Tales and Sketches. By Hugh Miller, author of " The
Old Red Sand- stone," &c. Edited by Mrs. Miller. (A. and C. Black.)—This volume consists of a collection of minor contributions to various magazines, written, for the most part, during the earlier portion of Hugh Miller's literary career. We are by no means sure that anything material will be gained by their republication in a collective form. Like all Hugh Miller's productions, they are well and pleasantly written ; but none of them possess sufficient substance to entitle them to anything more than the ephemeral existence which they have already enjoyed. We do not say that they will diminish, but they will certainly not increase, the reputation of their author. The most pretentious and, in our opinion, the weakest papers in the volume are some imaginary recollections of Ferguson and Burns, in which Hugh Miller assumes the character of a contemporary and intimate of these two authors. We confess that we are unwilling to receive the dreamy and somewhat tedious philosophy which the author puts into Burns's mouth as probable utterances, under any conceivable circumstances, of Scotland's greatest poet. The fact is, that Hugh Miller's conception of Burns's character is necessarily an imperfect and unsatisfactory one, owing to his want of sympathy with what we may, without any disrespect, call the animal element in the poet's nature. Such being the case, it is, perhaps, scarcely to be wondered at that Mrs. Miller, in venturing to insert in her preface certain observations on the same subject, has acquitted herself in a manner that does but little credit to her understanding.
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