Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/71

 Now let the requirement be this—that, without displacing the rhyme, or greatly altering the sense, every line of the eight shall begin with the same letter—shall it be W?

We should never accept this, or any other alliterative form of the verse, as if it were in itself preferable to its original form, constrained only by the laws of metre, and by the rhyme. Nevertheless, the sentiment, or final meaning of the original, is conveyed, with little, if any damage, in the more constrained. form that is demanded by the rule of alliteration:—the injury inflicted in this instance is technical, more than it is substantial. It may easily be admitted, that, if a composition of great length were intended to subserve purposes of popular instruction, the alliterative form might be chosen for the sake of the aid it affords to the memory, and thus tending to secure a faultless transmission of the whole, from father to son, or, rather, from the religious mother to her children. It will be our part hereafter to show that the religious intention of the Inspired writings is securely conveyed under