Images of this kind give to poetry a community of feeling and sympathy between brute animals, men, plants, and all that has life; the Supreme and Eternal Father, is the father of all. A. But how then were the heavens represented as solid? E. It was on account of their sapphire appearance, their glowing splendour, their unchangeableness, and their beauty. Perhaps the most ancient notion was, that this solid firmament was ice, from which the hail descended. The Arabs have pictures, according to which the lightnings are but sparks, that fly off from the sapphire firmament. Finally, when the heavens came to be represented as a temple and palace of God, this pure azure of the sky was the ground floor of his, and the covering of our habitation. To those who dwelt in tents, however, the idea of a heavenly tent seems to me to have been the greatest favorite. They represent God as daily spreading it out, and making it fast to the mountains, the pillars of heaven. It is to them, an emblem of security, of rest, and of the paternal intercourse and friendship, in which God lives with his creatures. A. And how do they treat the earth? E. You will learn from their own words, if you go on with the psalm, in which David has given a picture of the creation. A. He hath established the earth upon its foundation, It shall not be moved for ever and ever. He hath covered it with floods, as with a robe; The waters stood above the mountains; At thy rebuke they fled, At the voice of thy thunders they hasted away. Then rose up the mountains, the valleys sunk down, To the place which thou didst appoint for them. Thou settest boundaries to the floods, They shall not pass over and return To deluge the earth. Thou sendest forth springs in the valleys, They give drink to the beasts of the field, Above them dwell the fowls of heaven, Thou waterest the hills from thy store-house above, And seed for the service of man, That he may bring forth bread from the earth,t And bread, that strengtheneth man's heart. The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted, And the fir trees the house of the heron. E. With what a joyful expression that poet surveys the earth! It is a green mountain of Jehovah, which he has raised up from the waters; an Elysian field, which he has established above the seas for the habitation of his living multitudes. The series of images, which the poet has made use of, contain exactly the natural history of the earth. At first the waters stand above the mountains, at the command of God they shrink beneath. Now the mountains rise up, the valleys sink, as the waters rush through and level them. Finally God sets bounds to the floods, and makes fast the * With the fruit of thy work, i. e. with the blessings which thou createst. God is represented as the father of a family, always busy and providing for the earth. men. The production of bread from the earth is referred not to God, but He has caused seed to grow for them, that they may sow it and procure themselves bread. I have transposed parts of the 14th and 15th verses, by which they acquire more symmetry, and even the words a better consonance and arrangement. earth-Then the fountains break forth in the valleys, the streams run between the mountains, where their beds are already hollowed out; to them the beasts resort, and above them the birds sing, for the banks of streams were first covered with trees. We shall find in Job more sublime pictures of the formation of the earth; more true or beautiful are scarcely possible. A. And in truth whatever is most consonant to nature is most perfect in beauty. What are all the mythologies to me, if they teach me nothing? What profit do I gain, for example, when the Northern Edda represents heaven, as the skull of a slaughtered giant, the earth as formed from his bones, and the rivers from his blood? Poetry, in order to affect the heart and the understanding, must combine beauty with truth, and animate both with sympathetic feeling. E. The poetry of the Orientals seems to me to combine all these. What sympathy for example does it exhibit with flowers, plants and herbs? As it ascribes to all in a certain degree the principles of life, and more than figuratively personifies them, so God is represented as their father, who bestows his blessings upon them, who nourishes them with rain, and serves them with the breath of spring. Their restoration and the renewal of their verdure was a beautiful emblem of the resurrection of the dead, as their preservation was a memorial of his universal providence. The loves of plants seem to have been early remarked, and the palm tree, the cedar, the vine and the olive have furnished beautiful and sublime images to the poetry of the Hebrews-But this, alas! is all, which they have furnished. Had we more of their pastoral fables like that of Jotham, or of the class to which the Song of Solomon belongs, what fine poetry and personifications should we find in them! Perhaps more beautiful and diversified, than the dialogue of our own poet between the rose and the zephyr, or those in the Persian between the rose and the nightingale, the wanderer and the turtle dove. As it is we must content ourselves with a single collection of such songs, but one that breathes throughout the fragrance of the rose, and brings back the musical notes of the turtle ; I mean the Songs of Solomon. But the sun, my friend, is rising high. A. Be not in haste. Point me rather to some examples of fine personification and hymns addressed to the sun. Hebrews I believe have none of these. The E. Hymns addressed to these, or to any other object of nature, this poetry could not have. It would be idolatry, and you are aware how conscientiously this was avoided. Job says, Had I looked at the sun, when it shone forth, And the moon going abroad in its beauty, So that my heart had burned in secret, This would have been an abomination, For I should have denied the God of Heaven. When this feeling was so sincere and earnest, no hymns to the hosts of heaven were possible. The Hebrew poetry guarded against this species of idolatry with the more extreme caution, because the Orientals in general were not so much attracted by any inferior idols, as by the king and queen of heaven, and to these their hearts were very greatly inclined. It became therefore a direct object of this poetry to represent the sun and moon as the servants of God, and to ascribe to him also all glory and truth, righteousness and beauty. God said, Let there be two great lights in heaven To rule over the seasons. He placed them in the firmament To have dominion over the seasons. They are kings of the world, but only subordinate to God, his representatives, his creatures and messengers. In these characters alone the Hebrew poetry has employed them. A. It has used them you mean but little ? E. Yes, much and appropriately too. The sun, moon and stars also were animated. They had their dwelling places and tents in heaven, as they still have in the minds of the Arabians and other nations. You know the beautiful passage, for which you may seek a parallel among the Greeks in vain. For the sun he hath pitched a tent in the heavens, From which he goeth forth as a bridegroom Out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a hero In the career of victory. He goeth forth from the end of heaven, And goeth onward to the end of it, And filleth the world with his beams. The moon and stars also have their dwellings, in which when they are to be darkened, God seals them up, or in which they timidly shrink and hide themselves, when the glory of Jehovah appears. Thus in Habakkuk, for example, God comes forth in his war-chariot to conquer and divide the land; the sun and moon come in astonishment to the doors of their tents; his lightnings are shot forth, his arrows fly around him, and they hide themselves in confusion before the presence of his greater glory. The mountains saw thee and trembled, The waters passed away, The deep uttered its voice, And lifted up its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their tents; A more sublime personification I consider hardly possible. All nature listens; its swiftest objects stand still, its brightest are obscured. In the same spirit the stars are made the martial host, the exulting children of God.-Whatever is pure, |