before of u s continued to bo that event i i s wc mu t agree with he least of all is it to regard as strictly historical or to that in the moment he n� his speech employed it in a song of praise il by the exultation and wonder of company which himself to indulge it must at all event be admitted tliat author has additions of his own and the � ry by c of his muse tj that composed and the to the occasion but his strange text there are some other features which it i belong not to the of tho poet such as the to the the debate in the tlie position a angel on the ri ht hand of the but this criticism is merely a proof that or determine to hai e no just conception of poetry or popular k for the genuine characteristic of poetry and is natural and of details i li op the in its stages the al of the necessity and lastly of the possibility of doubting historical fidelity of gospel narrative � ct up s g t tn i du fur und ul i s t ut up on i s l l fr din sl l i st ut a a o st in t i i s v l� m l j h a� t t ir i j pr of led to explain uie of the of a� a com position si hy the attributed by the christian to the of l y the of of the old in which the of r and especially of arc related to liave announced still the matter vas not allowed to be altogether invented il l� and lived long n offspring on one occasion whilst in the temple old man s suddenly soon his wife bore him a son and he in ins joy at e the power of speech at that time but still more when john became a man the tory excited and out ol it the existing legend grew it is surprising to find an identical with the one we have above brought forward under a new title so that the admission of the possibility of an of u in the narrative has little influence on tlie of tlie matter itself j s tlie mode of explanation we arc now confidence in the in of the di must be in and whether historical can he retained for this or that incident be determined only by its either less improbable than the rest or else less in witli the spirit interest and of the poetic legend so as to make it probable that it had n distinct origin of elizabeth and the sudden of are here retained as incidents of this ho only the a and of the angel are up but hy taking the tlie sudden as i ud h ii of the loses its only adequate � e i u that all which the inter n in full a into which these most brought by their o ni for the we enter upon ground all to hold fast the assumed historical of the account ceases to exist besides that which they propose to retain as historic namely the long of the parents of the u ao strictly in with the spirit and character of hebrew l poetry tiiat of this incident the origin is least lo be how confused has this for example the reasoning of it was a opinion he all children born of aged parents who had iii i y ix en shed john was the child of p in nt an l a notable r of ri it was to infer hid wa i predicted by an angel an � e f n w lo i t s it und u iso f and of thi for ho has no than th� that john was of need parents let this be made a � � point and the conclusion n it was readily ic he of remarkable men that were bom of j d and that their no longer in tire ordinary nature to be expected by a john wa a great man and a prophet the legend him to have been of an aged couple and hia to have been by an seeing that this explanation ot the narrative as a i a so called historical is with all the of a half measure had treated it aa a pure philosophical or t likewise considers it and indeed the entire two first chapters of of it a part as an fiction in the birth of tlie together with of his and the concerning the character of the latter framed after the event arc set it being precisely of the the p explains the chapter as a little poem similar in to many of which we meet with in their a he not er it a it might have a foundation in fact and in a wide but d � o full a in ng in and the and of tradition tiiat tlie attempt to the historical in prove a and u goes so far as to � the author of the piece to have been a christian whilst it to have been composed i y a christian of at a period when it coin � mine continued strict john and w rt was ihe object of the narrative to bring over to the of lo the as hu highest destiny and also by holding out the expectation of a state t for the people at the re of christ an attentive consideration of the old testament histories whidi as most admit the narrative of the and of bears a striking will render il rf opinion u � to � � in t id � ib n tl i p s f bad la i p it it am aj at � ji � i tl mv lad � mt 