"fometimes the fuperior will also in return put his hands to his lips '."

This explains what I cited from d'Arvieux, under Obfervation XIV, relating to the Emir's withdrawing his hand when he approached to kifs it; but what is of more importance than this, it gives a clear account of the ground of fome ancient and modern religious ceremonies. Thus Pitts has also told us, that the Mohammedans begin their worship with bringing their two thumbs together, and kiffing them three times, and at every kifs touching their foreheads with their thumbs. When they cannot kiss the hand of a fuperior, they kifs their own, and put it, it feems, to their foreheads; they venerate an unfeen Being, whom they cannot touch, in much the fame way.

66

After a like manner the ancient idolaters worshipped Beings they could not touch: "If I beheld the fun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness and my "heart hath been fecretly enticed, and my "mouth hath kiffed my hand," faid Job, eh. xxxi. 26, 27. That this would have been an idolatrous action, has been often remarked; but I do not remember it has been any where obferved, to have been exactly agreeable to the civil expreffions of respect that obtain in the Eaft.

'P. 66.

OBSER

XIII.

OBSERVATION XX.

They kifs too what comes from the hand of a fuperior. So Dr. Pococke', when he defcribes the Ægyptian compliments, tells us, that upon their taking any thing from the band of a fuperior, or that is fent from fuch an one, they kiss it, and as the highest respect put it to their foreheads.

This is not peculiar to thofe of that country; for the editor of the Ruins of Balbec obferved, that the Arab Governor of that city respectfully applied the Firman of the Grand Seignior to his forehead, which was presented to him when he and his fellowtravellers first waited on him, and then kifed it, declaring himself the Sultan's flave's flave'.

Is not this what Pharaoh refers to in Gen. xli. 40? Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word, or on account of thy word, fhall all my people KISS, (for fo it is in the original,) only in the throne will I be greater than thou: that is, I imagine, the orders of Jofeph were to be received with the greatest respect by all, and kiffed by the moft illuftrious of the princes of Ægypt.

Drufius might well deny the fenfe that Kimchi and Grotius put on these words, the appointing that all the people should kifs his mouth. That would certainly be reckoned in the Weft; in every part of the earth; as 'Travels, vol. 1. p. 182. See also p. 113.

"P. 4.

well as in the ceremonious Eaft, fo remarkable for keeping up dignity and state; a moft strange way of commanding the fecond man in a kingdom to be honoured. It is very strange then that these commentators fhould propofe fuch a thought; and the more fo, as the Hebrew word is well known to fignify word, or commandment, as well as mouth. As this is apparent from Gen. xlv. 21; fo alfo that the prepofition gnal often fignifies according to, or on the account of, is put out of question by that paffage, as well as by 1 Sam. iv. 13, Ezra x. 9, &c. '. These are determinations that establish the expofition I have been giving. Upon thy commandment, or when thou fendeft out orders, my people from the highest to the lowest shall KISS, receiving them with the profoundest respect and obedience.

The Ægyptian tranflators of the Septuagint feem to have understood Prov. xxiv. 26. in much the fame fenfe, Lips fhall kifs thofe things that anfwer right words, fhall kifs those writings by which a judge giveth juft decifions and this feems to be a much better explanation of the paffage, than any of the four which Pool has given us from the critics, in his Synopfis. The fecond, with which our verfion coincides, doth not appear by any means to be juft. The prefix Lamed should in that cafe have been joined to the word Lips; not to repeat what I ob3 Vide Noldii Conc. in part. gnal, 24. E

VOL. II.

ferved

served in the beginning of this article, that nothing can be more diffonant, not only from Eastern cuftoms, but from decencies univerfally maintained, to fuppofe that it fhould be promised to a judge, as an honourable reward for the equity of his decifions, that every party that gained a cause fhould kifs his lips: no! it fhould rather be, he fhall kifs-the hem of his garment, or even the earth at his feet. The word cupit, (every man defires to kifs,) is indeed made ufe of in the Synopfis, perhaps to foften this impropriety; but if fo, it is ufed in vain, for an inhabitant of the Eaft would feel no inclination to kifs the lips of a righteous judge. St. John, who found emotions of veneration, which were fomething like those these people are here supposed to feel, was not prompted in the least to kiss the angel's lips, the effect they produced in him was proftration at the angel's feet. The fourth interpretation in the Synopfis, which is that of a Jewith Rabbi, is one of the most childish conceits that can be easily imagined, namely, that the words of truth tally with each other as lip with lip. The third, that a Judge who pronounces a right decifion doth a thing as grateful as if every word were a kifs, is apparently strained. And as to the firft, it is by no means agreeable to the dignified station of a judge, and of fuch an one Solomon appears to be speaking, that he that pronounces a juft fentence

fhall

fhall be admitted, not merely to kiss the hand, but even the lips, that is, fhall be admitted into the ftricteft friendship; unless it be understood of the king for whom he judges, which as it would be degrading to the prince as the other to the judge, fo neither is it by any means conformable to the preceding words, which exprefs the effects that just or unjust judgments should have on the people. Ver. 23. Thefe things alfo belong to the wife. It is not good to have refpect to perfons in judgment. ver. 24. "He that faith unto the wicked thou art "righteous," (that is, he that abfolveth the guilty,) "him fhall the people curfe, nations "fhall abhor him. ver. 25. But to them "that rebuke him," (that feverely repri"mand him,) fhall be delight, and a good

bleffing fhall come upon him." He that giveth a right answer then in the next verse (the 26th) is apparently the defcription of judge, that pronounces right judgments on thofe caufes that are brought before him to try, and this kiffing, agreeably to all that precedes, muft refer to the people, the nation, not to the king for whom he judges. The Septuagint interpretation is much agreeable therefore than any of the four I have recited—Men fhall kifs the righteous decrees of a juft judge, according to the Eastern forms of expreffing reverence.

more

I do not however know whether a more unexceptionable interpretation ftill may not E a

be