e of
Gibbon; he neither takes a luminous glance like Robertson, nor sums up
the argument of a generation in a page, like Hume. We shall look in vain
in his pages for a few words diving into the human heart such as we find
in Tacitus, or splendid pictures riveting every future age as in Livy.
He is rather an able and animated abridger of the chronicles, than an
historian. But in that subordinate, though very important department,
his merits are of a very high order. He is faithful, accurate, and
learned; he has given a succinct and yet interesting detail, founded
entirely on original authority, of the wars of two centuries. Above all,
his principles are elevated, his feelings warm, his mind lofty and
generous. He is worthy of his subject, for he is entirely free of the
grovelling utilitarian spirit, the disgrace and the bane of the age in
which he writes. His talents for description are very considerable, as
will be apparent from the account we hope to give in a future Number of
his highly interesting travels to the principal scenes of the Crusades.
It is only to be regretted, that in his anxiety to preserve the fidelity
of his narrative, he has so frequently restrained it, and given us
rather descriptions of scenes taken from the old chronicles, than such
as his own observations and taste could have supplied. But still his
work supplies a great desideratum in European literature; and if not the
best that could be conceived, is by much the best that has yet appeared
on the subject. And it is written in the spirit of the age so finely
expressed in the title given by one of the most interesting of the
ancient chroniclers to his work--

"Gesta DEI per Francos."[7]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Michaud: _Histoire des Croisades_.]

[Footnote 6: Porson.]

[Footnote 7: "The doings of God by the Franks."]

THE BURDEN OF SION.

BY DELTA.

[This Ode, composed by Judas Hallevy bar Samuel, a Spanish Rabbi of
the twelfth century, is said to be still recited every year, during
the Fast observed in commemoration of the Destruction of Jerusalem.
The versifier has been much indebted to a very literal translation,
from the original necessarily obscure Spanish of the Rabbi, into
excellent French, by Joseph Mainzer, Esq., a gentleman to whom the
sacred music of this country is under great and manifold
obligations.]

Captive and sorrow-pale, the mournful lot
Say, hast thou, Sio