PREFACE vii
earlier, are' in the present volume rather of the
nature of an Appendix, being special studies in
the reconstruction of two mutilated acrostich
poems. These also originally appeared in the
Expositor, the former (Chapter VII.) in September
1898, the latter (Chapter VIII.) in September 1906.
Except for the omission of a paragraph which
would have been a needless repetition now that
the two discussions appear together, and for a
few slight or verbal alterations, and for additions
which are clearly indicated,. I have preferred to
republish these chapters as they were originally
written. They were both, and more especially
the former, written before I saw as far, or as
clearly, as ,I seem to myself at least now to do,
into the principles of Hebrew metre: but addi-
tional notes here and there suffice to point out
the bearing of these more fully appreciated prin-
ciples on the earlier discussions, which remain
for the most part, unaffected, largely, I believe,
because in the first instance I followed primarily
the leading of parallelism, and parallelism is
likely for long to remain a safer guide than metre,
though metre may at times enforce the guidance
of parallelism, or act as guide over places where
parallelism will not carry us.
A word of explanation, if not of apology, is
required for the regularity with which I have
added translations to the Hebrew quoted in the
text. In many cases such translation was the