'Glad was the sound, and welcome the command,
That call'd me to Jehovah's house once more.
Again our feet, rejoicing, as before,
Within thy gates, Jerusalem, shall stand.
Thy hallow'd bounds unite our scatter'd band:
For there Jehovah's tribes his name adore ;

To Israel there they count his mercies o'er;
And David's thrones are there, to judge the subject land.

'Oh, love Jerusalem! Bless him who calls

For blessings on her! Peace be in her walls,
And plenty in her gorgeous palace-halls!
Yes. For the love I to my brethren feel,

For my companions' love, and for the zeal

Claim'd by Jehovah's house, I love to seek thy weal.'

Must we, in fairness, justify our severer strictures by a few specimens that broadly contrast with the above?

detach a few verses from their connexion as samples.

We shall only

With deathlike clasp

They, yawning, grasp

Whate'er their teeth may reach.
Their lips are pois'nous, as the asp,

And treach'rous is their speech.'

We take a single stanza from the xxivth, which is almost travestie.

'Lift, gates, your heads! Ope, everlasting doors!

The King of glory entrance due explores.
What king of glory comes along?

Jehovah great, Jehovah strong.'

The lxviith begins:

May God pity his people and bless,

And the light of his presence bestow '

And not to multiply unnecessarily these unhappy specimens of bad taste, Psalm cxxxv opens thus:

We must not, however, part with Mr. Marsh without giving him the further opportunity of shewing that he can do better. The following is a close and pleasing version of Luther's favourite

PSALM XLVI.

'God is our refuge and our rest,
A refuge to the soul distress'd.

Therefore we will not fear,

Tho' earth be mov'd, and hills, uptorn,
By whirlwinds to the ocean borne,
Its angry billows rear.

'Tho' mountains with the tempest shake,

There is a stream, that glad shall make
The city of the Lord;

The holy seat of God most high,

Who, while his presence fills the sky,
In Salem is ador'd.

Therefore she shall not be remov❜d:
For God will help his own belov'd,
Tho' heathens spurn his sway.
Should kingdoms to oppose him crowd,
When God shall lift his voice aloud,

All Earth shall melt away.

The Lord of Hosts our cause defends.
The God of Jacob still befriends.
Come then! Behold, and trace
The wonders by Jehovah wrought!
See, what destruction he hath brought
On Nature's beauteous face!

At his command proud War shall cease.
"Tis he, that sends the joys of peace
Throughout this earthly frame.

He snaps the spear; He breaks the bow,
And, having rent the car in two,
Consigns it to the flame.

"Be still then! Know, that I am God!
"Heathens shall fear my sov'reign nod;
"All Earth obey my voice."

The Lord of Hosts our cause defends.
The God of Jacob still befriends

The objects of his choice.'

6

Of Mr. Gahagan's Rhyme Version', we can only say, that we applaud the Author's modesty, but not the discretion or kindness of his friends;-that we acquit him of all intention to offend 'the pious reader or those curious in Biblical learning'; -that we are glad to find he has derived amusement and instruction from so pure a source as the study of the Psalms;-but that he has not improved upon Sternhold and Hopkins in such rhyming as the following:

The Lord is gracious, thanks to him then give,

And his great mercies do for ever live.' p. 155.

Bring to the Lord, ye mighty, young rams bring,

Ascribe ye strength to God, his worship sing. p. 37.
The Lord 's my shepherd-I his sheep

Can nothing lack while in his keep.' p. 29.

We hope that Mr. G. succeeds better as a barrister than as a rhymester: his volume is only waste paper. By the way, Mr. Marsh has not succeeded much better in that exquisite composition, the xxiiid Psalm.

'I will Jehovah for my shepherd hail :

For, while he feeds me, I shall never fail', &c.

His entire version of this Psalm is deficient alike in simplicity, closeness, and elegance. Sandys has completely failed; Addison's paraphrase is beautiful, but faulty; Merrick is affected; Tate's is, perhaps, one of the best; but Watts's xxiiid will always be the favourite for devotional use.

Scattered through our poetical literature, there are some happy versions of particular Psalms, which, if collected and added to

the best versions that could be selected from the various Authors who have attempted to translate these sacred compositions, would make a far more pleasing and valuable volume than any single Version. We are not speaking of a selection for the purposes of Psalmody. Of such works, we have more than enough; and lamentable it is to see how the Psalms of David are mangled and tortured to force them into singing metres. Take, for instance, Bishop Marsh's Psalm xxix, as it appears in one of the most popular church collections.

'The Voice of the Lord the waters controls;

Of glory the God, the thunders he forms:

As willeth Jehovah the mighty sea rolls;

He speaks, and the billows are blackened with storms. 'The Voice of the Lord speeds hinds to their throes', &c. &c.

Mr. Marsh follows to a similar tune: e. g. verse 3:

The voice of Jehovah the tall cedar breaks;
At the voice of Jehovah all Lebanon shakes;
Like heifers the cedars of Lebanon bound,

And, like bullocks, in Sirion they tempest the ground.'

The palpable and almost ludicrous unsuitableness of the metre to the character of the composition, is not the least remarkable feature in these specimens of mistranslation. Watts, in his version of this Psalm is respectable, but tame and flat. more spirited:

From a dark and showering cloud,
On the floods that roar aloud,

Hark! his voice with terror breaks:
God, our God in thunder speaks,
Powerful in his Voice on high,
Full of power and majesty."

Sandys is

Of this Psalm, Bishop Lowth remarks, that it is enough to say of it, that the sublimity of the matter is perfectly equalled by 'the unaffected energy of the style.' His Translator, Dr. G. Gregory, has introduced a paraphrase in the same measure as Sandys's more faithful version, but it is overloaded with poetic finery. Nor does any rhyming metre seem to comport with the sublime abruptness of the style, the verbal iterations, the recitative character of this elevated piece of descriptive poetry, which has seemed to us more naturally to fall into blank verse. We dare not hope that we have succeeded in the following version, but we have at least avoided the grosser improprieties of former translators.

Give, O ye mighty, to Jehovah give

Glory to Him ascribe all power and might.

O render to the Lord the glory due

To his dread name: his courts with reverence tread.
Jehovah's voice is on the waters. Lo!

The God of glory thundereth: 'tis His voice
Upon the mighty deep,-his voice of power,
Jehovah's voice of awful majesty.

Before Jehovah's voice the cedars break:
It shivereth the pride of Lebanon.
Affrighted Lebanon bounds at that voice,
Like a wild heifer: loftiest Sirion

Plunges and starts like a young buffalo.
Jehovah's voice, scattering the forked flames,
Jehovah's voice shakes the wide wilderness,
Uproots the oak, and lays the forest bare.
For lo! the firmament His temple is,
Where all things utter forth His glorious name.
His throne is on the stormy deep. He reigns,
The Universal King,-for ever reigns.

His people mid the warring elements

Are safe. The Lord will give His people peace.

Unaffectedly, we say that we are not satisfied with this attempt; and yet we think it may, like a rude etching, give some idea of the poetic spirit of the sublime original. During the many years that the Psalms have occupied a portion of our horæ subseciva, we have occasionally endeavoured to give to those which have appeared to us susceptible of metrical translation, that shape and dress which, after the most attentive study of their specific character, seemed to be most in harmony with the sentiments and structure of the composition. A few specimens, we have found occasion to lay before our readers: * how far they have proved acceptable, we have no means of ascertaining; but we are well aware how few persons, comparatively, take any interest in the Psalms as poetry, and how large a proportion of pious persons consider any deviations from the Bible Version and Dr. Watts, or from the Liturgy Psalms and Sternhold and Hopkins, as sacrilegious innovations. To most lovers of poetry, on the other hand, the word psalm is a stumbling-block and an offence. Will they permit us to invite their attention to a Hebrew Melody-an ode descriptive of the spring, written some thousands of years ago by a Syrian monarch of devout character, but of poetic genius far surpassing that of the Persian Hafiz or the Teian Bard. The ode is inscribed to the Deity, the Jehovah of the Jewish

nation.

* For Psal. xix, viii, lxviii, see Eclec. Rev. 2d Series, Vol. XXIII. pp. 11-21; Psal. 1. Ib. Vol. XXVI. p. 502; Psal. xlv, lxxiii, xlii-iii, Eclec. Rev. 3d Series, Vol. VI. pp. 155-165.