to the value of money, as well as of many other objects which men purfue with unremitting affiduity; and of the wonder with which they contemplated their neighbours in the other ifles, among whom civilization had made very little progrefs; our author produceth feveral pertinent and amusing examples.-One is almoft led to think that Nature had fixed her refidence on the rock Soulisker; had confecrated to herself the fane et Ronan; and in the inhabitants of the adjacent hamlets, had viewed her only uncorrupted offspring with the feeling of maternal and ineffable pleasure.

"With the present fate of things, permanent felicity appears to be incompatible. May we not pronounce this truth to be univerfal, when we find the people of fo remote a region, uninterested in the business of mankind; and exempted by ignorance from feduction, confirming it by a teftimony the more convincing, from the difappointment of natural expectation ?-Our author mentions three caufes whofe concurrence brought about the deftruction of this fimple and innocent race.-A fwarm of vermin deftroyed the little produce of their fields; their cattle were rendered ufe efs by the barbarity of fome feamen; and they received no fupplies from the nearest island (that of Lewes) for a twelvemonth, their communication having been interrupted during that time, partly by a tempeftuous feafon, and partly by accidental occurrences.-Thefe caufes co-operated with fuch efficacy, as to sweep off (fays Mr. Martin) all that ancient race of people. The stewart of St. Kilda (fays he) told me, that having been driven into Rona by á ftorm he found a woman with a child at her breast, both lying dead on the fide of a rock."

Such, we are told, is the little melancholy tale, which fug-, gefted to the author the firft idea of the prefent poem. On its defign and moral the ingenious and worthy author makes the following reflections.

"It is a truth which we cannot inculcate too often, that human mifery has its fureit refuge in the hope of immortality. To imprefs this great truth upon the mind in fuch a manner as may alleviate temporary though unavoidable calamities, is the principal intention of the writer; and he will venture to affirm, that if we believe a moral governor to prefide over the univerfe, the records of history contain not a tranfaction which fuggefts to us more immediately this transporting hope, than the event above related. That men who are actuated by ambition, ftimulated by envy, fretted by difappointment, or impelled by revenge-that thefe fhould be chattifed even in this life for rendering the nobler powers of the mind fubfervient to the most detestable purpofes, is a procedure perfectly compatible with the justice of the preme legiflator.-We may even carry the matter fomewhat further. That man may be acquited of temerity, who is ready in fome inftances to conclude, that where the temptations to vice are powerful and mukipied, he who fuffers, though innocent in appearance, may be pu nifhed for the perpetration of fecret and undetected iniquity. But without carrying our view forward into immortality, how shall we account for a fucceffion of calamities brought in the present inftance upon men, who having never been expofed to temptations, could have done

nothing

acthing to deserve them! It is by confidering the Deity as a moral governor, whofe care extends to both worlds, and whofe laws are guarded by unalterable fanctions, that this, otherwife infuperable ditficulty, is removed. Poetry is furely employed in a fphere fuited to her dignity, when, as the handmaid of religion, the impreffeth upon the mind a truth of fuch inestimable importance; and if the author of the prefent attempt has received from nature any powers of imagination, he must confider the prefent, as the nobleft field of their exertion.

"Nor let it be faid, that an event, fo inconfiderable as the prefent must appear to be in hiflorical narration, is here treated in too ferious a manner. It is not by the comparative importance of tranfactions to the political interests of mankind, that we ale to judge of their influence as the vehicles of instruction.-Whatever melts the human heart; whatever extends and enlightens the understanding, becomes dignified by the purpose to which it is fubfervient; and claims, with irrelittible energy, the attention of all who feel themfelves to be interested in the confequence!

Thus much, fays the author, I thought it incumbent on me to mention with regard to the event that fuggefted the fable of his poem, and to the moral arifing from it. As to the conduct of the work, the reader will obferve, that the fimple manners of the inhabitants of Rona, and the final defolation of the ifland, are the only circumstances in which he has followed Mr. Martin. The table is otherwife wholly his own. It ought to be observed, that the moral of the work does not fuffer because the incidents that bring on the principal catastrophe may be regarded as fictitious. The principal fact, as related by Mr. Martin, appears to have been real. The author confidered the choice of means as arbitrary; and he has fixed upon fuch as he judged to be bett fuited to the purpofe of penetrating the heart in the most powerful manner, and of enforcing the general truth which he meant to inculcate from the whole. As far as is confiftent with thefe purposes he has likewife foftened the horror of the catastrophe. To have reprefented famine as preying upon this unhappy race, deprived of every refource, and locked up as in a prifon guarded with impenetrabie barriers, would have been to paint a fcene from which the feeling heart recoils; and to excite terror that congeals the breaft, instead of pity that melts it to the tendereft fenfibility."

Dr. Ogilvie proceeds to anticipate fome objections, that might be made by fuperficial criticks against the conduct and cataftrophe of the piece; to all which he gives a critical and fatisfactory answer. Indeed thefe objections are fuch as would not have fuggefted themselves to a reader of taste or judge

ment.

The author begins his poem with a declaration of the general fubject of it; after the manner of moft other Epic poets; whom he imitates alfo in breaking into an animated apoftrophe to the fpirit of Offian.

"WHAT ills, arife from Paffion's lawlefs rule;
What woes, from Luit, and Fury's dire controul;
K 2

Of

Of peaceful fields by thefe with flaughter ftain'd;
Of plains laid waste where Love and Beauty reign'd;
Of other forms than lure the playful heart,

Wild Nature's offspring, yet unknown to Art;
I fing.-Ye tribes that, born in happier days,
Sport loofely gay in Pleafute's flowery maze!
Caught by the shapes in Fancy's dazzling ray:
One hour attend a wild and artless lay.
If yet foft Pity with her tale of woe

E'er thaw'd the heart, and gave the eyes to flow,
Mark then her ferious part, nor lightly fcan;
The lay that warms, and melts, improves the man,
O thou, who, wrapt in night's involving gloom
Sang of the gliding ghoft, and lonely tomb;
Of beauty stretch'd in duft, of hotts o'erthrown,
Th'o'erading mofs, and monumental ftone,
Affit!-Like thee to mournful fcenes convey'd,
I fing the warrior's dark and narrow bed.
Nor this alone:-but here, th' examples brought
Rouze cheerful hope, and tame impatient thought,
Stunn'd as we fee th' oppreffor's arm invade
Meek worth, though fhelter'd in th' oblivious fhade;
When torn, the bleeds beneath the fcourge of power;
When ftorm, and triple night o'ercast the hour;
Then foar bright Hope with fteady thought ferene,
Beyond this little, vain, illufive fcene;

To yon gay region for the JUST prepar'd;
To climes where VIRTUE meets her great reward;
Where Love, like heaven's æthereal beam refin'd,
Pure, boundlefs, full, informs th' immortal mind,
The heart thus fteel'd, when wafting cares affail,
Will feel the moral of our tragic tale."

Our readers, who recollect Dr. Ogilvie's former poetical works, will obferve from the above paffage, that his prefent ftile is much lefs fplendid and brilliant than that of many other of his pieces. What his diction has loft in fplendour however, is made up in ftrength and propriety. Indeed there are few pieces of the kind in our language, that we remember to have read with greater pleafure and fatisfaction. Hear how he opens

his tale.

"Long by the light unerring Truth difplays,
BASILIUS roam'd through Life's bewildering maze;
Now, quench'd by years, his fun's meridian flame
The calmer fcene, the fober evening came:
It came; but, all was joylefs, wild, and drear;
Fled with his wealth the friend he deem'd fincere.
As fummer-fwarms on aëry pinions born,
Float light, and joyous hail the fmiling morn,
Bafk in the dazzling orb's unvarying ray,
But feel the blaft, and fhrink in haite away:

Thus

Thus by the form of life at distance blown,
Thefe fhrunk; and scattering left the Sire alone.
He mark'd th' approaching night with clouds o'erspread,
The gathering furge, and dark involving fhade,
Sedate; though confcious that it's wafteful rage,
Dire ev'n in youth, o'erwhelms declining age.
One prize alone, of all his youth obtain'd,
One lovely prize, an infant-charge, remain'd;
She, yet unconscious of the varying scene,
Slept on the roaring furge, and fmil'd ferene:
Her thought elate; nor taught afar to roam,
Mov'd in one round, nor left it's little home.

To rear this plant he bent his utmost care;
The happiest fite he wish'd; the purest air:
In man long vers'd, by fage experience taught,
He knew the shades that dafh the fairest draught;
Scann'd with impartial thought each opening view,
And mark'd where Peace invites her chofen few!
Oft, when no eye his wandering step furvey'd,
Sunk in the gloomy wood's incumbent fhade,
As o'er the paft with anxious thought he ran ;
Thus muling fpoke the venerable man:

"Where shall I fly?-What place, unfriended, find
"To rear the pledge AMELIA left behind?
"That lovely, young, adorn'd with every grace,
"Truth ftamps the mind, as Beauty moulds the face;
"The bashful charms that timid eyes difplay;
"These to the fpoiler mark his deftin'd prey.
"To him (when fleeping in the land of reft),
"Young fhall I leave the weak, and yielding breast?
"Caft the mild Virgin on a world untry'd;
"In mazes loft, without a friend to guide?
"No.-Let me bear her to fome distant plain,
"Some land, where meek-ey'd Quiet holds her reign;
"There bred with artle's innocence to stray,

"Far from the throng whom flattering hopes betray;
"Safe may fhe reft where fewer cares annoy;
"Cheer'd with the fmiles, though not the glare of joy,
"Thus while I rear her in the rural fcene,

"Teach juft defires, and Nature's temperate mean;
"While thus employ'd; let rolling years o'erfhade,
"Let gathering ftorms affail this aged head,
"Firm in the path of right I ftand fecure;
"Safe from the faares of Art, th' affaults of Power ;
"And blefs'd, tranfmit, when in the general home,
Not wealth, but virtue to the race to come."
Now pleas'd to 'fcape from Folly's bustling train,
Scene after scene he scann'd, but fcann'd in vain:
Vice with her raven wing, and defperate band,
Like fome dire peft o'erfpread his native land,

Not

Not lefs her power in humbler stations known,
Than rais'd, where tinfel'd crouds furround her throne:
As thefe Ambition, Power, and Pride controul,
Thofe Hate, Deceit, Diftruft, and Envy rule;
Some happier clime he wifh'd; fome peaceful cell,
Some land where exil'd worth delights to dwell;
Some spot where Nature's wild domain extends,
Or blameless race the Power's felected Friends.
Long ere he fix'd, he view'd each region o'er;
Then chofe one calm, but folitary shore.

Far on old Ocean's utmost region caft,
One lonely Ifle o'erlooks the boundless waste;
Dropt like a rock amid' the HEBRID' train;
Around it fwells the wind, and roars the main,
Dim from it's cliff, but far-remote, is shown
One diftant coaft *;-'tis elfe a world alone!
LEWES, from SOULISKER's aery brow furvey'd,
On the blue æther feems a hovering fhade;
Elfe, even the wild and naked Isles around,
Bleak SLEAT's, or KILDA's unfrequented ground,
Even there the land by feweft wanderers trod,
Seem'd wide to this, the traveller's throng'd abode."
Not that the Ifle was wafte;-but plac'd afide,
Few strangers ere its little hamlets ey'd t.
A fcanty space it fill'd. One vale contain'd
Their corns; and one the woolly tribes fuftain'd:
High o'er the beetling cliff, with pasture clad,
The brouzing goats, or harmless cattle ftray'd;
'Twas elfe with moffy turf, or herbs o'ergrown,
Save where old RONAN rear'd the fainted itone §,
When here forlorn the hoary hermit came,

The people blefs'd, and gave their land his name."

Rona (according to Mr. Martin's account) lies at the diftance of about twenty leagues from the North Eaft point of Nefs, in the Ifle of Lewes ; which is the land most contiguous to it. It can only be feen from this point in a fair fummer's-day. Account of the Weft Ifles, p. 19.

It is reckoned to be about a mile in length (about two English miles), and only half that distance in breadth, The author above referred to mentions particularly one minifter who had vifited this remote ifle, which was a part of his glebe; and from that gentleman principally he appears to have received his information.

The divifions here mentioned are fuch as our author leads us to fuppofe may have taken place. There is, he fays, a hill in the Weft part of the ifland:-and he acquaints us that the inhabitants had cows, fheep, barley, and oats,

We refer the reader to Mr. Martin's account of the chapel of St. Ronan, the piece of wood kept in it to which the fimple inhabitants afcribed extraordinary virtues; their ftrange ceremonies, total ignorance of the world, and many other amufing circumftances. He mentions particu larly their taking their names from the colours of the fky, rainbow, and clouds,

A harm