on earth; it was "a hope full of immortality;" and still through all ages, and in all lands, whilst the sun and moon endure, it shall be said by people of every kindred and nation, and in every tongue spoken under heaven, "I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Sacred Literature. We must here conclude what the limits of this brief essay will permit to be said respecting the literature of the Bible, the first five books of which contain examples of every species of writing and discourse in use among the Jews poetry and prose, eloquence, ethics, legislation, history, biography, prophecy. It may be added, that the narrative portions. especially are of inimitable simplicity; they breathe a pathos, and at times exercise a power over the affections, which no compositions extant beside them have equalled, except some passages of rare occurrence in the subsequent books of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. The historian presents men, manners, and incidents to the eye, the mind, and the sympathies of the reader, precisely in the way that they impressed his own. This is the uniform style of the inspired penman in his highest mood: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."― Gen. i. 1—3. In scenes of common life, and the intercourse between man and man, nothing can be more delicately true to nature, than the light touches of a hand that could sketch such a scene as the following; - the picture composed of words having this advantage over any picture drawn with lines and colours; that, whereas the latter can exhibit but one moment, and only imply discourse, the former can express motion, speech, and progress the beginning, middle, and end of the action represented. How graceful, and yet how emphatic, are the Oriental pleonasms in Jacob's reply to Pharaoh's simple question! "And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. "And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?' "And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage!' "And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.” * Of the remaining books of Scripture (all of which are more or less conformed to these primitive models) it will not be expedient to enter into further * Gen. xlvii. 7-10. particulars, than to offer an example of the perfection to which the most perfect of all the forms of literary composition was carried by him, who, both as prophet and minstrel, is distinguished by the title of the sweet singer of Israel. Considered merely as an emanation of genius, conceived in the happiest frame of mind, and executed with force and elegance corresponding, -the 104th Psalm may not only be quoted in competition with any other similar product of fine taste, but may, indeed, be placed as the standard by which descriptive poetry itself ought to be measured, and estimated as it approaches or falls short of the excellence of such a model. This divine song is a meditation on the mighty power and wonderful providence of God. It begins with an apostrophe to Him, as "clothed with honour and majesty, who covereth Himself with light as a garment, who stretcheth out the heavens like the curtain of a tent, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind." Then follow exhibitions of Almighty power in creation, when" He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever;" and in destruction, when, at the deluge, "the waters stood above the mountains," but, having accomplished their ministry of wrath, "at (His) rebuke they fled; at the voice of (His) thunder they hasted away." This scene of devastation is succeeded by one of amenity and fruitfulness, exquisitely delineated:"He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run. among the hills. They give drink to every beast of unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes with the blood of grapes. "His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk." The whole of this imagery might be engraven in hieroglyphics; but not one of the sister arts alone can do it justice, for it combines the excellencies of all three, picture to the eye, music to the ear, poetry to the mind. The death of Jacob brings us to the year 2315 from the creation, and consequently includes the earliest era in profane history, of which any authentic records remain concerning those celebrated nations of antiquity, among whom arts and sciences flourished while Greece and Italy were yet unpeopled or unknown. It has been intimated that verse was antecedent to prose in the progress of literature. It is true, that in the book of Genesis, many conversations are given; and in various instances, no doubt, the very words employed by the speakers have been preserved; but none of these having been artificially constructed for the purpose of identifying and perpetuating the sentiments with the phraseology, they come not under that definition of literature which has been assumed in this Essay; in fact, they are themselves integral portions of a literary work; namely, the first book of Moses, which belongs to a later period. Undoubtedly traditions of what had been said, as well as what had been done, by patriarchs |