1821.] 



News from Par7uissus. — No. III. 



131 



advised the establishment of an aca- 

 demy for tlie instriiciiou of raeinbeis 

 of parliament deprived of these two 

 elementary branches of knowledge. 



The Canadian labourer, notwith- 

 standing, evinces an inlelligence of a 

 valiiahle kind. He is sociable, even to 

 an extreme ; for his hatred of solitude 

 hinders him from employina; his indus- 

 try in places which have need of the 

 presence of man. Hence it happens, 

 that so gi-eat an exient of land remains 

 imcultivated, and that the borders only 

 of the river St. Lawrence, exhibit the 

 appearance of a civilized po)»ulation. 



Tu the Editor of the Monthly Magatine. 



SIK, 



THE authority of Dr. Johnson, 

 though he was as complete a so- 

 phist as need be, having great weight 

 with many persons, I b:'g leave to olfer 

 a remark or two on what he says regard- 

 ing the impressment of seamen, quoted 

 in your Sujiplement, ]>. GoS. His asser- 

 tion, that -^ it is a condition necessarilij 

 attending that way of life," is merely 

 begging the (pjestiim ; for this is in fact 

 the very point in dispute. He proreeds : 

 " and when they entered into it, they 

 must take it with all its circumstances ; 

 and, knowing this, it must be considered 

 as voluntary service,like an inn-keeper, 

 who knows himself liable to have sol- 

 diers quartered upon liini. lint the two 

 cases are very different. The inn- 

 keeper voluntarily embraces his way of 

 life with his eyes open to the condition 

 annexed, which in fact is but a modifi- 

 cation of the obligation he takes upon 

 himself, to furnish all travellers with 

 meat, drink, and lodging: the sailor 

 has generally been sent to sea by his 

 parents, or pei'haps by the parish, when 

 incapahleof judging for himself, or not 

 allowed so to do; and if at any future 

 period, wiien become his own master, 

 and capable of exercising a sound judg- 

 ment, he should quit the sea, to .idlow 

 any occupation on shore, tills will not 

 be admitted by a press-gang as a valid 

 plea for leaving him at liberty ; tliough 

 the innkeeper may free himself from 

 the quartering of soldiers whenever he 

 pleases, by assuming any other way of 

 life. Tiiat tlie time may not be far 

 distant, when that valuabh; body of 

 men, who merit tlie regard of (he wiioh; 

 nation, siiall enjoy the boon, that has 

 of late years been conferred on the long 

 and niucii injured Africans, is tiie 

 ardent prayer of A SEAMAN'S SoN. 

 Feb. 5, 1821. 



Fur the Montlilq Magazine. 



NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 



No. III. 



RUSSIAN ANTHOLOGY, if/ JOHN BOW- 

 RING, F.L.S. 



E have not observed during the 

 last month any native flowers 

 of peculiar hue and odour, but v,e are 

 happy to find blo.iming on the British 

 Parnassus such interesting exotics as 

 Mr. Bowring has transplanted. Of the 

 literature of the Germans, tlie Italians, 

 and the French, we perliaps know more 

 than enough, but the Russian language 

 has been as it were a frozen barrier, 

 which no one before our present author 

 has ventured to pass. That the im- 

 mense empire, we had almost said 

 world, over which the Russia-i Auto- 

 crat rules, must have produced spirits 

 who have felt tiiat " longing after im- 

 mortality," which is incident to every 

 other nation on the globe, and who 

 must have endeavoured too to achieve 

 something worthy of the glorious prize, 

 Avas a truth which must iiave been im- 

 pressed upon the minds of all who re- 

 flected on the subject. The state of 

 semi-barbarism in which avast portion 

 of that empire is plunged, did not ren- 

 der the conjecture less probable, for we 

 know that poetry is often the language 

 of artless and uneducated nature, and 

 that amid the faint glimmerings of 

 civilization she has hung out her ever- 

 burning lamp to the wonder of admir- 

 ing posterity. But INIr. Bowring's_ vo- 

 lume has couverteil conjecture into 

 certainty, and proved that many of the 

 Russian poe!s possess not merely rude 

 uncultivated genius, but exquisite taste 

 and refined judgment. The modern 

 writers of that nation have evidently 

 studied the writings of the English very 

 closelv, and wc frequently trace Milton, 

 Young, Thomson and Ossian, in the 

 specimens which Mr. Bowringhas se- 

 lected. This, while it is no small 

 compliment paid to the genius of our 

 country, is also, (if without the impu- 

 tation of national vanity we may speak 

 it) a very favourable symplom in the 

 infancy of the Russian muse — avoiding 

 the ultra horrors of the (Germans, and 

 still more the insipidity of the French, 

 (we speak of tliese of course only in 

 their degeneracy) she lias grafted her 

 infant blossoms "on tlie sturdy time-tried 

 oak of British uenius. It must not, 

 iiowever. be inferred that we mean to 

 impeach (he orisiinality of the Russians ; 

 far from it, for the fact is, tlnit miiulx 

 of the most original powers are always 



the 



