The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-05 00:00:00

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PRICE 7D.

LITERATURE.

POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS,

By the Rev. R. HEBER, late Bishop of Calcutta. pp. ISO.

The late lamented Bishop of Calcutta was perhaps as
accomplished a scholar as evergraced the English hierarchy.
To a mind richly fraught with the various learning of the
ancient and modern world, he added luxuriant imagery, fe-
licitous flow of language, and select propriety of epithet,
as remarkable as the high poetic imagination that game
splendour and consistency to his writings. As a divinity
scholar he was no less celebrated than as a poet. Hie
judgment, naturally vigorous, was strengthened by awl
acquaintance with the works of our elder divines, particu-
larly of Jeremy Taylor, to whom he looked up with an
admiration bordering on idolatry. Indeed, if we reinem-
bee rightly, he published an edition of this episcopal poet's
works, which was much talked of at the time, for the
eloquence with which its original observations were put
forward. As early as his nineteenth year Dr. Heber dis-
tinguished himself by his " Palestine," a poem which
gained the Chancellor's medal at Oxford. In this, mo-
delled chiefly on Pope and Campbell, there was much to
admire : it was, indeed, a performance of uncommon pro-
mise, and, except in the instance of his well-known vases
entitled " The Passage of the Red Sea," was never ex-
celled by its author. The description of our Saviour's
agonp—the passing, but vigorous, allusion to the Cru-
sadersthe lament of Zion—and, -lastly, the majestic pa--
raplirase of that sublime apostrophe in the Revelations (the
finest thing in the records of human intellect) to the
mighty angel, who, with one foot on the land,•and the
other.on the sea, declares that time shall be no longer—
these were passages which, in a youth of nineteen, fully
justified every presage of first-rate excellence. As this
poem, however, is the hands of almost every well-educated
man, we forbear giving extracts, but cannot help quoting
one line in it which appears to us eminently happy. It is,
besides, a characteristic sample of Dr. Heber's felicitous
versification. Describing Vengeance, he says—

" Her thirsty ponini:d blush'd with infant blood."

In the poems fiefore us, their talented author displays
uncommon nerve as a translator of that most difficult and
idiomatic of all authors—Pindar. He has transferred the
energy of his thought into very appropriate diction; while,
at the same time, he has kept a strict eye to fidelity. We
give the following passage as a very creditable specimen of
terseness and elegance :

And tins, they tell that deep below
The sounding ocean's ebb and flow,
Amid the daughters of the sea,
A sister nymph must Ino be,
And dwell in bliss eternally
But, ignorant and blind,
We little know the soming hour;
Or if the latter day shall low'r ;
Or if to Nature's kindly power
Our life in peace reeign'd,
Shall sink like fall of summer eve,
And on the face of darkness leave
A ruddy smile behind.—
For grief and joy, with fitful gale,
Our etafi bark by turns Aseail,
And, whence our blessings flow,
That same tremendous Providence
Will oft a varying doom dispense,
And lay the mighty low.

In conclusion, when we reflect that a mind thus richly
and variously gifted, has but just departed from among
us—that all its fine flow of feeling is dried up for ever—
that the voice of its inspiration is mute—its lyre hung up
on the willows—we shall scarcely be able to look at the
specimens of talent that it has left behind it (among which

the present volume ranks conspicuous), without afeeling
of admiration, tinctured with regret, that they are the last
we must ever have from the pen of their lamented author.
But 'what says a well-known divine—" They are gone,
the men of yesterday—they are gathered to the dust of
past ages—their forms are sepulchred, and from the tomb
alone must the voice of their wisdom henceforth arise.
He whom you lament is of these."
" So fades, so languishes, grows dim, and dies,
All that this world is prom{ of."