Produced by David Starner, Thomas Berger
and the Distributed Prooreaders team.
with English text translated for the first time from the primitive Hebrewas restored on the basis of recent philological discoveries.
by
E. J. Dillon
Late Professor of Comparative Philology and Ancient Armenian at the
Imperial University of Kharkoff; Doctor of Oriental Languages of the
University of Louvain; Magistrand of the Oriental Faculty of the Imperial
University of St. Petersburg; Member of the Armenian Academy of Venice;
Membre de la Société Asiatique de Paris, &c. &c.
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To ALEXANDER VASSILYEVITCH PASCHKOFF, M.A.THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
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_My Dear Paschkoff,
In the philosophical problems dealt with by the Sceptics of the OldTestament, you will recognise the theme of our numerous and pleasantdiscussions during the past sixteen years. Three of these are indeliblyengraven in my memory, and, if I mistake not, in yours.
The first took place in St. Petersburg one soft Indian-summer's evening,in a cosy room on the Gagarine Quay, from the windows of which we lookedout with admiration upon the blue expanse of the Neva, as it reflectedthe burnished gold of the spire of the Fortress church. At that time wegazed upon the wavelets of the river and the wonders of the world fromexactly the same angle of vision.
The second of these memorable conversations occurred after the lapse ofnine years. We had met together in the old place, and sauntering out onebitterly cold December evening resumed the discussion, walking to and froon the moonlit bank of the ice-bound river, until evening merged intonight and the moon sank beneath the horizon, leaving us in totaldarkness, vainly desirous, like Goethe, of "light, more light."
Our last exchange of views took place after six further years had spedaway, and we stood last August on the summit of the historic Mönchsberg,overlooking the final resting-place of the great Paracelsus. The long andinteresting discussions which we had on that occasion, just beforesetting out in opposite directions, you to the East and I to the West,neither of us is likely ever to forget.
It is in commemoration of these pleasant conversations, and moreespecially of the good old times, now past for ever, when we looked outupon the wavelets of the Neva and the wonders of the world from the sameangle of vision, that I ask you to allow me to associate your name withthis translation of the primitive texts of the Sceptics of the OldTestament.
Yours affectionately,
TREBIZOND, January 3, 1895._
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A careful perusal of this first English translation of the primitive textof "Job," "Koheleth," and the "Sayings of Agur" will, I doubt not,satisfy the most orthodox reader that I am fully warranted incharacterising their authors as Sceptics. The epithet, I confess, mayprove distasteful to many, but the truth, I trust, will be welcome toall. It is not easy to understand why any one who firmly believes thatProvidence is continually educing good from evil should hesitate to admitthat it may in like manner allow sound moral principl