MEDICINE
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MEDICINE
even of generation, onwards to the attamment of the " grand cUmacteric," and the second from that epoch backwards through a corresponding period of decUne till the point of dissolution is reached. These are respect- ively called the r\'-'hvn i:ai and the mi^S'n i?3i of the rabbins (Wunderbar, 2tes Heft). This latter course is marked in metaphor by the darkening of the great lights of nature, and the ensuing season of life is com- pared to tlie broken weather of the wet season, setting in when summer is gone, when after every shower fresh clouds are in the sky, as contrasted with the showers of other seasons, which pass away into clearness. Such he means are the ailments and troubles of declining age, as compared with those of advancing life. The '• keepers of the house" are perhaps the ribs which support the frame, or the arms and shoulders which enwrap and pro- tect it. Their " trembling," especially that of the arms, etc., is a sure sign of vigor past. The " strong men" are its supporters, the lower limbs " bowing themselves" under the weight they once so lightly bore. The " grind- ing" hardly needs to be explained of the teeth, now be- come " few." The " lookers from the windows" are the pupils of the ej^es, now " darkened," as Isaac's were, and Eli's ; and Moses, though spared the dimness, was yet in that very exemption a marvel (Gen. xxvii ; comp. xlviii, 10 ; 1 Sam. iv, 15 ; Dent, xxxiv, 7). The " doors shut" represent the dulness of those other senses which are the portals of knowledge ; thus the taste and smell, as in the case of Barzillai, became impaired, and the ears stopped against sound. The " rising up at the voice of a bird" portrays the light, soon-tleeting, easilj'- broken slumber of the aged man ; or possibly, and more literally, actual waking in the early morning, when tirst the cock crows, may be intended. The " daughters of music brought low" suggest the
" big, manly voice
Now turu'd again to childish treble ;"
and also, as illustrated again by Barzillai, the failure in the discernment and the utterance of musical notes. The fears of old age are next noticed: "They shall be afraid oUhatiohich is highf an obscure expression, per- haps, for what are popularly called " nervous" terrors, exaggerating and magnifying every object of alarm, and "making," as the sajdng is, "mountains of mole- hills." Or, even more simply, these words may be un- derstood as meaning that old men have neither vigor nor breath for going up hills, mountains, or anything else that is " high ;" nay, for them the plain, even the road has its terrors — they walk timidly and cautiously even along that. " Fear in the way" is at first less obvious ; but we observe that nothing unnerves and agitates an old person more than the prospect of a long journey. Thus regarded, it becomes a fine and subtile touch in the description of decrepitude. All readiness to haste is arrested, and a numb despondency succeeds. The "flourishing" of "the "almond-tree" is still more ob- scure ; but we observe this tree in Palestine blossoming when others show no sign of vegetation, and when it is dead winter all around— no ill type, perhaps, of the old man who has survived his own contemporaries and many of his juniors. Youthful lusts die out, and their organs, of which " the grasshopper" is perhaps a figure, are re- laxed. The " silver cord" may be that of nervous sen- sation, or motion, or even the spinal marrow itself. Perhaps some incapacity of retention maj^ be signified by the " golden bowl broken ;" the " pitcher broken at the well" suggests some vital supply stopping at the usual source — derangement perhaps of the digestion or of the respiration ; the " wheel shivered at the cistern" conveys, through the image of the water-lifting process familiar in irrigation, the notion of the blood, pumped, as it were, through the vessels, and fertilizing the whole system ; for " the blood is the life."
IV. Hebrew Therapeutics. — This careful register of the tokens of decline might lead us to expect great care for the preservation of health and strength ; and this