“The _Hebrew_ language,” says Thomas De Quincey (1785‒1859), “by introducing himself to the secret places of the human heart, and sitting there as incubator over the awful germs of the spiritualities that connect man with unseen worlds, has perpetuated himself as a power in the human system: _he_ is co-enduring with man’s race, and careless of all revolutions in literature or in the composition of society....”¹ ¹ De Quincey’s _Works_, vol. ix. _Leaders in Literature_.... By Thomas De Quincey.... London:... MDCCCLVIII. _Language_, p. 81. The _Hebrew_ language deals best with concrete things, and is essentially personal. In poetry it is best adapted to re-echo the poet’s own thoughts, and to set forth the various phases of his intimate experience. “Now, this poetry derives its excellence from its great outward simplicity: it acknowledges no rule of metrical art. Its poesy is esoteric, not exoteric. The outward characteristic of _Hebrew_ poetic style is its _parallelism_, or the logical _symmetry_ between two distichs of the same verse. The graceful execution of this difficult problem――unity of design under a diversity of forms――constitutes the incomparable charm of _Hebrew_ poetic diction. Parallelism is the law of perfection. Thought and speech, body and spirit, here and hereafter, are divinely conceived parallelisms.”¹ ¹ _Study of Arabic and Hebrew_, by Tobias Theodores (1808‒1886), London, 1860, _p. 23_. The _Hebrew_ language is pre-eminently intuitive, and adapted for teaching morality and expressing with authority religious and ethical truths in brief, pregnant utterances. The best of English literature has been inspired by the _Hebrew_ language of the Bible. Throughout the entire works of Francis Bacon (1561‒1626)¹ Scriptural influence is sufficiently apparent: but in his Essays――his favourite work――which he so carefully revised and re-wrote in the ripeness of his age and experience, and which, therefore, may be considered the very cream and essence of his genius, this characteristic element obtains a prominence that cannot fail to strike every reader. So natural was it――to borrow a figure of speech from Bacon himself――for his great mind “to turn upon the poles of truth,” and to revert to its great fountain-head, in support and confirmation of his own profound conclusions. ¹ 1st Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans.