he had before closed his eyes he allows
and confronts, and he sees that his own little experience
is but the reflection of a law. You tell me, he seems to
say, that the good are rewarded, and that the wicked
are punished, that God is just, and that this is always
so. Perhaps it is, or will be, but not in the way which
you imagine. You have known me, you have known
what my life has been; you see what I am, and it is no
difficulty to you. You prefer believing that I, whom
you call your friend, am a deceiver or a pretender,
to admitting the possibility of the falsehood of your
hypothesis. You will not listen to my assurance, and
you are angry with me because I will not lie against
my own soul, and acknowledge sins which I have not
committed. You appeal to the course of the world in
proof of your faith, and challenge me to answer you.
Well, then, I accept your challenge. The world is not
what you say. You have told me what you have seen
of it. I will tell you what I have seen.

"Even while I remember I am afraid, and trembling
taketh hold upon my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked
become old, yea, and are mighty in power. Their seed
is established in their sight with them, and their offspring
before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither
is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth and
faileth not; their cow calveth and casteth not her calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their
children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice
at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth,
and in a moment go down into the grave. Therefore they
say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge
of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should
serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray to
him?"

Will you quote the weary proverb? Will you say
that "God layeth up his iniquity for his children?"
(our translators have wholly lost the sense of this
passage, and endeavour to make Job acknowledge
what he is steadfastly denying). Well, and what
then? What will he care? "Will his own eye see
his own fall? Will he drink the wrath of the
Almighty? What are the fortunes of his house to
him if the number of his own months is fulfilled?"
One man is good and another wicked, one is happy
and another is miserable. In the great indifference of
nature they share alike in the common lot. "They
lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them."
Ewald, and many other c