Will shape and syllable its sound

Into Zuleika's name.

'Tis from her cypress' summit heard,
That melts in air the liquid word-
'Tis from her lowly virgin earth
That white rose takes its tender birth.
There late was laid a marble stone,
Eve saw it placed-the morrow gone!
It was no mortal arm that bore
That deep-fixed pillar to the shore;
For there, as Helle's legends tell,

Next morn 'twas found where Selim fell-
Lashed by the tumbling tide, whose wave
Denied his bones a holier grave-

And there by night, reclin'd, 'tis said,
Is seen a ghastly turban'd head-
And hence extended by the billow,
'Tis named the "Pirate-phantom's pillow!"
Where first it lay-that mourning flower
Hath flourished-flourisheth this hour-
Alone-and dewy-coldly pure and pale--

As weeping Beauty's cheek at Sorrow's tale!

There is room to suspect that the poet constructed his plot as he was executing the workmanship. In Selim, the hero of his tale, one part of the character is flatly opposed by another. In one place he appears to us as the brother of Zuleika-then as her lover and, last of all, by his own confession, as a murderer, and thief! When the poet first introduces him to our notice, we pay all proper deference and respect to the guest; but when he himself announces his own character, we tremble for the security of our watches. All of us may remember how severely his lordship, in his philippic against the Caledonian reviewers, censured Scott for staining the knighthood of Marmion with forgery. His lordship thus indignantly expresses himself of that character:

"Next view in state, proud prancing on his roan,
The guilty, crested, haughty Marmion;
Now forging scrolls, now foremost in the fight,

Not quite a felon, and almost a knight;
The gibbet or the field prepared to grace,

A mighty mixture of the good and base.

Say will not Caledonia's annals yield

The glorious records of some well-fought field,
Than the vile foray of some plundering clan,

Whose proudest deeds disgrace the name of man."

It is amusing to discover how differently a man plays his part in the separate departments of a reviewer and an author. His lordship, offended as he was with Walter Scott as a reviewer, condescends to follow his example as a poet. Marmion and Selim may now shake hands together. Mr. Scott may now retort this severity upon his lordship, and ask him which of the two vices is, in his estimation, the most honourable, forgery or theft? But the crimes of Selim do not end even here. Notwithstanding he can, with such heroic self-complacency, rob and murder innocent men, it can with truth be said, that whenever revenge is demanded by all the laws of heaven and earth, it is difficult to find a character more forbearing and innoxious than Selim's. He lives with the murderer of his father with a full knowledge of the fact; accepts of his hospitality and obeys his commands. Neither does he meditate revenge until his parricidal uncle reflects upon his courage. Some may be inclined to think that it was Selim's tenderness for Zuleika that reconciled him to bear with philosophical submission, such ponderous indignity. To this it may be sufficient to answer, that this hero, when he discloses his love to Zuleika, mentions, with singular complacency, his profession as a robber, by way of insuring a hearty welcome to his addresses. He has not indeed the common apology of want and distress for his conduct. No; the bounty of his parricidal uncle has prevented all complaint of this character. It was a heroic passion-an abhorrence of a soft indolence and luxurious life, that prompted him to signalize himself by robbery. Whether the noble poet was half-ashamed of this apology himself, we know not; but as if to raise his hero in our estimation, he makes Selim inform us that he was not himself a bona fide robber he did not expose his own person to the hazards incident to his profession-he procured substitutes, directed his gang when and where to commit the deed, and shared in the plunder. The heroism of Selim then ends in this-to share in the booty without participating in the danger.

Such are the prominent defects of the work; but there is, notwithstanding, such a redeeming spirit in the author's genius, that they are passed over by a great body of readers, not only without censure, but almost without notice.

MADEMOISELLE DE LA FAYETTE, OR THE AGE OF LOUIS XIII. BY MADAME DE GENLIS.

(Translated from the Parisian Literary Journal.)

Or this new historical romance of madame de Genlis it is no ordinary penegyric to say, that it abounds with the same beauties as distinguish her other two romances, entitled Madame de Maintenon and Madame de Lavalliere.

Our author has, in this new work, drawn, with all the truth of history and in colours as delicate as they are energetic, the characters of the principal personages of the court of Louis thirteen. Amongst this assemblage are those of Anne of Austria, the cardinal Richelieu, and the duke de Roquelaure. Madame de Genlis has given the character of Louis himself with the strictest adherence to truth, while she has not forgot to notice that hardy valour which marked his conduct on all occasions; his great repugnance personally to interfere in any way with the internal concerns of his kingdom; his unfortunate diffidence of his own abilities; and finally, his unwillingness to throw off the yoke imposed on him by his ministers and favourites, although he at the same time bore it with the greatest impatience. She may however be reproached for having essentially altered his character in one respect-in allowing him to possess, at different periods of the story, an impassioned sensibility. We cannot imagine a prince to be possessed of much sensibility, who, at the moment of the execution of his grand ocuyer, Cinq Mars, the most beloved of his favourites, and who was condemned to death for a conspiracy against a minister whom he detested, takes out his watch, and very coolly observes, "my dear friend must make a sad figure at this moment." For the delineation of the character of mademoiselle de la Fayette, the memoirs of that day furnish but few materials; and to make up this deficiency, it appears to us that our author has borrowed some traits from the

characters both of Agnes de Lovel and of madam de Lavalliere. From the first she has borrowed that constant resolution which mademoiselle de la Fayette always maintains, of never using her ascendancy over the mind of the king but for the purpose of inspiring him with sentiments of generosity-from the second, that attachment which she supposes her to feel for this prince on account of his personal qualities, regardless of his rank. The style of this new romance of madam de Genlis, like that of all her other productions, is distinguished for a happy blending of nature with an exquisite elegance of taste.

C.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

ANSWER TO STRICTURES ON INSTINCTIVE IMPULSES.

MR. OLDSCHOOL,

YOUR liberal, learned, and ingenious correspondent, in his observations on my pamphlet (claiming attention to instinctive impulses) pays me, with much politeness, a compliment on my selfexamination, which I am conscious of not meriting. That I had frequently done wrong, and that I abhorred wrong, were facts so undeniable, that I was led to examine the causes of this inconsistency. The Roman made a similar observation when he wrote "Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor"-the right I approve and yet the wrong pursue. This led me to distinguish between the animal and moral man, or rather to ascertain that when animal propensities tend to the violation of others' rights, moral impulses are given to restrain from injuring others.

Men being endowed with more power and intelligence than other animated beings, would be terrific monsters if instinctively fond of rapine and assassination, and the human race would soon become extinct. It will give me great pleasure to defend myself, and now and then to assail so generous and so polite a combatant. Discussion promotes truth, as collision elicits light.

That I am desirous of obtaining the approbation of my female readers I acknowledge, for I am a man; but flattery and deception

I reprobate. My motives were expressly stated to raise woman in her own estimation, and to view her infant pledge of mutual love as not merely innocent, but as destined by her maternal care to disclose those amiable propensities which God has implanted in us, to enlarge the sociability and happiness of nations. I concluded my first pamphlet by saying, " my object has been so to simplify metaphysics, hitherto an abstruse science, and so to blend entertainment with it, that woman, to whom man owes his being, and to whom Providence has given peculiar tenderness and sensibility, as man is entrusted to her care and tuition for many years, when impressions have greatest influence; that woman, destined to augment every enjoyment and to participate every care, and to walk hand in hand with him through life, may cultivate all his instinctive impulses, and restrain all his excesses, till he becomes worthy of so amiable a being."

Lest it should be supposed that I attribute, peculiarly, sensibility to woman without authority, permit me to refer you to Richerand's New Elements of Physiology, who states that females' nerves are larger and softer, in proportion to their size, than those of men.

I wait for your next number, Mr. Oldschool, and I can assure your correspondent that I will cheerfully correct any error, and acknowledge myself wiser by his instruction than I was before, whenever truth causes conviction. ASIATICUS.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CHARACTER OF LADY MACBETH.

THE universality and antiquity of any opinion, afford an argument so potent in favour of its truth, that to attack it is an attempt at once difficult and thankless. Those matters which the wise among mankind have passed upon, are generally considered as put at rest, and endeavours at reversing a decision of the judges are accounted presumptuous and irreverend. This acquiescence in those who have gone before us is suited to the nature of a being