58 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



wide-spread fame of him whom he somewhat paradoxically terms the 

 " ploughman-/ac?," cannot be perused without interest, or observed with- 

 out a portion of sympathy. For this reason " Cunningham's Life of 

 Burns" will always be a book opened with eagerness, and recurred to 

 with pleasure, although unavailable as a standard of authority for the 

 character of the man. 



In the advertisement to the volume last issued, Mr. Cunningham ex- 

 presses a hope that "he will be found to have done his duty, and also 

 to have rendered the triumph of the poeVs opponents at least a matter of 

 doubt.'' If in this appeal to his countrymen Mr. C. points to the ex- 

 cessive affection with which he has treated the memory of Burns, as a 

 proof of having discharged *'his duty,'* he must be aware that the 

 partialities of the land to which he has appealed, will recognise it with 

 rapturous applause ; but if he imagines that those who sacrifice tenderness 

 to truth are " the opponents" of a misguided individual, he errs as widely 

 as in venturing a hope that with the thinking part of the world, his 

 varnished and very brilliantly coloured picture can destroy the impres- 

 siveness of less golden — but more accurate — delineations. 



In our next number we purpose entering into a critical analysis of 

 this entertaining biography ; the work having passed into our hands at 

 too late a period to permit of more than the few prefatory comments which 

 we have here made. We may say, en adieu for the present, that every 

 North Briton should place in his library a copy of Allan Cunningham's 

 Burns, and every one anxious to possess a complete, genuine, and most 

 exquisitely annotated edition of the works of the poet, should make choice 

 of the same. The graphic embellishments, of which there are two to 

 each volume, are of the first order; the portrait, from a picture by 

 Nasrayth, painted in 178/, is a very brilliant specimen of line engraving 

 from the rapidly-improving burin of Edwards ; the resemblance is un- 

 doubtedly liable to the same memoranda as we have annexed to the 

 limning from the pencil of Cunningham. The topographical illustrations 

 are very charming, most deliciously engraved, and we need scarcely add, 

 meet places for the inspiration of the bard, and the wanderings of 

 ** Coila.'* We shall advert, in detail, to their merits in our next : they 

 are too beautiful to be passed over with a line of hurried remark. 



Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal. In a series of Letters written 

 during a residence in those countries. By William Beckford, 

 author of " Vathek.'' 2 vols. 8vo. Bentley. 1834. 



lliis is not so much a history of sights and wonders — a mere guide- 

 book — as a record of impressions. With a passionate love of the ideal 

 and the spiritual, an enthusiast in every sense of the word, the author 

 has succeeded in calling forth intense feeling — and has depicted in these 

 volumes scenes with a richness of colour and of beauty, which taste, genius, 

 and judgment, alone can furnish. The reader, while dwelling on its 

 pages, will imagine himself in the regions of romance rather than ex- 

 ploring the so oft trodden groimd of the mere traveller. Here are no 

 dull records of the road, which usually make up a book of travels, nor 

 any of those speculations which supply matter for the political or 

 statistical tourist. Disregarding the men and things of cities, he turns 

 his attention to objects which recal past times to his remembrance, and 

 depicts the musings of a creative fancy and brilliant imagination with a 

 forctf of feeling and animation irresistibly attractive. In the striking 

 scenery of nature he revels with a poet's enthusiasm, and his familiar 

 reflections are stamped with acuteness and novelty. Truly this is a gem 

 of the first water. 



