Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-05-06
ALEXANDRIA,:
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1919.
ON THE VALUE OF THE BIBLE AS A SCHOOL
BOOK.

HeSlod, VINO sings on the SAME supJeCt,
after tedious complimentary address to
the muses., opens his poem with an absurd
genealogy of Chaos, Tellus, Celum, Nox,
Either and Dies he has. however, one line
resembling that beautiful expression of the
spirit Of God moving on the face of the wa.
tiers; where the incubat ton of the heaven
on the earth generates the ocean. Milton,
by expanding the idea has weakened it:
"On the wat'ry CAIN,
! His breo,iing wings the spirit of
God outspread." Book It'll.
Yet he shews how much he was delight
ed with it, by inserting it in two other pla.
ces in his poem:
with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat brooding on the vast abyss. )"
Book lst.
And again:
cas- with mantle, die invest
The rising world OF waters dark and deep"
Book Sd.
Though none ofthe great epic poets have
copied the abrupt manner of the sacred
writings, cannot omit to mention and pre-
fer TO all others Doctor Young's introduce
ton to his Night Thoughts, as natural and
most suitable 10 the solemnity of his sub.
ject:
Tired natures sweet restorer, balmy
sleep!
He, like the world his ready visit pays
Where fortune smiles; the wretched be for
sakes;
Quick on his dtwny pinions flies from woe,
And lights on lids uhssllied with tear"
The translation of OssIan's Fingal fur
nishes US with beautiful and artless intro
duction OF the descriptive kind.
"Cuchulin sat by Jura's wall, by the
fall Of the nstling leaf His spear leaned
against the messy rock; his shield lay by
him on the grass, as he thought of mighty
Cailbar, our hero whom he slew in war;"
These two only seem to approach the beau
tiful exordium OF Genesis.
In this chapter We have also moro per-
suasive display than in any other author, of
the power OF the Supreme Being, whose
creative word, in the various divisions and
structure of the elements ''spake and ii svas
So" And what lasting impression of
affection and gratitude must the conclusion
have on the memory of the reader, when
he con,empates the Deity pleased with the
humble objects OF bis labor, "and God sazO
every thing that he had made, and behold 1t
zvas very good.
How much does the concise simplicity
of the first verse exceed even the bold de-
scription of Milton, who represents the
Deity measuring the circumference OF the
world with pair Encompasses.
"One foot he centered, and the other turn
ed
Round through the vast prefundity obscure,
And said, thus far extend, thus Tar tiny
bounds, :,
This be thy just circumference, o world
Book It'll.
In Milton, whose Paradise Lost is found
ed on the subject of the creation and fall
Of Adam, we should expect the most accu-
rate delineation of the style of Moses, nor
is our expectation disappointed for as his
subject is the most noble and exalted, so
arc his sentiments and language the most
sublime Of any other poet: but yet when
he endeavors to force the words OF the
scripture into his version, compare the two,
and see how he lessons the strength and
harmony of the expression:
because thou'st hearken'd to the voice OF
thy wife, -,
And eaten of the tree. concerning which
| charg'd thee, saying, thou Shalt not eat
thereof;
Curst is the ground for thy sake; thou in
sorrow 80
Shalt eat thereof all the days ofthy life:
Thorns and thislles it shall bring thee forth
Unbtd, and thou shalt eat the herb OF the
field;
In the sweat ofthy face shalt thou eat bread,
Till thou return unite the ground for thou
Out OF the ground was taken;-know thy
birth
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return"
Book 10Th
How sublimely simple and impressive in
comparison with that effort of even the SUBJ
lime author of the Paradise Lost, is the 0.