the other". These forms again are diversified by notes of admiration, comparison, negation, and more particularly interrogation, whence a singular degree of force and elevation is frequently added to the composition. Each language possesses a peculiar genius and character, on which depend the principles of the versification, and in a great measure the style or colour of the poetic diction. In Hebrew the frequent or rather perpetual splendour of the sentences, and the accurate recurrence of the clauses, seem absolutely necessary to distinguish the verse: so that what in any other language would appear a superfluous and tiresome repetition, in this cannot be omitted without injury to the poetry. This excellence, therefore, the sententious style possesses in the Hebrew poetry, that it necessarily prevents a prosaic mode of expression, and always reduces a composition to a kind of metrical form. For, as Cicero remarks," in certain forms of expression "there exists such a degree of conciseness, "that a sort of metrical arrangement follows of course. For, when words or sen 22 ECCLUS. Xxxiii. 15. H 3 "tences "tences directly correspond, or when con"traries are opposed exactly to each other; 66 or even when words of a similar sound run parallel, the composition will in ge"neral have a metrical cadence 23." It pos sesses, however, great force in other respects, and produces several great and remarkable beauties of composition. For, as the sacred poems derive from this source a great part of their elegance, harmony, and splendour, so they are not unfrequently indebted to it for their sublimity and strength. Frequent and laconic sentences render the composition remarkably concise, harmonious, and animated; the brevity itself imparts to it additional strength, and being contracted within a narrower space, it has a more energetic and pointed effect. Examples sufficient to evince the truth of these remarks will occur hereafter in the passages which will be quoted in illustration of other parts of our subject: and, in all probability, on a future occasion the nature of my undertaking will require a more amplé discussion of this subject". 23 Orator. #4 See Lect. XIX, LECTURE V. OF THE FIGURATIVE STYLE, AND ITS DIVISIONS. 2. The Figurative Style; to be treated rather according to the genius of the Hebrew poetry than according to the forms and arrangements of Rhetoricians-The definition and constituent parts of the Figurative Style, METAPHOR, ALLEGORY, COMPARISON, PERSONIFICATION -The reason of this mode of treating the subject: difficulties in reading the Hebrew poetry, which result from the Figurative Style; how to be avoided. 1. Of the METAPHOR, including a general disquisition concerning poetic imagery: the nature of which is explained; and four principal sources pointed out: Nature, Common Life, Religion, History. IN my last Lecture I offered it as my opinion, that the Hebrew word expressive of the poetic style had not one simple and distinct meaning, but might commodiously enough be supposed to admit of three con- . stituent parts or divisions: in other words, that it might imply the sententious, the figurative, and the sublime. On the sententious style, its nature, origin, and effect in the Hebrew poetry, I offered such brief remarks as occurred to me at the time: and now that - I am H 4 I am about to treat of the figurative style, I observe before me an infinity of matter and an ample field; in which, lest we should too freely expatiate, or irregularly wander, the scope and order of our journey, the outlets of the road, the circuitous paths, and the most direct avenues, are in the first place to be carefully investigated. In order to the full comprehension also of those matters which will be treated of in this part, for they are in some degree remote from common use, it may not be improper previously to explain as clearly as possible, and therefore with some degree of copiousness, my immediate design; on what principles, in what order and method, and to what end I mean to treat of the figures which are chiefly employed in the Hebrew poetry. The word Mashal, in its most common acceptation, denotes resemblance, and is therefore directly expressive of the figurative style, as far as the nature of figures consists in the substitution of words, or rather of ideas, for those which they resemble; which. is the case even with most of the figures that have been remarked by the Rhetoricians. This definition, therefore, of the figurative style, drawn drawn both from the writings of the Hebrews, and the sense of the word itself, I mean to follow in explaining the nature of their poetry and this I do the more willingly, because it will enable me to confine our investigation within narrower limits. I shall also venture to omit the almost innumerable forms of the Greek Rhetoricians, who possessed the faculty of inventing names in the highest perfection; I shall neglect even their primary distinction between tropes and figures', and their subdivisions of the figures themselves, denominating some figures of expression, and some figures of sentiment. In disregarding these distinctions, I might in my own justification allege the authority of C. Artorius Proculus, who gave the name of figure to a trope, as Quintilian informs us; and, indeed, the example of Quintilian himself. I omit them, however, upon a dif This distinction is very judiciously laid aside, since each of these words is but a partial mode of expressing the same thing. A trope signifies no more than the turning a word from its appropriate meaning; and a figure, an appearance incidentally assumed, without the least implication of its being borrowed. 2 See QUINT. Lib. IX. 1. S.H. ferent |