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I ^ H E first poetry was , probably , devotional—an offering of the heart , deeply impressed with a sense of the Divine goodness or greatness , as exhibited in the stupendous works of creation , to the great Cause of all that is lovely in nature or delightful in existence . Even dramatic poetry—in the opinion of some modern religionists the most profane kind of composition—appears to have owed its origin to tlie devout feelings ad the soul , for tragedy * derives
its name from a hymn which was sung by the early cultivators of the earth on the sacrifice of a goat . It is natural , indeed , that the gratitude of mankind to the Deity , on the contemplation of his works or the reception of his blessings , should have expressed itself in song : at first , perhaps , rude and irregular , but gradually becoming no less polished than fervent .
Of all the songs which devotion has produced , the most noble and sublime are the inspired strains of the Hebrews poets—those , especially , which are commonly attributed to David . They surpass ail others in the splendour of their images and tl ^ e fervour of their piety : and , though the numbers of Hebrew poetry are unfortunately lost , we still hear the music of the son of Jesse's harp faintly echoed in the harmonious rhythm of our prose translation of his sacred songs .
Sternhold afid Hopkins' poetical , or rather rhymed ^ version of the Psalms entirely destroys their sublimity by low and course expressions beneath the dignity of the subject , and a flat and inelegant versification , totally destitute of that lofty inspiration which the nature of the poetry required , and which has communicated to the original strains both sublimity of thought and elevation of style . f The version of Tate and Brady is a great improvement upon that
* As some of our readers may not be acquainted with the probable origin of the word tragedy , we may here inform them , that it is compounded of two Greek words , the former of which { rpdyoq ) signifies a goat , and the lattfr ( cJStJ ) a soug . f We believe this criticism to be generally just ; but we ought not to pass over unnoticed a few verses in the translation by Sternhold and Hopkins , which preserve the sphit of the original , and to which it will not applj . The Lord descended from above
And bow'd the heav ' ns most high ; And underneath his feet he cast The darkness of the sky . On cherub and on cherubim Full royall y he rode ; And on the wings of mighty wind * CamQ flying all abroad .
He sat serene upon the floods , Their fury to restrain ; And he , as sov e reign Lord and King " , For evermore shall reign . The sentiment of thfc . first line in the last of these verses is a departure from thp signinca-tion and imagery of the original Psalm ; but it bears a strong resemblance to a very beautiful line in Virgil :
^ , ,,, . , , , — « et alto Prospiciens , 6 umno& placidum caput extulit und& . " iEn . i . v . 126 , 7 . " He reared his awful head above the main , Serene in majesty /* Dryden . The verses we have quptpd above , contracted with the general style 6 f tlie translation from which they have been" selected , may be compared tp a small spot of vef-
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VOL . X 3 CI . 2 L
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1826, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2548/page/1/
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