ON THE NATURE AND 



tion for some of the sweetest and most elevated devotional poetry that 

 the world possesses. His magnificent address to the supreme Being has 

 seldom been equalled. I cannot quote it before a popular audience in 

 its original, but I will beg your acceptance of the following imperfect 

 translation of two of its stanzas, that you may have some glance into its 

 merit : 



Father Supreme ! O let me climb 

 That sacred seat, and mark sublime 



Th' essential fount of life and love ; 

 Fount, whence each good, each pleasure flows, 

 O, to my view thyself disclos<' ! 

 The radiant heaven thy presence throws ! 



O, lose me in the light above. 



F'ee, flee, ye mists ! let earth depart : 

 Rai^e me, and show me what thou art, 



Great sum .md centre of the s'^ul ! 

 To thet" each thought, in silence, tends ; 

 To thee the saint, in pray r, ascends ; 



Tt>ou art the s<iurce, the guide, the goal ; 



The v/hole is thine, and ihou the whole. * 



While such, however, were the philosophical traditions, the popular 

 tradition appears to have been of a different kind, and as much more 

 ancient as it was nioie extensive. It taught that the disembodied spirit 

 becomes a ghost as soon as it is separated from the corporeal frame ; a 

 thin, misty, or aerial form, somewhat larger than life, with a feeble voice, 

 shadowy limbs ; knowledge superior to what was possessed while in the 

 flesh ; capable, under particular circumstances, of rendering itself visible ; 

 and retaining so nmch of its former features as to be recognised upon its 

 apparition ; in a few instances wandering about for a certain period of 

 time after death, but for the most part conveyed to a common receptacle 

 situated in the interior of the earth, and denominated scheol (^ifijj^), hades 

 {eihi) hell, or the world of shades. 



Such was the general belief of the multitude in almost all countries from 

 a very early period of time ; with this difference, that the hades of various 

 nations was supposed to exist in some remote situation oh the surface of 

 the earth, and that of others in the clouds. The first of these modifica- 

 tions of the general tradition is still to be traced among many of the 

 African tribes, and perhaps ail the aboriginal tribes of North America. 

 That most excellent man, William Penn, who appears with some singu- 

 larities, to have united in his character as much moral goodness, natural 

 eloquence, and legislative wisdom, as ever fell to the lot of any one, has 

 sufficiently noticed this fact, in regard to the American tribes, in his 

 valuable account of the country addressed to "'I'he Free Society of 

 Traders of Pennsylvania," drav/n up from an extensive and actual survey, 



* Coocedi, O Padre ! I'alta e pacra sede 

 M«»nti la mente, e vegga el vivo fonte, 

 Fonte ver bene, onde o^ni ben procede. 

 Mostra la luce vera alia mia fronte, 



E poiche conosciuto e '1 tuto bel sole, , « 



Dell' alma ferma in lui luci pronte. 



Fuga le nebbie, e le terrestre mole 



Leva da me, e splendi in la tua luce ; 



Tu se' quel sommo ben che chiascuu vuole : 

 A te dolce riposo si conduce, 



E te come suo fin, vede ogni pio ; - , 



Tu se' principio, portatore e duce, i 

 La vita, e '1 terminO; Ta sol, Magno Dio. 



