The National Register.
London, England, 1812-03-29 00:00:00

'TIIE NATIONAL RECIITFIZ


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No. XLII.
.posaamiss. In his duty prompt at every call,
teatcled and wept, he pray'd and felt for all.
Ancl;4e a bird each fond endearment tries
To tetYipt her new-fledged offspring to the skies,
tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay,
Al ttr'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.
GULDSMITIt.
"nee tired-of the bustle of common life, we retire within ourselves,
elesider seriously and impartially the character, the situation, and
ete'deey of a DIVINZ in a Christian Society, whatever sect they may
aelOni to, whatever tenets they hold forth, our mind is generally filled
with the deepest sense of veneration. We see an uninterrupted corms-
wind.ait between earth and heaven, a chain which unites heaven to
earth, God to man ; and who holds the intermediate links ?—the cler-
He is the channel through which the Creator speaks to his .
ereeiures, the Redeemer to the redeemed sinners, and the spirit of sane-
tille'Lition to the objects of his love. He i; the minister of Sitar who
wrote and delivered the law on the heights of Sinai amidst the glare of
lightnings and the roar of thunders, and the precursor of the awful
trumpet which will sound amidst the bursting of worlds on the last
day. The character of the clergyman is in itself dignity in the full sense
of the word, and that dignity is such, that if, well supported. it emits
the brightest lustre, ant illumines all who surround it within the compass
of its Sphere.
Theseobservatlons, if we may be allowed to style them so, we might
more appropriately say, these expressions of sincere and religious feelings
are not 'dictated by any partial view, any interested motive, and are free
icbtti Superstition and Bigotry, two fiends whieh we equally abhor as
their o4,Oslte, Incredulity and Libertinism. They are countenanced by
goad at rise, because they are founded upon truth, and all the borrowed
and stale cavils of modern philosophers cannot bring them into ques-
tion, or shake their imperturbable solidity ; nay, one of the leaders of
thet fashionable philosophy, Rousseau of Geneve himself, has written:
morepraise of " the clergyman" in his Vicaire Savoyard, than we could
express in twenty aoltimni of our paper.
And, indeed, who receives us, at the foot of the altar at our entrance
In this world ? who enlists us into the society of Christians by sign,
int ea infant foreheads' with the symbol of redemption, and records,
for the use of present and future time, the moment of our birth ?—the
clergyman. Who teaches us the first rudiments of religion, keeps a
watchful eye on the propensities of our youthful minds ?—when we lead
c elected partner for life to the sacred altar of conjugal union—who
alesses our choice, and speaks the first word of hope and comfort to us?—
fisClergyman. And when stretched on' the bed sickness, we pant
tot the balm of consolation, the unction of sympathising
iscourses, and
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fentle exhortatiothc--whose agony-soothing voice' dove hear'among the
wtispers of waiting angels around our silen- curtains ?--;that of the cler
Oman; who will also perfOrm the solemn duty of restoring " parent
earth" the mortal coverings which we had borrowed for the ShOtt space
of a few years.' These are some of the respectable duties of the" holy'
Pan," but he never is more useful, and never deserves more the thanks
and grateful affecti,n of religious societies than when, from the pulpit,
I% expounds to us the mysteries of religion and the charms of virtue;
when lifting up the veil of ignorance, he teaches us to believe, and
proves that OM* belief is well founded ; removes the ever-tormenting
doubts which gnaw the heart of half-instructed christians, and sends us
home 'With all the 'bleisings which enlightened faith, certain hope, and
wards charity can bestow. The Pulpit is the place where we shall consider
him as at his post; and persuaded of the importance of his station, we
intend to continue our observations of this most interesting part of the
:1111111Str31 entrusted to a Divine. PHILAGORETES.

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PRISON iIiEIVOIRS:Ok LIVING GENIUS.
No. VI.
MR., MOGNIE.
Tbe three Oroduetioni described in my last, had excited too much admi-
t:l4ok WOilcl, not to be noticed by the Reviews, in which
they were mentioned 'in tains of well deserved 'eulogy. Mr. Mngnie
next descended into the field of competition, and successfully contended

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with an able composer, Von Esch, a friend dills, who had studied
under the same master, and had lately published La Colontbe
vtle—" The Dove found again." Mr. Mugnie composed La Coloialv
Reperdue—" The Dove lost again," in which he extended the subject.
After expressing, in the first part, the happiness of the winged lovers,
until the wish .f travelling revived, his powers of imita'ion faithfully
represent their animated contention, the reproaches of the one, the
wild levity of the other, followed by her wandering eight, and the
plaintive eloquence of her forsaken mate. In this elegant piece, ex.
pression and Melody vied together, and the soul of the Poet joined to
that of the Musician, ensured the triumph of its author.
Hitherto Mr. Mugnie had clothed in awful melody, the terrors of the
last judgment: had led on with his warlike strains the armies of his
sovereign to battle; had obtained the notice and patronage of our Royal
family by his excellent variations on God save the King, and faithfi.lly
imitated in his Pvillon and Colombc Reperdne the sportiveness of tro
cure. He now entered the lists with poetry itself, and selecting Ana.
creon's little ode of Cupid stung by a Bee, endeavoured to express in
sounds, all that was described by the Grecian bard. He only made one
judicious alteration in the fable, which decreased the difficulties of his
task and enabled him to introduce additional beauties. In the Greek,
Cupid is represented as stung by a Bee, which lay hidden in roses, and
which he did nut perceive. To express clearly the lurking quiescence
of the mischievous insect, ere it inflicted the wound, would have promd
beyond the power of music. Mr. Mugnie, with the creative genius of
a poet, changed the scene, laid Cupid on a couch of roses, and opened
his piece with the softest harmony, breathing all the languishing volup-
tuousness of slumbers, enjoyed by the God of Love, in the midst of
blooms and perfumes, and beneath a mild unclouded sky. Anon, the
wild flight of the bee bursts on the waving calm. Now she flits through
the air, and now she floats around the dozing God, and wooes him into
deeper sleep with her melodious hum. At last she settles upon his
hand: a sudden and piercing clang is heard. She has darted her sting
and flies away with the expiring calm. Cupid starts : his first expres-
sions of pain are broken and inarticulate with sleep. He shakes his
hand, and wakening by degrees with the enereasing smart, runs to and
frd, then flies to his mother, and crying out through anguish, exclaim.
against the bee and relates his 'misfortune. Venus reproves him for his
own cruelty. He prays for vengeance on the bee and receives a second
and still more severe reproof. Hitherto the music has faithfully depicted
his agitation, his flight, his complaint, the rebukes he receives and his
prayer, it now forcibly speaks all the passions ;hat rage in his breast.
Now it breaks forth with theyapidity and shrillness of reproach now it
softens into supplication, now it bursts with the varied loudness of :Ingo
and menace, and at last subsides into a submissive and most expressive
and harMonious strain of prayer. Pardon is granted, and the whole
concludes with sounds of. triumph and exultation.
"Phi's piece may, I think, be hitherto considered as Mr. Magpie's
cliglei'vaVre. It does not boast the 'sublimity of his Last Jtalginot+, nor
the martialt-andeur of his afar e/ Boyalistes, but it teems with ev
pression of the most poWerful and varied kind. It is a little Anacreon-
tic drama, in which action assumes a voice, and that voice is exgahite
melody. It is not only a work of deep science but of imagination ask and
genius. It abounds with new motives nut followed too far,
but it-
fully interwoven. -It displays a rich mellowness, a variegated delicacy
and resistless power of harmony, which not only delight the ear, but
speak eloquently to the heart and mind.
As I have mentioned the source from whence Mr. Mugnie silected
his subject, the following translation of Anacreon's Ode, done
friend, with the alteration I have pointed out in the beginning, may nut
prove unacceptable to the reader.
CUPID AND THE BEE.
While on a fragrant bed of roses,
Cupid in balmy sleep reposes,
A savage bee, with fury wild
Relentless stung the lovely child.
Rous'd by the pain, he starts, he cries ;
And weeping to fair Venus flies,
66 Ott! heed, mamma, my sad complaint,
Stung by a bee,l die, I faint."
64 Thou cruel elf," with angry air
F.xclaim'd his mother, heav illy fair,
From such a wound, if suph the smart, .
What must he feel! Whose anxious heart
pierced by thy envenomed dart !
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