the authority she so freely copies. Dr. Stock's rendering is, "and giveth it charge to what it shall meet." The general confusion proceeds altogether from an erroneous division of the words; which instead of V. 33. And launcheth his penetrating bolt. is here, and in all the translations, derived from to show, or tell;" but erroneously: its proper root is 1 “to assault, or rush upon :"-Along with it rusheth his noise or נגר roar. The second line of the verse is taken from Parkhurst, but a little altered; his suggestion being possessing wrath for or against arrogance. One of the earliest and principal articles of possession was cattle and hence app, if derived from, would mean cattle, as well as possession generally; and it is thus rendered by our established version, and by most of those that preceded it. nap however is not the proper root of nap, but sap,-" to burn with fierceness:" and hence the noun, instead of possession or cattle, should be fierceness or fervour. which our established lection regards as adverb, and makes “ also,” is properly understood as a noun,and rendered wrath.' Schultens has given the passage a very correct interpretation, rubedinem flammantem nasi contra elatum-the fierceness of wrath against pride, or rather wickedness. 66 Ch xxxvii. 1. There is no part of the work we have been so much displeased with as the present. Verily my heart fluiters and beats,' is a genuine female exclamation, and equally betrays the sex and the youth of the author. It also exhibits another proof of her negligence in employing the modern verbal termination, we have already adverted to. The real meaning of the passage, however, has never been penetrated by any of the critics. here rendered verily,' and in our established version "also," is in the last verse of the preceding chapter rendered, as a noun,' wrath the paragraph is continued into the verse before us; and the meaning is still wrath. A more unfortunate division, indeed, or one more destructive of all sense has never been exhibited than the present separation of the two chapters: for it takes place not only in the middle of a most magnificent description, but in the middle of the very same sentence. The thunder-storm, observes the sublime poet, is an apt emblem of the wrath (48) of the Almighty against wickedness-wrath () continues he, at which my heat trembleth and staggereth in its post. V. 4. And he will not stay them, for,' &c. would be better rendered impersonally, and there is no limit to them when, &c :that is, to the range of the flash and the roar. V. 5. We cannot compliment the writer upon taking 5, marvellously, away from the first line, and introducing it into the second in the sense of mighty. Even in this case, however, it should have been mightily doeth he great wonders -or great things; which last is a better rendering of our established lection than the word for which it is here exchanged. And we understand not,' should be, as in V. 26 of the preceding chapter, beyond' or surpassing knowledge. V. 6. For. This should once more be lo! or behold! See note above on Ch. xxxvi. 27. The full beauty of the passage, however, has never been entered into, in consequence of the words having been uniformly construed with a wrong punctuation: whence, indeed, a great difficulty has been felt by every critic; and Mr. Gray, who is one of our most cautious interpreters, ventures to suppose an error in the text, and to suggest that two of the words be omitted. The following division and punctuation will clear up every difficulty, and render all attempts at amendment unnecessary. כי לשלג יאמר הוא : אורץונשם: מטר וגשם מטרית עזו: Behold! he saith to the snow—BE! Earthward, then falleth it, or then to the earth falleth it. V.7. That all may know.' This is the common rendering. The literal version however is-to the feeling or perception of every man. V.9. For (1) black cloud,' which is Mr. Parkhurst's rendering, or "south," which is the common rendering, we should prefer utmost zone, the being emphatic-zona ipsissima. And for condensed air' (1) which is also Mr. Parkhurst's, we should have given arctic chambers. Our common version gives "north." V. 10. We cannot approve of any part of this deviation from the common rendering, which offers a sense precisely opposite., however, does not, in the present instance, mean to give,' in any signifiaction of the term: but "to fix, or set:" as in the Arabic So St. Jerom: Alante نتن from وتن Deo concrescit gelu:-by the blast of God the frost congeals or sets and to the same effect Reiske. n is a substantive; "breadth or expanse" as given in our common version. Miss Smith commits a false concord by joining it, as a verb singular, to waters, a noun plural. In the thaw should be into a mirror, -pra, from pr, to pour out or fuse" as metal in which sense it occurs in our established lection, in V. 18 of the present chapter. 6 66 V. 12. And they turn' should be—thus HE (**) turneth or rather maketh to turn-revolveth. mon here rendered 'round,' is a noun plural, and distinctly signifies courses, or circuits, as given by Dr. Stock. Seasons is a better word than either. V. 13. This verse has proved a stumbling block to all the critics and none of them appear satisfied even with their own renderings. Scott proposes to transpose the text, while Reiske, as usual, alters the words themselves-and even Dr, Stock finds himself compelled to pursue this last means of eliciting a sense, though in a different manner. The rendering of Miss Smith does not afford us much light upon the subject; nor is it in any respect clearer than the established reading. Both translations begin the verse with the words that close it in he original. The whole of the difficulty appears to proceed from not having taken the real sense of us, and of x, as they are intended in the present place. The primary idea of succession hence, as a verb, it imports : "to proceed, to extend, to follow in order ;" and as a noun, "a shoot, tribe, or branch of a family: progeny or succession." does not in the present place signify earth;' but is a noun derived from to dash, crush, or break to pieces." The x is formative; and hence the noun imports " violence, discomfiture, destruction, ruin, judgment, or punishment."-The rendering thus explained is constantly in succession, whether for judgement, or for mercy, he causeth it to take place: "faciat id obvenire," as Schultens has justly translated the close of the רץ 66 verse. If these hints be correct, and the scattered fragments-the disjecti membra tentaminis-be collected, the whole version of the above passage will run as follows. CHAP. XXXVI. 26 Behold! God is great, surpassing knowledge: 27 Lo: he exhaleth the drops of the waters; 28 Then down flow the heavens ; They pour upon man impetuously. 29 But if he heap up the spreadings of the cloudy woof, The tapestry of his pavilion, 30 Behold! he throweth forth from it his flash, And inverteth the roots of the very ocean. 31 Lo! thus judgeth he the nations; He passeth sentence amain. 32 He brandisheth the blaze athwart the concave ; And launcheth his penetrating bolt. 33 Along with it rusheth his roar, The fierceness of wrath, because of wickedness: CHAP. XXXVIII. 1 Wrath, at which my heart trembleth, 2 Hear, O hear ye the clangour of his voice, He thundereth with the voice of his majesty ; And there is no limit to them when his voice soundeth. Great things doeth he, surpassing knowledge. 6 Behold he saith to the snow-be! And on the earth it falleth : To the rain-and it falleth-the rains of his might. 7 Upon the labour of every man he putteth a seal, To the feeling of every mortal is his work, 8 Even the brute-kind go into covert, And abide in their dwellings. 9 From the utmost zone issueth the whirlwind, And from the arctic chambers, cold. 10 By the blast of God the frost congealeth, And the expanse of the waters into a mirror. 11 He also loadeth the cloudy-woof with redundance: His effulgence disperseth the gloom. 12 Thus revolveth he the seasons, in his wisdom, That they may accomplish whatever he commandeth them: 13 Constantly in succession, whether for his judgment, Or for mercy, he causeth it to take place. (To be continued.) Art. 11. The Vision of Don Roderick. A Poem. By Walter Scott, Esq. 4 to. pp. 122. price 15s. royal 17. 10s. Ballantyne and Co. Edinburgh; Longman and Co. 1811. IT has long been a matter of debate, where Mr. Walter Scott's great strength lies. Some have observed that he is always shaggy and hirsute; and hence they have suspected, that if he would submit to the ceremony of being shorn, and adopt the neatness of the modern costume, he would be found like other men. Some, Some, again, have taken notice, that all his stories are about Scotland; and have therefore conjectured that his muse was only a divinity of the mountains, and that if he could but be decoyed into level and open ground, many of his rivals would be more than a match for him. There certainly appeared to be some little room for these surmises; and occasionally they grew up to insinuation, assertion, and defiance. At length the experiment is made. Mr. Scott is either unconscious of having been indebted to any poetical spell, or relies upon the success it has secured to him and presumes he may now dispense with its aid. He ventures out in the classical dress of Spenser; and though he still takes the benefit of tradition, and chooses ground in Spain not dissimilar to his favourite holds in the north, yet he soon abandons these resources, and comes down into the open plains of narrative and declamatory poetry. We hardly need say this experiment was hazardous. Within his own 'dread circle,' he knew that none could walk but he;' and he will probably repent that he ever quitted it. Without charging his Vision of Don Roderick with any positive defects, it is sufficient to compare it with his three principal poems, and pronounce it greatly inferior to them all. Not that we think it can possibly reduce the estimate of his poetical talents, among fair and considerate critics: for they have not valued him extravagantly before. They will perceive undeniable proofs of that genuine merit they have already been free to allow him, though not adorned and recommended to the public by the antiquities of the Border, or the charms of a popular romance. They will perhaps take into consideration his plea of haste; and may even admit the death of his friends the Lord President Blair and Lord Viscount Melville, as some extenuation of the failings they detect. At all events, they will give him credit for his facility and will acknowledge it to be no common exploit, to write a poem in less time and with less labour, perhaps, than some orators bestow upon a speech. The public, we apprehend, will |