Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

guage of China, and perhaps induce some to engage in the study of the language, from the exalted motive of communicating, to this large section of the human family, the blessed tidings of salvation.

A Tale of Paraguay, by Robert Southey, Esq. LL.D. Poet Laureate. London: 12mo. 1825. IT is so long since our Poet Laureate appeared in his poetical character, that we began to think he was resolved for the future, to wear his bays in peace and quietness, and enjoy his "otium cum dignitate" without farther toil or disturbance. Possibly it would have been quite as well for his reputation, if this conjecture had been well founded, for the volume before us will certainly add as little to his poetic fame, as his recent prose volumes to his general reputation. The title page, filled with Mr. Southey's high-sounding titles of literary honours, looks like the blazonry on some splendid coffin.

But we must not stay at the title-page. This poem certainly possesses one concomitant of poetry, of which Mr. Southey's earlier productions are entirely destitute, and which he held in the most sovereign contempt, we mean metre: so that now we may say, whereas formerly our Laureate gave us poetry withont metre, he has here given us metre without poetry. "The Vision of Judgment," indeed, can be classed with neither of them, as it is, properly speaking, devoid both of poetry

and metre.

[ocr errors]

not

But it is time to give some brief account of the poem; and that may be done in a very few lines. It is neither more nor less than a part of " Dobrizhoffer's History of the Abipones," translated into English verse; a sort of poetical abridgment, indeed, containing an ample description of the customs and manners of living of the savages of Paraguay; and will be found a useful work of reference, by all who are studying the early history of South America. The following is the outline of the tale. Quiara and Monnema (what names!) escape the ravages of the small pox, which had destroyed all the rest of their tribe, wander forth they know whither, and at last build themselves "a leafy bower," "Slow Mondai's stream beside." The principal events detailed after this are, the birth of children to this solitary pair-the death of Quiara by a Jaguar-the finding of his widow and children by Martin Dobrizhoffer their moval, at his persuasions, to the station occupied by himself and other Jesuits and their death, from diseases occasioned by change of climate, and temperature, and manner of living-aud here endeth the poem! From these meagre materials, Dr. Southey hath manufactured his four cantos, of one hundred and thirty pages.

re

Our readers shall now peruse a few extracts, as specimens of the work, and as a confirmation of our strictures. The following brace of stanzas contain the interesting catalogue of Monnema's household

virtues :

Expert in all her sex's household ways,
The Indian weed she skilfully could dress;
And in what depth to drop the yellow maize
She knew, and when around its stem to raise
The lightened soil; and well could she prepare
Its ripen'd seed for food, her proper praise,
Or in the embers turn, with frequent care,

Its succulent head, yet green, sometimes for daintier fare.

And how to macerate the bark she knew,
And draw apart its beaten fibres fine,
And bleaching them in sun, and air, and dew,
From dry and glossy filaments entwine,
With rapid twirl of hand, the lengthening line;
Next interknitting well the twisted thread,
In many an even mesh, its knots combine,
And shape in tapering length the pensile bed,
Light hammock there to hang beneath the leafy shed."
The description of Monnema's
Confinement occurs in the same
canto from which we have just
extracted, but it is too disgusting

to cite. It would do as a motto for the next edition of "Burn's Principles." Dobrizhoffer is thus elegantly introduced"From Gratz, among the Ayrian, hills he came, And Dobrizhoffer was the good man's honour'd name." But strike "a Honoured name! Cacophony is music to it. nobler and a loftier strain."

"The Patron Saint, from whom their town was named,
Was that St. Joachim, who legends say,
Unto the Saints in limbo first proclaimed
The advent."

The latter part of the last canto is an obituary, to record the deaths of Monnema, Mooma, and Yeruti, with all due accuracy and luminous

method; but alas! with all the
imperturbable gravity of PROSE.
Just listen, ye lovers of poetry, to
this awful stanza.

"The old man to whom he had been given in care,
To Dobrizhoffer came one day, and said,
The trouble which our youth was thought to bear
With such indifference, hath deranged his head.
He says, that he is nightly visited.

His mother and his sister come and say,

That he must give this message from the dead,
Not to defer his baptism, and delay

A soul upon the earth, which should no longer stay."

Such stanzas as these form the staple commodity of the poem. We do not mean to say, that there is not one poetical thought, or one poetical verse in the volume; but surely our Laureate ought not to compel us to wade through one hundred and thirtyeight pages to find it. The preface and the notes are equally unique; the former consisting of a long Latin extract from Dobrizhoffer, and the latter containing almost as much Spanish as English. But all is designed, we presume, to elucidate the text upon such important subjects as the fitting a pair of shoes on a Spanish dandy. There is a proem to the tale, in which our author courteously contrives to insert some laudatory lines on Wellington. That was well done, and like a

Laureate. There is a dedication also to his daughter, which contains some really beautiful lines, by far the best in the volume, but they are too long for citation. We hope Dr. S. will soon redeem his former fame, otherwise he may scarcely presume to please the "gentle and the good.'

A Sermon, occasioned by the Death of the Rev. John Ryland, D. D. preached at the Baptist Meeting, Broadmead, Bristol, June 5, 1825. By Robert Hall, M. A. THE single sermons with which Mr. Hall has favoured the public, can scarcely be said to be more distinguished from the sermons of other eminent modern divines, than from one another. There is, indeed, a singular variety, or even diversity of character combined

with the same general beauty and grace. We experience in reading them in succession, the same sensation as in passing during the early part of the year from one district of a most lovely and richly cultivated country into another. Each district has its characteristic excellence; it may be pointedly distinguished from the one just left; and so we may travel on through county after county-each peculiar, but yet all harmonizing, and presenting every where the freshness and fragrance of a universal spring. A general and very hasty view of the characteristic distinctions of several of Mr. H.'s sermons, we presented some years ago, in our notice of his discourse on the death of the Princess Charlotte, and we shall not now further allude to the fact, than to say, that the present discourse supplies an additional illustration of our remark. As one of the few, (alas, too few,) which he has committed to the press, it bears ample evidence of the same skilful workmanship; but is as distinct from all its precursors, as they are from one another. It displays a singular facility, both in perceiving and grouping the ideas most suitable to the elucidation of the subject; and both for the merit of some particular passages, as well as for the sake of the eminent individual, for whose memory it will form an enshrinement more durable than marble, is not unworthy of ranking with those admirable productions of the same pen, to some of which, if it should be deemed inferior in eloquence, it will, at least, be deemed equal in interest.

It is a circumstance which we cannot but deem unpropitious, if not to the lasting reputation of Mr. Hall's discourses, at least to their utility, that they have all been indebted to the spur of some peculiar service or event for their existence. It can scarcely be said, that Mr. Hall has fully and fairly displayed his talent in the treat

ment of any single doctrine of Christianity. There has been a singular appropriateness in all his sermons to the great public occasions on which they have been preached; but this very appropriateness has deprived them of the character which is so desirable, and which he is so well capable of imparting to them. It may be true enough, that these discourses are all not only tinctured, but stored with Christian sentiments, and present, in some cases, sufficiently precise statements and expositions of the author's doctrinal views; but still he has never yet done, as other eminent divinesentered broadly and fully into the discussion of a single doctrine of the Gospel-nothing amounting to a sermon, or a disquisition upon a distinct doctrine. We regret this exceedingly, because, though there is something imperishable in the nature of his style and of his thoughts, that will secure attention to his works, as long as pulpit eloquence shall be either cultivated or admired; yet we cannot but think, that a far higher degree of utility might have been attained, and his unrivalled vigour of mind and discrimination turned to far happier account, had they been directed to the elucidation of specific doctrines or duties of revelation.

When we see what an elevation of thought he possesses, and with what facility he passes from the profound and subtle in argumentation, to a display of sentiment, or an appeal to feeling; that he uses with equal grace the acuteness of the logician, and the eloquence of the orator; that every subject passes from under his hands, ornamented as well as elucidated; that of all men living, perhaps he has the most exquisite sense, both of completeness and elegance; when we consider the steady light with which he shines through all his course, and the grace with which he moves through

every section of it, we cannot but regret, both for his own sake, and that of the Christian public in general, that he has not chosen to contribute rather to the stores of Christian divinity, and to lay himself out upon some segment of the wide and interesting circle of Christian truth. We cannot but think he has yet to produce something, and it must be in the form of sermons or orations, which shall take the undisputed precedence of all productions of either or of both these classes which this age can boast, and to which we shall refer with more satisfaction than we now do to the miscellaneous volume of sermons which bears his name.

In elucidating particular portions of Christian sentiment or duty by brief collateral discussion, he has been eminently successful, and his acuteness as a controvertist has been extensively felt in his

own denomination. It may be

added, he has admirably guarded the sentiments, or defended the outworks, or defeated the enemies of Christianity, carrying the war back into their own trenches with exquisite skill and adroitness. Few men, indeed, have ever been more successful in exhibiting the general consistency of Christianity, or in displaying those divine characteristics appertaining to it, by which its attractions are at once revealed to the heart, and its arguments made palpable to the understanding. While he shows its beauty, he shows its strength, and rarely fails to make his reasoning his most elaborate eulogy. The present discourse contains a very singular and striking illustration of this remark. We should not have expected the introduction to a Funeral Sermon to contain a

masterly piece of reasoning, in reply to an infidel objection against Christianity; but such is the fact, without any apparent effort, or sense of discrepancy to the service, Mr. H. has taken occasion, NEW SERIES, No. 12.

from the subject of Christ's friendship for John, to meet and explode the infidel objection, that Christianity makes no provision for the cultivation of patriotism and friend.. ship. This is, indeed, the part of the present discourse which with general readers, and those not acquainted with Dr. Ryland's character, will form the chief attraction. We shall, therefore, give it entire, as a complete speci-. men of the easy and elegant style of reasoning, for which Mr. H. is distinguished.

"It has been alleged by unbelievers, as a defect in the morality of the gospel, that it neglects to inculcate patriotism and friendship. In regard to the first of these, it seems a sufficient reply, that though an attachment to our country as such, is not expressly enjoined in the New Testament, the duties which result from the relation in which Christians stand to their rulers, are prescribed with great perspicuity, and enforced by very solemn sanctions; and if the reciprocal duties of princes and magistrates are not enjoined with equal explicitness (as could not be expected in writings where they are not addressed) the design of their appointment is defined in such a manner, as leaves them at no loss to perceive, what it is that they owe to the community. But where these duties are faithfully discharged by each party, the benefits derived from the social compact are so justly appreciated, and so deeply felt, that the love of country is less liable to defect than to excess. In all well-ordered polities, if we may judge from the experienee of past ages, the attachment of men to

their country is in danger of becoming an absorbing principle, inducing not merely a forgetfulness of private interest, but of the immutable claims of humanity and justice. In the most virtuous times of the Roman

republic, their country was the idol, at whose shrine her greatest patriots were at all times prepared to offer whole hecatombs, of human victims: the interests of

other nations were no further regarded, than as they could be rendered subservient to the gratification of her ambition; and mankind at large were considered as possessing no rights, but such as might with the utmost propriety be merged in that devouring vortex. With all their talents and their

grandeur, they were unprincipled oppressors, leagued in a determined conspiracy against the liberty and independence of mankind. In the eyes of an enlightened philanthropist, patriotism, pampered to such an excess, loses the name of virtue; it is the bond and cement of a guilty con4 P

federation. It was worthy of the wisdom of our great legislator to decline the express inculcation of a principle so liable to degenerate into excess, and to content himself with prescribing the virtues which are sure to develope it, as far as is consistent with the dictates of universal benevolence.

"The second part of the objection to which we have alluded, is susceptible of a similar answer. Let it be admitted, that

our Lord did not formally prescribe the cultivation of friendship ;-and what then? He prescribed the virtues out of which it will naturally grow; he prescribed the cultivation of benevolence, in all its diversified modes of operation. In his personal ministry, and in that of his apostles, he enjoined humility, forbearance, gentleness, kindness, and the most tender sympathy with the infirmities and distresses of our fellow-creatures; and his whole life was a perfect transcript of these virtues. But these, in the ordinary course of events, and under the usual arrangements of providence, are the best preparation for friendship, as well as the surest guarantee for the discharge of its duties, and the observation of its rights. For such is the secret affinity of mind to mind, such the social constitution of man, that he who is imbued with these dispositions can scarcely fail, in the pilgrimage of life, to contract a friendship with one or more of his species. Accustomed to look upon the whole human family with a benign aspect, some members of it will attract more of his attention, and awaken more of his complacency than others; where their virtues are equal, some more than ordinary congeniality of taste and temper, will form a basis of preference, a motive for predilection, which, confirmed by habit and strengthened by the reciprocal exchange of gratifying attentions and kind offices, will at length ripen into friendship. A mind habitually tender easily melts into softness, and exchanges the sentiments of esteem for those of specific attachment and endearment. What is friendship in virtuous minds, but the concentration of benevolent emotions, heightened by respect and increased by exercise, on one or more objects? Friendship is not a state of feeling, whose éléments are specifically different from those which compose every other. The emotions we feel towards a friend, are the same in kind with those we experience on other occasions; but they are more complex and more exalted. It is the general sensibility to kind and social affections, more immediately directed to one or more individuals, and in consequence of its particular direction, giving birth to an order of feeling more vivid and intense than usual, which constitutes friendship. Hence we perceive the impropriety of making it the subject of legislation. It is the duty

of every man to cultivate the dispositions which lead to friendship, the love of his species, admiration of virtue, regard to the feelings of others, gratitude, humility, along with the most inflexible adherence to probity and truth. Wherever these exist, friendship will be the natural result; but it will result as a felicity, rather than as a duty; and is to be placed among the rewards of virtue, rather than its obligations. Happiness is not to be prescribed, but to be enjoyed; and such is the benevolent arrangement of Divine Providence, that wherever there is a moral preparation for it, it follows of course; and such are the pleasures and advantages derived from virtuous friendship. Its duties, supposing it to be formed, are deducible, with sufficient certainty and precision, from the light of nature and the precepts of scripture, and none more sacred; but in the act of forming it the mind disdains the fetters of prescriptions, and is left to be determined by the impulse of feeling, and the operation of events.

"Besides, were friendship inculcated as a matter of indispensable obligation, endless embarrassments would arise in determining at what period the relation shall commence; whether with one or with more; and at what stage, in the progress of mutual attraction, at what point, the feelings of reciprocal regard shall be deemed to reach the maturity, which entitles them to the sacred name of friendship. The laws of virtue and piety are coeval with our existence, considered as reasonable and accountable creatures. Their authority is founded on immutable relations, the duties resulting from which are capable of being clearly conceived and exactly defined; but he who should undertake to prescribe to the subtle and mysterious impulses which invite susceptible minds to friendship, would find himself engaged in an attempt as hopeless, as to regulate the motions of the air which bloweth where it listeth.'

"But though the cultivation of friendship, for the reasons already assigned, is not made the subject of precept, but is left to grow up of itself under the general culture of reason and religion, it is one of the fairest productions of the human soil, the cordial of life, the lenitive of our sorrows, and the multiplier of our joys; the source equally of animation and of repose. He who is destitute of this blessing, amidst the greatest crowd and pressure of society, is doomed to solitude; and however surrounded with flatterers and admirers, however armed with power, and rich in the endowments of nature and of fortune, has no resting place. most elevated station in life affords no exemption from those agitations and disquietudes which can only be laid to rest on the bosom of a friend.

The

« AnteriorContinuar »