but either fire, or wind, or swift air, or circling stars, or raging water, or luminaries of heaven, they thought to be gods that rule the world. And if it was through delight in their beauty that they took them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Sovereign Lord; for the first author of beauty created them: but if it was through astonishment at their power and influence, let them understand from them how much more powerful is he that formed them; for from the greatness of the beauty even of created things in like proportion does man form the image of their first maker.

But yet for these men there is but small blame, for they too peradventure do but go astray while they are seeking God and desiring to find him. For living among his works they make diligent search, and they yield themselves up to sight, because the things that they look upon are beautiful. But again even they are not to be excused. For if they had power to know so much, that they should be able to explore the course of things, how is it that they did not sooner find the Sovereign Lord of these his works?

The emphasis laid on the beauty of the divine works is notable, and may be regarded as betraying the influence of Greece. So too the appellation of God as the author of beauty.' Yet Ben Sira had already spoken of the 'beauty of heaven' (p. 111), and in the newly found Hebrew fragments, where the Greek says, 'Who shall be filled with beholding his glory?' the original text seems to have run,' And who can be filled with beholding his beauty?'

From the worship of the divine works to the worship of objects made by man, that is to idolatry in the narrower and more literal sense of the word, the declension was great and disastrous. The following passage is largely based upon the famous description in the Second Isaiah (Part I, p. 491).

But miserable were they, and in dead things were their hopes, who called them gods which are works of men's hands, gold and silver, wrought with careful art, and likenesses of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand. Yea and if some woodcutter, having sawn down a tree that is easily moved, skilfully strippeth away all its bark, and fashioning it in comely form maketh a vessel useful for the service of life; and burning the refuse of his handywork to dress his food, eateth his fill; and taking the very refuse thereof which

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served to no use, a crooked piece of wood and full of knots, carveth it with the diligence of his idleness, and shapeth it by the skill of his indolence; then he giveth it the semblance of the image of a man, or maketh it like some paltry animal, smearing it with vermilion, and with paint colouring it red, and smearing over every stain that is therein; and having made for it a chamber worthy of it, he setteth it in a wall, making it fast with iron.

While then he taketh thought for it that it may not fall down, knowing that it is unable to help itself; (for verily it is an image, and hath need of help;) when he maketh his prayer concerning goods and his marriage and children, he is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life; yea for health he calleth upon that which is weak, and for life he beseecheth that which is dead, and for aid he supplicateth that which hath least experience, and for a good journey that which cannot so much as move a step, and for gaining and getting and good success of his hands he asketh ability of that which with its hands is most unable.

Again, one preparing to sail, and about to journey over raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood more rotten than the vessel that carrieth him; for that vessel the hunger for gains devised, and an artificer, even wisdom, built it; and thy providence, O Father, guideth it along, because even in the sea thou gavest a way, and in the waves a sure path, shewing that thou canst save out of every danger, that so even without art a man may put to sea; and it is thy will that the works of thy wisdom should not be idle; therefore also do men intrust their lives to a little piece of wood, and passing through the surge on a raft are brought safe to land.

For in the old time also, when proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, taking refuge on a raft, left to the race of men a seed of generations to come, thy hand guiding the helm. For blessed hath been wood through which cometh righteousness: but the idol made with hands is accursed, itself and he that made it; because his was the working, and the corruptible thing was named a god: for both the ungodly doer and his ungodliness are alike hateful to God; for verily the deed shall be punished together with him that committed it. Therefore also among the idols of the nations shall there be a visitation, because, though formed of things which God created, they were made an abomination,

and stumblingblocks to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the foolish.

To this description of idolatry there succeeds a curious speculation upon its origin and cause. Our author is not original in this speculation. His ideas had already been more or less suggested by Greek thinkers.

For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life: for neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever; for by the vaingloriousness of men they entered into the world, and therefore was a speedy end devised for them. For a father worn with untimely grief, making an image of the child quickly taken away, now honoured him as a god which was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites. Afterward the ungodly custom, in process of time grown strong, was kept as a law, and by the commandments of princes the graven images received worship. And when men could not honour them in presence because they dwelt far off, imagining the likeness from afar, they made a visible image of the king whom they honoured, that by their zeal they might flatter the absent as if present.

But unto a yet higher pitch was worship raised even by them that knew him not, urged forward by the ambition of the artificer: for he, wishing peradventure to please one in authority, used his art to force the likeness toward a greater beauty; and the multitude, allured by reason of the grace of his handywork, now accounted as an object of devotion him that a little before was honoured as a man. And this became a hidden danger unto life, because men, in bondage either to calamity or to tyranny, invested stones and stocks with the incommunicable Name.

The author proceeds to dilate upon the moral effects which in his eyes and to his reasoning were the inevitable issues of idolatry.

For the worship of those nameless idols is a beginning and cause and end of every evil. For their worshippers either make merry unto madness, or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or lightly forswear themselves. For putting their trust in lifeless idols, when they have sworn a wicked

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oath, they expect not to suffer harm. But for both sins shall the just doom pursue them, because they had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to idols, and swore unrighteously in deceit through contempt for holiness. For

it is not the power of them by whom men swear, but it is that Justice which hath regard to them that sin, that visiteth always the transgression of the unrighteous.

But thou, our God, art gracious and true, longsuffering, and in mercy ordering all things. For even if we sin, we are thine, knowing thy dominion; but we shall not sin, knowing that we have been accounted thine: for to be acquainted with thee is perfect righteousness, and to know thy dominion is the root of immortality.

§ 6. Righteousness and life eternal.-I now pass on to the first division of the book, the larger portion of which I shall give in full.

The author opens rhetorically with an exhortation to kings and rulers to love justice and to search for the knowledge of God. Those who seek God in purity of heart and sincerity of faith shall surely find him. Into their souls God's holy spirit will enter and make them participate in that true life which is begun on earth and continued beyond' it. Righteousness leads to eternal life; sin to eternal death. It is unfortunate that our author is not content to leave good and bad alike to the goodness and wisdom of God, but ventures to lay down the dread and terrible doctrine that the wicked, after the severance of body from soul, will undergo the real or true death, consisting negatively in the loss of blessedness with the knowledge of being for ever too late,' and positively in pain and consciousness of guilt. In the case both of the righteous and the wicked, it is the soul which enjoys and the soul which suffers; the body perishes with the earthly death.

At the close of the penultimate paragraph of this section, it will be observed that our author puts forward a strange theory, according to which death (whether in its first or second sense is not quite clear) is due to the envy of the devil. The figure or figment of the Satan has here developed into that of an evil spirit who deliberately fights against God and goodness. (It is perhaps not superfluous to add that the word 'devil' is derived from the Greek diabolos, which is the term here employed. Diabolos means slanderer, and in the Greek translation of the Bible is used to render the Hebrew Satan or the Adversary.) This conception has happily never taken root in Judaism and is now, I think, almost universally abandoned. Evil is made no whit easier to understand

by the figment of a devil. On the contrary. It is made still more positive and permanent. Far better to maintain God's single supremacy over all, to be so utterly assured of the reality of goodness and wisdom that all the world's evil and man's cannot shake us from our trust. Nearer to and in better accordance with God's rule of the world than the mournful hypothesis of the Alexandrian sage is, let us believe, the aspiration of our great poet :

'There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;

The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;

What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more; On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.'

Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth, think ye of the Lord with a good mind, and in singleness of heart seek ye him; because he is found of them that tempt him not, and is manifested to them that do not distrust him. For crooked thoughts separate from God; and the supreme Power, when it is brought to the proof, putteth to confusion the foolish because wisdom will not enter into a soul that deviseth evil, nor dwell in a body that is held in pledge by sin.

For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will start away from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be put to confusion when unrighteousness hath come in. For wisdom is a spirit that loveth man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips; because God beareth witness of his reins, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue: because the spirit of the Lord hath filled the world, and that which holdeth all things together hath knowledge of every voice. Therefore no man that uttereth unrighteous things shall be unseen; neither shall Justice, when it convicteth, pass him by.

For in the midst of his counsels the ungodly shall be searched out; and the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord to bring to conviction his lawless deeds: because there is an ear of jealousy that listeneth to all things, and the noise of murmurings is not hid. Beware then of unprofitable murmuring, and refrain your tongue from backbiting; because no secret utterance shall go on its way void, and a mouth that belieth destroyeth a soul.

Court not death in the error of your life; neither draw upon yourselves destruction by the works of your hands: