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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
neglect to repair the damage , and thus an author is made responsible for words and seutiments which he never put together . It may be very true that the alteration is , in some cases , an improvement ; yet we should ourselves prefer bearing the disgrace of having written a bad line , to the chance of being praised for good lines which were none of ours : and , excepting where the doctrine is so
objectionable as to annihilate all sympathy between ourselves and the writer , we much prefer that devotional compositions should be left as their authors left them . There is a peculiarity in every man ' s way of viewing religious subjects , aud the substitution of even one word for another is in some cases sufficient to diminish greatly the value of the whole . Why should Cowper ' s beautiful introduction of the solitary Bird of Night , in the Hymn ,
" Far from the world , O Lord ! I flee , " be made to give place to such a line as this , " There , in high ecstacy , she pours , ** &c . ? And why , above all , is Mrs . Barbauld * s exquisite poem ,
* ' Sweet is the scene when virtue dies !" to begin , " How bless * d the righteous when he dies ! " ? And , if the two succeeding stanzas must be omitted , what hand has had the temerity to substitute for them the following ? " A holy quiet reigns around , A calm which life nor death destroys ; Nothing disturbs that peace profound , Which his unfetter e d soul enjoys . "
Not many alterations are introduced iu such of Mr . John Taylor's beautiful Hymns as are reprinted by Mr . Lewis . What there are , however , are no improvements . But we wish that a charming Hyniu of Sir J . E . Smith ' s could have been allowed to escape as well . We allude to No . 420 of the Norwich Supplement . In Mr . Lewis's Selection the first and second stanzas are omitted ; the two next , as the excellent author wrote them , ytand thus :
" Still may thy children , in thy word , Their common trust and refuge see ; O bind us to each other , Lord , By one great tie , the love of Thee ! Here , at the portal of thy house , We leave our mortal hopes and fears ; Accept our prayer , and bless our vows , And dry our penitential tears .
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But Mr . Lewis prefers the following reading : " Unite us to each other , Lord , By one great dandy the love of Thee . Now , at the portal of thy house We leave our earthly care and fear ; Accept our praise aud bless our vows , sind our united pray-ers hear . "
An anonymous Hymn , in the Norwich Supplement , aud also in the Liverpool Renshaw-Street Collection , beginning ,
" Come to the House of Prayer , " has also the benefit of an " entirely new arrangement' * of its concluding two stanzas , which , at the same time , we allow had great capabilities for improvement . ISiF . Drain wond also passes under revision :
** No balm that earthly plants distil Can soothe the mourner ' s smart , No mortal hand , with lenient skill , Bind up the broken heart ; ' * is thus given" No earthly bairn can heal this ill Or soothe the mourner ' s smart , No mortal hand , with lenient skill , Can bind the broken heart- *'
We should be sorry Mr . Lewis should understand these observations as implying a strong , individual censure upon himself . He has only done what numbers beside think themselves fully authorized to do , for the attainment of what they cousider to be a good , and many have taken far greater liberties . Nevertheless , holding it to be a sacred maxim , that we should not * ' do evil that good
may come , " we object to all such trespasses upon the identity of an author ' s property , aud think they ought to be discouraged to the utmost of our ability . The writer of a hymn , like the writer of any other poem , would mostly , we should suppose , prefer doing his work alone . If others think they can improve upon his ideas , let them , wherever it can be
done , make the suggestion with frankness , and trust to its being received in a right spirit ; but let them beware how they meddle with the loug treasured memorials of the dead , for , iu so doing , they run a great risk of gradually lowering the reputation of a writer who has no longer power to redeem his fame from the feebleness , perhaps absurdity , they have iudirectly helped to connect with it .
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Critical Notice *—Theological . 55
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 55, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/55/
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