Letter from the Big Wanderer to the Little Wanderer.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 97, 4 July 1843, Page 4

Letter from the Big Wanderer to the Little Wanderer.

“ She waKced the waters like a thing of life.” Byron. My tender and Tbeloved child,—Waves .may separate us., but they cannof obliterate 'that affection I entertain towards yoii. I qften dream of you; and "behold yo.ur fragile form as distinctly in my sleep as I have so frequently seen it in my wake. The drawing-room belle may boast of her smiling looks, but who can deny ypqr stern looks more beautiful! and that there is in-

finitely more grace in vour, bows than in her affected 4 curtsies. Prim and modest as other beauties may look when full, dressed in my sight, you never appear to greater advantage than when in stays. Notwithstanding .your natural and universally acknowledged' charms, there can be rip objection to a, little paint. As I never considered it immodest or blameable to display those attractions with which we are gifted, I should advise you to show your teeth, both to’ friend and foe: proving that you are ready to salute the one as you are to defy the other. Nay, even do this at the risk of being accused of haying too much brass. When I reflect upon your position—'having formerly left your present husband, and lived for some time under the protection of another, and knowirig the censoriousness of the world, which pins its morality upon the dicta of the Canon Law, I sometimes feel uneasy about your reception ; hut, lest you, my beloved child, should experience any forebodings of the same sort, I would impress upon your mind that the canons of the church and our cannons are widely different, and that whatever their peculiar notion may be, we have an ocean of our own ; and that we are so happily constructed that we are above both I

Mats n’importe !—The world we know is fond of quizzing, but as long as they are in jest and only run their rigs upon us, why should we be affected who are up to every rig ? It is, after all, only a ;mock-fight, and the more spars we have tbie greater our advantage. In the event of a match being proposed, remember that your worth and virtue will'be best exhibited in being forward ; nay, even a little maneuvering is not only allowable but laudable ! And as regards the outcry against Gretna Green matches, I only hope yours (whenever it takes place) may prove a runaway one.

But in everything be guided by your husband, who is a good man and honourable. Present my maternal regard to him, and believe me, my dear child, your affectionate parent.

The Wanderer, R.Y.S. P.S.—Remember me affectionately to your little buoy.

Poetry of the Hebrews. —The character of every nation ,is perhaps best visible in the nature of its poetry. The national characters pf the French and. English people are not more dissimilar than is that of their poetry; in the wild and energetic productions of the German mpse, the German character is reflected as from a mirror- The Jewish people have left us, in the Bible, a body of song characteristic of themselves, and worthy of that sublime Theocracy which principally constituted their government, and under the influence of which issued every poetic emanation. The poetry of no other nation is so elevated and sublirrie; sublimity, pure, simple, .unpropped and unencumbered 'by any fictitious aids of spunding and ostentatious language, is its great imperial characteristic.. Greece, which perhaps stands in this regard next to Judea, stands next only by a long interval. Neither Homer, Hesiod, nor rEscliylus, the sublimest Greek writers, copious, and animated as they are in their sentiments and their descriptions of conflicts of gods and men, can enter into competition with the Hebrew poets. The works of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, contain more sublimity than is to be found in the i productions of the poets of all other countries taken together. Of these, Isaiah stands supreme, unique, and' unapproachable. His is indeed the tongue “ touched with live coal from the hand of Seraphim.” The sublimity of Homer appears but a temporary and impetuous flight, ever tending inevitably earthwards; that of Isaiah is selfsustaifted, continued, and majestic soaring, most at home in heaven. His exultation over the fallen glory of the King of Babylon—his description of the power and majestic operations of the Alriiighty—his burdens of Egypt, Tyre, and Damascus, exceed in power all the finest passages of Homer and iEschylus. His sublime yet satirical contrast of the God of Jacob with the idols pf the heathen, (in chap. 44) exhibits the noblest piece of satire on record. Nor is Jeremiah less pre-eminent over the Greeks in pathos —a .quality pf writing, though inferior to and of less dignity than sublimity, yet entitling the Writer to at least the second rank. The lyric poetry of the Hebrews is excellent, The classic reader is disappointed in. his perusal of the writings of Pindar; the Roman language possesses no sublime lyric poetry. In David we have beauty of sentiment, tenderness, sublimity; and these are at times mixed up (as in Psalms Bth, 9th) with a divine spirit of philosophy peculiar to liimself, and of which no traces are to be fourid in any ethical poet. In short, theBible, considered as a. body of writing, will ever be regarded as the greatest and best treasure, of poetic literature; and it may be deemed a good taste and sound canon of criticism, that in proportion_ as a. man possesses a true relish for the higher beauties of. writing, and has. endeavoured to gratify and refine that taste by extensive reading, in the same proportion, will he praise, and the more frequently recur to, that Bopk ; , wherein, above all other books, is to be .found .more simplicity and sublimity ,-rLiterary Journal.