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THE EMPEROR AND THE RABBI,

THERE are some curious and some interesting reliques of tradition still to be found among the Jewish people. Their dispersion, and the infinite miseries inflicted on them, in every country where they fled from their own, inevitably extinguished their general cultivation of literature; but they still possessed scholars, philosophers, and teachers of the Law, who might have been distinguished in better times, and among a more prosperous people. The Talmud is well known to European scholarship as containing, amid much extraordinary and fantastic matter, some valuable records of the national history and feelings. Its sententious and moral narratives, its Agadetha, are sometimes striking and noble; and the allegories, mysticisms, visions, and parables of the Medrasbiim are sometimes not less sagacious than sublime.

The subject of the following verses is from a tradition of the wisdom of Rabbi Joshuah. The Jews to this day speak with malediction of Titus, the destroyer of the temple, and of Hadrian, the destroyer of the nation. But Trajan is sometimes spoken of with more respect, probably from the contrast of his character, stern as it was, with that of his fierce and sanguinary successor, Hadrian; and from the comparative security of the Jews under an emperor who was too much engrossed with his incessant wars to have any leisure for persecution.

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I then shall believe;

'Tis the senses alone

That can never deceive.

Nay, show me your idol,
If earth is his shrine,
And your Israelite God

Shall, old dreamer, be mine."

'Twas Trajan that spoke,
And the stoical sneer

Still play'd on his features
Sublime and severe.
And round the proud hall
As his dark eye was thrown,
He saw but one God,

And himself was that one.

"The God of our forefathers!"
Low bow'd the seer;
"Is unseen by the eye,
Is unheard by the ear.
He is SPIRIT, he knows not
The body's dark chain;
Not the Heaven of the Heavens
Can his glory contain.
"He is seen in his power
When the storm is abroad:
The clouds by the wheels
Of his chariot are rode.
He is seen in his mercy,
When mountain and plain
Rejoice in the sunshine
And smile in the rain.

"He is seen when the lightnings
Are shot through the heaven,
And the crests of the mountains
In embers are riven.

He is heard when the tempest
Has sent up its roar,
And the ocean in thunder

Is flung on the shore."

"Those are dreams," said the mo

narch,

"Wild fancies of old;
But what God can I worship,
When none I behold?

Can I kneel to the lightning,
The wave, or the wind?
Can I worship the shape

That but lives in the mind?"

"I'll show thee his footstool,
I'll show thee his throne:"
Through the halls of the palace
The Rabbi led on,
Till above them was spread
But the sky's purple dome,
And like surges of splendour
Beneath them was Rome.

Round the marble-crown'd mount
Where the Emperor stood,
Like a silver-scaled snake,
Swept the Tiber's bright flood;
Beyond lay the vales
Of the rich Persian rose,
All glowing with beauty,
All breathing repose;

And flaming o'er all,
In the glow of the hour,
The Capitol shone,
Earth's high altar of power-
A thousand years old,
Yet still in its prime;
A thousand years more
To be conqueror of time!

But the East now was purple,
The eve was begun;
Like a monarch at rest

On the wave, lay the sun:
Above him the clouds

Their rich canopy roll'd,
With pillars of diamond,
And curtains of gold.

The Rabbi's proud gesture
Was turn'd to the orb;
"Great King, let that splendour
Thy worship absorb."

"What! gaze on the sun,
And be blind by the gaze?
No eye but the eagle's

Can look on that blaze!"

"Ho, Emperor of earth,
If thine eyeball is dim,
To see but the rays
Of the sun's sinking limb,"
Cried the Rabbi, "what eyeball
Could dare but to see
The Sovereign of him,

And the Sovereign of thee?"

Έως.

Mary-le-bone Vestry-Room. May 10.

TO THE EDITOR OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.

SIR,-Though folks say you are not one of we Liberals, 'tis allow'd on all hands you are all straight and fair like, and don't begrudge lending a lift to any thing in the poetry line, British or foreign, or what not, when good of the sample. Now, sir, I take liberty to hand you over the case of my nephew Alfred Mulgrave Timms, which I think have been a Scandalous victim of Tory oppression. I don't, for my part, understand Latin or Oxford doings, nor don't want to, neither: hows'ever, the case is as thus. My nephew having been brought up at my expense for seven years as a parlour boarder in the Academy of the Reverend Jubb of Little Pedlington, which I can well afford, which is neither here nor there; well, sir, this youth is an honour to his family, and bids fair to be a Parliament man, and go to court, as the great Mr Owen does, whose ideas, however, I don't go thorough-stitch with, as some of our gents of the board, as keeps ladies, and has whitewashed with their creditors, do,-well sir, I booked his name regular, I mean Mulgrave's, at one of the places in Oxford College, and made it all right to qualify him to walk off with all the prizes, as in course with fair play he ought to; but having some inkling of a Commissionership from a high quarter not one hundred miles from Kilkenny, whom I served in times past, he has not settled his mind as to lodging and vittling with the Collegers, some of which is no better than they should be, and dangerous at times to a timid youth; not as the money is any object, nor not as Mulgrave is anyways timid in the talking way. - Well, sir, the prize gave out this year being about the Great Plague of London, which was plaguy odd when there was so many genteeler topics, and more suiting the late auspi cious nuptials; so what does Mulgrave do, but he gives his concern a neatish twist like of his own, to teach the Big- Wigs what was what, and as he says, says he, "to correct their bad taste as to subject." Well, sir, lo and behold! here comes his copy-book returned, costing me eightpence out of my own pocket by post, with a pencil scribble on the back to say, "cannot be admitted to competition, having nothing to do with the subject, and savouring of political bias." This is a burning shame, sir: envy and jealousy is at the bottom of the "tottle of the whole," as my friend above quoted says; and so thinks Mulgrave himself; what's more, he has touched it up again, and stuck a regular stinger in the tail, which will make the doctors and proctors, and suchlike, look about them. The great Mr G., our city member, who was a Cambridge scholar, and counted by the Liberal interest to be an uncommon good judge of foreign tongues, says it reminds him of one Junival, (a Frenchman, I suppose, by the turn of his name.) Mr G. Englished it to me and my friend not one hundred miles from Kilkenny, as before quoted, and we both think the sentiments is quite prime, and nothing else. Whereby, if you would print it in your next, I would stand any loss under a five-pound note; for, as I said before, money's no object, particularly when a man feels his back up under the sense of tyranny.-Yours, Sir, to command,

SOLOMON TIMMS.

PESTIS LONDINUM DEVASTANS.

CARMINIS SÆCULARIS RITU (UT MELIUS) TRACTATA.
EHEU!* quàm suave est epulas celebrare, triumphos,
Et tædas Hymenis sponsales, et vice fungi
Versicoloris equi, quem pinguis Hanovria campis
Emisit, pompæ et fastis solennibus aptum!
Pestem alii dicant, queis, vah! plebecula vilis
Strata placet pecudum ritu, queis sputa, tumores,
Proluvies alvi, cava tempora, tussis anhelans,
Ulceraque arrident, et tetri spiritus oris,
Qualia jam cecinit Lucretius omina mortis.
Quid mihi, si Dominus Major-(quo nomine gaudet?.
Præsule-prætore, aut urbano consule, si vis) -
Alderomannique, obliti testudinis, ultro
Protulerint rhombum ægrotis, carnemque ferinam,
Impasti, insolito donantes otia ventri ?
Me majora vocant; tales utinam improba pestis
Occupet, et scabies, et quos dementia eorum
Eripuit letho immeritos.- meritos. - Respublica egenos,
Aptior, ut nune est, naturæ exquirere leges,
Pulmento tenui domat, invitosque coercet.
Me majora vocant, quamvis virtutibus obsit
Res angusta domi; me doct doçta exempla Terenti,
Et prudens flexit Gnatho juvenilibus annis,
Me Pepys, et quorum melior sententia menti
Stat, nucis emptores, et olentem spernere plebem.
Ergo patrem patriæ Carolum, formidine pestis
Profugum, et injucunda viæ fastidia passum,
Inque tuo gremio, felix Rhedycina, receptum,
Jam celebrare erat in votis, sed funere mersus
Jampridem, haud votis respondes, optime princeps.
Durum-sed tentanda via est quocunque modo. Vos,
Vos, O Pimlicolæ sedes, et regia turris
Firma solo, mirâque erepta paludibus arte,
Vos, nebulis cinctas fluvialibus, ebria amore
Heu! nondum expleto, mens arripit. O ubi vitæ
Integer, et vitii purus, Melburnius almo
Indulget somno, bene pastus, ubi ore superbus
Purpureo, renovatâ effulgens usque juventa,
Sæva per imbelles hostes dat jura Cupido,
Cautus in adversos, et magno gratus Evanti,†
Exiguâque et voce et mole et mente Joannes
Unâ omnes regit, et per totum fulminat orbem!
O si forte mihi, si forte accumbere detur
Quâ domus ad cœlum muris Hollandica surgit
Coctilibus! non me festivo carmine Morus
Vinceret, Allenusve jocis, -modo præmia rhombi
Lauta podagrosus proponat rite patronus.
Nec saltem vomerem in mensas ego potus, ut olim
Perscrutatoris

*

*

*

*

Quis me virginibus felicem insignibus octo
Commendet, longo quæ syrmata regia tractu
Sustinuere alacres, quarum manus uvida vulgi
Insudat pictis formis, Findenicâ ut arte
Prostant venales triviis! - ut quot generosæ
Edocuit Britonum pubi Germania saltus
Unâ illis peragam, musarum qualis Apollo
Stipatus cœtu et studiis, deturque trochæum
Aut galloppatum, aut mollem celebrare mazurkam.
O quis me vatem regali sistet in aulâ ?

* " Eheu! quam suave est," &c.- Ita Lathamus in Corintho. 1809. † Sir De L. Evans.

Quis tubicen me imponet equo? (licet artis equestris
Heu! pæne ignarum) ut, meritæ præconia famæ,
Auspiciis tantis iterumque iterumque repandam.
" Albertus redit optatus! Victoria nubit
"Exultans! magni incipiunt procedere menses,
"Cambrorum donec princeps clarissimus ortu
"Edvardus, virtute et nomine clarus avito,
"Nascetur, nostrisque diu dominabitur arvis."
Hæc, inquam, pleno nobis cantare theatro,
Nec nauci-nihili-flocci-pili-que valentes
Pestiferosque palam decuit dispergere versus.
Tantane vos adeo tumidos fiducia cepit,
Procuratores, Vice-Cancellarie, vosque
Doctores, vos Aularum Capita, atque Domorum
Saxea, adulandique carentes arte Magistri,
Prisca ut præcipere, hæc prohibere hodierna volenti
Audetis vati? Redeunt Saturnia regna;
Humius incedit dominans, virtute fideque
Cognitus in Graios; Briareia cauda tremendi
Concutitur Danielis, et arcto carcere quisque
Frænatur, demens qui sese attollere contrà
Audeat, et sancti violare edicta Senatûs.
Testis Evans non ille heros Hispanicus, at quem
Semianimem emisit manicis Respublica clemens.
Jam domiti Seræ vincla, invisumque papaver
Accipient, positâque tyrannus acinace, Congon,
Souchongu
Souchongum, et Pekoën, pro tanto munere reddet.
O patria! et patrii mores! vos ergone soli
Spernitis hæc tanta, et nostros non ritè triumphos
Carminibus plausuque agnoscitis, Oxonienses ?
Si vobis mens Toriacos in fræna rebelles
Certa sequi, accipite hæc, et nostra revolvite dicta.
Haud mora, quin Batavo majorum nomine dignus
Grotius ingredietur ovans, rapietque, feretque
Omnia, quæ, vestras dudum congesta per ædes,
Socordes mulcent animos, et jura per urbem
Incorrupta dabit primævo more Catonis.
Huic O si, facilem et servire potentibus aptum,
Me fata adjungant comitem!-si munera quævis
Latrantem stomachum allectent! nam talibus aucta
Exultat sæpe auspiciis hodierna juventus,
Læta favore novo, quibus, ut mihi, non domus, aut res,
Nec mens est proprium studiis exquirere victum.
"Ex quovis ligno" Commissionarius exit.
Hæc mea tum, magno magnum plaudente patrono,-
Credite vosvetitis resonabunt carmina rostris.
Tum tua valde incompta cohors procedet, O'Connel,
Omnes Doctores, omnes capita alta ferentes
Hirsutasque genas, quos ducet, Philli-que-mori
Munere fungetur Wadus,* venerabile nomen.
His ego stipatus, docta hæc et Apolline digna
Ore rotundo edam; patulas ipse Humius aures
Flectet, et urbani juvenes, quos nomine "Caddos"
Signastis, Martem solitos conferre togatis,
Admissi plausus geminabunt, et mihi reddent
Haud sane immerito, quem vos rapuistis, honorem.

ALFREDUS CONSTANTINUS MULGRAVE TIMMS TIMMS,
Academiæ Little-Pedlingtoniensis nuper alumnus.

* Doctor illustris ille, et comitiis suburbanis pergratus.
"Quique sacerdotes casti dum vita manebat."

NO. CCXCVI, VOL. XLVII.

3 E

-En. lib. 6,

ON PERSONIFICATION.

THE disposition of our minds to invest inanimate objects with imaginary life and feeling, is more deeply implanted and more variously displayed than superficial observers are ready to believe. "Homo sum: nihil humani a me alienum puto," was the principle of Terence's philanthropist. But the affections of man are not circumscribed even by the limits of his own species. The meanest of nature's works may sometimes excite or occupy his most passionate emotions.

"The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,

Another still, and still another spreads: Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace,

His country next, and next all human

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Take every creature in, of every kind." When our feelings are thus strongly affected towards insensate objects, we have a tendency to see in them, as in a mirror, the features of our own moral frame, and to bestow on them a community or correspondence of sentiment with ourselves. In our ordinary mood we look at existence as it is: we recognise in the material world merely the mechanical qualities which move our senses: and with some persons this condition is seldom or never ex

changed for livelier or loftier impressions. But those who are condemned to see things always in their literal and everyday aspect, are little to be envied and not greatly to be loved. There is generally some torpor of the heart where this peculiarity is perceptible; and, even supposing it to proceed from a defect of imagination, it is not likely that one important faculty should be thus deficient without implying or producing a corresponding inefficiency in the other powers, and among the rest, in the moral qualities. The unregenerate state of Wordsworth's potter was indicated by symptoms of this description.

"He roved among the vales and streams, In the green wood, and hollow dell: They were his dwellings night and day; But Nature ne'er could find the way Into the heart of Peter Bell.

"In vain through every changeful year
Did Nature lead him as before;

A primrose by a river's brim.
A yellow primrose was to him,

And it was nothing more."

Nor was it till the face of Nature had looked on him with a fearful intelligence, and her voice had sounded in his mind's ear with an awakening solemnity, that the outcast's heart began to exchange its stony hardness for a softer structure, and his eyes to collect those drops which, descending in a plenteous shower, were to wash out the stains of his guilt and revive his deadened spirit.

Not less salutary, as a preservative of virtue, is the kindly communion which good men habitually hold with inanimate nature; and the alacrity with which they interpret her looks and language when fit occasion arises, bears a proportion to the healthiness of their feelings and the innocence of their lives. We see how readily the pure and pliant minds of children give admission to an affection for inanimate things, and yield to the pleasing illusions which clothe the objects of their love with life and sensibility; and in this respect, as in others, it is well for us, if, as far as permissible, we become "as these little ones." There seems to be scarcely any strong emotion which may not place inanimate objects in such a relation towards us as to give them the aspect of living beings. Terror, wonder, love, joy, grief, are each able to pro duce this marvellous change.

"A potent wand doth sorrow wield:
What spell so strong as guilty fear!"

The lifeless objects of any violent de

sire or aversion assume in the whirl

wind of our passion the characters of human expression. When we are buoyant with happiness, the face of

nature seems to reflect our smiles: when we are sorrowful, the gloom is extended to surrounding scenes, as if they shared our sadness: when dejected beyond the point to which external things can be brought to harmonize with our sufferings, we re proach them for withholding their symanering pathy, and regard the light of heaven and the beauty of earth as if they were

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