Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. By the Rev.
S. C. Malan, D.D. Vol. I., Chaps. i.-x. (Williams and Norgate.)—The Book of Proverbs lends itself very well to illustrative annotation. Dr. Malan has chiefly gone to Eastern sources, to the wisdom of Con- fucius and of other less famous sages, for his parallels to the utter- ances of Solomon, though he does not disdain the use of the more generally familiar Western writers. On some subjects there is a very notable consensus of opinion. The only fault that we have to find with Dr. Malan's work is that he is sometimes scarcely rigid enough in insisting on the relevancy of his quotations. We take iii., 16, as an instance : "Length of days is in her right hand." The first illustration is appropriate : " He who has wisdom shall go on spending centuries of life," though, of course, this may mean that the quality of the wise man's life makes it equivalent to the longest. "One day in Thy courts is as a thousand,"—" Virtue produces eternal happiness and temporal good." The connection of temporal good with virtue is of course cognate ; but the Hebrew Scriptures insist so much on long life as the reward of goodness, that we should like to see the sentiment fully illustrated. As it is, the quotations from this source are of very little relevancy. But if not always strictly relevant, Dr. Malan's far-sought illus- trations of his text are remarkably interesting.
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