approbation, for which we return our thanks, while we indulge our best wishes for its continuance.

CHAPTER I. VERSES 5, 6,

I am BLACK. Kedar does not signify the deep blackness of the negro, but that kind of brownness which is the effect of being tanned by the sun. Job says, chap. xxx. 28. "I went black, but not by the beams of the sun." Stephens the geographer says, "The Kedarites are a nation of Arabia Felix." Suidas places them near Babylon, but the Arabian authors do not determine the place of their residence.

VERSE 7.

Tell me, O thou, whom my soul loveth, where thou. feedest? &c.

There seems to be something so highly figurative in the exclamation of the bride, in these verses, that

it has never occurred to critics that the speaker,

assuming the metaphorical character of a gazelle, or antelope, inquires for the resting place of the flock, wherein she also might rest. They have usually supposed, that she makes this inquiry in the character of a shepherdess, meaning to accompany her shepherd, and to associate with him at the noon time of day, when he would be reposing; but, we have extracted from sir William Jones's translation of an Arabian poet, a passage which not merely compares his mistress to a gazelle, or fawn, but says, she strays from her proper place; and this certainly is the meaning of the bride, "why should I be as one that turneth aside; a straying, roving, animal; one of thy flock, yet wandering by, rather among, the flocks of thy companions?"

In that tribe was a lovely antelope, with black eyes, dark ruddy lips, and a beautiful neck, raised to crop the fresh berries of erac, a neck adorned with two strings of pearls and topazes: SHE STRAYS FROM HER YOUNG, and feeds with the herds of roes in the tangled thicket, where she browzes the hedges of the wild fruit, and covers herself with a mantle of leaves; she smiles and displays her bright teeth, rising from their dark coloured basis, like a privet plant in full bloom, which pierces a bank of pure sand, moistened with dew. To her teeth the sun has imparted his brilliant lustre, but not to the part where they grow, which is sprinkled with lead ore, while the ivory remains unspotted. Her face appears to be wrapped in a veil of sunbeams; unblemished is her complexion, and her skin is without a wrinkle. Her name was Khaula, "the tender fawn."

The answer of the ladies, also, assumes another and

more complimentary appearance. "If thou knowest not, O fairest among women, go thy way forth, rather pursue thy way, in the tracts of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents;" i.e. "We can not answer you in the character of a wandering animal,

CHAPTER II. VERSES 1, 2.

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the vallies. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

1st, Rose. The LXX, and Jerom, instead of rose, render "the flower of the fields," but the Chaldee calls this flower jardah, rose, and is followed by most western interpreters; circumstances seem to determine this to be the wild rose, the uncultivated flower, which thereby corresponds to the lily in the next verse. But besides this rose, Scheuzer refers to Hillerus, Hierophyt. p. ii. who rather seeks this flower among the bulbous rooted plants; saying, that the Hebrew word rendered rose, chabatjeleth, may be derived from chabab, he has loved, and batjel, a bulb, or onion, bulbous root of any flower: and he declares for the asphodel, whose flowers resemble those of the lily. They are very fragrant. Homer and Hesiod praise it. Hesiod says it grows commonly in woods :

and Homer, Odyss. I. xxiv. calls the Elysian Fields, "meads filled with asphodel;" words which agree with the sentiment of the Hebrew here, if we take sharon, as seems perfectly proper, for the common fields. "I am the asphodel of the meadows, or woods; the lily of the vallies," or places not cultivated as a garden is. I prefer, however, the derivation from chabah, to hide, and tjel, to shade, which would denote a rose not yet blown, but overshadowed by its calyx; if to this we add the idea of a wild rose, we approach, I presume, to the strength of the term; "I am a wild rose flower, not fully blown; but enclosed as yet," partly alluding to her enclosing veil. The rose in the East is extremely fragrant: it is indeed the sovereign of the garden; and Hafiz, the Persian poet, says, "when the rose comes into the garden, the violet prostrates itself before it, with its face to the ground." To what degree roses were esteemned among the Greeks, may be seen in Anacreon. But these, no doubt, refer to garden roses, not to the wild flower, which is that of our text. Vide on verses 11, 12, 13. ad fin.

2dly, Lily. This is the constant rendering of the word shushanith, or susanah; and needs no enlargement, as the flower is well known among us.

2dly, Opher healilim; this opher occurs only in Canticles, and is taken for a name whereby the early age of a stag is expressed. Huntsmen have names for the stag as he increases in age, from his birth till his full maturity, a fawn, a calf, a pricket, a stag, &c. and this seems to have been customary in most countries, where the chase of that animal was practised. Bochart derives this word opher, from the Arabic word pharon, which signifies down; because, usually, the horns of the young stags are covered by a velvet like kind of down, which is extremely tender: the idea is perfectly correspondent with the scope of the passage, and with the compliment intended by the speaker; but see this down better placed, i.e. on the cheek, by an Arabian poet, on the following verses. VERSES 11, 12, 13.

The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 1, The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the, 2. turtle is heard in our land. 3. The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs; and the, 4. vine with the tender grape giveth a good smell.

well illustrated by Mr. Harmer.

1st, FLOWERS, buds, shoots, &c. in general, whatever bursts into life, and adorns that ground whereon it vegetates.

times, if not always, a bird of passage; as appears 2dly, TURTLE: this bird is in some sense, or some

from Jer. viii. 7. where it is said to "know its time." Aristotle says the same, lib. viii. cap. 3. so does Varro, lib. iii. cap. 5. and Cicero, de Fin. lib. ii. The

bird is well known among us.

3dly, FIG-TREE. Vide on Psalm cv. 27. 4thly, VINES, gephenim. This is sometimes callplant is too well known to need enlargement. ed the wine vine, as Numb. vi. 4; Judg. xiii. 14. The

We shall add a passage from an Arabian poet, translated by Mr. Richardson, Arab. Gram. p. 94. by way of shewing what are the principal flowers of spring in the East; and of affording a mean of comparing the descriptive particulars selected by these Poets of the same climate, when alluding to the same

season of the

year.

"Yes, by the resplendent spring, and his blooming flowers ;
The narcissus, and the anthemis, like eyes and teeth;
And the jasmine, like the colour of a rejected lover;
And the anemone, like a beautiful virgin advancing in a silken robe;
And the sweet odour-diffusing rain-besprinkled violet;

And the myrtle, like the down on the cheek of the fruitful fawn; And the rose approaching with his army, of thorns, whose beauty is all conquering."

N.B. This last verse shews the esteem in which the rose is held in this country. Vide on chap. ii. 1.

VERSE 14.

My dove in the clefts of the rocks. Pigeons are so abundant in the East, that they are by no means confined to dove cotes, or houses appointed for them; but, as Virgil describes them, they dwell in the clefts of the rocks:

columba

Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi. Homer describes doves flying from the hawk, and taking refuge in rocks, Il. 495. and Od. lib. xii.

VERSE 15.

Take us the foxes; rather jackalls: for which see on Psalm Ixiii. plate, and FRAGMENT, No. 209, where their species are distinguished.

CHAPTER III. VERSE 10.

King Solomon made himself a chariot.... the covering of it PURPLE, the midst thereof being paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem.

It may be seen, that formerly the editor of CALMET Confessed, he did not know in what sense, always, to take the word aregaman, which is usually rendered purple; and this rendering is given to it without hesitation, or suspicion that it could bear any other. All dictionaries and lexicons agree in it nevertheless, that on this subject hesitation might not have been misplaced, may appear after considering a few hints by way of inquiry.

1st, The Arabic word archam or arecham, which is evidently allied to the Hebrew aregam, "signifies variegated, or of different colours :" "variegated, or of more colours than two or three blended together." This is the usual interpretation of the word among the Arabs; as we learn from Bruce, Travels, vol. v. p. 163. though Bruce himself says, it includes also, the combination "of two colours, as black and white." This, I apprehend, leads us to the precise meaning of the Hebrew word. 1st, A combination of two colours, in any pattern whatever; even to the nature of damask linen, of which one figure, square, &c. shews dark, while the other shews light; say black and white: otherwise two colours united into one pigment; i.e. purple; which results from the union of blue and red, in commixion; for such is the combination of purple.

2dly, Threads of two colours, worked mutually into one pattern, whether stripes or crossings, whether black and white, or red and blue, &c. so that the effect of the whole appears superficially varied.

3dly, Variegation of several colours united into a pattern; which we illustrate by those of Turkey carpets in general. These carpets have no animals of any kind, nor flowers, nor any living thing portrayed

on them, but a composition of divers ornaments, and of divers colours, aiming at producing, on the whole, a lively, or splendid effect. This I think illustrates the import of the Hebrew word aregaman. We shall give it this import. examine a few passages wherein it may be useful to

Numb. iv. 13. "And they, the Levites, shall take away the ashes from the altar, and shall spread a PURPLE cloth thereon." The altar being a heavy utensil, and often soiled by the fat, &c. of sacrifices, &c. offered on it, shall be wrapped in a strong, solid covering, a Turkey carpet, or variegated envelope; i.e. an external surtout. This seems by no means an unnatural, or improper covering to such a bulky subject.

Judg. viii. 26. "Golden earrings, ornaments, collars, and variegated raiment," raiment of variegated colours composed into a pattern, worn by the kings of Midian." This is precisely according to the taste of personal decoration in the East; and might almost be rendered "brocaded vestments," in modern language.

2 Chron. ii. 7. "Send me now a man cunning to work, in VARIEGATED colours, and in crimson and blue." This can hardly mean purple here; since purple is a mixture of crimson and blue: but variegations of colours suits the passage completely.

Esth. i. 6. " Railed divisions," in the court of the palace "hung with linen, and VARIEGATED patterns,” 2.e. CARPETS upon railings of silver pillars, and columns of white marble." Vide on this passage, with the plate. Could any thing be more proper, or more magnificent, or more customary than this use of carpets, to hang upon the divisions made by the cross rails which accompanied these pillars and columns?

Prov. xxxi. 22. "She maketh herself coverings of tapestry:" her clothing is silk and brocade; i.e. variegated with sundry colours.

[By the by, as tapestry, according to our application of the word, is rather heavy clothing for a warm country, I would wish to read more literally;

"Woven works, marbudim, she makes to herself of cambric, linen; [i.e. figured.]

And variegated, brocade, is her lower garment, petticoat."

But I think this may be rendered still more correctly, if we advert for the sense of these marbudim, to chap. vi. 16. "I have decked my bed with coverings of marbudim, tapestry;" which appears to be used on the upper part of the bed. This, I say, gives this. passage a more correct parallelism.

Her UPPER GARMENTS, gown, robe, she makes of fine cambric, &c. wrought in a pattern: And of BROCADE her lower garment, petticoat : which is much as we have seen British ladies; nor is this their only resemblance to this excellent portrait

of Solomon; clothe themselves in muslin, or cambric robes, sprigged, &c. by their own hands, worn over silk or satin petticoats. The taste and elegance of which combination seems to have captivated the Hebrew Solomon formerly, as much as it has lately delighted British beholders. For the robe, vest, and drawers of Eastern female dress, vide on Isai. iii. 18. plates.

It should seem too as if this brocade was rather restricted to the inner, or lower garment: for so we find, Dan. v. 7. the king promises whoever explained the writing shall be clothed in scarlet;" areguna, the same word as elsewhere is rendered purple, "his lower garment shall be of variegated" pattern; i.e. brocade. Vide ante, the dress worn by the kings of Midian. This is nearly the dress worn by Mordecai, as prime minister, or grand vizier, Esth. viii. 15. " and Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel, of blue and white; rather, in royal lower garments, or lower garments of royal blue and white, and a great crown of gold, and a vest of fine cotton, with a variegated," border, perhaps, whether of flowers, or of any other pattern embroidered on it. The reader will observe the distinctions marked by the differences between these dresses of office the master of the magi was not the grand vizier, he was only the third ruler in the kingdom.

These passages are sufficient to shew that the sense of purple is not always implied in the Hebrew word aregaman; but a mixture, or combination of colours, of which purple is only one distinction.

If the word aregaman means a weaving of many different colours, or even of two colours only, then we were not very far from the mark, when we proposed the sense of a carpet, for the aregaman which covered the floor of the nuptial palanquin of Solomon in this passage: which, as it was a love gift from the daughters of Jerusalem, we shall compare to those ornamental hearth rugs, worked in patterns, with crewels, with which our young ladies have lately amused themselves, and adorned the hearths of their drawing rooms; these have the solidity, the beauty, the durability, and the ornamental effect of the most costly carpets; such have been worked too for the purposes of coach carpets, by the noblest ladies of England; such might be presented to king Solomon himself! there is but one objection; they are too handsome to be trod on; however, Solomon in his palanquin did not stand, but sit on them; and if the works of the ladies of England are not too valuable for their coaches, no good reason, I am sure, can be given why those of the daughters of Jerusalem should be ill applied in decorating and completing the equipage of Solomon.

Though I have used the word brocade to convey the idea of variegation by colours into a pattern, yet, the word tissue may more accurately suit the description of this aregaman; for, as areg is from regem, aregem, to weave, so is tissue from the French tisser,

tissu, to weave; and hence tisserand, for a weaver, &c. which is perfectly analogous to the derivation of the Hebrew, or rather Chaldee word; and we find by these remarks, our former opinion confirmed, that the city Arech, of Babylonia, was that famous city which contended with Athens in the art of weaving; and from Arech was metamorphosed, à la Grec, into arachne, the spider, as Ovid relates in his Metamorphosewn. The same train of reasoning applies to the tresses of the bride, chap. vii. 5.

Thine bead dress upon thee is like Carmel,

And the tresses of thine hair are plaited like well woven, well figured tissue, aregaman.

i.e. They are extremely numerous; some ladies have an hundred and ten tresses, says lady Montague; they are of great length, reaching low down the back; they are braided, and implicated in the most becoming manner, and to the happiest effect: the king is inextricably entangled in these intricacies," which are wrought one into another with the most attractive skill.

CHAPTER IV. VERSE 11.

Thy lips, drop the honeycomb. Vide on Prov.

VERSES 13, 14.

1st, A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; 2d, a spring shut up; 3d, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of, 4th, pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; 5th, camphire; with, 6th, spikenard; 7th, spikenard: and 8th, saffron ; 9th, calamus; and 10th, cinnamon; with all trees of, 11th, frankincense; 12th, myrrh; and, 13th, aloes, with all the chief spices.

1st, Garden. A hint on the character of gardens in the East may be agreeable on this passage. The comparison of a lady to a garden, is not only a frequent, but an elegant compliment in the East.

Gardens in the East, are little other than verdant forests. Our English plantations are nature regulated and assisted by art; but those of Asia are more shady, more covert, than our own, by reason of the great heats of the country. So de la Motraye describes the grand seignior's garden at Constantinople, as "a heap of groves, and a forest of cypresses, and other great trees, which are always green," vol. i. p. 178. Not only do the windows, &c. of palaces open into their gardens, for the sake of beholding their verdure; but in these gardens they often dine: so says Busbequius, Trav. p. 79. "Haly Basha, deputy to the grand vizier, treated the Persians with a sumptuous dinner, which he made in his garden." And correspondent to this enjoyment should seem to have been the banquet house, kiosk, or pa-/ vilion of Esther, chap. vii. 7. for we read, that "th king arising in his wrath from the banquet of wine ip the palace garden;" the word went is added by

Ar

translators. But if this kiosk stood in the garden, he was no sooner out of one, than he was in the other. "The gardens," says lady Montague, Letter xxxii. "are enclosed with very high walls. There are none of our parterres in them, but they are planted with high trees, which give an agreeable shade. In the midst of the garden is a chiosk, i.e. a large room, commonly beautified with a fine fountain in the middle of it. It is raised nine or ten steps, and enclosed with gilded lattices, round which, vines, jasmines, and honeysuckles, make a sort of green wall. Large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures, and where the ladies spend most of their hours, employed by their music or embroidery." This extract may almost stand as a comment on the passage before us; only we must add to the idea of a garden, that of a fountain in such a garden; and around that fountain, the jasmines and honeysuckles of lady Montague, or the orchard of fragrant plants of Solomon. To shew the value of shady and great trees in the East, we add an extract from baron Du Tott, vol. i. p. 63.

"Above all, they admire the shade of great trees, and will, to preserve them, even disregard the convenience of their houses. I have seen a fine old elm, more ancient than the proprietor, preserved by the architect in the midst of a gallery which it crossed to spread its shade over the roof. All the trees of an estate are left in the same order they are found: and the plan of any building is commonly regulated by them, be they placed how they will; and this, no doubt, because in so warm a climate the shade of great trees is necessary."

Several passages in Scripture coincide with this value of shade.

2dly, A SPRING shut up. After what the reader After what the reader has seen on the nature of gardens, and what has been noticed by him on various occasions, respecting the importance of water in the East, to the purposes of vegetation, and to the sustenance indeed of plants, whether useful or ornamental, nothing need be added on the subject of this spring, or on the following word, 3dly, fountain. That springs and fountains were shut up, appears from the history of Jacob, when entering Padan Aram, and that they were personal property, appears from the struggles occasioned in the days of Abraham, and Isaac, and Moses. A spring, and a fountain, in a royal garden, which garden was itself enclosed, might be expected to maintain its privacy; and this is allegorically converted into a compliment on the modesty, the chastity, and the virgin reserve of the bride, as in the following apologue :

"Feirouz, a vizier, having divorced his wife on suspicion of infidelity, her brothers applied for redress in the following figurative terms, My lord, we ave rented to Feirouz a most delightful garden, a

terrestrial Paradise; he took possession of it, ENCOMPASSED with high walls, and planted with the most beautiful trees, that bloomed with flowers and fruit; he has broken down the walls, plucked the tender flowers, devoured the finest fruit, and would now restore us this garden, robbed of every thing that contributed to render it delicious when we gave him admission into it," Miscel. of Eastern Learning, vol. i. p. 12.

4thly, Pomegranates. Of this tree I shall extract the description from Dr. Woodville's Medical Botany, vol. i. p. 158.

"Punica granatum, pomegranate-tree.

"Class iconsandria, Ord. monogynia. Lin. Gen. Plant. 613.

"Ess. Gen. Ch. Cal. 5-fidus, superus. Petala 5. Pomum multiloculare polyspermum.

"This small tree rises several feet in height: it is covered with a brownish bark, and divided into many small branches, which are armed with spines; the leaves are oblong, or lance-shaped, pointed, veined, of a deep green colour, and placed upon short foot stalks; the flowers are large, of a rich scarlet colour, and stand at the end of the young branches; the corolla is composed of five large roundish slender petals, with narrow claws, by which they are inserted into the calyx; the calyx is large, thick, fleshy, tubular, of a brownish red colour, and divided at the extremity into five pointed segments; the filaments are numerous, short, bent inward, furnished with yellow antheræ, and attached to the calyx; the germen is roundish, and supports a simple style, of the length of the filaments, and terminated by a globular stigma; the fruit is about the size of an orange, and crowned with the five teeth of the calyx: the rind is thick and tough, externally reddish, internally yellowish, filled with a red succulent pulp, [this is gratefully acid, somewhat like that of oranges, contained in transparent cellular membranes, and included in nine cells, within which, numerous oblong angular seeds are also lodged. This shrubby tree is a native of Spain, Italy, Barbary, &c. and flowers from June till September.

"The cultivation of this tree in England is first to be dated from the time of Gerard, in 1596; and though its fruit seldom arrives to a state of perfection in this country, yet the large and beautiful scarlet flowers which it produces, still render it a desirable object of ornamental gardening;" [the double flowered sort more especially, makes a very beautiful appearance.]

Some of these rise to 18, or 20 feet.

5thly, Camphire, al-HENNA. Vide as before referred to.

6thly, 7thly, Spikenard. Vide the plate.

8thly, Saffron is the kiln-dried stigmata of the crocus a flower well known in our gardens. The