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JOHN LEYDEN."

destination, and which do not? I have now despatched in addition to those of the line itself. You know, when egad I may boast that I have been refined by the very for Europe exactly fifty-seven letters. I had intended to I left Scotland, I had determined, at all events, to be- same menstruum too, even the universal solvent mercury, make a dead pause after the fiftieth, for at least a couple come a furious orientalist, nemini secundus, but I was which is almost the only cure for the liver, though I of years, and wrote Erskine to that effect; when he in- not aware of the difficulty. I found the expense of na- have been obliged to try another, and make an issue in formed me in return, that he had the utmost reason to tive teachers would prove almost insurmountable to a my right side. Now pray, my dear Ballantyne, if this think nobody had ever heard from me at all, not only mere assistant surgeon, whose pay is seldom equal to his ever comes to hand, instantly sit down, and write me a since I arrived in India, but for some time before leav-absolutely necessary expenses; and, besides, that it was letter a mile long, and tell me of all our common friends; ing London. Utterly amazed, astonished, and confound-necessary to form a library of MSS. at a most terrible and if you see any of them that have the least spark of ed at this, I have resolved to write out the hundred com- expense, in every language to which I should apply, if I friendly recollection, assure them how vexatious their plete; and if none of my centenary brings me an answer, intended to proceed beyond a mere smattering. After silence is, and how very unjust, if they have received my why then farewell, till we meet in either heaven or hell! much consideration, I determined on this plan at all letters; and, lest I should forget, I shall add, that you I write no more, except in crook backed characters, and events, and was fortunate enough, in a few months, to must direct to me, to the care of Messrs. Binnie and this I swear by all petty oaths that are not dangerous. secure an appointment, which furnished me with the Dennison, Madras, who are my agents, and generally Now, my friend, the situation in which I am placed means of doing so, though the tasks and exertions it know in what part of this hemisphere I am to be found. by this most pestiferous silence is extremely odd and imposed on me were a good deal more arduous than the But, particularly, you are to commend me kindly to your perplexing. I am actually afraid to enquire for any common duties of a surgeon even in a Mahratta cam-good motherly mother, and tell her I wish I saw her body, lest it should turn out that they have for a long paign. I was appointed medical assistant to the Mysore oftener, and then to your brother Alexander, and request time been dead, damned, and straughted. It is all in Survey, and at the same time directed to carry on en-him sometimes, on a Saturday night, precisely at eight vain that I search for every obituary, and peruse it with quiries concerning the natural history of the country, o'clock, for my sake to play Gingling Johnnie' on his the utmost care, anxiety, and terror. There are many and the manners and languages, &c. of the natives of flageolet. If I had you both in my tent, you should of you good Scotch folks that love to slip slily out of the Mysore. This, you would imagine, was the very situa- drink yourselves drunk with wine of Shiraz, which is world, like a knot less thread, without ever getting into tion I wished for; and so it would, had I previously had our eastern Falernian, in honour of Hafez, our Persian any obituary at all, and, besides it is always very nearly time to acquire the country languages. But I had them Anacreon. As for me, I often drink your health in a couple of years before any review, magazine, or obi-now to acquire after severe marches and countermarches water, (ohon a ree!) having long abandoned both wine tuary, reaches the remote, and almost inaccessible re-in the heat of the sun, night marches and day marches, and animal food, not from choice, but dire necessity. gions in which my lot has been long cast. To remedy and amid the disgusting details of a field hospital, the Adieu, dear Ballantyne, and believe me, in the Malay a few of these inconveniences, I propose taking a short duties of which were considerably arduous. However, isle, to be ever yours sincerely, trip to Bengal, as soon as I have seen how the climate wrought incessantly and steadily, and without being disof Puloo Penang agrees with my health, and, as in that couraged by any kind of difficulty, till my health abso- Leyden became soon reconciled to Puloo Penang (or region they are generally better informed with regard to lutely gave way, and when I could keep the field no Prince of Wales Island), where he found many valuable all European matters, and better provided with reviews, longer, I wrought on my couch, as I generally do still, friends, and enjoyed the regard of the late Philip Dunmagazines, and newspapers, I shall probably be able to though I am much better than I have been. As I had das, Esq. then governor of the island. He resided in discover that a good many of you have gone to king- the assistance of no intelligent European, I was obliged that island for some time, and visited Achi, with some dom come,' since I bade adieu to Auld Reekie.' But long to grope my way; but I have now acquired a pretty other places on the coasts of Sumatra and the Malayan methinks I see you, with your confounded black beard, correct idea of India in all its departments, which in- peninsula. Here he amassed the curious information bull neck, and upper lip turned up to your nose, while creases in geometrical progression as I advance in the concerning the language, literature, and descent of the one of your eyebrows is cocked up perpendicularly, and languages. The languages that have attracted my atten- Indi-Chinese tribes, which afterwards enabled him to the other forms pretty well the base of a right-angled tion since my arrival have been Arabic, Persic, Hindos- lay before the Asiatic Society at Calcutta a most valu triangle, opening your great glotting eyes, and crying, tani, Mahratta, Tamal, Telinga, Canara, Sanserit, Ma-able dissertation on so obscure a subject. Yet that his But, Leyden!!!! tell me what the devil you have layalam, Malay, and Armenian. You will be ready to heart was sad, and his spirits depressed, is evident from been doing all this time!!-eh!!' Why, Ballantyne, ask, where the devil I picked up these hard names, but the following lines, written for New Year's Day, 1806, d'ye see, mark and observe and take heed-as you are a assure you it is infinitely more difficult to pick up the and which appeared in the Government Gazette of Prince good fellow, and don't spout secrets in public places, I languages themselves; several of which include dialects of Wales Island: trust I can give you satisfaction safely.' as different from each other as French or Italian from "When I arrived in Madras, I first of all reconnoitred Spanish or Portuguese; and in all these, I flatter myself my ground, when I perceived that the public men fell I have made considerable progress. What would you naturally into two divisions. The mercantile party, say were I to add the Maldivian and Mapella languages consisting chiefly of men of old standing, versed in to these? Besides, I have deciphered the inscriptions of trade, and inspired with a spirit in no respect superior Mavalipoorani, which were written in an ancient Canara to that of the most pitiful petifogging pedler, nor in character, which had hitherto defied all attempts at untheir views a whit more enlarged; in short, men whose derstanding it, and also several Lada Lippi inscriptions, sole occupatlon is to make money, and who have no which is an ancient Tamal dialect and character, in adname for such phrases as national honour, public spirit,dition to the Jewish tablets of Cochin, which were in or patriotism; men, in short, who would sell their own the ancient Malayalam, generally termed Malabar. 1 honour, or their country's credit, to the highest bidder, enter into these details merely to show you that I have without a shadow of scruple. What is more unfor- not been idle, and that my time has neither been dissi. tunate, this is the party that stands highest in credit pated, nor devoid of plan, though that plan is not suffiwith the East India Company. There is another party, ciently unfolded. To what I have told you of, you are for whom I am more at a loss to find an epithet. They to add constant and necessary exposure to the sun, cannot with propriety be termed the anti-mercantile damps and dews from the jungles, and putrid exhalation party, as they have the interests of our national com- of marshes, before I had been properly accustomed to merce more at heart than the others; but they have dis- the climate, constant rambling in the haunts of tigers, covered that we are not merely merchants in India, but leopards, bears, and serpents of thirty or forty feet long, legislators and governors; and they assert, that our that make nothing of swallowing a buffalo, by way of conduct there ought to be calculated for stability and se- demonstrating their appetite in a morning, together curity, and equally marked by a wise internal adminis-with smaller and more dangerous snakes, whose haunts tration of justice, financial and political economy, and are perilous, and bite deadly; and you have a faint idea by a vigilant, firm, and steady system of external poli- of a situation, in which, with health, I lived as happy as tics. This class is represented by the first, as only ac- the day was long. It was occasionally diversified with tuated by the spirit of innovation, and tending to em-rapid jaunts of a hundred miles or so, as fast as horses broil us everywhere in India. Its members consist of or bearers could carry me, by night or day, swimming men of the first abilities, as well as principles, that have through rivers, afloat in an old brass kettle at midnight! been draughted from the common professional routine, O! I could tell you adventures to outrival the witch of for difficult or dangerous service. I fancy this division Endor, or any witch that ever swam in egg shell or applies as much to Bombay and Bengal as to Madras. sieve; but you would undoubtedly imagine I wanted to As to the members of my own profession, I found them impose on you were I to relate what I have seen and in a state of complete depression; so much so, that the passed through. No! I certainly shall never repent of commander in chief had assumed all the powers of the having come to India. It has awakened energies in me Medical Board, over whom a court martial was at that that I scarcely imagined I possessed, though I could very time impending. The medical line had been, from gnaw my living nails with pure vexation to think how time immemorial, shut out from every appointment, ex-much I have been thwarted by indisposition. If, howcept professional, and the emoluments of these had been ever, I get over it, I shall think the better of my constiIn 1806 he took leave of Penang, regretted by many greatly diminished just before my arrival. In this situa-tution as long as I live. It is not every constitution that friends, whom his eccentricities amused, his talents ention I found it very difficult at first what to resolve on. can resist the combined attack of liver, spleen, bloody lightened, and his virtues conciliated. His reception at I saw clearly that there were only two routes in a per- flux, and jungle fever, which is very much akin to the Calcutta, and the effect which he produced upon society son's choice; first, to sink into a mere professional plague of Egypt, and yellow fever of America. It is there, are so admirably illustrated by his ingenious and drudge, and, by strict economy, endeavour to collect a truc, I have been five times given up by the most skilful well-known countryman, General Sir John Malcolin, that few thousand pounds in the course of twenty years; or, physicians in these parts; but in spite of that, I am it would be impossible to present a more living picture secondly, to aspire a little beyond it, and by a superior firmly convinced that my doom is not to die this day,' of his manners and mind; and the reader will pardon knowledge of India, its laws, relations, politics, and lan- and that you shall see me emerge from this tribulation some repetition, for the sake of observing how the same guages, to claim a situation somewhat more respectable, like gold purified by the fire; and when that happens, individual was regarded in two distant hemispheres.

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Malay's woods and mountains ring
With voices strange and sad to hear,
And dark unbodied spirits sing

The dirge of the departed year.
Lo! now, methinks, in tones sublime,
As viewless o'er our heads they bend,
They whisper, "Thus we steal your time,
Weak mortals, till your days shall end."
Then wake the dance, and wake the song,
Resound the stive mirth and glee;
Alas! the days have pass'd along,
The days we never more shall see.
But let me brush the nightly dews,

Beside the shell-depainted shore,
And mid the sea-weed sit to muse,

On days that shall return no more.
Olivia, ah! forgive the bard,

If sprightly strains alone are dear;
His notes are sad, for he has heard

The footsteps of the parting year.
Mid friends of youth beloved in vain,

Oft have I hail'd the jocund day,

If pleasure brought a thought of pain,
I charm'd it with a passing lay.
Friends of my youth for ever dear,
Where are you from this bosom fled ?
A lonely man I linger here,

Like one that has been long time dead.
Foredoom'd to seek an early tomb,

For whom the pallid grave-flowers blow;
I hasten on my destined doom,

And sternly mock at joy or woc!

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ountains ring e and sad to hear, pirits sing -parted year.

tones sublime, r heads they bend, as we steal your time, your days shall end.”

, and wake the song, = mirth and glee; bass'd along, more shall see.

nightly dews, painted shore,

sit to muse, return no more. - bard,

alone are dear; he has heard parting year.

beloved in vain, jocund day, thought of pain, passing lay. or ever dear,

a this bosom fled? here, een long time dead. early tomb, grave-flowers blow; d doom, joy or woe!

Penang, regretted by muy ties amused, his talents & nciliated. His reception hhe produced upon society

by his ingenious and

that

of human science, and he was alike ardent in the pursuit riod to prevail upon him to relax in
of all. The greatest power of his mind was perhaps

shown in his acquisition of modern and ancient lan- study, it was in vain. He used, whe
right, to prop himself up
guages. He exhibited an unexampled facility, not merely translations. One day that I was sitt
with pillows
in acquiring them, but in tracing their affinity and con- the surgeon came in. I am glad y
nection with each other, and from that talent, combined Mr. Anderson, addressing himself to
with his taste and general knowledge, we had a right to able to persuade Leyden to attend to
expect, from what he did in a very few years, that he
would, if he had lived, have thrown the greatest light does not leave off his studies and rem
told him before, and now I repeat, the
upon the more abstruse parts of the history of the east. well, doctor,' exclaimed Leyden, 'yo
In this curious, but intricate and rugged path, we cannot
duty, but you must now hear me; I
hope to see his equal.
last; and he actually continued, under
whether I die or live, the wheel must
a fever and a liver complaint, to stu
hours each day.

Dr. Leyden had, from his earliest years, cultivated
the muses, with a success which will make many regret
that poetry did not occupy a larger portion of his time.
The first of his essays which appeared in a separate
form, was The Scenes of Infancy, a descriptive poem, in and he could bear, with perfect goo
"The temper of Dr. Leyden was n
which he sung, in no unpleasing strains, the charms of
his native mountains and streams in Teviotdale. He on his foibles. When he arrived at C
Iwas most solicitous regarding his r
contributed several small pieces to that collection of
poems called the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, which ciety of the Indian capital. I entr
he published with his friend, Walter Scott. Among these, friend, (I said to him the day he lande
the impression you make on your ent
the Mermaid is certainly the most beautiful. In it he has
shown all the creative fancy of a real genius. His Odenity; for God's sake, learn a little En
on the Death of Nelson is, undoubtedly, the best of those upon literary subjects, except amo
Learn English!' he exclaimed, no, n
poetical effusions that he has published since he came
to learn that language that spoilt my
to India. The following apostrophe to the blood of that
hero has a sublimity of thought, and happiness of ex-make fools hold theirs.'
being silent, I will promise to hold my
pression, which never could have been attained but by a
true poet :-

Blood of the brave, thou art not lost,
Amid the waste of waters blue;
The tide that rolls to Albion's coast
Shall proudly boast its sanguine hue:

And thou shalt be the vernal dew

"His memory was most tenacious,
loaded it with lumber. When he was
gument occurred upon a point of F
was agreed to refer it to Leyden, a
ment of all parties, he repeated verb
an act of parliament in the reign of
Ireland, which decided the point in
asked how he came to charge his
extraordinary matter, he said that se
when he was writing on the chang
place in the English language, this
"It is pleasing to find him, on whom nature has be-documents to which he had referred as
stowed eminent genius, possessed of those more essen-style of that age, and that he had reta
tial and intrinsic qualities which give the truest excel- his memory.

To foster valour's daring seed;
The generous plant shall still its stock renew,
And hosts of heroes rise when one shall bleed.' :

And w

lence to the human character. The manners of Dr. "His love of the place of his nativit
Leyden were uncourtly, more perhaps from his detest- which he had always a pride, and v
ation of the vices too generally attendant on refinement, cherished with the fondest enthusiasm
and a wish (indulged to excess from his youth) to keep see him when he was very ill, and ha
at a marked distance from them, than from any igno- his bed for many days; there were
rance of the rules of good breeding. He was fond of in the room; he enquired if I had any
talking, his voice was loud, and had little or no modula-I had a letter from Eskdale.
tion, and he spoke in the provincial dialect of his native in the borders?" he asked. A curic
Country; it cannot be surprising, therefore, that even replied, 'is stated in my letter;' and
his information and knowledge, when so conveyed, sage which described the conduct of
should be felt by a number of his hearers as unpleasant, a fire being kindled by mistake at o
if not oppressive. But with all these disadvantages (and This letter mentioned that the momen
they were great) the admiration and esteem in which was the signal of invasion, was seen,
he was always held by those who could appreciate his hastened to their rendezvous, and th
qualities, became general wherever he was long known; swam the Liddle river to reach it. Th
they, even, who could not understand the value of his (though several of their houses were
knowledge, loved his virtues. Though he was distin- and seven miles) in two hours, and
guished by his love of liberty, and almost haughty inde- the party marched into the town of Ha
pendence, his ardent feelings and proud genius never of twenty miles from the place of asser
led him into any licentious or extravagant speculation tune of Wha dar meddle wi' me.'*
on political subjects. He never solicited favour, but he nance became animated as I proceed
was raised by the liberal discernment of his noble friend and at its close he sprung from his s
and patron Lord Minto, to situations that afforded him
an opportunity of showing that he was as scrupulous
and as inflexibly virtuous in the discharge of his public
duties, as he was attentive in private life to the duties
of morality and religion.

strange melody, and still stranger g aloud, Wha dar meddle wi' me, wha Several of those who witnessed this s as one that was raving in the delirium

"These anecdotes will display mo description I can give, the lesser shad

"It is not easy to convey an idea of the method which Dr. Leyden used in his studies, or to describe the unconquerable ardour with which these were pursued. *This lively tune has been called During his early residence in India, I had a particular the Elliots, a clan now and formerly opportunity of observing both. When he read a lesson the district of Liddesdale. The burth

princes in the neighbourhood of the Dutch settlements. His spirit of romantic adventure led him literally to rush upon death; for, with another volunteer who attended: the expedition, he threw himself into the surf, in order to be the first Briton of the expedition who should set foot upon Java. When the success of the well-concerted movements of the invaders had given them possession of the town of Batavia, Leyden displayed the same illomened precipitation, in his haste to examine a library, or rather a warehouse of books, in which many Indian manuscripts of value were said to be deposited. A library, in a Dutch settlement, was not, as might have been expected, in the best order; the apartment had not been regularly ventilated, and, either from this circumstance, or already affected by the fatal sickness peculiar to Batavia, Leyden, when he left the place, had a fit of shivering, and declared the atmosphere was enough to give any mortal a fever. The presage was too jus; he took his bed, and died in three days, on the eve of the battle which gave Java to the British empire.

While large and pale the ghostly structures grow,
Rear'd on the confines of the world below.

Is that dull sound the hum of Teviot's stream?
Is that blue light the moon's, or tomb-fire's gleam,
By which a mouldering pile is faintly scen,
The old deserted church of Hazeldean;
Where slept ny fathers in their natal clay,
Till Teviot's waters rolled their bones away?
Their feeble voices from the stream they raise,-
"Rash youth unmindful of thy early days,
Why didst thour quit the peasant's simple lot?
Why didst thou leave the peasant's turf-built cot,
The ancient graves, where all thy fathers lie,
And Teviot's stream, that long has murmured by ?
And we when Death so long has closed our eyes,
How wilt thou bid us from the dust arise,

him; and, being rejected with scorn, she excited, by enchantment, a mist, which long concealed the island from all navigators.

I must mention another monkish tradition, because, being derived from the common source of Celtic mythology, they appear the most natural illustrations of the Hebridean tale. About fifty years before Waldron went to reside in Man, (for there were living witnesses of the legend when he was upon the island,) a project was undertaken, to fish treasures up from the deep, by means of a diving bell. A venturous fellow, accordingly, descend. ed, and kept pulling for more rope, till all they had on board was expended. This must have been no small quantity, for a skilful mathematician, who was on board, judging from the proportion of line let down, declared, that the adventurer must have descended at least double the number of leagues, which the moon is computed to be distant from the earth. At such a depth, wonders might be expected, and wonderful was the account given by the adventurer, when drawn up to the air. Such is the language of nature, moved by the kindly After," said he, "I had passed the region of fishes, I associations of country and of kindred affections. But descended into a pure element, clear as the air in the se. the best epitaph is the story of a life engaged in the prac-renest and most unclouded day, through which, as I tice of virtue and the pursuit of honourable knowledge; passed, I saw the bottom of the watery world, paved with the best monument, the regret of the worthy and of the coral, and a shining kind of pebbles, which glittered like the sun-beams, reflected on a glass. I longed to tread the delightful paths, and never felt more exquisite

And bear our mouldering bones across the main,
From vales, that knew our lives devoid of stain?
Rash youth! beware, thy home-bred virtues save,
And sweetly sleep in thy paternal grave!"

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Thus died John Leyden, in a moment, perhaps, most calculated to gratify the feelings which were dear to his heart; upon the very day of military glory, and when every avenue of new and interesting discovery was opened to his penetrating research. In the emphatic words of scripture, the bowl was broken at the fountain. His wise. literary property was intrusted by his last will to the charge of Mr. Heber, and his early and constant friend From the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border-Edited by Sir Walter delight, than when the machine, I was inclosed in, grazed

Scott.

THE MERMAID.

BY J. LEYDEN.

upon it.

"On looking through the little windows of my prison, I saw large streets and squares on every side, ornament

the same.

Mr. William Erskine of Calcutta, his exccutors, under whose inspection his poetical remains were given to the public in 1821, with a Memoir of his Life by the Rev. Robert Morton, a friend and relation of the deceased poet. The following poem is founded upon a Gaelic tradi-ed with huge pyramids of crystal, not inferior in brightAcquiescing in the sentiment by which it is introduced, tional ballad, called Macphail of Colonsay, and the Mermaidness to the finest diamonds; and the most beautiful buildit is not easy to resist transcribing from that piece of of Corrivrekin. The dangerous gulf of Corrivrekin liesing, not of stone, nor brick, bat of mother-of-pearl, and biography the following affecting passage: between the islands of Jura and Scarba, and the superembossed in various figures, with shells of all colours. The "The writer cannot here resist his desire to relate an stition of the islanders has tenanted its shelves and eddies passage, which led to one of these magnificent apartments, anecdote of Leyden's father, who, though in a humble with all the fabulous monsters and demons of the ocean. being open, I endeavoured, with my whole strength, to walk of life, is ennobled by the possession of an intelli- Among these, according to a universal tradition, the mermove my enclosure towards it; which I did, though with gent mind, and has all that just pride which characterises maid is the most remarkable. In her dwelling, and in great difficulty, and very slowly. At last, however, I got the industrious and virtuous class of Scottish peasantry to her appearance, the mermaid of the northern nations re-stood a large amber table, with several chairs round, of entrance into a very spacious room, in the midst of which which he belongs. Two years ago, when Sir John Mal- sembles the syren of the ancients. The appendages of a colin visited the seat of Lord Minto, in Roxburghshire, comb and mirror are probably of Celtic invention. The floor of it was composed of rough diahe requested that John Leyden, who was employed in the The Gaelic story declares, that Macphail of Colonsaymonds, topazes, emeralds, rubies, and pearls. Here I vicinity, might be sent for, as he wished to speak with was carried off by a mermaid, while passing the gulf, doubted not but to make my voyage as profitable as it him. He came after the labour of the day was finished, above mentioned: that they resided together, in a grotto few of these, they would have been of more value than was pleasant; for, could I have brought with me but a and, though his feelings were much agitated, he appeared beneath the sea, for several years, during which time she all we could hope for in a thousand wrecks; but they rejoiced to see one who he knew had cherished so sincere bore him five children: but, finally, he tired of her soa regard for his son. In the course of the conversation ciety, and, having prevailed upon her to carry him near were so closely wedged in, and so strongly cemented by which took place on this occasion, Sir J. Malcolm, after the shore of Colonsay, he escaped to land. time, that they were not to be unfastened. I saw several mentioning his regret at the unavoidable delays which The inhabitants of the Isle of Man have a number of chains, carcanets, and rings, of all manner of precious had occurred in realising the little property that had been such stories, which may be found in Waldron. One stones, finely cut, and set after our manner; which I left, said he was authorised by Mr. Heber (to whom all states, that a very beautiful mermaid fell in love with a suppose had been the prize of the winds and waves: these Leyden's English manuscripts had been bequeathed) to young shepherd, who kept his flocks beside a creek, much were hanging loosely on the jasper walls, by strings made of rushes, which I might easily have taken down; but, say, that such as were likely to produce a profit should frequented by these marine people. She frequently cabe published as soon as possible, for the benefit of the ressed him, and brought him presents of coral, fine pearls, I was unfortunately drawn back, through your want of as I had edged myself within half a foot reach of them, family. Sir,' said the old man with animation, and with and every valuable production of the ocean. tears in his eyes, 'God blessed me with a son, who, had a time, as she threw her arms eagerly round him, he sus-beautiful mermaids, the inhabitants of this blissful real, Once upon line. In my return, I saw several comely mermen, and he been spared, would have been an honour to his country! peeted her of a design to draw him into the sca, and, As it is, I beg of Mr. Heber, in any publication he may struggling hard, disengaged himself from her embrace, swiftly descending towards it; but they seemed frighted intend, to think more of his memory than my wants. and ran away. But the mermaid resented either the sus at my appearance, and glided at a distance from me, ta The money you speak of would be a great comfort to me picion, or the disappointment, so highly, that she threw a king me, no doubt, for some monstrous and new-created in my old age; but thanks to the Almighty, I have good stone after him, and flung herself into the sea, whence species."-Waldron, ibidem. health, and can still earn my livelihood; and I pray there- she never returned. The youth, though but slightly It would be very easy to enlarge this introduction, by fore of you and Mr. Heber to publish nothing that is not struck with the pebble, felt, from that moment, the most quoting a variety of authors, concerning the supposed exfor my son's good fame.'" excruciating agony, and died at the end of seven days.—the Telliamed of M. Maillet, who, in support of the Nepistence of these marine people. The reader may consult Since that period the Commentaries of Baber, transWaldron's Works, p. 176. Another tradition of the same island affirms, that one tunist's system of geology, has collected a variety of le lated from the Turki language, chiefly by Dr. Leyden, and completed by his friend and executor, William Ers-of these amphibious damsels was caught in a net, and gends, respecting mermen and mermaids, p. 230, et sequen. kine, were published, in 1826, for the advantage of Mr. brought to land, by some fishers, who had spread a snare dan's Natural History of Norway, who fails not to peoMuch information may also be derived from PontoppiLeyden, senior. It is a work of great interest to those for the denizens of the occan. She was shaped like the who love the study of Indian antiquities, being the auto- most beautiful female down to the waist, but below trailed ple her scas with this amphibious race.* a voluminous fish's tail, with spreading fins. As she thority is to be found in the Kongs skugg-sio, or Royal biography of one of the Mogul Emperors of Hindustan, would neither eat nor speak, (though they knew she had Mirror, written, as its believed, about 1170. The merwho, like Caesar, recorded his own conquests, but, more communicative than the Roman, descended to record his the power of language,) they became apprehensive that men, there mentioned, are termed hafstrambur (seaamusements, as well as to relate deeds of policy and arms. the island would be visited with some strange calamity, giants,) and are said to have the upper parts resembling of Koran and Prophet, both deep and frequent; and the third night, they left the door open, that she might escape with a dolphin's tail. The female monster is called mar He recapitulates his drinking bouts, which were, in spite if she should die for want of food; and therefore, on the the human race; but the author, with becoming diffidence, declines to state positively, whether they are equipped whole tenor of the history gives us the singular picture Accordingly, she did not fail to embrace the opportunity; of a genuine sultan of the ancient Tartar descent, in his but gliding with incredible swiftness to the sea-side, shega (sca-giantess), and is averred, certainly, to drag a fish's train. She appears, generally, in the act of devourstrength and his weakness, his virtues, his follies, and his plunged herself into the waters, and was welcomed by a number of her own species, who were heard to enquire,ing fish, which she has caught. According to the appathing," she answered, "wonderful, except that they were what she had seen among the natives of the earth. "No rent voracity of her appetite, the sailors pretended to silly enough to throw away the water, in which they had boiled their eggs."

crimes.

The remains of John Leyden, honoured with every respect by Lord Minto, now repose in a distant land, far from the green-sod graves of his ancestors at Hazeldean, to which, with a natural anticipation of such an event, he bids an affecting farewell in the solemn passage which concludes the Scenes of Infancy:

The silver moon, at midnight cold and still,
Looks, sad and silent, o'er yon western hill;

Collins, in his notes upon the line,

"Mona, long hid from those who sail the main," explains it, by a similar Celtic tradition. It seems, a mermaid had become so much charmed with a young man, who walked upon the beach, that she made love to

An older au

in the school editions of Guthrie's Geographical Gram-
* I believe something to the same purpose may be found
mer, a work, which, though, in general, as sober and dull
as could be desired by the gravest preceptor, becomes of
a sudden uncommonly lively, upon the subject of the seas
of Norway, the author having thought meet to adopt the
[right reverend Erick Pontoppidan's account of mermen,
sca-snakes, and krakens,

guess what chance they had of saving their lives in the tempests, which always followed her appearance.-Speculum Regale, 1768, p. 166.

Mermaids were sometimes supposed to be possessed of supernatural powers. Resenius, in his life of Frederick II. gives us an account of a syren, who not only prophesied future events, but, as might have been expected from the element in which she dwelt, preached vehemently against the sin of drunkenness.

The mermaid of Corrivrekin possessed the power of occasionally resigning her scaly train, and the Celtic tradition bears, that, when, from choice or necessity, she was invested with that appendage, her manners were more stern and savage than when her form was entirely human. Of course, she warned her lover not to come into her presence, when she was thus transformed. This belief is alluded to in the following ballad.

THE MERMAID.

On Jura's heath how sweetly swell

The murmurs of the mountain bee,
How softly mourns the writhed shell
Of Jura's shore, its parent sea!
But softer, floating o'er the deep,

The mermaid's sweet sea-soothing lay, That charmed the dancing waves to sleep, Before the bark of Colonsay.

Aloft the purple pennons wave,

As parting gay from Crinan's shore, From Morven's wars, the seamen brave

Their gallant chieftain homeward bore. In youth's gay bloom, the brave Macphail Still blamed the lingering bark's delay; For her he chid the flagging sail,

The lovely maid of Colonsay. “And raise," he cried, "the song of love, The maiden sung with tearful smile, When first, o'er Jura's hills to rove, We left afar the lonely isle! When on this ring of ruby red

Shall die,' she said, 'the crimson hue, Know that thy favourite fair is dead,

Or proves to thee and love untrue.""
Now, lightly poised, the rising oar

Disperses wide the foamy spray,
And, echoing far o'er Crinan's shore,
Resounds the song of Colonsay.
"Softly blow, thou western breeze,
Softly rustle through the sail,
Soothe to rest the furrowy seas,

Before my love, sweet western gale!
"Where the wave is tinged with red,
And the russct sea-leaves grow,
Mariners, with prudent dread,
Shun the shelving reefs below.
"As you pass through Jura's sound,
Bend your course by Scarba's shore,
Shun, O shun, the gulf profound,

Where Corrivrekin's surges roar! "If, from that unbottomed deep,

With wrinkled form and writhed train, O'er the verge of Scarba's steep,

The sea-snake heave his snowy mane,*

They, who, in works of navigation, on the coast of Norway, employ themselves in fishing or merchandise, do all agree in this strange story, that there is a serpent there, which is of a vast magnitude, namely two hundred feet long, and moreover twenty feet thick; and is wont to live in rocks and caves, towards the sea-coast about Berge; which will go alone from his holes, in a clear night in summer, and devours calves, lambs, and hogs; or else he goes into the sea to feed on polypus, locusts, and all sorts of sea-crabs. He hath commonly hair hanging from his neck, a cubit long, and sharp scales, and is black, and he hath flaming shining eyes. This snake disquiets the skippers, and he puts up his head on high, like a pillar, and catcheth away men, and he devours them; and i this hapneth not but it signifies some wonderful change of the kingdom near at hand; namely that the princes shall die, or be banished; or some tumultuous wars shall presentlie follow."-Olaus Magnus, London, 1558, rendered into English by J. S. Much more of the sea-snake may be learned from the credible witnesses cited by Pontoppidan, who saw it raise itself from the sea, twice as high as the mast of their vessel. The tradition probably originates in the immense snake of the Edda, whose folds were supposed to girdle the carth.

66

Unwarp, unwind his oozy coils,
Sea-green sisters of the main,

And in the gulf, where occan boils,

The unwieldly wallowing monster chain. "Softly blow, thou western breeze,

Softly rustle through the sail,
Soothe to rest the furrowed seas,
Before my love, sweet western gale!"
Thus, all to soothe the chieftain's woe,
Far from the maid he loved so dear,
The
song arose, so soft and slow,
He seemed her parting sigh to hear.
The lonely deck he paces o'er,

Inpatient for the rising day,
And still, from Crinan's moonlight shore,
He turns his eyes to Colonsay.
The moonbeams crisp the curling surge,
That streaks with foam the ocean green;
While forward still the rowers urge

Their course, a female form was seen. The sea-maid's form, of pearly light, Was whiter than the downy spray, And round her bosom, heaving bright, Her glossy, yellow ringlets play. Borne on a foamy-crested wave,

She reached amain the bounding prow, Then, clasping fast the chieftain brave, She, plunging, sought the deep below. Ah! long beside thy feigned bier, The monks the prayers of death shall say, And long for thee, the fruitless tear

Shall weep the maid of Colonsay! But downwards, like a powerless corse, The eddying waves the chieftain bear;— He only heard the moaning hoarse

Of waters, murmuring in his ear. The murmurs sink by slow degrees;

No more the surges round him rave; Lulled by the music of the seas,

He lies within a coral cave.

In dreamy mood reclines he long,
Nor dares his tranced eyes unclose,
Till, warbling wild, the sea-maid's song,
Far in the crystal cavern, rose;

Soft as that harp's unseen control,

In morning dreams that lovers hear,
Whose strains steal sweetly o'er the soul,
But never reach the waking ear.

As sunbeams, through the tepid air,
When clouds dissolve in dews unseen,
Smile on the flowers, that bloom more fair,
And field, that glow with livelier green-

So melting soft the music fell;

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It seemed to soothe the fluttering spray

"Say, heardst thou not these wild notes swell?" "Ah! 'tis the song of Colonsay."

Like one that from a fearful dream
Awakes, the morning light to view,
And joys to see the purple beam,

Yet fears to find the vision true,

IIe heard that strain, so wildly sweet,
Which bade his torpid languor fly;
He feared some spell had bound his feet,
And hardly dared his limbs to try.
"This yellow sand, this sparry cave,

Shall bend thy soul to beauty's sway;
Can'st thou the maiden of the wave

Compare to her of Colonsay?"
Roused by that voice, of silver sound,

From the paved floor he lightly sprung,
And, glancing wild his eyes around,
Where the fair nymph her tresses wrung,
No form he saw of mortal mould;

It shone like ocean's snowy foam;
Her ringlets waved in living gold,
Her mirror crystal, pearl her comb.
Her pearly comb the syren took,

And careless bound her tresses wild;
Still o'er the mirror stole her look,
As on the wondering youth she smiled.

Like music from the greenwood tree,
Again she raised the melting lay;
-"Fair warrior, wilt thou dwell with me,
And leave the maid of Colonsay?
"Fair is the crystal hall for me

With rubies and with emeralds set,
And sweet the music of the sea

Shall sing, when we for love are met. "How sweet to dance, with gliding feet, Along the level tide so green, Responsive to the cadence sweet,

That breathes along the moonlight scene! "And soft the music of the main

Rings from the motley tortoise-shell, While moonbeams, o'er the watery plain,

Scem trembling in its fitful swell.

"How sweet, when billows heave their head, And shake their snowy crests on high, Serene in Ocean's sapphire bed,

Beneath the tumbling surge, to lic;
"To trace, with tranquil step, the deep,
Where pearly drops of frozen dew
In concave shells, unconscious, sleep,
Or shine with lustre, silvery blue!
"Then shall the summer sun, from far,
Pour through the wave a softer ray,
While diamonds, in our bower of spar,
At eve shall shed a brighter day.
"Nor stormy wind, nor wintry gale,
That o'er the angry ocean sweep,
Shall c'er our coral groves assail,

Calm in the bosom of the deep.

"Through the green meads beneath the sea, Enamoured, we shall fondly strayThen, gentle warrior, dwell with me, And leave the maid of Colonsay!" —“Though bright thy locks of glistering gold, Fair maiden of the foamy main!

Thy life-blood is the water cold,

While mine beats high in every vein.

"If I, beneath thy sparry cave,

Should in thy snowy arms recline, Inconstant as the restless wave,

My heart would grow as cold as thine."

As cygnet down, proud swelled her breast;
Her eye confessed the pearly tear;
His hand she to her bosom prest-
"Is there no heart for rapture here?
"These limbs, sprung from the lucid sea,
Does no warm blood their currents fill,
No heart-pulse riot, wild and frec,

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To joy, to love's delirious thrill?"

Though all the splendour of the sea Around thy faultless beauty shine, That heart, that riots wild and free, Can hold no sympathy with mine. "These sparkling eyes, so wild and gay, They swim not in the light of love: The beauteous maid of Colonsay, Her eyes are milder than the dove! "Even now, within the lonely isle, Her eyes are dim with tears for me; And canst thou think that syren smile Can lure my soul to dwell with thee?" An oozy film her limbs o'erspread;

Unfolds in length her scaly train; She tossed, in proud disdain, her head,

And lashed, with webbed fin, the main. "Dwell here, alone!" the mermaid cried, "And view far off the sea-nymphs play; Thy prison-wall, the azure tide,

Shall bar thy steps from Colonsay.
"Whene'er, like ocean's scaly brood,
I cleave, with rapid fin, the wave,
Far from the daughter of the flood,
Conceal thee in this coral cave.
"I feel my former soul return;
It kindles at thy cold disdain :
And has a mortal dared to spurn
A daughter of the foamy main ?"

She fled; around the crystal cave

The rolling waves resume their road,

On the broad portal idly rave,

But enter not the nymph's abode. And many a weary night went by,

As in the lonely cave he lay,

And many a sun rolled through the sky,
And poured its beams on Colonsay;

And oft, beneath the silver moon,

He heard afar the mermaid sing, And oft, to many a melting tune,

The shell-formed lyres of ocean ring; And, when the moon went down the sky, Still rose, in dreams, his native plain, And oft he thought his love was by,

And charmed him with some tender strain; And, heart-sick, oft he waked to weep,

When ceased that voice of silver sound, And thought to plunge him in the deep, That walled his crystal cavern round. But still the ring, of ruby red,

Retained its vivid crimson hue, And each despairing accent fled,

To find his gentle love so true.

When seven long lonely months were gone,
The mermaid to his cavern came,
No more misshapen from the zone,
But like a maid of mortal frame.

"O give to me that ruby ring,

That on thy finger glances gay,
And thou shalt hear the mermaid sing
The song, thou lovest, of Colonsay."
"This ruby ring, of crimson grain,

Shall on thy finger glitter gay,
If thou wilt bear me through the main,
Again to visit Colonsay."

"Except thou quit thy former love,
Content to dwell, for ay, with me,
Thy scorn my finny frame might move
To tear thy limbs amid the sea."
"Then bear me swift along the main,
The lonely isle again to see,
And, when I here return again,

I plight my faith to dwell with thee."
An oozy film her limbs o'erspread,

While slow unfolds her scaly train, With gluey fangs her hands were clad, She lashed with webbed fin the main. He grasps the mermaid's scaly sides,

As, with broad fin, she oars her way;
Beneath the silent moon she glides,

That sweetly sleeps on Colonsay,
Proud swells her heart! she deems at last,
To lure him with her silver tongue,
And as the shelving rocks she past,

She raised her voice, and sweetly sung.
In softer, sweeter strains she sung,

Slow gliding o'er the moonlight bay,
When light to land the chieftain sprung,
To hail the maid of Colonsay.

O sad the mermaid's gay notes fell,
And sadly sink, remote at sea!

So sadly mourns the writhed shell

Of Jura's shore, its parent sea,

And ever as the year returns,

The charm-bound sailors know the day;

For sadly still the mermaid mourns

The lovely chief of Colonsay,

As good poetry is a rarity of late, a few more speci- The hunter of red deer now ceases to number mens of the talent of Dr. Leyden are inserted; the Ode The lonely gray stones on the fields of our slumber. to an Indian Gold Coin is probably better known than Fly, stranger, and let not thine eye be reverted! Ah! why should'st thou see that our fame is departed?" most of his productions, but is not on that account less worthy of preservation.

ODE TO AN INDIAN GOLD COIN.

Written in Chéricál, Malabar.

Slave of the dark and dirty mine!

What vanity has brought thee here?
How can I love to see thee shine

So bright, whom I have bought so dear?—
The tent-ropes flapping lone I hear
For twilight-converse, arm in arm;

The jackal's shriek bursts on mine ear,
When mirth and music wont to charm.
By Chérical's dark wandering streams,

Where cane-tufts shadow all the wild,
Sweet visions haunt my waking dreams
Of Teviot lov'd while still a child,
Of castled rocks stupendous pil'd
By Esk or Eden's classic wave,

Where loves of youth and friendships smil'd,
Uncurs'd by thee, vile yellow slave!

Fade, day-dreams sweet, from memory fade!-
The perish'd bliss of youth's first prime,
That once so bright on fancy play'd,

Revives no more in after-time.
Far from my sacred natal clime,

I haste to an untimely grave;

The daring thoughts that soar'd sublime
Are sunk in ocean's southern wave.
Slave of the mine! thy yellow light

Gleams baleful as the tomb-fire drear.-
A gentle vision comes by night

My lonely widow'd heart to cheer;
Her eyes are dim with many a tear,
That once were guiding stars to mine:

Her fond heart throbs with many a fear!—

I cannot bear to see thee shine.

For thee, for thee, vile yellow slave,

I left a heart that lov'd me true!

I cross'd the tedious ocean-wave,

To roam in climes unkind and new.
The cold wind of the stranger blew
Chill on my wither'd heart:-the grave

Dark and untimely met my view—
And all for thee, vile yellow slave!
Ha! com'st thou now so late to mock

A wanderer's banish'd heart forlorn,
Now that his frame the lightning shock

Of sun-rays tipt with death has borne?
From love, from friendship, country, torn,
To memory's fond regrets the prey,

Vile slave, thy yellow dross I scorn!
Go mix thee with thy kindred clay!
MACGREGOR.

Written in Glenorchy, near the scene of the massacre of the Macgregors.

In the vale of Glenorchy the night-breeze was sighing
O'er the tombs where the ancient Macgregors are lying:
Green are their graves by their soft murmuring river,
But the name of Macgregor has perish'd for ever.-
On a red stream of light, from his gray mountains glancing,
The form of a spirit scem'd sternly advancing;
Slow o'er the heath of the dead was its motion,
As the shadow of mist o'er the foam of the ocean;
Like the sound of a stream thro' the still evening dying.
Stranger, who tread'st where Macgregor is lying!
Dar'st thou to walk unappall'd and firm-hearted
Midst the shadowy steps of the mighty departed?
See, round thee the cairns of the dead are disclosing

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ON SEEING AN EAGLE PERCHED ON THE TOMBSTONE OF ARIS- The shades that have long been in silence reposing!

TOMENES.

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Through their form dimly twinkles the moon-beam descending,

As their red eye of wrath on a stranger are bending.
Our gray stones of fame though the heath-blossoms cover,
Round the hills of our battles our spirits still hover;
But dark are our forms by our blue native fountains,
For we ne'er see the streams running red from the
mountains.

Our fame fades away like the foam of the river,
That shines in the sun ere it vanish for ever;
And no maid hangs in tears of regret o'er the story,
When the minstrel relates the decline of our glory.

A LOVE TALE. A FRAGMENT.

The glance of my love is mild and fair
Whene'er she looks on me;
As the silver beams, in the midnight air,
Of the gentle moon; and her yellow hair
On the gale floats wild and free.
Her yellow locks flow o'er her back,

And round her forehead twine;

I would not give the tresses that deck
The blue lines of her snowy neck,
For the richest Indian mine.

Her gentle face is of lily hue;

But whene'er her eyes meet mine,
The mantling blush on her cheek you view
Is like the rose-bud wet with dew,

When the morning sun-beams shine. "Why heaves your breast with the smother'd sigh? My dear love, tell me true!

Why does your colour come and fly,
And why, oh! why is the tear in your eye?
I ne'er lov'd maid but you.
"True I must leave Zeania's dome,

And wander o'er ocean-sea;
But yet, though far my footsteps roam,
My soul shall linger round thy home,

I'll love thee though thou love not me."
She dried the tear with her yellow hair,
And rais'd her watery eye,
Like the sun with radiance soft and fair,
That gleams thro' the moist and showery air
When the white clouds fleck the sky.

She rais'd her eye with a feeble smile,

That through the tear-drops shone!
Her look might the hardest heart beguile,-
She sigh'd, as she press'd my hand the while,
"Alas! my brother John.

"Ah me! I lov'd my brother well

Till he went o'er the sea ;And none till now could ever tell If joy or woe to the youth befel; But he will not return to me.'

TO CAMOENS.

*

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FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF DE MATOS. So' com o grande e immortal Camoes, &c. Camoens, o'er thy bright immortal lays, Of mournful elegy or lyric song, How fleetly glide the rapid hours along! I give to thee my nights, to thee my days. The harms of fortune and the woes of love, The changes of thy destiny severe, I mark with sadly sympathetic tear, And can but sigh for what was thine to prove. For thee, mine eyes with bursting tears o'erflow, Majestic poet! whose undaunted soul Brav'd the ill-omen'd stars of either pole, And found in other climes but change of woe. What bard of fickle fortune dare complain, Who knows thy fate, and high immortal strain?

TO THE COURIER DOVE.
FROM THE ARABIC.

Fair traveller of the pathless air,
To Zera's bowers these accents bear,
Hid in the shade of palmy groves,
And tell her where her wanderer roves!
But spread, O spread your pinion blue,
To guard my lines from rain and dew :
And when my charming fair you see,
A thousand kisses bear from me,
And softly murmur in her ear
How much I wish that I were near!

EPITAPH.

FROM THE LATIN.

Once in the keen pursuit of fame

I, school-boy-like, pursued a bubble: But Death, before I gain'd a name, Stept in and say'd a world of trouble.

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