I. 2. Oh! holy harp-of nobler strain Than Homer's torrent song, or Maro's lay, But wake again-be strong once more To sing those PROPHET-BARDS of yore, Who, on thy wires their glowing praise expressed Their song forth flaming from their breast Since first the leader of the anointed host Beheld the proud Egyptian's boast, Humbled beneath his vengeful rod And sung with rapturous voice the triumph of his God.* I. 3. Whelmed beneath the angry wave While the timbrels joined the chorus And the virgins tuned their voice, "Shout! our foes are fallen before us And ye holy tribes rejoice! Behold the triumph that your God hath made Behold the horse and rider in the deep, Low, 'neath the surge is haughty Pharo laid, And Egypt's daughters are but left to weep. Vain were their steeds of war-their chariots vain Our God but sent his breath-the embattled hosts were slain." II. 1. Hushed is the song. The muse divine Led by the mystic cloud and pillar'd blaze, Journeys towards Canaan's land of milk and wine. At length on Sion-hill she stood, (A home, how pleasant and how good!) And waked again to song her murmuring shell, + Thy monarch heard, oh Israel! When heavy gloom perplexed his breast, And fiend-wrought fears his troubled soul opprest— Lulled by the sound, his griefs were still; While rung the magic chords-while gushed th' harmonious rill. We may date the commencement of Hebrew poetry at the time when Moses and the children of Israel sang their song of triumph at the Red Sea.-Exodus-XV. Chapter. † Saul-who when David played on the harp, was free from the influence of evil spirits; as, see 1 Samuel, XVI. 23. II. 2. • Hark, in the palace halls, the lay, Sung by the royal bard, is rising high; The monarch's fingers o'er the harp-strings play, Around celestial glory gleams, All radiant with etherial beams The dove-like Spirit lights upon the lyre, While echoing round, the dazzled chamber rings When high in heaven the song ascends And o'er his golden harp th' adoring seraph bends. II, 3. +Now-emerging from the wood Wrapt in odors sweet and good, While Spring unbinds the flood. And the vineyard yields perfume. Bids towering Salem's beauteous maids rejoice- And charms the list'ning mountains with his voice. Nor far behind him comes a sainted sire, His harp with rapture strung-his lips III. 1. Oh noblest of the reverend seers- Oh, more than mortal bard-what power is thine! That wakes to pure delight-or melts to tears. To thee alone of men 'twas given With mortal eyes to gaze on heaven To see, when light unkindled shone, The sceptered Thunderer's flaming throne To view the Cherubim before Their awful monarch bend-and veiled adore: To know the homage angels pay To hear their lofty praise, and imitate the lay. Descriptive of the Psalms. ↑ King Solomon's Canticles, the style of which it imitates. 1 Isaiah's prophecies. Isaiah was probably the most sublime of the Hebrew poets. The Uzzian bard is of course not reckoned among the Jewish prophets. See the circumstances to which the following strophe refers in Isaiah, VI. chapter, 1 verse, et seq. III. 2. Now he on whom thy mantle fell,* Awed by the heavenly vision pours his prayer. The starry orbs were hushed with fear: But hark-a plaintive voice declares at hand And sad his sighing words foretell The woes on thee to fall-God-nurtured Israel!t III. 3. Far from Sion's holy hill, Lo! the muse sedate and still, Hangs upon the willow's bough Her harp-once sweet but tuneless now And weeps o'er all her ill. Her thoughts to distant Salem flying, Sad she views in ruin lying All the pride and towering glory Of the home she loved so well, Juda's fields with carnage goryHinnom-made the vale of hell! Alas! sad land-No more the muse shall tread By cool Siloam stream, or Zion hill, But mute she bends o'er heathen rills her head, And weeps for thee; though lost-remembered still. O'er her fair limbs is tattered sackcloth flung; Hangs o'er her drooping head, her sorrowing lyre unstrung! A. C. C. * Habbakuk, III. chapter. The Prophecies of Jeremiah. The Babylonish Captivity. CRITICAL NOTICES. Crichton; by W. Harrison Ainsworth, Esq. In two Volumes. New-York; Harper and Brothers. Our of materials, evidently collected with great labor and research, the author of Rookwood has built up a novel of classic elegance and harmonious proportions. Indeed, so various is the knowledge which he displays of the peculiar manners, customs, and lore, of that chivalric period when the admirable Scott blazed comet-like before the gaze of Europe, that we are half inclined to suspect that the story was formed rather as a setting for these gems of learning, than that they were gathered for the purpose of illustrating and adorning the fiction itself. Page after page meets us with so much that is strange and fantastic in ornament, that we are constantly reminded of the antique illuminations on the margins of parchment-books-and fancy that the letters will start into curious shapes, with colours of green, and blue, and red. In two or three of the songs which are introduced, the American publisher has with good taste copied the blackletter of the English edition. We are not disposed to favor similar affectations in printing sometimes introduced by the author to prank forth meanness of thought and expression; but such aids to the fancy in a modern book, which treats of the olden time, are not to be neglected. "Crichton" will not be a popular novel. It does not lack strong and rapid interest, but it is very far from being written in the intensive style of the day. The stars are no where apostrophized, the moon is not invoked to descend from her cerulean throne, the breezes are not called upon to fan the cheek and lift the ringlets of any beautiful female with large hazel eyes, nor are those eyes made the theme of enthusiastic effusion for six or more mortal pages. The incidents are startling, and often wonderful, but not altogether impracticable. The reader is not mercilessly stretched out on the rack of suspense, nor is his curiosity tortured on the slow revolving wheel of digression. There are no impertinences, no outrages on common sense, and no mysterious gvings out, which seem to have all the awkward contortions without the inspiration of the Sybil. For these reasons and some others, the novel will not take with the public. The faults we have to find are that the story is too conplex, too dream-like; one event is tangled with another; there is not sufficient clearness; the mind is constantly distracted by the illustrations from the story. The portrait of Crichton is very admirably drawn, and so is that of Esclairmonde, the heroine. We are occasionally arrested by such beautiful passages as those; but we pass over all the songs and many descriptions to get at the tale. These songs and descriptions are so episodical that one could read every incident in the volumes without stopping to look at one of them. In some places you may turn over half a dozen pages without losing any thing that has happened to the characters on the scene. "Crichton" would have afforded an admirable subject for a drama; but the author followed the taste of the age and made a romance. All the qualities for a stage-hero are marvellously combined in Crichton. He was a sort of private Buonaparte. He conquered in the schools, he conquered in the lists, he conquered in the ball room. His beauty was matched only by his strength. When he danced, he seemed Apollo stepped from his pedestal; when he fought, he was Mars descended from his car. He is first introduced by the author, after having just concluded a learned contest with the doctors of the University of Paris. He had come off victor by universal acclaim, and was there and then first endowed with the title by which he was ever afterwards distinguished-" The Admirable." So immense was the attendance of great men from all parts of France, to witness the discussion, that the scholars of the University were excluded, and forced to remain without the gates with the populace, who waited to witness among the nobles and chiefs of the kingdom, the egress of this world wonder. After a graphic description of the magnificent train which preceded, the rector is introduced. "At his side, and on his right hand, walked one on whom all eyes were bent with wonder and curiosity. The rector and his companion stopped without the gateway, when, as if they were influenced by some sudden and uncontrollable impulse, one long, loud, continuous acclamation burst from the ranks of the scholars, Nor were the graver members of the university silent. Even the doctors of theology lent the aid of their voices-while the archers, raising themselves in their stirrups, lifted their helmets from their brows, and waving them in the air, increased and prolonged the clamor by their vociferations. "Crichton, for the reader will no doubt have surmised that he was the 'loadstar of all eyes,' possessed an exterior so striking, and a manner so eminently prepos sessing, that his mere appearance seemed to act like a spell on the beholders. The strongest sympathy was instantly and universally excited in his favor. Youth is ever interesting; but youth so richly graced as Crichton's, could not fail to produce an extraordinary impression. At the sight of him, the whole aspect of things was changed. Enthusiasm, amounting almost to devotion, usurped the place of animosity, and all vindicative feelings, resulting from wounded pride or other petty annoyances, were obliterated or forgotten. Even discomfiture wore the aspect of victory. "But in the demeanor of the victor no external sign of self-elation was perceptible. He might not be insensible to the distinction of his achievement, but he plumed himself not upon it, or rather, with the modesty ever inherent in true greatness, appeared to underrate his own success. His cheek was slightly flushed, and a smile of tempered satisfaction played upon his countenance as he acknowledged the stunning applauses of the concourse before him. No traces of overexertion or excitement were visible in his features or deportment. He would seem, to judge from his composed and collected manner, to have quitted a debate in which he had taken no further part than that of an auditor. His brow was unclouded, his look serene, his step buoyant ;-and, as his bright eye wandered over the multitude, there was not an individual upon whom his gaze momentarily rested, but felt his heart leap within his breast. "The countenance of Crichton was one that Phidias might have portrayed, so nearly did its elevated and ennobled character of beauty approach to the ideal standard of perfection erected by the great Athenian sculptor. Chiselled like those of some ancient head of the Delphic god, the features were wrought with the utmost fineness and precision-the contour of the face was classical and harmonious-the mens divinior breathed from every lineament--the lips were firm, full, and fraught with sensibility, yet giving token of the most dauntless resolu tion--the chin was proudly curved-the nose Grecian--the nostril thin and haughty as that of an unbroken barb of the desert-the brow was ample and majestical, shaded by dark brown hair, disposed in thick ringlets after the manner of the antique. There was a brilliancy of color and a sparkling freshness in Crichton's complexion, the more surprising, as the pallid hue and debilitated look of the toil-worn student might more naturally be expected in his features than the rosy bloom of health. In compliance with the fashion of the day, a slight mustache feathered his upper lip, and a short pointed beard clothed his chin, and added to the grave manliness of his aspect. |