It is so common as to need no description. 9thly, Catamus aromaticus. Vide on Exod. xxx. 23.

10thly, Cinnamon. I shall extract Dr. Woodville's account of this spice, Med Bot. vol. i. p. 30. "Laurus cinnamomum, cinnamon-tree. "Class enneandria. Ord. monogynia. L. Gen. Ord. monogynia. L. Gen. plant. 509.

"Ess. Gen. Ch. Cal. o. Cor. calycina, 6 partita. Nectarium glandulis 3, bisetis, germen cingentibus. Filamenta interiora glandulifera. Drupa 1-sperma. "This valuable and elegant laurel rises above twenty feet in height; the trunk extends about six feet in length, and one foot and a half in diameter; it sends off numerous branches, which are covered with smooth bark, of a brownish ash colour; the leaves stand in opposite pairs upon short foot stalks; they are of an ovalish oblong shape, obtusely pointed, entire, firm, from three to five inches long, of a bright green colour, and marked with three whitish longitudinal nerves; the common peduncles grow from the younger branches, and after dividing, produce the flowers in a kind of paniculated umbel. The petals are six, oval, pointed, concave, spreading, of a greenish white or yellowish colour, and the three outermost are broader than the other; the filaments are nine, shorter than the corolla, flattish, erect, standing in ternaries, and at the base of each of the three innermost, two small round glands are placed; the antheræ are double, and unite over the top of the filament; the germen is oblong, the style simple, of the length of the stamina, and the stigma is depressed and triangular; the fruit is a pulpy pericarpium, resembling a small olive of a deep blue colour inserted in the corolla, and containing an oblong nut.

"The true cinnamon-tree is a native of Ceylon, where it grows common in the woods. Its cultivation was first attempted in this country about the year 1768, by Mr. Philip Miller, who observes, that the cinnamon and camphire-trees are very near akin;' and that if the berries of these trees were procured from the places of their growth, and planted in tubs of earth, the plants may be more easily reared than by layers, which require two years or more before they take root.

"Ray seems to think that the cassia cinnamomea of Herman, the cassia lignea, and the cassia fistula of the ancient Greek writers, were the same, or varieties of the same species of plant. [It is necessary to observe, that the ancient signification of these names is very different from the modern. The younger branches of the tree, with their bark covering them, were called by the Greek writers κινναμόμων cinnamomum, and sometimes Evyoxarla, or cassia lignea;

but when they were divested of their bark, which by its being dried became tubular, this bark was denom. inated xaria upy, or cassia fistula. But as in process of time the wood of this tree was found useless, they stripped the bark from it, and brought that only; which custom prevails at this day. See account of the cinnamon-tree by Dr. Watson, Phil. Trans. vol. 47.] An inquiry of more importance is, whether the cinnamon of Ceylon is of the same species as that growing in Malabar, Sumatra, &c. differing only through the influence of the soil and climate in which it grows, or from the culture or manner of curing the cinnamon. Mr. White and Mr. Combes, who have investigated this subject with considerable attention, agree with Gracias, and determine this question in the affirmative. [But Mr. White, with the assistance of Dr. Matty, carefully compared the specimens of the cinnamon-tree, commonly called cassia, which he had from Sumatra, with those from Ceylon, preserved in the British Museum, which were the collections of Boerhaave, Courteen, Plukenet, and Petiver, and found the difference so inconsiderable, as fully to justify his opinion. And he observes, if any conjecture can arise from hence, it may be, that the cinnamon of Ceylon was formerly, as well as that of Sumatra and Malabar, called cassia; but that the Dutch writers, being acquainted with the excellent qualities which the ancients ascribed to their cinnamon, chose to add the name of cinnamon to that of cassia; and in process of time they have found the name of cinnamon more profitable than that of cassia, by which we choose to call our canella, to our national loss of many thousands a year,' Phil. Trans. vol. 50. p. 887. How far the reasoning of Mr. White is really well founded, we leave to the judgment of others; it may, however, be remarked, that his opinion is not a little supported, from the consideration that the cinnamon plant varies exceedingly, even in the island of Ceylon, where Burman collected nine different sorts, and Seba actually describes ten.

"The use of the cinnamon-tree is not confined to the bark, for it is remarkable that the leaves, the fruit, and the root, all yield oils of very different qualities, and of considerable value: that produced from the leaves is called oil of cloves, and, oleum Malabathri: that obtained from the fruit is extremely fragrant, of a thick consistence, and at Ceylon is made into candles, for the sole use of the king; and the bark of the root not only affords an aromatic essential oil, or what has been called oil of camphire, and of great estimation for its medical use, but also a species of camphire, which is much purer and whiter than that kept in the shops.

"The spice so well known to us by the name of cinnamon, is the inner bark of the tree; and those plants produce it in the most perfect state, which are about six or seven years old, but this must vary according to circumstances.

"The bark, while on the trees, is first freed of its external greenish coat; it is then cut longitudinally, stripped from the trees, and dried in sand, till it becomes fit for the market, when it is of a reddish yellow, or pale rusty iron colour, very light, thin, and curling up into quills or canes, which are somewhat tough, and of a fibrous texture. It is frequently mixed with cassia, which is distinguished from the cinnamon by its taste being remarkably slimy. This bark is one of the most grateful of the aromatics; of a very fragrant smell, and a moderately pungent, glowing, but not fiery taste, accompanied with considerable sweetness, and some degree of astringency." Vide on Exod. xxx. 23, &c.

35.

11thly, Frankincense. Vide on Exod. xxx. 34,

12thly, Myrrh. Vide on Exod. xxx. 25. 13thly, Aloes. Vide on Numb. xxiv. and Prov. vii. 17.

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning. terrible as an army with banners?

The following are the words of Scheuzer: "I should have here a proper opportunity of describing the empurpled rising of the Aurora, or daybreak, of the light of the sun, and of the moon, and especially of that light called Aurora Borealis, which, by its streams, and the columns of fire it diverges on all sides, forms an image sufficiently expressive of an army, and even traces the likeness of two armies charging each other. Symmachus renders, 'terrible with her troop;'illustrious, like those which are magnified:' or as the fifth and sixth edition of the

LXX read, 'terrible among those which are magnified." Vide the supposal of a comet, to which these renderings partly agree, FRAGMENT, No. 408, on Solomon's Song.

VERSE 11.

I went down into the garden of NUTS; Dr. Shaw thinks these were walnuts: both nuts and walnuts are too well known to need description. For Pomegranates, vide on chap. iv. 13.

CHAPTER VII.

Some assistance toward understanding the parts of dress here described, may be obtained from our plates to Isai. iii. 18. but much more from those to the New Arrangement of Solomon's Song.

VERSES 7, 8.

Palm-tree. This is a very tall, upright, rising, the dates of the shops, hang in clusters from its top. tree, whose leaves are at its head, and whose fruit, There are several kinds; some rise so high as 60, 80, or, says Denon, even 100 feet. The leaves in which our grocers receive their figs, &c. enclosed are those of a species of palm.

VERSE 13.

Mandrakes. Very great are the difficulties of interpreters on the plant intended by the Hebrew word dudaim. Without repeating their conjectures, we shall content ourselves with saying, that the word signifies" the breast of a woman," and that there is a species of melon so called in Persia to this day, "nearly the figure of the coloquintida, colour mingled red and yellow, and of a very agreeable odour." The Syrians and Egyptians call it shemama, and the Persians the same, chamama, i.e. woman's breast: and possibly this alludes also, to the fulness of the maternal breast, as amma may be allied to the Hebrew amma, "mother," and sham, to the Hebrew sem, or shem, "aromatics, sweet scented drugs, spices ;" this agrees with the character of this plant for fragrance, which is held in the hand by way of nosegay: and the Persians call it "perfume of the hands.' FRAGMENT, No. 499.

CHAPTER VIII. VERSE 10.

Vide

CHAPTER I. VERSE 18.

THOUGH your sins were as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they were red like crimson, they shall be white as wool.

The word for scarlet is shenim, the 'double;' either, 1st, double dyed, as in Horace, Carm. lib. ii. Ode 16.

Te bis Afro Murice tinctæ Vestiunt lanæ.

"Thou art clothed with the double dyed purple of Africa:" and, Ep. xii.

Muricibus Tyriis iterata vellera lane.

“The wools with Tyrian purple double dyed." Pliny, also, lib. ix. cap. 16. mentions, "Tyrian purple twice dyed, at a great expense." Or, 2dly, this word may signify a worm of some kind, which doubles on itself; or, an insect which yields this colour, scarlet. But the general opinion is, that the second word crimson, tolaath, denotes the insect that yields this colour; the kermes, which is much the same as the

cochineal insect, now brought to us from Spanish America, and used in dyeing our scarlet cloths. We are greatly at a loss to account for the Tyrian purple, which is said to have been extracted from a shell fish, the murex. That the murex; we have also shell fish on our own coast of the same properties; was capable of yielding a very intense purple, we know ; but the quantity of it is, and must have been, so very small, that it seems incapable of dyeing a piece of cloth in a season.

I am unwilling to think this prophet repeats an idea so closely as it here recurs, by making the first word the colour produced by the worm, the second the worm itself. May double dyed be taken for any colour so produced? And the second clause, "Yea, even double dyed from the deepest of dyes, that produced by the cochineal?" Or, may the first be the colour produced by the shell fish; the second, that by the insect? Two kinds of colour should rather be meant than one, though of the same class of tints.

CHAPTER II. VERSE 20.

Moles, chapharpharoth. Vide plate of the Mole, Levit. xii. 29.

CHAPTER V. VERSE 28.

The hoofs of the horses are as flints. Winkelman observes, that he does not meet in any of the antique, cavalry, statues remaining, any shoes on the hoofs of the horses; and that, where such a thing occurs, it is a modern reparation. Certainly, before the shoeing of horses with iron was adopted, the property of a hard hoof was a great commendation to a horse, vide Isai. v. 28. as thereby he was the better qualified to travel on a hard road, and long at a time. Homer, in the Odyssey, calls such horses "very hard footed." Absyst. cap. 106. calls them "sound footed," and "strong footed," in opposition to those which are "tender footed." Homer goes so far in the Iliad, as to call horses "brazen footed." But this leads to a suspicion, that they were occasionally shod with copper, or brass. The absence

VOL. IV.

20

of shoes, however, gives the true sense of the passage, Amos vi. 12. "Can horses run upon the rock?"

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 18.

In that day the Lord shall hiss for the fly, zebub, which is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt ; they shall come, and shall rest, all of them, on the and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria, and

desolate rallies, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all thorns, and on all bushes.

We have here two creatures which appear to be of a very formidable nature, though of diminutive size: 1st, sebub, or the fly; 2d, deburah, or the bee. They are the usual words for each; yet, as the fly of I think, presume, that the bee of Assyria is equally Ethiopia is the most formidable of flies, so we may, pia, has been described by Bruce, and we have apformidable among bees. The simb, or fly of Ethioplied his description to this passage in FRAGMENTS, plied his description to this Nos. 56, 286.

or,

For the bee, I have not been so fortunate as to meet with any appropriate information; I imagine it should be a creature, not of Mesopotamia, but of very far east for, though I doubt not that Seria, Seriad, "the Land of the Hive," refers to the first swarming of the human race, yet it is by no means impossible, that this also was the peculiar country of the bee; and where that insect, in its wild state, acquired the greatest perfection. There is great confusion in the geographical application of the names Seria, Seriad, Syria and Assyria.

I suspect, also, that we must appropriate to each creature its situation here described, for the simb does not inhabit "holes of the rock," as the bee does; and, I presume, we may refer the two first particulars to the bee: "it shall rest in desolate or forsaken vallies, and in holes of the rocks ;" but the fly shall "settle on thorns and bushes."

It remains now that we notice the words 'YiYY) notjutjim, rendered thorns; and □ nehelelim, rendered bushes. I incline to think, that Mr. Parkhurst, or rather Bate, has well explained this last word, of "pasture grounds, where flocks are tended," because, we learn from Bruce, that the simb appears on the "fat earth," and vallies, and forces the shepherds to drive their flocks to the desert, where this fly does not come, in order to preserve them from his ravages. Neither of those writers have perceived this application of the word, though it perfectly suits the passage and the natural history of the subject. Says Parkhurst, "it must be confessed, that as a derivative from nahal, with the a radical, it might admit of this sense;" which, for want of distinguishing between the actions attributed by the prophet to the bee and the fly, he hardly knows how to admit.

Bruce says, vol. v. p. 189. "Providence, from the beginning, it would seem, had fixed its habitation, that of the simb, to one species of soil, being a black, fat

earth, extraordinary fruitful." "The shepherds preserve their immense herds of cattle by conducting them into the sands, beyond the limits of the black earth, and bringing them back again when the danger from the insect is over." I presume, then, that this fat earth is the import of the Hebrew word here, which our translators have rendered bushes.

May this lead us to the import of the foregoing word, rendered thorns? It is, indeed, so understood by the Chaldee, and the root does not occur in Hebrew. Bishop Lowth renders "thickets," referring, I suppose, to the root otz, a tree. I would rather, if it might be, refer to the root netjeh, in which then, though radical, is omissible, and consider it as implying "flowery meads;" which would agree perfectly with the nature of the "extraordinary fruitful black earth" associated with it, and, by opposition, with the desolate vallies and rocks of the former lines. In fact, as three out of four subjects mentioned are places, this also, by parity, should be a place, not a plant. This would lead to the following distribution of these verses, according to their references to each animal, and its proper situation.

In that day,

The Lord shall hiss for the fly, the zimb,

Which is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, Which shall come and settle on all flowery meads, And on all fruitful pastures.

And for the bee,

Which is in the land of Assyria,

Which shall come and settle on all abandoned vallies,
And in the crevices, or clefts, of the rocks.

These situations seem to correspond correctly to the nature of the insects to which they are referred.

CHAPTER X. VERSE 14.

My hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

There are not many birds which forsake the nest while their eggs are in it: but, if any bird was sitting on her eggs, she would cry out on their being taken away. I have thought, therefore, that this nest might be that of an ostrich, which bird occasionally quits her nest, and in her absence the eggs might be found, and carried off without any resistance or any alarm.

I do not know how a better word than peeped tould be substituted here; but it gives an equivocal idea, as if prying, inspection, was intended, whereas it imports the outcry of the parent bird at the spoliation of her nest. Might it be spelled pipped? from the root of our word, "to pipe," to cry out, to give notice. Lowth reads, "chirped," but that seems too cheerful a term.

CHAPTER XI.

This chapter contains one of the most beautiful of passages; the general reference of the peace and

harmlessness which it describes, we have touched on elsewhere: we shall now only attend to the animals it introduces.

1st, The wolf shall dwell with, 2d, the lamb; the, 3d, leopard shall lie down with, 4th, the kid; 5th, the calf, and 6th, the young lion, and 7th, the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them; 8th, the cow and, 9th, the bear shall feed; 10th, their young ones shall lie down together; and, 11th, the lion shall eat straw like, 12th, the ox; and, 13th, the sucking child shall play on the hole of, 14th, the asp; and the weaned child play on, 15th, the cockatrice den.

1st, The Wolf, zahab. Vide on Gen. xlix. 27. 2dly, The Lamb, a young lamb, male or female. The idea is that of non-resistance.

3dly, The Leopard, nimmer; the spotted panther, perhaps, as being the most considerable of this kind. But may it not be the kind of leopard used in hunting? for we seem to have such an allusion in the name Nimrod, nimmer-od, Gen. x. .9. which is explained of the "mighty hunter before the Lord;" i.. he acted in the sight of the Lord, as a hunting leopard acts, with great agility, springing, leaping, before his master. The idea of this active animal lying down with the kid, is strong; otherwise this word may be taken to denote the leopard kind in general.

4thly, The Kid, a butting young animal; therefore an advance on a lamb of the foregoing versicle, which referred to a lamb too young to butt, at least to effectual resistance.

5thly, The Calf, a further advance, as the calf is stronger than a kid, and more capable of defence if attacked. The word for calf is unusual: perhaps our word, steer, i.e. young bullock, would answer it. With this, steer is associated.

6thly, The young Lion, cephir; which is a proportionate advance also beyond the leopard of the former article.

7thly, The Fatling, the same, I presume, as the "fatted calf," of which we read elsewhere in Scrip

ture.

8thly, The little Child, needs no explanation. 9thly, The Cow, parah, see on Gen. xxxii. 15. 10thly, The Bear, dub, see on 2 Sam. xvii. 8. There should have been an insertion of the word together, here, which seems to read double in the Hebrew.

The cow and the bear shall feed together ;

Together shall their young ones lie down. 11thly, The Lion, ariah, see on Gen. xlix. 11, 12. 12thly, The Ox, bekar. As oxen were forbidden under the ancient dispensation, this should be rendered "beeve," a young bull. As the cow was matched with the bear; she bear, no doubt, in this place, as her young are hinted at; so the stronger animal, the bull is matched with a lion; which also, by parity, should be a strong, male lion.

13thly, The sucking Child. The idea is that of the most helpless infancy. A progress in importance i

here evidently intended from the young of animals, cow, or ewe, to the young of the human race; and it is combined with a proportionate intensity of hazard, the poison of the peten.

14thly, Asp, peten, see on Job. xx. 14. Besides this, I think I may refer the bætan of the Arabians, at this day, to the peten of the Hebrews, with little risk of error. Mr. Forskal describes it as "spotted with black and white, about one foot in length, and nearly half an inch in thickness; it is oviparous; its bite is instant death." This is all that is said by that naturalist on this serpent; we wish, therefore, for further description of it, especially if it be, as I suppose, a creature whose properties are so often alluded to in Scripture,

15thly, The weaned Child, an advance in consequence beyond the infant which precedes it, whose life, just opening, is surrounded by many hazards. 16thly, The cockatrice, tjephuon. This serpent is evidently intended for a proportionate advance in malignity beyond the peten, which precedes it; an advance analogous to that of a weaned child over a mere infant. We regret the more the want of further description of the peten, by Mr. Forskal; for what can exceed that venom which produces "instant death?" To assist our inquiries here, we must endeavour to obtain information from the context; what is this den of the cockatrice? The Hebrew word л meauruth, seems to me not to signify den, i.e." a place enlightened from one hole," as usually understood, from aur, light; but rather to be plural in its form, and to signify lightnings, i.e. brilliancies, sparklings, glitterings; either flashes of effulgence from the whole, or of glitter from a part, or parts of this serpent. And this is not unlike the acceptation of it by the Chaldee, which understands the eyeball of this creature; whose radiance, says Kimchi, shall be so great as to mislead a child, who shall mistake it for a diamond, or precious stone." Scheuzer prefers "the socket of the eyeball," or "the cavern of the eye," because aar, in Arabic, signifies a cavern. Against this idea it may be said, that in the former versicle the "hole of the asp" refers to the chink or crevice made by that creature the entrance to his habitation: and such holes were occasionally, at least, in houses and dwellings; for we read of a man's leaning against a wall, and a serpent, nahash, biting him, Amos v. 19. and we have a history, in Mr. Harmer, of a serpent shewing his head from a chink in a wall, and thereby occasioning the discovery of a concealed treasure. This leads to the notion of, 1st, an enlarged, exposed, opening: 2dly, perhaps, in a place at some distance from a dwelling, to which such a weaned child might ramble, for this den. But,

This representation proceeds wholly on the idea, that the former word, chur, rendered hole of the asp, peten, is correctly rendered. That the word in

some places means a hole, at which what light enters is a mixture of light and darkness, is agreed; but there are other mixtures of light and darkness, besides that of glimmering light. For instance, this word expresses paleness of countenance, Isai. xxix. 21. paleness is a mixture of white and black, not perfect whiteness. The English word, hoar, hoary, says Parkhurst, is derived from this root, but hoary hairs are not inconsistent with grayness. Isaiah uses this word, xix. 9. to denote, says our translation, net work, or wicker work; but possibly this is ill assorted with "fine flax :" it may be that this word denotes a kind of damasking, or pattern, alternately black and white, like some of our wicker baskets. The result of these hints is, that the word chur may express a mottled subject, a mixture in uncertain proportions of black and white. This agrees well with the description of the bætan, as given by Mr. Forskal, which he says is maculatus, mottled, or spotted black and white; and it seems to me to be not unlikely, that the prophet meant to say, "the sucking child should safely amuse himself with considering the mottles of the curious black and white pattern of that deadly serpent the peten; and the weaned child should stroke, or pat, or handle, the burnished gold scales of the ferocious tjepho, with perfect confidence and security." This sense appears, I say, to be extremely expressive and poetical, is perfectly analogous to the nature of the serpent tribe, of which some species are so innocent, not to say fondling, that the ladies carry them in their bosoms, in order to enjoy the coolness of their skins; and the children caress them, as our children do kittens, or puppies. But this is submitted with deference: the naturalist, I am sure, will admit it; and I see no reason why the Hebrew philologist should explode it. gist should explode it. Vide the thoughts appended to the plates of the cerastes and naja.

CHAPTER XIII. VERSE 21.

1st, Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there [in Babylon:] their houses shall be full of, 2d, doleful creatures and, 3d, owls shall dwell there, and, 4th, satyrs shall dance there. And, 5th, the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and, 6th, dragons in their pleasant palaces.

1st, Wild beasts of the desert, tziim. We had occasion, on Psalm lxxiv. 14. to observe, that probably this word signifies "inhabitants of the wilderness," or rather we would take it here for, bestial, inhabitants of the dry wilderness, the desert, agreeably to its root. In this application it will signify, generally, all such kinds of animals, "desert beasts."

But there is greater difficulty in fixing the import of the corresponding word, rendered "doleful creatures," 'n ACHIM; on which I would observe, that a kindred noun from the same root, achu, imports a flag, sedge, or reed, which grows in the marshes, or