sentation, or obloquy from continuing the course upon which they have entered. Let them pursue it, as they have begun, with an energy and perseverance worthy of the cause, till every prison shall be converted into a house of reform, and punishment shall be regarded more in relation to the security of society and its future effect upon the character, than to its bearing upon past delinquencies.

ART. III.—A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. Boston. Carter & Hendee. 1830. 18mo.

THE greatest perfection to which religious poetry has yet been carried is in the Psalms of David.' The history of David gives more than its usual truth to the maxim, that the first successful efforts in any kind of composition have commonly an absolute excellence, and all succeeding works have an inferior comparative merit. The Bible was translated into English at a time, however unfavorable for the pure transmission of its doctrine, the most favorable in the history of the language, for its poetry. Without entering on the question of inspiration, or being too curious as to the causes of their power, we probably give the opinion of most Christians in giving our own, that these strains, through the medium of the plain English translation, do make a deeper impression on the heart, than any other religious poetry, ancient or modern. They are older than criticism, and have all the merits of that age. The images with which they abound are taken directly from nature and not borrowed from older poets, and are the proper garment of the thoughts. It is the poetry of a lover of nature in the morning of civilization. Civilization operates to draw men within doors, and to fix their eyes so much on works of art, as to hide the mountain and the desert and the sea. Then the love of nature is increased, and a higher interest given to the Psalm by the love of God. The most remarkable merit of this poetry certainly is, the lively and affectionate conception of God, which seems to imply of necessity the truth of the Jewish history, and, with whatever injurious errors it is coupled, is far the most distinct and affecting description of the Deity that is to be found, out of the New Testament and writings indebted to it.

This body of poetry has always commended itself to the Christian church as the best vehicle of devotional feeling down to a recent age. In the time of Henry the Eighth, Sternhold and Hopkins turned them into English verse; and it is a singular instance of the force of association, that the love of David could reconcile Milton to the wretchedness of the English version, and imprison even his genius in the same mean stanza. His paraphrases of some of the Psalms are still retained in the editions of his Minor Poems. It may be remarked also, that Lord Bacon had written some of the same doggrel, and so had Dr. Henry More, another of the great writers of the age of Elizabeth.

The maxim of ancient philosophy, that 'the same can only be known by the same,' may be well applied to these attempts to present the Psalms in an English metre. They require a mind of kindred character to the Psalmist. Dr. Watts has excelled all his tuneful brethren in this work, because to great power of numbers he added a very fervent piety. But it was found that the best rendering of the Psalter, however useful as a book of devotion, could very imperfectly express the wants and feelings of a modern assembly. An unwarrantable perversion of the national and local imagery of David had become necessary to give it any kind of accommodation to the present state of the Christian church. It was far better to let it sing its own songs. For this reason Hymns began to be written. We shall always regret that this class of compositions, now so important by the considerable place it fills in our public worship, did not fall into better hands. It is not fit that men of common powers should write our hymns. If every hymn to be sung in our churches could have come from the powerful and hallowed minds that have thought for the human race, and instead of being regarded as an occasional and inferior exercise, had been the vent of their best and deepest contemplations upon God and nature, these minds would have enjoyed an influence which will never be granted to their epics and books of philosophy or criticism. It is the well known saying of a distinguished statesman, 'Let who will make the laws of a people; give me the making of their songs.' So it is not the Bodies of Divinity, nor the ablest religious works, whether in prose or verse, that can ever hope to enter into the heart and faith of a nation, like the familiar religious song that is in their mouth

every Sunday, aided in its effect by the reverence of the Bible, the power of music, the associations of the place, and the sympathy of a congregation. Milton should have written hymns for those who speak the English tongue; and whatsoever sublime bard has sung to any people, could best have instructed them by doing this office.

But whilst we say what might have been done, and what we hope will yet be done, we do not undervalue the simple and pious strains which are now used in the church, bequeathed to us by so many excellent men. Many of our hymns possess great merit, and the Collection which has called our attention to this subject, has shown us that this department of sacred literature is richer than we supposed. Every lover of religious poetry probably thinks he can make a better hymn-book than any one he has seen; but our own confidence in this proposition has been somewhat shaken by the examination of Mr. Greenwood's work. It contains five hundred and sixty hymns, selected with taste and judgment from various and some of them rather unfrequented sources. It is both older and newer than other works of the same kind, inasmuch as it contains more of the ancient hymns than former compilations, whilst it is enriched by many selections from Bishop Heber, and from Montgomery and other living poets. It is an excellence of this book, that it contains a large number of hymns composed in a strain of fervent piety and peculiarly adapted to Christian worship. Of this character are the hymns selected from the Moravian and the Methodist Collections. We quote the following verses, which are taken from Wesley's Collection.

A soul inured to pain,

To hardship, grief, and loss,
Bold to take up, firm to sustain
The consecrated cross.

'I want a godly fear,

A quick discerning eye,

That looks to thee when sin is near,
And sees the tempter fly;

A spirit still prepared,

And armed with jealous care,
For ever standing on its guard,
And watching unto prayer.

'I want a true regard,

A single, steady aim,

Unmoved by threatening or reward,

To thee and thy great name;

A zealous, just concern

A

For thine immortal praise;

pure desire that all may learn

And glorify thy grace.'-Hymn 284.

We are very glad to find the fine hymn from Cowper, be

ginning

'To keep the lamp alive,

With oil we fill the bowl;

'T is water makes the willow thrive,

And grace that feeds the soul.

"The Lord's unsparing hand

Supplies the living stream;

It is not at our own command,

But still derived from him.'- Hymn 323.

There are some hymns of that decided merit that pleases every taste. The noble 'Te Deum' of Patrick, the versions of Addison or Marvell; Miss Williams's Hymn, entitled 'Devotion;' Mrs. Barbauld's version of Habakkuk, iii. 17

19; the best known verses of Watts and of Doddridge; and the fine old hymn, annually sung to the tune of St. Martin's in University Hall at Cambridge, Give ear, my children, to my law,' &c., are of this class; and, except the last, which we are sorry to miss, are retained in the present Collection. Most of those hymns which every lover of psalmody looks for, he will probably find. It is, in our eyes, an addi

tional recommendation of this book, that the interpolations which have been thrust into the hymns of Watts and Doddridge, sometimes making the dead and defenceless poet say what he would abhor to say, are here exchanged for the genuine readings. And besides the justice, the poetry commonly gains by the restoration. The following beautiful verses of Watts, among others, are restored to their original simplicity and pathos.

ART. IV. - Professor STUART's Appendix to his Exegetical Essays on several Words relating to Future Punishment. Andover. 1830.

12mo.

[A Letter.]

SINCE the publication of my Letter in the Examiner for September, 1830, I have seen Professor Stuart's Appendix to his Exegetical Essays on several Words relating to Future Punishment.' In this Appendix, he offers remarks on the Letter above mentioned; from which remarks, I make the following extract; He [the present writer] still maintains (p. 26), as he first did, that "air means spirituality, in the more ancient Greek," and that "the Seventy probably used it in a kindred sense in their version."