it of a little legal training, and
learn at least the difference between what is probable and what is
proven! What an advantage also, if they had occasionally to address a
jury of respectable tradespeople, and were forced to acquire the art,
or rather not to shrink from the effort, of putting the most intricate
and delicate points in the simplest and clearest form of which they
admit! What a lesson again it would be to men of independent research,
if, after having amassed ever so many bags full of evidence, they had
always before their eyes the fear of an impatient judge who wants to
hear nothing but what is important and essential, and hates to listen
to anything that is not to the point, however carefully it may have
been worked out, and however eloquently it may be laid before him!
There is hardly one book published now-a-days which, if everything in
it that is not to the purpose were left out, could not be reduced to
half its size. If authors could make up their minds to omit everything
that is only meant to display their learning, to exhibit the
difficulties they had to overcome, or to call attention to the
ignorance of their predecessors, many a volume of thirty sheets would
collapse into a pamphlet of fifty pages, though in that form it would
probably produce a much greater effect than in its more inflated
appearance.

[Footnote 49: 'Eran, das Land zwischen dem Indus und Tigris, Beitraege
zur Kenntniss des Landes und seiner Geschichte.' Von Dr. Friedrich
Spiegel. Berlin, 1863.]

Did the writers of the Old Testament borrow anything from the
Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, or the Indians, is a simple
enough question. It is a question that may be treated quite apart from
any theological theories; for the Old Testament, whatever view the
Jews may take of its origin, may surely be regarded by the historian
as a really historical book, written at a certain time in the history
of the world, in a language then spoken and understood, and
proclaiming certain facts and doctrines meant to be acceptable and
intelligible to the Jews, such as they were at that time, an
historical nation, holding a definite place by the side of their more
or less distant neighbours, whether Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, or
Indians. It is well known that we have in the language of the New
Testament the clear vestiges of Greek and Roman influences, and if we
knew nothing of the historical intercourse between those two nations
and th