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by its authors as a work of arts or a display of poetic power * but was the effusion of a mind swelling with the praise of Jehovah , lamenting its own or its country * ** sorrows , or intent upon enforcing the precepts of the law * With us the artist is more prominent and interesting than his work ; you think you hare succeeded , when the artist is forgotten in the merit of his production . ' " Pp . 110 * &c . Vol . I . B . i . chap , v *
This dialogue is appropr iate , intelligent , spirited and instructive : to the extract that we shall next make the same terms may be applied ., Elisama , Helon and Selumiel had been visiting * the oasis of the Essenes ; " on their return from it , Selumiel , who was partial to the sect , looked back towards the scene of their residence , and " leaning on his staff , asked his companions ^ ' Now , then , how like ye my Essenes ?'
" Call them not thy Essenes , ' said Elisama , ' for Jehovah be praised , there is a wide difference between them and thee " / * Allow me this / said Selumiel , ' and I will in return allow thee to speak of thy Pharisees . '
< c * That , ' said Elisama , very earnestly , c 1 shall never be ; call me an Aramean Jew , and I shall gladly accept the title . ' Ci € What difference should one or the other make in our friendship ? ' said Selumiel . € Cannot we attach ourselves to different opinions , without any breach of our mutual good will ? Iddo takes it ill if I call him a Sadducce . '
" Alas for Israel , ' said Elisama ; € shall peace never come to thee ? It has been a melancholy reflection to me , that in the land where alone Israel is truly Israel , I have scarcely found a single old friend who does not Jean to one sect or other . What will be the end of these things ?'
" The young priest , dissatisfied with the turn which their conversation had taken , said hastily , and in a manner which neither of the old men understood , & In my service in the temple one thing only displeased me , that the turn of duty conies to each course of priests but once an twenty-foua * weeks . I fain would live the life of a priest every week and every day . '
d c You might have discovered the method of doing so ihis very day / said Selumiel . iC i The Essenes do not sacrifice / said Helon ; ' how then shall I find among ihern a perpetual priesthood ?' " Elisama looked at Mm with asto-
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292 Review . —Helon ? $ Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
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mshment . Selumiel , rejoiced as If he had come over to his opinion , replied s You may find it in the daily raortification of your body and obedience to nhe law . '
" No / said Elisama , « I will tell you —the conjugal and domestic life is the perpetual priesthood . You know that tthe patriarchs sacrificed with their own Ihauds , and even now the master of the house becomes a priest , when ,, at the feast of the passover , he kills the Iamb , blesses the bread 9 and praises Jehovah ! In spite of all the Esseoes and their admirers / said he , looking significantl y at Selumiel , & it is my opinion that the true Chasidean must be the father of a family . '
" Selumiel stretched out his hand to the friend of his youth "—Vol . II pp . 147—149 , B . iii . Ch . v . Our author is usually skilful in his combination of the narrative with the dialogue : one exception occurs , however , in B . iii . Ch . ii . ( VoL If . of the translation , p . 30 , ) where Strauss , in his capacity of historian , speaks of " the son of Simon , our Hvrcanus , "
[ unser Hyrcanus , ! and identifies himself , somewhat improperly , it must be confessed , yet , in a man of his ardent enthusiasm for Hebrew antiquities , not unnaturally , with the interlocutors of his storv . ml
In narration , strictly so termed , he manifests considerable ability ; being at once simple , perspicuous and forcible . Two specimens shall be given . The writer relates in B . ii . Ch . ii . [ "Vol . I . pp . 205 / 206 , of the Translation , ] the progress of a large group of pilgrims to Jerusalem , and takes occasion to introduce a very pleasing and significant circumstance :
Ci In every town and village to which they came , they were received with shouts of joy . Before the doors of the houses stood tables with dates , honey , a # id bread . New crowds of persons , dressed in their holyday attire , were wailing at the junction of the roads , in the fields , and at the entrance of the towns , and joined themselves to the lo ^ g procession . Here and shere before the houses , in the fields or in the vineyards , stood an unclean person , or a womao or a child , who had been compelled to remain at home , and who replied with tears to the salutation of the passing multitude . It seemed as if the people carried ail joy with ihem from the country to Jerusalem , and only sorrow was left for those who remained behiao . Before a house in Bethshur , stood a fine
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1826, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2548/page/40/
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