Sacred Poetry.
The Times, 1824-11-12T00:00:00

(From the London Megarine.) There are one or two fine prassag,eR in those parts of the sacred writings known as the work of Mlloses; but I cannot think he was, as has been contended, the writer of the book of Job. The per. vdding spirit of' thBt poem (deservedly so called) is daring, arro- gant, high-reaching sublimity. The style of the great legislator of tie Jews is, both with respect to senEiment and pbraseology, 3imple even to homeliness, equable, and unambitious. Sublimity, though aliays purest when coached in the simplest language springs from a double fountain: with simplicity of diction a com- patible grandeur of sentiment must unite to form the true sublime. There Is little of this latter qaality in the books of the Pentateuch. That instance which occtrs in the firat chapter, and upon which so much needless eloquence has been spent, is what may be called in- voluntary sublimity. An historian of that simple age relating such a maznificent fact as the crention of the world could not well have avoided being subliime. The fact in itself, and independent of the 8lstorlan,was sublimen: the simple relation of it must be so too * and. the relation of it by an historian of that age must have been simple. fHence are the three first verses of Genesis neecsarily sublime. The same may be said of the description of the food, the passage of the Red Sea, and others. But tbough a writer sO meek in his lite- rary aspirations that be rather admits than introduces the sub. lirro; of so didactic a mind that he rarelvdcviates from the straight- forward road of narrative into the pleasuie-grounds of description or embellishment; yet neither the modesty of his style northe brevity of hiis marner has prevented him leaving us a specimen of the beau- tiful, one of the most perfect on record. It is indeed hut a dimi- YUtive though an invaluable gem. Like a solitary sow-drop, it en- deavours to escape observation amidst the waste in wldch it smiles. Thoagh its beauty be of the most attractive kind when laid open to view, theflower isi so small and so retiring, that we passover the spot where it growrs without seeing it. It is contracted in-o flve words. " And there vent a man of the house fof levi, and took to wife a dalghter of LevL "And the woman conceived and bare a son; and when she saw hin that he wasa goodlv child, she hid him three months. " And when sbecould not longer hidehim, she took for bim an ark of bulrusises, and put the child therein, and she laId it in the flags by the river brink. " And his sister stood afar off, to wit what should be done to 1im. " And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe berself at the river, and her maideDs walked along by the river side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. " And when she opened it, she saw the child; and bc7old! the bobe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children."-ERcodise, chap. ii. Here is a picture! or rather a miniature, touched bv the pencil of a fairy. It would make a delicate subject for Ariel to paint in the tender leaf of a cowslip. No! no artist could possibly do it juctice, but fie who paintst in words%, to the soul. not to the senie. A painter could never reach the whole beauty of the phrase-" wep"- I would have it observed, too, that the story would have been complete without these five words, it is therefore to be considered as having flowed merelv from the spirit of poetry and tenderness in the author's breast. It is sufflicient to redeem pages of barren chroni- aide. As a description of helpless innocence, the above passage fromn Exodus is unrivalled. There is, however, a description of the same subject in the works of a prefane writer which approaches itg model more nearly than any-other I can now recollect. It also resemblesits prototvpe in being nearlyinvisible to thegenetal reAder ; at leastt I have never hearl it cited. We find it in a strange book, ton. and where we should by no mrans have expected it to appear.- The l.Pistortl of a Fotrid.'ing! The benevolent Allwortlzy is de- scribed as listening to the speech of his servant, who advises him to expose the little foundling to thc inclemency of the nighr,_to let it (as she save) *' die in a state of innonce." But the voice of Na- ture in Ah'seorthy's heartnuspleadedz th-s soTdid piece of elDGucncr - " He had now got one of his fingers into the infant's hand, which by iti gentle pressure seemed to implore his assistance." Nothing can exceed the pathos and beauty of this description. un. less it be the combination of those same qualities in the " Finding of Moses."'Q SACREO POERTRI