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PARTISAN REVIEW
independent sentences whose syntactical connection is of the most
rudimentary sort. In this atmosphere it is unthinkable that an imple–
ment, a landscape through which the travelers passed, the serving–
men, or the ass, should be described, that their origin or descent or
material or appearance or usefulness should be set forth in terms
of praise; they do not even admit an adjective: they are serving-men,
ass, wood, and knife, and nothing else, without an epithet; they are
there to serve the end which God has commanded; what in other
respects they were, are, or will be, remains obscure. A journey is
made, because God has designated the place where the sacrifice is
to be performed; but we are told nothing about the journey except
that it took three days, and even that we are told in a mysterious
way: Abraham and his followers rose "early in the morning" and
"went unto" the place of which God had told him; on the third day
he lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. That gesture is
the only gesture, is indeed the only occurrence during the whole
journey, of which we are told; and though its motivation lies in the
fact that the place is high up, yet its uniqueness heightens the im–
pression that the journey took place through a vacuum; it is as if,
while he traveled on, Abraham had looked neither to the right nor
to the left, had suppressed any sign of life in his followers and him–
self save only their footfalls.
Thus the journey is like a silent progress through the indeter–
minate and the contingent, a holding of the breath, a process which
has no present, inserted between that which is past and that which
lies ahead like a blank duration, and which yet is measured: three
days! Three such days positively demand the symbolic interpretation
which they later received. They began "early in the morning." But
at what time on the third day did Abraham lift up his eyes and see
the goal? The text says nothing on the subject. Obviously not "late
in the evening," for it seems that there was still time enough to
climb the mountain and make the sacrifice. So "early in the morn–
ing" is given, not as an indication of time, but for the sake of its
ethical meaning; it is intended to express the resolution, the prompt–
ness, the punctual obedience of the sorely tried Abraham. Bitter to
him is the early morning in which he saddles his ass, calls his serv–
ing-men and his son Isaac, and sets out; but he obeys, he walks on
until the third day, then lifts up his eyes and sees the place. Whence he
