The messengers returned with the report of their unsuccessful application, and (as Balaam naturally expected) were succeeded by a more numerous and dignified embassy, to urge with yet more liberal promises his interposition in behalf of the more alarmed king. Continuing the same artifice as heretofore, (though he well knew, that, as circumstances were, the success of the Israelites could hardly be doubted, and that, accordingly, to curse them would be to forfeit for the future all his character as a true soothsayer,) he told the new envoys that no prospect of advantage would induce him, in a matter regarding the Israelites, to go contrary to Jehovah's word, but that, if they would remain near him till the next morning, he would make another attempt to effect their purpose, in the only way within his province. In the morning, accordingly, he informs them, that he had prevailed so far as to obtain leave to go with them to their monarch's encampment, and await further communications on the spot; and he relates to them (if I understand the passage correctly) the incidents of a dream, in which this consent on Jehovah's part had been conveyed. Nothing could be better devised than this measure, to carry on the imposture, and secure the utmost profit from it. By appearing to act so cautiously and submissively, he secured confidence; and, by repairing to the spot, he placed himself in a position (without exciting any suspicion that such was his design) to make his own the Israelites, must be supposed to have learned it. Verse 9 contains a question altogether suitable for Balaam, narrating a fictitious interview, to put into the mouth of Jehovah, but admitting no interpretation consistent with the common view. - Verse 11 implies no representation on Balaam's part, that the Israelitish God was ignorant of what his people had done. He merely tells the messengers, that, at the pretended interview, he had apprized Jehovah of the fact of their arrival, and of the message which they brought. observations on the existing state of things, so as to avoid being at fault, when he should come to utter his final predictions.* Arrived at Balak's camp, he is received with great * Numb. xxii. 14 - 35. — “The word of Jehovah, my God” (18). This is an expression, which has cost much pains to the commentators, and much error to their followers. The spirit of the transaction, as above described, being regarded, the expression will appear altogether fit and natural. Jehovah was Balaam's god, pro hac vice, as being the god, with whom, as proper guardian of the Israelites, he professed to be treating. Jehovah was "his god," quasi his familiar. To get light on the expression, see not the Rabbins, nor their Christian disciples, but Shakspeare, who, always true to the proprieties of a scene and character, makes Prospero say, "my dainty Ariel"; "my brave spirit"; "my tricksy spirit"; my diligence."—"If the men come " &c. (20); rather, since the men have come &c. I have represented the transaction recorded in verses 21-35 (the last clause of 35 excepted) as Balaam's account of a dream, in which he pretended to have received Jehovah's consent to his repairing to the camp of Balak, with his messengers, its whole machinery being contrived to illustrate his desire to overcome every obstacle, so as to gratify their master. Let the reader compare verse 20 with 21-35, and I think he will see reason to allow, that Balaam, having in the first place told the messengers, who had remained with him, that he had received a communication during the night, and what its substance was (20), then proceeds to tell them in detail (21-35), in what form the communication came, viz. that of a dream, in which, after persisting, in the face of extraordinary discouragements, in the attempt to visit Balak out of his good-will to that prince, he heard himself addressed by Jehovah's angel, who saw how determined he was, with permission to prosecute his journey. The identity of substance between verses 20 and 35, demands particular observation; in 20, as I have remarked, the communication alleged to have been received, being given alone, while it is repeated in 35, as the last of the incidents which made the form and manner of its conveyance. The relation between the two passages is the same which I have represented above as subsisting between Numb. xi. 1-3, and 4-35. Compare also Gen. xxxvii. 21 with 22; John xxi. 1 with 2-23. And thus the inconsistency is done away, (fatal, as it seems to me, to the common hypothesis, to say nothing of other insuperable difficulties attending it,) between the permission first given for the journey (20), and the impediments afterwards supposed to be thrown in its way (22 et seq.) But I shall be required to point to something in the narrative, showing that what I call a dream was designed to be represented as such. I reply, that all writing supposes some exercise of discernment on the part of the reader, and some capacity of inferring, from significant circumstan distinction by the monarch, to whom (reserving himself for future action) he merely repeats the declaration, that he has come to exercise no will of his own, — that he is to receive an oracle, not to dictate one; a declaration rendered necessary by the circumstances, since, by declaring, on the one hand, that the case was desperate, he would have forfeited his prospect of reward, and, on the other, by uttering a favorable prediction which the event should not confirm, he would have lost the reputation from which he derived his gains. On ces, what is not distinctly announced. Such circumstances I have endeavoured to show that there are in this context. It is an obvious artifice of rhetoric to slide into the relation of a dream, from a narrative of real incidents, in such a manner as to require the reader to infer a transition, from the altered character of the occurrences described. I am speaking of an acknowledged law of composition. Let the following lines from one of Scott's poems illustrate it, though of course, we should expect to find even bolder devices of writing in use among ancients and Orientals, than in our tamer western and modern world. "The short, dark waves, heaved to the land, Who doubts, when he has read thus far with attention, that there has been a transition to a dream? Yet he has not been told it; it is merely his inference from the character of the description. The words "thither in fancy wrapt he flies," are no intimation of a dream; they describe the previous state of wakeful musing. And though, for the convenience of the rhyme, and of the further narration, the reader is presently after told "with Allan's dream Mingled the captive's warning scream," it is the fault of his own dulness, if he is not fully in possession of the meaning, before he has proceeded thus far. the morrow, choosing a spot among the hills, where he could have the Israelitish camp below, full in view, and be able to observe it with a leisurely survey, he has seven altars erected (a favorite number with the Israelites, and therefore to be supposed acceptable to their guardian god), and causing a holocaust to be offered on each, of animals which were known to make the customary tribute to that deity, separates himself from Balak under the pretence that it was suitable for the monarch to watch his own offering, and goes away himself to a solitary place, as if to a private interview with Jehovah.* Returning from it, he reports to Balak, (as well he might, after what he had seen with his own eyes of the force of the Israelites, and the pusillanimous fright of the people of the neighbourhood,) that all is in vain; Jehovah will not consent that his people shall be cursed. As Balak's apprehensions and distress increase, however, he naturally becomes more unwilling to abandon the hope of advantage from the magician's interposition, as long as any chance remains; while, on the other hand, it is the plainly eligible course for the latter, having first taken care of his character for truth and consistency, to consent to repeat the attempt which he had pronounced futile, as often as the monarch, in this extremity of his fear, should himself desire; since the more persevering good-will Balaam manifested, the larger compensation he might expect. Accordingly, he goes through the same formalities twice more, shifting his place each time, probably through some hope entertained by Balak, that he might secure a more auspicious spot, and not improbably through some wish of his own' to examine the Israelitish encampment from different points of view. The disappointment of Balak at length vents itself in rage, and he dismisses Balaam abruptly to his home, who, to fix the impression of his supernatural knowledge, breaks out, in parting, into prognostics of the coming triumphs of Israel. These were such as his observations had now satisfied him, that the event would speedily fulfil in part; while in part the predictions, thrown in to fill up the imaginary outline, were so general in their terms, or so indefinite as to the time of their accomplishment, that no refutation of them was to be feared, which would prejudice his character for foreknowledge.* * Numb. xxiii. 4-xxiv. 25.—“God met Balaam, and he said unto him, 'I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram'" (4). That is, Balaam said, on returning to Balak, that he had had an interview with Jehovah, and had pleaded with him to be propitious, in consideration of his having presented, in Balak's behalf, such offerings as Jehovah was accustomed to accept.- "Lo! the people shall dwell alone" &c. (9); it is destined to attain to a singular eminence. "Let me die the death of the righteous (, apparently a paronomasia upon, Israel), and let my last end be like his" (10); that is, Oh that I may be as fortunate to the end of my days, as that people is destined to be, and my lot [or my enterprises] for the future be prospered like theirs. ng has here a similar sense to what I have ascribed to in on page 227.-"Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place," (13, compare 27), "Peor" (28) perhaps being selected as the site of a temple of Baal-Peor. The repetition of trials of this kind, when the first failed, was in the spirit of the ancient idolatries. Augustus, says Suetonius, (cap. 96,) "circa Perusiam sacrificio non litante, cum augeri hostias imperasset." "Si primis hostiis litatum non erat, aliæ post easdem ductæ hostiæ cædebantur." Aul. Gel. lib. 4, cap. 6.-"The spirit of God" (xxiv. 2); a divine impulse, as Balaam pretended. Verse 11 does not imply that Balaam obtained no reward. Balak, in the extremity of his alarm, hints to Balaam, that if he would even now relent, and do the office which had been sought at his hands, all that had yet been done for him was as nothing, compared with what should be."There shall come a star out of Jacob" (17). A star is a natural and a scriptural figure, for princely and triumphant power. Compare Is. xiv. 12. In this, and the four next following verses, we have merely Balaam's declaration, (founded on the observations which he had made on the relative strength and spirit of the parties, but without specifications of circumstances or time,) that the |