in the walls all round, to receive the dead bodies; in others stone slabs of the same length are fixed against the walls; sometimes several, one above another, on which the dead bodies were laid; in some few there are stone coffins, which are provided with a lid. It is nearly in this manner that the arrangement of graves is prescribed in the Talmud, (Baba Kama, vi. 8.) only there is always to be an anti-chamber and recesses made in the walls of the square sepulchres, the number of which may be different. ROSENMULLER.

Gen. xlix. 17. Dan shall be a serpent by the way; an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels. The serpent here referred to is probably the cerastes, or horned snake; it lies in wait for passengers in the sand, or in the rut of the wheels on the highway. From its lurking place it treacherously bites the horseheels, so that the rider falls backward, in consequence of the animal's hinder legs becoming almost immediately torpid through the activity of the poison. The Orientals call this serpent the lier in ambush.

This serpent is from thirteen to fourteen inches long, has two small excrescences on the head, resembling barley-corns, and which the Greeks compared to horns. They are properly feelers, which project when the serpent is covered in the sand; it moves these feelers; the birds, who fancy them to be worms, fall upon them; then the cerastes, which is roused by the slightest touch of its feelers, twines round the birds, and kills and devours them. This is probably the same species of serpent which is called basilisk, that is, little king, because what were by some called horns, were

compared with a royal crown or diadem, and of which it is said it kills animals by the mere sight.

"The cerastes moves with great rapidity, and in all directions, forward, backward, and sideways. When he inclines to surprise any one who is too far from him, he creeps with his side towards the person, and his head averted, till, judging his distance, he turns round, springs upon him, and fastens upon the part next to him; for what is said is not true, that the cerastes does not leap or spring. I saw one of them at Cairo, in the house of Julian and Rosa, crawl up the side of a box, in which there were many, and there lie still, as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought them to it, came near him, and though in a very disadvantageous posture, sticking as it were perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's fore finger and thumb, so as to bring the blood." BRUCE's Travels, vol. v. p. 203. App. 4to. ROSEN

MULLER.

Montgomery's Songs of Zion.

It is a general complaint, with those who have considered the subject, that the stock of devotional poetry in the English language is exceedingly small. This deficiency appears to be purely accidental. No cause can be assigned for it. It can be traced, neither to a general want of devotional feeling, nor of poetical imagination. Poet after poet can be cited, from the birth of our language to the present day, who have given ample proof of sincere and glowing piety; and on the other hand, there is poetry enough in the sermons of

Jeremy Taylor, to furnish forth a better epic than has been written since the days of Milton.

If indeed it were asserted that the English language could boast of less religious poetry, in a large and unrestricted sense, than could be found in many other tongues, we should question the truth of the assertion forthwith. We could mention volumes of poetry, full of religious subjects, religious sentiments, and religious allusions, which can hardly be equalled, and cannot certainly be excelled, by any other nation. The names of Milton, Young, and Cowper, will immediately occur to every one. When we pursue the examination, multitudes of writers appear, who in their day enjoyed a good repute, and were diligently conned by the pious and contemplative, but who are now neglected and forgotten. Who reads the Creation of Blackmore? Who ascends Herbert's Steps to the Temple? Who enters the Hesperides of Herrick?

That we have but a comparatively small stock of devotional poetry, however; of psalms and hymns; of poetry designed for the worship of God, and the services of his house, can hardly be doubted. All that we possess of this description, including what is barely passable, and even what is absolutely wretched, would not amount to any large quantity; but that which is really excellent, might be comprised within a small compass indeed. Before the time of Watts and of Doddridge, no considerable collection of original hymns can be named, which has preserved a standing. As to the different versions of the Psalms, which were composed previously to that period, what are they? What are the Scotch Paraphrases, the versions of Sternhold and Hopkins, and of Tate and Brady? Are they not

as rough and harsh as the rudest voices which ever sung them, and as destitute of cultivation and order, as the woods and rocks, amid which so many of them have in times past been sung. A few verses indeed, and a very few whole psalms, might be culled from each of these books, which a man of taste would like to read or to sing; but they are more rare than springs in the desert, or the visits of angels.

The version of Watts is certainly a good one. Some of his translations do full justice to their originals; and that is saying as much for them as possibly can be said. But they are very unequal in merit. Many are awkward in expression, and lame in versification. Many are objectionable on account of too carefully preserving coarse or familiar forms of language, which, though perfectly correct and admissible at the time when they were first employed, have now become unfit for serious composition, or indeed for almost any composition whatever. Against others we have a still stronger objection. They introduce "sentiments and doctrines, which are not only not expressed, but which we believe were never thought of, by the original writers. And what right has the author of a translation, or even of a paraphrase, to insert ideas and opinions, which are not so much as alluded to by those whom he undertakes to interpret? In a particular manner, what right has he to put into the mouths of the sacred writers, language and doctrines, which a respectable body of Christians hold to be altogether unscriptural? Dr. Watts was a good and pious man, and could not have been conscious that in doing this he was doing wrong. Nevertheless it was wrong; and the effects of it have been to deprive his version of a

great part of its usefulness, and to detrude it from the very high rank which it would otherwise have maintained. Its real excellence is tested by its still serving as the basis of all our collections of metrical psalms; but we are obliged to make important alterations in many pieces, and many others are wholly refused admittance, on account of the defect just stated..

For one

In his original hymns, perhaps, Dr. Watts was at liberty to express as he pleased his own peculiar sentiments; and he seemed to delight in doing so. hymn of pure devotion, or Christian morality, there are six or seven which are so bristled with the Five Points of Calvinism, that there is no approaching them. Every unitarian minister knows, that it is really a task of much time and labour to discover an appropriate hymn in this collection, which he can read to a congregation with a safe conscience.

A version of between fifty and sixty of the Psalms was published the last year, with the title of "Songs of Zion," by Montgomery; a poet who has been long known, and well esteemed, by the lovers of verse. He calls his pieces "imitations" of the Psalms; but for all that we can see, they are as fully entitled to the name of versions, as many of those which are in common use. At the conclusion of a short and modest preface, he says, "If in the event, it shall be found that he has added a little to the small national stock of 'psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs,' in which piety speaks the language of poetry, and poetry the language of inspiration, he trusts that he will be humbly contented, and unfeignedly thankful."

We conceive that this laudable desire is accomplished; and that he has increased our store of sacred melo