AARON STAYING THE PLAGUE. "And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. "And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. "Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, beside them that died about the matter of Korah. "And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the plague was stayed." Numbers xvi. 46-50. THIS is a subject of so lofty a nature as to require the most vigorous powers of conception and execution. Nothing below excellence could be tolerated in a scene so animated, pathetic, and sublime. A people dead and dying of the most dreadful malady, the living eagerly looking for relief, an aged, revered, and sacred character as eagerly rushing to save them from destruction by a sudden and miraculous intervention, are objects of true sublimity, as they impress such strong and varied ideas of terror, pathos, and supernatural agency. In this picture, no critical skill is necessary to point out to any one of the least sensibility or taste, the admirable and faithful exposition to the eye, of the forcible description in the verses above; for dead to every noble impression must he be, who does not at a glance feel the sublimity of the scene flash into his bosom. All is animated action and energetic expression. The pious confidence of the uninfected, the sadness of the diseased, and the prostration of the dead, carry the mind with most impressive feeling of awe to the central figure of the High Priest, whose flowing drapery, extended arms, impetuous and sacred aspect, emphatically designate his paternal anxiety, and the divine power with which he is invested. He appears, indeed, like a heaven-commissioned being, while, with the holy incense he dissipates the noxious disease, and with uplifted arm prevents the further advance of the King of Terrors. The vigour and beauty of the drawing, the noble breadth of the drapery, and the judicious compactness and form of the group, are in perfect unison with the elevated expression of the subject It is a scene full of the most masterly contrast; energy opposed to languor, mind to body, life to death, and triumph to despair. R. H. THE ALARM OF NESTOR AT THE LIGHTNING WHICH PRECEDES HECTOR. Thus said the chief; and Nestor, skill'd in war, The reverend charioteer directs the course, But plunged in Eniopeus' bosom lay. His opening hand in death forsakes the rein; The steeds fly back: he falls, and spurns the plain. Great Hector sorrows for his servant kill'd, The ground before him flamed with sulphur blue; Thus, turned, warn'd th' intrepid Diomed: O chief! too daring in thy friend's defence, The great will glory to submit to Jove. Homer's Illiad, Book viii. |