The satisfied treadeth an honeycomb under foot;
But to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet.
As a bird that wandereth from her nest,

So is a man that wandereth from his home.
As in water face answereth to face,

So the heart of man to man.

Toil not to be rich:

Cease from turning thy wisdom thereto.

Wilt thou but let thine eyes glance upon it, and it is gone!
For riches certainly make themselves wings:
They fly away as an eagle towards heaven.

Remove not the ancient landmark,

Which thy fathers have set.

Remove not the landmark of the widow;

And enter not into the fields of the fatherless :

For their Redeemer is mighty;

He shall plead their cause with thee.

Deliver them that are drawn away unto death,
Keep back those that move to the slaughter;

If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not;

Doth not he that weigheth the heart consider it?

And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?

And shall he not render to every man according to his work?

Hear thou, my son, and be wise,

And guide thine heart in the right way.

Be not among wine-bibbers;

Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:

For the drunkard and the riotous liver shall come to poverty: And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Who hath woe? who hath sorrow?

Who hath quarrellings, who hath complainings?
Who hath wounds without cause?

Who hath redness of eyes?

They that tarry long at the wine;
They that go to try mixed wine.

Look not thou upon the wine, how red it is,

How it sheweth in the cup its gleaming,

WINE AND WICKEDNESS

How smoothly it glideth down!

At the last it biteth like a serpent,
And stingeth like an adder.

Thine eyes shall behold strange things,

And thine heart shall utter perversity.

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Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,

Or as he that lieth on the top of a mast.

"They have stricken me,' shalt thou say, 'and I was not hurt ; They have beaten me, and I felt it not.

When shall I awake?

I will seek it yet again.'

Be not jealous of evil men,

Neither desire to be with them:
For their heart studieth destruction,
And their lips talk of mischief.
Fret not thyself against evil men,
Be not jealous of the wicked;
For there shall be no future to evil men;
The lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

Let not thine heart be jealous of sinners;

But let it be jealous for the fear of the Lord all the day long:

For surely there is a future;

And thine hope shall not be cut off.

'Iron is sharpened by iron.' The translation and meaning are doubtful. The usual explanation is that social intercourse sharpens the wits. If we press the word 'friend,' it is no less true that a friend draws out and evokes the best that is in us.

'When he bringeth it for a crime': i. e. as an attempted atonement for his guilt. The false sin-offering is the worst of all sacrifices.

"The cold of snow.' The simile is used twice in two different ways. In the first maxim the reference is to the deliciousness of a drink cooled by snow to a worker in the harvest field; in the second, the allusion is to the untimeliness of snow in the

summer season.

'As in water face answereth to face.' The meaning is not wholly clear. It is sometimes said to mean that 'in the heart of our friend we see our own character reflected just as gazing into a still pool we see the reflection of our own face. It is in

the frank and sympathetic intercourse of friendship that we really get to know ourselves, and to realize what is in us' (Horton). Or it may perhaps mean that finding our own feelings echoed by another we can both give and obtain sympathy. A third view interprets the proverb in a bad sense, taking it to mean that a man is prone to recognize his own faults in his neighbour: the conceited man notices conceit, the proud man pride, and

so on.

'Deliver them that are drawn away unto death.' The allusion is apparently to those who have been unjustly condemned and who might have been or might yet be saved if certain witnesses or intercessors, silent through fear or self-interest, came forward on their behalf.

Jealous for the fear of the Lord.' It is a sort of play upon words. The seeming and precarious prosperity of the wicked must not cause unrest or envy. Be excited to become as good as possible that is the only legitimate jealousy.

One noticeable adage the too casual reader might be inclined to pass over with small notice. The backslider hath his fill from his own ways; and a good man from his own deeds.' In other words, sin and virtue carry in them and with them their own inevitable reward. The true 'reward' or 'punishment,' as the case may be, is not something external,' something which may or may not be added on by another (whether by man or by God), but it is something 'internal.' There is a recoil both from goodness and wickedness, like the recoil of a gun after it has been fired. 'Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterward his mouth shall be filled with gravel.' Who put the gravel there? Himself. His own deed. 'Surely there is a future to the good,' say the sages, implying that to the wicked there is none. So far as that we do not and we cannot go. The hope of humanity is common for all. But leaving the wicked to the just and purifying hands of God, we echo with even deeper meaning the words of the sages, 'Surely there is a future, and thy hope shall not be in vain.' As a later sage has written

'The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God:
Their hope is full of immortality.'

§17. The praise of the virtuous woman.-The last section of the Book of Proverbs is very famous. It consists of an acrostic upon the virtuous woman, or, rather, using two German words for which we have no exact English equivalents, upon die wackere Hausfrau. It is an acrostic because in the original the twenty-two distichs begin with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

THE DILIGENT HOUSEWIFE

Who can find a virtuous woman?

For her price is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her,
And of substance he hath no lack.
She will do him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
She seeketh wool and flax,

And worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchants' ships;

She bringeth her provision from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, And giveth food to her household, And their portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it:

Of the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength,

And strengtheneth her arms.

She perceiveth that her merchandise is good:
Her candle goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle,
And her fingers hold the distaff.

She stretcheth out her hand to the poor;
Yea, she reacheth forth her arms to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household:
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry;

Her clothing is silk and purple.

Her husband is known in the gates,

When he sitteth among the elders of the land.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it;

And delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and dignity are her clothing;
And she laugheth at the time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom;

And on her tongue is a teaching of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household,
And eateth not the bread of idleness.
Her children arise up, and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously,
But thou excellest them all.

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain :

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But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands ;

And let her own works praise her in the gates.

§ 18. The Praise of Wisdom.-The finest part of the Book of Proverbs I have left to the last. It is the opening section of the book, comprising the first nine chapters out of the total thirty-one. These chapters are a sort of introduction to the whole, prefixed, as we may presume, by the editor and collector of the remaining portions. They are not wholly continuous (for they themselves contain some disconnected groups of aphorisms), and yet they are sufficiently of one mould and character to deserve a common title. Hence they are often called 'the Praise of Wisdom.' They are sufficiently connected, moreover, to make it likely that they were written by one man, perhaps the collector, as I have already suggested, of the proverbs that are to follow. Hence the first nine chapters are probably the latest chapters in the book. But it seems likely that there is at least one insertion in them, including one 'sonnet' upon the Sluggard and two upon the Sower of Discord. I will indicate these insertions by a bracket.

The wisdom which is celebrated and praised in these introductory chapters is of a higher type or kind than the wisdom of the separate proverbs. That wisdom, though rooted in the reverence of God, tended sometimes, as applied to human affairs, to degenerate into worldly prudence or into the cautious and negative discretion that is won from a narrow and chilling experience. But the wisdom of the introductory chapters, while not without points of connexion with 'prudence,' yet soars high and far above the more petty affairs of earth until it finds its ultimate rest and origin in the very purpose and nature of God. Of the same virtue through which God created and governs the world, man too may claim his infinitesimal share. Wisdom in this exalted and ethical sense is the bond which unites heaven and earth, mankind and God.

I am not able to give these introductory chapters in their entirety. But this book only pretends to give selections from the Bible, with helps and thoughts for the better and wiser appreciation of it; the entire Bible is not contained in it.

The author of the introduction first gives, as it were, the contents and objects of the entire book. He puts the proverbs in the mouth of King Solomon. I have already explained, on p. 281 of Part I, how the tendency increased to ascribe all proverbs to Solomon, just as laws were ascribed to Moses, and Psalms to David. The tendency was much older than the author of our introductory chapters; he simply followed the custom of his time and concealed