Fourth. Necessity mine. Three Together. The portal is bolted, we cannot get in: The owner is rich, we've no business within. Want. I shrink to a shadow. Guilt. I shrink into nought. Necessity. The pampered from me turn the face and the thought. Care. Ye Sisters, ye neither can enter nor dare; (Care disappears.) Want. Ye, grisly old Sisters, be banished from here! Guilt. Beside thee, and bound to thee, I shall appear! Necessity. At your heels is Necessity, blight in her breath. The Three. The clouds are in motion, and cover each star! Faust (in the Palace). Four saw I come, but those that went were three; But something like "Necessity" I heard; Ere in the Obscure I sought, such was I,— From our young fields of life we come, elate: By superstition constantly ensnared, It grows to us, and warns, and is declared. Intimidated thus, we stand alone.— The portals jar, yet entrance is there none. Is any one here? Faust. Take care, and speak no word of sorcery! Care. Though no ear should choose to hear me, Note.—It will help to an understanding of the foregoing, to know that Faust, the hero of Goethe's drama of that name, is a student who is toiling after knowledge beyond his reach, and who afterwards deserts his studies and makes a compact with the Evil One (Mephistopheles), in pursuance of which he gives himself up to the full enjoyment of the senses, until the hour of his doom arrives, when Mephistopheles reappears upon the scene, and carries off his victim as a condemned soul.-Yet even Faust, while enjoying all of wealth and pleasure that the world could give, could not be free from the annoyance of the weird Sisters, Want, Guilt, Care, and Necessity,— while "beyond them, from afar," came their grim Brother-Death! CHAPTER XC.-THE BOOK OF ISAIAH. From "Mosaics of Bible History." I.—The Style and General Character of this Prophet's Writings. 1. The prophetic writings of Isaiah are among the noblest specimens of Hebrew poetry, and their style has been universally admired as a model of elegance and sublimity. The following tribute to the prophet's richness of imagery and his spiritual gifts, is from the pen of a distinguished Biblical scholar and critic:— 66 2. Isaiah stands pre-eminent above all other prophets, as well in the contents and spirit of his predictions, as in their form and style. Simplicity, clearness, sublimity, and freshness are the never-failing characteristics of his prophecies. Even Eichhorn mentions, among the merits of Isaiah, the harmony of his expressions, the beautiful outline of his images, and the fine execution of his speeches. In reference to richness of imagery, he stands between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Symbolic actions, which frequently occur in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are seldom found in Isaiah. The same is the case with visions, strictly so called, of which there is only one, namely, that in chapter vi.;a and even it is distinguished by its simplicity and clearness above that of the later prophets. 3. "But one characteristic of Isaiah is, that he likes to give signs-that is, a fact then present, or near at handas a pledge for the more distant futurity. The instances in chapters vii. and xxxviii. show how much he was convinced of his vocation, and in what intimacy he lived with the Lord. His spiritual riches are seen in the variety of his style, which always befits the subject. When he rebukes and threatens, it is like a storm; and when he comforts, his language is as tender and mild (to use his own words) as that of a mother comforting her son."-Kitto. 4. Another writer, well known as a critic and rhetorician, says "Isaiah is, without exception, the most sublime of all poets. This is abundantly visible even in our translation; and, what is a material circumstance, none of the books of Scripture appear to have been more happily translated than the writings of this prophet. Majesty is his reigning char a Yet the book of Isaiah is introduced as "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz;" so all his prophecies may be called visions, although only one of them is specially mentioned as such. acter; a majesty more commanding, and more uniformly supported, than is to be found among the rest of the Old Testament poets. He possesses, indeed, a dignity of grandeur, both in his conceptions and expressions, which is altogether unparalleled, and peculiar to himself. There is more clearness and order, too, and a more visible distribution of parts, in his book, than in any other of the prophetical writings."-Dr. Hugh Blair. 5. The following is a general characterization of the style of this greatest of prophets and poets: "Isaiah is at once elegant and sublime, forcible and ornamental; he unites energy with copiousness, and dignity with variety. In his sentiments we find extraordinary elevation and majesty; in his imagery, the utmost propriety, elegance, dignity, and diversity; in his language, uncommon beauty and energy, and, notwithstanding the obscurity of his subjects, a surprising degree of clearness and simplicity. To these we may add, there is such sweetness in the poetical composition of his sentences, whether it proceed from art or genius, that if the Hebrew poetry at present is possessed of any remains of its native grace and harmony, we shall chiefly find them in the writings of Isaiah; so that the saying of Ezekiel may justly be applied to this prophet: 'Thou art the confirmed exemplar of measures, Bishop Lowth. 6. Dr. Blair cites the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah—from the 4th to the 23d verse inclusive-as containing "a greater assemblage of sublime ideas, of bold and daring figures, than is perhaps anywhere else to be met with." The subject of this prophetic song is the fall of the Assyrian empire, and the coming desolation of Babylon, the city which had so long been the terror and the scourge of the people of Israel. |