just as much as any of us, and have their own inexplicable fits of the sullens, and are fully as testy, when contradicted, as ourselves.

for there are kings among them. There is the tall, red, regal chimney of the Coal Gas Work at the Back of the Canongate, which, on state occasions, wears a splendid There is a set of people who pretend to "cure" chim- crown of gas light, and stands pre-eminent over all the neys. But who ever heard of a chimney being cured? chimneys in the Old Town, like Saul among the people. Nobody! The truth is, a chimney's disorders generally No one can doubt that this is the King of Chimneys, proceed from its original physical constitution, and one whether for the importance of its avocations, or the might just as well talk of expelling a hereditary disease grandeur of its appearance. The tall chimneys at Portofrom a human being, as one of this sort from a smoking bello and Pinkie are two solitary monarchs without subThe only way is to destroy the chimney altogether,jects. The shorter, but sturdier and equally royal, chim

one.

and create it anew. A "doctor" will speak to you of "old wives," and of "cans," one-mouthed, two-mouthed, and poly-mouthed; but put no faith in smoke-doctors. You might just as well expect a human doctor to cure you, when on your death-bed, by ordering you a new nightcap.

But the maladies which affect chimneys often proceed from their situation in life. Circumstances govern us all, and chimneys too. A chimney of my acquaintance once testified this in a remarkable manner. It was a very young chimney, in the New Town, and belonged to a house three stories in height. Now this chimney was as well-behaved and well-regulated a chimney, as one could have seen in a summer's day; and had a juvenile vivacity, which could not be repressed by the east wind itself. At last, however, it became, all of a sudden, very irregular in its conduct, and seemed to have lost all its former health and spirits. Doctors were called in, who examined the patient, and prescribed cans, old wives, &c., which were speedily got. All would not do, however; instead of recovering, it became worse, and seemed, by the increased vehemence with which it repelled the advances of its friend the smoke, to indicate that the doctors did not understand the nature of its trouble. Alas! it was not the body, but the mind of the chimney, that was diseased! It might have addressed its officious physicians in the words of Macbeth:

"Canst thou minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ?" &c.
"Then throw physic to the dogs,
I'll none on't!"

My sensitive young friend was affronted at the very idea
of these fellows attempting to cure its grievances by com-
monplace applications. A full convocation of all the
smoke-doctors in town (including the Canongate) being
at length called, and their deliberations being assisted by
some experienced builders, it was discovered that the cause
of all its woes was the tall and over-topping gable of a
contiguous house, whose chimneys carried their heads at
least twenty feet higher than that of the afflicted chimney
in question; so that envy-sheer envy alone, was the oc-
casion of all its ailments. This was proved to my full
satisfaction, by what happened afterwards; for the pa-
tient being, as it were, continued into the tall gable, and
allowed to carry as high a head as its neighbours, never
gave its masters any more trouble; and when I last went
to see how it did, I thought the smoke which issued so
freely and complacently from its mouth seemed to say,
"You see I have at length gained my point, and am con-
tent!"

Though I allow that chimneys may be jealous of each others' heights, and sometimes look with an evil can at the honour or prosperity of their neighbours, I do not think that they are in general a democratic people. Many a chimney do I know of very humble height, and even unadorned with cans, and yet very decent, quiet chimneys too. There is a spirit of meekness in some chimneys, which seems to fit them best for the lower walks of life, where they are content to exercise their vocations, perhaps, under the baronial protection of some neighbouring | stack of chimneys, without fretting their souls with absurd ideas of liberty and equality. I know some chimneys of this amiable sort in the Pleasance.

ney of the Waverley Gas Work in the New Town, is as yet in the same condition, but will soon, I hope, be at the head of an extensive and numerous population of chimneys.

That chimneys are sentient beings, nobody can dispute. Le Sage, an author of no little discernment, says that they can speak. I must confess I never heard them pronounce articulate words, or carry on conversations; but there is one thing of which I am certain,-they can howl! I have heard them howl in a high wind, in a very sensible style-almost like speaking-only the sentences not connected. In these cases, however, I consider them to be only expostulating or quarrelling with their enemy, the wind.

I remember that my father's house at -, had twe chimneys, one at each end of the house. Upon these my childish fancy often speculated. I thought I could discern a sort of appearance of comradeship or companionship between them. They inclined in towards each other, in a friendly way, as it were; and it seemed to me as if one resembled Mr Kerr, the other Doctor Brydon, two of our neighbours who often dined together. I am sure these vents were intimate acquaintances. It so happened that one of them was at length honoured with a can. The other was not envious, but seemed still to maintain the same kindly inclination towards his preferred companion as ever-perhaps considering, with justice, that he really required what he had got, on account of his greater exposure to their common foe, the east wind. Some of the chimneys at —were very strange-looking figures, especially those upon thatched houses. There were some thatched houses near the school, with chimneys of this sort. My heart is smitten when I remember how cruel we were to these grotesque but inoffensive chimneys. There was one belonging to the cottage of a poor old widow woman, at which our scorn and our stones were particularly directed. It was constructed of turf, upon a frame-work of upright sticks-the whole so dilapi dated, that there was scarcely any thing but the sticks left. Most unfortunately for the chimney, it was not altogether of an upright character, but inclined a little to one side, and seemed to look down upon us school-boys with open mouth, inviting our attacks. We assuredly did not spare it; for every day, we employed the whole quarter of an hour previous to the opening of the school in throwing missiles of any sort we could lay our hands on, at and down its gaping crater; and not a day passed without old Luckie coming into the school-room, complaining of our wickedness, and exhibiting the melancholy fragments of black cutty pipes and little black tea-pots, which, she said, had suffered from our stones, while lying innocuously by her fire-side. As to the immense quantities of soot which we shook down upon her kail-pot, as it simmered above her little fire, no account was ever taken of that; for the poor old mumbling body had fortunately lost the taste of her mouth, and never discovered the plenteous accession of ingredients which we made to her spare and simple diet.

Some of the cottage chimneys were very curious in their internal as well as external structure. As viewed from the fire-place below, they looked like the vast cone of a glass-house, or like an amphitheatre, peopled with spectator hams, and a huge black beam, from which depended by iron rods, chains, and hooks, various culinary

Chimneys necessarily cannot be a democratic people; vessels. These chimneys never required sweeping; though

I remember hearing a traditionary account of one being cleared of its venerable soot by the goodman, who had accomplished his singular task by going head foremost into a sack, and ascending by a ladder to the rannle-tree, where he stood and rubbed the sides of the chimney all Found with his shoulders! This custom might be practised with effect in the cure of lum-bag-o !

makes even a commonplace thought pleasing, and gives to a spirited and original sentiment tenfold energy and effect. This is almost too self-evident a truth to be stated; yet we have only to look around us to perceive that it is everywhere neglected. "I have no desire that my son should either read or speak like a teacher of elocution," says some gentleman of the old school; and all the other gentlemen of the old school, pushing round the portwine with a most emphatic jerk, chime in with the observation, and the point is settled. Now, there are two fallacies implied in this same observation. The first is, that all teachers of elocution are pompous pedants; whereas only those are such who do not understand their profes..

Speaking of chimney-sweeping, we come to chimneysweeps, who, by the by, are a very noticeable set of men. A friend of mine, in guarding against contact with them on the streets, calls them angels of darkness, in contradistinction to bakers, whom he denominates angels of light, though I consider the one tribe to be fully as great annoyances as the other. When I pass a chimney-sweep on the street, Ision. The second is, that it is not advisable that a young myself wearing light-coloured clothes at the time, I may man should read or speak as if he were master of elocusay," Conjuro te, Diabole !" and avoid being rude to his tion; which is equivalent to saying, that it is not adviperson; but in my heart I envy and admire him. Chimney-sable he should be able to put to the very best possible use sweeps see and explore a part of the world which nobody else can see and explore. They surpass the prodigal son in the "Vicar of Wakefield," who saw the outside of the best houses in Amsterdam, for any body may see that; but to chimney-sweeps alone is it reserved to see the roofs of the best houses. They walk in glorious pre-eminence over the heads of the rest of mankind; and cast their eyes over the surface of an upper world, which none of us children of the ground shall ever see. I have heard them tell strange and wild stories of the dangers they have passed, and the roofs of the lands they have seen, like sailors returned from distant voyages; and, what is very strange, there is scarcely a chimney in the town, of which they do not know the whole nature and character, as well as the owner of the house himself. Nay, I have often been sur.. prised, on calling a chimney-sweep to administer unto a moody or diseased vent, to observe how familiar he was with its history and peculiarities. How they acquire A knowledge of elocution is of incalculable advantage; this wonderful knowledge, it is impossible to conceive. I for a person who is ignorant of its laws, is almost sure to suspect that they talk to each other of nothing but the vari- overlook some of the excellencies, and even the most striking ous chimneys which have come under their hands, and so, beauties, of literary productions. Their merits, so far as each communicating to his neighbour the results of his the composition is concerned, he may indeed estimate, acexperience, the whole become, as it were, universally according to any assignable standard of taste; but great part quainted. I remember once calling an old chimney-sweep tions, in the attempt to give it utterance. I am sorry to say of their soul or spirit will infallibly be lost to his percepto a very strange chimney in my premises, which, before ascending the gable, went across the ceiling of an adjoin- that avidity which its great and united powers so justly that elocution, at the present day, is not sought after with ing shop, and, indeed, was all at right angles. Before deserve. This comparative inattention is to be accounted commencing operations upon this outré specimen of the for, either by the fact of its merits being but partially known, crooked tribe of chimneys, he frightened me into the offer or by a scepticism as to the possibility of acquiring a knowof a double fee, by some dreadful traditionary recollec-ledge of the art through the medium of set rules. This last tions of boys being smothered in it forty years ago, when obstacle I could remove, by a reference to those numerous individuals who have actually experienced the advantages he was a climbing-boy himself, and of plummet-balls in of systematic instruction, and now give public evidence of later times being dispatched down its unimaginable anits efficacy. Many, although fully aware of the beauties, gularities, in order to discover the bottom, and being and although they have been made feelingly to acknowledge never more heard of by their disconsolate owners, whose the powers, of such a systematic application,-many have redamages were of course made good by the then proprie- jected its adoption, because they thought it too theatrical, and because they could not reconcile it to their minds to assume tones indicative of what they did not really feel. To such, we may with great justice reply, that, to pronounce a pathetic subject in the same unfeeling and careless manner we would read the account of a horse-race, or to deliver the nervous harangue of some famed hero to his soldiers on the eve of battle, in the soft, plaintive strain we would do an elegy, because we did not feel the one, nor were identically the other, would be as preposterous as to chant a funeral dirge in the time and manner of a country jig,-or to sing a lively air in the drawling tone of an old penitential psalm, because we happened, on the former occasion, to be in a merry humour, or, on the latter, to be in a melancholy one. In short, to read or pronounce any subject uncharacteristically, would be as absurd as to array the inmate of an almshouse in scarlet and fine linen, or to clothe the king on the

his organs of speech. From not attending to the proper mode of distributing the emphasis upon words, the simplest sentences are rendered not only ambiguous and unmeaning, but often monotonous, unnatural, and dissonant.

One or two of our largest towns afford a dubious encouragement to one or two teachers of elocution; but in general, both at our public schools, our private academies, and in ordinary life, the matter is entirely neglected. In Edinburgh, Messrs Jones and Roberts seem to take the lead in this department; but we believe the former has been longer established and more successful than the latter. We attended, however, with pleasure, Mr Roberts's Lecture and Readings on Saturday last; and having been since favoured with a perusal of the remarks he then delivered on the study of elocution, we present our readers with the following extract, the sentiments contained in which entirely coincide with our own:

tor,

In short, the subject which I have thus imperfectly handled, is one well worthy the attention of the truly philosophical; and I hope, ere long, to see a separate voInme allotted to it in Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia, or in the Library of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge.

ELOCUTION-MR ROBERTS'S RHETORICAL
LECTURE AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

We have long been of opinion that elocution, or the art of giving musical and attractive intonations to language, is a branch of education too much neglected in Scotland. It is rarely, indeed, that, either in the pulpit or at the bar, or among any of our public or private speakers in this country, we hear common justice done to our mother tongue. A sort of old John Knox presbyterian contempt is by far too common among us for the graces of correct speaking and reading. It is true, we are a thinking people, but it does not therefore follow, that thoughts are very thing, and language nothing. Correct enunciation

throne in linsey-woolsey and tatters.

Mr Roberts himself we know to be a meritorious and useful teacher of elocution; and, from the specimens he gave us upon Saturday, we are satisfied that he reads distinctly, judiciously, and well.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF

EDINBURGH.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

Monday, 1st March.

Sir WALTER Scorr, Bart. in the Chair.
Present,-Sir William Hamilton; Professors Russell,
Hope, Brunton, Christison; Drs Wishart, Maclagan,
Knox, Gregory, Russell; John Robison, James Skene,
Thomas Allan, David Falconer, Walker Arnot, John
Reddie, Esqrs., &c. &c. &c.

DR KNOX read No. II. of his series of papers, " Illustrating the Laws which Regulate Hermaphroditical Appearances in the Mammalia.'

FINE ARTS.

FOURTH EXHIBITION OF ANCIENT PAINTINGS IN THE GAL-
LERY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.

(Third Notice.)

ago,

We return again to Venice. We mentioned in Second Notice that the Bellini were the first instruct of GIORGIONE. This artist was born in 1478, and d 1511. A picture of Leonardo da Vinci happening to into his hands, in which a very strong effect of light. shade was introduced, he was so much pleased, that similar effects, made it in some measure the characteri set himself to imitate it, and, by his frequent repetition of his style. He was deficient in drawing, but ful truth and beauty of colouring.

We notice him here o

as the contemporary of Sebastian dal Piombo and Titi and as the artist from whom they took their first less in colouring.

SEBASTIAN DAL PIOMBO, by birth a Venetian, died Rome, in 1547, in the sixty-second year of his age. received his first instructions in art from Giovanni I lino, but when Giorgione introduced a more glowing better blended style of colouring, he deserted his old m ter. He imitated so successfully the style of Giorgio that his works have not unfrequently been taken for th of that artist. He painted slowly, and took, moreo greater delight in social intercourse, than in the exer of his art. No. 1, in the Exhibition, is attributed to h and called (we do not see for what reason) a Sibyl. is apparently a portrait. There is an expression of str good sense in the countenance, which is, on the who extremely pleasing. The hands are ill drawn. It i good solid picture.

TITIAN was born at Friuli in 1480, and died in 15 He was originally a scholar of Giambattista, but was of the first to adopt the new style of Giorgione. He s died much from the life, and by that means attained truth and delicacy in his flesh colour, that has perh never been equalled. In drawing and in dignity of pression, he is inferior to the Roman school. His p traits were in great request during his time, there be scarcely a distinguished statesman, warrior, or author, w was not ambitious of being painted by Titian. He w the first Italian who so decidedly cultivated landscape to make it the principal subject of several of his paintin His earlier works are characterised by an almost fa dious care and fineness in their execution; in his la productions his lines are bolder, and his colours splas so as to tell at a distance. The Magdalene, (No. 7 attributed to him, answers exactly the description gi by Vasari of one of his pictures, which he repeated veral times; but if his, it must have been a very ea work. The portrait of Doria (67) is highly character tic. The landscape (122) is a fine painting, but m like a work of Mola than of Titian.

RAFAELLE the effect of the name would be only weakened by the addition of epithets, however well deserved-was born at Urbino in 1483, and died at Rome in 1520. In his earliest paintings he has so completely appropriated to himself the style of his master, Perrugino, that it is often difficult to determine the paternity of their works. He no sooner, however, saw the productions of Da Vinci and Buonarotti, than his delicate tact acknowledged their superiority; and from that period we recognise greater correctness in his forms, and a fuller and richer pencil in every thing he did. It was reserved, however, for his residence in Rome to draw forth his full genius. Some have attributed the high ideal character of his latter works to a surreptitious view he obtained of Michel Agnola's paintings in the Sistine Chapel; others, to his study of the fresco paintings in the baths of Titus. Both, there is little doubt, must have had a strong effect upon him; but only upon a mind of the native power and susceptibility of Rafaelle, and equally conversant with the beauties of nature, could that effect have been produced. These splendid creations of art exercised merely a suggestive influence upon him. His style is his own, if ever man's was,-uniting a super-human dignity with an overflowing expression of love. No painting in this Exhibition, and certainly not the copy from his Transfiguration which was exhibited here some time. can give the faintest idea of the living poetry of Rafaelle's works. It is now six years since we saw his Madonna del Sisto, and yet every lineament of that work is present to us as if it had been but yesterday. The Virgin stands TINTORETTO We place here as belonging to the Venet upon a portion of a sphere emerging from an ocean of school. The works of this artist in the Exhibition clouds, and appears to glide gracefully onwards, with a look which pervades space and eternity. The boy-the 35.) The former is strongly marked by that prepon the portrait of a Doge, (57,) and two sketches (16 a conscious God-nestles in her breast. On one side, rance of mezzotint and shadow, and the small proport kneels a venerable and majestic Pope,-on the other, a of strong light, which characterises the works of the gentle St Barbara,—while, beneath, two rosy and gorge- netian painters. The latter are remarkable for felicit ously-winged cherubs look upwards at the group with all grouping, to which the doubling of the lines gives a r the grave earnestness of childhood. There is nothing dis-effect, for the beauty and spirit of several of the figu crepant in this mixture of human and divine forms,-of the ideal of the Virgin mother with the earthly garments CORREGGIO was born at Parma in 1490, and died in of the priest. The genius of the painter has given them sixtieth year of his age. We find it impossible to coun unity, and fused them with its glow into a mythology of the history of this gentle and modest genius with that his own, over which he has poured all the loveliness and any other of his time. He formed his style for hims grandeur of his own scarcely human nature. The works and died without leaving his principles or manner to a attributed to this master in the Exhibition are three other. His beauties, too, are as peculiar as his life v the St John (161) is most probably authentic; the Holy isolated. In the large works of his matured genius, th Families (92 and 109) most probably copies, though good is a quiet beauty and a perfection of art to be found ones. They are chiefly valuable as showing the effect of those of no other painter. The three specimens in that simple and bold style of painting the drapery, which, Exhibition are fine pieces of painting, but give no idea stimulating the eye without seducing it to rest on minor the full developement of Correggio's genius. The h beauties, accords so well with the grand in painting. The (9) has much of his sweetness, but belongs to an ea head of the Virgin, in 109, has something of the sweet-period of his life. ness of Rafaelle, and there is a great deal of vigour in the position of light and shade, and well managed colouri The Virgin and Child has a fine d eager gaze of the St Joseph. but is defective in drawing,—and the expression of

and for the bold disposition of the lights.

These notes, we are quite aware are extremely defective. But the most detailed and ratiocinative criticism would be to no purpose without an actual inspection of the works themselves. It is in pictures, not in books, that we must study painting. The chief characteristic of the great Italian school was the union in its productions of the richest and most daring poetical feeling, with the most painful study of the mechanical details of the art. Our Third Notice of the Scottish Academy is postponed till next Saturday.]

THE DRAMA.

66

Madonna is a failure. The Magdalene (119) is so hung waters of the human heart have been troubled, and that that we cannot tell what it is. the unseen emotions which lay far down have been raised to the surface, seldom wait on Young. He is a calm and cloudless moonlight,—not a sudden sunbeam. We like him much; yet there are times when we feel a craving for sterner stuff," for the flashing lightnings of that splendid little man, Kean, whom Lord Byron said "was a soul;" or for the kindred genius of that prince of living vocalists, Braham, to carry us away to the shipwrecked vessel settling heavily amidst the solitudes of the Bay of Biscay, yet not lost, for lo!" A sail! a sail! a sail!" Nevertheless, let it not be forgotten that as, in an ancient Grecian temple, the effect does not so much depend upon the beauty of any individual part, as upon the harmonious arrangement of the whole, so there is a completeness about "AROUSE thee! arouse thee! my brave Swiss boy !"- Young's personifications, a never-flagging accuracy and reJet us give the public a small jog. They are beginning to finement-not the less likely to be long remembered or fall asleep over the old legitimate drama, and the glory worthy of being highly appreciated, that they do not take of their presence is departing out of the Theatre Royal. your feelings captive at once, but gradually win over your Certes, for the last month the Management has not been approval and admiration. much in pocket. Sages have been consulting the stars to Of Vandenhoff, we shall not at present speak. We find out the causes, but they lie nearer home. Firstly, think he has benefited somewhat by our hints, but not in the early part of the season the theatre was patronised yet to the extent we could wish. His Edgar, in " King to a more than ordinary degree, and there is now a slight | Lear," was, in many respects, a spirited performance; but reaction;—secondly, Vandenhoff is not quite so great a fa- why that piece of most unnecessary declamation, as he vourite here as he once was, which is partly his own leads Cordelia into the hut for shelter? Vandenhoff is too fault;—thirdly, Young is liked and admired, but, being fond of saying ordinary things as if they were not ordinary, too well known, he lacks variety;-fourthly, the number of and of always going off the stage with a flourish.-The evening parties at this present writing is altogether over- part in which Miss Jarman has most distinguished herwhelming, February has actually groaned under them, self, during Young's visit, is that of Beatrice, in "Much -nobody has been in bed o' nights, and March does not Ado about Nothing." We know of no actress who could promise to be a much more sedate month ;-tenthly, and to have so completely identified herself with this character, conclude, it is a melancholy fact, that tragedy is not popular infusing into it a degree of animation, and an exuberance in Edinburgh. Black bugles and velvet inexpressibles of comic talent, which carried every thing before it, and appear to have no charms for us modern Athenians; we kept the audience in a perpetual state of delightful excitake little interest in white cambric pocket-handkerchiefs; tation. Were we not an old, hackneyed, and crabbed criand, if the truth must be told, the "Oh !" of a gentlemantic," for lady's love unfit," we should ourselves indite a or lady dying in the presence of the lamps, does not ap- sonnet, or some similar vanity, to Miss Jarman; but we pear to awaken those sensations which it ought to produce must leave this to younger and gayer men. upon well-regulated minds. All these things are to us Old Cerberus. and our excellent friend, the Manager, matter of deep regret; but to attempt to better the affair by talking of it, would argue a weakness of intellect, totally inconsistent with our naturally shrewd and penetrating character. All we shall do in the meantime is, to give the public a hint, that as soon as they have enjoyed themselves as much as they possibly can out of the theatre, its doors are open, and something or other to amuse them is always going on within. Let them enter or not, just as they please,-it is quite "hoptional,"-only if they stay away it is their own loss. We are humbly convinced that this is the best mode of dealing with the public. They are a capricious set;-try to force them into a thing, and they won't budge; appear independent of them, and they will flock to you in crowds.

It is difficult to say any thing new of Young. All the world knows that he is a fine polished actor, with a sound judgment, a cultivated taste, and a most melodious voice. All he does is the result of careful thinking, and of correct, though not impassioned feeling. Hence we do not speak of the genius of Young ;-he is a man of talent, but nothing more. In parts which do not require the exertion of any violent passion, he is, perhaps, without a rival. His Iago, a cool, deliberate, calculating villain, is the very man,-his Brutus, a patriot upon principle, rather than upon impulse, is collected and impressive,-his Lord Tonly, a man of high honour, and steady but subdued feelings, is a representation which it must do all husbands Young, in short, in what we may call the ess difficult developements of mind, is always at home. His chief faults are, that beyond a certain point he cannot go, and that we may always calculate, with the most unerring certainty, on the manner in which he will perform any given part. Those sudden bursts of applause that shake a theatre to its foundation, indicating that the deep

good to see.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

MY LOVE SHE'S BUT A LASSIE YET.
By the Ettrick Shepherd.
My love she's but a lassie yet,
A lightsome lovely lassie yet;
It scarce wad do

To sit an' woo,

Down by the stream sae glassy, yet :
But there's a braw time coming yet,
When we may gang a-roaming yet,

An' hint wi' glee
O' joys to be,

When fa's the modest gloaming yet.

She's neither proud nor saucy yet,
She's neither plump nor gaucy yet,
But just a jinking,
Bonny, blinking,
Hilty-skilty lassie yet:

But, O, her artless smile's mair sweet
Than hinney or than marmelite;

And, right or wrang,
Ere it be lang,

I'll bring her to a parley yet.

I'm jealous o' what blesses her,
The very breeze that kisses her,
The flowery beds

On which she treads,→→→
Though wae for ane that misses her :