ble to trace out but few remains of the graces which charmed him
so much in the original. The natural conclusion from hence is, that in the
classical authors, the expression, the sweetness of the numbers,
occasioned by a musical placing of words, constitute a great part of their
beauties; whereas, in the sacred writings, they consist more in the
greatness of the things themselves than in the words and expressions. The
ideas and conceptions are so great and lofty in their own nature that they
necessarily appear magnificent in the most artless dress. Look but into
the Bible, and we see them shine through the most simple and literal
translations. That glorious description which Moses gives of the creation
of the heavens and the earth, which Longinus {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} was so greatly taken with,
has not lost the least whit of its intrinsic worth, and though it has
undergone so many translations, yet triumphs over all, and breaks forth
with as much force and vehemence as in the original.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} In the history of
Joseph, where Joseph makes himself known, and weeps aloud upon the neck of
his dear brother Benjamin, that all the house of Pharaoh heard him, at
that instant none of his brethren are introduced as uttering aught, either
to express their present joy or palliate their former injuries to him. On
all sides there immediately ensues a deep and solemn silence; a silence
infinitely more eloquent and expressive than anything else that could have
been substituted in its place. Had Thucydides, Herodotus, Livy, or any of
the celebrated classical historians, been employed in writing this
history, when they came to this point they would doubtless have exhausted
all their fund of eloquence in furnishing Joseph's brethren with laboured
and studied harangues, which, however fine they might have been in
themselves, would nevertheless have been unnatural, and altogether
improper on the occasion."(34)

This is eloquently written, but it contains, I consider, a mixture of
truth and falsehood, which it will be my business to discriminate from
each other. Far be it from me to deny the unapproachable grandeur and
simplicity of Holy Scripture; but I shall maintain that the classics are,
as human compositions, simple and majestic and natural too. I grant that
Scripture is concerned with things, but I will not grant that classical
literature is simply concerned with words. I grant that human literature
is often elaborate, b