They reel to and fro, And stagger like a drunken man; And are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, And he bringeth them out of their distresses. So that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet: So he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be. And praise him in the seat of the elders. 1 Musical expression of structure It is just such structural variations as these that it is the special mission of a musical rendering to express. In the psalm just cited the melancholy monotony of men's voices in unison might be used to bring out the various phases of distress which make the subjects of successive strophes. Children's voices in harmony and unaccompanied would fitly express the cry for help (refrain and sequel verse), while full choir and organ would give out the thanksgiving. In the more extended final stanza a monotone of men's voices in unison would leave more scope for organ accompaniment to bring out the changes of the sea. Then as before the whole would resolve into the silvery harmony of children's voices heard alone; while all that full choir and instrument could do would be needed for the final climax. 1 Bishop Westcott's Paragraph Psalter (Macmillan) is a step in the direction or such structural chanting. A musical setting of Psalms lxxviii and civ in illustration of it has been published by Dr. Naylor, late Organist of York Minster (Novello). CHAPTER II THE LOWER PARALLELISM OF RHYTHM AND THE HIGHER PARALLELISM OF INTERPRETATION Parallelism in general THE preceding chapter has sufficiently exhibited Biblical Versification in its leading forms and devices of structure. In the present chapter I consider further the general spirit of parallelism which underlies it. I wish to show that the study of such parallelism is not a mere matter of technicalities, but that it connects itself directly with the higher interests of literature. In interpreting the meaning of Scripture parallelism plays no unimportant part. I will commence with a very simple example. The Song of the Sword,' which gives expression to the excitement attending the first invention of deadly weapons, contains the following couplet: Parallelism a factor in interpretation I have slain a man to my wounding, Does this passage imply the slaying of one person or two persons? This question cannot be called a mere matter of technicalities. Commentators of the period when the secret of parallelism was lost understood the words to mean that two men were slain; and connecting the passage with the succeeding couplet If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold they found an interpretation for the whole by supposing that when 1 Otherwise called Song of Lamech (Gen. iv. 23-24). Lamech became advanced in years he carried with him a youth to show him where to point his arrows; that this youth directing him to shoot into a certain bush Lamech thereby slew Cain, and made himself liable to the curse invoked on the slayer of that outcast. In his rage Lamech shot a second arrow at his youthful attendant; and thus two slayings are accounted for. But to an ear accustomed to parallelism it is clear enough that no such violence of interpretation is required. The second line of a couplet need not be a separate statement from that of the first line, but may be, in the spirit of parallelism, a saying over again of what has been said. Thus the couplet need only imply the death of a single person, or better, slaying as a general idea. And the second couplet merely gives expression to the enlarged possibilities of destruction that come with the invention of the sword: even the vengeance for Cain- a thing that had perhaps passed into a proverbial expression - becomes a small matter in comparison with the power of vengeance the armed warrior will possess. Thus the whole meaning of the passage has been changed by attention to a detail of versification. The intrinsic importance of this first example is not great. But no one will consider the Lord's Prayer' unim- The Lord's portant and yet it would seem that the great Prayer majority of those who repeat the Lord's Prayer in public fail to bring out the full thought that underlies it. This prayer is almost always rendered as a succession of isolated clauses which may be represented thus: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. But the true significance of these words is only seen when they are arranged so as to make an envelope figure. Our Father which art in heaven: Hallowed be thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, In earth as it is in heaven. In the former version the words, "In earth as it is in heaven" are attached only to the petition, "Thy will be done." But in the envelope structure all the parallel clauses are to be connected with the common opening and close. The meaning thus becomes: "Hallowed be thy name in earth as it is in heaven, Thy kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Something more than literary beauty is gained by the change. The eighth psalm affords another illustration of the close connection between parallelism of structure and interpretation. This whole poem makes a single envelope figure. Psalm viii O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established strength, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! By neglect o' the true structure, three lines instead of two have been taken into the opening verse : 1. O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Accordingly, the verse which follows this, and presumably opens the regular thought of the poem, is made to read: 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established strength, etc. So arranged this verse becomes obscure, and the ingenuity of commentators has been much exercised to determine what is the allusion its words contain. But the envelope structure conveys at once to the eye that the first two lines must be isolated as the enveloping refrain, and then the opening verse becomes this: Who hast set thy glory upon the heavens, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established strength, etc. That the Artificer of the mighty heavens should have chosen man a mere babe and suckling in comparison to be the representative of his might to the rest of the universe: this is the wonder with which the poem really opens, and the thought of feeble man as God's Viceroy over the creation is precisely the idea which is found to bind the whole psalm into a unity. Parallelism a idealisation These are particular examples: it is possible to generalise. In Biblical interpretation the question will repeatedly arise, whether a particular passage is to be understood as a simple narrative of facts or an idealised description: in criterion for such a case parallelism of clauses will undoubtedly be one factor in the interpretation. I have already suggested that the extreme symmetry of the clauses which describe Job's misfortunes descending upon him tells in favour of the view that the narrative is not a history so much as an incident worked up into a parable. In a more important matter the same principle has been applied to the opening chapter of Genesis. The account of the Creation which this is found, upon examination, to be arranged with the most minute parallelism of matter and form. Not only are the six days furnished with opening and closing formulæ which correspond, but passage contains Genesis i |