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his employments he was enabled to perform well his public duties, and had time left to devote to the charities of life; his active, benevolent mind sought relief from the toils of official duty in the humbler walks of benevolence, and we find him originating and aiding, by his money, his example and his personal influence, all the institutions, whose tendency was to elevate the tone of society and to improve the manners and morals of the people. He had a peculiar talent as while he was in the provincial Congress, a draftsman, and this talent was often put in requisition. This acquirement he turned to account, and the American Clerk's Magazine and Probate Directory, two works compiled by him, had a very rapid and extensive circulation. were, then, especially needed; there Books of forms were few lawyers, and no books in common use of practical forms. His works passed rapidly through several editions, but as their author has been crowded forward by the thronging generations of men, so these have given place to the labor-saving books, which like the leaves of the Sybil have been scattered over all the paths of business as well as pleasure. In the latter part of his life, when he had thrown off the cares of office, Mr. Freeman found employment in digesting the manuscript journal of the late Rev. Thomas Smith, the first settled minister of the town, and in collecting information relative to the history of the town and county, which was published in 1821. Such have been some of the particulars in the useful and protracted life of this venerable man. In his domestic and private character he may be traced by the same lines of kindness, benevolence and integrity which marked his public course. The venerable patriarch, the active and useful citizen, now lies in the tomb, and if nothing splendid has emblazoned his course, his whole gress may be traced by the genial influence of utility-the noiseless and unobtrusive contributions to the moral welfare of this community. [Abridged from the Portland Advertiser.]

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In Reading, MS. JAMES BANCROFT, Esq. When the dispute between Great Britain and the American Colonies threatened hostilities, Mr. Bancroft became a subaltern officer in a company of minute men, and was engaged in the skirmishes at Lexington; he then with his regiment took post at Cambridge. On the day of Bunker Hill Battle his company was on guard at head quar

ters.

At the close of 1775 he received

95

a captain's commission in the continentarmy he was personally engaged in the al regiment of which the late Gov. Brooks was Major. In the northern conflicts with Burgoyne, and, at the head of his company, stormed the British works at Saratoga in the regiment under the command of Col. Brooks. He continued in the Revolutionary army during the entire campaigns. When he left the army, his native town committed to his management their public inimportant concerns. terest, and through a long period he had a primary and salutary agency in their For many years

popular branch of the state government, he was an influential member of the and during the crisis of Shays's insurexperience had a beneficial influence on rection his sound judgement and long public measures. Capt. Bancroft was under the necessity of parting with the certificates of the debt due him for military services at immense loss. With pensation to revolutionary officers he the first resolution of Congress for comcould not comply. The second braced him, and for the two last years of life he was benefited by this tardy justice.

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In Boston, GEORGE ALEXANDER Oris, aged 28. Mr. Otis was a gradn ate of Harvard College, a member of the Suffolk Bar, and was formerly one of the editors of the Boston Gazette.

In Roxbury, Ms. Mr. SAMUEL PARKER, aged 54, for many years the debenture clerk in the Boston Customhouse. Mr. Parker was a gentleman of respectable literary acquirements, and had made an extensive collection of works, which must be highly valuable newspapers, pamphlets and periodical to those into whose possession it falls.

In Providence, R. I. JAMES OTIS
ROCKWELL, aged 28, editor of the Prov-
idence Patriot. He was a native of
Manlius, N. Y. and formerly resided in
Boston, where he became favorably
several periodical publications. Had he
known by his poetical contributions to
cultivated his genius and been constant
in his allegiance to the muses, he might
poets of the day. But he embarked on
have obtained a high rank among the
the tempestuous sea of politics, and as-
sumed the direction of a political jour-
nal-a situation of all others the most
uncongenial to the sensitiveness of gen-
ius.

SCHENCK, aged 54, formerly a member
In Matteawan, N. Y. ABRAHAM II.
of Congress, and among the first who
engaged in the manufacture of Cotton,
under the non-intercourse laws.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WORKS IN PRESS.

Gray & Bowen, Boston, have in press, The Token, for 1832, (being the fifth volume,) edited by S. G. Goodrich, enlarged to nearly the size of the London Keepsake; to contain one third more matter than heretofore and to be embellished with twenty engravings by the first artists.-A New Dictionary of Medical Science and Literature, which will contain a concise account of the various subjects in Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Therapeutics, Materia Medica, Surgery, Obstetrics, and Pharmacy, with the Etymology and Orthoepy of the terms of their Greek, Latin, French and German synonymes; a copious Bibliography appended to the different articles, and Biographical Notices of the most eminent Authors in the different departments of Medical Science, with a Catalogue of their principal works mentioned, and an Epitome of the existing

state of Medical Science and Literature. By Robly Dunglison, M. D. Professor of Medicine in the University of Virginia. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, vol. iii, for 1832.-The American Annual Register, for 1829 and 1830, being the fifth volume; to be forthcoming in July.--A natural History of the Globe and of Man; Beasts, Birds, Fishes, &c. from the writings of Buffon and other Naturalists; a new edition with numerous additions particularly respecting American animals, from Richardson, Lewis and Clark, Long, Wilson, Bonaparte, Godman, and others, in five volumes, large 18mo.

Hilliard, Gray & Co. have in press, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations, by Joseph K. Angell and Samuel Ames.-Report of the Trial of James H. Peck, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Missouri. before the Senate of the United States, on an Impeachment preferred by the House of Representatives against him for high misdemeanors in office, by Arthur J. Stansbury, one vol. octavo.-Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, by Octavius Pickering, Counsellor at Law. Vol. ix.-German Phrases and Dialogues, for the use of students in the German language by Francis Graeter, 12 mo.--German Grammar, by Dr. Charles Follen, second edition.-Selec

tions from the writings of Fenelon, with a memoir of his life, by a Lady. Third edition.-Spelling Book with definitions, by Samuel T. Worcester.— Bourdon's Algebra, by John Farrar, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University at Cambridge.-Third Lessons in Reading and Grammar, by Warren Colburn, author of Intellectual Arithmetic.-Fourth Lessons in Reading and Grammar, by Warren Colburn, author of Intellectual Arithmetic.An analytical digest of all the American Reports, by William Hilliard, Jr. Counsellor at Law, revised By Benjamin Rand, Counsellor at Law.

Lincoln & Edmands, Boston, have in press,-Roman Antiquities, for the use of schools, with engravings, one vol. 12mo., by C. R. Dillaway, of the Public Latin School, Boston;-The Young Lady's Class Book, for the higher classes in Female Schools, by Ebenezer Bailey;-History of Ancient and Modern Greece, with maps and plates, prepared for Academies and High Schools, one vol. 8vo. by John Frost.

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Alexander II. Everett is preparing a History of the United States, from the first settlement of the country to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, in two volumes, to form a part of the series of the American Library of Useful Knowledge. The first number will appear in October.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

First Book in Astronomy, adapted to the use of common schools, illustrated with steel-plate engravings, by J. L. Blake. Boston, Lincoln & Edmands.

The American Library of Useful Knowledge, published by authority of the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; vol. i. containing the Lectures delivered to the Boston Mechanics Institute, by Daniel Webster, Edward Everett and Joseph Story -Mr. Everett's Lecture or, the Working Men's Party-and several foreign Tracts relating to Education and the Sciences. Boston, Stimson & Clapp.

THE

NEW-ENGLAND MAGAZINE,

AUGUST, 1831.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

HEBREW POETRY.

In the earliest ages of the world, poetry was a very serious employment. It was the first form in which the contemplative powers of man manifested themselves; and to it may be traced, as a germ, our history, our fiction, our philosophy, and our laws. Even the solemn attributes of the Deity and the tremendous truths of religion are supposed to have been first delivered to mankind, by the inspiration of the poet through the melody of song.

Men

The reason for this peculiarity in the history of nations must be sought for in the counsels by which God instructs his creatures. are slow in their movements; they are immersed in a material body and distracted by its wants. In the earlier stages of society, life is but a struggle for subsistence; and it must be some glaring object, some powerful motive, which allures men over the bridge which separates action from thought. Matter will attract any one's attention, even a child's, when it is first shown. But when we disrobe it of its form and color, and attempt, without its impressions, to lead the unpractised mind into the intellectual world, it must be done by new arts to excite interest. The speaker must have deep feeling; and clothe that feeling in measured language. This is the universal history of the literary dawn; when the object ceases to arrest the eye, it must take a new embodiment, and charm the ear. The people, who can no longer look, must make a new use of their eyes-they must be forced to weep.

But though mind is sluggish in its movements, and it takes all the art of the poet to rouse it to its first attention, it must not be supposed that, when the attention is once up, it acts with any feeble interest. It takes much to make a savage pass the bounds from the world of matter to the world of intellectual forms; but when he is once there, the very indefiniteness of the objects, together with the newness of the scene, absorbs his whole soul; he feels an interest which he never felt before; he rises as to a new creation, and surrenders himself to the guidance of the genius, under whose manuduction he was first led.

It has often been inquired, why poetry and orations have lost so much of their interest; and why the best exertions of modern skill never rise to that powerful despotism in ancient times, which no man resisted or wished to resist. Surely the moderns have some advantages. Arts have been improved; knowledge has been increased; the passions have been analyzed; the fountains of the mind have been explored. Why should not equal genius with more materials produce better success? The reason, however, is obvious. The power of a poet over his admirers, or of an orator over his audience, is to be estimated by a ratio between his genius and their sensibility. The percussion and the object struck must both be considered. In older times, the lack of knowledge and the consequent want of refinement, was eminently favorable to increase the sensibility of the audience; every impression was fresh and new; every passion was incited by novelty, and prolonged, because the feelings of nature were unworn; every invention produced wonder; the rapture of the audience increased the inspiration of the speaker; there was a reciprocal influence; genius was warmed by its own effects; and the same powerful impulse which first forced the mind into the paradise which thought had made, gave sweetness to its flowers, and magnitude and beauty to its shades. Ingenuity, and invention, melody, and voice, and action, may still exist; but the sensibility which increased them is lost forever.

These remarks might be suggested by speculation, but they are abundantly supported by the history of our race. Let us suppose the wandering story-teller and singer, whom, for the want of a more personal name, we call Homer, to be surrounded by a ring of barbarians, who, having no war on their hands and their bellies full, require him to amuse them for an idle hour. He knows his audience; with all his superiority he but just emerges above them; and indeed his very superiority consists in knowing how to act on such materials. He knows well that he must stir their passions and draw their tears, or they will hear him with stupid indifference; indeed, the choice in such an audience is between rapture and sleep. He begins with a prelude on the lyre

Ητοι ὅ φορμίζων ἀνεβάλλετο καλὸν ἀέιδειν.

And thus fills their ears with unideal sounds. The wisdom of God seems to have made music as a kind of passage between sensuality and thinking. He then plunges into narrative; sings of wars; addresses the strongest propensities of the age; brings out (or rather, it breaks upon him) his moral instructions, as an accompaniment of the story; and thus forces his hearers to feel and think in the only way in which feeling and thinking in such an age can be excited. There is no great art in all this; or, at least, it is an art forced upon him by the nature of his office, and the circumstances in which he is thrown. He teaches, to be sure, war, politics, navigation, the theology of heaven, and the sciences of earth; not because he designed to combine these various things, but because they naturally mingled in the only intellectual stream that was then running. His language is simple, because no other language could be understood; his figures are bold and striking, because he must strike the minds he addresses; his poetry is forcible, because no other would excite interest; and it has all the freshness of

nature, because the book of nature is the only volume he has ever read. Thus the poet becomes excellent; and thus the earliest rhapsodies of all nations reflect not so much the genius of the individual as a picture of the age.

The Jews were a peculiar people; and their poetry is as peculiar. It was made the vehicle of teaching them the most awful truths; because, when God speaks to men, he uses the language of men. Truth itself may bear a majesty suitable to the mind from which it originated; but its garb must be as humble as the minds to which it is addressed. In speaking, however, of the poetry of the Hebrews, we shall say nothing of that Supreme Mind from which it is believed to have originated; we shall not assume, as the ground of our remarks, the inspiration of the scriptures. We believe, with Lowth and others, that, however infallible the oracles which the Hebrew prophet delivered, and in whatever way we explain the Divine superintendence which guided their thoughts, each author was left to the play of his own genius, and reflects the manners of his own nation and age. We leave to the divines the sublime themes of theology; we shall consider Hebrew poetry as an effort of Hebrew genius; and we shall endeavor to compare its relative merits with the poetry of the west.

The waters of the Hellespont, except a few Greeks on the shores of Asia Minor, have always divided a people very different in their tastes and manners. We allude not now to the enterprise, the liberty, the hardihood of the Greeks, and the tyranny and effeminacy of the Asiatic nations. These are the effects of the relative states of empires; and the first Cyrus, who founded the Persian dynasty, was as great a warrior as Alexander, who conquered the last of his degenerate successors; he, perhaps, commanded an army of equal heroes. The permanent difference is in their literary tastes. On the eastern side of the Hellespont, we find hereditary dogmas never disputed; a fixed philosophy; great authority and great credulity; morality taught in apologues, sentences and aphorisms; and in poetry the wildest flights of enthusiasm, rapid transitions, bold personifications; the very language destitute of those particles, (the last invention of acuteness,) which mark the slender shades and turnings of a finer mind. On the western side we find all these things reversed. Whatever may have been the cause, whether it was, as Diodorus says, because their philosophers taught for reward, τῷ κατὰ τὴν ἐργολαβίαν κέρδος στοκαζόμενοι, or, such was the bent of nature, they questioned every thing; supported their discourses by proofs and not by authority; gave us their systems in connected discourses, and even in poetry taught us to reason while they compelled us to feel. The European nations have inherited the taste of the Greeks; their language is formed on the basis of the Greek tongue; and had it not been that the Bible, by being translated, has preserved among us some elements of orientalism, we should this day scarcely be capable of holding intercourse with more than half our race. The most literal translations would only throw darkness over the most beautiful page.

The Hebrew nation have for ages been remarkable for any thing rather than delicacy or refinement. We cannot conceive of a race of bipeds, more coarse, more callous, more boobyish, more trifling, than the whole race of Jewish literati, into whose hands the scriptures have

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