Notes and Queries, Number 235, April 29, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 235, April 29, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
This Miltonic rhapsody supposes Adam, when verging on his nine hundreth
year, to have assembled his descendants to a kind of jubilee, when
sacrifices, and other antediluvian solemnities, being observed, "Seth, the
pious son of his comfort, gravely arose, and, after due obedience to the
first of men, humbly beseeched the favour to have their memories refreshed
by a short history of the marvellous things in the beginning." Then Adam
thus:--Hereupon the anonymous author puts into the mouth of the great
progenitor of the human race a history of the Creation, in blank verse, in
accordance with the Mosaic and orthodox account. Concluding his revelations
without reference to the Fall, Seth would interrogate their aged sire upon
what followed thence, when Adam excuses himself from the painful recital by
predicting the special advent in after times of a mind equal to that task:
"But of this Fall, this heart-felt, deep-felt lapse,
This Paradise thus lost, no mortal man
Shall sing which lives on earth.
Far distant hence
In farther distant times, fair Liberty
Shall reign, queen of the Seas, and lady of
The Isles; nay, sovereign of the world's repose.
And Peace!
In her a mighty genius shall
Arise, of high ethereal mould, great in
Renown, sublime, superior far to praise
Of sublunary man--or Fame herself.
Though blind to all things here on earth below,
The heav'ns of heav'ns themselves shall he explore,
And soar on high with strong, with outstretched wings!
There sing of marvels not to be conceived,
Express'd, or thought by any but himself!"
This curious production is avowedly from the other side of the Tweed, and I
would ask if its paternity is known to any of your antiquarian
correspondents there or here.
The Fragment is preceded by a very remarkable Preface, containing "some
reasons why this little piece has thus been thrown off in such a loose and
disorderly manner;" among which figure the desire "to disperse a parcel of
them gratis,--because they are, perhaps, worth nothing; that nobody may pay
for his folly but himself; that, if his Fragment is damned, which it
probably may be, he will thenceforth drop any farther correspondence with
Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c.; and, lastly, that he may be benefited by the
criticisms upon its faults and failings, while he himself lurks cunningly
behind the curtain. But if, after all," says the facetious author, "this
little northern urchin shall chance to spring forward under the influence
of a more southern and warmer sun, the author will then endeavour to bring
his goods to market as plump, fresh, and fair as the soil will admit."
I presume, however, the public did not call for any of the farther
instalments promised in the title.
J. O.
* * * * *
ERRATA IN PRINTED BIBLES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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