iiil iii;iiw!i''';j: i'' i m ^0FCA1IF( hG THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES .1™., .^ <ril30NVSC ^^^ ^' ^:lOSANCF[/£:rv Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2008 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation ^^. littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cliameleonOOatki THE CHAMELEON. i THE CHAMELEON. " UNTIE YOUR FOI-DED THOUGHTS, AND LET THEJI DANGLE, LOOSK AS A BRIDE'S HAIR," Webster's White DevU. LONGMAN AND CO., LONDON; OLIVER AND BOYD, EDIN. ATKINSON AND CO. GLASGOW. MDCCCXXXII. ! ; : ;: ; " Few guests sit down to a varied table witli an equal appetite for every dish. One has an elegant horror of a roasted pig ; another holds a curry or a devil in utter abomination ; a third cannot tolerate the ancient flavour of venison and wildfowl and a fourth, with truly masculine stomach, looks with sovereign contempt on those knicknacks here and there dished up for the ladies. Thus each article is condemned in its turn ; and yet, amidst the variety of appetites, seldom does a dish go away from the table witliout being tasted and relished by some one or other of the guests." Wasuington Ikvinc. Chameleons feed on light and air Poet's food is love and fame : If in this wide world of care Poets could but find the same With as little toil as they. Would they ever change their hue As the light chameleons do. Suiting it to every ray Twenty times a day ? Poets are on this cold earth, As chameleons might be. Hidden from their early birth In a cave beneath the sea Where light is chameleons change Where love is not, poets do ; Love is fame disguised : if few Find either, never think it strange That poets range. Vet dare not stain with wealth or power A poet's free and heavenly mind If bright chameleons should devour Any food but beams and wind. They would grow as earthly soon As their brother lizards are. Children of a sunnier star, Sj)irits from beyonii the moon O, refuse the boon SlIELLEV. Fxlwaril KhuU, Printer, Glasgow. CJ CONTENTS. The pieces in Verse are distinguished by Italics. PAGE Seeking a Name, ...... 9 in The White Rose Mull, a Tale, . 23 The Hours, . 31 Sketches froji Scottish History. No. I. Contrite The One, , 55 11. The Answer of Umfraville, . 64 III. The Coronation of the Bruce, . 91 IV. The Countess of Buchan, . 105 Focus, I. The No. 43 I. Limits The of Poetical Expression, . 44 II. The Novelists of the 18th Centurj-, . 45 III. Philosophy of Cheers, . 46 IV. National Enterprise, .... 47 V. Genius, Ingenuit}-, and Industry, . 48 VI. Reason and Instinct, .... 49 Five Songs. I. cauld to me, ..... 53 II. For one hour with thee! fond . 54 III. The Minstrel's Ronndclmj, . 55 IV. Drinking So7ig, ..... 56 . 62 The Laughynge Madrygalle, .... 58 The Mother at the Cradle her only Child, of . 60 In tears, my Love, ...... 57 The Sorrows of Sleepiness, a Prosaic Epigram, . 66 Address to a Lock of my Mistress's Hair enclosed in t i Golden Case, ....... 69 The Price a Quadrille, of . 71 Enigma, . 72 CONTENTS. PAGE On a good Composer, hut hideous Singer of Music, 72 Sonnets. I. To Ideal Beautyy II. Bcrigonium, ..... III. To IV. Written on seeing a Chalk Drawing of a Head, V. Writtejt at the base of Benlomond, Jean Prevost, or the arm of the Devil, Stanzas, .... lanthe, .... Alas, I cannot love! . April Memories, The Focus, No. XL I. Belzoni's Character, II. Utility of Dulness, III. Dormant Propensities, IV. Indolence of Genius, The Ha' and the Cot, The Wreck of the Comet Raised, Two Blacks don't make a White, an acted Proverb, The Silence of the Grave, The Goblet, The Anniversary Visit, Ejnslle from a Lover to his Mistrress, on her treatin" him ivith Frivolity, . The Cigar, Being the Introduction to Henry Porson, a Tale, / did not weep. The Fii-st of October, The Focus, No. III. I. Cookery, II. Music as an Art, III. Proximate Causes, IV. Singleness of Virtues, V. Root of Revolutions, VI. Pride and Humility, — CONTENTS. Vll PAGE Stanzas to — 179 The Enthusiast's Wish, 180 The Lambs, .... 181 The Oath was heard in Heaven, 182 A New Project, 183 Songs. I. The Miller's Daughter. 193 II. Mary Shearer, 194 III. The Promise, 195 IV. Mary Glen, 196 V. Glenfalloch, 197 Midnight Moods, 198 The Debating Society, 207 On the Death of a Girl, 221 The Juncture, 222 My Life is all one Dream of thee. 223 The Gentle Widow, a True Story, 224 My Portrait, .... 228 The Focus, No. IV. I. The Compensating Principle, 231 II. Origin of the Alphabet, 232 III. Feudal Virtues, 233 IV. Taste and Pleasure, 234 V. Civilization, 235 VI. Origin and Use of Sculpture, , 236 VII. Genius and Criticism, , 237 To . 241 E2}igra77t, ..... , 242 Desultory Remarks on some of the Properties of Thought, 243 The Mystic Three, .... , 252 The Proud Lover's Remonstrance, 253 Adelaide and Roland, a Tale of the Rhine . 255 Stanzas on a Seal, .... 273 . 274 The Lovers' Loan, . • Improvvising, ..... 278 , 279 I. The Legend if the Lid, II. The Romance of the Flower, , 281 via CONTENTS. PACE The Graces, . 283 Love's Pains, ......... 284 TiiK Focus, No. V. I. Meteorology, ....... 286 II. Greek and Roman Customs, .... 287 III. Speaking in General, and Varieties of Imagination, 290 IV. Nature Endless—Art Limited, . .291 V. Influence of Memory— Plagiarisni, . 292 VI. Prefaces, 293 VII. Woman's Knowledge of Character, . 294 T/ie Poet's Farewell to his Books, 296 The Dying Wish, 298 The Return of the Muse, 300 The Lute's Decay, 303 Specimen of" a Tour," 305 KetrosjJective Ode, 310 SEEKING A NAME. ' Good name, in man and woman, is the immediate jewel of their souls." Shakspeare. The search for a title has, on the part of statesmen and lawA'ers, been for ages a prevailing pursuit ; —the seeking for a name has occupied the lives of half the artists, all the poets, and a considerable portion of the prosers of every generation, at least since the flood washed away the remembrance of antediluvian authors and of their ambition. It may, then, well engage me for an hour. Nay, truth to speak, it has absorbed my occasional attention for years, since for years have the contents of the following sheets been kept, like an unchi-istened babe, within doors, and imder their nui-se's care, till they should get a baptismal appellation. Never did a disappointed patriot, without Court influence, experience more difficulty in getting a peerage, or a poor poet in winning a name, though " who can tell how hard it is to climb," &c., than I have done in reaching to a title for my book. Like our good thoughts, the ancients have stolen all our best appellatives,—by ancients, meaning the publishers of volumes of miscella- neous matter, from twenty to thirty years ago ; for if age is to be measured by comparison ^vith any standard of B — 10 SEEKING A NAME. endiu-ance, an autlior, or compiler of collections of^'Essai/s" or " Poems," must be looked upon as of very venerable years, quarter whose existence is remembered after the lapse of a of a century. In vain, from time to time, did I exclaim to " to God all my friends in succession, with Falstaff, I would thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought !" I C07ild " call them from the vasty deep," to be sure,—but they would not come " when I did call them ;" and at length, in despaii- of finding one to please me while I lived, I bethought me of leaving my papers, as a Bequest, to some friend or other, and letting him get a " title" to the property of the deceased, both on his own behalf and that of the public, to whom The Legacy was jointly to be left, —though, like the work that was dedicated to posterity, it might, as has been the case with many a pacquet besides, never reach its destination, in spite of its addi-ess. To give it, notwithstand- ing, a chance, of moving on, I bethought me of calling it The Bookseller's Bequest ; thereby expecting to enlist, in an especial manner, Vesprit de corps of some one or other of these cunning rogues, who might thus be induced, like Blair's grave-digger, (itifelix alhisio!) to do for a buried ' brother " what he had done for thousands ! But then, perhaps, the worthy obstetrician of literatui-e might find out that it Avas no bequest of a bookseller after all, but only that of a very difi^erent personage indeed, —a book-maker,—one of a class which is either his " bliss or bane." In this dilem- ma, and dismissing my testamentaiy intentions, it occurred to me that I might secure an interest with the general body of " The Trade," did I give my work a title complimen- tary to them, in the way that baptizing a child, as in New England, Perseverance or Faith—Tomkins or Williams as the case may be, is looked upon as a homage to the cardi- nal virtues ; and I wonld name it Avith admirable brevity SEEKING A NA]\[K. 11 and comprehensiveness, The Bookseller I —a term which has been eloquently said, signifies " a race of men, M'ho should never, for a moment, be confounded with any other class of shop-keepers or traffickers. Their merchandize is the noblest in the world ; the wares to which they invite your attention are not fineries for the back, or luxm-ies for the belly—the inward man is what they aspire to clothe and feed, and the food and raiment they olFer are tempting things.