In Psalm cxxxiii., we have the sense symmetrically

distributed as to lines

As the precious oil
on the head

that flows

to the beard,

As Hermon's dew

to his skirts,

that flows

beard of Aaron.

We may now see the artistic effect which this arrangement produces in the ode.

1. Lo! how good and how pleasing
2. That brethren dwell together!

Like the precious oil

On the head that flows
To the beard,

The beard of Aaron

That flows to his skirts.

Like dew of Hermon

That flows on hills of Zion;

For there

God decreed

The Benediction,

Life for evermore.

Between 5 and 10, we have an introverted parallelism. The eleventh line is evidently analogous to the sixth and ninth, and seems to commence a new introversion. But the thing chiefly to be noticed is, how the plan of the ode exhibits the divisions of the subject. The twofold division, which at once arrests attention, exhibits,-first, the proposition or subject on which the Psalmist is about to discourse; and secondly, the illustration of the subject, 3-13. Not only so, but it is at once seen that the part allotted to the illustration is twofold, each introversion containing in reality an illustration.

To these examples of (1) the symmetrical arrangement of the words of a line, and (2) of the lines in a stanza, let us add an example of the like arrange

17.

18.

19.

IV.

WHO WEEPING SHALL GO

WHEN BEARING SEED-BASKET,

HE SHOUTING SHALL COME

20. WHEN BEARING HIS SHEAVES.

Here are four stanzas, arranged in two pairs, corresponding alternately and inversely, stanza III., being the inversion of stanza 1., and stanza IV., of stanza II. Stanzas I. and III. contain, each, two couplets; stanzas II. and IV. contain, each, two alternations. So far the external arrangement of the materials; but, on examining the contents of the ode, it will be seen at a glance that we have given no arbitrary division. The division has been indeed determined by the sense, and, when written accordingly, the result is a perfectly symmetrical whole.

Thus, there can be no doubt that lines 1 and 2 go There can be no doubt that

together; so 4 and 5. lines 7 and 9 alternate; so, 8 and 10. It is evident that lines 12 and 13 go together; equally so 15 and 16. It is evident that 17 and 19 alternate; equally so 18 and 20.

There remain only four lines-viz., 3, 6, 11, 14, of which two serve to separate couplets, and two to separate stanzas. The words of the ode exhibit, upon a careful analysis, the same arrangement and symmetry; but we must not enter upon that.

But as each ode exhibits this symmetrical distribution of words, and lines, and stanzas, the distribution being around a centre, so also is the distribution of the odes themselves around a central

one.

Taking Psalm cxxvii. as a central ode, there are seven on each side of it. Each of these sevens contain, as Hengstenberg has pointed out, the name of Jehovah twenty-four times, besides being divided by four and three, so as to produce four groups, each containing the name of Jehovah twelve times. There seems to have been attention paid to symmetry, also, as regards the actual quantity in each heptode. This is all the more remarkable, as the odes vary in length from seven lines up to forty. It is still further remarkable that the relative proportions of the heptodes and the central ode are seven to one. Thus, as to number, the odes run 7, 1, 7. And as to actual gravity, we have the proportion exhibited by the same numbers, 7, 1, 7, (throwing aside fractions), notwithstanding the great variety as to the length of the individual odes.

THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES.

CHAPTER I. Ver. 5, 6.

THESE two verses should be united, and rendered :

"The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose: going toward the south, and turning about unto the north, the wind whirleth about continually," etc.

CHAPTER II.

"For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?"-Ver. 25.

INSTEAD of chootz memeni, "more than 1," eight MSS., the LXX., Syriac, and Arabic, read chootz memenu, "without him." This connects much better, and is probably the true reading: "This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God: for who can eat, and who can relish (or enjoy) without him? For he giveth to man that is good."

THE PROPHETIC BOOKS.

THE prophetic cycle, including a period of more than 400 years; i. e., from about B. c. 800, to B.C. 400, is unquestionably the most eventful in the history of the Hebrews. It embraces the introduction of image-worship, and that of Phoenician idolatry, with all their attendant evils, among the Israelites; the regicidal murders and civil wars which shook their kingdom to its centre; the corruptions of the Jewish state in consequence of its adoption of the idolatrous practices of the northern tribes; the Assyrian and Egyptian alliances; the irruption of the Syrian, Assyrian, and Chaldean armies into Palestine; the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities; the Persian conquests; the release of the Jews, and their restoration to their own land; and the state of affairs at Jerusalem during the governorship of Nehemiah. Upon all these various events and circumstances, the predictions, warnings, threatenings, promises, and moral lessons have, in a multiplicity of aspects, a more or less pointed and important bearing.* Hence considerable light will be thrown on the several prophetical books, and many difficulties will be prevented, if they are assigned to their proper places in the Biblical history, which they are not, in our English version, any more than their chronological order is observed.

We have given, in vol. i. p. 116, Archbishop Newcome's arrangement of the prophetic eras, in connection with the history of Judah and Israel. * Henderson, "Minor Prophets," Gen. Pref.