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Philadelphus, Cæsar, and Germanicus, so long and so ardently desired, was at length accomplished by a single man! After encountering innumerable difficulties and dangers, Bruce stood upon the spot, which had, for thirty centuries, been considered beyond the reach of enterprise. At the source of the most celebrated of rivers, the thoughts of the traveller, by virtue of that association which governs and delights us all, reverted to the landscapes of his native soil! "I was now, says he, “in possession of what had, for many years, been the principal object of my ambition and wishes. Indifference, which, from the usual infirmity of human nature, follows, at least for a time, complete enjoyment, had taken place of it. The marsh and the fountains, upon comparison with the rise of many of our rivers, became a trifling object in my sight. I remembered that magnificent scene, in my own country, where the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan rise in one hill:-three rivers I now thought not inferior to the Nile in beauty; preferable to it in the cultivation of those countries, through which they flow; superior, vastly superior to it, in the virtues and qualities of the inhabitants; and in the beauties of its flocks, crowding its pastures in peace, without fear of violence from man or beast. I had seen the rise of the Rhone and the Rhine, and the more magnificent sources of the Saone; and I began, in my sorrow, to treat the enquiry about the source of the Nile, as a violent effort of a distempered fancy a ! "

lonius of Tyana is said to have visited the source of the Nile. Vide Philostratus in Vit. Apol. Tyan. v. c. 37. But it would be difficult to show, that

he proceded farther than the Cataracts.

a At the source of the Ganges, Frazer indulged reflections at once natural, and affecting. "It is difficult to convey an idea of the stern and rugged majesty of some scenes; to paint their lonely desertness, or describe the undefinable sensation of reverence and dread, that steals over the mind, while contemplating the death-like calm that is shed over them.-And when, at such a moment, we remember our homes, our friends, our fire-sides, and all social intercourse with our fellows, and feel our present solitude, and far distance from all these dear ties, how vain is it to strive at description! Surely such a scene is Gungotree."-Frazer's Tour through the Snowy Range of the Himalah, p. 469, 4to.

Such were the thoughts and feelings of this enterprising traveller feelings, the natural consequence of our organisation, and exhibiting, in a striking manner, the vanity of all earthly wishes, and the comparative vanity of all earthly pursuits! And yet was the circumstance of having succeeded in the object of his adventurous journey, the pride, the glory, and elevation of his life.

In the bosom of the unfortunate BURNS-that splendid but eccentric meteor!-the love of country burned with a force, equal to that of a Cicero or a Chatham." The appellation of a Scotch bard,” says he, in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, “is by far my highest pride. To continue to deserve it, my most exalted ambition. Scottish scenes and Scottish story are the themes, I should wish to sing. I have no dearer wish, than to have it in my power, unplagued by routine of business, (for which, heaven knows, I am unfit enough), to make leisurely pilgrimages through Caledonia! To sit on the fields of her battles; to wander on the romantic banks of her rivers; and to muse by the stately towers or venerable ruins, once the honoured abodes of her heroes."-This was denied.-Oh! my Lelius, if you have pleasure in shedding tears over the tombs of the good, the brave, or exalted in intellect, spare a few to the memory of this unfortunate victim to strong, indignant, and energetic feeling:-To the memory of a genius, resembling the wild and magnificent landscapes of his native land:-a man as much superior to the herd of reptiles, that robbed him of his flashes of merriment, in a little country town; as he was to those more dignified associates, who drew him from his native wilds by their applauses; chained him to their tables in an expensive city; and, having satisfied their love of notoriety, cast him, like a loathsome weed, away!" Oh Scotland-Scotland-the fate of Burns sits heavy on thy conscience a!

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Equally enamoured of Scottish scenery was the unfortunate * The neglect of Bloomfield, too, is an almost equal reproach to England.

MICHAEL BRUCE. The lake of Loch Leven will be ever dear to our imagination, as being an object of attachment to that amiable poet. This lake abounds in the most lovely scenery. On the side next Kinross, it is bounded by a plain; on the other are mountains; in the centre is the island of St. Serfs, in which formerly stood an ancient priory, dedicated to St. Servanus; and another on which are the ruins of Douglas Castle. To the impressions, made on the elegant mind of Bruce, by the recollection of these objects, are we indebted for the poem of "Loch Leven: "-a poem, which does equal honour to the heart of the poet, and the muse of Scotland.

The name of our country, heard in a foreign land, never fails to give rise to feelings and associations of pleasure and regret. ST. PIERRE, when in the Isle of France, often amid the sighs, which issued from a Frenchman sitting under the shade of a banana, has heard him exclaim, "If I could but see one violet, I should be happy." But in that ill-starred island, there was neither a flower in the meadows, nor a plant of an agreeable odour in the fields. Denon relates how delightful an association visited the French army, when in Egypt, near the Pyramids, by recalling to the memories of the soldiers the climate of France. When Helvidius observed a planet emerging from behind the moon, during his journey in Greece, with what satisfaction did he remember a similar circumstance, which occurred, some years before, as he was standing among the fragments of Glastonbury Abbey. He turned his wishes to the north-west with as much enthusiasm, as a Musselman, in the hour of prayer, turns his face to Mecca. And when Elphinstone was in Caubul, a dandelion gave him more real pleasure, than all the flowers of the garden. Many, even of those who have emigrated to India in their youth to acquire fortunes, which they intend to dissipate in luxurious banquets on their return,-have attempted to naturalise the apple on the shores of Bengal and the Carnatic, in order to enjoy the fruits of their own country: and

others have desired to transplant the pear into the south of Africa. The Dutch were ambitious of raising the pine-tree at the Cape; and we are told, that, in the Mauritius, many were the ineffectual attempts to introduce the lavender, the daisy, and the violet. I had a friend,-now sleeping under a bed of sand in the empire of Thibet,—who bore such an affection to the common heart's-ease, (no doubt from some association, the origin of which he had ceased to remember), that, previous to his voyage to Java, he procured a few pots of that species of violet, with an intention of planting it on his arrival at Batavia, as a native memento. By watering them every day, he managed to preserve them, till the ship crossed the Line; when they withered gradually away.

These early attachments are confined neither to age, station, nor climate. We are told that a Russian ambassador, enquiring one day of the Crown Prince of Persia, why a projecting corner of an old wall, which disfigured his garden, was not pulled down, the Prince replied; "I have bought this garden from several proprietors, in order to make something magnificent; but the proprietor of the place, where the wall projects, is an old peasant. He refuses to sell me his small plot of ground, though I have offered a large price for it. He says, it belonged to his forefathers, and therefore he will not part with it. He is old, and I am young: so I must wait to see if the son is not more reasonable than the father." -This reminds us of Naboth's vineyard. This vineyard being Naboth's paternal inheritance, he refused to sell it to Ahab. Ahab fell sick upon this disappointment: and Jezebel demanding, and in consequence learning, the reason of his melancholy, caused Naboth to be tried for blaspheming God and the king. When Elijah heard of the tragical death of Naboth in his way from Samaria, he upbraided Ahab, and prophesied, that," where the blood of Naboth had been licked by dogs, there should they also lick the blood of Jezebel and Ahab:

-and the crime, which had been committed, should be expiated by the extermination of their whole race."-The prophesy was fulfilled.

Hastings, the Saviour of India 2, purchased an estate at Dalesford, in the county of Worcester. "In this house," said he, in a letter to Sir Stephen Lushington, "in this house I live, because it is the house, in which I passed much of my infancy; and I feel for it an affection, of which an alien could not be susceptible. I see in it, too, attractions, which that stage of life imprinted on my mind, and my memory still retains." There is something exceedingly affecting in the following lines, written by this celebrated character, on his return from India ;-particularly if we associate with them his succeeding persecutions.

Short is our span; then why engage

In schemes, for which man's transient age
Was ne'er by fate design'd?

Why slight the gift of Nature's hand?
What wanderer from his native land
E'er left himself behind?

For me, O Shore, I only claim
To merit, not to seek for fame :

The good and just to please.

A state above the fear of want,

Domestic love,-Heaven's choicest grant,—
Health, leisure, peace, and ease.

When Bruce was in Abyssinia, he was charmed to hear the song of a sky-lark. When Adanson was in Senegal, no bird delighted him so much as the swallow; and when our friend Warburton was pausing over the Castalian spring, with what pride did he connect the poets of England with the poets of Greece, from the simple circumstance of seeing on its surface a few water-cresses. When, too, the British army was

a That Hastings was the saviour of British India is certain: whether he had a moral right to save it is another question.