19 



felves, as Scaliger fuppofes,* that the monofyllabic charaftei of their 

 language challenged and facilitated the rhime ; and, to ufe an obferva- 

 tion of Le Clerc, that the cafes and fufEx pronouns chiming fo per- 

 petually with one another, and the plurals again fo conftantly termina- 

 ting and confoning alike, it was more difficult for them to avoid the 

 rhime than to Jind it. Yet, it is fomewhat Angular, that the learned 

 Pfalmanaazar, a man eminently fkiiled in oriental literature, fliould borrow 

 this very argument of Le Clerc, and employ it againfl him, with a 

 view to fliow that the facred writers did not compofe their poems in 

 rhime. His words are thefe : " Thofe that are ever fo little acquaint- 

 " ed with the Hebrew grammar know, that the termination of verbs, 

 " and even of nouns in the plural, and the junftion of the pofleffive 

 *' pronouns to both of them, are fo alil^e and uniform, that it would 

 " be vaftly more difficult to write a poem in blank verfc in that 

 '* tongue, than to have it all in rhime." (Hi/i. of the Jews to the 

 Babyl. Captiv.) From thefe premifes, then, I fliould fuppofe it was 

 not of the Arabians that the rabbles had learned their teleuties ; and 

 I lay it down, as a rule not to be departed from, that rhime is not 

 a borrowed charafter iji poetry; notwithftanding the monks, who found 

 pleafure in difficulty, might have forced it for a time upon the Latin, 

 to fliew what the forbidding genius of an obftinate and unaccommo- 

 dating tongue could perform : a tongue fo unmanageable, even in its 

 mofl improved flate, that Cicero himfelf complains of its inflexibilities. 



C 2 This 



* " Neque vero putaveris genus illud rytlimi, quo Proverbia, et liber Job conftant, 

 effe fimile ei quod hodie Judeis in ufu eft. Nam hodieni verfus Judaici funt plane 

 rythmi noftri vulgares ofioioTTTwroi y.ai oftoioTfAstiToi : quod a nobis Chriftianis ante annos 

 D, plus minus didicerunt, nos autem ex Leoninis Hexametris quae vocant, cos effinx- 

 imus." (Seal. Animad. in Chronol. Eufeb. p. 7.) Yet, in the preceding page, the fanie 

 Scaliger had faid " Solum canticum Mofis, extreme Deuteronomio, Proverbia Solomo- 

 nis, et totus fere liber Job, quadam rythmi necelTitate cohibentur, qui rythmus eft in- 

 ftar duarum lambicarum, et I'mnulus accidit ad aures." Scaliger, therefore, need not have 

 fought the rhimes of the rabbles in Chriftian convents, nor ftiould Le Clerc have aflerted 

 that Scaliger had faid nothing concerning the ancient Hebrew rhimes. 



