ΤΟ THE RIGHT REVEREND RICHARD, LORD BISHOP OF LANDAFF; WHOSE GREAT ABILITIES HE HAS ALWAYS ADMIRED, WHOSE CANDOUR AND LIBERALITY HE HAS REPEATEDLY EXPERIENCED; THIS ATTEMPT TO RENDER MORE EXTENSIVELY USEFUL AN INVALUABLE WORK, IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS GRATEFUL SERVANT, THE TRANSLATOR. THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. Ir may not be improper to apprize the Public, that although the following Lectures be entitled Lectures on the Hebrew Poetry, their utility is by no means confined to that single object: They embrace all THE GREAT PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL CRITICISM, as delivered by the ancients, improved by the keen judgment and polished taste of their Author. In other words, this work will be found an excellent compendium of all the best rules of taste, and of all the principles of composition, illustrated by the boldest and most exalted specimens of genius (if no higher title be allowed them) which antiquity has transmitted to us; and which have hitherto seldom fallen under the inspection of rational criticism. Lest, from the title of the work, or from the circumstance of being originally published in a learned language, a prejudice should arise in the breast of any individual that these Lectures are addressed only to the learned, I think it a duty to anticipate a misapprehension which might interfere both with his entertainment and instruction. The greatest as well as the most useful works of taste and literature, are those which, with respect at least to their general scope and design, lie most level to the common sense of mankind. Though the learning and genius displayed in the following Lectures must ever excite our warmest admiration; though they abound in curious researches, and in refined and exquisite observations; though the splendour of the sentiments and the elegance of the style will necessarily captivate the eye and the ear of the classical reader; the truth is, THAT THEY ARE MORE CALCULATED FOr perSONS OF TASTE AND GENERAL READING, THAN FOR WHAT IS COMMONLY TERMED THE LEARNED WORLD. Here are few nice philological disquisitions, no abstruse metaphysical speculations; our Author has built solely upon the basis of common sense, and I know no part of his work which will not be intelligible and useful to almost every understanding. A still greater mistake it would be, to suppose any knowledge of the Hebrew necessary to enable us to read these Lectures with profit and pleasure. So happily does the simple genius of the Hebrew language accord with our own; and so excellent a transcript of the original (notwithstanding a few errors) is our common translation of the Scriptures; so completely, so minutely, I might say, does it represent the style and character of the Hebrew writings, that no person who is conversant with it can be at all at a loss in applying all the criticisms of our Author. On this account I will venture to assert, that if the genius of the Translator approached in any degree the clearness, the elegance, the elevation of the Author, these Lectures in our own language would exhibit the subject in a much fairer and more advantageous light than in the original form. The English idiom, indeed, has so much greater analogy to the Hebrew, that the advantages which it possesses over the Latin must be obvious to any reader who compares the literal translations in each of these languages. But the utility of these Lectures as a system of criticism, is perhaps their smallest merit. They teach us not only taste, but virtue; not only to admire and revere the Scriptures, but to profit by their precepts. The Author of the present work is not to be considered merely as a master of the general principles of criticism—he has penetrated the very sanctuaries of Hebrew literature; he has investigated, with a degree of precision which few critics have attained, the very nature and character of their composition by accurately examining, and cautiously comparing every part of the sacred writings; by a force of genius which could enter into the very design of the authors; and by a comprehensiveness of mind which could embrace at a single |