27 of the Chaldee.
A subsidiary purpose answered in the Song proper is that of joining
nature with ourselves, by addressing it in a series of invitations to
magnify Him who is its God and ours alike, thus interpreting the
feelings which nature maybe supposed to entertain. It is recognised that
the irrational as well as the rational have their rightful spheres of
action; and a wholesome sympathy is manifested with those portions of
nature--which we think are lower than ourselves. With this may be
compared Adam and Eve's morning hymn (in Milton's _Paradise Lost_, Book
V., 1. 153 _sq._), which is very similar in tone and in sequence of
objects apostrophized.
The Song so readily leads itself to use as a Canticle that the idea
inevitably arises of its having been composed with that purpose in view;
but proof that it was ever so used by the Jews seems entirely wanting.
The statements made in some P.B. manuals that it was so used appear to
have arisen from a misunderstanding of an ambiguous sentence of
Wheatley's (_see_ 'Liturgical Use,' p.
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