from undervaluing, though, when I set them by the side of the Hebrew Psalms, and recollect the superior illumination and more complete discovery of the dispensations of grace under which they are written, I confess I wonder, that they are not still more sublime and excellent than they are. I am, therefore, desirous of considering further one position which H. G. has advanced. It is this, that the best metrical translations of the Psalms must always be greatly inferior to the authorized prose-version. If the comparison be instituted indeed between that, prose-version and any metrical translation extant, I do not doubt the correctness of the remark. But your correspondent proceeds: "Let any one, with the help of Bishop Lowth's preface to Isaiah, consider the structure of Hebrew poetry, the unequal length of the verse in its whole and in both its parts; and he will be convinced, that every translation into verses of equal length must not only lose all the beautiful manner of the original, but be constantly either abridging or redundantly adding to the sense of the inspired writers." Lowth, indeed, whose authority is great on this subject, has himself delivered a similar sentiment. But by him it was confined to trauslations into the Latin or Greek languages, in which the want of correspondence between the hexameter and pentameter verses, the perpetual variation of the cadence in heroic measure, where the termination of the sentence seldom coincides with the termination of the verse, and also the length and inflexible regularity of every lyrical stanza, are in striking opposition to the structure of Hebrew poetry. "Poema, ex Hebræa in aliam linguam conversum et oratione soluta ad verbum expressum, cum sententiarum formæ eædem permaneant, multum adhuc, etiam quod ad numeros attinet, pristine dignitatis retinebit et adumbratam quandam carminis imaginem. Hoc itaque in vernacula sacrorum poematum interpretatione cernitur, ubi plerumque invenias etiam disjecti membra poetæ; quod in Græcis aut Latinis, eodem modo conversis, longe aliter eveniret. Poema Hebræum, Græcis aut Latinis versibus redditum, sententiarum formis ad peregrini sermonis indolem jam accommodatis (id est confusis perditisque), nativi ornatus et propriæ venustatis non exiguam faciet jacturam." Modern rhyme, however, answers to the genius of the Hebrew verse in all those particulars, in which the Greek and Latin measures differ from it; and the English language in modern use has peculiar facilities for the transfusion of the very spirit of the Hebrew, in consequence of the great variety of which it is susceptible, both in the form of its stanzas aud in the length of its lines; not that it is possible for any verse, that is measured by syllables, to correspond exactly to the structure of that which probably had no syllabic limitation, but that it is scarcely possible for the variations of Hebrew poetry to deviate into, such irregularities, that the genius. of English poetry, in the hands of a competent master, cannot easily follow it. Only in this case it should be remembered that his productions will always labour under one disadvantage: they will be compared with a version, which, in addition to its intrinsic excellence, has the charm of antiquity to recommend it, and possesses the advantage of having the national ear conformed to its melody. It may be further added, that the chief peculiarities of Hebrew poetry, mentioned by Lowth, and which are applicable to the present question, are those in which the examples he cites, if happily translated, would probably appear to more advantage in English rhyme than in any other known medium of translation. With a view to illustrate my meaning, I Thy mercy is my shield of fate; will only further venture to offer one or two specimens from the Psalms themselves. They certainly are not offered as examples of any skill in versification, to which they have no pretension; and I protest also against any inference to the prejudice of my argument from their admitted inferiority_to the authorised prose-version. Let them be compared only with the original, the arrangement of which they imitate; and then, if they shew to those who have a taste for such speculations, that there is a possibility of having a faithful translation of the Book of Psalms in verse, which shall represent both the spirit and manner of the original, but still more, if they should induce some, who are capable of such a work, to attempt the task, my end will be completely answered. First, our verse of four feet, with regular rhymes, called, in books of psalmody, long metre, is exactly suited to the parallelism of the Hebrew; and even our common metre or stanza of four lines, consisting alternately of four and three feet, has some advantages connected with the same end. Our verse of five feet may also be occasion. ally appropriate. Again, where the length of the Hebrew sentences is irregular, correspondent irregularities may be introduced in the translation: and thus, while some of the translated Psalms would remain as regular as our present versions, others, according to the shape of the original, would assume the appearance of an irregular ode. I subjoin two short specimens, such as they are, of each class. I. PSALM xviii, 24-28 and 35. PSALM xxii. 4-7 and 16-19. But I a worm, no man appear, The nation's jest, the rabble's sneer. shake. About me sinners take their seat; feet. They stand; they gaze; they mock my woe. My garments they asunder tear, II. PSALM xix. 7-10, A fear for ever due! Above fiue gold in value plac'd, When flames the dross repel; PSALM cxxi. From which my help is given: Who made the earth and heav'n. Thy footsteps from the snare: Attendant on thy right; By day to shield thee from the sun, Thy wand'rings guide, thy fears remove, III. PSALM xix. 1-6. THE heav'ns attest the glory of the Lord; The skies the wonder of His works record; And day to day and night to night declare With speechless eloquence his watchful care. O'er all the earth they stretch his glo- claim. How he hath spread them, like a tent, they say, Thro' which the sun performs his destin'd way; Who, like a bridegroom, from his chamber hies, And paces, like a giant, through the Till, from extremest east to distant west, PSALM xxxvii. 12-27. WHAT, though th' ungodly vent his false complaints, Or gnash with angry teeth against the JEHOVAH laughs his idle vaunt to scorn, bend the bow To slay the needy, and the just o'erthrow, attest The good forsaken, or his seed unblest; IV. PSALM xxv. 3-13. THY ways, JEHOVAH, let me know, And grace shall bear, the sway. Their sword shall pierce their own pre- Earth by his seed shall be possess'd; sumptuous hearts, Their bow be shiver'd to a thousand parts. Therefore a pittance, by the just acquir'd, Is more than sinners' wealth to be desir'd; JEHOVAH will protect the innocent. Nor hunger in the days of famine know; And into smoke, like fat, consume away. more: For, whom He blesses must possess the world, And whom He curses from the earth be hurl'd; And he himself, e'en here below, PSALM xxxix. I SAID “ I will my ways correct, "While sinners near me dwell." And e'en from praise refrain'd, Till, as my thoughts my bosom barn'd, My voice at length complain'd:"JEHOVAH, let me know my end! "Say, to what date my days extend, "And when to death's sad bourn I tend!" "Lo! Thou hast set me, as a span, "Shorter my life than thought may scan; “ All, all is vain, that comes to man. For still JEHOVAH guides those feet "From all my follies set me free, aright, That ever in his righteous paths delight. is wonderful to see the readiness with which they understand these truths; and Mr.--'s mode of unfolding them by the analytic process is most admirable. I would next lead them, by easy conversation, to mark the various states of this soul; and this, by the way, they are as capable of doing as those who can employ written or spoken language. I would refer them to their dreams, to their recollections of home and kindred, to their forgetfulness, to their hopes and wishes, their feats and passions. Thus they are taught to exercise reflex acts of mind; and I uniformly observe that those who can mark and describe, with the greatest precision, the operations of their own minds, make the most rapid progress in the acquisition of written language, and of religious truth. The reason of this is ob To the Editor of the Christian Observer. B. "All language is employed either to convey from one mind to another what is passing within itself, or to excite certain trains of thought or emotion in the one which is addressed. This is true even with regard to words denoting objects of seuse, and still more emphatically with regard to terms of generalization or abstraction, and those which express the emotions of the heart, the purposes of the will, or the operations of the mind. My grand effort, then, would be, as soon as possible, to teach my pupils that they have within them something which feels and thinks; that this something is called the soul; that it is unlike any thing which they can see, taste, smell, or touch; that it will never die; and that, when the body is laid in the grave, it will be happy or miserable. It Every word we employ denotes some relation existing be tween the human mind considered as an observer, an agent, or a patient, and some external object or internal emotion, purpose, or thought. Take the whole range of the visible creation, of the thousand influences which it has upon us; of the various modes by which we are affected by our fellow men; of all moral, religious, and intellectual agency; and you will find; that the soul stands as it were in the centre of this mighty amphitheatre of existences, which it either regards with the eye of cool observation, or yields to, as the procuring causes of the various changes it experiences in all its various operations. It must then know itself, in order to know these innumerable relations which it sustains, and to be able to comprehend the terms which denote them. And I believe it will be found, that in every endeavour which we make to ascertain the precise meaning of a word, we involuntarily look back through the history of our own minds, and call to remembrance the various occasions upon which and modes by which we were affected by the object which such a word is intended to denote.I say, 'A tree is green;' you imdiately think of some particular tree which through the medium of the eye once affected your mind. I say, 'Honesty is the best policy;' you involuntarily recal instances of your own conduct, or of conduct in others which has been addressed to your own mind, in order to fix the import of these words. I say, although' is a word denoting the existence of something in spite of the existence of some other thing, which might seem to prevent the existence of the former. You forthwith think of some occasion in which your own mind was affected, in that manner which the term although' is intended to denote. I speak to you of myself, or of God the great Father of our spirits; and every conception which you can possibly form of my mind, or of the Eternal Mind, must be derived from what you know of your own. "Now, if I could only succeed in getting pupils to mark accurately the states of their minds, when certain objects, either physical, moral, or intellectual, are presented to their view; I should have only to tell them, that such states, under such circumstances, are described by such and such words, and my work would be done. Bring the object and the mind into contact, which can easily be done by gestures; bid the pupil notice the effect of this contact upon his own mind; the name then is only setting up a sort of land-mark, to which you can afterwards easily refer in the progress of the future discovery of truth and acquisition of words. "There is really no more intrinsic connexion between written and spoken words and ideas, than be sween signs and ideas: indeed, the language of the deaf and dumb is abundantly more significant than any other, in as much as it denotes that change which takes place in our bodies and countenances by the movements of the soul; and so far as intellectual processes bear any analogy to the motions of matter, it shadows forth this analogy in very striking and significant emblems. 'What moves my foot?' I asked a class of deaf and dumb. one day, after having explained to them purely by signs, that when I thought and wished to have my foot move, it did so. Your mind moves your foot' was the universal reply. I then told them purely by signs, that I could not controul the motion of my heart. What moves my heart? Some answered, 'God moves your heart;' and others, God's mind moves your heart.' "You ask of me my reasons for thinking that the deaf and dumb ought not to be taught articulation. Without going into any elaborate discussion of this subject, I beg leave to refer you to some remarks on the inexpediency of this branch of the education of the deaf and dumb, from the pen of one of the first philosophers of the age, who resided in Edinburgh many years, and had a continual opportunity of witnessing the efforts of Mr. Braidwood, who was probably the most successful teacher of articulation to the deaf and dumb that ever lived; I mean Dugald Stewart, who, in his account of James Mitchell, the deaf, dumb, and blind lad, expresses himself very strongly on this subject; and so strongly, that if the opinion of so great a man, and so profound an observer of the human mind, is worth any thing, it must be decisive so far as human authority can have weight. "I believe, too, the experience of all the schools for the deaf and dumb, in which articulation is taught, will prove that the instances of success for any useful, practical purpose, are so rare as to render the general attempt inexpedient. It was matter of wonder to me, while I often witnessed the intercourse of the deaf and dumb with each other, and with their instructors too, to observe how sel |