LIBRARY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF" 
 
 PACIFIC THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 
 
 ^Accession ^..9.T.9. Class 
 
 
SOLOMON'S SOM: 
 
 TKANSLATED AND EXPLAINED, 
 
 IN THREE PAETS. 
 
 I. THE MANUDUCTION. II. THE VERSION, 
 m. THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 BY LEONARD WITHINGTON, 
 
 SENIOR PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEWBURT, MASS. 
 
 " V 
 
 A 
 UN1V 
 
 ovdev. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY, 
 
 161 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 18 61. 
 
~ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by 
 
 LEONARD WITHINGTON, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 University Press, Cambridge : 
 Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 EVERY new book to be profitable asks a certain 
 degree of attention. But a reader is not always 
 disposed to give a new book much attention ; 
 and indeed it must be allowed, on the strictest 
 doctrine of chances and probabilities, that as an 
 hundred are to one, so is the chance against the 
 new claimant. However, here is a new book 
 that humbly solicits attention ; and let the reader 
 remember, if it should not prove profitable, unless 
 he gives it the requisite attention, the fault may 
 not be wholly mine. 
 
 _8459L 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE DESIGN 1 
 
 THE DESIGN (CONTINUED) 17 
 
 ADVERSE AUTHORITY 20 
 
 II. PLACES IN SCRIPTURE WHERE DIVINE LOVE ASSUMES 
 
 THE FORM OF AN EROTIC SIMILITUDE . . 31 
 
 THE UNITY 40 
 
 III. AMATORY DEVOTION LN HEATHEN LITERATURE AND IN 
 
 THE CHURCH SINCE THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES 50 
 HAPPINESS 70 
 
 IV. DIVINE LOVE AN INTELLECTUAL AND INFORMING 
 
 PASSION 95 " 
 
 V. THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN INTERPRETING THE BIBLE 133 - 
 
 PARTICULAR APPLICATION 145 
 
 THE USE OF THE IMAGINATION . . . . 166 
 
 VI. THE DOUBLE SENSE 171 - 
 
 VII. METAPHYSICS 187 
 
 EXEMPLIFICATION 205 
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SACRED WRITERS . . 209 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE VERSION 223 
 
 THE GOLDEN SONG OF SOLOMON .... 228 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE SUPPLEMENT 277 
 
 THE CLAIM AND THE PROOF 304 
 
 THE CANON . 313 
 
PAET I. 
 
 THE MANUDUCTION 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 THE DESIGN. 
 
 ONE of the first requisites to the understanding of 
 this mystic Song is to see the author's design, "In 
 every work, regard the writer's end." The Bible is 
 too often considered by the iieologist as a book of frag- 
 ments, having no moral unity, no single design, no 
 divine design ; and this injustice to the whole necessi- 
 tates a greater injustice to all the parts, nay, a want 
 of perception of their import, or beauty. Every part of 
 an arch rests on the key-stone. The history of the king- 
 dom of God may be considered as one great drama, 
 terminating in the triumph of grace over sin, and good 
 over evil. " Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, 
 and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his peo- 
 ple, and God himself shall be with them, and be their 
 God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, 
 nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for 
 the former things are passed away." 
 
 No book has suffered more than this Song from the 
 
 i w84591 A 
 
2 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 want of seeing the design. There is a twofold want. 
 First, a want of seeing the design of the whole work 
 of revelation ; and secondly, a want of seeing the design 
 of this particular book, and its harmony with the whole. 
 Let us then point out, first, its probable 
 
 HISTORIC ORIGIN ; 
 
 and this may help us to the moral design. 
 
 That the book was written by Solomon, I shall as- 
 sume ; for there is no end to that destructive criticism 
 which whispers suspicions of a later origin. Even the 
 Pentateuch itself has not escaped the daring innova- 
 tors ; and Aramseanisms, or later forms of Hebrew, are 
 found in the earliest books of the Bible. The neolo- 
 gists prove that nothing is or can be ancient. I must 
 be allowed to say, without depreciating any man's 
 Oriental learning, that I cannot conceive of a degree 
 of familiarity with any of these languages, which have 
 been dead for many centuries, which can justify a critic 
 in such bold censures as they undertake to pronounee.* 
 
 * Dr. Noyes, after giving several instances of alleged Aramaeanism, 
 comes to this very judicious conclusion : " From these and other instances, 
 Gesenius, De Wette, and Umbreit have referred the Book of Job to the time 
 of the captivity, a period assigned to it by Le Clerc, Warburton, Heath, 
 Garnet, and Rabbi Jochanan, among the older critics. But from the few 
 remains of Hebrew literature that have come down to us, and our imper- 
 fect acquaintance with the history of language, it follows that it is by no 
 means certain that the words and forms above mentioned may not have 
 been in use in some parts of Judasa before the time of the captivity. $, as 
 a prefix, occurs in the Book of Judges. See vi. 17." Preface to Job. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. O 
 
 They cut here and slash there, until the whole forest 
 of antiquity is levelled to the ground. Indeed, I can- 
 not conceive of any language, which is not vernacular, 
 being so critically known to a man as to justify him 
 in upsetting all tradition, and saying he finds modern- 
 isms in every page. Dr. Bentley, in his dissertation on 
 the Epistles of Phalaris, speaks very modestly of the 
 modernisms he discovers in those Epistles, and places 
 the chief evidence of their forgery on the anachronisms 
 which he everywhere discovers. Besides, suppose there 
 are real Aramaeisms, is recency of authorship the only 
 way in which they can be accounted for ? We are told 
 in the sacred history, that Solomon " spake three thou- 
 sand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five," 
 (1 Kings iv. 32,) and why may not this be one of them ? 
 Who more likely to produce it, than he of whom it is 
 said, there came of " all people to hear the wisdom of 
 Solomon, from all the kings of the earth, which had 
 heard of his wisdom"? There is no end to this learned 
 scepticism ; and truth would always be found by these 
 sagacious divers, were she always certain to conceal 
 herself in the bottom of a well. They are sure to 
 miss her when she is on the surface. 
 
 Nor can I possibly agree with those who regard this 
 book as a COLLECTION of songs. The remarks of Rosen- 
 miiller are on this point excellent. " That this book," 
 he says, " contains one connected song, was never ques- 
 tioned until Richard Simon called it into doubt, by 
 
4 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 saying it was a collection of various minor poems by 
 various authors ; and since his day the same hypothesis 
 has been adopted by distinguished critics ; the book, 
 according to these critics, is a collection of amatory 
 songs, having no unity but the common subject, like 
 the Book of Psalms, or the Book of Proverbs." But. 
 as Rosenmiiller says, there is no vestige in the book of 
 this variety, nulla tamen tumultuariae congestionis 
 vestigia. It is everywhere a continued dialogue of the 
 same speakers, in the same style, on the same subject. 
 The unity is complete ; and the man who finds this 
 variety must do as a man who breaks a glass vase, and 
 then complains that he only finds a collection of frag- 
 ments. The only plausibility that such a theory can 
 have must arise from a peculiarity which pervades all 
 Hebrew poetry ; namely, the rapid transitions by which 
 a primitive people leave the reader to supply the inter- 
 stices of their thoughts. The transition of such writers 
 is always rapid ; and if every break indicates a new 
 subject and a new author, there is no end to the va- 
 riety which bad taste and daring speculation may every- 
 where find. Following these ancient, simple writers 
 is not like walking in the gravelled paths of a garden, 
 trodden down by art and consolidated by the roller, 
 but like walking over the glaciers of the Alps, where 
 you must leap many a chasm, and where you are an 
 unskilful traveller if the first interruption stops your 
 way. The frost in these haggard regions will not im- 
 itate the nicety of an artist in his studio. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 5 
 
 The want of tact in discerning the difference be- 
 tween a rapid transition (such as constitutes the char- 
 acter and beauty of primitive poetry) has led Rosen- 
 miiller himself, in that beautiful break in the nineteenth 
 Psalm, ver. 7, to find a new subject. " Mihi tamen ea 
 carminis pars, quae inde a versus et decurrit, parum 
 apte cum reliqua videtur cohaerere. Ea vero in utraque 
 rerum et verborum est dissimilitude, ut nullus dubitem, 
 duo diversa carmina, aut certe diversoruin carmiiiuni 
 particulas, quorum unum virtu tern Jehovae ex opificio 
 coelorum mire relucentem, alterum legum divinarum 
 praestantiam et excellentiam celebraret, casu vel consilio 
 in hoc uno esse conjuncta, quae proinde a nobis erunt 
 sejungenda." But surely there never was a more beau- 
 tiful unity than this Psalm presents, or a more beau- 
 tiful transition. How natural that the works of God 
 should suggest the clearer revelation of his Word, and 
 that the same ode should present the harmony of 
 both ! 
 
 That this book should be regarded as a collection 
 of fragments, is one of the most baseless visions that 
 ever entered a mind darkened by its own ingenuity. 
 Never was there a book that had greater unity. It is 
 all about the same pair, Solomon and Solomitis. The 
 style is the same ; the subject is the same ; and the 
 whole impression is unique. The fragments must be 
 made by the fragmentary mind that reads it. 
 
 The best way to discover the moral design of this 
 
6 THE MANUDUCTTON. 
 
 book is to consider its historical origin. We must en- 
 deavor to state to ourselves the circumstances under 
 which its design was suggested and its form arose. It 
 is pretty clear that most of the Psalms, and many of 
 the prophecies, had an occasional and temporary appli- 
 cation ; and that the local event was an interpreter to 
 the ultimate design. The analogy of one to the other 
 was often very striking and instructive. Now this 
 principle, sanctioned by so many examples, we pro- 
 pose to apply in explaining the design of this difficult 
 poem. 
 
 We know from the sacred history, that Solomon, in 
 his high glory, made affinity, not only with equal 
 kings, as the king of Egypt, but also with the rural 
 chiefs and sheiks of the tribes around him. We are 
 told expressly (1 Kings xi.) : " But King Solomon loved 
 many strange women " (i. e. foreigners), " together 
 with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, 
 Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites ; of the 
 nations concerning which the Lord said unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall 
 they come in unto you ; for surely they will turn away 
 your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these 
 in love." Now we must remember that all these na- 
 tions, except the Zidonians, were pastoral and rural 
 nations, very much below the Israelites in the scale of 
 civilization in the golden days of Solomon. I cannot 
 think that the bride in this song is Pharaoh's daugh- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 7 
 
 ter, though Lowth and other learned critics have coun- 
 tenanced this opinion. The Solomeith or Solomitis 
 of this Song is everywhere a rural lass, having that 
 mixture of rusticity and refinement which marks the 
 daughter of some sheik, just such qualities as would 
 now characterize an Arab princess. " How beautiful 
 are thy feet with shoes, prince's daughter! " (vii. 1.) 
 " I am black, but comely ; " that is, a handsome bru- 
 nette, (i. 5.) " I am the rose of Sharon," i. e. a mod- 
 est autumnal flower, and u the lily of the valley," i. e. 
 a beautiful flower growing in a humble place, (ii. 1.) 
 She sleeps under the trees ; " our bed is green ; the 
 beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters are fir." 
 (i. 16, 17.) She is made keeper of a vineyard, and fol- 
 lows a flock, and the more polished daughters of Jeru- 
 salem are jealous of her ; in a word, she speaks like a 
 polished, rural lass. Now if we put the hints of his- 
 tory and of the book together, we may come to the 
 conclusion that Solomon, in spreading his peaceful 
 empire, made affinity with some of the Arab tribes 
 around him. He did it from a partial wish of spreading 
 the Hebrew empire and religion through the vicinity. 
 He did not aim to conquer by war, but by affinity ; he 
 wished to cement a glorious empire ; it is true, that 
 afterwards his idolatrous wives turned away his heart ; 
 but such, probably, was not his first intention. Noth : 
 ing is more natural than that, when we mix too much 
 expediency in our designs to spread religion, the evil 
 
8 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 should eat out the good. I suppose Solomon might 
 have a mixed motive ; it was one of those cases where 
 his own wisdom might deceive him ; his folly was not 
 the folly of a fool, and I cannot imagine any other 
 reason for his vast number of wives and concubines. 
 " And he had seven hundred wives, princesses," (mark 
 the word !) " and three hundred concubines : and his 
 wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass 
 when Solomon was old," (mark again,) "that his wives 
 turned away his heart after other gods ; and his heart 
 was not perfect " (mark again) " with the Lord his God, 
 as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon 
 went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, 
 and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. 
 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and 
 went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. 
 Then did Solomon build up an high place for Che- 
 mosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is be- 
 fore Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the 
 children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his 
 strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto 
 their gods." (1 Kings xi. 3-8.) Several things may be 
 here noticed. First, the vast number of his wives, be- 
 yond all the purposes of sensuality, one thousand ! 
 and I fancy some of them found their houses more of 
 the convent than the seraglio. No doubt the purpose 
 was to prepare the way for a splendid kingdom. Sec- 
 ondly, it will be noticed that the seven hundred wives 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 9 
 
 were princesses ; now the very number shows they did 
 not belong to great kingdoms, like Egypt ; they must 
 have been princesses in the little tribes around Pales- 
 tine. Thirdly, it will be noticed that Solomon is not 
 totally condemned : " They turned away his heart ; it 
 came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives," 
 &c. " He went not fully after the Lord, like David his 
 father ; " "his heart was not perfect with the Lord his 
 God," <fec. It seems very probable, therefore, that at 
 first his intention might have been good, or at least he 
 thought so ; he wished to establish a great kingdom ; 
 he was not a man of war ; he must do it by other 
 arts, the arts of peace ; he bound the rural tribes 
 around him to himself by his multiplied affinities ; 
 none but the best and worst men act from single mo- 
 tives. Solomon was a mingled character ; his great wis- 
 dom sometimes marred the simplicity of his piety. Now^_ 
 putting these things together, I suppose that he wooed 
 and won some beautiful daughter of some neighboring 
 sheik, perhaps for the first time ; the thing made a 
 great noise in Jerusalem ; the fathers were alarmed, 
 and the daughters of Jerusalem were jealous. Some- 
 times he carried his rustic bride, his autumnal flower, 
 his lily of the valley, up to Jerusalem, where she com- 
 plains : " The watchmen that went about the city found 
 me, they smote me, they wounded me : the keepers of 
 the wall took away my veil from me." And sometimes 
 Solomon himself went down to rusticate in her country, 
 
10 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 to spend part of the summer ; the wild cliffs were as 
 sweet to the king as the polished houses of Jerusa- 
 lem were to the bride. " my dove, that art in the 
 clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the stairs, let 
 me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice ; for 
 sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 
 Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, 
 for our vines have tender grapes." (ii. 14, 15.) These 
 alternations are presented throughout the whole poem. 
 Such, then, is the HISTORICAL ORIGIN of this beautiful 
 work. King Solomon chooses some foreign bride ; he 
 deviates from the customs and laws of his country ; 
 his conduct excites great attention, and produces great 
 commotion in Jerusalem. But a popular king has his 
 own privileges ; his intentions are for good, though not 
 legal, and he writes this poem to show how pure his 
 felicity, how happy his marriage with a rural bride, 
 taken from a Pagan nation, whom, nevertheless, he 
 brings under the influence of the true religion, and 
 hopes to convert to the true faith, and make one of 
 the instruments of promoting the glory of his peace- 
 ful kingdom. 
 
 But we are told in Judges xiv. 4, that, when Sam- 
 son went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Tim- 
 nath of the daughters of the Philistines, and wished to 
 have her for a wife, contrary to the wishes of her fa- 
 ther and mother, " his father and his mother knew not 
 that the thing was of the Lord." So in this case, the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 11 
 
 occasional song was exalted by the providence of God 
 into a higher purpose. That purpose was -mainly and 
 primarily to foreshow the formation and union of the 
 Gentile Church with Christ, when a more sublime and 
 spiritual religion should be presented. Of course, in 
 this purpose, as a unity, many constituents are in- 
 volved ; for example, a higher religion, a higher class 
 of saints, the union of the soul with Christ, all of 
 which I consider not as separate items, but all involved 
 in the great idea. There is to be a religion (such is the 
 spirit of the book) which, uniting the soul with its Sav- 
 iour in a nobler life, is to bring the Gentiles under its 
 influence, and have power enough to spread through 
 the earth. For this opinion we should adduce several 
 reasons. First, the perfect analogy between the his- 
 torical fact and the spiritual signification. If Solomon 
 hoped to spread his kingdom by these marriages, the 
 first bride was not only a type, but an actual specimen, 
 of the signification looked for. Secondly, there is a 
 perfect consonance between this view and the occa- 
 sional signification of other places in the Psalms and 
 prophecies. They often have an historical origin, and 
 a sublime future import, as, in the seventy-second, the 
 reign of Solomon and the kingdom of Christ. This is 
 the general method ; when the neologists say that what- 
 ever is great and splendid about temporal things in 
 the Old Testament was applied by the later Jews to the 
 Messiah and his kingdom, they only pervert and misuse 
 
12, THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 a fact, which is the occasional signal of the great de- 
 sign. Thirdly, this Book would scarcely have had a 
 place in the sacred canon, if the authors of that canon, 
 whoever they might be, had believed it to be a mere 
 love-song ; it would have been like introducing the 
 image of Bacchus or Silenus into their holy temple. 
 On this point one of their own Kabbis has spoken, 
 Aben-Esra. " Absit, absit ut Canticum Canticorum de 
 amore carnali agat, sed omnia figurate in eo dicantur. 
 Nisi enim maxima ejus dignitas esset, in sacrorum 
 librorum corpus non fuisset relatum, neque de eo ulla 
 est controversial' To which Rosenmiiller adds, that 
 the whole character and design of the sacred books for- 
 bid the supposition that a song which sung the loves 
 of a man and a woman should be numbered among 
 the books of the Old Testament. When we read the 
 following verse in the Book of Hymns by Dr. Watts, 
 we have no hesitation, from its place, to allow its 
 subject and design, though the words may seem am- 
 biguous : 
 
 "Let my beloved come and taste 
 His pleasant fruits at his own feast; 
 I come, my spouse ; I come, he cries, 
 With love and pleasure in his eyes." 
 
 And the same reasoning applies to this book. It 
 stands rank and file amidst the solemnities of reve- 
 lation. This circumstance has in fact decided the 
 Church, at the least the vast majority of it, to receive 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 13 
 
 the book in its mystical import ; and the fact is signifi- 
 cant ; it was the decision of unconscious reason, which 
 the public mind could not resist. It is one of those 
 conclusions that we adopt before we have analyzed its 
 force. We do not expect the levity in a Greek chorus 
 which we find in an Anacreontic song. But there is 
 another reason. Fourthly, the poor, barren meaning 
 that emerges, if the allegoric is not taken. A very pe- 
 culiar choice meets us, the great or the little; the sub- 
 lime or the ridiculous ; the most exalted devotion or the 
 meanest sensuality. On this point even the comment 
 of Grotius is instructive ; he rejects the spiritual mean- 
 ing, and where does he fall ? He shows the melancholy 
 consequence of not catching the note of inspiration from 
 its celestial harp. I hardly dare to state the import 
 which this great critic gives to this sacred book. In 
 searching for the latent meaning of this book, we are 
 reminded of the epitaph mentioned in Gil Bias, 
 " Here is interred the soul of the Licentiate Peter 
 Garcias." The pert coxcomb laughed at the absurd- 
 ity of supposing a soul interred in a grave ; but his 
 wiser companion fathomed the mystery and found the 
 treasure. 
 
 But, fifthly, the place the book supplies in meeting 
 the wants of a certain class of readers, perhaps I may 
 say, in some degree, of all mankind. Who does not 
 know that one great problem always before the awak- 
 ened and anxious mind is, How shall I get the will 
 
14 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 to conquer my corruption ? How shall I shake off 
 those evil propensities, which, like iron chains, fasten 
 my soul down to earth and transgression ? To be 
 saved I must be willing to be saved; but how shall I 
 get that will ? You tell me that religion is a cure 
 for all sorrow and sin; that it is easy, "the yoke is 
 easy and the burden is light." But you contradict 
 my experience. It is vain to tell me of the reason- 
 ableness of religion ; the human passions are not 
 reasonable, mine are not; and I turn like a door 
 on its hinges, and yet never get separated from 
 my own selfishness. Such are the complaints I have 
 heard from hundreds of sinners. Now, to such a 
 mind how impressive, how instructive it must be to 
 know that there is a form of religion where even the 
 struggle is lost in the perception of celestial beauty 
 and the free, spontaneous love which arises from it ! 
 There are attainments in religion where it ceases to 
 be an effort, duty is lost in delight; Christ is seen 
 and his drawings are felt ; the whole soul is borne 
 on a new current. Let us seek an illustration. Yon- 
 der is a barge entering the harbor ; the tide is 
 against her, and the wind is contrary. How they 
 toil at the oars, and how little is their headway ! 
 But suddenly the tide turns and the wind changes ; 
 they spread their sails, and enter the harbor with 
 streamers flying and with triumphant speed. " I went 
 down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 15 
 
 valley, and to see whether the vine flourished and the 
 pomegranates budded ; or ever I was aware, my soul 
 made me like the chariots of Amminadib." (vi. 
 11, 12.) 
 
 To the Christian, too, the lesson is important. We 
 begin religion in a violent struggle with our own evil 
 propensities. It is a most discouraging combat, and 
 our frequent failures plunge us almost into despair. 
 Some of the strongest expressions are used in the 
 New Testament to describe this painful conflict. It 
 is plucking out the right eye, tearing off the right 
 hand ; it is a crucifixion ; it is taking up the cross 
 daily ; it drives us to the most agonizing prayer. 
 How delightful it must be to know that when the 
 renovated will, feeble at first, has done its part, a 
 time will come, when, if we are faithful in the strug- 
 gle, the will must give place to the whole powers 
 of the heart. There will be no struggle, no con- 
 flict, no cross. Indeed, the great secret in religion 
 is, to have a clear perception of the celestial bride- 
 groom, and to have the heart in a corresponding 
 state. Strauss says that Christ is a principle, and I 
 believe it. He is a principle and person too ; and he 
 is the more a principle because he is a person ; and 
 Dr. Young was more than a poet when he said : 
 
 " Talk they of morals, thou bleeding Love ! 
 Thou Maker of new morals for mankind, 
 The grand morality is love to thee." 
 
16 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 But, sixthly, I think this must have been the ori- 
 gin and the signification of this song ; that is, its 
 sublime meaning grew out of its historical origin, 
 from the fact that all the Pagan nations had similar 
 ideas, and God, in thus signifying his will to his 
 people, only employed the universal language. The 
 Pagans regarded all nature as one great sympathetic 
 system, indicating by the informing spirit future 
 events. The flight of a bird, the motion of a ser- 
 pent, the form of a cloud, the speaking of an ox, 
 the voice of thunder, stumbling at the threshold, 
 were all omens. Nature was everywhere sensitive 
 and significant. We are told by Tacitus that the 
 Germans were accustomed to set a captive of the 
 nation with which they were at war and one of their 
 own people at single combat, and judge by the 
 event the fate of the war. What is this but the 
 same principle, a portentous incident foretelling a 
 great result ? How much more would the Jews, from 
 their remarkable theocracy, be led to judge in the 
 same way ; and how credible is it that God should 
 use such means to signify his will. The Bath Col 
 the voice among the Jews was founded on the 
 same principle. 
 
 Lastly, the unmistakable authority of the Apostles 
 sanctions the same principle. But on this point we 
 shall not at present enlarge. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 17 
 
 THE DESIGN (CONTINUED). 
 
 There naturally, then, grows out of the historical 
 origin this spiritual design. As it has been forci- 
 bly remarked that the Psalms were written to show 
 us, after reading the continual ritualism of the books 
 of Moses, that there was a spiritual power in the 
 old religion, so this book seems to have been written 
 to show us the ultimate spirit of the true Church. 
 When religion was ritual in its dress, it was sec- 
 tional in its character. Circumcision, for example, 
 confined it to the Hebrews. But the idea of an 
 enlarged Church was connected with a refined relig- 
 ion. The higher spirit of religion was all-embracing. 
 The affinity of Solomon with some Arab princes was 
 made the occasion of showing a Gentile Church and 
 a purer faith. The lessons of this book are, first, 
 that there is something in religion which no words can 
 teach. It transcends the power of language. It can 
 be felt only by a bursting heart. It is life. " My 
 soul breaketh for the longing it hath." Secondly, love 
 is this transcendent spirit, supersensual love. But, 
 thirdly, not blind love ; love arising from the per- 
 ception of celestial beauty ; distinct from delusion, 
 because founded on truth. Fourthly, this passion 
 and perception are mysteriously interlocked ; we can- 
 not say which is cause and which consequence. We 
 
 B 
 
18 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 may say the perception of the beauty produces the 
 love, and the love, or at least the disposition to love, 
 produces the perception. Here is an involution which 
 no mental analysis can unfold ; and this book pre- 
 sents the two poles of this electric tide ; to our expe- 
 rience they come together, but we cannot tell which 
 is cause and which eifect, which is prior either in 
 time or in nature. Fifthly, the mystic union with 
 Christ ; what is it ? Here it is shown as it must 
 be shown in the emotional. Sixthly, there is a higher 
 class of saints ; 
 
 " They scorn to seek our golden toys, 
 
 But spend the day and share the night 
 In numbering o'er the richer joys 
 
 That Heaven prepares for their delight; 
 While wretched we, like worms and moles, 
 Lie grovelling in the dust below." 
 
 Seventhly, piety, owning its origin, tends to its end. 
 Religion begins in severe struggles ; it is a period of 
 conflict. Augustine has stated the difficulty, and in 
 part solved the mystery. " Unde hoc monstrum, et 
 quare istud ? Imperat animus corpori et paretur sta- 
 tim ; imperat animus sibi et resistitur. Imperat ani- 
 mus, ut moveatur manus, et tanta est facilitas, ut 
 vix a servitio discernitur imperium ; et animus animus 
 est, manus autem corpus est. Imperat animus, ut 
 velit animus, nee alter est, nee facit tamen. Unde 
 hoc monstrum, et quare istud ? Imperat, unquam 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 19 
 
 ut velit, qui non imperat, nisi vellet ; et non fit, 
 quod imperat. Sed non ex toto vult ; non ergo ex 
 toto imperat." (Confess., Lib. VIII. c. 9.) " Whence 
 this wonder, and how does it come ? The mind com- 
 mands the body, and is immediately obeyed ; the will 
 commands itself, and is resisted. The mind com- 
 mands the hand to move ; and such is the facility of 
 the obedience that we hardly discern the command- 
 ing from the servile power. The mind is mind, the 
 hand is body. The mind commands according to its 
 own will, and yet does not obey itself. Whence this 
 wonder, and how does it arise? That power com- 
 mands by its will whose whole province is to will, 
 and yet, itself commanding itself, the deed is not 
 done ; and the reason is, the will is not entire ; the 
 command is not from the whole heart." Now, in all 
 these struggles, it is delightful to know the higher, 
 spontaneous state to which every successful struggle 
 tends ; and how important it is to get those percep- 
 tions by which the whole power of Christ rushes on 
 the soul. 0, there is a flame that burns up our 
 dross, and the will has scarce anything to do ; it has 
 sunk back and is lost in governing love. Lastly, 
 this book shows that felicity is the gratification of 
 celestial love. When an Almighty Saviour becomes 
 tho bridegroom, heaven, earth, and sea, the stars 
 and the sky, become the marriage-chamber, and all 
 the works of nature glow with the consummation. 
 
20 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 ADVERSE AUTHORITY. 
 
 Some light may be thrown on this book by con- 
 sidering the objections which critics of great learning 
 and sagacity have made to its spiritual meaning. 
 
 My object in selecting some of those critics who 
 have made the most forcible objections, is not to 
 depreciate them, but to answer their objections. A 
 feigned objection of an advocate of any opinion is 
 never so forcible as one brought by a competent 
 opponent. I shall select the learned Professor in the 
 Divinity School at Cambridge as the impersonation 
 of that rigid criticism which forgets almost all the 
 glowing elements of sacred poetry in the artificial 
 laws that surround the lecturer's chair, laws which 
 light the lamp to forget the sunshine. I select him 
 only as a representative man. 
 
 Dr. Noyes says, in his Preface to the Canticles : 
 " The decisive objection, which applies in nearly an 
 equal degree to all these theories, is, that there is no 
 mention, or even intimation, in the work itself, of 
 that which they say is its great and principal sub- 
 ject." And again : " The only persons introduced 
 into it are human. There is not a sentence, or part 
 of a sentence, which, according to the common use of 
 language, expresses any religious idea. This is the 
 decisive consideration with me. The author has in 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 21 
 
 no way indicated that he uses language in any but 
 the obvious and usual sense." 
 
 To this I have two answers. First, conceding 
 the fact, I should not dare to adopt the con- 
 clusion ; for you must sanction this canon of criti- 
 cism, that there is never an allegory or vTrovoia, 
 under-meaning, but when the sacred writers ex- 
 pressly reveal the literal. Now it is nowhere said, 
 in Old Testament or New, that the tempter in Eden 
 was the Devil, and yet the analogy is so perfect to 
 the after-revealed character of the Devil, and the 
 history is so mean and childish without this suppo- 
 sition, that all ages have concluded to adopt the 
 indicated meaning. We shake the whole grandeur 
 of revelation, the whole framework of divine truth, 
 unless we say the concealed meaning is the true 
 one. So with regard to the sacrifices of the Law, it 
 is nowhere said in the Old Testament that they 
 point to Christ. But, as the author of Hebrews 
 says, " the Law is a shadow of good things to 
 come." We adopt the necessary conclusion. We 
 take the sublimer view. Sometimes a sentiment is 
 expressed by an unexplained figure, as in Job iv. 
 10, 11 : " Rugitus leonis ejusque fremitus obmutuit 
 et dentes leoiium excussi sunt. Periit leo praedae 
 inopia ejusque catuli sunt dispersi " ; that is, the 
 strongest human power is often dispersed and broken. 
 In the last chapters of Ezekiel, the building of the 
 
22 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 visionary temple, and in the whole book of Revela- 
 tion, we are left to solve by our sagacity imagery 
 which the author has nowhere explained ; so that if 
 we were to grant that in Solomon's Song the prin- 
 cipal subject, as understood by the allegorist, does 
 not appear, it would not follow from Biblical usage 
 that it did not exist. 
 
 But, secondly, is there no intimation of the under- 
 meaning ? I must contend that there is. It is inten- 
 tionally shown under the veil. In the fourth verse, 
 " The upright love thee," Probi te amant. What 
 can this mean but the literal ? The author wavers 
 from his allegory. So in iv. 4, 
 
 '* Thy neck is like the tower of David, 
 Built for an armory ; 
 In which there hang a thousand bucklers, 
 All shields of mighty men," 
 
 and in v. 13-15, and in vii. 2-7, the comparison 
 is too extravagant for a literal personage. It inti- 
 mates its deeper meaning. As in Psalm Ixxii. the 
 magnificence of the imagery teaches to look beyond 
 Solomon, to a Divine Saviour and a spiritual king- 
 dom, so in this imagery the author seems to hint 
 at more than a mortal lover. We must charge him 
 with the greatest extravagance, or we must own his 
 high design. But the passage which seems to 'me 
 the clearest, considered as an intentional clew to 
 the under-meaning, is in the eighth chapter, verses 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 23 
 
 8-11. The passage is introduced by describing the 
 nature of a sublime and unchangeable love. " Many 
 waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods 
 drown it ; if a man would give all his substance 
 for love, it would utterly be contemned." Dr. 
 Noyes translates it : 
 
 " Many waters cannot quench love, 
 Nor can the floods drown it; 
 
 Would a man give all the wealth of his house for love, 
 It would be utterly contemned." 
 
 And in the previous verse (sixth), what our trans- 
 lators have rendered " the coals thereof are coals of 
 fire, which hath a most vehement flame," he is still 
 stronger : 
 
 V 
 
 " Its flames are flames of fire, 
 The fire of Jehovah." 
 
 Dathe has it : 
 
 "Nam potens est, uti mors, amor 
 Inexorabilis, uti inferus, amoris fides ; 
 Ardor ejus est ardor igneus, flamma divina. 
 Aquarum multitude non potest extinguere amorem 
 Flumina eum non inundant. 
 
 Si quis omnes suas facultates ob amorem vellet insumere 
 Contemptim eum rident." 
 
 Now let the reader, in interpreting these remarka- 
 ble words, remember two things : First, that in re- 
 ligion, as in music, there is something that neither 
 by precept nor doctrine nor example can ever be 
 taught, it is A GIFT. Secondly, in the following 
 
24 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 words let him remember the riddling spirit of an- 
 tiquity. Kings sent riddles to each other. Solomon, 
 according to Josephus, was renowned for his sagacity 
 in solving riddles ; Daniel was an untier of knots. 
 Remember Samson's riddles, and remember Jo- 
 tham's parable, fable, or riddle, whatever you please 
 to call it, Judges ix. 7 15 ; and also that of Jeho- 
 ash, 2 Kings xiv. 9 : " There passed by a wild beast 
 that was in Lebanon, and trod down the thistle." 
 Let him recollect the riddles of pastoral poetry, 
 of Theocritus, of Virgil (and Solomon's Song may be 
 regarded as a semi-pastoral, i. e. a pastoral in its 
 ruder form in an earlier nation). Let him recollect 
 the riddles in Herodotus, and then consider the 
 design of the following words, placed at the close of 
 the poem, as a clew to the whole (viii. 8 - 10) : 
 " We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts : 
 what shall we do for our sister in the day when 
 she shall be spoken for ? If she be a wall, we 
 will build upon her a palace of silver : and if 
 she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of 
 cedar. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers : 
 then was I in his eyes as one that found favor." 
 What mean these excessive comparisons but an 
 indication that the subject for which they are used 
 is not literal ? What possible resemblance can there 
 be between an Arab girl and a wall, or a tower, 
 or a door, or cedar ? Recollect, too, that the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 25 
 
 Church, old or new, Jewish or Christian, is often 
 an edifice, a holy, heavenly building; and from this 
 remarkable language, so senseless on every other 
 construction, and giving a gleam of light on ours, 
 I must conclude that it is a help to guessing the 
 riddle. It is written, not, to be sure, to supersede 
 our ingenuity, but to help us to the hidden design. 
 It is the very spirit of antiquity ; the first disci- 
 pline of civilized sagacity. 
 
 The book, then, has many indications of its being 
 a continued allegory (concealed, perhaps), to call 
 forth the discernment and taste of a class of readers 
 which have always existed, and have always fallen 
 into a similar line of thought, the disciples of an 
 ardent and mystic piety. Grotius could not under- 
 stand this book ; he had not one congenial string 
 in the whole web-work of his heart. Learning could 
 only lead such a man astray ; and Swedenborg could 
 not understand it, for such a book would have 
 driven him mad, if he had not been so before. 
 But Augustine, Pascal, Fdnelon, Leighton, were the 
 men to feel its power and relish its beauties. Let 
 them have their morsel ; and when they ask for 
 bread in the name of an all-developing God, do 
 not give them a stone. 
 
 I grant that, if some poetic seer were to bring 
 me Shenstone's pastorals and say there was a spirit- 
 ual under-meaning ; that divine love was figured 
 2 
 
26 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 under human images; that Phillada was the human 
 soul and Paradel was a heretic, etc., etc., I should 
 allow that his invention was not supported by his 
 wisdom; or rather that it was supported by his 
 wisdom alone. But every principle that would lead 
 me to call such a construction false, applied to Shen- 
 stone, would lead me to consider it as true when 
 applied to this Song. Consider the difference ; one 
 ancient, the other modern ; one belonging to a sacred 
 nation, the other a Briton; the purpose of the one to 
 hide the better to reveal, the purpose of the other 
 to be clear; the taste of the Jews leaning one way, 
 the taste of the English the other ; the one standing 
 in the line of inspiration, the other copying a whole 
 host of poetic lovers ; the one having a very gross, 
 sensual meaning (if you take away his spiritual 
 object), and the other the more ingenious and beau- 
 tiful as he is found to be more simple and clear. 
 Surely, there is a vast difference ; and common 
 sense, as well as pious veneration, leads to an oppo- 
 site conclusion. 
 
 " But, after all," says Dr. Noyes, " the great objec- 
 tion remains to any conclusion from the pantheistic 
 mystic poets, whether of Persia or India, whether 
 Mahometans or Hindoos ; namely, that their produc- 
 tions are founded on a religion and philosophy 
 entirely different from the Jewish. The Canticles 
 are productions of a different country, and separated 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 27 
 
 from any of the songs of the Sufi poets by an inter- 
 val of nearly two thousand years. The Jewish relig- 
 ion has nothing in common with the pantheistic mys- 
 ticism on which those songs are founded. There is 
 nothing in the Old Testament of a similar charac- 
 ter." These remarks, it seems to me, have let the 
 main questions slip. " Pantheistic mysticism " is not 
 the only foundation of this imagery, nor are " the 
 Sufi poets" the only example. It is probable that 
 the school that is separated by nearly two thousand 
 years from the age of Solomon is only a faint reflec- 
 tion of a more ancient example ; at any rate, we 
 know, from about all the literature that has come 
 to our knowledge, that there was a philosophy which 
 personified nature into two parts, discord and con- 
 cord, the modern attraction and repulsion, and 
 a poetry founded on it, which, allowing a personal 
 God, arrayed divine love in a human dress. The 
 Bible recognizes both these principles. Moses de- 
 scribes the original chaos, and the Spirit of God 
 flutters over it ; and Paul himself soberly tells us : 
 " The husband is the head of the wife, even as 
 Christ is the head of the Church ; and he is the 
 Saviour of the body. Therefore, as the Church is 
 subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own 
 husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, 
 even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself 
 for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 
28 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 washing of water by the word : that he might pre- 
 sent it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot 
 or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be 
 holy, without blemish. So ought men to love their 
 wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife 
 
 loveth himself. For this cause shall a man 
 
 leave father and mother, and shall be joined unto his 
 wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great 
 mystery : but I speak concerning' Christ and his 
 Church" May we not paraphrase these words as fol- 
 lows ? "I have digressed from my avowed object, to 
 touch upon an important hidden meaning. It was 
 impossible for me to think of the wonderful union 
 in marriage, begun in Eden and continued when 
 Eden was lost, without glancing at what it was 
 designed to represent. There is a deeper sense, as 
 there is a higher love and a more lasting union. 
 Christ is the heavenly bridegroom ; his Church is 
 united to him by a celestial wedlock. He has loved 
 her with the purest passion ; she should love him with 
 a corresponding return. And I know nothing in 
 the whole round of nature that so equally represents 
 this reciprocal affection, as human love sanctified and 
 secured in the marriage union." You may write this 
 as the obvious moral at the bottom of the last verse 
 of the Canticles. 
 
 Dr. Noyes says of this book : " If it be regarded 
 as a specimen of the erotic poetry of the Hebrews, it 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 29 
 
 will be treated with indifference by most readers, 
 and consequently do them no harm. This is sur- 
 prising ! Who would not cry out here : OVK eiHprjftj- 
 <ret9 ; Think of being reduced to the necessity of 
 treating a part of the Word of God with indifference, 
 in order to escape the harm it may do us ! I know 
 that the writer does not allow the book to be the 
 word of God ; but is there not some danger of as- 
 suming a very bold conclusion in order to support 
 the argument? It is found in our sacred collection. 
 There is a construction of it which to some minds 
 has made it appear a profitable portion of divine 
 instruction. A great majority of the Church have so 
 regarded it ; they have perused it with that subduing 
 veneration which made it the voice of their Saviour 
 and their God ; and now what a fall ! it is only 
 erotic poison, from which the best protection is a 
 knowledge of its character and indifference to its 
 effects ! ! 
 
 If I were to survey a vernal sunset, blazing behind 
 verdant hills and blooming groves, painting the skies 
 with beauty, and an instructor were to bring me a 
 smoked glass, darkened over a fire of birch-bark, and 
 by holding it before the scene were to turn the sun 
 into darkness and all the trees into black demons, 
 the transformation would be equally valuable, but not 
 greater. In such a case, a man is justified in saying, 
 My remembrance is better than my perception. 
 
30 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Thus I have endeavored to answer these objections 
 to the spiritual design of the book, though, I must 
 confess, not one of them would ever have occurred 
 to me had I been left to my original veneration for 
 the sacred volume. To me, they are all imported. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 31 
 
 II. 
 
 PLACES IN SCRIPTURE WHERE DIVINE LOVE ASSUMES 
 THE FORM OF AN EROTIC SIMILITUDE. 
 
 IP this Song were the only place where this imagery 
 is used, the difficulty of deciding would be greatly 
 increased. But it is the favorite figure. God is per- 
 petually the husband of his people. As a king he is 
 also a bridegroom ; and his inauguration on his throne 
 is his marriage with his people. The imagery is car- 
 ried out ; he is a jealous God ; he is jealous of his 
 people. They go a whoring from him by idolatry ; and 
 some of the most daring pantomimes are acted by the 
 holy prophets to impress these Oriental views. " The 
 Lord said to Hosea, Go take unto thee a wife of 
 whoredoms and children of whoredoms ; for the land 
 hath committed great whoredom, departing from the 
 Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of 
 Diblaim, who conceived and bare him a son. And 
 the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel ; for 
 yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jez- 
 reel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease 
 the kingdom of the house of Israel." (Hosea i. 
 2-4.) 
 
32 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Now, whether we regard this narrative as an histor- 
 ical fact, or as a scenic illustration, it shows that 
 God's relation to his people is painted by this imagery. 
 I am inclined to think that this narrative is a scenic 
 illustration. First, because such actings out of a 
 representation were common to an early age, and are 
 incidental to a primitive language. The more we 
 are fettered by words, the more we must be helped 
 by action. Secondly, it does not seem suitable that 
 a holy prophet should be forced to such a strange 
 action. Thirdly, all the power of an illustration is 
 found in the scenic act more than in the real one ; 
 that is, we gain nothing by making it real. Fourthly, 
 a scenic act, or doing the deed in pantomime, is 
 only a more vivid extension of the common figure of 
 vision : "I seem to see this noble- city committed to 
 the flames ; Catiline revelling, Cethegus," etc., etc. It 
 was natural in the progress of refinement that such 
 pantomimic representations should precede, and pave 
 the way for, the figure which rhetoricians call vision. 
 And, lastly, it seems scarcely possible, if the act 
 was real, that the representation should have any 
 force ; for if an audience must wait for the prophet 
 to marry and have two children, their expectation 
 would cool, and the subject be forgotten, and the 
 comparison fail of its purpose. The same remark ap- 
 plies to the command to Ezekiel to lie upon his right 
 side three hundred and ninety days, and forty days on 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 33 
 
 his left side ; certainly in such a time the people 
 would disperse and the whole subject be forgotten. 
 The probability is, that the same necessity which forced 
 a people to have recourse to hieroglyphics to express 
 themselves in one degree of development in language, 
 might urge them to mimic action in another degree 
 of development. This was probably the state of the 
 Hebrew language at that time. But however we inter- 
 pret the prophet's conduct, it is certain that God is 
 represented as the husband of his people. " Thou 
 shalt no more be termed Forsaken ; neither shall thy 
 land any more be termed Desolate : but thou shalt be 
 called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah ; for the Lord 
 delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." 
 (Isaiah Ixii. 4.) So in Isaiah liv. 5 : " For thy Maker 
 is thine husband: the Lord of hosts is his name." 
 So prevalent is this imagery, that it passes from their 
 poetry into their laws : God is a jealous God, and the 
 logical Paul says, that he has espoused the Church 
 as a chaste virgin to Christ. The forty-fifth Psalm has 
 often been quoted as a parallel example. The recon- 
 dite meaning is so manifest, that one is curious to see 
 how a learned critic can get rid of it. Rosenmuller 
 says it cannot be written of an Israelitish king, but 
 must have been composed during the captivity, and 
 apply to some Persian monarch. " Persici contra regni 
 veteris formae et institutis hoc ita congruit, ut ego 
 nullus dubitem, carmen nostrum ab illorum Judae- 
 2* c 
 
34 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 orum, qui sub Persici imperil ditione viverent, poeta 
 aliquo, novo cuidam Persicarum regi oblatum fuisse." 
 Astonishing ! ! that a man should have no doubt on 
 the positive side, when no other mortal can have 
 any doubt on the other. A German critic, in espous- 
 ing an opinion, considers nothing but the difficulty 
 of defending it. The Jews were so prone to see 
 national glory out of their own domains ; to exult in 
 the prosperity of idolatrous nations ; to think a power 
 would be eternal that perpetuated their own dishon- 
 orable captivity ; it is so perfectly natural that they 
 should wish some Persian emperor to be glorified 
 (Ahasuerus, perhaps, who consented to murder them 
 all) : " Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, most 
 mighty, with thy glory and majesty, and in thy 
 majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meek- 
 ness ; " and after having been accustomed to apply 
 this Psalm to Christ, it seems so sublime and glo- 
 rious to apply it to some miscreant that sat on the 
 Persian throne, that we say the happy thought shall 
 be left to illustrate the fertile invention which could 
 engender it. Rosenmiiller allows that this Psalm was 
 applied by the Jewish writers to the expected Mes- 
 siah long before our Saviour's birth. He lays down 
 this critical law : " Ut vero, quaecunque antiquitus 
 scripta erant, a posteris collecta et sine discrimine pro 
 divinis effatis accepta sunt ; ita et haec consecrarunt 
 posteri, cultui sacro dedicarunt, et, ne ofifenderentur 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. ^ 35 
 
 lectores, abjecto proprio sensu, alium carminibus dede- 
 runt, allegoricum mysticum, et altissima mysteria spi- 
 rantem." It will be noticed here that he allows the 
 double meaning ; that its prevalence was universal 
 among the Jews, and that it arose from the locality 
 of the first application of the prophecy, or ode, and 
 the sublime end culminating in a great Messiah being 
 superinduced on the locality. Now, surely, the alterna- 
 tive meets us ; in a selected nation, a nation under 
 the immediate superintendence of God, there was a 
 reason or no reason for this prevalent opinion ; and 
 in a nation enjoying a real revelation, such an opin- 
 ion must have been founded on fact, and not on 
 fiction. 
 
 It is curious, however, to see how all critics meet 
 the double sense, whatever path they choose to take. 
 
 Such, then, being the obviousness of a double sense, 
 that even the destructive critic is obliged to confess it, 
 and such being the barren meaning which those are 
 driven to who do not apply the vTrovoia to Christ, the 
 believer in real revelation regards the Psalmist as 
 here predicting the glories of the Messiah. The 
 imagery is abundantly of the erotic kind. " Thou 
 lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : therefore 
 God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of glad- 
 ness above thy fellows," i. e. all other kings. " All 
 thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, 
 out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 glad. King's daughters were among thy honorable 
 women ; upon thy right hand did stand the queen in 
 gold of Ophir. Hearken, daughter, and consider, 
 and incline thine ear ; forget also thine own people, 
 and thy father's house ; so shall the king greatly de- 
 sire thy beauty : for he is thy Lord, and worship thou 
 him." This is the same luxuriant imagery that is to 
 be found in the Canticles, the scented garments, the 
 myrrh, the cassia, and the foreign bride that is to for- 
 get her father's house ; and it is sealed to the Mes- 
 siah in the same way, not by an explicit interpretation, 
 but by the magnificent promise in the last verse. "I 
 will make thy name to be remembered in all gener- 
 ations ; therefore shall the people praise thee for ever 
 and ever." 
 
 We have the same imagery in the sixteenth chapter 
 of Ezekiel, a little varied. The Israelites are compared 
 to a wretched infant forsaken of its mother, and found 
 in the open field. " Thou wast cast out in the open 
 field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that 
 thou wast born." But God spared and cherished the 
 wretched infant, and afterwards espoused it. "I 
 have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, 
 and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou 
 hast come to excellent ornaments : thy breasts are 
 fashioned, and thine hair is grown. Now when I 
 passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time 
 was the time of love : and I spread my skirt over 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 37 
 
 tliee Thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou 
 
 didst prosper into a kingdom But thou didst 
 
 trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot," 
 etc. The allegory is continued through the chapter. 
 It is true the prophet dwells on the outward relation 
 rather than the internal love ; but the one implies the 
 other ; and in all the varieties the sacred writers seem 
 to be guided by the same taste and spirit. " Therefore, 
 behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make 
 a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she 
 shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake 
 them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find 
 them ; then shall she say, I will go and return to my 
 first husband ; for then was it better with me than 
 now. For she did not know that I gave her corn and 
 wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold 
 which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return 
 and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my 
 wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool 
 and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now 
 will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, 
 and none shall deliver her out of mine hand." (Hosea 
 ii. 7-10.) This passage shows the spirit of idola- 
 try, just sinking into the love of sensual good, and 
 then seeking it from such gods as seem willing to 
 give it. But, as idolatry degrades divine love into 
 earthly, so the true worship exalts the sensual into 
 the divine. 
 
38 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 The passage in Isaiah v. 1-5, looks toward the 
 same principle. There is a vineyard, a lover, volup- 
 tuous delight, and a latent spiritual signification, as 
 we are expressly told in the seventh verse. The sin 
 was the want of the corresponding passion in one of 
 the parties. So in Jeremiah ii. 2 : "Go and cry in 
 the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord : I 
 remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love 
 of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in 
 the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel 
 was holiness to the Lord." So in the third chapter 
 of the same prophet : " They say, If a man put 
 away his wife, and she go from him and become an- 
 other man's, shall he return unto her again ? Shall 
 not that land be greatly polluted ? But thou hast 
 played the harlot with many lovers : yet return again 
 to me, saith the Lord." 
 
 In the New Testament the same imagery is renewed. 
 Indeed, the same mystic way of representing transcen- 
 dental truth is used where the amatory form is not 
 adopted. The fact is, the teachers have a difficult 
 task to convey super sensual conceptions to the most 
 sensual minds ; to conduct sunbeams to the darkest 
 corners of the subterranean cave ; and it is instructive 
 to see how they conquer the difficulty. For example, 
 union with Christ, the union which is accomplished 
 by perfect love producing a perfect similitude. We 
 are crucified with him ; we are ingrafted into him ; 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 39 
 
 we are dead with him ; we are alive with him. 
 The Lord's Supper itself the wine and the bread, 
 the eating and the drinking is a material act, to 
 signify the most sublime conception. The words of 
 our Saviour correspond : " Then Jesus sayeth unto 
 them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat 
 the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, 
 ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my blood hath eternal life ; and I will raise 
 him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, 
 and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my 
 flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I 
 in him." (John vi. 53-56.) So in another place: 
 " In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus 
 stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as 
 the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
 of living water." (John vii. 37, 38.) And again : " I 
 am the true vine," etc. " The branch cannot bear 
 fruit," etc. (John xv. 1 and 4.) Now we cannot say 
 that this is the same imagery, but it indicates the same 
 taste and looks to the same design.* It is a mystic 
 veil, employed to magnify a great conception. Ac- 
 cordingly, it is said in Revelation xx. 9 : "I will 
 show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." 
 
 But the most remarkable passage bearing on this 
 subject is in Ephesians v. 32. The Apostle is talking 
 * See Gale's " Court of the Gentiles," Part IV. p. 88. 
 
40 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 plain prose, and he seems to be giving the exponent 
 of this imagery. It is, therefore, a very important 
 passage, a classic place. He is discussing the ques- 
 tion of literal marriages, and he turns aside to say : 
 " This is a great mystery ; but I speak " (in saying 
 it is a great mystery) " concerning Christ and his 
 Church." Now, would it be putting too much on the 
 Apostle's important parenthesis to say his meaning is 
 this : Marriage is a union most wonderful, far more 
 significant than it at first appears. In a happy mar- 
 riage, two hearts are made one, one in interest, in 
 reputation, in affection, in their children and in their 
 human destiny ; and it is the only instance on earth 
 in this respect it stands alone to shadow forth, 
 however inadequately, the everlasting union between 
 Christ and his people, the soul and its Saviour. If 
 we abandon this illustration, where shall we find 
 another ? This is at once a hint what marriage 
 ought to be, and of what the union with Christ 
 always is. 
 
 THE UNITY. 
 
 IT is a maxim in philosophy that no part of a sys- 
 tem can be comprehended without some view of the 
 whole. It is so with regard to the Bible. It has suf- 
 fered amazingly by being regarded as a fragmentary 
 book, whose parts have not been collected into one 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 41 
 
 whole. It must be allowed that there is a great 
 superficial diversity. What can seem more different 
 than the ritualism of Moses and the spiritualism of 
 Christ, that absence of a future state under the 
 Law, and the life and immortality brought to light in 
 the Gospel, the prudential maxims of Solomon, and 
 the total disregard to worldly success which seems to 
 be inculcated by Christ? But yet, notwithstanding 
 this apparent discrepancy, there is a golden thread 
 that runs through all the varieties of revelation. It 
 is one body in a changing dress. The variety arises 
 from the GROWING IDEA. The orbicular shape of the 
 sun cannot be seen when he is half risen ; and the 
 word of God is as "a shining light, which shines 
 more and more unto the perfect day." (Prov. iv. 18.) 
 Now the chief mistakes which are made in interpret- 
 ing the Bible arise from not seeing the unity which 
 runs through all its parts. It is a complex drama, in 
 which no scene is superfluous, and no speech made 
 at random. Perhaps the uniting idea the central 
 tkought which pervades the whole book is suggested 
 by the name of Jesus, and the name "of the system 
 which he preached. Our Lord was called Jesus 
 because he was to " save his people from their sins ; " 
 and his system was to be called the Gospel, because it 
 was to be good news to people whose natural condition 
 reported nothing but darkness and despair. Now this 
 redemptive system, implying a previously lost condition, 
 
42 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 is the central idea around which all the facts and prin- 
 ciples of revelation turn. All are compact parts ; prep- 
 arations or accomplishments. Hence the history be- 
 gins with Eden. The creation shows God's right to 
 command, and man's obligation to obey ; and. whereas 
 it has been said that creation itself, without benevo- 
 lence in the creating power, would give no right to 
 command, behold how all the elements of right meet 
 in God, creation, benevolence, wisdom, worth. Here 
 is the prime idea. God's right shows the foundation 
 of our duty, and what sin is. Then comes the prim- 
 itive innocence and the fall of man ; which is the 
 exponent of a fallen world, and lays the foundation 
 of the great redemption. Then comes the first form 
 of religion, a glimmering Gospel. Sin, supplication, 
 repentance, sacrifices. Promises are made. The Israel- 
 ites are redeemed from Egypt, and the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation is given ; the Law has a shadow of good 
 things to come. The multiplied sacrifices point to one 
 ulterior. I know that difficulties may be raised. It 
 may be asked, if the sacrifice of Christ was pictured 
 by the old offerings, why the picture was not more 
 simple ; why they were so amazingly multiplied ; 
 why we are lost in confusion in contemplating the 
 variety. Perhaps it was best that the simplicity 
 should come with the culminating point; that Christ 
 should be the only exponent, because he was the 
 majestic centre. At any rate, we learn in all the 
 
THE MANUDUCTTON. 43 
 
 complex examples, that "without the shedding of 
 blood there is no remission." 
 
 It would be long to go through all the examples 
 of this centralizing diversity. The Bible proposes one 
 great fact, and presents one great design. Ruin and 
 Recovery are its watchwords. Sin and an atonement; 
 alienation from God and reconciliation ; a sinner jus- 
 tified in his person and purified in his heart. The 
 divine image lost and restored. All in the Old Tes- 
 tament is preparation ; all in the New is accom- 
 plishment. As Pascal says : " Les deux Testaments 
 regardent Jesus Christ, 1'ancien comme son attente, 
 le nouveau comme son module ; tous deux comme 
 leur centre." 
 
 The Psalms may be regarded as surpassing pictures 
 of Christian emotion ; the more striking, as shining 
 out amid the general ritualism of the Hebrew worship. 
 The prophecies grow brighter as the kingdom decays. 
 They are not merely minute specifications of a literal 
 fulfilment, as they are too often regarded, and still 
 less a fore-plan of chronological exactness ; but they 
 are a general outline of a great restoration founded 
 on the GREAT SECRET of God finally revealed. They 
 are full of hope, and hope springing in the midst of 
 outward despair. Isaiah is almost an anticipated Gos- 
 pel ; its central fact, its glorious result, its predom- 
 inating spirit. 
 
 But in order to show the unity in the remotest 
 
44 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 elements, let us take a book hardest to be reconciled 
 to its general plan, the Book of Job, for example. 
 A good man falls into calamity, and his friends come 
 to comfort him, and a long discussion follows, in 
 which all parties seem to say about the same things ; 
 and it is hard to tell where they join issue, and no 
 result seems to follow. Now, what connection has 
 this book with the great design of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures ? The whole trouble of the contestants in this 
 book seems to arise from the want of a few truths 
 which the Gospel makes very plain. The future state 
 is hardly a positive idea with them, though they occa- 
 sionally have dim anticipations of it. Of course, the 
 design of life is not clearly seen, its discipline, the 
 original guilt of man, sin as a principle, the redemp- 
 tion and the purification. Of course their discussion 
 is at random, and the great design of the book is 
 revealed in the last chapters, when God is brought 
 in upon the stage, rebuking their presumption and 
 showing their ignorance. Compare this book with 
 the Pha3do of Plato. How striking the resemblance ! 
 how instructive the contrast! Socrates feels his way 
 like an honest man, without a celestial guide ; he is 
 very respectable in his scepticism, and he is very 
 instructive even in his dogmatism. He shows the 
 best that human nature could do in his condi- 
 tion. But Job is met by a better guide, who 
 teaches him his own ignorance ; and the substance 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 45 
 
 of the Divine sermon seems to be, Wait for better 
 light. 
 
 The book of Ecclesiastes shows the vanity of this 
 world as a scene of enjoyment. This is an important 
 preparation for religion ; it takes the most danger- 
 ous weight out of the opposite scale. 
 
 But it may be asked how this book (Solomon's 
 Song) corresponds with this wonderful unity. Here 
 is a love-song, full of ardor, with the most sensual 
 and luscious imagery, and we are required to give it 
 a place among the preparations for the purest sys- 
 tem of religion ever offered to the world. I would 
 remark, only once admit that the book is an alle- 
 gory, and all the rest follows of course. We have 
 abundance of descriptions in the Old Testament of 
 the outward splendor of Christ's kingdom ; here is 
 its interior, the joys and the transports it is to 
 impart to the regenerate heart. It teaches us that 
 there is something in religion which no words can 
 adequately express, the union of the soul with its 
 Saviour, the transports and the joys of the divine 
 life. There is one question which meets almost every 
 sinner in his struggles with his own soul : How shall 
 I get the will ? How shall I form the purpose of 
 obeying God ? I am told that the duties of religion 
 are easy to him who once has a disposition ; but 
 how shall I get that disposition ? How shall I con- 
 quer my own heart ? 
 
46 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Now, this book answers that question as far it can 
 be answered. It shows there is revealed to the regen- 
 erate heart a new passion ; a love stronger than death, 
 which makes all duty easy. Self-denial is lost in the 
 voluntary sacrifice. The soul, divorced from its grov- 
 elling passions, is devoted to the heavenly bridegroom. 
 It is borne on by the whole of its new nature to a 
 delightful obedience. The beauty of Christ being re- 
 vealed to the soul, the corresponding passion springs 
 up in the heart, and, like a resistless stream, draws 
 every faculty and power into its channel. It cannot 
 disobey ; the love of Christ constrains it. 
 
 It was very important that this highest point of 
 Christianity, like the summit of some sunny mountain, 
 should glitter in the distance, and show the soul of 
 the system which was yet to be revealed. 
 
 I cannot but think that this absorbing whole, this 
 totality of revelation, explains some things in the 
 sacred history which otherwise would seem strange. 
 Let us look at two examples. When Jacob fled 
 from his father-in-law, and was expecting to meet in 
 the wilderness his indignant brother, we are told : 
 " Jacob was left alone ; and there wrestled a man 
 with him until the breaking of the day. And when 
 he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched 
 the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's 
 thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And 
 He said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 47 
 
 said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 
 And He said unto him, What is thy name ? And he 
 said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name shall no more 
 be called Jacob, but Israel ; for as a prince hast 
 thou power with God and with men, and hast pre- 
 vailed. And Jacob said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy 
 name. And He said, Wherefore is it that thou dost 
 ask after my name? And He blessed him there.- And 
 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel ; for I 
 have seen God face to face, and my life is pre- 
 served." Here, then, is a wonderful story, on which 
 different readers put different constructions. The ne- 
 ologist says it is an old wives' tale, a dream, the inno- 
 cent invention of a mistaken mind ; it stands rank and 
 file with a hundred other myths in the Pagan pages. 
 Our venerable fathers, without recognizing any diffi- 
 culty, talked of wrestling with God in prayer, and 
 brought the example of Jacob with no other design 
 than to conform their faith, without analyzing the 
 features of the story. But may we not say, without 
 violating any critical rule, that, from the general de- 
 sign of the Old Testament, it was intended to pre- 
 pare the mind of Jacob, and, through him, all the 
 expectants, for the great doctrine of the incarnation ? 
 He meets a wonderful man ; he wrestles with him ; 
 he feels the force of his bones and sinews ; he carries 
 away in his own body proofs of his materiality ; and 
 yet he says, " I have seen God face to face." Take 
 
48 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 the passage in connection with the final development, 
 and does it not prepare the way for the great con- 
 viction ? God was manifest in the flesh, and it would 
 be vain here to start the objection, that Christ was 
 not yet born, and his body not yet formed ; for it 
 might suit the Divine purpose to work an anticipa- 
 tory miracle, and to assume a prototype of what was 
 afterwards to be. (Genesis xxxii. 24-30.) 
 
 The other passage is in Exodus xxxii. 7-35. 
 The whole transaction is remarkable. Nothing but a 
 clear perception of the general design of the old econ- 
 omy can reconcile us to the representation. If I were 
 a neologist, what work should I make of it? The 
 people sin ; they make a golden calf, under the very 
 mountain blazing with the terrors of the true God. 
 God is angry ; he threatens to destroy them ; he is 
 with great difficulty turned from his purpose ; and he 
 offers to blot out the whole nation, and make of 
 the posterity of Moses a still greater one. What an 
 astonishing representation ! Is a man more merciful 
 than God ? Does the wisdom of Moses surpass that 
 of Jehovah ? Is God, by a feeble suggestion, turned 
 from his eternal counsels, and is there not danger 
 that the love and gratitude of the delivered should 
 turn from the Creator to the creature? The only 
 rational explanation is, that the very paradox of the 
 incident is its solution. It was permitted to illus- 
 trate a great principle, that Divine mercy is a pre- 
 
 \ 
 
/ 
 
 THE MANUDUCTION. 49 
 
 cious gift, because it is a victory over opposing 
 principles. Why did Christ arise a great while be- 
 fore day, and go to the mountain apart to pray ? 
 Why is an atonement necessary ? Why is any prayer 
 necessary ? Why is forgiveness a tardy gift, wrung 
 from a reluctant God ? All these things centre on 
 one point. To show that the Divine Mind, in look- 
 ing on all conditions and consequences, has selected 
 these means to assure us that our salvation is a 
 higher favor than our finite minds can well conceive. 
 Difficulties conquered, bars removed, we must seek 
 it with strong cries and tears ; others must seek 
 it for us ; and, above all, the great Intercessor must 
 plead the merits of his atoning blood. I will not say 
 that Moses was a type of Christ ; but I will say 
 his prayer is a precedent, it illustrates the great 
 principle. 
 
 But the Bible not only has a unity itself, but it 
 is the only book that gives an instructive unity to 
 the world's history, to the great design of nature. 
 When we trace the laws of nature, we suppose a 
 design, an end and an aim by which all its laws 
 must be interpreted, since it presents a culminating 
 point to which they all tend. 
 
50 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 III. 
 
 AMATORY DEVOTION IN HEATHEN LITERATURE AND 
 IN THE CHURCH SINCE THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 IT is certain, then, that the Israeli tish nation set 
 forth the purest passion under the most sensual 
 imagery. Divine love expressed its glowing senti- 
 ments in amatory verse. But the question may be 
 started whether other nations adopted the same lan- 
 guage, and fell into the same train of thought. 
 Greece and Rome are the objects of Western admi- 
 ration. From these two people we derive our liter- 
 ature, our language, our poetry, our grammar, and 
 our laws. We look up to them as patterns of civ- 
 ilization ; and from their remains we derive our 
 wisdom. Their writers ran through almost every 
 form of human thought. The question comes, then, 
 What light does their literature throw on this mode 
 of thought and expression ? 
 
 Ajid here we may at once detect two causes 
 which must diminish our expectation of finding par- 
 allels of this peculiar poetry among them. First, they 
 were polytheists, and had not the concentrated devo- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 51 
 
 lion of the Hebrews ; and, secondly, they were of 
 a colder temperament, and far less meditative. Yet 
 I think we can find fragments and sparklings of the 
 same taste and turn of expression. They laid the 
 foundation of such ardent devotion in their philoso- 
 phy, and, though the fire burned fainter, yet the 
 fuel was more intellectually supplied. 
 
 They at least laid a foundation for this poetry. 
 I imagine it began in the fact that they regarded 
 nature as existing in two parts, the active and the 
 passive, the power and the object of that power. 
 Cicero has given us the philosophical view of nature : 
 "De natura autem (id enim sequebatur) ita dice- 
 bant, ut earn dividerent in res duas : ut altera effi- 
 ciens, altera autem, quasi huic se praebens, ea, quae 
 emceretur aliquid. In eo quod efficeret, vim esse 
 censebant: in eo autem, quod efficeretur, materiani 
 quandam: in utroque tamen utrumque. Neque enim 
 materiam ipsam cohaerere potuisse, si nulla vi conti- 
 neretur, neque vim sine aliqua materia." "The Aca- 
 demics say that nature is divided into two parts ; 
 the one efficient, the other yielding itself to this 
 efficiency until it is formed into something. In that 
 which acts, there is power ; in that which is acted 
 on, there is the material. Neither exists alone ; for 
 the material cannot cohere without the power that 
 contains it, nor can the power act without the mate- 
 rial." (Cicero Academicorum, Lib. I. Sect. 6.) 
 
52 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 In a word, there is an active and passive nature, 
 and one step in personification would make the one 
 male and the other female. This step was taken ; 
 and perhaps it preceded the philosophic view, for 
 poetry is before philosophy ; personification precedes 
 analysis.* We find spread over all early civilization, 
 especially in Hindostan, in Egypt, in Greece, certain 
 emblems, not intended to be obscene (though now 
 seeming so), of the productive powers of nature. 
 The phallic emblem in Egypt, and similar ones in 
 the East, and in polished Greece, show that in the 
 most sensual form of love they saw something higher 
 and nobler. All nature was actuated by it ; it engen- 
 dered and continued the world. An old philosopher 
 had said : -Et? epcora jJLra/3\rj0at, rbv Aia //.eXXoWa 
 Syfjuovpyelv, that when God was about to build the 
 world, he transformed himself into love. Hesiod has 
 made love a principle ; and Aristotle says : " One 
 would suspect that Hesiod, and if there be any 
 other who made love or desire a principle of things 
 in the universe, arrived at this very thing (namely, 
 the settling another active principle beside matter) ; 
 for Parmenides, describing the generation of the 
 
 * Lactantius, speaking of heat and moisture, says : " Alterum enini 
 quasi masculinum elementum est, alterum quasi femininum, alterum acti- 
 vura, alterum patibile. Ideo a veteribus institutum est, ut sacramento 
 ignis et aquae nuptiarum foedera sanciantur, quod foetus animantium 
 calore et humore corporentur atque animentur ad vitam." (Lact. Inst. 
 Lib. II. Sect. 9.) 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 53 
 
 universe, makes Love to be the senior of all the 
 gods ; and Hesiod, after he had mentioned chaos, 
 introduced Love as the supreme deity. As intimat- 
 ing herein, that, besides matter, there ought to be 
 another cause or principle, which should be the 
 original of motion and activity, and also hold and 
 join all things together. But how these two princi- 
 ples are to be ordered, and which of them was to 
 be placed first, whether Love or Chaos, may be 
 judged of afterwards. (Cudworth's Intellectual Sys- 
 tem, Yol. I. p. 122.) 
 
 Plato, in his Symposium, has made love to be a gen- 
 eral principle, the attraction and harmony of the natu- 
 ral and moral universe ; in its lowest form, in all the 
 sensualities of life, the degraded and perverted mani- 
 festation of a higher good. The material manifestation 
 is always the shadow of something higher ; hence Sir 
 William Jones says, with regard to the offensive images 
 in the Hindoo temples: "It never seems to have en- 
 tered the heads of the legislators of the people that any- 
 thing natural could be offensively obscene ; a singularity 
 which pervades all their writings and conversation, but 
 is no proof of depravity in their morals." (As quoted 
 in Crawford's Researches.) There is a profound re- 
 mark of Constant, quoted and sanctioned by Milman : 
 " These indecent rites (i. e. the worship of Priapus) 
 may be practised by a religious people with great 
 purity of heart. But when infidelity corrupts them, 
 
54 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 these rites become the cover and the cause of the most 
 revolting corruption." Just so. I can easily imagine 
 a simple people, with a primitive imagination, brought 
 to worship the symbols of the most wonderful power 
 in nature, the cause of its existence, and certainly 
 its preservation, without lingering on the sign, but 
 rising to the general power, which is now found to 
 pervade all the animal and vegetable creation, which 
 keeps the inorganic world together, and which is not 
 without its vestiges in the mental, moral, and spirit- 
 ual world ; all nature subsists by the meeting of a 
 giving and receptive power, olov av TTOITJ TO TTOLQVV, 
 TOWVTOV TO irda^ov irdo-^eiv. (Gorglas of Plato, 
 476. D.) In religion, objective truth must come 
 clothed in beauty, and that beauty must act on a 
 receptive heart. As the Scripture says : " Break up 
 your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." 
 (Jeremiah iv. 3.) I am not sure, that, in the 
 highest sense, the second and third persons in the 
 ever-blessed Trinity are not the acting and recep- 
 tive parts of the Divine nature. It is certain that 
 THE WORD meets the heart as a motive power, and 
 the Holy Ghost makes it receptive. Thus a sensual 
 people saw Divine love only in its grossest sem- 
 blances. 
 
 In the Symposium of Plato, we have the philoso- 
 phy, or the didactic foundation, on which this ar- 
 dent poetry rests. Love, according to Plato, is nei- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 55 
 
 ther a god nor a man, but an intermediate de- 
 mon ; not beautiful, but desiring beauty ; always 
 seeking, always supplied. We must begin by seeing 
 the beauty in a single body ; we must discover thai 
 the beauty in one body is twin-brother to that in 
 another. We must rise from the individual to the 
 species, and from the species to the genus. We 
 must ascend from the material to the mental, the 
 beauty of the mind, of study, of knowledge, of virtue, 
 until we reach the perception of that great sea of 
 beauty which makes us pour out words, but which 
 no words can express ; we must grasp that eternal 
 idea which is not born, but is ; not coming and 
 going, but existing ; not increasing and decaying, 
 but ever fixed ; not now deformed and now more 
 fair ; not comparatively beautiful ; not a quality in 
 other things, or different things ; not fancied in a 
 cheek, a hand, a shape, or a foot, but one great 
 totality; not even an expression, or representative 
 thought ; but itself by itself, simple, uncompounded, 
 self-seen ; borrowing nothing from other things, but 
 giving beauty to all. It is being ravished with this 
 ETERNAL BEAUTY that awakens true love and gives 
 true virtue ; and it is implied in this scheme that 
 this beauty must be impersonated in some competent 
 Being, since it is a mental beauty, and is the ob- 
 jective cause of love, which is a mental passion, 
 and since the beauty spread over material things, 
 
 
56 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 whether seen in the rose's bloom or the virgin's 
 smile, originates in mind. 
 
 Thus, we see, a foundation was laid in philosophy 
 for the Hebrew poem. The coincidence is remark- 
 able. In Solomon's Song, virtue is a passion ; it is 
 love ; and the cause of that love is the perception of 
 beauty; a perception of Divine beauty awakening 
 Divine love, and both capable of lower similitudes ; 
 and, what is still more remarkable, neither Plato nor 
 / the inspired writer attempts to explain that ETER- 
 NAL SECRET, whether the perception is the parent of 
 the passion, or the passion produces the perception. 
 They are simultaneous in time, and reciprocally cause 
 and effect. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury was a writer free from all enthu- 
 siasm, and especially all religious enthusiasm ; and 
 he seems to think that wit and good-humor are the 
 best prerequisites to find our way among the solemni- 
 ties of religion. And yet he got hold of something 
 like Plato's idea. " The admirers," says he, " of 
 beauty in the fair sex, would laugh, perhaps, to hear 
 of a moral part in their amours ; yet what a stir is 
 made about a heart! What curious search of senti- 
 ments and tender thoughts ! What praises of a hu- 
 mor, a sense, a jewe-sai-quoi of wit, and all those 
 graces of a mind which those virtuoso-lovers delight 
 to celebrate ! Let them settle this matter among 
 themselves, and regulate, as they think fit, the pro- 
 
THE MANUDUCTTON. 57 
 
 portions which these different beauties hold to one 
 another ; they must allow still that there is a beauty 
 of the mind; and such as is essential in the case. 
 Why else is the very air of foolishness enough to cloy 
 a lover at first sight ? Why does an idiot-look and 
 manner destroy the effect of those outward charms, 
 and rob the fair one of her power, though regularly 
 armed and in all the exactness of feature and com- 
 plexion ? We may imagine what we please of a sub- 
 stantial, solid part of beauty ; but, were the subject 
 to be criticised, we should find, perhaps, that what 
 we most admired, even in the turn of outward fea- 
 tures, was only a mysterious expression and a kind 
 of shadow of something inward in the temper ; and 
 that when we were struck with a majestic air, a 
 sprightly look, an Amazon bold grace, or a contrary 
 soft and gentle one, it was chiefly the fancy of 
 these characters or qualities which wrought on us ; 
 our imaginations being busied in forming beauteous 
 shapes and images of this rational kind, which enter- 
 tained the mind and held it in admiration ; whilst 
 other passions of a lower species were employed an- 
 other way." (Essay on the Freedom of Wit and 
 Humor, Part IV. Sect. 2.) 
 
 There is another form of love alluded to in Plato's 
 Symposium, which I mention with great reluctance, 
 and which is one of the most inexplicable enigmas 
 of antiquity. I allude to the love of beautiful boys, 
 
58 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 and the views which the gravest men entertained of 
 it. The classical reader will understand what I mean, 
 by the speech of Alcibiades at the close of the above- 
 mentioned dialogue. It is a part of their system of 
 the influence of beauty on love, and love on the 
 heart. They generalized the passion and its cause, 
 and supposed that we might ascend from the beauty 
 of the flower to the First supremely Fair, the Great 
 First Cause and Last End of all things. I must con- 
 fess that no phenomenon in ancient history has ap- 
 peared to me so astounding as the toleration and 
 even laudatory view which Socrates and Plato take of 
 a passion which modern decency hardly permits us to 
 name. But the train of thinking which led these 
 virtuous men to this amazing result was this. It is 
 well known, I believe, and it is certain, that when 
 two passions resemble each other, and yet differ, 
 where the resemblance is innocent, and the difference 
 in one of them is perfectly horrible, that to .make the 
 resemblance prevail at the expense and to the expul- 
 sion of the horrible, must seem in both ways to be 
 the triumph of virtue. The mind shows her choice 
 by a double selection. Thus the old monks must 
 have supposed there was some resemblance between 
 Divine and human love ; and he that abated the 
 higher to gratify the lower passion became a worse 
 man ; but he that gave up the lower to the higher, 
 by a contrary rule, became celestial, angelic. Now 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 59 
 
 the ancients were aware that the unnatural passion, 
 as we call it, was a sinful one, and of course 
 the conquering it must be virtuous ; and, as the 
 beauty of the object bore some resemblance to the 
 great celestial beauty, both the existence and the 
 governing of the passion must be a complex act of 
 virtue. It was dreadful if you sunk to sensuality, 
 but glorious if you rose to the sublime. The Aphro- 
 dite 7ra^S?7yLto? must yield to the true Urania. Hence 
 Socrates thought the ambiguous passion was to be 
 cherished in a free community ; it was to be sup- 
 pressed in despotic lands. It was refining when the 
 love was fixed on the beauty of the mind. In Ionia, 
 the passion was forbidden, for in a despotic country 
 no enthusiasm could be tolerated, no elevation could 
 be expected (see Symposium, page 182, B) ; and 
 this passion in its conflict and victory was supposed 
 to be connected with enthusiasm, valor, enterprise, the 
 love of liberty, indeed, all that makes men enter- 
 prising and free. A band of such lovers was sup- 
 posed to be invincible. Hence Philip is represented 
 as saying, when he saw the relics of the sacred band 
 of the three hundred Thebans that fell at the battle 
 of Chaeronea: " Let them perish who suspect that 
 these men either suffered, or did anything base." 
 
 From the fact that nature seems to be divided 
 into two great powers, the active and passive 
 together with the vivid disposition to personification 
 
60 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 in the ancient mind, it is probable that the pagans 
 got their Jupiter and Juno, the male and female 
 deities of Heaven. 
 
 " Turn pater omnipotens fecundis imbribus JEther 
 Conjugis in gremium laetae descendit, et omnes 
 Magnus alit, magno commixtus corpore, foetus." 
 
 "JEther, great lord of life, his wings extends, 
 And on the bosom of his bride descends." 
 
 SOUTHEBY. 
 
 Or according to a fragment of JEschylus : 
 
 'Epa ftei> dyvos ovpavbs rpSxrai \B6va. 
 "Epcas Se yaiav Xa/x/3di/et yapov TU^ea/. 
 *O/z/3poff 6 an' evvdfrvros ovpavov 7reo-a>i> 
 yaiav ' rj de rucrerai Bporot? 
 re Boo-fcay KOI Btai/ Ar]p,r)Tpiov, 
 AevSpeov 8e ns opos e< vorifrvros ydp-ov 
 TeXetoy eVrt. roii/d' eya) Trapairios- 
 
 (VENUS.) 
 
 " Heaven loves, though pure, earth's bosom to invade, 
 And keep the wondrous nuptials nature made; 
 Showers from the covering sky bedew the ground, 
 And spread the apples and the corn around; 
 Each tree, each plant, from me perfection draws ; 
 Of all that blooms, I, Venus, am the cause." 
 
 The outlines of this system may be traced in the 
 sacred Scriptures. Baal and Ashtaroth, or Astarte, 
 the sun and the moon ; or, as later critics say, the 
 male and female star of fortune. In Isaiah Ixv. 11 it 
 is said : " Ye are they that forsake the Lord, that for- 
 get my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 61 
 
 troop, and furnish a drink-offering unto that num- 
 ber." Our translation hardly reaches the thought : 
 Ye prepare a table for Baal-Gad, and furnish a drink- 
 offering to Meni, the male and female powers 
 of fortune. We read in Scripture of Moloch and 
 the Queen of Heaven, which are but repetitions 
 of the same idea. The words translated " grove" 
 (Deuteronomy xvi. 21, Judges vi. 25 and 28, 1 Kings 
 xv. 12 and xvi. 33) are generally names of the fe- 
 male idol, Astarte, Ashtaroth, the Queen of Heaven, 
 the female power in nature personified. The Greeks 
 also inherited this idea, and ripened it into a poetic 
 perfection. Prometheus, when he is bound to the 
 rock, consoles himself, amidst his sorrows, that he 
 has seen two dynasties tumbled from Heaven, and he 
 shall yet see a third revolution in the fall of Jupi- 
 ter and Juno from their thrones ; on which the scho- 
 liast remarks, that " there first reigned in Heaven 
 Ophion and Euronorne ; after that, Saturn and Ehea ; 
 and, still later, Jupiter and Juno ; and others go 
 still higher, and say that Uranus and Ge (i. e. Heaven 
 and Earth) reigned first, the one male, the other 
 female ; in all these changes they conceived a male 
 and female power, though sometimes discordant, yet 
 essentially bound together in love." (Rosenmiiller on 
 Isaiah, Yol. III. p. 105.) Of course the love of gods 
 must be peculiar. 
 
 The same idea is carried out by Homer more 
 
62 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 poetically in the fourteenth book of the Iliad. Juno 
 suspects that her celestial husband is partial to the 
 Trojans. She wishes to put him to sleep, that Nep- 
 tune, during his repose, may give victory to the 
 Greeks. She borrows the cestus of Venus, and adorns 
 herself with every grace, and takes Sleep with her 
 to the top of Ida, that her design may succeed. She 
 goes ; Jupiter is struck with her charms, and in- 
 vites her to repose on the top of the mountain, the 
 throne of their united power. The arguments by 
 which he courts his wife are extraordinary, and such 
 as in an earthly wife would be fitted to move indig- 
 nation. He enumerates his former amours, and tells 
 her he was never so smitten before : 
 
 " To whom the sovereign of the boundless air, 
 Juno ! thy journey thither may be made 
 Hereafter. Let us turn to dalliance now. 
 For never goddess poured, nor woman yet, 
 So full a tide of love into my breast ; 
 I never loved Ixion's consort thus, 
 Who bore Pirithous, wise as we in Heaven j 
 Nor sweet Acrisian Danae, from whom 
 Sprang Perseus, noblest of the race of men; 
 Nor Phoenix' daughter fair, of whom were born 
 Minos, unmatched but by the powers above, 
 And Rhadamanthus ; nor yet Semele, 
 Nor yet Alcmena, who in Thebes produced 
 The valiant Hercules ; and though my son 
 By Semele were Bacchus, joy of man ; 
 Nor Ceres, nor Latona, nor thyself. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 63 
 
 As now I love thee, and my soul perceive 
 Overwhelmed with sweetness of intense desire." 
 
 Iliad, Book XIV., Cowper's Trans. 
 
 Here we must notice several things. First, it is 
 love, celestial love, that burns in the bosom of Jove ; 
 secondly, it is inspired by celestial beauty ; thirdly, 
 the love of Jove has before been shown to individ- 
 uals ; this love gave birth to heroes and lawgivers, 
 Hercules, Minos, Rhadamanthus, etc. ; fourthly, it is 
 cemented on Ida, the throne of celestial power ; 
 and, lastly, all nature rejoices and flourishes under 
 its influence. Now, surely, the sensual part is only 
 a figure, the poetic vestment of the divine idea. 
 The love of Jove to Ixion's consort, to Semele, Alc- 
 mena, Ceres, Latona, must be the divine love mani- 
 fested to individuals, the love between the individ- 
 ual soul and God. 
 
 The critics have been shocked that a husband 
 should enumerate his amours to his wife on such an 
 occasion to conciliate her favor. To be sure, if the 
 literal and human is to predominate in the story, 
 nothing can be more absurd; but certainly the poet 
 gives every indication that the narrative is not lit- 
 eral, the scene, the actors, the deed, the effects. 
 It is an expression of God's general love to all 
 creatures, and his special love to individuals, the 
 chosen of Heaven, in the examples of Semele, Alc- 
 mena, etc. Nor is it necessary to suppose that the 
 
64 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 poet himself nicely analyzed his own narrative, or 
 clearly saw his own design. He doubtless followed 
 some poetic tradition, originating in the laws of an- 
 cient thought ; and, like nature, which felt the in- 
 fluence of the divine wedlock of his gods on Olym- 
 pus, though she saw them not, wrapped in their 
 golden cloud, so his mind felt the influence of an 
 early speculation which it had never unfolded. We 
 are often governed by conceptions of which we are 
 only half conscious. 
 
 The same diffusion of beauty and love through all 
 creation is taught in the hymn to Yenus, which passes 
 under Homer's name : 
 
 Movcra p,oi evvene epya TroXv^pvo-ov ' 
 Kun-piSos, TJre Qeoio-iv eVl yXvKvv ifiepov a>po-ei/, 
 Kai r eSa/idcro'aro <pXa K.ara6vr]r5)v dv6pd)Tr(ov t 
 olavovs re AitTrereay /cat depia jrdvra, 
 
 f)[lV 0<f fJTTflpOS TToXAa TCp(j)i ^S' 0(Ta TTOVTOS- 
 
 TTCKTIV 8' epya fjLep.r)\ev cv(TT<pdvov Kvdfpelrjs. 
 
 Which is imitated by Lucretius (Liber I.) : 
 
 " JEriae primum volucres te, diva, tuumque 
 Significant initium percussae corda tua vi." 
 
 Which Dryden thus translates : 
 
 "Delight of human kind and gods above, 
 Parent of Rome, propitious queen of love, 
 Whose vital power air, earth, and sea supplies, 
 And breeds whate'er is born beneath the rolling skies ! 
 For every kind, by thy prolific might, 
 Springs and beholds the regions of the light; 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 65 
 
 Thee, goddess, thee the clouds and tempests fear, 
 
 And at thy pleasing presence disappear: 
 
 For thee the land in fragrant flowers is drest, 
 
 For thee the ocean smiles and smoothes her wavy breast, 
 
 And heaven itself with more serene and purer light is blest. 
 
 For when the rising spring adorns the mead, 
 
 And a new scene of nature stands displayed, 
 
 When teeming buds and cheerful greens appear, 
 
 And western gales unlock the lazy year, 
 
 The joyous birds thy welcome first express, 
 
 Whose native songs thy genial fire confess ; 
 
 Then savage beasts bound o'er their slighted food, 
 
 Struck with thy darts, and tempt the raging flood; 
 
 All Nature is thy gift; earth, air, and sea, 
 
 Of all that breathes, the various progeny, 
 
 Stung with delight, is goaded on by thee. 
 
 O'er barren mountains, o'er the flowing plain, 
 
 The leafy forest and the liquid main, 
 
 Extends thy uncontrolled and boundless reign. 
 
 In the third Georgic, Yirgil has copied the same 
 sentiment : 
 
 " Thus all that wings the air and cleaves the flood, 
 Herds that or graze the plain or haunt the wood, 
 Rush to like flames when kindred passions move, 
 And man and brute obey the power of love." 
 
 Southeby's Translation. 
 
 Perhaps the address of ^Eneas to his goddess- 
 mother, in the first book of the J^neid, comes still 
 nearer to this complex passion. It is true the sexes 
 are reversed, the male-mortal loves the female- 
 divine, and the dress is maternal instead of con- 
 
 E 
 
66 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 jugal; but still the spirit and the design seem to 
 be the same : 
 
 " Dixit, et avertens rosea cervice refulsit, 
 Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem 
 Spiravere ; pedes vestis defluxit ad imos, 
 Et vera incessu patuit dea. Ille, ubi matrem 
 Agnovit, tali fugientem est voce secutus : 
 Quid natum toties, crudelis tu quoque, falsis 
 Ludis imaginibus ? cur dextrae jungere dextram 
 Non datur, ac veras audire et reddere voces ? " 
 
 In Catullus's poem on the marriage of Peleus to 
 Thetis, something similar is shadowed out : 
 
 " Turn Thetidis Peleus incensus fertur atnore : 
 Turn Thetis humanos non dispexit hymaneos : 
 Turn Thetidi pater ipse jugandum Pelea sensit." 
 
 We see in all these passages a great conception 
 laboring for its birth. We must remember that 
 Polytheism was an outward and political religion. 
 Grecian wisdom was essentially sceptical ; the Greeks 
 questioned all things, and held fast nothing. " The 
 Greeks," says the Apostle, " seek after wisdom : " of 
 course they never find it ; and their poetry is less 
 enthusiastic than the fervid children of the East. 
 They recognized the principle that love was the 
 reigning power of nature ; but their colder devotion 
 seldom addressed the Deity in such fervent lan- 
 guage. 
 
 We have, however, in Roman literature, one pro- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 67 
 
 duction which comes nearer to this mystic style. 
 The fable of the Golden Ass, by Apuleius, is sup- 
 posed by Warburton to be itself a mystic allegory. 
 " Apuleius of Madaura," says he (Divine Legation, 
 Yol. II. Book IY. Sect. 4), " in Africa, was a deter- 
 mined Platonist ; and, like the Platonist of that age, 
 an inveterate enemy of Christianity." The object of 
 this fable, therefore, by which the hero was trans- 
 formed into an ass, and restored, was to show that 
 vice brutalizes the mind, and the pagan religion 
 without Christianity had a power to renew and 
 restore it. The word renatus, or born again, is ap- 
 plied to. the initiated pagan. But, however it may be 
 with the general story, most critics, I believe, agree 
 that the particular episode of Cupid and Psyche, in 
 the fifth and sixth books, is allegorical. " There was 
 no man," says Warburton, " though he considered 
 the Golden Ass only as a work of mere amusement, 
 but saw the fable of Cupid and Psyche to be a 
 philosophical allegory of the progress of the soul to 
 perfection, in the possession of Divine love and the 
 reward of immortality." (Divine Legation.) The 
 story is this. In a certain city lived a king and a 
 queen, who had three daughters, the youngest of 
 whom was named Psyche, or human soul. The two 
 eldest were handsome, but the youngest excelled all 
 modes of beauty, all bounds of praise. Everybody 
 that saw her was struck dumb with admiration, until 
 
68 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 
 
 finally she seemed to draw away the devotion from 
 Yenus herself. No one went to Paphos ; no one to 
 Cnidus, nor even to Cythera. Her temples were 
 deserted, her statues without chaplets, and her for- 
 saken altars covered with cold ashes, and all men's 
 adoration paid to this usurping virgin. Yenus was 
 incensed, and resolved to punish this rival beauty. 
 In the mean time, Psyche, when her sisters were 
 married, got no husband. She had no lovers. They 
 admired, no doubt, her divine beauty; but then 
 they admired it as they would a statue exquisitely 
 wrought. It is not necessary to go into the whole de- 
 tail. An oracle says that she must be placed on a 
 lofty mountain ; she must not expect a mortal spouse ; 
 but Jupiter would provide. She is finally snatched 
 away from her parents, and placed in a splendid 
 palace at the foot of the mountain, and is wedded 
 to an invisible husband, who meets her every 
 night, and is invisible during the day. She finds 
 at last it is Cupid ; and, as soon as she sees 
 him, as she does clandestinely one night, she is 
 in love with Love himself. She several times, 
 however, betrays important trusts, and provokes the 
 anger of Venus and her sisters ; has awful tasks 
 assigned her by the goddess, the last of which is to 
 descend to hell through a dark, infernal avenue ; and 
 she has more minute directions given her than ^Eneas 
 had when he went down to the infernal regions. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 69 
 
 She goes to get a portion of the beauty of Proser- 
 pine, which she is to bring up in a box, and deliver 
 to Venus, but this box she is not to open. But 
 female curiosity prevails, and she does open it ; and 
 she is on the -verge of everlasting destruction. But 
 she is rescued by Cupid, whom she has wounded, 
 and who has recovered of his wounds. Then all is 
 prosperous and happy. A sumptuous wedding-supper 
 was prepared. The husband, reclining at the upper 
 end of the table, embraced Psyche in his bosom ; in 
 like manner Jupiter was seated with Juno, and, after 
 them, the other gods and goddesses in their proper 
 order. Then Jupiter was presented with a bowl of 
 nectar, the wine of the gods, by the rustic youth 
 Ganymede, his cup-bearer ; but Bacchus supplied the 
 rest. Vulcan prepared the supper ; the Hours empur- 
 pled everything with roses and other fragrant flowers ; 
 the Graces scattered balsam; the Muses sang melo- 
 diously ; Apollo accompanied the lyre with his voice ; 
 and beautiful Yenus danced with steps in unison 
 with the delightful music. The order, too, of the 
 entertainment was, that the Muses should sing the 
 chorus, Satyr us should play on the flute, and Panis- 
 cus on the pipe. Thus Psyche came lawfully into 
 the hands of Cupid ; and at length a daughter was 
 born to them, whom we denominate 
 
 
70 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 HAPPINESS. 
 
 REMEMBER, now, the names, Psyche and Cupid, 
 soul and love. Consider her wanderings, her suffer- 
 ings and sorrows, her deliverance by a bleeding god, 
 whom she had wounded, but who has recovered from 
 his wounds, consider the long conflict and final 
 triumph, and who does not see a deeper import un- 
 folded, in a confused and complex manner, under all 
 this mythology ? The soul becomes wretched by fall- 
 ing into grosser love ; it must be restored by recov- 
 ered purity and consequent bliss. 
 
 I may be accused of being fanciful ; but I cannot 
 help suspecting that in the minute directions which 
 the TOWER gives to Psyche in her descent to the 
 infernal regions, I see a common impression of the 
 necessity of revelation to us weak mortals when we 
 deal with the sublime subjects of religion. "You 
 ought not," says this wonderful tower, " to pass 
 through those shades with empty hands, but should 
 take a sop of barley-bread, soaked in hydromel, in 
 each hand, and in your mouth two pieces of money. 
 And when you have accomplished a good part of 
 your deadly journey, you will meet a lame ass, 
 laden with wood, and a driver as lame as himself, 
 who will ask you to reach him certain cords to 
 fasten the burden which has fallen from the ass ; 
 but be careful that you pass by him in silence." 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 71 
 
 And again : " The poor man dying ought to pre- 
 pare his viaticum ; but if he has no money at 
 hand, will no one suffer him to expire ? To this 
 squalid old man give one of the pieces of money 
 which you carry with you, yet in such a manner 
 that he may take it with his own hand from your 
 mouth. While you are passing over the sluggish 
 river, a certain dead old man, floating on its sur- 
 face, and raising his putrid hand, will entreat you 
 to take him into the boat. Beware, however, of 
 yielding to an impulse of unlawful pity. Having 
 passed over the river, and proceeding to a little 
 distance beyond it, you will see certain old women, 
 weaving a web, who will request you to lend them 
 a helping hand ; but it is not lawful for you to 
 touch the web. For all these, and many other par- 
 ticulars, are snares prepared by Yenus, that you may 
 drop one of the sops out of your hands. But do 
 not suppose that this would be a trifling loss ; since 
 the want of only one of those sops would pre- 
 vent your return to light." Now, while I allow 
 that these minute directions, for which we can see 
 no natural reason, are skilful touches of mysticism, 
 by which we are taught to wonder and shudder at 
 the laws of the unseen world, yet they also show 
 that the heathen had an impression, that, in dealing 
 with these mysteries, man could not be left safely 
 to his own direction. The spiritual powers must 
 
72 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 teach us the conditions on which spiritual benefits 
 must be obtained. In a word, it was a distorted 
 confession that man needs a divine revelation. 
 
 Something, I think, of this mode of indicating is 
 found in the Bible. Why was man separated from 
 the tree of life, lest he should taste and live for- 
 ever ? (Genesis iii. 22.) Why does the Saviour say 
 that a certain kind of unclean spirits goeth not 
 out but by fasting and prayer ? (Matthew xvii. 21.) 
 Why does Peter so darkly intimate that Christ went 
 and preached to the spirits in prison ? (1 Peter iii. 
 19.) It is, perhaps, to show us how utterly hopeless 
 is any analysis of ours of these divine secrets, and 
 that we must leave to God his own purposes, and 
 the degree of light in which they must be shown. 
 
 Something of this turn of thinking is found in the 
 earliest history of Rome. Numa was inspired by 
 a celestial bride. " Deorum metum injiciendum ra- 
 tus est qui quum descendere ad animos sine aliquo 
 commento miraculi non posset, simulat sibi quum 
 dea Egeria congressus nocturnos esse." And even 
 the cold and philosophic Cicero, catching a gleam 
 of enthusiasm from Plato, confesses : " Formam qui- 
 dem ipsam, Marce fili, et tanquaiii faciem honesti 
 vides: quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores (ut 
 ait Plato) excitaret sapientiae." (De Officiis, Lib. I. 
 Sect. 5.) And again : " Oculorum, inquit Plato, est 
 in nobis sensus acerrimus: quibus sapientiam non 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 73 
 
 cernimus. Quam ilia ardentes amores excitaret sui, 
 si videretur." (De Finibus, Lib. II. Sect. 16.) This 
 same love to an object half personified is taught 
 in that remarkable book, the WISDOM OF SOLOMON, 
 found in our Apocrypha ; a book which has a Pla- 
 tonic tinge, and uses this soft and beautiful color- 
 ing. Speaking of wisdom the author says : 'Ariils 
 yap can rrjs rov 6eov Swa//.eo>9, KCLI aTroppoia TTJS rov 
 80^5 elXiKpivris ' Sia TOVTO ovbev 
 
 apevov el? avryv TrapepTriTTTei' ATravyacr^a jap 
 <tt)T09 di'Slov /cal ecroTrrpov aKr)\{&a)Tov TT}? rov Seov 
 evepyetas KOI el/cow rfjs dya0orrjro^ avrov, "For she 
 is the invisible emanation of the power of God, 
 a pure efflux from his all-potent glory ; therefore 
 nothing contaminating can fall into her ; she is a 
 radiance from eternal light, the unspotted mirror of 
 God's energy, an image of his goodness ; " and there- 
 fore in the next chapter he says (verse second) : 
 Tavryv e(j)l\rjo-a Kal e^e^rrjaa etc i/eoT?7T09 /-tow, Kal 
 vvjjL<f>r]v ayayeaOai, t/zafTft) /cat epaa-Tr}? eye- 
 rov tcchXovs avT^9, "I loved her, and sought 
 her out from her youth ; I sought to lead her as 
 bride, and was the .lover of her beauty." 
 
 If we pass to the Eastern world, to those " souls 
 
 made of fire and children of the sun," we shall 
 
 find that this form of devotion is very common. I 
 
 shall not go into detail, nor repeat the quotations 
 
 4 
 
7^ THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 from Sir William Jones and others ; all travellers 
 tell us, all scholars agree, that to these ardent peo- 
 ple such language has become familiar. " They 
 believe," says Sir William (i. e. these Eastern peo- 
 ple), " that the Deity pervades the universe ; that 
 he alone is perfect benevolence, truth, and beauty; 
 that all the beauties of nature are faint resem- 
 blances only like images in a mirror of the divine 
 charms ; that we must beware of attachment to 
 such phantoms, and attach ourselves exclusively to 
 God, who truly exists in us, and we exist solely in 
 him ; that we retain, even in this forlorn state of 
 separation from our Beloved, the idea of heavenly 
 beauty and the remembrance of our primeval vows; 
 that sweet music, gentle breezes, fragrant flowers, 
 perpetually renew the primary idea, refreshing our 
 fading memory, and melt us with tender affections ; 
 and, by abstracting our soul from vanity, that is, 
 from all but God, approximate to his essence in 
 our final union, with which will consist our supreme 
 beatitude." The later Platonists have copied all this. 
 Plotinus was four times in his life united to God, 
 not only by power, but by ineifable energy. In his 
 sixty-eighth year God beamed into his heart, not 
 having any form or idea, but seated above thought, 
 above intelligence. (See Bale's Diet., Art. Plotinus, 
 note K.) They were inebriated with Divine love, 
 an expression which Augustine uses in his Confes- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 75 
 
 sions. Lady Montague and Lord Byron have noticed 
 the Turkish love-song, The Nightingale and the Rose : 
 " The nightingale now wanders in the vines ; her pas- 
 sion is to seek roses. I went down to admire the 
 beauty of the vines ; the sweetness of your charms 
 hath ravished my soul." 
 
 "For there the Rose o'er crag or vale, 
 
 Sultana of the Nightingale, 
 The maid for whom this melody 
 His thousand songs are heard on high, 
 
 Blooms, blushing to her lover's tale, 
 
 His queen, his garden queen, his Rose, 
 
 Unbent by winds, unchilled by snows, 
 
 Far from the winters of the West, 
 
 By every breeze and season blest, 
 
 Returns the sweets by nature given 
 
 In softest incense back to heaven ; 
 
 And grateful yields that smiling sky 
 
 Her fairest hue and fragrant sigh." 
 
 The Giaour. 
 
 Eespecting the Persian poet, we have the testi- 
 mony of Sir John Malcolm. "Hafiz, said Khan Sa- 
 hib, has the singular good fortune of being alike 
 praised by saints and sinners. His odes are sung 
 by the young and the joyous, who, by taking them 
 in their literal sense, find nothing but excitement 
 to pass the spring of life in the enjoyment of the 
 world's luxuries ; while the contemplative sage, con- 
 sidering this poet as a religious enthusiast, attaches 
 a mystical meaning to every line, and repeats his 
 
76 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 odes as he would an orison. At the time of his 
 death, continued my friend, there were many who 
 deemed his works sinful and impious. These went 
 so far as to arrest the procession of his funeral. 
 The dispute rose high, and the parties were likely 
 to come to blows, when it was agreed that a fdl, 
 or lot, should be taken from his book. If it was 
 favorable to religion, his friends were to proceed ; 
 but if calculated to promote vice, they promised not 
 to carry his body to the sacred ground appropriated 
 for his reception. 
 
 " The volume of odes was produced, and it was 
 opened by a person whose eyes were bound ; seven 
 pages were counted back, when the heaven-directed 
 finger pointed to one of his inspired stanzas : 
 
 ' Withdraw not your steps from the obsequies of Hafiz ; 
 Though immersed in sin, he will rise into Paradise/ 
 
 " The admirers of the poet shouted with delight, and 
 those who had doubted joined in carrying his re- 
 mains to a shrine near Shiraz, where, from that day 
 to this, his tomb is visited by pilgrims of all classes 
 and ages. 
 
 " I found that my friend, Khan Sahib, however par- 
 tial from his habits to a literal interpretation, dwelt 
 upon others which he deemed mystical, with all the 
 rapture of a Sofee." (Sketches of Persia, Vol. II. 
 1827, London.) 
 
 I am aware that Dr. Noyes objects that the rays- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 77 
 
 tic poetry of Persia and Hindostan is founded on a 
 philosophy different from the Jewish. They were 
 Pantheistic mystics. But I cannot feel the force of 
 his objection. The difference he alleges seems to 
 me hardly to touch the point. I suppose in all 
 countries and all ages love and devotion exist, and 
 that it is natural to express them by the language of 
 the one and the ardor of the other. It should be 
 remembered that the language of love is in antag- 
 onism to pantheism ; and that both Jew and Gentile 
 struggled and were obliged to struggle to approximate 
 the divine nature by anthropopathic terminology.* 
 
 If we pass to the Christian writers the examples 
 are abundant. There have always been a class of 
 Christians whose glowing love has sought to express 
 itself in the only language which it found propor- 
 tionate in the least degree to its inexpressible emo- 
 tions. This style of speaking and writing began early 
 and continued long. The famous expression of Ig- 
 natius, in his Epistle to the Romans, chap. iii. 3, 
 "MY LOVE is CRUCIFIED," is, no doubt, susceptible of 
 a double meaning, the objective and the subjective. 
 My Love, my heavenly bridegroom, was literally cru- 
 cified for my redemption ; and through his atonement, 
 my love, my carnal love of the world, is crucified 
 mystically in my heart. For he goes on to say, 
 " and the fire that is within me does not desire 
 
 * dv6pa)no7ra6S>s /iei/ Aeyoircu, 6f07rpfir<b$ 8e voovvrai. Athanasius. 
 
78 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 any water ; but, being alive, and springing within 
 me, says, Come to the Father." Or, if we should 
 take another reading, Trvp <j>i\ov\ov, it comes to the 
 same thing. The writer is using the same language 
 which Paul does : " But God forbid that I should 
 glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto 
 the world." The real always implies the mystic cru- 
 cifixion in the heart of a believer, and Christ is 
 called his love as an expressive figure of the most 
 grateful affection. Something of this taste appears in 
 the Shepherd of Hernias, especially in his first vision, 
 where he sees the same woman addressing him from 
 Heaven whom he had before beheld washing in the 
 Tiber, and who now accuses him of his former love ; 
 intimating, no doubt, that human passion should be 
 supplanted by the divine. Tertullian counsels the 
 women in his day (with some hard metaphors, it 
 must be owned) to have their eyes painted with 
 chastity ; the word of God inserted into their ears ; 
 Christ's yoke tied to their hair ; to subject them- 
 selves to their husbands. If they would do so, they 
 should be comely enough, clothe themselves with the 
 silk of sanctity, damask of devotion, purple of piety 
 and chastity, and so painted, they shall have God 
 himself to be a suitor. " Oculos depictos verecundia, 
 inserentes in aures sermonem Dei, annectentes crini- 
 bus jugum Christi, caput maritis subjicientes, sic facile 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 79 
 
 et satis ornatae : vestite vos serico probitatis, byssino 
 sanctitatis, purpura pudicitiae ; taliter pigmentatae 
 Deum habebitis amatorem." (De Cultu Mulierum.) 
 Those holy virgins of old, " quae Christo spiritualiter 
 nubunt," were considered as consecrated in this way, 
 even before the establishment of regular monasteries 
 and convents. Each one was called Sponsa Christi. 
 Jerome, in writing to Eustochium, says he may well 
 call her My Lady, as she is entitled to be called the 
 spouse of his Master. The language of Augustine 
 is colored by the expressions of love and the wine- 
 table. " Quis mihi dabit adquescere in te ? Quis 
 mihi dabit, ut venias in cor meum, et inebries illud 
 ut obliviscar mala mea, et unum bonum meum am- 
 plectar te?" (Confessions, Lib. I. c. 5.) "0 that 
 thou wouldst give me to rest in thee ! that thou 
 wouldst grant me the favor to enter my heart and 
 intoxicate it with thy love, that I might forget my 
 sorrows arid embrace thee, my sole, sufficient good ! " 
 And again : " 0, thou highest, best, most powerful, 
 most omnipotent, most compassionate, most just, most 
 secret, most seen, most beautiful, " most brave, stable, 
 incomprehensible ; immutable, yet changing all things, 
 never new, never old; innovating and bringing the 
 proud to decay ; always acting, always quiet ; collect- 
 ing, but wanting not ; . bearing and filling and protect- 
 ing, creating, cherishing, and maturing ; seeking, when 
 nothing is deficient in thee ! Thou lovest, but art 
 
80 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 never in commotion ; thou art jealous, but calm ; 
 thou repentest without sorrow, and changest thy 
 works, though thy counsels never change," opera 
 mutas, nee mutas consilium^ etc. He then calls the 
 object of his passion " my God, my life, my holy 
 sweetness." (Confessions, Lib. I. Sect. 4.) Again, 
 in the Third Book, sixth section, after observing that 
 the beauty of created things is not the beauty of 
 God, he goes on to say : " We see these things with 
 carnal eyes, in common with the flocks and birds ; 
 yet certius imaginamur ea, quam ex eis suspica- 
 mur alia grandia et infmita, quae omnino nulla sunt, 
 qualibus ego tune pascebar inanibus ; et non pasce- 
 bar. At tu, meus amor, in quern deficio, ut fortis 
 sim, nee ista corpora es, quae videmus, quamquam 
 in coelo, nee ea es, quae non videmus ibi, quia tu 
 ista condidisti, nee in summis tuis conditionibus 
 habes." Again, in the Fourth Book, he paves the 
 way to this imagery by his previoiis philosophy : 
 " Num. amamus aliquid nisi pulchrum ? Quod est 
 ergo pulchrum ? et quid est pulchritudo ? Quid est, 
 quod nos adlicit, et conciliat rebus quas amamus? 
 Nisi enim esset in eis decus et species, nullo modo 
 nos ad se moverent. Et animadvertebam et vide- 
 bam in ipsis corporibus aliud esse quasi totum et 
 ideo pulchrum ; aliud autem, quod r ideo deceret, 
 quoniam apte adcommodaretur alicui, sicut pars cor- 
 poris ad universum suum, aut calceamentum ad pe- 
 

 THE MANUDUCTION. 81 
 
 dem et similia." " Do we love anything unless it 
 is beautiful ? What, then, is this beautiful thing, 
 and what is beauty itself? What is it that attracts 
 and conciliates us to things we love ? For if there 
 were not a grace and fairness in these things, they 
 would by no means draw us to themselves. Now, I 
 observed and saw in bodies themselves another total- 
 ity, which was therefore beautiful ; another grace, 
 which, owing to the fitness of its parts, was there- 
 fore becoming ; as a part of the body to the whole, 
 or a slipper to the foot, or any similar correspond- 
 ence of a part to the whole." Once more (Book 
 X. Sect. 27) : " Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tarn an- 
 tiqua et tarn nova, sero te amavi. Et ecce intus 
 eras et ego foris et ibi te quaerebam ; et in ista 
 formosa, quae fecisti, deformis irruebam. Mecum 
 eras, et tecum non eram. Ea me tenebant longe a 
 te, quae, si in te non essent, non essent. Yocasti 
 et clamasti et rupisti surditatem meam. Coruscasti, 
 splenduisti et fugasti caecitatem meam. Fragrasti et 
 duxi spiritum, et anhelo tibi. Gustavi et esurio et 
 sitio. Tetigisti me et exarsi in pacem tuam." The 
 ancient interpreters generally considered this book 
 Solomon's Song as the expression of inexpressible 
 love ; teaching, as Theodoret says, the higher kinds 
 of Divine goodness. Gregory the Great says : " In hoc 
 libro amoris quasi corporei verba ponuntur, ut a 
 corpore suo anima, per serrnones consuetos, dicussa, 
 
 p 
 
82 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 recalescat, et per verba amoris, qui infra est, excite- 
 tur ad amorem, qui supra est." Nothing can be 
 more true, or more neatly expressed. " In this 
 book the words of corporeal love are placed, that the 
 soul, shaking off the body, might learn from its 
 accustomed passions to rekindle ; and, by using the 
 terms of a meaner passion, rise to a nobler flame." 
 And Theodoret says : " This book teaches TTJV fjuvan- 
 K7]v a-vvdfaiav, the mystic union of the bride and 
 bridegroom." (See Suicerus, Lex., Yol. I. p. 551.) 
 In a later age, in the letters which Abelard writes 
 to his Eloisa : " De hujus excellentia praerogativae 
 sponsa in Canticis exultans, ilia, ut ita dicam, quam 
 Moyses duxit, Aethiopissa dicit, Nigra sum, sed for- 
 mosa, filiae Hierusalem. Ideo dilexit me Rex et intro- 
 duxit me in cubiculum suum. Et rursum, Nolite con- 
 siderare quod fusca sum, quia decoloravit me Sol. In 
 quibus quidem verbis cum generaliter anima descri- 
 batur contemplativa, quae specialiter Sponsa Christi 
 dicitur, expressius tamen ad vos hoc pertinere ipse 
 etiam vester exterior habitus loquitur. Ipse quippe 
 cultus exterior nigrorum, aut vilium indumentum, 
 instar lugubris habitus bonarum viduarum mortuos, 
 quos delexerant viros plangentium, vos in hoc mun- 
 do, juxta Apostolorum, vere viduas et desolatas 
 ostendit, stipendiis Ecclesiae sustinendas." (Abelard 
 to Eloisa, Epistle III. p. 73.) And Bernard, his 
 enemy and rival, agrees in the same kind of inter- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 83 
 
 pretation : " The king hath brought me into his 
 wine-cellar (banqueting-house in our translation), 
 speaking of this prayer (i.e. the prayer of silence), 
 this sanctuary of the great king, in which he enters 
 with a few whom he hides for that hour from the 
 world ; this place of quiet ; this vision which does not 
 affright, but cherish ; does not weary, but calm ; does 
 not bring cravings or distractions, but pacifies and fully 
 satisfies. But, alas 1 the hour is rare and the dura- 
 tion short," Sed heu ! rara hora et parva mora. 
 (See Sermon XXIII. on Canticles.) And again : " 
 sweet commerce ! but the moment is short and the 
 experience rare. Some one may ask what this is to 
 enjoy the Divine Word. Let him seek one who has 
 experienced it. Or if that happiness were granted 
 me, do you think I can explain what is unspeakable ? 
 It is one thing that passes between my soul and God, 
 and another between you and me. That I could feel, 
 but could not utter. If you are desirous to know 
 what it is to enjoy the Word, prepare for Him, not 
 your ear, but your soul. The tongue cannot express 
 this ; yet grace teaches it. It is concealed from the 
 prudent and the wise, and is revealed to little ones. 
 Humility is a great and sublime virtue, which obtains 
 what is not taught, which acquires what cannot be 
 learned." (Sermon LXXXV.) I quote from Butler's 
 Lives of the Saints, Vol. II. p. 673. That most pop- 
 ular book, Thomas a Kempis, which has passed through 
 
84 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 more editions than any other volume except the Bible, 
 and which first saw the light in 1488, adopts the 
 same style : " Para mihi coenaculum grande stratum, 
 et faciam apud te Pascha cum discipulis meis. Ex- 
 clude totum saeculum, etc. Omnis namque amans 
 suo dilecto amatori optimum et pulcherrimum prae- 
 parat locum quia in hoc cognoscitur affectus suscipien- 
 tis dilectum." (De, Imitatione Christi, Lib. XIV. c. 12.) 
 " Make ready for me a large upper-room furnished, 
 and I will make the pash (i. e. Passover) with thee 
 and my disciples. For every lover prepare th the best 
 and fairest room for his dearly-beloved ; and hereby 
 is known the affection of him that entertaineth his 
 beloved." Again (Lib. XIY. c. 13) : " Hoc oro, hoc 
 desidero, ut tibi totus uniar, et cor meum ab omnibus 
 creatis rebus abstraham, magis per sacram communio- 
 nem vel frequentem celebrationem, celestia et aeternia 
 sapere discam. Ah, Domine Deus ! quando ero tecum 
 totus unitus et absorptus, meique totaliter oblitus ? 
 Tu in me et ego in te ; sic nos pariter in unum 
 manere concede. Yere tu es dilectus meus, electus 
 ex millibus, in quo conplacuit animae meae habitare 
 omnibus diebus vitae suae." "Verily, thou art my 
 beloved, the choicest amongst thousands, in whom my 
 soul is well pleased to dwell all the days of her life." 
 It would be easy to multiply quotations from such 
 writers ; one more shall suffice. Take the case of M. 
 Magdalen of Pazzi, an Italian saint canonized in 1669. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 85 
 
 The spirit of God threw her on the ground in an 
 ecstasy, when her countenance was shining like that 
 of an incarnate seraph. Christ gave her so large a 
 share of his passion, that frequently, under an aliena- 
 tion of her senses, she would throw herself on the 
 ground, exclaiming : " Jesus, I can endure no longer, 
 I cannot partake any more of thy pains!" Often 
 in these amorous transports (divinely amorous) she 
 would join herself close to a crucifix, and suck a divine 
 liquor thence, which filled her soul with unspeakable 
 sweetness. Her heart was so inflamed, that she seemed 
 to be dissolved, and about to return to her first noth- 
 ing. Her private familiar entertainments and com- 
 munion with God so fired her breast that she would 
 exclaim : " Love, I can no longer support your 
 flames, my heart is not able to contain you ! " 
 (Enthusiasm of the Methodists and Papists Compared, 
 Vol. I. Part II. p. 7.) I have not the least suspi- 
 cion there was the least hypocrisy in the ardors of this 
 good sister. Her constitution, indeed, might have in- 
 creased her devotions, but she uses the inimitable lan- 
 guage of feeling and truth. I have not quoted from St. 
 Teresa of Spain, Francis de Sales, Madame de Guy- 
 on, Fe*nelon, Antonette Bourignon, and many others ; 
 they all feel the same ardor and fall into the same 
 strain. They talk of the prayer of silence, self-annihi- 
 lation, self-crucifixion, absorption, the passive prayer, 
 the wordless petition, the mystical union with God, 
 
86 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 and we can hardly conceive of this state of emotion 
 without its clothing itself in the language of Canti- 
 cles ; the affinity is like matter to form, as the old 
 philosophers say, it is eternal and complete. The old 
 English poets have fallen into a similar strain. Thus 
 Spenser, in his Hymn on Heavenly Beauty : 
 
 " With all my heart, with all my soul and mind, 
 Thou must Him love and His behests embrace ; 
 All other loves with which the world doth blind 
 Weak fancies, and stir up affections base, 
 Thou must renounce and utterly displace, 
 And give thyself unto Him, full and free, 
 That full and freely gave himself for thee. 
 
 Then shall thy ravisht soul inspired be 
 
 With heavenly thoughts, far above human skill, 
 
 And thy bright, radiant eyes shall plainly see 
 
 Th' idea of His pure glory present still 
 
 Before thy face, that all thy spirits shall fill 
 
 With sweet enragement of celestial love, 
 
 Kindled through sight of those fair things above." 
 
 So in the poems of Drummond, who died 1649 : 
 
 " Love which is here a care, 
 That wit and will doth mar, 
 Uncertain truce and a most certain war, 
 A shrill, tempestuous wind, 
 Which doth disturb the mind, 
 And like wild waves all our designs commove. 
 Among those powers above 
 Which see their Maker's face, 
 It a contentment is, a quiet peace, 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 87 
 
 A pleasant void of grief, a constant rest, 
 Eternal joy, which nothing can molest." 
 
 And again, I suppose the following to be written in 
 the same spirit, though the design is not so clearly 
 expressed : 
 
 " Thrice happy he, who, by some shady grove, 
 Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own ; 
 Though solitary, who is not alone, 
 But doth converse with that ETERNAL LOVE : 
 O, how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan, 
 Or the hoarse sobbings of the widowed dove, 
 Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne 
 Which good make doubtful, do the evil approve : 
 O how more sweet is Zephyr's wholesome breath, 
 And sighs embalmed which new-born flowers unfold, 
 Than that applause vain honor doth bequeath ! 
 How sweet are streams to poisoned drink in gold ! 
 The world is full of horrors, troubles, slights ; 
 Woods, harmless shades, have only true delights." 
 
 Flowers of Zion. 
 
 So Crashaw: 
 
 " Dear soul, be strong ; 
 Mercy will come ere long, 
 And bring its bosom full of blessings ; 
 Flowers of never-fading graces, 
 To make immortal dressings 
 For worthy souls, whose wise embraces 
 Store up themselves for Him, who is alone 
 
 The spouse of virgins, and the virgin's son. 
 
 But if the noble Bridegroom, when he come, 
 Shall find the loitering heart from home, 
 Leaving its chaste abode 
 To gad abroad 
 
88 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Among the gay mates of the god of flies ; 
 To take her pleasure and to play 
 And keep the devil's holiday ; 
 To dance i' the sunshine of some smiling, 
 But beguiling 
 
 Sphere of sweet and sugar'd lies, 
 
 Some slippery pair 
 
 Of false, perhaps, as fair, 
 Flattering but forswearing eyes ; 
 
 Doubtless, some other heart 
 
 Will get the start, 
 
 And, stepping in before, 
 Will take possession of the sacred store." 
 
 And again: 
 
 " Rise up, my fair, my spotless one, 
 The winter 's past, the rain is gone : 
 The spring is come, the flowers appear, 
 No sweets but thine are wanting here." 
 
 " Come away, my love, 
 Come away, my dove, 
 
 Cast off delay ; 
 
 The court of Heaven has come 
 To wait upon thee home, 
 Come, come away." 
 
 " The flowers appear, 
 Or quickly would, wert thou once here." 
 
 Mrs. Rowe and Dr. Watts add their suffrage. The 
 former, even when she does not adopt the imagery, 
 has a lusciousness which borders upon it : 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 89 
 
 " Begin the high celestial strain, 
 My ravished soul, and sing 
 A solemn hymn of grateful praise 
 To Heaven's Almighty King. 
 
 " Ye curling fountains, as ye roll 
 
 Your silver waves along, 
 Whisper to all your verdant shores 
 The subject of my song.'' 
 
 And Dr. Watts: 
 
 " Sweet Muse, descend and bless the shade 
 
 And bless the evening grove ; 
 Business and noise and day are fled, 
 And every care but love. 
 
 I '11 carve our passion on the bark, 
 
 And every wounded tree 
 Shall droop and bear some mystic mark 
 That Jesus died for me." 
 
 The thirteen hymns in the first book of Watts are 
 well recollected by all, once admired, though now 
 generally omitted. 
 
 Pope, in his Eloisa to Abelard, in describing the 
 blameless vestal's lot, who enjoys the 
 
 " Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind," 
 
 adds : 
 
 " For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms, 
 And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes ; 
 For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring, 
 For her white virgins hymeneals sing. 
 To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away, 
 And melts in visions of eternal day." 
 
90 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 This is but a versification of what is supposed to 
 be illustrated in the trances and visions of St. Teresa 
 of Spain, and other mystics. Pope is one of those 
 authors whose appropriations and borrowings increase 
 our admiration of his original genius. In this epistle 
 almost everything is borrowed, either from Eloisa's 
 letters or Abelard's, or the mystic writers, yet with 
 what selective power ! with what admirable taste ! 
 
 Now, the argument is this. What is so general 
 must be natural ; certainly the material passion is 
 universal, "amor idem omnibus." (Georgic III. v. 
 244.) Certainly Divine love is essential to religion ; 
 and certainly the one may be pictured in the other. 
 If, then, all nations have felt this power, and have 
 fallen into this strain ; if ardent devotion always verges 
 to mysticism, and if the mystics and semi-mystics have 
 always expressed themselves in this way ; if the fer- 
 vent East began the strain, and the sceptic Greeks 
 and politic Romans have something of the flame ; if 
 it has been repeated in every age, and we cannot 
 conceive how glowing piety can find equal figures in 
 any other source, then we must say, that the man 
 who cannot see the propriety of this union of mortal 
 language with immortal thoughts has not a compre- 
 hensive mind ; he has neither considered the nature of 
 mind, the nature of language, nor the history of relig- 
 ion. He questions the possibility of that which is almost 
 universal. He stands alone, or associates only with 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 91 
 
 the frozen. The fact is, so far from regarding this 
 book as an objection to the purity of revelation, its ful- 
 ness would have been crippled without it; and as, when 
 I read that " the Lord God is a sun," I can think of 
 no other object in creation so adequate to image his 
 glory, and believe that later writers, if they had never 
 heard of this comparison, must have found it of their 
 own invention, so I must conclude that the Word of 
 God in adopting this amatory strain only touches a 
 universal chord, and completes its own perfection. 
 
 People do not sufficiently consider the amplitude 
 of the Bible. That divine book is written for all 
 tastes in all ages, and is addressed to all the nations 
 of the earth. Its design is simple, but its expedients 
 are endless ; and the fancy and the reason are alike 
 made the channels by which it pours its information 
 into the soul. It is like the tree of life, in Rev- 
 elation, which grew on the banks of the mystic 
 river, which " bare twelve manner of fruits, and 
 yielded her fruit every month ; and the leaves of the 
 tree were for the healing of the nations." (Rev. 
 xxii. 2.) Remark the word, " the nations," not one, 
 but all. Accordingly, the Bible has an astonishing 
 omniformity. It fills every channel of thought ; it 
 reaches every soul. We cannot expect the mathema- 
 tician to have the taste of a poet, or the Greek to 
 resemble the uncultivated barbarian. The Hindoo and 
 the Chinaman are different beings. Even religion 
 
92 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 enters minds of different conformity and with differ- 
 ent degrees of intenseness. The cold sunbeam that 
 plays on the rocks of Hecla hardly seems to be the 
 same thing as the burning ray that falls on the sands 
 of El Arisch. Where, then, is the wonder that God, 
 who knows all hearts, should fill his Word with all the 
 methods of reaching them ? " But the word of the 
 Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept 
 upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a 
 little and there a little, that they might go and fall 
 backward, and be broken, and snared, and be taken." 
 (Isaiah xxviii. 13.) The seeming imperfections of the 
 Bible are but varieties of excellence. Truth, like 
 some skilful virgin, increases her charms by varying 
 her dress. The most successful moral writers have 
 been conscious of the same difficulties, and have 
 adopted the same rule. Let us hear Addison : " I 
 may cast my readers under two general divisions, the 
 Mercurial and the Saturnine. The first are the gay 
 part of my disciples, who require speculations of wit 
 and humor ; the others are those of a more solemn 
 and sober turn, who find no pleasure but in papers 
 of morality and sound sense. The former call every- 
 thing that is serious, stupid ; the latter look upon 
 everything as impertinent that is ludicrous. Were I 
 always grave, one half my readers would fall off from 
 me ; were I always merry, I should lose the other. 
 I make it, therefore, my endeavor to find out enter- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 93 
 
 tainments of both kinds, and by that means, perhaps, 
 consult the good of both more than I should do, did 
 I always write to the particular taste of either. As 
 they neither of them know what I proceed upon, the 
 sprightly reader, who takes up my paper in order to 
 be diverted, very often finds himself engaged unawares 
 in a serious and profitable course of thinking ; as, on 
 the contrary, the thoughtful man, who perhaps may 
 hope to find something solid and full of deep reflec- 
 tion, is very often insensibly betrayed into a fit of 
 mirth. In a word, the reader sits down to my enter- 
 tainment, without knowing the bill of fare, and has 
 therefore at least the pleasure of hoping there may be a 
 dish to his palate." (The Spectator, Vol. III. No. 179.) 
 Now, why may we not suppose the condescension of 
 God has adopted a similar expedient ? The best men 
 differ in their tastes. Think of Leighton and Baxter ; 
 the first turning away from logic to love, and the 
 other always pausing in his emotions to speculate. I 
 am far from thinking that a man is not a Christian 
 because he does not relish this book. Before I pre- 
 sent it to him with the least hope of profit, or even 
 patient attention, I ask, what is the type of his piety, 
 what is his imagination, what is his taste, what is his 
 power of throwing himself into Oriental conceptions ? 
 how far has he traced the use of language from its 
 hieroglyphic state in its long progress to Grecian per- 
 fection ? As Coleridge said of Sir John Mackintosh, 
 
94 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 I should despair to build a bridge over the gulf that 
 separates some minds from these beautiful concep- 
 tions. But then they are no mean men, and some of 
 them sincere Christians. The Bible, too, has a part 
 and portion for them. But other minds have a dif- 
 ferent conformation. Augustine, Thomas a Kempis, 
 Luther, Fe*nelon, Francis de Sales, Madame Guyon, 
 Miss Rowe, Dr. Watts, must have one such book as 
 this ; and, I must add, I should deem it a privilege 
 to belong to the coterie ; for, given, a mystic turn, a 
 glowing fancy, an ardent piety in a burning heart, and, 
 more than all, a little Oriental training, and such a 
 poem must be eliminated, as certainly as the vernal 
 sun calls forth the flowers. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 95 
 
 IV. 
 
 DIVINE LOVE 
 AN INTELLECTUAL AND INFORMING PASSION. 
 
 THERE is a remarkable sentiment in the First Epis- 
 tle of Paul to the Corinthians, eighth chapter, second 
 and third verses : " And if any man think he know- 
 eth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to 
 know. But if any man love God, the same is known 
 of him." The Apostle's design seems to be to show 
 the illuminating power of a holy affection. Love in 
 the heart is light in the understanding. If any man 
 think he knoweth anything, that is, by the exercise 
 of his natural faculties, his ratiocination, if he sup- 
 poses he knows anything in religion, for we must 
 thus qualify his general proposition, if he supposes 
 this, he errs in the whole subject ; he knows nothing 
 as he ought to know it ; for the essence of religion 
 in this way is never known. But if any man love God 
 experimentally, if he feel this new passion in his own 
 heart, he is known of God, or, rather, he is made to 
 know by God, for I should give the /^M-meaning 
 here to the verb, that is, the very passion is inspir- 
 
96 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 ing. Love is light. Love to God in the heart puri- 
 fies the intellect and spreads light through the mind. 
 
 The Apostle adopts the same principle as to know- 
 ing our duties to our fellow-men. He tells the Thes- 
 salonians (First Epistle, iv. 9) : " But as touching 
 brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you ; 
 for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one an- 
 other." They had only to look into their own breasts, 
 and the powerful impulse, once given, was their best 
 instructor.* 
 
 We may lay it down as a principle, that the ele- 
 mentary ideas respecting our whole duty to God and 
 man originate in the affections. Strike off the affec- 
 tions, and all our moral technology would have no 
 meaning. It is here as it is in teaching music ; a 
 man may learn the gamut and all the laws of con- 
 cord and time, the mathematical laws of vibration in 
 producing sound, and yet, if his ear be defective, and 
 cannot distinguish the sweetness and unity of sounds, 
 the lesson comes to an end. 
 
 Reasoning presupposes intuition, which gives us some- 
 thing to reason about. Metaphysicians have been per- 
 
 * One of the most surprising instances of the informing nature of this 
 divine passion is found in 1 Corinth, xiii. 5. It is said of 17 ayairrj that 
 OVK do-xrjfwve'i, it does not behave itself unseemly. Now what a quick 
 perception, what a compi-ehensive view of all the nicer threads of obliga- 
 tion and life, must that passion have which teaches us to move correctly 
 on these delicate and indefinite lines ! It gives us an instinct neighboring 
 on inspiration. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 97 
 
 plexed to know how we can prove the existence of 
 the material world; or, the outer world being given, 
 how we know that our ideas are a representation of 
 it. Some say we assume it, some, that we know it 
 from common sense ; and some, that we see all things 
 in God. All confess that our ideas, considered as 
 representations, are very uncertain and inadequate. 
 But there is one idea, or impression, or concept, 
 or whatever you call it, having an outward cause, 
 which must be adequate, and about which there can 
 be no scepticism ; and that is PAIN, in all its forms, 
 and, of course, pleasure. I have my pain all to my- 
 self, and with it, in all my sufferings and contortions, 
 it brings one consolation, that I think I have one 
 adequate idea ; for I cannot conceive where my pain 
 can exist but in my sensation, and I shall be thank- 
 ful to the man that can give me happiness by giving 
 me ease. Now, with the idea of pain springs up a 
 whole host of concomitant ideas ; happiness, its oppo- 
 site ; and the moral ideas, the infliction of pain and 
 the imparting of pleasure, which is justice, or malig- 
 nity ; and the giving of happiness, which is benevo- 
 lence. I think the old Epicureans were right when 
 they said virtue was an empty and splendid name, 
 when it gave no exponent, no productive quantity. 
 Without pleasure and pain, benevolence, in God or 
 man, would have nothing to work on, nothing to 
 express itself by. For let me imagine that yonder 
 5 G 
 
98 - THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 busy ants, as they collect the grain (though the sup- 
 position is confuted by their activity), were incapable 
 of feeling, how can I do them good or evil ? how 
 can I even wish well to their experience ? Surround 
 the throne of God with the most exalted intellects, 
 incapable of feeling, with angels, archangels, and 
 ransomed saints, incapable of feeling, and I see not 
 how the almighty wisdom of Jehovah could exercise 
 any benevolence towards them. He has nothing to 
 give. Nay, suppose God himself to be pure intellect, 
 how can he be clothed with the Divine perfections ? 
 Benevolence must have something to give ; indigence 
 and dependence must have something to receive ; and 
 it is no paradox to say that hell itself, an eternal hell, 
 is necessary to the highest expression of that infinite 
 Love, which enables some who have deserved it from 
 justice to escape it by grace. 
 
 Thus are sensualism and spirituality linked togeth- 
 er; thus does one become an exponent of the other, 
 as the water-lily with its sweetness springs from the 
 mud. 
 
 We must distinguish, I know, in order to form a 
 conception of the mind, intellect from feeling ; but we 
 must not separate them. To view them apart assists 
 our conception, but to tear them asunder destroys 
 them both. The following remarks of a writer of our 
 country, now little known, seem to me to be profound : 
 " The faculties of the mind have been commonly dis- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 99 
 
 tinguished, by modern divines and philosophers, into 
 the understanding, the will, and the affections. Others 
 comprehend the affections in the will. The object of 
 the understanding is truth ; the object of the will and 
 affections is good. The mind by the understanding 
 perceives, judges, reasons, knows, assents ; but by the 
 affections loves, rejoices, hates, grieves, &c. ; by the will 
 chooses, refuses, exerts, forbears, and the like. These 
 objects and acts of the mind at first sight may seem 
 to be of a different nature ; but this may be owing 
 to our viewing the same object, as it were, in a dif- 
 ferent attitude and light. Thus, good, which is the 
 object of the affections, is knowable ; so is an object 
 of the understanding. It may be both known and 
 loved. Yea, to know and to love good seems to be 
 the same thing. What is love but the perception of 
 goodness and loveliness ? Perception is referred to 
 the understanding, and affection to the will. But is 
 there any more real difference between perceiving 
 beauty and loving it, than there is between attraction 
 and gravitation ? It will be said there is a twofold 
 perception of objects, viz. sub rations veri, and sub 
 rations boni ; the former is referred to the intellect, 
 the latter to the heart, or will. But it may well be 
 inquired whether there be any object of perception in 
 nature, or any object in the mind, which does not 
 involve both those respects ; and whether perception 
 and taste do not universally, essentially, and necessa- 
 
100 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 rily imply each other, their difference being rather 
 nominal than real ; whether there be any taste with- 
 out perception, or any perception without taste ; and, 
 consequently, whether the understanding and heart do 
 not really contain each other, and their acts coincide ? 
 I have sometimes thought that the promiscuous use 
 of the words mind, understanding, heart, knowledge, 
 love, observable in the inspired books, was very agree- 
 able to this supposition, and gave some countenance 
 to it. And yet the common distinction of the facul- 
 ties of the mind may conveniently enough be retained 
 for method's sake, provided we take care not to be 
 led into mistake by it." (Dr. Hemmenway's Vindica- 
 tion in Answer to Dr. Hopkins, 1772.) 
 
 The intellect and the emotions, then, are one in ori- 
 gin, one in the objective. Love springs from the per- 
 ception of the lovely, and yet the perception is not 
 from reason only, i.e. the discursive faculty. It is 
 perceived by the very affection it kindles ; that is, the 
 relish for beauty, the love of beauty, are so much one, 
 that we cannot conceive them as existing apart. We 
 must have love to perceive what is lovely, and the 
 perception of what is lovely is necessary to the exist- 
 ence of love. None can tell which is first, which is 
 last, which is cause, which is effect. Eternal won- 
 der! Enigma which human penetration can never 
 solve ! "I went down into the garden of nuts, to 
 see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 101 
 
 vine flourished and the pomegranates budded. Or 
 ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots 
 of Amminadib." 
 
 That Divine love is an intellectual and enlighten- 
 ing passion is seen from many considerations. 
 
 I. We may begin this inquiry by remarking how 
 much a worldly affection can blind the intellect to 
 its permanent and religious duty. We love the world ; 
 we are governed by our sensual passions ; we pursue 
 the prizes of time ; we are solicited by its riches and 
 dazzled by its honors ; and when we come to awake 
 from our dream, and soberly estimate the value of the 
 things we have pursued, all men confess the vanity 
 of life ; all men confess the little value of the things 
 which have excited such intense interest. The spark 
 has kindled such a conflagration only by falling on 
 a combustible heart. Every one knows that our du- 
 ration in this life is but a span, and we plant our 
 fairest flowers only to wither on our graves, Take 
 the candidate for political honor, how intense his 
 interest, how great his activity, how precarious his 
 success, and how frequent his disappointment ! How 
 common it is for us to over-estimate the duration of 
 our mortal life, and all the enjoyment it includes 
 and brings! "What is your life?" says the Apostle. 
 "It is a vapor which appears for a little time, and 
 then vanishes away." That a being of foresight, with 
 the least consciousness of the moral impressions, should 
 
102 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 purchase affluence by vice, is one of the most aston- 
 ishing events that can happen. Nothing is more 
 strange, or more common. It can only be accounted 
 for by the intensity of a blinding passion. Suppose 
 the truth of religion, and our eternal interest therein, 
 and a man never cheats another without in a thou- 
 sand-fold degree cheating himself. If he takes from 
 his neighbor's purse, he takes a richer treasure from 
 his own breast. It is said by divines, and it is im- 
 plied in Scripture, that if it were not for this blind- 
 ing power coming from the love of the world, the 
 truth and beauty of the Gospel would beam on us at 
 once, even as the setting sun darts his light through 
 the purified atmosphere, and the cloud is lifted from 
 its descending brightness. 
 
 This intense love for an inadequate object is no 
 disputed truth ; all own its extravagance, while they 
 feel its power. All government, as Burke tells us, 
 is founded on the maxim, that no man shall be judge 
 in his own cause. No matter what his native sagacity 
 may be, the moment self-interest intervenes he be- 
 comes blind to the plainest claims of impartial jus- 
 tice, and the higher the prize, the greater the self- 
 ishness. Hence it is often observed that a throne is 
 a prize too great for any human wisdom. The con- 
 dition of the Roman emperors was a strong instance. 
 It seems astonishing that any mortal should be in- 
 duced to accept such a dangerous honor. They were 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 103 
 
 every moment liable to assassination and rebellion from 
 their capricious soldiers. Whatever grandeur might 
 adorn their palaces, whatever luxury might attend 
 their feasts, think of their pillows, attend them to 
 their sleeping chambers, and what a dreadful condi- 
 tion ! Every noise must have alarmed them. No 
 wonder many of them were sots. It was drunkenness 
 only that could put them to sleep. How ambition, 
 that fond passion, must have painted its own prizes in 
 order to justify its own choice ! And yet there was no 
 want of candidates. Some possessed, and thousands 
 sought, the transient honor, and the almost certain 
 ruin. How irrational ! What a mystery ! In read- 
 ing of the French Revolution, the wonder impressed 
 on the reader's mind is, that Louis XVI., when the 
 snares were multiplying around him, did not resign; 
 but the thought seems never to have entered his head. 
 Indeed, the whole of human life seems to be an exhi- 
 bition of this fallacy, enormous love for what our 
 experience shows us to be a worthless object. Even 
 in good men a lingering carnality obscures their moral 
 perception. When the scales have left their eyes, it 
 takes time to accustom them to improve the sight. 
 So we must explain some of the striking instances 
 we have in the Bible. Our Lord told his disciples 
 (Mark ix. 31) : " The Son of man is delivered into 
 the hands of men, and they shall kill him ; and after 
 that he is killed, he shall rise the third day." This 
 
104 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 declaration seems to us very explicit, and yet we are 
 told of his own disciples, they understood not that say- 
 ing, and were afraid to ask him. See also Luke ii. 
 50, and various other instances. Such is the blinding 
 power of a passion which creates its own valuations. 
 
 We might instance it in the length we impute to 
 human life, and the distance at which we place eternal 
 things. This fallacy prevents religion from making its 
 appropriate impression. It is the standing delusion, 
 the great obstacle to the reception of the Gospel. 
 Nothing can be more obvious than that life is short, 
 and that all its rewards partake of its own brevity, 
 and it is very precarious while it lasts. And yet this 
 obvious delusion is everywhere operating. Take any 
 ruling passion and trace its operation on the strongest 
 intellect. It makes the miser poor amidst his riches ; 
 it exposed Caesar to the daggers of his friends ; it 
 tears an impenitent world from the cross of Christ, 
 and plunges them into endless ruin. 
 
 But there is one remarkable instance in the Bible 
 which shows the blinding influence of an evil affection 
 on the highest capacity. It has often been asked, 
 in the temptation of Christ, indeed, in his general 
 temptations, how the Devil could expect to succeed 
 in opposing either the power or the plans of an all- 
 wise and all-powerful God. The character of Satan, 
 it is said, is impossible and inconsistent. But perhaps 
 the objector does not consider the blinding influence 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 105 
 
 of an evil principle when it is infinitely strong and 
 purely evil. It may be a part of his crime and pun- 
 ishment to be hurried on to attempt an absurdity, 
 though his clouded reason may assure him he must 
 always fail. This, perhaps, is the great lesson we are 
 to learn from the character and conduct of the prince 
 of hell. He is a being whose reason is useless to him, 
 because it is a slave to the impetuous depravity of 
 his heart. 
 
 Now, the power of Divine Love is, in the first place, 
 that it removes this universal delusion. The negative 
 part of its work is vastly important. For until men 
 come to a practical conviction of the perversity of 
 their choice, in prizing things merely because they 
 prize them, they find a very cold and distant mean- 
 ing in the claims of the Gospel ; and if a false pas- 
 sion for an inadequate object has a great influence in 
 blinding the mind to all that is true and beautiful 
 in duty and religion, we may well conclude that a 
 true passion, fixed on Him who is eternal, immortal, 
 and invisible, must raise the mind from its grovel- 
 lings, and fill it with wisdom and peace. But, 
 
 II. There are several considerations which show pos- 
 itively this enlightening influence of a pure affection. 
 
 First, its origin ; the soul. 
 
 Second, from its objective. 
 
 Third, from its elements or counters : that is, the 
 very objects it gives to reason to employ itself about, 
 
106 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 just as quantity is the element of mathematical cal- 
 culation. 
 
 First, then, love is the act or impulse of the soul. 
 It originates in the soul, the centre where the dis- 
 cursive and emotional powers combine. It should be 
 remembered that love, through all the grades of be- 
 ing, from the insect to the archangel, rises from an 
 unreflecting instinct to an intellectual passion. It 
 is exalted by the source from which it proceeds ; it 
 is instinct in the birds and beasts, and yet almost 
 inspires them with a prophetic foresight. It makes 
 the bird build her nest, and prepare, as if she had 
 prudence, for her future offspring. It drives the brute 
 to sensual gratification, and rises to the most refined 
 and elegant perfection in the human race. Suppose a 
 poet and a clown to be walking together in the field. 
 They see a rose ; it is the same object, yet how dif- 
 ferent the impression, and how much more exalted 
 the feelings of the poet than the clown ! They look 
 up to a star, and the poet understands its nature and 
 object better than the clown. He looks with an ele- 
 vating admiration. Thus the relish lies imbedded in 
 all the powers of the mind, and love never ceases to 
 actuate the thoughts and mental operations with which 
 it was at first combined. 
 
 We are told by Aristotle, (as quoted in Cudworth's 
 Intellectual System, Chap. IY. p. 203,) that there is 
 something in man better than reason, "\dyov TI Kpei- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 10 T 
 
 row, and which is the principle of reason, \6jov dp^rj. 
 For, says he, the principle of reason is not reason, but 
 something better. All deductions suppose something 
 already known ; something more sure, more clearly 
 seen than anything to which it leads us. A ray of 
 light is not so clear as the fountain from which it pro- 
 ceeds. A soul cannot exist without the elements of 
 its own existence ; and one of these is the all-compre- 
 hensive passion of love. 
 
 Secondly, but if we consider the objective of this pas- 
 sion, we shall find that it is mental and highly inform- 
 ing. In its lowest exercise it must see something, a 
 child, a landscape, a face, a flower ; and the vaster and 
 the more complex the object, the more elevated and re- 
 fined must be the passion. Some writers, indeed most, 
 and certainly St. Paul, make all virtue to consist in be- 
 nevolence. " Love is the fulfilling of the law." But 
 consider what an objective they present to produce and 
 guide this noble feeling. President Edwards tells us, 
 true virtue most essentially consists " in benevolence 
 to Being in general. Or perhaps, to speak more accu- 
 rately, it is that consent, propensity, and union of heart 
 to Being in general, that is immediately exercised in a 
 general good-will." Consider what a vast object the 
 mind is supposed to comprehend ; for it must in some 
 degree comprehend it before it can admire, according to 
 the old maxim, Ignoti nulla cupido. Hutcheson says : 
 " What reason can a benevolent being give, as exciting 
 
108 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 him to hazard his life in a just war ? This, perhaps, 
 such conduct tends to the happiness of his country. 
 Ask him why he serves his country, he will say, his 
 country is a very valuable part of mankind. Why 
 does he study the happiness of mankind ? If his affec- 
 tions be really disinterested, he can give no exciting 
 reason for it : the happiness of mankind in general, 
 or of any valuable part of it, is an ultimate end to that 
 series of desires." (Illustrations of the Moral Sense, 
 Francis Hutcheson.) What a vast object is here pre- 
 sented to the intellect to awaken its noblest emotions ! 
 The happiness of mankind ! ! Dr. Paley, at first view, 
 seems to differ very much from President Edwards. 
 But their systems are essentially the same. Dr. Paley 
 makes utility the object of virtue ; Edwards, benevo- 
 lence ; and they are opposite ends of the same pole. 
 One is subjective, the other objective. Benevolence 
 seeks lasting utility, and lasting utility flows from be- 
 nevolence ; and it is curious to see how the material 
 mind of Paley fastened on the end he saw best, and 
 the spiritual mind of Edwards entered the depths of 
 the soul to find the intention. But after all, the sys- 
 tems are the same ; the one is unintelligible without 
 supposing the other. But what a vast objective do 
 they present to the intellect, in order, through its 
 idealizing, to move the heart. Or, if you make God 
 the object, you still present a vast, growing, infinite 
 idea. When the humblest inquirer is exhorted to 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 109 
 
 love Christ, how much is supposed to be understood ! 
 Christ is our prophet, priest, and king; he died for 
 our sins ; how came we sinners ? the fall of man ; the 
 law of God ; our guilt and condemnation ; our re- 
 demption and the need of it, the whole moral his- 
 tory of the world combines and mingles in the object of 
 this glowing passion ; and the system must be under- 
 stood, in some degree at least, before the passion can 
 be felt. We must see the beauty before we can feel 
 the love. Non est amor, ubi nihil amatur* And what 
 is the beauty ? 
 
 It has been objected to Edwards and Hutcheson, 
 that the love they demand is .too metaphysical, that 
 they present only abstractions, the hardest thing for 
 the mind to feel a passion for. Sir James Mackintosh 
 remarks, that to call us to love Being in general is 
 to present to the mind one of the most incompre- 
 hensible objects imaginable, the least likely to touch 
 our emotions. But they have anticipated this objec- 
 tion and provided for it. Edwards says : " When I 
 say that virtue consists in love to Being in general, 
 I shall not be likely to be understood that no one 
 act of the mind or exercise of love is of the nature 
 of virtue, but what has Being in general, or the great 
 system of universal existence, for its direct and imme- 
 diate object ; so that no exercise of love or kind affec- 
 
 * Augustine, De Trinitate, Lib. IX. 2. From Hagenbach's History of 
 Doctrines, Vol. I. p. 286. 
 
110 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 tion to any one particular being, that is but a small 
 part of that whole, has anything of the nature of true 
 virtue. But that the nature of true virtue consists 
 in a disposition to benevolence towards Being in gen- 
 eral ; though from such a disposition may arise exer- 
 cises of love to particular beings, as objects are pre- 
 sented and occasions arise." (Nature of True Virtue, 
 Chap. I.) And Hutcheson says : " We may tran- 
 siently observe a mistake which some fall into. They 
 suppose, because they have formed some conception 
 of an infinite good, the greatest possible aggregate 
 or sum of happiness, under which all particular 
 pleasures may be included, that there is also some 
 one great ultimate end, with a view to which every 
 particular object is desired ; whereas, in truth, each 
 particular pleasure is desired without further view as an 
 ultimate end in the selfish desires. It is true the pros- 
 pect of a greater inconsistent pleasure may surmount or 
 stop this desire ; so may the fear of a prepollent evil. 
 But this does not prove that all men have formed ideas 
 of infinite good, or greatest possible aggregate ; or 
 that they have any instinct or desire actually operating 
 without an idea of its object. Just so in the benevo- 
 lent affections, the happiness of any one person is an 
 ultimate end, desired with no further view; and yet 
 the observing its inconsistency with the happiness of 
 another more beloved, or with the happiness of many, 
 though each one of them were but equally beloved, 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. Ill 
 
 may overcome the former desire. Yet this will not 
 prove that in each kind action men form the abstract 
 conception of all mankind, or the system of rationals. 
 Such conceptions are indeed useful, that so we may 
 gratify either our self-love or kind affections in the full- 
 est manner, as far as our power extends ; and may 
 not content ourselves with smaller degrees either of 
 private or public good while greater are in our power : 
 but when we have formed these conceptions, we do 
 not serve the individual only from the love to the 
 species, no more than we desire grapes with an inten- 
 tion of the greatest aggregate of happiness, or from 
 the apprehension that they make a part of the general 
 sum of our happiness. These conceptions only serve to 
 suggest greater ends than would occur to us without 
 reflection ; and by the prepollency of one desire toward 
 the greater good, to either private or public, to stop the 
 desire toward the smaller good, when it appears incon- 
 sistent with the greater." (Illustrations of the Moral 
 Sense, Sect. I. pp. 222, 223.) No doubt the mitiga- 
 tions of these profound thinkers were intended to meet 
 an objection thus expressed by Lord Shaftesbury (The 
 Moralist, p. 243) : " As for a plain natural love of 
 one single person in either sex, I could compass it, I 
 thought, well enough ; but this complex universal sort 
 was beyond my reach. I could love the individual, 
 but not the species. This was too mysterious ; too 
 metaphysical an object for me. In short, I could love 
 
112 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 nothing of which I had not some sensible, material 
 image." 
 
 No doubt others have felt the difficulty. "When we 
 are told that virtue is love to sentient being in gen- 
 eral, we can hardly refuse our assent to the proposi- 
 tion, and yet we find a difficulty in forming so vast 
 a conception to awaken our hearts. The Bible shows 
 the amazing wisdom of God in overcoming this obsta- 
 cle, in giving us a mediiim which preserves the force, 
 without distracting us with the vastness of the object. 
 This is done in two ways. First, the law of God says, 
 " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Thy neigh- 
 bor ! consider the term. Not thy friend, thy son, thy 
 relative, or thy countryman, but THY NEIGHBOR, a 
 specimen of humanity whom the providence of God 
 has placed in thy vicinage, and therefore put within the 
 reach of thy loving-kindness or malignity.* Thy neigh- 
 bor ! who may be a good or a bad man, and whose 
 place may be supplied by another bearing the same rela- 
 tion. Thy love to him also may be practical, and there- 
 fore he becomes a just representative of the vast idea. 
 Just as one rose expresses the beauty of a class, f The 
 
 * " The presence of humanity in the person of his neighbor/' is the fine 
 expression of Coleridge. (Friend, No. VI.) 
 
 t Burke thus describes the sentimentalism of French philosophy, in his 
 letter to a member of the National Assembly (p. 287) : lt Benevolence to 
 the whole species, and want of feeling for every individual with whom the 
 professors come in contact, form the character of the new philosophy." 
 The Bible reverses this. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 113 
 
 other means of approximating the remote and concen- 
 trating the vast comes from the incarnation of the 
 Deity in Jesus Christ. Do you love him ? Do you 
 embrace the great idea for which Christ came into the 
 world ? If you love him, you love God, you love the 
 universe, you embrace the whole. He lays down 
 his life for our redemption, and all that is dreadful 
 in universal misery or cheering in universal purity 
 and bliss combines in his person to make our regard 
 to him an indication of the state of our hearts, and 
 a certain test of our character. " What think ye of 
 Christ ? " 
 
 In the lowest form of love there is always an ob- 
 jective, and that objective always addresses the heart 
 through the intellect. You admire a landscape ; you 
 say with old Burton (Anatomy of Melancholy, Vol. II. 
 Part 3, Sect. 2) : " Whiteness in the lily, red in the 
 rose, purple in the violet, a lustre of all things without 
 life, the clear light of the moon, the bright beams of the 
 sun, splendor of gold, purple, sparkling diamond, the 
 excellent features of the horse, the majesty of the lion, 
 the color of birds, peacocks' tails, the silver scales of 
 fish, we behold with singular delight and admiration." 
 The Greek word KOO-HOS suggests how mental the beauty 
 on which our passion feeds. Why was such a term 
 applied to the world ? It was to express their admi- 
 ration, and to show how many elements of thought and 
 perception combined in producing it. What a view 
 
 H 
 
114 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 must the astronomer have to kindle his admiration ; 
 and if an undevout astronomer is mad, what an im- 
 pression must he have if he is sane, of the works of 
 God ! Even the lover, before he can justify his raving, 
 must impute every perfection to his mistress. 
 
 " O speak again, bright angel, for thou art 
 As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, 
 As is a winged messenger of heaven 
 Unto the white-upturned, wondering eyes 
 Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, 
 When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds, 
 And sails upon the bosom of the air." 
 
 Thirdly, but there is still a greater wonder about 
 the intellectuality of our moral emotions ; and that is, 
 they may be said to create the conception about which 
 our reason is employed in moral subjects ; what I 
 mean to say is, that reason would have nothing to do 
 about duty or sin, religion or virtue, if we could strike 
 out of our minds all that the heart gives to the mind, 
 or all that the mind reflects back to the heart ; the 
 heart must teach the mind what virtue is, and the 
 mind must teach the heart the great objects which 
 virtue seeks.* Let us suppose a being born capable 
 
 * I was never more struck with the truth of this remark, than in a con- 
 versation once with my neighbor, Bartimeus. Bartimeus is a freethinker, 
 and some of his notions are so very free as to astonish everybody bnt him- 
 self. He has undoubtedly cultivated a love of paradox, and loves to say 
 startling things. I have no doubt he has a peculiar mind, but whether it is 
 so very peculiar as he often represents it is a question. He is a very ex- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 115 
 
 of one sensation, -intense pain. He is born as Lu- 
 cretius tells us the infant is born : 
 
 " Turn porro puer, ut saevis projectus ab undis 
 Navita, nudus humi jacet, infans, indigus 
 Vital auxilio." Lib. V. p. 196. 
 
 " Naked he lies and ready to expire, 
 Helpless of all that human wants require ; 
 Straight with foreboding cries he fills the room, 
 Too true presages of his future doom." 
 
 DRTDEN. 
 
 It is evident from this single sensation, that the little 
 speculator cannot be a sceptic on the subject of mor- 
 als ; for pain is too real a thing to leave us to doubt 
 
 cursive man, and has no great reverence for common sense. He loves to 
 startle and perplex, and never more so than when talking on religion. I 
 often converse with him j sometimes out of curiosity to measure a peculiar 
 mind, and sometimes with the faint hope of doing him good. "We were 
 conversing the other day, as usual, about religion, and I was endeavoring 
 to enforce the claims of the Gospel from the inadequacy of all our tem- 
 poral pursuits to our substantial happiness. I was waxing eloquent, when 
 Bartimeus cut me short by saying that he understood nothing that I ut- 
 tered ; he had not the least feeling of this inadequacy ; no longings after 
 immortal happiness ; he was perfectly satisfied with this life ; and as to 
 death, sleep was what he always prized more than conscious existence, or 
 any felicity it could receive ; and an everlasting slumber, which he calmly 
 expected, was the greatest blessing he could receive. The only answer I 
 could make him was, Neighbor, if it is really so, and you have given 
 a just description of your inward nature, I must confess you are victor 
 in our discussion. If your feelings are universal, religion falls to the 
 ground. But what shall I say ? I must not call you a liar, it would 
 be unneighborly and impolite ; but yet allow me earnestly to hope that the 
 next time we meet you will say something that I find it possible for me 
 to believe : Adversus negantem principia non est disputandum, 
 
116 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 our own existence, or an outward cause, and hence 
 an outward world. The sufferer must rejoice in the 
 removal of the pain ; and hence a step towards the 
 idea of happiness. Suppose the sensation of pain and 
 relief, and still more positive happiness, then come the 
 ideas of intention in inflicting the one and bestowing 
 the other, and also the ideas of indifference about each ; 
 and hence the ideas of will and intention, and law, 
 arid benevolence, and selfishness, and conscience, and 
 virtue and vice, all clustering around the first sim- 
 ple sensation. It appears probable that our longings 
 after immortality and our first ideas of immortal feli- 
 city come in this way ; for suppose a being thus to 
 suffer and thus to be relieved, as Plato has said, must 
 not such a being have an aversion to misery and a 
 desire of happiness ? and on the principle that it de- 
 sires happiness, must it not desire more happiness, 
 and is not the more the longer ? Can we conceive 
 of a being having one moment of felicity, not wishing 
 for two, ten, ten thousand, and so on to an everlast- 
 ing duration ? So when we see a suffering infant, we 
 see the foundation nature has laid for the sublime con- 
 ception of an everlasting heaven. Even the justice of 
 God himself becomes conceivable from the same expe- 
 rience. The proof is complete ; it is both analytic 
 and synthetic. Suppose the capacity of the happiness 
 and the pain, and the whole world of moral ideas rises ; 
 take away that capacity, and I see not, though all the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 117 
 
 world should be intellectual (if intellection is supposa- 
 ble without the capacity of suffering or happiness), 
 I see not how virtue, merit, conscience, law, justice in 
 God or man, could exist. They would have -no mate- 
 rial ; no relation ; no intelligible exponent ; no exist- 
 ence. I doubt whether even a theory could be formed 
 of them. Take the very etymology of the word benev- 
 olence, good-will; wishing well. But how can you 
 wish well unless you wish relief from suffering, or the 
 imparting or increase of relief, or happiness ? Your 
 moral terms must have an exponent. This is what 
 Dr. Campbell means, I suppose, when he says : "No 
 hypothesis hitherto invented hath shown that, by means 
 of the discursive faculty, without the aid of any other 
 mental power, we could ever obtain a notion of either 
 the beautiful or the good." (Philos. of Rhetoric, Yol. 
 I. p. 204.) And Hutcheson before had said : " Per- 
 haps what has brought the epithet reasonable, or flow- 
 ing from reason, in opposition to what flows from 
 instinct, affection, or passion, so much into use, is this, 
 that it is often observed that the very best of our par- 
 ticular affections or desires, when they are grown vio- 
 lent and passionate, through the confused sensations 
 and propensities which attend them, make us incapa- 
 ble of considering calmly the whole tendency of our 
 actions, and lead us often into what is absolutely per- 
 nicious, under some appearance of relative or partic- 
 ular good. This, indeed, may give some ground for 
 
118 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 distinguishing between passionate actions and those 
 from calm desire or affection which employs our rea- 
 son freely ; but can never set rational actions in oppo- 
 sition to those from instinct, desire, or affection. And 
 it must be owned that the most perfect virtue consists 
 in the calm unpassionate benevolence, rather than par- 
 ticular affections." (The Moral Sense, p. 283.) 
 
 Perhaps Hutcheson goes too far when he calls this 
 passion an instinct. The objective of an instinct is 
 not always seen by the being that feels it. I am labor- 
 ing to prove that in all intellectual beings it is an 
 exalted affection ; it comprehends its own end. Hutch- 
 eson always adds, "or affection," instinct, or affec- 
 tion. President Edwards has beautifully corrected this 
 defect in Hutcheson in his Essay on Virtue, chapter 
 eighth, which is the profoundest part of that profound 
 Essay. 
 
 We come, then, to the conclusion, that our lowest 
 sensation is the latent foundation of our highest knowl- 
 edge. Love is the original, all-pervading idea in re- 
 ligion ; and the nature of love is known by what it 
 seeks. It is the character of God himself that he 
 " shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 
 xxi. 4.) That tells the whole secret. Without the 
 previous conception of happiness and misery, moral- 
 ity and religion have no existence. These open the 
 sphere for all the virtues, human or divine ; and this 
 is perhaps what Bishop Tayler meant when he said : 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 119 
 
 " Every man understands more of religion by his affec- 
 tions than by his reason. It is not the wit of the 
 man, but the spirit of the man ; not so much his 
 head as his heart that learns the divine philosophy." 
 (Via Intelligentiae.) 
 
 The writers who, like Cud worth, More, etc., have 
 traced virtue and vice to our reason, have always been 
 obliged (consciously or unconsciously) to enlarge the 
 meaning. Reason* with them is not the power of rea- 
 soning ; it is the comprehensive source of all our 
 moral knowledge. 
 
 Perhaps it may be too nice a speculation, but I can- 
 not help thinking that the reason why the fearful threat- 
 ening of an eternal hell is so clearly revealed in the 
 Bible, is not always clearly understood. The thought 
 steals on me when I read some of Lord Shaftesbury's 
 speculations concerning the mercenary nature of a 
 religion founded on rewards and punishments. Is it 
 the design of the doctrine of eternal punishment to 
 address our fears only ? Is the opposition solely be- 
 tween a crouching and a disinterested spirit ? Do we 
 not gain his Lordship's avowed object better in the 
 teaching of Christ than his own ? God is love ; the 
 magnitude of his love is seen in its exponents. He 
 delivers us from a great ruin. The Gospel is a great 
 salvation ; great, because it pardons and removes great 
 sin. But sin, likewise, is seen in its exponents. Eter- 
 nal punishment is the fact, the measure in which we 
 
120 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 see the extent of our sin and the justice of God. 
 when such a load is felt to be merited, and when Di- 
 vine compassion takes it off, then we see how great 
 His mercy to the children of men ! In a word, the man 
 that believes his sins to be so great as justly to plunge 
 him in all this ruin, and sees the compassion of Christ 
 in taking away this penalty by his own substituted 
 suffering, has the conception of a favor which no one 
 can conceive in any other way. The purpose of hell, 
 then, is not to work on our fears solely, or mainly, 
 but to show the infinite magnitude of the love of God. 
 Again, Divine love must be a disinterested passion. 
 But what possible opportunity is there for an heroic 
 self-sacrifice where there is no danger ? Paul shows the 
 highest flight of this spirit when he says : "I could 
 wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, 
 my kinsmen according to the flesh." Lastly, if we 
 love God, it must be for his perfections. Justice is 
 one ; now the dreadful penalty takes us from our finite 
 conceptions to the great idea which cannot exist un- 
 less verified by facts. This is the great fact, which 
 presents us at once with a mirror and a test; a mir- 
 ror to see what Divine justice is, and a test to see 
 whether we bow to its manifestation. 
 
 In fine, run through the whole vocabulary of relig- 
 ion, ruin, redemption, a Saviour, a sacrifice, mercy, 
 justice, repentance, faith, a conscience, a law, sin, holi- 
 ness, -5- we shall find that they all derive their meaning 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 121 
 
 from the sentient nature of man, and from the con- 
 cepts which, if reason uses, the passions and feelings 
 alone can create, or make intelligible. 
 
 I need not, therefore, avail myself of the common 
 remark that the passions are useful to stir up the slug- 
 gish intellect, to concentrate the attention, and to put 
 the powers of the soul in motion, 
 
 " The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 
 Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole," 
 
 since they CREATE their own vision, and give coloring 
 to the picture which justifies their existence. 
 
 This subject may explain how it is that in religion 
 such sudden revolutions happen in the mind. To-day 
 a man cannot see the proofs of revelation ; it is all 
 a dream to him ; to-morrow it becomes a dread real- 
 ity, all his views are changed. Are such sudden 
 impressions enthusiasm? Are they miraculous? No, 
 neither ; but the foundation impression is made on his 
 heart. The elements of a new reasoning enter his 
 soul. He has found out that pain may come from 
 sin; and as pain is a reality, so sin is a reality, and 
 from these dread realities relief is desirable. The Gos- 
 pel now has a meaning, because it has an object. The 
 feelings are inspiring, they really give the ideas. It is 
 true that all know what pain is ; but when sin and dan- 
 ger are positive conceptions because deeply felt, then 
 all the truths of the Gospel have an end and a reality 
 6 
 
122 THE MANUDUCTIOX. 
 
 never seen before. They have a foundation in expe- 
 rience. 
 
 Another mystery may be explained by the view which 
 we have taken. All anthropology leads us to recognize 
 the ignorance of man. Whether you trace knowledge 
 to reason, or experience, the one is feeble, and the 
 other is of yesterday, and knows comparatively nothing. 
 In matter, for example, no analysis is final, no chem- 
 ist has as yet found the elements of things, or can 
 conceive or imagine how they can be found ; that is, 
 you cannot imagine yourself to find a substance so 
 simple as to give you certain proof that it is not sus- 
 ceptible of a new analysis. Nature keeps retiring as 
 with new implements we pursue her, and no one can 
 say that a simple substance has yet been found. Every 
 discovery reveals new questions and new ignorance ; 
 and even the known leads to the unknown. So in 
 metaphysics, who can say that the permanent termi- 
 nology has yet been found. Every analysis has been 
 analyzed upon, and the absolute idea eludes our grasp. 
 It is not sceptics alone, like Hume, that enforce this 
 confession of ignorance in order to perplex our faith, 
 but the most earnest writers, the most sincere, have 
 been the first to allow it. Nay, even the Bible itself 
 says, "We see through a glass darkly." (1 Cor. xiii. 
 12.) Let any one read the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, 
 and fortieth chapters of Job, and reflect on the testi- 
 mony of God himself to a position which, by denying 
 
THE MA_NUDUCTION. 123 
 
 all human wisdom, leads to the truest wisdom. Pas- 
 cal owns it. Bishop Butler, the acutest of all moral 
 writers, and the most earnest, lays the foundation of 
 his whole system in the ignorance of man. "Our 
 own nature, and the objects we are surrounded with, 
 serve to raise our curiosity ; but we are quite out 
 of a condition of satisfying it. Every secret which is 
 disclosed, every discovery which is made, every new 
 effect which is brought to view, serves to convince us. 
 of numberless more which remain concealed, and which 
 we had before no suspicion of. And what if we were 
 acquainted with the whole creation, in the same way 
 and as thoroughly as we are with any single object of 
 it. What would all this natural knowledge amount 
 to ? It must be a low curiosity indeed which such 
 superficial knowledge could satisfy. On the contrary, 
 would it not serve to convince us of our ignorance 
 still, and to raise our desire of knowing the nature of 
 things themselves, the author, the cause, and the end 
 of them ? " (Sermons, Ser. XY.) And in his Anal- 
 ogy he says: "To us probability is the guide of life." 
 
 Indeed, every self-knowing man must assent to the 
 proofs offered by philosophers, repeated by saints, and 
 confirmed by the solemn testimony of inspiration itself. 
 We seldom find an intelligent believer in revelation 
 who is not something of a distrustful sceptic in phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 But now comes the difficulty. How shall we recon- 
 
124 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 cile the testimony to the weakness of our powers with 
 the claims of revelation ? Our Savioiir requires faith, 
 strong faith, strong enough to conquer our sins and 
 throw us even on martyrdom. We must take up our 
 cross ; we must have a strength of principle which 
 pleasure cannot soften nor danger subdue. In short, 
 we must be enthusiasts in his cause. But did enthu- 
 siasm ever arise in a speculating, questioning, object- 
 ing, balancing, doubtful mind ? Does it not spring 
 from deep conviction ? Must not the mind be sure 
 before the heart can burn ? Could Bayle, Gibbon, 
 Hume, be religious enthusiasts ? And does not even 
 the reverential Butler, though he answers objections 
 wonderfully, and satisfies our intellectual nature, 
 does he not in his Sermons and Analogy leave the 
 reader's heart as cold as his own ? This objection to 
 such rational but weak convictions is an old one. It 
 was made by Lucullus in Cicero to the old Academics, 
 whose views of human ignorance were very similar to 
 those of Butler : " Maxime vero virtutum cognitio con- 
 firmat, percipi et comprehend! multa posse. In quibus 
 solis inesse scientiam dicimus ; quam nos non com- 
 prehensionem modo rerum, sed earn stabilem quoque 
 atque immutabilem esse censemus : itemque sapientiam, 
 artem vivendi, quae ipsa ex sese habeat constantiam. 
 Ea autem constantia si nihil habeat percepti et cog- 
 niti, quaero, unde nata sit et quammodo ? Quaero 
 etiam, ille vir bonus, qui statuit omnem cruciatum per- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 125 
 
 ferre, intolerabili dolore lacerari, potius quam aut offi- 
 cium prodat, aut fidem, cur has sibi tarn graves leges 
 imposuerit, cum, quamobrem ita oporteret, nihil ha- 
 beret comprehensi, percept! , cogniti, constituti ? Nullo ' 
 igitur modo fieri potest, ut quisquam tanti aestimet 
 aequitatem et fidem, ut ejus conservandae causa nul- 
 lum supplicium recuset, nisi iis rebus assensus sit, 
 quae falsae esse non possunt." (Cicero's Lucullus, 
 Sect. 8.) And we all feel that ardor leads to strong 
 conviction, and strong conviction increases our ardor. 
 Hence our Saviour inculcates strong faith on his dis- 
 ciples, and they pray to him, " Lord, increase our 
 faith." 
 
 Now how are these opposite claims of our nature 
 to be met? How are we to avoid at once the blind 
 confidence of a deluded mind, and the cold indiffer- 
 ence of a doubting heart ? 
 
 The answer, it seems to me, is suggested in this 
 wonderful Song of Solomon, and in the view of our na- 
 ture and of religion to which it leads us. The bride 
 is full of ardor to her celestial bridegroom, and has 
 no doubt of the beauty she perceives. He is to her 
 the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. 
 She is at least sure of that. Her confidence does not 
 come from a doubtful solution of doubtful doubts, but 
 from a vivid perception of unspeakable excellence. 
 " My beloved is like a roe or a young hart : behold, 
 he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the 
 
126 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 windows, showing himself through the lattice." (Sol- 
 omon's Song, ii. 9.) Religion has a region of its own. 
 Divine beauty warrants its own reality ; and then it 
 stands on the basis of one of our most certain con- 
 ceptions. 
 
 Take the Platonic way of proving, first supposing 
 the existence of a principle, then its non-existence ; 
 place it, take it away, and see the consequences of 
 each hypothesis. First, let us deny that an individual 
 has any perception o.r any belief that his susceptibility 
 of pleasure or pain have anything to do, as exponents 
 or effects, with justice or benevolence in God or man ; 
 or suppose the perception to be feeble or doubtful ; 
 of course the world of religious ideas is lost to him, 
 he can no more be susceptible to religious impres- 
 sions than iron can have the malleability of lead. Tell 
 him the story of the good Samaritan, or of Christ dy- 
 ing on the cross ; it is lost to him, he cannot believe 
 in a world that he cannot see. Place the perception 
 before him, with all its circling host of beauties and 
 glories, and a new scene opens. The ideal is at least 
 beautiful. Give him the relish for benevolence, the 
 aim, the design, the pleasure, and his ardor is kin- 
 dled, and he knows how to found a strong faith on a 
 system that has every evidence but that of a math- 
 ematical demonstration. His metaphysical proof, per- 
 haps, has not increased, but his heart burns. 
 
 I lately looked out of my window, and saw the frag- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 127 
 
 inent of a rainbow painted on the fragment of a 
 cloud. Whatever a rainbow may be as a series of 
 causes, it is, it was, supremely beautiful ; and its 
 beauty is nine tenths of its existence. My admiration 
 was fixed on its greatest reality. 
 
 This, then, is the nature of strong faith. It is strong 
 relative to the powers of man, because it is felt under 
 the condition of feeble powers, moral proofs, natural 
 doubts, sinful blindness, and a perception vivid enough 
 to overcome them all. It is strong, as the earthquake 
 is strong when it shakes the mountain, because it over- 
 comes the strong power of gravitation. It is strong, 
 because it can conquer the natural apathy and scep- 
 ticism of the human heart. It is strong as a light- 
 house beam is strong in a stormy night when it shines 
 over a dark sea. 
 
 Our Saviour seems to sanction our view of the ori- 
 gin of all the benevolent affections, and, of course, 
 all virtue in our susceptibilities of pain and happi- 
 ness, when he says : " All things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; 
 for this is the law and the prophets." (Matt. vii. 12.) 
 This passage is an appeal to our experience, our 
 Lord makes our selfishness our instructor. The mean- 
 ing seems to be, You have suffered from your fellow- 
 men ; you know the bitterness of an injury. Have 
 you been neglected, scorned, slandered, imprisoned ? 
 Let your sufferings instruct you, and beware how yoi 
 
 " 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
 
128 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 inflict what you shudder to feel. On the other hand, 
 have you been relieved ? Have you heard the sweet 
 voice of consolation ? Were you hungry, and did some 
 one feed you ? Were you in prison, and did he come 
 unto you ? It is at once a lesson and a motive to 
 scatter the bliss which your own experience has taught 
 you to prize. Now, in all this, is not the assump- 
 tion that all our moral conceptions spring up from 
 one centre, our sentient nature, our susceptibility of 
 pain and pleasure, the exponent of a good or bad 
 intention in him that imparts them ? 
 
 There is yet another application of this subject. 
 Our Saviour says : " Wisdom is justified of all her 
 children " (Luke vii. 35) ; implying, no doubt, that she 
 is not justified by those who are not her children. 
 And it is curious to see how, in all the forms in 
 which the wisdom of God is manifested, men judge 
 as their moral taste directs their attention. Everything 
 has two handles, and we may take hold of it by the 
 best or the worst. We can scarcely admit a moral 
 or political hypothesis, but we can collect a train of 
 facts to support it. If there be a God, no doubt the 
 material creation is a manifestation of his wisdom ; 
 but then, as Burke says, " a mind that has no re- 
 straint from its own weakness, would not find it diffi- 
 cult to criticise creation itself. Indeed, it has been 
 done. That beautiful order which Cicero's Lucullus 
 sees in the creation "Terra vestita floribus," &c., 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 129 
 
 in the Second Book De Natura Deorum is reversed 
 completely by Lucretius in his Fifth Book. The one 
 says the earth is so beautiful that it must have been 
 made by God ; the other says it is so abominably bad 
 that it cannot be the work of a good being. 
 
 "Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam 
 Naturam rerum, tanta stat praedita culpa." 
 
 De Rerum Natura, Lib. V. 
 
 "Where Dr. Paley finds such proofs of wise design, 
 the Epicurean sees nothing but disorder and confu- 
 sion ; and the way "they prove their point is, the 
 theist selects all the good things in creation he can 
 find, and the infidel all that he fancies to be bad ; the 
 one fastens on the rose, and the other the thorn ; so, 
 in surveying the course of providence, how different 
 the selection ! The pious man can tell you how often 
 his prayers have been answered, and the sceptic can 
 show how often they have been frustrated. Bayle and 
 St. Bernard would each have their long catalogue, not 
 one item of which would be the same. Claudian dif- 
 fered from himself; and, in Diogenes's view, Harpalus 
 bears witness against the very existence of the gods. 
 The question whether the good old times were better 
 than the present, always sets different men to selecting 
 different series of facts. In order to prove that man- 
 kind have degenerated, all you have to do is, hunt 
 up the heroes, collect their good deeds leave out all 
 6* t 
 
130 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 their faults and imperfections, throw into shade com- 
 mon life, present the worst side of modern life, in 
 short, instead of two full pictures, get two profiles 
 of faults concealed and beauties selected, and vice 
 versa, and you can prove your point to your own 
 complete satisfaction. But there is no place where 
 our Saviour's remark is more applicable than to the 
 Bible. If the Bible is the Word, it is, of course, 
 the wisdom of God ; here wisdom is justified of all 
 her children, and of none others. I have often ad- 
 mired, in reading the criticisms of Eichhorn, Rosen- 
 miiller, Strauss, &c., how ingenious they are in finding 
 all that makes against supernaturalism, and nothing 
 in its favor. It is really marvellous. Difficulties 
 which I never thought of which occurred not to 
 the Calvins and Pooles, and even the Grotiuses of the 
 Reformation spring up in their minds like weeds 
 among the flowers. Thus the story of the garden of 
 Eden and the Fall, illustrating the purpose and design 
 of God, is a myth ; the flood, instead of being a sur- 
 prising miracle, is an impossibility ; the awful dark- 
 ness on Sinai is a thunder-storm, and, some say, a 
 brushwood fire kindled by Moses ; while the wonder- 
 ful law engraved on tables of stone (certainly won- 
 derful for the charlatan that kindled the brushwood 
 fire) attracts no attention. The sublime unity which 
 runs through the Old Testament and the New, such as 
 is shown by Edwards in his History of Redemption, 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 131 
 
 they never see nor suspect. The Bible to them is a 
 book of fragments. Its supernaturalism is not needed, 
 and has, therefore, no end or aim. They expatiate on 
 the trifling laws in Leviticus, but not a word about the 
 remarkable book, Deuteronomy. The ritual of Moses 
 they gloat on ; the pure devotion of the Psalms they 
 cannot see ; in short, there reigns in all their works 
 this sophism : with a perverse ingenuity to select all 
 the archaisms of the Bible, exaggerate them and turn 
 them into myths, ignore all that is sublime and spir- 
 itual, totally to overlook its unity, and thus prove that 
 the Bible cannot receive our veneration as the word 
 of God. what blindness ! what penetration ! Pen- 
 etration to see all that has the shadow of an objection, 
 and blindness to all the truth by which the objection 
 might be removed. If Psyche, when she was ordered 
 to select the seeds, had taken the poppy and vetches 
 to herself, and left wheat and barley to the goddess 
 of beauty, she would have left us an expressive myth 
 of modern learning. 
 
 Now the question comes, How is it that men, pro- 
 fessing to be scholars, and some of them Christians, 
 can see the word of God in such a wonderful light ? 
 We can only quote the Saviour's maxim, "Wisdom 
 is justified of all her children." The reason why men 
 select in this way must be that they have no percep- 
 tion of the glory that gilds the sacred page. If the 
 wisdom of God is there, they certainly do not see it. 
 
132 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 I allow, indeed, that there are difficulties in the sacred 
 history ; but I utterly deny that a man is prepared 
 to encounter them until he has seen the wisdom with 
 which they are combined. No man is fit even to 
 weed a garden, until he is taught, both by taste and 
 experience, to distinguish the weeds from the flowers. 
 I will only add, that I suppose all the apparent weeds 
 in the garden of God (i. e. the apparent myths in 
 this ancient record) to arise from the Divine conde- 
 scension to the wants of mankind. If the Bible comes 
 from the sublimest of Beings, we must equally remem- 
 ber it is addressed to the meanest. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 133 
 
 V. 
 
 THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN INTERPRETING 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 THE first and most important principle in the Chris- 
 tian religion is to believe in the existence and author- 
 ity of a Divine revelation. Our religion is founded 
 on faith, and our faith rests on a Divine testimony. 
 God has spoken, and " the voice of the Lord is pow- 
 erful ; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty." It 
 is implied in a revelation, that we have more power 
 to see and prove that the Bible is a Divine revela- 
 tion, than we have to foretell what its components 
 should be, that is, we have a recognizing, but not 
 an inventing power. 
 
 The authority of Scripture depends on inspiration. 
 " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Tim- 
 othy iii. 16.) 
 
 I am in favor of adopting the highest ideas of in- 
 spiration. The teachings of God cannot be too com- 
 plete. He has exhausted the power of language. It 
 is a marvellous instrument used by an omniscient 
 tongue. So that we may say, with Hilarius: "De in- 
 
134 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 telligentia haeresis, non de scriptura ; et sensus, non 
 sermo, fit crimen ; " " Heresy arises from misunder- 
 standing the Scripture ; not from any defect in the 
 Scripture itself. The fault is in the interpretation." 
 
 But though I believe in the highest inspiration, for 
 that very reason I do not believe in a verbal inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 The reasons for not believing in a verbal inspira- 
 tion are : 
 
 First, it is not necessary to the highest accuracy ; 
 a single word is not the best way to fix an important 
 meaning. Secondly, if the inspiration were verbal, it 
 would cease with the first translation, and no one pre- 
 tends that translators were inspired. Thirdly, the Apos- 
 tles are very careless about verbal accuracy. They 
 have a holy indifference to a minute and literal exact- 
 ness. They quote from the Septuagint, and sometimes 
 apparently from memory. Fourthly, God has not pre- 
 served the copies verbally perfect, which seems neces- 
 sary to place us on a level with the first receivers 
 of the Word. He is no respecter of persons. Fifthly, 
 each writer shows his own spontaneous genius. Sixthly, 
 the Greek language makes a distinction between \oyoi 
 and pfoaTa, the mental and the spoken word, 
 and it seems to confine inspiration to the former. 
 Seventhly, in the parallel places . (as the inscription 
 of the cross, &c.) there is a verbal variety. How is 
 this, if the Scriptures aimed to teach us a verbal in- 
 
THE MANUDUCTTON. 135 
 
 spiration ? * Eighthly, if verbal accuracy had been 
 necessary, God would hardly have chosen so primitive 
 a language as the Hebrew as a vehicle of the greater 
 part of inspiration. And, lastly, none of the passages 
 claimed as teaching verbal inspiration necessitate that 
 meaning, as 1 Cor. ii. 13 ; not in the words of mortal 
 wisdom, but \oyoi which the Holy Ghost teacheth, inter- 
 preting' spiritual thoughts in spiritual terminology. And 
 further, the most important words in revelation depend 
 upon something behind themselves. A long history is 
 sometimes given to prepare the way for the concep- 
 tion of a word. Thus the word GOD would not be 
 understood by a pagan mind. The history of what 
 God has done shows who God is. CREATOR is a word 
 that poorly imparts its own meaning. Providence, 
 soul, sacrifice, expiation, the Holy Spirit, Divine influ- 
 ence, faith, justification, an apostle, all are terms 
 which are explained by their collocation in the great 
 system. We must travel beyond the word to find its 
 
 * The two recensions of the eighteenth Psalm are sufficient to show that 
 the sacred writers did not embark their meaning in a bottom of frail verbal- 
 isms. Let the reader compare the readings in 2 Samuel xxii. and those in 
 the eighteenth Psalm, and mark the significance. Two things are notice- 
 able ; first, the verbal variety, precluding all possibility of contingency, 
 and secondly, the non-importance of the difference. Not one of the changes 
 in the later copy (whichever it be) has more than a shade of change in 
 the meaning. The lesson of comparing the two seems to be, Be not 
 a pedant ; be not a word-catcher, that lives on syllables ; rise to the grand- 
 eur of a Divine conception, and place the strength of Scripture where 
 God, by his own example, has placed it. 
 
136 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 meaning. If you insist on a verbal inspiration, you 
 inevitably narrow your mind down to a partial concep- 
 tion, and, of course, a weaker one ; to say nothing of 
 the host of difficulties which you raise against your 
 system, which will inject doubts into other minds, if 
 not your own. The Bible is as perfect as it can be. 
 It has the perfection of God. 
 
 The aim of the verbalists is good, but is not reached. 
 The sacred writers seem to feel very much as a lawyer 
 does in making out his declaration or rejoinder in a 
 cause ; he dare not trust one word, he varies his 
 expressions ; and I have been told that Judge Par- 
 sons was accustomed to say, " Better use twenty words 
 too many, than one too few." The Hebrew language 
 is always correcting itself, repeating the idea. You 
 see the relics of picture-writing. The parallelisms in 
 Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Prophets, are remarkable, 
 and they use poetry and comparison endlessly, just 
 like men who did not embark their meaning in a sin- 
 gle delegated word. Indeed, the question becomes use- 
 less when we remember the omniscience and general 
 perfection of God. Contingencies are nothing to him. 
 His will shines through them. The Syro-Chaldaic was 
 spoken in Palestine in the time of Christ, and Dr. 
 Davidson thinks Matthew was written in this dialect. 
 So the most important teacher eludes our verbal grasp. 
 The original verbal inspiration of Christ's discourses 
 is not preserved to us. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 137 
 
 One of the difficulties respecting inspiration arises 
 from not understanding its nature and design, in 
 whose rnind it originates, and to what purpose it is 
 directed. It originates in the Divine mind, and is a 
 perfection of God, and its object is to set before man 
 an infallible standard of religious instruction. It is 
 a perfection of God, or rather emanates from his per- 
 fection, and therefore transcends the artificial and pos- 
 tulated perfection of man. When men hear of per- 
 fection, they immediately think of a minute, pedantic 
 perfection of their own. God's perfection is not our 
 perfection, as " his ways are not our ways, nor his 
 thoughts our thoughts." I grant that Divine inspi- 
 ration implies an infallible rule ; but that rule lies 
 deeper than some suppose. The rule is infallible when 
 we find it ; just as the healing root is powerful when 
 we dig it from the earth. The material world, I have 
 no doubt, for the Divine design is perfect. It was 
 built and shaped by an unerring hand. But how 
 many random contingencies are revealed beneath its 
 surface ! The central heat, the sea, the frost, the rain, 
 the warring elements, in all their apparent discord, 
 have combined to build up the beautiful surface of our 
 inhabited earth, a wise result from the most chaotic 
 operations. Nature tumbles her elements into a divine 
 order. Wisdom is there with a veil over her face. 
 
 So with regard to inspiration ; it conforms to no 
 rules of postulated perfection. I object to a literal, 
 
138 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 verbal inspiration, because it does not place the au- 
 thority of the Bible high enough. It transcends all 
 such narrow rules. The dispute whether God gave 
 the very words to Isaiah or Ezekiel, and whether the 
 affirmative is necessary to the highest authority of Scrip- 
 ture, forgets one manifest perfection in the Author of 
 inspiration, and that is, his foresight of all contingencies, 
 and the impossibility that Isaiah or Ezekiel, if they 
 were selected by his wisdom, should cross his intentions. 
 Paul was a chosen vessel. Did not God know his ge- 
 nius, his character, his turn of thought, his favorite 
 expressions, all he had done and all he would do, and, 
 when he was writing his Epistles, did he for a single 
 moment evade the eye of Omniscience ? Let us illus- 
 trate. We read (2 Samuel viii. 16, 17) that, when 
 David was king, " Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the 
 host ; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder ; 
 and Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech the son 
 of Abiathar, were the priests ; and Seraiah was scribe." 
 We will suppose that the king wishes Seraiah to make 
 out some written despatch to convey his royal will 
 to some remote part of the kingdom. He knows 
 very well his capacity, his style, often the very words 
 he will use. He chose him on the grounds of this 
 knowledge. The order is made out, is read to the 
 king ; he approves or suggests some correction. The 
 order is sealed and sent. Now, I ask, can anything 
 be conceived, as far as language can go, more ade- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 139 
 
 quately to convey the mind of the king ? He is saga- 
 cious ; he selected the man ; he knows his style, and 
 he has reviewed his composition ; and yet the writ- 
 ing has all the peculiarities of style and expression 
 belonging to Seraiah, and not to David. But when 
 we ascend to an infallible God, and consider his om- 
 niscient foresight and perfection, how much stronger 
 becomes the case ! It is utterly superfluous to ask for 
 words, the dress of thought, when we have the thing 
 itself beaming into the soul. If the inspiration were 
 merely verbal, the infallibility would cease with the first 
 translation. But now it stands on higher ground. It 
 transcends all language, it is above the imperfection 
 of the instrument that conveys it. It is " holy light, 
 the bright effluence of bright essence increate." 
 
 I pass by many other imperfections, which, as a 
 darkling veil, seem to cloud this recondite perfection 
 of God, such as the errors in the copies, the imper- 
 fections of an early language in which the older part of 
 the Bible is written ; the unexact chronology ; the dis- 
 crepancies of the books that relate the same things 
 and cover the same period ; the harshness of some 
 commands, and the vindictive piety which appears in 
 the prayer and praises of the early saints, all these 
 are explained, or greatly mitigated, by our imper- 
 fect judgments, formed at a distance from the scene. 
 There is one mode of instruction adopted by the sa- 
 cred writers which has perplexed the doctrine of inspi- 
 
140 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 ration more than any other ; I allude to the DRAMATIC 
 ELEMENT, which the sacred writers have often chosen 
 to impress their sentiments, and which has failed of its 
 purpose because in interpreting it we apply a rule de- 
 manded only by our artificial exactions. 
 
 When you depart from the didactic school, all the 
 other methods of instructing become necessary and im- 
 portant, such as rhetoric, poetry, painting, tautology, 
 figures, soliloquies, and dialogues. These are eminently 
 the implements of thought in an early age. They are 
 used by the sacred writers, and inspiration itself has 
 chosen them to clothe its instructions in. But one 
 form most frequently used has been least understood, 
 and that is the dramatic, and even learned critics 
 have hardly comprehended its laws when applied to 
 the Bible. The reason is, they hardly have been con- 
 scious of its existence. They have hardly recognized 
 this important element in its infant form, in an early 
 age. They have not felt that we should interpret the 
 Bible as we do JBschylus or Shakespeare, making, in- 
 deed, due allowance for the degree of development. 
 It is well known that all the families of languages cog 
 nate to the Hebrew were spoken by a people as remote 
 from the drama as possible, the Ethiopians, the Arabs, 
 the Jews ; they never had the drama in the Greek 
 form. They had no stage. Even the Caliphs of Bag- 
 dad and the Arabs in Spain had no proper drama ; 
 and the Jewish literature throughout seems very re- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 141 
 
 mote from it. But because a people have no formal 
 drama, it does not follow that they have no budding 
 elements, no embryos of it, from which its manhood 
 first grew. I have sometimes thought that the want 
 of a developed drama only necessitated the use of a 
 greater portion of these incipient modules. The dra- 
 matic is essential to man. Our whole intercourse of 
 life is a conversation. We never go into company 
 without a scene and a dialogue. We may say the 
 scene is a wood, a meadow, a parlor, or a car ; and 
 the dialogue was so and so, witty or pathetic, inter- 
 esting or otherwise. Now this peculiar form in which 
 the Biblical drama meets us has deceived the critics. 
 It is never formal, it is often transient, and it is always 
 infantine. It is sometimes a single soliloquy ; it is 
 often a mental dialogue ; the dialogists are never an- 
 nounced ; the changes in the persons are sudden ; there 
 is never a regular plot. It is a fragment of a drama ; 
 it is the picturing of passion, hope, fear, resentment, 
 grief, repentance, temptation, agony, despair, things 
 which demand a dramatic interpretation without warn- 
 ing you of a dramatic form. Thus the Book of Eccle- 
 siastes is a continued record of personal disappoint- 
 ment, in which the future is taught under the paulo- 
 post present. " It is a certain fact," says Professor 
 Richardson, " confirmed by universal experience, and 
 it may be laid down as an important axiom in the 
 study of human nature, that our notions and opinions 
 
142 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 are ever influenced by our present temper. Happy is 
 the man that is often calm and dispassionate ; who, im- 
 pelled by no eager appetite, nor urged by any restless 
 affection, sees every object by the unerring light of 
 reason, and is not imposed upon by the fallacious me- 
 dium of his desires." (A Philosophical Analysis and 
 Illustration of some of Shakespeare's Kemarkable Char- 
 acters.) Now, this profound remark, which Richardson 
 applies to explain the difficult character of Hamlet, 
 is the very key to explain the Book of Ecclesiastes. 
 Every sentiment of the book is the coloring of the 
 moment, and as the author recovers the healthful tone 
 of the heart through his own experience, he comes 
 to a more correct view of life and of God. This whole 
 result, this grand effect, this total impression, is the in- 
 fallible instruction of inspiration. The Fifty-first Psalm 
 is a soliloquy of one under the sorrows of repentance. 
 It is a picture of its progress. You might say, Scene, 
 a closet ; David alone, leaning his head on his hand ; 
 his neglected harp unstrung ; tears falling from his 
 eyes ; and in a tremulous voice he speaks, *43f7> Mer- 
 cy, have mercy ! In one verb, he puts words into our 
 mouth, thoughts into the mind, emotions into the heart. 
 Something far more powerful than didactics can reach. 
 So the Hundred and Third Psalm is the language of 
 prosperity. In the Prophets, the germs of a dialogue 
 appear and vanish so suddenly, that our Occidental 
 slowness can hardly follow them; and yet the drama 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 143 
 
 is there, the primitive drama, intelligible only to 
 him whose exercised taste grasps the design. 
 
 Perhaps it will be objected, that, if this principle be 
 admitted, it throws the meaning so far back that the 
 book intended for the common reader becomes unin- 
 telligible to him. No, the unintelligibility belongs to 
 a mind in the transition state, the half-learned, not 
 the primitive. Common life, even now, is full of such 
 dramas, so uttered and so understood. When a man 
 cries out " Murder ! " or " Fire ! " he is not laying 
 down a proposition, but he is expressing a passion. If 
 a watchman in Boston were to say, There is a murder 
 now being committed in State Street, opposite to num- 
 ber thirty-seven, at this very hour, half past one, of this 
 foggy night, no one would believe him. The diffi- 
 culty is, we approach the Bible in the anti-original 
 state. It was eminently popular and perfectly intelligi- 
 ble in its day ; and even now many of its passages would 
 be better understood by a pious old woman with good 
 taste, than by a half-learned professor whose taste had 
 been manufactured for him. Three things deceive us, 
 and prevent our applying the simple rule ; first, the 
 great antiquity of the book ; secondly, the informal 
 and primitive character of the dramatic element ; and 
 thirdly, the solemnity of its instruction ; or, in other 
 words, inspiration at first view seems to necessitate a 
 perfection which would supersede and destroy all the 
 human modes of teaching. Hence the modern reader 
 
144 THE MANUDUCTTON. 
 
 approaches the Bible in a frame of mind the very excel- 
 lence of which deceives him. It is important for us to 
 have veneration ; but let us remember an uninstructed 
 veneration may sometimes mislead us. 
 
 Every scholar knows that Plato's Dialogues, as to 
 their diction, are written with all the airy lightness of 
 conversational life. But they are on great subjects ; 
 they are written in Greek ; the dialogue is sustained 
 by Socrates, the great philosopher ; and the airy con- 
 versational tone is the very difficulty which impedes 
 the early learner in finding the meaning or relishing 
 the beauty. There is an expression in the Phsedo of 
 Plato which the beginner is very apt to misconstrue, 
 d\\d pot, TraXat, Trpdj/JLara waptyei (E. 63), through 
 the lightness of tone, which escapes the elaborate state 
 of mind with which we must acquire the Greek lan- 
 guage. The same may be said of the latent irony 
 found in the Dialogue De Oratoribus, sometimes attrib- 
 uted to Tacitus (Sect. 40, 41). 
 
 It has been supposed by some that a dramatic writer 
 in painting a passion obscures his direct sentiment. 
 It is not so when it is his intention to reveal it. It is 
 just as clear under this form as any other. Can any 
 one suppose that, when Shakespeare put all the epi- 
 curean ribaldry that a London tavern could afford 
 into the mouth of Falstaff, he intended it as his own 
 sentiments, or the sentiments of a moral teacher ? or 
 when the Friar talks to Romeo in the passion and 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 145 
 
 despair of his pupil, that he did not mean it as the 
 words of true wisdom ? or when Mrs. More, in her 
 drama of " Moses in the Bulrushes," puts these words 
 into the mouth of Miriam, 
 
 " Know this ark is charmed 
 With incantations Pharaoh ne'er employed, 
 With spells that impious Egypt never knew ; 
 With invocations to the living God 
 I twisted every slender reed together, 
 And with a prayer did every osier weave," 
 
 she is not teaching her own piety in the personage 
 she has formed ? A good character generally utters 
 good sentiments ; and even a bad character may be 
 the vehicle of direct instruction, as in the following 
 speech of the King in Hamlet: 
 
 " 'T is sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, 
 To give these mourning duties to your father ; 
 But you must know, your father lost a father ; 
 That father lost, lost his ; and the survivor bound 
 In filial obligation, for some term, 
 To do obsequious sorrow ; but to persever 
 In obstinate condolement is a course 
 Of impious stubbornness ; 'tis unmanly grief; 
 It shows a will most incorrect to heaven," &c. 
 
 Hamlet, Act I. Scene 2. 
 
 PARTICULAR APPLICATION OF THE DRAMATIC PRIN- 
 CIPLE OF INTERPRETATION. 
 
 OUR first business is to state to ourselves the diffi- 
 culties. First, we must remember it is the infant 
 
146 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 and primitive drama, in its Jewish conception, undevel- 
 oped, where the object is not delight, but instruction. 
 No regular plot, no fixed characters ; but the object is 
 cursory illustration. Secondly, it is important to know 
 who are the speakers ; for, in consequence of the vi- 
 vacity of the early mind, the transitions are very quick 
 and sudden, and the speaker's name is not always 
 announced. Thirdly, a great difficulty is to fill up a 
 natural ellipsis (natural to that age), and this, indeed, is 
 one chief difficulty in all Hebrew poetry. And, lastly, 
 as in all the drama, to see through the veil of character, 
 to reach the didactic intentions of the author ; and this, 
 I must contend, is not more difficult in the dramatic 
 than in any other mode of instruction. The great rule 
 of distinguishing the mere painting of character from 
 the direct lesson is THE INTENTION OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 But let us specify. Take the Book of Job as an 
 example. Let us ask the question, Where are the 
 teachings of inspiration found ? We dismiss the ques- 
 tion of the antiquity of this book, as, for our purpose, 
 a point of no importance. It is obvious that much 
 that is said by the speakers cannot be true as maxims 
 of direct instruction ; for God himself says, " They have 
 not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my ser- 
 vant Job hath." They are suspicious, jealous ; they 
 accuse him of false sentiments, and pervert right sen- 
 timents by a false application to him ; and even Job 
 himself can scarcely be defended in some of his com- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 147 
 
 plaints : " Let the day perish wherein I was born, and 
 the night in which it was said, There is a man-child 
 conceived. Let that day be darkness ; let not God re- 
 gard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it." 
 These feelings are not to be approved, these senti- 
 ments are not to be copied. But surely the intention 
 of the author is obvious. In the case of Job's jealous 
 friends, we are taught that men should not judge of 
 established piety by superficial appearances, and that 
 true maxims become dangerous by being falsely applied. 
 We may often utter the truth on a wrong occasion ; 
 our motives may be defective, when our tongues are 
 wise ; and as to Job himself, we may see how real piety 
 may be clouded by impatience ; how a good man may 
 be an imperfect man ; how deep affliction tries the soul 
 and produces indulgence from God ; and how, more 
 than all, an undeveloped faith (for such was Job's 
 condition, he did not live under the last revelations 
 of immortality) plunges the soul into perplexity, and 
 sharpens the pang which it cannot remove. In Job's 
 perplexity we see what he wanted by what he felt. He 
 wanted the Gospel, its certainty, its support, its tri- 
 umph, its consolation. Compare his speech with that 
 of Paul : " We rejoice in the hope of the glory of 
 God ; and not only so, we glory in tribulations also ; 
 knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience 
 experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not 
 ashamed. 1 " 
 
148 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 "WJien the design is double, that is, when a charac- 
 ter is pictured, and in picturing it a true sentiment 
 is uttered, the design of the author is equally clear. 
 Take the speech of Eliphaz the Temanite, in the fourth 
 chapter: " Now a thing was secretly brought me, and 
 mine ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from 
 the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on 
 men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made 
 all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my 
 face ; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, 
 but I could not discern the form thereof; an image 
 was before mine eyes ; there was silence, and I heard 
 a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than 
 God ? shall a man he more pure than his Maker ? 
 Behold he put no trust in his servants, and his angels 
 he charged with folly. How much less in them that 
 dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the 
 dust, which are crushed before the moth ? " Who 
 does not see the correctness of these sentiments, and 
 the falseness of the application ? The character of the 
 speaker is most beautifully seen in both these circum- 
 stances. He was too good a man to utter a falsehood ; 
 he was too wise a man to reason from false premises ; 
 and he was too much blinded by suspicion and preju- 
 dice to make a right application. The didactic truth 
 of the sentiment does not destroy the painting of char- 
 acter, but rather heightens it. 
 
 Let us adduce one example more, the famous pas- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 149 
 
 sage, Job xix. 25, 26 : " For I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon 
 the earth ; and though, after my skin, worms shall de- 
 stroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom 
 I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
 not another, though my reins be consumed within me." 
 Dr. Noyes translates it thus : " Yet I know that my 
 Vindicator liveth, and will stand up at length on 
 the earth ; and though with my skin this body be 
 wasted away, yet in my flesh I shall see God. Yea, 
 I shall see him my friend ; my eyes shall behold him 
 no longer an adversary, for this my soul panteth 
 within me." DathS has it thus : " Enim vero novi 
 vindicem meum vivere, tandemque pulverem oppugna- 
 turum esse. Deponam cutem meam, quam ista arro- 
 dunt. Atque e carne mea Deum videbo. Hunc ego 
 mihi videbo. Hunc ego mihi videbo propitium, oculi 
 mei eum videbunt, non amplius inimicum. Vehemen- 
 ter desidero hanc causae meae decisionem." " I know 
 that my Vindicator liveth, and that at length he will 
 defend my dust ; I shall lay aside my skin, which these 
 sores and worms deform ; and in my flesh I shall see 
 my God. I shall see him for myself ; I shall see him 
 propitious to me. My eyes shall see him, no more 
 an enemy. This is the decision of my cause which I 
 desire." 
 
 Take either of these translations, and the best way 
 of arriving at the true meaning is, to interpret it 
 
150 "THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 on the dramatic principle. Indeed, there is no other 
 rational. Job, in his sorrow and perplexity, looks 
 round for some hope. He is a good man ; he has a 
 heart-born faith, that rests upon a most imperfect rev- 
 elation. He has a disposition to trust, with an insight 
 into the promises. In his agony, from the exigencies 
 of his case, and from his infantine piety, he grasps 
 the idea of the future state and its rectifications. "I 
 know that my Redeemer " (or Vindicator, translate it 
 as you will) " liveth," &c. Just as Addison makes 
 Cato say: 
 
 " ' T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
 And intimates Eternity to man/' 
 
 How clear and how forcible the meaning ! How suit- 
 able to the speaker and the place ! It is one of those 
 kinds of prophecy, when, not the individual, but hu- 
 man nature itself, speaks from the force of its sorrows 
 and the pressure of its wants, when the obliquity of 
 the channel gives power and pureness to the stream it 
 conveys. 
 
 I must contend that there is no obscurity in the dra- 
 matic mode of teaching when one has once grasped the 
 principle. It is instinctively understood in the early 
 ages of society, and in its last state of improvement; 
 it is only in the transition state, from accidental causes, 
 it becomes obscure. Perhaps there never was a people 
 less prepared to apply it than our Puritan fathers. 
 They had departed from the early state ; they ap- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 151 
 
 preached the Bible with an awful veneration ; they 
 postulated for it a didactic perfection, and their very 
 respect for its substance sometimes led them not to 
 regard its dress. They had little taste for any poetry, 
 and still less for the dramatic ; indeed, all the com- 
 mentators of the older schools, Grotius himself, did 
 not fully grasp this principle. Hence it now appears 
 at first view a critical refinement, when it is only a 
 return to the simplicity of nature. 
 
 It has been better understood in all other litera- 
 ture. Mr. Addison, with his usual taste, points out 
 one of its rules. Speaking of a tragedy of Euripides, 
 from the performance of which Socrates is said to have 
 retired to show his disapprobation of a particular pas- 
 sage, he says : " This was no sooner spoken but Soc- 
 rates rose from his seat, and, without any regard to his 
 affection for his friend, or to the success of the play, 
 showed himself displeased at what was said, and walked 
 out of the assembly. I question not but the reader 
 will be curious to know what the line was that gave 
 this divine heathen so much offence. If my memory 
 fails me not, it was in the part of Hippolytus, who, 
 when he is pressed by an oath, which he had taken, to 
 keep silence, returned for answer, that he had taken 
 the oath with his tongue, but riot with his heart. Had 
 a person of a vicious character made such a speech, 
 it might have been allowed as a proper representation 
 of the baseness of his thoughts ; but such an expression 
 
152 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 out of the mouth of the virtuous Hippolytus was giv- 
 ing a sanction to falsehood, and establishing perjury by 
 a maxim." (Tatler, No. 122.) Let us add, that had 
 the writer been painting the frailty of a good man, it 
 would have been no proof that he was sanctioning a 
 bad sentiment. 
 
 I strongly suspected, when reading this account of 
 Socrates, that the poet was right, and the philosopher 
 was wrong. I have since examined the play, and I 
 find my suspicions verified. Hippolytus says nothing 
 inconsistent with his virtuous character. The case was 
 this. Pha3dra was his mother-in-law, married to his 
 father, Theseus. She falls in love with her step-son, 
 not from any unchaste desire in herself, but through 
 the anger of Yenus. PhaBdra is wretched and mis- 
 erable, and the nurse, pitying her case, goes to Hip- 
 polytus and tells him her passion. Before she tells 
 him, however, we are led to infer that the nurse had 
 exacted a promise from Hippolytus that he would not 
 tell his father the terrible secret, his mother-in-law's 
 passion for him. But when Hippolytus comes to hear 
 the enormous crime, he hesitates about keeping his 
 promise, and he then utters the sentiment which moved 
 the indignation of Socrates : "I swore with my tongue ; 
 but my mind is not held to the oath;" which only 
 means this: I did not know the nature of the oath 
 I took ; I feel as if, under such horrible circumstances, 
 it is my duty to break the promise. If Herod, when 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 153 
 
 he made his promise to Herodias, had reasoned as Hip- 
 poly tus did, he would have been a better man. At 
 any rate, the sentiment is perfectly natural in his con- 
 dition, and as he did not tell his father, it is probable 
 he was perplexed and delayed until he was anticipated 
 in the letter which was found in his mother's hand 
 after she hung herself. However, if the wise Socrates 
 was deceived in the dramatic lesson, we should be on 
 our guard, and look through the poetic dress to the les- 
 son taught. Euripides was right, though so competent 
 an auditor misunderstood him* 
 
 Perhaps there is no writer more hard to turn into 
 a direct teacher than Shakespeare. He appears by 
 nature to have been very little of a moralist; he be- 
 longed to no sect in religion, and he had that indif- 
 ference to opinion which was engendered alike by his 
 Protean genius and his Epicurean heart. He was in- 
 tent on his pictures ; and if he could only please, he 
 was not careful to instruct. " He seems to write," 
 says Dr. Johnson, "without a moral purpose." Yet it 
 is not difficult in this Proteus of the moral school to 
 see his sentiment through his coloring. His first ob- 
 ject is, no doubt, to put suitable sentiments into the 
 mouths of his characters ; but that does not hide, it 
 rather reveals, his secondary lesson ; that is, he is 
 always conscious of the moral truth his audience will 
 recognize. And the one purpose never disturbs 'the 
 other. Thus when lago says : 
 7* 
 
154 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 " Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, 
 Is the immediate jewel of their souls ; 
 Who steals my purse steals trash ; 't is something, nothing ; 
 'T was mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands ; 
 But he that filches from me my good name 
 Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
 And make.s me poor indeed." 
 
 Now it is evident that lago is a bad character ; there 
 is no truth in him; and his object in this scene 
 is not to utter moral sentiments, but to poison the 
 mind of Othello with jealousy ; and yet no one can 
 doubt that he here means to utter a true maxim of 
 morality ; and the reason is, this exactly suits his pur- 
 pose. A true maxim, in this place, covers his design, 
 increases his insinuations, and makes the false impres- 
 sion more fatal by the very truth it presents. On the 
 contrary, when Emilia, in the same play, says of hus- 
 bands generally, 
 
 " They are all but stomachs and we all but food j 
 They eat us hungerly, and when they are full 
 They belch us;" 
 
 or when Mrs. Page says, in the Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor, after receiving Falstaif 's letter, " Well, I will find 
 you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste man ; " 
 or when Ariadne says, in Catullus, after Theseus had 
 forsaken her, 
 
 " Jam, jam nulla viro juranti femina credat 
 Qui, dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci, 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 155 
 
 Nil metuunt jurare, nihil promittere parcunt ; 
 Sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est, 
 Dicta nihil metuere, nihil perjuria curant ; " 
 
 " Let not a woman trust the vows of men ; 
 They promise while they seek our love, but when 
 Their purpose is obtained, we sadly find 
 Their solemn vows are scattered to the wind ; " 
 
 every one sees that this is not the sentiment of the 
 poet. It is the natural exaggeration of the moment. 
 The falsehood of the sentiment is essential to the truth 
 of the feeling. In a word, just as certainly as we pen- 
 etrate the design of the poet, just so clear we see his 
 secondary purpose. In the School for Scandal, Joseph 
 Surface is intended to be a consummate hypocrite ; 
 he never for a moment ceases to wear his mask ; and 
 yet all the maxims he utters and he is full of max- 
 ims are important and true. How do we know this ? 
 We see the design of the author ; it suits his purpose 
 to put these fine sentiments into the mouth of Joseph 
 Surface, in order to deceive Sir Peter Teazle, who is 
 constantly admiring him. It is impossible to see the 
 design of the writer, and not see at once the black- 
 ness of his character and the beauty of his maxims. 
 
 We might extend this rule over all the dramatic 
 writings of ancient and modern authors. In the an- 
 cient tragedies, there is the Chorus, expressly contrived 
 to give the moral sentiment ; and whenever any obscu- 
 rity occurs, it is because the reader is as much per- 
 
156 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 plexed as to the truth of the picture as he is in the 
 propriety of the sentiment. 
 
 The design of the chorus is thus described by Hor- 
 ace : " Let the chorus defend the actor, and speak the 
 voice of humanity. Let it chant nothing between the 
 acts, which does not conduce to the main design. Let 
 it approve the virtuous and smile on the friendly ; let 
 it rebuke the angry and approve the conscientious. 
 Let it applaud the frugal table, salutary justice, laws, 
 and peace with her open gates. Let it not reveal 
 the plot ; and let it pray and beseech the celestial 
 powers that prosperity may depart from the proud and 
 return to the depressed." It is impossible to preserve 
 the meaning of the first sentiment Actons partes 
 chorus qfficiumque virile defendat by a mere transla- 
 tion. I imagine the thought to be this. It was not 
 uncommon for a bad character in the old tragedies to 
 utter a shocking sentiment, which was yet perfectly 
 characteristic ; as when the tyrant of old said, " I swore 
 with my tongue and not my mind," &c. The people 
 expressed their disapprobation ; for it is a mistake 
 which a careless listener is tempted to make. Even the 
 polished Athenians, brought up in theatres, were not 
 always mercurial enough to preserve themselves from 
 such an illusion. Now in such cases, says Horace, 
 let the chorus defend (Actoris partes) the part of the 
 actor, by showing in his immorality the author's de- 
 sign. We have in the Bible implicitly such a chorus ; 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 157 
 
 for very often, in the parallelism or in the course of 
 the dialogue, we have the reply or the rebuke. We 
 are often tempted to wonder, and the wonder ends in 
 making a new and beautiful impression. Take the 
 book of Ecclesiastes as an example. What strange 
 sentiments in single paragraphs, and yet how clear the 
 whole design ! 
 
 So true is it that the moral sentiment shines through 
 the painting of character, and is generally seen when 
 the painting is understood (that is, they go together), 
 that in the Greek fragments preserved by Cumberland, 
 though the drama itself is lost, and we are under the 
 disadvantage of not knowing the plot, yet, I think, I 
 can see the direct sentiment. Who does not recognize 
 the utterance of a brazen-faced female in the follow- 
 ing lines ? 
 
 " No animal in nature can compare 
 In impudence with woman ; I myself 
 Am one, and from my own experience speak." 
 
 Here is a monstrous hyperbole, intended, no doubt, 
 to paint an unusual character. It was probably one 
 of those clap-traps so frequent in the ancient and mod- 
 ern drama, and no doubt it answered its purpose ; it 
 brought down the house. On the contrary, the fol- 
 lowing sentiment the author meant for an unvarying 
 and eternal truth, and it is the same whether found 
 in a sermon or a play : 
 
158 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 " Hence, vile adulterer ! I scorn to gain 
 Pleasures extorted from another's pain." 
 
 So true is it that the didactic always appears, not only 
 in strong irony, strong 1 hyperbole, and strong paint- 
 ing, but even middle sentiments are seen, when the 
 abstract truth is more shaded. As in the following : 
 
 " If love be folly, as the schools would prove, 
 The man must lose his wits who falls in love ; 
 Deny him love, you doom the wretch to death, 
 And then it follows he must lose his breath. 
 Good sooth ! there is a young and dainty maid 
 I dearly love, a minstrel she by trade ; 
 What then ? Must I defer to pedant rule, 
 And own that love transforms me to a fool ? 
 Not I, so help me ! By the gods I swear, 
 The nymph I love is fairest of the fair. 
 Must I not love her then ? Let the dull sot 
 Who made the law obey it, I will not." 
 
 No doubt the author here had the natural excess 
 of love in his mind, and yet he does not totally dis- 
 approve ; he has only a half-smile of censure on his 
 brow at a sentiment which he regards as half wrong. 
 In a word, I would be willing to pledge myself to go 
 through the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's 
 Song, the most dramatic books in the Bible, and 
 
 tO say, I AM AS ABLE TO PICK OUT THE SENTIMENT AS I 
 AM TO UNDERSTAND THE CHARACTER. They both shine 
 
 with an interlocked and common light. 
 
 As in painting, so in dramatic poetry, there are some 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 159 
 
 things difficult, almost impossible, to be done. Thus, 
 in painting, you are confined to the instant ; motion 
 and succession must be dispensed with ; you cannot 
 paint a depression in a landscape lower than the front 
 ground of your picture ; it is very hard to distinguish 
 between the rising and setting sun ; and he that selects 
 the rainbow as his pattern must be content to follow 
 at an awful distance the perfection of nature. In 
 dramatic writing, one of the standing difficulties is, to 
 paint a good character. Virtue is seen in action, not 
 in profession; and the difficulty is, to make a perfect 
 man manifest himself, without being a man of buck- 
 ram, not sounding a trumpet in his own praise. In. 
 this department the best writers have often failed. I 
 must confess, I have never been much charmed with 
 Xenophon's Cyrus ; I have not always gone along with 
 Plato's Socrates ; I have never wept, as Cicero did, at 
 the pathos of the Phaedo ; Socrates and Cato are too 
 stern for my pity. The Edinburgh Review calls Sir 
 Charles Grandison the prince of coxcombs ; and Black- 
 wood's Magazine wishes that Miss Hannah More's char- 
 acters had a little sin in them, to set human nature 
 on its legs again. This lady has often been ridiculed 
 for her precise and buckram characters. The critics 
 have been very unjust to her. " In every work, regard 
 the writer's end." She has always an object in view, 
 precisely the reverse of that of Shakespeare. Shake- 
 speare is always giving you specimens of human na- 
 
160 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 ture ; he paints man as he is ; but Miss More is always 
 giving you patterns and examples ; and the only rea- 
 son why she seems to be ridiculous is, the intrinsic 
 difficulty of painting a good character, and because we 
 are always trying her by rules she did not adopt and 
 could not be expected to follow. Her characters are 
 stiff, no doubt, and not very natural ; but let us re- 
 member virtue is not natural to man ; it is a triumph 
 over his nature. 
 
 It has often been remarked that Shakespeare has 
 no heroes ; he never paints the self-sacrificing martyr 
 or the disinterested man ; he always dashes his best 
 personages with mingled imperfections. He has none 
 of Plutarch's patriots, nor the Bollandists' saints ; and 
 one reason is, perhaps, he instinctively saw that such 
 characters were too perfect for the interest he wished 
 to excite. When he does approach this ground his 
 success is far from being complete. Isabella, in Meas- 
 ure for Measure, has a somewhat stiff religion ; she is 
 what Mr. Addison would call outrageously virtuous. 
 Cordelia, in King Lear, is ostentatious of her own pa- 
 rental affection, and not at all conciliatory towards her 
 sisters ; at least we may say such talk in real life 
 would not be regarded as laying the ground of confi- 
 dence. Other writers have not been able to conquer 
 the same difficulty. Thus Sallust, in the speech which 
 he puts into the mouth of Cato, in the Roman Sen- 
 ate, at the time of Catiline's conspiracy, " that as he 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 161 
 
 never was indulgent to any one fault in himself, he 
 could not excuse those of others," is exceedingly un- 
 fortunate ; and Bishop Butler says : " This speech with 
 decency could scarce come out of the mouth of any 
 human creature.' But no doubt Sallust mistook what 
 he would say of Cato for what Cato might say of him- 
 self. There is a very remarkable example of this utter 
 frustration of a writer's purpose in Cornelia's address 
 to Paulus, in the Eleventh Elegy of Propertius, Lib. 
 IY. It is the solemn address of the departed spirit of 
 a wife to her husband, and therefore is intended as a 
 most perfect expression of her virtue, and yet it is one 
 continued piece of arrogance and boasting. It con- 
 cludes with these lines : 
 
 " Moribus et coelum patuit ; sim digna merendo 
 Cujus honeratis ossa vehantur avis." 
 
 " Heaven opens to the good ; let me be found 
 Worthy of names like ours so much renowned/' 
 
 " Nor did time change me ; pure was all from blame 
 Between the nuptial torch and funeral flame. 
 Me nature governed through ingenuous blood, 
 Nor was it fear or law that made .me good." 
 
 The Sliade of Cornelia to Paulus, Frothinghani's Translation. 
 
 She says of her life, " Sine crimine tota vita est." 
 One is reminded here of Job's words : " If I justify 
 myself, my own mouth shall condemn me ; if I say I 
 am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." (Job 
 ix. 20.) 
 
 E 
 
162 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 It is a proof, I think, of the superior wisdom of the 
 Bible, that this difficulty is conquered in the speeches 
 of that pattern of perfection, Jesus Christ. "JVe have 
 his discourses ; and think for a moment what a char- 
 acter he had to sustain! not abstract perfection, but 
 perfection under his claims, perfection as Redeemer 
 of a lost world. He was always to make the future 
 state a positive idea, and sustain the personage he was 
 sent to assume. And yet how completely has he accom- 
 plished his object ! He never boasts ; he is never arro- 
 gant ; he is always easy. He conquers one of the most 
 remarkable difficulties that ever perplexed the genius 
 of man. Somebody drew the character, and surely that 
 character could not be a fiction. 
 
 Some objections have indeed been made by learned 
 critics against the abuse of this principle. Thus Mi- 
 chaelis observes in one of his notes on Lowth's Lec- 
 tures : "It is certain that many of the Psalms are 
 dramatic, which some commentators observing, delight- 
 ed with their own discoveries, whenever they meet with 
 a passage more difficult than usual, or are able to 
 catch any new and visionary explanation, more agree- 
 able to their theological notions, they have eagerly 
 resorted to the change of the persons or characters, 
 though no such change existed. Such are those com- 
 mentators who have fancied, in accommodation to the 
 quotation of Paul (Hebrews i. 10), the spirit and 
 purpose of which they did not understand, that the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 163 
 
 former part of the Hundred and Second Psalm, to 
 the twenty-fourth verse, "Take me not away in the 
 midst of my age," consisted entirely of a speech of 
 Christ, and that the remainder " As for thy years, 
 they endure throughout all generations," &c. was the 
 reply of God the Father. Whoever indulges himself 
 in this mode of explication, may easily find out any- 
 tiling he pleases in the Psalms, and, with little or no 
 philological knowledge, without the smallest assistance 
 from criticism, can give a meaning to the most diffi- 
 cult or corrupt texts of Scripture, any meaning but 
 the right one." 
 
 But surely it could not be the object of the critic to 
 deny or depreciate the legitimate application of this 
 principle to the interpretation of a book which so fre- 
 quently uses it. For not to insist that one hardly sees 
 the importance of the specimen of alleged abuse he 
 quotes, we may ask him, whether the Bible really 
 adopts this mode of instruction in all its poetic parts, 
 and, if it does, whether it can ba understood without 
 a recognition of the fact. For my part, I must say I 
 could form no meaning of the Twentieth Psalm, with- 
 out asking who the speaker is, and who the second per- 
 son spoken to is, "The Lord hear thee in the day 
 of trouble," &c. ; and both these questions must be an- 
 swered ; i. e. I must adopt the dramatic principle in 
 interpreting the Psalm. I will only add, I know no 
 principle of exegesis which has been less abused, or 
 
164 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 is less liable to abuse. It seems to me that the Pro- 
 fessor is singularly unfortunate when he insinuates that 
 it has been obscure, or a frequent source of bad inter- 
 pretation. Where are the proofs? Whoever is con- 
 scious of the existence of this principle in the Bible, 
 and understands its nature, is almost sure to apply it 
 right. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks, I suppose myself to have 
 established the following principles : First, that the 
 Bible has adopted the dramatic element ; secondly, that 
 it is Oriental, fragmentary, and peculiar in its char- 
 acter ; thirdly, that the adoption of this element does 
 not darken, but rather enforces, the light of revelation ; 
 that whenever we can discover the picturing of the char- 
 acters, we equally discover the sentiment or doctrine 
 they teach ; and, finally, that the key to this sentiment 
 is the intention of the author, which is just as discov- 
 erable in this mode of writing as any other, when our 
 attention is drawn to the fact, and we become accus- 
 tomed to see it as it is applied to the solemnities of 
 revelation. This discussion will not be without its use, 
 if it only leads the expounders of Scripture, whenever 
 they take a text from the Book of Job, the Psalms, 
 Ecclesiastes, and many parts of the prophets, to have 
 this principle constantly before them. Sure I am, that 
 without it the best commentators have made the most 
 dangerous mistakes. 
 
 In conclusion, when we remember that the dramatic 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 165 
 
 form in Scripture was expressly adopted to make the 
 truth more clear and impressive, that it was prompt- 
 ed by simple nature, and was eminently suited to an 
 early age ; when we reflect that all which could make 
 it obscure in Shakespeare would make it clear in the 
 Bible, the purposes in each being so different ; and, 
 finally, that it is not peculiarly obscure in Shake- 
 speare, we may safely conclude that we need only to 
 fall back on the simplicity of antiquity, and what was 
 suited to instruct them will be found to instruct us. 
 We shall find the fruit among the flowers. The imagi- 
 nation was given us by God. It is not a vain function ; 
 it is as sacred and as useful as reason itself, and the 
 Bible is the only book that always puts it to its right 
 use. Here, in the sacred page, it turns our passions 
 from their dangerous strength to the path of pious 
 instruction. It approximates God ; it paints truth ; it 
 brings eternal objects near ; it shows us a dying Sav- 
 iour on the cross ; and it helps us to realize the scene 
 " when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
 and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat ; " 
 we see the burning world ; the Judge enthroned ; the 
 final sentence, and the solemn reward. We have a 
 power given us by which the objects of faith are almost 
 turned to sight. It works a perpetual miracle. While 
 a polluted mind paints voluptuous scenes, bowers of 
 love and streams of pleasure, revelation turns this 
 dangerous faculty into an instrument of salvation. It 
 
166 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 is certainly an instrument of instruction. It assists 
 our conceptions ; it wakes our attention ; it impresses 
 our hearts. Let us study its laws, and we shall find 
 we never knew its value until we found its skilful use 
 in the pages of God. 
 
 THE USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 
 
 The Bible teaches the right use of the imagination. 
 Bishop Butler, who was a severe reasoner, speaks de- 
 preciatingly of the imagination. " However," says he, 
 " as one cannot but be greatly sensible how difficult 
 it is to silence the imagination enough to make the 
 voice of reason distinctly heard in this case ; as we are 
 accustomed from our youth up to indulge that forward 
 delusive faculty, ever obtruding beyond its sphere, of 
 some assistance, indeed, to apprehension, but the author 
 of all error," &c. (Analogy, Chap. I. Part I.) He 
 hardly seems to be aware how much he was indebted to 
 the faculty he decries. His imagination was all but 
 miraculous. What I mean to say is, that, in commu- 
 nicating thoughts where an illustration seemed almost 
 impossible, he is never wanting, but brings the most re- 
 mote similitudes together ; and thus makes his severe 
 imagination an handmaid to his severe reason. To be 
 sure, it is not the imagination of Milton. See an in- 
 stance (Analogy, Part I. Chap. III. Sect. 3). Presi- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 167 
 
 dent Edwards had a similar power. An imagination 
 that seldom beautified, but always stood ready to illus- 
 trate, and delighted in conquering difficulties. I hardly 
 know of a more startling instance, in which an insu- 
 perable difficulty seems to be overcome, than the sup- 
 position in God's Last End in Creation, Chap. I. Sect. 
 1, p. 15, where he introduces a second God as an 
 arbiter to judge between the first God and his crea- 
 tures, and then shows the necessity of such an arbiter 
 is superseded by the perfections of God himself. Mr. 
 Addison has a surprising example in the Spectator, 
 No. 575, where he finds an intermediate thought to 
 illustrate the duration of eternity, the globe of sand 
 as big as our earth, and one grain abstracted every 
 thousand years. The Hebrew Scriptures can hardly 
 be said to afford such intricate examples, and yet it is 
 remarkable, the difference between the sacred use of 
 the imagination and its use in all the heathen writers. 
 It is remarkable of the Bible through all its pages, 
 that it turns the imagination into its own religious 
 channel, TO ILLUSTRATE SACRED TRUTH. To our taste, 
 it may sometimes seem to be negligent, and not always 
 use the most delicate coloring. It was written in times 
 of great simplicity, but it has always one object in view. 
 A fertile imagination may be said to work a natural 
 miracle, it calls new powers into being ; it embodies 
 sentiment and animates matter ; it brings the unseen 
 world into sight; and it is one proof of the wisdom 
 
168 THE MANUDTJCTION. 
 
 of revelation, that so dangerous a power is always 
 employed to so good an end. 
 
 Objections have been made to this Song, as being 
 too luscious in its imagery, and leaning to the sensual 
 side, but surely by critics who never put their antique 
 shoes on. The fact is, considering the age in which 
 it was written, and the stand-point of the author and 
 the first readers, it is remarkably delicate ; so much 
 ardor was never expressed in such refined language ; 
 that is, primitive refinement. If the communion of 
 love is expressed, it is always by the purest figures. 
 No doubt the author then was thought superfluously 
 scrupulous. Take the sixth verse of the fourth chapter 
 as an example : " Until the day break and the shadows 
 flee away I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and 
 to the hill of frankincense." So the first verse of the 
 eighth chapter : " that thou wert as my brother, that 
 sucked the breasts of my mother ! when I should find 
 thee without, I would kiss thee ; yea, I should not be 
 despised." Can purer love be pictured than a sister's 
 kiss ? Not a sensual thought is hinted at through the 
 whole poem. Even the description in the seventh chap- 
 ter, verses 2-4, from an Oriental point of view, has 
 nothing in the least degree indelicate in its articulate 
 enumeration. Consider the object. With the Orien- 
 tals, fulness of figure as well as fulness of dress is con- 
 sidered as a great beauty, and this passage is merely 
 a full description of such a figure. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 169 
 
 If the reader wishes to see the purity of revelation 
 compared with the pollution of earthly poetry, let him 
 compare a Greek song with a Hebrew psalm. Both 
 are ardent ; both use the boldest personification, and 
 both impute their own raptures to the silent motions 
 of the surrounding creation ! Anacreon and David 
 have both lighted the torch of the imagination at the 
 fireplace of the heart, and have illuminated the crea- 
 tion with the blaze they had kindled. But how dif- 
 ferent ! 
 
 First, Anacreon : 
 
 " The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, 
 That drinks and gapes for drink again ; 
 The plants suck up the earth, and are 
 By constant drinking fresh and fair ; 
 The sea itself (which one would think 
 Should have but little need of drink) 
 Drinks ten thousand rivers up, 
 So filled that they o'erflow the cup ; 
 The busy sun (and one would guess 
 By 's drunken, fiery face no less) 
 Drinks up the sea ; and when he 's done, 
 The moon and stars drink up the sun ; 
 They drink and dance by their own light, 
 They drink and revel all the night. 
 Nothing on earth is sober found, 
 But an eternal health goes round ; 
 Fill up the bowl, there, fill it high, 
 Fill all the glasses, then ; for why 
 Should every creature drink but I ? 
 Ye temperance-people, tell me why ? " 
 
 COWLBY'S Translation. 
 
 8 
 
170 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 The Psalmist hears a different voice from nature: 
 " Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all 
 deeps, snow and vapor, stormy wind, fulfilling his word ; 
 mountains and all hills, fruitful trees, and all cedars. 
 Beasts and cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. 
 Kings of the earth and all people ; princes and judges 
 of the earth. Both young men and maidens, old men 
 and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord ; 
 for his name alone is excellent ; his glory is above the 
 heavens." 
 
 Such are the different revelations of nature to dif- 
 ferent minds, and such are the contrary ways in which 
 the most fertile imagination may be employed. Where 
 the Greek poet sees nothing but a drunken creation 
 dancing around him, the Psalmist beholds a chorus of 
 worshippers praising his God. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 171 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE DOUBLE SENSE. 
 
 As I shall consider this book as a continued alle- 
 gory, it becomes very important to trace that fact to 
 a general principle. This Song is not a single exam- 
 ple. The practice of using allegories reigns among 
 all the sacred writers of the Old Testament, and this 
 practice generates the double sense. Let us, then, 
 endeavor to state the reality and naturalness of this 
 peculiar mode of pleasing and teaching a primitive 
 people. 
 
 By the double sense we mean generally historical 
 symbols, that is, one event in history may bear such 
 an analogy to another, that it may be a figure and a 
 sign of what is yet to come.* Thus, the return from 
 the Babylonish captivity may be a sign of the gen- 
 eral redemption of mankind, and all those passages in 
 Isaiah and the other prophets, of passing through the 
 wilderness, of opening rivers in high places, of levelling 
 every mound and filling up every valley, may be ap- 
 
 * It must be allowed that other symbols beside historic events gener- 
 ate the double sense. 
 
172 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 plied to the spreading of the Gospel and the recovery 
 of our world. 
 
 When we consider that, in the order of things, no 
 individual exists which does not belong to a class and 
 have a reference to its own individuality and to the 
 class to which it belongs, we may say that something 
 of the double sense pervades all nature. We know 
 of nothing whose whole signification is confined to it- 
 self. Cicero saw this ; for he makes Antony (in his 
 dialogue, De Oratore) censure the pedants who divided 
 all causes into the individual and general ; for he says : 
 " Ignari omnes controversias ad universi generis vim et 
 naturam referri" (Lib. II. 31), "They are igno- 
 rant that all controversies belong in force and nature 
 to general questions." We cannot imagine an object 
 in existence except God and the universe which 
 does not indicate the species or genus to which it be- 
 longs ; and surely the fall of Babylon, or the deliver- 
 ance from Egypt, must bear some similitude, and of 
 course give some indication of all the other inflic- 
 tions and deliverances by which God manifests his 
 protection of his people and the progress of his king- 
 dom. 
 
 It is a general law, that the double sense should indi- 
 cate itself not only by its magnificence and oneness, 
 but also by other unmistakable signals. There is a 
 general form which it adopts as certain as any other 
 law of language. As in the imagery which Homer or 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 173 
 
 Milton applies to Heaven, so in the expressions which 
 look beyond the passing event, their pregnancy shows 
 their design. When Apollo comes down from heaven, 
 his quiver rattles on his shoulders, his arrows fly ; but 
 they are invisible, and they produce malignant disease 
 and death ; and from the circumstances of the Grecian 
 army, exposed on the marshes around Troy and under 
 an Oriental sun, and from the mythological character 
 of Apollo, these celestial arrows must be sunbeams. 
 No mistake here. So in the Seventy-second Psalm, 
 when it is said : " And great shall be his prosperity 
 as long as the moon endureth." (Noyes's translation.) 
 And again : 
 
 " He shall prosper, and to him shall be given the gold of Sheba : 
 Prayer, also, shall be made for him continually, 
 And daily shall he be praised. 
 There shall be abundance of corn in the land ; 
 
 Even on the tops of the mountains the fruit shall shake like Lebanon ; 
 And they of the cities shall flourish like grass of the earth. 
 His name shall endure forever; 
 His name shall be continued as long as the sun ; 
 By him shall men bless themselves ; 
 All nations shall call him blessed." 
 
 Surely it is as plain that this is not solely said of 
 Solomon, as that Apollo's arrows are not literal ones, 
 for we are reduced to this alternative, either that 
 the sacred writer has used enormous hyperboles, vio- 
 lating taste as much as truth, and ancient taste as 
 much as modern, or we must conclude he has some- 
 
174 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 thing analogous, but something deeper than the sur- 
 face-meaning ; and as to what has been said, and so 
 idly repeated, " Quae iriterpretandi ratio, qua una ea- 
 demque oratione, dispari serisu accepta, plures simul 
 eventus disjunctos tempore, natura dissimiles desig- 
 nari statuatur, ab omnibus rectae interpretandi artis 
 praeceptis ita aliena est, ut qui in Graeco aut Ro- 
 mano aliquo scriptore adhibere illam velit, is in commu- 
 nem prudentiorum reprehensionem incurreret," can 
 there be anything in this objection ? In the first place, 
 as to the fact that the Greek and Roman writers have 
 no specimens of this under-meaning. Whenever they 
 approach the field of double authorship and imaginary 
 inspiration, they give plain indications that they are 
 forced upon similar exigencies ; they conform as much 
 as their barren religion allowed them to conform to 
 similar language. The very wolf that suckled Romu- 
 lus was a double being, partly literal and partly a 
 symbol of what Rome was to be. But, secondly, if 
 the Greeks and Romans never had used similar modes, 
 it would be nothing to the purpose. All language is 
 colored by its subject. The Hebrew writers stood on 
 peculiar ground. Their object was peculiar ; and, as 
 Paul tells us, they were irvevpaTiKois Trvevfia-riKa avy- 
 Kplvovres, explaining spiritual ideas in a spiritual ter- 
 minology. It is not true, moreover, that the events 
 brought together, though disjunctos tempore, are natura 
 dissimiles^ dissimilar in nature. The Jewish econ- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 175 
 
 omy was one great preparation ; the culminating point 
 was always before them. Every king was a Messiah 
 or an anointed one ; they stood in a long line of 
 succession, the great Messiah closing the procession. 
 Every king not only resembled him, but actually pre- 
 pared the way. The prophets supposed themselves 
 inspired by an all-foreseeing Mind. They did not pre- 
 tend to understand all they said. Their brightest vis- 
 ions were partial revelations ; and they had before them 
 an illustrious history, very illustrious, but very indefi- 
 nite as to time and extent. Now, in such cases, was 
 it unnatural was it not almost necessary that they 
 should fall into that line of revelation which the best 
 interpreters (such as Lowth, for example) have im- 
 puted to them ? Instead of finding any difficulty in 
 one great under-meaning, I should have been very 
 much astonished had it not been so. 
 
 When a writer or speaker in any time or language 
 has some dark communication to make, it is a good 
 rule of interpretation to find his end or terminating 
 point. We interpret his p^ara by his 6 Xoyo?. Thus 
 when Tiresias comes upon the stage, in the (Edipus 
 Tyrannus, or Clytemnestra in the Agamemnon of ^Es- 
 chylus, their language is very obscure, designedly 
 so ; and in the case of (Edipus, for example, we always 
 forerun him in understanding the prophet's language. 
 We almost wonder at his dulness. We forget that 
 6 Xoyo? is always before us. We see the end. It is 
 
176 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 just so in reading the sacred prophets. It is expected, 
 it is the design, it is the wisdom, it is the beauty of 
 prophecy, that we should understand it better than 
 those to whom it was first uttered, or at least that 
 we should have a key which they had not. Surely 
 the development reflects back on the antecedent indi- 
 cations. The enigma which the great Author himself 
 has explained is solved forever. 
 
 However, there is abundance of indication that this 
 mode was common to all nations. It violates no law 
 of language, because it violates no custom. It intro- 
 duces no obscurity, except an intentional and tempo- 
 rary one. It is founded on this great principle, that 
 A FACT MAY BE A SYMBOL ; and when a nation or the 
 taste of the age abounds in symbols, and has a taste 
 for them, why should they not sometimes, often, take 
 facts ? A myth is a fact exaggerated and shaped so 
 as to be a symbol. But if fiction can answer this 
 purpose, why not truth ? If the story of the fall of 
 Adam, considered as a 'myth, shows the propensity to 
 and prevalence of sin, how much more does it impress 
 that idea considered as a fact ! The story of Christ is 
 an idea, to impress a useful lesson, says Strauss. Very 
 well ; the idea becames doubly impressive when it is 
 supported by the fact. 
 
 Two considerations are important : 
 
 I. In the first place, we may say the double sense 
 arises from the general law of development in human 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 177 
 
 language. Language written language begins by- 
 picture-writing, as we see in the rude specimens left 
 by our Iroquois ; then it proceeds to symbolic pictures, 
 and finally to an alphabet, or phonic sounds. During 
 all the time when symbol-signs prevail previously to the 
 invention of letters, the whole art of writing depends 
 on a sort of double sense. The art of reading is the 
 art of interpreting these latent symbols. A dove may 
 signify love, or meekness ; a lion, a hero ; a dog, fidel- 
 ity ; one man leading another by a string (as is actually 
 seen in the relics of the Iroquois preserved in the 
 Documentary History of New York, Vol. I. p. 13) may 
 signify a victory in which captives were taken. Thus 
 springs up from necessity a symbolic meaning joined 
 to the literal, or, in other words, the double sense. 
 But, as Dr. Warburton observes (Divine Legation, Vol. 
 II. p. 143), "that which had its origin from necessity 
 came in time to be employed for secrecy and improved 
 for ornament." It long lingered in the primitive lan- 
 guages which had escaped from the narrow limits of 
 picture-writing. Their taste had been formed on it ; 
 it was regarded as a great beauty, and it was even still 
 necessary to convey the great impressions which the 
 Hebrew writers aimed to produce. When they wished, 
 therefore, to produce by anticipation the conception of 
 John the Baptist, they call him Elias, or, as we should 
 say, an Elias. To picture the kingdom of Christ, they 
 portray the expanded reign of Solomon. This was all 
 
178 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 natural, and almost necessary, in the line of linguistic 
 improvement in which they then stood. Instead of 
 its being true, as Michaelis has said, and others have 
 ingeminated, that such a mode is " peculiar to the 
 sacred poetry of the Hebrews, that the sacred writing 
 must be interpreted by rules in every respect different 
 from other writings," (see Note on Lowth's Ninth 
 Lecture,) I should say nothing can be more natural ; 
 it is all but a necessary law ; it marks the dawn of 
 literature ; it is just as natural as some of Homer's 
 infantine expressions ; so impossible to be used now, 
 and therefore such exquisite proofs of the genius of 
 the man and the age. 
 
 We say, then, that double sense arises from the form 
 of language and the grade of its progress in that early 
 age. But again, 
 
 II. It arises from the double authorship of the Bible 
 and the double object of most of the prophecies. Most 
 of the Psalms and the prophecies had some occasional 
 subject, some incident in a greater chain. The first 
 meaning arrests the attention of the contemporary 
 speaker ; but the inspiring spirit is supposed to have 
 a deeper intent ; of course God sees farther than man, 
 and this recondite meaning is one of the signals of 
 inspiration. It is an exquisite proof and character- 
 istic of the presence and wisdom of the wiser mind. 
 All this is exemplified in the unwilling prophecy of 
 Caiaphas (John xi. 47-52) : " Then gathered the chief 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 179 
 
 priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What 
 shall we do ? for this man doth many miracles. If we 
 let him alone, all men will believe on him, and the 
 Romans will come and take away both our place and 
 nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the 
 high-priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know 
 nothing at all ; nor consider that it is expedient for 
 us that one man should die for the people, and that 
 the whole nation perish not. And this he spake not 
 of himself; but, being high-priest that year, he proph- 
 esied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not 
 for that nation only, but that also he should gather 
 together in one the children of God that were scat- 
 tered abroad." Who does not see the deeper purpose 
 of the Power that overruled his speech beyond his 
 meaning? All the high-priest intended was to teach 
 the doctrine of expediency. It is true, he concedes 
 Christ may not be guilty according to any positive 
 law, certainly not the Roman law ; but it is neces- 
 sary for our safety that he should die. The high-priest 
 looked no further, he meant no more. But God over- 
 ruled his words to a higher purpose, and this unwil- 
 ling testimony was very striking. Such prophecies 
 have always been considered as an example of God's 
 speaking through the voice of man. Shakespeare 
 has used this proof of double authorship in the scene 
 between Margaret and Richard (Richard III., Act I. 
 Scene 3) : 
 
180 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Gloster. Have done thy charm, thou hateful, withered hag. 
 
 Q. Margaret. And leave out thee ? Stay, dog, for thou shall hear me ! 
 If Heaven have any grievous plague in store 
 Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee, 
 O let them keep it till thy sins be ripe, 
 And then hurl down their indignation 
 On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace ! 
 The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul ! 
 Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livcst, 
 And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends ! 
 No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, 
 Unless it be with some tormenting dream 
 Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils ; 
 Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog ! 
 Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity 
 The slave of nature and the son of hell ! 
 Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb ! 
 Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins ! 
 Thou rag of honor ! thou detested 
 
 Glos. Margaret. 
 
 Q. Mar. Richard! 
 
 Glos. Ha ? 
 
 Q. Mar. I call thee not. 
 
 Glos. I cry thee mercy, then ; for I did think 
 That thou didst call me all these bitter names. 
 
 Q. Mar. Why so I did; but looked for no reply. 
 O let me make the period to my curse. 
 
 Glos. 'T is done by me ; and ends in Margaret. 
 
 Q. Eliz. Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself. 
 
 Every one, I think, must see the poet's design in 
 this dialogue. It is to make Queen Margaret the un- 
 conscious instrument in the hand of Providence of 
 pronouncing a curse against herself; just as, when 
 Samuel turned from Saul, and he caught hold of the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 181 
 
 garment and it rent (1 Samuel xv. 48), the prophet 
 seizes the occasion to say to the king : u The Lord 
 hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, 
 and hath given it to a neighbor of thine which is 
 better than thou." A wise Providence can use the 
 simplest incident as a sign. Such seems to be the 
 spirit of the narrative. When Paulus ^Emilius was 
 appointed to conduct the war against Macedon, he 
 returned home to meet his little daughter at the door, 
 who told her father that Perses (the name of her lap- 
 dog) was dead. It was the name also of the Mace- 
 donian king. He embraced the child with rapture, 
 and received the words as a prediction of the fall of 
 his regal foe. Here we have the double sense. The 
 girl meant her little dog was dead. The father sup- 
 posed he saw a deeper signification, and what gave 
 a charm to the incident was, that the gods were be- 
 lieved to overrule such a trifle to signify their high, 
 celestial will. As Xenophon has told us of Socrates, 
 those that use auguries, and voices, and symbols, &c., 
 do not imagine that the birds, and the speakers, and 
 the portents themselves, know what conduces to our 
 future prosperity, but that the gods by THESE THINGS 
 signify our welfare ; so at least thought Socrates. 
 Now, it would have been very strange if the Hebrews 
 had not imbibed such an opinion, for the whole theoc- 
 racy was inwoven with significations of the Divine will. 
 The waters of jealousy implied a perpetual presence of 
 
182 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 a miraculous providence. The Urim and Thummim, 
 the seer, the ephod, &c., postulated the idea that God 
 to them was always present ; and nothing was more nat- 
 ural, not to say necessary, than that they should seek 
 these Divine intimations in one great under-meaning. 
 It arose from the magnificent ultimate design of their 
 great economy. 
 
 It is often asked, why the Bible should be subject 
 to laws applicable to no other book. The answer is 
 obvious. Properly speaking, the Bible is subjected to 
 no unusual laws. When it is said the Bible must 
 be interpreted like any other book, a great fallacy is 
 often suggested. We interpret the Bible like any other 
 book, supposing it possible to place any other book in 
 similar circumstances. The very heathen themselves, 
 when they supposed the writing inspired, imputed a 
 double sense to it. It is an everlasting law, it is 
 perfectly natural. The Deity has a deeper meaning 
 than mortals. 
 
 One of the clearest examples is found in Acts ii. 
 25. The occasion was important, the speaker was 
 inspired, and the audience versed in the Old Testa- 
 ment. It was Peter's first discourse to prove the 
 divine origin of the Gospel he was called upon to 
 proclaim. He was to set the key-note and to build 
 his conclusions on a strong foundation. Prophecy is 
 his foundation, and he quotes the Sixteenth Psalm, 
 verses 8 - 10 : "I have set the Lord always before 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 183 
 
 me ; because he is on my right hand, I shall not 
 be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory 
 rejoiceth ; my flesh also shall rest in hope ; for thou 
 wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer 
 thine Holy One to see corruption." Peter does not 
 quote the Hebrew, but the Septuagint, and hence the 
 variation in the words between the Old Testament 
 and the Apostle's quotation. The sense, however, is 
 the same. When we turn to the Psalm, we find not 
 the least hint that David was speaking of any other 
 except himself. The Psalm seems to be simple and 
 clear ; the inscription gives it to David ; he is speak- 
 ing of himself through the whole course of it, and 
 in these verses it is " my right hand," " my heart," 
 "my glory;" and yet the Apostle tells us, both nega- 
 tively and positively, that it does not in his own ap- 
 plication of it apply to David, and it does apply to 
 Christ. " Men and brethren, Let me freely speak " 
 (^ero, iropprio-ias, a phrase which the Apostles often 
 use when they are deducing the Gospel from some 
 latent passage in the Old Testament, and it may be 
 rendered, Let me burst away from the old, narrow ap- 
 plication) " unto you of the patriarch David, that he 
 is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with 
 us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and 
 knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, 
 that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, 
 he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne ; he, 
 
184 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 seeing this before, speaks of the resurrection of Christ, 
 that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh 
 did see corruption." So in the thirty-fourth verse he 
 says : " For David is not ascended into heaven," &c. 
 Now it seems to me impossible for language to be 
 more explicit. We have a double affirmation, what 
 is and what is not ; and I see no way in which we 
 can meet the Apostle's expression but by allowing that 
 he finds an under-meaning in David's words. Their 
 whole force was not exhausted in him ; and if any 
 one should ask, How is it then a prediction, if no one 
 so understood it before the fulfilment, and no such 
 meaning is necessitated by the laws of language, 
 we answer: First, that prophecy occupies all the va- 
 rieties of prediction, the latent hint and the clear 
 expression, and it may be the design of God in this 
 case to give us one of the forms which to the Jew 
 was very impressive. Besides, it is obvious that David 
 is feeling after some deeper thought, some vast 
 idea which he does not fully comprehend and hardly 
 knows how to manage. The conception of immortality 
 through a resurrection seems to be before him, and 
 the author of that resurrection was to be Christ. Pe- 
 ter unfolded the idea, the germ of which was in the 
 patriarch's mind. 
 
 We have here, then, a clear example of an inspired 
 Apostle arguing the proof of the G-ospel from a pas- 
 sage applicable only through a double sense. 
 
THE MANUDUCTIOK 185 
 
 We should hardly look to Archbishop Leighton for 
 acute criticism on Scripture ; he had no taste for 
 philology and little confidence in learned speculation ; 
 but he sometimes sees by intuition what others must 
 find by long research, and he has in one of his dis- 
 courses this profound remark, which I would recom- 
 mend to all such as overlook the truth because it lies 
 so near them : " That which some call divers senses 
 of the same Scripture, is indeed but divers parts of 
 one full sense." (Select Works, Edinburgh ed., 1744, 
 Sect. IY. p. 47.) It seems to me this is an important 
 truth uttered without the least parade. 
 
 The great art of interpreting this ancient volume 
 the Bible seems to be to modernize it ; that is, to 
 make its instructions bear with equal force on modern 
 times as on ancient institutions. The forms of the old 
 world have perished ; but the sacred lesson is perma- 
 nent. Now there are two ways of modernizing these 
 old instructions. One is to see the precedents, involv- 
 ing in temporary events eternal principles ; the other 
 is a legitimate use of the under-meaning ; such a use as 
 does not lead to the old extravagance. Now I contend 
 there is a use justified by eternal truth and confirmed 
 by eternal laws. The very fact, too, that this mode of 
 interpreting harmonizes the Old Testament and the 
 New, gives it importance. If you do not adopt it, you. 
 are in danger of falling into a barren neology, or the 
 old Jewish contradiction. The golden thread is broken. 
 
186 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 The Frenchman who saw Othello performed, and, not 
 well understanding the language, supposed the hero 
 was raving about the loss of a handkerchief, was in the 
 exact condition of a philologer reading his Bible with- 
 out the under-meaning. He loses the spirit of an- 
 tiquity, the fulness of meaning, the force of prophecy, 
 the comprehensive sublimity of the design, the author- 
 ity of inspiration, and he stands on a slippery grade, 
 where he is in danger of sliding down to the lowest 
 and most barren views of revelation, if he is not par- 
 tially saved by a happy inconsistency. 
 
 It is therefore no violation of a Hebrew custom to 
 suppose this divine Song to be an allegory. Indeed, 
 the latent and allegorical mutually imply each other.* 
 
 * Perhaps it is not considered that logic implies a double sense in every 
 object we see, the individual and the generic, a house, a field, a tree. 
 Nothing meets the mind without its classifying appendage. We never 
 suppose ourselves to know a thing until we can assign it its rank, or class. 
 In a similar way the double sense of Scripture arises. For example, deliv- 
 erance from the Babylonish captivity, a sample of all gracious deliverances, 
 with our great Christian redemption prominent at the head of them. It is 
 but an emphatic specimen of the double sense that pervades all creation. 
 Every object in existence has two significations, itself and the genus to 
 which it belongs ; and it is by this double signification that we know how 
 to give it a name. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 187 
 
 VII. 
 
 
 
 METAPHYSICS. 
 
 PERHAPS it may raise a wonder that a book giving 
 important instruction on such topics as the Bible 
 should employ as its chosen instruments the indefinites 
 of fancy, the coloring of poetry, that it should veil 
 its doctrines in figures of speech, and that it should 
 seem so often to sacrifce the understanding to the 
 heart. In later times men choose for religion a more 
 accurate method ; they choose a system, a definition, a 
 syllogism, a demonstration ; whereas the Spirit of God, 
 in its enlightening and inspiring influences, chooses a 
 song, an allegory, a figure of speech, a painted cloud, 
 bright as the morning sun, but far less certain in its 
 glory or its light. This is a method which our second 
 thoughts only pronounce to be wise. Our first objec- 
 tions to it lead to the last discovery. 
 
 Now the solution is, that this method, with refer- 
 ence to the peculiar subject of religion, is not only 
 more impressive, but even more clear, than one more 
 didactic and more metaphysical. MEN are always form- 
 ing systems, drawing nice lines, in morals as well as 
 
188 THE MANUDUGTION. 
 
 mathematics ; they are fond of points without mag- 
 nitude and lines without breadth and thickness ; and 
 from these fixed ideas they hope to draw certain 
 demonstrations. But it is not so in the kingdom of 
 Nature. Look round the. world. Who can tell us 
 where the sea commences and the dry land ends ? How 
 high must the swelling mound be to pass from a hill 
 into a mountain ? When does a shrub rise into a tree, 
 and what is the difference between an elegant house 
 and a palace ? Is New Holland an island or a con- 
 tinent, or are the Bermuda Islands in the West In- 
 dies or not ? Nature delights to make her works 
 perfectly obvious without nice lines, and she seems 
 to say to man, You must understand me on these con- 
 ditions. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as 
 metaphysics, and still less have the metaphysical sci- 
 ences shed light on religion. As I consider this as 
 one of the greatest discoveries of modern times, allow 
 me to illustrate and prove this important conclusion. 
 
 For the sake of method, we will first state what we 
 mean by metaphysics ; secondly, show that it is an 
 endless pursuit without a finding, an eternal hunt 
 without the captured prey ; thirdly, the reason why it 
 ever has been and ever must be so ; and, lastly, this 
 fact foreseen threw the inspired teachers on a very 
 different method. 
 
 First, then, let us not contend about an airy cloud. 
 Let us state what we mean by metaphysics as a science. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 189 
 
 It is one of those words which we seem to understand 
 before we attempt to define it. Its meaning must be 
 learned from its prevailing use. Now the metaphysi- 
 cians uniformly complain of the language of the forum ; 
 it is not accurate enough for them ; they quit the 
 common use of language for something more accurate, 
 and as the more accurate necessitates the most accu- 
 rate, they never can cease their pursuit until they 
 reach an accuracy that never can be altered. The 
 subject usually, to be sure, is the human mind ; and 
 yet metaphysics is not, strictly speaking, synonymous 
 with mental philosophy. But when a man in mental 
 philosophy departs from the language of common life 
 in pursuit of the precise st precision, when he seeks 
 fixed ideas for fixed words, he becomes a metaphy- 
 sician ; and the more he approaches the words and 
 meaning of them so perfect as to be fixed, the better 
 metaphysician he is. As Democritus, and Epicurus, 
 his imitator, in considering the material world, chose 
 to resolve it into atoms (that is, particles that had 
 undergone their last dissection) so fine that they could 
 not be finer, so the metaphysician, in considering mind, 
 wishes to analyze it into its last elements. The mo- 
 ment he dissects beyond common life, he stands pledged 
 never to quit his pursuit until he has landed himself 
 and his readers on the coast of absolute perfection. 
 He is a man in pursuit of language and ideas per- 
 manent from their perfection. 
 
190 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Hence Locke invented a terminology of his own ; 
 and Kant is said to be a still stronger instance. The 
 latter claimed to have put the very cap-stone on the 
 edifice of mental analysis.* 
 
 This, then, is the science of metaphysics ; a science 
 which leaves the foggy sea of probability and common 
 life, to land us on the cape where the sun shines with 
 undeviating and unsetting beams. A metaphysician 
 is in pursuit, not of omniscience, to be sure, but a 
 human perfection. 
 
 But, secondly, we remark that this is an endless 
 pursuit without a finding, an eternal hunt without 
 the captured prey. Every one the least tinctured 
 in literature knows the everlasting mutations which 
 have existed in the several systems which have chased 
 each other down like the clouds of a summer day. 
 Ever since Aristotle and Plato have established their 
 antagonist schools, the metaphysical writers have had 
 a very transient reputation for truth ; they have erect- 
 ed their systems only to find them overthrown. They 
 have had a great influence over each other, but a 
 curious influence. One generates another, it is con- 
 stant action and reaction. One is a servile follower 
 of another, or a determined opponent ; and when an 
 opponent, he sees nothing but absurdities in the sys- 
 tem he opposes. The influence of a predecessor over 
 
 * Certainly his admirers claimed it for him ; I do not know whether 
 he claimed it for himself. His cumbrous terminology seems to imply it. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 191 
 
 a follower is immense. He either enlarges his sys- 
 tem or overthrows it. Hobbs produces Malebranche ; 
 Malebranche, Locke ; Locke, Berkeley and Hume; then 
 come Reid and Stewart ; then the German school ; and 
 the most subtile cannot agree. The most renowned 
 of them are destructives. It is a curious fact that the 
 most subtile speculations in this indefinite science pro- 
 duce almost universal conviction in the uninitiated, 
 and awaken objections in the mind of the collateral 
 few; a system is built up to be overthrown, built 
 up to the admiration of the world, and overthrown to 
 its astonishment. 'The history of metaphysics repre- 
 sents the course of the Neponset River in our vicin- 
 ity ; a dike is built up to accumulate a great pond 
 of black water, full of mud-turtles and bloodsuckers, 
 and which seems to be deep because no man can see' 
 to the bottom, and whose force is employed in turn- 
 ing a paper-mill. The engineering lasts for a time. 
 Some one comes and breaks the dike ; the water is 
 dissipated, the stream becomes shallow, and the dike 
 with its black water is removed to a new place, and 
 a world of paper of similar texture is made in several 
 spots. There have been metaphysicians of great inge- 
 nuity, of the greatest subtilty ; but on what was their 
 fame founded ? The greatest of them have been de- 
 structives. Locke begins his work with a destructive 
 introduction, no such thing as innate ideas. Hume, 
 by far the acutest metaphysician that England (per- 
 
192 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 haps I may say the world) ever produced, is a self- 
 conscious and intentional destructive. He means to 
 reduce all that has gone before him to a reductio 
 ad absurdum. He aims to destroy all the paper for- 
 tresses which were deceiving mankind by their seeming 
 strength. Berkeley, a little earlier, was a destructive 
 without knowing it. He stood one grade lower than 
 Hume, because he had the acuteness to build the sys- 
 tem which he had not the acuteness to see must be 
 destroyed. Kant is said to be a destructive. His 
 fame rests on what he overthrew ; and Sir William 
 Hamilton, the wonder of our age, whose miraculous 
 learning guided his almost miraculous sagacity, reposes 
 at last in what he calls a learned ignorance. Such 
 a history may show 'the Divine wisdom in choosing 
 other channels by which to pour out the effusions of 
 revealed truth. 
 
 There is another consideration. Revelation is for 
 the people, not for the few. When we consider that 
 mankind at large have neither patience or ability to 
 understand these nice distinctions, we may well: rejoice 
 in the Mercy that, in pitying our hearts, has pitied our 
 intellects, and has condescended to clothe the words of 
 salvation in a vesture of light. The Lord God is a 
 sun as well as a shield. 
 
 In the works of God and in the ways of man we 
 find one remarkable contrast. Mankind are forced by 
 both their strength and weakness on a logical view of 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 193 
 
 the works of God. They must view creation, not as 
 a huddle of unarranged atoms, but under the form of 
 genus and species ; and what we call understanding 
 a thing is, not knowing its metaphysical essence, but 
 arranging it in its proper class, according to its simil- 
 itude and the formal laws of thought. This art of 
 arranging begins very early in children. They know 
 what a dog or cat is, because they know how to ar- 
 range them according to the technics of a future logic. 
 The first impression gives the distinction. But in this 
 arranging the source of all future knowledge, there 
 springs up one false impression which becomes very 
 deceptive. We impute to Nature the lines drawn by 
 our own thoughts. Nature always makes a compara- 
 tively wide margin at the border. The species fade into 
 each other in confused lines. Man is always distin- 
 guishing, Nature is always confounding ; man tries to 
 grasp an ideal perfection, Nature only approximates. 
 Hence the Platonists always view ideas from the cen- 
 tre, while the metaphysician demands the boundary 
 and the border. But this is a knowledge which God 
 perhaps has denied to all beings except himself. 
 
 Thus the history of metaphysics shows that it is a 
 vain pursuit of unattainable perfection ; that is, the 
 perfection of a permanent resting-place. True, some 
 one may say that it is fallacy to suppose that the past 
 is a measure of the future ; that what man never has 
 found, he never can find ; since before the period of 
 9 M 
 
194 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 any modern discovery this would have been found false, 
 or might have generated a despair which would have 
 prevented it. I allow the force of the objection, and 
 will proceed to show why the science of metaphysics 
 is so unstable and floating, and in this why we may 
 find a sufficient answer to the above plausible ob- 
 jection. 
 
 Thirdly, then, we maintain that we can see the rea- 
 son of this everlasting uncertainty that overhangs all 
 the systems which have been offered to the world. It 
 never can have a fixed terminology, because it never 
 can support it by fixed ideas. The last analysis of 
 thought can never be found. The mathematics is sup- 
 posed to be the most certain of the sciences, because 
 it sets out with the most fixed definitions. But how 
 does it secure them ? The answer is instructive. It 
 secures them not by a real entity, but by an abstrac- 
 tion. A point is defined position without magnitude. 
 Did such a point ever exist? No, nobody supposes 
 it. "We only attempt to consider position without mag- 
 nitude ; that is, for all the purposes of demonstration, 
 we consider the place and leave out the magnitude, 
 knowing all the time that a point as a metaphysical 
 existence never can be found. The thing is an utter 
 impossibility for every purpose but a mathematical 
 demonstration. So of a line, so of a surface. But, 
 a fortiori, when we pass out of the mathematical re- 
 gion, the elementary idea becomes an impossibility. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 195 
 
 Time is the condition of all existence. But what is 
 time ? Is it the motion of the sun ? the succession 
 of thought ? the channel of thought ? or what is it ? 
 Ask the question, and the answer vanishes. We can 
 form no idea of time as an absolute whole which may 
 not immediately become an integral part. No por- 
 tion of time so small that it may not suffer division 
 and be yet smaller. What is present time ? I see no 
 reason why time should not be as indefinitely divisible 
 as matter ; that is, we may suppose a second to be 
 divided into a billion of parts, and only one of these 
 parts present at once. How easy would it be to show 
 that the sharpest pain may be easily borne, for it can 
 only endure the billionth part of a second. But who 
 cannot endure the sharpest pain for so short a dura- 
 tion ? It is absolutely zero, and many zeros amount 
 to nothing. Ergo, the sharpest pain is no pain what- 
 ever, it being always remembered we speak meta- 
 physically. Moreover, with regard to time, contradic- 
 tions must be true. If time is not eternity, it must 
 have had a beginning, an absolute beginning ; but this 
 is impossible, since we can imagine no era so high 
 that we cannot go higher. Here, then, is a neces- 
 sary contradiction. We postulate an absolute begin- 
 ning which we immediately pronounce impossible. Sir 
 Wiliam Hamilton has demonstrated that the absolute, 
 which we are always seeking, and to which we are 
 always tending, is inconceivable. So our ideas of 
 
196 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 cause and effect, absolute unity, personal identity, the 
 one and the many in the mind, how its unity is to 
 be contemplated and how many it is to be divided 
 into, all these things admit of no solution. But 
 these are the counters with which Metaphysics pro- 
 fesses to perform her operations. But if her counters 
 are uncertain, so must be her conclusions. She is 
 ever pursuing the absolute. Now if the absolute does 
 not exist, her search must ever be in vain. She has 
 never found an entity which does not admit of a new 
 section, a one which may now become many. Just 
 as an integer in arithmetic may be turned into an 
 infinite fraction by increasing the denominator. 
 
 This question was distinctly before the old Greek 
 philosophers ; it is discussed by Plato, in his Parmeni- 
 des. The one and the many, the ontological one 
 and the ontological many. This is the sum of all 
 philosophy. This constitutes the archetypal world, 
 the world of ideas. Science demands that these ideas 
 should be rigid, fixed, immovable, because they are 
 the elements of certain knowledge. But how can we 
 postulate that they should be fixed or not fixed ? If 
 they are not fixed, there is no science ; and if they 
 are fixed, how shall we compare them, and how shall 
 we know that they may not demand a new fixing ? 
 Before Plato, the schools had started this question, and 
 in his Parmenides he attempts an answer. But how 
 dark and unsatisfactory ! The difficulties of that dia- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 197 
 
 logue, and the various hypotheses as to its design and 
 meaning, are a proof, not of the voluntary obscurity 
 of the author, but the darkness of the subject. In a 
 word, to form an idea, known to be complete, of any- 
 thing (except our pleasures and pains, and these are 
 never so high but they may be higher), a tree, a 
 rock, a mountain, a drop of water, a gas, or any chem- 
 ical substance, or so simple that it cannot be sim- 
 pler, is beyond the abilities of the human mind. But 
 this is what the metaphysician professes and designs. 
 If then his materials fail him, no wonder his edifice is 
 never finished. His successor always comes with a 
 nicer analysis ; he professes to get nearer the absolute 
 to which his predecessor has aimed. He questions his 
 analysis, and says his elements are not elements, and if 
 these elements exist out of the circle of human com- 
 prehension, and this is demonstrable, not from his- 
 tory only, but from the very nature of the mind and 
 the object it pursues, why then it is manifest that 
 the pursuit is vain. 
 
 The language of the forum is confessedly approxi- 
 matory. You not only know that you fall short of 
 ideal accuracy, but you have in your mind the com- 
 parative standard by which you speak. You aim to 
 be in harmony with your fellow-men. Your rule is 
 a conventional one. You talk of envy, love, hope, fear, 
 government, liberty, the Church, or the State, and you 
 are under a tacit obligation, and, if you are a man 
 
198 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 of common honesty, it is your earnest aim to mean 
 what your fellow-men mean. You catch your note 
 from society; you sing the tune of the times. You 
 know very well that these words are capable of a nicer 
 analysis ; and if you use one of them in such a way 
 you give notice of your intention. But this is not 
 the stand-point of the metaphysician ; he departs from 
 the language of the forum, and in his first step pro- 
 fesses and obliges himself not to rest until he has 
 found the absolute element of thought. He must an- 
 alyze until no one can analyze on him. For where is 
 the advantage of calling a compound a simple ? and 
 where is the benefit of a journey that lands you among 
 the ambiguities from which you started, and which it 
 was the sole object of your migration forever to escape ? 
 
 What are the recent metaphysicians constantly say- 
 ing of Locke ? It is, that his language is ambigu- 
 ous, vacillating, and uncertain. So say Reid, Stewart, 
 Cousin, and Sir William Hamilton. They complain of 
 his terminology and wonder at his vagueness. Even 
 the word idea, the hinge of his whole system, is not 
 used in the Platonic sense, and is used with the least 
 precision. 
 
 Such is the universal complaint. I suspect, how- 
 ever, that the vagueness of Locke is only comparative, 
 and is owing chiefly to the finer analysis which his 
 speculations have enabled his disciples and antagonists 
 to make. Continued investigations always lead to new 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 199 
 
 discriminations. Kant is said to have been so dissatis- 
 fied with the result of the past as to have given him- 
 self an unbounded license in introducing a new termi- 
 nology. Well, did he reach the end ? Did he render 
 superfluous all future analysis ? Did he put the cap- 
 stone on the mental arch ? Nothing like it ; he set 
 all the initiated to examining his systems, and he now 
 " sways a doubtful sceptre amidst a host of oppo- 
 nents." Finally come Fitch and Cousin, finding, as 
 they claim, the absolute, that is, the world of ideas 
 radiating from one all-inclusive One (such as Plato 
 said could only exist in the Divine Mind), ideas ab- 
 solved from all the grossness of matter and all the 
 imperfections of a finite mind. And Sir William Ham- 
 ilton steps in and shows the absolute ; the uncondi- 
 tional has been inconceivable in past ages, and must be 
 so in all ages to come. The only metaphysician in the 
 universe is God on his eternal throne. 
 
 It might seem strange to borrow an illustration from 
 a material science. But I have often thought that 
 the history of chemistry for a century past might illus- 
 trate our difficulties in the department of metaphysics. 
 It is evident that the chemists in the days of Chapital 
 and Lavoisier contemplated a perfection in the science 
 and an adequacy in the terminology which the recent 
 experimenters have long since abandoned in despair. 
 It is pretty clear that the analyzer never can know or 
 prove that he has found a simple substance. Those 
 
200 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 now regarded as such may turn out, in the nicety of 
 our future experiments, to be endless compounds ; and 
 Nature retires to a more secret cell as we pursue her 
 in her hidden recesses. She draws before her naked 
 form a thicker veil, and refuses to be known. So far 
 as accuracy is concerned, the four elements of the 
 ancients, with their sublime quintessence, may be as 
 good a division of matter as any we yet have dis- 
 covered. The zero of the thermometer is a remark- 
 able witness of our efforts, our presumption, our de- 
 feat. Zero was first considered, with some hesitation 
 and doubt, as the highest degree of cold that nature 
 allowed ; and now all chemists confess there is no zero, 
 or if there is, it never can be known. We never can 
 find the highest degree of heat or cold. Now, if this 
 material science thus presents us its insoluble prob- 
 lems, how can we expect to reach the last, the fixed, 
 the eternal analysis of the human mind ? If the cru- 
 cible and the voltaic battery fail, how shall a man suc- 
 ceed when his implements are the same as his objects ? 
 Almost the only thing that a chemist is sure of is, 
 that his finest analysis may be yet finer. And though 
 a psychologist may know the usefulness and certainty 
 of his relative knowledge, yet the true metaphysician 
 must sit down in despair when he contemplates the 
 blunders of his predecessors, and even his own acute- 
 ness in detecting them. The same sagacity that tells 
 him he has surpassed them on the troubled sea, must 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 201 
 
 show him more clearly that he has not reached the 
 shore. 
 
 To this illustrious modern (i. e. Locke) we may add 
 the example of Plato ; his testimony is strong against 
 the possible existence of any practical system of meta- 
 physics. No one saw more clearly, or divined more 
 accurately, what an absolute idea or simple concept 
 should be. Science was the harmony of ideas, and 
 before there was harmony the note itself must be fixed. 
 The simple idea did not, according to Plato, exist in 
 anything else, ou8e TTOV ov ev erepw -rivi, but d\\a avTo 
 KCL& avro fjieO* avrov /zoi/oetSe? del ov, itself according 
 to itself, always the same. Such were the necessary 
 elements of absolute science. But where do they exist 
 in their necessary perfection ? In the archetypal world ; 
 that is, the objective contemplations of the Supreme 
 Mind. Plato saw the necessity of such simple concepts ; 
 he believed in their existence, and he found them only 
 in the Supreme Being. To understand one of his ideas 
 (since its intrinsic nature is modified by its relative 
 standing), he postulates omniscierice. Ergo, this kind 
 of science is impossible to man. 
 
 We may illustrate this impossibility of fixed ideas to 
 our wavering minds in many instances. We use the 
 words " present consciousness " and " memory " in com- 
 mon parlance without suspecting there is any difficulty 
 in distinguishing them. We are conscious of the joys 
 or sorrows of the passing hour, we remember the events 
 9* 
 
202 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 of yesterday ; but suppose we were required to draw 
 the accurate line between present consciousness and 
 memory, how difficult ! how perplexing ! how impos- 
 sible ! The moment is gone before we can contemplate 
 it ; consciousness becomes memory before we can ask 
 what either of them is. Our very existence is a slid- 
 ing stream, and the drop before us slides by while we 
 are fixing its place. We are trying to fix an idea 
 whose very nature is to be unfixed. So in the moral 
 world ; we love the lovely object. Call it beauty, if 
 you please. The love of it is produced by the percep- 
 tion, and yet the perception implies a previous love ; for 
 no man loves by his intellectual powers. Now, which 
 goes first ? which is parent ? which is child ? which is 
 cause ? which is effect ? Answer, analyst, if you can. 
 
 Such being the negative point in which all these 
 researches culminate, we come, lastly, to say, that this 
 fact foreseen threw the inspired writers on a very dif- 
 ferent method. We may first remark the certainty of 
 the fact. 
 
 With respect to the Old Testament the case is ob- 
 vious. No one will deny that it is delivered to us in a 
 language as far from the abstract as possible. Its ab- 
 stract terms are of the most primitive character. It 
 teaches by history, by biography, by example, by poetry, 
 by allegory, by the embryo-drama, by moral painting, 
 by the sighs of sorrow and the gratulations of joy ; 
 through all its pages, from its simple history to the 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 203 
 
 strains of the prophets, there reigns the evidence of 
 the most primitive simplicity. It has not even risen 
 up to the language of the forum, and the wonder is 
 that so much truth can be communicated by such sim- 
 ple materials. There is the most of system there with 
 the least of form, of any book in the world ; and it 
 comes from this fact, that higher wisdom never spoke 
 to greater ignorance. But when we come to the New 
 Testament, though a nicer language is chosen and we 
 see the marks of a more cultivated age, yet we see no 
 traces of metaphysics ; that is, no one of the speak- 
 ers or writers attempts to depart from the terminology 
 of the forum. Not even St. Paul, educated as he was 
 in the highest schools of his nation. I defy a man 
 to point out a single word in all his writings that has 
 the least tincture of a scholastic use. His dictionary 
 is always a conventional one. He was perfectly under- 
 stood in every synagogue he addressed. It is true, he 
 often departs from the popular Greek, and he once 
 gives us notice of it, I think (1 Cor. i. 13), in the words 
 which our translators have rendered " comparing spirit- 
 ual things with spiritual," which may be translated, 
 " explaining spiritual thoughts by a spiritual terminol- 
 ogy." But this terminology did not come from a meta- 
 physical school. It came from two sources, the mag- 
 nitude of his subject, and the hue which Hebrew usage 
 had cast over his Greek dialect. It is remarkable of 
 his mental terms, that they are all from the forum ; that, 
 
204 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 so far from nice distinctions, many of them are synony- 
 mous ; and so far is he from showing any dependence on 
 closet-distinctions, that he seems rather ambitious to 
 show how completely he can convey his meaning with- 
 out them. The passage (1 Thessalonians v. 23), "The 
 very God of peace sanctify you wholly (oXoreXet?) . and 
 I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be 
 preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." How misleading it would be to do as some 
 Platonic Christians have done, to make an intentional 
 distinction between soul and spirit ! even the distinc- 
 tion between soul and body fades away in this passage, 
 oXoreXet? is the explanatory word, the Apostle's in- 
 tention being to say, I wish you to be entire Christians. 
 See, then, the wisdom of abjuring a science pro- 
 gressive in its nature, and when it reaches its goal 
 vanishing into the inconceivable. I am aware no the 
 ological seminary has or can exist without teaching the 
 science of mental philosophy and all the metaphysics 
 involved in it. It is a science whose history is use- 
 ful ; it sharpens the intellect, develops our nature, 
 and even its negative discovery is very important ; as, 
 when we come to a river where one place is not ford- 
 able and another is, knowing the danger of one spot 
 may urge us to another, so the discovery in this case 
 is not a vain one. We have had the hunt, and if 
 we have taken nothing, we have enjoyed the chase 
 and go to a field of equal pleasure and greater profit. 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 205 
 
 The sacred writers, therefore, renouncing this source 
 of teaching, are directed to use every other. They call 
 the imagination, the heart, the picturing hymn, the 
 painted emotion, the related fact, the sublime illus- 
 tration, to their service. In using the abstract as a 
 minimum, they resort to other sources as a maximum, 
 and it is one preparation for receiving Solomon's Song 
 as a sublime allegory, to remember that it is found in 
 a book which, foreseeing the imbecility of man, lisped 
 to him in the language which his childhood needed, 
 and to which his age, after all its specious improve- 
 ments, must be compelled to return. 
 
 EXEMPLIFICATION. 
 
 IT has been peculiarly disastrous to religion to ap- 
 ply an impossible mental analysis to explain any system 
 of its doctrines. Predestination, the foreknowledge of 
 the Deity, his immutable purposes, how prayer can 
 obtain aught of a perfect and unchangeable nature, 
 all these and similar difficulties are enhanced by pos- 
 tulating a precision of knowledge beyond our facul- 
 ties. We should remember that God's ways are not 
 our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts. The doc- 
 trine of the Trinity loses its objections when it re- 
 minds us of our ignorance. The whole rationale of 
 the day of judgment, the great trumpet that is to 
 
206 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 wake the dead, how a personal Saviour is to judge 
 the millions that have lived, all this admits of no 
 accurate analysis. The first solemn impression is the 
 best we can ever receive. Whenever we begin to ana- 
 lyze, we plunge into difficulties ; and why should the 
 subtile reason undertake to mend what was mainly 
 addressed to the yielding heart ? 
 
 But there is one doctrine of our holy religion which 
 I think has suffered wofully by being presented to us 
 with a background of metaphysics to increase its pre- 
 cision and diminish its effect. I allude to the doctrine 
 of the ATONEMENT, or the moral import of the death of 
 Christ. It is called in Scripture a sacrifice, and we 
 are said to be " reconciled to God by the death of his 
 Son." Now the whole narrative is a simple and affect- 
 ing display of his mercy and our guilt. They go to- 
 gether ; and if one died for all, then were all dead. 
 The first impression of the narrative (after we are told 
 of the Godhead and incarnation of Christ) is the most 
 affecting. It was a great effort, for which there must 
 have previously existed a great reason. But the theo- 
 logical metaphysician thinks he must explain it by an 
 analysis, by an application of the rigid metaphysical 
 art. He first assumes an abstract Justice which is it- 
 self independent of all consequences, all the practical 
 evils of transgression, and this abstract Justice must 
 be satisfied. This has been the assumption since the 
 days of Anselm ; and has prevailed over the minds of 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 207 
 
 those that seemed to modify or deny. This Justice 
 must be illustrated by earthly analogies ; not one of 
 them being adequate or fully reaching the case. Thus 
 a king is said to give up his son, to honor the law, while 
 he pardons the criminal. Thus one soldier is whipped 
 in the place of another.* It is remarkable, however, 
 that, when these cases occur apart from any theological 
 illustration, the very men who use them for illustrations 
 should regard them as proofs of barbarous ignorance. 
 We have an example. Cotton Mather apologizes for 
 and even denies the fact, that an old bedrid weaver was 
 hung in the place of a strong and vigorous warrior of 
 the Puritans, to satisfy the Indians. Gutzlaff mentions 
 it as a proof of the obtuseness of the Chinese, that such 
 substitutions prevail among -them. When the Arabs, 
 or some barbarous tribe on our American coast, in 
 their wild ideas of justice, by a double mistake con- 
 founding the idea of the deed and the identity of the 
 people who do it, murder the crew of one American 
 ship because another has robbed them, all see the cause 
 of the deed. The fact is, there is no finite example on 
 earth that can illustrate the justice of God in substi- 
 tuting Christ as an expiation for us as penal sufferers. 
 Every analysis, accompanied as they usually are with a 
 human illustration, only weakens the impression which 
 the great mystery makes. Christ died for us for rea- 
 sons infinitely deeper than time can reveal. I doubt 
 
 * See the third Sermon on the Atonement, by the younger Edwards. 
 
208 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 myself whether there is any such thing as an abstract 
 Justice, or, in other words, a justice which is conceiva- 
 ble independent of the consequences of our good and 
 evil deeds. Justice is justice, because conformity to it 
 promotes social happiness and a disregard of it involves 
 the community in misery and ruin. Tear the ideas 
 asunder, and both of them are lost. 
 
 These popular illustrations are more deceiving be- 
 cause they do illustrate a part of the subject. For ex- 
 ample, you say that a king finds a province in rebellion ; 
 he wishes to pardon them, but fears that sin followed 
 by no suffering will seem a light thing, and weaken jus- 
 tice. He gives up his only son, <fcc., &c. ; and thus 
 you hope to illustrate the justice of God and the love of 
 Christ. Now the fact illustrates the love, but not the 
 justice. If the king's son were to consent to die in such 
 a cause, it would be a wonderful act of love, provided 
 always that he saw the necessity and the wisdom of the 
 deed. But I cannot see how it illustrates the Divine 
 justice ; for such an example on earth could never be 
 viewed with approbation. 
 
 The old divines most fond of similar illustrations have 
 been obliged to save their theory by saying, that Christ 
 stood in a peculiar position ; he had his own rights ; his 
 submission was voluntary ; he was a Divine Being, and 
 was not a common subject to the law ; he had a right 
 to be a substitute, because other rights did not hold him. 
 How destructive is this concession to their whole pur- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 209 
 
 pose ! Where there is no resemblance, there can be no 
 illustration. 
 
 Christ was wounded for our transgressions ; he died, 
 the just for the unjust ; his death has a vicarious im- 
 port, but surely not in the strict sense which the abso- 
 lute idea of a substitute demands. No party pretends 
 this ; those that carry their ideas of a substitute or an 
 imputation highest do not claim that Christ was punished 
 for us in the strictest sense. The strictest justice would 
 demand the offending victim ; and the moment you de- 
 part from this, you take your stand on the comparative 
 ground. 
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SACRED WRITERS. 
 
 But the grand proof of the uselessness of metaphys- 
 ics in religion is the example of Christ and the sacred 
 writers. They have all thrown themselves on the popu- 
 lar terminology. They make nothing depend on a nicer 
 analysis. They seem ambitious to show us that religion, 
 with all its sublime conceptions, may be communicated 
 in those broad terms which are every day used in the 
 intercourse of common men. As John Bunyan has 
 shown us that his allegory could be related with scarce- 
 ly a help from the Latinized terms of our own language, 
 so the inspired writers seem to be determined to show 
 us that they need no technics of the mind, no distinc- 
 
 N 
 
210 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 tions or names beyond the usages of the plainest men. 
 High thoughts can be imparted in simple terms. There 
 is a remarkable passage in one of Christ's discourses 
 (John viii. 43) : Aiam TTJV \a\iav rrjv eprjv ov <yivu>- 
 (TKere ; f On ov SvvaaOe aKovew TOV \oyov rov e^ov^ 
 " You cannot understand my diction because you have 
 not grasped the spirit of my system." There is a dis- 
 tinction here between o Xoyo? and rj \a\id ; the one 
 the all-comprehensive word, such as Gospel grace, &c., 
 and the other the articulate parts. When you grasp 
 the one, the inclusive mental word, you understand 
 the other. I have been curious to pass over the New 
 Testament and select all the words that express the 
 operation of mind and its faculties, and not one of them 
 is such as a metaphysician would think necessary to 
 his simplest discussions. The broad faculties are named, 
 the broad lines are distinguished ; but the Divine lan- 
 guage would be a golden fetter to Locke, Berkeley, or 
 Kant. In 1 Thessalonians v. 23, we have a seeming 
 philosophical distinction. The Apostle speaks of TO crw- 
 fta, the body ; TJ -^1/^77, the soul ; TO Trvev^a, the spirit ; 
 but certainly not, as some Platonists have dreamed, with 
 the least approach to the Platonic distinction. The ex- 
 ponent of these words is found in the first clause of the 
 verse, " May the God of peace sanctify you wholly," 
 oXoTeXet?. The specific mention of these powers is to 
 give emphasis to that idea. The other mental words 
 used are all of the forum. The following are the chief : 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 211 
 
 s, KapSia, vra^o?, Tra^rj/^a, avvecris, <yvwcri<s t 
 the will, QeXrja-is, <t>P 1 l v 9 intelligentia, mens, 
 , reflection, wisdom, prudence ; evQv/jLrjffis, im- 
 agination, thought, vain desire ; aia-Qrja-i,? is opposed to 
 7r/yz/o>o-fc9 ? the first the sensual perception, the last 
 the intellectual knowledge ; ala6r)Tripiov, the seat of the 
 senses ; i/oew, mente intelligo (this perhaps is the most 
 philosophic word in the Bible) ; z/o^a, the counsel of 
 the mind ; eTr/crrayiKzt, to know well, to know super- 
 sensually. The affections of the mind are all obvious 
 and popular ; ayavaicrew, indignor ; dyairau, the best 
 
 IT ' ' ' >*; ' ^l * ' rt 
 
 love , ayaTT?;, ay^oea), atoco?, ac/i/yu-ea), ava/AwrjcnS) pov- 
 \^ pouXiJijia, rational will, deliberate conclusion ; yz/cy- 
 yt/,77, purpose, decision ; y^wo-t?, knowledge, discernment 
 in religion ; Seo?, Stayi/oWo), accurate inquiry ; S ia - 
 Kptvo), to judge, to hesitate. EtSo?, not its Platonic 
 meaning, from the Hebrew JltOD ; e'lSo), to see, to 
 discern ; eWracr^, alienatio mentis , the ecstatic state ; 
 eicwv, volens ; evepyrjpa, effectum ; evepyeia, inner power ; 
 evOvfieo^ai, animo volvo ; evOvfiija-K, cogitatio ; ewoia, the 
 same ; eTrtflu/ieo), to desire, the noun ; eTTiyvwdis, accu- 
 rate knowledge ; lirlvoia, praepositum ; e-n-iTroOeco, desi- 
 dero abreptus ; Ov^os, the mind, the seat of aversion and 
 desire, ira, furor, &c. ; ISea, not Platonic, explained Matt. 
 xxviii. 3 ; Ka-rakapfiavw, a remarkable word, applied 
 to the mind and yet popular in its origin, I under- 
 stand, I take your meaning. Aoylfapa*, not emphatic, 
 , both these words noticeable ; they have a tingo 
 
212 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 of Platonism, because Platonism cast its coloring on the 
 language of common life. They are colored by that 
 philosophy, just as the word idea in the English lan- 
 guage has been colored by the philosophy of Locke, 
 not directly, but through its influence on the popular 
 dialect. These words, and the rot? Troiri^acn, voov^eva 
 (Romans i. 20) and TO Oelov (Acts xvii. 29), are the 
 words which come the nearest to being shaded by phi- 
 losophy ; I have no doubt the word voovfjieva is em- 
 phatic, and is meant to express the action of reason 
 in its supersensual operations. The word Xoyo? too 
 has its philosophic double meaning, the inward and 
 the spoken word, the thought and the sign. "O^eft?, 
 appetitus. The two words 6'o-to? and &tcaio$ have the 
 usual distinction which pervades all languages, holi- 
 ness and justice. IlaparripTja-^, accurate observation ; 
 7Ti(Tfj,ovr}, persuasio ; 7re7ro/#??crt?, confidence. The car- 
 dinal word faith, Tr/crrt?, persuasio cum fiducia, has an 
 entirely different hue in the sacred writers from what 
 it has in philosophy ; it comes from the Hebrew ; its 
 meaning and its bearing are to be sought for wholly 
 in the Hebrew Scriptures ; it corresponds to HJ'ION ; 
 the Hebrew meaning prevails, subjective truth, 
 the influence of revealed truth on the heart. IlpoOeo-i,?, 
 purpose, design ; <rv}jL/3i/3aa), a word remarkable for 
 its intellectual meaning, and for its remote origin, to 
 glue one thing to another, to prove by a chain of argu- 
 ments ; a-vvlrjfjLiy to understand ; -^v^i/cos, opposed to 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 213 
 
 These are some of the most important 
 specimens of sacred terminology ; they are all remote 
 from analytic nicety ; they are taken from common 
 life, and they show that religion can be taught without 
 the mental philosophy with which it has been too often 
 confounded. 
 
 .To this catalogue we may add those words which 
 are purposely comprehensive. Discrimination in lan- 
 guage advances with the progress of thought. We are 
 constantly dividing generic words, and making them 
 more specific. But our Saviour and his disciples in 
 their choice of terms are hardly up to the age in which 
 they lived. Religion in our Saviour's discourses is 
 Life, Zwr\, which may mean spiritual power, spiritual 
 influence, holiness, activity, joy. It is purposely com- 
 prehensive. 
 
 I have said that metaphysics differs from psychol- 
 ogy. Let me explain what I conceive the distinction 
 to be. Metaphysics aims to find the fixed, invariable, 
 certain, incontestable, elementary idea. It professes to 
 stop only at the last solution. The psychologist, or 
 writer on mental analysis, abandons such a hopeless 
 design. He wishes only to give us an analysis of the 
 mind which shall be practical because it is relative to 
 the improved conception of others. If he departs from 
 the language of the forum, it is only because he ex- 
 pects the forum at some time to follow him. He has 
 not the least thought but what acuteness may make 
 
214 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 new distinctions and divide his elements into new com- 
 ponent parts. He is doing what the chemist does, 
 not proving to a certainty he has found the last ele- 
 ment, but only relatively the last ; that is, relative to 
 the present state of knowledge. The chemist knows 
 well that he has not found, and never can be sure that 
 he has found, a simple which may not in the process 
 of experiment turn out to be a compound. We may 
 illustrate it by the atoms of Epicurus. An atom, ac- 
 cording to the system of Democritus, is a section which 
 cannot be bisected. Epicurus allows it to be invisible. 
 Now suppose two men : one of them is pulverizing some 
 friable matter in order to find the finest powder that 
 he can. use, or its partial identity ; the other is pur- 
 suing or laboring to find the strict philosophic atom. 
 Which of them is engaged in the most hopeless task ? 
 The one resembles the mental philosopher, the other 
 the metaphysician. 
 
 Bishop Berkeley has clearly recognized this distinc- 
 tion, though himself the victim to the error he so 
 clearly saw. " Time, place, and motion," says he, 
 " taken in particular or concrete, are what everybody 
 knows ; but having passed through the hands of a 
 metaphysician, they become too abstract and fine to be 
 apprehended by men of ordinary sense. Bid your ser- 
 vant meet you at such a time and such* a place, and 
 he shall never stay to deliberate on the meaning of 
 the words. In conceiving that particular time and 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 215 
 
 place, or the motion by which he is to get thither, he 
 finds not the least difficulty. But if time be taken, 
 exclusive of all those particular actions and ideas that 
 diversify the day, merely for the continuation of exist- 
 ence, or duration in abstract, then it will perhaps gravel 
 even a philosopher to comprehend it." (Principles of 
 Human Knowledge, Part I. Sect. 97.) 
 
 Let me, however, be understood. I by no means 
 intend to say that the psychologist as well as the 
 metaphysician does not mean to depart from the loose- 
 ness of popular language, and both of them may have 
 the same terminus in their minds. But herein they 
 differ ; the psychologist allows the end of his anal- 
 ysis to be at an infinite distance from perfection ; his 
 object is never to lose sight of the relative ; his object 
 is always practical, and he attempts to analyze no fur- 
 ther than he can take the thinking world with him. 
 When he departs from the forum he expects to stop, 
 not only sljort, but infinitely short, of the metaphysi- 
 cian's goal; whereas the metaphysician (perhaps half 
 unconsciously to himself) expects to reach the goal. 
 He will untwist the thread to the last filament, and 
 present it to our admiring eyes. He is essentially an- 
 alytic, and he means that his analysis shall be final. 
 
 There is another point in which I conceive they 
 differ. The psychologist regards his analysis as found, 
 to be sure, on lines drawn by nature, but not the only 
 lines. He chooses those which he conceives to be the 
 
216 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 most useful. He pays great attention to the distinc- 
 tions handed down to him from past generations. In 
 a word, he regards his departments of mind and the 
 consequent terminology very much as we regard the 
 division of counties in Massachusetts, sometimes arbi- 
 trary, sometimes natural ; sometimes the boundary lines 
 following a river or a range of hills, but by no means 
 excluding the possibility of another division, and made 
 principally on the grounds of political utility. But 
 the metaphysician regards his lines of analysis as fun- 
 damental, essential, eternal. They are" foredrawn by 
 nature, he has only discovered them. Blot them 
 out, or question them, you disturb his whole system. 
 His terminology is the voice of Nature ; his discoveries 
 are drawn from her deepest recess. 
 
 There is another difference. The metaphysician does 
 not allow that an idea or mental impression should 
 be regarded as an image, or proof of a corresponding 
 object in the outward world. Hence he feels himself 
 obliged elaborately to account for his ideal system and 
 its correspondence with outward causes. The object- 
 ive and the subjective with him are at everlasting war ; 
 and while he is ambitious to prove all things, failing 
 in his attempt, he falls into universal scepticism ; or, if 
 he does not reach this point, he is inconsistent, he 
 mixes proofs and assumptions together; just as Locke 
 often passes over the point you wish him to prove, 
 and proves that of which you never thought of doubt- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 217 
 
 ing. Now the psychologist ignores or passes by all these 
 difficulties ; he is contented with a probable assump- 
 tion. He knows that his terminology may be floating 
 and his discoveries relative. To him probability is 
 the foundation of his system as Veil as " the guide of 
 life." * 
 
 It must be allowed that the psychologist is very apt 
 to degenerate (perhaps I should say soar) into the met- 
 aphysician. He would hardly write his book if he did 
 not in some degree depart from the diction of the 
 forum. The question is, Where shall he stop ? In 
 his anxiety to be as subtle and as perfect as the case 
 demands, he is tempted to grasp at intangible objects 
 and pursue unintelligible distinctions. Thus the moral 
 philosopher is sometimes lost in the fogs of the meta- 
 physician. We can best make our distinction clear by 
 examples. The writers who have best seen their own 
 boundaries, and pursued accuracy without plunging 
 into useless subtilties, are Augustine, Pascal, Baxter, 
 Hutcheson, and, above all, Bishop Butler. 
 
 The impossibility of any finished system of meta- 
 physics is indicated many ways. First, by the very 
 nature of the subject, it seeks the ideal perfect, the 
 fixed, the absolute. Wherever it begins, it is driven 
 to this line. Secondly, it demands an account of, and 
 a demonstration of the correspondence between, the 
 ideal and outward world, which is found impossible ; 
 
 # Introduction to Butler's Analogy. 
 
 10 
 
218 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 Thirdly, it forgets the weakness of the human faculties. 
 Fourthly, it postulates a whole system, the one in the 
 many, the many from the one, which can be known 
 only by omniscience. Fifthly, the history of its specu- 
 lations shows the impossibility of its aims. No system 
 ever lasts, it exists only to be overthrown ; and neces- 
 sary truth to one man is an absurdity to another. The 
 comments that the acutest minds make on the acutest 
 are severe, contradictory, and astonishing. Sixthly, a 
 system is often proved by the most irrefragable argu- 
 ments, which every rational man sees to be false. As 
 Hume says of Berkeley's speculations, " They admit of 
 no answer and produce no conviction." Berkeley's 
 Essay on the Principles of Human Knowledge is an 
 astonishing example. The writer is honest, the prem- 
 ises are strong, the argument is safe, and the conclu- 
 sion is irresistible ; and yet who can believe what he 
 sees irrefutably proved. The book is a wonderful ex- 
 ample of an IMPOSSIBILITY DEMONSTRATED ; and, finally, 
 the science existing for more than two thousand years, 
 employing the minds of the most ingenious artists, 
 shows not the smallest tendency to a result. Nothing 
 is settled ; its negative power is strong, its affirmative 
 nothing ; it still continues to roll the same turbid 
 stream to a sea as turbid as itself. Indeed, it seems 
 to me that the most matchless metaphysician of our 
 age has put the only termination possible to these 
 investigations, when he says : " We are wholly igno- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 219 
 
 rant of existence in itself; the mind knows nothing 
 except in parts, by quality and difference and rela- 
 tions ; consciousness supposes the subject distinguished 
 from the object of thought ; the abstraction of this 
 contrast is the negation of consciousness ; and the 
 negation of consciousness is the annihilation of thought 
 itself. The alternative, therefore, is unavoidable; either, 
 finding the absolute, we lose ourselves ; or, retaining 
 self and individual consciousness, we do not reach the 
 absolute." (Review of Cousin, Edinburgh Review, Oct. 
 1828.) 
 
 It is a fact, which perhaps we do not sufficiently 
 notice, that logic is destructive of metaphysics, the 
 two arts cannot subsist together. The establishment 
 of logic is the destruction of metaphysics. How is it 
 so ? Logic deals with genus and species. The syllo- 
 gism is founded on this arrangement of the articles 
 and operations of nature. But how do we make this 
 arrangement, arid on what principle ? It is done very 
 early, and before we are aware fully of the principle 
 on which it is done. The generic or specific resem- 
 blance by which we arrange our conceptions is founded 
 on central ideas, central kinds, when the borders are 
 very dark and indefinite. Taking the centre for our 
 original division, the difference is very clear between 
 a dwarf and a man, a shrub and a tree, a hill and 
 a mountain, a gulf and a sea, a solid and a fluid, 
 an animal and a plant; but when we come to the 
 
220 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 border, the difference fades away ; we are perplexed 
 and confounded. Who can tell or trace the insensi- 
 ble line which separates the infusoria from the vege- 
 tables among which they swim ? 
 
 Now metaphysics delights to trace these borders ; she 
 is not satisfied with the popular logic. She tells you at 
 once that your classification is a bad one ; she does not 
 understand one of your terms, nor accept one of your 
 deductions. Tell me, she says, how large must your 
 dwarf be before he becomes a man ? which is the sea, 
 and which is the gulf? Draw your immutable line, 
 and give me the absolute idea. Yes, give me one fixed 
 notion, with which all others must harmonize, and I 
 will confess the possibility of science. But I disdain 
 your confused approximations ; I will not consent to 
 wander with you in the dark, where you are alike igno- 
 rant of your starting-point and your goal. Logical de- 
 duction supposes a previous induction, and when was 
 that induction made ? When you only knew enough 
 to see that a sheep differed from a horse, and that all 
 horses and sheep were alike. 
 
 The common people suppose themselves to know a 
 thing when they can classify it ; that is, assign its place 
 among genus and species. Present any individual ob- 
 ject to them, and if they cannot classify it, .they say it 
 is unknown ; but if it resemble what they have seen, 
 they can always find its place. But genus and species 
 themselves are wholly relative. They depend on exter- 
 
THE MANUDUCTION. 221 
 
 nal resemblances, and relate to our former ideas. Abso- 
 lute ideas in this department have no place. The two 
 sciences of logic and metaphysics are destructive of 
 each other ; if the one is established, the other is over- 
 thrown. 
 
 It is far from being the object of these remarks to de- 
 preciate the study of metaphysics. It not only sharpens 
 the mind, but perhaps there are no writers to whom, on 
 the ground of collateral utility, the world owes so much 
 as to metaphysicians. When we ask directly what they 
 have discovered, we answer, never what they sought. 
 They uniformly travel a road that leads to nothing. But 
 it does not follow that their speculations have been use- 
 less. In the first place, the negative discovery is vastly 
 important. Such is the fascination which this science 
 presents to the youthful aspirant, so much light does 
 it promise to shed on his own being, and especially on 
 religion, that nothing but experience investigation, 
 and close investigation can convince him of the fallacy 
 of his first impressions ; and then, moreover, the igno- 
 rance to which his closest investigations lead him is not 
 the ignorance from which he started. The ignorance 
 of experience is not the ignorance of inexperience. 
 The precise ideas which he has been seeking serve by 
 contrast to show the nature of that proximate and prob- 
 able ground on which, after all his excursions, his soul 
 must rest. We know all things by contrast and com- 
 parison. Of those absolute ideas which the metaphysi- 
 
222 THE MANUDUCTION. 
 
 cian seeks, we know two things, we know they must 
 exist, and, secondly, we know we never can find them. 
 This teaches us the amplitude of knowledge, and gives 
 us a lesson of humility. Indeed, when we consider 
 what a fascination metaphysical speculation has held 
 over the theologian, metaphysics must be taught in 
 order to cure him of the charm. It is not a mere 
 negative discovery. He is taught the difference be- 
 tween a perfect intellect and his own ; and human 
 knowledge has a perfection in its own sphere, when 
 it has found those dread limits which separate the eter- 
 nal light from our clearest mental vision. Mr. Locke 
 has said : 
 
 "It is of great use to the sailor to know the length 
 of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the 
 depths of the ocean. It is well to know that it is long 
 enough to reach the bottom at such places as are neces- 
 sary to direct his voyage, and caution him against run- 
 ning on shoals which may ruin him. Our business 
 here is not to know all things, but those which concern 
 our conduct."* 
 
 * Locke's Essay, Introduction, Sect. 6. 
 
PAET II. 
 
 THE VERSION. 
 
THE VERSION. 
 
 IN the following translation I shall impose on myself 
 these rules : First, to be as literal as possible, but not 
 so literal as not to aim to give the parallel meaning ; for 
 the meaning of the Bible is the Bible. I shall endeavor 
 to give not only the meaning, but to preserve the poetic 
 and moral shading, so that a word or a metaphor may 
 give the same impression now as to the primitive read- 
 ers. This is my aim, though I am conscious that the 
 attainment is scarcely possible. I shall not shun the 
 old translation where I find nothing to alter, and 
 some parts of it, I confess, are matchless and inimita- 
 ble, as the description of spring, chap. ii. 8-13, and 
 of the lost interview, chap. v. 2-6. These have always 
 appeared to me, like Shakespeare's piece of prose in 
 Hamlet (Act II. Scene 2), "This goodly frame, the 
 earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most 
 excellent canopy, the air," &c. to be magical out- 
 bursts of felicity, both in thought and language, which 
 all must admire, and none can hope to mend. I 
 shall abandon the method adopted since the days of 
 
 o 
 
226 THE VERSION. 
 
 Lowth, of giving broken lines, because it offers a show 
 of poetry which the performance does not justify, and 
 therefore lays a trap for the reader's dissatisfaction. 
 These broken lines are like the forms in Egyptian 
 coffins, ghastly forms of a life that does not exist ; they 
 indicate neither measure nor rhyme, and they lure the 
 reader to expect either the one or the other. Only 
 think of these words passing for measured poetry ! 
 
 "THE BURDEN OF DCMAH. 
 
 " He calleth to me out of Seir, 
 
 Watchman, what of the night, 
 Watchman, what of the night ? 
 The watchman said, 
 
 The morning cometh, and also the night ; 
 If ye will inquire, inquire ye : 
 Return, come." 
 
 Surely such poetry reminds one of Dr. Johnson's bur- 
 lesque line, 
 
 " Lay your knife and your fork across your plate." 
 
 If the reader will count his fingers, he will find that 
 all his fingers and his thumbs on both hands exactly 
 correspond to the number of syllables in this beautiful 
 line, and in this respect it is as good as any line found 
 in Pope's Iliad or Milton's Paradise Lost ; nay, it is 
 better, for many a line in these great poets must be 
 saved from false quantity by an ecthlipsis, or synaeresis, 
 or some other grammatical device ; and in this way I 
 have no doubt that President Buchanan's last message 
 
THE VERSION. 227 
 
 can be turned into surprising poetry. But surely the 
 prophet intended no such device. The Hebrews had 
 the elements of poetry in them, but not ripened in its 
 modes, nor polished into its subsequent perfection. 
 Let us leave them in their native simplicity, and not 
 make them answerable for promises which they never 
 will fulfil, because in fact they never made them. 
 
 As to the notes, I am anxious to show that this Song 
 of Songs has a constant practical lesson, a lesson which 
 could be taught in its force and beauty in no other way. 
 I wish to show that a pious reader with a congenial taste 
 may find matter of improvement, not only from the 
 whole, but from the compact parts. In showing this, I 
 impose upon myself these restrictions : not to be wire- 
 drawing; not to force out a latent meaning, not to 
 torture language, or violate common sense ; not to fall 
 into the track of the Jewish or Christian mystics on the 
 one hand, and on the other to shun, as I would a syrtis, 
 the sensualism or the literalism of such writers as Gro- 
 tius, and Dr. Noyes of our own country. I blame not 
 these men ; they are scholars, and faithful perhaps to 
 their own light. But they could not understand such 
 a book as this. There was not a responsive fibre in 
 them.* The great difficulty is in the first step. Is 
 
 # There was a man in a neighboring town, some sixty years ago, a 
 very worthy citizen, who was very indifferent to appropriating any money 
 for the improvement of sacred music. He was not more avaricious than 
 the rest of his neighbors. Everybody wondered at his reluctance. He at 
 
228 THE VEESION. 
 
 the book a spiritual allegory ? If it is, the higher in- 
 terpretation follows of course. Now I do not pledge 
 myself to find an articulate meaning, in every part, to 
 the reader's satisfaction. But such is my aim. I am 
 more clear as to the general design of this song, than 
 I am as to its particular application ; but I am not 
 without hope, that, without borrowing the robe of Philo 
 or Origen, I may find, under the luxurious dress, an 
 obvious at least a probable application for every 
 period. These last, like branches of a noble tree, grow 
 out of the original design. 
 
 THE GOLDEN SONG OF SOLOMON. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 Let HIM greet me with a kiss from his sacred mouth, 
 WHOSE love is sweeter than wine. 
 
 Let us pause a little on this important verse. It 
 opens the whole subject, it strikes the key-note, and 
 demands our attention. We must not stumble at the 
 threshold. It is to be understood by the help of the 
 emphasis, and under the shadow of that emphasis I 
 
 last told the secret. " I never yet," said he, " could see any use in culti- 
 vated music. All we want is a little joyful noise. For my part," added 
 he, " the falling of a shovel on the hearth, provided it rings well, or the 
 rattling of a pair of tongs in a brass kettle, is as good music as I ever 
 desire to hear." 
 
THE VERSION. 229 
 
 have ventured to insert the word sacred, as indicating 
 the person and the nature of the salutation. I suppose 
 the words to be spoken by the espoused one in the 
 very spirit with which Mary Magdalene addressed her 
 risen Saviour : "But Mary stood without at the sep- 
 ulchre weeping ; and as she wept, she stooped down 
 and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels 
 in white, sitting, the one at the head and the other 
 at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And 
 they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou ? She 
 saith unto them, Because they have taken away my 
 Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. 
 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, 
 and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Je- 
 sus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? 
 Whom seekest thou ? She, supposing him to be the 
 gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him 
 hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will 
 take him away." (John xx. 11-15.) Now the latter 
 part of this speech has been greatly admired. Three 
 times the pronoun is used without a consciousness of 
 the absence of the antecedent. Her heart is so full 
 that she supposes every one must know who she means 
 by HIM. So, in the abrupt beginning of this book, 
 there is but one antecedent to which the pious mind 
 can recur. The sacred kiss can come from none but 
 the Heavenly Bridegroom. The ellipsis is impressive 
 and significant. 
 
230 THE VEESION. 
 
 But wine and tokens of love fill the first strain of 
 the poem ! If we may suppose these words first to be 
 put into the mouth of some rustic beauty, espoused 
 to King Solomon, the ellipsis is natural and impres- 
 sive. To be taken from her native vale, and from an 
 idolatrous nation, and to be preferred by such a wise 
 and holy king, must have given an interest to any 
 salutation she might receive, and Solomon must have 
 filled her heart. Going up to the holy city must have 
 given a religious interest to her unusual nuptials. But 
 this was only a stepping-stone. God had a deeper de- 
 sign ; the fact was significant ; and the same God who 
 could make a dream or a name a symbol of prophecy 
 could make this union a foreshadowing of the union 
 of the Gentile church with its Redeemer. 
 
 But then the sensuality of wine and love ! Why 
 use these as images of the purest passion that can 
 actuate the heart ? Why dress piety in such wanton 
 robes ? Because in that age, and in all ages, certain 
 minds have sought such images to express the break- 
 ings of the heart. It has been delightful to some 
 nations, and to all ardent minds, to picture devotional 
 feeling in erotic poetry. If a colder criticism should 
 oppose it, it would be like quenching the conflagra- 
 tion of a burning city with a few flakes of falling 
 snow. It is not difficult to see whence this proclivity 
 arises. 
 
 First, the glowing mind, intense in its feeling, looks 
 
THE VERSION. 231 
 
 round for adequate expressions, and finds them here. 
 Nature is too strong for art. We are told that, when 
 Madame Guyon wrote her ardent poetry, it was in 
 vain that the celebrated Bishop of Meaux exposed 
 her doctrines with all the powers of his wit, aided 
 by all the splendor of his eloquence. He only in- 
 creased the flame. His criticism probably never abated 
 the lusciousness of a single expression. 
 
 Secondly, the mystic feels a secret satisfaction in 
 triumphing over the tainting influence of the figures. 
 The unconsciousness (of which it is half conscious at 
 least) is pleasing. The rapid application of the figure 
 to the higher subject is a testimony to the mind of 
 its own purity. 
 
 Thirdly, the satisfaction of finding the resemblance 
 in the remote. The contrast is great. The rich treas- 
 ure is deeply hid. 
 
 Lastly, such similitudes take our whole nature with 
 them. They familiarize the mystic and ennoble the 
 familiar. They elevate the natural propensity into a 
 divine one. As the incarnation of Christ unites the 
 definiteness of a mortal conception with the sublimity 
 of a divine one, so this union takes the whole strength 
 of our minds and our hearts, and gives double ardor 
 to the compound passion. All the fire of a mortal 
 love joins with the purity of the divine to increase 
 the outflow of the soul. No wonder that such repre- 
 sentations should be so fascinating. 
 
232 THE YEESION. 
 
 Perhaps the mortal passion itself has a deeper sig- 
 nification than at first appears. Perhaps the rant and 
 raptures of love were designed to show us how false 
 and fair our first idols, and how true the beauty to 
 which our disappointment turns us. Perhaps Otway 
 may teach us divinity : 
 
 " O woman, lovely woman, nature made you 
 To temper man : we had been brutes without you ; 
 Angels are painted fair to look like you ; 
 There 's in you all that we believe of heaven, 
 Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, 
 Eternal joy, and everlasting love." 
 
 It teaches us, at least, that the passions justify them- 
 selves by borrowing and imputing perfection. So Vir- 
 gil:- 
 
 " Quis novus hie nostris successit sedibus hospes ! 
 Quern sese ore ferens ! quam forti pectore, et armis ! 
 Credo equidem, nee vana fides, genus esse deorum." 
 
 No one can read Rousseau's New Eloise without 
 thinking of the strength of the passion and the frailty 
 of its earthly foundation. A novelist always substi- 
 tutes the indefinite for the eternal. He conducts his 
 afflicted pair to social happiness not terminated, and 
 there leaves them ; just as a painter, not able to pic- 
 ture an infinite road, makes it wind round a hill, and 
 leaves the spectator's fancy to finish what the power 
 of his limited pencil could only begin. 
 
 The spirit of this paragraph is clear. It supposes a 
 
THE VERSION. 233 
 
 mind so full of Christ that an elliptical pronoun sug- 
 gests him. It turns away from all earthly attractions 
 to seek some token of his love. Let him own me as 
 his, and fill my soul with his love, and it is all I ask. 
 My obedience is secured when I find my chief happi- 
 ness in his service ; when his love is sweeter than wine, 
 i. e. all sensual good. Under another figure the same 
 sentiment is expressed, chap. viii. 6 : " Set me as a seal 
 upon thine heart, as a seal upon thy arm ; for love is 
 strong as death." 
 
 We may give a specimen how these sentiments might 
 appear in a modern dress : 
 
 " From all the enchantments of time, 
 
 "Where bitterness waits on desire, 
 Where pleasure is blended with crime, 
 
 And love is a vanishing fire, 
 I turn to the Bridegroom above, 
 
 Whose looks can such sweetness impart, 
 Whose kiss can our passions improve, 
 
 Because it encounters the heart.* 
 
 " I am weary with phantoms that fade, 
 
 They cause me to weep and repine ; 
 I would be in His garments arrayed 
 
 Whose love is much better than wine. 
 When the heart from its idols is loosed, 
 
 And the soul for its tenant makes room, 
 Then his name is like ointment effused, 
 
 Affording the richest perfume." 
 
 * " The hearts of princes kiss obedience." King Henry VIII, Act 3, 
 Scene 1. 
 
234 THE VEKSION. 
 
 SOLOMITIS still speaks. (Verses 3, 4, 5, 6.) 
 
 Thy ointments have a delicate flavor ; thy name is like oint- 
 ment effused. Therefore the virgins love thee. Draw me ; 
 we will gladly follow. The king has brought me into his con- 
 clave ; and there we will heartily rejoice. We will praise his 
 love more than wine. The good love thee. I am dark, but 
 fair ; dark like the tents of Kedar ; fair like the curtains of 
 Solomon. O daughter of Jerusalem, do not scorn me be- 
 cause I am dark ; 't is my native sun. My native people 
 were angry with me; they appointed me to keep the vine- 
 yards; but while I kept their vineyards, I lost my own, 
 i. e. my heart. 
 
 In the first place, let us regard the historical mean- 
 ing. It is the address of a rustic girl to a refined king. 
 She is a fair brunette, just what we should expect 
 from an Arab tribe. She has ointments preparatory 
 to her exaltation ; just as Esther was purified to go in 
 to the king ; " for so were the days of their purification 
 accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and 
 six months with sweet odors and with other things for 
 the purification of the women." (Esther ii. 12.) Let 
 us suppose, then, King Solomon to have had a mingled 
 motive in espousing this Sheik's daughter, partly the 
 extension of true religion, partly empire, and partly 
 personal glory ; she has native charms and a wild cul- 
 tivation. Suppose he affords her the sweet-scented 
 unguents, and prepares her for his own seraglio. 
 What a perfect fact to shadow out a higher union in 
 
THE VERSION. 235 
 
 the admission of the Gentile Church, the gratitude 
 and love which would glow in her heart, and the 
 purer piety which would at once pave the way and 
 follow that event. It was not merely a figure ; it was 
 partly a specimen. 
 
 And then the wisdom hehind the mortal council, 
 and overruling the fact to its own designs ! This was 
 charming to a Hebrew mind. It is no more than what 
 the poet has said : 
 
 " There 's a Divinity that shapes our ends 
 Rough-hew them how we will." 
 
 This, then, is the unforced lesson, certainly unforced 
 when you have got over the difficulty of admitting the 
 allegory. I merely hint. 
 
 " let me have conscious communion with God ; " 
 or, to translate it into a proposition: "It is a privilege 
 to feel in my heart that he loves me, for then I shall 
 love him ; " or, to reverse the proposition : " When I 
 feel that I love him, I know that he loves me." 
 
 And for this, Divine attraction is necessary (see fourth 
 verse) ; we should pray for it. This simple passage 
 tells the great secret; how to get a will for virtue, a 
 question which has always perplexed the sensual man. 
 It is by prevenient grace. " Draw me ; we will run 
 after thee." "No man can come to me, except the 
 Father which hath sent me draw him." (John vi. 44.) 
 
 Now, I ask, admitting the allegory running through 
 
236 THE VERSION. 
 
 the poem (and unless you do admit it you plunge from 
 the sublime mountain into the muddy ditch that stag- 
 nates at its base), is this meaning arbitrary ? Is it un- 
 natural? *Is it forced? Is it not all but necessary? 
 
 CHAR I. 7-17. 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 Tell me, O beloved one, where thou feedest thy flocks ; where 
 is thy noontide shade. Why should I wander among other 
 folds? 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 If you know not, O thou most beautiful of women, trace 
 the footsteps ; feed thy kids near the shepherds' tents. I com- 
 pare you, O my loved one, to the horses of Pharaoh's char- 
 iots. How graceful are thy cheeks among thy chains, thy 
 neck with its necklace! We have prepared for you golden 
 collars with silver stars. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 While the king sits in his circle, my nard diffuses its odor. 
 A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me ; he shall rest in my 
 inmost heart. A cluster of copher is my beloved to me in the 
 gardens of Engedi. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 O thou art fair, my love, thou art very fair, with eyes look- 
 ing the dove. Yes, thou art beautiful, divinely beautiful ; while 
 our nuptial couch is the rural grove. The cedar-trees are the 
 only beams to our house, our only rafters are the branches 
 over us. 
 
THE VERSION, 237 
 
 Here, I think, we have indications of the historico- 
 literal and the mystico-spiritual. It is impossible to 
 be sure as to the meaning of such imperfect hints ; 
 for the whole poem is a succession of hints with a 
 chasm of ellipsis between. The first speech, "Tell 
 me, thou loved One! where thou feedest thy flock," 
 <fec., may be a natural mistake of the rural lass on 
 her first union with the king, or it may be the king 
 went into her country to rusticate, or it may be an 
 allegorical expression by which she signifies that the 
 king is a shepherd and his kingdom is a flock. What- 
 ever it be, it is a wish for love and communion ; and 
 the next verses are the language of encouragement 
 from a superior : " You say you are black, and yet 
 you hope you are fair. I compare you to the most 
 polished and precious objects, to Pharaoh's chariot. 
 I will load you with every ornament," &c., &c. 
 
 But what, is the higher meaning ? Sure, it is obvi- 
 ous. Christ has selected- human nature from its state 
 of degradation and corruption, and he sees every beauty 
 in it through the comeliness he puts upon it. As there 
 is something remarkably beautiful in supposing a re- 
 fined king, like Solomon, dwelling in such a house as 
 described in 1 Kings vii., going into the country, dwell- 
 ing in a tent, with the cedar-trees murmuring over 
 him; so when the greater than Solomon condescends 
 to adopt the Gentile sinners, beautify their hearts, and 
 seeing the beauty that he has imparted, the parallel is 
 
238 THE VERSION. 
 
 complete. Then, too, the humblest scenes are beau- 
 tiful with the presence of Christ. 
 
 CHAP. II. 1-7. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 I am but a wild flower of the field, a lily of the valley. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 Yes, but as the lily among the briers, so is my beloved 
 among other women. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 As the apple-tree among the woodland shades, so is my be- 
 loved among the youth ; under his shade I sat and still de- 
 sire to sit, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He led me 
 to the nuptial room ; his banner over me was Love. I faint 
 I languish in love. Restore me with grape-cakes ; re- 
 cover me with apples. His left hand is under my head ; his 
 right enfolds me. O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you by 
 the roes and gazelles of the country, that you disturb not 
 my 'loved One, nor recall him to the city until he chooses. 
 
 This whole speech belongs to the bride, as we have 
 given it. She is showing that she knows how to ap- 
 preciate her lover-king as well as her rivals of the 
 city. It is impossible to translate the fourth verse by 
 a mere translation. I think the house of wine was the 
 nuptial-room, and the banner was the flag intended for 
 the caravan which was to carry her up to Jerusalem. 
 So that the sentiment in the historical part is : " He has 
 
THE VERSION. 239 
 
 already adopted me. I see the scene; the nuptial ban- 
 quet is prepared ; the banner waves ; love floats in its 
 folds, and we are just ready to depart. He will own 
 me in Jerusalem, as well as in my native groves. But 
 amid such delightful scenes, I have no haste to go. 
 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and 
 hinds of my native fields," &c., <fec. How beautiful 
 the objects by which she swears ! the semi-paganism of 
 the oath, too, is extremely natural. She sheds one tear 
 over her native animals, though she triumphs in go- 
 ing. Longinus has praised the oath of Demosthenes, 
 when he swore by those that fell at Marathon ; but 
 this adjuration is more beautiful. It is exactly suit- 
 able to the rustic nymph in her condition, who shows 
 her love for what she chooses by her regrets for what 
 she leaves. 
 
 Such is the historical part. But what could you do 
 with it applied to the higher purpose ? And remember 
 you are not to copy Origen, nor to be a reckless mystic. 
 It seems to me, if it is really an allegory, if the book 
 has a latent application, the word is nigh thee, in thy 
 heart and in thy mouth. The design is very much 
 the same as that of the parable of the prodigal son and 
 his envious brother. Then the mingled joy and humil- 
 ity of the bride, how parallel to a lost soul returning 
 to God ! The genius of the Gospel, that salvation is 
 by grace, was never better illustrated than when salva- 
 tion was sent to the pagan nations. They were sunk 
 
240 THE VERSION. 
 
 in corruption ; the Jews called them dogs, exiles, 
 wretches, babes, and things which were not, that is, non- 
 entities in religion, and yet the purest manifestation 
 of religion was sent to them. The murmuring of 
 the oldest son, in the parable before alluded to (Luke 
 xvii.), shows how long the self-righteous objection 
 lingered even in a sober mind. 
 
 If I were discoursing on the gracious spirit, on hu- 
 mility, on a humble trust, on the hope of a soul sealed 
 to its Saviour, I should not hesitate to quote the speech 
 of the bride : " I am but a wild flower of the field." I 
 am sorry in this translation to lose the specific definite- 
 ness of the original ; but I know not any plant which 
 would produce the instantaneous recognition in the 
 English reader's mind necessary to the beauty and 
 effect of the original. I might have said, I am a wild 
 rose, I am a harebell, I am a sprig of white- 
 weed ; but these would be false translations, and would 
 not produce the intended effect. I am forced to lose 
 much in being general. Let the reader imagine any 
 late, unusual, modestly beautiful, or rustic flower of a 
 native land, like the shamrock to the Irish or the na- 
 tive thistle to the Scotch, and use it for the emblem. 
 
 CHAP. II. 8-17. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 Hark, it is the voice of my beloved ; it is he ; he comes ; 
 he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills. 
 
THE VERSION. 241 
 
 My beloved is like a hart or a wild-goat. Lo ! he is there ; 
 standing behind our wall, showing himself through our win- 
 dows, peeping through the wicker-work. My beloved spake 
 and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come 
 away. For lo ! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 
 The flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of 
 the birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our 
 land. The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines 
 and the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my 
 fair one, and come away. 
 
 We may suppose some time to have elapsed between 
 the utterance of the last paragraph and the occasion of 
 this. The bride had gone up to Jerusalem, and after 
 a stay there had gone back to the country, and was to 
 remain there until the season came of her husband's 
 rustication, which would naturally be in the spring. In 
 that cool season, when the weather would neither be 
 too hot nor too cold, he hears her distant voice in the 
 listening ear of affection : " Rise up, my love, <fcc. For 
 lo ! the winter is past," &c. Something like this might 
 be its first application. 
 
 But seasons of desertion come to the Christian, sea- 
 sons of decline to the Church, a wintry state, when 
 iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold. 
 A pious instinct almost would lead them to adopt this 
 language while watching and finding the first symp- 
 toms of returning life : " Rise up, my love, my fair 
 
 one," &c. 
 
 11 P 
 
242 THE VEESION. 
 
 CHAP. II. 14-17. 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 O my Dove, let me hear thy voice, though in the recesses 
 of the rock, though thou art up the deepest ledges ; let me 
 see thy form; let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, 
 and thy form is beautiful. Come, my love, let us go and take 
 the foxes ; the little foxes that spoil the vineyard, for our vine- 
 yard is yet in bloom. My beloved is mine and I am his, while 
 he feeds among the lilies, i. e. stays in the country, acting 
 the shepherd in its beautiful scenes. From the cool of the 
 morning until the shadows are stretched upon the plain, stay, 
 my love, stay, and be like a hart or a roe on bur secluded 
 hills. 
 
 Perhaps the most difficult passage in -this chapter is 
 the 15th verse. What does it mean historically, and 
 what does it mean spiritually ? The knowing of the 
 one is needful to the knowing of the other. I under- 
 stand it historically as a beautiful picture of the sports 
 and employments of the care-worn king, when he re- 
 tired for relaxation to the rural world. The wisest 
 men in such hours are ever most like children. It is 
 said of .Webster that he was a perfect boy in his hours 
 of relaxation. I suppose it was so with Solomon. 
 Cicero tells us of the Roman heroes who loved to re- 
 tire to Cuma and gather shells on the shore. These 
 rords, then, are an expression of these rural employ- 
 ments, by which the bride allures her husband to the 
 mountains and the vineyards. Its covered meaning is 
 
THE VERSION. 243 
 
 seen on the veil. It signifies, first, that the spirit of 
 the higher type of religion is a free spirit ; love conse- 
 crates as well as lightens everything. Secondly, that it 
 is as devout in its recreations as its duties. " Whether 
 therefore ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to 
 the glory of God." (1 Cor. x. 31.) Thirdly, that every 
 condition of life offers it a sphere, a scope for culti- 
 vation, the rural retirement as well as the populous 
 mart. As a flower bears its fragrance to whatever vase 
 the owner may remove it, so the perfected soul bears 
 its influence to every scene it occupies. And lastly, 
 that even its bounding recreations look towards utility, 
 either to fit the person for future toil, or to make 
 amusement itself conducive to some profitable end. 
 " Take us the- foxes, the little foxes that spoil the 
 vines" The end is useful, though the employment is 
 recreation. 
 
 If any one smiles, and says this last inference is wire- 
 drawn,, let him consider the historical application of 
 the words and the analogy. 
 
 CHAP. III. 1-11. 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; 
 I sought him, but I found him not. I will arise, I will go 
 round the city ; I will seek him whom I Jove in the squares 
 and in the streets. I sought him, but I did not find him. The 
 keepers of the city met me. Have you seen, said I, the One 
 
244 THE VERSION. 
 
 whom my soul loveth ? I scarce passed them, when I found 
 him whom my soul loveth. I grasped him, I would not let 
 him go, until I brought him to my mother's house, into her 
 chamber who bore me; and I charge you, O daughters of 
 Jesusalem, by the roes and gazelles of the field, that you dis- 
 turb not his repose, nor call him back until he chooses. 
 
 * # * * # 
 
 Who is this that ascends from the wilderness like a column 
 of smoke, like the incense of myrrh and Lebanon, with all 
 the aromatics of the caravans. Behold the palanquin of Sol- 
 omon ; surrounded by sixty guardsmen, brave men of Israel, 
 all grasping the sword, all expert in war ; each one with his 
 sword on his thigh, on account of terrors of the night. King 
 Solomon made himself a palanquin ; wood of Lebanon, col- 
 umns of silver, a golden seat, a purple cushion, paved by a 
 Love better than that of the daughters of Jerusalem. Go, 
 ye nymphs of Sion, go and see your king, wearing the wreath 
 which his [new rural] mother wove for him, in the day of 
 his espousals [to her daughter] ; in the day of his gladness 
 of heart 
 
 Several things are here to be noticed. First, the 
 rapid transitions ; the Song, like the bridegroom which 
 is its subject, goes so rapidly, leaping from hill to hill, 
 that it is almost impossible to preserve the train of 
 thought in a mere translation. We are to suppose the 
 espoused one to project herself into the city, into the 
 country, according to the varying tenor of her passion. 
 By night in the country she things of her absent one. 
 " When away from you," she seems to say, " on my 
 
THE VERSION. 245 
 
 bed my thoughts were fixed upon you." She then 
 imagines herself in the city, and relates the incidents 
 in verses third and fourth. There is no need of sup- 
 posing it a dream, it may be accounted for by 'the 
 vivacity of Eastern thought. The striking exclama- 
 tion in the sixth verse has been attributed to a cho- 
 rus. There is no need of introducing a chorus ; it 
 hardly comports with Eastern simplicity. The excla- 
 mation may be accounted for by the amazing power 
 of an excited mind to project itself into any pleasing 
 or painful situation. She is suddenly rapt into a con- 
 dition to behold the spectacle, and asks the question, 
 "Who is this coming from the wilderness?" &c. Sec- 
 ondly, we must consider the opposition between the 
 rustic bride and the polished daughters of Jerusalem ; 
 the rivalry is everywhere kept up, and the jealousy 
 between them is obvious, and an important item in 
 interpreting the book. Thirdly, I would remark that 
 no chorus is necessary ; all those passages may be ac- 
 counted for by the amazing activity of the Eastern 
 mind. Their very thoughts were dramatic. The ques- 
 tions which have been put into the mouth of a cho- 
 rus, I consider as the suppositions of an excited pas- 
 sion, as the questions which an inflamed heart may 
 easily ask itself. " The mother of Sisera looked out 
 at a window and cried through the lattice, Why is 
 his chariot so long in coming ? Why tarry the wheels 
 of his chariots ? Her wise ladies answered her, yea, 
 
246 THE VERSION. 
 
 she returned answer to herself." (Judges v. 28, 29.) 
 Formal critics often go too far. Paul has something of 
 the dialogue in his didactic epistles, and Horace, also, 
 in his odes and satires ; but it has always appeared 
 to me better to regard these dialogues as mental rather 
 than real. In the famous one in Horace between 
 the poet and Lydia (Ode IX. Lib. III.), it was an 
 imaginary Lydia that spoke to him. Passion flies on 
 fiery wings, and scorns the formalities of place or per- 
 son. Then the Hebrews had hardly recovered from 
 the hieroglyphic state, and to a primitive people with 
 an infant language rapid transitions are almost neces- 
 sary. Fourthly, it is remarkable that the bride, though 
 earnestly seeking, does not find her mate BY SEEKING ; 
 it is always good luck. This I consider as an impor- 
 tant element in the higher application. Fifthly, let 
 the reader remark the great difficulty in supplying the 
 interstitial ideas. This is the Gordian knot in explain- 
 ing allegorical, and indeed all prophetic poetry. I am 
 not so sure I am right in each instance, as I am of 
 the rectitude of the general principle. And, lastly, 
 remark that Solomon was a peaceful king ; he uses 
 soldiers on account of the terrors of the night (i. e. to 
 keep safe from the Arabs of the wilderness). " Then 
 he said unto them, When I sent you with purse, and 
 scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything ? And they said, 
 Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now lie that 
 hath a purse let him take it, and likewise his scrip ; 
 
THE VERSION. 247 
 
 and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment 
 and buy one." (Luke xxii. 35, 36.) 
 
 Now the historical analogy will conduct us to the 
 spiritual meaning. First, that we all begin religion 
 as a duty in the way of conflict and self-denial. Every 
 young Christian has a host of unconquered lusts which 
 war against the soul. The conflict is a severe one, and 
 often discouraging ; he makes great efforts, and some- 
 times these efforts are unsuccessful, because ill-direct- 
 ed. But let him remember the better state. The 
 bride found her spouse not directly by seeking, though 
 the seeking was by no means in vain. She sought him, 
 but she found him not. She went round the city ; she 
 asked the watchmen, but she found him not. " But I 
 scarce passed them, or, I had passed but a little way 
 from them, when I found him. I grasped him ; I 
 would not let him go." Every Christian during the 
 period of conflict should be reminded of the second pe- 
 riod, the period of spontaneity. It comes rushing upon 
 us in an hour when we think not, just as, in a contrary 
 way, Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, when he had 
 long paltered with the evil principle. It is ours to toil 
 and pray and struggle, and prepare the heart for the 
 entrance of the celestial guest. Sooner or later this 
 period of spontaneity will come to most Christians. 
 We cannot bring it on directly ; it must come to us ; 
 we cannot go to it. But bearing the cross is our pre- 
 paratory discipline. Let us use an illustration. Sup- 
 
248 THE VERSION. 
 
 pose a man to be watching for the morning ; he must 
 wake before daybreak ; he must unclose his shutters 
 and lift his curtains ; and though he can do nothing to 
 hasten the sunrise, yet he must prepare his house to 
 receive the glorious beams when they come rushing 
 into his chamber. The free state, the victory, is the 
 happy goal to which all exertion tends. 
 
 There are other significations in this passage. But 
 we give only specimens. 
 
 CHAP. IV. Totum. 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art very fair ; 
 thine eyes, as they peep behind thy veil, look the dove. Thine 
 hair is like that of the goats which hang over the clefts of 
 Mount Gilead. Thy teeth are white as the flock of newly- 
 sheared sheep, which go up from the washing ; each having 
 twins, none of them barren. Thy lips are threads of scarlet, 
 thine accents beautiful ; thy cheek, half seen through thy veil, 
 is like a fragment of citron. Like the tower of David, built 
 for a magazine with a thousand shields suspended, the buck- 
 lers of heroes, such is thy neck. Thy two breasts are like 
 two hinds feeding in a field of lilies. When the day declines, 
 and the shadows are extended, I will go to these hills of 
 myrrh, to those protuberances of frankincense. Thou art 
 all beautiful, my love, there is not a spot in thee. 
 
 Up, up from Lebanon ; with me, with me, come from the 
 head of Amana, my spouse., from the head of Shinar and Her- 
 mon, from the cottages of Araoth, from the hills of Nemairim. 
 
THE VERSION. 249 
 
 O my sister, my spouse, thou hast subdued my soul with one 
 glance of thine eye, with one look at thy beaded neck. How 
 beautiful thy bosom, my sister, my spouse ! thy bosom is better 
 than wine, and thy savor sweeter than all other spices. Thy 
 lips ever distil, honey and milk are under thy tongue, and 
 the smell of thy garments is like a breeze from Lebanon. Yet, 
 with all her attractions, my spouse is chaste ; she is a garden 
 enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 
 
 Thy fair form is a Paradise of citrons, with other celestial 
 fruit, the cypress, the frankincense, the nard, the crocus, the 
 reed, the cinnamon, with all the groves of Lebanon ; the myrrh, 
 the aloes, with all the best spices. Thou art a fountain en- 
 closed ; a spring of living water flowing from Lebanon. 
 Wake, north wind ; come, thou south ; blow upon my garden, 
 
 that the spices may spring ; that my beloved may come into 
 
 ^.. ' * *, ._.. 
 
 his garden and enjoy his nobler fruits. 
 
 CHAP. V., 1st verse. 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 I come into my garden, my sister, my spouse ; I crop the 
 myrrh with spices. I eat the comb with the honey ; I drink 
 the wine with my milk. I call my friends to share the ban- 
 quet. Eat, O friends ! drink to satiety, O my companions in 
 love ! 
 
 The first thing noticeable here is, how the spiritual 
 meaning peeps through the allegorical veil ; and this 
 seems to me a sufficient answer to Dr. Noyes and 
 others, who say there is no indication of an under- 
 meaning through the whole poem. But one of the 
 11* 
 
250 THE VERSION. 
 
 constant indications of the sublimer purpose is a train 
 of comparisons and hyperboles too strong for the lower 
 purpose to which they are first applied. Thus Solomon, 
 in the seventy-second .Psalm, is said " to have dominion 
 from sea to sea, and his kingdom shall last as long as the 
 moon endure th." Now this is so false as to Solomon, 
 and so true as applied to Christ, that the conclusion is 
 inevitable ; we must so apply it, and vindicate the truth 
 of the Divine declaration. It is the very way in which 
 Peter reasons in his application of the sixteenth Psalm 
 in his important discourse in the second chapter of 
 Acts. \ Let us ask, then, who this nymph must be, 
 whose neck is like the tower of David, builded for an 
 armory whereon there hang a thousand biicklers, all 
 the shields of mighty men. LTo apply all this finally 
 and entirely to a little Arab girl, would surpass all 
 bounds of Oriental extravagance. Certainly this mag- 
 nificent imagery was intended to lead the mind to a 
 meaning which would better justify it. And then it 
 seems inconsistent with the rural comparisons con- 
 nected with it. A simple girl could not be at once like 
 goats, like kids, like sheep, like a piece of citron, and 
 like a tower hung round with shields. We allow the 
 remoteness of Eastern comparisons ; they are not nice 
 and squared like those of Coleridge. But the human 
 mind in all ages is essentially consistent ; it always 
 seeks real similitudes, and is always governed by a 
 law. If we reflect that the Church is often a temple, 
 
THE VEESION. 251 
 
 a fortress, a city, an edifice built for beauty and pro- 
 tection, we cannot wonder that Solomon himself, with 
 his future kingdom dimly gleaming through his con- 
 tested act, should slide from the incidental to the gen- 
 eral, from the low to the sublime ; and still less can 
 we wonder that the Holy Spirit should guide his lips 
 to its great design. We conclude, therefore, with some 
 confidence, that the variety and the excess of these com- 
 parisons were intended (certainly by the deeper author) 
 as indications of the allegorical meaning. 
 
 Our translation is in some cases disputable, and in 
 some cases free. A translator has two objects ; first, 
 to preserve the literal meaning as far as possible, and, 
 secondly, to preserve the poetic shading of the expres- 
 sion and thought; and sometimes one must be sacri- 
 ficed to the other. Thus, when we say that "thine 
 hair is like that of the goats which hang over the clefts 
 of Mount Gilead," it is true hanging- over is not the 
 simplest rendering of the verb t^'^Jl ; but my object was 
 to get the parallel image, the same picture which the 
 poet designed. I was thinking of Yirgil's " pendere 
 procul de rupe." If I have lost the literal idea, I hope 
 I have kept the spirit. The banquet, too, literally speak- 
 ing, would be sickening ; it only becomes beautiful by 
 the allegory. 
 
 The spiritual instruction, admitting the allegory, lies 
 on the surface. The mixture of beauty and coercion is 
 found in the Gospel both objectively and subjectively 
 
252 THE VERSION. 
 
 considered, and the strength of the coercion comes from 
 the beauty. As Plato says, ovre jap auro? /3/a nra- 
 cr^et, et TL irao-^eu /3ia yap Epwros ov% ainerat, ' 
 
 OVT6 TTOLWV TTOiel * TTtt? jap K(0V ' EpCOTi 7TCLV VTTrjpeTel.* 
 
 It may be concluded, also, that the beauty of the Church 
 (i. e. regenerated hearts) is an imparted beauty. " I 
 clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with 
 badgers' skins, and I girded thee about with fine linen, 
 and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee with or- 
 naments, and I put bracelets upon thine hands, and a 
 chain upon thy neck. And I put a jewel upon thy fore- 
 head, and ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown 
 upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold 
 and silver ; and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk 
 and broidered work : thou didst eat fine flour and honey 
 and oil ; and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and didst 
 prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth 
 among the heathen for thy beauty : for it was perfect 
 through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith 
 the Lord." (Ezekiel xvi. 10-14.) Such, then, is the 
 beauty of the mystic bride, like that of a sheet of water, 
 reflecting from its glassy bosom the splendors of the sky. 
 Here it occurs to say one word on imputed righteous- 
 ness, that everlasting trap for idle controversy, that 
 everlasting source of consolation to the simple Chris- 
 tian. Every one, before he raises a dispute in the 
 Church on this point, should ask himself what is the 
 
 * Plato's Symposium, CXIX. C. 
 
THE VERSION. 253 
 
 real issue between those that affirm and those that 
 deny. Both parties agree that there is no literal trans- 
 fer of our sins to Christ, or Christ's obedience to us. 
 But all Christians pant after perfection, a perfection 
 never found on earth. When Dr. Watts says, 
 
 " And lest the shadow of a spot 
 
 Should on my soul be found, 
 He took the robe my Saviour wrought 
 And cast it all around, 
 
 lie means, probably, these things : 1st, that salvation 
 is of grace, all grace from its commencement to its 
 completion ; 2d, that our justification is as complete as 
 would be that of a perfect man ; 3d, that grace in the 
 heart tends to individual perfection; and, lastly, that 
 all the deformities of our nature are lost in the subse- 
 quent beauty. This he chooses to express in complex 
 metaphor, because the language is addressed to the heart. 
 But how supremely silly to put this language into a cru- 
 cible, and analyze it until it has lost its meaning 1 
 
 The meaning and application of the sixteenth verse 
 are so exceedingly obvious, that it hardly needs a com- 
 ment. It is one of those cases where the allegorical 
 meaning is more obvious than the literal one. An in- 
 visible power calls forth the odors and the fruits. What 
 is it ? " The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in 
 thy heart." 
 
 The first verse of the fifth chapter suggests the free- 
 ness of Christ's love for his people, and the rich pro- 
 
254 THE VERSION. 
 
 visions of his grace. Here is a cup not intoxicating, 
 and we cannot drink too deep. The secret of persever- 
 ance in religion is to make our religion our delight. 
 " Where your treasure is, your heart will be also." St. 
 Paul has the prose parallel to this verse : " He that 
 spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us 
 all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
 things ? " (Rom. viii. 32.) 
 
 CHAP. V. 2-8. 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 I was in a drowse, with a sleeping eye but a watchful heart. 
 I seemed to hear the voice of my beloved, saying to me, Open 
 to me, my sister, my Love, my dove, my spotless One ; for my 
 head is damp with the dew and my locks with the drops of 
 the night. I have put off my robe ; why should I put it on 
 again ? I have washed my feet ; why should I defile them ? 
 
 My beloved put his hand through the window ; my heart 
 fluttered for him. I rose to open to him ; my hands dropped 
 myrrh, and my fingers sweet-smelling myrrh, on the handle 
 of the bar. I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had 
 turned his back, he was gone. 
 
 I sunk at the thought ; I sought him, but I could not find 
 him. I called, but he gave me no answer. Nay, the watch 
 of the city found me. They struck, they wounded me, they 
 tore off my mantle, even the sentinels at the gates. But I 
 adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you see my loved 
 One, tell him I still languish with love. Notwithstanding the 
 persecutions from his people, my heart is still fixed on him. 
 
THE VERSION. 255 
 
 This scene, perhaps, is a sort of imagination of the 
 bride, by which she pictures to her fancy a call from 
 her spouse, which she neglects ; and, regretting that he 
 is gone when she awoke to seek him, she imagines 
 herself going to the city to find him. She had really 
 been there before, and had experienced the jealousy 
 and opposition of his people. She now reconstructs 
 the scene to her own mind. It is very manifest to 
 my mind, that there is a real history behind all this 
 poetic description. We know from the record, that 
 Solomon made affinity with some of these rural tribes. 
 It is very natural that such a marriage should excite 
 great attention at his own home, especially among the 
 daughters of Jerusalem. They sneer at her beauty, 
 and contend that, though a wife, she is not a legiti- 
 mate disciple ; she contends that in the ardor of her 
 love she does not yield to them. We are informed 
 that in the first preaching of the Gospel the chief 
 persecutions were stirred up by the Jews. (See Acts 
 xvii. 5 9, and other places.) Even the better Jews, 
 the converts to Christianity, were an exceedingly uncon- 
 formable people. They listened to Stephen until he 
 spake of going to the Gentiles, and then they drowned 
 his voice in their tumultuous cries ; and when Paul 
 addressed them (Acts xxiii.), and touched on the 
 same delicate point (ver, 21), " they then lifted up 
 their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from 
 the earth ; for it is not fit that he should live." We 
 
256 THE VERSION. 
 
 see, then, in this picture, the beginnings of the same 
 spirit; and the bride, who bears all meekly for her 
 spouse, prefigures the superior love and purity which 
 was found at first in the Gentile Church. 
 
 I have heard the words in verses 2-6 beautifully 
 applied, and I think with as much correctness as 
 beauty, to the Christian, or the Church, losing for a 
 time a sense of a Saviour's presence, and not watching 
 his return with the vigilance which is required. I was 
 remiss, I slumbered; I sought negligently, I prayed 
 feebly, and the sweet sense of my Saviour's presence 
 was gone from me. He waits to be gracious ; I was 
 unwilling; he stood at the door of my heart until 
 his head was damp with the dew, and his locks filled 
 with the drops of the night. What an affecting pic- 
 ture ! and surely the whole round of poetry, ancient 
 or modern, does not present a more beautiful periph- 
 rasis than calling the dew the "drops of the night." 
 The proneness in a sluggish heart to idle excuses is 
 here delineated. " I have put off my robe," &c. 
 
 Perhaps it may be asked, What is meant by the ex- 
 pression in the fifth verse, "My hands dropped myrrh.'' 
 &c. ? Is it a general expression of beauty and excel- 
 lence, or is it something more specific ? And how 
 is it appropriate to the author's design that such splen- 
 did imagery should adorn the act, that, when the 
 bride is represented as remiss and sleeping, her fingers 
 should drop incense at the very hour when she opens 
 
THE VERSION. 257 
 
 the door in vain? There is danger of refinement here, 
 I allow. But the object seems to express the senti- 
 ment. Though sleeping, though negligent, though I 
 am conscious of much unworthiness and imperfection, 
 yet I have something left ; all is not gone ; and when 
 I awake to duty and prepare to receive my Lord, I 
 am still acceptable and accepted ; my hands dropped 
 myrrh, &c. on the latch of the lock I was unloosing, 
 the savor of real piety remained. 
 
 CHAP. V. 9 - 16. 
 QSoLOMiTis seems to hear the daughters of Jerusalem speak.~] 
 
 What is thy Beloved more than others, that thou so chargest 
 us, thou beauty? 
 
 SOLOMITIS answers. 
 
 My beloved is white and ruddy ; he bears the banner over 
 all the host. His head is refined gold ; his locks are a palm- 
 bough, black as those of a raven ; his eyes are those of a 
 dove, perching by the canals of water, washed in milk. His 
 cheek is a bed of spices, a circle of aromatics; his lips are 
 lilies dropping myrrh and balm ; his hand is like the gold 
 of a ring, encircled with gems from Tarshish ; his breast is 
 ivory work broidered with sapphires. His legs are pillars of 
 marble, resting on polished stone ; his form is like Leba- 
 non, like the noblest of its cedars. His neck is delightful, 
 and his whole person formed for desire. Such is my Beloved, 
 guch is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. 
 
 The change of persons is very rapid in Hebrew com- 
 
 Q 
 
258 THE VERSION. 
 
 position. "We may suppose the bride to imagine she 
 hears this question from the daughters in Jerusalem 
 (ver. 9). When they call her the fairest among wo- 
 men, we must suppose the word ironical, or the word 
 i"Trn in its contracted form, must be a meaner one, 
 and express a reluctant concession. I have trans- 
 lated it by a single word, thou beauty, which ex- 
 presses a very short concession, or bitter irony. 
 
 In the next verses she vindicates herself. She seems 
 to say, Yes, my rivals, though I meet your objections 
 and sneers, I know how to appreciate my royal bride- 
 groom as well as you. I see his beauty, I appreciate 
 his worth, and I am not ashamed to tell you. Per- 
 haps the novelty of my condition leads me more to 
 feel his grace and condescension. The speech is a 
 vindication. 
 
 The permanent lesson is very obvious, and is taught 
 literally by our Saviour in the case of the woman who 
 washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with 
 the hairs of her head. The more we feel our own 
 deformity, the more the excellence of Christ impresses 
 the heart. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 1-9. 
 [SOLOMITIS still hears the objection.'] 
 
 Where is thy loved One gone, O thou fair among rustics ? 
 whither has thy loved One turned himself ? Let us seek him 
 with thee. 
 
THE VERSION. 259 
 
 Answer. 
 
 My loved One has gone down to his garden to crop his 
 spices ; to enjoy his garden ; to pluck his lilies. I am my 
 Beloved's, and he is mine ; he feeds his flock in the lilied field. 
 Thou art fair, my Beloved, as Tirzah; comely as Jerusalem; 
 admirable as a bannered host. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 O, turn away thine eyes from me ; they are terrible in their 
 sweetness. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 Thy hair is like a flock of goats, hanging from Mount 
 Gilead. Thy teeth are like shorn sheep which go up from 
 the washing ; each having twins, none barren. Thy cheek be- 
 hind thy veil is like a slice of citron. A train of threescore 
 queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without num- 
 ber, may follow other brides ; but thou, my dove, art the 
 single object of my love ; thou art perfect, the only child of 
 thy mother, the select one of her that bore thee. Even the 
 daughters of Jerusalem shall regard thee ; the queens shall 
 bless thee ; the concubines shall sound thy praise. 
 
 This praise of the bridegroom must be very grateful 
 to the modest spouse, conscious of her rusticity, and 
 conscious, too, of her love, but almost afraid to lift up 
 her eyes to hear the reproaches which her rivals are 
 ready to heap upon her. The doctrine of grace, free 
 grace, is here illustrated, and that God is no respecter 
 of persons. The vilest heart and the lowest nations 
 may be purified and raised. 
 
260 THE VERSION. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 10-12. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 Who is this breaks out as the morning, beautiful as the pale 
 orb of night, super-eminent like the Great Warmer of the 
 world, and wonderful like a well-ordered host? 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 I went into my garden of nuts, to see the verdure of the 
 valley, to see the vines germinate, to see the citrons bud. Or 
 ever I was aware, my soul bore me away, as on my native 
 chariot. 
 
 The periphrasis in the tenth verse I have endeavored 
 to preserve. No doubt the author intended to call nei- 
 ther the moon nor the sun by their direct and prosaic 
 name. He calls the one the whiteness and the other 
 the heat, from their effects and most striking power. I 
 have given the eleventh and twelfth verses to the bride, 
 for I think they must belong to her. She walks into 
 her garden ; she sees the vines and flowers, and her 
 soul is ravished with instant love. How many lessons ! 
 First, divine love is love of the invisible one, whom 
 " having not seen we love, and whom, though we now 
 see him not, yet, believing, we rejoice with joy unspeak- 
 able and full of glory." Secondly, we see that this love 
 is a gift. It is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
 Ghost given unto us. " Or ever I was aware, my soul 
 my spontaneous affections bore me away like the 
 fiery courser in the race." And, thirdly, it was in the 
 
THE VEESION. 261 
 
 use of means that this gift came, and very natural 
 means. " I went into the garden ; I walked among 
 its shades ; I surveyed its beauties ; I remembered the 
 owner, and my soul melted with rapture and love." 
 So I should apply this simple paragraph, and fear 
 no mysticism but such as was intended by its inspir- 
 ing Author. 
 
 The last verse is variously rendered. The question 
 is, whether it be a phrase or an expressive name. Am- 
 mi-na-dib. Some celebrated charioteer, or, My willing 
 people. I prefer the latter. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 13. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 Return, return, O bride of Solomon! return, often return. 
 Let us contemplate thee ; what shall we discover in this bride 
 of Solomon ? The chorus of a host. 
 
 The Hebrew verb which I have rendered contem- 
 plate rather inclines to mental sight, to seeing as the 
 prophets saw, in vision. I cannot but think that this 
 verb, together with the answer, " The chorus of a 
 host," gives plain indication of the allegory and the 
 under-meaning. Applied to a mere woman, they are 
 extravagant and absurd. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 1-9. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 How beautiful are thy ankles over thy sandals, daughter 
 
262 THE VERSION. 
 
 of a generous sheik ! the swell of thy haunches is like that 
 of a cup, the invention of a skilful artificer. Thy front is like 
 a bowl, brimming with wine ; thy form like a hill of wheat 
 skirted with lilies. Thy two breasts are like two young does ; 
 thy neck is like a white tower. Thine eyes are bright as the 
 fish-pools of Heshbon, at the gate of Bethabbarim. Thy nose 
 is as a tower of Lebanon facing Damascus. The head that sur- 
 mounts thy body is like Carmel ; and its tresses are such that 
 the grandeur of a king might be entangled in them. Thy 
 height is like the palm, and thy bosom like clustering grapes. 
 I will taste that breath like the flavor of apples. Thy throat 
 like sweet wine shall pour its sweetness to my lips and my 
 teeth. 
 
 Perhaps there is no part of the allegory harder to 
 manage than this. The reader will see that I have 
 softened and generalized some of the specifics in the 
 original description. But in so doing I have scarcely 
 departed from the spirit of the original. Let the reader 
 consider the literal design of this description ; it is to 
 bring forth the image and collection of images as a 
 stepping-stone to the ulterior object. We must see 
 the literal, before we can see the resemblance which 
 leads to the allegorical parallels. Now, among the 
 Orientals, obesity is always considered as a beauty and 
 a perfection. This is the general object in this de- 
 scription. The form of the damsel was healthful, ruddy, 
 plump, and full ; and full dresses were very much worn 
 in the East. The expressions Tl^n^ and Tptp3 are 
 
THE VERSION. 263 
 
 not so much intended to designate the parts as the 
 general roundness of the form. So says Gesenius in 
 his Lexicon. I have, then, with the strictest fidelity to 
 the original, rendered it, " Thy FRONT is like a bowl ; 
 thy FORM like a hill," &c. This communicates to the 
 English reader the design of this description. 
 
 But what possible lesson, asks the fastidious reader, 
 can be derived from this articulate description of a 
 rustic beauty ? I must repeat the remark, that I think 
 these comparisons of towers, &c. are plain indications 
 of an under-meaning. As God hears the prayers he 
 inspires, so he loves the beauties which his grace im- 
 parts. His judgment is infallible, and where he ap- 
 proves, there is matter for approbation. The virtue 
 of the world is an outside virtue. The graces of his 
 bride, the Church, are latent beauties ; the more they 
 are searched, they are seen. They flow from one foun- 
 tain, and in all their particular forms they are real. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 10-13. 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 I am my Beloved's ; his affection is fixed on me. Come, 
 my Love, let us go into the fields, let us spend the night in 
 the villages ; let us go into the vineyards ;- and there, amidst 
 germinating buds, opening flowers, and flourishing pomegran- 
 ates, will I yield thee my love. There grow the mandrakes ; 
 and there have I laid up all fruits and flowers, new and old, 
 to invite thy repose. 
 
THE VERSION. 
 
 is the passion of the bride to retain her lover 
 in the country. It shows her anxious preparation, and 
 her felicity at his presence. She evinces the strength 
 of her affection and the justice of it from his amazing 
 excellence. The Gospel is to make its greatest tri- 
 umph and show its greatest power in humble life. 
 " The poor have the Gospel preached to them." " The 
 common people heard him gladly." "For ye see your 
 calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the 
 flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 
 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
 to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
 things of the world to confound the things which are 
 mighty ; and base things of the world, and things 
 which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things 
 which are not, to bring to naught things that are ; that 
 no flesh should glory in his presence." (1 Cor. i. 26-29.) 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 1 - 4. 
 SOLOMITIS continues. 
 
 O that thou wert my brother, nurtured at the same breast ; 
 that I might find thee without ; that I might kiss thee with- 
 out reproach ; that when I sigh for thee I might bring thee 
 to the house of my mother, who taught me, that I might give 
 thee the scented wine and the juice of the pomegranate. His 
 left hand is under my head; his right supports me. I adjure 
 you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that no one disturb or wake 
 my love until he wishes it. 
 
THE VERSION. 265 
 
 It is astonishing that any one should regard this 
 poein as a sensual exhibition. The imagery, I own, is 
 naked and Oriental ; but when you have once seen 
 and forgiven this, the passion is uncommonly pure 
 and delicate, even its first application. Hence the 
 bride expresses the purest love. " that thou wert my 
 brother," &c. ; and in verse third of chapter seventh, 
 '>1J! VTDH JJN t] TIB', I have no doubt it means, "pel- 
 le non corrugata a partu," which was the sign and the 
 proof of chasteness. Everywhere, though the language 
 is primitive, the sentiment is delicate, and every ex- 
 pedient is used to paint the purest passion. It must 
 be granted, however, that the mystic writers delight to 
 express the strength of their feelings by the Epicurean 
 language into which they fall. They are so intent on 
 the higher object, that they fear and feel no contami- 
 nation from the subordinate illustrations. This we see 
 in Augustine, Madame Guyon, Mrs. Rowe, Dr. Watts, 
 and all the writers of that school. The mind seems 
 to be free from all fetters, and earth is forgotten in 
 its celestial flights. No doubt such a practice may be 
 abused ; but, nevertheless, it is so constantly exempli- 
 fied, it must pass for a general law. 
 
 CHAP. vni. 5-7. 
 WITNESSES, Hebrew and Gentile. 
 
 Who is this that ascends from the wilderness leaning on 
 her Beloved? 
 
 12 
 
266 THE VERSION. 
 
 SOLOMON. 
 
 Under the apple-tree I found thee ; there thou wast born ;. 
 there thy teeming mother brought thee forth. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 Place me as a signet upon thy heart, as a signet upon thine 
 arm. For love is strong as death, jealousy harsh as the grave ; 
 its coals are burning fire, refulgent flame. 
 
 AUTHOR speaks. 
 
 Many waters cannot quench love ; nor rivers drown it. If 
 a man were to offer all the treasures of his house for love, 
 they would despise him. 
 
 I suppose the words in the fifth verse of the eighth 
 chapter to be very emphatic. They are a general ex- 
 clamation of astonishment all round ; it matters little 
 who speaks them. The amazing vivacity of the Ori- 
 ental fancy, like the poet's mind in a fine frenzy roll- 
 ing, glancing from heaven to earth, allows us with a 
 similar effect to put these words into the mouths of 
 several persons. It may be the bridegroom, hearing 
 in imagination the exclamations around him ; or it may 
 be the bride, or it may be the author ; for not as in 
 the perfected drama is it necessary in this poem for 
 the author wholly to retire. Whoever speaks, (and it 
 matters little who,) it is an expression of astonishment, 
 that a rustic nymph from a heathen land should be 
 led up to Jerusalem by the wise and splendid king. 
 It is a striking picture. 
 
THE VERSION. 267 
 
 And surely the application is obvious. Long was 
 the contest which Paul had with the Jews before he 
 could peaceably offer the Gospel to the Gentiles. " But 
 when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to 
 the face, because he was to be blamed. For before 
 that certain came from James, he did eat with the 
 Gentiles ; but when they were come, he withdrew and 
 separated himself, fearing them which were of the cir- 
 cumcision." (Gal. ii. 11, 12.) 
 
 In the seventh verse, I suppose the author to speak. 
 I suppose all dramatic writers, even Shakespeare him- 
 self, not to be so lost in the personated character as 
 not to put into their mouths occasionally the general 
 sentiment, the moral of what they are saying ; and 
 the more artfully this is done, the better. Perhaps 
 the general sentiment was never more skilfully trans- 
 ferred from the mouth of the author to that of a per- 
 sonated character than in this seventh verse : " Many 
 waters," <fec. It suits either. But as it seems to me 
 the moral of the whole book, I have chosen to mark 
 it as the sentiment of the author. 
 
 | And the whole application of this part of the book is 
 important, and vastly important in that age, as the pros- 
 pective and permanent spkit_>L_lr-ue._.xeligion, under- 
 lying all its changes and forms. It is illustrated in 
 1 Cor. xiii. : " Though I speak with the tongues of 
 men and angels, and have not charity (ayahnjv, love), 
 I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 
 
268 THE VERSION. 
 
 We are now coming to a part of this poem which 
 to the English reader is utter darkness, and it must be 
 confessed that the learned critics have shed very little 
 light upon it. I can imagine a' neologist, or infidel, 
 taking up his Bible and saying, " In this book you tell 
 me I must expect to find the words of wisdom ; in every 
 part I may expect to find the inspiration of God. Now 
 I take the Bible and open at Canticles viii. 8, and 
 read: 'We have a little sister and she hath no breasts: 
 what shall be done for our sister in the day when she 
 shall be spoken for ? If she be a wall, we will build 
 upon her a palace of silver ; and if she be a door, we 
 will enclose her with boards of cedar.' And then she 
 is made to say, 'I am a wall,' <fcc. Now," the infidel 
 asks, "what possible lesson can I learn from such in- 
 spiration as this ? So far is it from being the wisdom 
 of God, I cannot derive from it the least gleam of sense. 
 Is there any revelation made to us by unintelligible 
 nonsense ? I cannot be profited by what I cannot 
 understand." 
 
 To such an objector I might reply, My fellow-mor- 
 tal, if you cannot understand this passage, just pass on 
 and you will soon find more perhaps than you wish to 
 know. But do you not know that every writer may 
 pass for a weak one until he is understood, Lord 
 Bacon himself? The very darkness on the surface of 
 these words leads me to inquire into the design, 
 the under-meaning. 
 
THE VERSION. 269 
 
 It may be remarked, that there is an hiatus between 
 the seventh and eighth verses ; and the great question 
 is, how we shall fill up the transition. It is marked as 
 an hiatus by Dath6 and Rosenmiiller and others. I 
 cannot pledge myself that I shall satisfy my reader 
 in explaining this difficult portion of Scripture ; I will 
 only say, what is obscure now might have been obvious 
 once. But I seem to see a very probable design. Let 
 us consider, first, that the Hebrew poets, bordering on 
 the hieroglyphic period and using a primitive language, 
 are obliged to make rapid transitions, and leave inter- 
 stices which are only to be filled up by the reader's 
 sagacity ; secondly, these intervals are sometimes sup- 
 plied by what is said in the next paragraph, but some- 
 times purposely left ; thirdly, they are very fond of the 
 enigmatical style, and, fourthly, this style is especially 
 to be expected in an enigmatical poem ; and, lastly, 
 from Solomon's splendid temple, the architectural style 
 applied to the Church was very current. St. Paul uses 
 it (Ephesians ii. 19-22): "Now, therefore, ye are 
 no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens 
 with the saints, and of the household of God ; and 
 are built upon the foundation of the apostles and proph- 
 ets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; 
 in whom all the building, fitly framed together, grow- 
 eth into an holy temple in the Lord : in whom ye 
 also are builded together for an habitation of God 
 through the Spirit." So Solomon says (Prov. ix. 1), 
 
270 THE VEESION. 
 
 "Wisdom hath builded her house," &c., and our word 
 edification comes from the same source. Now I suppose 
 at the close of this poem the author gives an enigmatical 
 solution of his design. He means to make a pause, 
 a transition ; he goes back, he recapitulates, he re- 
 traces the whole design. He imagines the family of 
 the bride and I suppose the little sister to be the 
 Solomitis of the whole poem to say in the outset, 
 " We have a little sister," &c. The author artfully 
 puts the solution into their mouth. j<Let us explain 
 the whole in an enigma. " There is to us a little sis- 
 ter ; she has no breasts." W^hat is she ? "If she be 
 a wall, we will build on her a tower ; if a door," &c. ; 
 and then she is made to reply, " I am a wall," that 
 is, I am not a literal being. I am something more 
 productive than King Solomon's vineyard. A further 
 disclosure did not suit the purpose of the writer, or 
 the preparation of the age. Just as the Book of Job, 
 after starting many questions which could only be solved 
 by the life and immortality brought to light in the 
 Gospel, partially solves these questions by inculcating 
 in the last chapters that conscious ignorance which 
 prepares the way for the Gospel. The negative part 
 seems to me very clear, that this wonderful bride was 
 not a mere woman. Perhaps I may add, that one word 
 omitted in the hiatus, or a single corrected error in 
 the present reading, might have made the whole pas- 
 sage plain ; or, for aught I know, God may have per- 
 
THE VERSION. 271 
 
 mitted these dark places in his divine revelation as 
 tests of our patience, our penetration, our reverence, 
 and our love. 
 
 It is possible, too, that this passage is not placed at 
 the close o'f this book chronologically, but because it 
 comes in there best as an exponent. This itself is a 
 source of obscurity. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 8-14. 
 
 FAMILY speak, or are heard speaking. 
 
 We have a little sister ; she is not yet mature : what shall 
 we do for her in the day she is wooed ? If she be a wall, we 
 will build on her a tower ; and if she be a door, her panels 
 shall be cedar-wood. 
 
 SOLOMITIS. 
 
 I AM a wall ; my breasts ARE towers ; and by his favor I 
 have found peace (i.e. my religion). Though King Solomon 
 had a vineyard in Baal-hamon, and he let it out to cultiva- 
 tors, and each man brought him the rent, a thousand pieces 
 of silver, my vineyard is ever before me ; a thousand are 
 for thee, O Solomon, and two hundred for its keepers. 
 
 O thou that dwellest in gardens [such as mine], followed by 
 suitors, let me hear thy voice ! Make haste, my Love ; and 
 be like a hind, or deer, on the fragrant hills. 
 
 A riddle is now the amusement of children. It 
 seems a small business for modern sages to be pro- 
 posing and guessing riddles ; but it was once the work 
 
272 THE VERSION. 
 
 of wisdom and the employment of kings. Joseplius 
 tells us that Hiram, king of Tyre, sent sophisms and 
 enigmatical sayings to Solomon, and none of them was 
 too hard for his sagacity. (Antiq. Jews, Lib. VIII. 
 chap. 5.) If this seems to be an idle employment, it 
 is because we forget the history of language. In the 
 earlier stages of learning, language is a very imperfect 
 instrument of communicating. As it expresses less, we 
 must guess more. We must piece out its imperfec- 
 tions by our divination. Even now the Hebrew lan- 
 guage, with all the vast improvements which ages had 
 introduced on the hieroglyphic symbols, and all the 
 assistance of the Masoretic punctuation, has ellipses and 
 transitions which it requires great ingenuity to fill. 
 How much more when we go back to picture-writing ! 
 We have some specimens of the ingenuity of the Iro- 
 quois, published among the New York State Papers, to 
 show how far these barbarians had proceeded in re- 
 cording events by these symbolical riddles. (See the 
 Documentary History of New York, Vol. I. pp. 12, 14.) 
 When they advanced to the hieroglyphic state, the rules 
 were better ascertained, but conjecture was still neces- 
 sary. But even the phonetic languages in their first for- 
 mation were very imperfect. The Chinese, it is said 
 now, has no syntax ; it takes almost a life to learn to 
 read it. It was essential to all learning in those days 
 to know how to untie a knot and to guess a riddle ; 
 and a tincture of this mode of communication lingers 
 
THE VERSION. 273 
 
 long in an improved tongue after its necessity has 
 ceased. How many cases in the Bible are there, in 
 which this sagacity is almost essential to the art of 
 reading, and is certainly the one thing needful in in- 
 terpretation. (See Psalm xlix. 4; Ezekiel xvii. 2; Ibid., 
 chap, xl., xli., xlii. ; Jeremiah ii. 18 ; Ezekiel xx. 49 ; 
 Jeremiah i. 11, 12; 2 Kings xiv. 9; 2 Chron. xxv. 18 ; 
 Matthew xxii. 41 - 46 ; Mark xii. 35 ; Rev. xiii. 18 ; 
 and many other examples.) The dreams of Pharaoh 
 and Nebuchadnezzar were riddles until the holy proph- 
 ets had interpreted them ; and the Bible is full of sim- 
 ilar examples, where the first perplexity increases the 
 last impression. Some are explained, some are left to 
 the reader's patience and sagacity. It was in conform- 
 ity to a long and necessary custom that this book is 
 closed by a riddle, to be discovered only by a perse- 
 vering attention and a congenial heart. This method 
 exactly suited the design of the poem. The book was 
 probably written for a peculiar taste and a peculiar 
 piety. We are assisted to guess. The negative is at 
 least clear. This wonderful bride, so ardently loved 
 by this representative king, is not an Arab girl. What 
 is she ? 
 
 The reader will see that there reigns throughout 
 my hypothesis this one principle, that the permanent 
 meaning of this song had an historical origin, and that 
 the fact in history suggests the spiritual import by a 
 uniform analogy. It is true it may be said, a point 
 
274 THE VERSION. 
 
 which I shall certainly concede, that it is an hypoth- 
 esis. We have no direct testimony that the Song was 
 written on the occasion suggested. What are your 
 proofs? I answer, and there I rest the cause, 
 that the supposition of such an occasion admirably ex- 
 plains every part of the dialogue, and, what is more, 
 I do not recollect a single passage where the hypoth- 
 esis grates. Most hypotheses need a little forcing of 
 the phenomena to make them stand. I ask nothing 
 of this to support mine. The rule works both ways. 
 Every passage in the poem suggests it, and there is 
 not a single hint by which it seems to be overthrown. 
 There I rest it.* 
 
 But, after all, some persevering sceptic may put to 
 me the question, and ask, Do you really believe that 
 any modern Christian of taste and discernment can 
 read the imagery of this book for purely devotional 
 purposes ? Is there not a little pious affectation in 
 that enthusiasm which pretends to see Jesus Christ 
 amidst the gaudy figures and flowers of this Oriental 
 song ? Do you yourself peruse this work without any 
 disturbance of the fancy, and feel the spiritual elevation 
 while you read ? Lay your hand on your heart, and give 
 an honest reply. Laying my hand on my heart, then, I 
 reply, that I honestly believe all I have said. I have 
 
 * I beg, however, the candid reader to make a distinction. The alle- 
 gorical character of the book, and my particular theory of its historical 
 origin, by no means stand on the same evidence. 
 
THE VEESION. 275 
 
 no doubt of the allegorical character of this wonder- 
 ful Song. I spontaneously and seriously admire the 
 strain, as an exquisite specimen of Hebrew archaism. 
 I allow, indeed, that I am obliged, in order to feel all 
 its force, to read it as I do Homer, with a perpetual 
 reference to the age in which it was written, and the 
 people to whom it was addressed. How is it that we 
 relish Homer ? Is it not by perpetually forgetting that 
 we are moderns, and throwing ourselves back into the 
 conceptions and manners and figures of the Epic age ? 
 Is not half our pleasure relative ? If we stood directly 
 before the bard's narrative, and weighed his merits in 
 modern scales, he would lose some of his lustre and 
 be contemptible in some of his opinions. We read of 
 TroSa? WKVS *A%i\\v<; and \evfcw\6vos f 'Hprj, Achilles 
 swift of foot, and the white-armed Juno, both of which 
 expressions would be misunderstood by a modern read- 
 er, the one would describe a coward, and the other a 
 disproportionate beauty, but both of which are exqui- 
 site specimens of ancient taste. So with regard to this 
 Song, I solemnly say, that, viewing it in this reflected 
 light, I regard it as a most exquisite gem of antique ge- 
 nius ; and its piety is made ten times more affecting by 
 its peculiar dress. It has struck a note, however, which 
 has been reverberating ever since ; and though I must 
 place myself at an almost infinite distance from that 
 fervent faith that has most relished it, yet I claim, 
 without a fear and without a blush, that Us distant war- 
 
276 THE VERSION. 
 
 blings have lessened on my ear. I hope to sing it in 
 my dying moments ; and I have no doubt, should I 
 be so happy as to reach the blessed region, the theme 
 will be renewed in Heaven, where the only love will 
 be divine, and the only marriage our espousals to God 
 and the Lamb. 
 
PAET III. 
 
 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 THUS this book which has perplexed the Christian, 
 been perverted by the Romanist, and excited the sneers 
 of the infidel, is found not to be an impediment, but 
 a prop, to the fulness of Scripture ; not a spot, but a 
 gem, in the diadem of revelation. 
 
 The fault of the age is want of veneration for the 
 Word of God ; and such is the perversity of our think- 
 ing, that we call this escaping from Divine teaching by 
 the flattering appellation of progress, improvement ; as 
 if, in getting rid of God's wisdom we were sure to in- 
 crease our own. 
 
 This error comes in from various causes : scientific 
 difficulties, exaggerated objections, contempt for ancient 
 wisdom, philosophy, historical scepticism, for example, 
 the speculations of Wolf on Homer, and Niebuhr on 
 Roman history ; the boldness of modern criticism, and 
 the independent spirit it inspires ; the love of theory, 
 and especially learned theories ; and, more than all, the 
 general pride (I must say it) of the human heart. 
 
280 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 The power of revelation consists in two things: 
 first, the information it gives, and secondly, the ven- 
 eration it impresses, both of which are abated by the 
 criticism of modern times. All the learned specula- 
 tions of Eicbhorn, Paulus, Strauss, and Parker come 
 to one point, to turn our trembling regard for the 
 Bible into ineffable contempt. 
 
 Now, the very genius of the Gospel is faith in a 
 speaking God. We are to distrust our own wisdom 
 on the infinities of religion; we are to TREMBLE at the 
 Divine Word. This gives a revealed religion all its 
 character and all its power. 
 
 Remove this, and you destroy the power of the whole 
 system ; so the common people will say, and human 
 nature speaks through them. 
 
 The peculiarity of the teachings of Jesus and Paul 
 is, that they require faith. The ancient moralists, 
 like Plato and Tully, founded duty on seeing and fol- 
 lowing nature (sequi naturam), by which they meant, 
 not the impulses of the heart, but the laws of nature. 
 But the Gospel differs; it requires faith, and "with- 
 out faith it is impossible to please God." Now, faith, 
 being an internal act of the mind, implies an ob- 
 jective. " The obedience of faith is, to embrace an 
 obscure truth with a firm assent, upon the account of 
 a Divine testimony." (Bates on the Harmony of the 
 Divine Attributes, p. 102.) " Thy testimonies are very 
 sure." (Psalm xciii. 5.) " Thy testimonies have I 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 281 
 
 taken as an heritage forever." (Psalm cxix. 111.) " Thy 
 testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous 
 and very faithful." (Psalm cxix. 138.) " Concerning 
 thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast 
 founded them forever." (Psalm cxix. 152.) 
 
 Faith implies the infallible inspiration of the record 
 on which it reposes. The Gospel is a book-religion. 
 The genius of science is to look forward to the future ; 
 the revelations are before us. Here, as Bacon has said, 
 we are the ancients, and our early progenitors are the 
 true children; and the reason is, because the volume 
 of nature is spread out before us, and all her recon- 
 dite laws are to be discovered by successive investiga- 
 tion. It takes time to exhaust the investigation. But 
 all the considerations which make it wise and safe to 
 look forward for the perfection of science, make it wise 
 and safe to look backward for the teachings of religion.* 
 " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
 
 * These remarks need a little modifying. So far as the Bible is to be 
 regarded as a profound book, the complement of whose instructions is to be 
 found by a humble and progressive criticism, so far it stands parallel to the 
 less obvious laws of nature, and we are entitled to look forward for the full 
 discovery of its information. But still, allowing this, we may say science 
 and revelation are opposites, as it is the distinction of the one to place her 
 fulness of light in the future, and the other in the past. The guide of one 
 is independence of mind, and the other predominately submission, 
 submission to God. The one is like a star, which is so remote in space * 
 that its full light has not yet reached us ; the other is a lamp which we 
 already possess, whose glorious blaze we must discern by removing ob- 
 structions. 
 
282 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 ever;" and a religion that meets the wants of man 
 must (in substance and outline) be as permanent and 
 uniform as the wants it meets. 
 
 But there is a modern view of inspiration, which, 
 by altering its meaning, vacates its power. 
 
 Among the meanings of this many-meaning word, 
 the following are the most important : 
 
 First, reason and intelligence considered as divine 
 gifts ; this use is sanctioned in the Scriptures. Job 
 xxxii. 8 : " But there is a spirit in man, and the in- 
 spiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding ;" 
 probably alluding to Genesis ii. 7. 
 
 Secondly, the inspiration of poetry and eloquence ; 
 as when the poet says, half serious and half conscious 
 of fiction, " Sing, heavenly Muse ! " 
 
 Thirdly, a sudden impulse on a great occasion ; as 
 when a child utters something beyond his years, or 
 an ordinary man makes a happy reply, we say they 
 seemed inspired. 
 
 Fourthly, the inspiration of office; as, when Saul 
 was anointed, as he turned from Samuel, " God gave 
 him another heart." Every one, parent, school-mas- 
 ter, clergyman, magistrate, no sooner assumes the 
 responsibilities of his new station than he feels a pe- 
 culiar influence guiding, and often anticipating, his 
 reason. 
 
 Fifthly, the light given in common sanctification, such 
 as every pious man recognizes. It may be regarded as 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 283 
 
 
 
 a passive inspiration, preparing the mind and heart to 
 receive Divine truth whenever presented.* 
 
 Lastly, inspiration proper, Qeoirveva-rta, the pre- 
 vious meaning of the word which makes all the other 
 meanings a strong expression for a weaker idea. It 
 is such an influence of the Spirit of God on the mind 
 of the writer, that he becomes the organ of infallible 
 truth in the teachings of revelation. It is this last 
 kind of inspiration which the sacred writers claim for 
 themselves. The object of such inspiration is to com- 
 municate Divine truth, and place it directly on Divine 
 authority. 
 
 But a different theory has recently prevailed. Tak- 
 ing advantage of the ambiguity of the word, and sub- 
 stituting some of the lower meanings for the higher, 
 some have taught that inspiration is a very common 
 gift, claimed by the sages of all nations ; that every 
 man that has an inventive mind and a pure heart may 
 be inspired ; that modern wisdom has peculiar claims 
 to this inestimable gift ; that Pythagoras, Socrates, Con- 
 fucius, were all inspired as much as Isaiah or Paul ; 
 in a word, that every wise and good man is inspired, 
 and that the Scriptures claim and are dictated by no 
 
 * " Falsum vero intelligere, est quidem sapientiae, sed humanae ; ultra 
 hunc gradum procedi ab homine non potest ; itaque multi philosopho- 
 rum, religiones, ut docui, sustulerunt : verum autera scire, divinae est sapi- 
 entiae ; homo autem per se ipsum, pervenire ad hanc scientiam non potest, 
 nisi doceatur a Deo." Lactantius, Inst. Lib. II. Sect. 3. 
 
 fum' 
 
284 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 other inspiration. The celestial vision is open to every 
 higher mind. 
 
 One proof of the inspiration of the Scriptures is found 
 in that vast prospective wisdom by which they seem 
 to foresee an unborn error, and by a double proposi- 
 tion, both a negative and positive, anticipate and dis- 
 card it. So true is this, that an historical commen- 
 tary might be written of all the wild speculations which 
 Paul and the other writers have virtually overthrown 
 before they existed. Thus when Paul says (Colossians 
 ii.), " Beware lest any man spoil you through philos- 
 ophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after 
 the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ,'' 
 how is the wisdom of this caution illustrated in the 
 heresies of the Docetae, indeed, the Gnostics generally, 
 the Manichees, all the prominent heresies before the 
 Council of Nice. The Apostle seems to have had a pro- 
 phetic intimation of the reigning error and the source 
 of the error, and to have watchfully guarded them 
 against it. The whole of the Manichean delusion came 
 from giving the word o-apt; in his Epistles a philosoph- 
 ical, and not a Hebrew signification. So the Apostle 
 John is supposed by some (some say he wrote after 
 they appeared) to anticipate the rising errors of the 
 Docetae. (See the Gospel, xix. 34, and 1st Epistle, v. 6.) 
 Now it seems to me that the sacred writers had the 
 clearest conceptions of the recent laxer views of in- 
 spiration ; and in the most solemn manner, and repeat- 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 285 
 
 edly, in the clearest language, have said, by a double 
 affirmation, that their inspiration was not the modern 
 kind, but is the infallible word divine. 
 
 First, our Saviour, on whom the Spirit was poured 
 without measure, did not claim to have unfolded the 
 whole Gospel (as during his life the facts were not com- 
 pleted), but promised his Apostles (Johniii. 12) author- 
 itative illumination. " I have many things to say unto 
 you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when 
 He, the Comforter, is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth " (the article is used in the Greek, ALL THE TRUTH, 
 i. e. the whole system) ; " for he shall not speak of him- 
 self; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; 
 and he shall show you things to come." (John xvi. 
 12, 13.) We are then to look for the development of 
 the Gospel after the great central fact of his death 
 was accomplished. Christ came to prepare the way, 
 to give the fact, not to interpret it ; just as the God 
 of nature accomplished the creation before he explained 
 it. Accordingly, Paul says : " We speak wisdom among 
 them that are perfect ; yet not the wisdom of this world, 
 nor of the princes " (that is, philosophic leaders) " of 
 this world, that come to naught. But we speak the 
 wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, 
 which God ordained before the world unto our glory. 
 But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him. But 
 
286 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit ; for 
 the Spirit searcheth all things ; yea, the deep things of 
 God." (1 Corinthians ii. 6-10.) What can be clearer, 
 both on the affirmative and negative side. Inspiration 
 is not that, it is this; it is not what you say, but 
 what I say. It is not a common vision, arising from 
 a pure and cultivated reason, though that maybe 
 an excellent receptive of elsewhere-discovered truth, 
 but it is a peculiar gift to us Apostles. We speak 
 wisdom ; and what we speak never was discovered to 
 human invention. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 that God hath prepared for them that love him ; " 
 that is, the facts and principles of the Gospel. " But 
 God hath revealed them unto us," the inspired teach- 
 ers ; and the reason why they must be discovered by 
 inspiration is, they are " the deep things of God." Can 
 anything be more plain ? The Gospel is the righteous- 
 ness of God (i. e. the mode of justification) revealed. 
 (Romans i. 17.) Hence Paul asserts his title to be a 
 teacher. " Paul, an Apostle, not of men, neither by 
 man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who 
 raised him from the dead." (Galatians i. 1.) And 
 again : " But I certify to you, brethren, that the Gos- 
 pel which was preached by me is not after man. For 
 I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it 
 but by revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians i. 11, 
 12.) Our Lord had foretold, " He that heareth you, 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 287 
 
 heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth rne ; 
 and he that despiseth me, despiseth Him that sent 
 me." (Luke x. 16.) "For after that, in the wisdom 
 of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased 
 God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that 
 believe." (1 Corinthians i. 21.) Then we have this 
 natural caution, which certainly implies the superiority 
 of revelation : " Beware lest any man spoil you through 
 philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, 
 after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." 
 (Colossians ii. 8.) Mark the discriminating negative. 
 And again : "Let no man deceive himself; if any man 
 among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him 
 become a fool," (let him acknowledge his incompe- 
 teiicy to forge a revelation, or its truth,) " that he may 
 be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness 
 
 with God The Lord knoweth the thoughts of 
 
 the wise, that they are vain." (1 Corinthians iii. 18- 
 20.) " God, who at sundry times and in divers man- 
 ners spake in time past unto the fathers by the proph- 
 ets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, 
 whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom 
 also he made the worlds." (Hebrews i. 1, 2.) The 
 people were astonished at Christ, " for he taught them 
 as one having authority " from Heaven. (Matthew vii. 
 29.) The same authority is claimed for the Old Tes- 
 tament. It is a literal revelation from God. "Did 
 ever a people hear the voice of God, speaking out of 
 
288 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 the midst of the fire, as them hast heard, and live ? 
 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation 
 from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by 
 signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty 
 hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great ter- 
 rors, according to all that the Lord your God did for 
 you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was 
 showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is 
 God, and there is none else besides him. Out of heaven 
 he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct 
 thee ; and upon earth he showed thee his great fire, 
 and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the 
 fire." (Deuteronomy iv. 33 - 36.) 
 
 The description the sacred writers give of the Gen- 
 tile nations is mournful, and from such corruptions we 
 cannot expect prophets to arise. " And we know that 
 we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wick- 
 edness." (John v. 19.) " Because that, when they 
 knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were 
 thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and 
 their foolish heart was darkened : professing them- 
 selves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the 
 glory of the incorruptible God," &c. (Romans i. 21- 
 23.) "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a 
 dream ; and he that hath my word, let him speak my 
 word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith 
 the Lord. Is not my word as a fire ? saith the Lord ; 
 and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? " 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 289 
 
 (Jeremiah xxiii. 28, 29.) " And when they shall say 
 unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, 
 and unto wizards that peep and mutter, should not a 
 people seek unto their God ? for the living to the 
 dead ? To the law and to the testimony : if they speak 
 not according to this word, it is because there is no 
 light in them." (Isaiah viii. 19, 20.) The triumph 
 of Moses over the magicians of Egypt, and of Daniel 
 over the wise men of Babylon (Exodus ix. 11, and Dan- 
 iel ii.), expresses the superiority of inspired prophets 
 over the most improved examples of Gentile wisdom. 
 
 " When thou shalt come into the land which the 
 Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do 
 after the abominations of those nations." (Deuteron- 
 omy xviii. 9.) And in the eighteenth verse : " I will 
 raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like 
 unto thee, and will put my words into his mouth, and he 
 shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." 
 In the twentieth chapter of Exodus we find that a whole 
 nation heard a manifest revelation, and saw the terri- 
 ble proofs. " Is it because there is not a God in Is- 
 rael that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the God of 
 Ekron?" (2 Kings i. 3.) Naaman the idolater, after 
 he was healed, confessed : " Behold, now I know that 
 there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." (2 Kings 
 v. 15.) 
 
 It is the very purpose of the nineteenth Psalm to 
 contrast a Divine revelation with the light of nature. 
 13 s 
 
290 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Though the " heavens declare the glory of God, and 
 the firmament showeth forth his handiwork," yet it is 
 " the law of the Lord that is perfect, converting the 
 heart; the testimonies of the Lord are sure, making 
 wise the simple." 
 
 I need not multiply quotations ; the Apostle in- 
 cludes it in a short sentence, when he says (1 Corin- 
 thians ii. 16.): "We have the mind of Christ; of 
 Christ who was in the bosom of the Father and hath 
 always declared him." 
 
 " Say, will the Stoic's flinty heart 
 Melt, and this cordial balm impart ? 
 Could Plato find these blissful streams 
 Among his raptures and his dreams ? " 
 
 Such are the claims of some of the chief of the sa- 
 cred writers. Now they either lie, or were mistaken, 
 or utter the truth. If they lie, let us scorn them ; if 
 they were mistaken, we will not take weak men for 
 our inspired masters ; if they uttered the truth, we 
 have a Bible, let us bow to its authority. 
 
 I have called these views of inspiration modern. 
 They are undoubtedly very old, but called into life by 
 the course of modern speculation. Let us consider 
 their modern origin. 
 
 First, they came partly from the course taken in 
 metaphysical speculation. It is well known that Locke 
 taught that experience was the source of all our knowl- 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 291 
 
 edge. Man had no innate ideas, his concepts all 
 came from sensation and reflection ; and this account 
 generated all the materialism of the French school ; 
 also the extravagance of Berkeley and the scepticism of 
 Hume ; who taught that experience could never give us 
 the concept of power, or the nature of the connection of 
 cause and effect ; and the logic of Hume, considered as 
 an argumentum ad hominem to the disciples of Locke, 
 was considered as unanswerable. This mournful scepti- 
 cism produced a reaction, and threw the German meta- 
 physicians on a different course. They began to suspect 
 that experience, under the forms of sensation and re- 
 flection, was not the only source of our knowledge ; 
 they thought they discovered a deeper fountain in the 
 pure reason, 
 
 " The vision and the faculty divine." 
 
 A direct intuition of necessary truth ; that power by 
 which the very perception of a thing shows its neces- 
 sity. This power makes a great figure in the meta- 
 physics of Coleridge, and all his strict or partial fol- 
 lowers. Now it was very easy to extend this vision 
 and faculty divine until it became an extra-biblical in- 
 spiration. A wise man had, as some thought, a neces- 
 sary insight into divine truth. He had the mental sun 
 before him, and a soliform mind ; and of course the 
 vision was complete. 
 
 Secondly, the usus loquendi, the mode of speaking 
 
292 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 in the ancient world, was supposed to favor this broad 
 view of inspiration. The word eoTn/evo-r/a, whose cog- 
 nate is OeoTTvevo-Tos (2 Timothy iii. 16), is well rendered 
 from analogy by divine inbreathing*, which the Greeks 
 and Latins attributed to their oracles ; and the Jews, 
 by the phrase, " the spirit of Jehovah was on me," 
 imparted to all men of superior genius, and especially 
 to poets and prophets. Now, from the common use of 
 language, the safest guide, we are taught, by this 
 expression they understood all those earnest speeches 
 and emotions of mind, especially in poets, which they 
 referred to some divine power. There is a remarka,- 
 ble place in Cicero (Pro Archias) : " We suppose the 
 study of other things to consist in teaching precepts 
 and art; but a poet has his powers from nature her- 
 self, is excited in his mind, and is moved by a certain 
 divine spirit." So Virgil is quoted (^Bneid, Lib. VI. 
 5, and III. 385), and Horace (Lib. IV. Car. 6). This 
 is the same thing, they allege, as when Peter says, 
 "they are moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter i. 2) ; 
 that is, borne by a divine impulse, rapt ; to all which 
 expressions the signification is, a strong affection, com- 
 ing from the divine fountain, making the speaker elo- 
 quent; nor do I doubt the expression "taught of God" 
 (John vi. 45, 1 Thessalonians iv. 9) has a similar mean- 
 ing. In a word, all mental excitement which arises 
 from God, whether by a direct operation, or from an ad- 
 miring mind, or from truth which providentially comes 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 293 
 
 
 
 to man, is called in the common speech of antiquity, 
 inspiration. (Doderlein, Yol. I. pp. 91, 92.) 
 
 It is remarkable that some ambiguities in the He- 
 brew language are adduced as favoring these views. 
 Thus the Hebrew word X?D3 signifies both a poet and 
 a prophet ; the cognate verb signifies to sing, to utter 
 poetry, and to prophesy ; and the word in the fifth 
 Psalm which our translators have rendered " foolish," 
 comes from an expression of the highest praise. The 
 argument would be that the very etymology of their 
 language lets out the secret ; the words are ambigu- 
 ous because they confounded divine inspiration with 
 natural excitement ; and some would quote, perhaps, 
 what Elisha said when about to prophesy for Jehoram 
 and Jehoshaphat, before their battle with Moab (2 Kings 
 iii. 15) : " But now bring me a minstrel. And it came 
 to pass as he played, that the hand of the Lord came 
 upon him." Now it would not be a prodigy, if some 
 German commentator, educated even before Strauss 
 came upon the stage, should take it into his head to 
 say that the hand of the Lord coming upon him was 
 the natural effect of the music. It would be a very 
 simple account of the incident. 
 
 But, thirdly, there is another origin, and that is the 
 mythic mode of interpreting which now prevails. This 
 word has recently come into use ; and it has wrought 
 wonders both in profane and sacred history, and has 
 had a cognate influence on our views of inspiration. 
 
294 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 What does it mean? Is it a lie? No. Is it a truth? 
 No. But a shapeless thing moving between them, 
 and always moving much nearer to the lie than to the 
 truth. In one of our June sunsets you may regard 
 yon tall shadow, lying eastward of yonder oak, as the 
 myth of the tree ; or the shade of Cowper, as he 
 describes it when the evening stretches a length of 
 shadow o'er the field : 
 
 " Mine, spindling into longitude immense, 
 In spite of gravity and sage remark 
 That I myself am but a fleeting shade, 
 Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance 
 I view the muscular-proportioned limb 
 Transformed to a lean shank. The shapeless pair, 
 As they designed to mock me, at my side 
 Take step for step ; and, as I near approach 
 The cottage, walk along the plastered wall, 
 Preposterous sight ! the legs without the man." 
 
 The Task, Book V. 
 
 This " preposterous sight " which provoked the poet's 
 smile was the myth of himself. But let us hear it 
 defined by one who made the greatest use of it in his 
 historical speculations. " Mythological tales of this sort 
 (i. e. Romulus and the wolf) are misty shapes, often 
 no more than a Fata Morgana, the prototype of which 
 is invisible, the law of refraction is unknown ; and even 
 were it not so, still it would surpass any powers of 
 reflection to proceed so subtilely and skilfully as to 
 divine the unknown prototype from these strangely 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 295 
 
 blended forms. But such magical shapes are differ- 
 ent from mere dreams, and are not without a hidden 
 foundation in truth. The name of dreams belongs 
 only to the fictions imagined by the later Greeks, after 
 the tradition had become extinct, and when individuals 
 were indulging a wanton license in altering the old 
 legends, not considering that their diversity and mul- 
 tiplicity had been the work of the whole people, and 
 not a matter for individual caprice to meddle with." 
 (Niebuhr's History of Rome, Vol. I. p. 169, Hare and 
 Thirlwall's trans., 1835.) 
 
 We have an idea of what a myth is in the sam- 
 ples of Incredibles given by Palaephatus, and of which 
 a selection is in the old Graeca Minora, which was for- 
 merly studied at Andover Academy ; though most of 
 the explanations, perhaps Niebuhr would say, are more 
 incredible than the wonders they defend. 
 
 Now it is to be expected, when we have reduced all 
 the narratives of the book to myths, we should con- 
 clude the spirit that inspired them to be a delusion. 
 
 To these sources of speculation we may still add an- 
 other, and that is, the pleasure that an iconoclast takes 
 in breaking all the sacred images he finds, however 
 august the temple which encloses them, and whatever 
 the service to which they are consecrated. Gibbon 
 has described (Vol. III. p. 465) the assault of the 
 Roman soldiers on the figure of Serapis, when all the 
 multitude expected that the heavens and the earth 
 
296 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 would instantly return to their original chaos if the 
 statue fell. It did fall, and the thunders were si- 
 lent, and the heavens and the earth preserved their 
 original tranquillity. Human nature is so made that 
 it loves its own daring ; and some go on from one 
 deed to another, until they have blasted all the sub- 
 limity in the universe. They sit rejoicing on their 
 own black thrones, and contemplate exultingly the ruin 
 they have made. 
 
 The falsehood of this new doctrine is just as mani- 
 fest as the truth of the Bible. It is ingeniously false ; 
 false in fact and false in spirit. It is not simply wrong, 
 but it is a complete reversal of the sacred design. The 
 aim of the sacred writers is to draw a line between di- 
 vine and human wisdom ; to give us the declarations 
 of God instead of human philosophy. The great ob- 
 ject of modern heresy is to confound that line. The 
 Bible demands faith ; this system produces distrust ; 
 nay, it renders the Pauline faith forever impossible. 
 It takes away our confidence in the word, and puts it 
 on human idealism. It weakens what God strength- 
 ens, and strengthens what God weakens. It is a false 
 fact, producing a false influence ; and even the inter- 
 mingled truth which makes its absurdities plausible, 
 becomes an error in its influence and connection ; even 
 as a stone which a young tree encloses and covers in 
 its bark, perverts its growth, impairs its beauty, and 
 produces its ruin. 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 297 
 
 We may illustrate this point by the view we take of 
 most of the superstitions in the world. Superstition 
 is generally the relict and distortion of a perished rev- 
 elation. Superstition has always been considered what 
 the new interpreters pronounce the Bible to be, and, 
 with a revelation to guide our selection and to help 
 us to discriminate, its various forms teach us something. 
 But without a higher light how dark its pages, how 
 latent its truth, and how utterly contemptible its author- 
 ity ! Take the Hindoos as an example. Their system 
 assumes the guilt of man, the need of purification, and 
 a host of errors and imbecilities in the mode. Repent- 
 ance with them is swinging on hooks ; sanctification is 
 washing in the Ganges. The ray of light mingled with 
 their darkness is so feeble as hardly to be seen, and so 
 associated with vaporous delusion as to have no au- 
 thority. 
 
 The folly of this system may also be seen in the con- 
 trasted example of Socrates. He was just in the con- 
 dition in which the Novelists say Moses was, Isaiah, and 
 Paul. He was an honest man, wishing to enlighten his 
 age. He must have had three kinds of consciousness. 
 First, he must have been conscious of his own supe- 
 riority ; secondly, he must have been conscious of his 
 own non-inspiration; and, thirdly, that the world needed 
 authoritative teaching. All these were present to his 
 mind. What does he do ? Does he choose a salutary 
 fiction to supply the vacancy, or does he fall into a 
 13* 
 
298 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 partial delusion as to his mission ? Not at all. He 
 acts as a good man would act ; he confesses his igno- 
 rance ; he is everywhere looking round for some rev- 
 elation to lean on ; he sees how desirable such a reve- 
 lation would be ; he owns its vast importance. He is 
 looking round and catching at each reed of hope that 
 his own traditions present him. Because he has no 
 Bible, he turns some of the verses of Homer into the 
 voice of God ; he makes the oracles speak from heaven, 
 and he appeals to the traditions, ra Xeyojjieva, and 
 a ol TroirjToi r]yCiv ael OpvXovaw, the intimations of 
 the poets, show how he longed for Divine instruc- 
 tion, how firmly he rejected any personal claims to it. 
 Even his Demon he explains to be only the voice of 
 Providence. Now compare his conduct with that im- 
 puted to the prophets in an imputed similarity of con- 
 dition, and how he shines over them ! How much 
 greater his truth! How much wiser his discrimination! 
 If the Apostles had his honesty and wisdom, could they 
 have turned a false inspiration into a true one ? Would 
 they not have copied his example ? The only possible 
 solution, consistent with the least respect for their 
 hearts or heads, must be, with equal integrity they 
 were truly inspired. They had a different conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 The nature of this opinion is seen in its influence. 
 As it opposes the prime design of revelation, that is, 
 to diminish our confidence in independent speculation, 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 299 
 
 and carry to the highest point our veneration for .the 
 Word, its influence is seen in the havoc it makes 
 on human faith. Men now venerate nothing ; they are 
 like the unjust judge (Luke xviii. 2), "which feared 
 not God, neither regarded man." They have lost their 
 Bible and deified their reason. The first form of this 
 innovation had this peculiarity, that it drew an indefi- 
 nite line, which moved along, swifter or slower, like 
 the edge-shadow of a cloud over the field ; one bold 
 step was sure to lead to another, when boldness was 
 regarded as the only wisdom. The Scripture often pre- 
 sents us in single passages an alternative of a very 
 sublime meaning or a very mean one, and the duality 
 of choice is a guide to the interpretation ; thus, in 
 Luke x. 42, " One thing is needful," you may say, our 
 Saviour intended only, " One dish is enough for my 
 frugal table ; " or you may take the common interpre- 
 tation : True piety is what we principally need ; " seek 
 first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness." But 
 how immensely different the grandeur and importance 
 of the two meanings ! and can a spiritual man lay 
 the two side by side, and compare them, and not see 
 the right choice ? So in 2 Timothy iii. 16 : " All Scrip- 
 ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteous- 
 ness." The English reader sees that the word is is 
 supplied in the translation, and the question is, Where 
 shall we place it ? Shall we say, as some say, All 
 
300 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Scripture that is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness, is given 
 by inspiration of God ; or shall we take the old ar- 
 rangement, and consequently the old meaning ? Here 
 comes the instructive duality. The old meaning gives 
 us a clear rule, and we may be sure that, knowing 
 what inspiration is, it must be useful. The other 
 meaning throws us out on a vague sea ; we are to 
 trust our own sentiments. We are to judge first, what 
 is profitable for our instruction and eternal benefit, 
 and then to say it comes immediately or remotely from 
 a divine revelation. We are to take the Bible itself, 
 and to say, Whatever I think profits me, I allow to 
 be inspired ; the rest I reject. Who does not see that 
 this construction reverses the design of the first ; it 
 reverses the very design of inspiration ? Here are two 
 paths ; one leads you from your feeble self to the throne 
 of God ; the other leads you from the throne of God 
 to your feeble self. Which, now, is most suitable to 
 the tone of authority in which Paul generally speaks ? 
 To my mind, the very stating of this choice gives the 
 answer. If I find a broken reed driven by the gale, 
 I know it is not a weaver's beam or a giant's spear ; 
 it is certainly not the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, 
 And see the consequence of abandoning the cer- 
 tain line for a vague one. Some time in the last cen- 
 tury, Farmer respectfully and timidly suggested that 
 the temptation in the desert (Matthew iv. 1 - 11) is a 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 301 
 
 mental conflict, a kind of allegory to describe vividly the 
 thoughts that revolved in the breast of Christ when he 
 was about to begin his ministry. The suggestion went 
 over to Germany and set their fertile minds at work, 
 and now, in less than half a century, we have their im- 
 provements floated back. The temptation, according 
 to Strauss, was a myth, written after the alleged pe- 
 riod of the transaction. As an historical fact it has 
 no consistency, no possibility of existing. What is 
 its design as an historical incident ? It has none. It 
 grew up afterward from a personated devil, and the 
 Jewish idea that he must be the adversary of the Mes- 
 siah. Christ must be invincible to the strongest temp- 
 tation. He must have no worldly ambition, no inter- 
 nal weakness. As a fact, what infinite difficulties ! How 
 could he see the kingdoms of the earth from a moun- 
 tain ? How was his divinity peccable ? Did the Devil 
 know who he was ? and if he did, how could he hope 
 to prevail ? There is no end to such questions, and 
 therefore the whole history is expunged. Christ him- 
 self, with all his miracles and teachings, vanishes into 
 a sublime idea; and humanity and divinity are united 
 in some fictitious personage, invented by some lying 
 benefactor of our race in the second or third century. 
 Such are the sublime discoveries of modern wisdom. 
 Such is the new religion. 
 
 Of course a central truth removed and a falsehood 
 substituted in its place must be dangerous. The dan- 
 
302 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 ger is, destroying the power of revelation, the truth, 
 the faith, the reverence, the hope, the joy, the final 
 salvation ! Revelation reveals nothing. We never, 
 with these views, tremble at the Word of God. We 
 never make even the mistake of the disciples of old, 
 at the voice from heaven, when they said, " It thun- 
 dered." (John xii. 29.) 
 
 The danger of withdrawing our veneration from the 
 divinely great, and putting it on the human, is every- 
 where apparent. The experiment has been made. 
 The Word of God has never been too much respected. 
 When we cast away these cords, we become prisoners 
 to a tyrannical superstition, or to a noxious liberty. 
 In rejecting the Bible, the first effect, of course, is 
 infidelity ; but this is seldom permanent. The popu- 
 lar mind cannot rest there. Men pass through un- 
 belief to priestcraft. If we lose the infallible book 
 we go to the infallible pontiff, or some kindred delu- 
 sion. The state of Europe is now an illustration. 
 Since the French Revolution there have been thousands 
 and thousands panting for civil liberty. The effort has 
 been made, but it fails, because anarchy is the result. 
 Napoleon III. is now kept on his throne by fear of an- 
 archy. The first Napoleon rose to power over the 
 evils of anarchy. The Pope holds his power because 
 he rules over a population that have not proved their 
 competence to self- direction. It is the perpetual argu- 
 ment of all despots, that the people are incapable of 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 303 
 
 salutary freedom. The hierarchy of the Romish Church 
 rose on the obscuration of the Bible, and lost its su- 
 premacy when the Bible was restored. Man is capa- 
 ble of freedom just in the degree that he understands 
 and submits to the revelations of God. Spread over 
 France a people like the old Puritans, let every pul- 
 pit be filled with kindred spirits to Dr. John Owen, 
 Dr. Bates, Mr. Nye, John Bunyan, Dr. Watts, Dr. Ev- 
 ans, Dr. Doddridge, and representative government is 
 the only practical wisdom. Nay, I will go further, and 
 confidently add, that whereas it is said by certain rea- 
 soners, and said with plausibility, and, as I think, with 
 much truth, that progress is impeded by a servile de- 
 votion to the dead past, our revelations are in the 
 noble future, I maintain that a hampering respect 
 for this dead past, in philosophy, in government, in 
 history, in political economy, is best prevented by a 
 boundless veneration for the old revelation. It is the 
 very thing to make us free in all the other lines of 
 thought ; as, if I am approaching a dangerous coast 
 and see the real lighthouse flaming on the promon- 
 tory, I shall not be deceived by the little flickering 
 lights which are found' in the villages, and but for the 
 contrast might be mistaken for the nobler guide. 
 
 The Bible teaches a moral perfection, and shows the 
 inferiority of the world around to its own standard ; 
 hence it produces the love of innovation in everything 
 except its own principles. Pascal, Newton, Boyle, 
 
304 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 their watchword was, submission in religion, indepen- 
 dence in philosophy. On the other hand, China is an 
 example of the most doting conservatism, but it has 
 no Bible. Nay, in the inductive philosophy itself, it is 
 a kind of revelation that produces the free investiga- 
 tion. Galileo despised the decrees of the Church and 
 the conclusions of the old philosophers, because he saw 
 the certainty of the laws of nature. 
 
 THE CLAIM AND THE PROOF. 
 
 BUT are we to believe the Scriptural writers inspired 
 merely because they claim inspiration ? Is not this to 
 assume the very point to be proved ? Are there no 
 false pretences under the mask of religion ? If these 
 holy men of old did not mean to deceive others, might 
 they not be deceived themselves ? Yes ; we allow it 
 would be weak reasoning to place the evidence of in- 
 spiration on their own claims. The true proof of their 
 inspiration comes from the general evidence of the 
 truth of the Gospel. The two things are inwoven and 
 cannot be separated. It is not my purpose here to go 
 into the general evidence for our holy religion. But 
 if it came with signs from heaven, with wonders, with 
 the accomplishment of a long line of prophecies ; if the 
 kingdom of God was early predicted and long expect- 
 ed, nay, was always found to some extent in the 
 world, and was the only fulfilment of an intelligible 
 

 THE SUPPLEMENT. 305 
 
 design in the universe ; if man has always sighed over 
 the inadequacy of his earthly existence, and panted for 
 something nobler and better ; and if the Gospel has 
 filled the vacuum and met his wants, then its general 
 truth is inseparable from its essential record. With- 
 out a reliable record, the Gospel would be, as Florus 
 says of Rome, " res unius aetatis." St. Paul, in the 
 beginning of his Epistle to the Romans, professes to 
 gather his knowledge of Judaism from the Old Testa- 
 ment. He sees the truth of its facts in the fidelity 
 of its history. " Separated," says he, "unto the Gospel 
 of God ; which he had promised afore by his prophets 
 in the HOLY SCRIPTURES." Christ, in Luke xxiv. 44, 
 appeals to the sacred record, and supposes it equally 
 valid in his age as when first given : " And he said 
 unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you, 
 while I was yet with you, that all things must be ful- 
 filled which were written in the law of Moses and in 
 the prophets and Psalms concerning me." And in the 
 next verse we are told, " Then opened he their under- 
 standing, that they might understand the Scriptures." 
 Now we may depend upon it, that this reference to the 
 Hebrew books implies an authority adequate to prove 
 the prediction of Christ's mission ; and, more than this, 
 a well-known canon, for Christ never would have men- 
 tioned the record in this loose way, (i. e. without a 
 specific enumeration of the books,) had not the canon 
 been settled and perfectly well known. But surely if 
 
 T 
 
806 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 the old religion was thus linked in with the inspiration 
 of its law, prophets, and Psalms, much more the perfec- 
 tion of the new, so essential to the salvation of the com- 
 ing ages. The miracles, the prophecies, the internal 
 evidences of the Gospel, the grandeur of its design, and 
 its efficacy on the nations and on the heart, are so 
 many proofs of the inspiration of its consecrated books. 
 Inspiration is one of the necessary concomitants ; nay, it 
 is an all-important one. If this were denied, we should 
 be compelled to say, We cannot believe, because we 
 cannot know the Gospel. As we now stand on sim- 
 ilar ground as to relishing the beauties of Homer with 
 the audience of the old rhapsodists who recited his 
 verses, so we have the perfection of Christ still teach- 
 ing us through inspiration. It is a great, standing mir- 
 acle. The proofs are, first, the book answers to the 
 alleged design ; secondly, the history of its preserva- 
 tion is satisfactory ; thirdly, translation preserves its 
 essence, it was prepared to pervade all careful trans- 
 lations ; fourthly, the common evidences of Christian- 
 ity imply and prove its preservation in the world. 
 
 The chief part of the dogmatic Gospel (i. e. its prin- 
 ciples, independent of its facts) was written by the 
 Apostle Paul, and Paul was a chosen vessel. (Acts 
 ix. 15.) 
 
 We are sufficiently guarded against imposture. When 
 Moses went to the people, he gave proof of his com- 
 mission (Exodus iv. 30) ; he gave his proof, also, to 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 307 
 
 Pharaoh. Christ, also, came with all the perfection of 
 his teaching, and the signs and wonders which accom- 
 panied it. The Apostles, also, wherever they went, car- 
 ried their proofs with them ; the voice of nature was 
 appealed to, conscience and her moral laws, the testi- 
 mony of the soul, as Tertullian calls it, the coincidence 
 of all the parts with the grand design, as supporting 
 the assumption that they came with a message from 
 God. They assume the past inspiration of their great 
 book, and they prove by involution the future inspira- 
 tion. Indeed, how can we have confidence in the facts, 
 and not believe the essential conditions of perpetuity? 
 "We know the existence of the distant planet by the 
 chain of beams which connect the glittering orb with 
 the observing eye. 
 
 Some of the messages of the prophets were probably 
 never delivered to the idolatrous people addressed. 
 The burden of Babylon in Isaiah xiii., the address to 
 Moab (ch. xv.), the burden of Damascus (ch. xvii.), the 
 dark message in chap, xviii., the burden of Egypt (ch. 
 xix.), and certainly the message in the thirty-eighth 
 chapter of Ezekiel, never reached the people specified ; 
 they were probably written for more lasting purposes ; 
 they were a sign to God's ancient Church of the secu- 
 rity of his protection, and the terrible ruin that await- 
 ed his enemies. The force of these declarations was 
 ripened by time. 
 
 Indeed, the first verses of the Epistle to the He- 
 
308 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 brows suggest at once the need and the certainty of 
 inspiration. " God, who at sundry times and in di- 
 vers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by 
 the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us 
 by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, 
 by whom also he made the worlds," &c. It is not an 
 incident ; it is the essential effluence of the celestial 
 light. 
 
 I do not say let me be understood that the 
 prophets and Apostles are to be believed because they 
 say they are inspired ; but I contend that no man can 
 suppose they were the accredited organs of revelation 
 to one age, and not believe they are the same to all 
 ages, if they claim it. This is impossible. We may 
 reject them totally, and then we are infidels ; but we 
 cannot receive their claims in one department and 
 not in another ; for suppose a man to make to us a 
 speech which we believe to be a message from God, 
 and suppose he sends the same speech to a distant 
 friend, does it lose its authority by being committed to 
 paper ? Inspiration is only the necessary means of per- 
 petuating to all ages what in one age, or in various 
 ages, was actually done. 
 
 The proof, then, is certain, and the security against 
 delusion is complete. (See 1 Corinthians x. 11.) God 
 is no respecter of persons ; as the equity of law de- 
 mands that, if a man has a field, he shall have access 
 to his field, the very design of property being that 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 309 
 
 we might use it, so when God gives his own in- 
 struction to mankind, the very design of the gift im- 
 plies its preservation. He did not light up the sun 
 for one day only. Christ is the Saviour of all ages. 
 Though literally crucified at Jerusalem, he was set forth 
 as crucified among the Galatians (Gal. iii. 1.), and 
 through the immutable record to all mankind. 
 
 This high view of Divine inspiration has been met 
 with many objections, as indeed what truth is there 
 to which objections may not be made ? It is said, for 
 example, it is not obvious to our senses and not known 
 by experience, nostris sensibus haud obvia nee per 
 experientiam co^nita^ and this may be said of the 
 law of gravitation, yet its laws and results are not the 
 less certain. It does not impair either the proofs or 
 the benefits of Divine instruction, because we cannot 
 define exactly how the spirit moves over the instructed 
 mind. If I see a signal from the Admiral's ship, and 
 know the sign, it is not of the smallest importance 
 to me how they hoisted it to the mast-head, whether 
 by a rope, or a sailor carried it up and nailed it to 
 the staff. There it is, flying to the wind, with all its 
 significance. Besides, we do know, in some degree, the 
 mode ; the prophet often saw emblems in visions which 
 were interpreted to him. The incapacity of language to 
 be a vehicle of certain instruction its vagueness and 
 uncertainty has been objected to the claims of inspi- 
 ration. "There is no man," says Thomas Paine, "that 
 
310 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 believes in revealed religion stronger than I do." 
 " That which is revelation to me exists in something 
 which no human mind can invent; no human hand 
 can counterfeit or alter. The word of God is the cre- 
 ation we behold." We will not depreciate the light of 
 nature. It has its lesson, and speaks the builder, God. 
 But surely it is within the compass of the infinite 
 power of God, if he can make himself manifest in his 
 works, to make himself understood by his Word. Why 
 not ? Language is certainly the most perfect image of 
 our reason. Does any one really doubt whether Plato, 
 Thucydides, Cicero, or Tacitus, notwithstanding all the 
 dangers of ambiguity in language, transcription, &c., 
 have substantially communicated their systems and their 
 narratives to the admiring generations which have fol- 
 lowed them ? Much has been said about translation ; 
 that the authority of a verbal inspiration is lost in the 
 first translation. They do not consider, with respect 
 to the adequacy of a translation, the difference of sub- 
 jects. Plato, for example, in some of his dialogues, is 
 almost untranslatable. The later Platonists, in one 
 point of view, are very difficult to translate ; in an- 
 other, very easy. It is very difficult often to get their 
 exact meaning (if they had any), and, in another view, 
 it is very easy to preserve a parallel mysticism. See 
 the writings of Emerson, Bunsen, Hegel, Feuerbach, 
 &c., on whom the Alexandrine mantle has fallen, and 
 whose writings (at least some paragraphs, nay, whole 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 311 
 
 chapters) are as good a translation as the dark day 
 in 1780 in New England was a good translation of 
 the darkness in Egypt. Poetry and eloquence, Homer 
 and Cicero, the coloring of the imagination, the force 
 of satire and the niceties of manners, are not easily 
 represented. A work on law, a statute, are easy. Eu- 
 clid is as perfect in English as in the original. The 
 question is, Where do the topics of revelation rank as 
 to the facility and perfection with which they can be 
 presented in a modern version ? 
 
 Now it is curious to see the provisions made by the 
 wisdom of God, to make his Word, like his sun, a 
 common light. The Hebrew language had reached 
 that development above the hieroglyphic, above the 
 Chinese, below the Greek delicacy, whose finer shad- 
 ings are hard to preserve, it had reached a develop- 
 ment to which every other tongue looks back as a stand- 
 point. It is the most translatable language in the 
 world. Then its subject is the most simple elements 
 of moral thought, God, hope, fear, repentance, faith, 
 love, obedience, heaven and hell, eternal ideas and 
 eternally recurring. Its writers, instead of appealing to 
 a metaphysical background, as modern theologians are 
 too fond of doing, appeal to a sacred history, a body 
 of facts which shed light on every principle. They 
 appeal, also, to our inner breasts, the active and pas- 
 sive elements of our moral being. Then, as Lowth ob- 
 serves, " the Hebrews not only deduce their metaphors 
 
312 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 from familiar or well-known objects, but preserve one 
 constant track and manner in the use and accommo- 
 dation of them." In Lect. VI. he instances the case of 
 light and darkness used for prosperity and adversity. 
 Then the Bible avoids the ambiguity of an abstract, 
 single word; the passions are often pictured, as re- 
 pentance in Psalm li., gratitude in Psalm ciii., adora- 
 tion in Psalm civ. The omnipresence of God is pic- 
 tured in Psalm cxxxix., and his majesty and his mercy 
 in Isaiah xl. Who can doubt that the first chapter 
 of Genesis is adequate in all the translations ? "In the 
 beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; " 
 what an important preparation for the whole book, 
 and how easily transferred to every tongue and people 
 through the whole earth ! The Apocalypse is a very 
 curious book, so very dark, and yet almost nothing 
 depends on the translation. The emblems are the 
 same, in Greek, English, Mohawk, or Irish. Wherever 
 there is a material similitude, there is to be found an 
 adequate word. In fine, a wonderful provision is made 
 to produce an identity of instruction amidst a diversity 
 of translation. Dip the water of the river of life in 
 any vase, wood, glass, marble, gold, Wedgewood ware, 
 or terra-cotta vessels, it is still the water of the river 
 of life. No such sample of predominant thought over 
 every form of language is found (out of the mathe- 
 matics) in all the writings of antiquity. It seems like 
 the foresight of its Author. 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 313 
 
 It is surely an idle question to ask of such a book, 
 coming from such a source, whether the inspiration 
 was verbal. Here is an omniscient God, who fore- 
 knows all contingencies, and without whom a sparrow 
 does not fall to the ground ; he selects his chosen ves- 
 sel Paul, for example to communicate his revela- 
 tion to mankind. He knows his instrument, he knows 
 his turn of thought ; he encompasses his path while he 
 is writing, and surveys the work when it is done. All 
 contingencies fulfil his design. Now, with such an 
 inspirer, and such an instrument, can there be any 
 questioning as to the perfection of the work ? 
 
 THE CANON. 
 
 A WORD must be said respecting the canon of Scrip- 
 ture. The word canon means a rule ; and when ap- 
 plied to Scripture, it means that authorized list or 
 catalogue of the books truly inspired and having Di- 
 vine authority. How was that list formed, and whence 
 did it derive its authority ? Every one sees, if there 
 is such a thing as inspiration pervading certain sepa- 
 rate compositions, they must form an important class ; 
 they must differ from other books, as a constellation 
 differs from a collection of lamps hung up in a tree 
 in an illuminated garden. They are likely to have 
 much to distinguish them, as Divine wisdom, subject, 
 manner, purity, authority, influence, testimony ; and as 
 14 
 
314 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 successive ages have agreed in not confounding the 
 stars of heaven with illuminating lamps, so earnest men 
 would be likely to mark with definite limits the books 
 that guided their faith and imparted their consolation. 
 The objective, i. e. the real existence of such books, 
 acting on collective observation, would create a law. It 
 is well known there was a controversy between the Pa- 
 pists and Protestants concerning the formation of the 
 Canon. The Papists said desirous of supporting ec- 
 clesiastical power that the canon depended solely on 
 the authority of the Church. " I should have no more 
 faith," said one of their writers, " in Matthew than in 
 Titus Livy, were he not sanctioned by Church author- 
 ity ; " and they quoted the famous saying of Augustine: 
 " Non crederem Evangelistis nisi auctoritas Ecclesiae 
 me ad id faciendum commoveret," " I should not be- 
 lieve the Evangelists, unless the authority of the Church 
 moved me ; " and again : " Auctoritas librorum nos- 
 trum confirmata est, per successionem Apostolorum, 
 episcoporum, et conciliorum," " The authority of our 
 books is confirmed by the successive judgments of Apos- 
 tles, bishops, and councils." From this position the 
 Protestants started back ; they were afraid of the con- 
 sequences ; they charged the Papists with reasoning in 
 a circle. You say the Scriptures depend on the author- 
 ity of the Church : must not the Church depend for 
 its authority on the Scriptures ? The Protestants put 
 the authority of the Scriptures on the private spirit ; 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 315 
 
 that is, on the enlightened reason of every good man, 
 who felt that every sacred book spoke with a peculiar 
 power ; and here the Papists in turn charged them 
 with absurdity. For, said they, if you are enlightened 
 enough to know which book is Scripture, you do not 
 want its information; and if not, how do you know 
 that it is the Word of God ? (See Andrew Rivet's 
 Summa Controversarum, Yol. I. p. 206.) 
 
 The fact is, we have nothing to do with this contro- 
 versy, which has long since become obsolete. The ques- 
 tion lay deeper in the recesses of fact than either party 
 saw. It was not the authority of the Church alone 
 that settled the sacred canon, though the Church 
 must have been the chief depositary of these impor- 
 tant writings, but it was the influence of the Church 
 acting on the broad surface of human opinion, and all 
 the laws of influence and probability that govern it. 
 Just as the Jews were a chosen nation, to whom were 
 committed the oracles of God (Romans iii. 2), and our 
 Saviour without the least hesitation says, " They have 
 Moses and the prophets " (Luke xvi. 29) ; and again, 
 " Search the Scriptures" (John v. 39), a perfectly well- 
 known catalogue of books. The Jews had no difficulty 
 in knowing what these Scriptures were ; nay, in verses 
 forty-sixth and forty-seventh of this chapter, he equals 
 the writings of Moses in point of authority to his own 
 personal presence. For had ye " believed Moses, ye 
 would have believed me ; for he wrote of me. But if 
 
316 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my 
 words ? " 
 
 Moses lived about 1500 years before Christ; and if 
 the old canon is not questioned by our great teacher, 
 preserved as it was through the long period, the insu- 
 lated literature, and the various commotions and cap- 
 tivities of the Jews, how much more have we reason 
 to trust the new canon, formed as it was in a com- 
 paratively enlightened age, quoted by a host of friends 
 and enemies, loved, hated, assaulted, defended, and 
 producing such a thrilling interest amongst mankind. 
 Consider the law ; here is a short list of books, con- 
 sisting of narratives, letters, and prophecies, written, 
 as one party believe, not by Plato or Homer, but in- 
 dited by the Supreme Wisdom, by which thousands 
 live, and for which they are ready to die, (and numbers 
 did die,) faith in which perpetuates the instruction of 
 their Saviour, and constitutes the hope of their salva- 
 tion ; these books are written in a style as different 
 from other writers as the addresses of Bonaparte to 
 his soldiers differ from the style of Dr. Johnson. Now 
 is it wonderful that the laws of human action, among 
 friends and foes, should mark the books and hand 
 them untainted (as to their substantial parts) to fu- 
 ture ages ? There is no wonder about it ; it is what 
 the world has done for Plato, for Cicero, and even 
 for Mahomet himself, or whosever genius it is that 
 reigns in the Koran. 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 31T 
 
 It should be remembered that the sacred writers 
 formed a school, actuated, as they claimed, by one ob- 
 ject and having one aim, to enlighten the world. 
 " I am a debtor," says one of them, " both to the 
 Greeks and Barbarians ; both to the wise and unwise ; 
 so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the 
 Gospel to you that are at Rome also." (Romans i. 
 14, 15.) To this people, to whom the Apostle was so 
 ready to preach, he sent an elaborate epistle ; it is a 
 kind of system of his divinity. It was addressed, no 
 doubt, through Romans, to all mankind ; for he says 
 (Colossiaris iv. 16) : " When this Epistle is read among 
 you, cause it to be read also in the Church of the 
 Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the Epistle from 
 Laodicea." The Epistles from such a sacred hand, no 
 doubt, had a cyclical character ; and if they were what 
 they claimed to be, and if human nature was then 
 what it is now, both in believers and unbelievers, there 
 is no difficulty in accounting for the discriminating ven- 
 eration with which the writing was preserved ; for love 
 never forgets, hatred never forgets. 
 
 God made a promise to preserve his Church, to 
 found it on a rock, and that the gates of hell should 
 never prevail against it. (Matthew xvi. 18.) Now, if 
 we look at this promise, or the law by which he prob- 
 ably executed it, we discern the way in which the canon 
 was known. The design of revelation, also, seems to 
 warrant a similar confidence. The Gospel is not a 
 
318 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 gift for a passing generation ; a written language is 
 not less certain than a spoken discourse. If Christ 
 promised his disciples, when brought before councils, 
 to give them the aid of the Holy Ghost, (Matthew x. 
 20, " It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
 Father that speaketh in you,") we may well conclude 
 that, when they gave instruction for all ages, the in- 
 spiring spirit would not forsake them. 
 
 It is observed by Thomas Paine, " The Councils of 
 Nice and Laodicea were held about 350 years after 
 the time Christ is said to have lived, and the books 
 that now compose the New Testament were then voted 
 for by yeas and nays, as we now vote a law. A great 
 many that were offered had a majority of nays, and 
 were rejected. This is the way the New Testament 
 came into being." No doubt these councils might be 
 atoms among the causes that settled the canon. But 
 had the Church been strictly one, had these councils 
 been strictly oecumenical, had no one rejected their 
 authority, it is obvious that legislation follows, rather 
 than makes public opinion. Had not public opinion 
 uttered its voice, the Laodicean Council could not have 
 spoken. They were the very organ of their own age. 
 
 The fact that some books had a suspended claim 
 before they were received is significant. It is well 
 known that, in Eusebius's canon, the Second Epistle 
 of Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of John, the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Apocalypse, are num- 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 319 
 
 bered among the books to which objections were made ; 
 but these objections were overcome, and the books 
 ultimately received. Two inferences may be made 
 from this fact : the care and deliberation with which 
 the canonical question was considered, the delibera- 
 tion was careful and conscientious ; and, secondly, the 
 strong objections are greatly diminished, perhaps en- 
 tirely removed from the books, by their ultimate recep- 
 tion. At any rate, were they rejected, it would not 
 alter the foundation of the Gospel. 
 
 The preservation of the Apocryphal books, both those 
 often bound in our common Bibles between the two 
 Testaments, and the Apostolic Fathers, translated and 
 published by Archbishop Wake, is a remarkable fact, 
 and serves, I think, an important purpose. As to the 
 Apocrypha of the Old Testament (commonly called by 
 the name Apocrypha), it serves the same purpose that 
 a counterfeit bill does when compared with a true one. 
 The very existence of this collection (i. e. the Apocry- 
 pha) starts a question in the common mind which we 
 must look at. " The Church," says Jerome, " reads 
 them for edification, but does not receive them as in- 
 spired." But how is this ? How can these books hold 
 this middle place ? If they are forgeries, why are they 
 not indignantly rejected ? and if they have any author- 
 ity, why are they not reverentially regarded as divine ? 
 What is the chaff to the wheat ? This natural ques- 
 tion demands an answer. First, there is no proof that 
 
320 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 the books were intentional forgeries ; secondly, they are 
 so linked in with real Scripture, that they serve the 
 important purpose of illustrating it ; they were most 
 of them written before the time of our Saviour, and 
 have been preserved by the special providence of God. 
 Thus the First Book of Maccabees is real history, is 
 the only real history of the period ; for Josephus owes 
 his information to it, and it is necessary to illustrate 
 the fulfilment of an important part of Daniel's proph- 
 ecies. Paul probably alludes to it in Hebrews xi. 37, 
 38 : " They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were 
 tempted, were slain with the sword ; they wandered 
 about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, 
 afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not wor- 
 thy), they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and 
 in dens and caves of the earth." It is our only au- 
 thentic record for verifying these portions of acknowl- 
 edged inspiration. Then the beautiful books of the 
 Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of the Son of 
 Sirach, are like the second rainbow on the cloud, 
 whose diluted lustre must be compared with its brighter 
 origin. They bear all the marks of a redundant imi- 
 tation. The story of Bel and the Dragon, cut off from 
 the end of Daniel, though childish enough, is an ex- 
 pressive picture of priestcraft. But the great use of 
 the Apocrypha is to give us A CONTRAST ; to give us 
 an imitation that cannot reach its original ; to show 
 what the Jewish genius was without the leading-strings 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 321 
 
 of inspiration. Thus the story of Judith is the painted 
 paradise of a Jewish imagination, suggested by real 
 history, exaggerated by their own unregulated fancy, 
 the ideal heroism that floated before the minds of a 
 people inured to 'captivity and unfamiliar with con- 
 quest. Had the Old Testament been a myth, as the 
 destructives say, it would probably have been in the 
 same style as the Book of Judith. Even the highest 
 flights of Jewish wisdom, improved as it was in the 
 Alexandrine school, as seen in the beautiful composi- 
 tions, the Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of the 
 Son of Sirach, (and they are beautiful, and in some 
 respects more artistically beautiful than the Proverbs 
 themselves,) yet these remarkable books reflect light 
 on the authority of real revelation ; for, first, they are 
 manifest imitations ; they both draw their character 
 from the old Proverbs of Solomon ; secondly, they are 
 too eloquent ; they lack the majestic simplicity of their 
 prototype ; thirdly, they are too subtile, too refined, too 
 much human speculation ; fourthly, they are mani- 
 festly tinged with Platonism, nay, the mysticism of the 
 Alexandrine school; and, lastly, one of the authors 
 allows that he is one 09 avw^prjo-e crofyiav CLTTO /cap- 
 S/a? avrov, that poured out wisdom from his own heart. 
 Thus both the baldness and the excellence of these 
 books (it seems to me it is a matter of taste) serve to 
 reflect light on the Scriptures. The same may be said 
 of the Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers, some more 
 
322 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 mean and despicable while others rise to a higher rank ; 
 but the best of them, the First Epistle of Clement 
 to the Corinthians, serves to show the Divine finger- 
 marked line ; for what is it ? A cento of quotations 
 from other scriptures ; it is conscious weakness leaning 
 on previous strength. We have in Eusebius an alleged 
 Epistle from Christ to Abgarus, king of Edessa ; and 
 it is written with all the marks of an author conscious 
 of his task, and conscious of his inability to execute 
 it. It is wisely short ; and the writer walks in cramp- 
 ing-irons. In a word, these feeble and even better 
 imitations show the unapproachable character of their 
 pattern. The greatest minds (and much more the 
 poorest) are often thrown into a condition when their 
 selected work chills them and imposes a want of spon 
 taneity ; just as Milton, when he puts speeches into 
 the mouth of God the Father, or God the Son, loses 
 the ease of his own boundless invention, and makes 
 them talk the sentiments of the most established the- 
 ology. 
 
 " Milton's strong pinions now to Heaven can bound, 
 Now, serpent-like, in prose he sweeps the ground ; 
 In quibbles angels and archangels join, 
 And God the Father turns a school-divine." POPE. 
 
 It is often said, that, because we find the books of 
 the canonical Scripture bound up in one volume, it 
 is no proof that they are all inspired ; they are a col- 
 lection of pamphlets, each to be examined and each 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 323 
 
 standing on its own merits. It must be allowed that 
 the mere fact of these books being collected into one 
 volume is of small importance. But it is not a mere 
 fact; it is a significant fact; it is a fact which has a 
 cause, a chain of causes ; and it expresses a result 
 which is vastly important. As the geologist finds in a 
 certain location a piece of conglomerate rock, and from 
 its structure argues the causes of various periods, the 
 origin of the harder rock, its separation, its rolling for 
 ages on the shore, its being imbedded, and the har- 
 dening of the imbedding formation, so the reflecting 
 mind takes up the Bible and asks the history of its 
 formation. Why are these books always printed to- 
 gether? and whence come their union and authority? 
 In that simple fact (i. e. being enclosed in the same 
 covers) there is the discussion of ages ; there is the 
 testimony of the Church, the objections of her enemies, 
 the cross-examinations of later literature, the investi- 
 gations of Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Erasmus, Luther, 
 Calvin, and the later critics ; and, finally, the decision 
 of the thinking world on a question in which they are 
 most deeply interested. The union is significant ; and 
 one is tempted almost to excuse some of the old Pu- 
 ritans, in their popular works, when they slid over the 
 question of the canon, and argued for the authority of 
 the Bible as if it had always been one book. The fact 
 is, its parts flow together with a sublime unity, if not 
 always with a dove-tailed exactness. The minute dis- 
 
324 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 crepancies do not impair ; they rather serve to show 
 more strikingly its one reigning 1 spirit. 
 
 Thus we see that everything in the Christian reve- 
 lation tends to bring human guilt and ignorance in 
 contact with divine purity and teaching. God is THE 
 ONLY WISE ; and his voice is heard in nature only 
 when it is interpreted by revelation. Without this in- 
 terpretation, IT thunders, IT rains ; but when God is 
 disclosed, then " the voice of the Lord is powerful ; 
 the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice 
 of the Lord breaketh the cedars ; yea, the Lord break- 
 eth the cedars of Lebanon. The Lord is upon many 
 waters." (Psalm xxix. 4, 5.) 
 
 I have spoken of the destructive interpreters. The 
 reader may wish to know who they are. They are men 
 who boast of a free inquiry ; some of them have great 
 learning ; but all their investigations tend to diminish 
 our veneration for the sacred Scriptures, and look to 
 other sources for direction in piety and wisdom. They 
 are such men as Paulus, Strauss, Theodore Parker, &c. 
 Their path is always a free one, but it never returns 
 to the veneration of the past. 
 
 The reigning sophisms in all their speculations on 
 the Bible are two : 
 
 ]?irst, assuming tacitly their point that the Bible is 
 not a Divine revelation ; that it comes from the old 
 mistake, the mythic spirit, which they say is the com- 
 mon genius of antiquity. 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 325 
 
 Second, seeing and showing all the conformities to 
 their assumption, and not seeing or reducing to a 
 minimum all the discrepancies. Here they are truly 
 ingenious. They never see the golden thread, the Di- 
 vine unity, the unfolding design which runs through 
 the Old Testament and the New, which shows the har- 
 mony in the kingdom of God. The sun itself would 
 probably lose its lustre if shivered into fragments. 
 
 The difficulties arise when each incident is torn 
 apart from the general design and history. Spots on 
 the sun can only be estimated when seen in the sun. 
 Suppose I assume that a miracle is impossible, or make 
 a maxim that what is impossible (by impossible mean- 
 ing some event which flows not from some regular 
 law of nature) is not to be believed ; of course my 
 rule of interpreting becomes affected by my assump- 
 tion. Or suppose I assume that inspiration is only the 
 natural impetus of genius ; of course, I shall read every 
 page discolored by my theory. Every logician throws 
 his conclusion into his major proposition. This is 
 sound logic, but often bad reasoning. How different 
 all this is from the wants of a humble sinner going to 
 his master for instruction and rest ! 
 
 In one way these destructives bear a strong testi- 
 mony to the truth they oppose. Somehow or other, 
 sooner or later, thay postulate to themselves the very 
 authority they deny to the Bible. They feel the need 
 of divine instruction, and they find it in their own 
 
326 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 self-assumed, adequate conceptions of God. They care 
 riot what he says, because they know what he must 
 say. They often begin very modestly by saying, of cer- 
 tain doctrines on the surface of Scripture, we know 
 that they cannot be true ; they are inconsistent with 
 the wisdom and goodness of the Deity. This incon- 
 sistency is a question which we can judge. For exam- 
 ple, the justice of eternal punishment, this is incon 
 sistent with all our moral apprehensions of justice. We 
 know God enough to know he cannot create a being 
 to be forever miserable. "We know Divine justice 
 enough to know that such a terrible penalty cannot be 
 consistent with it. But, ah ! my enlightened friend, if 
 you know this, you know a great deal more. How can 
 you stop there ? You have taken into your hand a most 
 difficult question, and, by analogy, it draws a whole se- 
 ries of questions after it. You have entered the circle 
 of celestial light ; you have got behind the eternal 
 throne. Hence the destructives, having taken this 
 ground, boldly go on. Hence Kant says : " Religion 
 is (subjectively considered) the acknowledgment of all 
 our duties as Divine commands." In the same spirit 
 Fichte says : " Since all religion sets forth God only 
 as a moral lawgiver, all that is not commanded by the 
 moral law within us is not his, and there is no means 
 of pleasing him except by the observance of this moral 
 law." (Hansel's Limits of Religious Thought, p. 239, 
 notes.) 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 327 
 
 Even the modest and sober Dr. Channing, in his 
 Moral Argument against Calvinism, assumes, I think, 
 if we examine it narrowly, this formula : God can give 
 us no commands which do not conform to the previous 
 dictates of our moral nature. And Theodore Parker, 
 the Marshal Ney of the religious world, the bravest 
 of the brave, says with an untrembling consistency : 
 " This we know, that the Infinite God must be a per- 
 fect Creator, the sole and undisturbed Author of all 
 
 that is in nature Now a perfect motive for 
 
 creation, what will that be ? It must be absolute love, 
 producing a desire to bless everything which he creates. 
 If God be infinite, then he must make and adminis- 
 ter the world from perfect motives, for a perfect pur- 
 pose, and as a perfect means, all tending to the ulti- 
 mate and absolute blessedness of each thing he directly 
 or mediately creates; the world must be administered 
 so as to achieve that purpose for each thing. Else 
 God has made some things from a motive and for a 
 purpose not benevolent, or as a means not adequate to 
 the benevolent purpose. These suppositions are at vari- 
 ance with the nature of the Infinite God. I do not see 
 how this benevolent purpose can be accomplished un- 
 less all animals are immortal and find retribution in 
 another life." (Theism, Atheism, and the Popular 
 Theology, pp. 108, 109.) This assumption is well an- 
 swered by Plato ; he traces knowledge to the one and 
 the many, that is, the all-inclusive one and the all- 
 
328 THE SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 included many, in other words, the archetypal world, 
 all whose ideas are perfect, clear, and fixed. But this 
 philosophy postulates omniscience ; for everything is 
 related to all things, and it cannot be understood in 
 its relations until all things are known. 
 
 Take your choice, then. You need infallible teach- 
 ing ; you need certainty; that is, you need faith. Men 
 seek it somewhere. They find it either in an infalli- 
 ble book, or an infallible pontiff, or their own infallible 
 minds. The worst idolatry we can be guilty of is to 
 set up our own partial knowledge as a substitute for 
 omniscience. 
 
 Let us then restore this holy book to the supremacy 
 it once held, and which it must hold when religion 
 lives in the earth. Religion rests on authority ; our 
 ignorance of lower causes drives us to the first ; we 
 depend on the Bible, not only for the instruction it 
 imparts, but for the veneration, the quickening power 
 it gives to the soul. The Bible has not only words, 
 but charmed words ; and approaches our natures with 
 the boundless variety which different ages and disposi- 
 tions require. 
 
 If the book here translated does not meet the 
 wants of any particular reader, he needs not pro- 
 nounce it superfluous. Divine truth has many other 
 forms. Let us decide the question whether we have 
 a Divine authority to walk by or not. Let us have 
 no half-rule ; let us think what a thrill of attention 
 
THE SUPPLEMENT. 329 
 
 and fear would pass through the soul, what a charm 
 would attend the reading of the Divine Word, what 
 a glory would gild the sacred page, if we could re- 
 store the sacred impression felt when the glad mes- 
 sage was first brought from Heaven to man ! Our 
 faith would then be operative, because it would have 
 something to rest on ; and " the Word of God would 
 be quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged 
 sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul 
 and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and would 
 prove a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
 heart." (Hebrews iv. 12.) 
 
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