think, is not fairly instituted; the 18th has generally been looked on as Sternhold's master-piece; the Archbishop's best performance, therefore, should, in all reason, have been sought for, and it would have been found, not among the sublime psalms, but among those distinguished by tenderness and feeling. The specimen I have given, has, in my opinion, considerable merit. The 56th psalm also is extremely well done; the concluding stanza of it is marked by a very affecting simplicity :For thou my soul hast rid from death, From fall thou keep'st my feet; To walk in light, while life hath breath, GEORGE SANDYS, Youngest son of Edwyn Sandys, Archbishop of York, was one of the most accomplished persons of his time. He merited much for his travels into the Eastern countries, of which he has published an accurate account: but still more for his paraphrases and translations, which were excelled by none of the poets of this reign (Charles I.) His principal works are, his translation of Job, his paraphrase on the Psalms, and his translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis. His psalms were set to music by William and Henry Lawes, musicians to Charles I., and his Ovid was one of the first books that gave Mr. Pope a taste for poetry *. Mr. Dryden pronounced him the best versifier of the last age. He was also an excellent geographer and critic. His translation of the sacred drama of Grotius, entitled Christus Patiens, is the piece upon which Lauder founded his impudent charge of plagiarism against Milton. He was born in the year 1577: died 1643. Granger's Biog. History. There are but few incidents known concerning our author, but all the writers, who mention him, agree in bestowing on him the character, not only of a man of genius, but of singular worth and piety.-Nicol's Select Collection of Poems. From Sandys's version, probably the best in our language, I have taken several psalms, and might easily have added to the number, but that my primary object has been to be select. Mr. Ellis has lately given the 148th in his elegant specimens, **Warton's Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. + See Mr Pope's note on Iliad, xxii. v. 197. which is certainly one of our author's best compositions, and appears to stil. greater advantage in Mr. Ellis's page, as, with his usual taste, he has omitted the six concluding lines, which are inferior to the rest. Our poet has evinced great judgment in the adaptation of different metres to the sense of his author, and shewn himself to equal advantage in all; for, whilst, in the 18th and 89th psalms, he does ample justice to the sublime ideas of the Royal Psalmist, and reminds us of the majesty of Dryden's muse, in the 133rd and 134th he delights us with strains delicate as those of Horace himself. The following passage, from Sandys's Travels, will be a treat to my reader; it is the opening of his last book : "Now shape we our course for England. Be loved soil! as in scite * Wholly from all the world disjoin'd, so in thy felicities. The summer burns thee not, nor the winter benums thee; defended by the sea from wasteful incursions, and by the valour of thy sons from hostile invasions. All other countries are in some things defective; when thou, a provident parent, dost minister unto thine whatsoever is use-ful, foreign additions but only tending to vanity penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.-Virg. Æneid. and luxury, Virtue in thee at the least is praised, and vices are branded with their names, if not pursued with punishments. That Ulysses, *who, after Troy subdu'd, Manners and towns of various nations view'd, if, as sound in judgment, as ripe in experience, will confess thee to be the land that floweth with milk and honey." GEORGE WITHER. This poet was born in 1588, and died in 1667. He was a most voluminous writer; but no complete edition of his works was ever published, although no author, perhaps, was ever more admired by his contemporaries.-Mr. Ellis, vol. iii. He has translated the Book of Psalms, in lyric verse: I have selected the 57th, one of the best I could find in the little volume, which is, I believe, not easily to be met with. Qui mores hominum multorum vidit, et urbes. Horat de Art, Poct. 142, HENRY KING, Bishop of Chichester, son of John King, Bishop of London, was born in the year 1591, and educated at Westminster School, from the foundation of which he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford. Besides his Translation of the Psalms, he was author of Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonnets. London, 1657. Mr. Headley characterizes him, as "an eminent and respectable divine, the greater part of whose poetry (which was either written at an early age, or as a relaxation from severer studies) is neat, and uncommonly elegant." This high encomium is more applicable to the Bishop's original Poems, than to his version of the Psalms; a stanza, here and there, might indeed be selected, which would justify our elegant critic's lavish praise, but I fear not one whole psalm: our author, too, has so frequently betrayed want of judgment in his choice of metre, that his work must despair of ever regaining the little popularity it once may have boasted. He died 1669. The following little poem of Bishop King will shew him deserving of Mr. Headley's praises; a still more elegant one, "the Exequy," might be adduced, but is too long for insertion. They both, |