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And lovely girls, (she whispers) guard your hearts;
My boy, tho' stript of arms, abounds in arts.

"Let those love now, who never lov'd before;
"Let those who always lov'd now love the more."
Let tender grass in shaded alleys spread,
Let early flow'rs erect their painted head.
To-morrow's glory be to-morrow seen,
That day, old Ether wedded Earth in green.
The Vernal Father bid the Spring appear,
In clouds he coupled to produce the year,
The sap descending o'er her bosom ran,
And all the various sorts of soul began.
By wheels unknown to sight, by secret veins
Distilling life, the fruitful Goddess reigns,
Through all the lovely realms of native day,
Through all the circled land, and circling sea;
With fertil seed she fill'd the pervious earth,

And ever fix'd the mystic ways of birth.'-pp. 30-36.

The light in which the goddess appeared to those among the Pagans, who were disposed to give a physical interpretation of their fables, may be conjectured from the beautiful invocation of Lucretius, thus translated by Creech:

Kind Venus, glory of the best abodes,

Parent of Rome, and joy of men and gods;
Delight of all, comfort of sea and earth;

To whose kind powers all creatures owe their birth.
At thy approach, great goddess, straight remove
Whate'er are rough, and enemies to love;
The clouds disperse, the winds do swiftly mast,
And reverently in murmurs breathe their last;
The earth with various art (for thy warm powers
That dull mass feels) puts forth their gaudy flowers,
For thee doth subtle luxury prepare,

The choicest stores of earth, of sea, of air;
To welcome thee she comes profusely drest,
With all the spices of the wanton East;

To pleasure thee e'en lazy luxury toils,

The roughest sea puts on smooth looks and smiles :
The well pleased heaven assumes a brighter ray
At thy approach, and makes a double day.'

To trace the worship of Venus to its source in Hindoostan, where it is still intimately connected with Sivaism, it would be necessary to enter into details by no means suited to the pages of a popular Review. The Orientals are incapable of shrouding their symbols in those veils of beauty, which the Grecians threw over all their worship, and leave too much open to the eye of

sense.

247

ART. VII.-The History of the Hebrew Commonwealth, from the earliest Times, to the Destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 72. Translated from the German of John Jahn, D.D. Formerly Professor of the Oriental Languages, of Biblical Antiquities, &c. &c., in the University of Vienna. With a Continuation to the time of Adrian. 2 vols. London: Hurst, Chance, and Co. 1829.

THIS very able work of Professor Jahn, one of the most learned of continental biblical scholars, has long been a desideratum in the English language. We possess many admirable treatises on Jewish antiquities, but no compact, and at the same time general history of the Israelitish commonwealth. In presenting, therefore, the excellent work of Dr. Jahn to the English reader, Mr. Stowe has performed a very acceptable service, and deserves considerable praise, both for undertaking so laborious a task, and for the creditable manner in which he has executed it. The low state of biblical learning in this country-the almost entire absence of that spirit of research which is so essential to its pursuit-the want of a sufficient idea of its importance, both in writers and readers-these circumstances render the occasional importation of foreign productions, on this branch of study, of great value, and we shall always hail the appearance of such with satisfaction.

The study of Jewish history requires more qualifications than an inquiry into the progress, or fate, of other nations; but it is by no means so confined in its interest as is commonly supposed. The professional reader pursues it out of necessity, but there are few branches of knowledge from which the general scholar may receive more profit or satisfaction. Owing its establishment to a set of circumstances which strike the imagination with awe, the Hebrew commonwealth is the most remarkable object which we meet with in the dim fields of antiquity. It towers amid perished generations and ruined empires, like a mighty pillar, of which the traveller in the wilderness of time, must never lose sight-a monument, engraven with characters and emblems, which require to be read and interpreted, before we can be fully sure of the path before us. Though originating in a divine dispensation, the Jewish nation has not been separate from others in its general history. The seed from which it sprung was sacred, but it was sown in an earthly soil, and sprung forth among a heathen people. It was watered and nurtured with dews from above, but it grew up among the wild. thorns and briars, that spoke of the land in which it flourished being cursed. When its branches began to extend, and to put forth blossoms and bear fruit, it was taken up, and transplanted into another land, but not one in which it was to bloom solitarily, and multiply itself, with no hand but that of its Divine Planter to prune it. A great and glorious tree, under the shadow of which the strange land of its nursery grew dark, it was borne back again

to its native soil, but neither was it there to stand alone, nor to be seen rising uninjured in its strength and beauty towards heaven. "The boar out of the wood did waste it,"-at one time blight threatened its branches, at another, rottenness its roots. The hedge which had been planted round it was broken down; there were noises in the mountains of destroying enemies; and no eye could rest upon its awful and towering majesty, without discovering that there was a wondrous and strong mystery in its nature, which the other things of the earth felt and acknowledged.

The Jewish history is, indeed, the very core of antient records. The father of the nation is the most renowned character of antiquity, and is reverenced by the follower of Mahomet, by the Persian and the Hindoo, as well as by the believers in the sacred books of his descendants. He appears, from universal report, to have been one of the most powerful men of his times, and the brief account which remains of his life and actions, throws no little light upon the state of the world at the period in which he lived. The traditions which exist respecting him, serve to confirm the relations of the inspired history, and to convince us of the important part he acted in the affairs of that early age. Little less remarkable are the circumstances attending his immediate offspring, traces of whose history are to be discovered in the records of the most ancient people. The restless Arab, unstable as the drifting sand of his deserts, can never be mistaken for the descendant of any other than the reckless son of Isaac. Of the other grandson of Abraham, several accounts remain in antient and heathen historians, and his migration into Egypt, though with a comparatively small number of followers, is spoken of as an event worthy of general note.

It is pretty evident, therefore, that from the very earliest times, and long before it was enlarged into a nation, the chosen family was, from a variety of circumstances, of great importance in the quarter of the world in which it arose, and which was at that period the sole cradle of power, intelligence and civilization. On the Abrahamic race being settled in Egypt, a new era was commenced in its history, which thenceforward was closely united with those of the then most powerful nations of the earth.

Some idea may be formed of the condition of Egypt at this period, from the circumstances which are related respecting the first establishment of the children of Jacob in its remote province of Goshen. The hatred of the natives to pastoral occupations, the high veneration in which the priesthood was then held, the richness and fertility of the country, and a variety of minor circumstances relating to the nature of the government of the nation, are to be understood from the notices given of them in the Mosaic records, and they all tend to shew in a clearer light the connection which the Jewish history has with that of the most important portions of the ancient world. But if this be true in its earlier divisions, it

is infinitely more so as the stream of the narrative increases, and proceeds on in its mysterious course. On the establishment of a new dynasty on the throne of the Pharaohs, the consequence of the Israelites was more distinctly seen. An invasion having been made by some strange people, under Salatis their leader, the ancient government was overthrown, the captain of the foreign host was made king, and a new order of things immediately introduced. * According to a variety of testimonies, it was not only the children of Israel who suffered from this change. The native inhabitants of the country were oppressed, and driven to so great an extremity of distress, that they determined on forsaking their houses and seeking refuge in a foreign land. Independent of the singular manner in which Providence thus brought about the removal of the chosen race to their destined habitations, there are circumstances sufficiently curious in this part of the Jewish annals, to shew their value as a portion of general history. The alterations which take place in nations are easier to be understood from collateral effects than from their immediate results, and thus the change which the invasion of Salatis produced in the state of the newly established descendants of Abraham, proves of what importance it must have been to the country and people at large. It being rarely the case that an usurper troubles what is new and foreign in a nation, till he have almost totally overthrown what has been long established.

But the Jewish history was to this period, an under-current in the history of the world, and only began to run in a channel of its own from the appearance of the great Hebrew legislator before the monarch of Mizraim. From that time it became the record of a distinct people-a people united together for a political as well as religious purpose, and led, and represented, by solemnly appointed chiefs. The memory of their fathers had, from the earliest period of their residence in the country, impressed them with a sense of their future destiny-the miracles with which their great leader astounded their enemies, filled them with a still firmer assurance of deliverance. They now felt that the hour was come, when they were to be no longer under bondage-when the promises which had been left them as a sacred patrimony, were to be fulfilled, and that they were to go forth, a congregation of chosen people, to be a nation among nations.

The publication of an established code of laws gave at once a fixed and regular form to the Hebrew polity. Unlike others, the Jewish people had their government, the statutes and ordinances by which its most minute departments were to be managed, perfected at its very commencement. Before they were settled in the country where it was destined to operate, it had attained the completeness of centuries, and one which is only gained in other governments after a long series of struggles and civil commotions. This, a strong evi

* Josephus.--Schuckford.

dence of its divine origin, must have given the Israelites, independent of the miraculous assistance afforded them, a prodigious advantage over the surrounding nations. In the midst of the contests which they carried on, they remained bound by the regular duties of their sacred citizenship: the reason for which they warred was constantly presented to their minds in such a manner as to prevent their becoming licentious, and the progress they made in obtaining possession of the conquered land, was consequently followed by none of those evils which usually attend such events. As each barrier was broken down, and the land cleared of its polluted inhabitants, they settled themselves in its various divisions, and presented the appearance, as was in fact the case, of a mighty family taking possession of the homes which were their birth-right.

The power and consequence of which the descendants of Abraham thus became masters, gave them a high rank among the nations of that remote antiquity. There is reason to suppose that several of the circumstances which shortly occurred, are alluded to in the fables with which the heathen mythologists have obscured the page of history. But the most interesting subject which the narrative affords for our reflection, is the comparative state of civilization, or political strength, then enjoyed by this and the other great divisions of mankind. Egypt, it is well known, was far advanced in the knowledge of the arts, and in many of the sciences most serviceable to the improvement of society. It is also commonly believed that the Jupiter of the Greeks lived about the same time, and acquired his reputation by the building of cities, promulgating laws, and introducing the general institutions of civil life. The government of Crete, which was also established under Minos not long after, and is reported to have been modelled according to a perfect form of justice, speaks in the same manner of the progress which the different nations were about this period making in knowledge and civilization. The subject is one to which we can here only barely allude, but it is fraught with interest, and is too seldom considered in the light in which it is most really worth being regarded attentively.

The common source of these yet infant nations was Egypt, and they all alike drew their acquaintance with civility from her ancient stores of knowledge. The legislator of the Israelites has left in his writings a record, that he was skilled in all their learning, intimating thereby its extent and value. That the founders of the Grecian states derived their's from the same fountain, is the common report of history; and it becomes, therefore, a most curious and important inquiry, what were the different results produced by, to human appearances, nearly the same causes? for if it should seem that nothing more was effected by the Hebrews than by the other emigrants from Egypt, there would be good reason to doubt the miraculous part of their story; while, on the other hand, should it appear that the circumstances attending their establishment in the country which they sought, the system of laws which they

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