His heavenly Father; that he is diligently to cultivate the talents with which God has entrusted him, and assiduously to employ them in doing justice and shewing mercy, while he guards against the assaults of any internal enemy. In short, he is to demean himself, in all the common affairs of life, like an accountable creature, who, in correspondence with the Scripture character of Christians, is "waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." Often, therefore, he questions himself, "Am I employing my time, my fortune, my bodily and mental powers, so as to be able to 'render up my account with joy, and not with grief?' Am I adorning the doctrine of God my Saviour in all things;' and proving that the servants of Christ, animated by a principle of filial affection, which renders their work a service of perfect freedom, are capable of as active and as persevering exertions, as the votaries of fame, or the slaves of ambition, or the drudges of avarice?" SACRED POETRY. MATTHEW PRIOR. In the eighteenth century, some valuable additions were made to our stores of sacred minstrelsy, by authors who, in the stricter sense of the word, were scarcely Christian poets. Perhaps it is for this reason that Mr Montgomery, in his "Christian Poet," has given no specimen of Prior; but we think it would be almost as unfair to ignore his "Solomon," as to deprive our readers of Pope's "Messiah." Like an airy upland in the midst of an unwholesome jungle, such a production is a welcome retreat from the frivolity and ribaldry in the midst of which it occurs; nor should it lessen the value of the work that most of its thoughts and images are borrowed from Ecclesiastes and the Canticles. The form of a soliloquy, into which the author has thrown the poem, makes the three books rather tedious; but the reader's perseverance is often rewarded by passages vigorously emphasised or finely pointed, and the flattest intervals, with their melodious verse and happy diction, convey a certain pleasure, even in the midst of the prevailing monotony. MATTHEW PRIOR was born July 21, 1664, and died at Wimple, near Cambridge, then the seat of Lord Oxford, September 18, 1721. The Vanity of Science. Forced by reflective reason, I confess Alas! we grasp at clouds, and beat the air, Vexing that spirit we intend to clear. Can thought beyond the bounds of matter climb? VOL. IV. 2 H In vain we lift up our presumptuous eyes To what our Maker to their ken denies : Seduces only the bewilder'd mind To fruitless search of something yet behind. How narrow limits were to Wisdom given ! Earth she surveys; she thence would measure Heaven : Remember that the cursed desire to know, Castle-Building. The power of wealth I tried, And all the various luxe of costly pride. To trees transferr'd I gave a second birth, From furthest Africa's tormented womb The marble brought, erects the spacious dome; On which the planted grove, and pensile garden grows. To gild the turret, and to paint the wall; To mark the pavement there with various stone, A thousand artists shew their cunning power, 363 ALEXANDER POPE. Satirist, philosopher, and critic, the translator of Homer and the imitator of Horace, there was nothing which the bard of Twickenham deemed beyond his powers, and of all which he attempted nothing proved an absolute failure. Even the lyre of David and Isaiah he ventured to handle, and to his touch the chords were musical. In reading verses like the following, we forget the conceited correspondent of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and we wish to forget the irascible career and perpetual embroilment of the author of "The Dunciad." Like "The Dying Christian," the "Messiah" was written early in life, and first saw the light in the pages of "The Spectator." POPE was born in Lombard Street, London, May 22, 1688, and on the 30th of the same month of May 1744, he died at Twickenham. Messiah. Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song : Rapt into future times, the bard begun : Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, |