Dirk Rafael Kamphuyzen, born 1586, died 1626, is one of the most celebrated religious poets of Holland. He wrote a" Paraphrase of the Psalms," of which the Translators have given the following specimen.

PSALM CXXXIII.

Is there be one whose thoughts delight to wander
In pleasure's fields, where love's bright streams meander ;
If there be one who longs to find
Where all the purer blisses are enshrin’d—
A happy resting-place of virtuous worth,
A blessed Paradise on earth,-

Let him survey the joy-conferring union
Of brothers who are bound in fond communion,
And not by force of blood alone,
But by their mutual sympathies are known,
And every heart and every mind relies
Upon fraternal kindred ties.

Oh! blest abode, where love is ever vernal,
Where tranquil peace and concord are eternal,
Where none usurp the highest claim,
But each with pride asserts the other's fame;
Oh! what are all earth's joys compared to thee-
Fraternal unanimity?

'E'en as the ointment whose sweet odours blended
From Aaron's head upon his beard descended;

Which hung awhile in fragrance there,
Bedewing every individual hair,

And falling thence, with rich perfume ran o'er
The holy garb the prophet wore :

So doth the unity that lives with brothers
Share its best blessings and its joys with others,
And makes them seem as if one frame
Contain'd their minds, and they were form'd the same,
And spreads its sweetest breath o'er every part,
Until it penetrates the heart.

E'en as the dew, that at the break of morning
All nature with its beauty is adorning,

And flows from Hermon calm and still,
And bathes the tender grass on Zion's hill,
And to the young and withering herb resigns
The drops for which it pines:

So are fraternal peace and concord ever
The cherishers, without whose guidance never
Would sainted quiet seek the breast-

The life, the soul of unmolested rest:
The antidote to sorrow and distress,
And prop of human happiness.

Ah! happy they whom genial concord blesses:
Pleasure for them reserves her fond caresses,
And joys to mark the fabric rare,
On virtue founded, stand unshaken there;
Whence vanish all the passions that destroy
Tranquillity and inward joy..

Who practise good are in themselves rewarded,
For their own deeds lie in their hearts recorded;
And thus fraternal love, when bound

By virtue, is with its own blisses crown'd,
And tastes in sweetness that itself bestows,

What use, what power from concord flows.
God in his boundless mercy joys to meet it;
His promises of future blessings greet it,
And fixt prosperity, which brings

Long life, and ease, beneath its shadowing wings,
And joy and fortune-that remain sublime

Beyond all distance, change, and time.'

The poet, however, who, above all others in this volume, appears to us to deserve the name, is Joost Van den Vondel, born 1587. His tragedies are said to be the grandest compositions in Dutch literature. Besides these, he wrote satires, epigrams, and an epic poem entitled Lucifer. He was the associate of Vossius, Hooft, and Grotius, but embraced Catholicism, and became the zealous advocate of the papal supremacy. The following is a chorus from one of his tragedies.

What sweeter brighter bliss
Can charm a world like this,
Than sympathy's communion;
Two spirits mingling in their purest glow,
And bound in firmest union

In love, joy, woe!

The heart-encircling bond,
Which binds the mother fond
To the sweet child, that sleepeth

Upon the bosom whence he drinks his food-
So close around that heart his spirit creepeth-

It binds the blood.

But there's a firmer band,
When mortals hand in hand,
Whom joy nor grief can sever,

Tread the long paths of years secure,
Led on by sacred peace and virtue ever

As nature pure.

'Tis then that love's control

Commingles soul with soul,

the

Spirit to spirit gathers

A love that's stronger even than fate,—

'Tis like an effluence from the eternal Father's,
So bright so great!

It cannot be subdued,

It is the noblest good

That nature's hand has given :
'Tis like a well-cemented wall

That boldly rears its front to heaven,
And suffers all.

If thou hast seen the love
Of the fond turtle dove,
On the dry branch bewailing
Her absent mate in mournful song,
Pouring her sorrow unavailing
Her whole life long:-

'So Aemstel's fair-She stood
And melted like a flood

To tears; her race was scatter'd,

Her subjects and her city razed,

And all in blood and darkness shatter'd,
E'en while she gazed.

O God; disperse the gloom,
Lead her tired spirit home
From this dark path of sadness;

For hope and peace stretch out their hands,

And bid her look in joy and gladness

Where Aemstel stands."

There is a display of much tender and virtuous feeling in poems of Jeremias de Decker. But we can make room for only one more extract, and must give the preference to the following elegant little poem of Gerard Brandt's.

TO SUSANNAH VAN BAERLE,

ON HER BIRTH-DAY.

Think not, I shall deck thy hands
With a silken ribband gay
On thy happy natal day;
For I know thou hat'st the bands,
Yes, the show of slavery.
Nor expect a wreath from me;
For the colours on thy cheek,

And thy breath of fragrance,-ne'er
Flowers gave forth a breath so fair—
Of themselves thy wreath can make.
But the pure, the virtuous truth
Of thine undissembling youth,

Even far better garlands owns:

Virtues are the noblest crowns.'

A volume containing specimens and notices of Dutch poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, will complete the work. We suspend all further critical remark till we see the sequel.

Art. X. An Address on the State of Slavery in the West India Islands. From the Committee of the Leicester Auxiliary AntiSlavery Society. 8vo. pp. 28. London. 1824.

WE E are glad to find that auxiliary societies of this description are being formed in different parts of the kingdom. 'When wicked men conspire, good men must combine." Let not our readers imagine that any thing short of a determined ⚫ and persevering, but judicious and temperate enforcement' of effectual and decisive measures'-we use the language of the Commons' Resolutions,-will accomplish the melioration of the colonial system. There has been an unaccountable supineness in the religious public on this subject; for what can be more truly a religious object, than one which relates to the moral and spiritual welfare of eight hundred thousand of our fellow-subjects! The apathy with which British Christians could year after year remain spectators of a system like that which prevails in our West India islands, will hereafter appear so strangely at variance with the benevolent exertions made in every other direction, as to be scarcely credible. It is, however, an old subject--a stale subject, as the Abbè Dubois says of the Hindoo suttees; and on this account, every one is apt to think that he understands the question, and is consequently indisposed to read works relating to it, or to lend his attention to the discussion. Whereas we have been led to think, that even the first principles of the question have become involved in some obscurity. It has been one consequence of carrying on the controversy with men accessible only to considerations of expediency or policy, that the primary obligations of justice and morality have been in some measure kept out of sight; that lower ground has been taken, and a more subdued tone has been maintained, than comported with the feelings which every good man ought to cherish with regard to a system of such complicated injustice, cruelty, and profligacy. It is not in addressing West India planters or proprietors, that we can be allowed to speak in adequate language, of this gigantic evil, abhorrent alike to the laws of God and man.

This clear, forcible, and eloquent Address will recal the public to the elements of the question.

That slavery is the most deplorable condition to which human nature can be reduced, is too evident to require the labour of proof. By subjecting one human creature to the absolute control of another, it annihilates the most essential prerogative of a reasonable being, which consists in the power of determining his own actions, in every instance in which they are not injurious to others. The right improvement of this prerogative is the source of all the virtue and happiness of which the human race is susceptible. Slavery introduces the most horrible confusion, since it degrades human beings from the denomination of persons to that of things; and by merging the interests of the slave in those of the master, he becomes a mere appendage to the existence of another, instead of preserving the dignity which belongs to a reasonable and accountable nature. Knowledge and virtue are foreign to his state; ignorance the most gross, and dispositions the most depraved, are requisite to reduce him to a level with his condition.

But degrading as slavery is, in its mildest form, that species of it which prevails in our West India colonies is of the very worst [description, far less tolerable than that which subsisted in Greece and Rome during the reign of paganism. It would be difficult to find a parallel to it in any age or nation, with the exception of those unhappy persons who are carried captive by the piratical states of Barbary. Scourged, branded, and sold at the discretion of their masters, the slaves in our West India Islands are doomed to a life of incessant toil, for the benefit of those from whom they receive no recompense whatever: they are indebted for their principal subsistence to the cultivation of small portions of land allotted them under the name of provision grounds: and the only time ordinarily allowed for that purpose, is the day which the laws of all Christian states have devoted to rest. On that day, instead of being assembled to listen to the oracles of God, and to imbibe the consolations of piety, they are necessitated to work for their living, and to dispose of the produce of their labour at the public market; the natural consequence is, that the far greater part of them are as ignorant of the first principles of Christianity, as though they had remained in the land of their forefathers.'

1

If this be slavery, can it be imagined that the moral improvement of the slave, that which will unfit him for being such, that which will tend to raise him from the condition of a brute to that of a thinking being, to change him from a thing into a man, however gradual that improvement may be, will ever be favoured or cordially acquiesced in by the slave-holder? Between the present condition of the negro slave, and the lowest measure of knowledge and virtue, there is an utter incompatibility. Our opponents are aware of this. Make them men, they argue, and what becomes of our property?

We are in possession of a religion the communication of which
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