too, far more adapted for the work than we, have diverged from it in various directions. Some have laudably devoted themselves to building up anew, and in a more masterly style, the evidences of the authenticity and truth of Scripture; others are employed in rebutting the startling objections to the Bible which have arrived from across the German Ocean. Many are redarguing the whole questions of supernatural inspiration and the Scripture canon from their foundations; some are disposed to treat Bible poetry as something above literary criticism; and others as something beneath it. The majority seem, in search of mistakes, or in search of mysteries, to have forgotten that the Bible is a poem at all.

We propose therefore to take up this neglected theme-the Bards of the Bible; and in seeking to develop their matchless merit as masters of the lyreto develop, at the same time, indirectly, a subordinate though strong evidence that they are something more

the rightful rulers of the belief and the heart of man. Perhaps this subject may not be found altogether unsuited to the wants of the age. If properly treated, it may induce some to pause before they seek any longer to pull in vain at the roots of a thing so beautiful. It may teach others to prize that Book somewhat more for its literature, which they have all along loved for its truth, its holiness, and its adaptation to their nature. It may strengthen some faltering convictions, and tend to withdraw enthusiasts. from the exclusive study of imperfect modern and morbid models to those great ancient masters. It may, possibly, through the lesson of infinite beauty,

successfully insinuate that of eternal truth into some souls hitherto shut against one or both; and as thousands have been led to regard the Bible as a book of genius, from having first thought it a book of God, so in thousands may the process be inverted! It will, in any case, repay, in a certain measure, our debt to that divine volume, which, from early childhood, has hardly ceased for a day to be our companion-which has colored our imagination, commanded our belief, impressed our thought, and steeped our language-which, so familiarized to us by long intimacy, has become rather a friend than a fiery revelation-to the proclamation of which, as containing a Gospel of Peace, we have devoted the most valued of our years -and to the illustration of which, as a word of unequaled genius, we now devote those pages, commending them to the Great Spirit of the Book.

THE BARDS OF THE BIBLE.

CHAPTER I.

CIRCUMSTANCES CREATING AND MODIFYING OLD TESTAMENT POETRY.

THE admitted principle that every poet is partly the creator and partly the creature of circumstances, applies to the Hebrew Bards, as to others. But it is also true that the great poet is more the creator than the creature of his age, and of its influences. And this must with peculiar force apply to those for whom we claim a certain supernatural inspiration, connected with their poetic afflatus, in some such mysterious way as the soul is connected, though not identified, with the electric fluid in the nerves and brain. What such writers give must be incomparably more than what they get from their country or their period. Still it is a very important inquiry, what events in Old Testament history, or what influences from peculiar doctrines, from Oriental scenery, or from the structure of the Hebrew language and verse, have tended to awaken or modify their strains, and to bring into play those occasional causes which have lent them their mystic and divine power? This is the subject of the present chapter, and we may further premise, that whenever even poetic inspiration is genuine, it never detracts from its merit to record the occasions which gave it birth, the sparks of national or individual feeling from which it exploded, or the influence of other minds in lighting its flame.

and can much less when it is the "authentic fire" of heaven, of which we speak.

The first circumstance we mention, is no less than the creation itself, as it appeared to the Jewish mind. The austere simplicity of that remarkable verse of Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," sounds a fitting keynote to the entire volume. Never shall we forget the emotion with which we read those words for the first time in the original tongue. The words themselves, perhaps the earliest ever written their information so momentous-the scene) to which, in their rugged simplicity, they hurried us away, gave them a profound and almost awful interest; and we sat silent, and motionless, as under the response of an oracle on which our destiny depended. Longinus has magnified the poetry of the divine exclamation, "Let there be light, and there was light;" but on our feelings the previous statement had a greater effect, throwing us back into the gulf of ages, and giving us a dim retrospect of gigantic cycles rolling forward in silence. The history of the creation indeed is all instinct with poetry. As including an account of the preparations for the reception of man, how beautifully does it evolve. How, like a drama, where the interest deepens toward the conclusion, does it, step by step, awaken and increase our attention and curiosity. First, the formless deep arises-naught seen but undefined and heaving waters, and naught heard but above the surge the broodings of the Eternal Spirit. Then light flashes forth, like some element already existing in all things, though vailed, so instantaneous in its appearance. Then, the firmament arises, dividing the waters from the waters. Then, heaving up from its overhanging seas, the dry land shows its dark earthy substance, to bear the feet of man. Then in the sky, globes, collecting and condensing the scattered light, shine forth to number the years and direct the steps of man. Then the waters, under the genial warmth, begin to teem with life, and the earth to produce its huge offspring, and to send up, as "in dance," its stately and fruit-bearing trees, to feed the appetite and relieve the solitude of man. And then, the preparations