404 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



the eyes of the world, was Lowth s Prcelectiones. These 

 lectures were delivered from a chair of poetry, not of 

 theology, and their starting-point was the principle that 

 the artistic qualities of the inspired writings are not 

 excluded from the domain of criticism (Prczl. ii.). 1 The 

 work is mainly occupied with discussion of the peculiarities, 

 figures, etc., of the Hebrew poetical style, and with an 

 investigation into the various species of Hebrew poetry. 

 There is not much in these inquiries that can now be read 

 with great pleasure or profit. The taste of the eighteenth 

 century was formed upon principles with which our age 

 has little sympathy. Lowth was far too much guided 

 by the analogies of Western poetry to do full justice to 

 the peculiarities of an Oriental literature ; and as has 

 been already hinted, the divorce of the poetic form from 

 the religious contents of the Old Testament necessarily 

 obscured the true features of the problem. The most 

 lasting result of Lowth s researches lies in the doctrine of 

 Parallelism, and it may fairly be questioned whether 

 subsequent investigators have done wisely in following 

 him so closely on this topic. But with all its faults the 

 book produced, and deserved to produce, a great effect : 

 it struck a keynote to which the whole scholarship of 

 Europe gave a ready response. 



In almost every branch of learning and science it has 

 been the fatality of England to indicate fresh subjects 

 or strike out fresh methods of investigation, and then to 

 look on with apathy while foreign scholars eagerly press 

 forward on the newly opened path. Since the days of 

 Lowth our countrymen have scarcely made one contribu 

 tion to the scientific criticism of Hebrew poetry, and it 



1 That this principle was then by no means obvious, may appear 

 from a single example which we select from Carpzov. Vossius had said 

 that the ancient Hebrew poetry was rude and unpolished. Id, replies 

 the Leipzig professor, in Spiritum 5. Biblica Poeseos autorem injurium 

 videtur, quasi fons ille sapientia, . . . e Gratia demum lepores accevseve 

 ac ab infidelium hominum artificio et labore veneres consectari, versuumgue 

 expectare debuerit venustatem. 



