be wasted on the blast, but some faint tones will reach and cheer a brother's sinking heart. Truly is the gift of genius a glorious one, even in its grief The fruits which are given to its thirsting lip may be bitter to the taste, but they are plucked from the tree which is "for the healing of the nations." Brooklyn, L. L VI. Thy never parting-breath, VII. Chained though thou art to earth, Upward shall be thy flight, VIII. Spirit immortal, wake! That boundless pathway take, Break thou the sensual reign, Dispart the galling chain, The smile of God! [Knickerbocker.] THE SCRIPTURES AS A SPECIMEN OF LITERATURE. BY E. C. COGSWELL. IN simplicity and purity of style, and in originality of sentiment, the Bible stands unrivalled. Its purity and eloquence are unsurpassed by any productions ancient or modern. Its material for the exercise of deep thought, for cultivating the taste, for invigorating the imagination, and for eliciting the best feelings of the soul, is rich and exhaustless. Its weighty doctrines, the hopes it enkindles, the fears it arrays, alike prove its divine original. No human composition is so exquisite as always to please. Its stores of wisdom are quickly exhausted; the eye soon perceives the end of created perfection; but the beauties of the Bible are none the less lovely, though the charm of novelty may have passed away. He who can read the inspired narration of Moses with diminished interest, can have no beauty in his own soul. Cold must be that heart which does not kindle at his eloquence, and melt at his pathos. Moses's account of the Creation is unique. It is abrupt, simple, sublime. The volume of destiny is suddenly thrown open; time is proclaimed; creation arises; and a new race of intelligences appear on the scene. The Almighty voice is addressed to chaos. "Confusion hears it, and wild uproar stands ruled." The waters subside; the verdant landscape is seen; songs burst from every grove; and stars, bright rolling, silent beaming, are hurled forth from the Almighty's hand. The story of Jacob's darling boy, dressed out in his coat of many colors, sold into Egypt by jealous brothers, rising to be second in power in that mighty nation, saving by his foresight a famishing world, especially the chosen people of God, and dying the most beloved of princes, far surpasses the sublimest concep. tions of poets or novelists. The style of Moses as a Historian, is the best model, both in the vigorous and the sublime, the pleasing and the tender. His history is clothed with the grace of eloquence, the charms of poetry, and the fascinations of fiction. Poetry is the breathing out of that principle which is deep st and sublimest in human nature; the expression of that aspiration for something more powerful and more thrilling than ordinary life affords. The Bible is replete with poetry. The Hebrew poets rouse, warm, and transport the mind in strains the sweetest and boldest that bard ever sung; in numbers, the loftiest that imagination ever dictated. No poetry extant equals that which comes to us from the rapt patriarch of Idumea and the inspired prophets of Salem; from the schools of Bethel and Jericho. The Bible is the prototype; the unrivalled model and inspirer of all that is elevated in poetry. It has been a fountain from which later poets have drawn their richest thoughts, their boldest figures, their grandest imagery. The Psalms of David are an elegant specimen of poetic literature. The character of their diction and expression is vivid, the thoughts animated, passionate. They communicate truths which philosophy could never investigate, in a style which uninspired poetry can never equal. The Hebrew literature itself contains nothing more lovely. Among the prophetic writers, Isaiah stands unrivalled. His language possesses surprising beauties. His triumphal song upon the fall of the Babylonish monarch is replete with imagery, diversified and sublime. The conception is bold, the characters are introduced with wonderful art. Nothing is wanting to defend its claims to perfect beauty. In every excellence of composition, it is unequalled by any specimen of Greek or Roman poetry. The strains of Ezekiel break forth like the gushing of a mighty fountain. He is deep, vehement, tragical. He rouses every energy of the soul; overwhelms the mind by his bold figures, abrupt transitions, fervid expressions. But he who astonishes us by his graphic images, possesses, at the same time, the loveliness of the sweetest poet. poet. For invigorating the imagination, for giving energy of thought and boldness of expression, the writings of Ezekiel are unequalled. The Bible has stood the test of ages. No closeness of inspec tion, keenness of investigation or strictures of criticism, have been able to defeat its claims to the highest excellencies of language. Here the man of taste may find every variety of material to discipline the mind, enrich the imagination, and polish the taste. Of the men that have shed a lustre over ages and nations, the purest and the noblest are those who have been most deeply imbued with the literature of the Bible. The divines of the seventeenth century, those gigantic pillars of English literature, have been celebrated for their love of the excellence of scripture composition. At this fountain the most distinguished poets and orators have drank deepest. What but the literature of the Bible has rendered immortal the writings of Milton and Young? or those of Chatham and Burke, the models of modern eloquence? What else has given interest and power to the writings of Jones, Butler, Hall and Edwards, the admiration of every scholar? It is the literature of the Bible which has sent out a redeeming influence through our whole literary system-an influence which pervades and strengthens the public mind. There is a spirit in the literature of the Bible, before which the lurid fires of impure passion, kindled at the shrine of heathen literature, go out. The whole atmosphere of the Bible is pure and salutary; its clime a region of strong thought; the place for giant minds to thrive in. It is an exhaustless treasury of truths Let the Bible be studied in its original, as we study the Iliad of Homer, or the history of Livy, and giants in intellect will rise up, to surpass the loftiest geniuses of past ages. Let the student study the incomparable histories of Moses and Luke, and the sententious writings of Solomon-men of wonderful grasp of mind, of strong massive style, of deep reflection-also the writings of Paul, another name for the perfection of condensed eloquencethe unrivalled poetry of David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk; and he will find such a discipline adapted to indurate his mental constitution; to give it muscle and energy; to gird the intellect with power; and to aid him in concentrating its energies so as to bring vast regions at once to the mind; to comprehend almost the infinite in the finite, as the "cope of heaven is imaged in the dewdrop." Such is the literature of the Scriptures. Written by its numerous authors, during the space of fifteen hundred years, in the sands of Arabia, in the deserts of Judah, in the rustic schools of the prophets, in the sumptuous palaces of Babylon, in the bosom of pantheism and its sad philosophy, the Bible comes to us the oldest offspring of sanctified intellect, the highest effort of genius, the effusions of truth and nature, the overflowings of genuine feeling, the utterance of undisguised sentiments. It is essential truth, the thoughts of heaven. This volume was conceived in the councils of eternal mercy. It contains the wondrous story of redeeming love. It blazes with the lustre of Jehovah's glory. It is calculated to soften the heart; to sanctify the affections; to elevate the soul. It is adapted to pour the balm of heaven into the wounded heart; to cheer the dying hour; and to shed the light of immortality upon the darkness of the tomb. The force of its truth compelled the highly-gifted but infidel Byron to testify that, |