eſt print that ever ſtared her in the face as ſhe walked along the public ſtreets.
May there not, however, be more thoughtleſsneſs than deliberate impiety in this offence? Popular tales are addreſſed to all ages and conditions. If an illuſtration is wanted, where can it be ſo ſucceſsfully ſought as in a book familiar to us all? Though Sandford and Merton, in ſome few families, may have ſupplanted Lot’s daughters and Potiphar’s wife, Sampſon and Dalilah, together with the royal Solomon, and all his proverbs and concubines, thanks to our good mothers and nurſes, we have all theſe edifying ſtories well impreſſed upon our memories, ready to come forward at the ſhorteſt notice. I conceive, therefore, that theſe alluſions may have been choſen as univerſally intelligible.
REVIEWER.
We are more diſpoſed to cenſure the execution than the deſign of this performance. Tales handed down from generation to generation carry with them a ſtrong intrinſic recommendation. The wayward fancy of man is always apt to make an excurſion beyond the bounds of this working-day world, and take its ſport in the millennium of poſſibilities. But this playful diſpoſition is moſt indulged in the careleſs infancy of the race. At all ages, however, we are ready enough to quit ſober hiſtory and dull truth for theſe frolics of imagination. Frequent repetition ſupplies the place of writing and record. No country perhaps has ſuffered theſe primitive fables to periſh, and their preſervation is alone a ſufficient proof of their bewitching power. The Highland traditions themſelves were probably capable of being worked up into agreeable romances,
