and delighted mankind. It is indisputable that an eminent sect, the followers of Pythagoras, imbibed the most remarkable of their tenets, the transmigration of souls, from the sages of Hindostan, the celebrated Gymnosophists of that country, a doctrine maintained both by Empedocles and Socrates, and supported by Plato.

We shall cease then to be surprised, that after an interval of from three to four thousand years, there should be found difficulties in the Bible arising from allusions to certain things then commonly known, but peculiar to an enlightened race, placed in a part of the world where the habits and modes of life must at all times differ from those of countries subject to so many opposite conditions of nature, and regulated by a political, moral, and ecclesiastical legislation, so entirely different in every imaginable respect. Even at this moment, many of the domestic customs of India throw considerable light upon numerous passages in the Bible, which are merely obscure because the mass of readers are unacquainted with those customs: we should not, therefore, rashly shift our ignorance upon the presumed obscurity of the sacred volume, when this might be often found perfectly intelligible if we would only be at common pains to render it so by going to those sources of information which would relieve it of its imagined perplexities.

In the prophecies of Isaac, of Jacob, of Balaam, and of Moses, to which I shall have to direct the reader's attention in the following

pages, we shall find some passages of peculiar difficulty; but while I endeavour to give the most reasonable exposition which my own deep consideration of the subject has enabled me to arrive at, and which will be offered with all humility and with all due deference to established authorities, I shall at the same time endeavour to point out the remarkable beauty of those prophetic songs, looking at them as compositions of the very rarest order, and deserving, even apart from their inspiration, our highest regard for their singular elevation of thought, appropriateness of imagery, felicity of illustration, and sublimity of expression; all which qualities I hope to make appear the course of this work. My great object will be, not only to render intelligible, but to elicit admiration for, those portions of the Mosaic writings generally held to be inscrutable to the common reader, and while I point out their meaning, to make manifest their exquisite beauty.

in

CHAPTER VI.

The most ancient specimen of Hebrew poetry considered. Different versions of it. Parallel passage from a poem of Lord Byron's. Its inferiority to the Hebrew.

THE most ancient specimen of Hebrew poetry now known, is the address of Lamech to his wives in the fourth chapter of Genesis, already alluded to. It is altogether a passage of difficult interpretation; though this signifies little, so far as my present purpose is concerned, as it evidently refers to some fact out of the usual order of events which Moses was recording, and therefore the readers of Holy Writ will not suffer any loss in not being able precisely to comprehend this dark saying. this dark saying. How Moses received it, whether from oral tradition, or from documentary authority, is a matter of no moment. He has recorded it, and the internal evidence which it bears of being an original fragment of antediluvian poetry, seems to have satisfied all reasonable inquirers.

"We may add," says the learned Michaelis, "that poetry is much less likely to be corrupted than prose. So faithful a preserver

of truth is metre, that what is liable to be changed, augmented, or violated, almost daily in prose, may continue for ages in verse, with

out variation, without even a change in the obsolete phraseology."

Although the passage referred to in the fourth chapter of Genesis is one of considerable obscurity, and much inferior in the higher characteristics of poetry to many portions which follow, even in the Pentateuch, where metrical compositions are only occasionally found, it is nevertheless strikingly distinguished by the attributes of poetry, as I hope presently to show. Its darkness of meaning naturally renders the poetical colouring less obvious, the poetical conformation, however, will arrest observation; the former, moreover, in spite of the obscurity with which the whole passage is shrouded, is manifestly there, as I shall endeavour to make appear, and the artificial construction of the entire fragment cannot well escape the notice of the most indifferent observer.

The words in our authorized version of the

Holy Scriptures are as follows:

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;

Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech;
For I have slain a man to my wounding,

And a young man to my hurt :

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,

Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

It will be seen even in this rendering, which I have broken into hemistichs to correspond with the original text, that the whole structure of the passage is unprosaic. It is artificial in the highest degree :

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;

Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech.

Here is distinctly a synonymous parallelism, according to Lowth's definition, but which Bishop Jebb, as I have already observed, with nicer discernment, distinguishes by the name of cognate parallelism, there being a close relationship but not an absolute identity. In the couplet just quoted, although there is a near correspondency between the two members, the repetitions convey an impression of tenderness perfectly germane to true poetry. The patriarch first mentions the names of Adah and Zillah simply, then immediately heightens the pathos by addressing them as his wives. It will be seen that the second clause diversifies the preceding by a beautiful and tender additament, rising above it and forming a climax in the sense. It is this which so sweetly enhances the pathos. Adah and Zillah did not require to be told by Lamech that they were his wives, for of this they were both fully sensible; but there is a strong blending of dignity with pathos, in his recalling to their minds, although they already knew it, that they were addressed by their husband, for whom, in the patriarchal times, wives entertained the most profound respect, to listen to the voice of one who claimed that respect above all other men. Ye wives of Lamech! How emphatic, and yet at the same time how affectionately simple is this mode of address! There is a primitive simplicity and gentle earnestness in it which immediately enlists our sympathies. It moreover rescues the passage from that colloquial familiarity inseparable from the or