The several translations of Faust which have hitherto appeared in our own language, are already all but forgotten, and from the comparatively mean notion which they convey of the original, one might almost feel justified in coming to the conclusion that the elements of perpetuity do not exist in it. To say the truth, I cannot help thinking that it has been overrated, and that it will pass into oblivion before the lapse of the present century. I speak, however, with all due deference to higher judgments. What I have said, indeed, of this much-lauded, but little understood production, may rather show the inefficiency of the translators, than any inferiority in the poem itself, though I am still disposed to believe that the worst possible translation of a great work could not fail to preserve some of the elements of its greatness; yet it cannot be denied, that what Lord Byron, Shelley, and Coleridge have so highly commended, we may be justified in taking for granted to be really a composition of very rare merit. Nevertheless, after all that can be said in its favour, be that merit what it may, I do not fear to assert that the work of the philosophical German just referred to, cannot stand a moment's comparison with the sublimest productions of the Hebrews.

CHAPTER VIII.

Isaac's blessing on Jacob. Its poetical character. A knowledge of oriental customs much facilitates the interpretation of this passage. Its great poetic beauty and extreme condensation. Examples of the latter from the writings of Joanna Baillie and Milton.

THE next portion of the Pentateuch to which I beg to direct the reader's attention, as distinguished from the prosaic form, in which that portion of the Sacred Volume, with the exception of a few important passages, is written, is the blessing pronounced by Isaac upon his younger son Jacob, and that immediately after uttered at the earnest solicitation of Esau, his eldest born.* There is much poetical beauty in both these passages, and the obscurity of the first line will be removed by the knowledge of an eastern custom which I shall presently explain. As these blessings, like those pronounced by Noah on his two righteous sons, were prophetical, they are necessarily somewhat obscure, from the figurative turn of the language employed in all prophetical announcements in scripture, though nevertheless capable of a sufficiently clear exposition. The difficulties merely lie on the surface, and are therefore easily

Genesis xxvii. 39, 40.

removed. Here follows the first passage, according to the authorized translation:*

See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed!

Therefore God give thee of the dew of Heaven,

And the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:

Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee:

Be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

"The smell of my son," alludes to the perfume of Esau's raiment, which Jacob had assumed. It is supposed by the celebrated Bochart, Selden, Grotius, and others, that the goodly raiment in which Jacob had arrayed himself upon this solemn occasion, was the sacerdotal attire which belonged exclusively to Esau, as the first-born, and was worn only upon especial occasions. Esau, as the eldest son, possessed by natural inheritance the dignity of the priesthood, which was the unalienable right of primogeniture in the patriarchal families. Of this right the immediate descendants were particularly jealous, and through the entire Jewish economy we find the entailed privileges of primogeniture distinctly and signally acknowledged; and that their genealogies were strictly preserved, the Sacred Writings afford abundant proofs. In these genealogies the first-born always holds a distinguished place. He invariably succeeded to the paternal prerogatives, all his brethren and their offspring being subject to his domination; and

* Genesis xxvii. 27-29.

he was not only their temporal, but spiritual ruler-not only their patriarchal sovereign, so to speak, but their high-priest.

Such was the birthright which Esau sold to Jacob for a mess of pottage. The latter, possessing the privileges of primogeniture, transferred to him by this unholy covenant, no doubt considered himself entitled to the blessing which Isaac meditated pronouncing on his eldest son; and knowing that his father, who it is to be presumed was ignorant of the unrighteous transfer, would not swerve in his intention towards Esau, the privileged son and heir of the patriarchal inheritance, Jacob, at the instigation of his mother, he being her favourite, and justified, as we may suppose he imagined himself to be by the right which had been ceded to him, descended to an act of base dissimulation, in order to obtain the paternal benediction, which has considerably derogated from the otherwise generally strict integrity of his character. Disguised in the sacred and official habiliments of his elder brother, with a lie upon his lips, and base hypocrisy in his heart, he thus fraudulently received the blessing, designed by his blind and infirm parent for his first-born son.

"Jacob," says Calmet, "imposed upon his father in three different ways. First, by words; I am thy first-born Esau.' Secondly, 'by actions;' he gave him kid's flesh for venison, saying, he had executed his orders and had obtained it by hunting. Thirdly, by his clothing;' he put on Esau's garments, and the kid's skins upon his hands and the smooth of his neck. In short, he

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made use of every species of deception that could be practised on the occasion, in order to accomplish his ends."

As the sacerdotal robes assumed by Jacob, in order to deceive his father, were only occasionally used, they were probably laid up with some strongly scented leaves, or aromatic drugs, in order to preserve them from the depredations of those destructive insects which abound in hot countries." The natives of India," writes Mr. Joseph Roberts, in his Oriental Illustrations, page 32, "are universally fond of having their garments strongly perfumed, so much so that Europeans can scarcely bear the smell. They use camphor, civet, sandal wood, or sandal oil, and a great variety of strongly scented waters. It is not common to salute, as in England; they simply smell each other, and it is said, that some people know their children by the smell. It is common for a father or mother to say,- Ah, child, thy smell is like the Sen-Paga-Poo.' * The crown of the head is the principal place for smelling. Of an amiable man it is said, "How sweet is the smell of that man! the smell of his goodness is universal.'"

This is a curious illustration of the prophetic exclamation of the blind patriarch. Isaac, smelling the perfume of the sacred vestments which he knew belonged of right to Esau, and had, it is probable, been laid up in aromatic herbs, such being the custom of the age and country, pronounced without hesitation a benediction on

A sacred flower.