kept for this occasion. As to the mandrakes, it is indeed doubted what particular fruit they may intend; but most probably, from the contest of Leah and Rachel about them, something very rare, and supposed to excite love'.

Applying these words to the spiritual bride we may .remark, 1. That the love of retirement is often the character of a pious mindof a mind devoted to meditation and prayer, and to converse with the Creator in his works. On the other hand, when the mind is strongly attached to the parade and bustle of populous cities, it indicates a love to vanity, and a disinclination to commune either with our own hearts, or with our God.

2. The getting up early to observe the progress of nature shews a diligence highly ornamental to the Christian character, and a taste honourable to its possessor. Men of elegant taste and elevated minds prefer these objects; and it is certainly the mark of a groveling mind and a mean understanding, either to take delight only in getting money, or in spending it in the vain and wicked amusements of a city.

1 DUDAIM, mandrakes: so the LXX. (who translate ONTIT, Mardgayoga), Onkelos, and most critics and commentators. Hasselquist (Voyages, p. 160) found a great number of these plants near Galilee, which were ripe in May, and, with other travellers and naturalists, describes it as of a strong nauseous smell, and not good to eat; but then, as a Samaritan priest told Mandrell, they were supposed to help conception by being laid under the bed. However, the editor of Calmet is confident that the dudaim were melons.

Happy is the man whose duty and circumstances permit him, at least occasionally, to go forth into the field and to lodge in the villages; and not merely to lodge there; but who rises early to enjoy the sweets of morn; and not to enjoy them only, but to improve them by meditation and reflection, without which, indeed, he can hardly be said to enjoy them.

3. A Christian father, Theodoret, derives hence a very useful hint on the duty of ministers to propagate the gospel, among the heathen, and to watch its effects where it has been already propagated, 'Let us (says he) take care of the meanest and most abject souls, who have lain long neglected, which are tropically called fields and villages.' And again, It behoves us to use all suitable diligence in visiting those who have already re'ceived the word, whether they bring forth more than leaves; and especially whether any beginnings (buds) of charity (or love) appear among them '.

4. The expression, There will I grant thee my affections,' may imply that prayer and meditation, accompanied with a diligent attention to our respective duties, are the ways in which we shall best discover our attachment to our divine beloved.

1 See Patrick in loc.

Chap. VIII. 1-4.

Spouse. O that thou wert as my brother,
That sucked the breasts of my mother!
Should I find thee in the street,

I would kiss thee, and not be despised.
I would carry thee, I would bring thee

Into the houfe of my mother, who would instruct me;
I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine,

Of the new wine of my pomegranates.

[To the Virgins.]

His left hand is under my head,

And his right hand embraceth mé.
I adjure ye, O daughters of Jerusalem—
Why should ye disturb, or why awake
The lovely one, until it please [him?]

This passage I consider as the continuation. of the preceding conversation. The spouse had invited the beloved to partake an entertainment she had provided for him in an adjacent village, where she promises to give every proof of her affection. But here the modesty of her sex seems to check the expression of her attachment, and she suggests a wish that her relation to him were rather that of an infant brother than a husband; that she might be at liberty' to express her affection in the strongest and most public manner, without incurring the charge of forwardness, or indeco

rum 1.

She then anticipates such a scene, and supposes herself in his embraces, as in a former

1 I would kiss thee, and not be despised.' Literally, and they [i. e. fpectators] would not despise me;' but for me (5) five MSS. and two editions read (75) thee, and two other MSS. (1) him.

section; on which I would only remark here, the wish that her relation to Solomon were of the nature, I have stated, farther precludes the possibility of any indelicacy in the ideas of the writer, in the chorus, which is here repeated to conclude the section'.

One expression in this short paragraph is indeed doubtful from an ambiguity of the original, which instead of who would instruct me' might be rendered, thou shouldst instruct me; and I confess I have some hesitation

1 There is a material difference, however, in the expres sion. Instead of [N]' if ye awake,' &c. as in chap. ii. 7. iii. 5. it is here put interrogatively Why should ye dis

turb?-Why should you awake?' &c. Five MSS. indeed add, by the antelopes, and by the hinds of the field;" which words are alfo read in the Arabic and Alexandrian copy of the LXX; but the Vatican LXX adds only, by the hinds of the field,' which makes it probable these words are borrowed from the former passages. About one hundred MSS. prefix a vau to the word head, but I think very unaccountably.

2 The verb (n) being here the future in pihel (as the Jewish grammarians call it) may either be the third person feminine, she would teach, or as the second masculine, thou shouldst teach;' but Dr. Hodgson and the editor of Calmet render Talmudni as the proper name of the queen's mother, though I conceive without fufficient reafon.

The LXX. here introduce a claufe from chap. iii. 4, and Mr. Green, who transposes the second verb, reads the passage thus,

• I would lead thee into the house of my mother,

• I would bring thee into the apartment of her that con

ceived me,

• That thou mightest be my guide.'

But I confess I am jealous of mere conjectural emendations.

6

which to prefer, as the authorities are pretty equally divided.

If the teaching here mentioned be referred to the mother, the question occurs, In what would she instruct her daughter?' and the answer is, In the duties of her new relation ;' but if the verb be taken in the second person, as I am much inclined to admit, the expression must be understood more generally, • thou shouldst instruct me,' i. e. be my preceptor.

The spiced wine is thought to allude to a custom of the parties drinking wine from the same cup in one part of the marriage ceremony, and we know that spiced wine was a great delicacy in the east'.

In the allegorical application of these verses we may observe,

1. That believers wish to enjoy the most intimate relation to, and communion with their Lord.

1

1 Spiced wines were not peculiar to the Jews. Hafiz speaks of wine "richly bitter, richly sweet.' "The Romans lined their vessels (amphora) with odorous gums, to give 'the wine a warm bitter flavour, and it is said the Poles and Spaniards have a similar method to give their wines a favourite relish.' Nott's Odes of Hafiz, note, p. 30.

The word (DDy), rendered by our translators juice, is properly new wine,' or must: and the new wine of pomegranates is, either new wine acidulated with the juice of pomegranates, which the Turks about Aleppo still mix with their dishes for this purpose; or rather wine made of the juice of pomegranates, of which Sir J. Chardin fays they ⚫ still make considerable quantities in the east.' See Harmer's Observations, vol. I. p. 377, 8.

רמונים or רמנים many MSS. read רמני For]

Uu