connection, with the account of the covenant which God made with Noah when he declared, "this is the token of the covenant "which I have established between me and "all flesh that is in the earth;" it should be further observed also, that the bow was in general supposed to threaten war or some wintry tempest, an apprehension which might possibly arise from some remembrance of the destruction of the waters which had overspread the earth.

The representation which Homer gives of a shepherd beholding, from a promontory, a dark cloud, coming with a western breeze from the sea, affords a pleasing illustration of those circumstances in nature which were commonly to be observed in Judea, and which were providentially made to concur with the appointments that took place in conformity to the prayer and expectation of Elijah, when there arose "a little cloud out "of the sea like a man's hand, which soon "darkened the heavens with clouds and wind+."

* Gen. ix. 17.

+ Iliad, lib. xvii. v. 547.

Compare Iliad, lib. iv. v. 275-8. with 1 Kings xviii.

It may here be incidentally observed, that Homer, in speaking of a Mæonian, or Carian woman, dying ivory with purple, points to a country adjacent to Thyatira, in which St. Paul places the woman who was a seller of purple, as mentioned in the Acts*.

The representations of ancient manners scattered through the works of Homer, often call to our recollection the sacred descriptions of the Patriarchal ages. The fidelity with which he and the inspired writers characterize the several periods of which they speak, demonstrate the influence of climate and local circumstances in producing permanent effects, the operation of which is even to this day perceivable in the unaltered customs of the East; where a peculiar hospitality is exercised, the result, in some measure, of necessity, and where men elevated in rank, perform the offices of pastoral life, and menial occupation.

If no argument is to be built upon these correspondencies, there are nevertheless some particulars specified by the Poet which seem to have been drawn from a knowledge of the circumstances of the Patriarchal times, when

Compare Iliad, lib. iv. v. 141. with Acts xvi. 14.

not only a striking simplicity of manners prevailed, but indications of the especial care and intervention of Providence were manifested. Thus it is to be observed, not only are the daughters of the land sent out like Rebecca, to draw water and to offer it to the stranger*, but Alcinous speaks of deities descending openly and conversing with men who were acceptable to them, and of their sitting down and feasting with them whom they honoured. He makes mention also of their meeting and attending the solitary traveller on his road. In like manner one of the suitors of Penelope endeavours to check the brutal violence of Antinous, by observing that the gods, under the appearance of strangers, visited cities to inspect the wickedness and good conduct of men; representations which cannot but strongly remind us of the accounts given by Moses, when he speaks of the angels who came to Sodom at even, or of those who appeared to Abraham when he sat at the door of his tent, in the heat of the day, and who partook of his fare; or on another occasion, of those who met Jacob as he went on his way +.

• Gen. xxiv. 44.

+ Ibid. xviii. 1. xix. 1. xxxii. 1.

Alcinous particularly represents the gods to be called down by the sacrifices and hecatombs which were offered up by those who preserved a similitude to their sacred race

by truth and integrity. In the Book of Judges, it is stated, that the angel who appeared to Gideon, in his dejection for the oppression which the Israelites suffered, under the Midianites, commanded him to lay the flesh, with the unleavened cakes which he brought, upon the rock, when the angel, by putting forth the end of his staff, raised up fire out of the rock to consume them. another instance, the angel who appeared unto Manoah, directed him to offer his burnt offering unto the Lord, and ascended in the flame of the altar, so that he appeared no more+.

In

The notions with respect to oracles and inspiration, and the persuasion expressed by Homer that dreams were derived from the Deity, and employed to impart Divine counsels to man, concur with convictions founded on the declarations of Scripture §.

The words of Agamemnon to Calchas

Odyss. lib. vii. 1. 199–205.

Judges vi. 12. 20, 21.

Ibid. xiii. 3-24.

Comp. Odyss. lib. i. v. 200-1. with Numb. xxii. 38.

charging him with always prophecying evil, much resemble those which Ahab used in speaking of Micaiah; and it may be observed with reference to the continuation of the sacred account given on the same occasion, that the poet represents the father of the gods to have employed a dream to delude Agamemnon to draw out his forces, with assurance that he should take the city; and M. Dacier remarks, that this delusion is similar to one employed by God for a judicial infatuation of Ahab, whom it misled to defeat and punishment *.

The introduction of the deities by Homer, gives an air of improbability to his poem, and he represents the subordinate gods in a degraded point of view. It has been stated, however, that the poet designed by these representations to intimate important truths of morality and religion. The intervention of supernatural beings was intended, it has been said, to impress the conviction that nothing was to be done without Divine aid; and the regard

Iliad, lib. i. I. 106, 7. 2 Chron. xviii. 18-20. Dacier upon Aristotle, c. 26. Pope's Notes on Homer, b. ii. 1. 9. The age of Homer approaches so near to that of Ahab, that if he had any knowledge of the event in the history of that king, above referred to, it was probably derived from oral information.