MMAZ

plained serve in Dicuity and

y chiefly empre .ch as were ges he use or application

od, or analogy; as,
f imagery which was r
.1 was most generally.
as will find further and menta
s be considered, which are
on life. These were before
al imagery and for this part
tions will suffice, with an examp
which present themselves in the
rse and method of common or d
of the more ancient times, was sim
st degree. There existed not that var

of arts, conditions, and employments, w

Longst other nations, who boast of superior

indeed, if luxury, levity, and pride, be the

enjoyed the same equal liberty; all of them,

ng of the same ancient stock, boasted an equa A rank; there were no empty titles, no ensigns of arcely any distinction or precedence but that which in superior virtue or conduct, from the dignity of age asc e, or from services rendered to their country. Separated › rest of mankind by their religion and laws, and not at all to commerce, they were contented with those arts which cessary to a simple and uncultivated (or rather uncorrupted) f life. Thus their principal employments were agriculture e care of cattle; they were a nation of husbandmen and shepThe lands had been originally parcelled out to the diffamilies; the portions of which (by the laws of the country) not be alienated by salet, and therefore descended to their rity without diminution. The fruits of the earth, the produce is land and labour, constituted the wealth of each individual. even the greatest among them esteemed it mean and disgraceto be employed in the lowest offices of rural labour. In the

* Continued from page 401.

+ Lev. xxv. 13-16, and 23, 24. Compare 1 Kings, xxi. 3.

Scripture history, therefore, we read of eminent persons called to the highest and most sacred offices, heroes, kings, and prophets, from the plough, and from the stalls.*

Such being the state of things, we cannot reasonably be surprised to find the Hebrew writers deducing most of their metaphors from those arts particularly, in which they were educated from their earliest years. We are not to wonder that those objects which were most familiar to their senses afforded the principal ornaments of their poetry; especially since they furnished so various and so elegant an assortment of materials, that not only the beautiful, but the grand and magnificent, might be collected from them. If any person of more nicety than judgment should esteem some of these rustic images grovelling or vulgar, it may be of some use to him to be informed, that such an effect can only result from the ignorance of the critic, who, through the medium of his scanty information and peculiar prejudices, presumes to estimate matters of the most remote antiquity; it cannot reasonably be attributed as an error to the sacred poets, who not only give to those ideas all their natural force and dignity, but frequently, by the vivacity and boldness of the figure, exhibit them with additional vigour, ornament and beauty.

It would be a tedious task to instance particularly with what embellishments of diction, derived from one low and trivial object (as it may appear to some), the barn or the threshing-floor, the sacred writers have contrived to add a lustre to the most sublime, and a force to the most important subjects: Thus "JEHOVAH threshes out the heathen as corn, tramples them under his feet, and disperses them. He delivers the nations to Israel to be beaten in pieces by an indented flail,† or to be crushed by their brazen hoofs. He scatters his enemies like chaff upon the mountains, and disperses them with the whirlwind of his indignation."§

Behold I have made thee a threshing wain;

A new corn-drag armed with pointed teeth:

Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small,

And reduce the hills to chaff.

and aptness of the image itself in illustrating the subject, will also afford a very proper and ready apology for some degree of freedom in the application of it, particularly if we advert to the nature and method of this rustic operation in Palestine. It was performed in a high situation exposed to the wind, by bruising the ear, either by driving in upon the sheaves a herd of cattle, or else by an instrument constructed of large planks, and sharpened underneath with stones or iron; and sometimes by a machine in the form of a cart, with iron wheels or axles indented, which Varro calls Pœnicum, as being brought to Italy by the Carthaginians from Phoenicia, which was adjacent to Palestine. From this it is plain (not to mention that the descriptions agree in every particular) that the same custom was common both to the Hebrews and the Romans; and yet we do not recollect that the latter have borrowed any of their poetical imagery from this occupation. It is proper, however, to remark, that this image, was obvious and familiar to the Hebrews in a high degree, as we learn from what is said of the threshing-floor of Ornant the Jebusite, which was situate in an open place (as were all the rest) in Jerusalem itself, and in the highest part of the city, in the very place, indeed, where the temple of Solomon was afterwards erected.

Homer, who was uncommonly fond of every picture of rural life, esteemed that under our consideration so beautiful and significant, that, in a few instances, he draws his comparisons from the threshing-floor (for even he was fearful of the boldness of this image in the form of a metaphor). Two of these comparisons he introduces to illustrate light subjects, contrary to the practice of the Hebrews; but the third is employed upon a subject truly magnificent, and this, as it approaches in some degree the sublimity of the Hebrew, it may not be improper to recite:

custom had not given equal license to the Greek poetry this image had not been equally familiar, had not occupied the same place as with the Hebrews; nor had acquired the same force and authority by long prescription.

I ought not in this place to omit that supremely magnificent delineation of the Divine vengeance, expressed by imagery taken from the Wine-press; an image which very frequently occurs in the sacred poets, but which no other poetry has presumed to introduce. But where shall we find expressions of equal dignity with the original in any modern language? By what art of the pencil can we exhibit even a shadow or an outline of that description in which Isaiah depicts the Messiah as coming to vengeance?*

Who is this that cometh from Edom?

With garments deeply dyed from Botsra?
This that is magnificent in his apparel;
Marching on in the greatness of his strength?

I who publish righteousness, and am mighty to save.
Wherefore is thine apparel red?

And thy garments, as one that treadeth the wine-vat?
I have trodden the vat alone;

And of the peoples there was not a man with me.

And I trod them in mine anger;

And I trampled on them in mine indignation;

And their life-blood was sprinkled upon my garments;
And I have stained all my apparel.

But the instances are innumerable which might be quoted of metaphors taken from the manners and customs of the Hebrews. One general remark, however, may be made upon this subject, namely, that from one simple, regular, and natural mode of life having prevailed among the Hebrews, it has arisen, that in their poetry these metaphors have less of obscurity, of meanness, or depression, than could be expected, when we consider the antiquity of their writings, the distance of the scene, and the uncommon boldness and vivacity of their rhetoric. Indeed, to have made use of the boldest imagery with the most perfect perspicuity, and the most common and familiar with the greatest dignity, is a commendation almost peculiar to the sacred poets. We shall not hesitate to produce an example of this kind, in which the meanness of the image is fully equalled by the plainness and inelegance of the expression; and yet such is its consistency, such the propriety of its application, that he do not scruple to pronounce it sublime. The Almighty threatens the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem in these terms:

And I will wipe Jerusalem,

As a man wipeth a dish:

He wipeth it, and turneth it upside down.†

But many of these images must falsely appear mean and ob

See Isaiah Ixiii. 1-3.

+ 2 Kings, xxi. 13. This is the answer of some prophet, as related by the historian.

scure to us, who differ so materially from the Hebrews in our mánners and customs but in such cases it is our duty neither too rashly to blame, nor too suddenly to despair. The mind should rather exert itself to discover, if possible, the connexion between the literal and the figurative meanings, which, in abstruse subjects, frequently depending upon some very delicate and nice relation, eludes our penetration. An obsolete custom, for instance, or some forgotten circumstance, opportunely adverted to, will sometimes restore its true perspicuity and credit to a very intricate passage. The instance at present in view may prove of some utility in this respect, and it may possibly serve to illustrate still further the nature of the Hebrew imagery, and the accuracy of their poets in the application of it.

Either through choice or necessity, the infernal regions and the state of the dead has been a very common topic with the poets of every nation; and this difficult subject, which the most vigorous understanding is unable to fathom by any exertion of reason, and of which conjecture itself can scarcely form any adequate idea, they have ornamented with all the splendour of description, as one of the most important themes which could engage the human imagination. Thus the prompt and fertile genius of the Greeks, naturally adapted to the fabulous, has eagerly embraced the opportunity to indulge in all the wantonness of fiction, and has peopled the infernal regions with such a profusion of monsters, as could not fail to promote the ridicule even of the ignorant and the vulgar.* The conduct of the Hebrews has been very diffe rent; their fancy was restrained upon this subject by the tenets of their religion; and (notwithstanding the firm persuasion of the existence not only of the soul but of the body after death) we are to remember they were equally ignorant with the rest of mankind of the actual state and situation of the dead. In this case they have acted as in every other what was plain and commonly understood concerning the dead, that is, what happened to the body, suggested the general imagery to which the Hebrews always resort in describing the state and condition of departed souls, and in forming what may be termed, if the expression be allowable, their poetical Hell. It is called (Sheol) by the Hebrews themselves, by the Greeks 'Adne, HADES, and by the Latins INFERNUM, or SEPULCHRUM. In the funeral rites or ceremonies of the Hebrews may be traced all the imagery which their poets introduce to illustrate this subject; and it must be confessed that these afforded ample scope for poetical embellishment. The sepulchres of the Hebrews, at least those of respectable persons, and those which hereditarily belonged to the principal families, were extensive caves, or vaults, excavated from the native rock by art

* See Cicero Quæst. Tusculan. 1. 5, 6.

↑ See Gen. xxiii. 2 Kings, xiii. 21. Isai, xxii. 16. 2 Chron. xvi. 14. Josh. x. 27. Lam. iii. 53. John xi. 38; and the Evangelists, concerning the Sepulchre of Christ.