Yon living lamps, charm'd from their chambers blue, By airs so heavenly, from the skies withdrew: All?-all but one that hung and burn'd alone, And with mild lustre over Bethlehem shone. Chaldea's sages saw that orb afar, The deliverance of Paul and Silas from the prison at Philippi, is ascribed, as it ought to be, to the agency of God, through the instrumentality of an angel. The circumstances of our Saviour and his disciples, on the evening preceding his crucifixion, are told in something of a poetic manner. Whether it is a strain adapted to the principal character and the occasion, our readers will judge. The Lord of Life, with his few faithful friends, Drown'd in mute sorrow, down that hill descend. They cross the stream that bathes its foot, and dashes Around the tomb where sleeps a monarch's ashes; And climb the steep, where oft the midnight air Receiv'd the Sufferer's solitary prayer. There, in dark bowers embosomed, Jesus flings His hand celestial o'er prophetick strings; Displays his purple robe, his bosom gory, His crown of thorns, his cross, his future glory : And, while the group, each hallowed accent gleaning, On pilgrim's staff, in pensive posture leaning Their reverend beards, that sweep their bosoms, wet With the chill dews of shady Olivet-- the song of The poem closes with an address to the Deity. This furnished an occasion for expressing the most sublime emotions of piety, which might excite kindred emotions in the heart of the reader. It called for some distinct allusion, at least, to those moral attributes and that moral character of Jehovah, which are the proper objects of religious affections. As our limits will not permit us to give it entire, we will select those parts, which seem to speak on subjects connected, at least, with devotion. O! Thou Dread Spirit! Being's End and O! check thy chariot in his fervid course. And with one smile immortalize our lyre. Swelling one ceaseless song of praise to thee, Eternal Author of Eternity! Still hast thou stoop'd to hear a Shepherd play, To prompt his measures, and approve his lay. Hast thou grown old, Thou, who forever livest! Hast thou forgotten, Thou, who memory givest! How, on the day thine ark, with loud ac- From Zion's hill to Mount Moriah came, When psalteries tinkled, and when trum pets' rang, And white rob'd Levites round thine altar sang; Thou didst descend, and, rolling through the crowd, Inshrine thine ark and altar in thy shroud, cloud. And now, Almighty Father, well we know, When humble strains from grateful bosoms flow, Those humble strains grow richer as they rise, And shed a balmier freshness on the skies. pp. 37, 38. Before thy throne, three sister graces kneel; Their holy influence let our bosoms feel! FAITH, that with smiles lights up our dy ing eyes; HOPE, that directs them to the opening skies; And CHARITY, the loveliest of the three, For her our organ breathes; to her we pay The beart-felt homage of our humble lay; And Silence listens while to her we sing, sung, On bringing together, and viewing at once, this selection of the best passages, scattered through the volume. we are almost ready to acknowledge that there is some appearance of religion. There are not only the words, God, "Mighty One," "Dread Spirit," but "Saviour," "Redeemer,” "Lord of Life," "Salvation's Star;" but it is to be observed, that they are placedin such connections as to suggest nothing but the mere name of the person mentioned.—They are used as appellatives, merely to designate the individual, and not so as to denote his high character or offices. So there are the words" mercy," "love,” and "gratitude," but they are not used either to express the author's own affections towards his God and Saviour, or to awaken ours. There is iu the very best passages of the poabsolutely nothing of religious feeling, em,-nothing to elevate our devotion, ⚫to deepen our impressions of guilt, or heighten either the joy of our salva tion, or the gratitude due to our Redemer,-nothing which we can hope will produce on the mind of a youth into whose hands it shall fall, any salutary impression in favour of evangelical religion or virtue,-nothing, therefore, which can justly soften the censures which we before passed upon it, as a religious publication, or rather, as the publication of a professor of religion, on a sacred subject. Now, we might justly complain of this as a violation, or at least, as a defect of good taste. If effect upon only object, the poet must not dethe imagination and feelings, were the scribe naked objects or events, but ciations, and give them the colouring must clothe them with pleasing assoand glow of feeling. Mr. Pierpont can hardly be said to have done this, given a lead to those associations in any instance. He has not even which were already formed, and which ought to exist in the mind of every christian. When the Almighty manifests his presence, the mountain is Scorch'd by the foot of the descending God. In what tremendous pomp Jehovah shone ! but no sublime idea, even of his power, is given, far less is there any distinct reference here, or elsewhere, to his moral character, or to the purposes either of mercy or of justice, of vengeance or compassion, on which he descended. The Saviour of the world, is introduced without one clear intimation of his glorious and mysterious character-one acknowledgment of obligation, or one expression of love or gratitude towards him. How would the poet, who possess ed the genuine enthusiasm of poetry merely, feel his heart burn within him, while standing amidst those scenes, where the Eternal and Almighty God displayed his character,-" Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!" when calling up to his view, with that sense of their present reality, which is peculiar to such a mind, those manifestations of Jehovah, how would his soul mount up to the contemplation Of the first good, first perfect, and first fair, and rise in devout admiration of his infinite love, compassion, justice, and mercy. How might, we do not say, a minister of the Gospel of the grace of God, but how might any real christian be expected, instead of passing over those scenes, where the Saviour of the world lived and died, with the dew-dashing step, and joy. ous spirit of a farmer's boy-exulting in health and in the freshness of the breeze, how might he be expected to pause on every consecrated spot, We wish to be candid, but we cannot think the lines before quoted, Around the Avenger's brow, that frown'd above, Play'd Mercy's beams, the lambent light of love, form an exception to this remark.—The almost incongruous figure which represents the Avenger's frowning brow, as surrounded by playful beams of Mercy-the lambent light of love, certainly does not convey any adequate idea of the holiness of God. It reminds us of a classical description of Jupiter, rather than of a scriptural account of Jehovah. and ponder on the "wonderful" character, and mysterious errand of him whom angels worship, and into the mysteries of whose redemption, they stoop from heaven to look. How might he be expected to feel personally interested, to the deepest possible extent, in every thing which the Saviour did and suffered, when calling to mind, that "though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor;" and and how would gratitude and love, and humility and repentance, mingle, and agitate his heart, when he recollected,that through these sufferings, his own immortal soul is delivered from everlasting woe, and he made an 'heir of God and joint heir with Christ,' to the eternal inheritance of the saints in light.' We do not expect from Mr. Pierpont a sermon on these subjects, when he appears in the character of a poet, but where is the indication, that these thoughts ever actually revolved in his soul, and that such feelings swelled his heart, when meditating on subjects which ought to kindle his affections as a man-much more as a poet; and more still as a Christian poet. Where, we ask, is any expression of that fervent love of Christ which constrained the Apostle Paul, 'because he thus judged, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that he died for all, that those which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again,'-a love and gratitude which ever kindled at the very name of Jesus, and broke forth, in ascriptions of praise and thanksgiving, or where are those glowing images, those thoughts that breathe and words that burn,' which characterizes the most evangelical of the prophets, and which could draw from Pope himself, the prayer "O, Thou, my voice inspire Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire :" Where, even that enthusiasm of virtue, which sometimes admires with seeming rapture, the unequalled We profess not to know, or be able to conceive the structure of that mind, which can contemplate those objects, -some of which are alluded to in this volume,-not as beauteous pictures, but as important realities, and not kindle into any warmth, or a dopt unconsciously some glowing expressions, to embody its sentiments, -nay, can find leisure in describing the most important of them, for conceits of fancy, and prettinesses of expression. Mr. Pierpont certainly does not want sensibility or feeling. He does not surely reserve them all for the vanities of surrounding objects or the events in which he is personal ly engaged. Still more do we depre cate the thought that he has adopted a system of religious opinions or doubts, which operates, like a freezing mixture, on the heart, chilling those energies of the soul which should be directed in unwearied et forts to the glory of God, and the prosperity of the Redeemer's king. dom, and congealing to their very source, the affections, love and gratitude which are due to him who loved us and gave himself for us. Rather let us hope, that his sermons abound in that religion, which is so deficient in his poetry-and that at least, when standing before a con gregation of immortal souls, of perishing sinners, and addressing them as an Ambassador for Christ,'-he manifests that love to his Saviour, that admiration of his exalted character, and gratitude for his Redeeming love, of which we should be pleased to have discovered some traces in the "Airs of Palestine.” Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. The Rev. DANIEL HASKELL, A. M. has been chosen President of the University of Vermont; and JAMES DEAN, A. M. A. A. S. Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Col. George Gibbs has given notice that he has been authorized by His Highness Mehmed Ali Pacha, Vice Roy of Egypt, to engage an experienced Mineralogist and Geologist, for the purpose of exploring the mineral riches of his dominions. To a person properly qualified, Col. Gibbs offers liberal terms and advantageous prospects. The British Empire.-The population of the British Empire, including under that name its colonies in America, Africa, and Asia, is estimated at 95,220,000 souls. "The Russian, the next highest in the scale of civilized nations, contains 50,000, 000: France about 30,000,000; and Aus tria an equal number. The Roman empire, in all its glory, contained 120,000,000, one half of whom were slaves. When we compare its situation with that of the British empire, in wealth, resources, and industry, the arts, sciences, commerce, and agriculture, the preponderance of the latter in the scale of nations and empires, is great and most remarkable. The tonnage employed in the merchant service is about 2,640,000 tons for Great Britain: the exports, 51,000,000l. (including 11,000,000? foreign and colonial;) and imports 36,000,000l. The navy during the last war consisted of 1,000 ships of war; the seamen at present in the merchant service are about 174,000; the gross revenue of the state 57,000,0001. The capital of the empire contains 1,200,000 persons, the same number which Rome contained in the days of her greatest strength. The 1821.] Lit. and Phil. Intel.-German Translations of the Bible. value of fixed or landed property in Great Britain, as calculated by Mr. Pitt, in 1797, was 1,600,000,000l. and it may now be fairly taken at 2,000,000,000l. The cotton manufactures of the country are immense, and reach, in the exports, to 20,000,000. nearly one half of the whole. In short, taking every thing into consideration, the British empire, in power and strength, may be stated the greatest that ever existed on earth. On her dominions the sun never sets; before his evening rays leave the spires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson, and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior, his eyes opens upon those of the Ganges." The following brief account of German translations of the Bible, was intended for the miscellaneous department of this number, but it has been found more convenient to insert it in this place. It is abridged from an "Introduction to the Scriptures, by Christian Abraham Wahl, printed, Leipsic, 1820. To the more general perusal of the Bible in Germany, the translation of Luther principally contributed ;—and the more, as this translation surpassed in excellence, not only the preceding, but all cotemporary German versions of the scriptures. Before Luther entered upon this work, translations of the Bible had appeared in several of the modern languages of Europe, and, particularly, in the German: but as they all were in an impure and uninviting style, no one of them could bear comparison with that of the reformer. Besides, these other versions were made, not from the Hebrew and Greek originals, but from the Latin Vulgate. Luther, indeed, consulted the Vulgate, in the prosecution of his work; but he made use of it not as a decisive authority, but merely as a help. Luther's translation, also, far surpassed those, which appeared immediately after it, under the superintendance and patronage of the Catholics. When Luther, in the year 1522, had completed his version of the New Testament, Hieronymus Emser, with the design to supplant it, published, in German, another translation of the New Testament; to which, in the year 1524, John Dietenberger, a preaching monk of Mentz, added a translation of the Old Testament, in the same language. In the year 1537, the notorious adversary of Luther, John Eck, published a translation of the whole Bible; but, in the New Testament, it varied a little only from that of Emser, and, in the Old Testament, it was far inferior to that of Dietenberger. These three translations, which were published in opposition to Luther's, had this imperfection in common, 647 that they were translated from the Latin, Luther began his translation during his Luther, by his translation of the Bible, did a service to his cotemporaries and posterity, the value of which cannot be too highly estimated. By means of it, the holy scriptures came into the hands of common christians, and, in a way, which made them intelligible and useful to every individual;-the excessive and unfounded regard for the Vulgate, was weakened and well nigh undermined;—and by means of it, finally, every man have an opportunity, by his own reading, to judge of the conformity of Luther's opinions and doctrines with the sacred oracles. Nor does the understanding of Luther appear less meritorious, if we consider the circumstances of the age in which he lived, and the manner in which he laboured to improve and perfect his translation. The helps, of which Luther could avail himself in his undertaking, were few and unimportant; and the difficulties he had to overcome in interpreting, only tolerably, the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, were much greater than exist at present. German language, at that time, was poor, and destitute of refinement, and it even wanted words to designate in many cases, both ideas and things. Luther himself says, that he had searched for a word which he wanted, two, three, and even four days; and that, in the translation of Job, he had more than once spent a whole day, in company with Melanchthon, on three words. He did not, however, con The |