ligious. According to Mr. Fry, it exhibits the awful picture of the soul of the Redeemer, a separate spirit, a prisoner in the 'horrid abyss of hell.' It refers to the abode of the soul of 'Jesus in the bottomless pit, while he lay a prisoner under the curse of God, separated from all his beloved companions.' "Thou hast removed mine acquaintance far from me," would seem to be a different expression from Thou hast removed me far from my acquaintance;' but nothing comes amiss to this Translator and Commentator. "Lord thou hast been our dwelling "place in all generations," Ps. xc. 1, Mr. Fry understands to refer to that mysterious union between Christ and his people, 'which was constituted in the determined counsel and fore'knowledge of God, before all time began.' After the specimens which we have produced of Mr. Fry's interpretations, it will not surprise our readers that the whole of the cxixth Psalm should be considered by him as containing the holy breathings of the spotless soul of Jesus Christ;' as relating directly and 'exclusively to Christ.' Now, if there be any meaning in words, if language be at all intelligible, this psalm cannot refer to Christ; and lest some Mumpsimus or other should not be satisfied with our positive averment, in opposition to the Author, we shall state why it cannot be so applied. To limit our ar guments, we shall only cite a passage which all our readers will remember that it contains, "I have wandered like a lost sheep, "seek thy servant." Ver. 176th, 28, the wandering, cannot possibly refer to the unprotected,'' destitute state of the Redeemer's soul.' Nothing is here said about being destitute: "I have gone astray," is quite a different predication from, I am destitute, or, I am unprotected. The verb is active, and unless there was in Christ such deviation, as in a moral sense can be called his wandering, and which justifies the application of the metaphor of a lost sheep, a sheep that had gone astray, it is impossible that he can be the subject of the verb. But we must not exhaust our readers' patience by enlarging on proof of this obvious and decisive kind. There is only one other object to which it remains that we direct their attention. In quoting from and referring to Mr. Fry's work, we have dealt only with extracts, from which, it may be urged, a fair view of its contents cannot be obtained. ' That we may not be suspected, then, of having dealt unfairly by Mr. Fry in extracting any of the preceding passages, we shall copy an entire Psalm as translated by him, together with the whole of the accompanying comment. PSALM CXXVIII. The Ninth Song of Degrees. 1. Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah, VOL. XIV. N. S. 2. Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; 3. Thy wife is as the fruitful vine Upon the walls of thine house. 4. Behold, for thus blessed is the man 5. Jehovah doth bless thee from Zion. 6. And thou seest thy children's children, is omitted in the versions. EXPOSITION. Contrary to all pre-conceived opinions, I am led also by the meaning of the former Psalms, and the analogy of Scripture metaphors, to apply this Psalm also to Christ and his church; in special reference to the glorious scenes of the last days, when "the bride the Lamb's wife shall have made herself ready." For, soon after the restoration, will Zion assume this character, and "the glory of the Lord will appear in her." This relationship of Christ to his church is pointed out in many passages of Scripture. The Psalm, indeed, before us, represents the possession of a fruitful wife and flourishing progeny, as the good man's reward. This, as we have argued on the former Psalm, can be only spiritually true of Jesus Christ. And thus understood it is agreeable to the representation of the Apostle: "Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, &c." Again with respect to the latter part of the Psalm, there could be no promise to the obedient child of God, that, as a reward for his religious fear, he should see Jerusalem in prosperity all his life long, and peace upon Israel. The verbs indeed may be translated in the optative mood; but still I think in these oracular Scriptures the blessing thus pronounced would imply something more than the mere benevolent wish; and therefore the promise could be only intended for the MESSIAH in the character of the BRIDEGROOM of his church. This picture of her prosperity represents, I conceive, those scenes of felicity, that shall ensue at the second advent. For, according to the style of the Scripture metaphor, it is not till that era that the marriage of Christ and his church is consummated. 'We may further remark, that the last verse of this Psalm, which at first sight might seem least of all to relate to Christ, and his spouse the church, is exactly similar to the close of the xlvth Psalm, where the meaning cannot be doubted: "Instead of thy fathers, thou shalt have children, whom thou mayest make princes in all lands."" We shall now dismiss Mr. Fry's "Lyra Davidis," regretting, on our own account, the necessity under which we have been laid of perusing a work from which no advantage is to be gained, but satisfied, as it regards our readers, if our labour shall enable them to save, and to devote to better and more profitable employment, the time that it would require to go through a volume of more than six hundred pages. A volume remarkable for the extent to which the Author has carried the proofs of an injudicious mind, and in which the most laborious exertions have been used to pervert the plainest, and to perplex some of the least intricate passages of the Bible. In vain have philosophy and criticism their laws; the spirit of this Author breaks through all restraints. Art. VI. Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq. Begun by Himself and concluded by his Daughter, Maria Edgeworth. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 890. [Nine Plates.] Price 11. 10s. London. 1820. IT T is the remark of Mr. Edgeworth in the first volume of these Memoirs, that the only advantage which the world can gain from the publication of the lives of individuals, is, 'the knowledge of the circumstances that tend to the formation of character, or of those which influence the happiness of life.' If this be true, it would seem to afford a good reason why a man's memoirs of himself should be the most useful species of biography, inasmuch as he must be best acquainted, supposing him to be a man of reflection, with the circumstances which have formed his own character and influenced his own conduct. And so far as facts have an efficient influence in determining character, such a memoir may be deemed most likely to serve the purpose of throwing light on the business of practical education. It is very certain, however, that this is not the only advantage which may be gained from biography; for the efficiency of example consists in the praiseworthiness of the individual's conduct, in the intrinsic excellence of the virtues which he exhibited, viewed in connexion with the consequences both to himself and to society, which flow from such a course of action. It is what the man was and how he acted, not how he became so, that supplies the moral lesson and awakes our emulation. For the purpose of self-estimate, indeed, a review of life would be directed chiefly to the detection of the sources of our opinions and feelings, the motives of our actions, and the various educational influences which have contributed to shape our moral being. But this is not the purpose of biography: it is at least not that which is contemplated by the Author of the present Memoirs; for little is disclosed that relates to the interior character, except what is unconsciously betrayed by the Narrator in speaking of his opinions and outward conduct. These, it may be easy for him to refer to circumstances that in the retrospect appear to have had a decided and powerful influence on the mind, while yet the true and proper character of the man may remain a secret even to himself. He never perhaps investigated, or was capable of investigating, the history and merits of his internal principles. And if he had, the ingenuousness which would lead to such a disclosure on the part of a person writing memoirs of himself for the amusement of the public, forms no part of his duty; no more, to use the words of Mr. Foster, than it is that of a fiddler at a ball, so long as he tells all that he professes to tell, that is, where he has been, what he has witnessed, and the more reputable portion of what he 'has done. Let him go on with his lively anecdotes, and there ' is no obligation for him to turn either penitent or philosopher.' This is precisely what Mr. Edgeworth has done in the memoirs now given to the public: he tells us what he did and what he witnessed, and he tells it in a manner as lively and amusing as possible; but what he was, is so little to be gained from his own narrative, that the most striking and amiable parts of his character are (as must always be the case) left to be supplied by another in the present instance, most fortunately for Mr. Edgeworth, the office has devolved upon a daughter every way competent to the task. The first volume of the present work is by far the most entertaining; but the impression which it leaves on the reader is not, as it regards the hero of the narrative, a pleasing one. This does not arise from any affected humility, or any mis-placed diffidence in the Writer: he seems, throughout the memoir, to be on the best possible terms with himself, and to have the most comfortable assurance of his gaining the admiration of his readers. But in the plenitude of this feeling, he forgets to make known his pretensions to the consideration he claims; and strangers unacquainted with all the excuse that such a man, when between sixty and seventy, had for being a little loquacious and not a little vain, will be apt to inquire rather petulantly, Who is this very self-complacent old gentleman from Ireland? The early part of Mr. Edgeworth's life, indeed, to which his own memoir relates, was neither the most honourable nor the most useful portion of it. There are some very interesting anecdotes of Mr. Edgeworth's ancestry one of them we cannot forbear to transcribe. • Before the Irish Rebellion broke out, in 1641, Captain Edgeworth, not aware of the immediate danger, left his wife and infant in the Castle of Cranallagh, while he was summoned to a distance by some military duty. During his absence, the rebels rose, attacked the castle, set fire to it at night, and dragged the lady out, literally naked. She escaped from their hands, and hid herself under a furze bush, till they had dispersed. By what means she saved herself from the fury of the rebels, I never heard; she made her way to Dublin, thence to England, and to her father's house in Derbyshire. After the rebels had forced this lady out of the castle, and had set fire to it, they plundered it completely; but they were persuaded to extinguish the fire from reverence for the picture of Jane Edgeworth. Her portrait was painted on the wainscoat, with a cross hanging from her neck, and a rosary in her hands. Being a catholic, and having founded a religious house, she was considered as a saint. The only son of Captain Edgeworth was then an infant, lying in his cradle. One of the rebels seized the child by the leg, and was in the act of swinging him round to dash his brains out against the corner of the castle wall, when an Irish servant, of the lowest order, stopped his hand, claiming the right of killing the little heretick himself, and swearing that a sudden death would be too good for him; that he would plunge him up to the throat in a boghole, and leave him for the crows to pick his eyes out. Snatching the child from his comrade, he ran off with it to a neighbouring bog, and thrust it into the mud; but when the rebels had retired, this man, who had only pretended to join them, went back to the bog for the boy, preserved his life, and, contriving to hide him in a pannier under eggs and chickens, carried him actually through the midst of the rebel camp, safely to Dublin. This faithful servant's name was Bryan Ferral. His last descendant died within my memory, after having lived, and been supported always, under my father's protection. My father heard this story from Lady Edgeworth, his grandmother, and also from a man of 107 years of age, one Bryan Simpson, who was present when the attack was made on Cranallagh Castle, and by whom the facts were circumstantially detailed.' Some of our readers may recollect in one of Miss Edgeworth's Tales, (we think Patronage,) the incident of the detection of a forged deed by a sixpence placed under the seal, which was found to be dated five years subsequently to the date of the deed. This circumstance occurred to Mr. Edgeworth's own father. We remember also meeting some where or other with another circumstance, that is related of Lady Edgeworth, the Author's great grandmother. While she was living at Lissard, she was, on some sudden alarm, obliged to go at night to a garret at the top of the house for some gunpowder which was kept there in a barrel. She was followed up stairs by an ignorant servant girl, who carried a bit of candle without a candlestick, between her fingers. When Lady Edgeworth had taken what gunpowder she wanted, had locked the door, and was half way down stairs, she observed that the girl had not her candle, and asked what she had done with it. The girl recollected and answered, that she had left it "stuck in the barrel of black salt." Lady Edgeworth bid her stand still, and instantly returned by herself to the room where the gunpowder was; found the candle as the girl had described--put her hand carefully underneath it-carried it safely out, and when she got to the bottom of the stairs, dropped on her knees, and thanked God for their deliverance.' |