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whatever might have been its rythmal charafler ; in whatever might 

 have confifted its Dithyrambic thunder, or its terrible graces, the o^«»a ws^u;a 

 of its poetry, I was warranted in faying, that Apollo and his nine har- 

 monious maids had no acquaintance with it. " Fatendum erit, non modo 

 Hebrceorum carmina nihil reliqni habere, fed nihil unquam habuiffe, har- 

 monise ac -poeticce fuavitatis." Prctl. 3. Like the corufcations from a 

 cloud by night, the flaflies of their poetry juft illumine the obfcurity that 

 furrounds us, leaving us again in the darknefs we had been in before. 

 Yet with all its obfcurities and all its uncouthnefs, it is not wonderful 

 that the hymnal poetry of the Hebrews fliould lift itfelf above the gran- 

 deur of the Greek or loftinefs of the Roman ode ; or that thunders and 

 lightnings fliould accompany its enthufiafm. With the Hebrews, as with 

 all other nations, the hymn indifputably was the form of their iirfl com- 

 pofitions ; and of -this we have a beautiful proof in the Euchariftic ode 

 of Mofes, beyond all queflion the mofl ancient piece of poetry in the 

 world. But the gods of other nations being local, the flrains and rap- 

 tures of their poets were as limited as the objects of their adoration ; 

 while the omnipotence and wifdom and goodnefs of an eternal and uni- 

 verfal creator, filled with unbounded fublimity the hymns of the Hebrew 

 bards, who felt his protefting power, and acknowledged his beneficence. 

 Nor were the Hebrews themfelves infenfible to this diftinftion, or to the 

 advantage they enjoyed : one of the fublimefl of their poets fays, " As 

 " for the gods of the heathen, they are but idols, but it is the Lord 

 that made the heavens," And again, " Among the Gods there is 

 none like thee !" The theme kindles him, and he feels his fuperiority 

 arifing from the very nature of his fubjeft. Yet, while I agree with 

 Lowth, that the fimilitude between the flrufture of the Hebrew and 

 the Greek verfe is remote indeed, I cannot help thinking the odes of Pindar 

 yield to thofe of the infpired writers in nothing but the inferiority of their 

 fubjefts, whofe nature and condition did not allow a wider range of 

 fancy, or a more glowing enthufiafm. And we are likewife to take 

 into the account our own interejled feelings, neither the exploits of a 

 horfe-race nor the genealogy of a king, being objefts of Chrifiian re- 

 gard. Let us diveft ourfelves of thefe incidental cacumftances, and as 



far 



