The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-07-27 00:00:00

LITERJRI'

Si& Watts* Scorr..-.-Yon have •often told me that
lraltcr Scott has been excelled by several other poets
of his time, in regularity and beauty of composition ; and
at far I have agreed, and dO stall agree with you. But I
think there can be ma doubt, that, far were thin any other
poet. or any author of his time, he is entitled to claim
credit for the extent and importance of the class of ideas
to which he has draws the public attention ; and if it he
.), what stuall matters all his deficiencies or irregularities
aTe, when pat in the balance attainst such praise at this.
At a time when the literature of Scotland--and of England
tai—was becoming e'er), day more and more destitute of
command over every thing but the mere speculative under-
statidiog of men—this great genius seems to have been
raised up to counteract, in the wisest and best of all ways,
this unfortunate tendency of his age, by re-awakening
the svmpathies of his countrymen for the more energetic
characters and passions of their forefathers. In so doing
ha employed, indeed, with the skill and power of a true
master, amp a tree philosopher, what constitutes the only
effectual means of neutralising that barren spirit of le-
thargy into which the progress of civilization i 3 in all coun-
tries so apt to lull the feelings and imaginations of man-
kind. The period during which most of his works were
produced, was one of mighty struggles and commotions
throughout all Europe, and the experience of that eventful
period is sufficient to prove, that the greatest political
anxieties, and the most important international struggles,
can exert little awakening influence upon the character and
genius of a people, if the private life of irs citizens at
home remains limited and monotonous, and confines their
personal experience and the range of their thoughts. The
ratiorial matter-of-fact way in which all great public con-
tents are pow-a-days carried forward, is sufficient to throw
a damp isppn the most stirring imagination. Wars are
begun aq4 concluded mote in reliance upon the strength
of mangy, than on the strength of minds and of mere—
vows, and supplies, and estimates, and regular business-
like and daily papers, take away among them
the pater pert of that magnificent indistinctness, through
which, in 'former times, the great games of warfare and
staireasenahip Wed alike tp be regarded by those whore,
interests were at state. ' Very little room is left for en-
Thu:Mats, 'when people are perpetually perplexed in their
coutemplations of great actions and great men, by the
congratulating pettinesses of the well-dispssed on one side,
snd the carping meann.ases of the envious, and the Ina-
Indent, and the little-minded, on the other. The circle
within which men's thoughts move, becomes every day a
narrow one—and they learn to travel to all their conclu-
sions, not over the free and generous ranges of principle
and feeling, but along the plain, hanl, dusty high-way of
calculation. Now, a poet like Sir Walter Scott, by in-
viting into and representing the modes of life in earlier
times, employs the imagination of his countrymen, as a
Ifiellßll making them go through the personal experi-
ence of their ancestry, and of making them acquainted
with the various courses of thought and emotion, by which
their forefathers had their genius and characters drawn
cut---things to which, by the mechanical arrangements of
nerlern life and society, we have been rendered too much
strangers. Other poets, such as Byron, have attempted an
analogous operation, by carrying us into foreign coun-
tries, where society is still comparatively young—but their
method is by no means so happy or so complete as Scott's,
becaase the people among whom they seek to interest Its,
have national characters totally different from our own---
whereas those abate minds he exhibits as a stimulus to
ours, are felt at once to be great kindred originals, of which
our every-day experience shows us copies, faint indeed,
but capable of being worked into stronger resemblance. If
other poets should afterwards seek and collect their mate-
rials from the same field, they may perhaps be able to pro-
duce more finished compositions, but the honour of being
the Patriarch of the National Poetry of Scotland, must
always remain in the possession of Walter Scott. Nay,
whatever direction the genius of his countrymen may take
in future years, the benefit of his writings must ever be ex-
perienced in the great resuscitation of slumbering elements,
which they have producd in the national mind. Perhaps
the two earliest of his poems, the Lay of the Last .Minstrel
suit Martnion, are the most valuable, because they are the
moat impregnated with the peculiar spirit of Scuttish anti•
quity. In his subsequent poems, he made too much use
of the common materials and machinery employed in the
popular novels of' that day, and descended so far as to binge
too much of their interest upon the common resources of
an artfully constructed fable. In like manner, in those
prose Talesn—which I no more doubt to be his than the
poems he has published with his name—in that delightful
aeries of works, which have proved their author to be the
neatest kinsman the creative intellect of Shakespeare has
ever had—the beat are those, the interest of which is most
directly and historically national---Waverley and (lid Mor-
ality. Thb whole will go down together, so long as any
national character survives in Scotland---and themselves
will, I nothing question, prolong the existence of national
character there more effectually, than any other stimulus
its waning strength is ever likely to meet with.—Peter's
Learrs to his Kinsfolk.

ALEX. SELKIRK, 111 E ORIGINAL RODINEOI4 C/11:sor.1
—Alexander Selkirk was born at Largo, in the county of
Fife about tho year, 1876, and was bred a seaman. He
went from England, in 1703, in the capacity of sailing-
master of a small vessel, calla: the Cinque Ports Galley,
Charles Pickering, captain, burden about ninety tons,
with sixteen guns and sixty-three men ; and in September,
the same year, sailed from-Cork, in company with another
ship, of twenty-six guns and one hundred and twenty
men, called the St. George, commanded by that famous
navigator, William Dampier, intending to crnise on the
Spaniards in the South Sea. On the coast of lirzil, Picker-
iug died, and was succeeded in his command by his lieu-
tenitit, Thomas Stradliug. They proceeded on their voyage
round Cape Horn, to the island of Juan Fernandez,
wle;nce they were driven by the appearance of two French
ships, of thirty-six guns each, sad left See of Stradling's
teen there on shore, who were taken off by the French.
Hence they railed to the coast of America, where Dampier
and Straining quarreL.d, and separated by agreement, on
the 19th of May, 1704. In September following, Strand-
-1!:ta came again to the island of Juan Fernandez, where
.f..elkirk and his captain hail a difference, which, with the
circumstance of the ship's being very leaky, and in hid
cunuition, induced him to determine on staving there
alone; but when his companions were about to depart, his
rem!ution was shaken, lied he desired to be taken on board
again. Happily for him, the captain then refused to admit
I:an, and lie was obliged to remain, having nothing but his
clothes, bedding, a gun, and a small quantity of powder
and ball; a hatchet, knife, and kettle; his books, and
mathematical and nautical instruments. Ile kept up his
spirits tolerably, till he saw the vessel put off, when (as he
afterwards related) his heart yearned within him, and
melted at parting with his comrades and all human society
at once.

Ye believe me, A t east
Sods in the rooted love a e bear mankind,
Afl ruffians as were, 1 never heard
A sound so dismal as thtir parting oars."
Thomson's Agamemnon.
'f he Cinque.Ports was run on shore a few months after-
wards; the Captain and crew, to save their lives, surren-
dered themselves prisoners to the Spaniards. who treated
fit( to so harshly, that they were in a much worse situation I
than S.C.kisk, and continued in it a longer time. Som
month; *fur Selkirk had left the South Sea in the Dukti
privateer, Capt. Strailling was sent a prisoner to Europe on
h..nr,l a French ship, and by that means got to England.
left sole monarch of the island, with plenty of the
nee &larks of I,re, he found himself in a situation hardly
supportable. lie had fish, goats' flesh, turnips, and other
'ic;;! tables ; yet he grew dejected, languid, anti melancholy,
to sta.li a degree, as to be scarcely able to refrain from do-
ing violence to himself. Eighteen months passed before
h.• could, by reasoning, reading his Bible, and study, he
t;:orutighly reconciled to his condition. At length he grew
IlaPpy, tmploying himself in kleeorating his huts, chasing
the gusts, whom he equalled in speed, and scarcely ever
fai:td of catching. lie also tamed young kids, laming
them to prevent their becoming wild ; and lie kept a guard
I,ftsioe cats about him, to defend him when asleep from
the rats, which were very troublesome. When his clothes
w‘re worn out he made others of goats skins, but could not
wetted in making shoes, which, however, habit in time
mbied him to dispense with the use of. His only liquor
" Water. lie computed that he had caught one thousand,
goats during his ale de there ; of which he had Jet go five
hundred, aft r marking them by slitting their vars. Coin-
motion Anson's people, who were there about thirty years

after, found the first goat, which they shot upon landing,
was thus marked, and as it appeared to he very old, con-
cluded that it had been under the power of Selkirk ; but it
appears by Captain Carteret's account of his voyage in the
Swallow sloop, that other persons practised this mode of
marking, as he found a gnat with his ears thus slit on the
neighbouring island of Mas-a-fuera, where Selkirk never
was. He made companions of his tame goats and cats,
often dancing and singing with them. Though he Con-
, seemly performed his devotions at stated hours, and read
aloud, vet, when he was taken off the island, his language,
from deuce of conversation, was became scarcely intelli-
Filth. In this solitude he continual' four years and four
' months, during which time only two incidents happened
which he thought worth relating, the occurrences or every ,
day bring in his circumstances nearly similar. The one
was, that, pursuing a goat eagerly, he caught it just on
the edge of a macipice, which was covered with Inishee,
so that he did not tractive it, and he fell over to the!
bottom, where he lay (according to Captain Rogers's ac-
count) twenty 'four huurs senseless; but, as he related to'
Sir It. Steel, he computed, by the alteration of the moon,
that he had lain three days. When he came to himself, he
found the goat lying under hint dead. It was with great
, difficulty that he could crawl to his habitation, whence he
was unable to stir for ten days, and did not recover of his
bruises for a long time. The other event was, the arrival
lof a ship, which he at first supposed to be French ; and I
such is the natural lore of society in die human mind, that I
he was eager to abandon his solitary felicity, and surrender;
j himself to them, although enemies ; but, uron their land-
ing, approaching them, he found then. to be Spaniards, of ;
whom he had too great a dread to treat himself in their
hands. They were by this time so near, that it required
all his agility to escape, which he effected by diming into n
thick tree, being shot at several times as he ran off. For-
tunately, the Spaniards did not discover him, though they
stayed smite time under the tree where he was hid, and
kakil some goats just by. In this solitude Selkirk remained
until the 2,1 of February, 1;0, when he saw two ships
tone into the bay, and knew them to be English. lie ran-
mediately lighted a fire as a signal, and, on their cora-
ling on shore, found they were the Duke, Captain
I Rogers, and the Duchess, Captain Courtney, two privateers
BriatoL gm atom the best entertaitunent he
j
I could ; and, as they had been a long time it sea I
without fresh proviaions,abe goats which he caught were
highly acceptable. His habitation, consisting of two huts,
one to sleep in, the other to dress his food in, was n ob-
, acutely situated, and so difficult of access, that only one of
the ship's officers would accompany him to it. Dampier,
who was pilot on board the Duke, and knew Selkirk very j
well, informed Captain Rogers, that, when on board the
Cinque Ports, he was die best seaman on board that vessel,
upon which Captain Rogers appointed him master's mate
of the Duke. After a fortnight's stay at Juan Fernandtq,
the ships proceeded on their cruise against the Spaniards ;
plundered a town on the coast of Peru ; took a Manilla
ship offCalifernia ; and returned by way of the East Indies
to England, where they arrived the Ist of October, 1711 ;
Selkirk having been absent eight years, more than half of
which ti.ne he had spent alone on the island. The public
curiosity being excited respecting him, he was induced to
put his papers into the hands of Perot, to arrange, and
corm them into a regular narrative. These papers must
have been drawn up after he left Juan Fernandez, as lie
had no means of recording his transactions there. Captain
Cooke remarks, as an extraordinary circumstance, that he
had contrived to keep an account of the days of the week
and month ; but this might be time, as Defoe makes
Robinson Crusoe do, by cutting notches in a post, or many
other methods. From this account of Selkirk, Defre took
Me idea of writing a more extensive work, the ronurwe of
Rostssos Chesoe, and very dishonestly defrauded the
original proprietor of his share of the profits. I conclude
this story with S,lkirk's observation to Sir R. Steel, only
remarking, that it is a rrcof how apt we mortals are to
itnagine, that happinesa is to be found in any situation
except that in which we happen to he. To use his own
worth, " I am now (says he') worth eight hundred pounds,
but shall never be so happy as when I when I was not
worth a farthing."—Genlfernan's .31aogazine fur 1768,