Afterwards two clerical gentlemen, with an interval of several years between, kindly aided me in my wish to obtain some knowledge of the Hebrew. It had been an early cherished desire to read the sublime sacred poetry in the original. I pursued the study without the masoretic points, approaching with delight and awe that sacred fountain, from whose overflowings God deigned to reveal himself in Eden, and to instruct
"The Shepherd who first led the chosen seed
In the beginning, how the heavens and earth
Rose out of chaos."
I was continually attracted by its severe simplicity, its figurative beauty, and boldness of personification. The significance of its proper names interested my research, and the analysis of its verbs to their roots of two or three letters, seemed like the pleasure with which we contemplate the infantine elements of being, and then follow by prefix and suffix, biographically, through all the variations of time's pilgrimage. I especially recall the happiness of one winter, during almost the whole of whose lengthened evenings the Bible and Parkhurst were my companions. The Instructor had directed me to commence with the Book of Jonah, as having less idiom than most of the prophetic writings. The recreant prophet seemed to become a personal friend. Indeed, my indwelling with him was intense. When he disobediently took ship for
