TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN BY G. GREGORY, F. A. S. A NEW EDITION WITH NOTES BY CALVIN E. STOWE, A. M. Opus enim de Sacra Poesi absolutissimum, nemo est, opinor, in his studiis versatus, qui non ANDOVER: PRINTED AT THE CODMAN PRESS BY FLAGG AND gould, FOR CROCKER & BREWSTER, AND J. LEAVITT, NO. 182, 1829. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Office. Be it remembered, that on the 2d day of October, A. D. 1829, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America. Flagg & Gould, of the said district, has deposited in this Office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, by Robert Lowth, D. D. Lord Bishop of London Translated from the original Latin by G. Gregory, F. A. S. A new Edition with Notes by Calvin E. Stowe, A. M. Opus enim de Sacra Poesi absolutissimum, nemo est, opinor, in his studiis versatus, qui non perlegerit; nemo, cui non summam admirationem attulerit cum argumenti dignitas, et eruditi auctoris singulare judicium, tum Latini sermonis venustas ac nitor."Sir William Jones. In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an act entitled, An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints." JOHN W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. English angry orded edition. PREFACE. AT different periods in the history of mankind, Providence raises up men who are destined to effect a complete revolution in the intellectual character of their age, and to exert an influence which will not cease while time endures. These are the leaders of the human race in the career of improvement, an office for which they are fitted only by unyielding independence and hardihood of understanding, the result of a peculiarly happy mental structure cooperating with peculiar circumstances; and they deserve, more than any others, the title of vicegerents of God on earth, for under Him and by His appointment they rule the world of mind. Of this number was ROBERT LOWтH, a name which will ever be held in veneration by the student of Sacred Literature. His father, the REV. WILLIAM LOWтH, who was Chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester and Prebendary of a Cathedral Church in that See, is known as the author of commentaries on several books of the Old Testament, which rank among the best of their time; and to the favourite pursuits of the father we are perhaps indebted for the labours and celebrity of the son. ROBERT was born at Winchester in the year 1710, and received the first rudiments of his education at the school founded in that city by WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM. He there distinguished himself, at a very early age, as a classical and Hebrew scholar, and a poet. In 1728 he was sent to New College, Oxford; of which he was elected Fellow in 1734; took the degree of M. A. in 1737; and in 1741 succeeded JOSEPH SPENCE as Professor of Poetry in that University. It was in discharge of the duties of this office that he delivered his justly celebrated Lectures entitled: De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum Praelectiones Academicae; of which the first |