n of
voluptuous sensuousness and immaculate chastity. Morality, indeed, is
its very pulse-beat. It could be sung only in an age when love reigned
supreme, and could presume to treat humor as a pretender. So lofty a
song was bound to awaken echoes and stimulate imitation, and its music
has flowed down through the centuries, weaving a thread of melody about
the heart of many a poet.

The centuries of Israelitish history close upon its composition,
however, were favorable to neither the poetry of love nor that of humor.
But the poetry of love must have continued to exercise puissant magic
over hearts and minds, if its supreme poem not only was made part of the
holy canon, but was considered by a teacher of the Talmud the most
sacred treasure of the compilation.

The blood of the Maccabean heroes victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes
again fructified the old soil of Hebrew poetry, and charmed forth
fragrant blossoms, the psalms designated as Maccabean by modern
criticism. Written in troublous times, they contain a reference to the
humor of the future: "When the Lord bringeth back again the captivity of
Zion, then shall we be like dreamers, then shall our mouth be filled
with laughter, and our tongue with singing."

Many sad days were destined to pass over Israel before that future with
its solacement of humor dawned. No poetic work could obtain recognition
next to the Bible. The language of the prophets ceased to be the
language of the people, and every mind was occupied with interpreting
their words and applying them to the religious needs of the hour. The
opposition between Jewish and Hellenic-Syrian views became more and more
marked. Hellas and Judaea, the two great theories of life supporting the
fabric of civilization, for the first time confronted each other. An
ancient expounder of the Bible says that to Hellas God gave beauty in
the beginning, to Judaea truth, as a sacred heritage. But beauty and
truth have ever been inveterate foes; even now they are not reconciled.

In Judaea and Greece, ancient civilization found equally perfect, yet
totally different, expression. The Greek worships nature as she is; the
Jew dwells upon the origin and development of created things, hence
worships their Creator. The former in his speculations proceeds from the
multiplicity of phenomena; the latter discerns the unity of the plan. To
the former the universe was changeless actuality; to the latter it meant
unending development. The