the Gospel is altogether absorbed in the agonising human interest of the scene. No expectation therefore should be entertained that Nature in the Jewish proverbs will be presented with unusual beauty or close observation. Nothing very wonderful is remarked of the world outside the little world of man, and the allusions almost always are made in relation to human hopes and fears and habits. But Nature has not been expelled from the proverbs; she crops out now and then, and, if we bear in mind this warning against undue hopes, the subject seems worth a brief examination. Well then, the following proverbs are assembled solely on account of their references to natural phenomena. That is the one and only pretext for their collocation. Some perchance may say that the excuse is insufficient--but they forget that “a touch of Nature makes the whole world kin.” Since tradition saith of Solomon that “he spake of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; he spake also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping things and of fishes,” we can see where we ought to make a start. We begin with the _trees_. The _trees_ however will disappoint us. Wisdom, we are baldly told, _is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her_ (Pr. 3^{18}), and it is said (Pr. 27^{18}) _Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof_. Even if we get so far as to spy a little fruit upon a tree, and imagine that we have it safely gathered, lo! and behold! it rolls out of our fingers. For the famous proverb, _Like apples of gold in baskets of silver, So is a word spoken in season_ (Pr. 25^{11}), is pretty but elusive, the truth being that the vague phrasing of the English Version is due to nobody knowing what the Hebrew really means! The best passage is this from Ben Sirach, _As the flower of roses in the time of new fruits, as lilies at the waterspring, as the shoot of Lebanon in time of summer, ... as an olive tree budding forth fruit, and as an oleaster with branches full of sap_ (E. 50^{8-10}). Here are the _birds_ in proverbs: _In vain is the net spread in the eyes of any bird_ (Pr. 1^{17}). _As a bird that wandereth from its nest So is a man that wandereth from his home_ (Pr. 27^{8}). _Birds resort unto their like, And truth will return to them that practise it_ (E. 27^{9}). _The eye that mocketh at a father, And despiseth an aged mother, The ravens of the brook shall pick it out, And the young eagles shall eat it_ (Pr. 30^{17}). The _beasts_ may be divided into the wild creatures untamed by man, and the domestic animals. Some of the latter are to be seen wandering most naturally through this picture of the wise farmer: