The poetical works of William Alexander Author:William Alexander Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CAUSES OF THE PECULIARITIES OF HEBREW SONG. 13 DISSERTATION X. CAUSES OF THE PECULIARITIES OF HEBREW SONG. The Hebrew poet had before him, instead of a ... more »natural and visible Olympus and Acheron, sketched out in dim but awful vision, the idea of heaven and hell, encompassed by an eternity on this side and an eternity on that; a conception heightened also by a sense of moral responsibility; and of eternal punishment or happiness beyond the grave. The solemn, the pathetic, the infinite, and the immaterial are characteristic of scripture poesy. And this because it is the poetry of revelation. The writers had the impulse of the Spirit upon their souls. The Divine guidance infallibly directed their minds. They therefore speak to the heart, the hopes, and the fears of man. And while they force upon the mind the immaterial and invisible, they present also a glimpse of that glory which eye hath not seen. " Hold my right hand, Almighty, and me teach," doubtless was the prayer of the Hebrew bards. And they struck the sacred lyre to notes harmonious with the morning stars, and woke the echoes of eternity. The Divine impulse, then, is the immediate cause of the Hebrew poet's excellence. There are also secondary causes of this preeminence. They viewed themselves as God's peculiar people, from whom the Saviour should spring. Over Egypt's king they knew they had triumphed gloriously. They had recollections also of their wanderings in a desert land, where they found no water save that of the rock that followed them. They had heard the thunders of Sinai's fiery summit. They had also beheld its visible smoke. They had a religion, moreover, which demanded worship in the temple of the heart. But, again, they were ever a nation of shepherds, husbandmen, and warriors. The physical featui-es of th...« less