sed illa non habeas ad manum. Seneca, De Benefic. 7. WERE one to make choice of a pocket-book of prudential maxims, of every-day use and salutary practicability, for the regulation of life, it should neither be the Enchirdion of Epictetus-nor the poetical precepts of Theognis-nor the Dissertations of Antoninus-nor the Golden Sayings of the Seven Sages of Greece-but the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. Familiarized as we are from infancy with this precious manual, seeing it vended at penny-cheapness by itinerant hawkers, and carelessly thumbed at old women's schools by the vulgarest of village children, we little consider that it contains within itself a treasure of wisdom, worthy of the name of the great Oriental prince it bears. It is King Solomon's proudest trophy; it would do honour to the greatest monarch, the greatest philosopher, that ever existed. It comprehends, in compendious space, all the most useful wisdom diffused throughout the voluminous dissertations, and moralities, and maxims of antiquity-the marrow, I may say, of the wisdom of all sages, and of all ages. Its rules for conduct are distinct and intelligible, without any sophistry; its observations on life strikingly just, without any refinements of speculation; its invitations to wisdom attractive, without any aim, artifice, or superficial embellishment. Even the memory, as subsidiary to the judgment, is assisted by the equally balanced and contrasted clauses into which each verse is, like the Hebrew poetry, for the most part regularly adjusted. So simple are the precepts as to be comprehended even by the child; so profoundly wise, as to command the reverence and sanction of the man of years and experience. Nor are they addressed to one sect of philosophers, or to one people; they are of universal application, and of immediate, obvious, reference to human conduct and affairs: there is not a day, not an action in our lives, to which they cannot be squared and adapted; they are accommodated to every country, every age and stage of life, every profession and class of society, every diversity of civilisation. The king and the beggar, the simplest rustic, the profoundest statesman, may draw from them excellent counsel. And it may with confidence be asserted, that any man that sallies out into the complicated business of life, deeply impressed with the influence of this little volume, and taking its rules for his regulating chart, will conduct himself gracefully in every possible situation, and attain that honour, happiness, and prosperity, which are the necessary fruit of that prudence which it inspires. What a glory is this for the royal sage their author!for him, whose penetrating sagacity detected every winding labyrinth of the heart of man,-who, from the height of his throne, cast his glance downward into the diffusive mass of society that lay beneath him, discrimina. ting all the joys, and wearinesses, and pain, of human existence, and who, as an antidote to its sorrows, and an enlivener to its pleasures, presented us with this inestimable gift, the fruit of his meditations and experience! His personal glory, that of his wealth and his conquests, have disappeared; but the fame of the man "who filled the world with proverbs," is fresh in every land. How much higher a glory is this than that of the multitude of vulgar kings and oppressors! The memorials of Assyrian monarchs, their towers, their walls, gardens, and sepulchres, are extinguished, mould ered down into the very soil that supported them, haranny exist only as immense encumbrances on the earth, ving left not a trace;-the monuments of Egyptian ty. testifying to future ages their enormous inutility, and recalling (if they ever recall) the names of their found. ers only to be execrated as the debasers of the human race to the rank of beasts of burden :-But the name of Solomon shall be ever uttered with admiration and blessing, as that of one who not only ennobled humanity by his splendid personal example, but still continues, by the influence of his heavenly wisdom, to refine, and elevate, and render happy, our nature;-a name imperishable throughout earth and her islands, so long as wisdom is "the principal thing!" THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. WE mentioned in our last paper, that the Moderator of the Assembly has, for more than fifty years, generally been chosen from that party in the Scottish Church known by the name of the Moderate Party. It will be right to state what may probably be the causes of its almost exclusive possession of the Moderatorship. The truth is, that, if not the most talented, at least the wealthiest, ministers of the kirk attach themselves to the Moderate party; we do not mean those who may have private fortunes, for such ministers are doubtless to be found likewise among the Evangelicals, but those who are in possession of the best benefices. Now, situated as the kirk is, its ministers, neither as a church, nor as individuals, remarkably rich,-nay, the church, as a church, and three-fourths of its ministers, the very reverse, it is of the utmost consequence to elect an influential minister to the Moderatorship. By many members of the Assembly, the office, which is one of great dignity, would be declined, as it is attended with very considerable expense, which a country minister, with a benefice of from £150 to £250, and with a large family to provide for, could not afford. The Scottish clergy are all too poorly paid for the duties they perform, and are in general very unable to encounter extraneous expenses for the sake of a short-lived honour. All that the Moderator receives to enable him to support his rank, is £100 from the funds of the church, which is nothing at all in comparison with his necessary expenditure during the sitting of the Assembly. If he be an Edinburgh minister (for the Assembly always meets in the metropolis) it is another thing, as he has his own house, in which he can entertain his brethren; but if not-and it is very rare that he is besides his other expenses, which are by no means trifling, he must live in an hotel; he must pay servants, &c. ; he must give a public breakfast every morning to the fifteen Synods of the Scottish church in rotation; and in short, the £100 from the funds of the church will be found not to clear him one-half, if he supports his station with respectability, as the highest ecclesiastical functionary in the church. This circumstance alone, therefore, would be a strong inducement to elect the Moderator from that party, the ministers of which are generally better beneficed than those of the Evangelical party. It is probably for this reason, together with another we shall mention immediately, that there is seldom a canvass for the Moderator's Chair. The members of the court do not seem to trouble themselves much about it: they know that there must be a Moderator, but they allow the leading members to manage the matter in their own way. Several great men have sat in the Moderator's Chair, and, generally speaking, the court has always shown due discrimination, and a just homage to piety and learning. There is one instance, however, to the contrary, which the Church of Scotland ought unceasingly to regret, and which, we doubt not, many of its ministers do regret, as a most unpardonable neglect of a great man, equally distinguished for his virtues as came in my way without regard to the standard of utihe was for his high birth, whose name will not soon be lity or the fitness of things. Among the fairest and forgotten in Scotland, and to whose excellences his ve- most curious of the pencilled tribe is the British Dionerable friend, himself now also departed, and equally raina, painted by Roberts and Stanfield, and designed distinguished for his virtues and his high birth, has to show the various effects of light and shade. The paid a noble tribute. We allude to Dr John Erskine, mechanism by which the pictures are brought before the whose life has been so ably written by the late Sir Henry eye is very ingenious, and the general effect wonderful. Moncrieff. Dr Erskine was brought from a country There is an astonishing appearance of reality about parish to the Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh, was of every scene. Through the windows of a Gothic pile, in ample fortune, and connected with some of the best fa- which the aspect of the long dreary aisles almost chill milies in Scotland. He was a man of piety and learn- the spectator, streams in the actual sunshine, and, after ing, an admirable preacher, and a sound theologian; shining upon pavement and pillar, disappears as if inhe was the correspondent of Warburton, Bishop of Glou- tercepted by the dusk wing of a thunder-cloud. One of cester, the colleague of Dr Robertson, and the leader of the pictures represents the entrance to the village of the Evangelical party. Yet this great man was refused Virex, in Italy. The painting is good, and the subject, the only honour which the Kirk of Scotland can confer to me at least, captivating. The little village is girthon its members, that of being Moderator in the Gene- ed in by mountains, and, in looking upon it, I felt as if ral Assembly. There is an anecdote told by the late I had been the discoverer of a retreat yet unvisited by venerable Sir H. Moncrieff, in his Life of Dr Erskine, sin or sorrow. In the disposition of light, the peculiar which is not unworthy of being here mentioned. Dr witchery of the Diorama is manifested;-the freshness Erskine was once proposed as Moderator, and, strange to of morning, the warm flush of mid-day, and the impesay, the votes on both sides of the house were equal. Dr rial purple of the best tints of evening, alternately imRobertson had the casting vote, and he gave it against part novelty and truth to a scene in perfect harmony Dr Erskine, his reason being, that his vote had been with the cherished fantasies of a romantic spirit. A pre-engaged. A certain minister, a member of the view of the Temple of Apollinopolis in Egypt exhibits court, (we forget his name, as we have not Sir Henry's the effect of the fierce African sun upon a gigantic mowork beside us,) on being asked by one of his brethren, nument of the stupendous industry of the slaves of the when he came out of the court, if Dr E. was elected, chissel. The gloom of midnight is well imitated in a shrugged up his shoulders, and replied, "Not this man, picture of the City of York, which is injured, how but Barabbas." ever, by an attempt to mimic the firing of the Minstera lure for the herd, one of whom completely overturned my enjoyment of the Diorama. The person of whom I speak was a well-dressed caitiff, about the age at which thrifty citizens grow rich. The man, I have no doubt, was worth a plum. He had the visible characteristics of an adept in securities, home and foreign, and was accompanied by an unlovely female, gorgeously decorated They placed themselves near me, while the Egyptian temple displayed its massive symmetry in the immediate presence of "the god of gladness." I was wandering at that moment within sight of the everlasting pyramids. Suddenly the smoothapparelled caitiff addressed the unlovely female: "Ha!" said he, gaping at the picture," there's the York Minster, I calculate." More rapidly than the genius of the lamp ever transported Aladdin, did the villainous observation of this execrable cockney hurry me from the sublimities of Egypt to the abominations of Cheapside. But there is another cause which materially influences the election of a Moderator. The Moderates have been hitherto the leaders in the Assembly, and decidedly exceed the Evangelicals in number; moreover, they are well supported by the ruling elders, on the votes of three-fourths of whom they can always count. At what time the Moderates obtained the mastery, it is needless to enquire; suffice it to say, that the influence of Principal Robertson gave that party dignity and consistency; and ever since his time, though the party was powerful in the Assembly many years before, they have retained their ascendency. These two parties are, of course, violently opposed to each other they are like the Tories and Whigs in the House of Commons-the Ultras and the Liberals: nay, on some subjects, the Evangelicals approximate to the Radicals or Cobbettites,-root-andbranch-men,—and, if they may be credited, the General Assembly has as much need of reformation as the House of Commons. I have seldom spent an hour more satisfactory than It is said, however, that the Evangelical party is on in inspecting the collection of portraits for Lodge's the increase in the Assembly, and that its adherents will great work, in the rooms of Messrs Harding and Lespeedily be the majority, and will materially alter the pard. They are copies merely, but they are copies of decisions of the court. Of this we have our doubts, authentic likenesses, by the best masters of English por. for, notwithstanding the undeniable increase of the traiture, and they have been executed so as to abate no Evangelicals in the church, we greatly fear that they will jot of the resemblance. The collection contains about never be able to keep their ground in the Assembly. two hundred portraits of distinguished characters, whose We shall afterwards state the reasons which induce us names emblazon the page of British history during the thus to speak; meanwhile we may observe, that on the most interesting epochs between the reign of Henry the vigour of the proceedings of the Assembly at their an- Seventh and of George the Third. Of the illustrious arnual convocation, a good deal depends. The Kirk is ray, none so fixed my attention as Graham of Claversurrounded by numerous opponents. The Scottish Epis- house. The expression of the face is searching, and the copal church is now rising with prosperity from her nether lip is curled as in scorn, but there is nothing feebleness during the last century; the different sects of petty in his proud glance ;-one feels as in the presence the Seceders are becoming every day more numerous; of a man elevated by a sense of inborn nobleness, and there are hosts of minor sectaries, such as Independents, the impression is confirmed by the shade of lofty meMethodists, Baptists, Swedenborgians, Unitarians, Glass-lancholy, which gives a touching grace to the patrician ites, &c. who did not exist in Scotland a century ago, and who are now actuated, especially the Methodists, by the keenest spirit of proselytism. LETTERS FROM LONDON. No. X. features of "bonny Dundee." Sir Walter Scott has depicted him well, if this be a correct resemblance. I entertain a profound veneration for Italian genius, and it is, therefore, with reluctance that I express an unfavourable opinion of Signor Capello and his learned cats. The cats are certainly very comely and docile little quadrupeds, and betake themselves to their allot I HAVE been making a regular tour among the new-ted tasks with the most becoming alacrity; but, in my est sights of the Metropolis, inspecting every one that simple judgment, their dexterity is not worthy of com parison with the tricks of any Savoyard's monkey, or the feats of the many sagacious pigs educated at home. I must admit, however, that the learned cats display considerable tact at knife-grinding. The owl at Waterloo bridge, honourably mentioned in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, is, I grieve to hear, removed from the scene of his useful labours. I entertained a high respect for the departed, partly on account of his personal merits, and partly from his wonderful resemblance to Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst. In a room in St James' street, there is at present a living phenomenon, who decoyed a matter of four shillings from my unwilling pocket. This prodigy of prodigies is announced as a female with a beard eight inches long, large whiskers and mustachios, aged 26, and a native of Piedmont. I was the sole visitor in the exhibition room, in a corner of which a monstrous dwarfish figure, in a costume of hateful yellow, beckoned me to approach a couch upon which it was perched. I advanced, not without some nervousness, when the odious wretch began to display its attractions, and to expatiate upon them in a vile mountain patois. It doffed its chapeau, and unrolled a long tuft of shining coal-black hair, pointed to its hirsute arms, and horrid grizzly beard, and perked forward its saffron-coloured chin, that I might convince myself tangibly that there was no deception. During these operations, the creature never ceased gibbering its patois. Looking upon its enormous head, which, with the exception of the Tartar lock, was completely bald, and marking the unnatural play of its extravagant mouth, I began to reflect that I, a solitary Christian, might have been wiled by some diabolical agency into a colloquy with one of the infernal imps; so, without fingering the patriarchal ornaments of the living phenomenon, I bolted from the place, and never breathed freely until I reached the Horse Guards. A Mr Thomas Motley has invented a new kind of wrought-iron arch suspension-bridge, of which an ingenious model is now exhibited in the Strand. It presents the appearance of a bow and string. A line runs along the top of the bow, parallel to the string, which line is connected with the string by vertical lines. The string of the bow represents the foot and carriage-way, and on the parellel line is raised a floor, with an arcade of shops, which is the great novel feature of the design. A bridge of this kind over the Thames, from Charingcross to King's Arms stairs, is in contemplation. The plan seems peculiarly suited to the erection of ornamental bridges. Another curious piece of mechanism is exhibited by Mr Young, who was sometime back a state prisoner in Portugal. It is a model of the prison of the Inquisition at Coimbra, and presents an appalling picture of the devilish ingenuity exercised by priestcraft and fanaticism for the affliction of mankind. Matthews and Yates have conjointly commenced a spring "At Home" in the Adelphi. The chief performance is from the pun repository of Mr Thomas Hood. It made the folk laugh immoderately, which was the principal object. Matthews gave another story in the character of the old Scotch lady, but I thought it a failure. The best of his new anecdotes is a real adventure the stage-coach near Carlisle, on his last journey from Glasgow to London. He hits off the peculiarities of a Yorkshire farmer, a Glasgow merchant, and a Northumbrian coachman, admirably. He also imitates Mr Brougham very felicitously. On Monday night, Miss Smithson reappeared before an English audience at Covent-Garden Theatre, after a long absence upon the Continent. The house was respectably filled, considering the lateness of the season, and much anxiety was evinced to ascertain whether or not the returning wanderer, by displaying new claims upon public approbation, would justify the unmeasured eulogy of the arbiters of dramatic taste in the lively capital of France. When she made her entry upon the boards, she was greeted with acclamations loud and reiterated. Miss Smithson's figure has gained something in round. ness by her foreign sojourn. Her action is more elegant, and her carriage more easy, than it was previously. With the graces of the French school, she has also acquired some of its defects. Her eye, which is brilliant, and frequently very effectively employed, occasionally plays truant with the business of the scene; and the peculiar turn of expression which pervades her countenance in the enunciation of animated passages would lead me to believe, if I did not know to the contrary, that she was a daughter of Gaul. Miss Smithson's features are regular and pleasing. If I might touch upon so delicate a theme, I would insinuate a doubt that the organ of eloquence was out of proportion large; perhaps to the latitude of a rosebud ere it enters on its teens. Her voice is mellow and of ample volume, and her articulation measured to monotony. Jane Shore was the part selected for her reappearance. The drama is a closet production-poetical, but unimpassioned, and an unsatisfactory touchstone of theatrical ability. Surveying at one glance the picture of the penitent minion of royalty presented by Miss Smithson, the effect was chill, and, as a skilful specimen of art, there was a general want of completeness. She made, however, some excellent points, such as where she rejects the addresses of Lord Hastings, and where, in the presence of Glo'ster, she advocates the rights of King Edward's offspring. Her last scene was managed with much judgment; and she deserves high praise for having throughout, in the face of strong temptations given by the author, and sanctioned by professional precedent, preserved herself almost from an approach to whining or extravagance. During the progress of the piece, and at its conclusion and announcement for repetition, the audience marked their sense of her deserts by thunders of applause. I heard some persons in the box I occupied say, that they preferred her style of acting to that of Miss O'Neil and they compared her directly with Mrs Siddons. For my part, although I consider her superior to her London compeers, I feel incompetent to pronounce a decided opinion, until I see her abilities displayed in a character more in accordance with nature than Rowe's Jane Shore. The Friendship's Offering for 1830 will be larger and more compact in its dimensions than its predecessors. I have seen some of the embellishments, which are beautiful specimens of art. One of them-a group listening to a rural politician, dealing forth the contents of a newspaper-is by Wilkie, and has the best characteristics of his quaint and graphic pencil. THE DRAMA. THE Benefits are now pouring in upon us, and the with flowers are the meadows of summer, than those monotony of the play-bills is over. Not more prankt small quartos, of one page each, now are with brilliant and alluring promises. We know of no species of linovels of the De Vere class," personal narratives, terature more varied or more delightful. Fashionable auto-biographies, sentimental poems, cookery books,But look at the benefit play-bills! weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." all have become 66 66 thing that ever happened before. "Albeit unused to ruffled or unruffled, plaited or plain, which it would the melting mood," we confess we have a weakness to have been something to have worn but once during a wards benefit play-bills ;-we own the soft impeach-long life, on one's wedding-day, when shall we see all ment." We have caught ourselves actually stopping be- these again? They were worth a thousand homilies;" fore shop-windows to read them. They are an admi- and are they to pass away into the dreary obscurity of rable recreation for a lighter hour. Who prints the private life! For yet a little time we are to have Jones Edinburgh play-bills? Is it not Mr John Stark? among us; let us make much of him. It would be They are admirably executed; and we would rather be folly to request our readers to go to his benefit, for there the printers of these Fugitive Pieces, than of the Edin- will be no room. burgh Review or the Waverley Novels. There is much genius in the Saxon capitals,-great talent in the Bourgeois, and infinite variety of conception in the Brevier. But let us descend from the species to the individuals. Four benefits have already taken place this season,that of Mrs Henry Siddons, of Miss Noel, of Mr Thorne, and of the Manager. The last was on Tuesday; and, as Henry Cockburn says, was a bona fide bumper. Murray was called for when the curtain fell, and, in returning thanks for the patronage of the evening, he said, with truth," I stand before you, after twenty years passed in your service, with the pleasing conviction, that so far from having retrograded in your good opinion, every succeeding year has but added to the kindness with which you honour me." Let it be even so, for the Manager's deserts are great; but let him beware of slumbering on his post. He is going to take a trip to London and Paris during the approaching vacation, and we trust he will pick up something good on his travels, to recreate us with next season. We have had scarcely enough of stars this winter, or of spirited and striking novelties. We have had plenty of small things, but we should have had something more brilliant and decided. Turning from the benefits which are passed, to those which are yet to come, the first which arrests our attention is that of Mr Jones, which takes place this evening. The Clandestine Marriage," "The Critic," and "Paul and Virginia," are the contents of the bill, -a sterling and judicious selection. But the pleasure we would otherways have in speaking of Mr Jones and his benefit is dashed with a shade of melancholy, when we know that he is about to retire from the stage into private life, and that it is to be his last; — "The last! the last! the last! How many thoughts are stirr'd,— Jones has all his life devoted himself to comedy, but On Monday, Mackay prefers his annual claim, and surely he will have that claim allowed." What! our Bailie, our Dominie, our John Howison, “deserted in his utmost need!" We know "auld Scotland" better. She will support her friends to the last, and cheerfully will she pay five shillings out of her breeches pocket (is it a bull?) on the benefit night of Mackay,—of her own Mackay, of Sir Walter Scott's Mackay !-On Tuesday, Mrs Eyre, and on Wednesday, Miss Tunstall, appeal to us. May they both prosper! We have three heads; but we bark with only two of them, and they are sleeping at this moment. We say gentle things with the third. At this present writing, Denham's benefit has not been announced; but we understand he is to make a bold and spirited attempt on that occasion. He is to play Virginius, and Sir Archy Macsarcasm in “ Love à la Mode." This would draw a house, even though Denham's merits did not at any rate well deserve the compliment. Old Cerberus. ORIGINAL POETRY. THE INDIAN WIDOW. By Mrs Grant of Laggan. Yet think not, kind stranger, my purpose to bend; He whispers he calls me-he passes like wind,- Beloved and endear'd, in his shadow I dwelt Like a vine without prop shall I sink on the ground, Adieu, gentle stranger! Oh linger not here, THE IRISH DEATH CHANT. By John Malcolm. THE evening sun, o'er the waters wearing, Came floating far on the west wind's sigh, No cloud had frown'd o'er thy morning sky→→ Nor friendship perished-why did ye die! "With feelings pure and unsered by sorrow, Thy heart's young mate by thy gentle side, Had seen a young and a happy bride ;- When days were bright and when hopes were high; "Oh, still as twilight's soft star is burning, 1 Upon our slumber shall seem to sigh, Till morn shall break the sweet spell-recalling Our hearts to sorrow-why did ye die !" We doubt whether sufficient justice has hitherto been done in this country to the talents of the author of "Brother Jonathan." His book is full of vigour and originality, making you feel at every page that you have to do with one who thinks freely, boldly, and efficaciously. It contains descriptions of scenery, and illustrations of the natural passions of the human heart and soul, worthy of that prodigious continent, whose hills are mountains, and whose mountains are immeasurable,-whose streams are rivers, and whose rivers are seas,-whose woods are forests, and whose forests are eternal. The verses we have now the pleasure of presenting to our readers, do credit even to the novellist.-Ed. Lit. Jour. THE ELF KING. A BALLAD. THE Elf King sat in the greenwood tree, |