POETRY OF THE PENTATEUCH.
Poetry probably coeval with the Creation. Intellectual
superiority of the primitive races. among the very first inventions of man. literary compositions poetical. Poetry of the Hebrew scriptures. Its influence upon the poet Shelley. The peculiar province of poetry. Its antiquity proved from the fourth chapter of Genesis.
POETRY is an art which we are justified in supposing to be almost coeval with the Creation; because, through the sacred writings, we can trace it to a period long antecedent to the universal deluge; and there are likewise strong natural grounds for the support of such a belief. When we consider that man was first brought into this world in the plenitude of a vigorous and expansive intellect, his mind actuated and directed by celestial influences, being fresh and unspotted from the hands of his Creator, and distinguished by personal communion with Him;