III. SYNTHETIC. "Praise the Lord from the earth, Creeping things and flying fowl; Kings of the earth and all people, Ps. cxlviii. 7, 9 – 11. The divisions in these cases are marked by appropriate Hebrew accents, which, on the whole, are surprisingly cor- . rect, considering the lack of knowledge among the later Jews in respect to this subject. We say later, because the Masorites must have done their work near to A. D. 609. But the parallelisms need no such marks, in the view of any intelligent reader. They speak for themselves; and, even when translated into our language, they have a kind of rhythm which is pleasing and attractive. Such is the outward form of Hebrew poetry in general; yea, of all true Hebrew poetry. The number of words in each clause or oilgos varies with different themes and writers. In Proverbs x. - xxii. for example, most of the verses have seven words in the whole, that is, four in the first clause and three in the second. Sometimes eight words are comprised, and then the division may be five and three, or four and four. Now and then a verse of six words occurs, divided into three and three. In the prophets and in the Psalms we find many fuller verses; yet they are arranged on a like principle. It is, on the whole, a pity that our English Bibles were not all printed in such a way as to show at once what is poetry and what is prose, instead of melting all the Hebrew poesy down into one and the same English prose-crucible. More easily would the Bible have been understood by the common reader; for he would soon learn how to make one parallelism explain its associate. That such was the general law of Hebrew metre, (if we may so call it,) is clear from the Psalms and other poems composed alphabetically, somewhat in the manner of what we call acrostics. Such compositions are Psalms xxv., xxxiv., xxxvii., cxi., cxii., cxix., cxlv., Proverbs xxxi. 10-31, Lamentations i. iv. The 119th Psalm is artistic beyond all the others, inasmuch as it comprises twenty-two divisions of eight verses each, and each line in these eight verses respectively begins with the same letter, and each division follows regularly the order of the alphabet. Here, then, we come to a very satisfactory criterion of the Hebrew metre or parallelism; for here we can know, with certainty, where each verse or clause begins and where it ends. But in these Psalms thus artistically composed, the same poetical phenomena present themselves which have been illustrated above. Parallelism, then, is an essential constituent of Hebrew poetry. It may, indeed, be sometimes found in prose; but then it is accidental, and not designed. Scanned in this way, most of Hebrew prophecy comes before us as unquestionably belonging to the class of poetic compositions. In fact, nearly (if not quite) half the Hebrew Bible belongs to this order of writing. But not all the prophets are poets; Daniel and Malachi surely not. A large part of Jeremiah, and much in Ezekiel, is not poetry. So with a small portion of Isaiah, and of Job, and of some of the minor prophets. But the diagnostics of poetry are palpable anywhere, to the well skilled Hebrew reader; and they leave no doubt on his mind where he is to decide between poetry and prose. So much for the body of poetry. We must add, however, to this, that poetry in Hebrew, scarcely less than in Greek, has a diction peculiar in several respects to itself. This is displayed, (1) in the choice of words; for example the prosaic man, word, antiquity, water, come, and many other words, often assume a different name or sound in poetry, when they are to be regarded as more rare, and more select than the usual words. Then, (2) a different meaning of the same words; which often happens in such books as Job, Isaiah, and others. (3) The forms of a number of words are different; and this, while the meaning remains the same as in prose. (4) Many ends of words in poetry have peculiar forms and appendages, designed, no doubt, to help out the metre. What Homer and others did by choosing from the Greek dialects, the Hebrews have accomplished in these various ways; and paragogies in Hebrew are not less frequent than in Greek. We have now sketched the body or externals of Hebrew poetry. Only a few words as to the soul, and we have done. The diction, then, in a rhetorical respect, is figurative, often highly so; it is, moreover, elevated, often remote from the vulgar one, abounding in comparisons, and animated with a fervor which never was or will be exceeded. To all artificial fire it is a stranger; and of gilding and varnishing it knows nothing. The writers do not wander abroad in search. of ornament; for they rarely, if ever, employ it for the mere sake of display. Whatever comes into the composition, which has the character of the ornate, comes in spontaneously. Costume is for decorum's sake; and highly beautiful, also, it often is; but it is put on and worn unconsciously. Lowth undoubtedly made a great mistake, when he labored to show that all the varieties and kinds of Greek and Latin poetry are to be found among the Hebrews; for all this is body, not soul. Hebrew poetry is instinct with soul. But the soul need not of necessity be encased in a Greek or Roman body. It has a body of its own, distinct, well marked, and easily discerned; indeed, so much so, that "he who runneth may read." A meagre sketch we have made. But if these brief outlines were filled out in the detail, they would give us some tolerable notion of what belongs to Hebrew poetry. The jingle of rhyme it discards; that belongs to Arabic poetry,even the Koran; and also to the modern Rabbinic productions named poetry. Our best poems in English, however, are without it. We have only to add, that the subjects of Hebrew poetry, and the language of the Hebrews, furnish some of the noblest poetic elements that can be imagined. The subjects are all that is most sublime, awful, and beautiful in the universe. God, the eternal and holy One; heaven; hell; sin; redemption; a dying and risen Saviour, Lord of all; a sanctifying Spirit; death; the resurrection; judgment; eternal retribution; these are the themes of the Bible, and themes before which all others sink into comparative insignificance. If the religiosity of the human soul formed and bodied forth the Dii majores and minores of Greek and Roman mythology, and awaked and attuned the spirit of lofty and beautiful 23 VOL. LXXIII. NO. 152. poetry, how can we suppose that the nation whose God was Jehovah would be wanting in the spirit of impassioned, sublime, and beautiful poetry? And there it is, in that blessed book-the Bible. In our best judgment, the Hebrew poets are as much superior to the Greek and Roman ones, as the themes, on which the Hebrews dwell, are elevated above those of Greek and Roman mythology. The Hebrews, moreover, had ample stores, in the very texture of their language, laid up for poetry. What language on earth has such a living, animated power in its words? The verbs, the roots of all words, are instinct with life and with metaphor. Their formations and meaning show that the Hebrews were, of all men, among the most lively and animated observers of nature. The verbs imitate natural sounds of concord or discord; of weeping and of laughing; and so of other imitable things. Their wondrous flexion, through seven or more forms, is all expressive of gradations in action or passion, of intense, of reflex, of mutual, and of feigned action. A Raphael, if he understood them, could not paint all their light and shade. One might almost say, they are actors, rather than symbols of action. Their nouns have often intensive forms; and when they have not, intensity may at any time be expressed simply by the forms of the plural. In this way, the controverted Elohim (plural of El or Eloah) may easily be solved. In the plural form, it means God in the highest and strongest sense. The adjectives, and participles, and even adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, all partake of the traits of the leading words. What a glorious apparatus for the poet! The language will not suffer him to be dull, scarcely to be mediocre. We have done, and yet have hardly begun. We can add only, that nothing can be more erroneous in taste or in fact, than to make all the Bible into poetry, as Mr. Gilfillan has done. Is he not aware, that prose, after all, has higher powers than poetry; that poetry is the offspring, for the most part, of a state of society not highly advanced in cultivation; in a word, of that state wherein men's feelings predominate over their intellect? A highly cultivated state of society usually withdraws somewhat from the cultivation of the poetic art. Such is the state of things at present. We have no more epics in these days; or if they are born, they are consigned to an early grave. Discussion of every kind, history, eloquence, chooses prose. It is impossible that poetry, constringed as it is by metre, should give us the completeness of a prose picture. Macaulay understands this; Prescott and Irving know this; and we may, without much exposure to error, venture to predict, that poetry has seen its best days, and must be content henceforth to retreat behind sober, simple, manly, and energetic prose. If there is any foundation in these remarks, then does it follow, that the efforts of Mr. Gilfillan to turn all the Bible into poetry are as useless as they are destitute of taste and of truth. If any thinking man wishes to put to the test the allegations that we have just made in respect to poetry, he can come at once to a just conclusion by asking the single question: What would the four Gospels be to the great world of men, if they were reduced to epic and heroic hexameters? The very thought is a degradation of them. Mr. Gilfillan will doubless set us down as æsthetical heretics, and regard us as destitute of taste. But we appeal from his decision to that tribunal of common sense and simple taste which is occupied by all sober and enlightened men. And if such an appeal be allowed, we have nothing to fear as to the issue of the cause which we have espoused. ART. XII. CRITICAL NOTICES. 1.- Lectures on the History of Rome, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Roman Empire. By B. G. NIEBUHR. Edited by DR. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, F. R. S. E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh. Second Edition, with every Addition derivable from Dr. Isler's German Edition. London: Taylor, Walton, & Maberley. 1849. 3 vols. 8vo. NIEBUHR lectured on Roman history in the University of Bonn for three years, ending in the summer of 1829. The latest edition of his published History, which had the benefit of revision by himself, appeared in 1827. As his mind was ever active, and he was constantly engaged in collecting new materials to illustrate |