Connected with this subject, and forming a striking contrast between the Jew and the Christian, in the religious observance of the sabbath, at least as far as abstaining from worldly occupations, a circumstance occurred whilst I was engaged in forming the outline of my Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, reviewed in No. 5, of your Magazine, which formed the basis of my observations | on the verb rest. If the relation of the circumstance, and the observations resulting from it, should be thought worthy of a place in your Magazine, I shall feel honoured and obliged by their insertion. I shall only add, that your review of my Dictionary first drew my attention to your Magazine, from which I have derived much rational amusement and valuable information. I am, with respect, Sir, your obedient servant, shall put the cart into the yard of some Christian friend, where it must remain over the sabbath." Whilst my mind was impressed with the praiseworthy conduct of the conscientious Jew, I wrote the following Article, under the verb REST, in my Dictionary. preserve the remembrance of the creation, religious people have in all ages rested, or abstained from all work, servile employments, and labour whatever, on that day, and applied themselves to the service of the Lord, in reading and studying his word, and in prayer. "When it is said in the Book of Genesis, that God rested on the seventh day, we are to consider the term as referring solely to the work of creation, which God had just accomplished in six days, according to the model of his own infinite wisdom. It was on the seventh day that God took a review of all his works, and, as it were, reflecting upon the stupendous manifestation of his own perfections, was satisfied, and pronounced all things good. Hence God blessed the seventh day, sanctified it, set it apart, and appointed it in a peculiar manner for his worship. Till the time of our SaE. D.viour, (and still by the Jews,) accordA young man, a Jew, brought a carting to the divine appointment, and to load of goods from the East end of the town to the West, with a view to take a load in return-but it being Friday, or the sixth day of their week, and about 3 o'clock in the afternoon when the cart arrived at the place for the second load, the young man paused, and hesitating, said, he feared that he could not take the goods. "Christians rest on the first day of Standing near him, I asked him what the week, to perpetuate the rememhe meant? when he made the follow-brance of our Saviour's resurrection, ing reply: "Sir, these goods will take some time to be weighed and loaded, and I am thinking that the man will not be able to reach my yard with the cart before 6 o'clock, when our sabbath will commence. Besides, were I able to overcome my own scruples, by doing what I know to be wrong, yet I durst not on any account allow my cart to be taken into the yard after the commencement of the sabbath; for some of our people would be sure to notice it, my conduct would be reported, and the consequences would be very serious indeed. -After considering the subject awhile, he said, it is a pity to lose the advan-induced them to be so scrupulously tage of a back-carriage, I will thank you to let the men exert themselves to load the cart as expeditiously as possible, they shall have something to drink for their trouble, and I will make my man drive the horse at a quick pace, and should he not be able to reach my own yard in time, he which, in consequence, is called the Lord's-day. But we have our blessed Saviour's precepts to induce us, and his example to encourage us, to perform works of mercy on his own day. Hence, the ignorant may be instructed, the sick visited, and the poor relieved. The Jews are still most strict in the observance of their sabbath, so far as relates to buying and selling. What a pity then it is that those who call themselves Christians, do not imitate their example in this respect. For, however powerful and praiseworthy may be the motive, which has uniformly influenced their conduct, and exact, in commemorating the wonderful display of infinite wisdom and power, in a world created; yet surely we have far more abundant cause, to celebrate with gratitude and joy, the glorious manifestation of divine love, mercy, and goodness, in a world redeemed." POETRY. THE HARP.—By Lord Byron. (This piece, and the four which follow, are by Lord Byron, communicated in a letter by Byronis Poematum Admirator, inserted col. 436.) THE harp the monarch-minstrel swept, It gave them virtues not their own; Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne! It told the triumphs of our King, It made our gladden'd valleys ring, Its sounds aspir'd to heav'n, and there abode ! In dreams that day's broad light cannot re move. SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY. SHE walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes, Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heav'n to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half unpair'd the nameless grace, Which waves in ev'ry raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face, Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear, their dwelling And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent. MY SOUL IS DARK. My soul is dark-Oh! quickly string The harp I yet can brook to hear; And let thy gentle fingers fling Its melting murmurs o'er mine ear. If in this heart a hope be dear, SIR,-With a most equal impartiality you have given place in your interestplace!ing Magazine, to the opposing senti That sound shall charm it forth again; If in these eyes there lurk a tear, "Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain : But bid the strain be wild and deep, Nor let thy notes of joy be first: I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep, Or else this heavy heart will burst, For it hath been by sorrow nurst, And ach'd in sleepless silence long; I SAW THEE WEEP. ments of two ingenious correspondents, respecting Lord Byron and Wordsworth. In the present communication, I would beg leave to throw down the gauntlet on behalf of another poet, Samuel Gower, not merely as being my friend, which I do not scruple to acknowledge with much pleasure, but as an injured and neglected man of genius; and should the claims I make for him in the commonwealth of letters be shewn to be unjust, as surely as Brutus sacrificed the life of his son, would I immolate his fame at the shrine of Truth. tain I am, however, on the other hand, that, should he seem to the world as he seems to me, a victim of undeserved calumny or neglect, every honest heart will share my pain at such a sight. Cer Without longer comment-in making selections from his poetry-what can equal the dark boldness of the Yon huge unslumbering creature of the gods, Yon sky,-upon his weary watch-tower nods, Starless and blind to his neglected prize : Nor have the beauties of inanimate nature monopolized his devotions, as the unspeakable tenderness of these stanzas, to the memory of the unfortunate Chatterton, may sufficiently testify, nor needs the insertion of such lines any apology. OH! Chatterton! forsaken of mankind For having treasures that they knew not of, Whose crime it was to have an angel's mind, An eye for beauty, and a heart for love! It seems but yesterday that the cold wave Of death, wash'd over thy unhappy grave! Quench'd is that eye so once o'erfraught with light, Chill'd is that heart so full of tenderness, No more with that sweet indignation bright, No more just fit to burst with kind dis tress At seeing ills more others, than thy own, The following lines on reading the life of Milton, are equally striking. So goes the world-some with a pen of iron Ensculpturing the rocks of Time unseen; While others, writing on the gaping sand, Call round an amphitheatre of eyes, On what an hour's full tide will wash away. If he has shewn himself too little While shrieks the chilly world a prey to capable of the smile of cheerfulness Lucifer. and the laughter of mirth, it has been, I fear, the fault of circumstances :the following samples, however, are not amiss, of their sort; they are extracted from a suppressed political poem, to which they are introductory. V. The idlest meteor that e'er flew, Has its commission;-and the hand that would Arrest a mill-wheel in its course, will too Late find out that th' attempt can do no good And also find itself's and owner's clue Ad inferos much sooner than it should In the more gentle course of human things: You cannot catch a thunderbolt by the wings. VI. All which in clearer English signifies My muse don't like at all to dance in chains, &c. XI. Pindar spar'd not his sovereign-majesty (As Julius mentions in the Morning Post) Was often bearded on his throne; are we Then more refined? oh Peter, that thy ghost, And that of George the Third with thee, could see The sickly pedantry of this same host Oh! for the days when Cromwell's hand Nor is this "Elegiac Stanza on the Death of a Brother," lacking in the gibing humour of Don Juan. My brother dead! it is a shocking thing. I bought three cambric frocks last spring, What mortal could help laughing at the wit One honest eye will shed an honest tear To his orthodoxy, (not the most attractive attribute in a poet,) the following laconic lines, as comprehensive as they are eccentric, will bear testimony: I do believe in one Almighty God; And in one Saviour, Jesus, who once trod 66 A similarly bold vindication of the rights of those who are possessed of the gift of immortality," forms one of his poems, under the title of the Menace of Genius. Of his devotional feelings, the following somewhat Johnsonian posthuwill afford an idea-they verge, it mous prayer, meant for an Epitaph, may be said, towards a belief in a state of purgatory; the spirit which pervades it is, however, most excellently humble: Oh Lord of heaven and earth, forsake me not, Where melt the chains that from my being WE weep, but vainly weep, this wither'd flow'r, These lines express, on the above gentlemen, what twenty folio volumes could not augment. But his appreciation of unfeigned religion, and reverence for the truly pious, cannot be more devoutly shewn than in the follow- While yet its virgin beauties fondly clung, ing tribute to one of the most deservedly venerable of English preachers (though a Wesleyan) who is since dead. They would not want the fondly flowing tide To wet the turf to which their waves would glide! But they are gone! heaven sent a frost that flung True Benson, though with but a faltering A robe of ice around its tender stem, Like rose-buds to the branch that cherish'd And oh! how soon they faded and they fell, ANOTHER, COMPOSED FOR THE IF in their grass-roof'd chambers mouldering, Blest be your dreams, and so they sure will be, For peaceful visions always tend their sleep, They loose not the arms of the mill of my youth, The paper is already growing longer O'er its dust as they wander again. satire. "When Julius writes for Virtue and for God, E'en Hunt might feel the lash, and yet applaud." "Hunt, however (he says) has felt the lash, and not applauded. In the preface to his life of himself, he has quoted a philippic of this writer against him, which (it must be owned,) it would have required the magnanimity of a most self-supporting innocence to have forgiven. Julius, of all our latter political essayists, whether on the Whig or Tory side, has, with all his coarse party violence and juvenile exuberance of metaphorical foliage, certainly evinced the most generous and disinterested spirit; and it will not be going too far to say, that his writings have pretty evidently influenced the decisions of the British Senate, and given tone to public feeling, either directly or collaterally, in more than one instance. That Hunt, a man who evinced such powerful native talent on his late well-known trial, should confess himself galled by his pen, is no ill compliment to it." The other example shall shew his feelings in those scarcer moments of his life, when, experiencing the quiet of "a mind at ease with its possessions," or as much at ease as circumstances have allowed, he seems to have indulged the gentler emotions of humanity. One is a Bohemian girl's lament for a mill, which had served as a concealment to a cavern of subterranean banditti, who had been destroyed with it by a party of soldiers, who had discovered their retreat. The story is the subject of a melo-drama, called the Miller and his Men, which is frequently now performed, and has some excellent music in it. AT the top of yon precipice over the river On the waves underneath it that flow; I like not to look at its ashes and dust, I like not to list to the fresh springing gust, And the boats that of old on yon silvery sheet Were beheld the far mountains between. Of the river, half sunk in its tide, Outrivall'd by yonder magnificent bridge, Are pining away by its side. And though Wolff was a villain untrue to his trust, I And had ruin'd me by his deceit, At the end he was fated to meet. Let these quotations suffice till a future opportunity-as examples rather of the versatility of his talents than as their most extraordinary produce ;-yet with these fruits of his genius to offer on his account-most proud am I to say of their author, that such is a man whom I have the honour to call my friend-such is one whom a certain cockney paper has had the cockneyism to insult-such is Samuel Gower, the being of whom the Ontario of a recent communication has exhibited a faint and imperfect shadow. I will conclude with "Napolcon's The war will thicken round one soon, The din of battle round the gate. Lo! from the ocean's side a troop advances, And, flashing in the sky their shining lances, arch! Floating in glory, lo! their distant flag Like a bright cloud along th'horizon glances; And now they climb the hills, and heavily drag The tubes of death behind them,-onward dances Their eagle-crested banner, hither rolls A chariot wing'd with lightning; yes, tis he! Welcome, brave Chief! thy empire o'er our souls, Chance cannot change! and if fate tolls Thy funeral dirge, celestial Liberty! Your most obedient servant, |