We rise from the perusal of it with no definite ideas of
the scenery of the valley of Underlach. We suppose it to be sublime and
picturesque, and are frequently told so by the author; but he fails in
the description of particular scenes. Scott manages otherwise. When he
sends Baillie Nicoll Jarvie into the Highlands, he does not content
himself with generalities, but also brings before the mind such groups
and scenes as make one fear and tremble. To produce this excitement is
literary power.
_23d_. I devoted the time before breakfast, which, with us, happens at a
late hour, to the _Edinburgh Review_. I read the articles on Greenough's
"First Principles of Geology," and a new edition of Demosthenes. When
shall we hear the last panegyric of the Grecian orator, who, in the two
characteristics of his eloquence which have been most praised,
simplicity and nature, is every day equalled, or excelled, by our
Indian chiefs?
Greenough's Essays are bold and original, and evince no weak powers of
observation and reasoning.
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