ring leader of
Israel to the Levites and Elders. The third of these orations is
connected with a ceremonial occasion. An ordinance has been made for the
ceremony of 'The Blessing and the Curse' to be an institution of the
promised land: representatives of the Blessing are to stand on one
mountain and representatives of the Curse on the opposite slope, the
whole ritual solemnly enforcing the sanctity of the Covenant. At present
however the people are on the wilderness side of Jordan; accordingly
Moses arranges a _Rehearsal_ of this ceremony, on ground resembling the
valley between Ebal and Gerizim. This rehearsal is allowed to proceed to
a certain point when Moses stops it, and takes the subject of the
blessings and curses into his own hands. Hence the abrupt commencement
of this oration.--As elements of oratorical beauty note (1) the
interweaving and parallelism of sentences, (2) the terrific crescendo
and climax of denunciation. The oration must be spoken to get the full
effect.

/ii. Immortality and the Covenant with Death./ This is an example of the
Written Address, Oratory that is not intended to be spoken. It is one of
a series of imaginary addresses by King Solomon to the other rulers of
the nations, constituting a work entitled 'The Wisdom of Solomon' (in
volume 3 of the present series).--The author's style is distinguished by
a peculiar order of thought, according to which some of the leading
points of his argument take the form of digressions. The thought of this
discourse is that death is no part of the natural order of the universe,
but is introduced into the world by the wickedness of men. The author
imagines a monologue of the wicked, led by despair of aught beyond the
grave to a life of luxury and oppression. Another imaginary monologue
expresses the feelings of the same wicked men as they awaken from death
to the life beyond. But as a digression between these two monologues the
author places his reflections on the 'hopes of the ungodly,' that is,
the substitutes in earlier thought for the grand conception of a life
beyond death. These substitutes are (1) the living over again in
posterity, (2) long life in this world. With regard to the first he
argues that the brood of the ungodly is unstable and accursed: better is
childlessness with virtue. As to the hopes of long life, he argues that
the old age of the wicked is without honour; whereas a life cut short
may be a life perfected.

/iii-vii./ These are