362 THE CONSTELLATIONS IN SCRIPTURAL NARRATIVE. 



On the wilderness, wherein there is no man. 



To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, 



And cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. 



Hath the rain a father ? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew ? 



Out of whose womb came the ice? 



And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it? 



The waters are hid, as with a stone, 



And the face of the deep is frozen. 



Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, 



Or loose the bands of Orion? 



Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season: 



Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ? * 



Almost, on reading these passages, one might suppose 

 that the writers had been visitors to the arctic regions, 

 and were familiar with the aspect of the frozen deep, 

 the descent of the snows, the sealing up of the 

 waters, and the great break-up of the ice in spring 

 caused by the return of the sun and the setting in of 

 the southerly wind. The epoch at which the book 

 of Job was written is uncertain, but it is supposed by 

 some of the ablest commentators, both of the Jewish 

 and the Christian churches, to date from a very early 

 period, f and the singular beauty of some of its pas- 

 sages is of a very striking character; the original 

 was written as a poem, concerning which Calmet, in 

 his Dictionary of the Bible, says, 



" We believe that there is not in all antiquity a piece of 

 poetry more copious, more lofty, more majestic, more adorned, 

 or more affecting." 



* Job xxxviii, verses 25 32. 



f See the Dictionary of the Bible, by Dr. William Smith, 1863, 

 Vol. i, pp. 1095 6. ( Article "Job"). 



See Calmet 's Dictionary of the Bible, I4th Edition, 1861, p. 544 

 (Art. "Job"). 



