Tennyson''s Use of the Bible (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Tennyson's Use of the Bible

In his essay on Dryden, Macaulay incidentally characterizes the English Bible as a book which, if everything else in our language should perish would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power. The statement carries more of accuracy than of hyperbole. For the English Bible contains almost every species of literature and contains each species in varied forms. The historic books are fine examples of simple narration. They are impartial and objective in quality and often dramatic, vivid, and picturesque. They run the whole scale from the naive biographies of the patriarchs to the digui fied annals of the Kings. The prophets afford examples of eloquence which in richness of diction, in pathos, and in aus tere rebuke have never been surpassed. The lyric outbursts of the Psalms compare favorably with an}7 other similar utterance of the troubled or gladdened heart. The idyl of Ruth was included in one of the volumes of Little Classics by a criti cal editor whose selections were much commended. Among elegies the Lamentations of J eremiah have a secure position. Popular and laconic wisdom is constantly quoted from the book of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes is a philosophic meditation. J oh is an Epic, The Epic of the Inner Life as Prof. Genung styles it. And finally, the Song of Songs reveals something very much like the shifting scenes and dialogues of the drama. Manybiblical critics place it in that class.

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