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wiped away from the Protestant Church." (Universal Applause.) He was afraid that he had intruded too long on their time. (No no.) It would give him the greatest pleasure to prolong his intercourse with them, but he feared it would be inconvenient for them. He then delivered an elegant eulogium on the various distinguished individuals who had done hon our to this University. The scientific and benevolent Hutcheson had led the way in a theory of morals, and his opinions had been illustrated in a life by Principal Leechman, which deserved to be better known, written with great elegance, and occasionally rising into eloquence. Dr. Smith had united great ancient learning with a familiar knowledge of the affairs of active life; and in the science of political economy, as well as of morals and the principles of sound taste, had established a distinguished reputation. Dr. Reid had discussed with excellent good sense the principles of Metaphysics and Ethics. The lives and opinions of those eminent persons had been made known to all Europe by Professor Dugald Stewart, in a style of splendid eloquence, a philosopher, whose writings had infused the love of sound opinions and of virtue into more human bosoms than it had ever fallen to the lot of any other man to do. "I cannot conclude," said Sir James, "without warmly adverting to the distinction conferred on this University by my friend Mr. Millar, whose merits are too fresh in the recollection of all who hear me to justify me in dilating upon. Thus, gentlemen, to the great men who formed the University, a succession of illustrious men have been trained up, and it cannot be too much the practice of those who now so honourably and respectably fill the places of their illustrious predecessors, to hold up to the youth under their charge the example of the Smiths, the Hutchesons, the Blacks, and a host of other great names who have adorned the University, and benefited mankind by their discoveries or their writings. I return you, Gentlemen, my sincere thanks for the honour you have conferred on ine." (Loud and unanimous applause.)

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Notable Instance of Self-Valuation.

Modesty has been commonly ac counted one of the true signs of intellectual greatness. A modern writer, of considerable notoriety, Mr. Cobbett, pronounces modesty mean and cowardly, and, acting up to his own standard of morals, thus appraises himself, in a letter to Mr. Canning, entitled, "Mr. Canning at School," in the Weekly Register, of October 26. [The extracts are from several paragraphs and are taken verbatim, with the writer's own memorable italics.]

"I found my pretensions to be your teacher upon the best of all possible grounds; namely, that, as to all the chief matters appertaining to your office, I have greater abilities than you. I care not who calls this vanity: the questions with me, and, indeed, with all men of sense, are, whether it be true, and whether it be useful to state it. A great deal of what passes for modesty, ought to pass for cowardice, or servility." "I know,

that, compared with this department of knowledge, every thing of a literary character sinks out of sight. Yet this is of some importance; and here, too, I am your master. I can state more clearly and reason more forcibly than you. Matters intricate in their nature I can simplify with more facility than you. I shall insert at the end of this letter (if I have room) a copy of my Petition to Parliament in 1820. I give it as a specimen of perfect wri

ting. The matter of it is, at this moment, interesting beyond description. But I give it as a piece of writing: and I defy you to equal it.""Even in your own department of Foreign Affairs I am more skilled than you. In the first place, though I confess it is a trifle, I can write and speak the French language better than you can, and, perhaps, better even than any of your interpreters." "The principles and practice of Public Law know as well as you can know them" -" and can write upon any subject appertaining to them with more ability than you, because I can state and reason more clearly and more forcibly than you, because I can illustrate better, and because I can, without the smallest leaning towards levity, render subjects naturally dry and wearisome, not repulsive to the mind. And, as to the interests of the nation, as these are dependant on its foreign concerns, I am convinced I understand them better than you."- But, besides these grounds, there is, further, the reputation for knowledge and talent, in which I am far the superior of you all." "The malice, the baseness, the cowardice, the cruelty, of my powerful foes had made my name as well known as that of the air or the sun; and now have come events to couple knowledge with that name." "It would be against nature, if, under such circumstances," (the fulfilment of his predictions,) men did not, as to public matters, confide in my judgment more than in that of any other man. You, who have places and pensions, and who are sent from the boroughs, may call yourselves, exclusively, public men; but, who is really so much of a public man as I am ?"do you gentlemen of Whitehall think that you, or your Ambassadors, have as much weight with foreign governments as I have? Talk of vanity! It must be vanity indeed, that can make you suppose, that any of the pretty palavering things called Notes and Despatches can have as much effect with foreign governments as the Register has." "It does not assert this or that it carries the proof: it shews that the state of things must be thus, and thus: and the reputation of the writer has gone before it."

:

66

"And

No. CCCXCVIII.

Curious Pulpit Satyr.

In the church of Schwytz, erected in 1769, is a pulpit supported by three colossal figures, which by a horrible contraction of the muscles, express the constraint they suffer in this position. These figures represent the three celebrated Reformers, Luther, Zuinglius and Calvin; and the enormous weight they here support is looked upon by the devout inhabitants of Schwytz, as an emblem of the chastisement which, in another world, weighs heavy on the heads of these guilty sectaries. The Zurichese disciples of Zuinglius offered forty thousand florins for the removal of an emblem so injurious to their belief, and to the memory of their countryman. But at Schwytz, as at Zurich, religious zeal was more powerful than interest, and this offer was obstinately refused.-Raoul-Rochette, Lettres sur

la Suisse.

No. CCCXCIX.
The Chinese, Deists.

The Chinese appear to have been Deists for at least forty ages: almost all their laws are founded on the knowledge of a Supreme Being, the dispenser of rewards and punishments. The inscriptions of their temples, of which we have authentic copies, are: "To the First Principle, without beginning and without end. He has made all things; he governs all things. He is infinitely good; he enlightens, he supports, he controuls all nature." Voltaire, Histoire Générale.

No. CCCC. Lanar Superstition. In Scotland, especially among the Highlanders, the women make a curtesy to the new moon, and our English women in this country have a touch of this. Some of these sit astride on a gate or stile the first evening the new moon appears, and say, "A fine moon, God bless her!" observed in Hertfordshire.

The like I

MS. of Aubrey's, 1678, in the Ashmole Museum, quoted in Malcolm's Anecdotes of London, 8vo. I. 414, &c.

About £4000.

POETRY.

LINES WRITTEN AT THE CLOSE And still, with watchful, pitying eye,

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Celestial Mercy, ever nigh,

Will shield my bosom from despair;
And if in thy mysterious breast
More poignant ills, in embryo, rest,
Arm me with fortitude to bear.

Alas! what eyes whose radiance ne'er
Was dimm'd by misery's scalding tear,
Stranger, from thee shall learn to weep;
While hearts to anguish, now a prey,
Ere the sun gilds thy closing day,

Where anguish never dwells shall
sleep!

Perhaps, ere thy brief course is run,
My fragile thread of being spun,

These anxious, tearful lids may close;
And she who now addresses thee,
From hopes, from fears, from sorrow
free,

May, on earth's peaceful lap, repose.

Oh! may thy moments, stealing by
In silent lapse, quell every sigh,

Lull every rebel thought to rest;
Teach me resign'd, to meet the rod,
Sway'd by that great Eternal God
Whose will is ever wisest, best.

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