the psalmists who thought themselves back into the soul of this prophet, was so moved by this passage that he amplified it in lyric verse." Psalm LV., at any rate, embodies the bitter experience of some soul in a similar situation; and if a reader, before reading the fifty-fifth Psalm, will make a thorough study of the whole life of Jeremiah, enter into imaginative sympathy with some one of his despondent moods in the midst of trickery and disappointment, and bring all his feeling to an intense realization of these lines, he will realize the true spirit of lyric poetry, and also the true nature of vocal expression and its use of the imagination.

FEAR and trembling have come upon me,

And horror overwhelmeth me ;

And I say, Oh that I had wings like a dove !
Then would I fly away, and be at rest:

Lo, then would I wander far off,

I would lodge in the wilderness;

I would haste me to my safe retreat
From the stormy wind and the tempest.

Translated by De Witt.

Psalm lv. 5-8.

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The student must, in every way, endeavor to be accurate. must consult many authorities, and, above all, from internal evidence judge for himself what was the real situation; but when he comes to read, he must give his imagination some freedom. For example, in this fifty-fifth Psalm, it makes little difference in the reading whether he considers the Psalm to have been written by Jeremiah, or by one of his contemporaries, or by a later psalmist "who thought himself back into the situation," the feeling will be the same. The imagination will centre upon Jeremiah as the real situation, and the reader will think himself back into a realization of the great prophet and the spirit of his time.

At times a personal situation may be present. For example, in reading the ninety-first Psalm, one may see rising before him the worn face of some poor woman upon her dying bed, to whom he once read the words, "Under His wings shalt thou trust," which gave her hope. That event may take such hold upon his mind that it becomes a situation, or background of the Psalm. Such

situations are in accordance with the true spirit of poetry, which is "the expression of the universal element in human nature." This universal element, however, will not be felt without the definite grasp by the imagination of a specific situation.

Poetry, wherever it may be found, is governed by the same laws. It is the product of the same faculties, and it can be interpreted only by the imagination. It is not primarily didactic; it does the thing that breeds the thought." It deals with truth, not with falsehood. It is synthetic, and not analytic; but it is founded upon vivid ideas and specific thought. No poetry is founded upon confusion or misunderstanding or inadequacy of conception. The sublimest poem issues from a vivid and clear realization of truth.

Many persons, even clergymen, who would be ashamed not to be able to give the argument of Hamlet, or King Lear, or David Copperfield, or "Les Misérables," allow themselves to remain without any definite conception of the argument of the Book of Job, of the second Psalm, of the Book of Amos, or of the greatest Hebrew classic, Isaiah. Much of the Bible is vague and confused to many minds.

As an example of the imaginative use which may be made of the results of the most severe critical study, note how the fortieth chapter of Isaiah takes definite shape and awakens the most exalted feeling, when studied and read in the light of the situation which is now accepted by almost every one,- that the prophet was at Babylon in captivity, and was speaking to his fellow-captives of their return. The six hundred miles from Babylon to Jerusalem westward across the desert is "the wilderness" through which is to open << the way of the Lord." Through this is to be prepared a "highway" for God's deliverance of his people. Through this seemingly impassable region "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low." The prophet sees far away on the hills of Judea his native country, idealized into an angelic form that looks out across the desert and beholds the returning wanderers, as a herald proclaims the good news to the desolated land; or, as others think, that calls the captives by their ancient name to awaken their patriotism, and to rouse them

to proclaim to one another the fact that their bondage is over. The passage is inexplicable without some such situation which took hold of the ideas of a nation and became prophetic of even higher events. A reader should study such a passage with at least as much intensity and earnestness as he would give to a monologue of Browning or a play of Shakespeare. It is the sublimest poetry, and will inspire the dullest imagination.

THE VOICES.

COMFORT ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Speak ye home to the heart of Jerusalem and call unto her,

That her affliction is ended, that her debt is paid;

That she hath received from the hand of Jehovah double for all her sins.

Hark, one calling:

"In the wilderness prepare ye a way for Jehovah !

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!

Let every valley be exalted,

And every mountain and hill be made low;

And let the rugged be made a plain,

And the ledges of rocks a valley,

And the glory of Jehovah be revealed,

And all flesh shall see it together;

For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it."

Hark! one saying, "Cry!"

And I said:

"What can I cry?

All flesh is grass,

And all its beauty as a wild-flower.

Grass is withered, flower faded :

For the breath of Jehovah hath blown upon it.

Surely grass is the people."

"Grass withereth, flower fadeth:

Yet the word of our God will stand forever."

Up on a high mountain, get thee up,

O Evangelistess Zion !

Lift up thy voice with strength,

Evangelistess Jerusalem !

Lift up, be not afraid, say to the cities of Judah:

Behold your God.

Behold the Lord, Jehovah: as a mighty one will he come,

His arm ruling for Him;

Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His recompence before Him.
He will feed His flock like a shepherd,
Gather the lambs with His right arm
And carry them in His bosom,

And tenderly lead the ewe-mothers.

Who hath measured the waters with the hollow of His hand, and regulated the heavens with a span, and taken up the dust of the earth in a third measure, and weighed the mountains with scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah, and instructed Him as His counsellor? With whom took He counsel, and who would have explained to Him and instructed Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and helped Him to know the way of intelligence? Behold, nations! as a drop from a bucket, and like a grain of sand in a balance, are they esteemed; behold, islands! like an atom of dust that rises in the air. And Lebanon is not enough for burning, nor its game enough for an offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him; as spent and as waste are they regarded for Him.

To whom then can ye liken God, and what kind of image can ye place beside Him?

The image! A smith cast it, a smelter plates it with gold, and smelts for it silver chains. He that is straightened for an offering, he chooses a block of wood that will not rot; he seeketh for himself a skilful carver to set up an image that will not totter. Have ye not known?

Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? He who is enthroned above the vault of the earth, and its dwellers are before him as grasshoppers; who stretcheth the heavens as a fine veil, and spreadeth them like a dwelling tent. He who bringeth great men to nothing, maketh judges of the earth like a desolation. They are hardly planted, hardly sown, their stem has hardly taken root in the earth, and he only blows upon them, and they dry up, and the storm carries them away like stubble. "To whom then will ye liken me that I may match with him?" saith the Holy One.

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Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who hath created these? It is He who bringeth out their host by number, calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for He is powerful in strength: there is not one that is missing. Why sayest thou then, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, "My way is hidden from Jehovah, and my right is overlooked by my God"?

Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that an everlasting God is Jehovah, Creator of the ends of the earth? He fainteth not, neither becomes weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Giver to the weary of strength! And upon him that is of no might He lavisheth power. Even youths may grow faint and weary, and young men utterly fall; but they who hope in Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.

X. IMAGINATION AND FEELING.

AND there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar ;

And near, the beat of the alarming drum

Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,

Or whispering, with white lips, "The foe! They come ! they come !"

SUDDENLY the pathway ends,

Sheer the precipice descends,

Loud the torrent roars unseen;

Thirty feet from side to side

Yawns the chasm; on air must ride

Byron.

Roushan Beg.

He who crosses this ravine.

Longfellow.

THE first line of the second extract may be read in many ways. The reader may imagine a simple walk, a race for pleasure, or some game; the pathway may end so as to excite mere curiosity, pleasant surprise, simple disappointment; or its sudden ending on the brink of a precipice may mean life and death, as it does in the above illustration. If the passage is read abstractly or without relation to a specific situation, no feeling whatever can be awakened in reader or listener. Thus to read even one line with feeling, a definite situation must be conceived.

The first clause of the extract from Byron can also be read as the expression of entirely different situations. The mounting may