88 PROSERPINA. 



looks dyed through and through, like glass, or Tyrian 

 tissue ; and not merely painted : secondly, that the splen- 

 dour of it is proud, almost insolently so. Augustus, in 

 his glory, might have been clothed like one of these ; and 

 Saul ; but not David, nor Solomon ; still less the teacher 

 of Solomon, when He puts on ' glorious apparel.' 



3. Let us look, however, at the two translations of the 

 same verse. 



In the vulgate it is " Dominus regnavit ; decorem in- 

 dutus est ; " He has put on * beeomingness,' decent 

 apparel, rather than glorious. 



In the Septuagint it is V7rp7reia well- becomingness ; 

 an expression which, if the reader considers, must imply 

 certainly the existence of an opposite idea of possible * ill- 

 becomingness,' of an apparel which should, in just as 

 accurate a sense, belong appropriately to the creature 

 invested with it, and yet not be glorious, but inglorious, 

 and not well-becoming, but ill-becoming. The mandrill's 

 blue nose, for instance, already referred to, can we 

 rightly speak of this as ' ev Trpeireia ' ? Or the stings, and 

 minute, colourless blossoming of the nettle ? May we 

 call these a glorious apparel, as we may the glowing of 

 an alpine rose ? 



You will find on reflection, and find more convincingly 

 the more accurately you reflect, that there is an absolute 

 sense attached to such words as ' decent,' c honourable,' 

 4 glorious,' or * /eaXo9,' contrary to another absolute sense 

 in the words ' indecent,' ' shameful,' * vile,' or ' aiar%pos.' 



