situations, and characters, are all defined to the imagination. But in the Song of Solomon a mystery and vagueness hangs over our conception of the being who (in a human sense) utters the passion of the poem, and who is addressed as its object. The voices and responses of love murmur around us, but the speakers and their circumstances shift ambiguously and abruptly. At times, undoubtedly, we have delicious glimpses of scenery, and seem to breathe in the very air of a rich oriental landscape. "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone: the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a goodly smell. The singing of birds and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." Yet the poet's touches, sweet and magnificent as they are, rather supply the fancy with a desultory dream of luxury, than impress the heart with an intelligent interest in human manners and feelings.

When we turn to the Proverbs, however, we find a monument of Hebrew genius, superior to every production in the same walk of composition. David fostered the poetical enthusiasm of his people, and was, in a stricter sense than Solomon, their poetical sovereign and representative. But the Hebrew mind was now become more fitted than formerly for intellectual impressions from literature; and Solomon employed his genius in giving the maxims of morality a diction pointed to the understanding, as well as electrifying to the fancy. The proverbs of a people always form their first step of advance towards philosophy; and the state of the Jews, at this period, may be compared to that of the Greeks, when they received the sayings of Solon, Pythagoras, and Theognis. But the gnomic or sententious remains of the Pagan moralists, as rudiments of philosophical literature, appear insignificant, when compared with those of the Hebrew Monarch, who drew the ethical spirit of his poetry from a grand and simple religious creed. Hence he has no division of doctrines for the initiated and the prophane. His precepts are clear, consistent, and elevated truths, tersely expressed, and spiritedly illustrated. In one or two

expressions, perhaps, may be traced something to remind us of the old enigmatical form, in which it was usual with the Jews, as with all early nations, to couch the sayings of the wisea custom exemplified by the riddles which Sampson prided himself in proposing to the Philistines. But Solomon, to look at the Proverbs as a whole, stripped his wisdom of all fan

And it would appear, from the Queen of Sheba putting hard questions to the King of Israel (1 Kings, ch. x.) that the amusement of enigmas had not fallen into disuse even in Solomon's days.

tastical mystery, when he addressed himself to the instruction of his people. The book has nothing abstruse*, nothing jarring in doctrine, and nothing ascetic. On the contrary, it recommends, in the most pointed manner, to cherish a cheerful heart; and if the idea of levity could be separated from wit, we might almost venture to attach the latter term to the animated ingenuity of the Proverbs. Without either formal reasoning, or arrangement of parts, the book embraces a code of instruction directly applicable to all the duties of life. Does the Poet inculcate temperance, how emphatic is the question, "Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath wounds without cause-who hath redness of eyes, but they that tarry at the wine?" Does he speak of humility, how brief and weighty is the apophthegm, "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour goeth humility." How impressive is his saying on temper, that “he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth

The imagery of the Proverbs is, in general, strikingly lucid. It is not so in Ecclesiastes, the diction of which is obscure, and by no means eminently poetical. The description of old age, in the last chapter, is a singular instance of quaint and elaborately artificial allegory, in a book so full of simple poetry as the Bible.

Verse 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, &c. &c.

Verse 2. While the sun, or the light of the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain—i. e. (I follow the explanation of Dr. Clarke) before thine eyes grow dim with age, so that thou shalt not see the sun, moon, and stars, and before the evils and miseries of life succeed one another in woeful vicissitude.

Verse 3. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened-i. e. before thine arms, which are the guards of the bodily mansion, shall tremble with palsies; and thy legs, which are thy strong supporters, shall bow themselves; and thy teeth grind slowly and with difficulty, because they are few; and thine eyes, which are as glasses in the windows of thy head, are dusky and darkened.

Verse 4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low-i. e. when the doors shall be shut upon thee, as now retired to thine own home, without care of other's visits or business; when thy slow feeding shall make thee unfit for other men's tables; when every little noise, even that of a bird, shall waken thee out of thy sleep; and when thy spirits shall be so dull and dejected, that thou shalt take no pleasure in hearing the most melodious music.

Verse 5. And when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond-tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burthen, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets-i. e. when thy decrepid age shall make thee so unfit to move, that thou shalt be afraid to stumble upon or to ascend any rising ground that lies in thy way; when the blossoms of age shall cover thy head, and the lightest thing shall be burthensome. Verse 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern-i. e. before all thy natural and vital spirits be exhausted, and all the functions and offices of life be quite discharged, as water ceases to be drawn when the cord is loosed, and the bucket and wheel broken at the cistern.

One might imagine that Fletcher in his Purple Island, and Gawin Douglas in his King Heart, had formed their tastes on this dimly allegorical effusion of Solomon.

his spirit than one that taketh a city." How emphatical are the few words recommending humanity," Whoso mocketh the poor, reproacheth his Maker:" and can there be a more striking admonition to industry than "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the har

vest."

It is true that it was not within the inspired commission of Solomon (at least the Proverbs give us no proof of it) to inculcate the soul's immortality. On the contrary, his morality is founded solely on the rewards of virtue, and the stings and poisons of vice, during our present state of existence. But there is nothing inconsistent with the doctrine of immortality in this maxim, which he bids the " bind young man upon his heart and tie round his neck:" namely, that " Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and that all the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto her; that length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour; that her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace."

After Solomon's death, the kingdom was immediately divided. The frightfully despotic answer of his son Rehoboam to the people, who, having assembled in the free spirit of the Mosaic constitution, demanded if he meant to rule them with moderation, cancelled the allegiance of the whole nation*, with the exception of the powerful tribe of Judah, and the weak and adjacent one of Benjamin. Jeroboam, who had given some disturbance to the kingdom even in the former reign, now returned from exile, and was set at the head of the ten revolted tribes; so that the history of the Hebrews is from this period divided into that of Judah and Israel. The sovereigns of the latter kingdom, a considerable time after the revolt, established their capital at Samaria; and hence the term Samaritan was ultimately applied both to the people and their language. Rehoboam was thus left with a remnant of the Hebrews, inferior to the population he had lost; but the possession of Jerusalem, hallowed as it was by so many religious associations, gave him an advantage which the folly of his rival Jeroboam turned to double account. When the feast of the tabernacle approached, the tribes who had shaken off the yoke of the son of Solomon, could not forget that Zion still contained the ark and the temple; and Jeroboam, fearful of his subjects visiting the sacred city, established idolatry throughout his dominions. The consequence was, that the priests and Levites of Israel, whose honour and interests were thus vitally

* 2 Chronicles, ch. x. 14, 15, 16.

wounded, went back in a body from their scattered habitations to Rehoboam, and were followed by all the faithful friends of the true religion; so that Judah was strengthened into a power which eventually survived the existence of the Samaritan monarchy.

From the time of the Hebrews being thus rent into two kingdoms, until that of the ten tribest being carried into captivity by Shalmaneser, a period of between two and three hundred years, Judah and Israel, menaced and invaded as they were by formidable enemies, had seldom the policy to abstain from sanguinary contests with each other. Meanwhile, their perpetual proneness to idolatry called forth in both nations the loud and reiterated remonstrances of their prophets. Jerusalem, though on the whole less idolatrously inclined than the rival capital Samaria, had also her apostate sovereigns; and even under those Jewish Kings, who "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord," we read of high places, that is, heathen altars, being suffered to remain, "for there the people offered sacrifice, and burnt incense to idols." But in Israel the spirit of prophecy was called upon to be peculiarly active and bold, as it had to maintain a struggle against Paganism, among a people where the Mosaic religion was bereft of its hereditary hierarchy, and of all the advantages resulting from a solemn national temple. Accordingly we read, in the annals of Israel, of numerous and devoted prophetic bands, encountering the fate, and displaying the heroism of martyrs of their being slaughtered by merciless pursuers, or fed in deserts and caverns by the pious and charitable.§ There stood forth Elijah, to confront the priests of Baal, and to pronounce sentence on the tyrant Ahab, "that the dogs should lick up his blood." Elisha also, on whom Elijah's mantle descended, was a prophet of Israel. But it appears, that those inspired individuals were not limited in their mission to the one kingdom or the other, by their being its native inhabitants; for when the Jewish king Jehoram raised high places on the mountains of Judah, the prophecy of his destruction arrived to him from Elijah, who was of Gilead in Israel. || Amos, who was a native of Tekoah, a city visible in a clear day from Jerusalem, prophesied against the corruptions of the court of Samaria; and Micah declares, that he spoke alike to Israel and to Judah.

For an hundred and fifty years after Solomon's death, during

2 Chron. chap. xi. verses 13, 14, 15, 15.

+ The people of Israel, who seceded from Rehoboam, are always denominated the ten tribes it would certainly be more correct to call them the nine tribes, as it is evident by the text in 2 Chronicles, which has been just quoted, that the Levites returned collectively to Rehoboam.

1 Kings, chap. xxij. v. 23. || 2 Chron. chap. xxi. v. 12.

§ 1 Kings, chap. xviii. v. 4.

nine reigns in Judah and ten in Israel, we have historical notices of many prophets, whose oracles were never embodied into distinct collections. The series of the prophetic books of the Old Testament begins, in point of chronology, with Jonah, about eight hundred years before Christ, and concludes with Malachi, nearly four hundred years later. At the commencement of this historical space, Uzziah reigned in Jerusalem, and Jeroboam the Second in Samaria. The abilities of both of those sovereigns threw some lustre over their contemporary annals. Uzziah promoted the agricultural as well as the military habits and skill of his people, and Jeroboam was a considerable conqueror. But nothing was done to bring the two nations together by the bond of their ancient religion and Hebrew patriotism; and their prosperity was more in show than in substance. The idolatrous Jeroboam's reign was, according to the prophet Amos, one of those periods of luxury, pride, and misnamed prosperity, "that see the rich man's joys increase the poor's decay:" for he declares, "that the righteous were sold for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes." At the death of Jeroboam, the hollow semblance of Israel's strength gave way to misrule and degradation; and Pekah, one of the violent successors to the Samaritan throne, allied himself with Rezin, king of the Syrians, for the purpose of extirpating the state of Judah. On this, Ahaz, the successor of Uzziah, threw himself with desperate impolicy on the protection of the Assyrians, who made an easy conquest of Syria, and thus brought their inundating empire into fearful vicinity both with Israel and Judah. Samaria soon fell, and the ten tribes were dragged into captivity by Shalmaneser. The Jewish monarchy, to all appearance, would have speedily shared the same fate, if the wisdom and piety of Hezekiah had not preserved it. But he defied the King of Assyria, and "served him not "he" smote the Philistines even unto Gaza," he brought back the national worship to its ancient splendour and purity; and before the final calamity of the sister nation, he endeavoured to establish with her a religious connexion, which, if earlier adopted, might have protracted the independence of the Hebrew name. Hezekiah invited all Israel to celebrate the feast of the Passover at Jerusalem, not as a mark of submission to him, but as a gratification to themselves. Three of the tribes, as Josephus informs us, accepted the invitation, and Zion saw, when it was too late, in the setting gleam of her welfare, the affecting spectacle of Jews and Samaritans meeting like brothers before the Temple, and forgetting the antipathy of generations, in homage to the God of their fathers.

It is necessary to recollect those facts, in order to take an historical interest in the earlier part of Hebrew prophecy.

The chronological order of the prophets may, for the most