Page:Richard Cumberland (1919).djvu/28

Rh the palm of praise must go for initiating the pro-Jewish tradition; hence we can return to a study of his works, aware that we are rendering honor to one who merits it.

Cumberland’s interest in things Jewish is shown first by his attachment to the Old Testament. In his “Memoirs” (London, 1807, II, 274–5) he boasts of his devotion to religious subjects: “I have written,” he says, “at different times as many sermons as would make a large volume, some of which have been delivered from the pulpits; I have rendered into English metre fifty of the psalms of David, which are printed by Mr. Strange of Tunbridge Wells, and upon which I flatter myself I have not in vain bestowed my best attentions.” (For a translation of Psalm 139, see the “Observer”, 1826 ed. pp. 132–3. First published in 1785.) “I have selected several passages from the Old Testament and turned them into verse,” he