CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 115 



" Gentle reader, we have catered for thee through many a goodly volume 



have turned over wearily many a page, extracting, like the bee, the honey 



from them." — p. 158. 



This is to us, even, who possess no small number of volumes on this 

 subject, a great recommendation, since we find here brought toge- 

 ther many of our favourite passages. As our limits forbid farther 

 extended quotation from this work, we give a few of the original 

 and beautiful thoughts which are scattered through its pages. — 

 Speaking of the repose and beauty of an English landscape at sun- 

 set, he says : — 



" Live not all these images in the heart, chasing away even care while we 

 contemplate them, and throwing a soothing tranquillity over the soul — a rest 

 which we remember, a poetry which owns no words, a delight which can 

 never be forgotten ?" — p. 106. 



Speaking of the early flowering of the Snowdrop : — 



" The north wind whistles, and the hoar-frost clothes the verdure-despoil- 

 ed trees ; an uniform white carpet covers the earth, the birds withhold their 

 tuneful song, and the sealed waters cease to murmur as they roll along. The 

 rays of the sun, enfeebled by the density of our atmosphere, shed a gloomy 

 light over the fields, and the heart of man is sad while all Nature reposes in 

 torpid tranquillity : still this delicate flower ventures forth alone, starting like 

 an unexpected thought from the mind. Meek emblem of consolation ! herald of 

 spring, sent forth from the bowers of Flora, like the lovely dove from the 

 ark, to visit the earth for a season, then return to tell whether the young 

 buds burst forth, or the stern storm still careers over the flowerless valleys, 

 —p. 35. 



The man who thinks and writes in this manner is (as our readers 

 may have learned from what we before said, or from other sources) 

 a basket-maker ; yet he has produced a work which, whether we 

 regard the style, sentiments, and acquaintance with the literature 

 of our country by which it is characterized, or feel the patriotic 

 spirit and commendable desire to turn the attention of his country- 

 men to the pleasures which are free and open to all, which it 

 breathes, would reflect the highest credit upon any author, of any 

 rank, however distinguished that might be. It is, indeed, delight- 

 ful to find sentiments such as his, existing in the bosoms of men to 

 whom fortune has been a niggardly patron, as regards the goods of 

 life ; and we cannot but hope that a generous public will extend its 

 encouragement to him in plenteous measure : this even the poorest 

 may do, for those who cannot aflbrd to purchase his book may at 

 least buy his baskets. The ladies of Great Britain should resolve 

 that all " flower baskets" used by them should be manufactured by 

 him, none to be deemed genuine which do not bear the name of 

 ''Thomas Miller, Elliott's Row, Southwark." Let us remember 

 the fate of Burns, and avoid a similar degree of injustice to any 

 other son of genius. 



