PREFACE.

THE following Acrostics, which may, perhaps, claim the merit of being the first series that has appeared in a separate form, have been composed by their author under peculiar circumstances; namely, to relieve some of the many unoccupied hours, that belong to that greatest of afflictions, the deprivation of sight.

Being of so unpretending a character, it is hoped that they will be looked on with leniency and forbearance by the eye of the critic.

A brief sketch of the history of Acrostic verse, (for which the author is mainly indebted to a friend) may be interesting to some of the readers of this little volume.

The word Acrostic is derived from the Greek aкpoç extreme, and orixos verse; and means terminationary verse, distinguished by the letters commencing or ending the lines.

An Acrostic is defined to be an alphabetic verse, or line, or poem, in which the initial or final letters form the name or names of some thing or person. "The Acrostic" (says the London Cyclopedia) "is obviously an artificial arrangement of poetry; and has been fancifully, and even fantastically cultivated. Sometimes the Acrostic has been formed of the first letters of the line; sometimes of the last; sometimes of both; sometimes it is to be read downwards; sometimes upwards."

In tracing the history of Acrostics, authors are agreed that

they are very ancient. They have been employed in remote ages, by many nations, in their poetic compositions. This was done partly for the sake of ornament, and ingenuity; but principally to impress the memory, by means of alphabetic associations with the truths or facts contained in the verses.

The first form of Acrostic with which we are acquainted, is the purely alphabetic. The first Acrostics were made on the name or names of the alphabet; and it should be observed that the full name of the alphabet necessarily comprises the names of all its letters; for the word alphabet only sounds two of them, Aλpa, Berα. Specimens of this kind of Acrostic occur in several of the Psalms of David, written nearly 1100 years before the Christian era. This (as Dr. Kitto observes) is a peculiarity which cannot be preserved in any ordinary translation; but it is indicated in Psalm cxix. as found in the common Bibles; and may be seen in Psalms xxv., xxxiv., xxxvii., cxi., cxii., and cxlv. Other specimens of Acrostics are found in Proverbs xxxi. 10–31.; and in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. It should be added that one form of the Jewish Cabala is essentially Acrostic; for the Cabalists, in their method of Notaricon, suppose that many of the words of Scripture are Acrostics, or composed of the initial letters of other words. They also used Acrostic abbreviations of names. Thus, Ritba (the commentator on Maimonides) is a name composed of the initials of his full title, which is Rabbi Iom Tov Bar Abraham. We give this curious illustration of a similar device prevalent among the early Christians. The Greek word Ix0vg (fish) represented to their fanciful minds, the initial letters of Inσovs Jesus, Χριστος Christ, Θεος God, Υιος Son, Σωτηρ Saviour This method of Acrostics has often been adopted in systems of artificial memory.

Ancient Acrostics also exist in the Greek language. There are two examples of this nature in the Greek anthology, in honour of Bacchus and Apollo. Some of the poems of the Sybilline Prophecies, indicate the same form of composition.