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A narrow mound may satisfy a slave , Kings claim an empire o ' er a wider grave , As if , obedient to their former sway , The worm would pay respect to royal clay * Ye lofty monuments of regal pride , What tenants in your chambers now reside ? Breathe from your secret cells a single
name-Not one remains—the heir of all your fame ! " &c . We regret that the work has been hurried through the press , as marks of haste are apparent in every page ; Pharaoh ' s animated threat is spoiled by the conclusion : " Yes , they shall live—if life it be , To toil incessant night and day—1 * 11 tame them down to
slavery—The beast of burden rests , but they , These rebel slaves , no rest shall know , If scourges can their slumber wake : The mountain they shall level low , Scoop out the valley for a lake , Hew the firm rock , with weary stroke , And form it into hollow caves , Till , their rebellious spirit broke , They sink to unregarded graves . Dare they to murmur when they ' re chid ? - —
Their hands shall raise a Pyramid !" " Pyramid" is a climaaB not to be paralleled , but " chid" is a base rhyme . " The Song of Moses and the Israelites" is written with force , but "Shakspeare had it first , " and we cannot listen to it whilst " Sound the loud Timbrel "
is ringing in our ears . The other subjects are , " Balak and Balaam , " " The Blessings and Curses , " " The Withered Hand , " and " The Death of Abijah . " There is much strength and beauty in " The Blessings ; " the metre is appropriately chosen ; but " The Curses " would have been better in the heroic
measure , and we think some effect would have been produced by the diversity . The author has made too frequent use of inversion , which should only be considered as a dernier ressort ; it savours of latinity . But little use has been made hitherto
of the historical parts of the Old Testament for those poetical purposes to which many passages in them are so well adapted ; we therefore recommend the present little work as having some originality of design , a 3 well as being talented in its execution .
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Critical Notices . & 3
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Art . VI . —The Anniversary \ The Keepsake . The Bijou .
More Annuals ! - "Another and another still succeeds , " and , like the setting sun , as we approach towards the close of them , they seem more splendid than ever . We can only afford , however , a very brief notice of what may be deemed peculiar and characteristic in those which are named at the head of this article .
The Anniversary , edited by Allan Cunningham , makes its first appearance this year , and a very handsome appearance it makes . The engravings , considered merely as works of art , are only rivalled by those of the Keepsake . Here our praise of them must end , for the subjects are generally such as to excite less interest than those of almost any one of the Annuals , of humbler price and
pretension , which we noticed last month ; and we confess that there is yet so much of the child in us as to make us always look after the subject of au engraving as well as the execution . Nor can any degree of excellence in the latter satify us , if it be not , as we think , worthily bestowed . To those who think differently , the Anniversary may be safely recommended , and its decorations cannot but yield them a very high gratification .
An exception from the above remark must be made in behalf of " The Travelled Monkey , " by Gibbon , from Landsecr , and " Pickaback , " by Rolls , from Westall . As to " CMllon" and " Newstead Abbey , " they may be in " the gayest , " certainly not in the " happiest , attitude of things . " Indeed , their " attitude" is more like that of sitting up to receive company than any thing else .
The Presentation Vignette is very pretty , aud ingeniously contrived so as "to suit the presentation of the volume with the recurrence of any particular day in the year /* There is very little in the literary part of the Anniversary which deserves notice . The description of Abbotsford , by an American , is the best prose article , and very pleasant gossip . The Rev .
Edward Irving's " Tale of the Times of the Martyrs" is tolerable ; and , no doubt , true , inasmuch as he gives the solemn pledge of his " faith as a Chrbtian man and a minister , " that he has ** invented nothing and altered nothing . " He might , with advantage , have " altered" some of the affectations of which , after this , we cannot charge him with the invention . Lord Byron's " Letter on Economy" is clearly genuine . The poetry is but mid-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 53, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/53/
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