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0^ T.WM JitJB MT> E B>. [No ; 288> Satur...
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HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAME...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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An American Tour. A Vacation Tour In The...
sisfcia Wnaisdterfingvhavingiheen assured afc . Saratoga that a stap invariably communicated with the trains at Monroe ; and , after a little growlmg , he mounted his box and . wecset off . The-road was wretched . The planks had not been renewed for many vaars -and we floundered about in a manner more ludicrous than . pleasant . When we tad accampKsfaed . aboutKalTthe distance * and the night had set in , we came to a wodden ^ briagei ^ at the approach tp'which the driver paused . " What is the matter i I demanded . » Why , I guessjthare ^ s a darn ? dhiole in this ' ere bridge , " was his reply . At this-intelligenee I suggested , as it was very dark , he should get out and lead his horses . This , however , did not meet his approbation ; and before I could alight he Wfcipped'the -animals furiously , and over we went , clearing hole and bridge at a bouadj - .... . _ . __ _' .. , ~ ¦ .,- » T -- •¦_ landlord of the Burnet took
, Acting on , the instructions . I received from the House , I an omnibus to a place about a mile from Spring Grove , where buggies were waiting to convey parties to the .-cemetery . " Here , Tom , " said the driver , at whose side I was seatedy . take this manto the cemetery , and bring him back at seven fonthe last 'buifc > ' These . words were addressed to a youth , in charge of a buggy , who replied by noddin & assent , and . discharging a cataract of brown saliva among a lot of hens . As there Was no time to lose , I was soon en route , " Tom" urging his horse at the top of his speed . I am not a- nervous man , so * although we went at a break-neck rate , careering over ^ Btones and through deep ruts , I made no remonstrance , having faith in the springs . But when , on turning a corner , we came suddenly in sight of a board , with the well-known notice , l : l Look-out for the locomotive when the bell rings , which was made more impressive by hearing the signal , and seeing the line of steam
annotmeing ! the proximity of a train , I was somewhat anxious * as my driver did not manifest -the slightest disposition to stop . As usual , the road and railway crossed on the same level , which did not lessen my anxiety . " Hold hard ! stop , stop !' ¦ ' I cried ; and ' as these words received no attention , I-rose from my seat and grasped the drivers arm , for the purpose of arresting our progress ; but in vain . Lashing the horse with redoubled energy * , he replied to my entreaties to stop , by the assurance that he would gba- * eaa < o 8 theea- ^ w » e ; and to my horror , on we-went , buggy and train approximating . rapidly at right angles ; the locomotive ' s bell meanwhile ringing furiously what seemed to be my death ; knell . Finding all efforts to avert an anticipated collision wsretfutile ,. I . resumed my seat , and resigned myself to my fate . What I did or saidduxiag themext few moments I tnow not ; but I remember a feeling of sickness ¦ came'over me as we dashed across the line ,. and I beheld the iron horse rushing
onwards , and almost felt the hot blast of its steam-jets . " There , I told you I'd clear the darn'd thing , " said my driver , chuckling over the achievement ; but 'twas a close shave . " The . author had similar railway experiences of a like hair-breadth nature . Fancy a . whole train ascending a mountain 2400 feet high , the cars zigzaging , and Atlxe .-engine sometimes taking , a totally different direction from the cars ! Bails worn to ribbons , and carriages running off the line are common occurrences ^ the w orst of it is when an accident does occur , as of course must frequently be the case , no redress can be obtained ; remonstrance is useless , and not . uncommonly passengers who are most injured , who have " damages staring them in the face , have the frightful inconsistency to sympathise with the reckless officials whose fault it generally is . Fancy an Englishman with every bone of him more or less broken , delighting in the exertions of the conductor to make up for lost time and to get the train " on . " Weld had of
At the very commencement of his tour ,, Mr . an opportunity -estimating the progress of that vast and powerful organisation , the Jlnow-Nothlngay . who then ' proposed to accomplish a partial revolution in the laws of theTJnited States ; but so rapid is political as well as social life in America , that we have already passed beyond that era , and the Know-Nothing influence approaches its end . ' Mr . Weld mixed in other circles than those agitated by social and political discussions . At a cottage at Nahant he visited Mr . and Mrs . Longfellow , and , independently of his limited time , planned an excursion into the backwoods , where , as the guest of Major Strickland , he joined in the hunting , fishing , and duckrshooting expeditions , visited the Indians , enjoyed the excitement of-running the rapids , and , in fact , saw _ as much of the Canadian interior in a few days as some settlers would do in as many years . Mr Weld accomplishes distances in . fifty-four hours which took his
brother several weeks ; he finds cities firmly established whose foundation at . the lime of his relative ' s visit hardly existed , and he enjoys the refinements of social intercourse where fifty years ago it was unsafe to pass the night . This parallel of eras is almost of itself sufficient to recommend A Vacation Tour . ' .
0^ T.Wm Jitjb Mt> E B>. [No ; 288> Satur...
0 ^ T . WM JitJB MT > E B > . [ No ; 288 > Saturday ,
Historical Commentary On The Old Testame...
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT . A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament . With a Now Translatibn . By Mi Kaliach , PhiL Bh , M . A : English Edition . Longman and Co . We discover , in this work , a vast extent of minute and various learning . The commentary of ! Dr . KaUsch is more practical than dogmatic . It is a laborious analysis , conducted for the most part upon historical principles , of tho institutions and ' manners of the ancient Jews . Ehtermgprofoundly into tjie spirit and meaning of the Hebrew Laws , Dr . Kaliach illustrates their intention and character from the known usages of Eastern races , the necesafcies of Eastern climates , and the incidents of all pastoral life . To the existing bod y of criticisms on the Old Testament he has applied the test of a new translation , with notes from the Rabbinical writers , as well as from those numerous travellers who , in modern times , have explored the social antiquities of'the East . So far , the method of the work is satisfactory . Dr . Kalisch . steersi between ftliteral and a fantastic interpretation . He neither reduces all
narratives to allegory ,. nor insists upon the mechanical strictness ot every Scriptural image . But want of precision is the sin of his style . He perpetuaHy congratulates himself ,. by implication ,. upon his own success , and loves wilih triump hant rhetoric to confute and confound his ^ predecessors , whereas many episodes of Jewish' History , as explained by him , remain in the mythologicalItwiKghV of metaphor . We will consider two subjects of paramount interest , to the elucidation of which Dr ; KaliBch has brought all his learning , and all his positivism . —the plagues of Egypt , and the passuge of the Red Sea . The profane writera wjiib have given an aocou : xt' or the exodus « are Manetho , CHaeremon , Bysimachua , Artapanus , Strabo , Dlodorua , Atoian " , Tacitna ; and'Justmus . Their versions ; dHrerinpf * i » ciro » mstance , P * - all ' more or less 'inconsistent with the Biblical narration as-well ag inferior to , it ift order and lucidity . Manetho , who is believed to hare
been a priest of Heliopolis , three centuries before the birth of Christ , states that Amenophis , king of Egypt , urged by an oracle , desired to rid his country of eighty thousand leprous Jews , who were sent to the quarries on the east of the Nile , and afterwards to Avaris . They chose Osarsiph , a priest of Osiris— -subsequently called Moses—to be their leader , and he , giving theni new rites alid laws , encouraged them to resist the authority of the Pharaoh . From the war which thus arose , the defeated Israelites fled , and were pursued to the borders of Syria . Chaeremon , like Manetho , associates , thoug h-he does not confound , the annals of the Hyksos with those
of the Jews , who are again represented as having heen driven to Syria . Lysimachus , the Alexandrian , carries on the narrative to the apocryphal foundation of Jerusalem ; but Artapanus is the first who speaks of the miracle of the Red Sea . Strabo differs from the other profane historians in describing the exodus as voluntary , but Diodorus affirms that the Jews were violently expelled . Apian alludes to their leprosy , though Tacitus merely says that ,, a pestilence having desolated Egypt , the Jews were cast forth to purify the land and appease the gods . In Justinus also , we find mention of the leprous people . Dr . Kalisch treats this as a fable , and is satirical upon those modern writers who have repeated the myth .
The satire of Dr . Kalisch , however , is not always philosophical . The history of the ten Egyptian plagues , which preceded the exodus , has in all ages furnished to scriptural students a subject of curious inquiry . Numerous scholars—Eichhorn among others—have sought to prove that those visitations were natural phenomena . Dr . Kalisch declares that all such endeavours have been unsuccessful and futile , while many of them have been ludicrous . This is a lofty spirit in which to write the preface of a disputed proposition ; but the commentator soon narrows the space between himself and his antagonists . After a characterisation so supreme we anticipated nothing less than an absolute contradiction . The distinction , however , between " Kalisch and Eichhorn amounts to this : —Eichhorn says that the plagues of Egypt were natural phenomena ; Kalisch says they were miracles " based upon" natural phenomena . It has been demonstrated that the
Nile , at certain times , assumes a dark-red colour ; that generally , immediately after this occurrence , the slime of the river breeds prodigious multitudes of froga , while the air swarms with tormenting insects . In effect , as the Doctor allows , the succession of plagues could not be understood by any one unacquainted with the natural history of Egypt . But , he adds , their miraculous character was evident from the following circumstances : — They happened at an unusual time ; they succeeded one another with unparalleled rapidity ; through the discolouration of the Nile the fish of the river died ; the visitations came at the command of Moses , and ceased at his prayer ; they afflicted only the Egyptians , while the Jews escaped unhurt . It is not our object to discuss the nature of the events themselves ; but such assumptions ought not to be accepted upon reasonings so inconclusive .
No parfc of the text warrants any further belief than that the water of the Nile became of a- bloody colour , and , from its corrupted condition , of a , bitter taste . The Tigris has been similarly dyed ; the river Adonis , of the Lebanon , has turned the sea near its mouth to crimson . In the annals of Leipsie it is related that in 1631 . the Elster , during four days , flowed of a bloody hue . The Red Sea owed its name , in the opinion of many writers , to the partial staining of the waters near Mount Sinai by certain cryptogamic p lants . These circumstances , not ignored by Dr . Kalisch , might have induced him to hesitate before he asserted that the Nile , which has frequently been of a red colour , was literally , in the time of Moses , converted into blood . What is blood ? And what more probable than that , in the diseased condition of the stream , its fish should die ? When he finds in the Bible that the sun and the moon shall be turned into blood , will Dr .
Kalisch assume the literal fact ? Possibly , in such a case , he would maintain that the sun moved in the days of Joshua , for the merit of believing ' that at Joshua ' s command . it stood still . This transubstantiating theory is in no sense * ' based upon natural circumstances or phenomena . " That the plagues occurred successively , at the instigation of Moses , though some of them are of very rare occurrence , is a circumstance adduced in proof of their miraculous origin . But Dr . Kalisch has said that " immediately ; after" the discoloration of the Nile , frogs swarm in the mud ,. and insects in the air—circumstances which , in themselves , might testify to the presence of a taint in the atmosphere and in the water ; and , indeed , it resulted that the river became loathsome ( what wonder that the fish died ?) 1
and " the whole atmosphere infected with a foetid smell" ( whatwonder that sickness arose out of the universal pollution ?) . Moreover , gnats have been the scourge of Egypt from the age of . Moses to our own time . They are described by Philo , by Herodotus , by Augustin , by Theodoret—we purposely keep within the circle of Dr . Kalisch s authorities—and their ravages were so far from being preternatural , that they are celebrated as having" , upon various occasions , driven men and horses to frenzy . ' No very wide distinction is to be observed between them and the beetle-flies , described by Moses in harmony with the accounts of innumerable travellers . Tho cattle murrain is a natural plague in all regions whore tho receding floods leave swamps and pools , and whore hot winds parch the ground . Indeed , the only miraculous attribute ascribed to this visitation was its excessive severity ,
its unseasonable occurrence , and the immunity of the Jews . Tho same remark applies to the ulcers , or black leprosy , which aasaiLed the Egyp tians and left the Israelites unscathed ; to tho hailstorm—not an unfrequent phenomenon in Egypt ; to the swarming of tho locusts ; to tho mysterious darkness , usual in April when the Khamsin blows ; and to the epidemic among children—among "the first-born , " according to tho text—in which , however , says Dr . Kalisch , ' poetical hyperbole" is employed , as when the writer declares that , there was " not a house whore there was not one dead . " I ' the first place , , it would bo irrational to affirm that in overy house throughout the , densely-peopled . land of' Egypt there was a first-born clxild . Next , the expression must > be used in ai . general sense . ; because there , woro no persons * to > check the 1 catalogue of deaths by visiting from , house-to house ; and while this mighty panic lasted , who could tell whether all the cnttl © which died were" the first-born of every beast ?" If the plagues were natural phenomena ( Dr . Kalisch says they yr ^ vo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 29, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29091855/page/18/
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