Was pour’d on Aaron’s head,
Which from the beard down to the skirts
Of his rich garments spread.
Or, as the Scotch translation has it:
Like precious ointment on the head
That down the beard did flow;
Even Aaron’s beard, and to the skirts
Did of his garments go.
Which of these versions is preferable, I leave to the critics in Hebrew and English poesy to determine. I hope, for the sake of David’s reputation as a poet, that neither have retained all the spirit of the original. We had a great deal of conversation with this venerable looking person, who is, to the last degree, acute, communicative, and entertaining, and in whose discourse and manners are blended the vivacity of a Frenchman with the gravity of a Turk. We found him, however, wonderfully prejudiced in favour of the Turkish characters and manners, which he thinks infinitely preferable to the European, or those of any other nation.
He describes the Turks in general as a people of great sense and integrity, the most hospitable, generous, and the happiest of mankind. He talks of returning, as soon as possible to Egypt, which he paints as a perfect paradise; and thinks that, had it not been otherwise ordered for wise purposes, of which it does not become us to judge, the children of Israel would certainly have chosen to remain where they were, and have endeavoured to drive the Egyptians to the land of Canaan.