of light in a cloudy day, of one of the ailments of old age, as Dr. Mead has done; we are rather to understand him as speaking of old age under the notion of winter, rising from the plain and simple description of "evil days," and years, concerning which we are obliged to say, we have no pleasure in them, to a more elevated, a figurative and emblematical representation of that time of life which is the reverse of youth. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before evil days come, and the years draw nigh, in which thou wilt find little or no pleasure; in one word before the winter of life, that gloomy season com

mences.

OBSERVATION XIII.

Solomon's Portrait of old Age continued.

As the human body is frequently in the Scripture' compared to a house, inhabited by the soul with its various powers, or other spiritual beings, so Solomon here makes use of the same thought in the first part of his emblematical description of the sorrows of old age; from whence with the unconfined, and seemingly to us irregular operation of an Oriental genius, he passes on to images of a quite different and unconnected kind-In the day when the keepers a 2 Cor. v. 1. Matt. xii. 45. Luke xi. 26.

of the House shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease (or fail) because they are few, and those that look out of their windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, &c.

It ought also farther to be observed here, that as Solomon compares the body to a HOUSE in a considerable part of this description, so it is apparent that he represents it not as a cottage, inhabited by a solitary person, but, more conformably to the circumstances of the writer and the pupil, as a palace full of people.

But to dismiss preliminaries. Old age frequently brings on the loss of sight: When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, Gen. xxvii. 15; The eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see, ch. xlviii. 10; in like manner we read, concerning one of the Prophets, Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age, 1 Kings xiv. 4. It is a common complaint.

It will easily be imagined that blindness, and the impairing of the sight, is meant by that emblem, Those that look out of the windows shall be darkened. Different as men's apprehensions have been as to the other clauses, all seem to agree in the explanation of this ; it may, • The son of David, king of Jerusalem, ch. i. 1. Whom he calls his son, ch. xii. 12, and probably meant one of his own children by that term, though it indeed sometimes means only a younger person,

however, perhaps admit a clearer illustration than has been given of it.

The word л haraoth, which expresses those who look out of the windows is feminine, and the allusion seems to be to the circumstances of the females of the East, who, though confined much more to the house than those of Europe are, and afraid to shew themselves to strangers even there, are sometimes indulged with the pleasure of looking out of the windows, when any thing remarkable is to be seen, or of assembling on the house-top on such occasions. But in common the shutters of those next the street are closed, not only to keep out the heat of the sun from their rooms, but for privacy too, their windows being only latticed, and consequently too public for such a jealous people.

So among the ancient Jews, though the women had more liberty than the females of those countries in our times, yet they were wont not to go out, when the men crouded the streets, but to look at what passed through the windows. Thus we read, Judges v. 28. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? And we are told, that upon occasion of introducing the ark into the city of David, with music and dancing, and all the people in solemn procession, Michal his consort, the daughter of King Saul, and consequently his principal wife, was not there,

• Irwin's Voyage up the Red Sea, p. 48.

3

but looked through a window to see the magnificent procession, 2 Sam. vi. 16.

f

But when the shutters are closed, as Dr. Shaw tells us those that open into the street commonly are, they lose the pleasure of seeing what passes abroad in the world; though they doubtless feel the impressions of curiosity as strongly as the women of the North and the West, and may with great eagerness desire to see what is transacted there.

How lively this image! how severely are the blind wont to regret the loss of their sight, and eagerly wish to see what passes abroad in the world! But in old age often, and in the figurative language of Solomon, the women that look out at the windows are darkened.

But besides the dignified women of an Eastern palace, the wives and the daughters, that might be curious to view what passed in the streets, there were strong men entertained there as keepers of the house, to guard it from danger so when Uriah the Hittite, one of David's mighty men, came from the camp to that prince, as if to answer some questions concerning the state of the army, instead of retiring to his house upon his being dismissed, he slept, the sacred historian tells us, at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house." So a guard kept the door of Rehoboam's house, who bare the shields of brass which that prince

f

{ P. 207.

2 Sam. xxiii. 39.

* Ch. xi. 9.

made, instead of the 300 of gold his predecessor had,' (which Shishak king of Egypt took away,) when Rehoboam went into the house of the LORD, and who at his return brought them back into the guard-chamber.

Such keepers of the door of his palace Solomon, the intermediate prince between David and Rehoboam, without doubt, had, and to these he alludes in the two clauses, In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves: and to their trembling at the approach of an adversary they were unable to resist, and their bowing down with submissiveness before him.

So when Jehu slew his predecessor Joram, and wrote to those that were charged with the over-sight of the royal palace, and the taking care of his children, and consequently of Joram's expected successor; when Jehu, I say, wrote to them, and called them to stand upon their defence, they trembled, and declared themselves ready to bow down before him as his servants, according to the prophetic historian, though expressed in somewhat different

terms. Look even out the best and meetest of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand? And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to i 1 Kings x. 17. Ch. xiv. 27, 28.