Holy Writ; that these warm and animate our language, giving it force and energy, and conveying our thoughts in ardent and intense phrases, and setting the mind in a flame."

I know of no standard by which the character of literary and scientific men may be so safely and successfully formed. The more he reads, the more, I am confident, an accomplished There are no finer English cholar will study the Bible. cholars than the men educated north of the Tweed; and there are none who, from their childhood, are so well acquainted with the Bible. I have heard it said that the characteristic wit of Scotchmen is attributable to their early familiarity with the Proverbs of Solomon. No well-informed man is ignorant of the Bible. We can better afford to part with every other book from our family libraries, our schools and colleges, than this finished production of the Infinite Mind.

QUESTIONS ON THIS CHAPTER.

1. What is said of the highest productions of human genius compared with the Bible?

2. What do we learn from the Bible not found in other ancient books?

3. Of what may it be considered the standard?

4. What are the characteristics of its style?

5. What is said of its historical portion?

6. What of its didactic and argumentative ?

7. What of its poetical?

8. What of the indebtedness of English literature to the Bible? 9. What of our obligations to our common English version of it?

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FORM OF BIBLE POETRY.

AMONG certain portions of the books of the Old Testament, there is such an apparent diversity of style, as sufficiently discovers which of them are to be considered as poetical, and which as prose compo sitions.

In Exodus, chap. xiv., an historical account is given of the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea; in chap. xv., the same event is poetically described. Says the history," Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." Says the same

writer, as a poet, "With the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright in a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." The "strong east wind" becomes "the blast of the Almighty's nostrils;" the "divided waters" stand "upright," "are congealed." The poet is dramatic. The enemy said, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw the sword, my hand shall destroy them." This, by-the-way, is also a beautiful example of a poetic climax.

The difference is thus clearly seen in the style of the same book; at one time historic, at another poetic.

Take another illustration from the same connection "The waters returned," says the historian," and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh, that came into the sea after them: there remained not so much as one of them."

The same event is thus described poetically in the song of Moses: "Thou didst blow with thy wind; the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, . among the gods? Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ?"-(See Bib Repository for April, 1842.)

For another illustration, compare the style of the first and second chapters of the Book of Job, with Job's speech in the beginning of the next chapter. You pass at once from the region of prose to that of poetry. There is an alteration in the cadence of the sentence and in the arrangement of words, as well as the figures of speech, to assure you of this

Didactic poetry is found in the Book of Proverbs; elegiac, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and in that of David and Jonathan ; pastoral, in the Song of Solomon; lyric, in the whole Book of Psalms, the Song of Moses, and of Deborah; dramatic, as some suppose, in the Book of Job.

The Hebrew poetry is singular, and unlike any other in its construction. It consists in dividing every period

into correspondent, for the most part into equal members, which answer to one another both in sense and sound. In the first member of the period a sentiment is expressed; and in the second member, the same sentiment is amplified, or is repeated in different terms, or sometimes contrasted with its opposite; but in such a manner, that the same structure and nearly the same number of words are preserved. This is the general strain of Hebrew poetry. It did not include rhyme the terminations of the lines, when they are most distinct, never manifesting any thing of the kind. Thus, 66 Sing unto the Lord a new song-sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, and bless his name-show forth his salvation from day to day." It is owing, in a great measure, to this form of composition, that our version, though in prose, retains so much of a poetical cast. For the version being strictly word for word after the original, the form and order of the original sentence are preserved; which, by this artificial structure, this regular alternation and correspondence of parts, makes the ear sensible of a . departure from the common style and tone of prose

Those who desire to see to great advantage the poetical diction of even our common English version of the Bible, should procure a copy of Dr. Coit's arrange ment. His edition, also, of Townsend's Bible is beautiful, and to be highly recommended to the reader of fine taste, and to one who desires fully to appreciate the sacred writings as it is probable they were at first chronologically given the historic and poetic portions, thus arranged, throwing great light upon each other.

QUESTIONS.-1. Are the books of the Old Testament composed in a uniform style?

2. What examples of diversity of style are given?

3 What various kinds of poetry do you find in the Old Testament, and what examples of each ?

4. What general view is given of the construction of Hebrew poetry? We can not close this account of the splendid literature of the Bible without quoting from the Methodist Quarterly Review for October, 1842, what follows:

The Duke of Buckingham thus eulogizes the prince of Epic poets:

Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor.
Verse shall seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need."

This is the language of a professed friend of the Puritan refor. mation and faith. The Bible itself is not excepted. It was once fashionable thus to depreciate the literature of the Scriptures. The fashion still remains, and Christians are sometimes seen to bend the knee at this unholy shrine. The exclusive and fulsome praise bestowed by the ostensible friends of religion, upon the writers of classical paganism, is enough to move the pity of a heathen, or stir the indignation of a seraph. Let us make a brief comparison of Homer with Job, in describing the same objectthe favorite animal of the Greek poet-the horse-that which he most admires (loves) to describe; and it shall be the horse of his hero.

"The winged coursers harness'd to the car,

Xanthus and Balius, of immortal breed,

Sprung from the wind, and like the wind in speed:
Whom the winged harpy, swift Podarge, bore,

By Zephyrus upon the breezy shore;

Swift Pedasus was added to their side.

Who, like in strength, in swiftness, and in grace,

A mortal courser watch'd the immortal race.' "9

Without emphasis, without italics, without versification even, let us now listen to the majesty of the Hebrew poet.

"Hast thou given the horse strength?

Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

Canst thou make him afraid as the grasshopper?

The glory of his nostrils is terrible!

He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength'

He goeth out to meet the armed men!

Ile mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted.

Neither turneth he back from the sword!

The quiver rattleth against him;

The glittering spear and the shield!

He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage

PART IV.

ORIGINAL COMPOSITION

THE author would here refer to what is said in the PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, under the head of Preparatory Exercises, and in pursuance, recommend the following common-sense plan proposed by Whateley, in his work on Rhetoric.

CHAPTER I.

SELECTION OF PROPER SUBJECTS.

THERE should be a most scrupulous care in the selection of such subjects for exercises as are likely to be interesting to the student, and on which he has, or may (with pleasure, and without much toil) acquire sufficient information. Such subjects will of course vary, according to the learner's age and intellectual advancement; but they had better be rather below, than much above him; that is, they should never be such as to induce him to string together vague general expressions, conveying no distinct ideas to his own mind, and second-hand sentiments which he does not feel. He may freely transplant, indeed, from other writers such thoughts as will take root in the soil of his own mind; but he must never be tempted to collect dried sentiments. He must also be encouraged to express himself (in correct language, indeed, but) in a free, natural, and simple style; which, of course, implies (considering who and what the writer is supposed to be) such a style as, in itself, would be open to severe criticism, and certainly very unfit to appear in a book. Compositions on such easy subjects, and in such a style, would, by some, be disdained as puerile; the compositions of boys must be puerile, in one way or the other, whether by being adapted to their age and rendered intelligible, or by being made up of unmeaning, but loftier and superfluous expressions.

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