taste, and very extensive erudition. In the 1750, the Foulis' of Glasgow published the First Book of Milton's Paradise Lost, with notes by Mr Callender of Craigforth. This gentleman, who was certainly also an accomplished scholar, has however borrowed, without the slightest acknowledgment, a great deal from these annotations of his countryman, Hume. A plagiarism so close in its nature, yet so concealed in its origin, is worthy of notice. I shall mark some of the passages of Hume's notes, in which Callender has evidently bor rowed his illustrations from this older commentator. PATRICK HUME. Thus, in annotations on verse 11th,"And Siloa's brook that flowed,"-Hume says: "Siloa was a small brook, as appears by Isaiah 8. 6. arising on the east side of the temple in Jerusalem, of which the tower our Saviour mentions, Luc. 13. 4. probably took its name." Verse 16. "Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." "In prose or rhyme, either in prose or poetry, prosa. lat. for that free and easy way of writing and speaking, unshackled and unconfined in its parts and periods, used by orators, historians, and men in common conversation, styled soluta oratio,' as opposite to rhyme, derived of the Greek Pulues, consisting of a more exact measure and quantity of syllables, of which Aristotle says, ρυθμᾶ δε χαιρομεν δια το γνωριμον, και πεταγμένον αριθμον έχειν και κινῶν ἡμας τε Tayμss. in prob. xavon autem longitudines et altitudines vocis emetitur longior mensura vocis Ρέμος dicitur, altior μέλος. Aul. Gell. b. 15. c. 18. Scribimus inclusi, numeros ille, hic pede liber. Pers. Sat. 1." Another similarity will be found in the coincidence between the notes of Hume and of Callender, on verse 33. " Who first seduced them to that foul revolt."-Again, in verse 34. "Th' infernal serpent, Hume's note is as follows: "Th' infernal serpent. The devil, who entered into the serpent, and, actuating his organs, deceived our Mother Eve. Therefore called the Old Serpent.' Rev. 12. 9. Moses, in the relation of Satan's attempt, takes no notice of the arch fiend, but barely reports the matter of fact, the serpent entertaining and tempting Eve, who discovered not the sly seducer. Gen. 3. .". In his notes on verse 48. " In adamantine chains," Hume adverts to the passage of Lucan, b. 6. "Durum vinclis adamanta paratque pœnam victori ;" and to that of Horace," Figit adamantinos dira Necessitas clavos." Verse 50. "Nine times the space. A certain for an uncertain time is usual with the poets, who are fond of the number nine, whether in respect to that of the Muses, or as being the square of the ternary, made famous by Pythagoras, and by Arist. and Plut. styled the most excellent of all numbers, as containing in itself the beginning, middle, and end; to Christians much more renowned, as expressive of the Mysterious Trinity. CALLENDER. Callender begins: "This was a small brook rising from the east of the temple. Possibly the tower mentioned by our Saviour might have taken its name from thence. After which he proceeds to make some additional observations on the invocations made by the poets to the deities of classical mythology. Callender, after remarking the parallel line in Ariosto, "Cosa non detta in prosa mai, ne in rima," word rhyme not in the common acceptation, proceeds thus :-"Milton here uses the in contradistinction to blank verse, but by this word he means verse in opposition to prose; this being its ancient and original signification, as derived from Pupos, denoting a line consisting of a more exact measure and proper quantity of syllables, of which Aristotle says, queue de xaigner, &c. inclusi, numeros ille, hic pede liber." In the same sense, Perseus: "Scribimus "Serpent. The devil, who, entering into the serpent, made use of this form to deceive Eve. Hence he is called, by St John, the Old Serpent. Moses, in his relation of the fall of man, takes no notice of the arch fiend. He relates barely the matter of fact." In Callender the exact same passages are quoted (with the addition of one from Eschylus) in illustration of the same epithet. "Nine times. The poets seem particularly fond of this number; whether because it was that of the Muses, or because it was imagined to be a perfect number, containing the beginning, middle, and end, we shall not determine. Homer has often mentioned it. Εννήμαρ. μεν, &c. His throne. Heaven; his royal seat; his kingdom. So Theocritus calls heaven Zavos govor, "Jove's throne." Τα π8 και Ζανος επι θρονον αγαγς φαμα. Our Saviour uses the same expression. "Swear not by heaven, for it is God's throne." pvos 851 78 818. (6.) Mat. 5. 34. Fate. Our poet here uses fate in the sense of the ancient heathens, who, by this word, expressed that eternal and unchangeable series of events, which the gods themselves could not reverse. This is Virgil's meaning when he makes Jupiter say, "Fata viam invenient." CALLENDER. HUME employed by both, as illustrative of Milton's text. Compare also the note on the 129th verse, "Th' imbattled seraphim," where Callender borrows a scriptural quotation from 104th Psalm. In some instances, Callender, making full use of the note of Hume, transposes or changes some of the words, retaining the same classical illustrations, but destroying and diluting the fine nervous style of the old commentator by his own interpolations. -Thus Hume, in note on Verse 141. "Tho' all our glory extinct." "Notwithstanding all our glory be decay'd and lost. Extinct, extinctus, Lat. put out as a flame, or any thing that burns and shines; a word well expressing the loss of that angelick beauty, which, like a glory, attended on their innocency, which, by their foul rebellion, they had forfeited, covered now with shame and black confusion.-Extinctus is used in the same metaphorical manner by Virgil: Te propter eundem En. 4. In note on verses 149, 157, and 169; in one, the same obsolete phrase; in another, the same English expressions; in the third, the same Latin quotation is em ployed. Verse 175. "Wing'd with red lightning." The poets give the thunder wings to denote its swiftness and suddenness. Fulminis ocyor alis. Æn. 5. And Virgil, describing the Cyclops forging a thunder.bolt: Radios Addiderant, rutili tres ignis, et alitis austri Folgores nunc terrificos, sonitumque, metumque Miscebant operi, flammisque sequacibus iras. A noble description yet is our poet very short, and very significant. Callender, in his note of explanation upon v. 182. " livid flames ;" in the note on v. 186. "Our afflicted powers;" and in that on verse 199. "Briareos," has evidently been indebted to the three corre sponding notes on the same passages by Hume. Again, in Verse 200. "By ancient Tarsus," Hume remarks: 66 By ancient Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia, in Asia the Lesser, near which, in the mountain Aremus, was a cave called Typhon's Den." Ειν' Αριμοις οθι φασι Τοφωτος εμμεναι ευνας. Il. 6'. Inarime, Jovis Imperiis, Imposta Typhoëo. Eneid 9. The sea; the vast mass of water that en These parallel passages shew how very frequently, even in the small part of the first book which we have examined, the modern commentator has, without any acknowledgment whatever, been indebted for his etymologies, his classical illustrations, his general criticisms, and, in several instances, his very language, to the older annotator, Patrick Hume. Who Hume was, I have not been able to discover. His notes are always curious; his observations on some of the finer passages of the poet, evince a mind deeply smit with an admiration for the sublime genius of their author; and there is often a masterly nervousness in his style, which is very remarkable for this age. He was the first who published notes on the Paradise Lost, to which, with much modesty, he has subjoined only the initials of his name, P. H. pins. He is mentioned by Warton in his notes to the edition of Milton's lesser poems, and in the following passage by Tod, in his preface to his edition, published in 1801. "The first annotator on the poet was Patrick Hume, a Scotchman. He published, in 1695, a copious commentary on the Paradise Lost; to which some of his successors, in the same province," says Mr Warton, "apprehending no danger of detection from a work rarely inspected, and too pedantic and cumbersome to attract many readers, have been often amply indebted, without even the most distant hint of acknowledgment. Tod also mentions the publication of the first book of Paradise Lost, with notes by Mr Callender, in the following passage. "In the year after the publication of Dr Newton's edition of Paradise Lost, there was published, at Glasgow, the first book of that poem, with a large and very learned commentary, from which some notes are selected in this edition. They who are acquainted with this commentary will concur with the present editor in wishing that the annotator had continued his ingenious and elaborate criticisms on the whole poem." It is evident, from this passage, that Tod was not aware that the author of this commentary was one of those annotators mentioned by Warton, "who, apprehending no danger of detection from a work rarely inspected, and too pedantick and cumbersome to attract many readers, have been often amply indebted to the notes of Patrick Hume, without even the most distant hint of acknowledgment." The truth is, that this now-unknown and forgotten individual, who would not even place his name before his work, deserves, in point of erudition, good taste, and richness of classical illustration, to be ranked as the father of that style of comparative criticism, which has been so much employed, during these later days, in illustrating the works of our great poet. T. NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATING THE PASTORAL LIFE. MR EDITOR, I SEND you what appeared to me an affecting narrative, which you are free to make whatever use of you please. I have often thought, that people in a remote part of the country, would do well to preserve every interesting fact connected with natural history, and every interesting occurrence in common life. The use of the former is obvious to all; the latter are the food of the poet, the dramatist, and the writer of fictitious history. I made my second daughter (whom you know we allege is not altogether free of a tinge of blue in her apparel) translate the following from the mouth of old Alister M'Cra, my forester. He had asked me to allow him a few days to visit some relations in Sky, where he had not been for many years, and where he was detained so long by the very uncommon fall of snow, that we became much alarmed on his account, thinking it not unlikely that the spirit of the old man might have prompted him to venture too much, and that he might have perished in the mountains. I think you must have seen Alister? However, he is a very stout hale man, verging upon seventy-two; but few men fifteen years younger are capable of so much labour or fatigue. I may notice, too, that he is a professed storyteller, and, of course, garrulous; and is, besides, infected with a turn for poetry, and is apt to throw a dash of it into his stories; but which, I observe, Mary has taken care to avoid as much as possible in her translation. Yours, &c. W. L. * * * When I left the Black Isle, said Alister, I dreamed not of being kept a prisoner so long in Skye. But I became at last, as my friends told me, as restless as a sea eagle; for I knew that nobody would lift an axe to a growing tree while I was absent, and the laird would be for the new wood thinned during the frost. My two nephews brought me all the way to the head of Loch Brerachan in a boat, and, as I ascended Glen Phargan, there was no snow for a mile or two; the neighbourhood of the salt water had prevented it from lying in the valley, but every mountain that I turned, and every cove that I came VOL. IV. in sight of, shewed me, as I came along, that I would find enough of snow be fore I passed the Belloch of Garve. I stayed the first night at the house of my cousin Alister, who became a shepherd to Red Angus, when his brothers went to America, that their father, who was an old man, might be buried at Kilkenneth. The old man is yet alive: He has seen sixteen winters more than I have, and he told me, there had not been such wreaths on Schururan, nor had the snow lain so long on Dun Fheag, since the year before the prince landed, and that is seventy-four years ago. He was then a boy, he said, but he remembered it well. One half of his father's cattle died that year, before the fern sprung in Corry Culruach, and the remainder were only kept in life by giving a salted herring and a small quantity of sea weed to each of them, twice a-day; and he recollected well, being sent regularly to the shore, as the tide answered, with two poneys, to bring the sea-weed. I set out by day-light in the morning: The road I came leads from Glen Pheagan, by a belloch, or deep opening through the mountains, into the head of Glen Fruive (which falls towards the east sea), so that there is no very elevated summit to ascend; yet it took me three hours deep wading through the snow, before I could look back from the Pass of Belloch Garve. I need not go over all the difficulties of my journey. It is enough to say, that the last thaw had begun to melt the snows in good earnest, and the rivulets had been running full to the brim for a whole night; but the frost had returned more severe than ever, accompanied with a great fall of snow, and a high wind through the night, and the streams from the mountains were choked up and saturated by the drift. After I had passed the Belloch, the white clouds of spring did not tower beyond one another with greater majesty than the mountains of Glen Fruive. They were dappled in the pale and watery sunshine, for the stormy west wind was filling all the lesser hollows on the sides of the mountains with drift, while it swept the old hard snow, and left it bare, 4 P |