i

spine; every one of which, both in the neck,
in the back, and in the loins, have seven se-,
veral prominencies, four oblique ones, name-
ly, two afcending, and two descending: two
transverse ones, and one acute, straight for-
ward towards the skin. Now, when man, by
reason of age, begins to stoop and bend for-
ward, and withal those fleshy parts, that cover
these processes, begin to shrink and decay, (as
shall be shewed in the following symptom) it
muft neceffarily follow, that all those apophyfes
must appear a great deal plainer and bigger
than they were before; whereby they will fo
exactly resemble the several protuberances of
the limbs of the grashopper, that no words
can sufficiently express their likeness, and
none but the diligent observer of them both
can poffibly understand. And from this exact
likeness, without all doubt, arose the fable of
Tithonus, that living to extreme old age, he
was at last turned into a grashopper; and into
it, it may be very well moralized again; for
then the body of man is quite another thing
than what it was in its prime; it is contracted,
and becomes much less, and crumpled up to-
gether, and in the end is brought even to
crawl upon the ground.

Contrabimur, miróque modo decrefcimus ipft,
Dimidium nostri corporis effe putes :..
Fitq; tripes, prorfus quadrupesq; ut parvulus infans,
Et per fordentem flebile ferpit humum.*

Cornel. Gallus.

There

There remaineth yet one reason more that induceth me to believe, that the parts we have been speaking of are principally here intended, and that is taken from the word which is here

the predicate, whose root מבל fignified primarily, to carry or bear burdens, Lam. v. 7. Ezra vi. 3. Neh. iv. 10. and in this sense it is mostly used. Now, the parts in man that may be called the porters, and which bear the burdens that are carried, can be no other than the scapula, and its acromion, which is the part upon which the burden is pitched; and the back bone which is the part that gives the greatest strength towards the bearing of it, both which, when age hath much enfeebled a man, become unserviceable as unto those ends; these porters do now become a porterage themselves, and those parts that were wont to bear the greatest burdens are now fo great a burden themselves, that the man stoops under them, and is scarce able to bear them.

Now, as the bones are principally here intended, fo alfo all the other parts of the body, that are made of the fame craffiment of feed, may be here included; and if we do but here recal the tranflation of the LXX, we shall understand what change it is in age, that all these undergo; the cartilages of the body, the ligaments, the membranes, the fibres, the veins, the arteries, the nerves, the tendons, and the

The

like, do all grow harder and drier in age, and
tend more towards the nature of bones.
skin also, being partly of this kind (as was be-
fore said) is to be numbred hereunto, which
so long as man remains in strength, is beauti-
ful, plain, and polite; but as he declines,
grows more crusty, and dry, and callous, and
consequently falls into abundance of wrinkles.

Plurima funt juvenum difcrimina, pulchrior ille
Hoc, atque ille alio
Una fenum facies.

And that learned physician *, (who in his youth had wearied himself out with the uncertainty and confufion of profane authors, and therefore in his age betook himself to sacred philosophy) that he might more powerfully affign over this hieroglyphical expreffion to the. sense we have here delivered, faith; the locust ought to be understood of the fea-locuft, which is covered over with an hard, and a crusty and rugged shell: and whosoever shall so take it, cannot but conclude, that it doth decipher the parts we have now treated of. However, I judge the land-locust, or grafhopper may very well fignify the same thing; beside, it is much better known to men, than the other is, and may be extended to fome parts (that ought here to be included) which the other cannot so significantly denote; for by by this clause, the grashopper shall be a burden, we are to understand the alteration of all the more hard and folid parts of the body, usually called the fpermatical; ductilium, viz. induratio, & incrustatio; & fragilium extantia, & prominentia.

Defire shall fail,
Or rather,

The capers shall shrink.

דינהhe word האביונה hath two remarkable fignifications, the one primary and plain, whereby it fignifieth, defiderium, concupifcentia, appetitus; defire, or appetite; the other, secondary or figurative, whereby it signifieth capparis, capers, or the fruit, or rather the flowers of the caper shrub, or bush. And this word is translated from its first fignification to this latter, because of the known use of capers, which is to excite the appetite: Capparis excitat orexin, & appetitum, cibi, & veneris: from whence it is, that some do not improbably derive the word from καπράω, ad luxuriam concito; and for these ends, especially that of the stomach, are they preserved in pickle, and so often used among us for fauce. Now, that the word in this place ought to be taken in this latter, that is, in the figurative signification, these following reasons do induce me to believe, every one of which fingly, ly, feem to have a good perfuafive power; but all of them jointly have doubtless a compulfive power, to any rational man to be of the same opinion. The first, is the general scope that the wisdom of Solomon proposeth to itself in this whole description of age, which is by way of allegory all along: No wonder therefore if the same wisdom, where there be two fignifications of a word, shall rather prefer the allegorical. The second, is the particular intent of this verse, which is to shew the sensible alterations that are made in man in old age, both in respect of his mind, and of the several parts of the body, and that symbolically, or by way of resemblance to other things, and not at all to relate to any of the faculties; and that which doth abundantly back this reafon, is, that the weakned faculties were described before, and particularly it was shewn sufficiently how the appetite both ad cibum and coitum was weakned, in the last verse, in those words, the voice of the grinding is low : And therefore a learned commentator * upon this place, when he had said, fenum libido frigefcit, further adds, (that which might better diftinguish it from what went before) & organa coitus diffipantur; which is indeed, the true purport of the words, though but in part. Again, the contextural expreffions are of the self-fame nature, both those that follow in the

Cornel. à Lap.

allegory,