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 digni 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 any 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 Jeremiah have a secure position. Popular and laconic wisdom is constantly quoted from the book of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes is a philosophic meditation. Job 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. Many biblical critics place it in that class. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.