Page:Job and Solomon (1887).djvu/86

 his claim to be an individual 'than the typical character of Dante in his pilgrimage and of Faust in Goethe's great poem annuls the historical element in those two great poetical figures.'

3.

The Purpose of Job as illustrated by Criticism.

More precise definitions of the purpose of Job depend on the acceptance of a critical analysis of the book. Some suggestions on this subject have been already given to facilitate the due comprehension of the poem. I must now offer the reader a connected sketch of the possible or probable stages of its growth. This, if it bears being tested, will perhaps reveal the special purpose of the several parts, and above all of that most precious portion—the Colloquies of Job and his friends. (Compare below, Chap. XII.)

I. The narrative which forms the Prologue is based upon a traditional story which represented Job as hurled from the height of happiness into an abyss of misery, but preserving a devout serenity in the midst of trouble. It is impossible to feel sure that this Prologue is by the same author as the following Colloquies. It stands in no very close connection with them; 'the Satan' in particular (an omission which struck William Blake ), is not heard of again in the book; and there is abundant evidence of the liking of the pre-Exile writers for a tasteful narrative style. It is not a wild conjecture that the first two chapters originally formed the principal part of a prose book of Job, comparable to the 'books' once current of Elijah, and perhaps one may add of Balaam and of Daniel—a book free from any speculations of the 'wise men' and in no sense a māshāl or gnomic poem, but supplying in its own way a high and adequate solution of