=13. Manuscripts were rare and costly=, and therefore methods were adopted, as in the composition of several of the Psalms, of Proverbs, and Lamentations, which were aids to memorizing. One method was by beginning consecutive verses or sections with consecutive letters of the alphabet. Psalm 119 is composed of 176 verses, divided into a number of sections, the whole number of sections equal to the letters in the Hebrew alphabet (22), and all the eight verses of each section begin with the same letter. In Proverbs 31:10‒31, the initial letters of all the verses follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet. The Lamentations of Jeremiah are composed in five poems, each, excepting the third, consisting of 22 sections or verses, a verse for each letter in the alphabet. The first four poems begin with the first letter of the alphabet, and in each poem, which makes one chapter, the after sections continue in their initial letters to follow the order of the alphabet. In the third chapter however the stanzas are in sets of three of the Bible verses, and each verse in the set begins with the same letter of the alphabet, but all the sets are in the alphabetical order. Such methods suggest the work of memorizing. =14.= Again, we may say that, in view of all these facts, it does not seem possible that “the Law” could have been forgotten in the Captivity among all the learned and devout men, some of whom were prophets. It would seem that even without the written copies of the Law, Ezra, if he had so desired, could not have, as some suppose, introduced into the Law an entirely new book of Leviticus or Deuteronomy, and yet no one amid all the Jews have discovered the forgery. CHAPTER VII. CONCLUDING REMARKS. WE add the following remarks in the nature of a general review and inference, which are more appropriate to this era of the Jewish history than to any other. =1. There never was a time= when the Jewish people exhibited such a humble and yet determined spirit of obedience to the Mosaic Law as when they returned from the Captivity. All the history of those times as derived from the Jewish writings, both sacred and secular, fully attests this spirit. All their hopes for the future, both political and religious, were conditioned upon outward obedience to the requirements of the Law as explained by the teachings of their ancient prophets or illustrated and made more impressive in the Psalms or songs of Israel and pictured to them in the happier days of the Temple service. All that appertained to the history of the past was precious. This fact, as we have shown, was illustrated in many ways.