The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-17 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

ENTHUSIAST, AND OTHER POEMS.
By JOHN MACKAY WILSON. EDINBURGH, 1834.
These poems have one great recommenda-
tion, they are written with considerable feeling
and simplicity by one who understands what he
is about. With less elaborate polish and har-
mony of rhythm than our poetical contributors to
Annuals, as a matter of course, exhibit, Mr. Wilson
is worth them all in the straight forward, unaffected
character of his genius. A well written preface—
to every word of which we cordially subscribe—
furnishes us with his ideas of what poetry
is, or should be ; and when we say that he
puts forth Burns as one of his poetical idols,
we have said, we conceive, quite enough to im-
press the reader with a favourable opinion of
his judgment. None but puling sentimentalists
and namby-pamby versifiers affect to underrate
the works of Scotland's best poet. The " En-
thusiast," which is the longest, is also the best
poem in the present collection. We subjoin a
specimen :

" Or, when brown Autumn touched the leaves with age,
The heavens became the young Enthusiast's page
Wherein his fancy read ; and they would then
Hand locked in hand, forsake the haunts of men;
Communing with the silver queen of night,
Which, as a spirit shone upon their sight,
Full orbed in maiden glory, and her beams
Fell on their hearts, like distant shadowed gleams
Of future joy and undefined bliss,—
Half of another world and half of this.
Then rapt in dreams, oft would he gazing stand,
Grasping in his, her fair and trembling hand,
And thus exclaim—" Helen, when I am gone,—
When that bright moon shall shine on you alone,—
And but one shadow on the river fall,
Say, wilt thou then these heavenly hours recall,
Or read upon the fair moon's smiling brow
The words we've uttered—those we utter now ?
Or, think, though seas divide us, I may be
Gazing upon that glorious orb with thee
At the same moment,—hearing in its rays
The hallowed whisperings of early days ?
For, 0, there is a language in its calm
And holy light, that bath a power to balm
The troubled spirit, and like memory's glass
Make by-gone happiness before us pass."

Among the minor poems, that entitled " To-
morrow" is the best. There are many fine
thoughts scattered through it ; as, for instance,
where Mr. Wilson defines to-morrow as the
" pillar where misfortune leans," and speaks of
"the power
Of Knowledge and of Science, walking forth
In silence and in strength, and o'er the earth
Flinging the glory of a sun snore bright
Than that which heav'n can boast."
In this poem our author has evidently had an
eye to Young; not in the structure of his blank
verse, or the ascetic, gloomy turn of his feelings,
but in his frequent point, and epigram, and
antithesis, and more especially in his lux-
uriance of imagery. But Young, sublime as
he is on occasions, is not the best model for a
poet. He is cold, stately, and at times stiff and
pedantic. There is nothing plastic or yielding
in his imagination. With much of the polish,
it has still more of the hardness and rigidity
of marble. Mr. Wilson, however, has wisely
avoided these faults. We must give one more
extract from his volume—a sonnet on " Mid-
night," which is finely felt. The cheerful,
soothing ideas conveyed in the two last lines,
contrast most artfully and felicitously with the
images of awe and solemnity by which the rest
of the sonnet is oppressed. The effect, on
reading them, is as if a nightmare were sud-
denly removed from one's chest.
The sea is silent, and the winds of God
Stir not its waters; on its voiceless waves
Thick darkness presses as a mighty load,
Weighing their strength to slumber. O'er earth's graves
One lonely star is watching ; and the wind,
Benighted on the desert, howls to find
Its trackless path as would a dying hound.
The thick clouds wearied with their course all day,
Repose like shrouded ghosts on the black air;
Or in the darkness having lost their way,
Await the dawn. 'Tis menight reigns around—
Midnight, when crime and murder quit their lair,
When maidens dream of music's sweetest sound,
And mothers breathe the fond, the yearning prayer.

ADAM THE GARDENER. LONDON, 1834.
A very agreeable child's book, conveying in-
struction in that sportive, familiar style, which
young folks so much like. There are many
light tales scattered throughout the volume, by
way of off-set, we suppose, to the more solid
matter.

THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW.
No. 39, FOR JANUARY 1, 1834.

We are loth to say it, but say it because it is
the fact: the present number of the Westmin-
ster Review is, upon the whole, duller than any
which has for some time issued from its office.
The perusal of the very first article induces a
weariness which indisposes the reader to view
what follows with favour. This unlucky article
is a review of Dr. Chalmers's " Treatise on the
Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and
Intellectual Constitution of Man." The review
is better than the treatise, but it has one great
fault in common with it ; both are perfectly un-
called for. Dr. Chalmers has a great name, but
no apprehension need have been entertained that
any thing in his treatise would have turned
even a half-fledged Utilitarian out of his course.
One feels throughout the article, therefore, that
both the writing and the reading of it is a work
of superorogation. The " Voyage of the Ship
Amherst" is rendered amusing by the long ex-
tracts made from the Parliame►►tary Paper, which
stands as rubric to the article ; but it has the
fault of being stale. There are certainly few, if
any, readers of the Westminster Review who
must not long since have become acquainted
with every particular of the important and inte-
resting expedition here reviewed. It would be
an ungrateful task to go through the Number
carping at each article, and we shall not assuredly
undertake it. One on short Parliaments we
have elsewhere adverted to ; but there is another
which appears to us to contain a recommendation
directly opposed to those principles of free trade
which the Westminster Review in general so
ably advocates. We allude to the article on the
Law of Partnership. The law says that where
two or three men agree to trade together, they
shall each be liable to the whole extent of their
property for the debts they may thus in partner-
ship contract, just in the same manner as they
would be if they were not in partnership. This
is perfectly natural and perfectly right. Upon
the principle of free trade, the same rule must
hold good, if the number of partners be ten,
twenty, or a hundred. In the case of the larger
number of partners the public with whom they
deal have just as much right to come upon all

- their property, as if they traded in twos and
threes. It is true that the Reviewer does not
say in direct terms he would limit responsibility,
but he proposes an interference by the legisla-
ture, which the experience of many joint stock
banks in Scotland and England proves in prac-
tice to be perfectly unnecessary either to the
security of the partnership, or convenience of the
public. In the observations made upon the
present system connected with the passing of
private Acts of Parliament, we perfectly concur.
Before closing this brief notice of the West-
minster, we must, in justice, call the reader's
attention to an article which, though neither
political nor politico•economical, will, we venture
to say, be read with delight by all. We allude
to the musical one, principally treating of the
life of Eulenstein, the Jew's-harp player. It is
written with great taste and good feeling.