Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 557

THE FORMS OF INSPIRATION

§ 84.

Chai>. II]

533

but at the same time, and this is the triumph of the epos, explains it and makes it understood. And the epical poet differs from the prophet in this very thing; the epicus rules as artist, while passively the prophet undergoes inspiration from a We may grant that the epical poet also inhio-her subject. vokes a higher inspiration, as is shown in the "Jerusalem De" (tu spira al petto livered " and the " breathe into my bosom mio) is certainly a strong expression, but with Tasso it is followed immediately by the statement " and forgive if I mingle ;

:

fiction with truth

—

I

if

adorn

my

pages in part with other

thoughts than your own," which were inconceivable with the passivity of the prophet.

the mighty fact, which appears epically in the epos or Word of prophecy, we answer, that prophecy takes this drama from the counsel of God. While If it is asked,

where

lies

Chokmatic inspiration discovers the ordinances of God that hidden in creation, and lyric interprets to us the world of

lie

our

human

heart, in prophecy there

God with

ordinance of

is

epically proclaimed the

reference to history, the problem of the

This history, this development, must follow the course marked out by God in His counsel, and to some extent it amounts to the same thing, whether this course is seen in the facts or is read from God's counsel. The world's development.

the counsel of God, in history the performance of the exalted drama. Meanwhile there is this noteworthy difference between the two, that in the days of the

program

lies in

prophets especially, the drama had been worked out only in a very small part, while in God's counsel the complete

program lay

in readiness.

And

secondly, even so far as

it

realized God's counsel, history could never be understood in its mystical meaning without the knowledge of God's counsel.

noteworthy that the compilers of the books of the Canon classed Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings with the prophets as the former prophets, and that the later prophets join themIt is

selves to these, as the later.

Oracles of what

ment

in the

we

call the

If dioramatically

we

transfer the

prophets to beyond the last judg-

realm of glory, and add Joshua to Kings inclusive,

these together give us both parts of the drama, viz. (1)

what

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