works of our distinguished biblical scholars. He advises that the translations be all executed in Asia, and that in every case which admits of a choice of translators, Christians shall be selected.' As to the important point of expence, he has found that he had something to learn when he advanced the following presumption. In a concern, the ultimate advantages of which would be scarcely less enjoyed by the British government, than by the objects of its beneficence, it may be presumed that an appeal to its liberality would not prove unsuccessful.' On the subject of a Religions Establishment in India, he has but a short section; and if he had to write it now, he would make it shorter. Between wars, the sumptuous paraphernalia of state, the support of pagan worship, and the disasters of the India shipping, it is tolerably evident that not a rupee can be afforded for such a purpose. In asserting the necessity of an establishment, our author does not, like some of his wiser, contemporaries, avow it as his object and expectation, to secure a perfect uniformity of religious faith.' He insists on it as necessary in order to supply and support a sufficient number of qualified men for the religious service of India, to give some semblance of religion to our national character there, to embody the national' religion in a visible and imposing shape, and to create in India an episcopal power of ordination, independent of the hierarchy at home. In the section on Missions, the author refutes, with ability and animation, the assertions of some distinguished writers, who have pronounced that missions to the Hindoos must necessarily be useless, and the representations of others, who have undervalued their actual effect. He suggests some expedients and institutions for training missionaries, states the duties and importance of the office, and makes a captivating, but not therefore extravagant, delineation of an accomplished missionary. It is such a delineation, however, that, if it is to be taken as the standard, one thing is very evident; namely, the superlative folly of those writers on this subject, who have recommended that no English missionaries who are not members of the established church should be permitted to go to India, or remain there. If each missionary must possess the personal qualifications demanded by Mr. Pearson, it will be found that all the sects together will barely furnish a competent supply; and we think he has lost a fair opportunity of signalizing his liberality by an explicit protest against the foolish bigotry which could think of such a limitation and exclusion, especially when it was notorious that scarcely any members of the establishment had shewn themselves disposed to the undertaking of missionary labours. We need not say that our author's accustomed good sense continues to be displayed through the remaining sections of the work. So much of this good sense, so much knowledge, and so much moderation prevail through the whole performance, that it may be reverted to by inquirers on the subject, as one of the fairest statements of the duty of a Christian state (if such a denomination may be allowed) to its heathen subjects. Art. IV. Les Trois Règnes de la Nature, &c. The Three Kingdoms of Nature, by J. Delille. (Concluded from p. 54.) THE power of the Air to communicate contagion, affords the poet an opportunity of describing the fatal effects of the Plague. The description is chiefly taken from Lucretius; but the copy, though spirited, is by no means equal to the original. We cannot institute a comparison; but have noticed that several of the most animated and tender passages, of the Roman bard have been altogether omitted, while at the same time we have a detail of minuter facts, so circumstantially drawn out as to be tedious and uninteresting. But the minstrel changes his measure, and assumes a gayer theme. The invisible and elastic agent that is capable, when loaded with contagion, of destroying thousands in a few hours, is also capable of being the medium to thousands of sounds that can do every thing but recal from the shades of death and in Grecian mythology were even supposed capable of doing this. To the Harp, its first manufacturing artist Ehrhard, and its first musical artist Sejan, he pays the following burst of applause. • Vainqueur mélodieux des antiques merveilles, Vol. I. pp. 137, 198. We will try also to put the English reader into possession of the meaning of these verses: Victor of strains most wondrous once to hear! What sounds are these that strike my ravished ear? O'er ART's Sweet master-piece, and EHRHARD's skill. What strength! what grace! what changefulness of charms! So Eurus, as his wayward breath he blows, Now fells the firm oak, now salutes the rose. Our limits will not allow us to do more than quote another passage or two. The character of the war-horse is executed with much spirit in the following lines, Book VIII, though somewhat too finely spun out. Voyez ce fier coursier, noble ami de son maître, On charge, il dit; Allons; se courrouce et s'élance, Vol. II. pp. 239, 240. The best portion of this is avowedly taken from the well known and inimitable description in the book of Job (xxxix. 20-25) Inimitable we may still call it, upon a comparison with the present passage. Let the reader accept it as it ought to be rendered, Terrible is the glory of his nostrils: He paweth in the valley, and exulteth: The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting. In all the versions of this passage we have yet seen, the term ♫ɔɔ, beceh, rendered above boldly at the beginning of the third line, is usually, but erroneously, regarded as a substantive instead of an adjective form; and is also added, with an error in the punctuation, to the preceding line, in the following manner; He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength. The phrase and is impatient', four lines from the bottom, is usually rendered still more erroneously, and so as to destroy the sense," neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet." We have given the line literally, and in the order in which the words occur in the original. p, amen, implies only in a very subordinate sense, to believe: its primary signification being to be firm, quiet, at rest: and hence, with a negative, to be unquiet, restless, impatient, ungovernable. The Arabic , amyn, is used precisely in the same sense, and is often applied to the camel, to denote its perfect steadiness and qiuescence. We can quote but one passage more from the ornamental parts of the poem, and it shall be a few verses from that with which it closes. The writer, after tracing many of the most curious powers of animals, and contrasting them with the superior endowments of Man, observes as follows. • Mais c'est la mort surtout, dont les touchants tableaux Là dans tout l'intérêt de sa dernière scène, Savent-ils s'ils ont eu des enfants, des ancêtres, S'ils laissent des regrets, s'ils sont chers à leurs maîtres? L'homme seul, plus instruit, est aussi plus heureux, Quand ce monde finit commence un autre monde ; 1 Et du tombeau que s'ouvre à sa fragilité, Auprès de la vertu retrouve l' espérance.' Vol. II. p. 260. The last couplet of this passage might well have been omitted, as it weakens rather than adds strength to the effect. We shall present the English reader with a version of the last six verses preceding this couplet, as well intitled to his notice: Love, friendship, glory, all to them is o'er: And from his ashes, such kind heaven's decree, Our author, however, does not terminate even with the couplet we have rejected: but, with a kind of Hibernian progression, brings back the buried man from his tomb to his death-bed; and describes his views and his feelings; his taking leave of his family, his daughter, his little son; and his directions about his tenants and his servants, with a minuteness, that, as we have observed on several other occasions, borders on prolixity, and very much diminishes the interest of the picture. In the midst of all which circumstantiality, however, we are very much surprised that not a single glance is directed towards the promises and prospects of Revelation: the Bible is kept out of sight with as much caution, as if it were as treasonable to favour it as to favour the Bourbons; it is the dying scene of a heathen philosopher rather than of a Christian saint; of an Adrian rather than of a Pascal: and we la. ment to behold that in this, as well as in several other instances, the peculiar state and fashion of M. Delille's country, if they have not urged him openly to sins of commission, have induced him to suppress what ought to have been by no ineans omitted. The passage proceeds as follows, and with it the poem terminates. • De loin il entrevoit le séjour du repos, De ses parents en pleurs il entend les sanglots; Il reprend fil à fil cette trame si chère, |