sarily follow, that, at this remote period, there will be found many things in the early Hebrew metrical writings which to us, being at an interval so immensely distant, must naturally be obscure and unintelligible.

I shall now conclude this chapter with Herder's version of the Amoritish song:

Come ye into Heshbon,

Build and strengthen Sihon.
A fire went out of Heshbon,
A flame from the city Sihon,

Which consumed the mountains of Moab,
The dwellers in the high places of Arnon.
Woe unto thee, Moab!

Thou art undone, people of Chemosh.
Thy sons must be fugitives,

Thy daughters become captives

To Sihon, king of the Amorites.
Their yoke is now broken
From Heshbon unto Dibon.

We laid waste unto Nophah,

We laid them waste unto Medbah,

CHAPTER XXVII.

The earlier Hebrew poets inferior to those of subsequent times. Their compositions, nevertheless, of a very high order. The poetical beauties of the Bible little appreciated generally. Ezekiel's vision. The metrical structure traced by Herder in portions of the Pentateuch not commonly considered poetical. A passage from the third chapter of Genesis in confirmation of this view.

THE specimens of Hebrew poetry hitherto considered in this work, with the exception of some portions of the prophecies of Jacob, and the thanksgiving ode composed by Moses upon the subject of his and the Israelites' final deliverance from Egyptian bondage, signalized by their miraculous passage of the Red Sea, are undoubtedly among the least attractive in the sacred volume. They show the characteristics of a ruder age, and though strikingly marked with the unequivocal lineaments of metrical composition, those lineaments are nevertheless of a sterner and more homely expression than we find exhibited, in similar compositions, subsequent to the memorable exodus of the posterity of Jacob, from that land of tyranny in which they had so long suffered under the harsh despotism of a Pharoah "who knew not Joseph."

As we proceed, the examples upon which I shall have to expatiate are of the very highest order, all strongly developing the grandest attributes of poetry.

How it happens that so many, claiming to be persons of taste, who can readily appreciate the beauties of those productions of different countries upon which time has placed the signet of perpetuity, should fail to be animated with a sense of real admiration by the poetry of the sacred volume, can only be accounted for upon the presumption that there is a fashion in admiration as well as in dress, and that the passion is merely assumed in accordance with established usage; for I really believe that not one reader in twenty, who affects to admire the metrical productions of Homer, Virgil, Milton, Dante, Goethe, and of a host of other writers, has a just apprehension of their excellencies, else I cannot imagine that he should fail to perceive and appreciate poetical treasures so rich and abounding as those of the inspired records.

Such a reader need not go to heathen writers for that gratification which the finest poetry can never fail to impart, as it may be discovered in its most exuberant magnificence in the sacred volume. There are many highly endowed persons, lovers of literature and ardent admirers of poetry, who have yet to learn that the deepest mines of poetic wealth are to be found in that book which they have perhaps never yet condescended to open. To such persons the advice of an old anonymous poet may be timely offered:

Put off the sinner and put on the saint,
A rotten post doth not become the paint;
Who needs will tread on holy ground, 'tis meet
He leave his shoes behind, and wash his feet.

Seek not thy pleasure in another's shame,
Nor spoil the ointment of thy neighbour's name :
From nakedness the modest turn their head;
Who paddles in the dirt is but ill-bred.

Banish all baser fears, let them not rest
In the more noble mansion of thy breast;
Who is a bondman unto slavish fears,
His conscience at another's pleasure wears.

Fly such as frolic it in cups of wine,
Why should another's health endanger thine?
The drunkard is a vessel weakly manned,
That's wrecked and cast away upon dry land.

If in the family thou art the best,

Pray oft, and be the mouth unto the rest:
Whom God hath made the heads of families,
He hath made priests to offer sacrifice.

Daily let part of Holy Writ be read;
Let, as the body, so the soul, have bread;
For look how many souls in thy house be,
With just as many souls God trusteth thee.

The day that God calls his make not thine own,
By sports or play, though 'tis a custom grown;
God's day of mercy whoso doth profane,

God's day of judgment doth for him remain.*

Besides the fragments of Hebrew poetry in the Pentateuch to which I have already directed the reader's attention, there are occasional instances of a hemistich, sometimes of a distich, being interwoven with the narrative. One instance, mentioned by Michaelis, is the twentyfourth verse of the third chapter of Genesis:

* These stanzas are by an anonymous poet of the seventeenth century.

"So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life."

"That Moses," says Michaelis, "has preserved many relics of this kind, is evident from the fragments of verse which are scattered throughout his writings, and which are very distinguishable from his usual language. Such is that which he relates, Genesis iii. 24, of the cherubs placed at the east of the garden of Eden; under which appellation I understand to be meant, not angels, but the Equi tonantes of the Greek and Latin poets; the reasons for which opinion I have more fully explained in the commentaries of the Royal Society at Gottengen, tom. i. p. 175. The passage is, without doubt, poetical.

He placed before the garden Cherubim (thundering horses), and a flaming sword;

To keep the way of the Tree of Life.

In plain terms, the dread of the frequent tempests, and daily thunders, deterred men from that tract in which Paradise was situated, lest they should eat of the Tree of Life." This idea of thundering horses is combated at considerable length by Herder, who does not dispute the passage referred to by Michaelis to be poetical, but altogether dissents from his notion of the Cherubim.* He has given a version of Ezechiel's vision of God enthroned above the Cherubim, so happily rendered by his American translator that I think it well worth transferring to these pages

* See Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, vol. i. pp. 141–157.