rs a',
The scented breezes round us blaw,
A wandering wi' my Davie.
Meet me, &c.

When purple morning starts the hare
To steal upon her early fare,
Then thro' the dews I will repair,
To meet my faithful Davie.
Meet me, &c.

When day, expiring in the west,
The curtain draws o' nature's rest,
I flee to his arms I lo'e best,
And that's my ain dear Davie.
Meet me, &c.

There is surely no need to explain how this instinctive attachment to
his subject is especially requisite in the sacred poet. If even the
description of material objects is found to languish without it, much
more will it be looked for when the best and highest of all affections
is to be expressed and communicated to others. The nobler and worthier
the object, the greater our disappointment to find it approached with
anything like languor or constraint.

We must just mention one more quality, which may seem, upon
consideration, essential to perfection in this kind: viz. that the
feelings the writer expresses should appear to be specimens of his
general tone of thought, not sudden bursts and mere flashes of
goodness. Wordsworth's beautiful description of the Stock-dove might
not unaptly be applied to him. He should sing

'of love with silence blending,
Slow to begin, yet never ending,
Of serious faith and inward glee'.

Some may, perhaps, object to this, as a dull and languid strain of
sentiment. But before we yield to their censures we would inquire of
them what style they consider, themselves, as most appropriate to
similar subjects in a kindred art. If grave, simple, sustained
melodies--if tones of deep but subdued emotion are what our minds
naturally suggest to us upon the mention of sacred _music_--why should
there not be something analogous, a kind of plain chant, in sacred
_poetry_ also? fervent, yet sober; awful, but engaging; neither wild
and passionate, nor light and airy; but such as we may with submission
presume to be the most acceptable offering in its kind, as being
indeed the truest expression of the best state of the affections. To
many, perhaps to most, men, a tone of more violent emotion may sound
at first more attractive. But before we _indulge_ such a preference,
we should do well to consider, whether it is quite agreeable to that
spirit, which alone can make us worthy readers of sacred poetry.
'[Greek: Entheon he poiesis]', it is