SIMILARITY OF SOUND. There is a remarkable similarity of sound in a passage in the Second Book of Kings, ch. iii. v. 4, to the metrical rhythm of Campbell’s _Battle of the Baltic_:— A hundred thousand lambs, And a hundred thousand rams, With the wool. By each gun the lighted brand, In a bold determined hand, And the Prince of all the land Led them on. PARALLEL PASSAGES BETWEEN SHAKSPEARE AND THE BIBLE. An English minister, Rev. T. R. Eaton, has written a work entitled _Shakspeare and the Bible_, for the purpose of showing how much Shakspeare was indebted to the Bible for many of his illustrations, rhythms, and even modes of feeling. The author affirms that, in storing his mind, the immortal bard went first to the word, and then to the works, of God. In shaping the truths derived from these sources, he obeyed the instinct implanted by Him who had formed him Shakspeare. Hence his power of inspiring us with sublime affection for that which is properly good, and of chilling us with horror by his fearful delineations of evil. Shakspeare perpetually reminds us of the Bible, not by direct quotations, indirect allusion, borrowed idioms, or palpable imitation of phrase or style, but by an elevation of thought and simplicity of diction which are not to be found elsewhere. A passage, for instance, rises in our thoughts, unaccompanied by a clear recollection of its origin. Our first impression is that it must belong either to the Bible or Shakspeare. No other author excites the same feeling in an equal degree. In Shakspeare’s plays religion is a vital and active principle, sustaining the good, tormenting the wicked, and influencing the hearts and lives of all. Although the writer carries his leading idea too far, by straining passages to multiply the instances in which Shakspeare has imitated scriptural sentences in thought and construction, and by leading his readers to infer that it was from the Bible Shakspeare drew not only his best thoughts, but in fact his whole power of inspiring us with affection for good and horror for evil, it is certainly true that some hundreds of Biblical allusions, however brief and simple, show Shakspeare’s conversance with the Bible, his fondness for it, and the almost unconscious recurrence of it in his mind. The following examples of his parallelisms will be found interesting:— _Othello._—Rude am I in my speech.—i. 3. But though I be rude in speech.—2 Cor. xi. 6. _Witches._—Show his eyes and grieve his heart.—_Macbeth_, iv. 1. Consume thine eyes and grieve thine heart.—1 Sam. ii. 33. _Macbeth._—Lighted fools the way to dusty death.—v. 5. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.—Ps. xxii. 15. Dusty death alludes to the sentence pronounced against Adam:—