for the present, and justly appreciated only by after times. The sense of the nation has pressed the abolition upon our rulers. Parliament has complied with the general feeling, after the eyes of all men were opened, and their voices lifted up against the combined impolicy and injustice of the slave trade. There are other cases of the same kind, which the country has begun to think. upon. The state of the Irish Catholics-the policy pursued to-/ wards our East Indian possessions--and the propriety of a pacific: system in Europe-are subjects on which men only differ, because they have not fully discussed them. The further diffusion of information respecting these important questions, will probably, in the course of a short time, leave as few enemies to the sound doctrines which sensible men hold upon them, as are now found to the abolition of the slave trade. This consideration should both encourage the government to do its duty, independent of the popular feeling, and animate the instructors of the people, whose sense of right may in the end sway their rulers. ART. XIV. Saul: A Poem in Two Parts. By William Sotheby Esq. 4to. pp. 190. Caddel & Davies. London. 1807. A SCRIPTURAL subject treated in blank verse unfortunately brings Milton to the thoughts of most readers; and the name of the translator of Oberon raises expectations which it is not easy to answer. This poem has certainly disappointed us. It is not very like Milton; except in the multitude of Hebrew names and it is strikingly inferior to Mr Sotheby's other compositions, even in those points where we reckoned with certainty on improvement. There was great beauty of diction in the Oberon; and, considering the difficulty of the measure, an unusual flow and facility of versification. When we found the author writing in blank verse, therefore, we naturally looked for still greater freedom and variety of composition; and expected to be charmed with all those natural graces of expression, which are necessarily excluded to a certain degree by the bondage of an intricate stanza. The very reverse is the case, however, with the work now before us. Mr Sotheby's blank verse is as remarkable for harshness, constraint, and abruptness, as his stanzas were for ease and melody; and his muse, we are afraid, is like one of those old beauties, who, having been long accustomed to move gracefully in tight stays, high shoes, and hooped petticoats, feels her supports withdrawn when disencumbered of her shackles, and fotters and stumbles when there are no longer any restraints on her movements. The name of the poem is Saul; but the hero is David'; and it contains just so much of his history, as is comprehended within the period of his first appearance as a harper before the king, and the death of that monarch. In accommodating this story to poetry, Mr Sotheby has run into two opposite excesses: he has in many places adhered to the narrative, and to the very words of the scripture so closely, as to injure both the dignity and the interest of his composition; while, on other occasions, he has departed too widely from his original, and has used a much greater license both in suppressing and in interpolating, than we can easily pardon in the case of a narrative so familiar. The 'work, after all, however, is the work of a poet ; or at least of one who possesses poetical taste and feeling. There is delicacy and grace in many of the descriptions; a sustained tone of gentleness and piety in the sentiments; and an elaborate beauty in the diction, which frequently makes amends for the want of force and originality. The poem is divided, we do not well see why, into two parts, each consisting of four books; and each book is introduced with a proem, more or less connected with the feelings of the author or his subject. We shall now give our readers a short account of each of these books, with such specimens as we think deserving of their attention. The first book opens with a long account of the symptoms of Saul's possession with the evil spirit. Mr Sotheby's theory of the case, though it derives no support from the scripture, history, is poetical and ingenious. He supposes the unhappy king to be haunted by a spectre, which successively assumes his own form and character, as he was in the days of his shepherd innocence or aspiring youth, and tortures him with the afflicting contrast of those happy times, before he had tasted the cares of royalty, or known the pangs of remorse, for his disobedience of the divine commandment. The first form is that of a beautiful youth in, shepherd weeds, who addresses the entranced monarch in these strains. 66 Up from thy couch of woe, and join my path; Strow'd with fresh bloffoms, fhed from almond bow'rs. Why Why droop'ft thou here difconfolate and fad ? ! "I come, I come, fair angel." Saul exclaims. "Give me my fhepherd's weeds ... my pipe ... my crook ; Aid me to caft these cumbrous trappings off. Yet ftay; "but swift at once the vifion gone Mocks him, evanifhing. Groans then, and fighs, And bitterness of anguish, such as felt Of him, who on Helvetia's heights, a boy, Sung to the Alpine lark; and faw, beneath, Prone cataracts, and filver lakes, and vales Romantic and now paces his night-watch, Hoar veteran, on the tented field. Not him, Fresh flaughter fuming on the plain,-not him The groan of death, familiar to his ear, Difquiet; but if, haply heard, the breeze Bring from the diftant mountain low of kine, With pipe of fhepherd leading on his flock To fold: oh then, on his remembrance rush Thofe days fo fweet; that roof, beneath the rock, Which cradled him when sweeping fnow-ftorms burst : And those within, the peaceful household hearth, With all its innocent pleasures. Him, far off, Regret confumes, and inly wafting grief, That knows no folace, till in life's last hour, When, o'er his gaze, in trance of bliss, once more Helvetia and her piny fummits float.' The king at laft refolves to diffipate his defpondence in the tumult of war, and proclaims a campaign against the Philistines. Samuel exhorts him to repentance, and predicts his discomfiture and death at Gilboa. The fecond book opens with this proem. p. 8-10. Fain would I turn my deftin'd path, awhile, The hymn of peace; more grateful to the bard, Ah! confecrated haunts! pure scenes of peace, Farewell! dire ftrife and conteft claim the fong. p. 25-26. He then proceeds to enumerate the army of the heathen,Cufhanites, Ammonites and Philistines, and of the twelve tribes of Ifrael, drawn out in battle-order against them. The approach of Saul and his guards is about the most magnificent paffage in the poem. • Hark! hark! the clash and clang Of harsher instrument, continuous flow Of breath, through flutes, in fymphony with fong, With jubilee, and chant of triumph hymn : Of loudest acclamation, to each hoft Saul's ftately advance proclaim'd. Before him, youths Their ftaves against the ground, and warn'd the throng Drawn Drawn out. Of these a thousand, each selects, Pride of their race. Radiant their armour: fome Grafp'd a long-fhadowing fpear. Like them, their chiefs And on their helm, the graver's toil had wrought And o'er their mail, a robe, Punicean dye, Bright glow'd the fun, and bright the burnish'd mail The noon-day beam. Beneath their coming, earth With blaze of orient gems: the clafp that bound Sapphire; and o'er his cafque, where rubies burnt, p. 44-46. Then comes Goliah, whose panoply is thus faithfully describ ed from the book of Chronicles. The champion's front was helmeted with brass: Of brafs his greaves: the ponderous target's ftrength The coat of mail that compafs'd him before, Wrought brass: five thousand fhekels fumm'd its weight. His fpear, the ftretch of whose portended staff Seem'd like a weaver's beam, was iron, all.' Saul, after running away from Goliah, is more tormented in spirit than before, and, by a needless deviation from the truth of P. 52. history, |