: haps with this design, that, from the example of this illuftrious and upright, yet afflicted and most miserable man, the people of Ifrael might learn to bear with patience, all thofe evils and hardships, which they were daily fuffering in their Egyptian captivity. That this book is metrical, as well as David's Pfalms, the Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, and Solomon's Song, is generally allowed and the persons of the drama are God, Satan, Job, and his wife, his three friends, and Elihu. Wherefore it is, fays Grotius, a real fact, but poetically handled *. Poetry was certainly a very ancient manner of writing, and poets were wont to embellish true histories in their own way, as we fee in the most ancient among the Greeks and Romans. And among the Hebrews likewise, long after the time above mentioned, Ezekiel comprised the history of the departure out of Egypt in a dramatic poem, upon which ac count he is called, by Clemens Alexandrinus, the poet of Judaic tragedies †. Nor indeed, in my opinion, can there be found, in this kind of writing, any thing more admirable, and better adapted to move the paffions than this piece; whether we regard the fublimity and elegance of ftyle, the defcription of natural things, or, in fine, the propriety of the characters afcribed to all the perfons concerned in it: all which circumstances are of the greatest moment in a dramatic performance. Quo propius fes, Te capiet magis. * Eft ergo res vere gefta, fed poetice tractata. In locum. † Ὁ τῶν Ἰσδαικῶν τραγῳδιῶν ποιή]ης. P. 414. of the Oxford edit. 1715. Stromat. book i. The The nearer you behold, The more it ftrikes you. Before I close this chapter, it may not be improper to offer my conjecture concerning the difeafe of this illuftrious man. But previous to this, it is proper to remark, that it is not Job himself or his friends, but the author of the book that attributes his calamities to Satan; for this author's intention feems to be, to fhew, by a ftriking example, that the world is governed by the providence of almighty God; and as the holy angels, whose miniftry God makes ufe of in diftributing his bountiful gifts, punctually execute all his commands; fo Satan himself with his agents are under the power of God, and cannot inflict any evils on mankind without the divine permiffion. Thus, when the fons of God (angels) came and prefented themselves before the Lord, it is faid that Satan came also among them. Now, the word aftare, to present one's felf, as Mofes Maimonides * obferves, fignifies to be prepared to receive Jehovah's commards; but Satan came of his own accord, and mixed with them without any fummons. Now as to the difeafe, it is plain that it was cuticular, and it is as certain that the bodies of the Hebrews were very liable to foul ulcers of the fkin from time immemorial; upon which account it is that learnned men are of opinion that they were forbid the eating of fwine's flesh (which, as it affords a grofs nourishment, and not eafily perfpirable, is very improper food in fuch conftitutions); wherefore by how much hotter the countries were which they inhabited, fuch * More Nevochim, part. iii. chap. xxii. as as are the deserts of Arabia, the more feverely these diforders raged. And authors of other nations, who despised and envied the Jews, fay that it was upon this account that they were driven out of Egypt; left the leprofy, a difeafe common among them, fhould spread over the country. But there is another much worfe difeafe, fo frequent in Egypt, that it is faid to be endemial there t, though it may alfo be engendered in this hot country, I mean the elephantiafis. Perhaps it was this, which is nearly of the fame nature with the leprofy, that had affected the body of our righteous man; but on this fubject we fhall treat more largely in the fubfequent chapter. A CHA P. II. The LEPROSY. Most severe disease, to which the bodies of the Jews were very fubject, was the leprofy. Its figns recorded in the holy fcriptures are chiefly thefe. Pimples arofe in the fkin; the hair was turned white; the plague (or fore) in fight was deeper than the skin, when the difeafe had been of long standing; a white tumour appeared in the fkin, in which there was quick flesh the foul eruptions gained ground daily, and at length covered the whole furface of the body. And the evil is faid to infect, not only the human body, but also the cloaths and garments, nay (what *Juftin. hift. lib. xxxvi. c. 2. & Tacit. hift. lib. v. ab initio. + Lucret. lib. vi. ver. !112. Eft elephas morbus, qui propter flumina Nili, may may feem ftrange) utenfils made of skins or furs, and even the very walls of the houses. Wherefore there are precepts laid down for cleanfing thefe alfo, as well as the lepers. Medical authors are of different opinions concerning the contagion of this difeafe. And whereas neither the Arabian nor Greek phyficians, who have treated largely of the leprofy, have given the least hint of this extraordinary force of it, whereby it may infect cloaths and walls of houfes; the Rabbin doctors difpute, whether that which feized the Jews, was not entirely different from the common leprofy; and they all affirm, that there never appeared in the world, a leprofy of cloaths and houses, except only in Judea, and among the fole people of Ifrael. For my part, I fhall now freely propofe what I think most probable on the fubject. One kind of contagion is more fubtile than another; for there is at fort which is taken into the body by the very breath; fuch as I have elsewhere faid to exift in the plague, fmall-pox, and other malignant fevers. But there is another fort, which infects by contact alone; either internal, as the venom of the venereal disease ; or external, as that of the itch, which is conveyed into the body by rubbing against cloaths, whether woollen or linen. Wherefore the leprofy, which is a fpecies of the itch, may pafs into a found man in this last manner; perhaps alfo by cohabitation; as Fracaftorius has obferved, that a confumption is contagious, and is contracted by living with a phthifical perfon, by the gliding of the corrupted and putrefied juices of the fick into the lungs of the found man *. And Are * De morbis contagiofis, lib. ii. cap. ix. VOL. III. Y tæus tæus is of the fame opinion with regard to the elephantiafis, a difeafe nearly allied to the leprofy: for he gives this caution. "That it is not lefs dangerous "to converfe and live with perfons affected with this "diftemper, than with thofe infected with the plague ; becaufe the contagion is communicated by the in“fpired air *. 66 But here occurs a confiderable difficulty. For Mofes fays, "If in the leprofy there be obferved a white tumour in the fkin, and it have turned the hair white in it, and there be quick flesh within the tumour; it is an old leprofy in the skin of his flesh. "But if the leprofy fpread broad in the skin, and 66 cover the whole fkin of the difeafed from his head even to his feet, the perfon fhall be pronounced clean t." But the difficulty contained in this pasfage will vanish, if we fuppose, as it manifeftly appears to me, that it points out two different species of the difeafe; the one in which the eroded skin was ulcerated, fo that the quick flesh appeared underneath; the other, which spread on the surface of the skin only in the form of rough fcales. And from this difference it happened, that the former fpecies was, and the latter was not, contagious. For thefe fcales, being dry and light like bran, do not penetrate into the fkin; whereas the purulent matter iffuing from the ulcers infects the furface of the body. But concerning the differences of cuticular diseases, I heartily recommend to the reader's perufal, what Johannes Manardus, equally valuable for his medical knowledge, *De caufis diuturnorum morborum, & de curationibus eorundem, lib. ii. cap. xiii. + Levit. chap. xiii. ver. 1c. &c. and |