breviations, that make our beautiful English horrid even to the eye, bad rhymes, or no rhymes where rhymes are expected, but above all, numbers without cadence. A line is no more metre because it contains a certain concatenation of syllables, than so many crotchets and quavers, pricked at random, would constitute a bar of music. The syllables in every division ought to "ripple like a rivulet," one producing another as its natural effect, while the rhythm of each line, falling into the general stream at its proper place, should cause the verse to flow in progressive melody, deepening and expanding like a river to the close; or, to change the figure, each stanza should be a poetical tune, played down to the last note. Such subservience of every part to the harmony of the whole, is required in all other legitimate poetry, and why it should not be observed in that which is worthiest of all possible pre-eminence, it would be difficult to say; why it is so rarely found in hymns, may be accounted for from the circumstance already stated, that few accomplished poets have enriched their mother tongue with strains of this description. From the foregoing remarks, (if correct,) it may be gathered, that though we have hymns without number, few of them lay claim to great literary merit. There are, however, unequivocal examples of every species of excellence desirable or attainable. In the present collection, among the older specimens, No. 131, page 139,"In Thee I live, and move, and am," &c. is nervous and full of thought, though there are some homely phrases. Two stanzas may be quoted: "The daily favours of my God I cannot sing at large: Yet let me make this holy boast, # "O let my house a temple be, That I and mine may sing And praise our heavenly King." No. 213, page 199, "Thousands of thousands stand around," &c. is of the same character, in a higher degree, more energetic, but more quaint and rugged: "How great a being, Lord, is thine, Which doth all beings keep! Thy knowledge is the only line "Thine upper and thy nether springs "Thy arm of might, most mighty King, My God, Thou canst do any thing, But what should prove Thee weak." Bishop Kenn has laid the church of Christ under abiding obligations by his three hymns, Morning, Evening, and Midnight. Had he endowed three hospitals, he might have been less a benefactor to posterity. There is exemplary plainness of speech, manly vigour of thought, and consecration of heart, in these pieces. The well known doxology," Praise God from whom all blessings flow," &c. is a masterpiece at once of amplification and compression:-amplification, on the burthen, "Praise God," repeated in each line ;— compression, by exhibiting God as the object of praise in every view in which we can imagine praise due to Him:-praise, for all his blessings, yea, for "all blessings," none coming from any other source,praise, by every creature, specifically invoked, "here below," and in heaven" above;"-praise, to Him in each of the characters wherein He has revealed Himself in his word-" Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Yet this comprehensive verse is sufficiently simple, that by it"out of the mouths of babes and sucklings praise might be perfected;" and it appears so easy, that one is tempted to think hundreds of the sort might be made without trouble. The reader has only to try, and he will quickly be undeceived, though the longer he tries, the more difficult he will find the task to be. There are two volumes of Bishop Kenn's works in prose and verse, which the writer of these strictures has never seen. It is probable that they contain at least three more hymns like those which we have if so, it is lamentable that such lights should remain hid under a bushel. : Passing by Mrs. Rowe, and the mystical rhymers of her age, we come to the greatest name among hymnwriters, for we hesitate not to give that praise to Dr. Isaac Watts, since it has pleased God to confer upon him, though one of the least of the poets of his country, more glory than upon the greatest either of that or any other, by making his "Divine Songs" a more abundant and universal blessing, than the verses of any uninspired penman that ever lived. In his "Psalms and Hymns," (for they must be classed together,) he has embraced a compass and variety of subjects, which include and illustrate every truth of revelation, throw light upon every secret movement of the human heart, whether of sin, nature, or grace, and describe every kind of trial, temptation, conflict, doubt, fear, and grief; as well as the faith, hope, charity, the love, joy, peace, labour, and patience of the Christian, in all stages of his course on earth; together with the terrors of the Lord, the glories of the Redeemer, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit, to urge, allure, and strengthen him by the way. There is in the pages of this evangelist, a word in season for every one who needs it, in whatever circumstances he may require counsel, consolation, reproof, or instruction. We say this, without reserve, of the materials of his hymns: had their execution always been correspondent with the preciousness of these, we should have had a "Christian Psalmist" in England, next (and that only in date, not in dignity) to the "Sweet Singer of Israel." Nor is this so bold a word as it may seem. full of "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God;" his themes, therefore, are as much more illustrious than those of the son of Jesse,-who only knew power and glory" of Jehovah as he had "seen them in the sanctuary," which was but the shadow of the New Testament church,-as the face of Moses, holding communion with God, was brighter than the veil which he cast over it when conversing with his countrymen. Dr. Watts's hymns are the Dr. Watts may almost be called the inventor of hymns in our language; for he so far departed from all precedent, that few of his compositions resemble those of his fore-runners,-while he so far established a precedent to all his successors, that none have departed from it, otherwise than according to the pecu liar turn of mind in the writer, and the style of expressing Christian truths employed by the denomination to which he belonged. Dr. Watts himself, though a conscientious dissenter, is so entirely catholic in his hymns, that it cannot be discovered from any of these, (so far as we recollect,) that he belonged to any particular sect; hence, happily for his fame, or rather, it ought to be said, happily for the Church of Christ, portions of his psalms and hymns have been adopted in most places of worship where congregational singing prevails. Every Sabbath, in every region of the earth where his native tongue is spoken, thousands and tens of thousands of voices are sending the sacrifices of prayer and praise to God, in the strains which he prepared for them a century ago; yea, every day, "he being dead yet speaketh," by the lips of posterity, in these sacred lays, some of which may not cease to be sung by the ransomed on their journey to Zion, so long as the language of Britain endures, a language now spreading through all lands, whither commerce, civilization, or the gospel, is carried by mer. chants, colonists, and missionaries. It might be expected, however, that in the first models of a new species of poetry, there would be many flaws and imperfections, which later practitioners would discern and avoid. Such, indeed, are too abundant in Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns; and the worst of all is, that his authority stands so high with many of his imitators, that, while his faults and defects are most faithfully adopted, his merits are unapproachable by them. The faults are principally prosaic phraseology, rhymes worse than none, and none where good ones are absolutely wanted to raise the verse upon its |