In attempting to supply the mechanic with the plainest version, the labour of the editor did not end with only improving the text of a deceased writer, and Hopkins sought by rejection to perfect the whole. Pursuing this laudable attempt, still it is doubtful if the untoward rhimes of Ainsworth, (who printed an English version at Amsterdam half a century afterwards), from more nearly resembling the original, would not have been considered better to supply a deficiency, than the refined strains of Lord Surry, and others, contemporary, which could have been adopted. The pen of Norton supplied a substitute to Whittingham's 129th Psalm, thus commencing,

"Of Israel this may now be the song,

Euen from my youth my foes haue oft me noyed;

A thousand ils, since I was tendre and yong,
They haue me wroght, yet was I not destroyed.

As yet I beare the markes in bone and skin,

That one wolde thinke that the plowme with their plowes,

Upon my backe haue made their balkes farre in,

For, like plowde grounde, enen so haue I long forowes." &c.

In the portion selected of Kethe's numbers the variation is very slight from the modern copies. The following may compare with the editor's second version.

"Saue me, o God, for thy name's sake,
And by thy grace my cause defend;
Oh, heare my prayers which I make,
And let my wordes to thee ascend.

For strangers do against me rise,

And tyrants sicke my soule to spil;
They set not God before their eyes,

But bent to please their wilful wil.

Beholde,

Beholde, God is mine helpe and stay,
And is with suche as do me aide;
My foes dispite he wil repay;

Oh, cut them of as thou hast saide.

Then sacrifice, o Lord, wil I

Present ful freely in thy sight;
And wil thy name stil magnifie,
Because it is bothe good and right.

For he me broght fro troubles great,
And kept me, from their raging ire:
Yea, on my foes, which did me threat,

Myne eyes haue sene mine heart's desire." (Ps. 54.)

*

Pullain is the last name requiring notice, and being little known as a writer, I shall trespass on the page to give the single omission.

"Sing vnto the Lord with heartie accord

A new ioyful song:

His praises resounde in euerie grounde

His Saintes all among.

Let Israel reioyce, and praise eke with voyce,

His maker louing;

The sonnes of Sion let them euerie one

Be glad in their king.

Let all them aduance his name in the dance,
Bothe now and alwayes;
With harpe and tabret, euen so likewise let
Them vtter his prayes.

The Lord's pleasure is, in them that are his,
Not willing to start,

But all meanes do seke, to succour the meke,
And humble in heart.

Cox, Norton, &c. may be referred to in any copy.

The saintes more and lesse, bis praise shal expresse,
As is good and right;

Reioycing, I saye, both nowe and for aye,
In their beddes at night.

Their throte shall brast out, in euerie route,

In praise of their Lord;

And as men moste bolde, in hand shall they holde

A two-edged sworde;

Auenged to be in euerie degre

The heathen vpon :

And for to reproue, as them doth behoue,

The people echon^;

To bind strange kings fast in chaines that will last;
Their nobles also;

In hard yron bands, as wel fete as hands,

To their grief and wo;

That they may in dede giue sentence with spede,
On them to their paine;

As is writ. Alwayes suche honour and prayes,
His saintes shal obtaine.

(Ps. 149.)

To render a translation in our vernacular tongue, that should unite all the energetic simplicity and wild sublimity of the original, when forced into measure, and fettered with rhime, is perhaps impossible. The pressure of this difficulty might induce Warton, after "condemning the practice of adulterating this primitive version," to reprobate " any version at all, more especially if intended for the use of the church." Admitting the many objections that must occur to reflection upon this subject; admitting that any translation partakes of the character of "sacred poems;" that "the reader justly expects, and from good poetry

always

always obtains, the enlargement of his comprehension, and elevation of his fancy; [and that] this is rarely to be hoped by Christians from metrical devotion;" (since "whatever is great, desirable, or tremendous, is comprised in the name of the Supreme Being;Omnipotence cannot be exalted; infinity cannot be amplified; perfection cannot be improved ;") — admitting all that pious verse can do is to help the memory, and delight the ear;" yet as for these purposes it may be very useful, let us not entirely reject metrical psalmody. In substituting hymns for this languid versification may be traced the rapid increase of the proselytes to methodism. Rather let the best paraphrastic imitations be selected, under dignified authority, and if those who have wandered do not return, it will at least prove, in part, an antidote to the chanting delusions of modern sectarists. †

*

Dr. Joh: son's Life of Waller,

J. H.

In the critical observations, particularly on the ninetieth Psalm, which appear in the last volume of the CENSURA, the name of Sternhold seems intended to imply the whole version. The passages from psalms translated by him are the 7th and 120th, given at p. 403. Subsequent alterations leave little trace of their earlier translator.

"His weorde to whet, his bowe to bend,

and stryke vs for our sinne.

He wyll prepare his killing tooles,

and sharpe his arowes preste;

To stryke and pearce with violence,
the persecutour's brest.

Howe hurtefull is the thyng,
Or els how doth it styng,
The tonge of suche a lyer;

It hurteth no lesse I wene,
Then arowes sharpe and kene,

Or whote consumyng fyer."
Such is the language printed by Whitchurch,

c 3

7th.

I 20th.

ART.

ART. V. Religionis Funus, et Hypocritæ Finis.

Quasi vulpes in deserto,
Prophetæ tui, O Israel.

Ez. xiii. 4.

Ne rodas jubeo, mea carmina, Mome, sed crbi Ede tua, et Momos etiam tu Momus habebis. Londini, Excudit Tho. Whitaker, MDC. XLVII. 4to. pp. 22.

This rare little volume, which is accompanied by as rare a print of the author, Henry Oxinden, had never been seen by Granger, whose account is erroneous in both editions of his work. He calls the author Sir Henry Oxinden, and says he was ancestor of the present Baronet of that name. But he was only a collateral branch of that family.

The print (which is very prettily engraved, and has been lately copied by Richardson) is inscribed " Hen. Oxinden de Barham." Beneath this motto "Non est mortale quod opto. 1647." In the upper corners, the arms and crest, viz. 1 & 4. Arg. a chevron gules between 3 oxen passant Sab. for Oxinden 2 & 3 Az. on a chevron argt. 3 talbots passant sable for Brooker of Maydekin. Crest, a lion's head full faced issuing out of a ducal coronet. He was son of Richard Oxinden of Little Maydekin in Barham (or rather Denton, for the house stands in Denton Street at the junction of the two parishes) in East Kent, (which Richard died 1629,) by Katherine daughter of Sir Adam Sprackling of Canterbury, Knt. Richard, the father, was 2d son of Sir Henry Oxinden of Dene in Wingham, in East Kent, by Elizabeth daughter and heir of James Brooker