MISCELLANEOUS. 3S7 



Old Testament as to prove that they were often applied 

 to separate ranks of beings. One of these, which I shall 

 cite, will dispel all doubt on the subject. 



"And within the oracle he made two chenibims of olive tree, 

 each ten cubits high.'' — 1 Kings v. 23, chap. vii. 



The other objection turns upon a word with which it is 

 not necessary for me to interfere ; for I did not quote these 

 verses as instances of the merit of Sternhold, or his ver- 

 sion ; I only asserted that the lines-which I then copied 

 •^viz., 



*• The Lord descended from above,'' <S:c. 



were truly noble and sublime. Whether, therefore, Stern- 

 hold wrote all the ivinds (as asserted by your correspon- 

 dent, in order to furnish room for objection) or TnigJdy 

 ivinds, is of no import. But if this really be a subsequent 

 alteration, I think, at least, there is no improvement ; for 

 when we conceive the winds as assembling from all quar- 

 ters, at the omnipotent command of the Deity, and bear- 

 ing him with their united forces from the heavens, we 

 have a more sublime image, than v/hen we see him as fly- 

 ing merely on mighty ivinds, or as driving his team (or 

 troop) of angels on a strong tempest's rapid wing, with 

 most amazing swiftness, as ehgantlg represented by 

 Brady and Tate.^ 



I diifer from your correspondent's opinion, that these 

 verses, so far from possessing sublihuity, attract the reader 

 merely by their rumbling sound. And here it may not 

 be amiss to observe, that the true sublime does not con- 

 sist of high-sounding words, or pompous magnificence ; 

 on the contrary, it most frequently appears clad in native 

 dignity and simplicity, without art and without orna- 

 ment. 



* How any man, enjoying the use of hi' senses, couhi prefer the con- 

 temptible version of Brady and Tate of tliis verse to Stern Iiald, is to 

 me inexplicable. The epithets which are introduced would Iiave dis- 

 praced a scho.d-boy, and the majestic imagery of the orisjinal is sa- 

 3i-ificed to make room for tinsel and fustian. 



♦' The chariot of the king of kings. 

 Wliich active trooj)s of angels drew. 

 On a strong tempest's rapid wings. 

 With, most amazing swiftness fiew. 



