compared to the luminaries of the world overcast. I
am conscious that this exposition is contrary to that of a number of
learned interpreters, who take this _obscuration of the lights_ in the
genuine sense of the words, and think that the failing of the sight is
here to be understood. But I am surprized, how they happened not to
take notice, that every thing in this discourse, even to the most
minute circumstances, is expressed in words bearing a figurative
sense. For whereas, in describing the infirmities of Old-age, the
injuries of the operations of the mind, as the most grievous of all,
were not to be pretermitted; so these could not be more clearly
expressed, than by the obscuration of the coelestial luminous bodies,
which rule our orb, and cause the vicissitudes of times and seasons.
Moreover it is particularly to be observed here, that the author
mentions the defects of sight lower down, and most certainly he would
have avoided repeating the same thing.

[75] _Job, Chap. xviii. Verse 5, 6, 7._

[76] _Matthew, Chap. vi. Verse 23. John, Ep. i. Chap. ii.
Verse 11._

[77] _Academ. iv. 8._

[78] _James, Epist. Chap. i. Verse 17._

But he goes on, and adds, what well agrees with the foregoing
explanation. _The clouds return after rain._ That is, cares and
troubles crowd on each other, and daily oppress aged folks. As in
moist climates, and those liable to storms, even when the clouds seem
to be exhausted, others soon follow, and the rains become almost
perpetual. And these inconveniencies are felt the more sensibly, in
proportion to the debilitation of the powers of the mind, whereby they
are rendered less able now, than formerly, either to bear, or get the
better of their oppressions.

But from the mind our royal author now passes to the body. _The
keepers of the house_, says he, _shall tremble, and the soldiers shall
give way, and the diminished grinders shall cease_. The limbs, and
firmest parts of the body, are damaged by age: the hands and knees
grow weak, thro' the relaxation of the nerves. Hence those are
rendered incapable of defending us against injuries, and of performing
innumerable other good offices, for which they were originally
intended; and these becoming unequal to the weight they were wont to
sustain, lose their active suppleness, and fail in bending. Likewise
the double teeth or grinders, either drop out, or rot away; so as now
to be too few remaining to comminute solid f