The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-01 00:00:00

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.

The n umber for this month is not distinguished
by that sparkling variety which characterized
some of its late predecessors, but it however con-
tains much interesting matter, and the abstract of
a tale from the Chronicles ofthe Canongate, which
fully compensates for its want of variety. There
is a desultory preface prefixed to the Review of
the " Chronicles," which is marked by some
strong, and frequently original turns of thought.
The writer, himself a Poet, takes a hasty review of
Critics, Periodicals and Poets—he describes the
forlorn condition and misfortunes of a hungry

aspirant for fame, with such cordial sympathy and
apparent truth, that we shrewdly suspect he i;
himself, . .

" The great sublime he draws,"
for it cannot be denied that
" They best can paint them who can feel them most."
Passing from the spider webs of the Reviewers,
the writer dilates upon the merits of Crabbe,
Burns, Wordsworth, and Scott. He hits °tithe
character of Crabbe with much graphic fidelity,
and does ample justice to his poetical delineation
of unpoctical subjects. Of Burns he has said
nothing which we did not know before, and
Wordsworth he cannot drag from his romantic
wanderings in the wilds of Cumberland.—
On the writings of Sir Walter and his uni-
versal genius, he exhausts the full quiver of
his praise, and labours very. unnecessarily, we
think, to convince a few sceptics, that the
works of the Author of Waverley will be read a
hundred years hence. The other articles in this
number possess no particular charm, but they will
well repay the reader for his labour—always ex-
cepting that 'yclept " The Opposition," which,
we suppose, -from internal evidence must have
been written by Mr. Peel himself in one
of his fits of despondency at Maresfield Park
during the sporting season. The thing, however,
Won't do. He may hope to organise an opposi-
tion, but his hope will be delusive—as Mr. Daw-
son and Sir Thomas can too well testify. We
may still further expose the absurdity of this ar-
ticle at an early opportunity.
The Review of Bishop Heber's Hymns is

done with a masterly hand, and cannot fail to be
highly acceptable to those who reverence the
memory of that most worthy of exalted
and virtuous characters. We select the
following extract as a sample of the spirit
in which the article is written. All hearts must
sympathise in the extacy of the " good old man," !
weeping with joy at the spontaneous burst of
applause which greeted his son on the delivery
of his noble poem on " Palestine." It was a
moment worth dying for ; and Mr. Heber's fa-
ther never recovered the shock of that interesting'
moment which filled the heart of the son with
joy, and that of his father with grateful rapture :
Reginald Heber did not bring, so far as we have heard,
any very high character for scholarship with him to the
University. lle had not been at any one of the great pub-
lic schools, and his abilities therefore could have been
known but to a lew companions. His University Latin
prize poem, " Carmen Seculare," soon established his
claims to elegant scholarship, and inspired the hope of still
greater academical distinction. It is a very animated and
poetical composition ; but its Latinity is certainly not so
pure,, nor its versification so Virgilian, as some---of the
Latin prize poems of scholars from Winchester and Eton.
That he could beat all the best men of his-year, at their own
weapon, was, however, a proof of his boldness and his in-
genuity—nor, we believe, did he himself ever set upon his
"copy" any higher value.

But it was not till the summer of 1803 that his most
beautiful genius broke forth in all its lustre. "In his
childhood," says an admiraile writer in the Quarterly Re-
view, " Reginald Heber was remarkable for the eagerness
with which he read the Bible, and the accuracy with
which he remembered it ; a taste and talent which subse-
quent acquirements and maturer years only served to
strengthen, so that a great portion of his reading was in-
tended, or at least was employed, to illustrate the scripture;
and perhaps few men of his day had attained to so masterly
a knowledge of the historical parts of the Bible, as well as
the doctrinal, or could have thrown happier light upon
its Oriental customs, its difficult geography, or the civil,
political, and moral condition of the people to whom it
was addressed." It may well be supposed with what de-
lighted enthusiasm a youthful mind so gifted and instruc-
ted, would seize upon such a subject as "Palestine" for
the first poem to which he brought his fine powers, in-
spired, it may be said, by piety, and stimulated by an ho-
nourable ambition. It seemed a subject selected for the
very man,—nor is it too much to say, that not another
youth in England could have produced such a poem. The
music of the beroic ,measure, in most bands so monotonous,
rolls along in his with a varied majesty, reminding one of
the finest parts of the English Pollio—
" Ye nymphs of Solytna, begin the song."

His subject is arranged, and all its parts proportioned, with
a judgment so exquisite, that we ought rather to call it
genius. The transitions, though often rapid, sudden, and
startling, are all natural to an imagination kindled as his
was by " the visions of glory, that spared not his aching
sight." Of Old Palestine, ever holy, yet not that Holy
Laud it was afterwards to be, his muse that
" Her eyes had closed to listen to the strain,
That Hebrew bards did consecrate of old,
And fix'd her Pinch's upon Lebanon,"

sung in strains of which every line teemed with scriptural
imagery, and with a true Hebrew soul, inspired by the
Bible. . But not till the pure and pious youthful bard
comes lo the foot of Mount Calvary, and beholds the rueful
uplifting of the cross, do we know and feel how genius
may be sublimed by religion. And when from that sad
stance

The unborn ages crowd upon his son],"

his descriptions of the elevation of the human spirit all
over the face of the earth, and its final apotheosis, are glo-
riously coloured by the language of the Prophets, and seem
indeed, prompted by the spirit he had invoked,
" That touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with tire."
None who heard Reginald Heber recite his " Palestine,"
in that magnificent theatre, will ever forget his appearance
—so interesting. and impressive. It was known that his
old father was somewhere sitting amour, the crowded au-
dience, when his universally admired son ascended the ros-
trum ; and we have heard that the sudden thunder of ap-
plause that then arose so shook his frame, weak and wasted
by long illness, that he never recovered it, and may be said
to have died of the joy dearest to a parent's heart. Regi-
nald Heber's recitation, like that of all poets whom we
have heard recite, was altogether untrammelled by the cri-
tical laws of elocution, which were not set at defiance, but
either by the poet unknown or forgotten ; and there was a
charm in his somewhat melancholy voice, that occasionally
faultereri, less from a feeling of the solemnity, and even
grandeur of the scene of which he was himself the conspi-
cuous object—though that feeling did suffuse his pale,
ingenuous, and animated countenance—then from the
deeply-felt sanctity of the subject, comprehending the most
awful mysteries of God's revelations to man. As his voice
grew bolder and more sonorous in the hush, the audience
felt that this was not the mere display of the skill and in-
genuity of a clever 'youth—the accidental triumph of au
accomplished versifier over his compeers in the dexterities
of scholarship—which is all that can generally be truly
said of such exhibitions—but that here was a poet indeed—
not only of bright promise, but of high achievement—one
whose name was already written in the roll of the Immortals.
And that feeling—whatever might have been the share of
the boundless enthusiasm, with which the poem was listen-
ed to, attributable to the influence of the " genius
Las been since sanctioned by the judgment of the world,

that has placed " Palestine" at the very head of the poetry
on divine subjects of this age. It is now incorporated for
ever with the poetry of England—a lot which has befallm
but few prize poems, such as Glynn's Day of Judgment,
and Porteus's Death ; although there are others that de-
serve and will probably enjoy it—such as Wrangliam's
Holy Land, and Grant's restoration of Learning and Know-
ledge in the East,—the first distinguished by sustained
spirit and elegance—the second pervaded by a noble enthu-
siasm, and in some of its strains sublime.