of expression, must, by the hand of time, be cast into shade; or rather I should say, totally suppressed and extinguished. The attentive reader will, indeed, frequently feel a want of information, concerning the author, the age, and the occasion of a poem; still more frequently will he find occasion to lament his own ignorance with respect to many facts and circumstances closely connected with the principal subject, and on which, perhaps, its most striking ornaments depend. This we experience in some degree in the admirable poem of Deborah; and this I seem to experience in the sixty-eighth Psalm, though it appears to have some affinity with the subject of that which we have just examined, since it adopts in the place of an exordium, that well-known form of expression which was commonly made use of on the removal of the ark :' "Let God arise; let his enemies be scattered; But almost every part of this most noble poem is involved in an impenetrable darkness. It would otherwise have afforded a singular example of the true sublime; the scattered rays of which, breaking forth with difficul granted, from Ps. xxxviii. and xli. that at the time when Absalom formed the rebellion, David was ill of the small-pox (a disease which we cannot pretend to assert from any historical proof to have been known at that pe riod, and from which the king at his time of life could scarcely have recovered) and to shew that nothing could exceed his rashness in inventing, he adds, that by means of the disease he lost the use of his right eye for some time. : Others have recourse to mystical interpretations, or those historical passages which they do not understand they convert into prophecies into none of these errors would mankind have fallen, but through the persua sion, that the whole history of the Jews was minutely detailed to them, and that there were no circumstances with which they were unacquainted. M. Compare NUM. x. 35. ty through the thick clouds that surround it, we yet behold with a mixture of admiration and pleasure.10 The most perfect example that I know of the other species of the sublime ode, which I pointed out (that I mean which possesses a sublimity dependant wholly upon the greatness of the conceptions, and the dignity of the language, without any peculiar excellence in the form and arrangement) is the thanksgiving ode of Moses, composed after passing the Red Sea." Through every part of this poem the most perfect plainness and simplicity is maintained; there is nothing artificial, nothing laboured, either in respect to method or invention. Every part of it breathes the spirit of nature and of passion: joy, admiration, and love, united with piety and devotion, burst forth spontaneously in their native colours. A miracle of the most interesting nature to the Israelites is displayed. The sea divides, and the waters are raised into vast heaps on either side, while they pass over; but their enemies in attempting to pursue, are overwhelmed by the reflux of the waves. These circumstances are all expressed in language suitable to the emotions which they produced, abrupt, fervid, concise, animated, with a frequent repetition of the same sentiments: "I will sing to JEHOVAH, for he is very highly exalted; This constitutes the proem of the ode, and is also repeated occasionally by the female part of the band in the manner of a modern chorus, being briefly expres 10 Having professed above, that I admired not so much the sublimity as the sweetness of David's lyric poetry, I think it my duty to make an exception in favour of this Psalm, than which I do not recollect any thing more sublime in the whole book of Psalms. M. 11 EXOD. XV. sive of the general subject. The same idea, however, occurs in several parts of the poem, with considerable variation in the language and figures: "The chariots of Pharoah and his forces he cast into the sea; "And his chosen leaders were drowned in the Red Sea. "The depths have covered them; "They went down into the abyss as a stone." And again : "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake; "I will divide the spoil, my soul shall be satisfied ;12 Nor do even these repetitions satisfy the author: "Fearful in praises, performing miracles! "Thou extendest thy right-hand, the earth swallowed them; In these examples is displayed all the genuine force of nature and passion, which the efforts of art will emulate in vain. Here we behold the passions struggling for vent, labouring with a copiousness of thought and a poverty of expression, and on that very account the more expressly displayed. To take a strict account of the sublimity of this ode, would be to repeat the whole. I will only remark one quality, which is indeed congenial to all the poetry of the Hebrews, but in this poem is more than usually predominant, I mean that brevity of diction which is so conducive to sublimity of style. Diffuse and exuberant expression generally detracts from the force of the sentiment; as in the human body, excessive corpulency is generally inconsistent with health and vigour. The Hebrews, if we contemplate any of 12" This is explained by one of the Rabbinical writers, It will be filled from them; that is, says another, by taking their wealth or substance." H, their compositions as a whole, may be deemed full and copious; but if we consider only the constituent parts of any production, they will be found sparing in words, concise and energetic. They amplify by diversifying, by repeating, and sometimes by adding to the subject; therefore it happens, that it is frequently, on the whole, treated rather diffusely; but still every particular sentence is concise and nervous in itself. Thus it happens in general, that neither copiousness nor vigour is wanting. This brevity of style is in some measure to be attributed to the genius of the language, and in some measure to the nature of the Hebrew verse. The most literal versions therefore commonly fail in this respect, and consequently still less is to be expected from any poetical translations or imitations whatever. Most of those qualities and perfections, which have been the subject of this disquisition, will be found in a very high degree in the twenty-ninth Psalm. The supreme dominion of God, and the awfulness of his power, are demonstrated from the tremendous noise, and the astonishing force of the thunder, which the Hebrews, by a bold but very apt figure, denominate "the voice of "the Most High." It is enough to say of it, that the sublimity of the matter is perfectly equalled by the un, affected energy of the style. PSALM XXIX. "Sing, ye sons of might, O sing "Hear the awful accents roll: "See, as louder yet they rise, "Echoing through the vaulted skies, "Cedars of steep Lebanon. "See, up-rooted from its seat, "And Sirion haste its flight to join! 13 The oaks are affected with pain, or tremble: x or b is an oak: and certainly this word frequently occurs in the plural masculine, with the insertion of. And in this sense the SYR. has taken it, who renders it ***. For the word yn in Syriac, as well as Hebrew, denotes motion or agitation of any kind; nor is its meaning confined to the pains of childbirth. See Isa. li. 9. "This explanation of the word in the sense of moving or shaking, is established beyond a doubt upon the au"thority of the Arabic verb ↳, to move or shake." H. Though the word * does not appear in the Syriac Lexicons to signify an oak, yet it occurs four times in this sense in the Syriac version, exactly answering to the Hebrew word nя, 2 SAм. xviii. 9, 10, 14. as also in this place. The common translations suppose this passage to relate to the hinds bringing forth young which agrees very little with the rest of the imagery either in nature or dignity: nor do I feel myself persuaded, even by the reasonings of the learned Bochart on this subject, Hieroz. part i. lib. iii. chap. 17. Whereas the oak struck with lightning admirably agrees with the context. And Bochart himself explains the word л' (which has been absurdly understood by the Masorites and other commentators as relating to a stag) as spoken of a tree in a very beautiful explication of an obscure passage in GEN. xlix. 21. Author's Note. |