sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea."-Exodus, xv. 1–19.

"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he." -Deut. xxxii. 1-4.

"For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape."-Deut. xxxii. 9—14.

"For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They

shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also, with the man of gray hairs. -Deut. xxxii. 22-25.

"See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain, and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy."Deut. xxxii. 39-42.

"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall

push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."-Deut. xxxiii. 13—17.

"And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon the land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."-Deut. xxxiii. 24-29.

As intimately connected with the writings of Moses, because introduced by him to our notice, are some very interesting facts relative to the poetry of his own times, and those of even anterior date.

That Poets, or individuals whose office seems analogous to that of our modern Celtic or Scottish Bards, existed before the era of Moses, may be, I think, demonstrated from some passages in the Pentateuch. Moses refers (in Num. xxi. 14.) to the Book of the

Wars of the LORD; on which Bishop Patrick has the following

observations :

"A proof of this Moses thought good to allege out of an authentic record in those countries, containing the history of all the wars that had been in those parts; which are here called the Wars of the Lord, because he is the great Governor of the world, (as Abarbinel interprets it) from whom and by whom are all things, who putteth down one, and setteth up another (as the psalmist speaks) at his good pleasure. This book, he thinks, was written by some of the wise men of those nations, (and so thinks Nachmanides) who looking upon the conquest made by Sihon, as a very memorable thing, put it down in their annals; which, after the way of those countries, were written, he thinks, in a poetical manner. There are those who are of opinion, that this book was written by Moses himself; who left in it directions to Joshua, how to proceed in the wars of the Lord, when he conquered Canaan. So Dr. Lightfoot conjectures; and Bonfrerius doth not much differ from him. But I take the former account to be the more probable, that Moses justifies what he writes concerning this conquest, out of their own books, which he quotes, just as St. Paul, in the New Testament, doth one of the Greek poets."

In the same chapter (ver. 27) he alludes to "those that speak in PROVERBS." These, by the Septuagint, are termed aivıyμarıçaı ; and St. Augustine observes concerning them, "Who these Enigmatists are is not very plain, since there is no such appellation in our language (Latin); nor indeed is the word elsewhere found in the Holy Scriptures (that is, in the Septuagint); but since they seem to have been employed in singing a poem, in which was

celebrated a war that had been carried on between the Amorites and the Moabites, in which Seor King of the Amorites was victorious, it is not improbable that these Enigmatists may have been those whom we now call Poets; inasmuch as it is customary with poets to mingle enigmas and fables in their verses, by which they obscurely indicate realities: for an enigma is no other than a figurative mode of expression, upon the explanation of which depends our understanding the author." Quæst. xlv. in Num.

Had the term "enigmatists," been rendered "proverbialists," or even bards, probably the real meaning of the Hebrew had been more completely conveyed. In the Hebrew (says Bishop Patrick) the words are, "Wherefore the Proverbialists ;" that is, the Poets, whose composures in those days were very sententious. The whole passage is as follows:

"Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared: for there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites. We have shot at them: Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba." Numbers, xxi. 27--30.

Of the poetical spirit displayed in this piece, the reader will easily judge. It has pathos and energy.