Imatges de pàgina
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Lo! Sion's daughter prostrate on the earth,
All mournful, solitary, weeping, lies!

In vain her suppliant hands to heaven extends,
She sinks deserted, and no comfort finds.11

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Unless we attend to this peculiar phraseology, such expressions as the Sons of the bow and of the quiver" for arrows, will seem extremely harsh and unnatural; as well as that remarkable personification of Job, denoting the most miserable death, "The first-born of the 66 progeny of death."""

The parabolic style no less elegantly assigns a character and action to inanimate objects than to abstract ideas. The holy prophets, moved with just indignation against the ungrateful people of God, "obtest the Heav"ens and the Earth, and command universal Nature to "be silent." They plead their cause before the Moun"tains, and the Hills listen to their voice."16 All is animated and informed with life, soul, and passion: "Let the Heavens rejoice, and let the Earth be glad;

" And let them proclaim through the nations, JEHOVAH reigneth. "Let the Sea roar, and all that it containeth ;17

"The world, and the inhabitants thereof :

"Let the Floods clap their hands;

"Let the Mountains break forth into harmony :11

"Before JEHOVAH, for he cometh,

"For he cometh to judge the earth.”1-*

"The Waters saw thee, O God!

"The waters saw thee, they were grievously troubled ;20

"The Deep uttered his voice;

"And lifted up his hands on high.' 21

And Job admirably in the same style:

"Canst thou send forth the Lightnings, and will they go? "Shall they say unto thee, Behold here we are ?"22

11 LAM. i. 1, &c.
14 JOB Xviii. 13.
17 1 CHRON. xvi. 31.
20 PSAL. lxxvii. 16.

12 JOB xli. 19.

15 DEUT. Xxxii. 1. ISAI. i. 2.
18 PSAL. XCVI. 7, 8.
21 HABAK. iii. 10.

13 LAM. iii. 13.

16 MIC. vi. 1. 19 PSAL. XCVI. 13.

22 Chap. xxxviii. 35.

With equal success they introduce objects, which have no existence in the order and economy of nature; though it must be confessed, that it is attended with much greater hazard of propriety; for to those, which are within the province of nature, we readily attribute a de gree of life and sentiment. Of this the following dialogue in Jeremiah is an admirable specimen:

"Ho! sword of JEHOVAH!

"How long wilt thou not be at rest?
"Return into thy scabbard,

"Return, and be still.

"How can it be at rest,

"Since JEHOVAH hath given it a charge?

"Against Askelon, and against the sea-coast,

"There hath he appointed it."23

The other kind of prosopopœia, to which I alluded in the former part of this lecture, is that, by which a probable but fictitious speech is assigned to a real person. As the former is calculated to excite admiration and approbation by its novelty, boldness, and variety; so the latter, from its near resemblance to real life, is possessed of great force, evidence and authority.

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It would be an infinite task to specify every instance in the sacred poems, which on this occasion might be referred to as worthy of notice; or to remark the easy, the natural, the bold and sudden personifications; the dignity, importance, and impassioned severity of the characters. It would be difficult to describe the energy of that eloquence which is attributed to JEHOVAH him. self, and which appears so suitable in all respects to the Divine Majesty; or to display the force and beauty of the language which is so admirably and peculiarly adapted to each character; the probability of the fiction; and the excellence of the imitation. One example, there

23 JER. xlvii. 6, 7.

fore, must suffice for the present; one more perfect it is not possible to produce. It is expressive of the eager expectation of the mother of Sisera, from the inimitable ode of the prophetess Deborah."

The first sentences exhibit a striking picture of maternal solicitude, both in words and actions; and of a mind suspended and agitated between hope and fear : "Through the window she looked and cried out, "The mother of Sisera, through the lattice: "Wherefore is his chariot so long in coming? "Wherefore linger the wheels of his chariot ?"

Immediately, impatient of his delay, she anticipates the consolations of her friends, and her mind being somewhat elevated, she boasts with all the levity of a fond female;

(Vast in her hopes and giddy with success ;)

"Her wise ladies answer her;

"Yea, she returns answer to herself:

"Have they not found?-Have they not divided the spoil?" Let us now observe, how well adapted every sentiment, every word is to the character of the speaker. She takes no account of the slaughter of the enemy, of the valour and conduct of the conqueror, of the multitude of the captives, but

Burns with a female thirst of prey and spoils.

Nothing is omitted, which is calculated to attract and engage the passions of a vain and trifling woman, slaves, gold, and rich apparel. Nor is she satisfied with the bare enumeration of them; she repeats, she amplifies, she heightens every circumstance; she seems to have the very plunder in her immediate possession; shẹ pauses and contemplates every particular :

24 JUD. v. 28-30.

"Have they not found ?-Have they not divided the spoil? "To every man a damsel, yea a damsel or two?

"To Sisera a spoil of divers colours?

"A spoil of needlework of divers colours,

"A spoil for the neck of divers colours of needlework on ei❝ther side."

To add to the beauty of this passage, there is also an uncommon neatness in the versification, great force, accuracy, and perspicuity in the diction, the utmost elegance in the repetitions, which, notwithstanding their apparent redundancy, are conducted with the most perfect brevity. In the end, the fatal disappointment of female hope and credulity, tacitly insinuated by the sudden and unexpected apostrophe,

"So let all thine enemies perish, O JEHOVAH !"

Is expressed more forcibly by this very silence of the person who was just speaking, than it could possibly have been by all the powers of language.

But whoever wishes to understand the full force and excellence of this figure, as well as the elegant use of it in the Hebrew ode, must apply to Isaiah, whom I do not scruple to pronounce the sublimest of poets. He will there find, in one short poem, examples of almost every form of the Prosopopoeia, and indeed of all that constitutes the sublime in composition. I trust it will not be thought unseasonable to refer immediately to the passage itself, and to remark a few of the principal excellencies.2

The prophet, after predicting the liberation of the

25 35w ¬nigh, “A spoil to ornament the neck;" is the constructive for the absolute. See Mic. vi. 16. LAM. iii. 14 and 66. For further satisfaction on this subject consult BuxTORF, Thes. Gram. ii. 4. who, nevertheless, in the same work, interprets this phrase in a different manner. The SEV ENTY read ; and the SYRIAC ; the context will bear either.

26 ISAI. xiv. 4-27.

Author's Note.

Jews from their severe captivity in Babylon, and their restoration to their own country, introduces them as reciting a kind of triumphal song upon the fall of the Babylonish monarch, replete with imagery, and with the most elegant and animated personifications. A sudden exclamation, expressive of their joy and admiration on the unexpected revolution in their affairs, and the des truction of their tyrants, forms the exordium of the poem. The Earth itself triumphs with the inhabitants thereof; the Fir-trees, and the Cedars of Lebanon (under which images the parabolic style frequently delineates the kings and princes of the Gentiles) exult with joy, and persecute with contemptuous reproaches the humbled power of a ferocious enemy:

"The whole earth is at rest, is quiet; they burst forth into a joy"ful shout:

"Even the fir-trees rejoice over thee, the cedars of Lebanon : "Since thou art fallen, no feller hath come up against us."27 This is followed by a bold and animated personification of Hades, or the infernal regions. Hades excites his inhabitants, the ghosts of princes, and the departed spirits of kings: they rise immediately from their seats, and proceed to meet the monarch of Babylon; they insult and deride him, and comfort themselves with the view of his calamity :

"Art thou, even thou too, become weak as we? Art thou made "like unto us?

"Is then thy pride brought down to the grave; the sound of thy "sprightly instruments?

27 Thus spiritedly versified by Mr. POTTER:
The lordly Lebanon waves high

The ancient honours of his sacred head;
Their branching arms his cedars spread,
His pines triumphant shoot into the sky:
"Tyrant, no barb'rous axe invades,

"Since thou art fallen, our unpierc'd shades."

See the conclusion of Lect. xxviii. T.

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