of horse. As respects, likewise, the epithet quadrupedans, we may doubt whether any modern critic can explain why quadrupedante sonitu is more poetical in Virgil, than its equivalent "the sound of quadrupeds" would be in a modern poet if used to express the sound of horses. Let us take another example: "Pastor cum traheret per freta navibus Idæis Helenam perfidus hospitam." * Why is the word traheret used, which as employed elsewhere would imply the taking away of Helen against her will? Does it refer to one version of the story according to which Paris did bear her away by force? Were this the case, one would naturally expect, considering the reproachful and denunciatory character of the ode, to find that idea brought out more distinctly. Is it intended to express the reluctance with which, though yielding to her love for Paris, she left her husband and her home? This conception is too refined for an ancient poet to trust to its being made apparent by so light a touch; if indeed we may suppose it to have entered his mind. Was traheret, then, intended, by its associations with an act of violence, to denote the rapidity and fear of the flight of Paris? Or was it merely employed abusively, to use a technical term, only with reference to a part of its signification, as words are not unfrequently used in poetry; though it is always an imperfection? Such cases are very numerous, in which no modern reader can pronounce with just confidence upon the character of the poetical language of the ancients. Instances are frequently occurring in which, if we admire at all, we must admire at second hand, upon trust. The meaning and effect of words have undergone changes which it is often not easy, and often not possible, to ascertain with precision. Even in our own language this is the case. Shakspeare says, "Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark Το cry, Hold! Hold!" Here, Johnson understands him as presenting the ludicrous conception of " the ministers of vengeance, peeping through a blanket," and Coleridge, as we see by his "Table-Talk," conjectured that instead of "blanket" "blank beight" was perhaps written * When the perfidious shepherd was bearing away, in Idæan ships, through narrow seas, Helen, the wife of his host by Shakspeare. But by "Heaven" we conceive to be meant, not the ministers of vengeance, but the lights of heaven; and it is not unpoetical to speak of the moon and stars as peeping through clouds. With the word "blanket," our associations are trivial and low; but understand it merely as denoting a thick covering of darkness which closely enwraps the lights of heaven, and it suits well to its place. But our associations with the word are accidental, there is nothing intrinsically more mean in a blanket than a sheet, yet none would object to the expression of "a sheet of light." The fortunes of the words, only, have been different, and that, in all probability, since the time of Shakspeare, considering his use of this word, and the corresponding use of the word rug by Drayton.* If such be the character of poetical language, it is clear, that to judge with critical accuracy of that of a distant age or even a foreign land, requires uncommon knowledge and discrimination as well as an accurate taste; while, unfortunately, profound scholarship and cultivated and elegant habits of mind have very rarely been united in the study of the ancient poets. The supposition of a peculiar felicity of expression in their writings is to be judged of, in most cases, rather by extrinsic probabilities, which do not favor it, than by any direct and clear evidence of it that can be produced. We are very liable in this particular to be biassed by prepossession and authority; our imaginations often deceive us; we create the beauty which we fancy that we find. > There is perhaps no poet, in whose productions the characteristics of which we have spoken as giving a superiority to the poetry of later times over that which has preceded, appear more strikingly than in those of Mrs. Hemans. When, after reading such works as she has written, we turn over the volumes of a collection of English poetry, like that of Chalmers, we cannot but perceive that the greater part of it appears more worthless and distasteful than before. Much is evidently the work of barren and unformed, vulgar and vicious minds, of individuals without any conception of poetry as the glowing expression of what is most noble in our nature, and often with no title to the name of poet, but from having put into metre thoughts too mean for prose. Such writings as those of Mrs. Hemans at once afford evidence of the advance of our VOL. XIX. See examples in the notes to Shakspeare. 46 race, and are among the most important means of its further purification and progress. The minds, which go forth from their privacy to act with strong moral power upon thousands and ten thousands of other minds, are the real agents in advancing the character of man, and improving his condition. They are instruments of the invisible operations of the spirit of God.* A. N. ART. VI.A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land; comprising Recollections, Sketches, and Reflections, made during a Tour in the East, in the Year 1832-1833. By ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE, Member of the French Academy. In two volumes. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard. 1835. 12mo. pp. 312 and 332. THE land which is spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, as "the glory of all lands," still retains its preeminent character in the eyes of those who thoroughly consider its claims. It may not now flow so plentifully with milk and honey, as it then did, though there is no reason to suppose that its natural fertility is impaired; but while its climate probably, and its extraordinary geographical position certainly, remain as they were, spiritual associations of the sublimest character have been added to those which it possessed in the days of the Prophet, and a glory encircles it, higher than earthly, toward which the hearts. of men are turned in homage, and so will be turned, till the end of the world. This supremacy is not affected by the character of its inhabitants, and cannot be overthrown by any future revolutions. The people of God have been driven from the land which he promised and gave them; but still it is the Holy Land. The people of other lands have become civilized and refined, while barbarians have been roaming over Palestine; but Palestine is still, and ever must be reverenced, as the country in which refinement and civilization had their most copious and effectual source. The wild Arab may lurk for *In justice to another, the writer of this article ought perhaps to mention a mistake in the Essay prefixed to the edition of Mrs. Hemans's Works, published by Ash. An article in "The North American Review "is there attributed to him (p. vii.), of which he was not the author. plunder among the ruined cities of Judea, and the Turk may rule on Mount Sion, and give the law in the city of the great king; but they cannot rob Bethlehem of its cradle, or Calvary of its cross, or one hill, or stream, or wilderness, of its sacred story; neither can they interfere with the authority of that divine law which goes forth from Israel, or touch with a finger that spiritual sceptre which is stretched out from the land of patriarchs, prophets, and Christ, over the most enlightened portions of the globe. Most peculiarly is the land of Canaan the land of the soul; the land which seems to be nearest heaven of any spot on earth, to those whose hopes are in heaven as the destination. and rest of souls. How can it be otherwise, when it is recognised as the land in which the great dispensations of God were made known to men; on which the son of God descended from heaven, and from which he ascended to his Father again? But look at it with a view to its geographical position alone, and see what a conspicuous place it occupies on the map of the world. Washed by the ultimate waves of the Mediterranean, the very name of which sea denotes its central locality, Palestine looks down over the long extent of its surface, glancing at the whole southern coast of Europe on the right, and the whole northern coast of Africa on the left. Near, on the right hand, are the shores and islands of classical Greece. Near, on the left hand, are the plains and pyramids of Egypt, wrapped in the clouds of ancient mystery, and never shadowed by the rain-clouds of heaven. Above, on the north, lies the great Syrian domain. Behind, toward the east, are the countries which are watered by the Euphrates and Tigris. Below, to the south, is the expanse of the Red Sea, cleaving its way through Egypt and Arabia, up within sight almost of the walls of Jerusalem, as if to offer a passage down its length to the whole Oriental world. Look on a map of the world as known to the ancients, and you perceive that the Holy Land occupies nearly the mathematical centre of that world. Look on a map of the round world as known to us, and you perceive that the Holy Land stands at the very threshold, by the avenues of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, between the European and American continents and the rich empires of the east. As Palestine lies between the thirty-first and thirty-fourth degrees of north latitude, its climate is favorable to many of the vegetable productions of both temperate and tropical countries. The districts lying on each side of the river Jordan, which flows through nearly its whole length, joining the Lake of Gennesareth with the Dead Sea, are almost spontaneously fertile. The whole country might be made at any time as productive as it once was, under the hands of industrious cultivators; and ancient history, profane as well as sacred, bears abundant witness to its former productiveness. The principal character, however, which seems stamped on the surface of this land, is that of solemnity, as if it were intended from the first to be a Holy Land. Mountains, which are God's altars, mountains, rocky, precipitous, and stern, rise up in all its extent. The majestic sweeps and summits of Lebanon guard its northern border; Tabor and Hermon and Carmel, with other hills of holy name, stand on their everlasting foundations among the tribes of Israel; and Jerusalem, built upon hills, is encompassed by them, as by a second and heaven-built wall. The beauty of the Lake of Galilee is also made solemn by the mountains which hang over it and shut it in; the stream of Jordan flows through a succession of rich but silent plains, and deep, twilight wildernesses of forest, such as that in which John urged a nation to repent; while the Dead Sea, in which the sacred stream is lost, tells by its name alone, the story of buried cities, for ever hidden in its awful beds, and by the stillness, the weight, and the bitterness of its waters, and the intense solitariness of its shores, of the abiding judgments of God. But what a history has this land! What an important portion of man's spiritual history is concentrated within its not extensive borders. Originally settled by the sons of Canaan, from whom it derives one of its appellations, -Canaan, the son of Ham, and the grandson of Noah,-it afterwards became the adopted country of Abraham, the father of the Jewish family, to which he emigrated from Chaldea, and in which he obtained possessions. It was the native country of Isaac, of Jacob, and of the sons of Jacob, the patriarchs of the twelve tribes. Here they had their dwellings, and altars, and pastures,. and wells, and tombs. From this land, when a sore famine was in it, Jacob and his sons, with their families and their flocks and herds, went down into Egypt. Back again towards this land did their descendants return, under the conduct of Moses and Aaron, and a mightier Hand than theirs," Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and |