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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
Low sunk behind the mountained hemisphere , Were fading fast away . He was declined , Not like pale Cynthia to her hath , a lake Rich iu its , violet sward and jasmine bowers , A god gigantic habited in gold , Stepping from off a mount into the sea .
The evening breeze that whispers of repose , And fans the crimson'd marygold to sleep , Grew sharp and brisk ; and silence on the light Gain'd step for step , as light retir'd to shade . The tawny harvest-men from yellow fields Their sweet repast , their lated meal enjoy'd , Hard by their tents , beneath some ample oak , Or vine , or fig-tree burthen'd with its fruit
And fragrant to the air . Now Jacob ' s sons , Who kept their flocks and cattle on the hills Retire from folding to their father ' s tent . Lo ! Joseph meets them with a welcome smile , A basket on his head , with purple grapes O ' erswelling from the brink , and o ' er his cap , And hair , and shoulders , hanging gracefully , Shows like an angel . "—pp . 5 , 6 .
The characters most finely drawn are Reuben , and Phraxanor , the wife of Potiphar . The scenes between Reuben and his brothers are of high dramatic power . It is scarcely possible to give , t > y extracts , an idea of the completeness with which the nature of Reuben is developed in the course of the action . He is a man of powerful intellect , tender affections , and a cona ~ bination of gentleness with intense depth of passion . The other sons of Jacob , though individual and finely drawn , are mere outlines . Reuben alone among them loves Joseph , and opposes
himself to the malignant feeling against him ; and the power with which his impassioned eloquence works upon their fierce and stubborn minds , keeping their dangerous strength at fray by the mental force which staggers and confounds them , is extremely grand ; while , on his failure to avert the evil , his frenzied grief , merging into despair , is fearfully pourtrayed . Our extracts must necessarily be short and imperfect . On the first perception that the envy of his brothers is nbout to end in violence , Reuben expostulates with them earnestly : —
" Have ye no fear That the star-blasts will strike you ? Or the spell'd quaking of the tremulous earth Swallow you whole in its remorseless womb ? Think you those blooded hands will not draw slant The storm-holt in its fury ? Issachar . A little sugar will not catch our wit ; A little fear wity-iimfe scare our will .
Untitled Article
Dramatic Recollections . lltSi
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1837, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1829/page/33/
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