much illustration in the Book of Daniel. Isaiah's eschatology is not of this type. The year 701 B.C., when Sennacherib, invading Judah, retired without being able to effect the conquest of Jerusalem, is the immediate inspiration of Isaiah's highest hopes.

§ VII.

WISDOM" LITERATURE AND THE HELLENIC SPIRIT

THE books which constitute the Wisdom Literature of the Bible are Proverbs, the Book of Koheleth (Ecclesiastes), and the Book of Job. If we add books outside the established canon, we should have to include in this list the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), and the Wisdom of Solomon. If ever the Hebraic spirit got near to formal philosophy it was in these books, for here are old-world problems discussed, not so much in relation to a given creed as in reference to some of the fundamental conditions of human thought. Yet the first thing almost which strikes the reader is that they do not constitute a philosophy at all; or, if the word must be used, it is a philosophy quite alien from that range of metaphysics in which Hellenism set the example to European nations. For however much the problems discussed may be such eternal riddles as the meaning of human life, the reality of Providence, the justice of providential rule, the distribution of happiness and unhappiness, and incidentally the end of life, the treatment in each case is subordinated to a particular practical purpose, and made a vehicle for edification rather than enlightenment. Take "the end of life," for instance. This question is discussed by Plato, Aristotle and others who are imbued with the Hellenistic spirit, as something which has to be decided in terms of reason so as to become acceptable to reasonable creatures. In Hebraic literature the end is not argued about, but assumed. The idea of the end of life precedes and regulates all the inquiry, instead of coming as the last link in a chain of logical arguments. In the books of the Old Testament already referred to there is no definite and formal attempt to pursue knowledge for its own sake. The object

33

D

is quite different. It is rather to induce that frame of mind which shall recognize that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. "Wisdom," in short, as the Hebrews understood it, is the end of all philosophy: wisdom, a practical concern, a way of living, an undeviating and unquestioning faith, a blind acceptance of the reality of God, in the teeth of many logical difficulties.

To any one accustomed to the dialogues of Plato or to the ethics of Aristotle, almost the first thing which strikes the reader of Job and of Ecclesiastes is the formlessness of the books. There is no feeling for form. The notion of a logical advance from point to point, in order to establish a conclusion based on the evidence thus acquired, does not seem to recommend itself to the Hebrew thinker. On the contrary, his arguments go backwards and forwards, involving a great deal of what we should term unnecessary repetition, and perhaps more frequently than not supplying a rhetorical answer to an intellectual difficulty. It was not the province of the Jew to enlarge the sphere of intellect, and to order life solely as the intellect might direct. It was rather his province to teach the absolute importance of conduct. From the very earliest times Jahveh, even by the nomad tribes of Arabia, was regarded as a God arranging the details of ordinary life, quite as much as the object of their creed. Some of the Greek thinkers recognize no difference between ethics and politics, the latter being merely the former writ large" in the body of a State. The Jew recognized no real difference between intellectual and ethical discipline. The religion which dictated ceremonial observances was also the main inspirer of human virtue and the ultimate organizer of social conditions. Hence wisdom is not primarily intellectual wisdom, but practical wisdom. In the Book of Job the possibility of metaphysical knowledge for man is with the greatest emphasis totally denied. Let us look at the first nine chapters of Proverbs, and we shall find this specifically Hebrew wisdom characterized in detail. The fear of God is its beginning, the fear of God is its goal. It teaches not metaphysical knowledge, but a godly life. And hence, too,

in the eighth chapter of Proverbs wisdom is personified, as it were, as the first creation of God, helping the divine Author, co-operating with him in the work of creation.

There is an obvious contrast between the Book of Proverbs and the other two books which belong to this department. "Proverbs" represents Hebraic thought in its more sunny aspect. It does not go very deep, but it gives admirable, though somewhat superficial, advice in many of the concerns of life. Job and Ecclesiastes are built up on different lines. Job is infinitely the nobler work of the two, the product of more thoughtful and more serious brains. It is, indeed, the finest flower, the summit and crown of Hebraic thought. But the total result of Job and Ecclesiastes is much the sameunless, indeed, we suppose in the latter case, as some critics have supposed, that the writer veiled his scepticism under certain compromises with the existing creed. Let us take the Book of Koheleth first. Its object is obviously to obtain an interpretation of the world, and also rules for practical life, quite apart from tradition. Although the author finds that it is impossible for him to avoid the implications of tradition, he starts, at all events, from the basis of observation and experience. And what is the result of his observation and experience? It is saddening, pessimistic, despairing. Everywhere in Nature we find movement, but a movement which effects nothing. The rivers go on running into the sea, but the sea is not full. The rain comes down from the clouds, and is then sucked up again by the heat of the sun, and the process is eternally repeated. We cannot discover any end in all this. Phenomena recur, but there is no progress. The same thing holds true of the activity of man. He builds up, and the man who follows him destroys. He puts before himself the ideal of gratifying every desire, and he finds that the happiness for which he is searching is a will-o'-the-wisp. Desire itself perishes at the moment of fruition. Death comes at the last to cancel all hopes. Nor yet can a combination of men effect more than a single individual. The object of all states is to reward excellence, to encourage virtue, to establish prosperity. But merit is generally dis

regarded at all events, unrewarded. "Slow rises worth by poverty oppressed." There is no such thing in real life as the justice of which poets dreamed. We may even go further than this. We may say that Accident, Chance is the ruler of life. The royal thinker who was determined to trust to his observation and experience comes at the last to this lamentable conclusion, that the only hypothesis to explain the world is that it is the creation of Chance. Shall we say, then, with some religious thinkers, that however perplexing may be the issues of mundane existence, there is to be another world which is to set all difficulties right? That is not a solution which recommends itself to Koheleth. Indeed, he rejects it with some scorn. Why should man be held to be better than animals? Why should his spirit endure, when we know that the breath of the brutes ceases when death comes?

How are we to frame any rules of life based on such a dreary philosophy? Here comes the most astonishing part of the book, that aspect of it which illustrates almost better than anything else the tenacity with which the Hebrew clung to his original creed. First of all we get a purely Cyrenaic doctrine. A certain amount of pleasure is to be got out of life, however aimless it seems to be. It is pleasant to live in the sunlight. Some of our appetites can be gratified with ease and pleasure. Life must not be taken too seriously. However hopeless the outlook, let a man be content with each day as it comes, derive from it such good as it can offer, and at all events preserve a cheerful face. There is a touch here of Aristippus and Epicurus, and more than a passing resemblance to Omar Khayyám. But whereas men like these, having suggested pessimistic principles, desire to carry them out to their logical conclusion, the author of Ecclesiastes will not have a word said to impugn the reality of God. In his head might reign the Greek spirit: in his heart was the soul of a Jew. The philosophy of Kant exhibited very much the same phenomenon. According to the philosopher of Königsberg, pure reason could never prove the existence of God, any more than it could prove the immortality of the soul, or the existence of a world of metaphysical truth.