BY THE HEBREWS. 47 



to propound more formally, and to clothe in more scientific 

 language, but not to solve satisfactorily. The book of Job 

 is generally regarded as the most perfect example of Hebrew 

 poetry; it is no less picturesque in the presentation of single 

 phenomena than skilful in the didactic arrangement of the 

 whole. In all the various modern languages into which 

 this book has been translated, its imagery, drawn from 

 eastern nature, leaves on the mind a deep impression. 

 " The Lord walks on the heights of the sea, on the ridges 

 of the towering waves heaped up by the storm" (chap, xxxviii 

 v. 16. " The morning dawn illumines the border of the earth, 

 and moulds variously the canopy of clouds, as the hand of man 

 moulds the ductile clay" (chap xxxviii. v. 13 14.) The 

 habits of animals are depicted, of the wild ass and 

 the horse, the buffalo, the river horse of the Nile, the 

 crocodile, the eagle, and the ostrich. We see (chap, xxxvii. 

 v. 18) during the sultry heat of the south wind, "the 

 pure ether spread over the thirsty desert like a molten mir- 

 ror ( 71 )." "Where the gifts of nature are sparingly bestowed, 

 man's perceptions are rendered more acute, so that he 

 watches every variation in the atmosphere around him and 

 in the clouds above him; and in the desert, as on the 

 billows of the ocean, traces back every change to the signs 

 which foretold it. The climate of the arid and rocky 

 portions of Palestine is particularly suited to give birth to 

 such observations. 



Neither is variety of form wanting in the poetic literature 

 of the Hebrews : while from Joshua to Samuel it breathes a 

 warlike tone, the little book of Ruth presents a natural 

 picture of the most naive simplicity, and of an inexpressible 

 charm. Goethe, at the period of his enthusiasm for the East, 



