BRUCE. 
indances, and a carelelTnefs of language in otliers. T,he 
poem is local; and, though local defcription is far more 
adapted to the pencil than the pen, yet it will be perufed 
u ith delight by poetical lovers of rural imagery ; and mud: 
be peculiarly pleafmg to thofe who are familiar with the 
pithirefque feenery of Lochleven. His Daphnis is an elegy 
on a deceafed friend, written in the pafloral form, and, in 
general, well preferves the rural character. It has, howe¬ 
ver, but little of the bucolic cant, now fo fafhionable. lfany 
trite rural topics occur, they are heightened and adorned 
with the graces of fentiment, and the moft delicate touches 
of piCturefque beauty. It may be confidered as an eff'u- 
( 5 on of mellowed borrow, which can recapitulate pad plea- 
lures, in all their minutiae of circumdance and fituation, 
and (elect fuch images as are proper to a kind of coinpo- 
lition in which it choofes to convey itfelf. It is a profed'ed 
imitation of Milton’s Lycidas, in which there is perhaps 
more poetry than forrow ; but the poetry is in fuch an ex- 
quifite drain, that he who defires to know, whether he 
has a true tade for poetry or not, diould confider whether 
he is highly delighted or not with the pertifal of Lycidas. 
With Milton in view, Bruce is not a fervile imitator. He 
has.an original manner of his own. Milton is his model 
for verfification, and he fometimes copies his thoughts and 
his language. But his poem is not a perpetual tiilue of 
the obfolete phrafeology, Gothic combinations, remote 
allufions, obfeure opinions, and mythological perfonages, 
of Lycidas. Of Sir James the Rofs, he thus fpeaks him- 
felf: “ The hidorical ballad is a fpecies of writing by it¬ 
felf. The common people confound it with the fong, but 
in truth they are widely different. A fong fhould never 
be hidorical. It is founded generally on fome one thought, 
which mud be profecuted and exhibited in every light, 
with a quicknefs and turn of expreffion peculiar to itfelf. 
The ballad, again, is founded on fome padage in hidory, 
or (what fuits it better) of tradition. Here the poet may 
ufe his liberty, and cut and carve as he has a mind. I 
think it a kind of writing remarkably adapted to the Scot- 
tidi language.” The diftinCtion is jud, and beautifully 
exemplified. The hidorical ballad demands the niced 
execution, and the mod artful management. The fimpli- 
city that fuits it is even unattainable by genius, without 
that chadifed tade which feldom appears in poets of the 
highed clafs. It admits of magnificence of ideas, and of 
the fubiime ; but diould be careful not to deviate from 
nature. The marvellous air, and the fupernatnral aCtors, 
which figure and pleafe in the grandeur of the epic, would 
here be extravagant and difproportioned. The incidents 
diould be driking, the fituations important, and tending 
to forward the action; the delign without perplexity, the 
parts in proper relation to it, and to each other; the fen- 
timents delicate and noble. Tothefe requilites, Sir James 
the Rofs is, in general, conformable. Whether we con¬ 
fider the beautiful fimplicity of the dory, the delicacy of 
its fituations, the pathos of its difeoveries, the exact de¬ 
lineations of the manners of the times to which it refers, 
the genuine drokes of nature and of pafiion, or the unre¬ 
mitting animation of the whole, we cannot but highly ad¬ 
mire the mixture it exhibits of genius and of art. The 
dory on which it is founded, though romantic, is intend¬ 
ing, and the more fo, as there is reafon to believe it is in 
fome meafure authentic. His Danilh Odes are compofi- 
tions of a fuperior order. They poflefs, in an uncommon 
degree, the true fire of poetry, and harmony of verfifica¬ 
tion. They appear to be modelled upon the Norfe Odes 
of Gray, and, in their contexture and tone, are much in 
the wild and wizard drains of his Runic lyre. He pro- 
. bably thought this kind of mindrelfy bed adapted to ex- 
prefs the magic myderies and romantic entbufiafin of the 
Gothic mythology. Alfuming the fire and enthufiafm of 
the old Runic bards, he gives full fcope to the wildnefs 
of a glowing imagination, and the energy of forcible con¬ 
ception. His Elegy, written in Spring, is characterized 
by energy, fimplicity, pathos, and melody, in the highed 
degree. From the circumltances in width it was written, 
V,ol. III. No. 141. 
the nature of its fubject, and the merit of its execution, 
it obtained an uncommon (hare of popularity. The in¬ 
fluences and effects of fpring are expreffed by a (election 
of fuch imagery as are adapted to (trike the imagination, 
by lively pictures. The manner in which he defenbes its 
effects upon himfelf, is fo pathetically circumftanfial, and 
fo univerfally interefting, that it powerfully awakens all 
our tendernefs : 
“ -but not to me returns 
The vernal joy my better years have known ; 
Dim in my bread life’s dying taper burns, 
And all the joys of life, with health, are flown.” 
BRUCE (James), the celebrated author of Travels to 
find the Source of the Nile, was born in Scotland about 
the year 1729, ot an ancient and refpeChible family, which 
had been in poffeflion for feveral centuries of fome of the 
edates which he owned at the time of his deceafe. At an 
early period he was fent for education to a boarding-fchool 
at Hoxton, near London, where his acquaintance com¬ 
menced with feveral refpe&able perfons, and particularly 
with fome of the family of the Barringtons, whole friend- 
fhip he retained to the end of his life. Returning to Scot¬ 
land, he experienced from his father, who had given him 
a dep-mother, a degree of feverity which occafioned him 
to refolve on quitting his country. He accordingly came 
to London, and married the daughter of Mr. Allen, a 
wine-merchant, with whom he continued the wine-trade 
during (everal years. An indifpofition of his wife, induced 
him to carry her to France; and the lofs of her after¬ 
wards, inclined him to continue his travels. At the lat¬ 
ter end of the earl of Chatham’s minidry, about 1761, he 
returned from a tour through the greated part of Europe, 
particularly through Spain and Portugal ; and he was 
about to retire to his patrimony, in order to embrace a 
life of dudy and reflection, when chance threw him into 
a very fliort and defultory converfation with that noble¬ 
man. He foon afterwards received an intimation of a de- 
fign to employ him, which proved abortive by the refig- 
nation of iiis intended patron. He then received fome 
encouragement from the liberality of lord Egremont, and 
Mr. George Grenville ; and in a (liort time a propofal from 
lord Halifax, to explore the coad of Barbary, to which he 
acceded. The confulfhip of Algiers becoming vacant at 
this juncture (1763), he was appointed to it, and imme¬ 
diately let out for Italy. At Rome he received orders to 
proceed to Naples ; from whence he again returned to 
Rome. He then went to Leghorn, and from thence to 
Algiers. 
He fpent a year at Algiers; and, having a facility in 
acquiring languages, he in that time qualified himfelf for 
appearing on any part of the continent of Africa without 
an interpreter; but at this indant orders arrived from 
England for him to wait for further orders as conful. He 
accordingly remained in his pod until 1765. lit June, 1764, 
he folicited leave of ahfence from the (ecretary of date, to 
make fome drawings of antiquities near Tunis. He ha 4 
before this been to Mahon, and along the coad of Africa . 
He was (hip-wrecked on the coad of Tunis, and plundered 
of all his property. In 1768, we find him at Aleppo; and 
in Attgud that year he was at Cairo, from wltence he pro¬ 
ceeded to Abyflinia, which he is fuppofed to have entered 
either the latter end of that year, or the beginning of 1769. 
His day in that country was about four years, as he re¬ 
turned to Cairo the 15th of January, 1773- The tranfac- 
tions of this period, which occupied a (pace p( near (ix 
years, from 1768 to 1773, were publidted in 5 vols. 4-to, 
1790; and abound with events fo extraordinary, and pre- 
fent in (lances of perfeverance and intrepidity fo wonder¬ 
ful, that, were it the production of a man whole cha¬ 
racter was difputable, it would appear to be the fabrica¬ 
tion of a romantic brain. From the difeoveries of Mr. 
Bruce, however, geography and natural hidory have re¬ 
ceived confiderable and valuable improvements. 
During Mr. Bruce’s abfence, his relations, confidering 
5 Y him 
