He pulleth downe, he setteth up on hy; Faerie Queene, B. v. Cant. ii. st. 41. By the same figure, the stern Juvenal, after his manner, gives prominence to the hateful, rather than to the ludicrous; to the colossal vices, than to the pigmy port and presence, of his contemporaries : Terra malos homines nunc educat, atque pusillos, Sat. xv. 70. A WICKED brood earth now brings forth, and weak, Which every God who sees, derides and HATES. Malos, pusillos; ridet, odit; pusillos ridet; odit malos: derides the weak; hates the wicked. Nor is this artifice unobservable, even in prose writers; for example : Bιον εξετέλεσεν ευσεβων και δικαιοπραγων, προς τε ανθρώπους και θεους. Diod. Sicul. p. 32. "He closed life "with acts of piety and justice, towards both men and "Gods.." Piety towards the Gods; justice towards men: piety is placed first, the Gods are placed last, from a sense of religious decorum. "Ad hoc, quos manus atque 66 lingua, perjurio et sanguine civili, alebat." Sall. de Bell. Catal. c. xiv. Manus, sanguine civili; lingua, perjurio. To the murder of fellow-citizens, as to the more atrocious crime, the historian gives prominence. These last two passages, have been cited by Münthe; Observ. Philol. on S. Matt. vii. 6. and Philem. 5. A fine example of this construction is afforded by Lucian, while citing, amplifying, and illustrating, the memorable and great-hearted saying of Thucydides: κτημα τε γαρ φησι μαλλον ες αει συγγράφειν, ηπες ες το παρον αγωνισμα και μη το μυθώδες ασπαζεσθαι αλλα την αλήθειαν των γεγενημένων απολείπειν πως δει ίςος, συγγρ. τ. 42. For he declares, that he is rather composing a possession for eternity; than an ostentatious declamation for the present; but bequeathing to posterity the truth of past events. Bos, in his "Animadv. Critic." observes, that Lucian here elegantly explains the αγωνισμα, by το μυθώδες, and the κτημα, by την αληθειαν. See Hemsterhus. Luc. vol. ii. p. 55. Eternity and truth are first and last. This figure, however, as might naturally be expected, prevails most in poetry: and indeed Hesiod tells us, that the Muses were fond of it; taking special care to assign to themselves the commencement and the close, and, not very respectfully, relegating to the centre the rest of the immortals: και με κελονθ' ὑμνειν μακάρων γενος αιεν εοντων, Θεογον. 33. I shall close this long note with a slight, but not uninteresting particular: in the customary form of Arabian salutation there is a beautiful epanodos: "When the "Arabs salute one another, it is generally in these terms, "Salám aleikum, Peace be with you: in speaking these "words, they lay the right hand on the heart. The an"swer is, Aleikum essalám, With you be peace." Niebuhr. quoted by Dr. Harmer. Obs. vol. ii. p. 328. ed. 1808. PEACE begins the salutation; and it ends with PEACE. 75 SECTION V. THE poetical or sententious parallelism, some varieties of which have been exemplified in the preceding sections, is variously distributed through the writings of the Old Testament: sometimes it is continuous and unmixed; as in the Psalms, Proverbs, and Canticles: sometimes it characterises the main body of a work, with a prosaic introduction and conclusion; as in the book of Job: sometimes it predominates throughout a whole book, with occasional intermixture of narrative in prose; as in most of the prophets (1): and sometimes, on the contrary, it forms the exception; the general texture of the composition being unquestionable prose; as in the historical books, and, we may add, the book of Ecclesiastes. (2) Again, it is to be observed, that, with the exception of a few partial failures, the character and complexion of Hebrew poetry have been very competently preserved in that body of Greek translations, composed at different times, by dif ferent persons, and known under the name of the Septuagint Version. Nor should it be omitted, that the Hebraic parallelism occurs also, with much variety, in the Apocrypha (S): the book of Ecclesiasticus, for example, is composed of pure parallelisms: the Book of Wisdom, too, affords fine specimens of this manner, though it is com monly overlaid by the exuberant and vicious rhetoric of the Alexandrine Platonists; while, not to mention other parts of the Apocryphal writings, in Tobit and the books of Maccabees there are examples both of lyric and didactic poetry, clothed in parallelisms which will hardly shrink from comparison with several in the genuine Hebrew ScripOne other fact remains: namely, that, in the sententious formula of the Rabbinical writers, the manner of Hebrew poetry is frequently observed, with much accuracy, though with a manifest declension of spirit. (4) The above circumstances appear worthy of consideration and, if attentively considered, they may, probably, both suggest, and authorise, a few anticipations respecting the style of the New Testament. Here we have been examining a mode of composition, applied almost exclusively to sacred subjects; admitting considerable varieties; and, in all those varieties, more or less prevalent throughout the entire Old Testament; a manner, alike perfect in the sublime ode, the tender elegy, and the didactic aphorism; carefully retained, by the most ancient translators of the Hebrew Scriptures; happily imitated, by a succession of Jewish writers, whose authority is all but sacred; fondly, though feebly, cherished by those Rabbinical teachers who preceded, and who survived, the destruction of the Jewish polity; and, what is of considerable importance in our present enquiry, a manner completely naturalised in the Greek language, by the Alexandrine ver. sionists; and even by original Greek writers, in some of the books termed Apocryphal. Now, the question may be confidently asked, is it in any degree probable, that such a manner should have been abruptly and altogether discarded in the New Testament? Does not the very supposition run counter to all the analogies, afforded by the works of HIM who was the inspirer of both portions of the Sacred Volume? In the wide expanse of nature, there is no abruptness of transition. The forms indeed, and the colourings, are infinitely various; but so harmonically blended, and so nicely shaded off, that it is impossible to define, with accuracy, where one begins, and where another ends. And if this be so in God's inanimate works, shall we not much more expect the same keeping, the same congruity amidst variety, throughout his living word? In the latter, we cannot suppose that even the style and manner were fortuitous design pervades the whole matter of both Testaments; and unity is the soul of that design; but the matter and manner of Scripture are, beyond the matter and manner of any other body of writings, most intimately connected; so intimately connected, that unity of matter demands and implies, in this divine book, a correspondent unity of manner. And, on this ground alone, we may reasonably conclude, that a manner largely prevalent in the Old Testament, cannot be relinquished in the New. This question may, however, be regarded in another and a more popular light. Let us only |