t raise his
reputation. Not that there are not tons of worse verse published, and
bought, and even read, every year, but that their publication would
not elevate Jeffrey. His poetry is less poetical than his prose.
Viewed as mere literary practice, it is rather respectable. It evinces
a general acquaintance, and a strong sympathy, with moral emotion,
great command of language, correct taste, and a copious possession of
the poetical commonplaces, both of words and of sentiment. But all
this may be without good poetry.'

Having given little of Lord Cockburn in our extracts, we shall
conclude with a passage of his narration which stands out distinctly,
and has a historical value. It refers to Edinburgh in the second
decade of the present century, but takes in a few names of deceased
celebrities:--'The society of Edinburgh was not that of a provincial
town, and cannot be judged of by any such standard. It was
metropolitan. Trade or manufactures have, fortunately, never marked
this city for their own; but it is honoured by the presence of a
college famous throughout the world, and from which the world has been
supplied with many of the distinguished men who have shone in it. It
is the seat of the supreme courts of justice, and of the annual
convocation of the Church, formerly no small matter; and of almost all
the government offices and influence. At the period I am referring to,
this combination of quiet with aristocracy made it the resort, to a
far greater extent than it is now, of the families of the gentry, who
used to leave their country residences and enjoy the gaiety and the
fashion which their presence tended to promote. Many of the curious
characters and habits of the receding age--the last purely Scotch age
that Scotland was destined to see--still lingered among us. Several
were then to be met with who had seen the Pretender, with his court
and his wild followers, in the Palace of Holyrood. Almost the whole
official state, as settled at the Union, survived; and all graced the
capital, unconscious of the economical scythe which has since mowed it
down. All our nobility had not then fled. A few had sense not to feel
degraded by being happy at home. The Old Town was not quite deserted.
Many of our principal people still dignified its picturesque recesses
and historical mansions, and were dignified by them. The closing of
the continent sent many excellent English families and youths among
us, for education and for ple