ing balance of sentence;/and the effect of this can be transferred to another language. Hebrew poetry has in addition the effect of assonance and other effects which cannot perhaps be transferred; but its main effect, its effect of parallelism of thought and sentence, can. [BOWEN, A Layman's Study of the English Bible, Chap. 1.] Leaving these general considerations, let us now come to particulars, and consider that aspect of the study of the English Bible which makes it interesting to the mere lover of literature. Look first at the diction, and weigh its merits regarded simply as a specimen of English prose. The opinion of scholars is unanimous that its excellence in this respect is unmatched; English literature has nothing equal to it, and is indeed largely indebted to conscious or unconscious imitation of it for many of its best and most characteristic qualities. The diction is remarkable for clearness, simplicity, and strength. It is as simple and natural as the prattle of children at play, yet never lacking in grace or dignity, or in variety and expressive force. Till our attention is called to it, we seldom notice what I may call the homeliness of the style, the selection of short and pithy Saxon turns of expression, and the wealth and strength of idiomatic phrase. One who should attempt to imitate it would easily lapse into vulgar and colloquial language, or, in striving to avoid this fault, into a certain primness and stiffness of speech, which is even worse. In truth, it cannot be imitated; to write such prose as that of our Common Version is now one of the lost arts. And I have not yet mentioned what is to many persons the peculiar and most striking charm of the style; that is, its musical quality, the silvery ring of the sentences, and the rich and varied melody of its cadences whenever the sense comes to a close. Now the century beginning about 1520, during which our English Bible thus gradually obtained its present beauty and finish, was precisely that in which our noble mother tongue completed its process of development and attained its highest stage of perfec tion. Since this period, there has been indeed an enlargement of its stores, in order to keep pace with the progress of science, invention, and art; but we witness no further process of organic growth. We see change, but no further amendment; rather a deterioration. This was the age of Hooker, Shakespeare, and Bacon; of Spenser, Latimer, and Raleigh; and it prepared the way for Hobbes and Dryden. It was the golden age of the English drama. These are great names, and many passages in their writings show a complete mastery of the English language, and form a grand display of its versatility, its sweetness, and its strength. But beside them all, and above them all, is the prose of our Common Version. It is more sustained than any of them, more uniformly strong and melodious in its flow, reminding one of the famous couplet of Denham on the Thames : Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull, And it has largely contributed to the fixation of the language at this its best estate, since the number of words in it the meaning of which has become obsolete in the course of nearly three subsequent centuries is so small that they may almost be counted on the fingers. True, the diction seems often to have a slightly archaic tinge; but this is an advantage rather than a fault, as it tends to preserve the dignity and impressiveness of the style. . . . ... I ought to cite specimens in justification of the high praise here awarded to the English style of the Bible. But one is at a loss what to choose out of the wealth of material at hand; and then, so much of the charm of passages from the Scriptures is due to associations going back to one's childhood, and to the intrinsic power and sweetness of the thought, the precept, or the sentiment, that it is hard to fasten our attention on the mere diction. in what follows, let me ask the reader to divest his mind, if he can, from all thought of the doctrine conveyed, or of the tenderness and pathos of the sentiment, and to consider the felicity and the music of the words alone. But Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew II. 28–30. Again : O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Matthew 23. 37-39. Once more: For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. - Job 14. 7-12. Lastly: I will take no bullock out of thy house, For every beast of the forest is mine, Or drink the blood of goats? And pay thy vows unto the Most High: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalm 50. 9-15. I may seem to have labored this point too much. But what is here said is particularly addressed to young students, since it may be supposed that one leading purpose of their education is the formation of a good prose style, at once clear and flowing, strong and pure. I hope to show that the proper study of the Bible may be, and ought to be, a means of comprehensive and thorough training, not only in theology, to which it is but too often exclusively devoted, and in philosophy, poetry, and history, but also in literature and English style. In any scheme of University studies, it is a great mistake to make over any one department altogether to mere specialists, and thereby to lead the mind of the student along one narrow track, strictly fenced in against any excursion over the other broad fields of human culture which lie around it on every side. Now this end, the formation of a good prose style, cannot be attained by precept and system, by conscious effort or the observance of fixed rules. But just as a man's character and conduct are mainly determined by the company that he keeps, so his modes of utterance are silently fashioned by unconscious imitation of the models which he has often before him, that is, by the books which he most familiarly reads. It is said of Voltaire, that he always had a copy of the 'Petit Carême' of Massillon lying on his writing-table, to be taken up during any odd quarter of an hour, for the sake of its influence on his style. The method was good, though perhaps the choice was not happy. I think Pascal, Rochefoucauld, or La Bruyère would have served his purpose better. But there can be no doubt what English models we ought to select. Keep the Bible, a volume of Shakespeare, and Lord Bacon's Essays always within arm's-reach; half an hour devoted to either of them will be mere recreation, and will never be unprofitably spent. Only when your minds and memories have become saturated with the prose of our Common Version, with the phraseology of Shakespeare, and even, if one has command of French, with the neat succinctness, precision, and point of Pascal, will you have mastered the elements of a good English style. Then only will you have a copious vocabulary to draw from, a rich store of words and phrases and a variety of allusions always at hand, and not be obliged painfully to ransack a meagre and hidebound diction in order to set forth your meaning. But as most people nowadays read little except the newspapers and ten-cent novels, one need not wonder that they talk and write slang, or adopt only a slipshod, stilted, or uncouth phraseology. Coleridge rightly says, in his Table-Talk, 'Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar in point of style.' John Ruskin is certainly the greatest master that the present century has produced of pure, idiomatic, vigorous, and eloquent English prose; and as the first volume of his 'Modern Painters,' perhaps his best work, appeared over forty years ago, when he was a recent Graduate of Oxford,' his style was perfectly formed while he was yet a young man. How was it formed? In one of his latest writings he has told us that in his childhood, as a part of his home education, his mother required him to commit to memory, and repeat to her, passages from the Bible. A similar custom, as some of us old men know, prevailed here in New England over half a century ago, and I hope that in some families it lingers still. Ruskin gives us the exact list, twenty-six in number, of the Psalms and chapters which he thus learned by heart; and as the selection was in the main an excellent one, we need not seek further for the secret of his admirable diction and perfect command of English phraseology. 2. English Imitators of Biblical Language. [VENABLES, Biographical Introduction to Bunyan, Clarendon Press Series, pp. xl-xli.] The great charm of the Pilgrim's Progress is the purity, the homeliness, of its vernacular. Few were ever such complete masters of their 'sweet mother tongue' in its native vigor as Bunyan. The book stands unrivaled as a model of our English speech, plain but never vulgar, full of metaphor but never obscure, always intelligible, always forcible, going straight to the point in the fewest and simplest words. He is powerful and picturesque,' writes Mr. Hallam, from his concise simplicity.' Bunyan's style is recommended by Lord Macaulay as an invaluable study to every person who wishes to gain a wide command over the English language. Its vocabulary is the vocabulary of the common people. There is not an expression, if we except a few technical terms of |