THE POETICAL TALENT FINELY DEVELOPED AMONG THE GALILEANS.

BESIDES the physical and moral vigour of this people, we discover, also, an elasticity and freshness of spirit which did not prevail among the people of the south. On this account it was, perhaps, that here the poetical talent was so finely developed. We have already quoted the statement that, 'if Nature could influence mind, if it could create genius, Naphtali would be a land of poets.' ' The vine-covered slopes, the plains brilliant with flowers, the wooded glens and knolls, sparkling with springs,' the beautiful lake deep within the bosom of the hills, the distant but ever visible ' great sea ' — symbol of the Infinite — would all contribute to awaken and stimulate the richest, and perhaps grandest, spirit of poetry. One of the earliest triumph-songs of Israel, as well as one of the noblest, sounded forth from the hills of Galilee on the occasion of Barak's victory over the Canaanites in the Plain of Jezreel. And, if we were to adopt the view held by many eminent scholars (Gesenius and others), the Song of Songs had also its origin among these beautiful scenes of Nature — the music of a heart about which earth and sky had lavished their charms— the song of one whose eyes delighted in beholding the beauty of the flowers, and the richness of the fig-tree, the olive, and the vine.