24 



Rhirae, in its origin, refembled the bold fweep of the mountain, or 

 the fimple majefty of the foreft ; though, now, by the caprice or fafli- 

 dioufnefs of its poffeflbrs, it hath often dwindled into the dipt hedge 

 and the trime parterre. But this deftroys not the grandeur and dig- 

 nity and echo of the patriarchal foreft, whofe oaks, while they fiiadc 

 us and cover us with their venerable arras, ferve as an afylum from 

 tlie obtrufions of impertinence. 



Here, fays Le Clerc, the third MO was unneceffary, had the rhime 

 not been intended. The author of the pfalm might have faid jil AG 



vajedabber, ele MO ; which would have done juft as well. And if 



rhime, adds the critic, had not been the charafter and genius of the 

 Hebrew, the rhimes themfelves had been altogether avoided, on account 



of the fuffix HEM , which, fays he, is ungracious to the ear, for proofs 



of which he refers us to the 118th pfalm. It may be neceffary to 

 obferve, that Le Clerc indances the rhime by feveral other proofs, il- 

 luftrated with the flirewdeft remarks and profoundefl: comments, which 

 I have not yet feen confuted, though fometimes angrily denied. 



But it is not the purpofe of thefe papers to argue the queftion of 

 rhime in the Hebrew : the negative is left to its oppugners, who how- 

 ever, fome of them at leaft, by their mode of arguing have rendered 

 the proof unneceffary. Yet juftice fliould be done to the famous Pfal- 

 manaazar, who, while he denies the rhime, has fo beautifully fupported 

 the fuperior expreffivenefs of the Hebrew, over the Greek and Roman 

 tongues. It will not lead us from our fubjeft, to obferve that this 

 able man, as other fcholars do, fuppofes the Hebrew to have been re- 

 gulated by profodial rules. I dare not pretend to deny the fafl, but 

 other diflinguiflied authorities, and Beda in particular, imagine that the 

 Hebrew poetry expreffed itfelf rather in rythm without metre, than in 

 metre with rythm : forming a kind of broken and difordered, but mea- 

 ■fured profe, fometimes of long, and fometimes of fliort fyllables, more 

 of them or lefs, according to the pathos or affeftion expreffed, and not 

 perhaps unlike the rhimed profe of that prophane example, " the hum- 

 ble petition of Mrs. Francis Harris," or in the vigorous and expreffive 



language 



