'PART I.

The heav'ns the pow'r of God display, His glory by th' expanse is shown. Day utters ceaseless speech to day,

And night to night makes wisdom known.
"No human words, no living speech,
No voice articulate they send :
Yet through the world their lessons reach,
Their signs to earth's remotest end.

In them he pitch'd, apart from earth,
A bright pavilion for the sun;
Who goes in bridegroom splendour forth,
And joys his giant course to run.

Forth issuing be from heav'n's wide bound,
To heav'n's wide bound revolving speeds:
And still throughout the ample round,
On all, his genial radiance sheds.

'PART II.

'Jehovah's law is perfect, pure,

And bids the sickly frame be whole: Jehovah's covenant is sure,

And renders wise the simple soul.

Jehovah's statutes all are right,
And gladness to the heart supply:
Jehovah's ordinance is bright,

And lightens the dim-sighted eye.

Unsullied is Jehovah's fear,

And doth from age to age remain:
Jehovah's judgments are sincere,

On justice fram'd, and free from stain.
More precious they than golden ore,
Or gold from the refiner's flame :
And sweeter than the honey'd store,
Or from the comb the honey'd stream.

• PART III.

By them thy servant, Lord, is taught: How great the bliss to walk therein ! But who can tell each devious thought?

O cleanse me, Thou, from secret sin!

And from presumption keep me clear, That fain would sway each better sense: So may I uncorrupt appear,

And guiltless of the great offence,

O may each word my lips recite,

Each thought within my bosom stor’d,
Still find acceptance in thy sight,

My Rock, my Saviour, and my Lord !'
Addison's fine paraphrase of the first part of this admirable
Psalm, beginning,

• The spacious firmament on high,' must be familiar to all our readers. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful hymns in the language ; but it breaks off too soon. It may be thought a bold undertaking to enter the lists with such competitors, but we have been induced to venture on the attempt to give the entire psalm a metrical dress with as close an adherence as possible to the spirit of the text.

PSALM XIX.
The heavens declare His glory,

Their Maker's skill, the skies :
Each day repeats the story,

And night to night replies.
Their silent proclamation

Throughout the earth is heard ;
The record of creation,
'The
page

of Nature's word.
There, from his bright pavilion,

Like eastern bridegroom clad,
Hailed by Earth's thousand million,

The sun sets forth : right glad,
His glorious race commencing,

The mighty giant seems,
Through the vast round dispensing

His all-pervading beams.
So pure, so soul-restoring
Is Truth's diviner

ray;
A brighter radiance pouring,

Than all the pomp of day :
The wanderer surely guiding,

It makes the simple wise ;
And evermore abiding,

Unfailing joy supplies.
Thy word is richer treasure

Than lurks within the mine,
And daintiest fare less pleasure

Yields, than this food divine.
How kind each wise monition !

Led by thy counsels, Lord,
How safe the saints' condition,

How great is their reward !

But past transgressions pain me:
Lord, cleanse my heart from sin,
And evermore restrain me

From all presumptuous sin.
So let my whole behaviour,

Thoughts, words, and motives be,
O God, my Strength and Saviour,
Acceptable to Thee!

As a companion to this morning hymn of the royal Psalmist's, we may take the eighth Psalm, which was evidently a moonlight meditation. Dr. Watts has turned it into a very good hymn of praise to the Redeemer, and with great propriety, considering the use made of the Psalm in the New Testament; but this does not appear to have entered into the original design of the royal Poet. We shall here take the liberty of again giving, first, the Bishop's version, and then our own, premising that, for the purpose of psalmody, we think Dr. Watt's version decidedly the most appropriate.

'PSALM VIII.

How great, Jehovah, sovereign Lord,
Thy name, through all thy works ador'd!
Thou who hast set thy glory high

Above the vastness of the sky!

• The infant's mouth, the suckling's tongue,
By Thee to notes of praise are strung;
Of force to bend the hostile will,
And bid the vengeful heart be still.

• When yon blue vault of peerless light,
Thy finger's work, employs my sight;
When that fair moon, ordain'd by Thee,
Those orbs of radiant flame I see.

Lord, what is man, that he should
The object of thy watchful love?
Or son of man, that he should share
The presence of thy fostering care?

prove

• Form'd by thy will, a little space
Below thy hosts, thy angel race;
By Thee with might, with glory crown'd,
Lord of creation's ample round.

He hears Thee bid thy works obey,
In him, thy delegated sway;
Controll'd by Thee, he sees them meet,
And crouch submissive at his feet.

• Flocks, and all herds; the desert brood;
What wings the air ; what cleaves the flood.
How great, Jehovah, sovereign Lord,
Thy name, through all thy works ador'd !

PSALM VIII.
How excellent through all the earth thy name,

O Lord! Above the heav'ns thy glories rise :

Yet, to confound and shame thine enemies,
Thou makest infant tongues thy praise proclaim.
When I survey the heav'ns, this goodly frame,

With moon and stars, each in its separate sphere,

Lord! what is man, that thou should’st hold him dear,
Or stoop to this low world of sin and shame?
Made only than the angels lower, o'er all

That roam the earth, or creep, or on fleet pinion

Soar, or that cleave the seas, he had dominion,-
Lord of this beauteous world till sin had birth,

Our Second Adam shall repair that fall. How excellent, O Lord, thy name through all the earth! It is by no means our wish to detract from the merit which we think fairly due to the learned Prelate for this new metrical version. We rejoice in being able to give our unqualified approbation to the direction which his labours have taken, and to the design of the present work ; and if we cannot compliment him very highly on his versification, the illustrations of the Psalms which are supplied in the notes, will render the volume both interesting and useful. We regret, indeed, that Bishops Lowth, Horne, and Horsley should have been the only writers whom he has thought it needful for a brother bishop to consult, except Sternhold and Hopkins, Merrick's Psalms, and the Lexicons. Bishop Horne would afford little critical assistance: the charm of his work is its piety. Bishop Horsley's translation is a still more unsafe guide. Bishop Mant's library must be very defective in works of Biblical criticism ; but it does hím credit, that he makes no pretensions to a deeper acquaintance with Hebrew literature than these references bespeak. This, however, is not at all the reason that he has not better succeeded in a task, the varied difficulties of which render the mere attempt honourable, and failure respectable. We think that he has undertaken too much in proposing to give a new metrical version of the whole Book of Psalms. Such a work was less wanted, than a judicious selection of the best versions which exist, together with a new version of such as have been the most inadequately rendered. It will be gathered from the preceding observations, also, that we think a metrical translator of the Psalms not likely to suc

that may

ceed, who undertakes to adapt the originals to the purpose of Psalmody. If we would have a fair representation of the Psalmus as poetry, this purpose must be quite discarded by the Translator, and he must contine himself, as he would in translating the Odes of Pindar or of Sophocles, to giving the spirit of the text in measures that may express, as far as the structure and genius of our language admit, the character of the original. Nor must he take up the Psalms as a uniform series of poems, admitting of the same sort of treatment, and go doggedly through with the versification of them in any metre chance to turn up

in his mind. Their common title as Psalms has contributed to mislead the translator in this respect. Because they have the same appearance in the English Bible, it by no means follows, that, in the Hebrew original, their metrical structure was the same. Some are alphabetical acrostics, a sort of inversion of rhyme, and probably designed to answer a similar purpose, by aiding the memory. In some, the parallelisms are less marked and artificial than in others, and'their construction is altogether different. Those Psalms that were intended for musical recitation, appear, from the titles, to have been adapted for several different modes or different accompaniments. These and other variations of character in these ancient compositions, besides many which it has no doubt become impossible to trace out, suggest the necessity of a careful and delicate discrimination in giving them an analogous poetical dress in a modern tongue. An approach to this can be made only by endeavouring to catch the precise spirit of, the original. We cannot perceive that Dr. Mant has proceeded upon any such principle in the adoption of his metres. In some cases, the measure appears to us the least in unison with the character of the Psalm that could have been chosen. Thus, for instance, Psalm xxix, to which the solemn march of our blank verse would be, we are inclined to think, the only appropriate one,--the Bishop has selected the metre of Handel's noble tune, called the 104th : we applaud his musical taste, but not his choice of such words as these for the music.

• The voice of the Lord the darkness divides,

And deals forth his fire in arrowy flakes:
The voice of Jehovah the wilderness chides,

Jehovah of Kadesh the widerness shakes.
• The voice of the Lord speeds the hind to her throes ;

The voice of the Lord smites the oak to the ground:
The forest dismantled his majesty shews,

And all in his temple his praises resound.