MISCELLANEOUS. 



REMARKS ON THE ENGLISH POETS. 



IMITATIONS. 



The sublimity and unaffected beauty of the sacred writ- 

 ings are in no instance more conspicuous than in the fol- 

 lowing verses of the 18th Psalm : — 



" He bowed the heavens also and came down : and darkness was 

 under his feet. 



" And he rode upon a cherub and did fly : yea he did fly upon 

 the wings of the wind." 



None of our better versions have been able to preserve 

 the original graces of these verses. That wretched one 

 of Thomas Sternhold, however (which, to the disgrace and 

 manifest detriment of religious worship,is generally used), 

 has, in this solitary instance, and then perhaps by acci- 

 dent, given us the true spirit of the Psalmist, and has sur- 

 passed not only Merrick, but even the classic Buchanan.* 

 This version is as follows : — 



** The Lord descended from above, 

 And bowed the heavens high, 

 And underneath his feet he cast 

 The darkness of the sky. 



* That fhe reader may judge for himself, Buchanan's translation is 

 subjoined: — 



" Utqne sniim dominum terrje demittat in orbem 

 Leniter inclinat jnssum fastigia coelum ; 

 Succedunt pedibus fuscpe caliginis umbra* ; 

 file vehens cnrru volucri, cni flammens ales 

 Lora tenens levibus ventorum airemigat alig 

 Se circnm fulvo nebularnm involvit ainiotu, 

 Prfetenditqne cavis piceas in nubibus iiiidas." 

 This is somewhat too harsh and prosaic, and there is an unpleasant 

 cacophony in the terminations of the tifth and sixth lines. 



