"attain to the reading of the Hebrew Bine wun wirte pans. I boy takes to whip his top, or play dexterousiya naries! The consequence may, perhaps, have been, that earung is more cura extended; but, aiready, what is gained in extension is ost n wya: and soon, unless we revert to more substanrai notes of na the learning of the age must of necessity become mere cases scred anroad with all the divisibuity of matter, which s nimte, car dasy withal as gossamer, and poor in its gandiness, like the giting of a elod. The forms, and idioms, and worts of a dead angiare. 17 not to be known by intuition, nor acquired “stuns poste in two." Labour-Labour LABOUR. This is the only my way; ms our fathers trod, and the worthies of another age; and we, ther children, will not fear to follow.

L

On the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. :

OF THE COMPARISON.

COMPARISONS serve three distinct purposes, namely-illustration, amplification, and pleasure or variety.

In the first place, comparisons are introduced to illustrate a subject, and to place it in a clearer and more conspicuous point of view. This is most successfully effected, when the object which furnishes the simile is familiar and perspicuous, and when it exactly agrees with that to which it is compared. In this species of comparison elevation or beauty, sublimity or splendour are of little consequence; strict propriety, and a direct resemblance, calculated exactly for the explanation of the subject, is a sufficient commendation. Thus, Homer very accurately depicts the numbers of the Grecian army, their ardour and eagerness for battle, by a comparison taken from flies collected about a milk-pail3; and Virgil compares the diligence of

That great critic, Scaliger, observes, that the beginnings of the Hebrew do not threaten us with much trouble; but as we proceed, says he, we find inexpressible difficulties. Those who go no farther than the beginnings have never

discovered this,

* Continued from p. 359.

Thick as insects play,

The wandering nation of a summer's day,

That, drawn by milky steams at evening hours,
In gather'd swarms surround the rural bowers;
From pail to pail, with busy murmur, rya
The gilded legions, glittering in the sun.-POPE.

the Tyrians in building their city, and the variety of their occupations, with the labours of the bees 1; without in the least degrading the dignity of the Epic muse.

Many examples to the purpose might be produced from the Sacred poetry, but two or three will suffice, than which, both as to matter and expression, nothing can be meaner or more vulgar; nothing, however, can be conceived more forcible or expressive. Isaiah introduces the king of Assyria insolently boasting of his victories:

And my hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the peoples:
And as one gathereth eggs deserted,

So have I made a general gathering of the earth:

And there was no one that moved the wing;

That opened the beak, or that chirped. 2

And, Nahum, on a similar subject:

All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs :
If they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 3

There is also another comparison of Isaiah taken from domestic life, very obvious and very common; but which, for the gracefulness of the imagery, the elegance of the arrangement, and the forcible expression of the tenderest affections, has never been exceeded :

But Sion saith: Jehovah hath forsaken me;

And my Lord hath forgotten me.

Can a woman forget her sucking infant;

That she should have no tenderness for the son of her womb?
Even these may forget;

But I will not forget thee.

There is another species of comparison, the principal intent of which is the amplification of the subject; and this is evidently of a different nature from the former: for, in the first place, it is necessary that the image which is introduced for the purpose of amplifying or ennobling a subject be sublime, beautiful, magnificent, or splendid, and therefore not trite or common; nor is it by any means necessary that the resemblance be exact in every circumstance.— Thus Virgil has the address to impart, even to the labours of his bees, a wonderful air of sublimity, by a comparison with the exertions of the Cyclops in fabricating the thunderbolts of Jupiter: thus, he admirably depicts the grace, the dignity, and strength of his Æneas, by comparing him with Apollo on the top of Cynthus renewing the sacred chorus 5; or with the mountains Athos, Eryx, and Appenine. 6 Thus also Homer 7, in which he is imitated by Virgil, compares two

See the use to which Milton has applied the same diminutive insect, Paradise Lost, b. i. 768, and the address with which the simile is introduced by the expressions, thick-swarm'd, &c. in the lines immediately preceding. 3 Nah. iii. 12.

2 Isa. x. 14.

4 Georg. iv. 170.

En. iv. 143. accurately and scientifically explained, may consult an excellent work lately published by the learned Mr. Spence, entitled Polymetis, p. 37 and 248.

6 Æn. xii. 701.-Whoever desires to see this

7 II. xiii. 298.

Bp. LowтH. 8 En. xii. 331.

heroes rushing to battle with Mars and his offspring Terror, advancing from Thrace to the Phlegyans and Ephyrians. But if it should be objected, that as comparisons of the former kind are wanting in dignity, so these (in which familiar objects are compared with objects but little known, or with objects which have little agreement or resemblance to them) are more likely to obscure than to illustrate; let it be remembered, that each species of comparison has in view a different end. The aim of the poet in the one case is perspicuity, to enable the mind clearly to perceive the subject, and to comprehend the whole of it at one view; in the other, the object is sublimity, or to impress the reader with the idea that the magnitude of the subject is scarcely to be conceived. When considered in this light, it will, we dare presume, be allowed, that none of these forms of comparison, when rightly applied, is deficient, either in propriety or elegance.

The Hebrews have nothing that corresponds with those fables, to which the Greek and Roman poets have recourse, when amplification is required: nor can we be surprised that imagery so consecrated, so dignified by religion and antiquity, and yet of so obvious and established acceptation as to be intelligible to the meanest understanding, should supply abundant and suitable materials for this purpose. The sacred poets, therefore, resort in this case chiefly to the imagery of nature; and this they make use of, indeed, with so much elegance and freedom, that we have no cause to regret the want of those fictions to which other nations have recourse. To express or delineate prosperity and opulence, a comparison is assumed from the cedar or the palm; if the form of majesty or external beauty is to be depicted, Lebanon or Carmel is presented to our view. Sometimes they are furnished with imagery from their religious rites, at once beautiful,

1 A simile may, however, be taken from an object really inferior, and yet may serve to elevate the subject: but then the object of the figure must possess some of those qualities, which, if they do not heighten our respect, will enlarge or vivify the idea. Thus a field of corn on fire is really a more trifling object than a city in flames; yet Virgil, Æn. ii. v. 406, introduces it so artfully, that it not only serves to illustrate, but to raise our idea of the sack of Troy:

Thus when a flood of fire by wind is borne,

Crackling it rolls, and mows the standing corn, &c.— DRYDEN. Of this kind also is that comparison of Milton, in which he likens the spears of the angels surrounding Satan, to a field of corn:

as thick as when a field

Of Ceres ripe for harvest, waving bends

Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind
Sways them, &c.

Par. Lost, b. iv. 983.

The reason why great subjects may thus be elevated by a comparison with smaller, appears to be, because the latter, being more familiar to our minds, and therefore easier of comprehension, make a more distinct and forcible impression, and lead the mind gradually to the contemplation and proper conception of the greater objects. Mr. GREGORY.

2 Psal. xcii. 13. Numb. xxiv. 6. Hos. xiv. 6, 7, 8. Amos ii. 9.

dignified, and sacred. In both these modes, the Psalmist most elegantly extols the pleasures and advantages of fraternal concord. 1

Let us, however, attend for a moment to Isaiah, whom no writer has surpassed in propriety, when his aim is to illustrate; or, in sublimity, when he means to amplify his subject:

Wo to the multitude of the numerous peoples,

Who make a sound like the sound of the seas:

And to the roaring of the nations,

Who make a roaring like the roaring of mighty waters.

Like the roaring of mighty waters do the nations roar;

But he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far away;

And they shall be driven like the chaff of the hills before the wind,
And like the gossamer before the whirlwind. 2

The third species of comparison seems to hold a middle rank between the two preceding: and the sole intent of it is, by a mixture of new and varied imagery with the principal matter, to prevent satiety or disgust, and to promote the entertainment of the reader. It neither descends to the humility of the one, nor emulates the sublimity of the other. It pursues rather the agreeable, the ornamental, the elegant, and ranges through all the variety, all the exuberance of nature. In so extensive a field, it would be an infinite task to collect all that might be observed of each particular. We shall remark one circumstance only, which, though it sometimes takes place ' in the two former species of comparison, may be said, notwithstanding, to be chiefly appropriated to this last.

There are two operations of the mind, evidently contrary to each other. The one consists in combining ideas, the other in separating and distinguishing them. For, in contemplating the innumerable forms of things, one of the first reflections which occurs, is, that there are some which have an immediate agreement, and some which are directly contrary to each other. The mind, therefore, contemplates those objects which have a resemblance in their universal nature in such a manner, as naturally to inquire whether in any respect they so disagree, as to furnish any mark of discrimination; on the contrary, it investigates those which are generally different in such a manner, as to remark whether, in their circumstances or adjuncts, they may not possess something in common, which may serve as a bond of connexion or association to class or unite them. final cause of the former of these operations seems to be, to caution and guard us against error, in confounding one with another of the latter, to form a kind of repository of knowledge, which may be resorted to, as occasion serves, either for utility or pleasure. These

1 Ps. cxxxiii. 2, 3. Isai. xvii. 12, 13.

The

-are want לאמים כשאון מים כבירים ישאון ,These five words

ing in seven manuscripts: with this difference in two of them, v. 12, for we read on. So also the Syriac version, which agrees with them. These five words are not necessary to the sense; and seem to be repeated only by the carelessness of the transcriber. - Dr. KENNICOTT. Вp. Lowтн.,

And thither it doth not return;

But moisteneth the earth,

And maketh it generate, and put forth its increase;
That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall be the word which goeth from my mouth;

It shall not return unto me fruitless;

But it shall effect what I have willed;

And make the purpose succeed, for which I have sent it. 1

More examples, and of superior elegance, may be found in the Song of Solomon : it must not, indeed, be dissembled, that there are some in that poem, which are very reprehensible, on account of that general dissonance, and fanciful agreement, which I have just remarked as a great imperfection attending the free use of this figure. We must be cautious, however, lest in some cases we charge the poet with errors, which are in reality our own; since many of the objects which suggested these comparisons, are greatly obscured, and some of them removed entirely beyond the sphere of our knowledge, by distance of time and place. It is the part of a wise man not rashly to condemn what we are able but partially to comprehend.

These three forms, according to which, for the sake of perspicuity, we have classed comparisons in general, are, however, not so incompatible that they may not occasionally meet and be variously blended with each other. That, indeed, appears to be the most perfect comparison, which combines all these different objects, and while it explains, serves at the same time to amplify and embellish the subject; and which possesses evidence and elevation, seasoned with elegance and variety. A more complete example is scarcely to be found, than that passage in which Job impeaches the infidelity and ingratitude of his friends, who, in his adversity, denied him those consolations of tenderness and sympathy, which, in his prosperous state, and when he needed them not, they had lavished upon him: he compares them with streams, which, increased by the rains of winter, overflow their borders, and display for a little time a copious and majestic torrent; but with the first impulse of the solar beams, are suddenly dried up, and leave those who, unfortunately, wander through the deserts of Arabia, destitute of water, and perishing with thirst. 4

Thus far of comparisons in general, and of their matter and intention it remains to add a few words concerning the particular form and manner in which the Hebrews usually exhibit them.

The Hebrews introduce comparisons more frequently perhaps than the poets of any other nation; but the brevity of them in general compensates for their abundance. The resemblance usually turns upon a single circumstance; that they explain, in the most simple terms, rarely introducing any thing at all foreign to the purpose.The following example, therefore, is almost singular, since it is load

1 Isa. lv. 10, 11.

3 See Cant. vii. 2. 4.

2 See Cant. iv. 1-5.

4 Job vi. 15-20.