ber of Tithonus, can scarcely fail to strike every classical reader. There is this difference, however, between the Greek and Hebrew fictions. With the latter the "Sun runs his race," and Aurora is depicted with wings; with the former, who perhaps might imitate the Persian manner in the description, the Sun has a chariot and horses, which do not occur in the Hebrew poets, though they are mentioned as appendages to the idol of the Sun (2 KINGS xxiii. 11.) The professor next observes, that the Greek and Latin poets assigned to their Jupiter a chariot and horses of thunder, probably from the resemblance between the noise of a chariot and that of thunder. The Hebrews, he remarks, have a similar fable; and the Cherubim are expressly the horses of JEHOVAH's chariot. He refers to a dissertation on this subject published by himself in the GOTTINGEN MEMOIRS, T. i. p. 157-189. He reminds his readers of the common but truly poetical expression, " JEHOVAH "of Hosts," and how frequently he is described as "sitting upon the Cher"ubim," PSALM xcix. 1. "JEHOVAH reigneth, let the people tremble; "He sitteth on the Cherubim, let the earth be moved." દ In plain language he thunders, so that the earth shakes, or as Horace would have expressed it: "JEHOVAH per cœlum tonantes, "Egit equos, volucremque currum : "Concutitur." "JEHOVAH Lord of all above, "Late through the floating fields of air, "The face of heaven, serene and fair, "His thundering steeds and winged chariot drove ; "When at the bursting of his flames, "The ponderous earth, and vagrant streams, "Infernal Styx, the dire abode "Of hateful Tænarus profound, "And Atlas to his utmost bound, "Trembled beneath the terrors of the God." FRANCIS'S Hor. B. i. v. 34. The expression is still bolder in PSALM lxviii. 17. and the same idea is introduced with superior elegance in the lxvth, where God is described as visiting the earth, and dispensing fatness and plenty. He refers also to PSALM. Xviii. 10. civ. 3, 4. and to HABAK. iii. 8. He shews that this has not only been a common fiction with the Greeks and Romans, but even with the Swedes, and other Northern nations. He remarks the admirable use which Milton has made of it, as well as of other poetical fictions applied to sacred subjects. Another fable, which our commentator points out as common to the Hebrews with the Greeks and Romans, and evidently derived from the same source, is the fiction of a golden age. To this purpose he cites the three prophecies of Isaiah, in which the kingdom of the Messiah is described, in almost the same colours as Virgil depicts the happy state of Rome under Augustus. He proceeds in the third place to point out the resemblance between the poetic descriptions of a future state, which are furnished by the Hebrew poets, and those of the Greeks. He is of an opinion, contrary to that of many learned men, who have attributed them to theCelts, that the Greeks were altogether indebted to Egypt for their descriptions. He quotes Josephus, who, speaking of the Essenes, a people who as to country, philosophy, opinions, discipline, were more Egyptian than Jewish, adds, " that in this "respect they resemble the Greeks, namely, in asserting that the good "shall enjoy another life, in a pleasant situation beyond the ocean, free "from storms, tempests, and all excesses of cold or heat, and which is “constantly refreshed by a delightful breeze springing from the ocean.”— "The Greeks, in the same manner," he observes, "have assigned to their "heroes and demigods, the happiness of Elysium." The opinion of the Bramins is similar, who, the professor asserts, have borrowed all their manners and philosophy from the Egyptians as well as the Gauls, the Greeks, &c. &c. He thinks this hypothesis is clearly demonstrated by the analogy between these opinions and the rites or ceremonies of sepulture among the Egyptians. Buto, the Egyptian goddess, who presided over the dead, had a temple built upon some floating islands in the Butic lake. To this the Greeks are, by their own confession, indebted for their fable of Charon, &c. for on the day appointed for burial, the name of the deceased being announced, certain judges were convened at the lake, where a boat was ready; the pilot of which, in the Egyptian language, was called Charon. Before the deceased was put on board, full liberty was given to all present of accusing him. But if no accuser was present, or if his accusation was proved groundless, the body was put into the boat, and carried across the lake to the sepulchral fields (DIOD. SIC. L. i. c. 92.) The sepulchres of their kings also were situated on islands formed by art, by admitting the water of the Nile, as HERODOTUS testifies (L. ii. c. 124.) Moses, therefore, being educated among them, and initiated in their hieroglyphic learning, to which the Grecian mythology is under so many obligations, seems to allude to the fable of Elysium (or the blessed isles) when in that beautiful poem, which constitutes the xcth PSALM, at the 10th verse, he thus expresses himself: "The strength of our years is labour and sorrow, "It passeth over quickly, and we fly. "The words we fly, if I am not mistaken," adds the professor, "might “be rendered, we set sail, since there is something alike in the actions of "sailing and flying, and the one is frequently made use of poetically for "the other." SEA, There is another passage of Moses, which, contrary to the opinion of all the commentators, M. Michaelis observes, seems to have been understood by St Paul alone, in the sense he speaks of, namely, the words "beyond "the sea," as alluding to the sepulchre, or Elysium fields. Moses is addressing the Israelites, not as a poet, indeed, but as an orator, concerning "the circumcision of the heart," of which the common rite was only an emblem or a type. The law, says he, which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee, &c. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it down to us? Neither is it BEYOND THE that thou shouldest say, Who will go over the sea for us? &c. (Deut. xxx. 11, 12, 13.) St. Paul, after quoting these words, adds, Who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. The professor acknowledges that these words created him no small difficulty, before he could perceive their agreement with the original: until one of his auditors remarked, that "Moses might probably allude to the "custom of the Egyptians, who buried their dead on the other side of a "lake," &c. This sentiment, he says, struck him so forcibly, that he immediately adopted it, and in consequence of it, offers the following paraphrase of the passage already quoted. "The precept" (says Moses) "which I now inculcate" (namely, that of loving and worshipping the one true God, which is the real circumcision of the heart) "is unlike some of my precepts, which have a mystical meaning, not easily understood. "There is no need that some person of uncommon learning should come "down from heaven to instruct you in it: no need that some person should "cross the lake to the Isles of the Blessed, to learn from the dead what "this obscure precept conceals. All is easy and obvious," &c. Our annotator next refers to a passage in JOB, ch. ix. 25 and 26. "My days are swifter than a courier, "They flee away, they see no pleasure: "They are passed away with the swift ships, "As an eagle rushing on his prey." This he allows might have been said, without any allusion to the Isles of the Blessed, or Elysium, though the picture is more striking if taken in that view; but he thinks the allusion is clear beyond a doubt if we regard the answer of Zophar, ch. xi. 16, 17, 18. "Thou shalt forget thy misery, "Or remember it as waters passed away; "And after the noon-tide thy age shall be happier, "Thou shalt be secure because there is hope; "Thou shalt dig (thy sepulchre) and calmly lie down." If any one should doubt of these examples, he thinks there is one still clearer in ch. xxiv. 18-21. "He is light upon the waters: "His portion in the earth is cursed. "He shall not behold the way of the vineyards," &c. "That is," as he explains it, "The wicked shall be carried down the rap❝id stream of Acheron, and shall have their portion in a land which is "accursed. It shall not be permitted them to enter into the gardens of "the blessed." The learned professor is of opinion, that even the infernal rivers were not unknown to the Hebrews, and that they are mentioned in the xxiiid PSALM under the name of the rivers of Belial. He thinks it not fair to interpret Belial in this place Satan, into whose power David was not apprehensive of falling, though he complains that the snares of death fell upon him, ver. 4, 5, 6. It is rather, he asserts, derived from the negative particle beli (non) and jagnal (altus fuit) that is, not high, or estimable; whence men of Belial are the vilest of men; and the rivers of Belial, the rivers of hell. The following lines in this sense are truly poetical: "Distracted with evils, I called upon God; "I am saved from my enemies. "The snares of death were spread over my soul; "The waters of Tartarus encompassed me," &c. M. There is something so ingenious in the above observations, that I could not help exhibiting a slight sketch of them to the reader; but, as before intimated, many of them are too fanciful to challenge any serious attention. It is impossible, for instance, to find the smallest allusion in the passage from PSAL. CXXXIX. 9, to any fable similar to that of Aurora and Tithonus.-I am, on the contrary, inclined to believe, that nothing more is meant by the wings of the morning, than an allusion to the swift and fleeting nature of time, and particularly the pleasant and jocund hours of morning; and the poet only means to say, "Had I the swiftness of time, "and could transport myself in a few hours to the boundaries of the ocean, " even there," &c. If one were even inclined to admit his hypothesis concerning the cherubim, I see no occasion to suppose them to have any kind of relation to the chariot or horses of the heathen JUPITER. The only poetical idea, under which the great Governor of the universe can be depicted, is that of a powerful monarch; and under this idea it is as natural for the Hebrew poets to assign him a chariot and other insignia of royalty, as for the Greeks; and this they may do without having the slightest connexion with each other, or without any necessity of studying in the Egyptian school. The supposition that the prophecies of Isaiah, relating to the time of the Messiah's appearing, are borrowed from the fables concerning the Golden age, is still more improbable. The prophet, in those passages, is describing a state of temporal happiness; such is the intention of those poets who have celebrated the Golden age; and is it any thing extraordinary that some similar ideas occur upon a subject perfectly similar, and one of so general a nature? The arguments of our annotator to prove that the Greeks were indebted to Egypt for their notions of a future state, demonstrate much learning and ingenuity, and are, I confess, satisfactory and convincing to me: But when he endeavours to find the same notions in the Hebrew poets, the reader will, I think, agree with me, that he is altogether visionary, and strains violently a few general expressions to adapt them to his particular purpose. I must add, that his Latin translations of those passages of Scripture, which I thought myself in some measure obliged to follow in delivering his sentiments, are by no means so faithful to the original as our common version, and yet on these depends the principal force of his argument. T. The wings of the morning, I believe, stripped of their imagery, are the beams of the rising sun. Wings are attributed to the moon by Manilius: "Ultima ad Hesperios infectis volveris alis :" and, if my memory fail me not, in the hymn ascribed to Homer, «s Eɛλmm. Instead also of referring to those imaginary Isles of the Blessed, which the Professor thinks are alluded to by Moses, it seems far more probable that he had a retrospect to the place where the wicked after death were supposed to be confined; and which, from the destruction of the old world by the deluge, the covering of the Asphaltic vale with the Dead Sea, &c. was believed to be situated under the waters. To this idea there are allusions in the sacred writings without number. See the second command in the Decalogue, Joв xxvi. 5, 6. and many passages in the Psalms and the Prophets.-The story in the Gospel of the dæmon entering the herd of swine, and urging them into the sea, which in the SEPTUAGINT version of Joв xli. is styled rov TAPTAPON THE Alvory, the Tartarus of the abyss. S. H. |