rfect centos of Scottish feeling
and poesy. The loving, laborious lingering of Tennyson over his poems,
and the frequent alterations--not in every case improvements--that
appear in successive editions of his works, are familiar to all his
admirers.

[10] "I have seen," says a Correspondent of the _Inverness Courier_, "a
copy of the second edition of Burns's 'Poems,' with the blanks filled
up, and numerous alterations made in the poet's handwriting: one
instance, not the most delicate, but perhaps the most amusing and
characteristic will suffice. After describing the gambols of his 'Twa
Dogs,' their historian refers to their sitting down in coarse and rustic
terms. This, of course, did not suit the poet's Edinburgh patrons, and
he altered it to the following:--

'Till tired at last, and doucer grown,
Upon a knowe they sat them down.'

Still this did not please his fancy; he tried again, and hit it off in
the simple, perfect form in which it now stands:--

'Until wi' daffin weary grown,
Upon a knowe they sat them down.'"

[11] Campbell's alterations were, generally, decided improvements; but
in one instance he failed lamentably. The noble peroration of Lochiel
is familiar to most readers:--

"Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With his back to the field and his feet to the foe;
And leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame."

In the quarto edition of _Gertrude of Wyoming_, when the poet collected
and reprinted his minor pieces, this lofty sentiment was thus
stultified:--

"Shall victor exult in the battle's acclaim,
Or look to yon heaven from the death-bed of fame."

The original passage, however, was wisely restored in the subsequent
editions.

* * * * *

JOE MILLER AT COURT.

Joe Miller, (Mottley,) was such a favourite at court, that Caroline,
queen of George II., commanded a play to be performed for his benefit;
the queen disposed of a great many tickets at one of her drawing-rooms,
and most of them were paid for in gold.

* * * * *

COLLINS' INSANITY.

Much has been said of the state of insanity to which the author of the
_Ode to the Passions_ was ultimately reduced; or rather, as Dr. Johnson
happily describes it, "a depression of mind which enchains the faculties
without destroying them, and leaves reason the knowledge of right,
without