PSALM XLV. My heart is labouring with a glorious theme: In that countenance benign Beauties more than human shine. Arise, gird on thy sword, Ride forth triumphantly, Thy chariot, Truth, the meek and poor to right. Eternal is thy throne, O God! Eternal justice is thy kingly rod. Above thy peers; and unto thee All thy robes around thee shed Amid the virgin train are seen Hearken, O daughter! See thy king draw near, How fair, in bridal glory drest, The Queen!-of woven gold her vest ; Her flowing robe of purple dye Our readers will form their own judgement of this attempt to give the form of poetry to that which is poetry in its very essence, the sublimest of poetry; but it will, we hope, at all events be allowed to prove, that the utmost closeness and fidelity are not incompatible with a metrical arrangement adapted to the genius of our language. We do not of course mean to find fault with the present Translators for not throwing their Version into metre. It did not comport with their immediate purpose or with their principles of translation. In a Version designed for public reading and instruction, a metrical form would be ineligible. Hitherto, indeed, our prose versions have preserved most of the spirit of poetry, while our metrical versions have been the most absolutely prosaic. We cannot, however, but entertain the opinion, that it is both possible and highly desirable to exhibit the poetry of the inspired Scriptures in the rich and varied measures of English versification, without compromising either the fidelity of a chaste translation or the simple majesty of the original,-without running out into florid paraphrase with Merrick, or, with Watts and Montgomery, imitating, rather than versifying the Psalms of David, in adaptation to the Christian Church. Most happily, indeed, the very spirit of the original has been caught and embodied in some of these free imitations; and it is in this way only that the greater part of the Psalms can be accommodated to evangelical worship. Nevertheless precious and invaluable as are such works for the purposes of Christian psalmody and private devotion, they will hardly satisfy the Biblical student or the lover of the Bible, as fair representations of the inspired effusions of the Royal Prophet and the other psalmists of ancient days. In what form, then, should these sacred compositions be exhibited, so as to give the best idea of them as poetry? Bishop Lowth, a high authority, seems inclined to give the preference to a prose version, even on the score of taste. He remarks, that a poem translated literally from the Hebrew into the prose of any other language, whilst the same forms of the sentences remain, will still retain, even as far as relates to ' versification, much of its native dignity and a faint appearance ' of versification.' Whereas a Hebrew poem, if translated into Greek or Latin verse, and having the conformation of the 'sentences accommodated to the idiom of a foreign language, 'will appear confused and mutilated; will scarcely retain a trace of its genuine elegance and peculiar beauty. Those, therefore, who have endeavoured to express the beauties of 'the sacred poets in Greek or Latin verse, have unavoidably 'failed in the attempt to depict them according to their native 'genius and character; and have exhibited something, whether 'inferior or not, certainly very unlike them both in kind and form. This is strikingly illustrated by the rival versions of two illustrious scholars, Buchanan and Arthur Johnston, who have not merely failed alike to preserve the genuine character of the Psalms, but have, in many instances, by adopting the phraseology of classic heathenism, desecrated and paganized the sentiment. For instance, in Johnston's elegant but most 'neologistic' version of the forty-fifth Psalm, verses 6 and 7 are thus rendered: Quoque sedes solium, stans nullo mobile sêclo, Tempora; præ sociis hic tibi cessit honos.' A still more flagrant instance of classical desecration and vapidity is found in his version of Psalm cx, which begins thus: 'Ille Opifex rerum, Dominusque decemplicis aulæ, Sic Domino superâ dixit in arce meo: A dextris tu Nate! mihi confide coruscus ; Dum subdam pedibus colla inimica tuis.' Specimens not less objectionable might be cited from Buchanan's Translation. To a devout mind, the effect of the phraseology employed, in speaking of Jehovah, is often most revolting, and the impropriety of expression verges on profaneness. This is owing, no doubt, in some degree, to the associations so indissolubly connected with classic phrases; but it is impossible to imagine that the learned Translators felt aright the majesty and true spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures. The process of translating out of one dead language into another, must necessarily, indeed, be unfavourable to the preservation of the identity and vitality of the original; the character of the * Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry, Vol. I. Lect. 3. VOL. VI.-N.S. S 1, even as far as relates to nity and a faint appearance lebrew poem, if translated ing the conformation of the om of a foreign language, d; will scarcely retain a peculiar beauty. Those, o express the beauties of verse, have unavoidably according to their native ibited something, whether them both in kind and by the rival versions of 1 Arthur Johnston, who e the genuine character tances, by adopting the secrated and paganized ston's elegant but most salm, verses 6 and 7 are |