plexity. "He caused his eyes to be SEWED UP, as it is sometimes the custom here; to the end to deprive him of Sight, without excæcating him, that so he might be unfit to cause any more commotions; which sewing, if it continue long, they say it wholly causes Loss of Sight; but after a while, the father caused this prince's eyes to be unripped again, so that he was not blinded, but saw again, and it was only a temporal [temporary] penance." Now, what could this be, that was thus put before the eyes of this young prince, and sealed, or sewed up, but a kind of hood, or veil, which covered his head and face, and most probably, inclosed the whole upper part of both. If this notion of a hood, or veil, be correct, and nothing seems to oppose it,then observe, (1) This was the punishment of a father to his son, for rebellion and disobedience : moreover, it was an abated punishment. (2) It was accomplished by the ministry of others, who sealed this wrapper on the young prince. (3) It was to endure for a limited time; after which the father directed its removal. (4) After its removal, the son went about again, in partial liberty, though, we are informed, "strongly guarded;" and it was generally believed to be the intent of his father (for he would often presage so) to make this prince, his first-born, his successor; though for the present, out of some jealousie (he being so much beloved of the people) he denied him his (intire) liberty." Sir Thomas Roe's Embassy. Waiving the jealousy, &c. of this father, is not this history an accurate counterpart to the dealings of God with Israel, as hinted at by the apostle? The veil was on the heart of that people, as a punishment, not a destruction: moreover, it was to continue for a limited time only, and then that nation would be again acknowledged by him, as his son, his first-born, and be restored to liberty, and eventually to favour. Mr. Harmer (Vol. ii. p. 277.) has quoted the above extract to illustrate Isaiah vi. 10. "Shut the eyes of this people ;" but we conceive, that the eyes of the Jewish people were not, strictly speaking, "shut"-closed; and that the word ( SHO) does not signify to close; though that application of it occurs in the Lexicons. But it makes very good sense, if we say, the eyes of the people-decline-wander-desist from looking-look any way but the right-obline, Montanus] (need we say how aptly this expresses the character of the Jews in our Lord's time? they oVER-LOOKED him) and it agrees with the other place where the word occurs, Isaiah xxxii. 3. " he shall be an object so desirable, that the eyes of them that see him, shall not desist from seeing". shall continue looking, insatiably-without weariness-without failing-[not staggering non hallucinabuntur, Montanus]. This is the strict and strait-forward signification of the root and evidently, its translations in the New Testament may bear this meaning (kaμμvo conniveo) winking—that is, declining the eyes-turning them aside: so in Atheneus, on KAMMYƐA ETTIVE," turning aside, averting (his eyes) he drank up the όλην επινε, whole." The sentiment therefore of the New Testament word will be this, These people have turned aside their eyes, have desisted from seeing; as we say, they OVER-LOOK, that is, do not see a thing; or, as it is well expressed, "seeing they do not perceive;" which agrees with the import of the Hebrew. No. CXC. BLINDNESS COINCIDENT WITH HARDNESS. BLINDNESS, as a disease of the organ of vision, may be produced by drying up the natural humors of the eyes, through which the rays of light pass; this may be the effect of old age, which produces dimness, and at length Blindness: or, it may be the consequence of great heat, applied to the eyes: and in this manner one of our kings of England is said to have been blinded, by the holding of a heated brass bason before his eyes, which gradually exhaled their moisture. If the eyes are dried up, they must be hardened. Or, Blindness may proceed from a cataract, or thick skin, growing over a part of the eye, and preventing the passage of the rays of light to the interior, the proper seat of vision; this might anciently be thought to give the appearance of Hardness to the eye; and we ourselves call such an appearance a WALL-EYE.-The reader may recollect other instances. I wish by these considerations to account for the seeming contrariety which appears sometimes between the margin and the text, in our translation (and the learned reader knows, in other translations also) which renders the same word Blindness and Hardness for it is by no means unusual, for young persons especially, to discover the strong distinction between the terms Blindness and Hardness: while the cause of their adoption to express the same distemper entirely escapes them. So we read, Mark iii. 5. "being grieved for the Blindness-Hardness-of their hearts." So Rom. xi. 25. "Blindness-Hardness-in part hath happened to Israel." Ephesians iv. 18: "because of the Blindness-Hardness of their hearts." 2 Cor. iii. 14: "their minds were blinded" -hardened: and elsewhere. Now, if in these and other places, the disorder adverted to be a Blindness occasioned by desiccation of the visual agents, or any of their parts, whether arising from causes already suggested, or from any other, then we readily perceive by what means the two ideas of Blindness and Hardness might originate from the same word; and that, in fact, both renderings may be correct, since by one we are led to the cause, Hardness; and by the other to the effect, Blindness. By examining some of the passages where the original word ( thuach) occurs, we may perhaps perceive greater accuracy in its use, than we previously supposed. For instance, there are several phrases current among workmen in reference to the covering of a wall, or other piece of work, with a coat of plaster: to render it—signifies to strike plaster over the surface, the plaster being wet and when it dries it is said to set. "This plaster is, or is not, well set;" thoroughly dry-hard; "it is setting," drying, hardening, &c. To apply this idea, consider Isaiah xliv. 18. "He hath shut their eyes" (n)-daubed, say the Lexicons; rather-their eye-lids are closed with a profluvium of that kind of gum which they naturally furnish, and this gum being hardened is set upon them; and holds them down tightly, close. So Levit. xiv. 42: "And he shall plaster the house,"-that is, he shall render the walls of the house, by striking over them a coat of plaster-" and if the plague come again after it (the plaster) is set"-thoroughly dried, and hardened, &c. So Ezekiel xiii. 10: "And this man building a wall, and that man rendering it, with slippery-perverse-not incorporated -not consistent mortar: mortar so thin that it will not adhere, but shall be washed away by the first rain that falls upon it-so when the wall (the coat of plaster) is fallen, shall it not be said to you, Where is the setting, which should be set here?"You rendered it; but to no purpose: it has not dried, it has not adhered, it has not set; it might as well never have been rendered. Compare No. CCCCLXXXIV. There is another sense in which our English word set is used, in reference to the eyes; which, for aught we know, may be derived metaphorically from the state of plaster of which we have been speaking: that is, when it describes a stiff, immobile, condition, a fixed, staring, effectless, exertion of looking: but, the brain being in a state incompetent to profit by the sensations it receives from the optic nerves (if indeed it does receive those sensations) the party can hardly be said to see; and, it is questionable, whether the optic nerve itself be in a state to convey sensations to the brain, or the retina to receive that depicturation of objects upon it which is the sine qua non of vision. It is, I believe, generally understood (or ought to be), that the phrase "make this people's heart fat," alludes to the effect of full feeding, of greedy gratification of the appetite, whereby a quantity of fat seats itself on the heart, and there increases, till it overburdens that important source of activity. In like manner, this setting of the eyes is the effect of that drowsy disposition which attends over-drinking, that stupefaction which accompanies excess of liquor. And in this sense precisely it is used by Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, act v. scene 1. "Didst see Dick the surgeon, sot?"The clown answers-"O HE'S DRUNK, Sir Toby, above an hour agone, his EYES WERE SET at eight i' the morning." This investigation is intended to parry remarks which have been raised from this commission given by God, to the prophet. Some have said, God commands the prophet to do a certain thing to this people, and then punishes the people: nay, this appears stronger still, where the passage is quoted, as (John xii. 40.): "He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts; which seems to be contradictory to Matthew xiii. 15. where the people themselves are said to have closed their own eyes: and so Acts xxviii. 27. These seeming contradictions are very easily reconciled, by taking the phraseology in its true import: (1) "SET the eyes of this people"-prophesy such flowing times, such abundant jollity, that the people, devoting themselves to gormandizing, may be inebriated with the very idea; and still more with the enjoyment itself, when it arrives. (2) God by giving plenty and abundance, affords the means of the people's abusing his goodness, and becoming both over-fat with food, and intoxicated with drink; and thus, his very beneficence, may be said to make their heart fat, and their eyes heavy: while (3) At the same time, the people by their own act, their over feeding, become unwieldy-indolent-bloated-over-fat at heart; and, moreover, so stupefied by liquor and strong drink, that their eyes and ears may be useless to them: with wide open eyes, "staring, they may stare but not perceive; and listening, they may hear but not understand;" and in this lethargic state they will continue; preferring it to a more sedate, rational, condition, and refusing to forbear from prolonging the causes of it, lest at any sober interval they should see truly with their eyes, and hear accurately with their ears; in consequence of which they should be shocked at themselves, be converted, be changed from such misconduct, and I should heal them; should cure these delusory effects of their surfeits and dissoluteness. Comp. Isaiah v. 11; xxviii. 7. Where is now the contradiction between these different representations of the same event ?—Is it not an occurrence of daily notoriety, that God gives, but the sinner abuses his gifts to his own injury, of body and mind? We presume that no person who has witnessed the progress of intoxication, will deny that whatever efforts the party makes to see, those efforts are fruitless; his eyes goggle, wander, decline, all manner of ways, notwithstanding this set-ness of their internal parts:-in fact, the muscles which move the eye may act, after a sort, while the eye itself is incapable of accurate vision, because incapable of transmitting correct images of external objects. This remark applies to the statement in the foregoing paragraph, and to the close of the foregoing Number: and shews their coincidence of meaning. This may also hint a reason why our Lord spoke in parables; that is, the people were too much stupified to see the plain and simple truth; q. they were too far gone in liquor but their attention might possibly be gained by a tale, or be caught by an inference. No. CXCI. LOSS OF SIGHT: AND ITS RESTORATION. BECAUSE the customs of our country do neither authorize, nor tolerate, the maiming of a criminal by way of punishment, we are (happily for us) incapable of entering into the spirit of several passages of Scripture; for instance, those which speak of, not merely Loss of Sight, but Loss of the Eyes also, the organs of Sight: that is, of Blindness, occasioned by a forcible extraction of the eye itself: nevertheless, till we properly understand this deplorable condition, we shall not adequately comprehend the exertion of that power which could restore the faculty of Sight, by restoring the organ of that important sense. We wish to impress this on the reader; and to present to his conception, the inevitable and remediless misery of the unhappy sufferers under such a calamity; which is a punishment constantly used in the East for rebellion or treason. "Mahommed Khan.... not long after I left Persia his Eyes were CUT OUT. Hanway, p. 224. "The close of this hideous scene (of punishment) was an order to CUT OUT the Eyes of this unhappy man: the soldiers were dragging him to this execution, while he begged with bitter cries that he might rather suffer death. p. 203. "Sadoc Aga had his beard cut off, his face rubbed with dirt, and his Eyes were CUT OUT. p. 204. "The Persians regard blind men as dead;" and indeed they are ever after a dead weight on their families, who maintain them, with great trouble, and who ever have them before their eyes. This is the reason why they are not put to death, at once. "As we approached Astrabad, we met several armed horsemen carrying home the peasants whose Eyes had been put out, the blood yet running down their faces." p. 201. Chardin relates an instance of a king of Imiretta, who lived in this condition, p. 180. Hearing a complaint of continual wars, "I am sorry for it, replied the king, but I cannot help it: for I am a poor blind man; and they make me do what they themselves please. I dare not discover myself to any one whatever; I mistrust all the world; and yet I surrender myself to all, not daring to offend any body, for fear of being assassinated by every body. This poor prince is young, and well shaped and he always wears a handkerchief over the upper part of his face, to wipe up the rheum that distils from the holes of his eyes; and to hide such a hideous sight from those who come to visit him." Let us now consider the anatomical force of some expressions in the prophet Isaiah: he speaks of a person who was to bind up the broken hearted (a broken heart we know is certain death) also, to open the eyes that were blinded (my OURUTH) blindness itself, as the word seems to imply, 2 Kings xxv. 7. for, did not Nebuchadnezzar punish Zedekiah with the usual punishment for high treason, or rebellion (as we have seen above), by cutting out his Eyes, in order to blind him effectually? See also Jer. xxxix. 7; lii. 11. The evangelist Luke (iv. 18.) seems to allude to such an import of the word, and to such a fact. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.. to give to the blind Restoration of (Sight) the power of casting around the eye-balls; re-mobility of the eyes: avaßλfiv. The power which could bind up the broken heart, could also restore the eye-balls to their deprived sockets, and give them every faculty which they had long lost. Let the reader well consider and admire this power! Let him also applaud the correct and happy phraseology of the Evangelist, whom tradition reports to have been the "beloved Physician.' In perfect coincidence with this, Mr. Chesselden observes (Philosophical Transactions, No. 402,) that he had couched several blind persons; and they all had been "mightily perplexed after the operation, how to move their eyes, having had no occasion to move them during their Blindness; and they were a long time before they could attain this faculty, and before they could direct them to any object which they wished to inspect:" that is, they were long in recovering that ávaßλev which our Lord communicated perfectly in an instant. دو The same evangelist uses a very descriptive expression of our Lord's manner of doing such a kindness (Luke vii. 21.): "And to many who were blind he freely made a present of Sight (ἐχαρίσατο τὸ βλέπειν); the word is not now ἀναβλεψιν, but simply βλέπειν ; which seems to justify the stronger import we have ascribed to the former word: while the term exapíraro expresses the graceful readiness of the donor's action. Mr. Pope has two lines which have been much applauded: speaking of the Messiah, he says, He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, Critics might remark the fallacy of the metaphor in the first line, since the visual ray (that is, of light) has no film from which to be purged, whatever the visual way (the passage for light into the eye) might have. But, our observations lead us to the second line, which, however happily expressed, is inferior in strength to the prophet; who not only includes the Restoration of ability for vision, to the sightless eye-ball, but also the Restoration of the eye-ball itself to its proper place, and to its rolling activity: He from thick films shall clear the visual course, No CXCII. LOSS OF EYES: PUNISHMENT FOR REBELLION. WHETHER the application of the instances quoted in the former Number, to the case of Zedekiah, and to the word used in reference to him, may be admitted without hesitation, we will not determine; an adequate critic has thought they might be and his opinion has had its weight with us. But, an instance of what may certainly be considered as a loss of the eye-ball itself, occurs in the case of Samson, Judges xvi. 21. "The Philistines took him and ("V-8 "INEKERU AT-OINIU) Scooped-dug out-his very Eyes:" treating him as a rebel. Well might he, therefore, afterwards, speak of being" avenged on them for the Loss of his two Eyes," verse 28. "O dark, dark, dark, beyond the reach of light!" This shews also the barbarity of Nahash (1 Sam. xi. 2.), who proposed to "thrust out" scoop out-hollow out-the right eyes of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead. Vide No. CXXI. |