thy bounty, the nursling of thy care, thy very child, be one among these ministers of thy pleasure, and one among these minstrels of thy praise?"

It may reasonably be asked why so large a portion of the Bible, which is professedly a book for all nations, has been taken up with topographical descriptions of Palestine? One purpose of this, we doubt not, was to render the Bible a picturesque and thus a pleasing volume to the lovers of natural scenery. But was this the sole purpose, or is there not a divine philosophy here? We apprehend there is. For we persuade ourselves that we can discover in the geographical picturesqueness of the Bible no small proof of its Divine origin. In the first place, its Author has thus shown himself to be acquainted with human nature in one of its universal instincts or sentiments. By the law of local associations, we can not help feeling a deep interest and curiosity to know about the land which was the theater of our redemption. We feel a desire to have set before us a vivid picture of its physical aspects-its streams, its mountains, its valleys, its cities; to have photographed, so to speak, to our mind's eye the exact spots in the wilderness where its patriarchs pitched their tents; the precise haunts of its ancient seers; the Temple where its congregations worshiped; and, above all, "the holy places" which were frequented by the Savior. The Author of the Bible, knowing this law in our nature, has made provision for it

by the Scriptures being so eminently topographical. For more than by Grecian poets the isles of the Egean, by the Hebrew bards has Palestine, in its geographical features and remarkable localities, become a land familiar to the stranger.

But, further, may we not trace a beautiful harmony between the scenic picturesqueness of the Bible and its prophetic character? For, when the period of the expatriation shall have been completed, and the children of the exiles are restored to their fatherland, is the country of their sires to be to them as a strange country? When they are to be restored to their ancestral home shall it be to them as an alien land? Must the returned exiles sit down to weep, saying, We know not this place? Not so; for, though they have never visited it, with the Bible in their hands as their guide-book, they will recognize each sacred locality, and be able to trace the footsteps of their ancient sires. These local recognitions, linking at once into the chain of their historic memories, will make the returned exiles feel at home; with joy they will say, This is the land of our fathers.

CHAPTER IX.

HEBREW POETRY.

AMONG the questiones vexatæ in literature, few have been more keenly debated than, what is poetry? and what the function of the poet? Much of this disputation could have been avoided had our critics, instead of aiming at a single generalization, been content to specify particulars; since that which in its own nature is composite will not be described except by a composite definition; nor will any refinement of criticism succeed in reducing to a single conception that which combines several. Thus, when Aristotle defines poetry to be the mimetic or imitative art, he gives a definition which is neither distinctive nor exhaustive. It is not distinctive, seeing that painting and sculpture are as truly imitative arts as is poetry; nor is it exhaustive, since while imitation is one it is not the only property of poetry. So likewise those critics are at fault who define the province of poetry to be fiction; for while imagination and even pure fancy have much to do with the conceptions of the poet, many subjects proper to his art and which he is accustomed to discourse, so far from being fictitious, are of all realities the most real. Such are the works of God,

the sentiments of piety, and the passions of the human heart. Then with regard to the function of the poet, high authorities have pronounced it to be to please, while that of the historian and philosopher is to instruct. Now, unquestionably, poetry affords pleasure, both by the richer hues in which it dips its pen, by its peculiar phraseology, its rythmical construction, and its abundant figures; but while the vehicle in which the poet conveys his thoughts is peculiarly fitted to please, his aim, fully as much as that of the philosopher and historian, may be, and often is, to instruct and reform mankind.

What then is poetry? or, as we would prefer to put it for who may define the ethereal art itself?— what are the attributes of the true poet? There is first that peculiar quickness of perception which we call the poetic eye, which "in a fine frenzy rolling" can detect not merely the ostensible, but also the occult forms and fashions of the beautiful and the sublime; then there is the poetic susceptiveness, or that undefinable excitability, by which objects, whether real or only present to the fancy, impress themselves or their images more vividly, more thrillingly, and more endurably, than the less delicate tissues of unpoetic minds will receive, at least at first sight and on a single glance; then there is the nervous system, both physical and mental, so finely threaded as to move in sympathy with every heart-throb of every living thing, and

to vibrate at every tender touch and every breathing sound of sadness or of joy, come whence these may, from far or near, from great things or small; there is also in a high state of activity the illustrative faculty, the true poet, having a keen insight into those analogies, which by links often too fine to be visible to ordinary observers, unite the various departments of nature, and so harmonize the processes in the material with those in the spiritual world, that to his eye not only is the invisible adumbrated or symbolized in the visible, but all nature appears one great parable; there is also in its highest degree of development the faculty of recombining the materials of perception, of memory, and meditative thought, till what rises to view is nothing short of a new creation; and finally there is a command of poetic language, or of words which have kindled with the poet's fervors, and which gleam with his fancies, and which he pours forth in streams of song, musical because his thoughts themselves

are music.

Such we take to be the poetic talent; and the function of the true poet is to consecrate this talent to the elucidation and enforcement of truth, in those impressive and pleasing forms in which his lofty art enables him to clothe it.

Now, in the bards of the Bible, we find the poetic talent in the very highest degree; and in the poetry of the Bible we have the consecration of that talent to the noblest of all uses.