of the civilized world was shaken back into an attitude of respect, if not of belief, in the Book of Jesus.

This reaction was for a season complete. No poetry, no fiction, no belles-lettres, no philosophy, was borne with, unless it professed homage to Christianity. And even after, through the influence of the "Edinburgh Review" and other causes, there was a partial revival of the skeptical spirit, it never ventured on such daring excesses again. It bowed before the Bible, although it was sometimes with the bow of a polite assassin, who fiad studied murder and manner both in the south.

Nay, more, Scripture poetry began to be used as a model more extensively than even heretofore, alike by those who believed and those who disbelieved its supreme authority. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, we name first, because they never lost faith in it as a word, or admiration of it as a poem; and hence its language and its element seem more natural to them than to others. Campbell was attracted to it originally by his exquisite poetical taste. He came forth to see the "Rainbow," like some of the world's "gray fathers," because it was beautiful; but ultimately, we rejoice to know, he felt it to be the "rainbow of the covenant." He grew up to the measure and the stature of his own poetry. Moore, like Pope, has been fascinated by its flowers; and we find him now imitating the airy gorgeousness of the "Song of Songs," and now the diamond-pointed keenness of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Scott, as a writer, knew the force of Scripture diction; as a man, the hold of Scripture truth upon the Scottish heart; as a poet, the unique inspiration which flowed from the Rock of Ages; and has, in his works, made a masterly use of all this varied knowledge. Rebecca might have been the sister of Solomon's spouse. Her prose speeches rise as the sound of cymbals, and her "Hymn" is immortal as a psalm of David. David Deans is only a little lower than the patriarchs; and time would fail us to enumerate the passages in his better tales, which, approaching near the line of high excellence, are carried beyond it by the dexterous and sudden use of "thoughts that breathe," or "words that burn," from the Book of God Byron, Godwin, Shelley, and Hazlitt, even, are deeply indebted to the Bible. Byron, in painting "dark bosoms," has often availed himself of the language of that book, which is a discerner of the thoughts

and intents of the heart. Many of his finest poems are just expansions of that strong line he has borrowed from it—

"The worm that cannot sleep, and never dies."

His "Hebrew Melodies" have sucked out their sweetness from the Psalms; and "Cain," his noblest production, employs against God the power it has derived from his Book. Godwin was originally a preacher, and his high didactic tone, his measured and solemn march, as well as many images and many quotations, especially in "St. Leon" and "Mandeville," show that the influence of his early studies was permanent. When Shelley was drowned, it was rumored that he had a copy of the Bible next his heart; "and," says Byron, “it would have been no wonder, for he was a great admirer of it as a composition." The rumor was not literally correct, but was so mythically. It is clear to us that Shelley was far advanced on his way to Christianity ere he died, and was learning not only to love the Bible as a composition, but to appreciate its unearthly principles-that disinterested heroism especially which characterizes Christ and his Apostles. Indeed he was constituted rather to sympathize with certain parts of its morale, than with the simple and terse style of its writing. It was the more mysterious and imaginative portion of it which he seems principally to have admired, and which excited the rash emulation of his genius, when he projected a variation of "Job." Hazlitt's allusions to Scripture are incessant, and are to us the most interesting passages in his works. He was a clergyman's son; and in youth, the Bible had planted stings in his bosom, which none of his after errors, in thought or life, were able to pluck out. "Heaven lay about him in his infancy," and his comparison of the Bible with Homer, and his picture of the effects of its translation into English, show that the earnest though erring man never altogether saw its glory

Die away,

And fade into the light of common day."

This is one of the features in Hazlitt's writings which exalt them above Lord Jeffrey's. Scotchman though he was, we do not recollect one eloquent or sincere-seeming sentence from his pen about the beauties of the Bible. Such writers as Sheridan, Rogers, Alison, Dugal Stewart, Lord Erskine,

William Tennant, Mrs. Hemans, and a hundred others, are suffocated in flowers; but not a word, during all his long career, from the autocrat of criticism, about Moses, Isaiah, Job, or John. To have praised their poetry, might have seemed to sanction their higher pretensions; and might, too, have reflected indirect credit upon that school of fervid poets, who were sitting at the feet of Jewish men, as well as of Cumberland mountains. Need we name, finally, Chalmers and Irving-those combinations of the prophet of the old, and the preacher of the new economy?

Our living writers have, in general, shown a sympathy with the Hebrew genius. We speak not merely of clergymen, whose verdict might by some be called interested, and whose enthusiasm might unjustly be thought put on with their cloaks. And yet we must refer to Millman's “Fall of Jerusalem," and to Croly's magnificent "Salathiel." Keble, too, and Trench, Kingsley, William Anderson, are a few out of many names of men who, while preaching the Bible doctrine, have not forgotten its literary glories, as subjects of earnest imitation and praise. But the Levites outnumber and outshine the priests in their service to the bards of the Bible. Isaac Taylor's gorgeous figures are elaborately copied from those of Scripture, although they sometimes, in comparison with them, remind you of that root of which Milton speaks

"The leaf was darkish, and had prickles in it,
But in another country, as he said,

Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil."

The Eastern spirit is in them; they want only the Eastern day. Sir James Stephen has less both of the spirit and the genuine color, ardent as his love of the Hebrews is. Macaulay quotes Scripture, as Burdett, in Parliament, was wont to quote Shakspeare always with triumphant rhetorical effect, and seems once, at least, to have really loved its literature. Professor Wilson approaches more closely than any modern since Burke, to that wild prophetic movement of style and manner which the bards of Israel exhibit-nay, more nearly than even Burke, since, with Wilson it is a perpetual afflatus: he is like the he-goat in Daniel, who came from the west, and touched not the ground; his "Tale of Expiation," for instance, is a current of fire. Thomas Carlyle

concentrates a fury, enhanced by the same literary influences, into deeper, straiter, more molten and terrible torrents. Thomas Aird has caught the graver, calmer, and more epic character of the Historical Books, especially in his "Nebuchadnezzar," which none but one deep in Daniel could have written. From another poem of his, entitled "Herodion and Azala," we quote two etchings of prophets :

"Winged with prophetic ecstasies, behold
The Son of Amos, beautifully bold,

Borne like the scythed wing of the eagle proud,
That shears the winds, and climbs the storied cloud
Aloft sublime! And through the crystalline,
Glories upon his lighted head doth shine.

Behold! behold, uplifted through the air,
The swift Ezekiel, by his lock of hair!
Near burned the Appearance, undefinedly dread,
Whose hand put forth, upraised him by the head.
Within its fierce reflection, cast abroad,
The Prophet's forehead like a furnace glowed.
From terror half, half from his vehement mind,
His lurid hair impetuous streamed behind."

From a hint or two in Scripture, he has built up his vision of hell, in the " Devil's Dream upon Mount Acksbeck," a vision mysterious, fiery, and yet distinct, definite, and fixed, as a frosted minster shining in the moonlight. But in his "Demoniac," he absolutely pierces into the past world of Palestine, and brings it up with all its throbbing life and thaumaturgic energies, its earth quaking below the footsteps, and its sky darkening above the death of the Son of God."

Of the rising poets of the day, "two will we mention dearer than the rest ;" dearer, too, in part, because they have sought their inspiration at its deepest source-Bailey, of "Festus," and Yendys, of "The Roman." This is not the

place to dilate on their poetical merits. We point to them now, because, in an age when so many young men and young poets are forsaking belief in the oracular and divine inspiration of the Bible, they have rallied around the old shrine, have expressed their trust in that old and blessed hope of the Gospel, and may be hailed as morning stars, prognosticating the rising of a new "day of the Lord." May their light, already brilliant and far seen, shine "more and

more," not only into its own, but into the world's "perfect day."

We have not nearly exhausted the text of this chapter, nor alluded to a tithe of the writers in this or in other lands, who have transmitted their deep impressions of Scripture poetry to others. But it may now be asked, is not all this exceedingly hopeful? What would you more? Is not the Bible now an acknowledged power? Is it not doing its work silently and effectually, through the many men of genius who are conducting its electric force? Must not its future career, therefore, be one of clear and easy triumph? So, indeed, it might at first sight appear; but there have arisen certain dark and lowering shadows in the sky, threatening to overcloud the sun-path of the Book, if not to darken it altogether; and to a calm and candid, though brief and imperfect, examination of these, we propose devoting our closing chapter.

CONCLUSION.

FUTURE DESTINY OF THE BIBLE.

No theories, so far as we are aware, have been openly promulgated, or elaborately defended, upon exactly this question in the present day. But, from the mass of prevailing opinions on cognate topics, there exhale certain floating notions, which it may be perhaps of some importance to catch in language, and to try by analysis.

Let a quiet and earnest inquirer take up a copy of the Scriptures, and ask himself, "What is to be the future history of this Book?" We suspect the following alternatives would come up before him:-It may, by the progress of science and philosophy, be exploded as a mass of impostures, myths, and lies; or it may, shorn of its fabulous rays, be reduced to its true level, as a revelation of spiritual truth; or it may, owing to its great antiquity, and the leaden mists which lie around its cradle, continue, as it is at present to many scholars and philosophers, a book of dubious author