When from the angelic multitule swelld forth
The niany-voiced consonance of praise :-
Glory in the highest to God, and upon earth
Peace: towards men good-will. But once before
In such glad strains of joyous fellowship,
The silent earth was greeted by the heavens,
When at its first foundation they look'd down
From their bright orbs, those heavenly ministries,

Hailing the new-born world with bursts of joy.' Pp 3, 4. The poem then passes to the massacre of the Innocents, the destruction of Jerusalem, and its modern state, the predicted restoration of the Jews, and, after an animated apostrophe to England as the chosen • Evangelist of nations,' breaks forth in the following indignant strain :

• There was a nation-whisper not its name
Lords of the realm through which old Ganges rolls
Her guilty stream, land populous with gods,
Olympus of the East : those Christian loris,
Great Juggernaut's copartners, shared the gains
Of his lewd triumphs, winking at the cheat.
Yea, and at Doorga feasts, the Christian fair
Did graceful homage to the mis-shaped gods,
And pledged the cup of demons. Then we heard,
To veil their shame, of Hindoo innocence :
Meek, simple, virtuous, mild idolaters,
They needed not to learn the Christians' faith.
Witness the dire suttee, the corse-strewn plain,
Where vultures track the abominable car
Of blood-stain'd lewdness. Bear thou witness too,
River of hell, whose deadly baptism stains
E'en to the soul its victim. Witness ye
Dark sanctuaries, whence shrieks, with laugh obscene
Commingling, speak the worship and the god.
O righteous sword of Mahomed, which gave
The shaven crowns of those infernal priests
To their own goddess, a meet sacrifice,
Fresh beads for Kali's necklace. Not with sword
Or spear of earthly temper, sainted WARD,
Didst thou, with thy heroic compeers, take
The field, and patiently sit down before
The thrice-entrenched Pandemonium
Of central Ind. Slowly, by sap and mine,
The painful siege proceeds, and many an arm
Must fail, and many a martyr wreath be won,
Until at length the powers of bell shall yield;
And He whose right it is, shall enter in
To reign. Lift up your heads, ye fortress gates!
Ye long-closed barriers of the East, give way! pp. 9, 10

a

Persia, China, and Taheite, presented objects too decidedly poetical to be neglected.

• Land of the Sun, once thy fond idol ! Land
Of rose gardens, where aye the bulbul sings
His most voluptuous song! Thou mother land
And cradle of the nations ! Land of Cyrus !
(Shall e'er a second Cyrus spring from thee?),
Thy palaces have heard a heavenly voice :
A prophet's feet have trod thy burning soil:
A i man of God" has left bis name with thee.
Thy sage Mollahs, say, have they yet resolu'd ,
The Christian's knotty interrogatives?
Go, send for aid to Mecca. Ha! the Arab!
The Wahabite is there! The Caliphate,
Shrunk to the shadow of a name, survives
But in thy Othman rival, who e'en now
Sees Egypt lost, and quails before the Greek.
Rouse thee! shake off the trammels of a creed
Forged to enslave thee. From thy Soofish dreams
Awake to manlier life ; and, if thou canst,
Call up thy ancient Magi from their rest,
To lead the to His rising, who returns
To gladden thee with healing in his beams,
The Sun whom thou mayst worship. Thy Euphrates
Shall flee his ancient channel, to prepare
A passage for the monarchs of the East,

And thou, “ Celestial Empire !” teeming hive
Of millions ! vast impenetrable realm!
The hour is writ in heaven, thy yellow sons
Shall bow at the holy name, and woman there
Relent into the mother. Human loves
And softest charities shall in the train
Of heavenly faith attend. Thy wondrous wall
Is scaled, thy mystic tongue decipher'd now.

• Where, in the furthest deserts of the deep,
The coral-worm its architecture vast
Uprears, and new-made islands have their birth,
The Paphian Venus, driven from the West,
In Polynesian groves long undisturbid
Her shameful rites and orgies foul maintain'd.
The wandering voyager at Taheite found
Another Daphne. On his startled ear,
What unaccustom'd sounds come from those shiotes,
Charming the lone Pacific ? Not the shouts
Of war, nor maddening songs of Bacchanals;
But, from the rude Morai, the full-toned psalm
Or Christian praise. A moral miracle !
Taheite now enjoys the gladdening smile
Of sabbaths. Savage dialects, unheard
At Babel, or at Jewish Pentecost,
Now first articulate divinest sounds. pp. 10–13.

Gre enland, the Indians of North America, Africa, then pass along the field of this poetical magic-lantern, and are followed by an apostrophe to the Star of Bethlehem, that will not be overlooked.

• Star! the most august of all that clasp
The star-girt heav'n, which erst in eastern skies
Didst herald, like the light of prophecy,
The Sun of Righteousness,--the harbinger
Of more than natural day; whether thou track
The circuit of the universe, or thrid,
As with a golden clew, the labyrinth
Of suns and systems, still from age to age
Auguring to distant spheres some glorious doom ;
Sure thou thy blessed circle hast well nigh
Described, and in the majesty of liglit,
Bending on thy return, wilt soon' announce
His second advent. Yes, even now thy beams
Suffuse the twilight of the nations. Light
Wakes in the region where gross darkness veil'd

The people. They who in death's shadow sat,
Shall hail that glorious rising; for the shade
Prophetic shrinks before the

dawning ray
That cast it : forms of earth that interposed,
· Shall vanish, scatter'd like the dusky clouds
Before the exultant morn; and central day

All shadowless, even to the poles shall reign.' pp. 16, 17. The Scriptures and the progress of knowledge claim an emphatic notice, and the signs of the present times afford an appropriate subject for the conclusion:

The · Sacred Poems'. consist chiefly of versions of the Psalms, and of stanzas suggested by different passages of Scripture. There are a few of a more general cast, among which we were well pleased to recognise the Reverie,' from the additions to the second edition of the Associate Minstrels.' The 145th Psalm is versified in a measure of which we do not, at the present moment, recollect a previous instance, and which, we think, produces a very impressive effect. It is the heroic rhyme alternated. We shall give a part. • I will extol thy name, O God,

my king :
For ever will I bless Thee. Day by day
Shall my glad lips Thy daily goodness sing;

To Thee an everlasting tribute pay.
• Great is the Lord, unfathomably great :

Exalted as his greatness be his praise.
Oh, teach it to your children, and relate

His deeds of might, the goodness of his ways.

/

• Tell of Jehovah's glorious majesty ;

Tell of his power that spread the heavens abroad;
Tell of the flaming mount, the parting sea, -

How earth, and sea, and heaven obeyed their God.
• Tell of the bread from heaven that daily fell;

The new born spring that made the desert glad ;
The mystic guide, that constant miracle,

A cloud by day, by night with glory clad.
• Gracious and merciful is God : how slow

To anger, and how ready to forgive !
The Lord is good : how free his inercies flow!

His bounty is the life of all that live.
Thce, all thy works, Maker omnipotent,

Throughout the various realms of nature praise :
Thee, all

thy saints, with voice intelligent
Adoring, sing the wonders of thy ways.
• Oh, let them to an impious world proclaim

That glory, power, and government are Thine :
Till earih confess the terrors of thy name,

And kings to Thee their shadowy crowns resign.'

6

pp. 45–47.

The 148th Psalm is of more convenient length, and we shall cite it without mutilation.

• PRAISE Jehovah, all on high

Saints and angels fix'd in bliss,
All ye countless hosts of his ;
Sun by day, and moon by night,
Praise Him, all ye stars of light ;
Highest heavens, and all things there,

Waters poised in purest air,
And all ye realms of sky!

Praise His name, at whose command,
All things were, and all things stand
Still their ancient course they holu,

By th’ Almighty word controllid !
• Praise Jehovah, all below-

Watery depths, and all that be
In the wonder-teeming, sea;
Central fire and icy hail,
Dews, and snow, and stormy gale,
Blowing only as He wills;
Ancient mountains, wood-clad hills,
Palm and olive, oak and pine,
Waving corn and clustering vine ;
Forest beasts, and bleating herds,

Creeping things, and soaring birds,
And rivers as ye flow:

*

Monarchs, with your people all,
Princes, peasants, great and small;
Manly youth and virgins shy,
Age and lisping infancy :
Praise Jehovah's glorious name :
He alone doth worship claim.
But His glory, vast, sublime,
Passes earth, and heaven, and time.
He His chosen seed hath blest :
They should praise their Maker best.
O ye saints, His love record :

Praise, for ever praise the Lord ! pp. 48-50.
We shall close our extracts from this division with the fol-
lowing

"A THOUGHT ON THE SEA-SHORE.
• BEYOND, beyond that boundless sea,

Above that dome of sky,
Further than thought itself can flee,

Thy dwelling is on high;
Yet, dear the awful thought to me,

That Thou, my God, art nigh :-
· Art nigh, and yet my labouring mind

Feels after Thee in vain,
Thee in these works of power to find,

Or to Thy seat attain.
Thy messenger, the stormy wind,

Thy path, the trackless main
• These speak of Thee with loud acclaim ;

They thunder forth thy praise,
The glorious honour of Thy name,

The wonders of Thy ways:
But Thou art not in tempest-flame,

Nor in day's glorious blaze.,
• We hear thy voice, when thunders roll

Through the wide fields of air.
The waves obey Thy dread control

Yet still Thou art not there.
Where shall I find Him, O my soul,
Who yet is every where?

20179
• Oh, not in circling depth, or height,'scr. 11")

But in the conscious breast,
Present to faith, though veil'd from siglit,

There does His Spirit rest.
O come, thou Presence Infinite,

And make tby creature blest.? pp. 74, 75.