a stranger to its navigation, would not be dissuaded from attempting it: and it is said, that Mr. Vansittart, who went out in it, as commissioner, was so averse to this dangerous experiment, that, if another ship had been at the Cape, he would have proceeded in her. On the 19th November, 1773, a Black was examined before the board of directors, who affirmed-That he was one of five persons who had been saved from the wreck of the Aurora: that the said frigate had been cast away on a reef of rocks off Macao. That he was two years on an island after he escaped, and was miraculously preserved by a coasting ship happening to touch upon the island. "Falconer," (says Burns, in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop) "the unfortunate author of the Shipwreck, which you so much admire, is no more. After weathering the dreadful catastrophe he so feelingly describes in his poem, and after weathering many hard gales of fortune, he went to the bottom with the Aurora frigate! I forget what part of Scotland had the honour of giving him birth, but he was the son of obscurity and misfortune. He was one of those daring adventurous spirits, which Scotland beyond any other country is remarkable for producing. Little does the fond mother think, as she hangs delighted over the sweet little leech at her bosom, where the poor fellow may hereafter wander, and

what may be his fate. I remember a stanza in an old Scottish ballad, which, notwithstanding its rude simplicity, speaks feelingly to the heart: "Little did my mother think,

That day she cradled me,
What land I was to travel on,

Or what death I should die!"

In person, Falconer was about five feet two inches in height, of a thin, light make, with hard features, and a weather-beaten complexion. His hair was brown, and he was marked with the small pox. In his common address, it is said, he was blunt and forbidding: but quick and fluent in conversation. His observation was keen, and his judgments acute and severe. By natural temper he was cheerful, and used to amuse his companions, the seamen, with acrostics which he made on their favourite nymphs. He was a good and skilful seaman. As for education, he assured Governor Hunter, that it was confined to reading, English, and arithmetic. In his voyages, he had picked up a little colloquial knowledge of Italian and Spanish, and such languages as are spoken on the shores of the Mediterranean. That he was esteemed by his mess-mates is shown in a passage of a little work, called the Journal of a Seaman, written in 1755, published by Murray in 1815."How often, says the author, have I wished to

have the associate of my youth, Bill Falconer, with me to explore these beauties, and to read them in his sweet poetry. But, alas! I parted with him in Old England, never perhaps to meet more in this world. His may be a happier lot, led by a gentler star, he may pass through this busy scene with more ease and tranquillity than has been the fortune of his humble friend, Penrose."*

In considering the merits of the poem of the Shipwreck, it is necessary to dismiss from our minds the exaggerated praises which are to be met with in the pages of some of his editors, as Dr. S. Clarke and Mr. Chalmers, neither of whom, as appears to me, had any pretensions to be considered judges of poetical excellence. If the poem is estimated by a judgment lying between its positive merits, and the disadvantages under which it was composed,―undoubtedly the author will receive no slight proportion of praise. And though, with the exception of some happier parts, it cannot satisfy the taste which has been formed on the finished writings of our leading poets, yet it is a singularly elegant production of a person who had received no education beyond the mere ele

*See Lives of the Scottish Poets, 1822, vol. iii. p. 77. The life of Falconer is signed R. E. It is doubtful whether this journal of Penrose is real or fictitious.-v. Quarterly Rev.

ments of language, and who was subsequently occupied in the severe duties and business of a seafaring life-equally without learning or leisure. The poetical powers of Falconer, in whatever rank they may be placed, were the gift of nature; for any assistance they may have derived from subsequent application, was only a proof that the original powers previously existed. The Milton of the village remained neither mute, nor inglorious.*

The plan of the poem is simple, but not defective; though it is not difficult to see that it might have been improved by a greater diversity of character, and a more powerful and animated variety of description: in fact, there is not much to praise in the curiosity of the design, or the complication of circumstances through which it was conducted: but though inartificial, it is not carelessly or inefficiently arranged. That the description of the general distress, which has occupied the mind of the reader through the former portion of the poem, should at last merge in the narration of particular and personal history, as in the case of Palæmon, was justly and happily conceived, and thus a dramatic character is drawn over the close. It is agreed that the nautical descriptions are appropriate and correct. The great fault of the poem is one that

* 'Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest.'-Gray.

extends through its entire composition, and consists in the absence of any very striking, and original bursts of genius,-of that fresh and vivid colouring which is given by a bright imagination, --and of those beautiful combinations, happy associations, and masterly touches of the great masters of song. It is true, that Falconer is not an imitator of his predecessors, or a mannerist in any particular school of poetry. There are no favorite expressions, nor turns of language, nor descriptions copied from preceding poets; his style is not an echo of any other writer.-It is most probable that he had studied Pope's Homer, which was the storehouse of all succeeding poets, and the style, language, combinations of words, and tone and modulation of which, descended from poet to poet, till it became at one time a conventional form of poetical speech. There are a few marks in his poem, just sufficient to show that Falconer was not unacquainted with Pope's writings and he had read sufficiently to make himself familiar with the language of poetry in his day indeed much of the flatness and tameness of his expressions arises from his use of this longworn, and current coin of Parnassus.

Mr. Campbell has justly observed," that his diction too generally abounds with common place expletives, and feeble lines,”—of the first, I should