of two distichs as making a stanza of four lines, I shall take the

first example :

"Be not moved with indignation against the evil-doers;

Nor with zeal against the workers of iniquity:*

For like the grass they shall soon be cut off';

And like the green herb they shall wither."

"The ox knoweth his possessor;

And the ass the crib of his lord;
But Israel doth not know Me;*
Neither doth my people consider."

"And I said, I have laboured in vain;

For nought and for vanity I have spent my strength:
Nevertheless my cause is with Jehovah;

And the reward of my work with my God."

"Jehovah shall roar from Sion;

And shall utter his voice from Jerusalem:

And the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn;
And the head of Carmel shall wither."

Psal. xxxvii. 1, 2.

Isa. i. 3.

Isa. xlix. 4.

Amos. i. 2.

In like manner, some periods may be considered as making stanzas of five lines, in which the odd line or member either comes in between two distichs, or after two distichs makes a full close:

"If thou wouldst seek early unto God;

And make thy supplication to the Almighty;

If thou wert pure and upright:

Verily now would he rise up in thy defence;

And make peaceable the dwelling of thy righteousness."

"They bear him on the shoulder; they carry him about;
They set him down in his place, and he standeth;
From his place he shall not remove:

To him, that crieth unto him, he will not answer;
Neither will he deliver him from his distress."

"Who is wise, and will understand these things?
Prudent, and will know them?

For right are the ways of Jehovah ;
And the just shall walk in them;
But the disobedient shall fall therein."

"And Jehovah shall roar out of Sion;
And from Jerusalem shall utter his voice;
And the heavens and the earth shall tremble:
But Jehovah will be the refuge of his people;
And a strong defence to the sons of Israel."

See the Note on the place.

"Who establisheth the word of his servant;

And accomplisheth the counsel of his messengers:

Who sayeth to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited;
And to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built;

And her desolate places I will restore."

Isa. xliv. 26.

In stanzas of four lines, sometimes the parallel lines answer to one another alternately; the first to the third, and the second to the fourth:

And a stanza of five lines admits of the same elegance:

"Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah?

Let him hearken unto the voice of his servant:
That walketh in darkness, and hath no light?
Let him trust in the name of Jehovah ;

And rest himself on the support of his God."

Isa. 1. 10.

The second sort of parallels are the antithetic—when two lines correspond with one another by an opposition of terms and sentiments; when the second is contrasted with the first, sometimes in expressions, sometimes in sense only. Accordingly the degrees of antithesis are various; from an exact contraposition of word to word through the whole sentence, down to a general disparity, with something of a contrariety, in the two propositions.

Thus, in the following examples:—

"A wise son rejoiceth his father;

But a foolish son is the grief of his mother."

Prov. x. 1.

-where every word hath its opposite; for the terms father and mother are, as the logicians say, relatively opposite.

"The memory of the just is a blessing;

But the name of the wicked shall rot."

Here there are only two antithetic terms; for memory are synonymous.

Prov. x. 7.

and name

compare the next verse; and see Isa. lv, 9. and the note there.

"There is that scattereth, and still increaseth;

And that is unreasonably sparing, yet groweth poor."

Prov. xi. 24.

Here there is a kind of double antithesis; one between the two lines themselves, and likewise a subordinate opposition between the two parts of each.

66

Many seek the face of the prince;

But the determination concerning a man is from Jehovah."

Prov. xxix. 26.

-where the opposition is chiefly between the single terms, the Prince and Jehovah: but there is an opposition likewise in the general sentiment; which expresses, or intimates, the vanity of depending on the former, without seeking the favour of the latter. In the following, there is much the same opposition of sentiment, without any contraposition of terms at all:

"The lot is cast into the lap;

But the whole determination of it is from Jehovah."

Prov. xvi. 33.

That is, the event seems to be the work of chance, but is really the direction of Providence.

The foregoing examples are all taken from the Proverbs of Solomon, where they abound: for this form is peculiarly adapted to that kind of writing-to adages, aphorisms, and detached sentences. Indeed, the elegance, acuteness, and force of a great number of Solomon's wise sayings, arise in a great measure from the antithetic form, the opposition of diction and sentiment. We are not therefore to expect frequent instances of it in the other poems of the Old Testament: especially those that are elevated in the style, and more connected in the parts. However, I shall add a few examples of the like kind from the higher poetry.

"These in chariots, and those in horses;

But we in the name of Jehovah our God will be strong.*
They are bowed down, and fallen;

But we are risen, and maintain ourselves firm."

Psal. xx. 7, 8.

"For his wrath is but for a moment, his favour for life;
Sorrow may lodge for the evening, but in the morning gladness."

"Yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more; Thou shalt look at his place, and he shall not be found; But the meek shall inherit the land;

And delight themselves in abundant prosperity."

Psal. xxx. 5.

Psal. xxxvii. 10, 11.

In the last example, the opposition lies between the two parts

*, so LXX, Syr. Æthiop.

of a stanza of four lines, the latter distich being opposed to the former. So likewise the following:

"For the mountains shall be removed:

And the hills shall be overthrown:

But my kindness from thee shall not be removed;

And the covenant of my peace shall not be overthrown."

Isa. liv. 10.

"The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone;
The sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars."

Isa. ix. 10.

Here the lines themselves are synthetically parallel; and the opposition lies between the two members of each.

The third sort of parallels I call synthetic or constructivewhere the parallelism consists only in the similar form of construction; in which word does not answer to word, and sentence to sentence, as equivalent or opposite; but there is a correspondence and equality between different propositions, in respect of the shape and turn of the whole sentence, and of the constructive parts-such as noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, negative to negative, interrogative to interrogative.

"Praise ye Jehovah, ye of the earth;

Ye sea-monsters, and all deeps:

Fire and hail, snow and vapour;

Stormy wind, executing his command:
Mountains, and all hills;

Fruit-trees, and all cedars:

Wild beasts, and all cattle:

Reptiles, and birds of wing:

Kings of the earth, and all peoples;
Princes, and all judges of the earth:
Youths, and also virgins;

Old men, together with the children:
Let them praise the name of Jehovah;
For his name alone is exalted;

His majesty, above earth and heaven."

"With him is wisdom and might;

To him belong counsel and understanding.

Lo! he pulleth down, and it shall not be built;

Psal. cxlviii. 7-13.

He encloseth a man, and he shall not be set loose.
Lo! he withholdeth the waters, and they are dried up;

And he sendeth them forth, and they overturn the earth.
With him is strength, and perfect existence;

The deceived, and the deceiver, are his."

"Is such, then, the fast which I choose?

That a man should afflict his soul for a day?

Job xii. 13-16.

Is it, that he should bow down his head like a bulrush;
And spread sackcloth and ashes for his couch?
Shall this be called a fast;

And a day acceptable to Jehovah?
Is not this the fast that I choose-
To dissolve the bands of wickedness;
To loosen the oppressivé burthens;

To deliver those that are crushed by violence;
And that ye should break asunder every yoke?
It is not to distribute thy bread to the hungry;
And to bring the wandering poor into thy house?
When thou seest the naked, that thou clothe him;
And that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then shall thy light break forth like the morning;
And thy wounds shall speedily be healed over:
And thy righteousnesss shall go before thee;
And the glory of Jehovah shall bring up thy rear."

Isa. lviii. 5-8.

Of the constructive kind is most commonly the parallelism of stanzas of three lines; though they are sometimes synonymous throughout, and often have two lines synonymous; examples of both which are above given. The following are constructively parallel :

"Whatsoever Jehovah pleaseth,

That doeth he in the heavens, and in the earth;

In the sea, and in all the deeps:

Causing the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth;

Making the lightnings with the rain;

"Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap;

Thou shalt tread the olive, but shalt not anoint thee with oil;
And the grape, but shalt not drink wine."

Isa. 1. 5, 6.

Micah vi. 15.

Of the same sort of parallelism are those passages, frequent in the poetic books, where a definite number is twice put for an indefinite: this being followed by an enumeration of particulars, naturally throws the sentences into a parallelism, which cannot be of any other than the synthetic kind. This seems to have been a favourite ornament. There are many elegant examples of it in the 30th chapter of Proverbs, to which I refer the reader; and shall here give one or two from other places.