Part 23 (1/2)
WISDOM
'Wisdom' is the name given to the department of Biblical literature which corresponds to Philosophy in modern literature. It is however always philosophy in application to human life and conduct.
The starting-point of Wisdom literature is the /Unit Proverb/, which is a unit of thought in a unit of form. The unit of form is the couplet or triplet of verse: see above, page 242. Examples are given on pages 107-9. It will be seen that this Unit Proverb is a meeting-point of prose and verse literature: its form is verse, its matter (philosophy) belongs to the literature of prose. Accordingly it is natural that the more extended forms of Wisdom literature should take two directions: one on the side of verse, the other on the side of prose.
/Epigrams/ and /Maxims/: examples of these are found on pages 109-11.
The Epigram is a verse saying, of a few lines in length, in which two lines (not necessarily consecutive) are capable of standing by themselves as a unit proverb. In the examples given the two lines in each epigram that stand out on the left may be read as a proverb complete in itself. Such a germ proverb is the text of the epigram, the remaining lines serve to expand this text. The corresponding prose form is the Maxim, a unit proverb text with a brief prose comment.
/Essays./ A more extended form of Wisdom literature, on the side of prose, is the Essay. The word has various uses: the Scriptural essays are not of the modern type (like those of Macaulay or Emerson), but of the antique type like the essays of Bacon. The t.i.tle of an essay suggests a theme, on which the rest is a prose comment. (Pages 112-24.)
Verse compositions consisting of comments upon themes are in this series called /Sonnets/. In general literature the idea underlying the Sonnet is the adaptation of the matter to the outer form, as if a poet's thought were poured into special moulds. In English and Italian sonnets there is only one such form or mould--a sequence of 14 lines divided according to a particular plan; the matter of these sonnets must be condensed or expanded to suit this plan. The nearest approach to this in Scriptural literature is the Fixed or Number Sonnet: the opening of this suggests a number scheme, to which the rest conforms.
There be three things which are too wonderful for me, Yea, four which I know not: The way of an Eagle in the air; The way of a Serpent upon a rock; The way of a s.h.i.+p in the midst of the sea; And the way of a Man with a Maid.
The examples quoted in the present volume are different. They may be called 'Free Sonnets': the moulding in these is to nothing more restricted than 'high parallelism,' that is, not the parallelism binding successive lines into a stanza, but the bond which may correlate the most distant parts of a poem into a single scheme. The scheme of parallelism for each sonnet will be given in a separate note.
Essays
/ii./ This essay touches upon what was the great difficulty to early Hebrew thinkers: the visible prosperity of the wicked, which seemed to them contrary to their conception of 'judgment' or righteous providence.
The author in this essay endeavours to meet the difficulty by two thoughts: (1) how a change of fate at the very end of life may make all the difference; (2) how the punishment may come in the next generation.--A resemblance will be noted at one point to a parable of the New Testament.
/v./ An essay on the Choice of Company, in five paragraphs: The danger of unknown company in a house--the good only are proper objects of charity--friends.h.i.+p not trustworthy until tested by adversity--the humble can only be defiled by contact with the proud--like will to like, and riches cannot consort with poverty.
/vi./ This essay is founded upon the old conception of society by which the educated formed a separate cla.s.s--here called 'the scribes.'
Translated into modern ideas of life the argument would be that no life in any social station must be without leisure, and on such leisure self-culture depends.
/vii./ This section makes a transitional stage to the next division of our selections, as it consists of an Essay containing a Sonnet.
The argument of the whole is that Life is a thing of joy, tempered by the sense of responsibility. The latter idea is conveyed by the word 'judgment,' which throughout the Old Testament stands for the irreconcilable antagonism between good and evil, and the certain overthrow of evil: the recognition of this makes action responsible.
With this limitation, the author urges that the very shortness of life and youth is so much incentive to make joyful what days are allowed.
The scheme of high parallelism [see above, page 256] in this sonnet is the 'pendulum structure': the alternation of successive lines between two thoughts is conveyed to the eye by the indenting of the lines. The middle lines put symbolic descriptions of old age; the lines indented on the left drop the symbolism and speak in plain terms. [The lines indented on the right are subordinate clauses.]
The matter of the sonnet is a tour-de-force of symbolism, under which are veiled the symptoms of senile decay followed by death. It is very likely that some of the symbols may be lost; but it is not difficult to see, without straining, a possible interpretation for each; and some of them have pa.s.sed into traditional use. The poetic beauty of the pa.s.sage is marvellous.
_Or ever the sun, and the light ... be darkened_: in view of the opening words of the preceding essay, which take the 'light' and 'sun' as symbols of the whole happiness of conscious existence, it is clear that the darkening of this light is the gradual failing of the joy of living.--_And the clouds return after the rain_: an exquisite symbol, closely akin to the last. In youth we may overstrain and disturb our health, but we soon rally; these are storms that quickly clear up. In age the rallying power is gone: ”the clouds return after the rain.”--_The keepers of the house shall tremble_: Cheyne understands of the hands and arms, the trembling of which is a natural accompaniment of old age.--_The strong men shall bow themselves_: the stooping frame; the plural is merely by attraction to 'keepers.'--_The grinders cease because they are few_: obviously of the teeth.--_Those that look out of the windows be darkened_: the eyes becoming dim.--_The doors shall be shut in the street_: the general connection of ideas makes it inevitable that the 'folding-doors' should be the jaws; clenched jaws are so marked a feature in the skull that it is not difficult to a.s.sociate them with the picture of old age.--_When the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low_: these must be taken together: appet.i.te, speech, and sleep are all feeble. Grinding must be interpreted as grinders in the previous part of the sonnet: the loud or low sound of such grinding may fitly typify the eagerness of appet.i.te or the reverse. The early waking or short sleeping of old age is well known. _The daughters of music_ are the tones of the voice.--_They shall be afraid of that which is high, and terrors shall be in the way_: the gait of old age is, through physical feebleness, much what the gait of a person terrified is for other reasons.--_The almond tree shall blossom, and the gra.s.shopper shall be a burden, and the caperberry shall burst_: the three are linked together as being images from natural objects, not because of their symbolising similar things. _The blossoming of the almond tree_ probably refers to the spa.r.s.e white hairs of age. The name of this tree in Hebrew is founded on the fact that it is the first to blossom; though not strictly white, its blossoms may be called whitish: the whitish blossoms, solitary while all is bare around, just yield the image required. The gra.s.shopper is evidently a symbol for a small object, which is nevertheless heavy to feeble age. _The caperberry shall burst_: the last stage of its decay: the failing powers at last give way. And then follows the dropping of the symbolism: ”Man goeth to his long home.”
So far we have had symbols for failure of powers; now for actual death and dissolution. _Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken_: a symbol from the house-lamp of gold, suspended by a silver cord, suddenly slipping its cord and breaking, its light becoming extinguished. For bowl in this sense compare Zechariah, chapter iv. 2, 3.--_Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern_: these are exquisite symbols for the sudden and violent cessation of every-day functions. Compare the popular proverb: ”The pitcher goes to the well once too often.”--_And the spirit return unto G.o.d who gave it_: this by a.n.a.logy with the previous line must be interpreted to mean no more than that the man becomes just what he was before he was born.
Sonnets
/i. The Sluggard./ The metrical scheme of this sonnet is simple: a strophe balanced by an antistrophe. [See above, page 244.]
/ii. The Mourning for the Fool./ Metrical scheme: a brief strophe and antistrophe and conclusion.
/iii. The Two Paths./ Strophe, the way of wisdom; antistrophe, the path of the wicked; conclusion, union of the two in a common image.
/iv. The Creator has made Wisdom the Supreme Prize./ The metrical scheme of this sonnet is an example of 'antistrophic inversion': that is, two strophes followed by their antistrophes, but the antistrophe to the second strophe precedes the antistrophe to the first. [This is sometimes expressed by the formula a b b a; or (reckoning the number of lines in each strophe) 4, 6; 6, 4.] The printing makes this clear to the eye.--The unity of thought in the sonnet is the conception of Wisdom as a prize. The middle strophe and antistrophe describe the richness of this prize; the opening strophe makes 'chastening' the cost at which it is obtained by the individual from the Lord; and the corresponding antistrophe (at the end) explains the reason for this costliness--wisdom was the instrument by which the whole universe was created.
/v. Watchfulness of Lips and Heart./ A Prayer in sonnet form. The metrical scheme is an ill.u.s.tration of 'duplication' applied to antistrophic structure: a quatrain question (strophe 1) has a couplet answer (strophe 2); then the quatrain is duplicated into an octet (antistrophe 1), and the answer is duplicated into a quatrain (antistrophe 2). [The lines of invocation are not counted in strophe and antistrophe 2.]