REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH POETS.

IMITATIONS.

THE sublimity and unaffected beauty of the sacred writings are in no instance more conspicuous, than in the following verses of the xviiith Psalm:

"He bowed the heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet.

"And he rode upon a cherub and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind."

None of our better versions have been able to preserve the original graces of these verses. That wretched one of Thomas Sternhold, however, (which, to the disgrace and manifest detriment of religious worship, is generally used) has, in this solitary instance, and then perhaps by accident, given us the true spirit of the Psalmist, and has surpassed not only Merrick, but even the classic Buchanan *. This version is as follows:

* That the reader may judge for himself, Buchanan's translation is subjoined.

Utque suum dominum terræ demittat in orbem
Lenitur inclinat jussum fastigia cœlum ;

"The Lord descended from above,
"And bowed the heavens high,
"And underneath his feet he cast
"The darkness of the sky.

"On cherubs and on cherubims

"Full royally he rode,

"And on the wings of mighty winds
"Came flying all abroad."

Dryden honoured these verses with very high commendation, and, in the following lines of his Annus Mirabilis, has apparently imitated them, in preference to the original :

"The duke less numerous, but in courage more,
"On wings of all the winds to combat flies."

And in his Ceyx and Alcyone, from Ovid, he has

"And now sublime she rides upon the wind,"

Succedunt pedibus fuscæ caliginis umbræ;
Ille vehens curru volucri, cui flammeus ales
Lora tenens levibus ventorum adremigat alis
Se circum fulvo nebularum involvit amictu,
Prætenditque cavis piceas in nubibus undas.

This is somewhat too harsh and prosaic, and there is an unpleasant cacophony in the terminations of the 5th and 6th lines.

which is probably imitated, as well as most of the following, not from Sternhold, but the original. Thus Pope,

"Not God alone in the still calm we find,

"He mounts the storm and rides upon the wind."

And Addison

"Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.”

The unfortunate Chatterton has

"And rides upon the pinions of the wind."

And Gray

"With arms sublime that float upon the air."

Few poets of eminence have less incurred the charge of plagiarism than Milton; yet many instances might be adduced of similarity of idea and language with the Scripture, which are certainly more than coincidences, and some of these I shall, in a future number, present to your readers. Thus the present passage in the Psalmist was in all probability in his mind when he wrote

And with mighty wings outspread,

"Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss."

Par. Lost. L. 20. B. 1.

The third verse of the civth Psalm

"He maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind,”

is evidently taken from the before-mentioned verses in the xviiith Psalm, on which it is perhaps an improvement. It has also been imitated by two of our first poets,Shakspeare and Thomson. The former in Romeo and Juliet

"Bestrides the lazy-paced clouds,
"And sails upon the bosom of the air.”

The latter in Winter, 1. 199.

"Till Nature's King, who oft

"Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone,
"And on the wings of the careering winds
"Walks dreadfully serene."

As these imitations have not before, I believe, been noticed, they cannot fail to interest the lovers of polite letters; and they are such as at least will amuse your readers in general. If the sacred writings were attentively perused, we should find innumerable passages from which our best modern poets have drawn their most admired ideas; and the enumerations of these instances would perhaps attract the attention of many persons to