THE NINETEENTH PSALM. pro THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SiE,—Dean
Stanley somewhere calls the 119th Psalm "the Hebrew 'Ode to Duty." The title is appropriate enough ; but I have always felt that, as you suggest in your beautiful -little essay on "The Poetry of the Psalms," in the Spectator -of August 22nd, it is the 19th Psalm which is the true parallel to Wordsworth's great ode. One cannot but hope that the decree which would "divide the living child in two" may prove not to be the final judgment of the higher critic. The fundamental resemblance is of course the parallelism between the divine order manifest in the heavens and that
more wonderful order which the law of God imposes on -human wills so far as they are subject to it. But there are -other interesting points of similarity, and there are contrasts which are not less suggestive. The climax of the modern voem is the gloriously beautiful stanza in which the excellency -of God's law is shown as reflected in Nature; as Hooker says, " That law, the performance whereof we behold in things matural, is, as it were, an anthentical or an original draught written in the bosom of God himself." The highest rapture of the Hebrew poet is reserved, not for any manifestation of the law, but for the law itself in its ideal or abstract perfec- tion. Yet both poets dwell chiefly on the same divine attribute of law, and that not—as in Kant's well-known saying —its majesty or sublimity, but its sweetness. So it is said of wisdom, "Sweetly doth she order all things ":—
" Stern Lawgiver ! yet thou dost wear The Godhead's most benignant grace ; Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face :
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, And fragrance in thy footing treads."
4` More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine
gold: sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb." And then, in both poems. immediately after this burst of lyrical rapture, there follows the same swift descent, as of a lark dropping down to its nest, to the concerns of the singer's own wail. "Moreover by them is thy servant warned" :—
"To humbler functions, awful Power ! I call thee : I myself commend Unto thy guidance from this hour."
And—to speak of slighter points—how the exultation of .the verse— "And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong "— snatches the description of the sun "which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course." Such expressions as "the light of truth," ." a light to guide," are, of course, inevitable ; they are best represented in the Vulgate : " Praeceptum Domini lncidum, Filluminans oculos." So, too, "made lowly wise" might almost have been suggested by " Sapientiam praestans parvulis." The exclamation, "Who can understand his -errors?" seems to speak of and to issue from "the weary strife of frail humanity." The longing for "a repose that ever is the same," recalls the aspiration, "Then shall I be perfect, and I shall be clear from great transgression." But is there not a real affinity to Wordsworth's "spirit of 'self-sacrifice" in the prayer, "Let the words of my month, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight "? Perowne remarks that this is "the usual formula applied to -God's acceptance of sacrifices offered to him." In the third stanza—" Serene will be our days and bright "—Wordsworth seems to contrast, or at least distinguish, love and duty. The psalmist, perhaps with truer instinct, identifies them in the ideal law of love or love of law : "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart : the Commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." And in place of the calm desire for "the confidence of reason," the psalmist ends with the impassioned cry, "0 Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer." The Psalm contains nothing like the personification with which the poem opens— "Stern Daughter of the Voice of God," but one may venture to refer to the Church's use of the Psalm on Christmas Day, the Incarnation of him who is the Word and Wisdom of God.—I am, Sir, &c., F. A. CLARICE.
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