die ganze Vergangenheit der treue Erretter der Deinigen. Damit im seltsamen Contrast steht mein Elend, meine, wie es scheint, völlig verzweifelte Lage, welche laut ruft dass du mich verlassen, ein Contrast um so seltsamer, da du dich von früher Jugend an als meinen Gott erwiesen, so dass die Lösung das Räthsels nicht etwa darin liegen kann, dass du nicht wie ihr, also auch mein Gott seyest. Aus der Nachweisung, wie völlig abnorm das Verlassen seyn würde, welche auf das: warum hast du mich verlassen, die einzige Antwort übrig liess: ich habe dich nicht verlassen, fliesst die Bitte: sey nicht ferne, und die Begründung dieser Bitte denn Noth ist nahe, weil kein Helfer, leitet herüber zu einer eingehenden Schilderung der Noth, nach der die Bitte entfaltet und verstärkt wiederkehrt." : "The psalm contains the prayer of a sufferer. My God, why hast thou forsaken me,'--so it begins, and then goes on to disclose how entirely unusual (abnormal) it would be, if, as every appearance indicated, God should forsake him. Thou art the Holy and the Glorious, through all time past, the faithful preserver of thine.' In singular contrast with this, stands my misery; my, as it seems, utterly desperate state which cries loudly that thou hast forsaken me;-a contrast so much the more singular, as from earliest youth onward, thou hast proved thyself to be my God, so that the solution of the riddle cannot lie in the supposition, that thou art not mine also, even as thou art theirs. Out of the proof which shews how entirely abnormal that abandonment would be, which to the question, Why hast thou forsaken me,' affords this only answer, I have not forsaken thee,' arises the entreaty, be not far off;' and the foundation of this entreaty, for trouble is near, while there is no helper,' introduces a searching description of the trouble itself; after which the entreaty is replicated with increased fulness and force," Something like this we would venture to propose as a translation of the passage. Mr. Thomson guesses as follows, for mere guessing it is, and very unlucky guessing too. Thou "This psalm contains the prayer of a sufferer. He begins with the cry, My God, why hast thou forsaken me,' and next unfolds at length how completely forlorn he would be, should God, as there was every appearance that he had done, actually forsake him. art the holy and the mighty one, the faithful preserver of thy people in all time past. In strange contrast to this stands my condition, to all appearance thoroughly desperate, which loudly proclaims that thou hast forsaken me. This contrast is all the more strange, that thou hast continued to manifest thyself to me as my God from my early youth upwards, so that the explanation of the difficulty cannot be found in this, that thou art not my God as vell as theirs. As a natural sequel to the description of the thoroughly melancholy desertion, in which the exclamation, Why hast thou forsaken me,' receives nothing in reply, but the simple answer, 'I have not forsaken thee,' follows the prayer, 'be not far from me.' The augment of this prayer, 'for trouble is near, while there is none to help,' leads on to a description of the trouble, after which the prayer returns expanded and reinforced." This gentleman, it will be observed, reverses Mr. Fairbairn's blunder; and, heedless of syntax, begins by confounding the psalm with the psalmist. Then the phrase, "wie völlig abnorm es seyn würde," puzzles him, so he guesses it to mean, how forlorn he would be; and the guess is forlorn enough. "As a natural sequel," is guessing again, and so is the "thoroughly melancholy desertion;" but, indeed, this sentence altogether is a wretched piece of botching. "The augment of this prayer!" and pray, Mr. Thomson, what is that? Begründung,-augment; we cannot comprehend it; and had the pretended translator been any other man living, would almost have suspected an error of the press. But Mr. T. so obviously needs a very considerable" augment,"-of some things else, perhaps, but certainly of German, that the printer must not be made his scape-goat. Let us, however, do him justice. In a short list of errata, he corrects" forlorn he," into “irregular it." He had found out, then, that he was wrong in this instance; (and so far as the passage quoted is concerned, his errata furnish no other correction,) but he knew not how to retrieve his blunder; he did not understand his author. 66 'Irregular” is, no doubt, a sort of translation of “abnorm;" but it does not, according to the ordinary usages of speech, convey the sense of that term, which means, unusual, out of the ordinary course. We have ventured to introduce the word "abnormal;" though we admit that, being strictly technical, it would be better in such a work to avoid it. But are we, for this reason, to mangle and misrepresent, or to conceal altogether the author's real meaning? Our readers, we fancy, are satisfied; as, in truth, large and blind must be the confidence of any man who, after examining this marvellous specimen, would trust Mr. Thomson as a translator. But we shall take a look at the next psalm also, and see how Dr. Hengstenberg's remarks on that matchless lyric are dealt with. He begins thus: "Der Herr ist mein Hirt, mir mangelt Nichts, diese in v. 1, ausgesprochenen Worte enthalten den Grundgedanken des Psalmes, der in v. 2-5 nur weiter ausgeführt wird: denn er rewahrt liebliche Ruhe dem Müden, v. 2, Erquickung dem Ermatteten und Heil dem Elenlen, v. 3, Sicherheit und Schutz dem Gefährdeten, v. 4, Speise und Trank dem Durstigen, .5, also Alles, wonach die menschliche Bedürftigkeit verlangt. Der Schluss in v. 6, tehrt zur Allgemeinheit des Anfanges zurück, von dem er sich aber darin unterscheidet, dass a ihn das Bild auf seinen sachlichen Gehalt zurückgeführt wird." "The Lord is my shepherd, I want for nothing. These words, expressed in v. 1, contain the radical thought of the psalm, which, in verses 2-5, is merely further developed. For he affords sweet rest to the weary, v. 2,-revival to the exhausted, and salvation to the wretched, v. 3,-security and support to the endangered, v. 4,-food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, v. 5,-every thing, therefore, which human necessity demands. The conclusion in v. 6, reverts to the universality of the opening, with this distinction, however, that in it the image is converted into its actual value." Now, Mr. Thomson's attempt at translation, which we subjoin without comment, is certainly not so bad in this, as in the former example; but it is bad enough. "The Lord is my shepherd; I want for nothing, forms the fundamental idea of the psalm. This idea is expanded from v. 2 to v. 5: for he affords delightful rest to the weary, v. 2; refreshment to the languid, and deliverance to the miserable, v. 3; protection and defence in the midst of danger, v. 4; food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, v. 5; and, also, everything which human necessity requires. The conclusion assumes the general form of the introductory clause, with the difference, that the figure employed there becomes a reality here." Another very brief specimen, and we have done : "Die Davidische Abfassung des Ps. ist keinem Zweifel unterworfen, und Hitzigs Versuch, ihn dem Ieremias zu vindiciren, wird stets denjenigen willkommen bleiben die seine kritische Weise charakterisiren wollen." "The composition of the psalm, by David, is liable to no doubt, and Hitzig's attempt to claim it for Jeremiah, will continue always welcome to those who wish to characterize his style of criticism." Now, this is a vigorous, but somewhat slily delivered blow at the said Hitzig, whose manner of treating the question at issue is, for its absurdity, held to be chiefly acceptable to such as desire to expose it. Mr. Thomson, however, has not the slightest suspicion of the dry humour which lurks under Hengstenberg's remark. Guessing, again, he renders thus "That David is the author of this psalm, admits of no doubt; and the attempt of Hitzig to attribute it to Jeremiah will be welcome to those who understand his principles of criticism." 1 Really, Mr. Thomson!! That Mr. Fairbairn should execute indifferent translations, and Mr. Thomson most execrable ones-that they should publish them also, if they see fit-these are no affairs of ours. We shall take care not to be imposed on; the sample will prevent us from ever thinking of breaking bulk. But let Mr. Clark look to it; for we can assure him, that neither the "Foreign Theological," nor any other "Library," can possibly thrive under such treatment; nay, we doubt whether his infant scheme can even survive the nursing, if persisted in, of at least the latter of these learned gentlemen. HAGIOGRAPHY. In the modern literature of Europe, a very large space is occupied with the records of the actions and sayings of a vast number of men and women whom the Romish Church, for their services and sufferings, has canonized as saints. For very obvious reasons, the Church of Rome has considered that the lives of the saints, written by her own monks and priests, formed a kind of reading much better suited for the faithful than the oracles of Divine Truth; and hence, although at different eras and in different lands she has judged it expedient to discourage the use of the Scriptures amongst the people, she has very steadily and very earnestly recommended, to all who were capable of reading, to read the lives of the saints. While she has always been deeply sensible of the danger which the unlearned and the unstable are in, of falling upon "poisonous pasture" in the fields of Scripture, she has allowed to all the liberty of reading at large, and to their hearts' content, in the biographies of her martyrs and confessors, her virgins and her hermits, an ample storehouse, in which she appears to have perfect confidence that there is nothing with which any of her children can do themselves harm, and much by which they are sure to be benefited. In order that believers might not fall out of material for this interesting study, the Romish Church has been commendably diligent in collecting the biographies of the saints; and the amount of this kind of reading which is now extant in print-to say nothing of what still lies quiet in unsunned and unaired manuscripts-is perfectly sufficient to occupy the leisure hours of an ordinary reader during an ordinary lifetime. In order, also, that the careless might not be deterred by any repulsiveness in the matter, the Church has made the lives of the saints marvellous, exciting and diverting enough for the tastes of sinners. And, farther, that all who read might have examples of holiness set before them for imitation in their different spheres, the Church, with a wisdom which profane romancers would do well to follow more than they do in their stories, has taken her spiritual heroes and heroines from all ranks and conditions of life,—from the king on the throne to the beggar on the dunghill,—and has ennobled all alike by the sanction and seal of her approving testimony. The influence both for good and for evil which the reading of the lives of the saints has had on the state of religion and morality in Christendom, has been very great. The Church, at an early period, saw the use to which such studies could be turned in promoting her prosperity. As she grew in luxury, and in worldly influence, she felt that it was well to keep the world in remembrance through what trials she had passed; and the records of the tortures and deaths of those of her sons who had been martyrs for the faith might procure love and favour for those others of her sons who had no inclination at all for martyrdom. As the contemporary poverty of the race of friars was found to be a good set off against the luxury of her dignified clergy; so the history of the Church's sufferings, in her days of trial and persecution, was discovered to be very useful to the character of the Church in her days of ease and favour. So early as the fourth century, a Council, held at Carthage, directed that the lives of the saints should be read in churches after the usual divine service. Works of such influence ought not to be neglected by the student of history and of mankind. There are, indeed, few records of more importance to the anatomist of human nature and its feelings and passions, its greatness and its littleness, in all ages and under all circumstances, than the huge mass of materials which has been left to the world by the laborious monks and priests who have recorded the lives and deaths, the sayings and doings, the joys and the sorrows, of that immense swarm of saints, confessors, and martyrs,-male and female, real and imaginary,-who have flourished or been alleged to flourish in this world since the Apostles left it down to the latest intelligence from Rome and Madrid. We have spoken of imaginary saints, and there is good reason to believe that some hundreds of saints, whose names have found their way into the martyrologies and hagiographies of the Church of Rome, never had any existence. Some are merely the personifications of events and sentiments; others are allegories; and others just fill the parts in the monks' tales which the Mr. Allworthys and Lady Bountifuls do in modern novels. Of the saints whose histories are connected with the persecutions under the Roman emperors, many are undoubtedly mere fictions, invented by the Church after she got into comfortable circumstances, and had leisure and encouragement to indulge in the imaginative. The Romish writers complain, that the proconsuls and governors destroyed the acts of the saints, as they call the records of their martyrdoms, dreading their effect on the public mind in favour of the persecuted faith. But what might in this way be destroyed was, we suspect, not very voluminous, and would be more than compensated by the pious supplements of succeeding ages. For want of full and perfect records also, there is reason to believe that some who might have figured as criminals, suffering the reward of their crimes, have got themselves canonized as martyrs dying for the Christian faith. As mere works of amusement the legends of the saints are as good as the tales of the amiable and lovely Princess Scheherazade, to whom the lovers of the marvellous lie under such deep obligations; and it was a happy choice by which the priests who attended the sick Loyola directed him, when he asked for amusement, to read the lives of the saints; from the perusal of which he that had till then been a profligate man of war and blood arose from his bed a missionary and soldier of the Cross-a champion destined to rival and counteract the victories of Luther. To the historian they are also invaluable. Some of these men-as St. Thomas-aBecket, St. Gregory the Great, Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.), the chivalrous St. Ignatius Loyola, and the heroic and devoted Xavier-rank among the first geniuses of their age, and have impressed their character on its spirit. Our own Saxon saint, Dunstan, fills a conspicuous place in early English history as an able statesman and the most accomplished scholar of his time-adding to all the literary acquirements of the age a skill in music and painting and in working in metals. It was while engaged in his laboratory in experimenting with metals, that he seized the enemy of mankind by the nose with a red hot tongs for interrupting his work, as has been well related in the popular poem by which the fame of St. Dunstan is best remembered St Dunstan, as the story goes, His cries were heard a mile and more. But these lives have still higher claims to attention. Made up as they are of facts and fictions, and imbued with both true and false morality and religion, they furnish inexhaustible materials for the study of the strength and power, as well as the weakness and wanderings of the human intellect. They are full of illustrations both of the varying manners, customs, and prejudices of different times and nations, and of those features in human nature which are unchanged and unvarying in all ages and countries. A comparison of ancient with modern delusions-of the errors of monks and nuns in the dark ages with the errors of Protestant men and women in the nineteenth century—will shew how little real progress in reason and judgment has been made by numbers of mankind, and how, as regards a large part of the human race, the charming Goddess of Error has only to repaint her face and change her mere external attire from age to age to become the object of fresh and unceasing adoration. The lives of the saints present us with records of the history of men and women who have disgraced human nature by degrading it almost to brutality, and of men and women like Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Sales, Carlo Borromeo, Francis Xavier, Katharine of Sienna, Margaret of Scotland, and others, who have blessed and comforted their own and succeeding generations by the insinuating eloquence of their writings and maxims, and, above all, by the lovely example of their saintly and spotless lives. These lives are contrasted pictures of our fallen nature raised to the highest excellence of which religion and virtue can make it capable, and sunk to the lowest depth to which ignorance and superstition can plunge it. If we wish to see the beauty of Christianity illustrated in living practice, we turn to the lives of the saints; if we wish to see it in its most deplorable state of debasement, we still turn to the same quarter-and we never meet with disappointment. If it were desirable in the present day to hold up the saints of the Romish Church as examples to the age and to all succeeding generations of Christians in holiness of walk and conversation, a one-sided account of their character and a selected record of their sayings and doings would effect the purpose, and might almost justify the extravagant language of Dr. Doyle, that the Romish Hagiology is " an historical supplement to the Old and New Testaments-an illustration of all that God has revealed, and of all the sanctity which his divine grace has produced amongst the children of men." If it were wished on the other hand, to draw such a hideous picture of the aberrations of the human soul in search of religion, and of the terrible forms of superstition which have at different times, in past ages as well as in the present day, usurped her divine name-such a picture as would frighten men of sane minds from all spiritual contemplations-a one-sided work from the same materials might serve this unworthy end. The inquirer, however, who holds that there is but one perfect book of instruction and one perfect life of example, turns to these records, and views with delight what of good is found in them, and with repulsion and warning what is at variance with the alone standard of purity in faith and practice. By collecting together in something like order the scattered notes which we have taken in the course of the perusal of various of the Romish Hagiologies, we think some of the beautiful lessons of instruction and example which they furnish in rich abundance, and some of the impressive lessons of correction and reproof with which they are fraught, may be presented in a way at once interesting and curious, and, as we trust, also not without edification. There is a philosophy to be drawn out of the lives of the saints, if the |