APPENDIX. able to restrain the fervour of inspiration, he rises above the world and speaks unto God himself. After considering the majesty of his creator, this inspired writer with an abrupt brevity declares the irresistible success of his word. The image is grand of a whole nation stretching out her arms unto God: and who does not bow with adoration before that infinite being who rideth upon the heavens of heavens? Who does not hear his voice, his mighty voice? Who does not ascribe strength unto him whose excellency is over Israel and whose strength is in the clouds? There is no instance of any writers except the sacred penmen who have risen to the dignity of the divine attributes. The fabled Jupiter of the Heathens at whose nod Olympus shook to its centre, is but a feeble being in comparison with that God who is described by the prophets--What an infamous assemblage are Homer's deities! How poor were the conceptions of the wisest ancient philosophers of the source of all being! Compared with the scriptures their language is the babling of children. Even Milton sometimes sinks beneath the greatness of his attempts. Had he not built upon the foundation of the scriptures, his mighty fabric would have crumbled to the dust---From the sacred volume he derived his light; this was the APPENDIX. treasure which enriched his wonderful imagination and rendered him only inferior to the voice of inspiration. EXOD. XV. 9, 10. "The enemy said I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil: my lust shall be satisfied upon them: I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters." The song of Moses is not inferior in sublimity to any portion of the sacred scriptures. The two preceding verses, which I have extracted from it, are a perfect example of condensity, strength, and majesty. The words let there be light, and there was light, celebrated by Longinus, and many critics after him, claim no superiority over them in any respect. They bring a vast representation before the mind. He who reads them must behold the Israelites flying from the power of Egypt, the waters of the sea gathering themselves together and standing upright to let them pass. He must behold the Egyptians rising up in rage to pursue them, breathing vengeance against them. He must hear the terrible voice of God speaking in the tempest, heaving his billows upon them, and covering them beneath his mighty waters. How is APPENDIX. it possible that the determination of the Egyptians to pursue, &c.---how is it possible that their destruction beneath the power of God could be expressed with fewer words, with greater energy and dignity? with what rapidity does the effect follow the cause---thou didst blow with thy winds---the sea covered them. Without giving room to any more quotations from scripture, let me refer the reader to the 51st chapter of Isaiah--to the 18th and 104th Psalm, to the last chapter of Habakuk, to David's elegy over Saul and Jonathan, and to the description, in Job, of the war-horse. The finest passages in Milton are his picture of Satan----Satan's address to the sun----Adam's and Eve's morning hymn, the description of God's call to the regions of Chaos, and his circumscription of the limits of the world. But these have been so often remarked and pointed out, that it would be unnecessary to repeat them. I shall, therefore, select some others, which, though inferior to these, will bear the prominent marks of sublimity: Before their eyes, in sudden view, appear The secrets of the hoary deep; a dark, Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, APPENDIX. And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night, Of endless wars, and by Confusion stand. PAR. LOST, B. V. 890. These lines are a specimen of the sublimity of obscurity. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham declares, that between heaven and hell there is a great gulf fixed. Observe, in the lines just quoted, how Milton has seized on this hint, and drawn a picture of that gulf, which the painter would attempt in vain. The light of Milton's soul could only lead us in such impenetrable darkness, into that illimitable ocean, without bound, without dimension; where length, breadth, and height, and time, and place are lost. These then, tho' unbeheld in deep of night, Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep : Sole, or responsive each to other's note, APPENDIX. Singing their great Creator? oft in bands While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk BOOK IV. 674. In these lines is represented the gloom of night enlightened by the lustre of the heavenly bodies. This picture, without any attending circumstance, is grand and solemn. The view of the skies by night, the moon moving in the brightness of her course, and all the host of heaven performing their determined round, .fill the mind with awe and adoration. But how wonderfully is the sublimity of the scene heightened by the introduction of aerial beings, walking their nightly round, contemplating the heavens, and to the "midnight air, sole, or responsive each to other's note, singing their great Creator." The famous night-scene of Homer, and all the night-scenes ever drawn, are inferior to this. "But see the angry victor hath recall'd His ministers of vengeance and pursuit, Back to the gates of heaven: the sulphurous hail Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid The fiery surge, that from the precipice H |
