interpositions of God in behalf of his chosen people, and many of them
were probably composed upon the dangers, afflictions, and deliverances
of King David. But even of those which relate to the Israelites as a
nation, there are few which do not represent, in a figurative manner,
the future history of the Christian church; and of those which allude to
the life of David, there are none in which it is not the ‘Son of David’
who is the principal and real subject. David’s complaints against his
enemies are the Messiah’s complaints--David’s afflictions are the
Messiah’s sufferings--David’s penitential supplications are the
petitions of the Messiah, under the burden of the imputed guilt of man;
and David’s songs of triumph are the Messiah’s thanksgivings for his
victory over sin and death. In short, every part of the book of Psalms
has a double object.
“They go in general under the name of the Psalms of David: he probably
gave a regular form to the musical part of the Jewish service; but there
is good reason for supposing them to be the compositions of various
authors;--some more ancient than the time of King David, and some of a
later age. Of many, he was undoubtedly the author; and we know, from his
own words, that those of his composition were prophetic--‘David, the son
of Jesse, the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, the spirit of Jehovah
spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.’
“The psalms are all poems of the lyric kind, that is, adapted to music,
but with great variety in the style of composition.--Some are simply
odes, elegiac, or pathetic, or moral; but a great proportion of them are
a sort of dramatic ode, consisting of dialogues between persons
sustaining different characters. These persons are frequently the
Psalmist himself, or the chorus of Priests and Levites opening the ode
with an introduction declarative of the subject; and sometimes closing
the whole with a solemn admonition. Sometimes Jehovah himself speaks;
and Christ, in his incarnate state, is personated either as a priest, or
as a king, or sometimes as a conqueror; and in those psalms in which he
is introduced in this latter character, the resemblance is very
remarkable to the warrior on the white horse in the book of Revelations.
“If this idea were kept in the mind,” continued my uncle, “it would
greatly conduce to the right understanding of the psalms; and any
reader, of ordinary penetration, would easily perceive to what speakers
the different parts of the dialogue belonged.”
My uncle read to us, as an example, the twenty-fourth psalm, from Bishop
Horsley’s translation. “It opens,” he says, “with a chorus, proclaiming
the divinity of Jehovah, the creator and Lord of the universe. It then
describes in questions and answers, sung by different voices, the sort
of righteousness which consists not in ceremonial observances, but in
clean hands and a pure heart. And the song concludes with a prediction
of the Messiah, under the image of the entry of Jehovah into his
temple.”
_Chorus._
1. To Jehovah belongeth the earth and all that therein is.
The world and its inhabitants.
2. For he hath founded it upon the seas;
And upon the floods hath established it.
FIRST VOICE.
3. Who shall ascend the mountain of Jehovah,
And who shall stand within the precincts of his sanctuary?
SECOND VOICE.
4. The clean in hand, and pure in heart,
Who hath not carried his soul to vanity,
And hath not sworn to the deceiving of his neighbour:
5. This man shall obtain blessing from Jehovah,
And justification from the God of his salvation.
_Chorus._
6. This is the generation of them that seek after him,
Of them that seek thy presence, O God of Jacob.
PART II.--_Semichorus._
7. O gates, lift up your heads,
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,
And let the King of Glory enter.
A SINGLE VOICE.
8. Who is He, this King of Glory?
ANOTHER VOICE.
Jehovah, strong and mighty;
Jehovah, mighty in battle.
_Semichorus._
9. O you gates, lift up your heads,
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,
And let the King of Glory enter.
A SINGLE VOICE.
10. Who is He, this King of Glory?
_Grand Chorus._
Jehovah of Hosts. He is the King of Glory.
_26th._--This is the last day of our Elmore friends, the Miss Maudes’
visit; fortunately it has been very fine, for they wished to walk
through the forest; and we did ramble very far. We took them to visit
the blind basket-maker and the Franklins, and shewed them all the
improvements that my uncle had made in the cottage; and we came home by
a round-about way through an oak coppice, in which there are nice glades
and pretty paths. In one of these glades there was an immense pile of
oak bark; and Miss Maude told me that in May it is peeled off the young
trees which are cut down in thinning the wood, and is piled up in stacks
to dry, till the latter end of Autumn, when it is disposed of by weight.
For this purpose there was a huge pair of scales, set up near the stack,
and on this very day they began to take it down, to weigh it, and pack
it in large mats, made of a kind of _bent_ grass, in which it is sewed
up, and sold to the tanners at a very high price. The different groups,
some weighing, some packing, and others taking it away on drays, made a
very lively scene--and Miss Maude and I each made a sketch of it.
While we were drawing, she asked me several questions about the
Brazilian forests, and I endeavoured to describe to her the richness of
foliage, and the majestic height of the trees, to which none here can be
compared. I did not forget the great variety in our Brazil woods, where
almost every tree was different from that next to it, while here, there
are not more than four or five species, which you meet again and again.
Nor did I omit to mention how beautifully they are ornamented, by
twining and parasite plants, and yet not rendered impassable; for I
repeated what I had heard a gentleman at Rio say, that such is the
regularity of those great forests, that he could gallop for miles
through them, without being stopped by underwood.
Both she and her sister were very much interested in the account I gave
of the _silk cotton_ trees, which spread out all their branches at such
a height from the ground; and of the _lecythis_, with its pitcher-shaped
fruit, and of the _jacaranda_, with its large feathered leaves of dark
green, which make such a contrast with its gold-coloured flowers, some
species of it so very tall and magnificent, and others with such
singular tufts of whitish leaves at the ends of the branches.
They encouraged me to go on, and after describing how the dark tops of
the Chilian fir mingle with all these other trees, I came to the humbler
shrubs and flowers, which exhibit such a wonderful variety of tints, and
then to the festoons of those twining plants, called _lianes_, which
descend from the tops of the highest trees, or twist round the strongest
trunks, till they gradually kill them.
Though many trees grow to great size here, there is certainly not that
profusion of vegetation which you used to make me notice at Brazil; and
there is a gravity in these English woods, which I told them is very
different from the gay and flowery appearance of the woods, and even of
the road-sides, in Brazil, where the hedges of myrtle, china roses,
scarlet passion-flowers, and trumpet flowers, make so gay a mixture. The
autumn tints, so much admired here, are perfectly dead, compared to
those of South America.
I described, also, our plains or _campas_, with the humming-birds
buzzing like bees round the flowering shrubs, and the myriads of gay
butterflies, fluttering over the streams. How astonished these
Gloucestershire people would be, if they were to see the troops of
_emus_ or American ostriches, which run with the swiftness of horses
through the bushes, accompanied by their young!
Insignificant, however, as the forest of Deane appears to me, I find
that it once chiefly supplied the British navy; and was considered of so
much importance, that one of the special instructions to the Admiral of
the Spanish Armada, was to destroy it.
_27th._--We had another boating party to-day, to take the Miss Maudes
home. The river was quite alive, so many trading vessels were going up.
The coal mines and iron works in this neighbourhood employ a great deal
of shipping, and the city of Gloucester is, besides, a place of
considerable business.
As we boated along that part where the river makes a sudden horseshoe
bend, and skirts the forest so beautifully, the woodland scenery
naturally became the subject of conversation; and my uncle, after
smiling at some of my rhapsodies about “the magnificent trees of
Brazil,” told us, that a friend of his who has been in New South Wales,
had described the appearance of the forests there, as very peculiar.
From the scarcity of deciduous trees, there is, he says, a tiresome
sameness in the woods; the white cedar being almost the only one that is
not evergreen, in that extensive country; and besides, they have, in
general, a disagreeable grey or silvery appearance. One of the most
common trees there, is the _eucalyptus_, with white bark, and a scanty
foliage, which is more like bits of tin, than leaves; and no painter, he
said, could make a picturesque view of any scene there, because the
trees have no lateral boughs, and, therefore, cast no masses of shade.
He says, the Australian forests have all a very peculiar character,
owing to the manner in which the two species that compose at least
one-half of the forests, turn their leaves to the light. These trees are
the acacia, and the eucalyptus; their leaves hang edgeways from the
branches, and both the surfaces of the leaf being thus equally presented
to the light, there is scarcely any difference between the front and the
back.
New South Wales, he says, is a perpetual flower-garden; and in point of
size, the trees are not surpassed by those of any quarter of the globe.
Amongst others, he mentioned the cabbage palm, which rises sometimes one
hundred feet above the rest of the forest; and another palm called the
_seaforthia elegans_, equal in size to the cabbage tree, but with
pinnate leaves like those of the cocoa nut. From the broad membranous
spatha of the flowers, the natives make water-buckets, by tying up each
end, just as they make their bark canoes. The farmers use them for
milk-pails; and of the leaves, both hats and thatch are made; so that,
altogether, this _seaforthia_ seems as useful as it is elegant.
The Miss Maudes having alluded to the description I had given them
yesterday of the difference between the woods in England and Brazil, my
uncle said, that young people did well to make such observations, and to
acquire a general idea of the productions that characterize the great
divisions of the globe. He added, that on all subjects of natural
history it is not enough to amuse ourselves with details, or to
accumulate mere facts, however valuable,--they should be classed in our
minds; we then perceive the leading distinctions, and we become able to
trace every new fact up to some general cause. This, he says, may be
called gaining a sort of double knowledge--at least, it is making
knowledge doubly useful.
_28th._--I send you a long extract from the last of Hertford’s Western
Isle letters. He is now at Edinburgh.
“I have been at the island of St. Kilda; the passage to it was stormy
and dangerous, which kept us always on the look out. St. Kilda is so
remote and solitary, that I had expected to find it more interesting
than it is in fact, for I had hoped to find some peculiarities among the
inhabitants, in which I might trace the olden times. Unfortunately the
clergyman was absent, and as the inhabitants have not learned to speak
English, we could not have any very satisfactory intercourse with them.
“They were a little alarmed at first, by the sight of strangers, and
fled in all directions; but they soon became calm, and treated us very
hospitably. They seemed to be a most innocent contented set of
people--about a hundred all together--and were very comfortably dressed.
They use the quern, or hand-mill, as in all the Hebrides, to grind their
oatmeal, and to make their snuff. Their usual snuff-box is a simple
cow’s horn, stopped at the large end, and a small piece cut off at the
point, to let out the snuff, where they fix a leather plug. This is
still called a _snuff-mill_ in Scotland, for they formerly used a
machine attached to it, like a nutmeg-grater, which made the snuff, as
often as a pinch was required; and my companion says that this is the
custom also amongst the shepherds of the Alps.
“Their houses are constructed without mortar, for there is no lime on
the island; the stone walls, which are raised only three or four feet
from the ground, are double, and the interval is filled with earth. In
the walls there are several recesses, each covered by a flag; and in
these holes, like ovens, the people sleep. The windows and chimneys are
simple openings in the roof; from which also hang their implements of
husbandry, as well as of bird-catching, with their ropes, and
fishing-rods, &c. and many long bladders, containing the oil of the
_fulmar_, to supply their lamps, and also to use as a medicine. Every
person has a dog, a small rough species of the Highland terrier, which
scrambles along the cliffs, and creeps into the holes of the Ailsa
cocks, who live in the ground, like rabbits.
“As to music, for which St. Kilda was famous, I am sorry to say that
neither bagpipe nor violin were in the island when I was there; the
airs, it is said, are very plaintive, like the generality of Highland
music.
“The mode of preserving the peat in winter, and also the corn and hay,
is ingenious, and peculiar, I am told, to this island. They are kept in
buildings, which from their domed shape appeared most extraordinary,
till I discovered their purpose. They are the first objects visible on
approaching from sea, and I, of course, thought they were the dwellings
of the natives. The sides admit a free passage of air, but the roofs are
rendered water-tight by a covering of turf; the domes are formed by the
regular diminution of the courses of masonry, and the whole is closed
and secured at top by a few large heavy stones.
“The bird-catchers of this island have long been celebrated. The puffins
are caught in their burrows by the dogs, and the chase is usually
managed by the children, while the men are engaged in the pursuit of
more difficult game. Gannets, or Solan-geese, and other large birds, are
taken by hand, or with snares, on their nests; for which purpose the
bird-catchers descend the cliffs, by the assistance of a rope, which is
sometimes made of hair, or sometimes of slips of twisted cow-hide.
“A party, who were provided with these ropes, led me to the brink of a
precipice, of such a height, that the sea, dashing against the rocks
below, was not heard above. Several of the ropes having been tied to one
another, to increase their length, the man who was going down fastened
one end of it round his waist, and the other end he let down the
precipice, to about the depth to which he intended to go; then giving
the middle of the rope to a man to hold, he began to descend, always
steadying himself by one part of the rope as he let himself down by the
other. He was supported from falling only by the single man above, who
merely held it in his hands, and sometimes with one hand alone, looking
at the same time over the precipice, without any stay for his feet, and
conversing with the young man as he descended. In a short time, however,
he returned, with a fulmar in his hand; it was placed on the ground, and
a little dog having been set at it, the angry bird repeatedly cast out
quantities of pure oil, which it spat in the dog’s face.
“I accompanied the same party in one of their night expeditions, as far
at least as the edge of the precipice, in order to see them catch the
Solan-geese. These wary birds have always a sentinel to keep watch; the
object is therefore, by surprising him, to prevent his giving the alarm;
for this purpose, the catcher descends the rock, at some distance from
the sentinel, and then passing along horizontally, comes upon him
unperceived, and so quickly breaks his neck, that the other birds are
not roused. He then quietly removes one into the nest of another, which
causes an immediate battle; this disturbs all the geese on the rock, and
while they are gaping at the combat they are easily caught;--the man
twisting the necks of as many as he chooses, and thrusting their heads
into his belt--eight hundred are sometimes taken by this method in one
night.
“There is a loose skin under their bill, in which these birds can carry
four or five herrings at a time, besides sprats, which the young pick
out with their bill, through the mouth of the parent, as with a pair of
pincers. When the gannets observe a shoal of herrings, they close their
wings to their sides and precipitate themselves head-foremost into the
water, dropping just like a stone.--Their eye is so exact in doing this,
that they are sure to rise with a fish in their mouth.
“I must also mention the _Foolish Guillemot_.--A rock-man descends at
night by his rope to the ledge of a precipice, where he fixes himself,
and tying round him a piece of white linen, awaits the approach of the
bird, who, mistaking the cloth for a rock, alights on it, and is killed
immediately. This silly bird lays but one egg, and without any nest to
protect it: so that when disturbed, she frequently tumbles it down the
rocks as she rises.”
_29th._--I have been labouring most diligently at my garden, and many a
time did I wish that my Mamma and Marianne could have seen how much the
indolent Bertha, as she used to be called, is improved in activity and
in real strength. I was preparing a bed for hyacinths; taking out the
old soil, and putting nice fresh earth, mixed with sand, in its place.
Wentworth helped me to dig out the earth, and Frederick and his
wheelbarrow were for a long time busily employed in taking it away. My
aunt had given me the bulbs, and we were anxious to complete the job,
before the weather should become too wet.
My uncle paid us a visit, and seemed pleased with us all. He likes to
see that sort of patient perseverance--it is more valuable, he says,
than genius; and in the evening, he read to us the following anecdote
from Bakewell’s Savoy, to shew how much may be done by it.
The mineral waters of Breda were formerly covered by a sudden inundation
of the river Isere, and lost. In the summer of 1819, the breaking down
of the side of a _glacier_, in one of the upper valleys of that river,
produced another inundation, which brought down with it an immense
quantity of stones and earth, that blocked up the river and forced it
into a new channel. A miller and his family, who lived on the banks,
narrowly escaped with their lives, and most of his little property and
all his winter stores were swept away. He was then an old man; but
nature had given him that resolute spirit, which regards common
calamities only as motives for additional exertion. He lost no time in
useless lamentations, and immediately began, not only to repair, but to
improve, and to provide, as much as possible, against a recurrence of
similar misfortunes. He excavated with his own hands a large cellar in
the rock near his mill, partly by the pickaxe, and partly by blasting
with gunpowder; and there his stores and winter provisions were safe
from any power of destruction, less formidable than an earthquake.
But this industrious man had long been the wonder of the _commune_. One
of his performances, that almost exceeds belief, was the removal, in
1796, of an immense block of marble, and the working it into a millstone
for crushing walnuts. The block had fallen into the valley, about three
hundred yards from his mill. He had often viewed it with a wishful eye,
but to remove it seemed beyond his power; he was, however, then in the
vigour of life, and he resolved to attempt it. He began by cutting the
stone into a proper form, which was a labour of many months; when this
was done, by the aid of his wife, his mother, and his servant boy, and
with some miserable pulleys, he contrived, for several successive weeks,
to move it a few inches, or a few yards every day, according to the
nature of the ground, till at length he brought it safely within his
mill. It is about nine feet in diameter, and three feet in thickness;
and cannot weigh less than fourteen tons, as it contains about 189
cubic feet of marble. The removal of this huge stone, with the very
slender means by which it was accomplished, is a striking instance of
what labour can effect, by unremitted perseverance.
In the winter which followed the last inundation, his wife observed
steam constantly rising from the opposite bank of the river, and, on
going to the spot, she found a considerable spring of hot water, which
being examined, and found to be mineral, baths were established there.
Mr. Bakewell adds, that being desirous that this industrious miller
should derive some advantage from his wife’s discovery, he recommended
his keeping mules to let out to the bathers, and cows to supply them
with milk, during the season. With these suggestions he was much
pleased, and should he adopt them, it will be equally advantageous to
visiters at the baths as to himself, as there was neither horse nor mule
to be hired in the place; and in the summer months, as all the cattle
are pastured in the mountains, milk can be procured only once or twice
a-week.
_Oct. 1st._--I have just read such a pretty description of the
humming-bird, that I must copy it for Marianne: it is from Buffon, who
calls this bird _l’Oiseau Mouche_. “Of all animated beings,” he says,
“it is the most elegant in form, and the most brilliant in colours--our
precious stones cannot be compared in lustre to this jewel of Nature,
who has bestowed on it all the gifts which she has only shared amongst
other birds. Lightness, swiftness, grace, and the most splendid
clothing, all belong to this little favourite.
“The emerald, the ruby, and the topaz, sparkle in its plumage, which it
never defiles with the dust of the earth; and scarcely even deigns to
touch the green turf for a moment. It is always on the wing, fluttering
from flower to flower, and possesses their freshness as well as their
brilliancy--it lives on their nectar, and only inhabits those climates
where flowers never cease to bloom.
“It is in the warmest regions of the New World, that all the species
known of these birds are found; for those which advance in summer to the
temperate zones, only remain there a short time. They seem to follow the
sun, to advance and retire with him; and to fly on the wings of Zephyr
in the train of an eternal spring.”
I thought we had in Brazil the smallest humming-birds that were known;
but I have read in Mr. Bullock’s very entertaining book, that he
procured one in Jamaica, that was less than even some species of the
bee. It had taken its station on a large tamarind tree, which was close
to the house, and overspread part of the yard; there it spent most of
the day, and kept absolute possession of its dominions; for, the moment
any other bird, though ten times larger than itself, approached the
tree, it furiously attacked and drove off the intruder; always returning
to the same twig, which it had worn quite bare, by continually perching
on the same spot.
Mr. Bullock observed these birds feeding on insects,--which contradicts
the general idea that they live only on the honey of flowers.--When he
was in Mexico, one of them took possession of a pomegranate-tree, and
sat on it the whole day catching the flies that came into the flowers;
and on dissection he has found other insects in their stomach. Though
naturally petulant, and very tenacious of intrusion, they seldom quarrel
in captivity; for example, when a great blue-throated humming-bird
occupied the perch, he has seen the diminutive Mexican star settle on
its beak, and quietly remain there for some instants, without the insult
having been resented. In the air, indeed, they fight desperately till
one falls, and Mr. Bullock witnessed a battle in heavy rain, every drop
of which he thought would have been sufficient to beat the little
combatants to the ground.