yet feeble voice, melody and song would still possess powerful charms. Hence, the first beams of knowledge dawned upon mankind through the medium of poetic numbers. Orpheus, Musæus, Amphion, Thamyris, Hesiod, poets as well as philosophers, were the precursors of those philosophic luminaries who have immortalized Greece; and among every people with whose early history we are acquainted, songs, and poems, and metrical aphorisms were primarily instrumental to their civilization and improvement. As poetry is so particularly suitable to first stages of society, divine Providence permitted a considerable part of Revelation to be delivered in a poetic garb. It may, likewise, have been the mode of expression which a mind impelled by the divine afflatus would most naturally adopt; certainly it affords a powerful aid to the memory; and celestial truth would, probably, make a deeper impression, in the early ages of mankind, when surrounded with the graces and melodies of rhythm.* Among the metrical books of the Old Testament the Proverbs of Solomon hold a conspicuous rank. * Buxtorf, Thesaurus Gram. Ling. Heb. p. 625, Basil, 1651. Bishop Lowth thinks it not improbable, that the earliest effusions of poetry were in praise of the Creator.-Prælect. de Sac. Poes. Heb. p. 21, Oxon. 1810. Less sublime than Job, less argumentative than Ecclesiastes, less poetic than the Canticles, and many parts of the prophetic writings, and destitute of those soft and benign strains of piety by which many of the Psalms are distinguished, the book of Proverbs, notwithstanding, shares in the characteristic beauties of the Oriental muse, elegance of imagery, glowing description, and boldness of personification. The Asiatics, profuse in the employment of figures of every description, are particularly daring and audacious in the use of prosopopoeias. Endowed with warmer feelings and more vivid imaginations than the inhabitants of Europe, they delight to revel among ideal creations; voice and intelligence are attributed to the mute, inanimate parts of terrestrial nature; they live, they breathe, they speak, awakened into life by the magic of poetic fancy. Abstract qualities, and the affections of the heart, are embodied into personal existence; and, by a power of invention singularly wild and enthusiastic, they give "a local habitation and a name" to that which might appear too light and aerial to receive a form, even by the plastic power of imagination.* "Apud eos (scil. Asiaticos) omnia vivunt; omnia animantur. Colloquuntur inter se flores, aves, arbores: personam etiam induunt Some instances of poetic enthusiasm may be observed in this production of the royal Author, and some examples of personification, which, if they cannot be classed among the highest flights of Eastern fancy, are, nevertheless, embellished with such elegance of imagery, as renders them, in a high degree, beautiful and impressive. Though, in the charms of high-wrought poetry, it must yield to several parts of the sacred volume, yet, in judicious brevity, in elegant conciseness, in nice adjustment of expressions, and in that terseness of diction which gives weight to precept, and poignancy to aphoristic truth, it stands preeminent, and remains an illustrious monument to the glory of its author. The character of the Proverbs, drawn by a consummate judge of sacred poetry, is, "that the work consists of two parts. The former, including the first nine chapters, is a kind of exordium, and is varied, elegant, sublime, and truly poetical; the natural order is generally observed, and the parts are aptly connected together; it is embellished with very beautiful descriptions and prosopopoeias, and adorned with the most finished style, notiones illæ abstractæ, pulchritudo, justitia, moeror, hilaritas; rident prata, canunt sylvæ, lætatur coelum; &c.”—Sir Wm. Jones, Poes, Asiat. Commentarii, p. 168. ed. Eichhorn, Lips. 1777. together with every kind of poetical ornament; so that it scarcely yields in beauty to any specimen of sacred poetry: the latter part, including the remainder of the book, consists almost wholly of single proverbs and sentences, having little in them sublime, or even poetical, beyond the acumen and neatness appropriate to the aphorism."* If it were not presumption to call in question the opinion of this elegant writer, who has so admirably delineated the beauties of the Hebrew muse, it might be doubted, whether this character of the Proverbs be perfectly just; whether he has not estimated the first part too high, and the second too low; whether a portion of the former be either "sublime," or "truly poetical," and whether something "poetical" may not be discovered in the latter. But it is not only from the elegances of poetical "Hujusce operis duæ sunt partes; prima, quæ est Proœmii cujusdam loco, novem priora Capita continet; estque varia, elegans, sublimis, vereque poetica; rerum ordine plerumque conservato, partibusque inter se apte connexis; pulcherrimis descriptionibus, et Prosopopœiis illustrata; compositione politissima, omnique poetico ornatu illuminata; ita ut haud ulli sacræ Poeseos parti venustatis laude cedat: altera pars inde ad finem Voluminis, singulis fere constat Parabolis sive Sententiis, vix quidquam habens sublime, aut etiam poeticum, ultra quod Gnomæ acumen et concinnitas admittit."-Lowthi Prælect. de Sac. Poes. Heb. p. 313, Oxon. 1810. composition, and from the beauties of diction peculiar to the proverb, with which it so much abounds, that the book derives its merit: it claims our reverence as an invaluable treasure of heaven-taught wisdom. Among the productions, whether of sacred or profane literature, it stands unrivalled for moral aphorisms, practical observations, and sententious truths. A pure morality pervades the whole work, ramified into a variety of branches, all tending to enforce the duties which we owe to ourselves, our neighbour, and our God. Religion, as the foundation of all virtue, is portrayed, under the denomination of wisdom, with such correctness and precision, such splendour of ornament, and brilliancy of colouring, as render her altogether lovely and attractive. A variety of remarks are dispersed upon the character, temper, and behaviour of mankind, which indicate a penetrating and sagacious mind, thoroughly conversant with human affairs; while the royal Sage does not disdain to furnish us with some maxims and admonitions respecting that prudential conduct, which, if it cannot aspire to the praise of exalted virtue, is yet of much utility in the pilgrimage of life.* * "In aphorismis vero illis (scil. Salomonis,) præter alia magis theologica, reperies liquido haud pauca præcepta et monita civilia |