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culty in distinguishing that which is natural and easy from that which is forced and perplexed; and, as no more certain criterion can be found, we do not see the possibility of farther narrowing the rule. The nearer, however, the language of poetry approaches to simplicity of style, and the less it involves the sense or requires an effort to apprehend it, the more excellent is the versification; and, if this observation be applicable to the art in all its forms, who will deny that it is most peculiarly just with reference to lyric composition? The necessity of pronouncing the words of a song in a tone and measure dictated by the air (a matter often of no small difficulty, when the composer is not to a certain degree a poet also,) is in itself a sufficient reason for requiring the greatest simplicity of style: but it is not the only reason; since the necessary brevity is another, not less strong. As Mr. Twiss has proceeded, in the work now before us, on the principle thus explained in his preface, it is fair to say that, although we have felt ourselves obliged in some measure to dissent from his doctrine, we do not perceive that it has led him into any material faults.It too often happens that those candidates for "the meed of song," who make simplicity their only aim, are betrayed into tameness and puerility of style: but we do not find any occasion for charging Mr. Twiss with either of these defects. It is time, however, to quit discussion, and to give our readers some account of the work.

We have, indeed, little more to say than that this selection is formed on a plan almost exactly similar to that of the Irish Melodies. The present Number contains twelve airs, the words of which treat generally of absent friends, or convey reflections on death, female influence, forsaken maids, love, joy, and sadness, with a little mixture of politics and popular topics; though, on this latter subject, it is much more sparing than the Irish Melodies. We select, as one of the best specimens, the song which Mr. T. has named A Poet's Tomb:'

I.

• Tho' my visions of life are so soon to depart,
Yet sigh not, dear Helen! thus deeply for me:
The ling'ring pulsations that throb in my
Are only its fond apprehensions for thee.

heart

Oh! sad are the perils that compass thy way,

For a season of sorrow and darkness is nigh:

When the glow-worm appears at the close of the day,
Her lustre betrays her, and dooms her to die.

The first song, on the misfortunes of the Bourbon family, shews that Mr. T. little suspected their restitution to empire so shortly after its composition.

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2.

For me, love! no sweet-wasting odours shall burn,
No marble invoke thee to deck it with flow'rs;
My ashes shall rest in a crystalline urn,

And that urn be abroad in the sun and the show'rs.
It shall lightly be swept by the cool-blowing gale,

When the gay-colour'd evening shines cheerfully through:
Around it the shadows of twilight shall sail,

And the mists of the morning embalm it in dew.

3.

Sweet girl! may thy relics be laid in that shrine !
For, though death, we are told, is unconscious of love,
Yet it soothes me to hope they may mingle with mine,
As our spirits will mingle for ever above.
And if, when the race of our being is run,

Any record remain of the loves that we bore,
Our story shall be, that in life we were one,

And in dying we met to be parted no more.'

The idea appears to have been borrowed from the well-known and beautiful elegy of Tibullus; and the second stanza reminds us of Burns. The Song of a Scotish Emigrant' was doubtless suggested by a beautiful passage in the third canto of Marmion. The last stanza of address from the wanderer, thro' Susquehana's wood-encumber'd brake,' possesses considerable merit :

. Even here, lovely Scotland! in want and in woe,
With a proud recollection I muse upon thee;
For thy spirit is pure as thy mantle of snow,
And firm as thy rocks that embosom the sea.
May the waters of Time, while their current shall pour,
Ever nourish thy laurels, and brighten their hue!
May Friendship and Feeling still hallow thy shore,

And the loves of thy children be tender and true !'

Human life has frequently been compared to a bubble; yet the following mode of putting the comparison has not occurred to us before, and is very pretty:

To night, not a tear must be suffer'd to roll,

But the drops that may fall from the brim of the bowl:
For though, like the bubbles that float in our wine,
We rise on the surface, and fade with a breath,
Yet the bubbles themselves have a moment to shine,

And they dance on the wave, ere they melt into death.' In these extracts, we presume, our readers will have recognized a striking resemblance to Mr. Moore; and though we do not here discover all his brilliancy and classical elegance, all the ease and smoothness with which he overcomes difficulties, or all the power by which he gives dignity to trifles, we find a

style

style uniformly chaste, and well adapted to the principal purpose of lyric composition, that of being suited to musical employment.

With respect to the part of the musical arranger of the work, we have to observe that accompaniment has become, in the present advanced stage of the science, so much a matter of course, that little novelty can be expected in a production of this kind, in which the airs do not admit any very great boldness or variety. To those who have heard Mr. Bishop's compositions in the Scotish manner, and especially the sweet strain to which he has set Lord Byron's early poem of "Loch na Garr," we need scarcely say that no artist could be better qualified to arrange airs composed in a style of which he is himself so excellent a master. His symphonies are more simple than those of Sir John Stevenson, and he has avoided to harmonize the airs which we have felt it our duty to disapprove in our former article on the Irish Melodies. Of the selection of the airs in the present Number, we cannot speak very favourably; and, if the work should not proceed, we shall regret the more that Mr. Bishop did not, at the first, display his taste on those airs which are (in our opinion, justly,) more endeared to us by their popularity. We trust, however, that the design may be sufficiently patronized to be continued; and we should be glad to see it followed by a similar selection of Welsh airs, many of which are very beautiful: but we cannot go farther in encouraging such selections, particularly when no proofs are offered of a peculiar national style. We would also take this opportunity of remarking that it is the business of selection to produce the most exquisite specimens: consequently that, in each class, the number selected must be few; and, if variety be sacrificed, (which to a certain degree it must,) it should be sacrificed only for beauty.

ART. XV. History of the Waldenses, connected with a Sketch of the Christian Church, from the Birth of Christ to the Eighteenth Century. By William Jones. 8vo. pp. 600. 12s. Boards. Button, &c. THE work before us is not intended to settle doubtful points in

ecclesiastical history, nor to throw any new light on that subject; it affects no displays of nice critical investigation, nor does it assume to be taken from original writers: its sole object is stated to be that of rendering accessible to common readers the important and valuable information which lies scattered in a number of voluminous productions. Moderate, however, as are its pretensions, it contains a great variety of curious and highly interesting particulars: which, though not derived from primitive sources, are nevertheless worthy of re

liance,

liance, the writer having had recourse only to the best secondary authorities; and, as he has exercised a sound judgment in his selections, his matter at once amuses and instructs, so that works of a higher order must yield to the present in this respect. Though the individual bias of Mr. Jones, which leads him to fix his attention on passages that did not suit the purposes of others, is very perceptible throughout, we do not mean to dispute his ingenuousness and good faith; which, indeed, are apparent in every page. His own views have evidently determined the frame and texture of the volume: but, if facts are obviously introduced for a purpose, they are fairly related; if omissions may be traced, 'we meet with no misrepresentations; and if the pages might sometimes be rendered more full, they are never loaded with apocryphal relations.

From a very early period, according to Mr. Jones, the true church ceased to exist within the pale of the ruling hierarchy, and took refuge amid the retreats of sectaries. He finds the successors of the apostles not among the officers of the nominal church, but among the teachers of those fluctuating bodies. According to him, the Novatians, the Paulicians, the Waldenses, the Cathari, or Puritans of antiquity and of the middle ages, and the followers of the illustrious Reformers of the fif teenth century, constitute the true flock of Christ; while the party which arrogated to itself exclusively the Christian name, which anathematized and ill treated separatists, was itself apostate and heretical. He is at no loss to shew that the Christian spirit had, at a very early period, disappeared from the church, and that the Christian virtues no longer distinguished those who called themselves Christians; while he lays before his readers numerous instances of rare merit, and of sufferings patiently and nobly endured, among those whom the dominant church had cast without its pale. No sooner does the church form a connection with the state, adopt the maxims of temporal politics, and take in its hands the weapons of persecution, than the author charges her with apostacy, and refuses to acknowlege her spiritual title; which, he contends, is to be considered from that time as vested in the objects of her persecution. Although our views do not wholly coincide in these matters with the ideas of Mr. Jones, and although we differ from him in many particulars, we must bear our testimony to the industry and judgment which his labours display, and to the candour which they every where discover.

Six chapters form the volume; treating respectively of The Rise and Progress of Christianity from the Birth of Christ to the Close of the first Century; of The Christian Church from the Close of the first Century to the Establishment of Christianity under Constantine;

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Constantine;of The State of Christianity from the Accession of Con stantine to the Rise of the Waldenses, A.D. 306 to 800;-of The State of Christianity from the Beginning of the ninth to the End of the twelfth Century;-of The History of the Waldenses and Albigenses from the Times of Peter Waldo, to those of Wickliff, A.D. 1160 to 1360;-of The History of the Waldenses from the Middle of the fourteenth to the Close of the seventeenth Century. Observing on the new constitution of the church as settled under Constantine, Mr. Jones states that

The government of it was, as far as possible, arranged conformably to the government of the state. The Emperor himself assumed the title of Bishop, and claimed the power of regulating its external affairs and he and his successors convened councils, in which they presided, and determined all matters of discipline. The bishops corresponded to those magistrates whose jurisdiction was confined to single cities; the metropolitans to the proconsuls or presidents of provinces; the primates to the Emperor's vicars, each of whom governed one of the imperial provinces. Canons and prebendaries of cathedral churches took their rise from the societies of ecclesiastics, which Eusebius, Bishop of Verceil, and after him Augustine, formed in their houses, and in which these prelates were styled their fathers and

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This constitution of things was an entire departure from the order of worship, established under Divine direction by the apostles of Christ in the primitive churches. In fact, scarcely any two things could be more dissimilar than was the simplicity of the gospel-dispensation from the hierarchy established under Constantine the Great. "Let none," says Dr. Mosheim, alluding to the first and second centuries, "confound the bishops of this primitive and golden period of the church, with those of whom we read in the following ages. though they were both designated by the same name, yet they dif fered extremely, in many respects. A bishop during the first and second century, was a person who had the care of one Christian assembly, which, at that time, was, generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a private house. In this assembly he acted not so much with the authority of a master, as with the zeal and diligence of a faithful servant. The churches, also, in those early times, were entirely independent; none of them subject to any foreign jurisdic tion, but each one governed by its own rulers and its own laws. Nothing is more evident than the perfect equality that reigned among the primitive churches; nor does there ever appear, in the first century, the smallest trace of that association of provincial churches, from which councils and metropolitans derive their origin." To which we may add, that the first churches acknowledged no earthly potentate as their head. This had been expressly prohibited by their Divine Master. "The kings of the Gentiles," said he, "exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise an authority upon them are termed benefactors. But with you it shall not be so; -- let him that is greatest among you be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." Again, "Be not ye called Rabbi; REV. JUNE, 1814.

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