PROSE COMPOSITIONS.

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
Leniter 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 fusca 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.