and poetical feeling, their effusions are generally very unsatisfactory. This remark is applicable also to those Native Christians, one or two excepted, who have composed Christian hymns and poems. We subjoin a few specimens of their hymns, translated, by the late Rev. W. H. Pearce, with sufficient accuracy to answer our purpose. These are chosen from the better class, but by no means form the best :

This body is a carriage. Its career

Guide thou, O soul, like skilful charioteer ;
My stormy passions, like six coursers bold,
By love divine, as harness, firmly hold,

The road of truth pursue; resign not Wisdom's rein,
Till thou the glorious goal-the throne of God attain.

How can we safely cross this stormy main,
And at the port arrive, we long to gain ?

How reach the shore, where sorrow is unknown ?
And how obtain an everlasting crown?

Look up, my friend, what vessel doest thou trace,
Inviting voyagers at yon starting place?
'Tis Christ the Saviour's. Yes! 'tis His, I see.
Then there is hope, for wretched you and me.

Since cross we must (we cannot here remain);
Since other means we all have tried in vain ;
Let us at once His sacred feet embrace :
Well may we trust His overflowing grace.

The sea is rough; its billows may alarm;
But in His bark we shall be safe from harm;
When Christ the Saviour acts the pilot's part,
No anxious fear need e'er distress the heart.

His bark He brings, the friendless to befriend;
His goodness knows no bounds, His grace no end.
Come, let us then His willing aid implore;
If He assist, then we need fear no more.

Behold the beauteous vessel-Love her name :
Let us embark-no need of fear or shame ;
Christ wants no fee, no present will receive,
When those transporting, who on Him believe.

The most successful of them was a man of the name of Tarachand Datta. But it may be affirmed with truth, that there is more of deep Christian feeling and of poeti cal talent exhibited in some of the numerous hymns of the unlettered Kangali of Cutwa, who was originally a Bairagi. His widow, upwards of 90 years old, is still alive, or at least was alive a short time ago.

Lo, He has hoisted her expanded sail;
Behold it filling with a prosperous gale;
See, Truth and Mercy quickly ply the oar;
Christ steers the vessel; we shall soon be o'er.

Yes, now we cross unhurt this stormy main,
And soon the port shall see, we long to gain;
Soon reach the shore, where sorrow is unknown,
And soon obtain an everlasting crown.

KANGALI.

Chorus. The land where Christ in glory reigns, if we but once attain,
Then we shall sin and death escape, and life eternal gain.

Press on, press on, beloved friends, we march to Zion's gate:
Here death at last our souls will seize, there life does us await;
Destruction's gloomy, dangerous land let us at once forsake,
And speed our flight to that blest shore, where we may bliss partake;
That state of endless life and peace, death can no more invade,
And happy thousands, reaching there, have been immortal made.

Let not the world our hearts beguile; its dangers we must shun;
Through looking back, Lot's wife, we know, for ever was undone ;
Though righteous Lot through grace escaped from Sodom's burning plain,
And flying with his daughters, did a place of safety gain;
Brethren beloved, the warning take; your Sovereign's voice obey;
Forsaking this vain dying world, to heaven direct your way.

The king who reigns in yon bright land of happiness untold,
In His blest register our names as subjects has enrolled;
We'll care not, then, for all the toils or dangers we may meet,
But still with patient courage urge our course to His dear feet;
With joy and triumph we'll proceed, throughout the heavenly way;
The crown of gold, for us reserved, will countless toils repay.

KANGALI.

The poetical publications of the Calcutta Christian Tract Society are all below the proper standard; and at present there is little hope of its being able to enlist the services of a good writer in this line. Perhaps it would not be amiss for it to republish the poetical Life of Christ (very imperfect as it is), which was written many years ago by a Native Christian at Serampore, and of which few copies are now to be met with. But of all biblical subjects, the history of Joseph is the one best adapted to form the topic of a Bengali poem. That of Esther would suit the national taste even more exactly, but does not appear equally suitable on other grounds. Daniel also would be an admirable subject. The sacred dramas of Metastasio, and still more those of Racine, are beautiful illustrations of the success, which may attend such works. The latter are universally admitted to rank

among the very finest productions of the genius of France.* But the dramatic form of a European play, after all, does not suit biblical subjects near so well as would that form, which is most admired in Bengal, and of which Bidyà and Sundar is the pattern. Might not some poetical genius be brought to light, if prizes were offered for works of this kind in connection with some of our educational institutions? Only it would be necessary to exercise a pretty severe criticism; for if it be true of poetry in general, it is especially true of this description of it, that

-Mediocribus esse poetis

Non homines, non Di, non concessêre columnæ.

The great advantages of a poetical literature would be its popularity, and its facility of comprehension. In Bengali prose a sentence may occupy half a page, and yet fairly be regarded as simple; but in poetry it must come within the narrow limits of a couplet. Hence the sense of the latter is much more readily apprehended by the popular reader than that of the former, although the words employed may appear very difficult to the ordinary critic, and prove almost unintelligible to the European student.

But whether books for the million be written in poetry or in prose, the price must be fixed extremely low: else they will never become popular in Bengal. The native books of a popular character are printed on paper, which is made, not of rags, but of waste paper; and, between the lines of the Indian poet, English words frequently make their appearance, which not seldom are also disjecti membra poeta. The binding is so delicate, that a volume rarely bears more than one perusal certainly, if in use, not more than one rainy season, unless it be handled with special tenderness. This accounts for their wonderful cheapness: to secure which will prove a great obstacle to every effort, that may be made to replace them by works of a better description.

We have drawn a dark picture, but by no means darker than facts will warrant; witness the universally degraded condition of the great majority of widows among the lower orders of Hindus; witness the prevalence of impurity of every kind; witness the numbers of abandoned creatures that haunt the streets of Calcutta things so notorious as to call forth the horror of the natives themselves-for all of them are not insensible to these alarming evils. On the other hand there are some encou

We may be allowed to name, at least in a foot-note, the Sacred Dramas of Hannah More, as productions of a similar class, which, although not held in very high esteem by professed critics, have nevertheless been admired by thousands of juven ile readers, and so far have met distinguished success.

raging circumstances, which must not be wholly passed over in silence. Books free from pollution, generally the fruit of European and Christian influence, are gradually receiving an extensive circulation. Copies of certain Christian tracts, and especially of single Gospels, are probably as widely diffused as any other volumes, at least in certain districts of the country. It is to be hoped that in due time, Truth, divine Truth, in her onward progress, will overtake Error, and obtain a triumphant victory over it. It must be evident to the dullest comprehension, that the flood of depravity, sent forth from the popular press of the present day, cannot be driven back merely by the diffusion of books, that are of human origin, however valuable these may prove as subordinate auxiliaries. The Book, which alone will be found to oppose an efficient barrier to those raging waves of the sea that foam out their own shame, is that volume which bears the imprint of heaven itself; and it is a most encouraging thought that the Bible should be written on so wonderful a plan, as to ensure its own popularity, and at the same time to present, at every fresh reading, interesting food to the most acute and the most cultivated mind. When once the Bible shall have become the household treasure of every native family; and when its all-important contents shall be universally known, then will foul Impurity be compelled to hide its head before divine Holiness, and the demons of the pit sink into oblivion before the glory of the heavenly Jesus. The consummation of this object may not be so distant as many now suppose. To hasten it let every effort be made by all who can appreciate their own mercies, and who can feel for those that are involved in the hopeless gloom of heathenism.

Can we, whose souls are lighted,

With wisdom from on high-
Can we, to man benighted,
The lamp of life deny?
Salvation, O Salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation
Has learnt Messiah's name.

ART. III-1. Origines Liturgica; or, Antiquities of the English Ritual, and a Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies. By the Rev. William Palmer, M. A., of Worcester College, Oxford. 2 vols. London. 1845.

2. Origines Ecclesiastica; or, The Antiquities of the Christian Church. By the Rev. Joseph Bingham, M. A., formerly Fellow of University College, Oxford; and afterwards Rector, &c. 9 vols. London. 1844. Books XIII., XIV., XV., relating to Divine Worship in the ancient Church.

3. The Syrian Churches; their early History, Liturgies, and Literature, &c. By J. W. Etheridge. London. 1846. 4. Duάe Amim ki Kitáb, aur Sákriminton ki Tartib, aur Kalisiya ki Dusri Rasm, aur Dastúron ki England aur Ireland ki muttahid Kalisiya ke tarique ke mutábiq. Aquád-iDin ke Sáth. Agra. Yatimon ke Chhápe kháne men chhápí gai. 1847. [The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland. With the Articles of Religion. Agra. Printed at the Orphan Press. 1847.]

WHATEVER Comes into constant and familiar contact with man, and yet commands his respect or veneration, fails not to exercise a wide and a deep influence upon him. Nor is this effect confined to the leading features of such agent; it attaches also to its minor and even accidental details. Thus, legendary stories connected with the people's faith, and ritual formulæ wrought up into religious practice (as in the case of the Hindus and Muhammadans), strike their counterpart upon the national mind. Thus, a system of jurisprudence will gradually impart something of its colour and character to a people long under its action. And the minute and unessential points, the adventitious custom and ceremony, or the chance cast of phraseology, will not be without even their corresponding effect. The stamp will impress not only its leading figures, but its finest tracery, and faithfully perpetuate even its flaws and defects.

The principle might be followed out into an endless detail of illustration. National poetry, such as the myths of Homer and Hesiod, no doubt imparted many broad, as well as delicate and intangible, traits to the Grecian character. The sculpture painting and architecture of Greece and Rome, as they grew out of, so unquestionably have reacted in a thousand ways