Images de page
PDF
ePub

safety, knelt down for his master to alight, as was his custom, "and having thus, like a true and faithful servant, discharged his duty to the last, he trembled, dropped down, and died."

Page 143, Chap. xxxix. 27.

"Doth the eagle mount up at thy command ?”

The noblest description of the king of birds is in Campbell's lines on "The Dead Eagle: written at Oran."

"He was the sultan of the sky, and earth
Paid tribute to his eyry. It was perch'd

Higher than human conqueror ever built

His banner'd fort. Where Atlas' top looks o'er

Zahara's desert to the Equator's line:

From thence the winged despot mark'd his prey,
Above th' encampments of the Bedouins, ere
Their watchfires were extinct, or camels knelt
To take their loads, or horsemen scour'd the plain,
And there he dried his feathers in the dawn,
Whilst yet th' unwakened world was dark below.

"He clove the adverse storm,

And cuff'd it with his wings. He stopp'd his flight
As easily as the Arab reins his steed,

And stood at pleasure 'neath Heaven's zenith, like

A lamp suspended from its azure dome,

Whilst underneath him the world's mountains lay

Like molehills, and her streams like lucid threads. .

"He-reckless who was victor, and above

The hearing of their guns-saw fleets engaged
In flaming combat. It was nought to him
What carnage, Moor or Christian, strew'd their decks.

"The earthquake's self

Disturb'd not him that memorable day,
When, o'er yon table-land, where Spain had built
Cathedrals, cannon'd forts, and palaces,

A palsy-stroke of nature shook Oran,
Turning her city to a sepulchre,

And strewing into rubbish all her homes;
Amidst whose traceable foundations now,
Of streets and squares, the hyæna hides himself.
That hour beheld him fly as careless o'er
The stifled shrieks of thousands buried quick,
As lately when he pounced the speckled snake,
Coil'd in yon mallows and wide nettle fields
That mantle o'er the dead old Spanish town."

Page 146, Chap. xl. 15.

"Behold now behemoth."

"The flood disparts: behold! in plaited mail
Behemoth rears his head. Glanced from his side,
The darted steel in idle shivers flies;

He fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills;
Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze."
THOMSON'S "Summer."

Page 146, Chap. xli. 1.

"Canst thou draw out leviathan?”

"Along these lonely regions where, retired From little scenes of art, Great Nature dwells In awful solitude, and nought is seen

But the wild herds that own no master's stall,

Prodigious rivers roll their fattening seas:
On whose luxuriant herbage, half-conceal'd,
Like a fallen cedar, far diffused his train,

Cased in green scales, the crocodile extends."

THOMSON'S "Summer."

The leviathan of Job is obviously the crocodile; but Milton, in his account of the Creation, transfers the title to the whale :—

"There leviathan,

Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land; and at his gills

Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea."

Paradise Lost, Book vii.

Page 149, Chap. xli. 22.

"In his neck remaineth strength,

And sorrow is turned into joy before him."

"In his neck dwelleth Might,

And Destruction exulteth before him."-Good.

Page 153, Chap. xlii. 2.

“I know that thou canst do every thing,

And that no thought can be withholden from thee.”

"Thou canst accomplish all things, Lord of might!
And every thought is naked to thy sight:
But oh! thy ways are wonderful, and lie
Beyond the deepest reach of mortal eye.
Oft have I heard of thine Almighty power,
But never saw thee till this dreadful hour.

O'erwhelmed with shame, the Lord of life I see,
Abhor myself, and give my soul to thee:

Nor shall my weakness tempt thine anger more:
Man is not made to question, but adore."—Young.

Page 153, Chap. xlii. 6.

"Wherefore I abhor myself."

"Job's error was this, that he asserted his innocence not only against men, but against God. He not only denied that he was a hypocrite in the common sense of the term, or a sinner according to man's use and meaning of the word, but he seems to have maintained his innocence in a yet higher sense, as if it could endure God's judgment no less than man's. And for this he is reproved by Elihu, and reminded that although he might justly call himself good, in the common meaning of the word, and justly repel the charge of common hypocrisy, yet that goodness in God's meaning is of a far higher nature; that when tried by his standard, all are sinners; and that in his sight can no man living be justified. To this view of the case Job at last yields; he confesses that he had spoken in ignorance, and that now, better informed of what God is, and of man's infinite unworthiness in His sight, he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes. It is manifest that this is exactly the state of mind which is required before a man can embrace God's offer of forgiveness through Christ. And in the book of Job, no less than in the Epistle to the Romans, we find that he who thus casts away his trust in his own righteousness, and acknowledges that in God's sight he is only a sinner, becomes forgiven and accepted, and that his latter end is better than his beginning."

ARNOLD'S Sermons on the Interpretation of Scripture.

THE SABBATH

SABBATH WALKS AND OTHER POEMS.

BY JAMES GRAHAME.

Illustrated from Drawings by Birket Foster.

Price, handsomely bound in cloth, extra gilt, 10s. 6d.

THE POEMS OF GEORGE HERBERT. . Illustrated in the highest style of Wood Engraving,

FROM DESIGNS BY

BIRKET FOSTER, CLAYTON, AND NOEL HUMPHREYS.

Price, handsomely bound in cloth by Leighton, 18s.; or in calf antique, 24s., and Morocco, 31s. 6d. by Hayday.

"A more beautiful Gift-book could not be desired. The paper and typography are of a first-class character; the illustrations very beautiful, and conceived in an exquisite taste."-Record.

THE TASK.

BY

WILLIAM COWPER.

WITH

Upwards of Fifty Illustrations from Drawings by Birket Foster.

Price, handsomely bound in cloth, 18s.; or in calf gilt, 28s., and
Morocco, 31s. 6d. by Hayday.

"One of the most beautiful gift-books which has appeared this season-one of the most beautiful, indeed, that has ever appeared in any season-is a new edition of 'The Task' of Cowper, richly illustrated by Birket Foster.”—Quarterly Review. "Among the pictorial gift-books of the season, the chief place belongs to the Illustrated Edition of Cowper's 'Task.' It is altogether a beautiful work,

...

and one of perennial value.”—Literary Gazette.

"We cannot conceive of any one looking on these illustrations of 'The Task' without delight."-Athenæum.

JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

2 D

« PrécédentContinuer »