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main any longer among a people who so ill requited his labour; with a moderation which does him honour, he agreed to withdraw from his office; and Mr Dickson was appointed his assistant and successor.

After this he went to London, and was engaged in writing for the "English Review." He also wrote a pamphlet which attracted considerable notice, intitled" A Review of the Principal Charges against Mr Hastings." His health now began to decline; and his literary career, and multiplied sorrows, were terminated by his death, on the 25th of December 1788.

The death of Mr Logan was much lamented by his friends, to whom he was always warmly attached, and by whom he was sincerely beloved; the fury of his enemies seemed to have subsided, and they were willing to pay to his memory that respect which he looked for in vain while he lived. He was now, however, secure from the attacks of malice, and the shafts of envy; and to him the praise or blame of mortals had become of small moment.

By his will, he bequeathed the sum of six hundred pounds Sterling in small legacies to his friends; and appointed Dr Robertson and Dr Grant his executors, to whom he entrusted his manuscripts. In 1790, a volume of his Sermons was published, under the inspection of his friends, Dr Robertson, Dr Blair, and Dr Hardy. In the following year, a second volume was published, in which several of the discourses are not finished, either from the manuscript being incomplete, or not legible. The fourth edition of both volumes was published in 1800. Besides the works of Mr Logan, which we have mentioned in the course of our narrative, he left a variety of other

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of which his executor, Dr Robertson, gives the following account in a letter to Dr Anderson, dated Dalmeny, September 19. 1795.

Those in verse consist of Electra, a tragedy; the Wedding-day, a tragedy, being a translation into blank verse of the Deserteur of Mercier; the Carthaginian Heroine, a tragedy, but of which there is only the first act finished; and about half-a-dozen of short lyric poems. Those in prose consist of about eight numbers of an intended periodical paper, called the Guar dian the subject of one of the numbers is a capital essay on the genius and writings of Addison. Besides these, I have also in my possession Mr Logan's MS. Lectures on the Roman History. His Lectures on Roman History begin with Romulus, and come down to the fall of the empire, and the establishment of the feudal system. In the small volume of poems, published under the title of "Poems by Michael Bruce," the following were composed by Logan : Damon, Menalcas, and Melibaus; Pastoral Song, to the tune of the "Yellow-hair'd Laddie;" Eclogue in the manner of Ossian; Ode to a Fountain; two Danish Odes; Chorus of " Anacreontic to a wasp;" the Tale of Levina, (278 lines) in the poem of Lochleven ; Ode to Paoli; Ode to the Cuckoo" It is to be regretted that Dr Robertson did not publish a complete edition of the works of Logan, including his MS. which, we are told by Dr Anderson, he had meditated some time before his death. It now remains only to speak of Logan's character as a Poet, a Historian, and Divine, and to appreciate the claims which he has to the notice and respect of posterity. As a Poet, simplicity, elegance, and taste, seem to be the

* Dr Anderson's Poets. Vol. XI.

p. 1030.

characteristic features of his composition: chaste, tender, pathetic, he is often beautiful, seldom sublime, and possesses more of fancy than of fire. His hymns are distinguished by a peculiar sweetness of versification and tenderness of expression. In tragic poetry he evidently struggles with a subject much beyond the grasp of his powers; in his attempting to be great, we perceive the overstrained efforts of a secondary mind, and are pained by observing the fruitless exertion. He excelled in the descriptive or the pathetic; but when he endeavoured to embody, to give a local habitation and a name to the terrific grandeur of ideal scenes, however the chastity and elegance of his versification please the ear, he seldom seizes the pas→ sions, or interests the feelings so forcibly, as to make us insensible to the blemishes of his plot, and the partial faults of its execution. In history, if we may judge from the acknowledged specimens which he has left, he was more fitted to excel. The Elements of the Philosophy of History, though merely an outline of his Lectures, impresses us with an high idea of his powers; and if, as is generally supposed, the "View of Ancient History," published in the name of Dr William Rutherford, was the composition of Loganthe substance of the Lectures he delivered: the happy application of moral and political science to the history of mankind-the philosophical accuracy of his investigation-the luminous arrangement, the elegant dic-. tion by which they are distinguished-must lead us to regret that a greater proportion of his attention was not directed to similar subjects, and confirm the opinion we have expressed of his ability. But as a Divine, he shone with pre-eminent lustre; warm and animated, he carries his readers along with him; he kindles the zeal, and awakens the devotion of the

most languid and inattentive. In native eloquence he stands unrivalled among our pulpit Orators; perhaps the whole circle of English Theology affords no specimens of eloquence, equal to some passages in the Sermons of Logan. Sermons which have this additional recommendation, they were merely the specimens of his ordinary preaching, and not laboriously finished for the press.

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BOD

SERMON I

PSAL. xxvii. 4.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

DAV

AVID, the author of this psalm, is much celebrated in the sacred Scriptures. As a man, he was not without faults; but as a king, he shines with uncommon lustre. He distinguished himself in early youth, as the champion of his native land; in fighting the battles of Israel he became the hero of his age and at last he ascended the throne, on which he sat with much splendour during many years. He was the founder of the Jewish monarchy. From being separate tribes he made the Jews a nation. Their judge in peace, as well as their leader in war, he secured by his councils what he had gained by his arms, and gave to Judea a name and a renown among the kingdoms of the East. To the bravery of a warrior, and the wisdom of a statesman, he added what in all ages has been no less admired, the accomplishments of a poet, or bard. "The sweet Psalmist of Israel" consecrated his harp to the praises of the Lord, and composed to its sacred strains, that have ministered to the improvement and to the devotion of succeeding times, till this day.

Notwithstanding all his other engagements, he found time for the exercises of religion: notwithstanding all the pleasures and honours of a throne, he A

VOL. I.

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