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From the examples of the Synthetic or Conftructive kind, the Reader will obferve, fays Dr. Lowth, that though there are perhaps no two lines correfponding with one another as equivalent, or oppofite in terms; yet there is a Parallelifm equally apparent, and almoft as ftriking, which arifes from the fimilar form and equality of the lines, from the correfpondence of the members and the conftruction; the confequence of which is a harmony and rhythm, little inferior in effect to that of the two kinds preceding.

The degrees of the correfpondence of the lines in this laft fort of Parallels muft, from the nature of it, be various. Sometimes the Parallelifm is more, fometimes lefs, exact: fometimes hardly at all. apparent. It requires indeed particular attention, much fudy of the genius of the language, much habitude in the analysis of the conftruction, to be able in all cafes to fee and to diftinguish the nice refts and paufes, which ought to be made, in order to give the period or the fentence its intended turn and cadence, and to each part its due time and proportion. The Jewish Critics, called the Maforetes, were exceedingly attentive to their language in this part; even to a fcrupulous exactnefs and fubtle refinement; as it appears from that extremely complicated Syftem of Grammatical Punctuation, more embarrafling than ufeful, which they have invented. It is therefore not improbable, that they might have had fome infight into this matter; and in distinguishing the parts of the fentence by Accents might have had regard to the harmony of the Period, and the proportion of the members, as well as to the ftrict Grammatical difpofition of the conftructive parts. Of this, I think, I perceive evident tokens: for they fometimes feem to have more regard, in diftributing the fentence, to the Poetical or Rhetorical harmony of the Period, and the proportion of the members, than to the Grammatical Conftruction.'.

To explain what he means, our ingenious Author produces fome examples, in which the Maforetes, in diftinguishing the fentence into its parts, have given marks of paufes perfectly agreeable to poetical rhythm, but fuch as the Grammatical Conftruction does not require, and scarcely admits: and then he adds:

Of the three different forts of Parallels, as above explained, every one hath its peculiar character and proper effect; and therefore they are differently employed on different occafions; and the fort of Parallelifm is chiefly made ufe of, which is beft adapted to the nature of the fubject and of the Poem. Synonymons Parallels have the appearance of art and concinnity, and a ftudied elegance; they prevail chiefly in fhorter Poems; in many of the Pfalms; in Balaam's Prophecies; frequently in thofe of Ifaiah, which are molt of them diftin&t Poems of no great length. The Antithetic Parallelifm gives an acuteness and force to Adages and moral Sentences; and therefore, as I observed before, abounds in Solomon's Proverbs, and elsewhere is not often to be met with. The Poem of Job, being on a large plan, and in a high Tragic ftyle, though very exact in the divifion of the lines, and in the Parallelifm, and affording many fine examples of the Synonymous. kind, yet confifts chiefly of the Conftructive.

Conftructive. A happy mixture of the feveral forts gives an agreeable variety and they ferve mutually to recommend and fet off one another.'

The Bishop, having before mentioned that there appeared to be two forts of Hebrew verfes, differing from one another in regard to their length, proceeds to explain the nature, and point out the marks of the longer kind, which, though they admit of every fort of Parallelifm, yet belong for the most part to the class of conftructive Parallels.

This diftinction, fays he, of Hebrew Verfes into Longer and Shorter, is founded on the authority of the Alphabetical Poems; one third of the whole number of which are manifeftly of the Longer fort of verfe; the rest of the Shorter. I do not prefume exactly to define by the number of Syllables, fuppofing we could with fome probability determine it, the limit that feparates one fort of verse from the other; fo that every verse exceeding or falling fhort of that number should be always accounted a long or a fhort verfe: all that I affirm is this; that One of the Three Poems Perfectly Alphabetical, and therefore infallibly divided into its verfes; and Three of the Nine other Alphabetical Poems, divided into their verfes, after the manner of the Perfectly Alphabetical, with the greatest degree of probability; that these Four Poems, being the Four firft Lamentations of Jeremiah, fall into verfes about one-third longer, taking them one with another, than thofe of the other Eight Alphabetical Poems. I fhall firft give an example of thefe long verfes from a Poem Perfectly Alphabetical, in which therefore the limits of the verfes are unerringly defined:

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I am the man that hath feen affliction, by the rod of his anger: "He hath led me, and made me walk, in darkness, not in light: "Even again turneth he his hand against me, all the day long. "He hath made old my flesh and my skin, he hath broken my : "bones:

"He hath built against me, and hath compaffed me, with gall " and travail :

"He hath made me dwell in dark places, as the dead of old." Lament. iii. 1—6.

The following is from the firft Lamentation; in which the Stanzas are defined by Initial Letters, and are, like the former, of three lines;

"How doth the city folitary fit, fhe that was full of people! "How is fhe become a widow, that was great among the nations! "Princess among the Provinces, how is the become tributary! "She weepeth fore in the night, and her tear is upon her cheek: "She hath none to comfort her, among all her lovers: "All her friends have betrayed her, they became her enemies." Lament. i. 1, 2.

'I fhall now give examples of the fame fort of verfe, where the limits of the verfes are to be collected only from the Poetical ConAruction of the fentences: and firft from the books acknowledged on all hands to be Poetical; and of thefe we must have recourfe to the Pfalms only; for, I believe, there is not a fingle inftance of this fort

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fort of verfe to be found in the Poem of Job; and scarce any in the Proverbs of Solomon.

"The law of Jehovah is perfect, reftoring the foul;

"The teftimony of Jehovah is fure, making wife the fimple: "The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart; "The commandment of Jehovah is clear, enlightening the eyes : "The fear of Jehovah is pure, enduring for ever;

"The judgments of Jehovah are truth; they are altogether "righteous:

More defirable than gold, and than much fine gold; "And fweeter than honey, and the dropping of honey-combs." Pf. xix. 7-10.

That our fons may be like plants, growing up in their youth; "Our daughters like the corner pillars, carved for the structure "of a palace:

"Our ftore houfes full, producing all kinds of provision; "Our flocks bringing forth thousands, ten thousands in our fields: "Our oxen ftrong to labour; no irruption, no captivity; "And no outcry in our streets." Pf. cxliv. 12—14.

"O! how great is thy goodness, which thou haft treasured up, for "them that fear thee;

"Which thou haft wrought for them that trust in thee, before the "fons of men !

"Thou wilt hide them in the fecret place of thy prefence, from the vexations of man ;

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tongues.'

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"Thou wilt keep them fafe in the tabernacle, from the ftrife of Pf. xxxi. 19, 20. "A found of a multitude in the mountains, as of many people; "A found of the tumult of kingdoms, of nations gathered to

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"gether:

Jehovah God of hofts muftereth the hoft for the battle.
They come from a distant land, from the end of heaven;
Jehovah and the inftruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole
Ifaiah xiii. 4, 5.

"land."

"They are turned backward, they are utterly confounded, wha "truft in the graven image;

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"Whò fay unto the molten image, ye are our gods!"

Ifaiah xlii. 17.

They are ashamed, they are even confounded, his adverfaries,

"all of them;

Together they retire in confufion, the fabricators of images : "But Ifrael fhall be faved in Jehovah, with eternal falvation; "Ye shall not be ashamed, neither fhall ye be confounded, to Ifaiah xlv. 16, 17.

"the ages of eternity."

Thefe examples, all except the two first, are of long verfes thrown in, irregularly, but with defign, between verses of another fort; among which they ftand out, as it were, fomewhat diftinguished in regard to their matter, as well as their form.'

Our difcerning Critic thinks that he perceives fome peculiarities in the caft and ftructure of these verses, which mark them, and diftinguish them from those of the other fort. The clofing

pause

pause of each line is generally very full and ftrong: and in each line commonly, toward the end, at least beyond the middle of it, there is a small reft, or interval, depending on the fenfe and grammatical conftruction, which may be called a half pause.

The Conjunction, Vau, adds Dr. Lowth, the common particle of connection, which abounds in the Hebrew language, and is very often used without any neceffity at all, feems to be frequently and ftudioufly omitted at the Half-paufe: the remaining claufe being added, to use a grammatical term, by Appofition to fome word preceding; or coming in as an adjunct, or circumftance depending on the former part, and completing the Sentence. This gives a certain air to thefe verses, which may be efteemed in fome fort as characteristic of the kind.

The firft Four Lamentations are Four diftin&t Poems confifting uniformly and entirely of the Long Verfe, which may therefore be properly called the Elegiac Verfe; from thofe Elegies, which give the plainest and the moft undoubted examples of it. There may perhaps be found many other very probable examples in the fame kind but this is what I cannot pretend to determine with any certainty. Such, I think, are the forty-fecond and forty-third Pfalms; which I imagine make one entire Poem, and ought not to have been divided into two Pfalms: the lines are all of the Longer kind, except the third line of the Intercalary Stanza three times inferted; which third line, like that at the clofe of an example given above from the hundred and forty-fourth Pfalm, is of the Shorter kind of verfe; fomewhat like the Parœmiac verse of the Greeks, which commonly makes the close of a set of Anapæftic verfes. Such likewife may perhaps be the hundred and firft Pfalm; which feems to confift of fourteen long verfes, or feven Diftichs."

The fublime ode of Isaiah in the fourteenth chapter is all of the fame fort of verfe, excepting, perhaps, a verse or two towards the end and the prophecy against Senacherib, in the thirty-feventh chapter, as far as it is addreffed to Senacherib himself.

With the following modeft and judicious reflections of our Author we shall close the prefent Article :

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I venture to fubmit to the judgment of the candid Reader the preceding obfervations, upon a fubject, which hardly admits of proof and certainty; which is rather a matter of opinion and of tafte, than of fcience: especially in the latter part; which endeavours to establish, and to point out, the difference of two forts of verfe, the Longer and the Shorter. For though the Third Lamentation of Jeremiah gives a clear and indubitable example of the Elegiac or Long Verfe, and the two Pfalms Perfectly Alphabetical of the Shorter; yet the whole art of Hebrew Verfification, except only what appears in the Construction of the Sentences, being totally lost, it is not easy to try by them other paffages of verfe, fo as to draw any certain conclufion in all cafes, whether they are of the fame .kind, or not. And that, for this among other reafons; becaufe what I call the Half-paufe, which I think prevails for the most part in the Longer verfes, is fometimes fo ftrong and fo full in the middle

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of the line, that it feems natural'y to refolve it into a diftich of two Short verses. I readily therefore acknowledge, that in fettling the distribution of the lines, or verfes, in the following Tranflation, I have had frequent doubts, and particularly in determining the Long and Short Verfes. I am ftill uncertain in regard to many places, whether two lines ought not to be joined to make one, or one line divided into two. But whatever doubts may remain concerning particulars, yet upon the whole, I fhould hope, that the method of diftribution, here propofed, of Sentences into Stanzas and Verfes in the Poetical Books of Scripture, will appear to have fome foundation, and even to carry with it a confiderable degree of probability, Though no complete Syftem of Rules concerning this matter can perhaps be formed, which will hold good in every particular; yet this way of confidering the fubject may have its ufe, in furnishing a principle of Interpretation of fome confequence, in giving a general idea of the flyle and character of the Hebrew Poetry, and in fhewing the clofe conformity of ftyle and character between great part of the Prophetical writings, and the other books of the Old Teftament, univerfally acknowledged to be Poetical.'

(To be continued.)

ART. IX. An Account of the Scarlet Fever and Sore Throat, or Scarlatina Anginofa; particularly as it appeared at Birmingham in the Year 1778. By William Withering, M. D.

THE

1779.

8vo. I s. 6 d.

Cadell. THE notice of a rare, and formidable, though not abfolutely new, difeafe cannot too foon be communicated to the Public; efpecially when there is reafon to apprehend that it may be mistaken for another, resembling it in some striking particulars, though of a very different nature, and requiring an oppofite mode of treatment. It is owing to mere accident that we did not laft Month fecond Dr. Withering's views in the publication of this pamphlet, by communicating to our medical Readers a part of the interefting information contained

in it.

The diftemper, which is the fubject of this performance, appeared at Birmingham, and its neighbourhood, during the last fummer and the fucceeding autumn; and resembled the difeafe known by the name of the Scarlet Fever, as described by medical authors but it betrayed a degree of malignity not obferved in the fcarlet fever defcribed by Sydenham, who recommended little more than a fimple regimen of diet to combat this disease, and even doubted whether it deferved the name of a difeafe. its fimple state, fays Dr. W. it is not a very uncommon difcafe in England; but its combination with a fore throat, the violence of its attack, and the train of fatal fymptoms that follow, are circumftances hitherto unnoticed by English writers: though Sennertus, and fome other foreign phyficians, particularly Navier and Plenciz, have described a malignant scarlet

In

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