of this stern determination, I wish that thou mayest still fare well-that is, in common parlance, be happy, for ever." This distich is a complete epanode, beginning and ending with the parallel clause, as in Bishop Jebb's example, before quoted, (page 65.) In the affecting quality of tenderness it must yield to the Hebrew, to which it bears so direct a conformity, though this is no doubt perfectly casual; while in pathetic simplicity and natural warmth of expression, Lamech's address to his wives greatly surpasses the parallel lines from Lord Byron's poem on a similar subject. Had the noble

author substituted then for still in the second line, without warping the interpretation of the final "fare thee well," the parallelism, both in sense and expression, would have remained unimpaired, and the tenderness have been greatly heightened;-e. g.

Fare thee well! and if for ever,
Then for ever, fare thee well!

This would have been a beautiful duplication, the second line only rising above the first in tenderness by the mere effect of repetition, the parallelism both in sense and expression being exactly preserved. As it now stands it is artificial, canting and equivocal. Had Lord Byron strongly felt what he was writing, when he composed this farewell address to his wife, there would have been no room in his heart for such trifling as a play upon words.

I have dwelt the longer upon the first short

fragment of Hebrew poetry found in the Bible, because it is undoubtedly the most ancient specimen of verse extant; for I am decidedly of opinion that it is strictly metrical, and is therefore extremely curious, as exhibiting how far the art of poetry had advanced in that very remote period of perfectly inartificial antiquity to which this singular fragment manifestly belongs. And from this specimen we are led to infer, that in those primitive times the inhabitants of the earth were acquainted with the laws of versification, which had no doubt been established, as I have already intimated, in the very earliest antediluvian ages.

To what extent metre was employed at a period when all arts were in their infancy, and many yet in the womb of time and only brought to a state of parturition after a long lapse of ages, it is vain to inquire; for even now scarcely any thing is known of Hebrew prosody, not suf ficient certainly to enable us to come to any definite conclusion upon the exact form of the primitive measures. Nevertheless, upon the poetical construction of some of the obscurest passages in the sacred volume there can be no mistake; and the decidedly metrical books of the Old Testament, such as Solomon's Song, the Book of Job, the Proverbs, the Psalms, and parts of the Prophecies, which are compositions exhibiting all the highest resources of the poetic art, leave no room to question the supremacy of the Hebrews in the sublimest order of composition, above every other people in this or sub

sequent times. It can scarcely excite surprise that so large a portion of the divine oracles, and especially those portions containing express revelations from God himself, should have been couched in those terms which most readily elevate the soul, and this is the especial province of poetry. I need not tell the intellectual reader that the soul delights to be elevated,―to be lifted up above this gross earth, and carried into those regions where it will finally enjoy the pure bliss of its everlasting spiritualization; but in confirmation of this obvious truth, I shall close this chapter with a beautiful extract from Akenside's "Pleasures of Imagination."

The high born soul

Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing
Beneath his native quarry. Tired of earth
And this diurnal scene, she springs aloft
Through fields of air; pursues the flying storm;
Rides on the vollied lightnings through the heavens;
Or, yoked with whirlwinds and the northern blast,
Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high she soars
The blue profound, and, hovering round the sun
Beholds him pouring the redundant stream
Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway
Bend the reluctant planets to absolve

The fated rounds of Time. Thence, far effused,
She darts her swiftness up the long career
Of devious comets; through its burning signs
Exulting measures the perennial wheel
Of Nature, and looks back on all the stars,
Whose blended light, as with a milky zone,
Invests the orient. Now amazed, she views
The empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold,
Beyond this concave heaven, their calm abode;
And fields of radiance, whose unfading light
Has travelled the profound six thousand years,
Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things.
E'en on the barriers of the world, untired,
She meditates the eternal depth below;

"Till, half-recoiling, down the headlong steep
She plunges; soon o'erwhelmed and swallowed up
In that immense of being. There her hopes
Rest at the fated goal. For, from the birth
Of mortal man, the Sovereign Maker said
That not in humble nor in brief delight,
Nor in the fading echoes of Renown,
Power's purple robe, nor Pleasure's flowery lap,
The soul should find enjoyment; but from these
Turning disdainful, to an equal good

Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view,
'Till every bound at length should disappear,
And infinite perfection close the scene.

CHAPTER VII.

Noah's malediction and blessings on his sons poeticul. Condensation a prominent feature of the early Hebrew writers. Metre essential to poetry properly so called. The distinguishing qualities of prose and poetry oppugnant. The flowers of poetry not generally favourable to prose. The style of Jeremy Taylor not improved by them. Superiority of Hooker's style. An exposition and critical analysis of the curse and blessings of Noah.

THE second specimen of Hebrew poetry which presents itself in the first book of the Pentateuch, is the malediction of Noah upon Ham, who had been guilty of an act of filial irreverence, a very heinous sin in those times of severe simplicity, when the father had a right by law, as well as a claim by nature, to the unqualified obedience of his own family, over whom he exercised an absolute jurisdiction. The passage stands thus in our Bibles:

Cursed be Canaan!

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Blessed be the Lord God of Shem!

And Canaan shall be his servant.

God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem;
And Canaan shall be his servant.

(Genesis ix. 25-27.)

This is surely very different from the language of ordinary prose. No one can fail to perceive that there is a certain artifice of management