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Reflect also and it is a very interesting reflection-that both the calamity thus sustained and the deliverance offered are common to us all. In Adam all die; in Christ all are made alive. We fell by the same sentence, and forfeited the same paradise of purity and happiness. We are restored by a common amnesty, nor are the many mansions prepared for us in our Father's house divided by any impassable barriers. If we observe those who escape together from some dreadful earthly suffering or danger, we shall perceive that one of the first impulses after their deliverance is to embrace each other with transport. This is human nature subjected to a decisive experiment: it is the heart speaking at a moment which precludes disguise. Nor does the effect in such cases expire with the occasion; among the strongest friendships in life are those that have been thus knit to gether under the influence of common vicissitude,-alliances cemented by tears of sorrow and joy. If these sentiments be natural to the human mind under such circumstances, they should assuredly glow with tenfold warmth in the bosom of him who, looking round on the great family of man, surveys only the children of the same wrath and heirs of the same promise. In this mournful companionship of woe, in this inspiring community of hope, what a seed is sown of sacred and active sympathy! Nothing but the insensibility produced by the effect of the very ruin- we are considering, could render men callous to so affecting a motive of mutual attachment and beneficence.

There is another interesting and important light in which the doc trine of redemption places mankind with respect to each other. It is a matter of familiar experience that a person, however little remarkable CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 164.

in other respects, who is known to have undergone some imminent danger, and to have escaped by a wonderful deliverance, excites general attention. Still more, if his liberation was effected by the devoted and heroic exertions of some generous champion: in such a case, our sympathy is heightened by a tacit reference to that absent friend of whose great and good qualities we behold a living memorial. But, if we should farther learn that this mighty deliverer was a benefactor, a protector, a preserver, a deliverer, of our own, our sympathy would swell into enthusiasm and warm into a feeling of affinity. In the view of the Christian dispensation, man in general appears under circumstances of similar though of far deeper interest. He is a monument of great events and of many cares. No common tears have been shed for him; no common blood has flowed for him; he was the subject of no ordinary combat, and the prize of no vulgar victory. The idea of that mighty and mysterious, rescue surrounds him with touching associations; and his light af fiction becomes awful, by reminding us of an agony more than mortal. This consideration alone might give our brethren of mankind a peculiar attractiveness and dignity in our eyes; but what an affecting, what an impressive inducement is added, when we reflect that the rescue which has so ennobled them was achieved by the Author and Finisher of our own deliverance,

that they are dear to the heart which was pierced for our offences, and graven on the hands which have wrought out our happiness! This, this, is the appropriate, the distinctive spring of Christian charity. The light of nature and philosophy might have taught men to regard each other as brethren, and might in some measure have enforced the claims resulting from that endearing relation; but what human reason ever imagined the untold charities that reside in the 4 A

expression, Our brother for whom Christ died?

These are not the only considerations that prove the force of the argument we have been recommending; or, in other words, that immediately connect a belief in the doctrine of redemption with the exercise of charity. There are other connecting principles, of a similar kind, and of at least equal strength; probably there are many others. But our narrowing limits warn us to forbear: we shall there fore leave the subject to the reader, and shall at the same time conclude the present article.

The Sermons of Dean Kirwan will, we doubt not, be more or less read: the effect which they are known to have produced, and the renown of their eminent author, cannot fail to secure them readers; but whether they will become generally popular, particularly in this country, is a matter of more doubt. As pieces of hortatory divinity (which is their most important character), having no longer the embellishments of the admirable elocution and manner which originally recommended them, they will be found too strict to please the worldly; and they want fulness, minuteness, and accuracy, for the pious. As works of eloquence, the genius which unquestionably lives in them cannot be fully appreciated without a more careful advert ence to the circumstances under which they were delivered, than can be expected from a casual reader. The localities that gave them interest in the delivery, must rather operate against them in the perusal; and the similarity and confined range of the subjects has tended to produce a monotony in the whole mass, which it required more exuberance of thought or variety of illustration than we bere find, to relieve. That free, declamatory manner, besides, which probably gratified the Irish hearer, will as probably offend the English reader. There is a great deal of

I

very noble, natural eloquence throughout the volume; but a large octavo of natural eloquence, on local subjects, or rather on a single local subject, and unaided by the relish of anecdote or narrative, or by interesting displays of individual character, is not calculated to become popular with the modern English public. We are not good recipients of unaccompanied natural eloquence. We require variety, finish, matter, philosophy; and, where we find these sparingly dealt out, are not unlikely, after admiring a few pages, to sleep over the

rest.

Yet this volume has many claims on the public attention; and among others, it has one which we should hold it unpardonable to pass in silence. Dean Kirwan left behind him a family of two sons and two daughters. The latter have the benefit of a small annuity from the Crown; but the sons are totally without provision, and one object of the present work is to assist in raising funds for their education.

Can there be a more affecting thought than that these very discourses, which have produced thousands of alms for the Orphanhouse in Dublin, which have upheld the most splendid institutions of charity, which have soothed so many pains, and assuaged so many sorrows, should now plead in vain for the orphans of him by whom they were composed?

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published by themselves, though still under the title of Hebrew Melodies; a term perhaps improperly applied, since it seems synonimous with Hebrew airs, or music, and therefore belongs rather to the tunes themselves than to the accompanying poetry. The only justification of this apparent impropriety, is by supposing it to be the practical application of a wellknown metaphor; and that music, having been in this instance "married to immortal verse" (as Milton expresses it), has given to its partner its own name, which is still retained in a state of separation.

Those who expect to find in this collection a very ample or striking exhibition of Lord Byron's genius, will probably be disappointed. It is, indeed, sprinkled with occa sional indications of his hand; but, on the whole, it is a slight work, and was evidently intended as nothing more. It might rather seem the fruit of a single day of leisure, than the hard achievement of longcontinued toil, or a brilliant assemblage of the results of distant and insulated moments of inspiration. . The members of Christian communities have been so accustomed to regard Hebrew exclusively as a sacred language, that the term Hebrew Melodies, when applied to poems, instinctively conveys to our minds the idea of compositions directly employed on sacred or highly moral subjects, and devotional in their general complexion if not in their immediate and professed distination. In the work before us, indeed, the author speaks in the character of those with whom Hebrew is, in some degree, the language of business and of society as well as of religion. Still, as the músic for which his compositions were intended, is understood to have been perpetuated only through the medium of worship, we naturally conclude that the poetry will consist of" holy lays" verses either immediately religious, or at the least serious and contemplative.

He who opens the book with this
impression, will feel some surprise
on reading the first piece in the
collection. We subjoin it for the
judgment of the reader.
«She walks in beauty, like the night

And all that's best of dark and bright
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

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Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling
place.

"And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
A mind at peace with all below,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A heart whose love is innocent!"

pp. 3, 4.

It would be lost time, to shew we may be allowed to remark, that this is not sacred poetry; but it is not even appropriate or nathat tional. There is nothing in it of a Hebrew or even of an Oriental character; unless an allusion be less climes;" an allusion too faint supposed in the mention of "cloudto be perceived till it is The personification of Night, which sought. forms the basis of the poem, would rather suit the genius of classical than of Oriental composition. Of such personifications all poetry which is not derived from a cal source, from classi

«y the songs

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e Of Grecian bards (and records writ by fame in Jan For Grecian heroes,—”... makes a very sparing use. But the comparison of a dark beauty to a star-light night, seems neither classical nor Hebrew. It reminds us rather of the quaint prettiness and fanciful refinement that distinguished the poets of our own country in the seventeenth century,in the age of madrigals and posies,→→of Withers, Herrick, and Carew. This

remark does not necessarily imply blame; for the poem is evidently the production of a superior hand; and the second stanza strikes us as peculiarly elegant. Yet, after all, such themes sound somewhat strange on holy ground, Our earliest associations are violated, when we hear the Muse of Palestine so uttering her voice; and we are tempted to believe, that she has really forgotten the songs of her country in a strange land.

Next to this, we might not improperly introduce a similar melody, entitled, "I saw thee weep;" in which the eyes of the person addressed are compared to a violet, and her smiles, first to a sapphire, and then to the setting sun, which tinges even the darkest clouds around it with a glow of cheerful

ness.

But we must not be too profuse of quotation; and, therefore, shall rather submit to the reader another piece which we consider as a happier specimen of the author's manner:

"It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows

Seem sweet in every whispered word;
And gentle winds and waters near
Make music to the lonely ear.
Each flower the dews have lightly wet,
And in the sky the stars are met;
And on the wave is deeper blue,
And on the leaf a browner hue;
And in the Heaven that clear obscure,
So softly dark, and darkly pure,
That follows the decline of day
As twilight melts beneath the moon
away." p. 23.

This is soft and harmonious; but it is an European, not a Hebrew melody. In such of these poems as are descriptive, we presume it will not be denied that the scene, unless where it is avowedly laid in some country of exile or of temporary residence, should be laid in the Holy Land itself. But the scene of this poem, if any where, is laid in England. The nightingale, for example is introduced; and, though the nightingale is said

to have been met with in Palestine, yet at all events, she must be too much of a stranger there, to hold a prominent place in a twilight picture. What is worse, the twilight itself is a stranger, or nearly so, in the regions adjacent to the tropics; that is, it is too short and hurried in its duration to gain a marked character. But the description offends more by omission than by positive fault. The ideas which we, in this western world, popularly entertain about Judæan scenery, are sufficiently peculiar and distinctive. We think of vines, and olives, and cedars,-of the camel and the antelope,-of streams bordered by date-trees, plains covered with tulips and roses, and hills rich with pasturage or fragrant with aromatic shrubs. These ideas the descriptive poet should satisfy, or should correct. But, in the lines before us, no such local features occur; nor is there any thing to mark the distinction which may be supposed between the richness and luxurious lassitude of a Syrian sunset, and the more sober, more refined, more contemplative character of our own evening landscapes.

The following couplets are not open to the same criticism, or are1 open to it but slightly; for the piece is extremely short, and turns on a single thought:

"Sun of the sleepless! melancholy star! Whose tearful beam glows tremulously far,

That show'st the darkness thou canst not dispel,

How like art thou to joy remembered well!

So gleams the past, the light of other
days,

Which shines, but warms not with its
powerless rays;
A night-beam Sorrow watcheth to be

hold,
Distinct, but distant-clear-but, ob
how cold!" p. 37.

These lines will, we make no doubt, be extremely admired; and they certainly display, fancy, command of expression, and ease of

versification. It may, however, be observed that they are turned with a kind of ingenuity and cleverness which hardly belong to effusions of deep and strong feeling. There is, indeed, nothing affected or unnatural in comparing a single star to remembered joy, had the resemblance been just touched and no more; it would then have been delightful; but, when dilated and dwelt upon and pursued into particulars, it does itself become what it describes-" distinct, but distant-clear, but, oh how cold!"

us thus far, and have heard of nos thing but starry nights, ruddy clouds, clear heavens, sun, moon, and stars, must begin to think there is some truth in Juvenal's old accusation, that "the Jews have no objects of worship but the clouds and the divinity of the visible firmament." It should be mentioned, therefore, that the examples we have given have been selected from different parts of the collection, and that they are interspersed with others, which, if not strictly sacred, at least approach to that It may seem a slight objection, character more nearly. The prebut we will take the opportunity of sent state of the Jewish people,protesting against the unnecessary expatriated-dispersed trodden multiplication of such hard words down-contemned,-afforded the noble author a very fine subject ; and that he has not neglected to avail himself of it, will appear from the following lines:

as night-beam. Formerly, our poets were fond of yoking together a noun and a participle; as, saffron-cinctured, tempest-footed, lionhearted, death-devoted, love-lighted, and many others; combinations, sometimes necessary, sometimes very expressive, sometimes at least toler. able, more often as gratuitous as they were harsh and disagreeable. But what are these to right-cloud, death-shot, death-shade, death-an

gel, death-scene, bosom-scene, fireshower,battle-shower, glory-wreath, poison mouth, sorcery-secret, and the rest of that variety of curious manufactures which the present day has poured forth? The compound epithets of the old school were distressing enough; but they are simplicity and harmony itself, when compared with the combination substantives (if we may name them after their own style) of the new. It needs the strongest compensating advantages to justify the use of forms of speech so strange and uncouth. The Hebrew tongue, indeed, has a method of joining together nouns in regimine, as it is called; but we deprecate the extension of such a regimen to English, even when employed on He

brew melodies.

Such of our readers as expected to find this a collection of sacred poems, and who have accompanied

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