congruity one with another, in the matter and the form, in the sense and the construction.

b

Of the other nine poems less perfectly alphabetical, in which the stanzas only are marked with initial letters, six a consist of stanzas of two lines, two of stanzas of three lines, and one of stanzas of four lines: not taking into the account at present some irregularities, which in all probability are to be imputed to the mistakes of transcribers. And these stanzas likewise naturally divide themselves into their distinct lines, the sense and the construction plainly pointing out their limits; and the lines have the same congruity one with another in matter and form, as was above observed in regard to the poems more perfectly alphabetical.

e

Another thing to be observed of the three poems perfectly alphabetical is, that in two of them the lines are shorter than those of the third by about one third part, or almost half: and of the other nine poems, the stanzas only of which are alphabetical, that three consist of the longer lines, and the six others of the shorter.

f

Now from these examples, which are not only curious, but of real use, and of great importance in the present inquiry, we may draw some conclusions,

which plainly follow from the premises, and must be admitted in regard to the alphabetical poems themselves; which also may by analogy be applied with great probability to other poems, where the lines and stanzas are not so determined by initial letters; yet which appear in other respects to be of the same kind.

In the first place, we may safely conclude, that the poems perfectly alphabetical consist of verses properly so called; of verses regulated by some observation of harmony or cadence; of measure, numbers, or rhythm. For it is not at all probable in the nature of the thing, or from examples of the like kind in other languages, that a portion of mere prose, in which numbers and harmony are totally disregarded, should be laid out according to a scale of division, which carries with it such evident marks of study and labour, of art in the contrivance, and exactness in the execution. And I presume it will be easily granted in regard to the other poems, which are divided into stanzas by the initial letters, which stanzas are subdivided by the pauses of the sentence into lines easily distinguished one from another, commonly the same number of lines to a stanza in the same poem; that these are of the same kind of composition with the former, and that they equally consist of verses. And in general, in regard to the rest of the poems of the Hebrews, bearing evidently the same marks and characteristics of composition with the alphabetical

poems in other respects, and falling into regular lines, often into regular stanzas, according to the pauses of the sentences; which stanzas and lines have a certain parity or proportion to one another; that these likewise consist of verse; of verse distinguished from prose, not only by the style, the figures, the diction; by a loftiness of thought, and richness of imagery; but by being divided into lines, and sometimes into systems of lines; which lines, having an apparent equality, similitude, or proportion, one to another, were in some sort measured by the ear, and regulated according to some general laws of metre, rhythm, harmony, or cadence.

Further, we may conclude from the example of the perfectly alphabetical poems, that whatever it might be that constituted Hebrew verse, it certainly did not consist in rhyme, or similar and correspondent sounds at the ends of the verses: for as the ends of the verses in those poems are infallibly marked; and it plainly appears, that the final syllables of the correspondent verses, whether in distichs or triplets, are not similar in sound to one another; it is manifest, that rhymes, or similar endings, are not an essential part of Hebrew verses. The grammatical forms of the Hebrew language in the verbs, and pronouns, and the plurals of nouns, are so simple and uniform, and bear so great a share in the termination of words, that similar endings must sometimes happen, and cannot well be avoided; but,

so far from constituting an essential or principal part of the art of Hebrew versification, they seem to have been no object of attention and study, nor to have been industriously sought after as a favourite accessary ornament.

That the verses had something regular in their form and composition, seems probable from their apparent parity and uniformity, and the relation which they manifestly bear to the distribution of the sentence into its members. But as to the harmony and cadence, the metre or rhythm, of what kind they were, and by what laws regulated, these examples give us no light, nor afford us sufficient principles on which to build any theory, or to form any hypothesis. For harmony arises from the proportion, relation, and correspondence of different combined sounds; and verse from the arrangement of words, and the disposition of syllables, according to number, quantity, and accent; therefore the harmony and true modulation of verse depends upon a perfect pronunciation of the language, and a knowledge of the principles and rules of versification; and metre supposes an exact knowledge of the number and quantity of syllables, and, in some languages, of the accent. But the true pronunciation of Hebrew is lost: lost to a degree far beyond what can ever be the case of any European language preserved only in writing for the Hebrew language, like most of the other Oriental languages, expressing only the con

sonants, and being destitute of its vowels, has lain now for two thousand years in a manner mute and incapable of utterance: the number of syllables is in a great many words uncertain; the quantity and accent wholly unknown. We are ignorant of all these particulars; and incapable of acquiring any certain knowledge concerning them: how then is it possible for us to attain to the knowledge of Hebrew verse? That we know nothing of the quantity of the syllables, in Hebrew, and of the number of them in many words, and of the accent, will hardly now be denied by any man: but if any should still maintain the authority of the Masoretical punctua tion, (though discordant in many instances from the imperfect remains of a pronunciation of much earlier date, and of better authority, that of the Seventy, of Origen, and other writers,) yet it must be allowed, that no one, according to that system, hath been able to reduce the Hebrew poems to any sort of harmony. And indeed it is not to be wondered, that rules of pronunciation, formed, as it is now generally admitted, above a thousand years after the language ceased to be spoken, should fail of giving us the true sound of Hebrew verse. But if it was impossible for the Masoretes, assisted in some measure by a traditionary pronunciation, delivered down from their ancestors, to attain to a true expression of the sounds of the language; how is it possible for us at this time, so much further removed

a.

a See Hare Prolegomena in Psalmos, p. xl, &c.