other divisions: such as Cowper's "Task" and Thomson's "Seasons."

The fourth division is the Epic or Heroic poem, which narrates or recites, in elevated style, a continuous series of events or actions, true or fictitious, historical or imaginary, in such a manner as to teach some great moral, or celebrate some august personage: as, for instance, the "Iliad" of Homer, the Eneid" of Virgil, the "Jerusalem Delivered" of Tasso, the "Divina Commedia " of Dante and the "Paradise Lost" of Milton.

(Now, the bards of the Bible have surpassed all others, in at

least two of these departments-the Lyric and the Didactic: the Lyric as represented in the book of Psalms, and the Didactic as represented in the book of Proverbs. And in descriptive didactic poetry, we might regard Job, Isaiah, and the prophets generally, as standing at the head of the list, if they did not fall more naturally under other departments. It must be conceded, that there is nothing in ancient or modern literature, which, for proverbial, sententious wisdom, and deep insight into human character, can be put in comparison with the poetry of Solomon. And as for description, where will you find any description of the works of God or man-any portraying of the scenery of the heavens and the earth, which can equal the bold, life-like pictures of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Job. At the distance of twenty or thirty centuries, these still shine through the night of past ages, as stars of the first magnitude. Upon a canvas, whose background envelops in a cloud of oblivion all contemporaneous products of uninspired genius, these grand delineations of the patriarch of Uz still stand out in all their original brightness and beauty, as if they had been painted with the pencil of the sunlight, from "colors dipped in heaven."

But it is in the department of Lyric poetry, that the Hebrew

muse attains her highest triumphs, and stands to this day without a rival in the history of literature. Whether we regard the Psalms as national ballads, designed to inspire the Jewish people with patriotic enthusiasm, and the love of glory, or view them as religious odes adapted to raise the devotions of the nation in holy gratitude to the God of their fathers-in either case they stand confessedly unequalled, unapproached by the odes or ballads of any other age or nation. In the chaste and simple grandeur of their diction and imagery, in the mingled sublimity and pathos of their sentiment, in the stern and immaculate purity of their moral tone, in the deep, abiding impres sion which they made upon the whole Israelitish mind through centuries of prosperity and adversity, and in the untold influence which they have exercised over every nation of the civilized world down to the present day, they never had any fair competitor, much less any equal.

In the other two departments of poetry-the Dramatic and the Epic it is acknowledged, that the bards of the Bible have not given us the same finished models. The composition of the Drama and the Epic, requiring more art and invention than the others, was uncongenial to the truth-loving spirit of Hebrew poesy. In these, the muses of Greece and Rome and all the great modern nations attained their highest flight and sung their noblest, sweetest song. But the muse of the Bible, being at once the early expounder of nature, when she appeared "unindebted to the tricks of art," and the inspired oracle of God to teach man wisdom, chose the ballad and the proverb, as her most appropriate vehicles: and accordingly we find no great Epic, like Milton's, nor finished Dramas, like Shakspeare's.

The fictitious history or novel, which constitutes the basis of the great Epic, and the stage, with all its cumbrous artistic

machinery, constituting the basis of the Drama, were things unknown among the Jews, until they were borrowed from the Romans, and introduced by that half pagan, Herod the Great. The muse of Hebrew poesy was always too truthful and holy to introduce anything like the stage, or anything nearer the novel than a simple parable or allegory

Still there is one important consideration, in reference to this point, which must not be overlooked. Though the Bible contains no great epic, like the "Iliad," and no great drama, like "King Lear" or "Hamlet," still it contains much noble poetry of an Epic and Dramatic character. It is full of the germsthe seed-thoughts of great epics and dramas. It gives us shot. epics, which recite a true history and delineate a real hero. sets before us sublime dramas, written for hostage but the stage of real life, and arranged for the scenery of no theatre, but the grand theatre of heaven and earth and hell.

For example, it is generally agreed amongst Bible critics that the "Canticles," or "Song of Solomon,"

the elements of a lyric and pastoral poem, is also a drama, complete even to the chorus, in all its parts, and intended to represent vividly the relation between Christ and his beauteous Bride the Church, under the imagery of a recently married husband and wife. As to the poetical character of the book of Job, there has been a diversity of opinions among eminent judges. It is said that Daniel Webster regarded it as an epic-the most magnificient to be found in human literature. But the most commonly received opinion, among Biblical scholars, is, that it is more of a drama than an epic. Whilst it is in many respects a didactic descriptive poem, and whilst it contains many of the essential elements of an epic poem, it seems to be more accurately described as a historical drama-the

oldest and the sublimest ever written, embracing a panorama of universal nature, material and spiritual, animate and iuanimate, ranging from arch-angel fallen to the Deity, and containing a grand dialogue between Satan, Man and God, whose scenes are laid alternately in heaven and earth, whose denouement is the vindication of the patriarch by the intervention of Jehovah, and whose great moral design is to "assert eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to men."

Be this as it may; Miriam's song at the Red Sea, and Deborah's war-song, contain as in a nutshell the elements of epic poems, recounting real and heroic deeds. Moses' Farewell to Israel is another and longer epic, and might be expanded even now into a grand national epic, far more wonderful and glorious than the Eneid of Virgil. Many of the Psalms, in imitation of this address, are little epic poems, celebrating the mighty acts of Jehovah, when he led his people through the waters and the wilderness. And what shall we say of the later prophecies of Isaiah, running from the fortieth chapter to the end of the book in one unbroken and exalted strain? What shall we call this, but one grand prophetic epic, whose suffering but conquering hero is the Messiah of Israel, whose story is the ever onward progress of Christianity, and whose sublime moral climax is the millennial glory of a world, redeemed, purified, and prepared for God?

VI. THE INFLUENCE OF HEBREW POETRY.

If, however, we would do full justice to the Poetry of the Bible, we must measure it, not merely by what it has done directly itself, but by what it has enabled others to do; we must take into consideration not only its own finished productions, but also the materials it has furnished, and the vast

influence it has thus exerted upon the productions of the world's genius, whose fires, for two thousand years, have been kindled at its altars. The Bible, as we have seen, not only contains the highest models of lyric and didactic poetry, and also no mean specimens both of dramatic and epic poetry; but, what is most important to observe, it has furnished the material, of fact, of sentiment and of doctrine, out of which the greatest epic poems of modern times have been framed. Their seed thoughts, their characters, their imagery, their illustrations, their grand moral, their religious basis, their whole conception, have been borrowed from, or suggested by the Bible. In whatever the moderns have differed from, or excelled the ancients in poetry, it is the Bible that has helped them to the distinction and enabled them to achieve the victory. If you could take out of the literature of modern nations, all that the Bible has put into it, there would not be a shred of glory left, on which to claim preeminence over classical antiquity. And the same is true of our science, our religion, and civilization, as well as our poetry. If then Dante, and Tasso, and Milton have written grander epics than Moses, David, and Isaiah, it is by the help of the materials which the Bible has put into their hands, that they have thus been able to surpass the Bible, whilst they surpass the ancient classical authors. Thus fostered by the Bible, they may virtually be claimed as bards of the Bible. Who would ever have heard of "Paradise Lost" or "Paradise Regained," had there been no Bible? Where else could Milton's muse have found such food for thought, and such themes for inspiration? And what are these poems, after all, but a reproduction, and a liberal paraphrase, and a new translation of the Bible, couched in harmonious immortal numbers?