the Babylonish captivity. This piece is accompanied by another on the same subject, in which we observe what seems to us an instance of inaccuracy." The Baaladorer" (it is said)" bows on Sinai's steep. The only persons that at present bow on Sinai's steep are Mahometans and Christians; and we know not that a Hebrew would stigmatise either of these as adorers of Baal.

Next to the present state of the Jews, it is natural to think on the striking passages of their past history, and to ask what use Lord Byron has made of these. The poems are too few to afford any considerable number of examples in this department. We perceive but five or six; and of these we shall particularise only two; the song of Saul before his last battle; and the destruction of the army of Sennacherib. The former has the following spirited lines :

"Warriors and Chiefs! should the shaft or the sword

Pierce me in leading the host of the ST Lord,

Heed not the corse, though a king's, in

T

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though not justified, by the occasion. In the poem, on the other hand, he, before the battle, enjoins the armour-bearer to slay him in the case of a defeat, without any reference to his being wounded; that is, he chooses at all events rather to perish than to fly. even so, it does not appear he should choose to be slain by his own attendant; and it should have been explained that it was to avoid a worse death from foes whom he detested. The explanation should have been given, for it is not obvious; as it might have seemed at least equally natural that he should have rushed into the thickest bat tle, and, after a desperate resist ance, have found a bloody bed on the corpses of his victims. C

The other historic piece to which we alluded, is on the destruction of the army of Sennacherib, and we shall transcribe it entire :→

"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breath'd in the face of the foe as he pass'd;

And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd And their hearts but once heaved, and deadly and chill,

for ever grew still!

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And there lay the steed with his

nostril all wide, through it there roll'd not the And the foam of his gasping lay white on breath of his pride:

1. the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beata

thing surfle Chaim base

In the first of these stanzas we wish that the image were clearer; and, in the last but one, we could willingly part with those lagging, lazy words, unlifted and unblown. But we will not by slight objections violate the dignity of this animated production. Considered altogether, it appears to us the best in the collection. It has gemus, propriety, and felicity. And it has that rushing flow of lyric impetuosity, of which Lord Byron's writings furnish no other eminent instance, excepting the boldly graphical and rudely characteristic song of the Sulliotes in Childe Harold.

Of compositions directly allusive to sacred subjects, or to subjects which ought to be sacred, there are about three or four. One of these, entitled, "When coldness wraps this suffering clay," describes with great vividness some of those thrilling questions and anticipations that occur to a thinking mind, when reflecting on the state of disembodied spirits. But the subject is neither up by any notice ed? of those awful moral questions which it inevitably suggests, nor followed out into any one of those important moral results to which it naturally leads. Besides this, the poet, in describing a finite immaterial being, which is all eye, all ear, all sense, has insensibly slidden into a description of omnis presence and omniscience, which

.

These lines are natural, and very. elegant; but the sentiment is incomplete, and the sequel of the poem (which seems to us very hasty and obscure) only makes the matter worse. It ought surely to have been added, that those who would' realise these lofty views, must be careful to found their friendships in such diligent preparation for that higher world, and such a sympathy of eternal prospects, as may give assurance to hope, and confidence to affection. All else is darkness. That passionate desire of re-union, which we all feel on the loss of friends, will be but ill quieted, unless it is soothed by other promises than those of reason or nature. These! things we say plainly; but a poet may say them poetically; and why should he omit them?

No book,

a

We have only one farther chapter of remark. In searching through ́ the collection, we find no one poem of a decidedly pastoral character, nor any properly pastoral allusion Surely, a Hebrew melodist sacrifices one of his greatest natural advantages, when he wholly neg lects this ground. ancient or modern, exhibits the pastoral life in such amiable and attractive colours as the Bible. Among the most beautiful of our, Divine Saviour's parables, are those which we may call pastorals; those in which he describes the care of the good shepherd for his flock,the gentle kindness with which he feeds and folds them, the devoted courage with which he defends them when in danger, the tender anxiety with which he

seeks out the lost. We would say it with reverence,-but perhaps it may not be a presumptuous conjecture, that, to his human nature, these images sometimes came doubly recommended by the idea of those blameless men who, while diligently discharging the duties of their simple station, " keeping watch over their flock by night," were honoured with the earliest intimation of his earthly advent, and first did homage to the Redeemer of the world.

The pastoral allusions in the Psalms appear peculiarly touching, when we recollect that the early youth of the Royal Author himself had been past in the occupations of a shepherd. Filled, indeed, with a grateful sense of the Divine bounty, he has not scrupled to record, and that even in a solemn chaunt, intended for the public service of the temple, that he had been exalted to the throne "from the sheepfolds." How graceful, how beautiful a confession, in the mouth of a sage distinguished for his writings, a monarch governing a rich and populous country, a warrior followed by numerous and puissant armies! But it is still more interesting, though perhaps less obvious, to observe that he scarcely ever refers to the images of pastoral life, except in a tone of pleased tenderness. The allusion, indeed, may sometimes be conjectured, where it is not prominent: "Behold, He that keep eth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." Is it not a natural supposition that there is here a covert reference to the nightly vigilance which the shepherds of Judea were obliged to exercise in a country abounding with beasts of prey? The best comment on the passage is, perhaps, another already quoted: "And there were shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." In other instances, the metaphor is more extended: "The Lord is my shep

• Psalm Ixxviii,

herd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters." The description is most tender, and, in the original, we doubt not, exquisite. It came from a mind where the deepest feelings of gratitude to Heaven were blended with the purest among earthly as sociations,-with the recollections of a well-instructed childhood, the cherished memory of early hopes and guileless pleasures;-for we are elsewhere told concerning him who so spoke, that he had once been accustomed to "feed his father's sheep in Bethlehem."

It will, on the whole, be perceived, that, if the work before us has not effected much, it is because it has attempted little. The result, however, is, that the task with which Lord Byron has rather played than grappled- we mean, the task of founding a set of short popular poems on the basis of the Hebrew Scriptures-remains substantially untouched. Whenever that task is undertaken with adequate powers and qualifications, we have little doubt that it will immortalize him who makes the trial. It is well known that the introduction of any new military weapon or method in war has generally insured brilliant successes to the innovators. On this principle, Lord Crawford, an English soldier distinguished in the Russian service, was disposed to revive the use of the bow and arrow. The same principle has been strongly exemplified in literature, in our own day. The poet who equipped himself with a new set of poetic engines and tactics from the neglected armoury of the border-minstrels, having talents to wield these extraordinary means, rose at once to the first rank of fame. The Hebrew minstrelsy affords not less rich, and in some respects infinitely richer, materials. It has already furnished out the noblest of epic poems; and it would be found equally favourable, in their meą

GREAT BRITAIN. In the Press: An Account of the Kingdom of Cabul and its Dependencies, comprising a View of the Afghauns, &c. by the Hon. M. Elphinstone ;-A Treatise on Consumptive Diseases, by Dr. Young;-Edinburgh Fugitive Pieces, by the late Mr. Wm. Creech;-Observations on a Tour through certain Provinces of Eastern Russia, by Dr. Halliday, of Birmingham;—Plans for Ameliorating the Condition of the Lower Orders of Society, by the Author of the Battle of Nevil's Cross.

The prizes, given annually by the Representatives in Parliament of Cambridge University, to two Senior and two Middle Bachelors of Arts, who shall compose the best Dissertations in Latin Prose, have been this year adjudged as follows:-Senior BachelorsRev. J. Scholefield, Scholar of Trinity College.-Middle Bachelors—Mr. J Bailey, Scholar of Trinity College; the Rev. J. Pearson, Fellow of St. John's College. To the Senior this year but one prize was awarded. The subjects were:-For the Senior Bachelors, "Quid .cause est cur apud Romanos, postquam sab Imperatoribus essent, eximia minus florerent ingenia."-For the Middle Bachelors," Utrum elementioris sit animi, leviter delinquentes suppliciis, pro ratione culparum adhibitis, coercere, an impunitos dimittere?"-Sir William CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 164.

Browne's gold medals have been gained as follows:-Greek Ode, J. H. Fisher, Trin. Coll.; Latin Ode, Geo. Stainforth, Trin. Coll. The subjects were, for the former," In Augustissimum Galliæ Regem solio avito redditum;" for the latter, "Vivos ducent de marmore vultus."-The subject for the Epigrams was, Quidquid dicam aut erit, aut non." No prize was given.-The Chancellor's gold medal for the best English Ode has been adjudged to Mr. Smirke, Scholar of St. John's College; subject, "Wallace."

On Wednesday the 19th of July, the premiums of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and Church Union in the Diocese of St. David's were adjudged as follows:

The premium of fifty pounds (by bene. faction) for the best Essay on the Di. vine Origin and Succession of the Chris. tian Priesthood; on its Necessity as a Divine Appointment; and on the Rela tion which it bears to the Jewish Priesthood, was adjudged to the Rev. Hector Davies Morgan, Minister of Castle Hedingham, Essex.-A premium of ten pounds for the second best Essay on the same subject, was adjudged to Mr. George Moodley, of Truro, Cornwall, Also, a premium of ten pounds for the best Essay on the Evidence that St. Peter never was at Rome, was adjudged to Mr. James Clarke Frank, Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge.

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EAST INDIES.

imagination, which some British author has not clothed in British phrase, with a nicety of definition, an accuracy of portraiture, a brilliancy of tint, a delicacy of discrimination, and a force of impression, which must be sterling, because every other nation of Europe, as well as our own, admits their perfection with enthusiasm? Are the fibres of the heart to be made to tremble with anxiety, to glow with animation, to

cause.

*** On the 20th of June, 1814, the public "disputations in the College of Fort William, took place before Earl Moira, attended by his Countess, lady East, lady, Nugent, and other ladies. His Lordship opened the business of the day by a splendid speech, which, not chaving been committed to paper, is more imperfectly reported than the former speeches on the same occasion. Enough, however, is preserved, to give 'it a decided pre-eminence in eloquence. We have room only for a few brief ex

"Among the languages of modern Europe, specious but subordinate pretensions have been advanced to cadence, terseness, or dextrous ambiguity of insinuation, while the sober majesty of the English tongue stood aloof and disdained a competition on the ground of such inferior particularities: I even think that we have erred with regard to Greek and Latin. Our sense of the inestimable benefit we have reaped from the treasures of taste and science, which they have handed down to us, have led us into an extravagance of reverence for them. They have high intrinsic merit without doubt, but it is a bigotted gratitude, and an unweighed admiration, which seduces us to prostrate the character of the English tongue before their altars. Every language can fürnish to genius casually a forcible expression; and a thousand turns of neatness and delicacy may be found in most of them; bnt I will confidently assert, that in that which should be the first object of all language, precision, the English tongue surpasses them all; *while in richness of colouring and extent of power, it is exceeded by none, if equalled by any. What subject is there within the boundless range of

to shrink with awe, to throb with pity, or to vibrate in sympathy with the tone of pictured love: know ye not the mighty magicians of our country, whose potent spell has commanded and continues irresistibly to command those varied impulses? Was it a puny, engine, a feeble art, that achieved such wondrous workings? What was the sorcery? Justly conceived collocation of words is the whole secret of this witchery, a charm, within the reach of any one of you-and remember that there was a period, not remote, when all these recorded beauties of our language were a blank; were without form and void. The elements of those compositions, which now so uncontrolably, delight and elevate our souls, existed; but they existed as dormant powers, inert capacities; they were the unconnected notes of the gamut; the untouched strings of the harp. The music was in the instru ment; but the master's hand had not thrown itself across the chords to rouse them from their slumber, and bid them scatter ecstasies. Then do you make trial of their force; fear not that the combinations are exhausted. Possess yourselves of the necessary, energies, and be assured you will find the lan guage exuberant beyond the demand of your intensest thought. It has no assignable compass."

“While I thus display to you the perfections of the English language, let me not be supposed to hold forth any temptations by which I wish to divide your attention from your present studies. It would be a frand upon your friends and upon your native country, if you suffered any other object to hold a rivalship with your professed studies in the Coldege. But to those who will wholly, and, as they may think, exclusively, devote themselves to those studies, I will give this encouragement; I will assure them that in proportion to the progress which they make in the Asiatic languages, they will find an augmented facility in bending the English tongue