1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



709 



ance, especially those written during the last 

 years of William's reign, and the first of 

 Anne's. Shaftesbury was a zealous revolu- 

 tionist, and, like other whigs, was not well 

 pleased with William's strong leaning to the 

 tories. What makes the editor say Shaftes- 

 bury's Letters relate to ancient affairs ? Some 

 few of them are addressed to a young man 

 for whose welfare he was interested; and 

 among other prudential advice is some which 

 indicates to the editor a state of religious 

 feeling that takes him out of the class of 

 sceptics. Of the authenticity of the letters 

 no doubt exists. They were, nearly all, to 

 a Dutch merchant of Rotterdam, at whose 

 death they came into the hands of the editor's 

 grandfather, and so through his father to 

 himself. The editor has also in his possession 

 what he believes to be the original manu- 

 script of Locke's Essay, of which we shall 

 never hear the last. 



Encyclopaedia Britannica. Seventh Edi- 

 tion The merits of the Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica are too generally acknowledged by 

 the sale of six considerable editions to render 

 any details necessary. But the new edition 

 comes recommended by such fresh advan- 

 tages as claim at least a slight notice. Cheap- 

 ness and compression distinguish it. The 

 whole will be comprised in twenty volumes, 

 at 365. each including the supplement the 

 well-known, and, it must be allowed, well-be- 

 praised supplement the articles of which 

 will be inserted, each suo loco, in the one 

 general alphabetical series. The publication 

 is going on at the rate of two volumes a 

 year ; but the whole, it is promised, will be 

 printed long before the expiration of the ten 

 years, dating from its commencement, and 

 may be had at the option of the subscribers. 

 The dissertations left unfinished by Messrs. 

 Stewart and Playfair will be completed, it 

 seems, Mr. Stewart's by Sir James Macin- 

 tosh, and Mr. Playfair's by Professor Leslie. 

 By the way, has not Sir James M. more 

 upon his hands than he is ever likely to ac- 

 complish ? Arts, sciences, geography, hi- 

 story, statistics, will, of course, be adjusted to 

 the state of facts at the period of publication. 



The Descent into Hell, aPoem, 1 830 The 

 subject of this poem is succinctly included, 

 the author tells us, in the Apostles' Creed, by 

 the words " he descended into hell." Au- 

 thorities for the doctrine, he adds, are pro- 

 fusely scattered over the Scriptures, for such 

 as are capable of discerning them, especially 

 in the Psalms and the Prophets; but the 

 most explicit testimony occurs in 1 Peter, iii. 

 18, 21. Bishop Horsley has written, he in- 

 forms us, so beautiful a sermon upon the 

 subject ! The author therefore makes the sub- 

 ject not only a theme for poetical declama- 

 tion, but insists upon it as a point of faith. 

 As he refers to one sermon, we may also refer 

 to another one of Dr. Parr's, which will be 

 found buried, fathoms deep, in the recent 

 collection of his works in eight octavo vo- 

 lumes of at least 700 pages each. In the 



very teeth of an " article," Dr. Parr denies 

 the doctrine in toto, as in effect Dr. Clarke 

 did long ago, though not so explicitly. Mr. 

 Pyle, the well-known and well-received in- 

 terpreter, says, Christ did not himself preach, 

 but through the Spirit, and then subjoins a 

 paraphrase by somebody else, upon which in- 

 terpretation and paraphrase, plainly adopting 

 both, Dr. Parr thus acutely discriminates : 



" Here, then, you have an immediate agent, dif- 

 ferent from that which is supposed in the common 

 and erroneous interpretation of St. Peter ; for it is 

 the Spirit which preached, not Christ personally. 

 You have a different time, for it was in the age of 

 Npah, not during the three days when Christ lay in 

 the grave. You have a different place, for it was 

 not Hell, but the country in which Noah lived. 

 You have different persons, for they to whom the 

 Spirit preached were not the accursed inhabitants of 

 Hell, but the cotemporaries of Noah. You have a dif- 

 ferent purpose ; for there is no resemblance between 

 the Spirit which preached unto the unrighteous co- 

 temporaries of Noah to check their ungodliness, lest 

 they should be destroyed by the flood, and the 

 preaching of Christ to wicked Spirits, who were al- 

 ready suffering in the fire of Gehenna, and of whom 

 we do not learn that even one was so influenced by 

 the instruction of Christ as to be reformed from 

 wickedness and released from torment." 



Of the poem, elaborately written in terza- 

 rima, the less we say, the less, like prudent 

 folks, we commit ourselves, though we have 

 no doubts. A single specimen, and that 

 taken from the very beginning of the poem, 

 will, we think, enable the reader to measure 

 the poet's calibre certainly that of his taste 

 and execution the delicacy of his musical 

 ear, and his conception of metrical harmony. 



Lift up, O Hell ! thy diuturnal gate, 



But not eternal; finite, it began. 



On the huge hinge harsh thunders hoarsely grate : 



Chaos afar shook where their echoes ran. 



The swinkt Damned shriek, " a change !" of lot 

 no change, 



If change of suffering, for fiend or man : 



Still it may soothe. 



Yet passages occur of extraordinary energy, 

 but all in the strangest taste imaginable; wild 

 as a wilderness, and the poet himself as mad 

 as a March hare. 



Death speaks : 



A home in air have I. Winds hear my voice, 

 The four winds answer it with all their breath 

 Lo ! the tornado doth alqud rejoice 

 In his ubiquity, and cometh out 

 With sudden and exaggerated noise ; 

 Scattering his hurtling arrows all about 

 Amid the sky, the while his iron shoon 

 Cottage and palace trample ; with a shout 

 Then whirls him in his dusty car aboon, 

 As with the ruin he would blot out Heaven, 

 And quench the glorious sun, as I shall soon. 

 And men are hurled into the clouds, and driven 

 As in a witch-dance, round, and aye around, 

 And perish in the flashes of the leven ; 

 I swoop, and strangle them in that dire swound. 

 For sport; and thus I gambol merrily. 



My way is on the waters. Of the drowned 

 The last spasm makes the globule, wherewith I 

 Take innocent delight, and think when this 

 Strong hand shall, with the same facility, 

 Confound in one disruption, one abyss, 



