able and can be easily learnt. It is agreeable, as being the opposite of the indefinite style, and because the hearer is constantly imagining himself to have got hold of something, from constantly finding a definite conclusion of the sentence, whereas in the other style there is something disagreeable in having nothing to look forward to or accomplish. It is easily learnt too, as being easily recollected, and this because a periodic style can be numbered, and number is the easiest thing in the world to recollect. It is thus that everybody recollects verses better than irregular or prose compositions, as they contain number and are measured by it. But the period should be completed by the sense as well as by the rhythm, and not be abruptly broken off. [RENAN, Histoire Générale des Langues Sémitiques, One of the laws most generally observed in the different families of languages, especially the Aryan, is that which refers synthesis and complexity to the beginning. Far from representing the present state as the development of a primitive germ less complete and simple than the state which has succeeded, the most profound linguists are unanimous in placing at the infancy of the human spirit the languages which are synthetic, obscure, and complicated, so complicated, indeed, that it is the want of an easier language which has led later generations to abandon the learned tongue of their ancestors. It would be possible, by taking one after another the languages of almost all the countries where mankind has had a history, to verify this regular progress from synthesis to analysis. Everywhere an ancient language has made way for a popular speech, which does not constitute, it is true, a new idiom, but is rather a transformation of that which preceded it. The latter was more learned, laden with inflections to express the infinitely delicate relations of thought, even richer in the order of its ideas, though this order was comparatively restricted,—an image, in a word, of primitive spontaneity, in which the mind gathered elements into a confused unity, and lost in the whole the analytic view of the parts. The modern dialect, on the other hand, corresponds to a progress of analysis, is clearer and more explicit, separating what the ancients jumbled together, shattering the mechanism of the ancient language in order to bestow on each idea and relation its own isolated expression. The axiom which we have just enounced is subject to weighty exceptions, recognized by the very persons who formulated it. Friedrich Schlegel dares not apply it to certain languages which have remained in an inferior stage of culture; Abel-Rémusat and Wilhelm von Humboldt have excepted the Chinese language. We believe that in many respects the Semitic languages must share in the same exception. Indeed, so far from complexity being their primitive state, the further we go back toward their origins the more simple they appear; on the contrary, the further we depart from their cradle the fuller and richer they are. The Semitic languages, considered as a whole, are languages essentially analytical. In place of rendering in its unity the complex element of discourse, they prefer to dissect it, and express it term by term. They are ignorant of the art of establishing among the members of a sentence that reciprocity which makes the period a body whose parts are connected in such a way that the understanding of the one is impossible except through the collective view of the whole. They have not had to shake off the yoke that the comprehensive thought of the fathers of the Aryan race imposed on the spirit of their descendants. The wonderful clearness with which the Semitic race perceived at once the distinction of the ego, the world, and God, excluded this vast and simultaneous intuition of relations. The Hebrew sentence is a masterpiece of logical analysis, and we are surprised to find there at every step the explicit turns, the Gallicisms, if I may venture to say so, which seem the heritage of the most positive and reflective tongues. BIBLICAL SELECTIONS. Exodus 15. MOSES' SONG OF DELIVERANCE. HEN sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 2 The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation; he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. 3 The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. 4 Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. 5 The depths have covered them; they sank into the bottom as a stone. 6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power; thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. 7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee; thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. 8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. 10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters. II Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? 12 Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. 13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed; thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. 14 The people shall hear, and be afraid; sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. 15 Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. 16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over which thou hast pur、 chased. 17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have established. 18 The LORD shall reign for ever and ever. 19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. 20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, 26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD that healeth thee. 27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters. Exodus 20. THE LAW GIVEN TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. A ND God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth ; 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. |