works were published, while the chronicles of Saxo and Snorre were translated by himself. Assisted by Raske, he also diligently studied Anglo-Saxon literature, and as early as 1820, ere England possessed even an edition in the original, Grundtvig had published a Danish translation of that curious and venerable poem, Beowulf. Indeed, so celebrated had he become for his profound knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, that proposals were made to him in 1830, from a publishing firm in London, to bring out a Bibliotheca Anglo-Saxonica, which should include all the finest prose and poetical remains of our Anglo-Saxon writers. It was not, however, carried into effect. Meanwhile, Grundtvig was recognised among his countrymen as one of their first lyric poets, but especially as a hymn-writer, unmatched for force and sublimity. From his collection of psalms and hymns, published in 1841, under the rather quaint title of A Ring of Bells for the Danish Church, we must find room for the following most admirable translation of his 'Song of Praise.' How magnificently jubilant is this fine composition; worthy to be set to harmony noble and inspiring as Mendelssohn's unrivalled Lobegesang! O, mighty God! we Thee adore, Thy name is blessed by cherubim, And songs of praise from earth ascend, Holy art Thou, our God! Thou didst create the glorious skies, 'Thou King of Glory, Saviour dear, GRUNDTVIG'S 'SONG OF PRAISE.' Thou laid'st thy great dominion by, 'O Holy Ghost! to us most dear! Halleluja! grief is o'er, And Paradise unsealed once more. God's spirit dwelleth with the poor. Our God hath bliss for us in store! 'O Mighty God, we Thee adore, From our hearts' depths for evermore ! Yea, Adam's race shall join the hymn O holy, mighty God of grace! Unto Thy name. Halleluja!' 451 After the Danish poets, those of Sweden awaken but little interest; indeed, until the beginning of the present century, none seem to us deserving notice. Then we meet with the names of Franzen and Wallin, both of the clerical order; Franzen being a bishop, and Wallin, archbishop. The poems of Franzen, both in subject and treatment, greatly resemble Wordsworth's smaller poems, but they are certainly wanting in the vision and the faculty divine,' which enable our great poet to call up, even from the primrose by the river's brim,' or the little lowly cela dine,' 'thoughts that lie too deep for tears.' Wallin, the last mentioned, is emphatically a religious poet, and from the specimen given here-part of his paraphrase of the 104th Psalm-we can well perceive that his rank among Swedish poets is deservedly high, and that he was an archbishop in song as well as in station.' But the two most distinguished poets of Sweden are Geijer and Tegner, the latter well-known to us by his Frithiof's Saga, and more lately by Professor Longfellow's excellent translation of his Children of the Sacrament. Geijer, like so many of the Danish poets, was a writer in prose as well as poetry; and although his countrymen set a high value on his songs and ballads, perhaps his fame in foreign lands will, after all, more depend on his prose works than on his poetical. His Chronicles of Sweden, in which her early history is detailed with the vivid powers of the poet, who clothes the dry bones of tradition and chronology with living beauty, will always remain the chief monument of Geijer's genius; while to Tegner the first rank of poet seems by universal consent to be assigned. That many portions of his Frithiof's Saga are beautiful, we willingly allow; but still there seems a want of force, and a deficiency of graphic painting, so that by the side of Oehlenschläger's fine life-breathing creations, those of Tegner appear to us rather like finished, but pale, watercolour drawings. It is but just to remark, however, that Frithiof's Temptation, which is beautifully translated here, is quite worthy of the great Danish poet, to whom Tegner so generously proffered his homage. Tegner, like Franzen and Wallin, was also a bishop; and it is a curious fact in the history of Swedish literature, that three of her chief poets should have alike been advanced to the episcopate. So little has hitherto been known by the English reader of the literature, ancient or modern, of the north of Europe, that we welcome the attempt made in these volumes to introduce it to general notice. The work is a good popular introduction, and the translations are very spirited, and afford a very correct idea of the style and character of the various writers. But while we are gratified that attention is beginning to be paid to Scandinavian literature, we trust we shall ere long find some of our scholars entering in good earnest upon this wide field, in which so much illustrative of our language, our history, our folklore,' will be found. We must not forget that we are in part descended from the heroes of the north; that our eastern coast was widely colonized, and some of our chief northern cities were founded, by them; that London for almost a century was under their sway, and that, subsequently, three Danish monarchs successively bore rule in the land;-that even the Norman scholarship which OUR RELATIONS TO THE NORTHMEN. 453 aroused the Saxon intellect, and the Norman prowess that stimulated Saxon valour, were derived from men descended from those haughty Vikings, who, if they swept like a desolating tempest along the coasts of Europe, brought also the sweet influences of civilization and learning in their train. Surely the love of daring enterprise, the passion for maritime discovery, the bold, impulsive, yet steadfast energy of the English character, derive their origin from them. If not our fathers, they are our foster-fathers; and it is time we should do justice to their memory. ART. VII.—(1.) Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in die, Kanonischen und Apocryphischen Bücher des Alten Testamentes. Von W. M. L. DE WETTE, der Theol. Doctor und ordentlichem Prof. an der Univ. zu Basel. 5te verbesserte und vermehrte Ausgabe. Berlin. 1840. (2.) A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament. From the German of DE WETTE. Translated and enlarged by Theodore Parker, Minister of the Second Church in Roxbury. 2 vols. 8vo. Boston. 1843. WILHELM MARTIN LEBERECHT DE WETTE died at Basle, in June, 1849. In him the cause of German neologianism lost one of its most learned, most sagacious, and most respectable supporters. Devoted through a lengthened life to the study of theology, there was no department of that science on which he had not bent his clear, penetrating, and highly cultivated mind; and on almost every one he has left behind him the result of his studies, in works which continue to command a large amount of attention both in his own country and elsewhere. To these works, with one or two exceptions, we are disposed to attach considerable value. His translation of the Scriptures into German is esteemed by the most competent judges the best that has ever been produced in any language. His Manual of Hebrew-Jewish Archeology has not been surpassed by any work in the department to which it belongs. His latest production, a condensed Commentary on the New Testament, stands unrivalled for the accuracy of its philology, the soundness and tact of its exegesis, the perspicacity of its reasonings, and the general fairness and candour of its conclusions. We are not sufficiently acquainted with his homiletical and ethical writings to pronounce any judgment upon them; but his Christian Doctrine of Morals was esteemed by himself the best of his writings; and it is regarded by the pious part of his countrymen as especially valuable from the reasonings it contains in support of the position, that true morality is one with, and inseparable from, Christian faith. The portion of his works to which we are disposed chiefly to object is that to which the volume whose title stands at the head of this article belongs,-his writings on the History and Constitution of the Sacred Books. It is in this department that he chiefly laboured in the service of rationalism, and opposed himself to the common belief of the church from the earliest ages. In his Manual of Christian Dogmatics, also, there is much that is highly objectionable; but at the same time it affords one of the clearest and best-arranged developments of Evangelical theology, according to the Lutheran conception of it, that has ever appeared, and is, whilst virtually invalidating the authority of Scripture by the views it advocates on the subject of inspiration and other collateral subjects, so earnestly devoted to the exaltation of Christ as the divine centre and head of the Christian system, that few orthodox systems of theology will be found more thoroughly pervaded with an evangelical spirit. The peculiar relation in which De Wette stood to Evangelical Christianity, it would be difficult to define. In this respect he was a German of the Germans; and we doubt if it be possible to render his position intelligible to the commonsense understanding of Englishmen. An infidel he certainly was not, in the ordinary sense of that term among us; and as little was he a believer, in the usual acceptation of that word. He held, with all his soul, many things which our infidels treat with scorn and ridicule; he repudiated many things which are esteemed cardinal or fundamental verities by all orthodox Christians in these parts. Whilst labouring with all his powers of logic and learning to overturn the claims of the Bible, as a whole, to divine authority, it is yet declared of him, by one whose testimony will not be impeached by any who know his worth,-Professor Hagenbach, that not merely in a degree and occasionally, but often and abundantly he confessed that 'Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, the ground of our peace, was the author, the prince, the beginner, the finisher of the same; yea, as we all know who were intimately acquainted with him, or who took pains to ascertain, this was the corner'stone of his Christian edifice.' A striking testimony of his deep sense of the necessity and value of faith in Christ is furnished by himself, in the preface to the last work he issued, the concluding part of his Commentary on the New Testament. After saying that, though he had been engaged in expounding a pro ། |