“Cobourg, Jan. 1st.—We have been detained here longer than we intended; first by the illness of my eldest girl, and next, waiting for snow to make the roads fit for travelling; at present they are in such a state of roughness from the hard frost after the heavy rains of last month, that the jolting of either cart or waggon could not be borne. There are no covered carriages here. In winter, sleighs (sledges) are used, or waggons, which are neither very nice nor easy. They are very roughly made, with two seats placed across, one before the other, and have rather an odd appearance for gentlemen’s carriages.
“This new year’s day, I hope you are all as well and happy as I am; and I am sure it will give you pleasure to know, my beloved friends, that we could indulge ourselves by going to church on Christmas-day, and receiving the sacrament. Do not imagine that in this banishment, as I fear you still consider it, these duties are neglected; far from it; we have a church near us, and I thank God, the inclination to make use of it.”
5th, Sunday.—The subject of Balaam was continued this morning; and I took an opportunity of asking the meaning of the word parable, as it is used in Numbers xxiii. 7.
“It has more significations than one,” said my uncle, “in both the Old and the New Testaments. It sometimes implies that sort of address to the people, which, from its tone of authority as well as from its elevated language, seems to have been the effect of inspiration. Thus Balaam is said to have taken up his parable, when, contrary to his own wishes and in a style approaching to poetry, he uttered his sublime prophecies. The Psalmist also, after saying, ‘I will open my mouth in a parable,’ gives a rapid, but magnificent sketch of the wonders that God performed for the children of Israel. Secondly, we find it applied in the Greek Septuagint (1 Kings, iv. 32.) to those short sententious sayings of Solomon, which in the English version are called proverbs. And in Ecclesiasticus, our translators have rendered the same Hebrew word in some places by “parables,” and in others by “wise sentences.” Thirdly, in the Gospel it is used in the sense of an apologue or fable; a mode of conveying instruction, or of explaining certain doctrines, which our Lord thought proper to adopt; and which had been frequently employed by the Prophets in the Old Testament.
“It was in the first of these three senses,” continued my uncle, “that Balaam appears to have taken up his parable. Having stated why he had come to Moab, and having confessed that he could not curse those whom God had not cursed, he immediately prophesies the increase and power of Israel. ‘Lo, this people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.’ Had he not been inspired, how could he, on a distant view of a people he had never seen before, have discovered the peculiarities which distinguished the Israelites and their posterity to the latest ages? Their religion and government were then unknown; yet he foretold their entire separation from all other nations; and the present state of the Jews, and all history, confirm the truth of his prediction.”
I asked my uncle why Balak desired the prophet to go with him to another place to curse them?
My uncle said, “that it was the opinion of the heathens, that if one victim failed, or if the Deity was unpropitious at one place, he should be importuned by a repetition of the sacrifice elsewhere. Balaam, therefore, to gratify the king, repeated the same experiment a second and a third time; but still with the same disappointment.”
Caroline made some remark on these words, “He hath as it were the strength of the Unicorn;” and my uncle said, “it is not known with certainty to what animal the strength of Israel is here compared; some have supposed the unicorn to be a kind of single-horned antelope, others think that it is the rhinoceros; but if any of you will remind me of the subject some other day, we will endeavour to see which is the best founded opinion. Balaam afterwards compares the power of Israel to that of the lion; and both seem to allude to the victories by which the Israelites should gain possession of the land of Canaan. It is remarkable, that the inspired language of Balaam very much resembles that which Jacob had used in his predictions respecting Judah. Such is the harmony and connexion between the prophecies of Scripture.”
6th.—We were resolved not to defer the subject of the unicorn; and this morning we began by searching for as much light on the subject as our books could give us, that we might be the better qualified to discuss it with my uncle.
I found in Perceval’s Cape of Good Hope, that notwithstanding all the assertions he had heard of the existence of this animal in Southern Africa, he never met any person who had seen one. A horn, nearly three feet long, was indeed shewn him, as being that of the unicorn, but it evidently belonged to a large species of antelope. My uncle afterwards told us, that there is an antelope of this kind in the mountains of India, which the natives used to pretend had only a single horn; but since the conquest of Nepaul, those mountains have been visited by English officers, who have seen the animal alive with both its horns.