Note 146 — INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)

“That this is not a song of human loves,” says Dr. Bennett,146 “is clear from the beginning to the end. It opens with the language of a female: ‘Let him kiss me;’ it is full of her solicitous seeking after him; it abounds with praises of his person, and her dispraises of herself, of her person and her conduct; it invites other females to love him, and it speaks of him as her brother, and of her as his sister. Let any one examine the Song, and then muse over these facts, recollecting that Solomon is, in the opening of the poem itself, said to be the writer. Was ever such a human love-song composed by mortal, since man either loved or wrote verses? What writer, with the feelings, or the reason, of a man, would begin a poem on his fair one by describing her as courting him? Let it not be said, ‘We must not transfer our modern and northern ideas to the ancient Orientals, who had not our delicate notions of the female character;’ for this would only make my case stronger. It would be more abhorrent from the secluded, submissive character of Eastern brides to ask the gentlemen to come and kiss them, than it would be from the dignified confidence of British women. It is not a question of climate or age, but of nature. The bridegroom, who is supposed to love this fairest of women, himself puts into her lips this speech: ‘Let him kiss me!’ Never would human love speak thus. Though men like to court, they do not like to be courted; and while they think it cruel to be rejected when they court, they without mercy reject her that courts them; as the forward female has usually found, from the days of Sappho to this hour. Women were endowed with the form and the qualities intended to attract courtship, and they feel it; and when they do not feel it, men despise them. No man, therefore, in his senses, would think to compliment his fair one by writing of her, to her, as if she had lost her retiring modesty, her female dignity, and degraded herself by doing that for which every man would despise her. The very first word of this Song, then, stands a witness against the notion of its being a human love-song; for it would better suit Solomon’s strange woman, that with an impudent face caught and kissed the young simpleton, than Solomon’s princess-bride, or Dr. Smith’s supposed chaste monogamist. Till fishes mount to sing with larks on the shady boughs, and nightingales dive to ocean’s depths to court the whales, no man, of any age, of any clime, of any rank, can be supposed to write ordinary love-songs in such a style. We are told, by the first word, that a greater than Solomon is here, one who must be courted, and that loves more than human are the theme. This is the Bridegroom of whom the Psalmist says, ‘He is thy Lord, and worship thou him:’ ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way.’ Such a spouse may exhibit his Bride as asking for his love; every other must present himself as asking for hers, and begging the acceptance of his.”