DURATION OF THE SOUL. 



341 



sight of : in some quarters one of them being slightly preserved, in some 

 quarters the other, and in one or two regions, both. 



In this last division it is highly probable we are to class the Hebrews at 

 the epoch of Moses : and hence, perhaps, the reason why neither of these doc- 

 trines is especially promulgated in any part of his institutes. But in subse- 

 quent times both appear to have lost much of their force even among this 

 people. The Pharisees and Caraites, indeed, whose opinions (whatever might 

 be their practice) were certainly the most orthodox, supported them ; but 

 they are well known to have been both relinquished by the Sadducees, and 

 one of them (the resurrection) by the Essenes. Solomon, w^hose frequent use 

 of Arabisms evidently betrays the elegant school in which he had chiefly 

 studied, appears with the language to have imbibed the philosophy of the 

 Arabian peninsula ; and hence, to have admitted (in direct opposition to the 

 Essenes, who drew their creed from India) the doctrine of the resurrection 

 of the body and a state of retribution, while he disbelieved the doctrine of the 

 separate immortality of the soul : and the distinction ought to be constantly 

 kept in view while perusing his writings, since otherwise they may appear in 

 different places to contradict themselves. Thus, in order to confound the 

 pomp and pageantry of the proud and the powerful, and to show them the 

 vanity and nothingness of life, he adverts to the last of these doctrines and 

 confines himself to it. Eccl. iii. 19, 20. "That which befalleth the sons of 

 men befalleth beasts, even the same thing befalleth them : as the one dieth so 

 dieth the other ; yea, they have all one breath (or spirit), so that a man hath 

 no pre-eminence above a beast, for all is vanity ; all go unto one place ; all 

 are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." But when addressing himself to 

 the young and giddy pursuer of pleasure, in order to alarm him in the midst 

 of his gay and licentious career, he as distinctly alludes and as carefully con- 

 fines himself to the first of these doctrines. His language then is, ch. xi. 9, 

 "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth," — and tread as thou wilt the flowery 

 paths of indulgence and pleasure ; " but know thou that for all these things 

 God will bring thee into judgment." There is an equal point, a keen and 

 forcible moral in both addresses, and which could not fail to strike the heart 

 of those to whom they were respectively delivered. 



It has been said by some writers that the judgment here referred to relates 

 to the present world, and must be so interpreted to avoid the self-contradic- 

 tion I have just adverted to. But the wisdom of Solomon stands in no need 

 of the feeble and rushlight illumination of such commentators : nor could it 

 ever be so said by any critic who has diligently attended to the mixed lan- 

 guage of Solomon's diction, or rather to the Arabisms he so frequently indulges 

 in ; and who, from this and various other sources, has traced out that his 

 early studies must have been passed in Arabia, or under the superintendence 

 of Arabian tutors ; and who, at the same time, calls to mind that the Idumaean 

 cities of Dedan and Teman had the same classical character at Jerusalem 

 that the cities of Athens and Corinth had at Rome. 



But are we still abandoned to the same unfixed and shadowy evidence, 

 with just light enough to kindle the hope of immortality, and darkness enough 

 to strangle it the moment it is born 1 Beset as the world is at all times with 

 physical and moral evils, and doubly beset as it is at present ; while virtue, 

 patriotism, and piety are bleeding at every pore ; while the sweet influences 

 of the heavens seem turned to bitterness, the natural constellations of the 

 zodiac to have been pulled down from their high abodes, and vice, tyranny, 

 and atheism to have usurped their places, and from their respective ascend- 

 ants, to be breathing mildew and pestilence over the pale face of the astonished 

 earth,* is it to the worn-out traces of tradition, or the dubious fancies of phi- 

 losophy, that this important doctrine is alone intrusted 1 — a doctrine not 

 more vital to the hopes of man than to the justice of the Deity? — No ; the 

 fulness of the times has at length arrived : the veil of separation is drawn 

 aside ; the mighty and mysterious truth is published by a voice from heaven ; 



• This lecture was delivered during the period of the French Revolution. 



