Thanksgiving - 1867 Author:William Adams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. EXUBERANT GOODNESS. In the eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs we have a most lively personification of Wisdom. The poetry of all languages furnishe... more »s nothing more spirited or pleasing. Before the mountains were settled, and the hills brought forth ; when there were no fountains and no depths; when as yet the earth and the fields and the firmament were not; " then," says Wisdom, " I was with the Almighty as one brought up with him ; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. Rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." In this most animated description there is one sentiment too beautiful to lie concealed in an imperfect translation. It occurs in that word which represents Wisdom as rejoicing in the presence of the Creator and throughout the world which he has made. In the original the image is that of a child playing in excess of glee and sportiveness, in the company of its own parent. That is the word—playing! Some translators, aiming at great exactness, have rendered it " dancing," and " laughing ;" but the authors of our English version, deeming the literal translation unsuited to the dignity of the personification, have contented themselves with themore quiet word—rejoicing; but the image which the word presents is that of a child, the object of parental delight, leaping and running in exuberance of spirits, unable to express all its overflowing pleasure. And this is the figure which represents the creative power by which the world was made ; the pleasure of the Almighty when he swept the graceful curves of the globe, sloped the swell of the hills, wove the tresses of the woods, and gave to the sea its easy swing. This is the form which descends also to the habitable parts of the earth, as if it could not...« less