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SECTION XIV.

In the present Section, I shall confine myself to a single example; my remarks on which, I shall take the liberty of so extending, as to form a commentary on the passage:

μη πολλοι διδασκαλοι γινεσθε, αδελφοι μου, ειδότες ότι μειζον κριμα ληψόμεθα,

πολλα γαρ πλαιομεν άπαντες :

ει τις εν λόγω ου πλαιει, ουτος τελειος ανής, δυνατος χαλιναγωγήσαι και όλον το σωμα : έδου των ἵππων τους χαλινούς,

εις τα τοματα βαλλομεν,

προς το πείθεσθαι αυτους ἡμιν,

και όλον το σωμα αυτων μεταγομεν :

ίδου, και τα πλοια τηλικαυία οντα,

και ύπο σκληρων ανεμων ελαυνομενα,

μεταγεται ύπο ελάχιςου πηδαλιου,

όπου αν ή όρμη του ευθύνοντος βουληται :

δυτω και ἡ γλωσσα μικρον μέλος εςι, και μεγαλαυχει· ίδου, ολίγον τους ήλικην ύλην αναπλει

όντως ἡ γλώσσα καθιςα αι εν τοις μελεσιν ήμων,

ἡ σπιλουσα όλον το σωμα,

και φλογίζουσα τον τροχον της γενέσεως,

και φλογιζόμενη ύπο της γεέννης :

πασα γαρ φυσις θηρίων τε και πετεινων, ἑρπετων τε και εναλίων, δαμαζεται και δεδαμαςαι, τη φύσει τη ανθρωπινη

την δε γλωσσαν ουδείς δύναται ανθρωπων δαμασαι· ακατασχείον κακον, μέση του θανατηφόρου :

T

εν αυτη ευλογούμεν τον Θεον και πατερα· και εν αυτή καταρωμεθα τους ανθρώπους, τους καθ ̓ ὁμοιωσιν του Θεου γεγονότας·

εκ του αυτου ςοματος, εξέρχεται ευλογια και καταρα· ου χρη, αδελφοί μου, ταυία δύλω γενεσθαι :

μητι ἡ πηγή, εκ της αυτής οπης, βρυει το γλυκυ και το πικρον 5 μη δυναται, αδελφοι μου, συκη ελαιας ποιησαι, η αμπελος συκα ; όντως ουδεμια πηγη αλυκον και γλυκυ ποιησαι ύδως.

My brethren, be not many teachers;

Knowing that we shall receive greater condemnation;
For, in many things we all trip:

If any one trip not in word, he is a perfect man;
Able to bridle also the whole body:

Behold, the bridles of horses,

We put into their mouths,

To make them obedient to us,

And we bring about the whole body:

Behold, also, the ships which are so great,
And driven by furious winds,

Are brought about by a very small helm,

Whithersoever the force of the pilot listeth.

Thus, also, the tongue is a little member, yet worketh mightily ;

Behold, a little fire how vast a forest it enkindleth;

And the tongue is a fire,

A world of iniquity :

So is the tongue placed among our members;

Defiling the whole body;

Both enflaming the wheel of nature

And [itself] enflamed from hell.

For, every nature, both of wild-beasts and birds; both of serpents and sea-monsters,

Is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the nature of

man;

But the tongue of men no one can subdue;

An irrestrainable evil, full of death-bearing poison:

By it, bless we God, even the Father;

And by it curse we men,

Who were made after the image of God;

From the same mouth, proceedeth a blessing and a curse; These things, my brethren, ought not so to be:

Doth a fountain, from the same opening, send forth the sweet and the bitter?

Can a fig-tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a vine figs? So can no fountain yield salt-water, and fresh.

S. James, iii. 1-12.

This extract is a fair specimen of S. James's general manner, both of thought and expression. It combines the plainest and most practical good sense, with the most vivid and poetical conception: the imagery various and luxuriant; the sentiments chastised and sober. His images, in truth, are so many analogical arguments; and if, at the first view, we are disposed to recreate ourselves with the poet, we soon feel, that we must exert our hardier powers, to keep pace with the logician. In my observations on this passage, I propose, 1. to examine the probable origin and progress of the apostle's train of thought: 2. to exhibit his nice observance of Hebrew parallelism; and in the course, and through the means, of that exhibition, to defend the sacred text against the unwarrantable liberties of certain commentators: and 3. to illustrate the sense, but especially the poetical images, of the sacred penman, by similar examples from

other writers, both poetical and prosaic, both sacred and profane.

1. The topics of this passage are so various, and, at first sight, so apparently unconnected, not to say incongruous, that it may be thought a rash undertaking, to explore the writer's train of thought, and to investigate the probable source, and the orderly progress, of his ideas. Yet, in a brief space, I hope to offer some considerations, which may, perhaps, not be accounted either unnatural, or unreasonable; and which may throw some new light on the subject. In one word, then, I would resolve S. James's choice of topics, into the association of ideas.

He begins with two lines, which, though forming a constructive parallelism, do not, either in their subject-matter, or expression, rise above the simplest and least ornamented prose:

My brethren, be not many teachers;

Knowing that we shall receive greater condemnation : the next line, however, has one figurative phrase, which, though abundantly plain and unambitious, may, by an allowable solution of metaphor, be called the associative germ of all the magnificent, and all the beautiful imagery, that afterwards springs up beneath the apostle's hand:

For, in many things we all trip:

the term here employed, S. James does not at once relinquish; it occurs in the next line:

If any one trip not in word, he is a perfect man:

the notion of tripping, naturally induces the notion of the means by which tripping is usually prevented, or obviated; namely, the use of a bridle this accordingly is introduced in the next line:

Able to bridle also the whole body:

hence the transition was obvious, and almost inevitable, to the management by the bridle, of fiery steeds; which is most skilfully brought to bear on the main subject, by the happy introduction of the mouths, and of the whole body, in the next quatrain:

Behold, the bridles of horses,
We put into their mouths,
To make them obedient to us,

And we bring about the whole body:

the transition from travelling by land, to travelling by sea, from the notion of a horse, to the notion of a ship, is most natural and easy: in moral illustration, these two images are frequently united; and, in the present instance, bringing about a horse by turning the bridle, bears so close a resemblance to bringing about a ship by turning the helm, that S. James expresses both actions by the same verb;

Behold, also, the ships which are so great,
And driven by furious winds,

Are brought about by the smallest helm,

Whithersoever the force of the pilot listeth:

the smallness of the instrument now becomes the associative link: