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nereal procession to church on Sundays-its solemn silence-the freezing gravity of the persons composing it, who seemed rather to proceed to the solemn dirge of death, than to a pleasing duty.

The streets are all perfectly still during the hours of divine service: no sound breaks the silence which prevails, till the church doors open and disgorge the kirks of the motley throngs then an endless stream pours along "vires acquirens eundo," till all the streets are filled. The rush is irresistibly impetuous; every one floats on the swelling waves of this human tide, and wo to him who should attempt to stem the furious current! Every woman carries a richly bound psalm book, which is not the least splendid part of her finery, and this she displays with an exquisite air of religious importance.

Such sad and disconsolate solemnity is apt to deter young persons from a religious life, by representing it as an unsociable state, that extinguishes all joy and gladness, and darkens the face of nature. "Those who represent religion in so unamiable a light, (says Addison) are like the spies sent by Moses to make the discovery of the land of promise, when by their reports they discouraged the people from entering upon it. Those who show us the joy, the cheerfulness, the good humour that naturally spring up in this happy state, are like the spies bringing along with them the clusters of grapes, and delicious fruits, that might invite

their companions into the pleasant country which produced them.”

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The gloomy employment of Sunday in Edinburgh, appeared to me so much the more disagreeable, as I had just quitted France, where the Sabbath is really a day of rest from labour." In Paris, every person is more gay, and seeks for amusement with greater alacrity on that day than any other; not that I approve of the frivolous, and sometimes sinful diversions in which some Parisians indulge themselves on the Sabbath-but I am not speaking of the vices of a few, but of the characteristic habits of a nation, and if I preferred an excess on any side, it would be the French frivolity to the Scotish misanthropic gloom.

LETTER II.

Windows and doors, in nameless sculpture drest,
With order, symmetry, or taste unblest;

Forms like some bedlam-Statuary's dream,
The craz'd creations of misguided whim. BURNS.

TO JOHN D

Edinburgh, December 1, 1818.

GRAY says that Edinburgh is the most picturesque (at a distance,) and the nastiest (when near,) of all capital cities! It is surrounded on all sides, except towards the Firth, with irregular rocky mountains separated by beautiful

valleys, whose verdure and high state of cultivation are agreeably opposed to the romantic elevations and crags by which they are enclosed. These hills form a magnificent amphi theatre, in which stands the Scotch capital. I had the curiosity to mount to the highest of the rocks, called "Arthur's Seat;" from the top of this eminence, the prospect is very interesting. The German Sea, the Firth of Forth, the capital and the romantic scenery on all sides, afford a delightful treat to the eye. That part of the hill on the west which overlooks the city, presents a semi-circular range of precipitous rocks, which convey the idea of a mural crown.

The appearance which the Old Town presents at a distance, has been compared to the back of a turtle-the castle being considered as the head of the turtle, High street as the ridge of its back, the various wynds and closes which strike off as its ribs, and Holyroodhouse as the tail. When to this peculiar situation we add the singular combination of its various edifices, we are presented with scenes, the effect of which it is impossible to conceive.

The sombre shadows cast by the immense piles of building, the singular windings, and the alleys which admit here and there streams of light through the dark streets, the interminable stairs which lead to the tops of the aerial mansions, the fantastic emblems and endless variety of carved work on the windows and doors, and the hieroglyphics on the shields,

rests and pavilions,-all these singularities roduce a most striking effect, and increase at very step the traveller's astonishment.

The South Bridge arches over the valley in which the Cowgate runs, The existence of his bridge is not apparent at first view, as it s almost blocked up by rows of buildings; but on advancing to the top of the arch, we see that we are raised above the heads of the inhabitants of Cowgate, who appear to live in a different atmosphere. Sometimes, at night, I take a solitary ramble through this singular assemblage of buildings, and, like Geoffrey Crayon, I have often to explore divers little alleys, elbows and dark passages, with which this old city is perforated, like an ancient cheese, or a worm-eaten chest of drawers.

This irregular assemblage offers, by night especially, says the great unknown Scotch novelist," a spectacle which, though composed of the most vulgar materials when they are separately considered, has, when they are combined, a striking and powerful effect upon the imagination."

I had once to pay rather dearly for my curiosity; for as I was returning from an evening stroll through Cowgate, I was inundated with a liquid of "most villainous smell," which was thrown from an upper window. "The Scotch, who certainly learned this most laudable practice from the French, (says the Quarterly Review,) carried it down to a late period; and we are not quite sure if an attentive damsel might

nót still, in some parts of the auld toun of Edinburgh, hear herself greeted with the once familiar sound of Haud your haunde, lassie!"

There are but few beggars in Edinburgh; employment and food are dealt out to the indigent, and no excuse is left for mendicants. The Scotch are generally industrious, economical and provident; when they cannot find employment in their Land o' Cakes, they know that "the world is all before them where to choose," and there is hardly a spot of the habitable globe, in which Scotchmen have not tried their fortunes. Societies for the suppression of mendicants, and for the encouragement of industry among the poor, have met with great success in Edinburgh. Indeed this evil can never be rooted out of a large city, until beggars are deprived of all pretext for begging, by the establishment of general workhouses, "the gates of which, like the gates of heaven, (says Baretti) should be opened wide to the distressed man, to the helpless babe and orphan, to the repenting prostitute, to every creature that knocks."

LETTER III.

Study and pains were now no more their care,
Texts were explain'd by fasting and by prayer:
This was the fruit the private spirit brought,
Occasioned by great zeal and little thought.

DRYDEN'S Religio Laici.

Edinburgh, December 17, 1818.

I HAVE been reading with great pleasure Laing's History of Scotland. It is a continua

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