JARRY, NICOLAS, one of the best-known 17th century French calligraphers. He was born at Paris about 1620, and was officially employed by Louis XIV. His most famous work is the _Guirlande de Julie_ (1641). He died some time before 1674. JARVIS, JOHN WESLEY (1780-1840), American artist, nephew of the great John Wesley, was born at South Shields, England, and was taken to the United States at the age of five. He was one of the earliest American painters to give serious attention to the study of anatomy. He lived at first in Philadelphia, afterwards establishing himself in New York, where he enjoyed great popularity, though his conviviality and eccentric mode of life affected his work. He visited Baltimore, Charleston and New Orleans, entertaining much and painting portraits of prominent people, particularly in New Orleans, where General Andrew Jackson was one of his sitters. He had for assistants at different times both Sully and Inman. He affected singularity in dress and manners, and his _mots_ were the talk of the day. But his work deteriorated, and he died in great poverty in New York City. Examples of his painting are in the collection of the New York Historical Society. JASHAR, BOOK OF, in Hebrew _Sepher ha-yashar_, a Hebrew composition mentioned as though well-known in Josh. x. 13 and 2 Sam. i. 18. From these two passages it seems to have been a book of songs relating to important events, but no early collection of the kind is now extant, nor is anything known of it. Various speculations have been put forward as to the name: (1) that it means the book of the upright, i.e. Israel or distinguished Israelites, the root being the same as in Jeshurun; (2) that Jashar ([Hebrew: yashar]) is a transposition of shîr ([Hebrew: shir], song); (3) that it should be pointed Yashir ([Hebrew: yashir], sing; cf. Exod. xv. 1) and was so called after its first word. None of these is very convincing, though support may be found for them all in the versions. The Septuagint favours (1) by its rendering [Greek: epi bibliou tou euthous] in Samuel (it omits the words in Joshua); the Vulgate has _in libro justorum_ in both places; the Syriac in Samuel has _Ashir_, which suggests a Hebrew reading _ha-shir_ (the song), and in Joshua it translates "book of praises." The Targum on both passages has "book of the law," an explanation which is followed by the chief Jewish commentators, making the incidents the fulfilment of passages in the Pentateuch. Since it contained the lament of David (2 Sam. i. 18) it cannot have been completed till after his time. If Wellhausen's restoration of 1 Kings viii. 12 be accepted (from Septuagint 1 Kings viii. 53, [Greek: en bibliô tês ôdês]) where the reference is to the building of the Temple, the book must have been growing in the time of Solomon. The attempt of Donaldson[1] to reconstruct it is largely subjective and uncritical.