art; who is, in general, rather skilful in the employment of the poetical vocabulary, than learned in the poetry of nature. Whatever may be its faults, every line, every page, of James Hogg, is poetry, as well as poetical. It bears the seal of his own creation upon it: it can be identified for his own.

It is with nature's untutored poets as with the female votaries who surrounded the fathers of the Christian church, their warmest and best allies; and to whose pure piety, fervid zeal, and heroic devotedness, Christianity is signally indebted. Unacquainted and unincumbered with the dogmas of ancient philosophy, that religious illumination, which in the learned heads of the fathers found a dense and coloured medium that turned astray, and tinged with gaudy imaginations, its celestial beam, shone through them with warmth and clearness. Thus, through the unprejudiced and unoccupied mind of the untutored poet the light of nature penetrates, the spirit of poesy irradiates every chamber of his intellect, glows in every thought, and is visible in every transparent word;-beautiful and brilliant as the lustre which the living glow-worm projects into the darkness, making a faery "sunshine in the shady place;"magnificent and mysterious as that intellectual fulgour shining from and in all created things, by which the very glory of Deity is through them made visible and manifest.

A Practical Treatise on Rail-Roads and Carriages, shewing the Principles of Estimating their Strength, Proportions, Expence, and Annual Produce, with the Theory, Effect, and Expence of Steam Carriages, Stationary Engines, and Gas Machines, illustrated by Engravings and Tables. By Thomas Tredgold, Civil Engineer, pp. 190.-London, Taylor, 1825.

Ir is of the utmost importance, in a commercial country, to consider and ascertain the cheapest and most expeditious methods of conveying goods from one part to another, whether of the foreign raw material to the manufactory, or of the manufactured articles to the most eminent sea-port town for exportation, besides the various and decided advantages of supplying the markets for home consumption with as little delay and danger as possible. If we refer back to the state of this country, previous to the improvement of the roads, by the establishment of mail-coaches, we find that even the transportation of persons, with their necessary luggage, from one part of the country to another, especially to any considerable distance, was a tedious and laborious, not to say in many instances dangerous, process. Since then, great attention has been paid to the direction and construction of the public roads by the surveyors connected with the post office, and celerity and certainty in the conveyance of passengers; letters and light goods have been a paramount consideration in all the plans lately adopted, whether in altering old roads or in forming new ones. Hitherto, the use of rail-roads seems to have been chiefly confined to the removal of heavy materials from the pit's mouth to navigable rivers, as in coal districts and iron works, whilst the canals, which at their first projection, often staggered the capitalist, and caused a depreciation in the value of the original shares, form now the chief means of inland communication,

as well as the most commodious conveyance, from the manufacturing districts to the several sea-port towns,whilst the saving to the country in the article of horses, and of food for their consumption, has been immense,-at the same time, an easier and a much more cheap conveyance has been obtained. But as canals must necessarily have a limitation from the nature of the country, the difficulty of procuring a suitable supply of water, and the opposition which is often made to the invasion of private property, in addition to the circuitous rout often adopted to avoid locks, which, however

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convenient in certain situations, are an expensive impediment in the way of a free navigation. The public attention has lately been directed to the consideration of rail-roads, as affording a much cheaper and more expeditious method of conveyance: the recent proposal for making a rail-road from Manchester to Liverpool, where a canal already exists, shews the anxiety of the manufacturer to have his goods conveyed to the place of shipment with the greatest certainty and dispatch. Delays on canal navigation often arise from other causes than frost or accident, and where no competition exists, unreasonable charges are frequently made. But so difficult it is nicely to adjust the balance between the expected profit of the speculative adventurer, and the real interests of the public, that it seldom happens that both parties are at the same time, satisfied. Another occasion has also lately occurred, where the proposal for a canal has been superseded by the adoption of a rail-road, in the projected line of communication between Carlisle and Newcastle-upon-Tyne,but we believe, that the preference has been given to the latter solely on the score of a comparative estimate of the expence, without reference to the superior adaptation of one or the other plan, to the nature of the country through which the line of communication will have to pass. We have perused with pleasure, a work on the subject of railroads, by Mr. Tredgold, who seems every way calculated for such an undertaking. We shall quote a few short extracts from the work, and then give a summary of its contents:

"In discussing the merits of rail-roads, we have to compare them with turnpike roads and with canals. Rail-roads give the certainty of the turnpike road, with a saving of seven-eighths of the power; one horse on a rail-road producing as much effect as eight horses on a turnpike road. In the effect produced by a given power, the railroad is about a mean between the turnpike road and a canal, when the rate is about three miles per hour; but where greater speed of conveyance is desirable, the rail-road equals the canal in effect, and even surpasses it. Speed and certainty are of such primary importance in commerce, that a small increase of expence is not a material object.

"Certainty of supply must tend much to diminish the fluctuation of prices, and remove those alternations of glut and scarcity which are perpetually occurring in the markets, from contrary winds, frosts, floods, &c.

"Every thing which tends to render the conveyance of goods certain, must lessen their expense to the consumer, by diminishing the amount of dormant capital, and the necessity of keeping large stores in expensive warehouses, and with a good system of conveyance, when a sudden call does take place, the whole stock of the country becomes available.

"The motives which now operate in accumulating people together in large towns, it is probable, will also be less powerful, in proportion as facility and certainty of intercourse increases.

"But these remarks extend only to the present state of trade; its extension and economy in Britain are of still greater importance. We must ever regard ourselves as contending in rivalry with other nations; and whatever enables us to supply home and foreign markets at a lower rate with articles of superior excellence, must add to the prosperity and wealth of the state. To improve the interior communication in this country must be productive of much good, by equalizing the distribution of agricultural produce, and allowing that of those districts to which nature has been most bountiful, free access to market. There must necessarily be a very wide difference in the nature of the soils in any country of considerable extent, and it is extremely improbable that the best is most favorably situated for yielding a fair profit on its produce, without the assistance of artificial means of sending that produce to the places of demand. And it is evident that, unless some easy mode of conveyance be resorted to, the demand must be supplied at a greater expence from inferior soils, and of course, from such as require a greater capital to cultivate them, without being more productive to the land owner, while they are also less certain of yielding a sufficient quantity to replace the capital expended and afford the ordinary rate of profit.

"A cheap and regular mode of conveyance, besides rendering the produce of fertile land accessible at a less price to any portion of the community, also affords new markets for other articles; it creates new sources of exchange and supply, and causes the advantages of labour and industry to spread, and expel the idleness and indifference which engraft themselves among those people who, without such means, barely obtain the common necessaries of life; for the ordinary mode of land-carriage makes every heavy commodity so expensive, that the inhabitants of inland districts are limited to what nature furnishes them with. In many places they are nearly destitute of fuel, and while moderate exertion gives them the scanty supply of comforts within their reach, their utmost efforts scarcely do more; and therefore, they sink into that languid state of indifference which we find so generally prevalent in such countries.

"A rail-road has more affinity to a turnpike-road than to a canal, both in structure and application. It differs from a turnpike ́in requiring to be level or slightly inclined, the ascents and descents being effected by inclined planes, instead of the irregular undulations of the turnpike. To obtain the levels, renders a rail-road more costly than a turnpike; for, as to the expence of the rail-road itself, it will sometimes be less than a good turnpike-road in the same place; for the interest of the excess of capital expended on the road will be less than the annual expence to keep the turnpike in repair. But a horse will draw eight times as much on a rail-road as on a turnpike-road, when travelling at the same rate, and it is not improbable that the reduced price of conveyance will cause eight times the quantity of traffic.

"But the great advantage of a rail-way will consist, in its affording