Page images
PDF
EPUB

Cold and unmoved can man stand looking on,
When universal nature seems to glow,
And ask for motives to inspire devotion?
Then let him think, to melt his icy heart,
That God, who sits enthroned as far above
The farthest star, as that from this our earth,
And makes creation's ample round his footstool;
That God, whom seraphs numberless surround,
The spotless, fit partakers of his glory,

Such, as even He can look upon with pleasure,
As in resemblance nearest to himself;

That God, to whom all heaven is adoration,
Stoops from his awful height, and sheds a beam
Of kind regard through starry spheres unnoticed
Down upon him, the lowest, that has mind;
Consults his interest, as he rules the skies,
And with Archangels shares to him his love.
Who, that retains a relish for perfection,
And is not past the power of being grateful,
Can view such goodness, such omnipotence,
Such condescension, and such elevation,
So gloriously united, and not glow
With pure devotion's warmest gratitude?
Yet some there are, whose vile, polluted hearts,
To ease the torturing dread of just desert,
Persuade their dupish, menial heads to think,
That o'er creation there presides no God.

Pause here, base infidel, and raise thine eye;
Think'st thou, that all above is selfcreated,
Selfplac'd, selfmov'd, selfgovern'd, selfsupported?
Seest thou no plan in that wide waste of worlds,
Moving by rule, as if they knew their course?
Dost thou not feel thy firm foundations fall,
Thy tottering knees, spite of thy stubborn heart,
Confess the shock, convicted reason feels,
And bend in awe to him, whose name appears
Inscribed in capitals on all his works?
Think on the fearful greatness of that God,
Whom by denying thou hast made thy foe.
Nought can defy his power. With equal ease
He lights a taper and ten thousand suns.

[ocr errors]

One gracious word speaks systems into being;
One wrathful nod dooms all to dissolution.
Humbled to dust at such Omnipotence,
Dost thou not tremble for thy future fate,
Lest he, whom thou hast dared to disbelieve,
Shall prove his being by his just resentment?
When falling worlds shall crush his guilty foes,
Will then thy infidelity protect thee,

And from thy head avert that awful vengeance,
That triple, that unequalled weight of wrath,
Which thy unequalled guilt shall then demand?
Form not a plan, whose basis is thy ruin.
Join with the stars and own, there is a God;
Join with the stars and propagate his praise.
Safe, in the hollow of his own right hand,
Thou then shalt calmly hear the thundering sound
Of suns and systems tumbling into chaos,
As the glad signal of thy heaven begun.

Whene'er we feel devotion's fervor cool,
Passion and sense withdraw us from the skies,
And chain us grovelling to the joys of earth;
We'll seek the kind remonstrance of the stars;
A holy inspiration thence receive,

And drop each wish, that then shall stand reprov'd.
We'll mount on thought, till worldly scenes retire,
And God and heaven alone possess the heart.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

F.

TEN volumes of the "Lycée, où Cours de Littérature ancienne "et moderne ; par J. F. LAHARPE," had been published at Paris in the year 1800. As this extensive work is but little known in this country, some information respecting its character and design may be acceptable to our readers,

Laharpe had formed the design of reviewing the whole both of ancient and modern literature; of criticising the different authors, and balancing their merits; of writing the history of philosophy and of the arts from Homer to Racine, and from Racine to Delille; from Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes down to Descartes, Pascal, and Bossuet; and from these last to Buffon, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. The design was immense, and required a vast extent of learning, and an acknowledged su'periority of taste. There are but few men, who would not have

shrunk from the undertaking; but Laharpe was not to be discouraged by difficulties. In the prosecution of his purpose he had given the world, in the year above mentioned, ten volumes; and since then, it is believed, six or seven others.

Of those ten the three first are employed in the examination of Greek and Latin epic poetry, of the tragic and comic writers of Athens and Rome, of their lyric poets, their orators, their histoians, and their philosophers.

The four following volumes are devoted to the age of Louis XIV. The three last contain an analysis of all the French poems, composed in the eighteenth century, and of the dramatic works of Voltaire.

Some general discourses are placed at the head of the princi pal divisions of the work. They contain observations upon the art of criticism, and extracts from the great writings of critics, to which all ages and all nations have had recourse for the rules of taste. Thus he has particularly considered the critical works of Aristotle, Longinus, Cicero, and Quintilian; and the thoughts of the new critic illuminate and confirm those of his predecessors. The manner of his writing, says the Mercure De France, always corresponds with the subject, of which he treats, and with the talents, which he estimates. His style becomes elevated with Homer, grave and profound with Tacitus, sublime and rapid with Bossuet. Open the first volume, and you are instantly struck with his observations upon Homer. Laharpe characterises him with eloquence peculiar to himself, and his voice seems to give new authority to the voice of all ages, united in the praise of the Grecian Bard.

It is not known, that the Cours de Littérature has ever been translated. As a specimen of the author's style, a few sentences of his observations upon Homer are put into an English dress.

86

"After the embassy of the Greeks I saw with regret, that the battle was to be renewed; and said to myself, that it would "be impossible for the poet, while laboring always upon the 86 same subject, to introduce any thing else, that would be worthy of Homer. But, when I beheld him in the eleventh and "following books becoming superior to himself; rising on rapid wing to a height, which seemed continually to increase; giv ing to his action a new form; substituting in the place of indi"vidual combats the tremendous shock of two vast bodies, pre"cipitated one against the other by the heroes, who command"ed, and the gods, who animated them; balancing for a long "time with inconceivable art a victory, which the decrees of Ju piter had promised to the valor of Hector; then the imagination of the poet seemed to be fired with the whole fury of both "armies. I followed him breathless, dragged along by his magic; I was upon the field of battle; I saw the Greeks pres «sed between the intrenchments, which they had formed, and "the ships, which were their last refuge; the Trojans rushing

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"forwards in crowds to force the barrier; Sarpedon, pulling “down one of the battlernents of the wall; Hector, throwing an enormous rock against the gates, which were shut, bursting "them open with tremendous noise, and crying aloud for a torch to burn the ships; Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, Euripe"des, Machaon, almost all the Grecian chiefs, wounded and re"moved from the field of battle; Ajax alone, the last rampart "of the Greeks, covering them with his valor and his shield, over"powered with fatigue, and pushed almost against his ship, but "always driving back the conquering enemy; finally the flames rising from the burning fleet, and at this moment the grand "and awful figure of Achilles, mounted upon the stern of his "ship, and beholding with tranquil and cruel joy' this signal, ἐσ which Jupiter had promised, and which awaited his vengeance. "I stopped in admiration of the vast genius, which had constructed this machine; I'experienced an inexpressible rapture; I thought, I knew for the first time all, that was Homer; I enjoyed a secret and unutterable pleasure in perceiving, that my "admiration was equal to his genius and celebrity; that it was "not in vain, that thirty centuries had consecrated his name ; " and it gave me double joy to find this man so great, and all "others so just.”

46

............

THERE has lately been published at Portland « An Epitome of book "keeping by double entry, delineated on a scale, suited to the faculties and "comprehension of senior school boys and youth, designed for the mercantile "line, &c. by THOMAS TURNER, professor and teacher of book keeping in "Portland." Printed by Jenks and Shirley. This epitome appears, particularly from its conciseness and cheap acquisition, to deserve peculiar attention. A knowledge of book keeping in a country so mercantile, as this, must be ranked high in the general estimation, and be accounted indispensable in the youth, who is to enter the counting house. Even the retailer will find a benefit from this little work, which professes to give him " rules for keeping retail books by double "entry without altering the process of single entry in the day book or jour"nal for all sales of merchandise, by which one half the writing is saved.” The merchant indeed is perhaps amply supplied with the assistance of systems of book keeping for all his purposes, but we conceive, an " epitome" was wanting for the young student, which should be cheap, concise, abounding in examples, and not requiring too much exertion of thought for the juvenile mind. Such a desideratum, we conceive, is now obtained in Mr. Turner's book, and as such cannot but feel a pleasure in recommending it; but to the professed merchant its estimation must ultimately be referred. As an American production we wish it success. "The author has studiously endeavored to avoid swelling the "work with unnecessary repetitions and examples," but will add the forms of charter parties, bottomry, bills of sale, bills of lading, &c. should he " happily * meet encouragement to his labors, and be enabled to revise the work for a new "edition." It concludes with a " method of teaching scholars," which deserves attention from instructors of schools in mercantile towns, where, it is not doubted, this book might be introduced to advantage, among the more advanced students. Mr. Turner has also issued Proposals for printing a “ system of book keeping by double entry,” to consist of about 300 pages 8vo, and to be put to press as soon, as subscriptions may authorise the undertaking.”

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

LITERARY MISCELLANY.

PRIMITIVE HISTORY.

CHAP. III.

[Continued from page 208.]

Events from the Creation to the Flood.

THE numerous harbors of Danoostan had by this time furnished large fleets, which rivalled the Asiatics upon the Mediterranean. That sea was then much narrower, than at present, and was to be considered not so much a bay of the ocean, as an outlet of the rivers. It did not therefore require so great a spirit of adventure to navigate it then, even with the same kind of boats and without a compass, as it would at present. They could not then be long absent from the shore. The Danoos, possessing generally a less fertile region, than the territories of the patriarch, and having less skilful artists in the various manufactures, which entered into their trade, occupied themselves in committing depredations on commerce. The armed vessels were termed Graha, crocodiles, and sharks, and spoken of, as seamonsters. At the beginning of the eleventh century they had become very troublesome.

About this time the history of Perseus and Andromeda is to be applied. Perseus is a different man from the Greek, who was grandson of Acrisius, and to whom his countrymen ascribed the achievement. This man was an African from the west of the Nile. The story is told at length in the Asiatic Researches. On the mountains of Jwalamuc'ha, suppos ed by our author to be the same with Ur of the Chaldees, reigned a virtuous and religious prince, named Carvanayanas, who appears to have been Rishi or viceroy of the counVol. iii, p. 214.

PP

« PreviousContinue »