of shame and emule.tion, reward and punishment, pleaenre and pain, as incentives to goodness and activity, or as deterrents from evil; and though the actions and habits fostered by these means cannot be regarded as perfect, and have in them an element of weakne11s, still they are helps on the wny to virtne, and facilitate the conrse of higher training. By such :means, imperfect as they are, the moral principle is not injured, and the pupil is placed in a position where he is open to the beet inflnences, and prepared to receive them. We have learned thus to deal with children from God's dealings with ourselves. What are gratitude to parents, faith in teachers, love of friends, loyalty to a sovereign, but secondary motives which control our lives, and yet are not distinctly religious? We bnild on these feelings, we expect and cherish them, because they lead to worthy action, and without them we should be selfish, loveless, animals. They keep us in the path of duty ; they take us out of ourselves, make us regard others' interests, preserve us from much that is evif. Men act on snch motives; they do not generally set before themselves anything higher; and he who would teach them must take them as they a.re, stand on their platform, sympathize with their weakness, and, by pntting himself in their position, gain their confidence, and lead them to trnst his guidance when he tells them of heavenly things. On such principles much of onr book is framed. The moralist knew and recognized the fact that the persons for whose benefit he wrote were not wont to a.et from the highest motives, that in their daily life they were influenced by selfish considera- tions-fear of loss, censure of neighbours, public opinion, expediency, revenge, custom, example ; and, instead of declaiming against these prin- ciples and in austere virtne censuring their defects, he makes the best of them, selects such as may suit his purpose, and, while using them as supports for his warnings, he intersperses so much higher teaching that every one must see that morality has another side, and that the only real and true motive for virtue is the love of God. Such teaching loses its apparently anomalous character when we consider that it is addressed to a people who were living under a temporal dispensation, who were told to expect blessings and punishments in their present life, and who saw in all that befell them providential interferences, tokens of the moral government of their Lord and King. It is consistent with the edncational object of our book, and with the gradual development of doctrine observed in the Old Testament, wherein is seen that the Law was a tutor to bring men to Christ. The first collection of proverbs is followed by two appendices enunciat- .i.ng " the words of the wise "-the first contained in eh. xxii. 17-xx.i v. 22 ; tho second, introduced by the words, "These things also belong to the wise," in eh. xxiv. 23-84. The former of these commences with a personal address to the pupil, recommending these sayings to his serious attention, and then proceeds to give various precepts concerning duty to the poor, anger, suretyship, cupidity, intempe1'ance, impurity, and to urge the young X INTRODUCTION TO
to avoid evil men a.nd those who would lead them astray. It ends with the weighty saying of moral a.nd political importance- "My son, fear thou the Lord and the king : And meddle not with them that are given to change" (eh. xxiv. 21). The second little appendix consists also of proverbial sayings, bnt is enlivened' by a personal reminiscence of the writer, who in his walk passed by the field of the 11luggard, noted it.a miserable condition, and drew e. lesson therefrom (eh. xxiv. 30, eto.). This section also contains the almost e-rangelica.l precept- " Say not, I will do so to him as he bath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work." We now arrive at the second great collection of Solomonic proverbs, "which the men of Hezekiah copied out " ( eh. xxv:.-xx:ix. ). This is a series of some hundred and twenty gnomic sayings .collected from previous writings, by certain scribes and historiographers, in the reign a.nd under the superintendence of the good King Hezekiah, and intended as a. supplement to the former collection, to which it bears a very marked similarity, and many sentences of which it repeats with no or very slight variations. Hezekiah, devoted to the moral and religious improvement of his people, seems to have commissioned his secretaries to examine again the works of his predecessor, and to cnll from them, and from similar com- pilations, such maxims as wonld further his great purpose. Hence we do not find in this section, as in former parts, much instruction for th_e young, but sentences concerning government, ideas on social subjects, on behaviour, on moral restraint, and kindred topics that have to, do with private .and public life. There are in it some notewo1·thy utterance~ con9erning the office of king- " The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, But the heart of kings is unsearchable. Take away dross from the silver, And there cometh forth a vessel for the finer; Take away the wicked from before the king, And his throne shall be established in righteousness" (eh. xxv. 3, etc.). • The kiog by judgment establisheth the land: But he that exacteth gifts overthroweth it" ( eh. xxix. 4). There is also a mashal hymn in praise of agriculture, which looks like a protest against the growing luxury of the age, and a call to the simpler, purer life of earlier days- " Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, And look well to thy herds. For riches are not for ever: And doth the crown endure unto all generations? The hay is carried, and the tender 2Tass showeth itself, 'l'IIE PROVE'RBS. xl