mitz. What is it that, in any thing which is merely ornamental, and which, at the same time, does not profess to be au imitation of nature, renders irregular forms displeasing? Is it not, at least in part, that irre-, gularities are infinite; and that no circumstance can be imagined which should have decided the choice of the artist in favour of that particular figure which he has selected? The variety of regular figures (it must be acknowledged) is infinite also; but supposing the choice to be once fixed about the number of sides, no apparent caprice of the artist in adjusting their relative proportions, presents a disagreeable and inexplicable puzzle to the spectator. Is it not also owing, in part, to this, that in things nerely ornamental, where no use, even the most trifling, is intended, the circular form possesses a superiority over all others?

"In a house, which is completely detached from all other buildings, and which stands on a perfectly level foundation, why are we offended when the door is not placed exactly in the middle; or when there is a window on one side of the door, and none corresponding to it on the other? Is it not that we are at a loss to conceive how the choice of the architect could be thus determined, where all circumstances appear to be so exactly alike? This disagreeable effect is, in a great measure, removed, the moment any purpose of utility is discovered; or even when the contiguity of other houses, or some peculiarity in the shape of ground, allows us to ima gine, that some reasonable motive may have existed in the artist's mind, though we may be unable to trace it. An irregular castellated edifice, set down on a dead flat, conveys an idea of whim or of folly in the designer; and it would con

vey this idea still more strongly than it does, were it not that the imitation of something else, which we have previously seen with plea sure, makes the absurdity less revolting. The same, or yet greater irregularity, would not only satisfy, but delight the eye, in an ancient citadel, whose ground-work and elevations followed the rugged surface and fantastic projections of the rock on which it is built. The oblique position of a window in a house, would be intolerable; but utility, or rather necessity, reconciles the eye to it at once, in the cabin of a ship..

In hanging up against the wall of an apartment a number of pictures, of different forms and sizes, the same consideration will be found to determine the propriety of the arrangement. A picture placed near one extremity of the wall will require a companion at the same distance from the other, and in the same horizontal line; and if there is any one which, in point of shape or size, is unique, it must be placed somewhere in the vertical line, which is equally distant from both.

"Numberless other illustrationsof this principle crowd on me; but I have already said enough to explain the notion which I annex to it, and perhaps more than, to some of my readers, its importance may appear to justify.

"The remarks which have now been made, apply, as is obvious, to the works of man alone. In those of Nature, impressed, as they are everywhere, with the signatures of Almighty Power, and of Unfathomable Design, we do not look for that obvious uniformity of plan which we expect to find in the productions of beings endowed with the same faculties, and actuated by the same motives as ourselves.

A

deviation

deviation from uniformity, on the contrary, in the grand outlines sketched by her hand, appears perfectly suited to that infinity which is associated, in our conceptions, with all her operations; while it enhances, to an astonishing degree, the delight arising from the regularity which, in her minuter details, she everywhere scatters in such inexhaustible profusion.

"It is, indeed, by very slow degrees, that this taste for natural beauty is formed; the first impulse of youth prompting it (as I before hinted) to subject nature to rules borrowed from the arts of human life. When such a taste, however, is at length acquired, the former not only appears false, but ludierous; and perishes of itself, without any danger of again reviving The associations, on the other hand, by which the love of nature is strengthened, having their root in far higher and nobler principles of

the mind than those attached to the puerile judgments which they gradually supplant, are invariably confirmed more and more, in proportion to the advancement of reason, and the enlargement of experience.

"The traces of art, which formerly lent an additional charm to the natural beauties which it was employed to heighten, become now themselves offensive, wherever they appear; and even when it has been

successfully exerted in supplying defects and correcting blemishes, the effect is destroyed, in proportion as its interposition is visible. The last stage of taste, therefore, in the progress of its improvement, leads to the admiration of what Martial calls-Rus verum et barbarum :

"Where, if Art

"E'er dar'd to tread, 'twas with unsandal'd foot, "Printless, as if the place were holy ground."

"To analyse the different ingre dients of the Beauty which scenery of this kind presents to an eye qualified to enjoy it, is a task which I do not mean to attempt; perhaps a task to which the faculties of man are not completely adequate. Not that this furnishes any objection to the inquiry, or diminishes the va lue of such approximations to the truth, as we are able to establish on a solid induction. But I confess it appears to me, that few of our best writers on the subject have been sufficiently aware of its difficulty; and that they have all shewn a disposition to bestow upon observations, collected from particular classes of facts, (and perhaps accurately and happily collected from these) a universality of application little suited to the multiplicity and variety of the phenomena which they profess to explain."

May the 27th, 1780, on which day it concluded with the hundred and tenth number. It has since been repeatedly printed in three volumes duodecimo, and in two volumes

octavo.

"In the closing essay of the Mirror its chief writer and conductor has favoured us with the following detail of its origin. "The "idea of publishing a periodical "paper in Edinburgh took its rise "in a company of gentlemen, "whom particular circumstances of "connexion brought frequently to"gether. Their discourse often "turned upon subjects of manners, "of taste, and of literature. By "one of those accidental resolu"tions, of which the origin cannot easily be traced, it was deter"mined to put their thoughts into "writing, and to read them for "the entertainment of each other. "Their essays assumed the form, "and, soon after, some one gave "them the name, of a periodical publication; the writers of it "were naturally associated; and "their meetings increased the importance, as well as the number, "of their productions. Cultivating letters in the midst of business, composition was to them an "amusement only; that amusement was heightened by the audience "which this society afforded; the "idea of publication suggested it"self as productive of still higher "entertainment.

"one of their number, to whom "the conduct of it was entrusted."

"The gentleman thus disclosed to the publisher, was Mr. Henry Mackenzie, at that time well known to the literary world as the author of "The Man of Feeling." The society to which he alludes, in the quotation just given, consisted, beside himself, of Mr. George Home," a Clerk of the Court of Session; and of Mr. W. Craig, Mr. Alexander Abercromby, Mr. McLeod Bannatyne, Mr. R. Cullen, and Mr. George Ogilvy, Advocates; all of whom, with the exception of Mr. Ogilvy, were contributors to the Mirror.

"To these, who might be termed the regular members for contribution, were added several most valuable correspondents; namely, Mr. Richardson, Professor of Humanity in the University of Glasgow; Lord Hailes; Mr. Frazer Tytler, Professor of History in the College of Edinburgh; Dr. Beattie, the author of the Minstrel; Mr. David Hume, nephew to the Historian; Mr. Gordon, Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland; and Mr. William Strahan, Printer to his Majesty. Two papers, Nos. 22, and 95, were communicated by persons unknown; and parts, likewise, of Nos. 9, 79, and 89, have not hitherto been claimed.

"To Mr. Mackenzie, the most distinguished, and also the most copious, writer in the Mirror, we are indebted for thirty-nine entire papers; viz. Nos. 2, 5,7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 23, 25, 30, 32, 34, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 49, 53, 54, 61, 64, 72, 78, SO, 81, 84, 91, 92, 93, 99, 100, 101, 105, 107, 108, 109, and 110. He. gave considerable assistance, more. over, to the contents of Nos. 17.21, 29. 55, 50, 85, 89, 90, 102, and

103.

"Of these contributions by the author of "The Man of Feeling,"

the

the most interesting are those which excite the emotions of pity through the medium of narrative. Few modern writers have been more fortu. nate than Mr. Mackenzie, in their appeals to the heart; and his fictions in the Mirror hold a conspicuous rank among the best efforts in pathetic composition. The Story of Le Roche, in Nos. 42, 43, and 44; that of Nancy Collins, in No. 49; of Maria, in No. 72; and of Louisa Venoni, in Nos. 108 and 109, are related with great simplicity and effect; the style is clear, sweet, and unaffected; and the characters are sketched with so much delicacy and adherence to Nature, with touches so powerful in awakening the softer passions, that they have called forth the tears of thousands.

In humorous delineation, also, Mr. Mackenzie has presented us with various specimens; among the number, we may point out, as peculiarly happy, No. 7, on the Importance of Names in writing; Nos. 12, 25, and 53, descriptive of the Family of the Homespuns; and Nos. 34 and 41, on the characters of Mr. Bearskin and Mr. Blubber.

"To critical discussion the authors of the Mirror appear to have been little attached; seven or eight papers are all which are discoverable in this department; and of these Mr. Mackenzie has contributed two in Nos. 99 and 100, containing an ingenious, and, in many respects, a just criticism on the character and tragedy of Hamlet.

The writer next to Mr. Mac kenzie, in the bulk of his communications, is Mr. Craig; he has written sixteen entire papers, Nos. 3, 10, 19, 20, 26, 31, 36, 47, 55, 60, 63, 69, 77, 83, 89, 106, and has assisted in the composition of Nos. 42, 85, and 94. Mr. Craig excels

in the Drawing of Characters, on which subject he has given us an essay in No. 31. His portraits of Fleetwood and Umphraville, in Nos. 10 and 19, are very happily deline ated; and he has favoured us with several spirited sketches in the same style, in Nos. 47, 55, 63, 69, 88, and 106. A very elegant and interesting paper, on the character and genius of Michael Bruce, occupies No. 36, and suggests to the reader a most pleasing idea of the benevolent tendency of Mr. Craig's mind.

"From the pen of Mr. Aber cromby, the Mirror has received eleven essays on life, education, and manners; they include Nos. 4, 9, 18, 45, 51, 57, 65, 68, 87, 90, and 104; and of these the two most impressive are No. 87, on Superstition and the Fear of Death; and No. 90, on the Calamities incident to extreme old Age.

"Six papers, Nos. 1, 15, 39, 67, 70, and 71, are ascribed to Mr. Home; No. 39, on the Danger, incident to Men of fine Feelings, of quarelling with the World; and the Story of Antonio, in Nos. 70, and 71, possess considerable merit.

"With Mr. Bannatyne, who has written five papers in the Mirror, Nos. 6, 28, 33, 58, and 76, appears to have originated the character of Mr. Umphraville; at least, No. 6 introduces him to the reader's notice, and the portrait receives additional finishing in Nos. 28, and 76.

“To Mr. Cullen we are indebted for three very valuable essays; No. 13, Remarks on the Poems of Ossian; No. 27, on the silent Expression of Sorrow; and No. 48, on the question, whether, in the pleasure derived from the art of painting, the Artist or Connoisseur has an advantage over the common spectator? Much just feeling and cor

rect

rect taste are exhibited in these papers.

"In enumerating the papers written by the Correspondents of the Mirror, we shall commence with Professor Richardson, a gentleman of established reputation in the critical and poetical world, From his stores the Mirror bas been enriched with five essays, Nos, 8, 24, 29, 66, and 96. Two of these, Nos. 24 and 66, are accurate and elegant pieces of criticism, on the Allegro and Penseroso of Milton; and on the love-scene between Richard and Lady Anne, in Shakespeare's Richard the Third. The style of Mr. Richardson is peculiarly correct, and nearly, if not altogether, free from scoticisms,

"The essays of Lord Hailes, occupying Nos. 62, 75, 86, 97, 98, and part of 46, are entirely devoted to subjects of humour; and, together with considerable knowledge of human life, exhibit no mean powers in the display of what is Judicrous in character and conduct.

"For the two papers on Dreaming, in Nos. 73 and 74, we are indebted to Dr. Beattie; they are entertaining, but inconclusive. In a letter to the Duchess of Gordon, the Doctor, speaking of these essays, remarks, "I had no ambition to "view myself in any of these folio "looking-glasses (the Mirrors ;) "but, as the publisher had sent me a set from the beginning, and told me that he would have no "returns but in kind; and, as I "had never refused the terms, I thought myself bound in a sort " of debt of honour, which I en"deavoured to pay with some de"tached thoughts On Dreaming.' "It is a subject which I ought to "understand as well as other people;

"for I believe I have dreamed as "much, both sleeping and waking,

as most men of my age. Your “Grace will observe, that the subject is not concluded, as I have "not yet got time to transcribe the "last part. The foolish gasconade "at the top of the first, is an addi"tion by the printer."*

"The last part, thus alluded to, was added to the seventy-fourth number, when the Mirror was republished in volumes.

"To Mr. D. Hume are ascribed No. 50, on the ruin brought on Genius and Talents by Indolence and Inactivity; and No. 103, containing a ludicrous account from Simon Softly of his law-suit with -Sir Ralph Holdencourt.

"Of the four remaining Correspondents of the Mirror, three contributed a single paper each; to Mr./ Tytler, for instance, is attributed No. 59, on Lounging; to Mr. Alex. Craig, No. 52, including a humorous proposal for improving agriculture; and to Baron Gordon, No. 82, on Sign-posts. The first of these gentlemen likewise assisted in writing Nos. 17 and 79; the second was the author of a letter in No. 89; and the third composed the epistle signed Moderatus in No. 102. To Mr. Strahan an acknowledgment is due for a pleasing letter on the improvements of Edioburgh in No 94.

"Sir William Forbes, when noticing the Mirror-Club, in his Appendix to the Life of Dr. Beattie, observes, that "the names of the "authors of each paper, show of "what distinguished characters, this "literary society consisted: and it " is not a little remarkable, that of "these essayists, no fewer than six "either are, or have been, Judges

"of