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have ruled, requires a constant alternation of light and of shade; a varied succession of objects sufficiently dissimilar to lend the enchantment of contrast, and yet sufficiently alike to amalgamate, so as to yield a pleasing whole; but the subjects of the sacred Poet have been asserted, to afford little relief from the monotony which wearies without satisfying, and the repetition which darkens where it seeks to explain. The sublime, however, is necessarily the monotonous, from its very nature; while the wearisomeness and repetition condemned, arise from the short-comings of the Poet, rather than from the defect of his art. And this may be the case without any imuptation on his genius, or even on his industry; for, in addition to attaining the difficult accomplishment of verse, he has to grapple with a theme which the natural man is confessedly incompetent to understand, until, in answer to his earnest prayer, hath been vouchsafed the enlightening unction of the Holy One.

Hence it is evident, that of all species of Poetry, sacred Poetry can least permit of blemish in its outward mechanism and form. The majesty of the subject demands a corresponding perfection in the means of its treatment; and since, even when the best is achieved, such an immense disproportion must remain, how is the failure aggravated when something less than the best is alone attempted! The admitted monotony should be relieved by all the legitimate resorts of the art; for which end, to the severity of imagination should be wedded the gracefulness of fancy. men possess imagination; but fancy is a gift much more charily dispensed. He who can conceive an idea in its simplest proportion, has imagination; but fancy is the only power which can associate pleasing combinations, and temper with due delicacy the rugged and unsymmetrical strength of the former. In short, if imagination may dare the sublime, fancy must add the beautiful.

All

No poem could be more appropriately introduced with these remarks, than the Rev. Robert Montgomery's "LUTHER." Of the hero we have already spoken, as the divinely appointed Apostle of the Reformation; in whose character we recognise prophetic attributes as proper to bear testimony to an intellectual era, as were those of the olden time to correct a sensuous and carnal generation. To the sentiment, therefore, of Mr. Montgomery's poem we cannot do other than cordially respond; yet, neither can we conceal our regret that a work, in many respects so orthodox and so admirable, should be disfigured by faults of diction, and a disregard of some of the most obvious laws of correct versification. Until Mr. Montgomery can be brought to look upon these faults as faults, they will continue to expose him to that malignity of which, not without justice, he complains; and prevent his taking that station among our living poets which would otherwise be his due. Mr. Montgomery accuses his critics of lacking a spiritual faculty, and his accusation is not groundless. We are aware how incapable, both by education and by will, many of our common reviewers are to appreciate any work of loftly endeavour; but even from the ignorance of his enemies, the true Poet will learn wisdom. We can assure Mr. Montgomery that we should not burthen ourselves with the unnecessary labour of pointing out the faults of a writer whose excellencies were not, on the whole, deserving of respect and encouragement; and whose character and station did not justify the conclusion that those reproofs would be received kindly, which were offered in an affectionate spirit of sincerity and truth.

If the subject of the sacred Poet be monotonous, all the more for that resson should his style be enriched by every possible embellishment, every possible variety of illustration: thean alogies of nature, the records of history, the treasures of science, should be laid under contribution, and compelled to subserve the sublimities of faith and the ecstacies of devotion. Mr. Montgomery's style, however, is certainly too little diversified, both absolutely and relatively. For instance, the word God is too frequently and indiscriminately reiterated: "That problem deep as God, and dark as guilt ;* "Divine as Heaven, original as God;" "In tears that glow with gratitude, and God!" In one short paragraph we observed this word to occur eight times; besides many others similar or synonimous, as "Face Divine," "Christ," "Deity," "Emmanuel," "Jehovah," &c. Let not our remarks be misinterpreted: our objection is, not that these words are used, but that they are used unnecessarily, merely to round a line or complete an antithesis. How different was the procedure observed by our great

Nor

Poet Milton; how seldom does he mention the awful name of the Almighty, save when he can do it with authority. At other times he describes the Deity rather by His attributes, than by a word which should never pass our lips unadvisedly. are these the only instances of this iteration: the word "Hell" is likewise continually recurring: "Encompassed ever like incarnate Hells;" "No! never hath the murderous hoof of Hell;" "For ages, like an incubus of Hell;" "Defy their malice, though it breathe of Hell." Again, with regard to "Lie," and its plural: "Is given over to a heartless lie;"" But long ere this, the great Arabian lie;""No foul elixir of a fiendish lie; ""That mitred lie;" "Leprous church of lies;" "By his damning spell of lies." There are some phrases, too, which might provoke a spiteful critic; such as, "Not from the loins which heraldry admires." But to us the task of noticing such excrescences is one of unmitigated pain; and we only do so in the hope that Mr Montgomery will listen to our earnest and loving entreaties, and no longer suffer such to damage his fair fame. Are we not justified in excepting to the phraseology of these lines? "On Calv'ry's hill God's attributes were throned,

Jehovah there in coronation shined."

We recognise the poet's meaning; but we put it to Mr. Montgomery himself, whether the words in italics do not rather degrade than elevate the idea? These are faults, we admit, which do not affect the intrinsic merit of the poem; yet nevertheless, like all faults, they serve most lamentably to obscure it.

But enough of dispraise; let us now quote a passage in extenso, which we can heartily commend, both for sentiment and expression: "Here is the doom of Hero, Bard, or

King:

"Heroes are martyrs, if their minds be pure

The cross of hatred first their hearts And highly temper'd; for the Truth is

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The INFINITE His awful Presence hides, His thought embodies, and reflects His power."

"Still, what is Life, but Imperfection's breath,

And human Being, but incarnate fault E'en at the best, howe'er by Grace re

fined?

Moses was anger'd; David's honour fell; Paul felt his thorn; and Peter told a lie.

Genius hath faults, and Luther's none

o'erveil.

A brave Restorer of departed truth,
No hollow Semblance, and no heartless
Shade

Came he on earth to manifest or preach.
Manful, but rugged, to the centre bold,
His heart beat fiercely, and his blood ran
fire

When Right divine, or some disastrous Wrong

Challenged his faith, or forced his feeling

out

In action; then, the Soul's tornado raged,

And shook the spirit to its moral roots! Stormful, and strong, and gusty in his moods

Oft the black whirlwind from some ireful cloud

Roused his rent bosom with disturbing rush,

And hurl'd Propriety from off its throne Amazed, and master'd! His was battle

life;

Great-hearted Being! with a lion plunge Full on the foe, with all his living fire Leapt his free soul, magnanimously firm, And no surrender!-for the Truth must fight

And Faith prove conflict, if it stand sincere !"

"Spirits there be, like flowers from heaven that fall,

Deck'd with fine beauty, clad with mental bloom

Most delicate, but soon Earth's tainted

soil

Bedims them; trodden in the dust they lie,

Forgotten, faded, or defeatured things, Ere yet they open'd their immortal buds Of virtue, or their perfect fragrance

gave.

Not such was Luther's: like some burly

oak

Whose boughs wave battle with the tearing winds,

And bend, but never break, his fighting Heart

Contended with all mutinies, that came From prince or pope, from circumstance or creed,

And wrestled with them; or, with Samson force

Subdued them, or Himself with glorious fall

Laid prostrate! Sinful oft, his moody ire Betray'd him; unadvised words he spake; And sometimes, when his fervid heart o'erboil'd,

Scatter'd both friend and foe, with burning froth

And scalding fury!—like a soul on fire,
Intensely real, with his raging glow.
The gentle wonder'd and the wise con-
demn'd,

To see him thus by evil lightnings rent
And harrowed:-but, how
soon the

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Did nature find him; playful he could be; For oft that smiting earnestness of tone That scorn'd the False, and cleaved all fiction through,

Priestly or papal, with a forcing might That flash'd with fierceness, like a sword's descent,

Melted away; and, like an infant lull'd,
Pathetic Luther all the poet-life
Of purest feeling testified and taught.
Witness, ye tears! that dropt o'er Tetzel's
bed

When reft and dying; and o'er thine that fell,

Beloved, and lost, and beauteous Madaline!

Oft in the granite of a soil unhewn
Full many a flower in secret freshness

smiles;

And many a stream, where all looks arid blank,

Lurks in the Horeb of the heart, unknown:

E'en such was Luther; with his rocky front

And jagged features, to the foe display'd; But sweet affections, sanctified and soft, As ever water'd human breast with love, Gush'd into force when Feeling's reign began."

Mr. Montgomery's popularity has not been unmerited, not without a deep and potent cause; for, with all their fault, his poems have contained that high and ecstatic feeling of piety, that love of the holy and the sublime, which by the devout mind is accepted and stored as the richest of all treasures. Hence, from his first appearance he found and deserved a public; and, however defective might be the outward structure of the work, yet the pious Christian always found that with which he could sympathise-ay, and strongly. Such works are the last which a religious critic should neglect; the last which he should seek to stifle either by ill-timed or ill-natured severity. The pertinacious courage wherewith Mr. Montgomery through good and evil report has stood his ground as a Christian Poet-the undoviating faith he has manifested in the majesty and strength of his theme, apart from all considerations touching its execution, have won him name and place; and would he but subdue his style-be less prodigal of emphasis, which from its frequency at last becomes no emphasis af all-suffer the intermediate links of his chain to be less glowing than the gems and precious stones which they are to support and connect—and, above all, would he but follow the example of all great Poets, and commence in a quiet strain; then might he be accepted as a stalworth and unexceptionable defender of Sacred Poesy, in an age and country delighting to revile her mission and dishonour her sanctity.

We have included Mr. Montgomery's Sermons in the present article (though in opposition to the strict letter of our arrangement), because the majority of the remarks which we have applied to his poetry, will apply to them. Our pulpit oratory needs a reformation; the cold argumentation which appeals to the head, must be enlivened by the warmth and earnestness which assaults the heart. More men can feel than can reason; and many who would listen unconcerned to the most cogent demonstration, are yet to be conquered, if once you can reach their affections. Not a few are to be won by love, some must be compelled by terror; to these must be presented the awfulness of the judge—to those, the gracious benignity of the Saviour; but the passions, as they are the most prolific source of evil, so they may be made the most effective instruments of good. We would have the preacher to appeal to the reason, of course. This he ought to do, and not leave the other undone; yet how often do we listen to sermons, excellent as compositions, and sound in doctrine, but without fervour and without life, which are heard only to be forgotten! Mr. Montgomery's sermons are not perfect specimens of the kind of address we would recommend; but they are valuable approximations. We, however, detect in them all the faults of the author's Poetry-too many endeavours at fine writing, too much clustering of ornament, too great a lack of repose and simplicity. Nevertheless, like his Poems, they contain much which the Christian will cherish and improve.

III. TRADITIONS.

St. Patrick's Purgatory; an Essay on the Legends of Purgatory, Hell, and Paradise, current during the Middle Ages. By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Corresponding Member of the Royal Institute of France (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres). London: Smith, Soho. 1844.

THE doctrine of Purgatory is in a certain sense part of the Anti-Protestant theory of justification, and, as such, connected with its misinterpretations of the baptismal and eucharistic rites. Some mysterious gift is conveyed in Baptism, and again in a still more sacred manner in the Holy Communion. But a difficulty soon meets these unphilosophical theorists, in the fact that the possession of the gift is irrespective of the conversion of the will: suppose, therefore, its possessor die without being renewed in the spirit of this man-and-christian-making faculty: what then becomes

of him? Many baptised persons, according to the Anti-Protestant theory, "leave this world, having a store of spiritual life still remaining in them, of which their Christian proficiency is not the gauge and measure." The words we have just quoted are from Mrs. Coleridge's Essay. They are succeeded by others of such great value in this argument, that we shall proceed with the extract:

It

"An endowment which does not necessarily reform the moral being upon earth, will not necessarily, it might well be supposed, endue it with blessedness above; yet who can venture to say that a gift of so exalted a nature as that of which we are treating, can fail to place the owner in the highest heaven? Though unimproved here, yet, when the world and the flesh are withdrawn, the material organism that rendered the man temptible to evil' done away, it must surely work its full effect. is obvious at once that the notion of a purgatory intervening betwixt the soul's departure from this world, and its entrance into final bliss and fullness of glory, is the natural and necessary pendant to such a scheme as has been described; and yet a painless purgatory, which Anglican Anti-protestants can alone venture upon, though not so plainly contradicted, is yet as unwarranted by God's word as the fearfullest den of torture which a monkish imagination ever portrayed, and in one point of view is far more demoralising in its tendency. No self-indulgent nominal Christian, no lingerer before the strait gate and narrow way, will, in the present life, indeed, give broad pieces or lands to escape any such comfortable half-way house betwixt this world and the heavenlier part of that to come; he would rather feel it a relief and a respite, that he has no chance of passing at once into the company of saints and angels, when he knows himself, if the answer of his conscience may decide the question, to have little that is saintly and angelic about him; he will rather enjoy the thought of an intermediate sojourn, where he is sure to obtain, by some means or other, those qualifications for heaven which he took but little pains to work out for himself here. The tenet thus explained has not the remotest tendency to enrich or aggrandise the clergy; but so far as it is taken into the mind, and becomes something more than a subject of discussion, it must surely serve to take the sting out of all their dehortatory preaching. We may revert too little to our Baptism; but this doctrine, if conscience did not continually unsay what it says, would make our Baptism a down cushion to fall back and repose upon through life. It is not to be denied that this whole subject of individual salvation is full of darkness: it would seem to our apprehensions, if we permitted ourselves to speculate on such a point, that there must be many persons, who, though quite unfit for heaven, are yet scarce worthy of eternal burnings: but it should be remembered that when our Lord was questioned on this very subject, he gave no direct answer; and it is plain enough, that the uncertainty, whether or no we shall escape the worst, unless we are doing our best, when our Lord comes to look for us, is of high spiritual use. Moreover, it is one thing to say, 'I cannot see through the cloud;' and quite another to maintain that the confused shapes which present themselves to us athwart the misty atmosphere, are the very forms of real objects."

Mr. Wright remarks that the legends he has collected regarding purgatory, if compared with one another, and with the ancient penitentials, would furnish most valuable materials for the statistical history of crime; and he is satisfied, from the researches and observations he has made, that crime and vice were infinitely more prevalent and in their worst forms, during the ages of papal supremacy, than at any other period of history, if we except, perhaps, the most degenerate period of the Romish Cæsars.

"I can add," he proceeds, "both from my own observations, and from those of a friend who has passed much of his life in examining the judicial records of the English local courts, that the amount of crime diminished in our own country constantly from the Reformation to the end of the reign of Elizabeth; that it appears to have risen again very suddenly under James I. and Charles I.; that it began to diminish quickly again under the Commonwealth; and that, in spite of the immorality in the higher classes after the restoration, the general morality of the people has been continually improving down to the present time. A series of researches carried on with the especial object of illustrating this subject, would be exceedingly interesting ;

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