ODE for the NEW YEAR, 1804. By HENRY JAMES PYE, Esq. Poet Laureat. I. THEN, at the Despot's dread command, From servile Asia's peopled strand, To Græcia's and to Freedom's shore- To crown th' Athletic Victor's brow, Was crush'd the Persian Tyrant's boast, "Tho' woes unseen, uncertain, wait "Heal'd in the gen'rous breast is every pain, "With undiminish'd force, if Freedom's rights remain t." "Go forth, my sons-as nobler rights ye claim "Thin ever fann'd the Grecian patriot's flame, "So let your breasts a ficrcer ardour feel, "Led by your Patriot King, to guard your Country's weal." III. Her voice is heard-from wood, from vale, from down, Firm as the band for Freedom's cause who stood, IV. Thro' Albion's plains, while wide and far Swells the tumultuous din of war, While from the loom, the forge, the flail, Does drooping Commerce quit the tide ? Do languid Art and Industry Their useful cares no longer ply? Never did Agriculture's toil With richer harvests clothe the soil; Ne'er were our barks more amply fraught, Ne'er were with happier skill, our ores, our feeces wrought. V. While the proud foe, to swell invasion's host, His bleeding country's countless millions drains, To guard and to avenge this favour'd land, ODE ODE for HIS MAJESTY'S BIRTH-DAY, 1804. [By the Same.] I. S the blest Guardian of the British Isles, Immortal Liberty, triumphant stood, And view'd her gallant sons, with favouring smiles, From Inverary's rocky shores, Where loud the Hyperborean billow roars, With kindred fire to crush the injurious foe, From her bright lance the flames of Vengeance stream, And in her eagle eye shines Glory's radiant beam. II. Why sink those smiles in Sorrow's sigh? And Britain breathes alone for GEORGE's life her prayer. S2 III. Her III. Her prayer is heard-Th' Almighty Power, Bids Health resume again her happier hour;— The fresh'ning breezes sweep the clouds away Fly the drear shadows of Disease and Death- This generous sentiment alone Lives in each heart with patriot ardour warm, Points every sword, nerves every Briton's arm, "Rush to the field where GEORGE and Freedom lead, Glory and fame alike the warrior's meed, Brave in their Country's cause, who conquer or who bleed.” DOMESTIC DOMESTIC LITERATURE Of the Year 1804. CHAPTER I. BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. Comprising Biblical Criticism, Theological Criticism, Sermons, single Sermons, Controversial Divinity. F the contributions of the current year, which constitute the first class of the chapter before us, be not so numerous, nor, upon the whole, so important as those of the year preceding, they can by no means be regarded as irrelevant or unentitled to attention, while we have to notice, at the head of them, a continuation of the very acute, recondite, and successful labours, now happily brought to a close, of professor White; upon whose oriental learning and researches we have already had frequent occasions to dilate in terms of equal gratitude and approbation. The work to which we now allude is the third volume of his Edition of Philoxenus's Syriac Version of the New Testament, adding the Epistles of St. Paul to the Four Gospels, which were comprised in the first volume; and to the Acts of the Apostles and theCatholic Epistles, which constituted the second. From the very early period in which the Christian religion was successfully propagated over Syria, where it seems to have taken a firm and extensive root as early as towards the close of the first century from the birth of our Saviour, it is not to be wondered at that a vernacular version of the New Testament should have existed nearly coeval with the apostles themselves in the Syrian tongue and country. In effect, as there were three distinct dialects spoken within the precincts of Syria, it is highly probable that there were versions published at the period we now speak of in each of them; but we know, from the actual existence of copies even in the present day, that a version of the whole of the New Testament, excepting the se cond epistle of St. Peter, the second and third of St. John, that of St. Jude, and the Apocalypse, was actually published at Antioch, where the purest of the three dialects was vernacular; and the evidences of history will support us in assigning to this Antiochan or Peshito version an antiquity of nearly if not altogether sixteen hundred years; of which a new edition consisting of a thousand copies was struck off at Vienna under the auspices of the emperor Ferdinand I., À. D. 1555. It was nevertheless conceived by several learned men of the fourth and fifth centuries, that this Peshito ver |