to try Yesterday whether I could write one.  The 114th Psalm appears to me an admirable Ode, and I began to turn it into our Language.  As I was describing the Journey of Israel from Egypt, and added the Divine Presence amongst them, I perceived a Beauty in the Psalm which was entirely new to me, and which I was going to lose; and that is, that the Poet utterly conceals the Presence of God in the Beginning of it, and rather lets a Possessive Pronoun go without a Substantive, than he will so much as mention any thing of Divinity there. Judah was his Sanctuary, and Israel his Dominion or Kingdom.  The Reason now seems evident, and this Conduct necessary:  For if God had appeared before, there could be no wonder why the Mountains should leap and the Sea retire; therefore that this Convulsion of Nature may be brought in with due Surprise, his Name is not mentioned till afterward, and then with a very agreeable Turn of Thought God is introduced at once in all his Majesty.  This is what I have attempted to imitate in a Translation without Paraphrase, and to preserve what I could of the Spirit of the sacred Author.

  ’If the following Essay be not too incorrigible, bestow upon it a few
  Brightnings from your Genius, that I may learn how to write better, or
  to write no more.

  Your daily Admirer, and humble Servant, [1] &c.

PSALM CXIV.

  I. When Israel, freed from Pharaoh’s Hand,
        Left the proud Tyrant and his Land,
        The Tribes with chearful Homage own
        Their King, and Judah was his Throne.

  II.  Across the Deep their Journey lay,
        The Deep divides to make them Way;
        The Streams of Jordan saw, and fed
        With backward Current to their Head.

  III.  The Mountains shook like frighted Sheep,
        Like Lambs the little Hillocks leap;
        Not Sinai on her Base could stand,
        Conscious of Sovereign Power at hand.

  IV.  What Power could make the Deep divide? 
        Make Jordan backward roll his Tide? 
        Why did ye leap, ye little Hills? 
        And whence the Fright that Sinai feels?

  V. Let every Mountain, every Flood
        Retire, and know th’ approaching God,
        The King of Israel:  See him here;
        Tremble thou Earth, adore and fear.

  VI.  He thunders, and all Nature mourns: 
        The Rock to standing Pools he turns;
        Flints spring with Fountains at his Word,
        And Fires and Seas confess their Lord.

  Mr. SPECTATOR,