Excerpt from Deuteronomy: The Words of Moses on the Plains of Moab Passing over this episode in Israel's history for the present, the only thing that remains to be noticed before the death of Moses on Pisgah is the solemn and affecting charge which he addressed to the people on the plains of Moab, and which we have somewhat fully reported in the book of Deu teronomy. Had I come to this point a few years ago, i would have proceeded at once to take a rapid survey of that long and beautiful discourse, as throwing light upon the character of the aged law giver and his fatherly affection for his people. But, as you know well, doubts have recently been thrown upon the question, whether the words recorded in Deuteronomy were ever spoken by Moses at all. The historical character of the book, or at least of large portions of it, has been denied. It has been confidently asserted that it bears intrinsic evi dence of a later date, and that it contains legisla tion which conflicts with that of the three previous books - legislation which did not come into force till the time of King Josiah, so that we must con clude that it was written shortly before that time by some unknown prophet, and thrown paraboli cally into the form of an address delivered by Moses several centuries before, simply to indicate that it was a legitimate development of the Mosaic law. This view having, from peculiar circum stances, been brought before the public in a way calculated to produce an impression in its favour, I feel that it lies directly in my way, so that I cannot proceed on the assumption that Deuter onomy does contain the speeches and laws of Moses without giving, as briefly as I can, my reasons for this belief. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.