= writers, who, if inferior to the Scottish historian in elegance, stand high above him in independence and accuracy. A cursory perusal of the "defence" of Mary's honour, by Lesley bishop of Ross; of "Goodall's examination" of the letters, sonnets, and marriage contracts, contained in the celebrated casket; of Mr. Tytler's work upon the same subject; of Mr. Whitaker's "Vindication of Mary queen of Scots ;" and of Mr. Chalmers's "life" of the same personage, (last edition); will be sufficient to convict Morton of a blackness of heart, and turpitude of conduct, which go far beyond the common degeneracy of unprincipled political characters. His object, also, like that of Murray, was the attainment of the regency; and Providence permitted him to succeed in it; but it was only to afford an awful confirmation of the truth of its own inspired representation of the temporary triumph of the flagitious great: "Thou dost set them in slippery places, and casteth them down, and destroyest them. Oh! how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end! Yea, even like as a dream when one awaketh, so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the city." It is a circumstance calculated to excite reflection, that Morton perished (and, indeed, was one of its earliest victims) by the very instrument which he had invented as the least troublesome and most expe. ditious mode of dispatching the objects of his cruel displeasure. This engine was called the maiden, and obviously suggested the idea of the modern French guillotine; the latter being constructed on precisely the same principle as the Scottish instrument of punishment. The society of Scottish antiquaries have Morton's maiden in their collection. The degrading circumstances of Morton's execution, and the desertion of his headless corpse, would be an useful warning to ambition (if ambition would take warning from any thing) of the penalty which it must pay for its gratification. "Ambition this shall tempt to rise, Then whirl the wretch from high; To bitter scorn a sacrifice, And grinning infamy.” Gray. Miscellaneous Illustrations. WHITE LADY. APPARITIONS. THE motley character of our author's supernatural agent (as is already remarked) leaves the reader in doubt to determine to which, among the many orders of existences, he shall assign her. The admixture of shade and substance, of definite form and illimitable expansibility, in the same being, is without a parallel in any of the systems of spectral appearances with which we are acquainted, from the lucubrations of that profound Rosicrusian, Dr. John Dee, to the "Accredited Ghost Stories of T. M. Jarvis, esq; in 1823;" and the learned Dr. Scot, or solemn Aubrey, themselves, might well address this unique intelligence in the hesitating apostrophe of Hamlet to his father's shade: "Angels and ministers of grace defend us! That I will ask thee,” what thou art? [hell: Numerous and manifold as the superstitions of his country are, which the author has so judiciously pressed into his service, and so beautifully adapted to his purposes, we meet with no imaginary existence among them, that assimilates, in all points, with his White Lady; nor do we find her exact prototype, in any of the records of foreign dæmonology to which we have had access. She seems, indeed, to have been composed of " the shreds and patches" of many distinct ideal forms, invoked from several regions, whose parts, not precisely according with each other, have, when conjoined, produced the undefinable result before us. The notion of spiritual essences presiding over, or connected with, fountains, rivers, lakes, and waters, is, we know, of classical antiquity; and many very beautiful passages of the ancient poets borrow their charm from an allusion to this superstition. The same imagination, also, constituted a part of the creed of the Gothic nations; followed their footsteps in the various conquests and migrations of their adventurous tribes; and was incorporated by them with the indigenous superstitious fancies of the Scots and our own countrymen. Their belief, however, as it regarded this particular notion, was not of a consolatory or amiable cast. It partook of the general fierceness of the Gothic character; and their White Wiven (the name speaks for itself) presented only ideas of terror to the imagination of those who gave credit to their existence : "Spirits, that have o'er water government, They trouble seas, floods, rivers, brooks, and wells, Fee the French, we sybils, and the same; ́Others white nymphs, and those that have them seen, Night ladies some, of which Habundia queen.”* Heywood's Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, p. 507. |