First, in specimen of the choral feature of the drama, we content ourselves with giving a single chorus from the "Athalia." This we turn into rhyme, clinging pretty closely all the way to the form of the original. Attentive readers may, in one place of our rendering, observe an instance of identical rhyme. This, in a piece of verse originally written in English, would, of course, be a fault. In translation from French, it may pass for a merit; since, to judge from the practice of the national poets, the French ear seems to be even better pleased with such strict identities of sound, at the close of corresponding lines, than it is with those definite, mere resemblances to which, in English versification, rhymes are rigidly limited. Suspense between hope and dread, dread preponderating, is the state of feeling represented in the present chorus. Salomith is the leading singer: SALOMITH. The Lord hath deigned to speak, But what he to his prophet now hath shown-- Who unto us will make it clearly known? Arms he himself to save us, poor and weak? Arms he himself to have us overthrown? THE WHOLE CHORUS. O promises! O threats! O mystery profound! What woe, what weal, are each in turn foretold? How can so much of wrath be found So much of love to enfold? A VOICE. Zion shall be no more; a cruel flame Will all her ornaments devour. A SECOND VOICE. God shelters Zion; she has shield and tower In his eternal name. FIRST VOICE. I see her splendor all from vision disappear. SECOND VOICE. I see on every side her glory shine more clear. FIRST VOICE. Into a deep abyss is Zion sunk from sight. SECOND VOICE. Zion lifts up her brow amid celestial light. FIRST VOICE. What dire despair! SECOND VOICE. What praise from every tongue! FIRST VOICE. What cries of grief! SECOND VOICE. What songs of triumph sung! A THIRD VOICE. Cease we to vex ourselves; our God, one day, Will this great mystery make clear. ALL THREE VOICES. Let us his wrath revere, While on his love, no less, our hopes we stay. The catastrophe is reached in the coronation of little Joash as king, and in the destruction of usurping and wicked Athaliah. Little Joash, by the way, with his rather precocious wisdom of reply, derived to himself for the moment a certain factitious interest, from the resemblance, meant by the poet to be divined by spectators, between him and the little Duke of Burgundy, Louis XIV.'s grandson, then of about the same age with the Hebrew boy, and of high reputation for mental vivacity.