how works.' sion, it will be their grand strife, in the way referred to, Sir John Sinclair, whose authority is of much weight in matters of this kind, has remarked, in reference to Mr Thomson's suggestions,-"The plan of having Congregational Friendly Societies seems to me highly judicious, and greatly preferable to that of having them of a professional description, by which many would be excluded from the benefit of such institutions. Indeed, the larger the scale, the more likely are Friendly Societies to answer the important purposes contemplated and to have the object for which they are constituted carefully and successfully attended to." The Library of Religious Knowledge. No. I. Natural mind of every class of readers. The work which more particularly solicits our attention at present, is got up with great regard to neatness, both in exter. nal and internal appearances. It consists of three sheets of excellent paper, very handsomely printed in small octavo, with about half a dozen well-executed engravings, and a suitable cover, and all to be had at the very moderate price of sixpence per number; and eight of these will form a volume. Number I. consists of the first part of Natural Theology, or Evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity, collected and deduced from the various appearances of Nature: the whole of this department of the work is intended to be a judicious selection from Paley's great and excellent work on that subject. The study of Natural Theology has been, and will ever be, a never-failing source of the highest pleasure to the man of science, the philosopher, and the Christian, and is one which Paley has made pe culiarly his own by the aptitude of his remarks, and the unanswerable nature of his arguments. On the whole, we consider this work justly entitled to a claim on the British public, as one which will do much in the way of leading the mass of the people to a pure and useful study, whilst it will at the same time accustom them to raise their thoughts to the great Author of all things in heaven and on earth. True Stories from the History of Ireland. By John James M'Gregor. Dublin; William Curry, jun. and Co. 1829. THIS is an excellent compendium of Irish History, from the earliest periods down to the reign of Richard III. It is intended principally for the use of the young, and is a work which ought to be put into their hands, in conjunction with the other popular volumes which have lately issued from the press, containing Histories of England and Scotland, similarly digested and arranged. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. MORAL AND MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. No. I. first of a series of papers under the above title, which we propose We have much pleasure in presenting our readers with the to continue regularly once a-fortnight, and all of which, though for obvious reasons given anonymously, will be furnished by authors of established reputation. They will, for the most part, be written in a simple didactic style, affecting neither the flippancy nor the false glitter of so many of the fugitive compositions of the present day, but hoping to merit attention by the sound sense and pure morality which the experience of those who are not new to life is best able to teach.-Ed. Lit. Jour.] THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY-THE MORAL CHA CERTES, this is the age of and for Libraries, in every sense of the word. Imprimis, we have Constable's Mis.. RACTER OF THE LOWER CLASSES. cellany, which every body knows is of itself a library "Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator, both for rich and poor; we have the Library of Usc- Nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit, ful Knowledge, the hobby which Brougham manages so Si modo culturæ patientem commodet aurem." gracefully-the Library of the People, an excellent HOR. Epist. 1. Lib. I. work for the winter fireside, or the window recess in the summer evening ;—the Library of Entertaining Know- prospect than to look upon an improving age. To see THERE cannot be a more animating and exhilarating ledge, on the eve of being brought out by that autocrat the minds of men opening to knowledge, their manners of all the publishers, Murray of Albemarle-street, and softening and humanizing, and the genuine sources of which promises a great fund of knowledge and amuse- happiness becoming daily better felt and understood, ment, both to young and old, grave and gay ;-and last-must be extremely grateful to every one who takes an ly, though in all probability not the last, we have here the Library of Religious Knowledge, the title of which appears at the head of this article. Thus we are presented, through the medium of these meritorious and cheap productions, with food for the interest in the progress of his species. It is not to be denied, that the age in which we live presents us with in the sciences and the arts have greatly increased the many such appearances. The wonderful improvements accommodations of human lifea much wider and more general cultivation has taken place from the universal diffusion of education-and, if we do not at once see all the moral fruits which we might hope would spring from these advantages, perhaps we are only too rapid in our calculations, and do not sufficiently take into the account other thwarting and impeding causes. It is a great point gained to find things in a distinct state of advancement, especially when this arises from intellectual progress. When men are capable of listening to reason, and are habituated to examine the principles of their conduct, there is much more ground for hope that they will get rid of their reigning vices and follies, than when these are fixed by blind custom or unquestioned prejudices. It is probable, indeed, that a people, whose minds are loosened from the trammels of authority and habit, will be apt to lose likewise some of those sturdy virtues which are so often perpetuated in rude times from the mere force of example, and from the glow of domestic and patriotic affections. In a word, in the cultivated people, every thing being left rather to the operation of intellect than of feeling, virtue may be more frequently sophisticated away, if vice is less maintained by mere violence and unbridled passion. There may accordingly appear, perhaps, greater fluctuation to the one side and the other in a society of this kind, than in one which is more under the influence of instinct, or of outward circumstances; yet, in the midst of this seeming fluctuation, a steadier progress is still going on, because intelligence is a mighty opening of good, when it can be reached and clicited; and it is only in the cultivated people that this principle is regularly to be found. Whatever qualities of genuine goodness may seem to disappear with the simplicity of untutored times, or whatever unlooked-for forms of vice may start up amidst the culture of civilized life, yet human nature, with all its native and original principles, remains; and these can surely be much more easily touched to the production of the purest morality, or to the eradication of baneful disorders, when a ready communication takes place between one mind and another, and where there is so prevailing a spirit of mutual intercourse throughout the whole society, that even those in the lowest walks of life can be made to receive the impressions of more trained and regulated orders of intellect. This is exactly the state in which society is at present, or to which, at least, it is fast advancing. There is scarcely a village or hamlet throughout this island in which there are not readers, and men capable of benefiting from what they read. Each of these individuals, whatever may be his vices or his prejudices, has the means of communication within his reach, with all the noblest and the wisest spirits that have ever appeared to adorn or to bless humanity; and why should we despair of the influence being exerted, or that, if the right chords be touched, there may not be called forth, from this apparently chaotic and disunited multitude, the grand tones of a rich and corresponding harmony? In every human heart, the foundation is prepared on which the fabric of religion and moral wisdom may be reared-and the great advantage which an age, such as the present, possesses, is, that they who are qualified to commence or to complete the building, have in all directions roads opened for the conveyance of their materials. Whatever, then, may be the seemingly hopeless appearances of vice or disorder prevailing in any rank or condition of society, the truly enlightened philanthropist will never permit himself to despond. He will only be the more eager to trace out the causes of the evil, and to apply himself to their removal, in full | confidence that human nature, when it is fairly appealed to, will bring its reason and conscience into play, for its own purification and amendment. Notwithstanding the great efforts that have been made in the present times, for the improvement of the lower orders, it is apt occasionally to create a melancholy emotion, when we observe that there seems to be no abate ment of crime and profligacy in that class of our people. But it is not fair to try, by such a scale, the true efficacy of education and intellectual culture. We have no reason to suppose that those who have imbibed it most effectually, are the corrupt and debased part of the population,-those who waste their means in intemperance, and are ready to commit any outrage for the supply of their wants. They who have really improved their minds, are not likely to be the same individuals who are most frequent in the alehouse, or who come to figure on the scaffold. Talents, indeed, and knowledge, may no doubt be perverted to detestable purposes; but it is more commonly the idle and unreflecting who fall into the worst and most fatal practices-and they did so before there was one reader among their order. But now that so many of the common people have learned to read and write, education being one of the most prominent peculiarities of their present condition as compared with their former, it brings the whole class more distinctly into view; and whenever we hear of any prevailing vice among them, or any instances of remarkable guilt and atrocity, a cry is set up amongst the prejudiced sticklers for ignorance or abuses-This comes of your reading and writing! It might, with equal reason, be maintained, that the commonalty of a nation are wicked in the same proportion that they go to church; and when we see a village swarming with drunkards, who probably are the last people to darken the sacred doors, some sage philosopher might exclaim-This comes of your church-goers! But, notwithstanding the weight of such an unanswerable aphorism, it would still remain true that the doctrines inculcated in church were powerful both to maintain the sobriety of the pious, and to reclaim the intemperate from their disorders; and, in like manner, the press is a powerful engine, both to strengthen the abhorrence of all vice and profligacy throughout the virtuous members of a people, and to recall to better and wiser conduct such of the wandering as are capable of being reformed. There can be no doubt that there is at this moment in the nation, perhaps more especially in this northern division of it, a most unfortunate tendency to habits of low and brutal intoxication. Whether this has been increased by an injudicious attention on the part of Government more to the sources of revenue than to the preservation of the morals of the people; whether, too, there may not be some defect of internal regulation in the facility with which places of debauch are permitted to be multiplied;-still the blame of the vice must rest chiefly with the populace themselves, and if they do not surmount it, notwithstanding these temptations to its indulgence, it will not quit its hold of them, in any change of circumstances, but will be ever ready to draw them into its vortex. It is quite unnecessary to declaim upon the wretched consequences of this vice; the ruin which it produces to the health, wealth, and respectability of individuals and families-all this is quite apparent and we would rather wish to awaken the sense of their own honour and dignity in the lower orders, and to show them that if they indulge in this shameful propensity, it is utterly in vain to hope that they can reach that station of importance which they would undoubtedly attain in the present train of improvement which is opening upon them, if to intellectual acquisitions they were to add the grace of sober and correct manners. Not a year would pass over their heads in which they would not make some advance to an equality with their superiors in all the real advantages and respectability of human life. But if they go on to brutify, and degrade themselves by the prostration of all their faculties and moral feelings before the demon of debauch-whatever noble examples of individuals there may be rising above their station by honest industry, and the virtuous use of the manifold advantages so liberally placed within their reach, the people, as a body, must sink, instead of rising, and will be unable to turn to any good account their shallow and imperfect acquirements, if they do not gain that solidity of character and of conduct which can alone build upon these rudiments of knowledge, the fabric of thoughtful and enduring wisdom. No class of men can acquire any weight or importance if they are habitually in the practice of rendering themselves contemptible; and if it is very general for the poorer classes to spend the fruits of their daily labour, upon which they might support and rear their families, and acquire in time something like independence, in the shocking practice of reducing themselves to a level with the brutes, they must at that rate expect, instead of coming nearer the station of the higher orders, which they have it now in their power to do, in whatever is most valuable and desirable,—to be accounted merely as "hewers of wood and drawers of water." our highways, the nurseries of the poison which inflamed their ferocity, and which betrayed the murdered to their destruction. We have no doubt that a reflecting and calculating people like our countrymen, will be able to rouse themselves from so base and irrational a practice if they will only lay it seriously to heart. Other nations do not require this stimulus. The English grow fat and sometimes muddy upon ale; but they do not drink themselves into the condition of brutes. The French are the gayest people in nature, and have fifty ways of amusing themselves without getting so much as elevated with wine from one year's end to another. The theatre in cities, or rural games in the country, would be an infinitely better way of spending such hours of leisure as the people can command. Or if intoxication come to be regarded as a disgrace, men might have liquor before them, and indulge in it, as far as Some late tragical occurrences have exhibited the de- mere sociality required, without any baneful consegrading results of this unmanly vice in a light in which quences. Gentlemen in this country very seldom, now-athey had never heretofore appeared in the world; but days, intoxicate themselves, and to go into the company of we are sorry to say, the moral of these awful events ladies in a state of drunken irrationality or abomination, does not seem yet to be duly drawn and applied. It would be utterly disgraceful. Not so forty years ago. was natural, no doubt, in the first instance, to regard Gentlemen then not unusually reeled through the the perpetrators of the crimes alluded to with sole and dance in the ball-room, and almost overturned their undivided abhorrence, not to trace their guilt to any re- delicate partners, as they wheeled them round, or sate moter cause, and to look upon their victims with no babbling, in a corner, ineffable nonsense into their ears, emotion but that of pity. A little farther reflection, or-but we shall desist from heightening the picture. however, must evince, that with whatever detestation Why may not a greater refinement of manners find its we must regard the one, we can yet not acquit the other. way in like manner into the lower ranks, and why may Not one of these victims would have suffered, had they it not become something like a spirit of honour with not previously been rendered the victims of their own them to refrain from defacing the human image and sink. vices. The only individual who showed any moraling it into the bestial? It is only when this happy condignity amongst them was the poor betrayed innocent; summation takes effect, that we can look forward with almost all the others were in a state of willing inebriety any hope to a steady national improvement. when their murderers rushed upon them; and it must be owned, that it is a page in the history of our country which we should naturally be anxious to have expunged; but it will carry down to the latest posterity this story of national shame-that a few despicable strangers had SCHILLER'S POETRY. "Thane of Fife," &c. R. M. calculated so certainly upon the prevalence of the love of By William Tennant, author of "Anster Fair,” the dram-drinking among the populace of this city and surrounding country, that they could coolly lay a plot to murder one drunken wretch after another, for an inde BESIDE the poetry contained in his metrical dramas, finite period of time, and had actually accomplished Schiller has left two volumes of verses, written under their design to a large amount, for the mere purpose various complexions of mind, in various metres, and on of obtaining their carcasses, to be sold, like those of various subjects. His reputation, however, like that of beasts in the shambles. The murderers were more our Shakspeare, (who also wrote poems,) rests more seflagitious, perhaps, than any other human beings ever curely on his metrical plays, than on his other produc were in this world. Yet they, too, could scarcely have tions. His poems, nevertheless, unequal as they are to reached the capability of their gigantic crime, had they his greater works, show a diversity and sweep of talent, not in part used as a stimulus what was an opiate to from which a reader may, more readily than from a petheir victims ;-what made these drunk made those rusal of Shakspeare's miscellaneous verses, infer his pebold; and they even pretended to have lost the recol- culiar capabilities for the higher sphere of the drama. lection of their deeds in their intoxication. It is here His earlier poems, like his earlier plays, are unquesthat the true moral arises from this monstrous exhibi- tionably of least merit: the impenetrable mysticism and tion. It is the most awful warning that ever yet was sense-defying idealities of Kant's transcendental philo. read to a people since the world began, of the extreme sophy seem to have overclouded and vitiated his mind brutality of drunkenness in every aspect and result; and all its productions, till he completed his Don and if, instead of shouting and hallooing during the Carlos,-the first in time, but the last in value, of his meexecution of the grand agent of the villainy, the popu-trical dramas. His study of the Greek authors, which lace had a little taken to heart, that morning-the origin of the guilt in the criminals, and of the miserable defencelessness of the sufferers, and had uttered a prayer for grace and resolution to be saved from such temptations and disorders in their own persons, they would have shown a better understanding of the meaning of the mysterious ways of Providence, and would have better met the dread and solemnity of the occasion on which they were assembled. It rests with the people of this country now to wipe off this stigma, for it is one, upon the national charac. ter. We were glad of shaking off from ourselves the disgrace of having engendered the murderers; but, alas! every day sees fostered in the lanes of our cities, in the nooks of our villages, and almost at every mile upon commenced seriously about this time, acted as a purifier to his intense, deeply-feeling, yet too subtilizing and aberrant spirit. He now, as he himself describes it, put on the new man in poetry; and all his subsequent productions display more purity, simplicity, and classi cal propriety of language and sentiment. Of his poems, that on the Bell (Das Lied von der Gloche) has been much commended; the conception of the subject is original, and many ingenious images are wrought out of it; but As the Robbers was Schiller's first production, it is generally the favourite of youthful readers. It is surely an extraordinary performance; but it ears, in every page, the marks of juvenility, of a mind over-straining and racking itself in a tumultuous effort for effect; it has too little of the simplicity of nature, and far too much of the turgid and false sublime. He it is far too long, rambling, and excursory; the digressions (as that of the burning of the industrious burgher's house) bearing no imaginable relation whatever to the theme of the poem. He has written no less than eight Ballads; at least, he has inscribed them so; but they are rather Tales, or petty romances in verse. engaged in that sort of writing, not from any spontaneous impulse of mind, but from a concerted competition with Goethe, and very probably incited by the jealousy of Burger's reputation, which he very harshly and injudiciously attacked, at a time when the latter writer was suffering under the complicated pangs of mental and bodily anguish. Neither he, however, nor the universal Goethe himself, has any thing to boast of in that department, equal to the masterpieces of Burger, which may fairly bid defiance to them both, and do entitle him to rank first in that quaint species of composition. Of the Ballads of Schiller, Riotter Toggenburg is the best, as it approaches nearest to the strength and simplicity of the ballad style; but there is also much poetical description in Der Tancher, Der Gang nach dem Eisenhammer, and one or two more. Of his other poems, the best are, the Spaziergang, (though that is spoiled by its ear-racking hexameters and pentameters,) Erwartung, Die Gotter Griechenlandes, Kassandra, Kampf mit der Dragon. In his Kindersmorderin we have much of the feeling and elegant sensibility that characterize the tenderer productions of our Robert Burns. But to form a just estimate of Schiller's highly-gifted muse, we must resort, not to his scattered poems, into which the peculiar potency of his mind was not infused, but to his better, more studied, and more polished dramas,-his Maid of Orleans, Wallenstein, William Tell, Mary Stewart, and Bride of Messina ;-these are his immortal compositions ;-these, next to the finest plays of our Shakspeare, contain more passionate, spirited, and elegant poetry, than is to be found in any dramatic productions since the days of Eschylus and Euripides : KNIGHT TOGGENBURG. "I love thee, gentle knight, but 'tis Such love as sisters bear; O ask my heart no more than this; That heart no more may spare; In peace I see thy form appear; In peace I see thee go; But check that sigh, and stop that tear- In grief he heard her soft rebuke; Through all his Switzer land, Christ's banner in their hand. Deeds there were done of force and fame Their tufted helms did wave and flame One year he hath endured the grief; Nor longer can it bear; Abandon'd to unrest, the chief Leaves Jewry and the war: He sees a ship on Joppa's strand Just bound for Europe's seas, This is, after all, the great, and perhaps the only true test of genius in every different department of intellectual exertion. No doubt, Mr Thomson is a mannerist; but then his manner is all his own; he stands by himself-he copies no one. There are faults in his style, as there is in every thing earthly; but it is vigorous and decided, and his colouring is laid on with an energy and depth of tone which none of our other Scottish painters can equal. He has contributed six landscapes, all of which are excellent ;—his largest picture is exceedingly grand; and there is a smaller moonlight scene, which, we understand, has been purchased by the Lady Ruthven, quite equal to Titian. We trust Mr Thomson will long continue to paint. Mr William Simson has seven pictures. He is a remarkably clever artist. His "Twelfth of August, a scene in the Highlands," is full of life and spirit. We may mention, however, in corroboration of what we formerly stated regarding the necessity of painting up, in order to suit the glaring lights of this room, that Mr Simson has introduced a good deal of gaudy colouring into the foreground of this picture since it was sent to the Exhibition, which we trust he will remove as soon as it is again restored to a more favourable position. "A view on the Esk at Auchindinny Bridge," by the same artist, is a fine fresh picture, and in looking at it, one almost feels the breeze which is crisping and dimpling the surface of the river.-Mr George Simson, though not equal to his namesake, is nevertheless a very meritorious painter. His pictures of St Abb's Head, and of the Dutch Galliot, do him great credit. We may next mention H. W. and J. F. Williams. The former is better known by the apellation of Grecian Williams. We regret that ill-health and other circumstances have limited the number of his pictures to three, which, however, will not detract from his former reputation. J. F. Williams is more prolific. He has eight pictures, of which the best unquestionably is his view on the Clyde, painted for, and purchased by, the Royal Institution. It is a capital picture; the shipping is remarkably true to nature, and the grouping and colouring very unexceptionable. The Nasmyth family muster as usual in great force. They all paint pleasingly; but, with the exception of Miss Ann Nasmyth, we cannot say that any one of them pleases us much more than the other. This lady, however, possesses a great deal of genius, and some of her small wood pieces would not have disgraced Hobbima. We recommend attention to the two pictures she exhibits this year; they are Nos. 102 and 133. Robert Gibb is an artist of much ability and modesty. He has twelve beautiful pictures; and had it been generally known that the largest and best of these was estimated by him at only £30, we are certain that it would long ere this have found a purchaser. Mr Gibb's road scenes and mode of managing the perspective are remarkably delicate and true to nature. Of the few remaining artists whom we think it necessary to name, we must talk more rapidly. We are much pleased with Mr Scrope's view of Tivoli, which is a fine classical painting, and not too close an imitation of the style of Salvator Rosa-an error into which we feared Mr Scrope might have fallen. Mr Dyce is a young artist, of great genius and promise. We particularly admire the feeling displayed in his " Moonlight," and the originality and cleverness of his "Puck." We understand, he has been studying at Rome; and, if he will only guard against the error of falling into an imitation of the ancient school of Leonardo da Vinci, to which we can discover a slight tendency, we venture to prognosticate his future attainment of no ordinary distinction in his profession. At all events, he is an alumnus of which Aberdeen has every reason to be proud. Mr Charles Lees exhibits several pictures of considerable merit. His largest picture," Mary Queen of Scots, and her Secretary David Rizzio," is clever; the colouring is rich, and much i of the execution is good. Its chief fault is in the figure of Mary, to which no modern artist, with which we are acquainted, has ever been able to do justice; it has, indeed, been long acknowledged, that failure is the very common result of an over-anxiety to do well, and it seems to be next to impossible to transfer to canvass the beau ideal of a lovely woman. "A Corner in the study of an Antiquary," by Mr Lees, is a clever picture.-The "View of the Cathedral at Antwerp," by Mr Roberts, formerly of Edinburgh, and now attached to one of the London Theatres, is very exquisitely finished, and much and justly admired.-Mr J. V. Barber of Birmingham, has two very soft and beautiful landscapes, painted in a style of great delicacy, not unlike that of Andrew Wilson, warm, glowing, and delightful, but perhaps just a little too transparent and unreal.-William Bonnar's "Roger, Jenny, and Peggy," deserves much praise. The figures and expression in particular of Roger and Jenny are excellent, full of nature, and indicative of much more genius than one might, at first sight, be inclined to suspect. Our favourite, Carse, has not distinguished himself this year so much as usual.-Kenneth Macleay, by far the best of our miniature painters, exhibits only one specimen of his talents.—It would be easy to speak of many more artists and pictures; but the compliment which we mean to pay to merit, by singling out only the best would cease to be of any value, did we admit into our pages a promiscuous multitude of names. Neither are we disposed to enter upon the invidious task of pointing out faults, for where all have attempted to do their best, the severest and most legitimate criticism is silence. In Sculpture, besides the excellent busts of Macdonald, especially the very beautiful one of Miss Macdonald, we are glad to perceive, that two new candidates have entered the lists-Mr Angus Fletcher, and Mr John Steele. Both possess excellent abilities. We are inclined at present to direct attention in particular to Mr Steele, because we know him to be nearly self-taught, and attracted to the profession of a sculptor, entirely by a natural genius for it. We have nowhere seen any notice taken of the large statue of St Andrew, carved in oak, but painted so as to resemble stone, which has been recently erected on a portico, at the foot of Hanover Street. We have been surprised at this, for it is a striking and spirited production, and are happy to be able to inform Mr Steele (whose work it is) that this is the opinion of some of the best judges in Edinburgh, whose praises we have frequently heard bestowed upon it, and we think not undeservedly. Let Mr Steele persevere, as he has begun, and he is sure of making good progress. We shall proceed to a consideration of the pictures, of the Scottish Academy next Saturday. MUSIC. PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY'S CONCERT. THE only Concert which the Edinburgh Professional Musicians have had the courage to give this season, (so dull have all things been in the musical and fashionable world,) took place in the Assembly Rooms last Tuesday evening. It was well, though not crowdedly, attended. The pieces selected, though not so brilliant or varied as we could have wished, were, on the whole, calculated to reflect credit on the judgment and talent of the performers. Besides Beethoven's Grand Symphony, with which the Concert opened, and which is not one of the most effective of that great Master's compositions, we had three Overtures, which took in, of course, the full strength of the orchestra. The first of these was Mozart's Overture to the "Zauberflote," |