days when Christ sang with his disciples, when the disciples sang too, as in our churches they have almost ceased to do. Oh! but for one moment even, to have sat transfixed, and to have listened to the hymn that Christ sang and to the singing! But the olive-trees did not hear his murmured notes more clearly than, rapt in imagination, we have heard them! 8. There, too, are the hymns of St. Ambrose' and many others, that rose up like birds in the early centuries, and have come flying and singing all the way down to us. Their wing is untired yet, nor is the voice less sweet now than it was a thousand years ago. Though they sometimes disappeared, they never sank; but, as engineers for destruction send bombs' that, rising high up in wide curves, overleap great spaces and drop down in a distant spot, so God, in times of darkness, seems to have caught up these hymns, spanning long periods of time, and letting them fall at distant ēras, not for explosion and wounding, but for healing and consolation. 9. There are crusaders' hymns, that rolled forth their truths upon the oriental air, while a thousand horses' hoofs kept time below, and ten thousand palm-leaves whispered and kept time above! Other hymns, fulfilling the promise of God that His saints should mount up with wings as eagles, have bōrne up the sorrows, the desires, and the aspirations of the poor, the oppressed, and the persecuted, of Huguenots, of Covenanters, and of Puritans, and winged them to the bosom of God. 10. In our own time, and in the familiar experiences of daily life, how are hymns mossed over and vine-clad with domestic associations! One hymn hath opened the morning in ten thousand families, and dear children with sweet voices have charmed the evening in a thousand places with the utterance of another. Nor do I know of any steps now left on earth by which one may 1 St. Ambrose, a celebrated Christian father, was probably born at Trèves, in 340. After a careful education at Rome, he practiced with great success, as an advocate, at Milan; and about 370 was appointed prefect of the provinces of Liguria and Æmilia, whose seat of government was Milan. He was appointed Bishop of Milan in 374; and finally acquired so much influence, that after the mas- so soon rise above trouble or weariness as the verses of a hymn and the notes of a tune. And if the angels, that Jacob saw, sang when they appeared, then I know that the ladder which he beheld was but the scale of divine music let down from heaven to earth. H. W. BEECHER. IV. 169. THE PASSIONS. W HEN MUSIC, heavenly maid, was young, E'en at the sound himself had made.- In lightnings owned his secret stings: And swept, with hurried hands, the strings.- Low sullen sounds!-his grief beguiled; 'Twas sad, by fits-by starts, 'twas wild. And både the lovely scenes at distance hail! She called on ECHO still, through all her song; A soft responsive voice was heard at every close; 4. And longer had she sung-but, with a frown, REVENGE impatient rose. He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down; The war-denouncing trumpet took, And blew a blast so loud and dread, Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woes; The doubling drum with furious heat; And though, sometimes, each dreary pause between, Her soul-subduing voice applied, Yet still he kept his wild unaltered mien ; While each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head. 5. Thy numbers, JEALOUSY, to naught were fixedSad proof of thy distressful state! Of differing themes the veering song was mixed; And now it courted Love-now, raving, called on HATE.- And, from her wild, sequestered seat, In notes, by distance made more sweet, Poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul; Bubbling runnels joined the sound; Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole ; Love of peace, and lonely musing,- 6. But, oh! how altered was its sprightlier tone, When CHEERFULNESS, a nymph of healthiest hue, 7. Her bow across her shoulder flung, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,- The oak-crowned sisters, and their chaste-eyed queen, Peeping from forth their alleys green : Brown EXERCISE rejoiced to hear; And SPORT leaped up, and seized his beechen spear. Last came Joy's ecstatic trial:- But soon he saw the brisk awakening viöl, To some unwearied minstrel dancing; While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings, As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odors from his dewy wings. COLLINS. WILLIAM COLLINS, one of the most interesting and exquisite of English poets, was born at Chichester on Christmas-day, 1720. He was educated at Winchester, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Before leaving college he published the "Oriental Eclogues," which, to the disgrace of the university and the literary public, were wholly neglected. In 1744 he came to London as a literary adventurer, and about two years later published his "Odes," and made the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, who held him in the highest esteem. His life in the metropolis was irregular, and, until the death of an uncle, who left him a legacy of £2000, was one of continual hardship. On the receipt of this little fortune, he repaid Miller, the bookseller, the loss sustained by the publication of his neglected "Odes," which were afterward destined to become immortal. Unhappily, the seeds of disease and occasional insanity had been too deeply sown in his former poverty to be eradicated, and after a short sojourn in France, he passed through the doors of a lunatic asylum to his early home, where, in care of his sister, he died, in 1756, at the early age of thirty-six. His appearance was manly, his conversation elegant, his views extensive, his disposition cheerful, and his morals 1 Tempe, (têm ́ på), a valley of European Turkey, in the N. E. of Thessaly, between the mountains of Olym pus on the N., and Ossa on the S. The beauties of its scenery are much celebrated by ancient writers. pure. He was a man of extensive literature, and of vigorous faculties. The "Oriental Eclogues" are written in a clear, correct style, and they charm by their figurative language and descriptions, the simplicity and beauty of their dialogues and sentiments, and their musical versification. No poet has been more happy in the use of metaphors and personification. Collins' "Odes" are unsurpassed by any thing of the same species of composition in the English language, and that to the "Passions" is a perfect master-piece of poetical description. V. 170. ALEXANDER'S FEAST. WAS at the royal feast for Persia won TWA The godlike hero sate, On his imperial throne. His valiant peers were placed around The lovely Thais' by his side None (nun) but the brave, None but the brave, deserves the fair. 2. Timotheüs, placed on high Amid the tuneful choir, With flying fingers touched the lyre: Who left his blissful seats above- 'Tha'is, a celebrated beauty of Athens, an attendant of Alexander, who gained such influence over him, as to cause him, during a great festival at Persepolis, to set fire to the palace of the Persian kings. On the death of the conqueror, she married Ptolemy, king of Egypt, one of Alexander's generals. She is sometimes called Menandria. |