$8s THE POETRY OF THE HEBREWS,

JiECT. we find plain marks of many parts of the originalXLI. being written in a meafured Style ; and the“ disjecffi membra poetae often fhow themfclves.Let any perfon read the Hiftorical Introductionto the book of Job , contained in tire firft andfecond chapters , and then go on to Job’s fpcechin the beginning of the third chapter, and hecannot avoid being fenfible, that he paffes all atonce from the region of Profe , to that of Poetry.Not only the poetical fentiments, and the figuredStyle , warn him of the change; but the cadenceof the fentence , and the arrangement of theWords are fenfibly altered; the change is as greatas when he paffes from reading Cscfar’s Comment-aries , to read Virgil’s JEneid. This is fufficientto fhow that the facred Scriptures contain , whatmuff be called Poetry in the ftribteft fenfe of thatword ; and I fihall afterwards fhow, that theycontain inftances of moft of the different forms ofPoetical Writing. It may be proper to remark,in paffing, that hence arifes a moft invincibleargument in honour of Poetry. No perfon canimagine that to be a frivolous and contemptibleart, which has been employed by Writers underdivine infpiration ; and has been chofen as aproper channel, for conveying to the world theknowledge of divine truth.

From the eaxlieft times, INTufic and Poetrywere cultivated among the Hebrews. In the daysof the Judges , mention is made of the Schoolsor Colleges of the Prophets; where one part ofthe employment of the perfons trained in fucli