pamphlet form. The popularity of the pamphlet induced Dean Ramsay to
recall many anecdotes illustrating national peculiarities which could
not be compressed into a lyceum address. The result was that the
pamphlet became a thin volume, which grew thicker and thicker as edition
after edition was called for by the curiosity of the public. The
American reprint is from the seventh and last Edinburgh edition, and is
introduced by a genial preface, written especially for American readers.
The author is more than justified in thinking that there are numerous
persons scattered over our country, who, from ties of ancestry or
sympathy with Scotland, will enjoy a record of the quaint sayings and
eccentric acts of her past humorists,--"her original and strong-minded
old ladies,--her excellent and simple parish ministers,--her amusing
parochial half-daft idiots,--her pawky lairds,--and her old-fashioned
and now obsolete domestic servants and retainers." Indeed, the Yankee is
sufficiently allied, morally and intellectually, with the Scotchman, to
appreciate everything that illustrates the peculiarities of Scottish
humor. He has shown this by the delight he has found in those novels
of Scott's which relate exclusively to Scotland. The Englishman, and
perhaps the Frenchman, may have excelled him in the appreciation of
"Ivanhoe" and "Quentin Durward," but we doubt if even the first
has equalled him in the cozy enjoyment of the "Antiquary" and "Guy
Mannering." And Dean Ramsay's book proves how rich and deep was the
foundation in fact of the qualities which Sir Walter has immortalized
in fiction. He has arranged his "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and
Character" under five heads, relating respectively to the religious
feelings and observances, the conviviality, the domestic service, the
language and proverbs, and the peculiarities of the wit and humor of
Scotland. In New England, and wherever in any part of the country
the New-Englander resides, the volume will receive a most cordial
recognition. Dean Ramsay's qualifications for his work are plainly
implied in his evident understanding and enjoyment of the humor of
Scottish character. He writes about that which he feels and knows; and,
without any exercise of analysis and generalization, he subtly conveys
to the reader the inmost spirit of the national life he undertakes to
illustrate by narrative, anecdote, and comment. The finest critical and
artistic skill would be inadequate to insinuat