of
"Samson Agonistes" did so much to liberate it from strict metre
never quite realised, being hag-ridden by the fetish that rides
between two panniers, the sacred and the profane, that this
translation of "Job" already belongs to the category of poetry,
_is_ poetry, already above metre, and in rhythm far on its way to
the insurpassable. If rhyme be allowed to that greatest of arts,
if metre, is not rhythm above both for her service? Hear in a
sentence how this poem uplifts the rhythm of the Vulgate:

_Ecce, Deus magnus vincens scientiam nostram; numerus annorum_
_ejus inestimabilis!_

But hear, in a longer passage, how our English rhythm swings and
sways to the Hebrew parallels:

Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place for gold which they refine.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
And brass is molten out of the stone.
_Man_ setteth an end to darkness,
And searcheth out to the furthest bound
The stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of death.
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn;
They are forgotten of the foot _that passeth by_;
They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread:
And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
The atones thereof are the place of sapphires,
And it hath dust of gold.
That path no bird of prey knoweth,
Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it:
The proud beasts have not trodden it,
Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby.
He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock;
He overturneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out channels among the rocks;
And his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the streams that they trickle not;
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The deep saith, It is not in me:
And the sea saith, It is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it:
Neither shall the exchange thereof be jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal:
Yea, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
Neither shall it be valued with