phecies exactly accomplished in his person and sufferings, and this removes the offence of his external weakness. We experience in some measure the power of the Cross in our own hearts, and this does more than any sign from heaven; it not only takes away the offence of the Cross, it makes that Cross our glory. It renders it, not a rock of stumbling, but the sure foundation of all our hopes. It clothes it, not with scandal and difficulties, but with splendour and victory. We allow indeed that God may still be thought by an ignorant world to act weakly in this way of salvation: but it is enough for us to know that the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men. We wish to have no power, no wisdom, but what spring from the summit of Calvary.

New Haven, (Con.) June 5. ON Wednesday the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocess of Connecticut, met in this city and on Thursday morning the Right Rev. Bishop HOBART delivered a Charge to the Convention, on the distinctive principles of the Church, and the true character of Churchmen. During the session, the Rev. THOMAS C. BROWNELL, one of the assistant ministers of Trinity Church, New-York, was elected to the episcopate of the Diocess, by the unanimous suffrages of the clergy and laity. The Convention was uncommonly full-and we are happy to add, that the venerable Dr. Mansfield, Rector of the Church at Derby, who has arrived to his 97th year, was able to attend, and to preside in the House of Clerical Delegates, when the above election was made.

The soul resigned will still rejoice,

Though life's last sand is nearly run; With humble faith and trembling voice, It wispers soft, "Thy will be done." When call'd to mourn the early doom, Of one affection held most dear; While o'er the closing silent tomb,

The bleeding heart distils the tearThough love its tribute sad will pay,

And earthly streams of solace shun, Still, still the humbled soul will say, In lowly dust, "Thy will be done." Whate'er, O Lord, thou hast design'd, To bring my soul to thee in trust; If mercies or afflictions kind,

For all thy dealings, Lord, are just→ Take all-but grant in goodness free,

That love which ne'er thy stroke would shun,

Support this heart and strengthen me, To say in faith, "Thy will be done!"

S.

Consecration.-Grace Church, on Sullivan's Island, Moultrieville, S. Carolina, was consecrated on Thursday, June 10th, by the Right Rev. Bishop Bowen, assisted by the Clergy of the Episcopal Churches in Charleston and the vicinity. Prayers were read by the Rev. Mr Muller, present Rector of said Church; and an appropri ate Sermon was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Gadsden.

A HEBREW BIBLE, supposed to be writ ten in the 5th century, and for a long time deposited in the library at Constantinople, beautifully written on vellum, has been conveyed to London. After the fall of the Greek empire, it was kept at Vienna, until the French entered that capital, from whence it was carried to Paris, and sold to Mr. Watson, the proprietor. The learned esteem it as unique, and extremely valua ble. London Paper.

Memoirs of FREDERIC GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK, Author of the Messiah.

FREDERIC GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK WAS born in Quedlinburg, July 2, 1724. He was the eldest of eleven children; six sons, and five daughters. His father was a magistrate of Quedlinburg, and afterwards farmed the bailiwick of Friedeburg, was a singular character; but, with some peculiarities, he possessed many virtues. His eccentri cities, however, appear to have had no improper influence on the education of his son, who passed his early years at home, under the guidance of a private tutor. Here he was employed during some hours every day, in learning the elements of the languages, and spent the remaining part of his time in athletic exercises. In his thirteenth year his father took him to the Gymnasium, at Quedlinburg. Here he passed three years, unmarked by fame, and rather unfolding his corporeal than his mental powers: but the remembrance of those youthful years afforded him, ever after, the sweetest enjoyment. Even in his old age he entreated all his friends who travelled through Quedlinburg, to visit the playyard where he had enjoyed those early pleasures, which are never forgotten; and which he loved to describe even to the minutest circumstance.

Klopstock, at the age of sixteen, was removed to college, where his character, as a man and as a poet, began to display itself in a very advantageous point of view. Having, in some degree, while at the Gymnasium, neglected his studies, his father represented to him the necessity of being particularly industrious, in order to his acquiring a suitable rank in the classes. He says, "I followed his ad VOL. III.

[VOL. III.

vice, and again assiduously applied myself to Latin and Greek; and I still remember, how frequently I walked up and down my garret in the heat of the sun, and studied in the sweat of my brow." His introduction to the college is thus described by Mr. Cramer. "His father now took him to the college, and his examination was arranged. The Rector conducted him into an apartment, and gave him an exercise to write, leaving with him Weismann's lexicon, and a grammar. It was to be completed in three hours, and then he was to ring the bell; but he rang before the appointed time. The Rector appeared. Is it finished already?' said he; then cast his eye over it, and sent him into the play-ground; where the scholars assembled, as usual, to welcome and to ridicule the new comer. One of the elder ones came to him with a scornful air, and said, K-l-o-p Klop-stock, is that your name?' Upon which his uncommon name was immediately echoed, and re-echoed, and laughed at. This displeased him, and going up to the boy, with a menacing air and stern look, he answered, 'Yes, my name is Klopstock:' and from this time he was never assailed with any raillery, particularly as the Rector highly applauded his exercise, and immediately gave him the highest place in the third class."

Under the tuition of an able teacher, who sought to make his pupils familiar not only with the language, but also with the spirit of the ancient writers, he acquired a perfect knowledge of the classics, learned to appreciate their beauties, and while he followed with rapture the bold flights of their original genius, he fed a flame within himself, which was wont to

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burst forth in full lustre. He read few books, but they were the best; and he read with acute discrimination and unwearied attention. Virgil was his favourite poet; and while he beheld in him the model of perfect beauty, he felt a strong impulse to imitate him. He diligently applied himself to compositions, both in prose and verse; and some pastorals, according to the fashionable taste of the time, preceded one of the noblest plans that ever entered the soul of a poet.

At this early period of life, Klop stock formed the resolution of writing an Epic Poem, which had not till then existed in the German language. His enthusiastic admiration of Virgil; the glory he promised himself in being the first who should produce a work like the Æneid in the language of his native country; the warmth of patriotism which early animated him to raise the fame of German literature to a level with that of other countries; his just indignation in reading the work of a Frenchman, who had denied to the Germans any talent for poetry; all combined with the consciousness of his own superior powers, to stimulate him to the execution of his exalted plan. He was long, however, undecided in the choice of a subject. He sought out some hero in German his tory, and had once fixed on the Emperor Henry, the founder of the freedom of his native city; but after choosing and rejecting many different subjects, he at last formed the plan of his MESSIAH; and this preference was given before he was even acquainted with Milton, whose Paradise Lost became, soon after this period, his favourite and almost uninterrupted study.

An interesting account of Klopstock, when very young, was inserted in Bodmer's Letters on Criticism, and reprinted by Cramer in the year 1780. From this account the following is an extract:-"In his father's library are many sermons, and ten Bibles, but not a single poet. He soon distinguished the Bible from all the rest, still more through his own taste, than on account of his father's earnest recommendations. He made it his constant pocket companion, not merely as a duty, but

for pleasure. While yet in his childhood, he was so well acquainted with the phraseology of the Hebrew language, and the figurative manner of representing things which he found in that book, that he used it unknown to himself, whenever he would express any thing with earnestness.-In a walk with his father, in a fine spring morning, before he was quite fourteen years old, they had sat down under an oak, and a cool western breeze blew on them. His first words were,' All around the oak receives us in his shadow. Soft airs breathe on us, like a whisper of the presence of GOD." Then again he said, 'How peaceful grows the tender moss, here on the cool earth! The hills lie round about in lovely twilight, as though new made, and blooming like Eden-At that time the strong representations of inanimate nature, which he found in the poetical books of Job and the Prophets, affected him most deeply; and he was often heard, when he awoke in the morning, repeating whole chapters, with a strong accent, as a poet might do who was reciting his own work. The descriptions were so strongly impressed on his mind, that when the things themselves came before his eyes, he would often say, they were not new to him; he had already seen them in the Psalms and the Prophets. When he approached to manhood, the pathetic passages took the same strong hold on his heart, as the glittering and magnificent images had before taken on his fancy. A promise that fallen man should find mercy, drew tears from his eyes; a trace of the immortality of the soul threw him into a transport of gratitude. Religion did not remain a mere speculation of the brain; it was a clear view of the greatness and glory of the Messiah; it was the pure feeling of love and grateful adoration. From this turn of mind sprang a style of writing full of poetry, before he had ever seen a verse, or knew any thing of prosody. He was a poet, while neither he nor his father suspected it."

In the autumn of 1745, Klopstock left the college of Quedlinburg, and removed to the university at Jena,

with the intention to study theology. The dull disputes of scholastic divines, however, did not accord with the state of his mind at this poriod. He wanted no evidence to prove the truth of a religion which had taken entire possession of his heart, and he could not listen with patience to the cavils of infidels, or the cold reasonings of metaphysicians, and after a tedious half year, the ardent youth, whose mind was accustomed to better nourishment, removed with his relation Schmidt to the university of Leipsic. During this short interval, he had, however, in the stillness of his closet, been realizing some part of his intended plan, by sketching out the three first cantos of the Messiah. These he composed in prose, but his performance greatly displeased him. Lost in his own reflections, he would frequently wander up and down the country round Jena, and in one of these solitary walks he came to a determination to imitate the great poets of antiquity in the structure of their verse. In a few hours he completed a page of hexameters, and from that time decided on composing his poem in this measure, Thus was he the first who introduced into German poetry a metre which was supposed to be unattainable in that language, and he afterwards triumphantly defended this mode of versification, both by example and argument.

In the spring of 1746, he carried with him to Leipsic, the three first books of the Messiah, which astonished and delighted a few ingenious friends to whom he showed them. Amongst these early friends of Klopstock were Cramer, Gärtner, Schle gel, Giesecke, Zacharia, Gellert, and Rabener; Schmidt, the relation as well as the bosom friend of the poet, had accompanied him to Leipsic. These young favourites of the muses had formed themselves into a literary society, in order to improve their taste by mutual criticisms on their various essays, of which the best were printed in a paper entitled, " Bremen Contributions." In this work the three finished cantos of the Messiah first appeared. In the two following years he produced many excellent odes,

which were also published in the Bremen Contributions. Germany, at this period, was not prepared for the reception of a poet of such a superior cast; the public taste was not suffi ciently formed to relish the lofty flight of Klopstock's genius; but his production was read with the highest warmth of admiration by those who possessed a genuine taste for poetry, and their applause animated the poet in the prosecution of his sublime plan.

Klopstock's residence at Leipsic became unpleasant to him, after he had lost his chosen friends, who gradually left the university. The warm and tender attachment which he felt towards this estimable circle in Leipsic, formed one of the sweetest recollections of his past life, on which he dwelt with peculiar pleasure even in his old age. When he afterwards contemplated, in pensive sadness, each of these beloved friends, sinking successively into the grave before him, his only comfort was the remembrance of what they had once been to him, and the prospect of what they would be in a happier world.

In the year 1748, Klopstock left Leipsic, to reside at Langensalza, in the house of a relation named Weiss, whose children he undertook to instruct. This is an interesting period in the life of Klopstock, as he now became acquainted with the beautiful sister of his kinsman Schmidt, who is the subject of some of his most admired poems, in which she is distinguished by the name of Fanny. He never had courage to make proposals of 'marriage, as he thought he had no prospect of success, and the lady was soon after united to another. Many of his odes and elegies prove the purity and ardour of his youthful passion; and the pain, of not seeing himself beloved, added to the influence of severe application on his health, conspired to throw him into a deep melancholy, and, for a time, spread a dark colouring over all his poetic effusions.

While Klopstock had retired from the world to an obscure retreat, his Messiah excited such a degree of attention, as no other book had ever awakened in Germany. Friends and