From History we must, in literary analysis, distinguish Story: the one is founded on the sense of record and scientific explanation of events, the other appeals to the imagination and the emotions. The Story literature of most peoples is 'fiction,' in the sense that its matter is invented solely for literary purposes. The stories of the Bible are part of the sacred history, differing only in the mode in which the matter is presented; and a long series of these stories is scattered through the historical books, with nothing to distinguish them, in the ordinary versions, from the historic context. In the volumes of this series the distinction is made by titles; the reader can thus, without difficulty, bring to each of these varieties of literature the kind of attention it requires; it is further possible, and highly desirable, for him to make a separate study of Scriptural Story. History it is not easy to illustrate by selections; but the stories of the sacred books are represented in the present volume by typical specimens. One book that has a place in the historic sequence of the Bible introduces us in reality to a different class of literature--Oratory. Deuteronomy is made up of the Orations (and Songs) of Moses, constituting his Farewell to the People of Israel. It is oratory in the fullest sense of the term, representing the words as they may be supposed to come direct from the speaker. For the most part however the sacred literature of oratory is of a different kind; not exact reports of spoken words, but the substance, it may be, of several similar speeches worked up afresh into a form of written discourse. In this wider sense, the oratorical literature of the Bible is of considerable extent; it includes the prophetic discourses, and reflects the fervid contests over first principles of righteousness which constituted the main life of Israel. The principal varieties of Biblical oratory are illustrated in this volume.