Why the works of Moses, and the chronicles of the Israelites, are not to be interpreted by the same rules of natural and rational probability that all other human testimonials are, I, for my own part, confess, I know not. Surely it is no more incumbent upon me to believe, that the bones of Elisha, after he had been dead and buried, recovered a dead corpse, and made it a living man again, than I should that St. Charles Boromeo's nose, or St. Iræneus's skull, can draw into re-existence the cadavres that are lodged so very much within their reach at Lyons and at Milan. But we are told, the whole system of life, while the theocracy was yet visible, had an appearance so different from all other scenes of human action, that the reader of the sacred volume must habitually consider it as a peculiar mode of existence of a distinct species of mankind, that lived and acted with manners incommunicable; so that it would be difficult even for imagination to place the present generation in the state of those whose story is related; and by consequence their joys and their griefs are not easily to be adopted, nor can the attention be very much interested in any thing that befalls *hem. *

YOL. V.

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Johnson.

To

To this I object, and contrary to the evident tendency of the principle advanced, that it is not alone where the events are confessedly miraculous, that fancy and fiction are to lose their effect. Whenever imagination grows lawless and wild, rambles out of the precincts of nature, tells of events repugnant to our clearest and most distinct ideas, and to all the known laws of nature, reason does not, we know, connive a moment; but far from receiving such narrations, as worthy of credibility, she without hesitation rejects them as fabulous. It is true, and I believe it was, as it still must be, the unanimous opinion of the Israelitish Rabbins, that the law of Moses was not obligatory upon any other people than the Jews themselves. The Jews only were bound to a due performance of the Mosaical law. Thus, says a candid enquirer ;*" If the rest of mankind do but keep the law of nature, the Jews maintain they thereby perform all that God requires of them, and these they call the pious nations of the world and hence they do not think their religion the only infallible one to salvation; as every other religion and sect esteems itself."

At the same time, is it not a fact, strange as it may seem, that the Jews not only differ from

*David Levi.

the

the Christians, but that Jews and Christians. both differ among themselves, concerning points. in the Scripture, which literal, instead of symbolical interpretation, hath rendered mysterious? It is a difficult matter to conceive a style or language suitable to all inclinations and capacities. Some will have pomp, which they. mistake for dignity; and in order that expressions may be above vulgar phrase, will have them lifted above vulgar apprehension. Others, on the contrary, will have so gentle a deviation into unornamented periods, that it would seem, as if they would verify the first curse, of creeping upon the ground all the days of their lives.. The celebrated Malbranche conceived the pleasure which arises from perusing a well written book to be of the criminal kind, as having its source in weakness and effe minacy.

It is an incorrect taste, which delights either in turgid verbosity, or in inanimate monotony; and surely that mind must be uncommonly severe, which can find any thing to condemn in adding charms to truth, and gaining the heart by captivating the ear; in uniting roses with the thorns of legislation, and joining pleasure with instruction. The oriental order of composition,

N 2

position has more fire in it, than the compo sitions of other countries. It deals in energy. It seizes the imagination at once. It impresses itself, by the aid of ardent and powerful images, more than by the anxious minuteness of laboured illustration. What inimitable beauty

is there in some parts of the sacred writ! The expression is never too big for the sense, but justly great in proportion to it. It is the sentiment that swells and fills out the diction, which rises with it, and forms itself about it in the same degree, that the thought becomes warmer, the expression becomes brighter; as that is more strong, this is more conspicuous. The main secret of sublimity is, to say great things in few and plain words; for every superfluous decoration degrades a sublime idea.

LET

VOLTAIRE laughs at the idea of Adam and Eve cultivating a garden of Eden, of at least one thousand eight hundred leagues in length. But, did the witty philosopher recollect, there was a country of Eden, as well as a garden of Eden? When, the Scripture says, "The Lord planted a garden in Eden," it is very clearly intimated, that there was a country of that denomination, as well as a garden. The same writer, also, ironically remarks, that Adam was created an hermaphrodite, for that God created him male and female. But here, as a critic, he palpably manifests an ignorance of the text. The text says,

them he created male and female. Moreover, Adam, or Ha-Adam, is not a proper name. It is an appellative proper to both sexes, as homo, in Latin, and homme in French. The sense, therefore, had Voltaire understood the original, was, that God had created two individuals, whom he called Ha-Adam, or man.