Is oft in that ancient yew-tree heard; And children freed from durance they : Think ye the mountains never change, There's not an hour-but swift, and And secret workings-the commotion 'Tis well. If life have a joy worth giving, spirit; We repeat, that the groundwork of this passage is mere sentiment, mere declamation. The ghosts of terror which the author raises, he as easily lays but are these shadows worthy to be called the real terrors of death? Does any man seriously concern himself lest flowers should not grow on his grave, or streamlets bathe it, or moonlight gild it, or the feathered songsters visit it? If these were the real terrors of death, Deism or Sentimentalism, in common with Socinianism, would be quite adequate to afford repose and consolation. But, as the dramatist himself will tell us, "It is the dread of something after death" that "puzzles the will;" and for this what consolation is it that the tomb ́shall be dressed in flowers and verdure, and the softest dews of heaven shall visit its dreary precincts? If man be a sinner, and Almighty justice be terrible, both which ideas are almost instinctive in the human heart, till obliterated by a systematic course of false philosophy, death has terrors; the " undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns," is justly an object of awe nor can a mere flourish of poetical sentiment overpower the apprehension. One man may brave death through daring hardihood, and another through pitiable carelessness or ignorance; but to a mind seriously alive to the fearful disclosures of holy writ respecting human condition and the character of God, there is no adequate repose but in those correlative disclosures which relate to the sacrifice and death of Christ and the means of pardon, reconciliation, and sanctification, through his blood. "Death," says our author, " hath no terrors;" true: "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!"—but to whom does the declaration apply? Does the Scripture intimate any thing like universality in its application, to the sinner and the saint, the righteous and the wicked, those that fear God and those that fear him not? On the contrary, is there not abundance of specification and limitation? Is there not a constant reference to individual character; to repentance, and faith, and holiness of heart and life? Surely there is; and surely the vague universalism on which we are commenting is as hostile to the sanctions of morality as to the plain declarations of ScripOnce teach men that heaven is the destined residence of God's universal creation, irrespectively of all moral considerations, and where is the sanction for rectitude of conduct, at least among the great majority of mankind, who are governed more by hope and fear than by nice considerations of the rectitude and beauty of virtue? We would not willingly misrepresent Mr. Bowring's sentiments, and we are not so precise as to expect that a poem should be as theologically laid out as a sermon; but we have thought it right to give our impressions as they irresistibly arose in the perusal of the passage before us. If these impressions are unfounded, we shall most gladly confess our mistake. But putting out of the present question the general interests of moral virtue, and leaving the case of the wilful transgressor to be considered on its own grounds; is there not, we would ask, in the instance even of persons the most holy and exemplary, quite enough to render death and eternity terrible, unless their terrors be removed through the medium of the atonement and righteousness of the Redeemer? We have asked, in the last paragraph, to whom should death have no terrors? we now ask, by what means is death divested of its terrors, even to the true believer? Certainly not by the sentimental considerations suggested in the last quotation; no, nor even by the generalised allusion to the Saviour, with which the preceding quotation opens. There must be a distinct reference to "GOD IN CHRIST, reconciling the world unto himself, and not imputing their trespasses unto them," before the true foundations of Christian hope can be laid. Our author says, in one of the poems already quoted, "When trembling on the awful bourne and we fully admit that there is a retrospective view of life, which, in a modified sense may lawfully, and should, afford pleasure, as when the Apostle said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." But can the retrospect of a "well spent, pilgrimage be in any, the most favourable, case, such as in itself, to challenge the scrutiny and the justice of God? Is there nothing to be found in it that requires mercy? and if mercy is necessary, is it not an inquiry infinitely momentous, through what medium mercy may be obtained? Does either reason or revelation teach that it will be exhibited irrespectively of any consideration of an atoning sacrifice? Are not all analogies on the other side? Is not the whole ritual also of the Old Testament a running commentary on the characteristic doctrine of the atonement, so lucidly revealed in the New? We believe as firmly as does our author, or any other man, and we would admire and gratefully acknowledge with the most exalted faculties of our soul, the exuberant, the immeasurable love of God; but we equally believethat the display of that love towards the guilty and apostate race of mankind is through a Mediator, a merciful High Priest, who gave himself a vicarious sacrifice for our transgressions. Nor do we view the appointed medium as any derogation from the infinite love of God; for it was precisely because God loved the world-not, as our objectors would represent us as insinuating, because he was a tyrant and hated the world-that he gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. But, while we gratefully acknowledge and humbly adore this infinite love, is there no other Divine attribute that may well cause dismay to the heart of sinful man, and this even after he becomes penitent for his transgressions? Are we by nature so well acquainted with the Divine attributes as to predicate To reverence and to virtue :-all beside— Our Now, is not this very union of attributes-harmonious unquestionably in the Divine Essence, but to our feeble intellect apparently opposing each other a sufficient ground, upon natural principles, for the prevailing alarm of mankind in reference to that awful world where we shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body? If it be true that God is "a consuming fire," as well as the fountain of light and love, is there no cause why a frail, imperfect, and, according to creed, guilty creature, should dread his omniscient scrutiny? But upon the point of guilt our author would probably differ as widely from us, as apparently he does on the necessity of an atonement; for, in fact, the two doctrines are linked inseparably, together. The grateful implicit repose in God which is exhibited in these poems presents to the mind a beautiful and affecting picture; but, though it is accompanied by much of the humility of a feeble being approaching the Infinite, it seems to us generally deficient in the equally necessary humility of a sinful and self-condemned penitent, approaching a just and holy Judge, who has in reserve punishments for the guilty as well as rewards for the righteous.. We have not proposed these remarks in a spirit of controversy; not, indeed, that we should fear the lowed up; but our author, having issue of the argument, if fairly foldoubtless fully settled his views on the points in question, would not be likely to yield them to a few cursory suggestions which might be thrown out in the course of a brief review, or probably to any suggestions which it might be in our power to urge. We have, however, frankly stated some of the points respecting which we widely differ from what seem to be his implied sentiments"; and shall only add, on this subject, 1 that it is this radical unsoundness of his apparent substratum, rather than any particular passages of a very reprehensible kind, that has drawn forth our expostulatory remarks. The generality of his poems may be perused with edification and delight, by readers of a far different creed from that which the author seems to hold by only substituting mentally those golden links between earth and heaven which we conceive to be wanting in the chain of our author's melodies. To the devout Christian, justified by faith, and at peace with God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, the language of hope, of joy, of love, of gratitude, of filial confidence, of beatific anticipation, is truly delightful and appropriate. Of the literary merits and defects of the volume, we have not much to say in addition to the remarks which have incidentally occurred in the course of our critique. We have spoken favourably of its poetical merit as a whole; but it is not written throughout with the same degree of felicity, or of care. Such verses as the following are what the Quarterly Review would probably call namby-pamby. "The life-sap at Thy bidding flows, Sometimes we meet with lines exemplifying the old poetical maxim that "One line for sense, and one for rhyme Is quite enough at any time;" as for example, "How sweet to think of Him-how sweet To hold with Him communion meet ;" which might quite as well stand, "How sweet to think of Him-how meet, To hold with Him communion sweet." Again, we have very often supernumerary or subnumerary syllables, which make the lines jump in a very ungraceful kangaroo fashion, instead of either the plain majestic walk of common time, or the cadential amble or canter of triple. For instance, and among a hundred such instances, "How shall I seek, thou infinite MindHours never-ending in the palace of joySweetest of visitants-lovely thing ?" Such lines as these are prose, and not verse: there is no known species of metre to which they will conform. In the first, the syllable in, in the word infinite, is a lawless intrusion: the second is wholly incurable; and the third is little better. We do not wholly object to supernumerary syllables, which do not interfere with the accent of the metre; for on the accent, and not on the length or the number of syllables, English metre depends. Mr. Bowring certainly does well not to fall into the tasteless practice of writing infinite for infinite, or vis'tants for visitants; because, substituting two quavers in the place of one crotchet, as part of a foot, is often an elegance, and is never incompatible with the metre, so long as the accent is preserved, and the pendulum can beat time to the successive feet of the measure. But what we complain of is, that his syllables are often not only redundant or deficient, but that he often misses the regular alternation of the accent; so that the reader cannot tell whether the movement of the line is intended to be, from accented to unaccented, or from unaccented to accented; we mean, that the ear is dissatisfied, and not merely the fingers, whose claim to be consulted is not legitimate, and cannot always be made good, except by means of the ungraceful elisions to which we have alluded. A dactyl may be substituted for a spondee, or vice versa, because the accent and the time agree; but a trochee cannot be admitted for an iambus, or an iambus for a trochee (except at the beginning of a line, or after a cæsura); because though 708 Review of Bowring's Matins and Vespers. the times will agree, the accents will "And bliss looks smiling from on high." + [Nov. ever, is soon in danger of being Who would suppose that these were meant for four-feet jambic. lines? We close our digression with the following brief metrical, sug gestions, by which our author may greatly improve his lines. First, never to introduce into his iambics (and, vice versa, of other measures) a decidedly trochaic movementthat is, never to admit a trochee but at the commencement of a line, or after a cæsura; never to admit both these in the same line, at least in a four-footed measure; and never to, commence two successive lines with trochees; and, secondly, to avoid the jigging effect which is caused by forcing two reluctant syllables to run into the time of one, as in the above examples. There are indeed cases in which the effect of a super numerary syllable is very pleasing: and we never wish to see such elisions as vict'ry, mem'ry, in order to avoid a poetical appogiatura. Even where the writer or printer cuts out such a syllable, a graceful reader restores it. H.10 We might mention some other technical faults, if we had not dwelt on these too long already. False rhymes, for instance, is a frequent de-r fect in this work. In some instances, we have read several lines together without knowing whether the poet was writing in rhyme or blank verse. Thus, at page 43, we have the following succession of intended quatrain rhymes: eye, home, joyfully,m tomb; holiness, past, peace, Last thine, our, mine, more. These, however, are but trifles; and, notwithstanding all we have said, including far more serious exceptions than metrical faults, we yet cannot but pronounce the volume highly creditable to the poetical talents of the writer, and abounding in sentiments calculated to Herést and delight the devotional reader |