504' Philosophy of Contemporaty Criticism^ ^o. XXXI. 



hunger. Without some fundamental 

 change in the application of ma- 

 chinery, and the employment of human 

 labour, nothing can prevent our be- 

 coming a nation of paupers ; and we 

 shall owe it to the coldness of our 

 clime if the idle poor do not swarm in 

 the streets and fields like the lazza- 

 roni of Italy. There is a canker at 

 the root of the system of which our 

 political economists have no con- 

 ception. 



The Sketches of the Character, Man- 

 ners, and present State, of the High- 

 landers of Scotland, by Col. David 

 Stewart, comes next under review. 

 We have a long analysis of the book, 

 with objections to certain descriptions 

 of the general character, the virtues 

 and the vices, of the Higldanders, for 

 which we have nothing but assertion 

 on either side. The different points in 

 dispute seem, as here managed, to be 

 more fitted for a club of Highland 

 lairds sitting over a bowl of whisky- 

 toddy, than for discussion in a review. 

 The public neither have, nor ever can 

 have, any certain information on such 

 subjects. One man, in the course of 

 his life, meets with twenty or thirty 

 Highlanders who are honest and ho- 

 nourable ; and therefore, in his esti- 

 mation, they are a moral people. 

 Another finds a like number who hap- 

 pen to be generally thievish and de- 

 ceitful ; and, in his opinion, the hills 

 are inhabited by a tribe of robbers 

 and savages. 



The tenth is comparatively a short 

 article, and is almost filled up with 

 extracts from Mr. Bowring's second 

 volume of Specimens of the Russian 

 Poets. In translating poetry, it is 

 well known that the thoughts and 

 images can alone be preserved. The 

 dignity of style, and the easy flow of 

 language and versification, evapo- 

 rates, and has to be ropl iced by the 

 powers of the translator. In these 

 latter particulars the original poem 

 may be much deteriorated, or much 

 improved ; but the reader must be 

 well acqu;iinted with the tongue iu 

 which it was first written, before he 

 can fairly judge of the abilities of the 

 translator. On this account we think 

 the first extract was ill chosen as a 

 specimen of the poetry of Lomonassov. 

 As it here stands, it exhibits the abili- 

 ties of Mr. Bowring as p versifier; but 

 all the sublimity of thought, which 

 constitutes the bones and sinews of the 



[July I, 



ode, belongs to the unknown writer of 

 the Book of Job. 



Next in order is the Elements of the 

 Theory of Mechanics, by Giuseppe , 

 Venturoli, of Bologna, translated from 

 the Italian by D. Cresswell, m.a. &c. 

 The review of this book is a history 

 of the discoveries in tiieoretical me- 

 chanics, from the daj's of Archimedes 

 to the present lime. This historical 

 memoir is well drawn up; but it is all 

 that is given us. " A complete trea- 

 tise on mechanics (we are told,) is still 

 a desideratum." " While the writers 

 of this country have cramped their 

 energies by a pertinacious adherence 

 to geometry, it is equally certain that 

 those on the Continent have plunged 

 into the opposite extreme; that they 

 often embarrass a simple subject by 

 their ponderous masses of calculation ; 

 that, in their exclusive employment of 

 analysis, they are perpetually devia- 

 ting from the direct and natural course 

 of investigation; and that, even in the 

 application of their own analysis, they 

 are far from having attained the sim- 

 plest and most direct methods." 



Dr. Barclay's Inquiry into the Opi- 

 nions, Ancient and Modern, concerning 

 Life and Organization, has given an 

 opportunity to a fanatic Presbyterian 

 divine to pour forth a flood of vulgar 

 abuse upon a class of physiological 

 anatomists, who, as he judges, advo- 

 cate the doctrines of materialism. Dr. 

 Barclay, whom he has pressed into his 

 service, is a very different person. 

 The doctor merely gives us a history 

 of the opinions that have, at various 

 periods, been entertained on the sub- 

 ject, and states his own without 

 attempting to insult the understand- 

 ings or impugn the motives of others. 

 The reviewer, on the contrary, raves 

 about infidel physicians, the effrontery 

 of scepticism, and the appalling spec- 

 tacle of atheism. Even Dr. Barclaj'p 

 on account of the calmness of his state- 

 ments, incurs a share of tlie obloquy 

 of this furious fanatic. We will quote 

 his censure, considering it as the 

 highest praise. Speaking of Dr. B. 

 he says, " Tiiough far from compro- 

 mising his own views, or aiming at 

 general conciliation, he is cautious \n 

 deducing what may be reckoned oi- 

 noxious conclusions from those doc- 

 trines which he has conceived it his 

 duty to oppose. This predominant 

 fairness, we admit, does not prevent 

 some occasional sarcasm and irony, 

 which 



