Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-15


are strings of sentences. For real sem
tence consisting of several members, quail
flying and illustrating one another, such
sentences as are found in Greek, in Latin,
in German, in English, and, though less
frequently, in French, are unknown to
Semitic writers. A single proposition con-
tanned in half dozen words is all that
Hebrew writer ventures on. He repeats
this proposition with slight variations till
he has done with it, and then passes
abruptly to another. There is no discur-
sus in his mind. 1t is apprehenslve, not
deductive.
Senior-Do you suppose that the author
OF the Book of Job was an 1sraelite?
Renan-Certainly not. Every word at
tributed to Job expresses the pride, the
impotence cold, severe, undevout re-
ligion of Bedouin. That he should be
quoted as an example of patience is proof
how little the books that are most talked
of are read He bears, it is true, his mis-
fortunes at first with resignation, but it
disappears at the end of the seven days,
during which he sits on the ground in
silence. "After this" says the writer,
"Job opened his mouth and cursed his
day."
Senior-Do You attribute the Song OF
Solomon to the same age?
Renan-Its age is marked by the verse
which compares the heroine to the cities OF
Tirzah and Jerusalem. Now, from 975 be-
fore Christ to 923, Tirzah was the capital
of Israel and Jerusalem of Judah. In 923
Omri, King of Israel, built Samaria, and
Tirzah disappeared. The poem must there
fore have been written during that inter-
val. | am inclined to think that it was
written by one of Jeroboam's adherents,
not long after the death of Solomon. The
reigns OF Solomon and David, the only ones
under which Palestine was united and
powerful, seem gradually to have been in
vested with legendary splendor of which
their contemporaries knew nothing. In
stead of the seven hundred wives and three
hundred concubines ascribed to Solomon in
the Book of Kings, Canticles gives him
only sixty queens and eighty concubines.
Instead of four hundred charIots and
twelve thousand horsemen, he is accom-
panied by only sixty guards. His greatest
magnifcence seems to be cedar chariot,
the bottom plated with gold.
Senior-Of all the books of the Old Tes-
lament, Canticles seems to me to be the
one of which the scope is least Ineligible,
and the sacred character the least apparent.
1t reads to me like collection of mere
amatory songs.
Renan-Of course the Christian interpre-
tation in which Solomon is Christ, and the
Shulamite is, according to Protestants, the
Church and according to Catholics, the
Holy Virgin; and the Rabbinical interpre-
tation, according to which the two lovers
represent the human intellect in love with
wisdom, are indescribably absurd. | be-
lieve with Ewald and Hitzig that it is a
purely secular poem but l also believe
with them that it is moral drama, that 1t
represents the resistance of a country.girl
taken from her lover into the harem OF Sol
ONION, and her triumph and return to her
lover. l believe the dramatis persona to
be the Shulamite girl, the lover and Solo
mon, with chorus consisting sometimes of
the women of the harem, sometimes of
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and some
times of the villagers OF Shulam. In my
book | have attempted to divide it into
acts and scenes, and to assign his part to
each character. 1t is without doubt most
inartifcial the story is obscurely limited
at. The changes of scene are abrupt and
incapable of actual representation. Some
times the actor tells what he is supposed
10 DC IL seSiliS " iiC eHa1 bhS PoSh
is hbretto not intended to be read, but to
be the framework of an entertainment
consisting of song, dancing, defamation
and recitation-perhaps to be acted at a
marriage With all its defects, however,
it is one of the most valuable specimens of
Semitic poetry. Without it we should not
have known that the stiff, austere, Jewish
character was capable of tenderness. We
should have had no picture of real love,
founded on early intimacy, resisting the
temptations of court We should have
had no pictures of the village life and the
village scenery of Palestine.
Senior-We should have had Ruth.
Renan-Ruth is charming but it is not
descriptive 1t contains nothing equal to
the beauty and feeling of the picture of
early spring in Canticles
Lo the winter i past,
The rain is and gone,
The flowers appear on earth,
The time of the singing of birds is come,
The voice of the turtle is heard,
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs.
The vines with their tender grapes give good
smell
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Even the Christian perversions Of its
real sense have borne fruit, and admirable
fruit. 1t is the source of mystic al re-
Ggious poetry-a poetry which has con-
soled the sorrows, and purified and ex-
allied the devotion of millions.