CHAPTER XV.
THE BOOK OF JOB FROM A GENERAL AND WESTERN POINT OF VIEW.
The Book of Job is even less translatable than the Psalter.
And why? Because there is more nature in it. 'He would
be a poet,' says Thoreau, 'who could impress the winds and
streams into his service to speak for him.' They do speak for
the poet of Job; the 'still sad music of humanity' is continually
relieved by snatches from the grand symphonies of
external nature. And hence the words of Job are 'so true
and natural that they would appear to expand like the buds
at the approach of spring.' It is only a feeble light which
the Authorised Version sheds upon this poem; and even the
best prose translation must for several reasons be inadequate.
Perhaps, though English has no longer its early strength, a
true poet might yet achieve some worthy result. Rarely has
the attempt been made. George Sandys was said by Richard
Baxter to have 'restored Job to his original glory,' but he
lived before the great era of Semitic studies. The poetical
translator of Job must not disdain to consult critical interpreters,
and yet by his own unassisted skill could he bring
this Eastern masterpiece home to the Western reader? I
doubt it. Even more than most imaginative poems the Book
of Job needs the help of the painter. It is not surprising
therefore that a scholar of Giotto should have detected
the pictorial beauties of the story of Job. Though only two
of the six Job-frescoes remain entire, the Campo Santo of
Pisa will be impoverished when time and the sea-air effect
the destruction of these. I know not whether any modern
painter besides William Blake has illustrated Job. He, a
