738 



PSALMANAZAR PSALTERY. 



temple, &.?. The opinion that some psalms are of 

 the time of Samuel, and written by the prophet 

 himself, is supported by no historical testimony, but 

 is not improbable. Most of those by unknown 

 authors seem to be of later date ; some few appar- 

 ently belong to the reigns of the kings immediately 

 succeeding Solomon, several to the mournful days 

 of the Babylonish captivity and of the return, espe- 

 cially those headed "for the sons of Korah," most 

 of which are probably by the same author. Of 

 later date also are probably those called " songs of 

 the degrees," which some have referred to the 

 return from Babylon, others to the annual pilgrim- 

 ages to Jerusalem and the temple, and which others 

 suppose to have been sung on the steps of the 

 temple. Finally, a few seem to belong to the age 

 of the Maccabees. The psalms of David, whether 

 actually composed by him, or merely of his time, 

 probably constituted an earlier collection, which 

 extended to the seventy-second. Those which fol- 

 low are, for the most part, more modern. Our 

 collection consists of 150 psalms, but the manu- 

 scripts are not all numbered alike. The Septuagint 

 and Vulgate unite the ninth and tenth, and the 

 104ih and 105th, while they divide the 116th and 

 the 147th into two, so that their number differs in 

 some respects from that of the- English translation. 

 The Masorites, without any sufficient reason, divided 

 the whole collection into five books. 



The Psalms are lyric poems, chiefly odes, and 

 didactic, elegiac or idyllic. (See Lowth's Hebrew 

 Poetry.) Rlost of them are in the form of prayer, 

 or begin or end with prayer; and, whether they 

 utter complaint, lamentation, or consolation, are 

 expressive of the deepest trust in God., They 

 are among the highest and sublimest efforts of po- 

 etry; and the holy light of revelation, the inspiring 

 belief in the eternal true God, spreads over them a 

 bright splendour, and fills them with deep fervour. 

 They must not be compared with the other lyric 

 productions of the ancient world ; they are alto- 

 gether the peculiar growth of the holy land, where 

 the voice of revelation resounded most loudly, and 

 was preserved the most purely. Many of their 

 allusions are historical, and must be explained by 

 history; but it would be going too far to attempt to 

 explain every thing historically; since it is evident 

 that much is metaphorical, some, though a smaller 

 portion, allegorical, and much prophetical, referring 

 to the future, rather than to the past. Some, on 

 account of their local allusions, are less instructive 

 to us ; but most of them are rich in encouragement, 

 consolation, filial trust, joyful confidence in God, 

 evidences of humility and patience, and are well 

 adapted for the sacred songs of Christians. It may 

 be added that the collection in the Old Testament 

 oy no means contains the whole treasure of Hebrew 

 palms. Not only are the songs of Solomon lost, 

 but there are many others mentioned in the Old 

 Testament which are not in our biblical collection. 



PSALMANAZAR, GEORGE, the assumed name 

 of a man of letters, who is chiefly known as a liter- 

 ary impostor. He was born of Catholic parents, 

 in the south of France, in 1679. His mother, being 

 abandoned by her husband, sent her son to a school 

 kept by Franciscan friars; and he was afterwards 

 placed in a college of the Jesuits. He then studied 

 among the Dominicans, and having finished his 

 education, acted as a private tutor. Leaving his 

 situation, he engaged in several adventures ; and, 

 at length, having stolen from a church, where it 

 had been dedicated, the habit of a pilgrim, he roved 

 about in that character, subsisting on charity. He 

 afterwards became a common vagrant, and then 

 servant to the keeper of a tavern, whose house he 



left clandestinely, and, renewing his wandering 

 mode of life, he conceived the project of professing 

 himself to be a Japanese convert to Christianity, 

 who had found his way to Europe. As he did not 

 find this scheme very profitable, he adopted Uie 

 character of a heathen native of the island of For- 

 mosa, and, in order to support his pretensions, he 

 contrived a new language, which he called the For- 

 mosan. At this time he became acquainted with a 

 clergyman named limes, who, conceiving he could 

 turn the imposture to good account, persuaded the 

 pretended Formosan to suffer himself to be con- 

 verted to the church of England ; and the clergy- 

 man and his new disciple went to London, where 

 the latter was presented to bishop Compton and 

 others, and the former was rewarded for his zeal 

 with church preferment. Psalmanazar had the 

 effrontery to translate the Church Catechism into 

 his newly-invented Formosan language ; and he 

 published a History of Formosa (1704), which passed 

 through several editions. In the mean time he was 

 sent to study at Oxford ; and a controversy was 

 carried on between his patrons and Dr Halley, Dr 

 Mead, and some other less credulous persons, who 

 refused to admit his pretensions. The imposture at 

 length became clearly manifest ; and the culprit, 

 deserted by those whom he had deceived, was 

 obliged to rely on the exercise of his literary abili- 

 ties for his support. He settled in London, where 

 he resided many years, and was employed by the, 

 booksellers, particularly in the former part of the 

 Universal History, published in 1747. Towards 

 the close of his life, he drew up an autobiographical 

 Memoir, in which he expresses much contrition for 

 the deceptions which he had allowed himself to 

 practise. His death took place in 1763. Dr 

 Johnson, who, in early life, became acquainted with 

 Psalmanazar, always spoke with high respect of his 

 talents and acquirements. Among all the distin- 

 guished men he had ever met, he pronounced the 

 impostor Psalmanazar to be the most universally 

 learned and accomplished. 



PSALMODY; the art of writing or composing 

 divine hymns or songs. The composition and per- 

 formance of psalmody appears to have been- prac- 

 tised and encouraged in Germany, France, and the 

 Low Countries, long before it was introduced into 

 Britain, Most of the old melodies now sung in the 

 service of the parochial churches were set by Ger- 

 man musicians, and it seems highly probable, from 

 all that can be collected on the subject, that the 

 practice of psalmody had its origin in Germany. It 

 does not, however, appear that even in that country 

 it at first gained admission into public worship ; 

 but it was a long time confined to family devo- 

 tion, especially among the reformed. Luther, who 

 was a good musician, is known to have regularly 

 practised psalmody with his friends every evening 

 after supper, and is by some supposed to have been 

 the author of the excellent melody of the 100th 

 psalm. The first English version of the Psalms of 

 David, which took place soon after that of the 

 French, was made in the reign of Henry VIII., by 

 Thomas Sternhold (q. v.), groom of the robes to 

 that monarch, and John Hopkins, a schoolmaster, 

 assisted by William Whittyngham, an English di- 

 vine of considerable learning. Soon after the pub- 

 lication of this version, vocal psalmody was intro- 

 duced into the church service, and various musical 

 manuals appeared for facilitating its practice. 



PSALTER; a collection of the Psalms; also a 

 large chaplet or rosary, consisting of 150 beads, the 

 number of the Psalms in the Psalter. 



PSALTERY, OB PSALTERION ; a stringed 

 instrument much used by the ancient Hebrews, and 



