indeed, had previously been made, to restore the long-lost theory of Hebrew versification (3); but their number, and their fruitlessness, served only to indicate, that, in future, all such efforts must be vain: while the scanty rays of light which had gleamed upon the subject, were lost in the obscurity of two or three rabbinical dissertations. (4) Such was the state of things, when BISHOP LOWTH (5) was called to the poetical chair of Oxford: and, while, amidst the applauses of lettered Europe, he seated Isaiah and his compeers in the assembly of the poets, he discharged the less brilliant, but not less important, office, of exhibiting, to the satisfaction of all unprejudiced minds, the only universal characteristic of that poetry, in which the sacred writers were wont to clothe the lively oracles of God.

The nature of this universal characteristic, it is essential to the present enquiry, that I should determine with some accuracy: the usefulness of having so determined it, will, as we proceed, abundantly appear: but, in the very outset, this precautionary step may, in some degree, anticipate certain prejudices, not unlikely to arise, against a further extension of the poetical character, beyond the writings of the prophets, to several portions of the New Testament.

The grand characteristic, then, of Hebrew poetry, does not appear to belong peculiarly to the original language of the Old Testament, as contra-distinguished from that of the New. It is not the

acrostical, or regularly alphabetical commencement of lines or stanzas (6); for this occurs but in twelve poems of the Old Testament; it is not the introduction of foreign words, and of, what grammarians call, the paragogic, or redundant particles (7); for these licences, though frequent, are by no means universal, in the poetical books of Scripture; and they are occasionally admitted in passages merely historical and prosaic: it is not the rhyming termination of lines (8); for no trace of this artifice is discoverable in the alphabetical poems, the lines or stanzas of which are defined with infallible precision; and every attempt to force it on the text, has been accompanied by the most licentious mutilation of Scripture and finally, this grand characteristic is not the adoption of metre, properly so called, and analogous to the metre of the heathen classics; for the efforts of the learned, to discover such metre in any one poem of the Hebrews, have universally failed; and, while we are morally certain, that, even though it were known and employed by the Jews, while their language was a living one, it is quite beyond recovery in the dead and unpronounceable state of that language, there are also strong reasons for believing, that, even in the most flourishing state of their literature, the Hebrew poets never used this decoration. (9)

Again, it is most certain, that the proper characteristic of Hebrew poetry is not elation, grandeur,

See Note (3) on this Section.

or sublimity, either of thought or diction. In these qualities, indeed, a large portion of the poetical Scriptures, is not only distinguished, but unrivalled: but there are also many compositions in the Old Testament, indisputably poetical, which, in thought and expression, do not rise above the ordinary tone of just and clear conceptions, calmly, yet pointedly delivered. (10)

Having thus briefly stated what the distinguishing characteristic of Hebrew poetry is not, it remains, that, with still greater brevity for the present, I should endeavour to state what it is. In one word, then, it is what Bishop Lowth entitles PARalLELISM (11); that is, a certain equality, resemblance, or relationship, between the members of each period; so that, in one or more lines or members of the same period, things shall answer to things, and words to words, as if fitted to each other, by a kind of rule or measure. * The nature of the parallelism thus defined, I propose to illusstrate in the next section: meantime, it may not be improper to derive this conclusion from the statements of the present; that, since the characteristic feature of Hebrew poetry is altogether independent of the Hebrew language; and since it is often found, in its greatest accuracy and perfection, in the less impassioned and more didactic portions of the Old Testament, it cannot be wholly

* See Bishop Lowth, Præl. 19. Vol. ii. p. 34. of Dr. Gregory's translation: or p. 208. Ed. Rosenm.

unreasonable to expect exemplifications of it in the Greek of the New Testament; in the calm instructions, for example, of our Blessed Lord, and in the practical exhortations of his apostles: but this, though here intimated, will be more advantageously the subject of future consideration.

NOTES ON SECT. I.

(1) An agreeable field of enquiry.] This may, perhaps, to some minds, appear a light expression, as applied to a very grave subject. It is, however, deliberately chosen : and, in all seriousness, I would here express a feeling of regret, in which I am by no means singular, that scholars rarely approach the Scriptures with a view to recreation and enjoyment. As a field of literary labour, as an arena for theological controversy, and, I am happy to add, as the inexhaustible store-house of religious truth, the Bible has, indeed, in most ages, been assiduously frequented. But how few possess an intellectual and moral relish, (and the two should never be disjoined) for the beauties of Scripture! In many instances, a religious reverence very sincere, but not very enlightened, induces even those who have received a liberal education to shrink back, as though it were a kind of sacrilege, from an examination of Scripture, with respect to the excellencies of its style and manner. The indisposition of several to this pursuit may not improperly be traced to some defectiveness, either in the kind, or the degree, of their religious training: I speak not here of the unthinking or profane; no man is authorised, or should be expected, to look for recreation in the Scrip

tures, who has not previously applied, and who does not habitually apply to them, for guidance and instruction; but there are multitudes under the influence of a religious principle, however imperfect, yet undeniably conscientious, who are not fond of the Bible; and this principally from want of proper training. These men have never found devotion pleasurable; to them it is a thing unmixedly awful; they never dream of seeking recreation from it; they go to it as a solemn and rather painful duty, and they get away from it as soon as they conscientiously can. Such men do not, and cannot taste the beauties of Scripture; in the study of it, they are too much alarmed to feel at ease; and ease is indispensable to the fair exercise of taste. Dr. Johnson was eminently of this class: and what he writes of the Paradise Lost, had reverential awe permitted, he would probably have said of the Bible: -" Its "perusal is a duty, rather than a pleasure. We read Mil"ton for instruction, retire harassed and overburthened, and "look elsewhere for recreation: we desert our Master, and "seek for companions." Now, it is certain, that, in religious matters, the training of this great and good man was not of the happiest kind: his own account of it is instructive, and bears particularly on the subject of this note: "Sunday was a heavy day to me when I was a boy. My "mother confined me on that day, and made me read The "Whole Duty of Man, from a great part of which I could "derive no instruction. When, for instance, I had read the "chapter on theft, which from my infancy I had been taught

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was wrong, I was no more convinced that theft was wrong "than before: so there was no accession of knowledge. "A boy should be introduced to such books, by having "his attention directed to the arrangement, to the style, "and other excellencies of composition; that the mind being thus engaged in an amusing variety of objects, 66 may not grow weary. I fell into an inattention to re"ligion, or an indifference about it, in my ninth year.

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