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full account of the life and literary and scientific labours of Cuvier-a theme full of interest; and which we hope to see followed up in subsequent Numbers by similar memoirs of Humboldt, Laplace, and others. Article fifth contains a biography of Sir Thomas More-an abstract from the ponderous tome of Dr Rudhart. In article sixth, the reader will find a satisfactory criticism on the works of Calderon, together with incidental notices of other distinguished Spanish dramatists. The short reviews of new publications are numerous and interesting; and the continental literary intelligence comes quite up to our notion of the manner in which this part of the work ought to be executed-no straggling uninteresting notices, but a condensed view of what has been achieved at each place du

Colman's Random Records. London. Colburn and

numerous misrepresentations which have gone abroad concerning her, she writes now, not to defend herself, but to exculpate her parents from several charges which "she knows to be false." The charges alluded to seem principally to consist in this, that it was they who influenced her to leave her husband, and to act with apparent inconsistency, by forcing her to put an end to all intercourse with one from whom she had parted in the most friendly manner. Lady Byron states, on the contrary, that she treated the noble poet with seeming kindness up to the last moment, simply because she doubted whether he was altogether in his sound mind, and feared lest any opposition or irritating expressions might make him worse; and that upon mentioning these suspicions to her parents, they became naturally anxious to ascertain their truth or false-ring the last quarter. hood, and the more so, as Lady Byron now, for the first time, informed them, that " if she were to consider Lord Byron's past conduct as that of a person of sound mind, nothing could induce her to return to him." Her mother accordingly went to London to consult both lawyers and physicians on the point; and they gave it as their opinion, that Lord Byron was in his perfect senses, and that the circumstances of the case did not appear of so very aggravated a nature, as to make a separation in"My father often met Lord (then Mr) Erskine in the street, dispensable. Upon learning from her mother that these and invited him to dinner on that same day;-on these occawere the sentiments of the gentlemen with whom she sions, our party, which, when I was at home, formed a trio, had advised, Lady Byron returned herself to London, might as well have been called a duet, for I was only a listen. and communicated, in confidence, to Dr Lushington, cerer; indeed, my father was little more, for Erskine was then tain additional facts concerning Lord Byron's conduct, young at the bar, flushed with success, and enthusiastic in which induced that gentleman to change entirely his opi- each particular case;-this I thought dull enough, and cen his profession. He would therefore repeat his pleadings in nion of the case, and to pronounce a reconciliation im-gratulated myself, till I knew better, when the oration was possible. What these facts were, Lady Byron does not disclose, but concludes with trusting, that the statement she has made will "absolve her father and mother from all accusations with regard to the part they took in the separation."

Bentley.

We are not going to review this book just now; but we string together a few anecdotes which we have found in it:

ANECDOTE OF LORD ERSKINE.

over. But here I reckoned without my host; for when my father observed that the arguments were unanswerable,By no means, my dear sir,' would Erskine say; had I been counsel for A, instead of B, you shall hear what ] would have advanced on the other side;'-then we did hear, and I wished him at the forum!

and the theatre. Erskine was a gifted man, and, what is better, a good man. In the early part of his career, he was considered a great man; but, as John Moody says of Sir Francis Wronghead, he could no' hawld it.'"

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ANECDOTE OF BONNELL THORNTON.

"I have no recollection of having ever seen Thornton at my father's house. Not long before his (Thornton's) death, these two quondam co-partners had occasion to meet in London, on some business, at a tavern; their interview conversation, upon the business which had brought them was at noon, and Thornton came half drunk! During their together, my father observed to his old friend, that he re gretted to see he by no means appeared in good health.

Upon this pamphlet we have to remark, that we think "No two companions could have been worse coupled than it ought either not to have been published at all, or it Lord Erskine and my father; for the Lawyer delighted in ought to have been fuller and more satisfactory. Whe-talking of himself and the bar, and the Manager of himself ther Lady Byron was influenced by her parents or not, was a matter of comparatively little moment, and we are willing to allow that she has now shown that they did not interfere ultroneously or too officiously; but what we wanted to know was, whether she was justified, or not, in separating herself from her husband in the manner in which she did? This point she leaves in as great obscurity as ever; nay, she has made it more mysterious than it was before, for it appears that she chose to confide to Dr Lushington certain circumstances which she would not tell her own parents, although it is evident that upon these circumstances, from the impression they made upon Dr Lushington, the whole gist of the matter depends. One thing is clear, that Lady Byron was herself deter'mined on a separation. If Lord Byron had been mad, as she seems very willing to have believed, a separation must, of course, have taken place. But as he was not mad, she drew up what she thought a strong enough case against him, which she intrusted to the management of her mother. But even this was found insufficient to produce the desired effect; and she then went to her lawyer herself, and told him something or other, which induced him to advise her parents to take steps to secure a separation, and thus she at length gained her object. Lady Byron may have been very ill used, for aught we can prove to the contrary; but we repeat, that if she was to come before the public at all, it should not have been with a story so inexplicit and obscure.

The Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany. No. X. March, 1830. London. Black, Young, and Young. THIS is a good Number. The first article-containing a biography of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of the Jesuits is from the pen of Dr Southey, and written in his happiest manner. The third article contains a

Health!' said Thornton; look here!' and he pointed to his ankles, which were alarmingly swollen ;- can't yea see?-'tis the dropsy;-by 'od! I'm a-going;' and he was going, for he died shortly afterwards.

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"When Thornton was on his death-bed, his relations surrounding it, he told them that he should expire before he had counted twenty; and covering his head with the bedclothes, he began to count:-One, two, - — — eighteen, nineteen, twenty.' He then thrust out his head, exclaiming, By 'od! it's very strange! but why aren't you all crying?-Teach my son,' said he to the bystanders, him, when I am gone, his A, B, C ;-I know mine in several languages; but I perceive no good that the knowledge has done me;-so if you never teach him his A, B, C, at all, it don't much signify. Within an hour after this, poor Bonnell Thornton breathed his last.-This is dreadful!To see a man of learning and genius lost and besotted, at an age when his talents and experience should have elevated him to many years' enjoyment of the world's admiration and respect to see him on the brink of a premature grave, looking down, like an idiot, into the narrow dwelling,' and beholding it with fevered levity!-can there be a more mortifying picture of frail humanity?"

ANECDOTE OF LORD NORTH.

"I have been told, from very good authority, that Lord North was once discovered among the crowd, which is ge nerally attracted to the windows where caricatures are dis

tion. For my pastoral friend and brother errs much in
supposing that I meditate or recommend the suppression
of our venerable Psalter, and the substitution of some rash
On the contrary, I have
innovated thing in its stead.
expressed regret that the high Ecclesiastics of England,
with all their learning and good taste, had exploded, ra-
ther than corrected, the energetic but faulty version of
Sternhold; and I should rather choose that our present
version, with its sundry offensive peccadilloes, should be
for ever retained, than that a new one, labouring under

played, staring at one of the graphic libels upon himself.
He was represented in a ludicrous attitude, bidding the
leaders of the Opposition do homage to his person, by the
most abject of all possible salutations. No premier but his
lordship so unpopular as he then was, as a minister, but so
amiable in private life, so totally unaffected, and devoid of
all the pomposities of a high office-would have thrust him-
self, in such times, into a mob, to gape at satires upon the
government. Soon finding, however, that he was recog-
nised by those nearest him, who began to titter, he made his
retreat, though by no means in confusion ;-saying, with a
good-humoured laugh, to the bystanders, as he turned his
back to depart,— Don't you think, gentlemen, it is very
a morbid load of modern plethory and prolixity, should
come forth under the sanction of our Church. But cor-
"In the same careless spirit of forgetting a statesman's rection, which my worthy friend confounds with destruc-
gravity, and yielding to the idlest ebullitions of a humorous tion, is by no means so; it rather, like reformation in the
and playful mind, he one day walked into the china and state, by extending the delicate hand of repair throughout
glass-shop, so well-known for many years, in New Bond all the faultier and minuter parts, tends to establish that
Street, over the door of which was written in capitals-work, which would otherwise totter, and make it endure,
"like the sun and moon," for ever. And it is precisely
"Sir,' said his Lordship to the tradesman whose cus-
tomer he was, this is a very extraordinary coalition of because I venerate our Psalter so much, that I wish to
yours, and cannot be expected to last ;-for either Fog ba-see its deformities cleared away, and its whole body beau-
nishes Sun, or Sun expels Fog; and in both cases, there's an
end of the partnership.'

like?'

FOG AND SON.'

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ANECDOTE OF Foote.

"One morning, he came hopping upon the stage, during the rehearsal of the Spanish Barber,' which was shortly to be produced: the performers were busy in that Scene of the piece when one servant is under the influence of a sleeping draught, and another of a sneezing powder.-' Well,' said Foote, drily, to my father, how do you go on? Pretty well,' was the answer, but I can't teach one of these fellows to gape as he ought to do.'- Can't you?' cried Foote, read him your last comedy of the Man of Business,' and he'll yawn for a month.'-On another occasion he was not less coarse (though more laughable) to an actor, than he had been to the manager."

GIBBON, THE HISTORIAN.

"The learned Gibbon was a curious counterbalance to the learned (may I not say less learned?) Johnson. Their manners and taste, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson, in his rusty brown, and his black worsteds, Gibbon was placed opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. Each had his measured phraseology; and Johnson's famous parallel between Dryden and Pope, might be loosely parodied, in reference to himself and Gibbon.-Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant; the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the polish of the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson march'd to kettle-drums and trumpets; Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys;-Johnson hew'd passages through the Alps, while Gibbon levell'd walks through parks and gardens. Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon pour'd balm upon my bruises, by condescending, once or twice, in the course of the evening, to talk with me; the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy ;-but it was done more suá-still his mannerism prevail'd;-still he tapp'd his snuff-box,-still he smirk'd, and smiled; and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men.-His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, nearly in the centre of his face."

tified and burnished so as to shine out in irreproachable perfection, and afford no handle for the jealous jeers and reproachful criticisms of the Anti-Calvinistical South. For, it is certain, that albeit you and I should allow, what many will not allow, that the composition of our Psalter was perfect in the days of our great-grandfathers, as a demi-English, demi-Scottish linsey-woolsey sort of work, yet now-a-days, when every thing proceeding from our pulpits must, for the sake of gravity and solemnity, be reduced to the English standard, we cannot consider such a mixed work (which is forbidden, by the by, even by the law of Moses) to be faultless or befitting. For the days are gone by, when our preachers innocently enamelled their sermons with the graceful Mosaic of their

native Doric; when Scottish words, now floating only on the mouths of our lowest people, had not yet been extinct in the halls and on the lips of our nobility and beauty, and were therefore unaccompanied with that im.. pression of vulgarity, or of ludicrous or too familiar address, with which they are now so inevitably associated. Pulpit language ought at once to be of the most simple and solemn character; simple, to recommend itself to the uneducated; solemn, to recommend itself to all classes, but particularly to the highest, in whose estimation solemnity cannot be associated with vulgarities, or with mean, incorrect, or exploded expressions. A village congregation of decent rustics, with their wives and families, are not in the smallest degree shocked at the rude elocution of the most vulgar-toned preacher, neither can they conceive why offence should be taken on thou at the "kythest," and the "riggs," and the " wents," that still deform our psalms; but it is far otherwise with the politer congregations of our cities. Devotional feeling is with them interrupted or endangered where taste and sense of propriety are rudely assailed; nor do I believe that the accomplished preachers of St George's or St Stephen's would have courage to read out to their audiences, as a theme of melody, the verses where the words, so admired in Ettrick Forest, are to be found -the most mellifluous kythest, and that most venerable kitchen-wench polysyllable imperfite! In short, it is a fact that cannot be disputed, nor must we allow our national vanity, high-stomached and dogged though it be, to struggle against the conviction, that our pulpit-lanTo the Editor of the Literary Journal. guage is completely anglicised-that we are as a conMY DEAR SIR, I am amused to see our old, gallant, quered people in our churches-that the powerful lantrust-worthy friend, the romantic Shepherd of Ettrick, guage of Lindsay and Dunbar is banished from our buckling on, even on suspicion, his Caledonian armour; altars-that our sermons, as well as their texts, our waxing fierce and fervid, nay, somewhat vociferous, ad- prayers, our addresses, are all (as agreeably to good taste juring even the Wicked One in his zeal, and, contrary to they should be) completely moulded into English gravity the effect of good King David's harp, calling up Evil and decorum-all, but our Psalter, where, despite of our Spirits in the defence of what even an archangel's voice Blairs, and Robertsons, and Chalmerses, and Thomsons, would be insufficient to defend or justify-the obstinate some unseemly specks of provincial rusticity are still retention of acknowledged error and wilful imperfection, permitted to linger. Now, I am not for pulling down, in a work that ought to be complete beauty and perfec-to use my Ettrick brother's own figure, the noble edifice,

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

SCOTTISH PSALMODY.

A LETTER FROM THE OCHILLS.

never

there is one audacious expression, which I regret our friend, gentle, and good, and kindly as he is, should have, in his furious anti-Bradyism, been betrayed into. He " opened the Psalms of Tate and Brady, save to despise them." Is this like an unprejudiced critic? Is this like handling a matter, as Solomon directs us to do, wisely? If my bre ther opens them for the sole purpose of despising them, can his contempt be any thing else than unfounded prejudice? And, prejudiced as he sits down to read, can he ever find in them any thing pleasant or good? And does that book of Psalms, which received the approbation of the Hierarchy of England, men, of all Europe the most erudite and most accomplished,-which has, for more than a century, been, as a devotional exercise, in the mouths of all the learning, and the nobility, and the beauty, and the royalty of our sister kingdom,—with whose verses the magnificent worship of their cathedral service has been so long and so venerably associated; is this a book worthy of being despised in the humble skiel

because it has a broken pane or a crumbled corner-stone; but for replacing the shattered panes with modern and brilliant glass, and substituting, for the mutilated or discoloured corner-stones, others more beautiful and enduring. I should just wish that the enlightened clergymen of our General Assembly should do for our Psalmody what the enlightened civic rulers of Edinburgh are doing for their High Church-they are repairing and refurbishing its exterior, that it may more harmonize with the elegance of the surrounding city, and show off, with more congruous effect, the majesty of the architectural crown that so sublimely tops and ennobles it. Even so should our Psalms be beautified; even so should the discolouring rust of antiquity be rubbed from off them, to show off, in uninterrupted effect, and in consonance to those productions of elegant literature by which they are, as it were, surrounded and challenged, that regal crown of sublimity and simplicity that so eminently adorns them. And I scruple not to repeat it, without any horror of an assault from our worthy old women of Scotland, and my good-ing of Ettrick Forest? Alas, my brother! " Verily," humoured Shepherd of Ettrick, with his bloodless crook, at their head, that such a purification is due-not only to the high literary respectability of our clergymen, to the improved and daily improving taste of their lay-hearersbut it is due, above all, to the admirable excellence of the original compositions. I profess myself no admirer of Tate and Brady,—no admirer of our old Scottish versifiers, no admirer even of George Buchanan or Arthur Johnston; but I profess myself an admirer of the Divine Lyrist of Judea, the first in degree, as the first in time, of all lyric poets; and according as he, in his grace, majesty, and beauty, is more or less reflected in any versions whatsoever, prosaical or poetical, in the same degree will I form my opinion and mete out my commendation.

But, indeed, my brother of Ettrick, fervid though he be, and putting on the appearance of championing it in behalf of what he deems the Palladium of Calvinism, which he suspects that I, like another crafty Ulysses, am devising to displace and to steal my brother himself seems to be, at bottom, in agreement with me, by confess. ing "the incalculable advantage which would be if the ancient and original spirit of ours were installed into theirs ;" meaning, I doubt not, the combination of the English taste and correctness with the Scottish fire and originality. Now this is quite my own conception of what is necessary to form a perfect version; and, as it is altogether impracticable to infuse the spirit of ours into their too inanimate paraphrase, I should be inclined to adventure upon the latter alternative, which is quite practicablethe infusion of their taste and correctness into our fire and animation. On this point, it remains for our clergymen to decide; and, after decision, to undertake the execution. For the work should be intrusted to no lay-poet, not even to Sir Walter himself; it should be done by themselves ;there are many men of genius belonging to our Church, not only in our university-towns, but in the retired valleys and obscurer nooks of our provinces, fully capable of achieving such a task.

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As to the prejudice which would arise against a change, particularly in our aged people, I confess it deserves to be respected rather than ridiculed or contemned; but the same prejudice must have existed, and in a much more violent degree, (for the change was much greater,) against the present version, which about a century and a half ago superseded the defective one that preceded it. Many murmurs against innovation,-many lamentations against backsliding, must have proceeded from those old persons, who, having got most of them by heart, must have regarded their Psalms as the Church's Palladium, and departed this life unreconciled to that improved version which was forced upon them. A few years, however, swept away these respectable murmurers, and left the new one in unopposed possession, to be sung, and admired, and committed to memory by new generations.

On reading again my brother's "Letter from Yarrow,"

saith Solomon, "he that despiseth his neighbour”— but I cannot utter the remaining words upon my beloved brother.

To conclude, I am of opinion that neither of us should
write more on this pacific subject, but consign it modestly
over to the clergymen, with whom the determination
must finally rest. I shall only add, that for my own
part, I undertook the theme as a pleasant and improving
one, and found it full of recreation and delight,—always,
like Bishop Horne, experiencing, the more I studied
the subject, and compared the various versions, the less
admiration of them, and the greater admiration of the
Divine Original.
WM. TENNANT.

Devongrove, Dollar Institution,
20th March, 1830.

REMARKS ON THE SCOTTISH METRICAL VERSION
OF THE PSALMS.

For the Edinburgh Literary Journal.

I AM glad to see that so respectable a poet as Mr Tennant has turned his attention to the metrical version of the Psalms which is used in the Church of Scotland; and though I do not altogether agree with him in his estimate of that version, yet it is undeniable that it has many faults, calling loudly for correction. Mr Tennant seems to be unacquainted with the history of our version, or he would not have been so apt to find it so full of Scotticisms as he has done. It was, in fact, not prepared by Scotchmen, but by Englishmen, and is called the Scottish version, merely from the circumstance of its having been adopted by the Church of Scotland. It was composed during the Civil Wars, under the auspices of the Assembly of Di vines which met at Westminster, and was intended to be the authorised version for both England and Scotland, when the projected uniformity of worship had taken

Since the above letter was written and sent to press, the author of it and of the short critical strictures that occasioned Mr Hogg's monstratory epistle, has had an opportunity of perusing Dr Beattie's "Letter to Dr Blair on the Improvement of Psalmody in Scotland," (just published by Mr Buchanan of George Street,) which was writ ten upwards of 50 years ago, and privately circulated among their mutual friends. From the perusal of this well-timed little publice tion, the author cannot but congratulate himself on observing, that his view of this important subject is sanctioned by a name so respect. unvaryingly, in his opinion of the various versions, of the corrections able and authoritative as Dr Beattie, who coincides with him, almost requisite in our own, of the persons most qualified to make these corrections, and of the most simple and proper mode of making them; in fact, in every point, whether of criticism or of suggestion to the authorities of our Church. W. T.

23d March, 1830.

[A Correspondent enquires,-" Could Mr Tennant's attention be drawn to a versification, or rather a new edition, of the Psalms, with the versification amended by the late Mr Boswell, advocate? Mr Boswell was an Oriental scholar, and one of the leaders of the small but respectable sect of Glassites in this city. His version appears to me to be both smoother and closer than that of the Old Church, to which, however, he gives the decided preference, only varying from it when convinced the alteration is an improvement.")

place. The original draught was made by a Mr Rous,
or Rouse, a member of the Long Parliament.
It was
carefully revised by the Westminster Divines, and after
receiving their approbation, it was transmitted to the Ge- [
neral Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and by them
transmitted to the Presbyteries, where, after some cor-
rections, it was received into the churches on the 19th
May, 1650. There were a great number of versions, by
different authors, brought under consideration; of the re-
spective merits of which I do not know if there is now
any means of forming an estimate. There was one by
Mure of Rowallan, which is often mentioned, and highly
spoken of, by the writers of that period. Worthy Mr
Zacharias Boyd also laboured much that his version
might be adopted, and the General Assembly, to avoid
hurting the feelings of so good a man, appointed a small
committee to consider it, and they never made a report.
Many of the faults of the present version have arisen
from the change which has taken place in the pronuncia-
tion of our language, during the two hundred years which
have nearly passed since it was made; an evil to which
all poetry, and especially rhyme, must be subject. There
seems to be little reason to doubt that the words, high
and thee, ring and reign, were at that period so pro-
nounced as to be good rhymes. Some of the worst are
also accurately copied from Sternhold, as is the case with
the first verse of the 41st Psalm :

"Blessed is he that wisely doth
The poor man's case consider;
For when the time of trouble is,

The Lord will him deliver."

With regard to many of the faulty rhymes, it is also to be remembered that the public ear and the public taste were not then so accurately formed as they are now; and in consequence of this, there are to be found as bad rhymes in Dryden, and as harsh, unreadable lines in Milton, as are to be found in our version of the Psalms.* This, however, is only an apology for those by whom it was executed, but its faults still remain, and, in this age of more correct taste, should certainly be removed.

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be very considerable difference of opinion on many points.
The Calvinist could not conscientiously use in public wor-
ship a formulary which distinctly recognises the Armi-
nian doctrines; nor could a conscientious Arminian adopt
language which was manifestly Calvinistic.* But, in-
dependently of all doctrinal differences, the actual state
of devotional feeling is widely different among Christians,
as much, at least, as the degrees of a musical ear and a
musical taste among mankind at large. Hence those de-
votional expressions, which are well suited to the feelings
of those who are at the highest point of the scale, will
appear to those who stand lower as enthusiastic and unin-
telligible; while such as suited those of a lower grade,
would be felt by the higher as frigid and uninteresting.
Besides this, the poet, if not strictly tied down to Scrip-
ture, would be in danger of allowing his "eye, in a fine
frenzy rolling, to body forth the forms of things unknown"
and incomprehensible by any class of worshippers.
these evils are got rid of by keeping strictly to Scripture;
and from all these evils and dangers the Scottish version
is quite free. It sets before us pious and devotional
thoughts and feelings, which are acknowledged as true and
just by all who acknowledge the divine inspiration of the
Scripture, and it gives us nothing more.

All

To accomplish such a work well was no easy task, as any one may satisfy himself by trying to execute it better on a single Psalm, tying himself down rigidly to the rules in the received version. Let him neither add a single idea, nor omit one, but give us the ideas of the original Psalmist in plain, elegant, and smooth verse, without the smallest poetical embellishment drawn from his own stores, and he will feel the difficulty.

In

That the Scottish version is on the whole admirably executed, agreeably to this plan, no man can doubt. fact, when compared with that of Sternhold and Hopkins, it will be found that there is not a single psalın, nor scarcely a verse, which is not improved. It is granted that the two verses in the 18th psalm in Sternhold, which have been so often quoted, are very fine; but as they are paraphrastic, they could not be adopted in our version without a violation of that rule of rigid adherence to the original, which the authors of that version had laid down to themselves. But it may safely be asserted, that there is scarcely an instance in which they have not either given us a more correct version of the original, or finer poetry, than their predecessors. The finest psalm in Sternhold is the 100th, and this our version has adopted, with the alteration of only one word in the third line, "Him serve with mirth," instead of "Him serve with fear," as Sternhold has it, different from the original; so scrupulous were they in this matter. Adherence to this rule led them also sometimes to adopt a very obscure version; for where they did not find the original clear, they did not think themselves at liberty to become paraphrasts nor

There is reason to believe that the great leading object which is constantly kept in view in our version, is not generally understood. This object is shortly and accurately expressed in the title page:-"The Psalms of David, in metre, more plain, smooth, and AGREEABLE TO THE TEXT, than any heretofore." The compilers did not propose to give us Psalms of their own, but the Psalms of David, rendered into metre, without admitting a single idea of their own, and without omitting one which they found in the original. The three rules by which they proposed to guide themselves were, That the new version should be smooth, plain, and agreeable to the text;—more so than any heretofore. Agreement with the text, and plainness, they considered as matters of essential import-expositors, but gave, as nearly as possible, the very words ance, and never to be sacrificed. Smoothness was only a matter of taste, and if they could not in every instance combine all the three, they sacrificed this.

The plan thus adopted was certainly a very excellent one, and well calculated to secure unanimity in the minds of all who joined in public worship. Particularly in that age when religious opinions had run riot in no ordinary degree, it would have been found quite impracticable to have produced any human composition which would have met the views of all classes of worshippers; but, in adhering strictly to the ipsissima verba of Scripture, the cordial consent of all who bore the Christian name was effectually secured. This view of the subject is applicable to all periods of the Church, at least of the Protestant Church, in which, from the entire liberty of thinking for himself, which is granted to every man, there must always

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of Scripture. It was solely on this ground that they
have given us the lines in the 74th psalm, which have so
often been made the subject of ignorant ridicule,-
"A man was famous, and was had
In estimation,
According as he lifted up

His axe thick trees upon."

Mr Hopkins has here allowed himself the liberty of a commentator, as he and his fellow-labourer often do, but, like many other commentators, he has quite mistaken the

The first of the following verses are from a Calvinist, the second from an Arminian hymnn:

"Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given:
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.'
"Ah, Lord, with trembling I confess,
A gracious soul may fall from grace:
The salt may lose its seasoning power,
And never, never find it more."

Ps. vii. 9.

16.

In pieces renting it, while there
Is no deliverer."

-"but 'stablish stedfastly."

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-" on his own pate shall come.
"From infants and from sucklings mouth,

Thou diddest strength ordain,

For thy foes cause, that so thou mightst
Th' avenging foe restrain."

sense of the author. The passage is both poetical and beautiful. The Psalmist is lamenting the sad change which had taken place in what related to religion:"There was a time when a man's estimation in society stood high, in proportion to the zeal which he showed in repairing and beautifying the Temple, and in bringing Ps. viii. 2. in materials for that purpose; but now, the chief zeal seems to be, who shall be most active in the work of defacement and demolition." The psalm was probably written during the wicked reign of Manasseh, or at the time when Jerusalem was in the hands of some of her foreign enemies, which was several times the case before its final destruction. On the same ground, a zealous Roman Catholic in Scotland, when the work of destruction among the religious buildings was going on at the Reformation, might have exclaimed, in almost the same language, "Alas! what a change! a man was once famous The two first lines of verse 6th are also very unharmo according as he laid out his wealth in bringing trees from the forest, and stones from the quarry, to rear these splendid and beautiful fabrics; but now, with hammers and axes, they break down the carved work thereof."

The inequality in our version is in some measure owing to the inequality which is to be found in the original. The authors thought it enough if they made that sublime which they found sublime, and that pathetic which was so in the original; but did not think themselves warranted to introduce the flowers and ornaments of poetry where their author had not introduced them.

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The whole of the above verse is extremely unmusical
The next has a most faulty rhyme.
Ps. viii. 3.

nious:

"When I look up unto the heav'ns

Which thine own fingers fram'd, Unto the moon, and to the stars, Which were by thee ordain'd.

"Of thy hand-works thou mad'st him, Lord, All under 's feet did'st lay," &c.

The whole of this Psalm is so exquisitely beautiful i the original, that it deserves the highest degree of polis which can be given it in a metrical version. But, let th original simplicity be held sacred, and all modern embel lishments and tawdry ornaments rigorously banished.

in metre. I have no manner of objection if any ma can produce better psalms or hymns than these, but feel so much satisfied with them, that I wish, in the firs place, to have them pure and entire; and when any ar produced which are better, it will then be time enoug

Besides correcting the present version, there is still an other field open-which is, to give us a few of the most de But with all its merits, it has many faults, which it votional of the Psalms, in long metre, still adhering t would be most desirable to see corrected. This is an age the rule which has guided the authors of the presen in which there is immensely greater facility of versifica-version, that they shall be literally the Psalms of Davi tion than was to be found two hundred years ago; and I beg leave to conclude, with inviting all your poetical correspondents, and all your versifying correspondents, (for this work does not require a poet,) to send in their several quotas. It is not intended to turn your miscellany into a religious magazine, but your desire to promote good taste and good writing, will, it is hoped, ensure a place to any thing of this kind which deserves it. Nor is there any reason to apprehend that your pages will be quite overrun with matter of this kind. If you adhere with unbending steadiness to the rule, that nothing shall be admitted, but what is more smooth, plain, and agreeable to the original than any heretofore, very little space will probably contain the whole.

shall point out a few faulty verses, on which improvers may try their hand :

Ps. i. 3.

Ps. ii. 6

"He shall be like a tree that grows

Near planted by a river,
Which in his season yields his fruit,

And his leaf fadeth never."
"Yet, notwithstanding I have him
To be my King appointed,
And over Zion, my holy hill,
I have him King anointed!"

Ps. iii. 7, 8. "Arise, O Lord, save me, my God,
For thou my foes hast stroke,

Ps. vi. 1.

8.

9.

10. Ps. vii. 2.

All on the cheek-bone; and the teeth
Of wicked men hast broke.

"Salvation doth appertain
Unto the Lord alone,
Thy blessing, Lord, for evermore
Thy people is upon.”

"In thy great indignation," &c.

"But now depart from me, all ye
That work iniquity;

For why? The Lord hath heard my voice,
When I did mourn and cry."

"Unto my supplication," &c.
"That enemies are to me," &c.
"Lest that the enemy my soul
Should like a lion tear,

to consider them.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF
EDINBURGH.

WERNERIAN SOCIETY.

Saturday, 20th March.

Dr GREVILLE, V. P. in the Chair.
Present,-Professor Jameson, Drs Scot, Hibbert, Henr
Witham, Walker Arnott, Patrick Neill, James Wilson
&c. &c., Esquires.

Mr JAMES WILSON read a paper "On the Origin of ou Domestic Poultry;" with a view to illustrate which, spec mens of the wild poultry of India, from the College Mu seum, were exhibited by the Essayist. He remarked, the of the many benefits which Providence has enabled man t draw from the numerous tribes of the feathered race, ther is none which surpasses in extent and utility the domest cation of those most familiarly known of all birds, calle par excellence, the Cock and Hen. So ancient has bee the subservience of this species to the human race, that authentic traditionary traces now remain of its original in troduction to any of the more ancient kingdoms of the earth; and its existence under the protection of man appear indeed, coeval with the most antique records. It seem like the faithful and accommodating dog, to have joined i fortunes to the earliest families of our race, and to have fo lowed man in all his migrations, until it lost, under ti joint influence of climate and culture, almost all resen blance to the stock from which it sprung. The obscurit which hangs over the origin of our domestic poultry, ha occasioned more inconclusive speculation that almost an other question in natural history. It has been inferre from the epithet "Persian bird," applied by Aristophan to the cock, that it came originally from Persia; but no tra veller since the revival of letters has been able to discove any species of wild poultry in that country. In all pr bability the expression of Aristophanes infers no more tha that the Greeks obtained from the Persians an alread domesticated breed. It appeared from the learned discus sion read by Dr Scot, at the last meeting of the Society that domestic poultry are not specifically alluded to in th

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