them reprefented by an old man; and as Solomon paffes on from one complaint to another in the 3d and 4th verfes, without fuch a diftinction between them as he makes between the 2d and 3d verfes; I think that, instead of explaining the darkening of the fun, the moon, and the ftars, and even of the common degree 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 fpeaking of old age under the notion of winter, rifing from the plain and fimple defcription of "evil days," and years, concerning which we are obliged to fay, we "have no pleasure in "them," to a more elevated, a figurative and emblematical representation of that time of life which is the reverfe 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 pleafure; in one word, before the winter of life commences, that gloomy Seafon.

OBSERVATION CXXV.

As the human body is frequently in the Scripture compared to an houfe, inhabited by the foul with its various powers', or other fpiritual beings, fo Solomon here makes use of the fame thought in the first part of his em

• 2 Cor. 5. I. * Matt. 12. 45. Luke 11. 26. blematical

blematical defcription of the forrows of old age; from whence with the unconfined, and seemingly to us irregular operation of an Oriental genius, he paffes on to images of a quite different and unconnected kind-" In the

day when the keepers of the HOUSE fhall "tremble, and the strong men fhall bow "themselves, and the grinders cease (or fail) "because they are few, and those that look

out of the windows be darkened, and the "doors shall be shut in the streets, when the "found of the grinding is low," &c.

It ought alfo farther to be obferved here, that as Solomon compares the body to an HOUSE in a confiderable part of this defcription, so it is apparent that he represents it not as a cottage, inhabited by a folitary person, but, more conformably to the circumftances of the writer and the pupil, as a palace full. of people.

But to difmifs preliminaries. Old age frequently brings on the lofs of fight: "When "Ifaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that " he could not fee, he called Efau his eldest "fon," Gen. xxvii. 1; "The eyes of Ifrael "were dim for age, fo that he could not fee," ch. xlviii. 10; in like manner we read, concerning one of the prophets, Ahijah could

The fon of David, king of Jerufalem, ch. 1. I.

2 Whom he calls his fon, ch. 12. 12, and probably meant one of his own children by that term, though it indeed fometimes means only a younger perfon,

"not fee, for his eyes were fet by reason of "" bis his age," 1 Kings xiv. 4. It is a common complaint.

It will eafily be imagined that blindness, and the impairing of the fight, is meant by that emblem, "Thofe that look out of the "windows shall be darkened." Different as men's apprehenfions have been as to the other clauses, all feem to agree in the explanation of this; it may, however, perhaps admit a clearer illustration than has been given of it.

The word which expreffes those who look out of the windows is feminine, and the allufion feems to be to the circumstances of the females of the Eaft, who, though confined much more to the house than those of Europe are, and afraid to show themfelves to ftrangers even there, are fometimes indulged with the pleasure of looking out of the windows, when any thing remarkable is to be feen, or of affembling on the house-top on fuch occafions'. But in common the shutters of thofe next the ftreet are closed, not only to keep out the heat of the fun from their rooms, but for privacy too, their windows being only latticed, and confequently too public for such a jealous people.

So among the ancient Jews, though the women had more liberty, it should seem, than the females of thofe countries in our times,

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

yet

yet they were wont not to go out, when the men crouded the streets, but to look at what paffed through the windows. Thus we read, Judges v. 28, "The mother of Sifera looked out at "a window, and cried through the lattice, Why "is his chariot fo long in coming?" And we are told, that upon occafion of introducing the ark into the city of David, with music and dancing, and all the people in folemn proceffion, Michal his confort, the daughter of King Saul, and confequently his principal wife, was not there, but looked through a window to fee the magnificent cavalcade, 2 Sam. vi.

16.

But when the shutters are closed, as Dr. Shaw tells us thofe that open into the street commonly are', they lofe the pleafure of feeing what paffes abroad in the world; though they doubtlefs feel the impreffions of curiofity as ftrongly as the women of the North and the Weft, and may with great eagerness defire to fee what is tranfacted there.

How lively this image! how feverely are the blind wont to regret the lofs of their fight, and eagerly wish to see what paffes abroad in the world! But in old age, often and often, in the figurative language of Solomon," the "women that look out of the windows are "darkened."

But befides the dignified women of an Eafern palace, the wives and the daughters,

• P. 207.

that

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: fo when Uriah the Hittite, one of David's mighty men', came from the camp to that prince, as if to anfwer fome queftions concerning the state of the army, instead of retiring to his house upon his being difmiffed, he flept, the facred hiftorian tells us, "at "the door of the king's houfe with all the fervants of bis Lord, and went not down to "his houfe". So a guard kept the door of Rehoboam's houfe, who bare the fields of brass that prince made inftead of the 300 of gold his predeceffor bad', (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 claufes, " In "the day when the keepers of the house fhall "tremble, and the strong men fhall bow "themselves:" and to their trembling at the approach of an adverfary they were unable to refift, and their bowing down with fubmiffivenefs before him.

So when Jebu flew his predeceffor foram,

1 2 Sam. 23. 39. * Ch. 14. 27, 28.

2 Ch. II. 9. 31 Kings 10. 17.

and