While “many have taken in hand to set forth in order” the pathos and sublimity of the Bible, those literary elements comprised under the title of this book have rarely been mentioned. Feeling that here was a field untraversed, the author of this little volume began an investigation whose results were originally embodied in an article published some years ago in an Eastern review. That article is given in “Poole’s Index” as the only one extant upon the subject. Since its publication, additional s

“There is still one question before us. If humor be what we have claimed for it, not a mere farce, but the depicting of the whole of human life, then we should expect that the highest literature should be found to contain it. We should expect to find it everywhere; that it should satisfy all that desire which a reading in theology, or philosophy, or science, or history, or a study in art, has created in man. Are there, then, any great books, or still more any great forces in human life which see

CHARACTER SKETCHES. “With what prudence does the Son of Sirach caution us in the choice of our friends. And with what strokes of Nature, (I could almost say of Humour,) has he described the behavior of a treacherous and self-interested friend!”— Addison. “The history of the ancient Hebrews,” says George Eliot, “gives the idea of a people who went about their business and their pleasures as gravely as a society of beavers; the smile and laugh are often mentioned metaphorically; but the smile is o

“The ludicrous has its place in the Universe; it is not a human invention, but one of the Divine ideas, illustrated in the practical jokes of kittens and monkeys, long before Aristophanes or Shakespeare.”— Holmes. “TOUCHES OF NATURE.” “To explain the nature of laughter and tears is to account for the condition of human life; for it is in a manner compounded of these two. It is tragedy or comedy, sad or merry, as it happens.”— Hazlitt. “One touch of nature,” says Shakespeare, “makes the whole wor

“When a child, with child-like apprehensions that dived not beneath the surface of the matter, I read those parables—not guessing the involved wisdom—I had more yearnings toward that simple architect that built his house upon the sand, than I entertained for his more cautious neighbor; I grudged at the harsh censure pronounced upon the quiet soul that kept his talent; and prizing their simplicity beyond the more provident, and to my apprehension, somewhat unfeminine wariness of their competitors

“Proverbs, must not be passed over in our enumeration,—proverbs, the philosophy of the common people; short, pithy, homely sayings that embody the concentrated essence of the common people’s wisdom. It has been difficult to give a perfect definition of a proverb, so crowded is it with the life of shrewdness and experience; yet so easy and negligent is it, and saucy as it were. Its characteristic excellences are shortness, sense and salt. It is the wit of one man, the wisdom of thousands.”— Macbe

“He that can define, he that can answer a question so as to admit of no further answer, is the best man. Jesus spent his life conversing with humble people on life and duty, in giving wise answers, showing that he saw at a larger angle of vision, and at least silencing those who were not generous enough to accept his thoughts.”— Emerson. REPARTEE. “And no one was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”— Matthew. The present chapter brings

“Who would say that truth ought to stand disarmed against falsehood, or that the enemies of the faith shall be at liberty to frighten the faithful with hard words or jeer at them with lively sallies of wit, while the Christians ought never to write except with a coldness of style enough to set the reader asleep?”— Augustine. WIT AND LOGIC. “I was not gone far before I heard the sound of trumpets and alarms, which seemed to proclaim the march of an Enemy; and as I afterwards found was in reality

“Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof!”— Solomon. THE USE OF RIDICULE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. “The oldest jibe in literature is the ridicule of false religion.”— Emerson. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: t

“If our Savior himself never laughed, it is difficult to believe that the bystanders did not laugh, or at least smile, when he tore the mask from the hypocritical pharisees who laid heavy burdens on men’s shoulders which they themselves would not move with their fingers, and devoured widows’ houses, even while for a pretence they made long prayers.”— Matthews. THE USE OF RIDICULE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. “Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.”— Paul. The writers of the Old Testa