academy with unfeigned gratification, although we object to some of its details; and we consider it to be a great proof of our opinion that the love of music is spreading rapidly through this country. At the commencement of our essay we endeavoured to point out a few of the circumstances which have so long tended to keep our national taste in music at a very low standard; the principal of these causes was, the easy acquirement by the wealthy, of foreign talent, leaving our own composers to level their tastes so as to please the middle classes of society-the ultimate result of the new institution will, we trust, however, be, to do away completely with these invidious and degrading distinctions; for we doubt not it will soon produce composers and performers, of whom all classes in the nation will be proud. Our national theatres will then, at length, resound with "chefs d'œuvre" of art from the talent of our own country, and England will be in music, as in many other respects, the land of genuine good taste. THE HISTORY OF JEREMY THE SCHEMER. INTRODUCTION. We publish the following account, contrary to our usual custom, from an unknown and anonymous correspondent; and we publish it, although it seems to contain some sly hits against a certain member of our council. The writer must either have enjoyed a most intimate acquaintance with the subject of the memoir, and have been admitted to a participation of his secret thoughts, or he must be the said Jeremy himself. The latter hypothesis is, indeed, supported by the motto; which has been applied by many a wretched wight, besides the ship-wrecked Falconer, or Jeremy the Schemer, to the story of his own disasters. But we will give both the motto and the story without farther preface. It may, at least, serve to demonstrate that, although we are believers in the possibility of human improvement, we are advocates of foresight and discretion, and no encouragers of wild and visionary attempts. HISTORY OF JEREMY THE SCHEMER. Quæque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui !” Direful misfortunes which myself have seen, MOST ILLUSTRIOUS COUNCIL, You may implicitly rely upon the authenticity of the following narrative, although the person to whom the events happened may have good reasons for wishing his full name to be withheld. Let it be sufficient, therefore, to call him by the style and title of Jeremy the Schemer. He Jeremy, although far from being an old man, now feels himself in a declining state of health, and is learning to bear with fortitude the approach of death. For even he is convinced of the utter futility of all schemes to escape the vigilance, or ward off the attacks, of this last and mightiest destroyer of human projects, and human hopes. looks back upon his past life with a smile at the removal of that veil which youthful enthusiasm had drawn before his eyes, and with regret, not that its illusions have vanished, but that they have proved to be illusions. His chief hope is, that integrity of design may count for something; as he would, indeed, be in a woful predicament, if it were necessary to believe literally in the truth of the old proverb, that "men go to heaven for the good which they have done; and to hell for the good which they have intended to do." But, as every body has said, we must begin at the beginning. To go back, however, to the nursery adventures of the unhappy Jeremy, would scarcely, whatever discoveries we might make, repay us for the trouble of the search. And the fact is, that the history of his infancy, like that of many other great men, is involved in almost impenetrable obscurity. Even the traditions and interesting anecdotes which were, doubtless, delivered with regard to him by his mother and his nurse, have long been forgotten. At school, however, it is certain that Jeremy already began to display his invincible propensity to scheming. He was always making projects and experiments for the invention of a new bird-trap, or a new cross-bow, or some other extraordinary implement for every boyish purpose under heaven. At every possible game he was practically the worst player in the school: but then upon the theoretical principles he had formed, as he conceived, some very wise notions of his own. Cricket was his peculiar study: it is true that he could never defend his wicket for a minute; but then he could always suggest some indisputable improvement in the shape of the bat. His themes and verses too were declared by the master to be intolerable; for he would insert his own crude, half-formed, unfledged notions, which he could not even express, instead of the tame, trite, hackneyed sentiments and phrases, which usually compose the exercise of a school-boy. By the way I may here mention one of his favourite opinions in after-life, which was, that the habit of laying so much stress upon early composition at schools, and making boys write before they can think, has been the great cause that the literary world has been so uninterruptedly inundated in modern times with the deluge of common-place, and the diluted mawkishness of smooth versifiers, and the turners of smart periods. As Jeremy entered upon the career of youth, his scheming propensities grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength. He never saw a carriage without having some improvement to propose as to the construction, or the colour, or the springs; although no wise person who set the slightest value upon his life, would ever trust himself to the guidance of Jeremy in any vehicle for a moment. Moreover, in the "history" and “ philosophy" of dancing— for in this age of refinement we must use grand terms upon every occasion, or consent to be considered as utterly deficient in the true dignity and elegance of phraseology,—he was a perfect adept; of the sameness and want of inventive genius displayed in our English dances he bitterly, and contemptuously, complained; he would even talk of introducing the Pyrrhic dance, and the Romaic dance, and a thou sand other dances, ancient and modern, with all sorts of steps from all sorts of places: he had, besides, a magnificent project of making a kind of composite order of dancing out of them all. In the mean time, with regard to the common dances which were practised in his early youth, when it must be remarked dancing was by no means so complicated a science as at present, his ignorance and awkwardness were lamentably conspicuous. The minuet was quite beyond him he never went through a country-dance without a mistake, or performed the evolutions of a reel without being in every body's way. These are trifling things; but trifling things, as the wise know, not only make up the sum of life, but are the best index of character. Jeremy proceeded in his career-every art and science supplied him with matter for cogitation, and for a scheme. He laboured at the creation of a new style in architecture, sculpture, and painting; he wished to improve their principles, to enlarge their boundaries, and to emancipate them from the trammels of arbitrary rules. He said, what was in some measure true, that while nature was infinite and open to all, to circumscribe the limits of imitation by the line and compass of artificial canons, and the standard of acquired taste, was the very ultraism of absurdity. It was, in some measure, fortunate that the reign of alchymy had passed away before the birth of Jeremy the Schemer, otherwise his life would assuredly have been wasted in a search after the philosopher's stone, or the elixir of life; he would have plunged into the mazes which bewildered some of the mightiest intellects which have ever risen among mankind, and pursued the same " ignis fatuus" which led Cardan and Albertus Magnus so far astray from the path of genuine science. The time, however, was now come, when his petty schemes were either abandoned and forgotten, or concentrated and absorbed in vast and splendid schemes of political and moral regeneration; a thousand plans, one after another, crossed his soul, like the meteoric flashes of a northern sky, beautiful and bright-but impalpable, unsubstantial, and fugitive. He felt himself destined to hasten the millennium and restore the golden age. His friends were naturally anxious for him to apply himself to a particular profession, for it was evident to them that if the talents which he certainly possessed were steadily employed upon a single subject, he might raise himself, with comparative ease, to eminence and wealth. But Jeremy, alas! had other views. He confine himself to a single dull mechanical pursuit! he become a mere drudge, and plod onwards along the beaten track with the common herd! They who gave him such advice might have excellent intentions, but they could comprehend neither the grasp of his intellect, nor the magnitude of his designs. Jeremy was an orphan; and among the friends on whom he principally depended was a rich uncle, who had gained his fortune by trade. Now it happened in the course of time that the tide of Jeremy's finances was at its lowest ebb, and that at the same identical period he was in a fever of agitation to commence a most magnificent scheme, which required at the outset the moving power of certain funds, which even he was unfortunately conscious could not be drawn by any imaginable device out of his own pocket. He determined, therefore, to make an application, in the first instance, to the said uncle; but Jeremy felt at the moment that the most sublime projector who ever schemed himself into poverty, cuts but a sorry figure when he appears in the shape of a petitioner. He, however, introduced himself to his relation as he sat writing at his desk, and began the conversation as follows:-" My dear uncle, you have often promised to assist me, and I feel assured, from your uniform kindness,"" Stop, Jeremy,no mummery,—I have promised to assist you, and I will, as soon as you prove to me that I can be of real and essential service. What is it that you want?" "You would confer an eternal obligation upon me, if you would just lend me a few hundred pounds.' "For what purpose, Jeremy?" "I have a scheme in my head," Umph! I suspect that you will not get a farthing from me in furtherance of your scheme, you have had too many schemes in your head,—but what is it?" "I wish to buy a piece of land, for the purpose of forming an establishment somewhat similar to Mr. Owen's, at Lanark, where I may introduce a new state of |