of things, from some panegyrical or triumphal poem of the Amorites. To which we may add, what immediately follow, the prophecies of Balaam the Mesopotamian, pronounced also in the parabolic style, as appears from the extreme neatness of the composition, the metrical and parallel sentences, the sublimity of the language and sentiment, and the uncommon elegance of 66 "other than a figurative mode of expression, upon the explanation of which depends our understanding the "author." Quæst. xlv. in NUM. Author's Note. This matter will appear clearer and more easy of conception, if the distinction be rightly observed between the two different significations of the word Mashal: the one more comprehensive, and including all kind of poetry, on account of the figurative language; the other peculiar to a certain kind of poetry, which is opposed to the canticle or song. Our Author, in the following page, seems to apprehend rightly of the word in this double sense; but I thus far differ from him, that I think it is not expressive of two particular species of poetry, but in the one sense it means the whole genus, and in the other the particular species, which I just now pointed out. The LXX. have rendered this word very ill anyμalisas; Mashal, or similitude, may indeed sometimes denote an enigma; and if Augustin has mistaken the meaning of the Septuagint, it is excusable, since, whatever might be his ability in other respects, a profound knowledge of Hebrew was certainly not among his excellencies. M. the the verse. Hence it is easy to collect, that this kind of poetry, which appears perfectly analogous to all the rest of the Hebrew poetry that still remains, was neither originally the production of Moses, nor peculiar to the Jewish nation, but that it may be accounted among the first-fruits of human ingenuity, and was cultivated by the Hebrews and other Eastern nations from the first ages, as the recorder of events, the preceptor of morals, the historian of the past and prophet of the future 20. Concerning the utility of poetry, therefore, the Hebrews have maintained the same opinion throughout all ages. This being always accounted the highest commendation of science and erudition; "To understand "a proverb and the interpretation; the "words of the wise and their dark say ings";" under which titles two species of poetry seem to be particularly indicated, dif 20 To the above examples from the books of Moses add the following: GEN. xxi. 6, 7. xxiv. 60. xxv. 23. xxviii. 16, 17. Observe also whether the answer of God, NUMB. xii. 6-8. be not of the same kind. Author's Note. 21 See PROV. i. 6. WISD. viii, 8. ECCLUS. i. 25. vi. 35. xviii. 29. xxxix. 1, 2, 3. VOL. I. H ferent ferent indeed in many respects, yet agreeing in some. The one I call didactic, which expresses some moral precept in elegant and pointed verses, often illustrated by a comparison either direct or implied; similar to the yvμ (gnomai) and adages of the wise men; the other was truly poetical, adorned with all the more splendid colouring of language, magnificently sublime in the sentiments, animated by the most pathetic expression, and diversified and embellished by figurative diction and poetical imagery; such are almost all the remaining productions of the Prophets. Brevity or conciseness was a characteristic of each of these forms of composition, and a degree of obscurity was not unfrequently attendant upon this studied brevity. Each consisted of metrical sentences; on which account chiefly the poetic and proverbial language seem to have obtained the same appellation: and in these two kinds of composition all knowledge human and divine was thought to be comprised. The sententious style, therefore, I define to be the primary characteristic of the Hebrew poetry, as being the most conspicuous and comprehensive of all. For although that This that style seems naturally adapted only to the didactic, yet it is found to pervade the whole of the poetry of the Hebrews. There are indeed many passages many passages in the sacred writings highly figurative, and infinitely sublime; but all of them manifestly assume a sententious form. There are some too, and those not inelegant, which possess little more of the characteristics of poetry than the versifi, cation, and that terseness or adaptation of the sentences, which constitutes so important a part even of the harmony of verse. is manifest in most of the didactic psalms, as well as in some others, the matter, order, diction, and thoughts of which are clearly historical; but the conformation of the sentences wholly poetical. There is indeed so strict an analogy between the structure of the sentences and the versification, that when the former chances to be confused or obscured, it is scarcely possible to form a conjecture concerning the division of the lines or verses, which is almost the only part of the Hebrew versification that remains. It was therefore necessary, before I could explain the mechanism of the Hebrew yerse, to remark many particulars H 2 particulars which properly belong to the present topic. The reason of this (not to detain you with what is obvious in almost every page of the sacred poetry) is as follows. The Hebrew poets frequently express a sentiment with the utmost brevity and simplicity, illustrated by no circumstances, adorned with no epithets (which in truth they seldom use); they afterwards call in the aid of ornament; they repeat, they vary, they amplify the same sentiment; and adding one or more sentences which run parallel to each other, they express the same or a similar, and often a contrary sentiment in nearly the same form of words. Of these three modes of ornament at least they make the most frequent use, namely, the amplification of the same ideas, the accumulation of others, and the opposition or antithesis of such as are contrary to each other; they dispose the corresponding sentences in regular distichs adapted to each other, and of an equal length, in which, for the most part, things answer to things, and words to words, as the Son of Sirach says of the works of God, two and two, one against the |