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side, Young, Cowper, Beattie, Burns, The Doctor is dosing-comatose. and a hundred others—“ alike, but Nobody will believe that any school, oh! how different”-and from them old or new, ever avowedly repuwe have experienced, according to diated animated and flowing diction.” M•Henry, a poetical taste” one and But William Wordsworth and James the same-a taste “ to which every M`Henry may have different ideas of poet who has become the general få animation and flow-the one conceiva vourite of mankind has conformed his ing that he beholds those qualities in a productions." Every one of our great. Westmoreland river-the other in the est poets "revolutionized our poetical Paddington Canal. literature ;" and yet, after all those There is no such passage in Words. glorious revolutions, its constitution worth's glorious preface to the Lyrical remains the wonder of the world. Ballads as that given above by Dr

The Doctor is “ incredulous of the M‘Henry, as containing " the leading power of any innovators to infuse a tenet of the new school.” That prenew poetical taste into the mind of face is full of the grandest truths: it man. Sophocles and Shakspeare expounds the eternal principles of all constructed their tragedies on the poetry, removes the rubbish, and same principles--and there is no dif- shows the foundations in the rock of ference whatever between Grecian ages. and Gothic architecture.

The Doctor “ argufies the quesHe is unconscious of any resem- tion;"_and absolutely, in opposition blance in the composition of his An. to Wordsworth, undertakes to extediluvians “ to the slow-moving and pound the essential distinction between spiritless style" of the Excursion. poetry and prose! As a clencher, he Su are we. We defy Wordsworth to quotes Milton :point out a passage in his “ Philoso

“ To the nuptial bower phical Poem” comparable in force I led her blushing like the morn; all and fire, rapidity and spirit, to the heaven, following flashes of inspiration that And happy constellations, in that hour, seem to set the highest heaven of the Shed their selectest influence ; the earth Doctor's invention in a blaze.

Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill ;

Joyous the birds ; fresh gales and gentle Then, aided by angelic architects,

airs Soon did they build that blest and wond'.

Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their rous ark,

wings The ark of safety for all living things, Permitted to survive the world destroy'd, Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy

shrub, As sole transmitters of terrestrial life. of gopher wood, constructed close and Disporting, like the amorous bird of night,

Sung spousal, and bade haste the evening firm, The spacious mansion was composed, of

On his hill-top to light the bridal lamp.” strength Both wind and water to resist, though

The italics are the Doctor's-and roused

he exclaims, “ every reader of taste To all the force of elevated strife. will admit the uncommon beauty of Three hundred Hebrew cubits was its the foregoing passage, placed as it is length,

in a position where grandeur is natuThe breadth was fifty, thirty was the ral, and decoration appropriate. Yet, length,

who does not perceive that the splenDivided into three successive floors. did expressions which render it so reIn each, full many a various-structured cell markable, would, if employed in prose, Was formd, the different animals to

be as offensive, as in poetry they are lodge,

pleasing ?”

There is not one expresFrom the bold lion and behemoth huge,

sion there that might not be used in To the dull beetle and the duller moth,

elevated prose, provided only there And from the imperial eagle to the wren.

were a departure from the metrical ar“ Animated and flowing diction," rangement. In Milton's own prose adds the Doctor, “ is indeed avowedly there are hundreds as splendidas repudiated by the followers of this poetical ; and in the prose of Jeremy school, wliose leading tenet is, that Taylor, and other great writers. Pas• the real language of poetry does sion and imagination are not banished not differ from that of ordinary life, from prose--nor. a, sense of the sus except in metrical arrangement."

blime and beautiful ;-- or are

star

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Let us

banished from the breasts of men who and scope, comprising the individuals, are no writers at all, but who never- characters, sentiments, and scenery, theless, under their influence, speak as ought never to be overlooked.” Such orators or poets speak-even as men dicta, so boldly announced, may apand women are heardspeaking through- pear paradoxical ; but, on maturer out all Shakspeare, in a style that reflection, the world will cheerfully must be most " offensive" to the Doc- admit their truth. tor, though“ pleasing” to all the rest We admire the genius displayed by of the human race. True, 'tis a vi- many of the Poets of the Flood — yet sionary world, and an enchanted floor are free to confess," that, with the ex--that Theatre. But the shadows ception of Adam and Eve, Cain and seem to be of flesh and blood-to speak Abel, Enoch, and old Methuselahour language-to shed tears like ours Noah and his family, of course—we ---and utter what bears a dread re- have never been able to bring ourselves semblance to human groans.

to care much for the Antediluvians. The Doctor has the stupid imperti. There are grotesque images associanence to say, that Wordsworth has ted, in our fancy, with the very name. “ strenuously recommended and prac- We know that we ought to be above tised a mode of writing, characterised such weakness — and we cheerfully by a meagre dryness of expression, acknowledge that the Deluge was and a diffuse languor of modulation, great event in the annals of manwhich has procured for it the epithet kind.” We have no doubt that the of “ prose poetry.”

Where is the World before the Flood was a very blockhead who applied that epithet? poetical world--for we know it was a Let him show-and deep must be the very wicked one. But commend us shade that, after an interview with Us, on that and every other account-to will suffice to hide « his many-colour. the World after the Flood. ed head.”

first exhaust it, if you pleaseand Let us hear now our friend's opi- when there is no more to be said nion of his own poetry :-" The true about it, fall back on the ages that style of good poetry is certainly one never saw the rainbow. or other of these extremes; and a The Doctor says, that “in drawing writer of judgment and good taste the characters, and relating the tranwill as carefully avoid offending by sactions of the important era that the bare sterility, or by the meretri. preceded the Deluge, the heart of cious gaudiness of his diction. The man, under the various modifications great art is to know when, and in caused by the same passions which what degree, to decorate. Some to- agitate it to this day, can be exhibitpics require language altogether plain ed ;” and doubtless it may, but at and perspicuous, while others will ap- a great disadvantage. We would not pear flat and barren, unless enriched give Crabbe's Borough for all that with the flowers of speech. Descrip- has been written or ever will be writtion and sentiment seem to be peculiarly ten about the Antediluvian world, susceptible of ornament, and will bear We have been more affected by a it to an extent that would encumber paragraph in the Westmoreland Gadialogue, and impede the progress of zette, telling of the loss of a postthe narrative. Throughout the fol- chaise, horses, driver, and a pretty lowing work, I trust it will be found girl, in the sands between Lancaster that, while on every admissible occa- and Ulverston, than by Byron's Hea. sion I have indulged in the decora- ven and Earth, or even by Poussin's tive style, I have been sparing of it or Martin's great picture. wherever employing it freely would - The awful event which terminated have savoured of affectation, produced the first series of the human race, cans obscurity, or occasioned unnecessary not fail,” says the Doctor, strongly and unseemly glare.”. In short, the to affect the mind, and awaken the author is of opinion that the Antedi- sympathies of their descendants of luvians is written in the true style of every tribe, and in every clime, as well good poetry.” Nous verrons.

as to teach them a warning lesson of The Doctor holds that “the diction the most impressive character they of a poem is of much less consequence could possibly learn." It does so in than the ideas”-and that, “ in esti- the Bible. But as we dislike and dismating the merit of a long narrative avow all manner of affectation, we poem in particular, its general plan hope that we shall not give offence in

any quarter, by declaring in the July complaints - especially teething. number of Blackwood, 1839, that must have carried off multitudes and though we are one of the most dis- so must the measles ; " girls of sweet tinguished “descendants" s of the sixty" died then in fact of consumpfirst series' of the human race," the tion-and blooming and blushing event which terminated” that series brides were prematurely cut off ere does “ fail strongly to awaken our they had reached their two-hundredth sympathies" -- and, shocking as it year. We are nowhere told that the may seem, that we have not read longevity of the Antediluvians was Dr M.Henry's Antediluvians, or the owing to climate. There is every World Destroyed, with a tithe of the reason to believe that the Flood im interest we felt in Sir Thomas D. proved climate and for that, and all Lauder's Account of the Morayshire other heaven's mercies, “our heart Floods.

leaps up when we behold a rainbow The Doctor himself has some mis- in the sky." givings on the subject, and acknow- In the 24th verse of the 5th chapter ledges “ that it was, indeed, no slight of Genesis you will find it thus writtask to bring before the public, the ten: " And Enoch walked with God: affairs and fortunes of a world, con- and he was not; for God took him." cerning which so few records re- Milton, remembering with awe that main.' The Public will, no doubt, verse, and by it inspired, says, try to look more than usually pensive

“ Him old and young on the Antediluvians and the World Exploded, and had seized with violent Destroyed, but will be sadder at heart hands, for the sake of a party of apprentices Had not a cloud descending snatched him and their sweethearts drowned on a thence, holiday in rashly s shooting the Unseen amid the throng.” bridge.” The Poem of The Antediluvians, the translation of Enoch.

Here is Dr M`Henry's picture of or the World Destroyed, opens with a description of Armon, or Armonia,

“ At length the patriarch of this happy race, “beneath the rule of the righteous By the command of his approving God,

Bade earth and all the sons of men adieu. Enoch."

As, congregated on a spacious plain “ There flocks and herds

Near Jared, their chief city, sacred seat Amidst the genial valleys, multiplied Of patriarch rule, from Enoch's father In joyous numbers ; for no winter frost

named, Nor summer scorching there was feared The tribes, assembled by the godlike man,

Joined in an annual sacrifice, ordained Siekness, or pain, or premature decay ; In mem'ry of the pard'ning covenant made But every gale that fanned the fragrant air,

With our repentant parents at the fall. Bore health and gladness on its balmy The holy patriarch called upon his God wings,

For permanence of blessings on his race. Giving duration to the life of man

When lo! a glorious sight burst from the Tenfold the period of its present state." skies!

Is this scriptural ? “ Cursed is the A radiant chariot of celestial mould, ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt By winged spirits drawn, and in its seat thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

A form of beauteous and.majestic mien Thorns also and thistles shall it bring Descended, in the midst, where Enoch stood.

Awe-struck the crowd at reverent distance forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy As thus the bright angelic vision spake.

gazed, face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground,” &c. The winter Thou hast performed it well; therefore

• Enoch, thy service in this world is o'er. frost may not then have been very ascend severe in Armonia, though we believe

This chariot, and with me arise to Heaven, that now it is occasionally rather There the reward adjudged thee to receive, sharp, with sleet, hail, and snow. A crown eternal of unmingled bliss !' “Summer scorching" there must have That instant. Enoch's mortal frame was been- and frequent drought. On changed; what authority does a medical man of Unrivalled symmetry his limbs adorned, our day aver that there was His features brightened with a glow divine, sickness, or pain, or premature de. And round his brows a heavenly balo shone, cay" before the Flood ? Children' Soon in the seraph's car he took his seaty

to cause

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your God

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And, looking fondly on the wondering But how, we ask, happened it that throng,

Enoch was king during the lifetime Farewell!' he said, 'my children! serve of his father Jared ? If the Doctor

will again look into the 5th chapWith unremitting zeal, as I have done, ter of Genesis, he will perceive that And ye shall gain as bright a recompense !' Jared outlived Enoch four hundred “ The harnessed spirits, spreading forth and thirty-five years. It is not said their wings

that he had resigned, or that he had That waved in golden radiance, like the been deposed--and we could not clouds

help being both surprised and hurt In autumn evening burnished by the sun ;

at his absence from the Translation. And hovering, for a moment, o'er the earth, The Doctor must have supposed him With swift ascent towards th’ ethereal realms dead long ago; for he speaks of Touk their glad way, and mingled with the skies.

" Jared, their chief city, sacred seat Th' astonished multitude fell to the ground Of patriarch rule, from Enoch's father In humble posture, and adored the Power named.” Omnipotent, their father's God, whose hand This glorious miracle of love had wrought.” In a second edition, the good old king Chariots and cars are sublimely spo- good place assigned him near the

(in his sixth century) must have a ken of in Scripture—and in Paradise chariot “of celestial mould.” Nor Lostminstinct with spirit.” But the descent of the present chariot, to the Enoch, be suffered to mount the

must Methuselah, any more than eye of ourimagination, is anything but throne till his grandfather's demise. sublime. The set-out is spick-and- A few hundred years must be cut span new-but too material by far--as off his reign, as erroneously given if built by Croall. “ In its seat". is too in the M•Henry's annals ; and with minute a touch, and we are curious to such correction of dates—for it is know if it were a vis-a-vis. 66 Soon in the seraph's car he took his seat,” bor. tor will not fail to discover the error

strictly a question of dates—the Docders, we fear, on the ludicrous and we

contained in the lines, trust we are not profane in saying it suggests the idea of Enoch being

“Through the long period of Methuselah's booked for heaven. or Therefore as

reign, cend this chariot" is not seraphic- That reign the longest in the rolls of time.” and Enoch’s parting words had been Had we stopped here, we should have better, if not so self-laudatory. Now given the Doctor a famous opportunity thing can be poorer, for nothing can

for a triumph over us: but we beg to be more commonplace, than the image inform the Doctor, that at the time of of the clouds—and it is inappropri. Enoch's translation, not only was his ate; for sunset is a steadfast show and father Jared alive, but Jared's father, far remote- whereas the harnessed Mahalaleel. Mahalaleel then was king, spirits unfold their wings in the Jared Prince of Wales, and Enoch very midst of a crowd-on the ground

Duke of a No, we are wrong again —and then, hovering for a moment --for Mahalaleel's father Cainan was over the earth, swiftly ascend to. alive too, and he must have been king; wards the ethereal realms. The mere

so the Doctor and we are called upon to colour of their wings may have resem- re-adjust the order according to seniobled that of clouds“ in autumn even. rity of the blood-royal. Why, we are ing burnished by the sun ;” but all not right yet-for Cainan's father, Enos, their other attributes are extinguished was as much alive as any of them ; so, by the image.

at the translation of Enoch-as de. Methuselah succeeds his father scribed by M•Henry—there must have Enoch—and dies, near the bottom of been present—Enoch himself, Jared, His son Lamech having

his father, Mahalaleel, his grandfapredeceased him, Noah mounts his ther, Cainan, his great-grandfather, grandfather's throne and then, it and Enos, his great-great-grandfather. may be said, begins the poem.

Mercy on us! old Seth, too, was We do not comprehend Dr M`Hen- alive-alive and kicking !-Enoch's ry's views of hereditary succession to great-great-great-grandfather! the monarchical government among

Methuselah, however, at last is dead, the race of Seth before the Flood. And our poet exclaims:On Enoch's translation, Methuselah, “ Illustrious Noah! thou who wert ors heir-apparent, assumes the sceptre. dained

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the page.

won

To be the second father of mankind, Which first inflicted death, the doom of sin How did it grieve thy spirit, when thou Pronounced upon our nature at the fall! found'st

Subservient to the foul malignant fiends, The progress pride and wantonness had Th' abandoned race of Cain their God formade,

sook, By secret growth, even in Methuselah's And to th' infernal agents gave their hearts. days ?

Oh! preference worse than foolish, choice Ah! now, where veneration for the years.

insane! of one whose power they had so long Which drove celestial spirits from their obeyed,

charge No more restrained them in their vain Of guardianship o'er human feebleness, desires,

And left the hapless Cainites in the power The proud and daring openly gave way Of hellish tyrants, whom they blindly served, To vile propensities, and wickedness Lured by the sensual pleasures amply given Began to lose the shame which had before In transient, poisonous recompense for Kept her, decorous, from the public view.' guilt!” Having found the Doctor so far out Let us take a look at the Demi-fiend.

a on his previous chronology, we can- " Here reigned the fierce Shalmazar, giant not help suspecting that he is not aware king, that Methuselah died only about a Sprung from a mixture of infernal strain ; year before the flood. This descrip. His sire the power of lewdness, Belial tion of the gradual growth of wicked- named, ness—in the above passage and many Who, amorous of an earth-born beauty, others — after Methuselah's death, leads to this suspicion ; but, suppoa Astoreth, princess of Gal-Cainah's realm, sing that it is not so, then the action of To his unhallowed love. The foul embrace the Antediluvians, or the World De Produced a monster of gigantic frame, stroyed_for Enoch and Methuselah oc

And hellish passions from his sire derived,

Who slew his mother's kin, and with their cupy but four pages at the beginning is comprehended within a single Succession earned to their imperial throne.

blood year. Long enough time, too, in all

Such horrid intercourse was frequent, then, conscience-but then, how short for a

Between the infernals and the beauteous poem undertaking to narrate - The

dames FORTUNES AND CATASTROPHE OF THE

Of Cain's cursed progeny, who feared not ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD!" Wehearlittle

God, or nothing, and that little or nothing But, filled with hellish wantonness, proin vague generalities, of any Antedi.

duced luvians but those who were drowned A monstrous brood, half devils and half in the Flood. The poem should have

men!" been called “ The Year of the Flood."

This mixture, the Doctor believes, The Antediluvians, then, the Doc

" is in due consistency with the ideas tor cannot fail to perceive, has yet to generally entertained in Christenbe written—and he ought to set about dom." We cannot figure to ourselves it forthwith, lest some interloper, re

the produce of such crosses—a demigardless alike of "courtesy and po- rep is come-at-able in our imagination, licy," take it out of his hand.

but not a demi-fiend. This, howWe should have wished to know something more of the Sethites than it has must be an ugly customer- wicked

ever, is indisputable that Demi-fiend pleased the Doctor to reveal; but we whether he will or no-miserablemust now accompany him to the king, and a giant. The Cainite king should dom of the Cainites, under the iron have been a man-and should have rule of Shalmazar, a Demi-fiend—be given the Antediluvian world assugotten by Belial on Astoreth, a prin- rance of his being so-though up to cess of the blood-royal. “ The infer- the knees and elbows in blood. Othello nal spirit who had caused the Fall” calls Iago a demi-devil_because he had long had possession of the hearts knew that he was man-begotten as of the people--and the guardian an- well as woman-born. gels had resought the skies.

Shalmazar had raisedagolden statue “ Oh! direful was th’unhallowed intercourse, of himself, “all enriched with gems of With more than half mankind, they had chrysolite and glittering adamant, maintained

emerald and topaz, amethyst and Since the fell deed by bloody Cain was done, pearl," higher than the highest of the

VOL. XLVI, NO, CCLXXXV.

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