Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/77

 nor has it an Epic; and the reasons why it has neither of these are such as demand attention. It would be to put upon the word Drama a very forced meaning to apply it to the Book of Job;—and, in so doing, to allow place for a notable exception to what we here allege.

These writers treat human nature in no superficial manner;—they touch it to the quick; but they do not undertake to picture forth separately its elements, its passions, its affections, or its individual characteristics. To do this, either in the mode of the Drama, or in the mode of an Epic, would imply invention, or fiction, in a sense of which no instances whatever occur within the compass of the Canonical Scriptures. The apophthegm is not a fiction, for it puts not on the historic guise:—the allegory is no fiction, for it is never misunderstood as a truthful narrative of events. No concatenation of actual events, no course of incidents in real life, ever brings out separate passions, or sentiments, in dramatic style, or with a unison of meaning. The dramatic unity, as to the elements of human nature, must be culled, and put together, with much selective care—with artistic skill. A composition of this order must be a work of genius—like a group of figures in sculpture.

No actual man, no real person of history, has ever been always a hero, or has ever done and said the things that may be fitting to an Epic. Therefore it is that an Epic Poem must be an invention;