Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/72

 all forms, however arbitrary they may be as to their literary structure.

As to the several species of the Hebrew Poetry, it can only be in an accommodated sense that we could apply to it any of those terms that belong to the Poetry of Greece, and which had their origin in the artistic intelligence of its people. There would be little meaning in the words if we spoke of Odes, Lyrics, or Epics, in this case. The Hebrew Poetry has its kinds; but they are peculiar to itself: it has originated species of Poetry: it has conformed itself to no models: it has sprung from nothing earlier than itself; or nothing that is extant:—it has had no cognates among contemporary literatures. Through the medium of innumerable versions the Biblical literature has combined itself in an intimate manner with the intellectual existence of modern (civilized) nations. Every people has made its wealth their own: in truth, itself drawing its force from the deepest and most universal principles of human nature, the Hebrew Scriptures, when once they have thoroughly permeated the popular mind, become an undistinguishable element, not only of the religious and the moral life of the people, but, to a great extent, of their intellectual life also. With ourselves—the British people—the Inspired writings of the Old Testament have become to us the milk of infancy and childhood, and the nourishment of manhood in its most robust stage. It is to these books that we owe whatever