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in it as the murders of Radcliffe High- tender object of the love of both its

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Is it the embodied fiend who tempted him
Sublime in guilt?"

manner.

parents, stands pretty much without defence, even at the bar of that tribunal where love holds its partial sessions.

'On the stage there should be no tampering with the Majesty of Heaven. Neither appeals, or addresses, nor prayers, nor invocations to the King of kings, nor images taken from his revealed word, or from his providences, or his attributes, can be decorously or safely introduced on the stage, or adopted for the purposes of mere poetical effect,

or pretended situations. Objects of such tremendous reality are not the proper appendages of fiction. They were intended only for hallowed uses, and not for entertainment or ornament. Upon these grounds it seems to us to be a practice that cannot be justified by any prescriptive usage of the drama, to blend the pure idea of Heaven and Heaven's King with the corrupt

Never was a murderer of a man in power let off so well. He walks abroad a chartered ruffian; and he who but a little before had been proclaimed as an outlaw, and his life declared to be forfeited, is left, after the assassination of the greatest and most honourable man in the country, to hold a long parley with monks and friars, and at last to die at his own leisure, and in his own What occasioned the fall of Count Bertram and his banishment is not disclosed, but we are at liberty to suppose it was rebellious and treasonable conduct. The Prior, who seems to have known him well, alludes to the similarity of his case to that of the "star-bright apostate;" and the main display of human passions, and repreground of his implacable hostility to Lord Aldobrand is the patriotic office with which he is invested of preventing him, if possible, from infesting the coast as a marauder, and chasing him out of the woods wherein he and his banditti were secreting themselves. It does not appear that Aldobrand had vowed his destruction, but on the contrary the Prior thus advises him,

'Flee to the castle of St. Aldobrand, His power may give thee safety."

sentations of earthly turmoils and distractions. We do not mark the play before us as peculiarly deserving of censure in this respect; but the passage which follows has given us the opportunity of boldly declaring ourselves on this subject, whatever credit we may lose by it in the opinions of the more liberal critics of these times.

"Imo. Aye, heaven and earth do cry, impos.
sible.

The shuddering angels round the eternal throne
Veiling themselves in glory, shriek impossible,
But hell doth know it true."

'So that upon the whole there seems to be a want of a sufficient provocation 'We take our leave of Christabel and to the horrid crime which Bertram com- Bertram, but not without adverting, as mitted, except a tendency by nature in justice we ought, to the great disto acts of blood and cruelty be suppo- parity between these productions in sed to have pre-existed in his mind, the merits of the compositions. The and to have prepared the way to the poem which has been denominated villany which followed. And whenwild and singularly original and beauall this is properly weighed, the despe- tiful," is, in our judgment, a weak and rate love towards such a restless ill-dis- singularly nonsensical and affected perposed person in the mind of a gentle formance; but the play of Bertram is Lady, unsubdued by a union with a kind a production of undoubted genius. The and noble husband, distinguished by descriptive as well as the pathetic force public fidelity and private worth, the of many passages is admirable, and the fruit of which union was a child, the rhythm and cadence of the versé is

musical, lofty, and full of tragic pomp. As the reader has observed, we have many serious objections to the piece, and we cannot but greatly regret that a mind like that of its author should have

lent itself to the trickery of Lord Byron's cast of characters, and employed itself in presenting virtue and vice in such delusive colours, and unappropriate forms.'

ART. 4. Airs of Palestine, a Poem. By John Pierpont, Esq. Baltimore. B. Eddes.

SOON after the discovery of America, citizens, to names that would adorn the

As

and when little was known of it, with annals of any age or nation; and in certainty, but its existence, a theory point of general information, intelliwas started, by some of the philosophers gence, ingenuity, and enterprise, we of the old world, highly derogatory to dread comparison with none. the importance of their new acquisition; It is true we have produced but few -which was no less than that this authors;-yet fewer bad ones, in proContinent was a sort of after-creation, portion, than is generally the case. when nature was in her dotage; and we do not often see any but the more that in all her efforts in this hemisphere, approved works that appear abroad, we she betrayed manifest indications of are led to judge of the remainder by imbecility. A notion so suited to flat- these specimens. From fallacious preter European pride readily obtained; mises, it is not wonderful that we should and as more pains are usually taken to draw a false conclusion. Probably not circulate calumny than to refute it, the one work in ten, that is published in belief may possibly yet prevail where Great Britain, survives the first edition, it was propagated. and scarcely one in ten of this decimation ever reaches this country. We have little idea of the number of volumes that fall daily still-born from the press in the British metropolis.

The philosophers, however, happened, for once, to be mistaken,-the fact being directly the reverse of the hypotheses. The aspect of nature is both grander and more beautiful in America, -her mien is more majestic, her features are more varied and more lovely, her disposition is kinder, and her products are more liberal and diversified, than in any other quarter of the globe; -and whatever grade, in the scale of intellect, may be assigned to the aborigines, we can now boast a race of men who are able to vindicate their claims to the prerogative of talent.

But still, we are reproached because we have produced so few authors,-let their merits be as they may. We suspect that the old leaven of the original error in regard to this country is at the bottom of this argument, which is urged by cavillers. The reason of this alleged, and admitted deficiency, is perfectly obvious, and in no degree impeaches our capacity. Books are the manufacture of the mind ;-and precisely the We have no reason to blush at the same reason which has led us to rely character of our countrymen. We can on foreign skill and industry for many point, in the catalogue of our illustrious other fabrics, has induced us to import

these, we could buy them cheaper ry other respect, and who are so fond of than we could make them.

praise, that they are wont to laud themLabour, both mental and manual, has selves on the slightest pretences, should been in too great demand, heretofore, in be willing to waive an undoubted right, this country, to permit us to weave and acquiesce in a charge of inferiority either poetry or cambric to advantage. in a particular, where degradation, is Any man whose education and talents most galling to pride. We trust that our qualified him for authorship, could ob- countrymen will not, always, so undertain a more lucrative employment; and value their privileges and debase their there were few among us who could af- understandings. ford to make sacrifices to inclination.

If under all these disheartening cir.

Even now, when the professions are cumstances, native genius still rears its crowded, and there are surplus talents crest, we may imagine what it would that may be purchased at a reasonable achieve under more encouraging auspiprice, nobody is willing to bid for them, ces. The poem before us gives indu-and why? We observed that books, bitable indications of poetic talent, like most other manufactures, might be which it requires only the ray of paimported cheaper than they could be tronage to mature to excellence, In wrought;-this is emphatically true, vigour of fancy, richness of imagery, though the analogy does not strictly hold, and fertility of allusion, it is surpassed by for we pay nothing for foreign literature, the productions of no cotemporary bard; that is to say, and it would seem rather whilst in chasteness of style, and purity paradoxical without this explanation, of sentiment, it forms a striking and our booksellers pay nothing for the copy- honourable contrast with the polluted right of foreign publications,—and, of taste and prostituted morals of the pocourse, our own writers can never fairly pular poetry of the age. enter into competition with foreigners, The "Airs of Palestine," we are inin fancy articles, till they can afford to formed by the author, in an introduction offer their commodities on equally ac- of some length and much interest, "is commodating terms. Yet even in that intended purely and exclusively as a event, we doubt whether disinterested religious poem." The connexion belove of fame be as powerful a stimulus tween poetry and religion, was as earas the sordid love of gold; though no ly as we have any evidences of the doubt a much more honourable source existence of either; and the best inteof inspiration. rests of both have suffered from their But even this meed is grudgingly be- severance. We rejoice that the muse stowed. We have so accustomed our- is returning to her first love, and hope selves to read English books, that we that no rude hand may hereafter violate have adopted English prejudices; and their union. Let us not be misunderare ready to join in a sneer at any stood; we do not wish to check her attempt towards literary independence. cheerfulness, nor to inhibit her gambols; It is a little extraordinary that a people we would make her the sister, and who are so jealous of their fame in eve- not the slave of virtue. The subject of

this poem is 'Sacred Music;' and to trace the affinity between the exaltation produced by sublime strains of solemn harmony and the fervour of devotional feeling, and hence to infer its appropriateness as an accompaniment to social worship, is, apparently, the design of the poet; in the prosecution of which he adduces many apt and forcible illustrations from sacred history, and the volume of nature.

The poem commences with the confusion of language on the destruction of the tower of Babel. Yet we are told that in this general wreck,

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All was not lost, though busy Discord flung
Repulsive accents, from each jarring tongue;
All was not lost; for Love one tie had twin'd,
And Mercy dropp'd it, to connect mankind :
One tie, that winds, with soft and sweet control,
Its silken fibres round the yielding soul;
Binds man to man, sooths Passion's wildest strife,
And, through the mazy labyrinths of life,
Supplies a faithful clue, to lead the lone
And weary wanderers, to his Father's throne.
That tie is Music.

Our limits will not allow us to attempt a delineation of the plan of the poem. We must content ourselves with presenting to the reader some detached pictures. After celebrating the empire of music over brute instinct,-its.sovereignty over the soul, the poet proceeds,

To her, Religion owes her holiest flame :
Her eye looks heaven-ward, for from heaven she

came.

And when Religion's mild and genial ray,
Around the frozen heart, begins to play,
Music's soft breath falls on the quivering light;
The fire is kindled, and the flame is bright;
And that cold mass, by either power assail'd,
Is warm'd-made liquid—and to heav'n exhal'd.'

He cannot refrain from glancing, as he passes, at the poetic traditions of classic mythology.

Where lies our path?--though many a vista
call,

We may admire, but cannot tread them all.
Where lies our path ?—a poet, and inquire
What hills, what vales, what streams become the
lyre!

VOL. 1. NO. I.

See, there Parnassus lifts his head of snow;
See at his foot, the cool Cephissus flow;
There Ossa rises; there Olympus towers;
Between them, Tempe breathes in beds of
flowers,
Forever verdant; and there Peneus glides
Through laurels whispering on his shady sides.
Your theme is music :-Yonder rolls the wave,
Where dolphins snatch'd Arion from his grave,
Enchanted by his lyre :-Citheron's shade
Those potent airs, that from the yielding earth,
Is yonder seen, where first Amphion play'd
Charm'd stones around him, and gave cities birth.
O'er golden sands, and still for Orpheus weeps,
And fast by Hæmus, Thracian Hebrus creeps
Whose gory head, borne by the stream along,
Was still melodious, and expired in song.
There Nereids sing, and Triton winds his shell;
There be thy path-for there the Muses dwell.

No, no a lonelier, lovelier path be mine:
Greece and her charms 1 leave, for Palestine.
There, purer streams through happier valleys
flow,

And sweeter flowers on holier mountains blow.
I love to breathe where Gilead sheds her balm;
I love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm;"
I love to wet my feet on Hermon's dews;
I love the promptings of Isaiah's muse:
In Carmel's holy grots, I'll court repose,
And deck my mossy couch, with Sharon's death-
less rose.

The description of David's deliverance of Saul, by the magic of his lyre, from the enchantment of the evil spirit, is highly animated, and contains a fanciful and original suggestion.

'As the young harper tries each quivering
wire,
It leaps and sparkles with prophetic fire,
And, with the kindling song, the kindling rays
Around his fingers tremulously blaze,
Till the whole hall, like those blest fields above,
Glows with the light of melody and love.

Soon as the foaming demon hears the psalm,
Heaven on his memory bursts, and Eden's balm,
Detects the angel, in the poet's eye;
He sees the dawnings of too bright a sky;
With grasp convulsive, rends his matted hair;
Through his strain'd eye-balls shoots a fiend-like
glare;

And flies, with shrieks of agony, that hall,
The throne of Israel, and the breast of Saul;
To seek a refuge from that shepherd's strains,
Exil'd to roam, or, in infernal pains,

But were we to copy every thing that pleases us, we should extend our extracts beyond the bounds we have prescribed to ourselves. Yet we do not consider the performance perfect, even in reference to its object; much, less would we assign to it a rank to

which it does not aspire. It possesses great merit; but we value it more for what it promises to hope, than for what it yields to fruition. We trust that this essay will meet with such a reception as to induce the author to give scope to his imagination in some undertaking equally worthy of his genius, and more commensurate with his powers.

We have but one specific objection to the Airs of Palestine'-it annoys us with the frequent recurrence of double rhymes. In our opinion, they never consist with the dignity of heroic verse, but, at any rate, should not be brought into such proximity, as pains the ear in the following lines.

"There, in dark bowers imbosomed, Jesus flings His hand celestial o'er prophetic strings;

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ART. 5. A Sketch of the Life and Character of President Dwight, delivered as an Eulogium, before the Academic Body of Yale College, by Benjamin Silliman, Chem. Min. and Phar Prof. New-Haven. Maltby, Goldsmith & Co.

IN N the death of Dr. Dwight, the world His reputation as a writer may not, inhas sustained a loss to which it is rarely deed, be enhanced by the present perexposed, that of a great and good man. formance; but he has shown his good The Eulogy before us, is one of the many sense in not aiming, in a production of expressions of grief and affection ex- this nature, at a display of his rhetorical cited by this calamitous event through- powers. He has adhered, with laudable out our country. Professor Silliman, fidelity, to the discharge of the duty from his collegiate connexion and perso- assigned him, without diving into nal intimacy with the deceased, enjoyed pathos, or straggling into sublimity. an opportunity, which he knew both It is so rarely that we see either an how to appreciate and to improve, oration, or an address, written with any of becoming acquainted with the events degree of modesty or appropriateness, of his life, and of analyzing his character. that we cannot withhold the acknowHe has acquitted himself creditably in ledgment of our obligation to Professor this attempt to exhibit a sketch of both. Silliman, for his signal forbearance on He has presented us with an interesting an occasion where his feelings were so outline of the history, and a just esti- likely to have triumphed over his mate of the moral and literary merits of judgment. We hope that this commenthe distinguished subject of his Memoir. dable observance of decorum will be

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