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written in verfe; but that the writings of the prophets are not of that number."

The defign of the preliminary differtation is to refute this erroneous opinion; to fhew that there is a manifeft conformity between the prophetical ftyle and that of the books fuppofed to be metrical; a conformity in every known part of the poetical character, which equally difcriminates the prophetical and the metrical books, from thofe acknowledged to be profe. This fubject, which the learned author had before treated in his eighteenth and nineteenth Prelections, is here more fully and minutely difcuffed.

"The first, he fays, and most manifeft indication of verfe in the Hebrew poetical books, prefents itfelf in the acroftick or alphabetical poems, of which there happily remain many examples, and thofe of various kinds. The nature, or rather the form, of thefe poems is this: the poem confifts of twentytwo lines, or of twenty-two fyftems of lines, or periods, or ftanzas, according to the number of the let ters of the Hebrew alphabet; and every line, or every ftanza, begins with each letter in its order, as it ftands in the alphabet, that is, the first line, or first ftanza, begins with aleph, the fecond with beth, and so on. There are ftill extant in the books of the Old Teítament, twelve of thefe poems; reckoning the four firft chapters of the Lamentations of Jeremiah as fo many distinct poems; three t of them perfectly alphabetical: in

*

which every line is marked by its initial letter; the other nine lefs perfectly alphabetical, in which every ftanza only is fo diftinguished."

After examining fome remarkable circumftances in thefe compofitions, he concludes, that both thefe fpecies of alphabetical poems confift of verfes properly fo called; of verfes regulated by fome ob- . fervation of harmony or cadence; of meafure, numbers, or rhythm. For it is not at all probable in the nature of the thing, or from examples of the like kind in other languages, that a portion of mere profe, in which numbers and harmony are totally difregarded, fhould be laid out according to a scale of divifion, which carries with it fuch evident marks of ftudy and labour, of art in the contrivance, and exactnefs in the execution. And in general, that the reft of the poems of the Hebrews, bearing evidently the fame marks and characteristics of compofition with the alphabetical poems in other refpects, and falling into regular lines, often into regular ftanzas, according to the paufes of the fentences, which ftanzas and lines have a certain parity or proportion to one another, thefe likewife confift of verfe measured by the ear, and regulated according to fome general laws of metre, rhythm, harmony, or cadence."

The attempt to difcover the laws of the Hebrew metre, or rhythm, he confiders as vain and impoffible: but he conceives that there are other circumstances which fufficiently difcriminate the parts of the

* Pfal. xxv, xxxiv, xxxvii, cxi, cxii, cxix, cxlv. Prov, xxxi. v. 10—31. Lam. i, ii, iii, iv.

† Pfal. cxi, cxii. Lam. iii,

Hebrew

Hebrew Scriprores that are written ia verit, from tace that are written in prose. The it and principal of theft, is the corre por sence of one verie, or line, with another,

which he calls parancs. Waen a propostion is demered, and a fecond is facjoined to it, er drawn under it, equivalent, or contrated with it, in fenfe, or fimilar to it is the form of grammatical contrestion, there he calls parallel lines, and the words or parales anfwering one to another in the corresponding lines, parallel terms.

Parallel lines he redaces to three forts: parallels fynonymous, parallels antitetic, and parallels abetic. Of each of thefe he gives a variety of examples, in order to fhew the various forms, under which they appear: firft from the books univerfally acknowledged to be poetical; then correfpondent examples from the prophet líatan ; and fometimes alfo from the other prophets; to fhew, that the form and character of the compofition is

in all the fame.

First, of parallel lines fynonymous: that is, which correfpond one to another by expreffing the fame fenfe in different but equivalent terms. As in the following examples:

O-Jehovah, in-thy - ftrength the-king hall-rejoice;

And-in-thy faivation how greatly fhall-heexult!

The-defire of-his-heart thou-hast-granted unto him;

And the-request of-his-lips thou-haft-notdenied.' Pf. xxi.

• Becaufe I-called, and-ye-refused; I-ftretched-out my-hand, and-no-one re

garded, &c. Prov. i. 24. Seek-ye Jehovah, while-he-may-be-found; Call-ye-upon-him, while-he-is near,' &c.

Ifa. iv. 6.

The author produces many other crapies, from the process, is which, be colerves, the parallel Loes sometimes con of tree or more farey mess terms; kometimes of tac; which is generally the cafe, waca the verb, or the nominative cale of the sentence is to be carned on to the fecond, or underfood there; and fometimes of one only.

The terms in Engli, coefing of feveral words, are hitherto dif tinged by marks of connection; to thew, that they aufwer to fingle words in Hebrew.

Sometimes, he obferves, the lines conf, each of double members, or two propofitions.

Bow thy heaven, O Jehovah, and de

fcend;

Touch the mountains, and they fhail imcke, &. F. cxiv. 5.

And they shall build houfes, and fhall And they fhall plant vineyards, and shall

inhabit them;

eat the fruit thereof, &c.' If, lxv. 21. repetition of part of the first senSometimes they are formed by a

tence.

• My voice is unto God, and I cry aloud; My voice unto God, and he will hearken

unto me.'

The waters faw thee, O God; The waters faw thee; they were feized with anguish.' Pj. lxxvii. 1. 16.

• For he hath humbled thofe that dwell on high;

The lofty city, he hath brought her down:
He hath levelled her with the duft.
He hath brought her down to the ground;
The foot shall trample upon her;
The feet of the poor, the fteps of the
needy.' Ifa. xxvi. 5, 6.

There are parallel triplets, when three lines correfpond together, and form a kind of ftanza; of which however only two commonly are fynonymous.

• The wicked shall fee it, and it shall grieve

him;

He fhall gnafh his teeth, and pine away; The defire of the wicked fhall perish.' Pf. cxii. 10. And he shall snatch on the right, and yet be hungry;

And he fhall devour on the left, and not be fatisfied;

Every man shall devour the flesh of his

neighbour.' Ifa. ix. 20.

There are likewife parallels confifting of four lines: two diftichs being fo connected together by the fenfe and the conftruction, as to make one ftanza. Such is the form of the thirty-feventh Pfalm, which is evidently laid out by the initial letters in stanzas of four lines. Be not moved with indignation against the evil doers;

Nor with zeal against the workers of ini

quity:

For like the grafs they fhall foon be cut off; And like the green herb they shall wither.' Pf. xxxvii. 1, 2.

The ox knoweth his poffeffor; And the afs the crib of his lord: But Ifrael doth not know Me; Neither doth my people confider.' Ifa. i. 3.

In stanzas of four lines fometimes the parallel lines answer to one another alternately; the first to the third, and the fecond to the fourth:

'As the heavens are high above the earth; So high is his goodness over them that fear him:

As remote as the east is from the weft;

So far hath he removed from us our tranfgreffions.' Pf. ciii. 11, 12. And ye faid: Nay, but on horses will we flee; 1

Therefore fhall ye be put to flight: And on fwift courfers will we ride;

Therefore shall they be fwift, that pursue you.' Ifa. xxx. 16. He next proceeds to the fecond fort of parallels, viz. the antithetic; of which kind are the following:

A wife fon rejoiceth his father: But a foolish fon is the grief of his mother.' Prev, X, I.

Where every word hath its oppofite for the terms father and mather are, as the logicians fay, relatively oppofite.

The memory of the juft is a bleffing; But the name of the wicked fhall rot.' Prov. X. 7

Here are only two antithetic terms: for memory and name are synonymous.

There is that fcattereth, and still en creaseth;

And that is unreasonably sparing, yet

groweth poor.' Prov. xi. 24. Here is a kind of double antithesis; one between the two lines themfelves, and likewise a subordinate oppofition between the two parts of each.

This form, he observes, is peculiarly adapted to adages, aphorifms, and detached fentences, and that we are not therefore to expect frequent inftances of it in the other poems of the Old Teftament; especially thofe that are elevated in the ftyle, and more connected in the parts. The author however adds a few examples from the higher poetry.

These in chariots, and thofe in horfes; But we in the name of Jehovah our God will be ftrong.

They are bowed down, and fallen; But we are rifen, and maintain ourselves firm.' Pf. xx. 7, 8.

The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn ftone: The fycamores are cut down, but we will

replace them with cedars. Ifa, ix. 10. The third fort of parallels the author calls fynthetic, or conftructive, where the parallelism conffts only in the fimilar form of conftruction in which word does not an

fwer to word, and fentence to fentence, as equivalent or oppofite; but there is a correfpondence and equality between different propofitions in refpect of the fhape and

tura

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