[52] Prov. iii. 35.
[53] This subject, which occupies so large a part of the book, is further treated in Lect. XXIII.
[54] It is noteworthy that the LXX. in ver. 2 seek to maintain the Solomonic authorship by deliberately altering the words.
[55] Cf. the beautiful family picture of the linked and mutually blessed generations in the proverb, "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers" (xvii. 6).
[56] Prov. iv. 8, 9.
[57] Prov. iv. 14.
[58] Prov. iv. 20-23.
[59] Matt. xv. 19.
[60] Paradise Lost, iv. 20, etc., and 75. Cf. also ix. 120:—
"And the more I see
Pleasures about me, so much more I feel
Torment within me, as from hateful siege
Of contraries. All good to me becomes
Bane, and in heaven much worse would be my state."