Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/66

 in figures; and also to indulge in that fervid style which is prompted by powerful emotions.

Beyond this stage, and quite of another sort, is that conditioning of Thought which we must designate as technical, and which is mainly factitious, or arbitrary; as, for instance;—let us take up the above example of political ill-augury, and bring—if not the very same words, yet their nearest equivalents,—into cadence, as blank verse: in this case some of the words must by necessity be rejected as unfit altogether for a place in verse; and substitutes must be found for others, because they are not easily reduced to cadence. Moreover, the position of every word must be determined by a rule which, in relation to the requirements of unconditioned thought, is arbitrary and artificial; the passage might thus run—

Thought, in this form, submits itself to the requirements of quantity and rhythm, by means of several substitutions of word for word; and also by deflections from the simpler and the more natural order of the words. A still further yielding of the original thought to the requirements of art would be needed if, in addition to cadence, we should demand rhyme; for in that case not only must another law of cadence be complied with; but also the