CURRENT LITERATURE.
Elijah the Prophet. An Epic Poem. By G. Washington Moon.
(Hatchard.) Elijah in the Desert. A Poem. By J. Antrobus. (Long-
mans.)—We cannot discover the least excuse that either of these gentle- men has for meddling with the Scripture narrative. Everybody knows the short, stern message that the prophet had for King Ahab after the murder of Naboth ; the noble prose is thus diluted into poetry by Mr.
Antrobns :— " Haat thou both killed and wilt possession take ?
For Naboth murdered shall not Judgment wake ?
Know thou! where dogs have licked his blood, e'en-there
Shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine—nor spare."
It fares no better in the hands of Mr. Washington Moon, who is even more wordy :— " Darest thou take possession, Thou murderer! nor fearest wrath divine ?
Thus aaith the Lord; for this thy foul transgression, Where thou did'st Naboth to the dogs consign The dogs shall lick up thy blood, even thine ! '
And can Mr. Moon imagine that he is affording any human being (unless it be-his old antagonist, Dean Alford) any gratification by twisting the language of the Bible into the-following-shape?- "When Ahazieb, King of Judah, saw The fatal arrow and heard Joram's scream Of death, instead of feeling roused to draw The sword of vengeance for his friend, 'twould. seem He fled in terror across Kishon's stream." And this is quite an average stanza. It is painful to see labour and intelligence misapplied as they are in both theme volumes.
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