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ductory Lecture open with a magnificent and most elaborate metaphor, in contravention of the precepts and example of the greatest teachers and practitioners of elequence, who have concurrently sanctioned it as a rule, that an explanatory introduction should begin with simplicity of thought and plainness of language. But in the most courteous temper of criticism there is no excusing such a commencement of an introduction as the following, without first making great allowances for juvenility :

"In entering the temple of revelation, one of the first objects which has attracted the attention of all ages, and which constitutes a grand support, is the pillar of prophecy. Like the celebrated obelisks of Egypt, it is covered with hieroglyphics, which the wisdom of man, and the skill of science, in their combined efforts, attempted in vain to decipher. There is one interpreter whose elucidations never failed to render the inscription intelligible. It is Time. His hand retraces all the figures before the eyes of succeeding generations; his interpretation is recorded by the pen of faithful, impartial history; and by comparing the commentary with the original, we are able to comprehend both the one and the other. The pillar is adamant, and resists the impression of age. Its inscriptions were written by hands which have long since mouldered into dust; and by persons who did not themselves always understand what they wrote, nor were able to explain the characters which they formed; but the substance of them was dictated by God himself, and the column is his own workmanship. There have been many fruitless efforts made to shake this monument of infinite wisdom, and to erase these lines of unsearchable knowledge: but the pillar remains unmoved, the lines unimpaired, and the whole uninjured either by malice or by years. The parts of this singular elevation which stand near the roof of the temple, are covered with an impenetrable cloud. The whole pillar was once equally involved; but Time, who has rolled away the mist from its base, shall at the destined period unveil the remaining part of it; and while we shall be able to read the writing, he shall announce, with unerring perspicuity, the interpretation."

Standing in an improper situation is not perhaps the only fault of this paragraph; though it is highly laboured, carries certain marks of its author's approbation, and is indeed a fair specimen of the rhetorical part of his composition. As it is always desirable that, when an author founds his principal distinction on one particular mode of excellence,

that excellence should be brought as near as possible to perfection, we may venture to hope that two or three very slight remarks, in the way of exception, on the figure placed thus prominently forward in the front of Dr. Collyer's work, may contribute to induce him to study carefully the established laws of figurative composition.

It may be worth while to notice, in the first place, the faulty verbal construction of the first sentence,- objects which has: "the antecedent to the relative "which," clearly is-"objects "—and requires the verb to be in the same number." In entering the temple of revelation: "-What enters? It would sound rather strangely to say that "all ages enter it; but unless this be the meaning, the first part of the sentence stands perfectly unconnected with the rest.—Prophecy constitutes so large a part of the very substance of revelation, that it cannot, in just proportion of figure, be reduced to the dimensions and office of a "pillar." But allow prophecy to be put in this form and office-and then we must observe that the figure has a fatal defect, inasmuch as that which is the essence of prophecy is represented by merely a circumstance of the column; it cannot be by its "hieroglyphics" that the pillar supports the edifice; the figurative temple would stand unshaken though the hieroglyphics were effaced. Is the "skill of science" something else than the "wisdom of man?"-We question, but with submission, the propriety of the word "decipher," as applied to hieroglyphics, for the same reason that we should not speak of spelling hieroglyphics: the verb expresses a specific operation, which is perfectly inapplicable to the specific nature of the object.-"One interpreter-Time." It causes a confusion of ideas to personify so as to confine to one exclusive place and agency, a thing that we must unavoidably think of as existing and operating everywhere else at the same time. We think a correct personification should, while it continues before the mind, appear a competent organ of all those functions, the constant exercise of which we attribute to the thing personified. But we cannot dismiss our idea of time in the abstract, with its infinity of operations, while looking at a figure named Time, standing perpetually by a pillar in a temple, "to retrace his figures to all succeeding generations." "His interpretation is recorded by history;" which seems

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to be saying, that history has been written precisely as explanation of prophecy, and that it is, of itself, such an explanation; whereas history has no necessary reference to prophecy, being a record made, for the greater part, by men who never heard or never thought about the prophecies. Not history itself is the interpretation, but the result of the comparison made by the understanding between prophecy and history. How can it be said that by means of this comparison we are "able to comprehend both the one and the other?" We do not need it in order to understand history. What is the difference intended between "not understanding what they wrote," and "not being able to explain the characters which they formed?" How is it meant that the "column is God's own workmanship," as a fact distinct from that of its inscriptions being "dictated by him?" If the word "elevation" is adopted as a technical term, it is used without a knowledge of its meaning; if as a common one, its being used to signify a pillar is an unwarrantable license. Towards the end, the whole figure is again thrown into complete confusion by a "cloud," a "mist," which it now appears was the cause, or a cause, of that unintelligibleness which we were at first taught to attribute to its being in hieroglyphics, and Time has now an inexplicable duplicity of operation in the discharge of his office. Finally, what is meant by our being "able to read the writing," as a thing distinct from his interpreting it to us?

We like our author most when he is enforcing, in a plain and serious style, some of the most obvious but solemn admonitions of religion; and least, when he is ambitious to be argumentative, or splendid, or pathetic. In reasoning, we are compelled to acknowledge that he is apt to be rather loose and inconclusive, though indeed generally in the right, in virtue of not having been the first reasoner, in the order of time, that had handled the subjects. Many additional years, and much forced exercise, will be requisite to give the hard, cold, logical clench, to the gentle hand of our orator. Of the character of the splendid parts, we have already attempted a slight illustration, by means of a specimen. We earnestly wish our sensibility would give itself freely forth to the scenes in the pathetic style. But we are unable

I

to banish a certain perception of something very artificial in the management of those scenes. Occasions are sometimes evidently sought and contrived for presenting them; as in the instance of the amplified picture of the sufferings of the negro slave, in the third lecture. And these parts come in as pieces intentionally set, and wrought to be affecting, with a most studious accumulation of circumstances and touches. This is so unlike the workings of that genuine sensibility which has sometimes made eloquence irresistible! That sensibility emanates involuntarily, imparting a temporary softness, or fervour, to the train of sentiments; the thinking faculty being for a while actuated by the passions, constrained to utter its thoughts in the form of emotions, but insensibly recovering itself again into the clear intellectual state. The eloquence that expects to captivate the passions, at least the passions of those who have learnt to use their understandings, must beware of all artifice, prettiness, and little sentimental conceits.

AMERICAN INDIANS.*

Ir is rather an effected epithet that stands forward as the first word in this volume; but it suggests ideas of a very magnificent order. At a period not so remote but that many archways and doorways that we frequently enter were constructed at a much earlier one; not so remote but that many of our large houses contain articles of furniture which were cut and framed in the highest fashion of that time; not so remote but that there are, in every district of England, trees still in a state of considerable vegetable vigour that were flourishing at that time, the people of this country saw a few small forlorn parties of their persecuted countrymen quit the English shore, objects of compassion to some of the spectators, and of contempt to the

*

Exploratory Travels through the Western Territories of North America, in the years 1805, 1806, 1807, by Order of the Government of the United States. By Major Pike. 4to. 1811.

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much greater number. The posterity of these virtuous outcasts, and of a few parties of various character that subsequently embarked, at different times, for the same destination, followed by a succession of individuals and families whose transmigration from Europe was not of consequence enough for any chronicles to record, are now the proprietors, on a tenure of necessary perpetuity, of so vast a portion of the earth, that they cannot survey it but in the way of " exploring" it. To learn the situation and extent of their lakes and mountains-to ascertain the course, the origin, and the very number, of their great rivers, they must send out formal expeditions of discovery; of which even the starting place must be several months' journey in advance from the points at which their ancestors first landed and established their diminutive colonies. The adventurers must be a band selected for extraordinary hardihood, both physical and mental; must set out prepared to prosecute their project through all the changes of difficulty opposed by all the seasons of the year, with the addition of the evils incident to a variety of climates; and must take leave of their friends as persons whom they may see no more. They must boldly leave behind them the last faint traces of the operations and excursions of what is called civilized man, and stretch away into regions in which their adventures and fortunes will be a long time unknown, and where they might perish, and the period, the exact locality, the circumstances, and the causes of their fate, for ever remain a secret.

This is, at least, a very moderate description of the character of the grand adventure, recently conducted by Captains Lewis and Clarke, across the continent to the Pacific Ocean; of which we have yet received no more satisfactory account than the meagre Journal of Patrick Gass. And though the expedition under Major Pike was appointed for a shorter reach, both of space and time, and was not directed through regions so absolutely unknown, yet it appears to have been accompanied by still greater sufferings and perils than were encountered by the other daring set of adventurers, and to have been executed with a quite equal degree of preserving energy.

The party consisted of twenty-one persons, besides the