WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ; 1873. NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR. THE following article which is now, with the permission of the Author, translated into English, first appeared in the Revue de Théologie of Strasbourg (1st Series, Vol. XIV.), and was afterwards published among the collected works of the Author. (See Essais de Critique Religieuse, par Dr. Réville, published by Joel Cherbuliez, Paris, Nouvelle Edition, 1869.) In rendering the poem into English, the words of the ordinary English translation of the Bible have been used as far as applicable. 109214 ERRATA. Pages 1 and 37.-For " singing birds" read " songs." Page 6.-Note.-For "Talmud" read " Targum." Page 29.-Note. -For "portu "read "hortu." Page 32, lines 8 and 11.-For "black" read "brown." Page 49, line 10.-For "cannot " read “can only.” THE SONG OF SONGS. I. "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone, The flowers appear on the earth, The time of the singing birds is come, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." SUCH is a song of the spring-time, which a traveller along the western chain of the Lebanon, towards the end of the eighth century before our era, might have heard resounding among the pasturages of these green mountains. If he could foresee the future, and could have contemplated the destinies of the charming idyll, of which it forms part, his astonishment would have been great to see it transformed into a theological oracle, and furnishing a favourite theme of meditation to the most austere preachers of distant times. His astonishment would not be less if he could foresce the severity with which it might be treated by a posterity still more remote. Nothing can be more extraordinary than the destiny of the book which we propose to study. On the one B |