4. HEBREW EDUCATION.--Religion, morals, legislation, history, poetry, and music were the special objects to which the attention of the Levites and Prophets was particularly directed. The general education of the people, however, was rather simple and domestic. They were trained in husbandry, and in military and gymnastic exercises, and they applied their minds almost exclusively to religious and moral doctrines and to divine worship; they learned to read and write their own language correctly, but they seldom learned foreign languages or read foreign books, and they carefully prevented strangers from obtaining a knowledge of their own. 5. FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF HEBREW LITERATURE.--Monotheism was the fundamental idea of the Hebrew literature, as well as of the Hebrew religion, legislation, morals, politics, and philosophy. The idea of the unity of God constitutes the most striking characteristic of Hebrew poetry, and chiefly distinguishes it from that of all mythological nations. Other ancient literatures have created their divinities, endowed them with human passions, and painted their achievements in the glowing colors of poetry. The Hebrew poetry, on the contrary, makes no attempt to portray the Deity by the instruments of sensuous representation, but simple, majestic, and severe, it pours forth a perpetual anthem of praise and thanksgiving. The attributes of God, his power, his paternal love and wisdom, are described in the most sublime language of any age or nation. His seat is the heavens, the earth is his footstool, the heavenly hosts his servants; the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land. Placed under the immediate government of Jehovah, having with Him common objects of aversion and love, the Hebrews reached the very source of enthusiasm, the fire of which burned in the hearts of the prophets so fervently as to cause them to utter the denunciations and the promises of the Eternal in a tone suited to the inspired of God, and to sing his attributes and glories with a dignity and authority becoming them, as the vicegerents of God upon earth. 6. HEBREW POETRY.--The character of the people and their language, its mission, the pastoral life of the patriarchs, the beautiful and grand scenery of the country, the wonderful history of the nation, the feeling of divine inspiration, the promise of a Messiah who should raise the nation to glory, the imposing solemnities of the divine worship, and finally, the special order of the prophets, gave a strong impulse to the poetical genius of the nation, and concurred in producing a form of poetry which cannot be compared with any other for its simplicity and clearness, for its depth and majesty.