tations with the priest than he of Altrive; surrounded as he is with a large family of happy and innocent children, the fruits of a happy and honourable marriage, whom it is the prime business of his declining years to train up in the nurture and admonition of the Word which cannot

err.

And what may be the reformed shepherd's method of spending the evening of the first day of the week? As unlike Sir Andrew Agnew's as possible: you may take all the oaths in Tyler of St. Giles's compendium for that fact. Only the lass with the two youngest bairns has been deprived of the ordinance, so that there is no hot dinner ready for the kirk-going party; but the mutton-pie, baked on the Saturday, is set forth in full garniture of brown crust and parsley-leaves, and awaits only the first plunge of James's knife to reveal its solid cutlets bosomed in that jelly of jellies, which our own opposite neighbour, M. Verrey, will never emulate. Or the cold sheep'shead spreads its tempting blackness, over against the well-pickled salmon ; the oaten-cakes are at hand, piled thin and high in their rustic basket; the horns are duly set, and the tall jug of water, pure as diamond spark, fresh from the unfathomable well, scorning all applications of ice, is flanked by the mighty, huge, vast, globular magnum of aqua vita. Now let digestion wait on appetite, and health on both. Fall to, ye lusty feeders, and much good may it all do ye! Your fare can be none the worse that you owe it all to the independent industry of a man of genius; and we sincerely hope that you are for once free of "company." What a burning shame it is to the barbarous would-be literati and tee of our time, that they devour the heritage of Hogg and his household at such a rate! Do those unlicked students of medicine, and those brawny beldames who write three-fourths of the Annuals, never consider that a small Scotch farmer is hardly the better able to keep open house for lion-hunters, because he may happen also to be a poet? Of all the mortal sights that sicken our organs of observation, none is more offensive than that of a dirty gig or jingling yellow descending with a load of greasy, foulfeeding enthusiasts, upon "the bonny

holms of Yarrow." We have often thought, that if we were the Shepherd

of Ettrick we would hoist a sign-post

at once

"Porter, ale, and British spirits, Painted bright between twa trees." But to return from this digression. Dinner over, and two or perhaps three tumblers of hot toddy discussed in all decorum, our respected friend and his little flock now gather round the fragrant peat-fire; and the pigs say their questions, no doubt, and repeat their hymns and psalms, as in other decent folks' houses

Or,

"Behold how good a thing it is,
And how becoming well,
Together such as brethren be,
In unity to dwell!"

"The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want;" Or,

"A man was famous, and was held
In estimation,
According as he lifted up

His axe thick trees upon."

But after this pleasing ceremony has been gone through, our shepherd's ingle nook presents something considerably more enlivening than what is usual at a similar hour under most similar rooftrees. No reluctant hand deduces some thick, heavy volume of Walker, or Erskine, or Moncrieff, or Chalmers, or Irving, or any other of the established humbugs of "the Scottish pulpit," from the shelf, where it has stood in dusty silence since that day se'nnight. No but Hogg once more fills the tumbler, with cold grog this time, and lights his pipe; and, between sip and puff, he regales his admiring and revering audience with "a lay sermon,' of home manufacture; or, rather, of no manufacture at all, but the spontaneous effusion of a patriarch's heart and head. Mrs. Hogg is, probably, getting the tea-things ready while he continues his bit of paternal prose; but this neither interrupts the preacher nor prevents her from following the discourse, and even now and then interjecting a small query when he has broached some doctrine more bold than sound, or perhaps used some illustration rather better adapted for the ears of his old allies, the ewe-milkers, than those of the innocent darlings now nestled about his knees. On the whole, however, Mrs. Hogg is (as all good wives must be) a fervent admirer of her husband; and it appears that the

idea of getting young Jamie, who is now a dab at short-hand, to set down for the press some of these fire-side homilies, was originally started by nobody but herself. We are thankful to the worthy lady for her suggestion. We do not hesitate to say, that this age has produced three lay-preachers well worthy all its clerks proper put together; and that, highly as we esteem in the sermon line both Coleridge and Cobbett, we still are of opinion, that of the venerated three the most admirable is Hogg ipse.

Every reader, however, must keep in mind on this occasion a good old rule of the Stagyrite, and "place himself, in order that he may really comprehend aright the author before him, as nearly as possible in the position (physical as well as mental) in which the author was when he produced his lucubration."* In short, you must fill your tumbler with whisky-toddy, and light your cigar, and take care that the fire is bright and the hearthstone clean, before you flatter yourself with the fond dream that you are entitled to peruse the Lay Sermons of the Ettrick Shepherd.

It follows, as an important corollary from the above precept, that he who would endeavour to follow us in the right spirit through our reviewal of this sagacious manual, must in like manner prepare to do so with a jorum at his elbow and a cheroot between his teeth. There is at least one individual, about whose accurate compliance with this suggestion we need entertain no misgivings we allude to the illustrious Dunlop, to whom the Shepherd dedicates this tome-a selection which does honour to the discrimination of the Boar of Altrive, and which we anticipate will prompt the Tiger of Hircania to many and many an extralibation

"In his wild wood, within yon shaggy lair."

O Tiger! how does our heart melt within us as we picture to ourselves thee at the moment when this Number

of REGINA shall reach at length thy paw! Good, warm-hearted Wull, thou wilt not misinterpret us!

Galt, thy henchman leal, have for once a deeper sip of the old nectar of Gourock.

We must first solicit the Tiger's attention to some most amiable views which the Shepherd opens of his own personal character and feelings, in a sermon headed with "Why will you bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave?" It is obvious that the weather this Sabbath-day has been fine and genial that the clerical sermon was either a good one, or, what is more probable, totally unlistened to- that the Shepherd met kind friends in the kirkyard, enjoyed his walk home by the shore of sweet Saint Mary's lakeand that his inner man has been tenderly refreshed since his return to the elbow-chair, from which, being halfmuzzy, he thus speaketh:

"I like to make friends and companions of those who are forty years my juniors. I thus renew the youth of my mind, and have attachments growing upon me as my old friends drop away. I try to make young folks be in love with old age before they arrive at it, and shew them that happiness, and hilarity, and real enjoyment, are not confined to the young. I also find many occasions of infusing the experience of age under the guise of equality; for, unless piqued by insolence or vulgarity, I never in conversation set myself above the humblest individual."

What a modest creature, after all, is James! Hear him again:

"I do not see why young people should not be entertained, nor do I believe they are at all incapable of being entertained, with the conversation and gaiety of an old man. When I make them forget my age, I forget it also myself. I account it an essential duty, and I am sure it is a source of great happiness, to break down, as much as possible, the jealousies which are apt to subsist between the young and the old. They are afraid of our peevishness, and we are afraid of their frivolity. But let us always be satisfied that we meet on equal terms, and then they will love our cheerfulness, they will be flattered by our attentions, they will attain at an easy rate the experience which has cost

more

softest-eyed of all thy squaws mingle for thee on this occasion "the cup that cheers, but not inebriates;" that is to say, the tenth tumbler: and let young

"I advise every man advanced in age, therefore, to begin now and continue on, however old, this happy expedient of

stepping back to the scenes which you have left, and mingling occasionally with the enchanting circles of youth-especially if you have any thing in your countenance or manners which invites all the young people of the families in which you visit to flock about you, hang about you, and use every familiarity with you. 1 allude to the young female darlings of a house especially. This is delightful, and an infallibly good sign of an old man. There is an old Scots proverb, They're never cannie that dogs an' gilpies dinna like;' and there is not a more true one in the whole collection. 'Let no such man be trusted.""

The whole of this discourse is full of sage and pithy remarks on old men, their duties, their failings, their wisdom, and their folly. We do not quite approve of the personalities introduced; but as Sir Sidney Smith will probably never read the Shepherd's book, we may venture to extract what follows:

"The most peevish old men I have ever known were such as had earned fame by some insulated action, and who had nothing else to depend on. They were obliged to draw constantly from the same stock, till the world began to conceive that they were bankrupt, and they were daily disappointed in the respect to which they thought themselves entitled. Be assured, therefore, that a happy and respectable old age must have something to shew as well as to relate."

Our next quotation is well worthy of all praise and consideration :

"I have never yet been able properly to understand what Mr. James Russell would call the otium cum dignitate of an old man. It is supposed by some, that there is a certain period of life at which we ought to retire from public view, and leave the field open to vigorous and ambitious young men, who will tread the stage with a firmer step, and conduct the business of literature or common life with greater activity. But this is all mere balderdash. No, no: 1 am certain that exercise and temperance preserve the body in a sound state; and equally certain, that delightful study, the exercise of the mind, gives full vigour to its powers, until extreme old age. It is rare that a studious man outlives his faculties, unless these faculties have been very rath in their growth. Depend upon it, bairns, that in proportion as we improve the powers of our mind, we shall retain them for a shorter or longer period. I have always found a greater number of old men of sound and vigorous minds engaged in the professions

which require thought, than in those which require little mental exertion. Only see what sumphs the majority of old ministers are! They are almost as stupid as lairds."

We have quoted all this because it is good, and wise, and heartening; but we cannot allow the introduction of Mr. Russell's name to pass without some expression of regret. That eminent barrister, though, when seen in wig and gown, he may have struck Hogg as an aged man, is in fact at least ten years younger than Hogg himself; and when he spoke about the otium cum dignitate of old age, he was no doubt alluding jocularly to the comforts (now, we believe, within his view) of a seat at the benchers' table in Lincoln's Inn.

Again. We never can approve of allusions to the domestic affairs of public men, however offensive these may be in their public capacity. We believe that, contemptible beyond all measure as Lord Grey must be allowed to be, when considered as a minister, he is, in fact, a very amiable sort of person in his domestic capacity. He has set us all an example of diligence in providing for the olive branches, which, even in him, ought to command respectful acknowledgment; and we think Hogg need not have gone out of his way to make these bitter and sarcastic observations on the state of his relations with his son-in-law, Lord Durham a man for whom also we have, on some accounts, a particular respect. Talking of the venerable premier, the Shepherd says:

Many old men are jostled from the active scenes of life by the impetuosity of young men, who are eager to occupy their stations. But it is a man's duty to defend himself, by every just method, against any such encroachments made upon him. The difficulty, no doubt, is increased when the station requires activity and diligence, as well as experience and wisdom; yet, in most of the instances of this kind which I have witnessed, and been at the trouble to examine, I have found the blame to be more in the weakness of the man than the infirmities of his age."

And again :

"I adjure every man, especially such whose means of subsistence and exertions are linked together, never to give up his power of superintendency and direction as long as he is able to act,

even though not with his usual vigour. Unless from rooted boozing or brandyfied derangement, I cannot suppose any statesman unfit to direct the business of his own family; why, then, should be reduce himself to a situation in which he may bave comparatively few good things at his disposal? The premier and parent who does this is sure to bring down his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave."

But, indeed, the style in which the Shepherd pursues the present ministers, man by man, into the recesses of personal character and private relations, appears to us indefensible. He is, moreover, quite mistaken when he attacks Lord Palmerston, as one anxious to conceal the time of life to which he has attained. That nobleman has his weaknesses, but this surely cannot be of their number:

"When we are convicted of any of the undeniable marks of age, as wrinkles, grey hairs, or defect of sight, it is both laughable and pitiable to hear one asserting that these are not the marks of age in his case, as he had had them all since he was thirty! It is a pity that a man, entrusted with serious business of any kind, should indulge in such ingenious delusions; Talleyrand might paint his hair, too, if he liked: but he has too much sense."

Cupid, after all, is not above 57; and we rather think he does not paint his hair--at least, that he only uses a black-lead comb. But even harsher

- in fact, exquisitely and brutally cruel is the way in which Hogg introduces the two Grants, as sermonising each other" over a second bottle of black-strap." Hear Charles:

"Philosophy can give us no wiser instruction than that which teaches us to gain the support and patronage of others, when we part company with those who were our original benefactors. Providence has, in our transitory state, wisely contrived a remedy for this. We may so connect ourselves, as to have the fair prospect of new relations to fill the place of our former friends, and to come with claims on us which will keep alive the best feelings of our nature, and excite Our EXERTIONS and INDUSTRY to the last period of our lives. This, with the fear of God always before our eyes, and a humble confidence in his mercy, will keep our old hearts perfectly at ease, and our grey hairs shall sink down into the grave in peace."

The Right Hon. Robert Grant, again, is elsewhere introduced as saying:

"Solomon's moral philosophy is to me better than the whole that has been produced since; and it is long since I had it all by heart. The following maxim is three times repeated, nearly in the same terms, in his works: There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and DRINK, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God."

The solemn bypocrisy here ascribed to these gentlemen is odious: such insincerity even over a quiet bottle of port, in the back parlour of Cannon Row! The Shepherd may depend upon it that all Clapham will feel indignant; but, to be sure, if Robert has got the Bombay appointment, he may afford to smile" in humble confidence."

In Hogg's fifth sermon, "To Young Men," we find, among many pathetic and affecting admonitions, some more of this unjustifiable bitterness about the rats still in the ministry:

"Such companions never discover to you at once the whole deformity of their character. Their own gradual defection from what they once were, has taught them the most successful methods of infusing the poison of vice, and yet concealing its odiousness."

Addressing a young member of parliament in the same sermon, he thus renews his assault. We are sure no one less needed such suggestions than kirkshire, whom Hogg has evidently the late worthy representative of Selhad in his view throughout a great part of this discourse. Cautioning Mr. Pringle against the Grants, &c., he says:

"Where there is not virtue, there can be no real friendship. There may be associations of knaves, and their common interests may give them laws and bind them for some time together; but you may be assured that any friendship which deserves the name must be built on integrity. Never associate with men whose example or advice appears to lead you from the path of truth and uprightness : O my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

very first time I heard them speak, I found at once that they were consummate blockheads."

In another sermon, entitled "On Deistical Reformers," the Shepherd returns to the charge with equal virulence; and, indeed, treats the lordchancellor with a proud loftiness of contempt which we must pronounce quite un-Christian.

There appears,

however, to be some sprinkling of truth in more than one passage of this remarkable discourse:

"Our very priests, who, in the opinion of the modern class of infidels, have so long triumphed over the human understanding, now admit that it was the failing of mankind, a few centuries ago, to believe in every absurdity which their predecessors, in their ignorance, imposed on them. The error of this age is to believe too little, save in some things more extravagantly ridiculous than was ever promulgated in any former age. But if we go on improving at the present rate, I should not be surprised to see a set of philosophers endeavouring to persuade the world to believe in nothing, not even in Rowism itself, or in the universal genius and unsullied integrity of Lord Brougham."

We believe we have now quoted more than enough of the political part of this little volume; but it is not fair to overlook the fact, that if Hogg's strain here appears to casual readers, like the Tiger or ourselves, ultra-severe, the Shepherd is addressing his own children. His primary, almost his only thought, throughout these pages, is to inspire their tender and susceptible bosoms with a strong and eternal disgust for the mean knaveries and foppish delusions which have, at the present epoch, acquired so large a share of worldly success; and we must find some pardon for even the apparently harshest expressions into which a man of clear intellect and honourable principles-in other words, a good Tory— is betrayed by the natural anxiety he feels to train up his children in the hatred of Whiggery. We shall not return, however, to his politics. Here we have "the gentle Shepherd" all

and more virtuous than they are. Generosity would be the great virtue I should reward with fairings and gingerbreadnuts. Injustice, falsehood, cruelty, and ingratitude, would be almost the only crimes I should take down the taws for. With unremitting and steady attention to the different tempers and abilities of my pupils, I should promote in them the habits of industry, the bowels of kindness, and the virtues of jollity and hilarity; and in every step of their progress I should teach them to love God for his goodness to the fallen race of Adam, and to enjoy to the utmost all his bounties, with a scorn of Methodistical self-denying."

A sermon devoted entirely "To Young Women" merits special notice. It opens thus:

*

In that

"Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet. day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and the nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.'

"This is a most extraordinary enumeration of our evangelical prophet's. I have always thought that the present age overtopped all former ones in emulation for fine dresses and ornaments of every description; but I have been wrong; for what are the most splendid dresses in Peebles compared with those of the Hebrew ladies? Isaiah was a shepherd, and the son of a shepherd; but, like others of his class, he has had an eye to the comely daughters of his people, and, as appears from other parts of his writings, noted well both what was becoming and what was ridiculous. I shall therefore take advantage of the prophet's description of the fantastic dresses of the daughters of Jerusalem to point out a few failings in the characters of my beloved young countrywomen, and recommend some duties which, if they attend to, they will be the better and happier as long as they live. I know they will smile at this presumption, and say one to another that age has not cured the shepherd of his inherent vanity. But they should remember, that my years and separation from the world give me a right not only to speak my mind freely to the young