an opinion, both of the quality and the variety of Miss Jarman's abilities, we need only add, that her person, though considerably above the middle height, is light and elegant, and that her face is to us much more interesting than if it were simply beautiful, for it is full of animation and intelligence, her features admitting of a great diversity of expression. In short, we hesitate not to predict, that as soon as Miss Jarman comes to be a little better known as a permanent member of our company, no one will rank higher in the good graces of the Edinburgh public. Of Mr. Hooper we can scarcely yet speak with the same decision. He is an addition of some consequence, but he will never supply the place of Jones. He is a man apparently of middle life, and not quite so fresh and vigorous as he has been. He is a terrible imitator of Charles Kemble, and is in fact a kind of second-hand edition of that actor. He has an easy good-natured manner, however, which carries him through his parts pleasantly enough, and on the whole we rather like him. We leave ourselves at liberty to modify our opinion when we have seen more of him.Miss Pincott, from the English Opera House, has a pretty face, and a modest manner. We think she will improve upon us.—Of Mrs Evans, formerly Miss Glover, we may say very nearly the same thing, with this addition, that we have heard her sing a song or two with considerable taste and feeling. suits. The volume will be richly bound in silk, and will contain upwards of 700 engravings. We have seen a specimen of the Zoological Keepsake, which is to contain upwards of thirty engravings on wood, spiritedly executed much zoological information, and a number of amusing anecdotes. by Thomas Landseer and Cruickshanks. The work will comprise The Musical Gem for 1830, dedicated to the Duchess of Kent, and edited by W. Ball, will consist of choice and various lyrical composi tions, vocal and instrumental, from writers and professors of acknow. ledged talent, including Weigl, Beethoven, Weber, Bochsa, Dunois, Barnett, Walter Turnbull, Lady William Lennox, and Madame Malibran Garcia. for 1830, is nearly ready. It contains lists, with their names and adThe Literary Blue-Book, or Kalendar of Literature and the Arts, dresses, of eminent living Authors, Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers, Musical Composers, Musical Performers, Teachers of Languages, and others. The Wine-drinker's Manual, containing the history, manufacture, and management of Spanish, French, Rhenish, Italian, Madeira, Cape, and British Wines, and miscellaneous information, peculiarly acceptable to the Bon Vivant. We understand that a new periodical is about to be commenced in Dumfries, to be entitled the Literary Gleaner, or Cabinet of Amusing and Instructive Knowledge. A Number is to be published every month; and if the selections are made judiciously, cannot fail to be interesting. The History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain, during the Sixteenth Century, by Thomas M'Crie, D.D., will be published on the 21st of this month. On the same day will be published, Annals of the Peninsular Cain vols. 12mo. Illustrated by 14 Plates. The Boscobel Tracts, being Narratives relating to the Escape of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester, with Notes, by the Editor, J. Hughes, Esq. A.M., illustrated with Engravings from original Drawings, will be published about Christmas. The Greek Grammar of Dr Frederick Thiersh, translated from the German, with brief Remarks, by Professor Sandford, is nearly ready. The Rev. Alexander Fleming, A.M. of Neilston, has made considerable progress in revising a new Edition of Pardovan's Collections concerning the Church of Scotland: in which will be incorporated the History, Jurisdiction, and Forms of the several Church Judicatories, together with the Civil Decisions relative to the Rights and Patrimony of the Established Church and her Clergy. The company is now well strengthened, and all ought paigns, from 1808 to 1814, by the Author of Cyril Thornton. In 5 to go on smoothly; but we have still a few faults to find. We do not see any new scenery, although some of the woods, in particular, are falling to pieces. We hope that this is to be attributed to the delay of the painters, and not to the manager. The trees at present exhibited ought to be -hissed off the stage, and then cut down for fuel; they are old, and yellow, and rotten, and spectral. Let us have five or six fresh scenes, in the name of heaven!-The supernumeraries are as ill-dressed, shabby-looking fellows as usual. It is not like Mr Murray's well-known habits of neatness to tolerate this. His guards for attending people to execution force the audience to laugh in the most pathetic places; and his servants in livery who come into the drawing-room to deliver letters, look like Irish pensioners on half-pay. "Oh reform it altogether!" It is fair to remark that, as if in contrast to these tag-rag-ly, and to be completed in twenty volumes quarto. Six editions of and-bobtail, we see an evident improvement in the fancy dresses of different members of the company, Pritchard and Montague Stanley taking the lead in this department. -We are not quite satisfied with the manner in which Hart is used. We think he is kept too much back. He is a greatly superior singer to Larkins. His voice, it may be said, though rich and mellow, wants compass; but this has yet to be proved; let him be tried.-Why is the corps de ballet that we had at the Caledonian Theatre not here? We humbly venture to suggest, that Vedi is a better dancer than Miss Fairbrother; and Mr Murray might surely have had her as soon as Seymour of GlasOld Cerberus. gow. LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. We understand that Professor Napier is to commence next March a new, improved, and cheap edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The price of each Part is to be six shillings, to be published monththis work have already appeared, together with a Supplement in six volumes, which was completed in 1824. Mr Abernethy is about to publish the Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Surgery, which he has been accustomed to deliver at St Bartholomew's Hospital. The Authors of Caleb Williams and of the O'Hara Tales, have each a new novel in preparation. The latter is to be called, we believe, Trials Past By. Mr W. Long Wellesley has nearly ready, a History of the Court of Chancery, its Abuses and Reforms. The British Naturalist: or, an Account of the Appearances and Habits of the more remarkable Living Productions of Britain and the British Seas, is announced. The Memoirs of Bolivar, including the Secret History of the Revolution, will speedily be published. Random Records, from the pen of George Colman the younger, are in a forward state. This work embraces the recollections of a lic characters. THE Memoirs and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, late long life, characterized by intercourse with many distinguished pubPresident of the United States, are announced for immediate publication. The private papers of an individual so famed in American Annals, and so closely connected with our own country, cannot fail to excite much interest, The work is to be edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, and will contain letters from many of the most remarkable persons in Europe and America, among whom are FrankI'm, Washington, Adams, Madison, La Fayette, Paul Jones, Thoinas Paine, &c. Sir Edmund Temple announces for immediate publication, an account of his Travels in South America. A Story of Actual Life, under some singular aspects, is about to be submitted to the curiosity of the general reader, in a work entitled Adventures of an Irish Gentleman. The Young Lady's Book may be expected immediately. This work is not an Annual, and will be found to differ essentially from the whole class of literary gifts usually presented to young ladies, being a complete manual of elegant recreations, exercises, and pur CHIT-CHAT FOR THE DILETTANTI.-The Magistrates, with a laudable wish that the burgess ticket of Mr Wilkie should not be altogether unworthy of the artist, entrusted the execution of it to Mr Forrester, lithographic-drawer, who has amply justified their confidence in him. The arrangement of the text deserves to be viewed as a work of art, and is certainly a fine specimen of line composition. Mr F. is well known as an accurate drawer of fac-similes, and we had lately occasion to notice the mastery over his art displayed in his lithographic engraving of a drawing from Macdonald's statues. We hope soon to see him turn his talents to account in some higher walk of art than he has yet attempted.-By a letter lately received from Allan, we find he is now in Venice. We regret to add that he is still much afflicted with the weakness of his eyes.-The receipts of the Scottish Academy, during the whole period of their last exhibition, somewhat exceeded L.900. We hope this will impress upon them the propriety of sacrificing all minor and personal differences, and holding fast together. They have every prospect of being able, by their united ef forts, to raise a fund, (without any sacrifice being made by a single individual among them,) which may be applied to the benefit both of art and artists. A separation now, besides destroying this prospect, will almost infallibly bring along with it, as matters stand, a discontinuance of exhibitions in this city, and that event cannot fail to draw after it a marked diminution in the interest which the Edinburgh public are beginning to take in the productions of art.-That valuable institution the Drawing Academy, founded and maintained by the Board of Trustees, for initiating our young artists into the principles of classical taste, opens again on the 16th instant. Lauder has been appointed to succeed Allan as drawing-master.-Steele, the young sculptor, whose busts, exhibited last spring, were esteemed indicative of talent, is at present studying in Rome. Our little band of Edinburgh artists, though rich in opening talent, is of such limited numbers, that we can watch with a personal interest over every one of them. THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY.-The classes, with one or two exceptions, commenced yesterday. It is impossible to say as yet whether the attendance will be greater or less this session than it was last. The university commission, which we were preparing to rank with "the lost Pleiad seen no more below," has recently given signs of returning animation, by sending to press a certain brief report, with appendices. It is proposed, as an interim regulation, to do away with the junior Greek and Humanity classes. Some modification is also contemplated of the order of attendance upon the other classes. The Logic is to be postponed to the third year; the Moral and Natural Philosophy classes to be taken together in the fourth. We understand also that it is in contemplation to institute a Professorship of Modern Languages. As we have some remarks to offer on the subject, which is an important one, and shall devote one or more papers to its consideration, we shall remain silent at present. UNPUBLISHED FRAGMENT BY ROBERT BURNS.-About sixteen years ago, there resided at Mauchline, a Mr Robert Morrison, cabinet-maker. He was a great crony of Burns, and it was in Mr Morrison's house that the poet usually spent the "mids o' the day" on Sunday. It was in this house also that he wrote his celebrated Address to a Haggis, after partaking liberally of that dish, as prepared by Mrs Morrison. There has lately been put into our hands, a detached verse, written by Burns, and presented by him to Mr or Mrs Morrison. It was much prized by them as a relic of the bard, and is certainly curious, as it seems to be a fragment of a poem which he never gave to the world, on the interesting subject of his Highland Mary. It is in a different measure from his only two compositions addressed to her, and therefore cannot have been meant as an addition either to "Ye banks and braes and streams around," or to the lines beginning, “ O, Mary, dear departed shade!" The verse is as follows, and the reader may rely on its authenticity; "No more by the banks of the streamlet we'll wander, And smile on the moon's dimpled face on the wave, No more shall my arms cling with fondness around her, For the dew-drops of morning fall cold on her grave!" CHIT-CHAT FROM GLASGOW.-We have had a row with the corps de ballet and the Manager, but it has been made up, and Vedi and the rest are dancing to us again. Braham-it was a spirited speculation to bring him here-has put us all in good humour, and drawn very crowded houses. Mr Turnbull, of Ayr, a promising musical composer, has engaged him to sing a night in Paisley, Kilmarnock, and Ayr.-Recitations are quite the rage here. A series of splendid ones, under very distinguished patronage, were given the other evening before 300 people; the receipts went towards defraying the expense of procuring medals, which are to be struck, in commemo. ration of the triumph of the citizens of Glasgow, in establishing their right to a path on the banks of the Clyde. Mr Mayne, whose genius you appear to think highly of, is about to give Readings, in which all the pieces are his own, and many of them are very beautiful. A GENUINE HO YES! NOT GIVEN BY THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD. Kenmore, - (date uncertain).-A ane time ho yes! and a twa time ho yes! and a tree time ho yes! To a' them wha hae gotten the spoke (English), no persons at no time after nor pefore, will pu peats nor howk heather on my Lord Preatalappin's moss, or my Lordship to pe surely will prought them pefore her to be peheatet and syne hangt; and gin she'll come back, till pe waur done till her nor a' tat. EDINBURGH SOUTHERN ACADEMY.-This new Academy opened a short time ago in Buccleugh Place. It has a twofold object,-1st, To supply the Southern Districts with a substitute for the High School; and 2d, To present, under one roof, all the requisite branches of Elementary Education, whether classical or general. The Academy thus aspires to be the first Institution which offers to a parent his choice whether his children shall be trained with a view to a professional or to a mercantile life, or to both. If a classical education is required, instruction is given by the classical master in Greek, Latin, English Literature, and ancient Geography, to which is added writing and arithmetic. If a purely mercantile or general training be the object, the pupils have an opportunity of acquiring drawing, writing, book-keeping, arithmetic, geography, mathema tics, natural philosophy, French, English literature, and English enposition. Many advantages certainly result from this plan of optional education; and, from what we know of the talents of the teachen, we do not doubt that the object aimed at will be successfully executed. Theatrical Gossip." The Early Days of Shakspeare" has been| very successfully received at Covent Garden. Charles Kemble is said to be a capital Shakspeare. Is there not something preposs rous in introducing great poets on the stage,-men whose leading characteristic, in contradistinction to the great warrior, is that they did not act, but thought ?—The little piece called "No," which wa originally brought out here, has been received with applause Drury-Lane. We believe it is an adaptation from the French ty one of the Miss Siddons's.-Fanny Kemble's success continues und-| minished. The receipts of the house are said to be at least L.50 | every night she performs, yet she has never appeared in any part but one. We fear this over-degree of enthusiasm may not last-A drama called, "The Rose of Ettrick," has been performed with good approbation at the Adelphi. We wonder if it is by Lynch, whe once brought out a piece with a similar name here.-Alfred de Vigny's translation of "Othello" has been eminently successful at the Theatre Francais in Paris.-A new opera by Bishop, founded upon a French piece, is in rehearsal at Covent Garden.-It is mentioned that some of the unengaged performers have taken the West London Theatre, and are about to open it. Among them are, Dowton, Vi ning, Melrose, Mrs Waylett, Mrs Davison, Mrs H. Corri, and Miss L. Jarman (who is she?)-Some of our performers venture upon strange tricks in the country, Pritchard, Denham, and Mrs Nicol, were starring it a few days ago in Bass's company in Dundee. In "Guy Mannering,” Pritchard undertook the part of Meg Merris, and in "Rob Roy" Denham played Bailie Nicol Jarvie !—We ob serve the Weekly Journal of Wednesday last takes the merit of corecting a mistake into which we were led regarding Braham's age: this was somewhat unnecessary, seeing we had ourselves made the correction on the Saturday previous.-We are glad to understand that Miss Kemble is positively to visit us this season. The reason, we believe, why Jones did not accept of an engagement in London, which, we are informed, was offered to him on very liberal terms, is that he had made arrangements with his pupils here which rendered it absolutely necessary that he should return to Edinburgh.-Miss Paton makes her first appearance here these five years, this evening, as Rosina, in the "Barber of Seville." WEEKLY LIST OF PERFORMANCES. TUES. The Honeymoon, & The Weathercock. TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. MANY interesting articles still unavoidably stand over, among which is the review of Bishop Gleig's Pastoral Charge. We have much pleasure in announcing that our next Number will contain an unpublished Letter of Robert Burns, with some interest ing matter concerning him;-also some unpublished verses by the poet, Finlay. The notices of remarkable Scottish criminals of the last century do not appear to us important enough to warrant publication; but we daresay the author could furnish us with other traditionary notices which would be valuable.-The notice of Kitchener in our next."Rambles among the Hebrides" is under consideration.-The Edi. tor of the Literary Gleaner shall hear from us.-"F. H." will find a letter from "Lorma" at our Publisher's, which, as he has waxed ra ther insolent, we advise him to read, and learn modesty. We shall peruse with attention, and give an opinion on, the manuscript Poem of John Nevay of Forfar.-The Translations from the Cancionero General please us, and one or two of them shall have a place.-On second thoughts, the last communication from "S. S." of Glasgow does not appear to us quite so good as usual,-The "Lines written on a visit to the Glen of Campsie," and the verses by ** Alcinoe," though pretty, do not quite come up to our standard. The musical composer of the name of Wess, mentioned in our last, is a celebrated flute-player, and also the inventor of a new spe cies of flute, as well as a voluminous composer. Travels in Chaldæa, including a Journey from Bussorah to Bagdad, Hillah, and Babylon, performed on foot in 1827. With Observations on the sites and remains of Babylon, Seleucia, and Ctesiphon. By Capt. Robert Mignan, of the Hon. East India Company's Service. One vol. 8vo. Pp. 334. London. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. 1829. THE author of this work is so modest in his pretensions, that he would be a hard-hearted critic indeed who could treat him with severity. Nor are the works of travellers, except in such cases as those of Humboldt, the French Saverus, and some other professedly scientific men, to be tried by the same standard that is applied to other literary productions. Every authentic piece of information from a distant and imperfectly-known country is valuable, inasmuch as it may serve to correct or extend our previous knowledge of it: and every traveller who quietly and sensibly tells the story of what he has himself seen, is worthy of attention. PRICE 6d. From the upper the consistency of a sun-dried brick. journey of many days their relative position seems still progress. derate-sized tree to the passenger's eye. The whole extent of the plain offers scarcely one meThick and extensive groves of brushwood are, however, plentiful, rising somewhat above the height of a man. The neighbourhood of cities and villages is generally enlivened by plantations of the date palm. The marshy pieces of ground are clad even in summer with green herbage, reeds, and bulrushes. In the dry parts either bare soil is exposed, or it is thinly covered with a short sere herbage, withered thistles, and a prickly shrub called the camel's thorn, Some of the brushwood forests are haunted by lions and other beasts of prey. The banks of the rivers are, inbabited by flocks of buffalos. The light gazelle bounds over the open plain. The pelican, and a number of smaller birds, none of them remarkable either for plumage or Of Captain Mignan's antiquarian researches, we are song, are frequently to be met with. The finest kind of inclined to think that they contain several important cor-hawks used in hunting the antelope are found in this dis rections of the statements of his predecessors. With re-trict. The excessive heat to which the inhabitants are gard, however, to the subject which he treats most in de-exposed during the day, renders the body extremely sentail-the ruins of Babylon-we are still disposed to rest more confidently upon the statements of the late Mr Rich, because that gentleman's observations and measure'ments were made at more leisure, and with a more complete apparatus, than Captain Mignan could command, and more especially because they were made without a view to any preconceived theory. This, however, is a discussion upon which we do not at present intend to enter. We proceed to lay before our readers a summary of the information scattered through the volume before us respecting the present state of the plains of Shinar the scene of the earliest human civilisation of which we possess any records-the scene of the fiercest conflicts between the various successive aspirants to the domination of the world—the scene of the triumphant grandeur of the Assyrian, the Mede, and the Persian-civil order. When to the evident inadequacy of such a the scene of Alexander's death, and of Haroun Alraschid's splendour. Our author's excursion led from Bussorah, along the Shut-ul-Arab, as the natives term the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates, to Koote; thence along the Tigris,, here called the Dialah, to Bagdad; and thence to Hillah, a town situated among the ruins of ancient Babylon. The whole district which he traversed is a vast plain, varied with slight undulations, intersected by the Tigris and Euphrates, by some streams of less magnitude, and by a great number of canals. From the rapidity of the two principal rivers, the angle of its inclination to the plane of the sea must be considerable. During the winter seas a great part of the district is under water, and even during the dry season most of the hollows continue pools or marshes. The soil on the rising grounds, on the contrary, which consists of a mixture of hard clay and sand, is baked by the heat to sible to the diminished temperature which succeeds at sunset. The clearness of the atmosphere overhead, gives a lustre to the heavenly bodies unknown in more northern latitudes. But the vapours which load the horizon cause the sun to appear, for some time after his rising and before his setting, a dull red mass, unsurrounded by rays. The greater part of the country is subject to the Pasha of Bagdad. He appoints the governors of the smaller towns: each of whom farms his district at a certain annual rental, and is left to repay himself as he best may, by squeezing money out of those subjected to him. The authority exercised by each of those magistrates in his immediate vicinity, and a standing army kept on foot by the Pasha, are the only guarantees for the preservation of defective organization, we add, that Irak-Arabi (as it is termed) is a frontier province, and recall to the reader's mind the weakness and confusion at present existing in the Ottoman government, we need scarcely add, that the traveller is rather insecure both as regards his person and property. The population may be divided into two great classes the inhabitants of the cities and villages, and the inhabitants of the plains. It is among the former only that we are to look for traces of regulated society, commerce, and industry. They consist of a mixture of Turks, Armerrians, Jews, and a populace of domiciliated descendants of the native tribes. The frame-work of society is, nearly the same as is to be met with in all the dependencies of the Turkish Empire. Their commerce extends little beyond the exporting the raw produce of their coun try, and receiving the manufactured goods of other countries in return. It is chiefly conducted by means of cara vans which traverse the desert, at stated intervals, to Aleppo and other mercantile depots. There is also some trifling commercial intercourse between Bussorah and Bagdad by water carriage. It consists principally of Indian manufactures brought from Calcutta and the Malabar coast, by ships of five hundred tons burden; about eight of which trade up the Persian Gulf annually under the English flag, and several under Arab and Persian colours. The camel is the chief instrument of the land carriage. The roads are in a state of nature, except where a bridge of boats has been stretched across some of the principal rivers. The vessels on the Tigris are constructed of reeds and willows thickly coated with bitumen; the prow is the broadest part of the boat, being extremely unwieldy and bluff, and the whole as clumsy as possible. The industry of the country is almost exclusively agricultural; and even that is confined to the neighbourhood of cities. The cultivation of the ground is rude; but the return, owing to the fertility of the soil, and the kindliness of the climate, exuberant. One of their methods of supplying the want of moisture is ingenious enough. The camel's thorn (hedysarum alfagi) abounds everywhere. The Arabs divide the stem of the plant in spring near the root; a single seed of the water-melon is then inserted in the fissure, and the earth replaced about the stem of the thorn. The seed becomes a parasite; and the nutritive matter, which the brittle, succulent roots of the melon are ill adapted to collect, is abundantly supplied by the deeper-searching and tougher fibres of the root of the camel's thorn. Two other sorts of industry, altogether peculiar to this country, are, the quarrying of bricks from the numerous mounds which mark the site of former cities, and the search after coins, and other antiquities, which the wealthy Turks and Armenians purchase to dispose of to Europeans. Both of these give employment to numbers. Beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the cities, the laws of the government are respected only where its ministers are personally present to enforce them. The migratory tribes regulate themselves by their own laws, and constitute a different, and, in a great measure, independent nation. This juxta-position of two different and unmixing races of men, however strange to those who are accustomed only to European institutions, is nothing uncommon in the East. In Persia, for example, the labourers and the commercial part of the nation, together with their priests, and the attendants of the court, have been domiciled in cities; while those tribes which furnish the warriors of the nation continue to live under the tents of their forefathers, and, in a great measure, to be a law unto themselves. The external appearance of the Arab is not very invi- | ting. In the encampment of an opulent tribe, which is frequently surrounded as far as the eye can reach with their flocks, may be found men and women, children, horses, mules, dogs, and asses, huddled together in groups beneath their long goat-hair tents. They are, in general, dirty, and in rags. Captain Mignan tells us, that he on one occasion saw the process of slaughtering a sheep, and preparing it for food. The animal's entrails and hoofs, dipped once or twice into water, were devoured raw; the rest of the animal, unflayed and unshorn, was put into a vessel, and half boiled, after which they drank the soup, and voraciously devoured the half-warmed carcass. In passing through their tents, our author was occasionally exposed to annoyance by their eager curiosity; in other respects they were civil enough. The Desert Arabs, in particular, are a haughty and warlike race. They are not only excellent horsemen, but manœuvre, when collected into a troop, with considerable dexterity. One of them, who served Captain Mignan as a guard from Bagdad to Hillah, seemed impressed with the belief, that his single presence was as effective a protection as the united strength of a whole caravan. Our traveller insinuates, however, that they are not fond of giving battle, unless with a tolerably secure prospect of success. What seems rather a disadvantage, considering their mode of life, is, that they are almost all of them short-sighted; and few of them can bear to fix their gaze steadily upon any object for a length of time. They have some rude manufactures among them, which afford them employment when confined to their tents. Captain Mignan saw them busy making a coarse kind of cloth from the wool of their sheep. They first spin it into yarn, winding the threads round small stones; these they hang on a stick, fixed in a horizontal position between some shrubs or trees, to form a woof; then passing other threads alternately be tween these, they thus weave the cloth which they wear. The chief employment of the men, however, is the chase, or levying an arbitrary impost upon such travellers and caravans as pass through the district where their flocks feed. They lately attacked the caravan from Bagdad to Aleppo, before it had well cleared the suburbs of the former city. Captain Mignan seems inclined to attribute their increased audacity to a retrograde movement of the province in civilisation. Perhaps it might as justly be attributed to the late troubles of the empire, which have somewhat loosened the bonds of government. The Arabs are withal a merry race, with a keen relish for drollery, and endued with a power over their features that is shown off in the richest exhibitions of grimace. When they halt at night, they amuse themselves with songs and interminable stories. Their melodies are simple, and not a little monotonous: the subject of their songs are brief exhortations to behave bravely. They dance, too; and when on a march, they have an extempore fashion of securing instrumental music. A kettle covered) with an empty oil-skin bag serves for a drum. The harmony of the instrument is heightened by the clapping of hands, and a loud chorus of a peculiar strain. One person at a time comes forward and dances, keeping up at constant wriggling motion with his feet, hands, breast, and shoulders, until his gestures become too fatiguing to be continued. Their superstition is extreme. Nor is this to be wondered at. Their religion has received into its creed every wild tale of supernatural power that the fertile East has produced. Ignorant though they be, they know that they tread upon the ruins of primeval empires. The ghosts of the various superstitions which have encountered and shattered each other in this border land of two great divisions of the human race, hover chilly over them. When the moon shines down on the shapeless mounds, the only remnants of ancient Babylon, the halfbarbarous natives draw shuddering closely together, and hear in the breeze that moans around their tents, the evil spirits wailing over the times when they were worship ped in the land. Besides the observations made on the journey, the narration of which fills the greater part of his book, Captain Mignan has given us some interesting historical and geographical details respecting Bussorah, from native writers. The plates, too, which accompany the work, afford a better idea of the objects represented than any description could. The map of Chaldea and Babylon, however, is particularly inaccurate: to say nothing of the egregious blunder of appending to it a scale of distances, according to which, Hillah (among the ruins of Babylon) is not three miles distant from Bagdad. But of the work itself we have pleasure in recommending an attentive perusal. The Venetian Bracelet, The Lost Pleiad, A History of the Lyre, and other Poems. By L. E. L., author of the Improvisatrice, the Troubadour, and the Golden Violet. London. Longman, Rees, Orme, & Co. 1829. Pp. 307. WE havea liking for Miss Landon, because she possesses genius, and because she is anxious to turn that genius to as much account as possible. It is for this very reason that we do not choose to pass over her faults in silence or to bestow upon her that injudicious and indiscriminate praise to which a few of her own personal friends have, perhaps sincerely, but certainly erroneously, imagined she was entitled. An ardent, or we might say, an impassioned temperament, lies at the foundation of Miss Landon's poetical powers. Such a foundation is not a bad one, but it requires to be skilfully built upon. In the present day, the poetry of feeling-that poetry which speaks to the senses and to the heart-bas attained to much eminence; but we suspect it has arrived at the culminating point, and, having served its purpose, is destined speedily to lose its temporary popularity. In making this remark, we allude, of course, not to that poetry in which we find strong feelings mingled with strong thoughts, but to that more unsubstantial species of composition in which a stimulus is given to the affections and the passions by the mere force of continual appeals to the softer part of our nature, without any very good and ostensible cause being shown why such appeals should be made. The eye gazes with delight upon the gorgeous colours of the summer evening clouds, but were these gay pageants to remain for ever, it would soon turn away from them with indifference, to rest upon the softer loveliness of the blue expanse. So it is with much modern poetry. It is too luscious, too full of gaudy colouring,—too much adapted for certain dreamy and sickly states of the mind, and too little in unison with the real state of things in this sublunary sphere. In the prince of all our poets-Shakspeare-where shall we find any such specimens of Eastern voluptuousness and morbid sensibility as have of late teemed from the press? must have an unhappy passion," she adds, perhaps a little too flippantly, "I can only console myself with my own perfect unconsciousness of so great a misfortune." Now, this being the case, we ask at once, why ever speak in the first person, when you discourse concerning unhappy passions? If you know nothing about them practically, yet strive to give the reader the impression that you do, depend upon it, you will make numerous mistakes, for you are writing about what you do not thoroughly understand. If you wish to make others weep, you must have wept first yourself. If you have been crossed in love, then you may harp upon these crosses with some chance of doing it naturally; but if you have never been crossed in love, and if truth to nature be above all other requisites in poetry, then, for Heaven's sake, strike into some different strain. In like manner, if you have never met with any very severe misfortunes, and are, on the whole, a lively, good-natured sort of girl, as we believe you to be, why should you for ever be lamenting over miseries which do not exist? Byron was a gloomy man, and it was therefore all very proper that his poetry should le gloomy; but if you are not gloomy, then assume a tone more in unison with the ordinary feelings of humanity, and also with your own dispositions, else a heartless affectation will pervade every thing you write-affectation of the very worst kind, that which attempts to excite sympathy for imaginary sorrows, and to raise a belief, like a cunning mendicant, that you are in a much more desolate condition than you ever were, or ever will be. Poetry does not consist in such tricks as these. Yet Miss Landon is continually pouring out such sentiments as the following: It is somewhat remarkable that, in this respect, the march of poetry has been entirely in the opposite direction to that of prose. The puling sentimental trash which, towards the conclusion of last century, formed the staple commodity of all our circulating libraries, has given place | Or, to the more rational historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and others, or to the very slight tincture of romance which characterizes the straight-forward transactions of a tale of fashionable life. But with poetry, the case is widely dif- | Or, ferent. Pope has been laid upon the shelf, and Moore has taken his place upon the table. Sense has been sacrificed to sound; and the head has been allowed to lie fallow, while the heart has been called upon to produce a crop of feelings upon all occasions, and at a moment's warning. Byron, the master-spirit of modern times, is greatly to be blamed for this rush towards so palpable an extreme in the poetical world. But in his case, the diseased egotism of his tortured mind is scarcely offensive, because it makes us more intimately acquainted with the secrets of his mighty nature. A similar display of selfish sorrow coming from the lips of smaller persons ceases to be any thing but ludicrous, for it only gives them a resemblance to the frog in the fable. If Byron himself has too little abstract thought in his works, and too much palaver about his own feelings, and if this is pardoned simply because his talents carried it through, and because there was a stern sincerity in the intensity with which he preyed upon himself, there is surely no reason why they who are anxious to imitate his beauties should also involve themselves with his faults. These observations have a reference to Miss Landon. She has good, strong feelings, and without them nobody can write poetry; but she does not make a good, healthy use of them. She allows them to run into a channel of affectation; and often, when she thinks she is pathetic, she is simply unnatural. It may perhaps startle Miss Landon to be accused of affectation; but of affectation we most distinctly do accuse her. In her preface to the present volume, she tells us, that with regard to the frequent application of her works to herself, considering that she sometimes pourtrayed love unrequited, then betrayed, and again destroyed by death, the conclusions are not quite logically drawn, as the same mind cannot have suffered such varied modes of misery." However, if I 66 Now, not to speak it profanely, not one word of this is true. Miss Landon does not pass her days among "the cold, the careless, and the false;" sullen care and discontent do not hang brooding o'er her heart ;" and she does not, nor does any one else, pay too much regard to the opinions of others, to the neglect of their feelings; for opinions are exactly what we ought to pay regard to, in opposition to feelings. But this is not all. Miss Landon is also very fond of indulging in such reflections as these: "The worthlessness of common praise, But fast, is undermined- This is terribly morbid ; and if Miss Landon thinks it "I have fed |