But whoever wishes to understand the full force and excellence of this figure, as well as the elegant use of it in the Hebrew ode, must apply to Isaiah, who is pronounced the sublimest of poets. He will there find, in one short poem, examples of almost every form of the Prosopopoeia, and indeed of all that constitutes the sublime in composition. We refer immediately to the passage itself, and remark a few of the principal excellencies. 1 The prophet, after predicting the liberation of the Jews from their severe captivity in Babylon, and their restoration to their own country, introduces them as reciting a kind of triumphal song upon the fall of the Babylonish monarch, replete with imagery, and with the most elegant and animated personifications. A sudden exclamation, expressive of their joy and admiration on the unexpected revolution in their affairs, and the destruction of their tyrants, forms the exordium of the poem. The earth itself triumphs with the inhabitants thereof; the fir-trees and the cedars of Lebanon (under which images the parabolic style frequently delineates the kings and princes of the Gentiles) exult with joy, and persecute with contemptuous reproaches the humbled power of a ferocious enemy: The whole earth is at rest, is quiet; they burst forth into a joyful shout: This is followed by a bold and animated personification of Hades, or the infernal regions. Hades excites his inhabitants, the ghosts of princes, and the departed spirits of kings: they rise immediately from their seats, and proceed to meet the monarch of Babylon; they insult and deride him, and comfort themselves with the view of his calamity: Art thou, even thou too, become weak as we? Art thou made like unto us? Is then thy pride brought down to the grave? the sound of thy sprightly instruments? Is the vermin become thy couch, and the earth-worm thy covering? Again, the Jewish people are the speakers, in an exclamation after the manner of a funeral lamentation, which indeed the whole form of this composition exactly imitates. 2 The remarkable fall of this powerful monarch is thus beautifully illustrated: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! 3 1 Isa. xiv. 4-27. 2 Iphigenia in Tauris, v. 177. And again, Orestes, v. 1402.. In Bishop Lowth's critique upon this sublime Ode of Isaiah, he appears to have overlooked a principal source of its beauty; which consists in the happy adaptation of imagery from the history and fate of Nimrod, the founder and first king of Babylon, to prefigure the excision of his successor and representative.-HENLEY. "O Lucifer," &c. This is, I think, the most sublime image I have ever seen conveyed in so few words. The aptness of the allegory to express the He himself is at length brought upon the stage, boasting in the most pompous terms of his own power, which furnishes the poet with an excellent opportunity of displaying the unparalleled misery of his downfal. Some persons are introduced, who find the dead carcass of the king of Babylon cast out and exposed; they attentively contemplate it, and at last scarcely know it to be his : Is this the man, that made the earth to tremble; that shook the kingdoms ? That made the world like a desert; that destroyed the cities. They reproach him with being denied the common rites of sepulture, on account of the cruelty and atrocity of his conduct; they execrate his name, his offspring, and their posterity. A solemn address, as of the Deity himself, closes the scene, and he denounces against the king of Babylon, his posterity, and even against the city which was the seat of their cruelty, perpetual destruction, and confirms the immutability of his own counsels by the solemnity of an oath. How forcible is this imagery, how diversified, how sublime! how elevated the diction, the figures, the sentiments!-The Jewish nation, the cedars of Lebanon, the ghosts of departed kings, the Babylonish monarch, the travellers who find his corpse, and last of all, Jehovah himself, are the characters which support this beautiful lyric drama. One continued action is kept up, or rather a series of interesting actions are connected together in an incomparable whole: this, indeed, is the principal and distinguished excellence of the sublimer ode, and is displayed in its utmost perfection in this poem of Isaiah, which may be considered as one of the most ancient, and certainly the most finished specimen of that species of composition, which has been transmitted to us. The personifications here are frequent, yet not confused; bold, yet not improbable: a free, elevated, and truly divine spirit pervades the whole; nor is there any thing wanting in this ode to defeat its claim to the character of perfect beauty and sublimity. We know not a single instance in the whole compass of Greek and Roman poetry, which, in every excellence of composition, can be said to equal, or even to approach it. 2 ruin of a powerful monarch, by the fall of a bright star from heaven, strikes the mind in the most forcible manner; and the poetical beauty of the passage is greatly heightened by the personification, "Son of the morning." Whoever does not relish such painting as this, is not only destitute of poetical taste, but of the common feelings of humanity.-Dr. GREGORY. 2 Lowth, on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, Lect. 13. Biblical Biography. —τὸν ἀδελφὸν, οὗ ὁ ἔπαινος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ διὰ πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν. — the brother, whose praise in the Gospel is throughout all the churches. REV. THOMAS HARMER. THE REV. THOMAS HARMER, of Wattesfield, in the county of Suffolk, was descended from a respectable family in Norfolk, and born at Norwich, Sept. 14, 1714 O. S. His father was a deacon of the Congregational Church, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Tozer, and now under that of the Rev. J. B. Innes. It is not known under what masters he received his first instructions; but it is ascertained, that he gave early indications of piety, and of that quickness of understanding, for which he was afterwards distinguished. Having chosen the Christian ministry amongst the Dissenters, he was placed for academical studies under the care of the learned Mr. Eames, of London, where he continued till his 20th year. At that time he was invited to preach to the Independent Church at Wattesfield, then destitute of a pastor, and so satisfied were they with the zeal and earnestness of his preaching, together with the promising indications he gave of abilities and knowledge, that they gave him a unanimous and earnest invitation to settle amongst them. With this call, after due consideration, he thought proper to comply. On his settlement amongst that people, he is said to have devoted a great part of his time to the perfecting of his knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages; in which, from his studious and persevering habits, there is reason to believe that he attained to a high degree of critical skill. The specimens which he has left, in his Observations, "tending to illustrate the Greek and Roman Classics by books of travels into the East;" and another for "illustrating the Scriptures, from the Greek and Roman Classics," manifest the acute and accurate attention with which he had studied those writings. And as he was removed from that literary intercourse, which is the usual stimulus to the ardent pursuit of classical attainments, it seems obvious, that from his earliest years, he had, from the solitude of his village and of his study, aspired to mingle with the loftier spirits of his age, and to place his name amongst those which shall be handed down with applause to future generations. There is another incidental circumstance which shews this to have been the state of his mind.Amongst the posthumous sermons which he left for publication, specially for the use of his own congregation, is one which was preached at an early period of his ministry, "On the Israelites spoiling the |