phenomenon, lies (I apprehend) in the general conformation of the region through which the Jordan flows. The rains which descend upon Anti-Lebanon and the mountains around the upper part of the Jordan, and which might be expected to produce sudden and violent inundations, are received into the basins of the Hûleh and the lake of Tiberias, and there spread out over a broad surface; so that all violence is destroyed, and the stream that issues from them can only flow with a regulated current, varying in depth according to the elevation of the lower lake. These lakes indeed may be compared to great regulators, which control the violence of the Jordan, and prevent its inundations. The principle is precisely the same, (though on a far inferior scale,) as that which prevents the sudden rise and overflow of the magnificent streams connecting the great lakes of North America.— As now the lake of Tiberias reaches its highest level at the close of the rainy season, the Jordan naturally flows with its fullest current for some time after that period; and as the rise of the lake naturally varies (like that of the Dead Sea) in different years, so also the fulness of the Jordan. All these circumstances, the low bed of the river, the absence of inundation aud of tributary streams,-combine to leave the greater portion of the Ghôr a solitary desert. Such it is described in antiquity, and such we find it at the present day. Josephus speaks of the Jordan as flowing "through a desert ;" and of this plain as in summer scorched by heat, insalubrious, and watered by no stream except the Jordan.* The portion of it which we had thus far crossed has already been described; and we afterwards had opportunity to overlook it for a great distance towards the north, where it retained the same character. Near the ford five or six miles above Jericho, the plain is described as "generally unfertile, the soil being in many places incrusted with salt, and having small heaps of a white powder, like sulphur, scattered at short intervals over its surface;" here too the bottom of the lower valley is generally barren.† In the * Josep. B. J. iii. 107.—In a similar sense Jerome, Comm. in Zech. xi. 3, "Sic Jordani fluvio... fremitum junxit leonum propter ardorem sitis, et ob deserti viciniam et latitudinem vastae solitudinis et arundineta et carecto." † Buckingham 1. c. pp. 313, 314. northern part of the Ghôr, according to Burckhardt, "the great number of rivulets which descend from the mountains on both sides, and form numerous pools of stagnant water, produce in many places a pleasing verdure, and a luxuriant. growth of wild herbage and grass; but the greater part of the ground is a parched desert, of which a few spots only are cultivated by the Bedâwîn."* So too in the southern part, where similar rivulets or fountains exist, as around Jericho, there is an exuberant fertility; but these seldom reach the Jordan, and have no effect upon the middle of the Ghôr. Nor are the mountains upon each side less rugged and desolate than they have been described along the Dead Sea. The western cliffs overhang the valley at an elevation of 1000 or 1200 feet; while the eastern mountains are indeed at first less lofty and precipitous, but rise further back into ranges from 2000 to 2500 feet in height. Such is the Jordan and its valley; that venerated stream, celebrated on almost every page of the Old Testament as the border of the Promised Land, whose floods were iniraculously "driven back" to afford a passage for the Israelites. In the New Testament, it is still more remarkable for the baptism of our Saviour, when the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, "and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son !" We now stood upon its shores, and had bathed in its waters, and felt ourselves surrounded by hallowed associations. The exact places of these and other events connected with this part of the Jordan, it is in vain to seek after; nor is this necessary in order to awaken and fully to enjoy all the emotions, which the region around is adapted to inspire. As to the passage of the Israelites, the pilgrims of course regard it as having occurred near the places where they bathe or not far below. Mistaken piety seems early to have fixed upon the spot, and erected a church, and set up the twelve stones near to the supposed site of Gilgal, five miles from the Jordan. This is described by Arculfus at the close of the seventh, and by St. Willibald in the eighth century; and the twelve stones are still mentioned by Rudolph de Suchem in the fourteenth. In later times, Irby and * Travels, etc. p. 344. Adamnanus ex. Arculfo II. 14, 15. 18. Rud. de Such. in Reyseb. des h. Matt. iii. 13, seq. Mangles remark that "it would be interesting to search for the twelve stones" near the ford where they crossed some .distance above Jericho.* But the circumstances of the scriptural narrative, I apprehend, do not permit us to look so high up; nor indeed for any particular ford or point, except for the passage of the ark. "The waters that came down from above, stood, and rose up upon a heap, . . . and those that came down towards the sea failed and were cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho."+ That is, the waters above being held back, those below flowed off and left the channel towards the Dead Sea dry; so that the people, amounting to more than two millions of souls, were not confined to a single point, but could pass over any part of the empty channel directly from the plains of Moab towards Jericho. ARTICLE II. THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MANKIND. An attempt to prove that the original or most ancient condition of the human family was CIVILIZED and not SAVAGE. By Philip Lindsley, D. D., President of Nashville University, Tennessee. FEW subjects have given rise to more crude and unphilosophical speculation than the primeval state of mankind. That state is universally represented to have been, either comparatively rude and barbarous, or absolutely wild and savage. Almost the whole of our reading, whether of hisstory, poetry or philosophy, has a tendency to create and to confirm this prejudice. So that we generally take the fact for granted without any investigation; and are fully persuaded of it before we condescend to canvass the logic by which it is so elaborately supported by its numerous advocates. That the Greek and Roman sophists should have * Travels, p. 326. So too Buckingham, p. 315. † Josh. iii. 16. SECOND SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. II. 2 entertained such a notion, or that the ignorant and selfsufficient freethinker of modern times should be no wiser, is not greatly to be wondered at. But that any enlightened Christian, much more, that a Christian philosopher or theologian should be found laboring in behalf of the same doctrine, is truly matter of astonishment and humiliation. The pride of system frequently leads very ingenious men into extravagancies on this, as upon other subjects. It is difficult, indeed, to avoid extremes when we enlist our feelings, as well as our reason, in favor of any theory. But here we are peculiarly liable to err. Nature herself, in all her operations, utters a language and exhibits facts calculated to mislead us. All animals, with which we are acquainted, commence their existence in a comparatively weak and helpless condition. Every thing in the vegetable kingdom is subject to a similar law. The stateliest oak in the forest has been an embryo in the acorn. The lion and the elephant might once have been crushed beneath the feeblest hand. Every man now living has been an infant; and whether the inmate of a palace or a cottage, he was once a debtor to the anxious and constant care of others for the preservation of his life, and to their instruction for the elements of whatever knowledge he possesses. The rule is universal. It has no exceptions. It is certain even, that no mortal would ever speak, or contrive a language, were he to receive no assistance from others; or were he to be totally excluded from social intercourse, so as never to have it in his power to imitate articulate sounds. Thus, then, from analogy, we are led to contemplate the primitive state of man as similar to that of infancy. We are prone to regard the beginnings of all things as small, and feeble, and rude. We always suppose time to be necessary to impart vigor, and beauty, and magnitude, and maturity. States and empires have grown up to power and splendor through years of discipline, and effort, and struggle. Individuals make great literary and scientific attainments in the same manner. And can it be presumed that what is now true of every man, and of every association of men, was not true of him in his original or first condition? Admitting that all men are descended from a common ancestry, why should we suppose that the first families were wiser and more ingenious, more improved and cultivated, than millions of their posterity are, at this moment, known to be? Have not men been found in a savage state in every age of the world, to which authentic history extends? How could men lose a knowledge of the arts-especially of the useful arts-and degenerate into savages, if their forefathers had ever been civilized and enlightened? These and many similar inquiries may, we think, be satisfactorily answered, without at all countenancing the hypothesis upon which they have been grounded. If The savage state was not the primeval state of man. it had been, man would have remained a savage to this day. There is no proof that any nation, or society, or tribe, or family, or individual has ever advanced to a state of civilization without the aid and instruction of those who were previously civilized. There is abundant proof to the contrary. We propose to establish and to illustrate the following proposition, namely: Man has ever been a civilized being. Such was he created, and such do we find him in every age. * The stream of civilization can be traced back from one period and country and nation to another, till we arrive at the original fountain in that paradise of beauty and innocence in which man first awoke to the praises of his Maker and to the healthful exercise of all his faculties. REASON, REVELATION and HISTORY Confirm this view of the subject. 1. REASON. Does not reason tell us that man must have been created, at some period or other, by an almighty, independent, all-wise and beneficent Deity? If so--and every other hypothesis would land us in atheism and absurditydoes not reason intimate that a Creator, infinitely wise, good and powerful, would, at the first, have endowed man with all the faculties, moral, intellectual and corporeal, in such a state of maturity, and with such an aptitude to every exercise and pursuit and attainment, as his distinguished rank *Not everywhere, indeed; but somewhere-in some part of the world. So that there never has been a period of time, however brief, when civilized man could nowhere be found upon the earth. |