I apprehend the objection rests on one or other of these suppositions, Either that the book is not a Work of the dramatic kind; or that the Hero of the Piece is fictitious. But both these suppositions have been shewn to be erroneous; so that the objection falls, with them. For to observe DECORUM is one of the most essential rules of dramatic writing. He therefore who takes a real Personage for the subject of his poem will be obliged to shew him in the customs and sentiments of his proper Age and Country; unmixed with the manners of the Writer's later Time and Place. Nature and the reason of the thing so evidently demand this conduct, and the neglect of it has so ungracious an effect, that the polite Roman Historian thought the Greek tragic Writers were to blame even for mentioning the more modern name of Thessaly, in their pieces of the Trojan War. And he gives this good reason for his censure, Nihil enim ex Persona Poëta, sed omnia sub eorum, qui illo tempore vixerunt, dixerunt

But to lay no greater stress on this argument than it will bear; I confess ingenuously, that were there not (as the objection supposes) the least distant relation or allusion to the Jewish Law or History throughout the whole book, it might reasonably create some suspicion that the Author lived before those times. For though

Mose gestarum, sive in Egypto, sive in exitu, sive in deserto. Secundo, quòd, cùm vir pius & veri numinis cultor fuerit, legi Mosaicæ contraiyerit, in sacrificiis faciendis.--Tertio, ex ætatis & vitæ suæ mensura, in tertio, plus minus, à Diluvio sæculo collocandus esse videtur: vixit enim ultra ducentos annos.-Cùm de Idololatria loquitur, memorat primum ipsius genus Solis & Luna adorationem.--Neque Sabbathi neque ullius legis factitiæ meminit. His omnibus adducor ut credam, Mosi Jobum tempore anteisse. Archæol. Philos. pp. 205, 266.

*See note [K] at the end of this volume,

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though this rule of decorum be so essential to dramatic writing, yet, as the greatest Masters in that art frequently betrayed their own Times and Country in their fictitious Works*, we can hardly suppose a Jewish Writer more exact in what only concerned the critical perfection of his Picce. But as DECORUM is one of the plainest and simplest principles of Composition, we cannot suppose a good writer ignorant of it; and so are not to look for such glaring absurdities as are to be found in the dramatic writings of late barbarous ages; but such only as might easily escape the most exact and best instructed Writer.

Some slight indecorums therefore we may reasonably expect to find, if the Author were indeed a Jew: and such, if I am not much mistaken, we shall find. Job, speaking of the wicked man, says, He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail†-Gon layeth up iniquity for his children. And in the course of the dispute, and in the heat of altercation, this peculiar dispensation is touched upon yet more precisely. Job, in support of his doctrine, paints at large the happy condition of prosperous wicked men; a principal circumstance of whose felicity is, that they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave, i.e. without sickness, or the terrors of slow-approaching death. The lot which prosperous libertines of all times, who believe no future reckoning, most ardently wish for. Now in the declining times of the Jewish Economy, pious men had always their answer ready. The prosperous wicked man (say they) shall be pu

Chap. xxi. ver. 19. See note [M] at the end of this volume. § Chap. xxi. ver. 13.

nished in his Posterity, and the afflicted good man rewarded in them. To the first part of the solution concerning the wicked, Job answers thus, God layeth up his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know it *. As much as to say, the evil man sees and knows nothing of the punishment; in the mean time, he feels and enjoys his own felicity, as a reward. To the second part, concerning the good, he answers thus, His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty: For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? † i. e. The virtuous man sees and feels nothing but his own miseries; for what pleasure can the good things reserved for his posterity afford to him who is to taste and enjoy none of it; being not only extinct long before, but cut off untimely ?

In another place, Job says, That idolatry was an iniquity to be punished by the judge. Now both this and the former species of punishment were, as we have shewn, peculiar to the Mosaic Dispensation. But a Jew might naturally mistake them for a part of the general Law of God and nature: and so, while he was really describing the Economy under which he lived, suppose himself to be representing the notions of more ancient times: which that it was his design to do, in the last instance at least, appears from his mentioning only the most early species of idolatry, the worship of the Sun and Moon §. Again, the language of Job with regard to a future state is the very same with the Jewish Writers. He that goeth down to the grave (says this writer) shall come up no more :--they

‡ Chap. xxxi. ver. 28. See note [N] at the end of this volume.

Ver. 26.

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shall

shall not awake or be raised out of their sleep. Thus the Psalmist,-In death there is no remembrance of thee. Shall the dead ARISE and praise thee!-And thus the author of Ecclesiastes,--The dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a REWARD *. And we know what it was that hindered the Jews from entertaining any expectations of a future state of rewards and punishments, which was a popular doctrine amongst all their Pagan neighbours.

But there is, besides this of Customs and Opinions, another circumstance that will always betray a feigned Composition, made in an age remote from the subject: and that is, the use of later phrases. These are more easily discovered in the modern, and even in what we call the learned languages: but less certainly, in the very ancient ones; especially in the Hebrew, of which there is only one, and that no very large Volume, remaining. And yet even here, we may detect an author of a later age. For, besides the phrases of common growth, there are others, in every language, interwoven alike into the current style, which owe their rise to some singular circumstance of time and place; and so may be easily traced up to their original though, being long used in common speech in a general acceptation, they may well escape even an attentive Writer. Thus Zophar, speaking of the. wicked man, says, He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the BROOKS OF HONEY AND BUTTER. This in ordinary speech only conveyed the idea of plenty in the abstract; but seems to have been first made a proverbial saying from the descriptions of the holy Land. Again, Eliphaz says, Receive, I pray thee, the Law from HIS MOUTH, and lay up his words in + Chap. xx. ver. 17. See Exod. iii. 8.—xiii. 5.— xxxii. 3.- Deut. xxxi. 20.2 Kings xviii. 32.

See the preceding Book, p. 178.

thine

thine heart*. That is, be obedient: but the phrase was taken from the verbal delivery of the Jewish Law from Mount Sinai. The Rabbins were so sensible of the expressive peculiarity of this phrase, that they say the LAW OF MOSES is here spoken of by a kind of prophetic anticipation. Again, Job cries out, O that I were-as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of GoD WAS UPON MY TABERNACLE †, that is, in full security: Evidently taken from the residencé of the Divine Presence or SHEKINAH, in a visible form, on the ark, or on the tent where the ark was placed. And again that one would hear me! Behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine Adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a CROWS to me. A phrase apparently taken from the use of their PHYLACTERIES; which at least were as ancient as their return from Captivity, and coeval with their scrupulous adherence to the Law.

A third circumstance, which will betray one of these feigned compositions, is the Author's being drawn, by the vigour of his imagination, from the seat of Action and from the manners of the Scene, to one very different; especially, if it be one of great fame and celebrity. So here, though the scene be the deserts of Arabia, amongst family-heads of independent Tribes, and in the simplicity of primitive Manners, yet we are carried by a poetic fancy, into the midst of EGYPT, the best policied, and the most magnificent Empire then existing in the world.-Why died I not from the womb (says the chief Speaker) for now I should have lien still and been quiet, I should have slept; then had I been at rest; with KINGS and + Chap. xxix. ver. 4.

* Chap. xxii. ver. 22. Chap. xxxi. ver. 35, 36.