the controversy-and the close or catastrophe, consisting of the suffering hero's grand and glorious acquittal, and restoration to prosperity and happiness. Under this view of it, I shall proceed to offer the following analysis:

"PART I. constituting the opening or exordium, comprises the first two chapters in the ordinary division, and is full of incident and transition. It commences with a brief narrative of the principal personage of the piece, his place of residence, rank in life, and inflexible integrity. It then suddenly changes to a scene so transcendently lofty and magnificent, that the grandest descriptions of the most daring poets sink before it; and nothing can be put in comparison with it, but a few passages in Paradise Lost, derived from the same source. The tribunal of the Almighty is unveiled-the hosts of good and evil spirits, in obedience to his summons, present themselves before him, to give an account of their conduct. The views of Satan are particularly inquired into: and the unswerving fidelity of Job, though a mortal, is pointedly held up to him, and extolled. The evil spirit insinuates that Job is only faithful because it is his interest to be faithful; that he serves his Creator because he has been peculiarly protected and prospered by him; and that he would abandon his integrity, the moment such protection should be withdrawn. To confound him in so malicious an imputation, the Almighty delivers Job into his hands, only forbidding him to touch his person.

"Satan departs from the celestial tribunal; and, collecting the fury of his vindictive power into one tremendous assault, strips the righteous patriarch, by

the conjoint aid of hostile incursions, thunder-storms, and whirlwinds, on one and the same day, and that a day of domestic rejoicing, of the whole of his property and of his family, despatching messenger after messenger with a separate tale of woe, till the whole tragedy is completed. But the patriarch continues inflexible. He feels bitterly, but he sins not, even in his heartinstead of murmuring against his Creator,

Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head,
And fell on the ground, and wORSHIPPED, and said,
"Naked came I forth from my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return thither!

Jehovah giveth, and Jehovah taketh away;
BLESSED be the name of Jehovah !"

"The celestial session returns. The supreme Creator again assumes the judgment-seat; and the hosts of good and evil spirits are once more arranged before him, for his commands. The unswerving fidelity of Job is again pointed out to Satan, and the futility of his malice publicly exposed. The evil spirit, though foiled, still continues unabashed, and insinuates that he had no liberty to touch his person. The Almighty surrenders his person into his hands, and only commands him to spare his life.

"Satan departs from the presence of Jehovah :-and in the same moment Job is smote from head to foot with a burning leprosy; and, while agonized with this fresh affliction, is tauntingly upbraided by his wife with the inutility of all his religious services. The goad passes into his soul, but it does not poison

it. He resists this additional attack with a dignity as well as a firmness of faith that does honour to human nature:

As the talk of one of the foolish, is thy talk.
Shall we then accept good from God,

And shall we not accept evil?

"The part closes with what is designed to introduce the main subject of the poem-a preconcerted visit to the suffering patriarch of three of his most intimate friends. And in the simple narrative of their first seeing him, there is a pathos that beggars all description, and which cannot fail to strike home to every bosom that is capable of feeling :

For they had appointed together to come,

To mourn with him, and to comfort him.

And they lift up their eyes from afar, and knew him not:
And they raised their voices and wept;

And rent every one his mantle;

And cast dust upon their heads, towards heaven.

And they sat down with him, on the ground,

Seven days and seven nights:

And no one spake to him a word,

For they saw that the affliction raged sorely.

"This part is peculiarly distinguished by simplicity, sublimity, and fine feeling. In its diction it exhibits a perfect contrast to that of the great body of the poem; and, in conjunction with the diction that follows, affords proof of a complete mastery of style and language; a mastery unequalled, perhaps, in any other part of the Hebrew Scriptures, and altogether

unknown to every other kind of Oriental composition. It is characteristic, however, of the writer of this transcendent poem,-a fact well worthy of being remembered, as one mean of determining who he was, –that he uniformly suits his ornaments to the occasion; that, as though influenced by the rules of the best Greek critics, he seldom employs a figurative style where the incident or the passion is capable of supporting itself,* and reserves his boldest images and illustrations for cases that seem most to require them.

"PART II. extends from the beginning of the third to the end of the fourteenth chapter; and comprises the first colloquy, or series of argument. Job, completely overwhelmed, and believing himself abandoned by his Creator, gives a loose to all the wildness of despondency; and, in an address of exquisite force and feeling, laments that he ever beheld the light, and calls earnestly for death, as the only refuge of the miserable. This burst of agony is filled with the boldest images and imprecations; and might, perhaps, be thought, in some parts of it, too daring, but that it appears to have been regarded as a masterpiece by the best poets of Judæa, and is imitated, in its boldest flights, by king David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; of which the reader will meet with sufficient specimens in the notes to this volume.

"To this cry of despondency, Eliphaz ventures upon the first reply: and the little that was wanting to make the cup of agony brim-full, is now added to it.

This is just as obvious in the description of the apparition, chap. iv. 12—16, as in the present part: and other passages will readily occur to the recollection of the reader.

The patriarch's friends, stimulated unquestionably by the secret impulse of Satan, have agreed upon the false principle, that in the uniform dealings of Providence, happiness and prosperity are the necessary marks and consequence of integrity, and pain and misery of wickedness-and hence the grand argument on their part consists, first, in charging the sufferer with the commission of sins which he ought to confess and repent of; and next, in accusing him of pride and hypocrisy, because he will not consent to such confession. Eliphaz, however, is, from natural habit, the mildest of the accusers; and his speech begins with delicacy, and is conducted with the most artful address. After duly apologizing for breaking in upon the sufferings of his friend, he proceeds to point out the inconsistency of a good man's repining under a state of discipline; and the absurdity of his not bearing up, who had so often exhorted others to fortitude. He remarks, that the truly good are never utterly overthrown; but that the ways of Providence are wrapped in inextricable mystery, and that nothing can be more arrogant than for so weak, so ephemeral, so insect-like a being as man is, to impeach them; a position which is illustrated by the most powerful picture of an apparition that ever was drawn by the pen of any writer in any age or country,-disclosed to the speaker for the express purpose of inculcating this solemn maxim. He concludes with observing, that as neither man nor angel, without the consent of the Almighty, can render Job any assistance, wrath and violence are folly; and that nothing remains for him, but to seek unto God, and commit the cause into his hands; whose correction will then be