their more ancient canals, a supposition extremely probable; and if those made by the people of Israel were designed for purposes of this kind,-they must have heard with a peculiar satisfaction, that the country to which they were going, required no canals to be dug, no bricks to be prepared for paving and lining them, in order to water it; labours which had so greatly imbittered their lives in Egypt. This idea is favoured by the account which Moses gives of their former servitude: hard bondage, in mortar and brick, is joined with other services of the field, among which may be numbered the digging and cleansing of their canals; and in this view, the mortar and brick are very naturally joined with those laborious and standing operations.-Pix ΤΟΝ. Ver. 11. But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. The striking contrast, in this short but glowing description, between the land of Egypt, where the people of Israel had so long and cruelly suffered, and the inheritance promised to their fathers, where Jehovah reserved for them and their children every blessing that a nation can desire, must have made a deep impression upon their minds. In Egypt, the eye is fatigued with wandering over an immense flat plain, intersected with stagnant canals, and studded with mud-walled towns and cottages; seldom refreshed with a single shower; exhibiting, for three months, the singular spectacle of an extensive sheet of water, from which the towns and villages that are built upon the higher grounds, are seen like islands in the midst of the ocean-marshy and rank with vegetation for three others and parched and dusty the remainder of the year. They had seen a population of naked and sun-burnt peasants, tending their buffaloes, or driving their camels, or sheltering themselves from the overwhelming heat beneath the shade of the thinly scattered date or sycamore trees; below, natural or artificial lakes, cultivated fields, and vacant grounds of considerable extent-overhead, a burning sun, darting his oppressive rays from an azure sky, almost invariably free from clouds. In that "weary land," they were compelled to water their corn-fields with the foot, a painful and laborious employment, rendered necessary by the want of rain. Those vegetable productions which require a greater quantity of moisture than is furnished by the periodical inundations of the Nile, they were obliged to refresh with water drawn out of the river by machinery, and lodged afterward in capacious cisterns. When the melons, sugar-canes, and other vegetables that are commonly disposed in rills, required to be refreshed, they struck out the plugs which are fixed in the bottom of the cisterns; and then the water gushing out, is conducted from one rill to another by the husbandman, who is always ready, as occasion requires, to stop and divert the torrent, by turning the earth against it with his foot, opening at the same time with his mattock a new trench to receive it. Such is the practice to which Moses alludes; and it continues to be observed without variation to this day. But from this fatiguing uniformity of surface, and toilsome method of watering their grounds, the people of Israel were now to be relieved; they were going to possess a land of hills and valleys, clothed with woods-beautiful and enriched with fountains of waterdivided by rivers, streams, and brooks, flowing cool and pure from the summits of their mountains-and, with little attention from the cultivator, exciting the secret powers of vegetation, and scattering plenty wherever they came. The highlands, which are not cultivated by irrigation, are to this day more prized in the East than those which must be watered by means of dikes and canals; both because it requires no labour, which in the low country is necessary, to watch the progress of the water through the channels, in order to give it a proper direction, and because every elevation produces an agreeable change of temperature, where the hills display the loveliness of paradise, while the plains are burnt up with insufferable heat.-PAXTON. Ver. 19. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. When a heathen sits down, he makes mention of the name of his god. Thus, the worshippers of Siva say, when they sit down, "Siva, Siva;" and when they arise, they repeat the same name. At night, when they retire to rest, also when they arise in the morning, or when they stumble in the way, they utter, "Siva, Siva." They have a proverb to the same purport, "When I stumble in the way, I know only to mention thy holy name."-ROEERTS. CHAPTER XII Ver. 31. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God for every abomination to the LORD which he hateth have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. See on chap. 18. 10. Some have doubted whether parents could be so cruel as to compel their offspring to pass through the fire, or to be burnt as a sacrifice to the gods; but we have only to look at modern India, at the numerous infants thrown into the sacred waters, and at the burning alive of widows on the funeral pile of their husbands, to see what human nature is capable of doing. There is reason to believe that, though the British legislature has covered itself with unfading honour in abolishing, by law, these fiendish practices, there are still those of a private nature. Not long ago there were two children offered to the cruel goddess Kali; and one of the supposed perpetrators was arraigned and tried before the Supreme Court, but escaped for want of evidence.-ROBERTS. CHAPTER XIII. Ver. 5. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. The Hindoos may be called a nation of dreamers; they are often elevated or depressed by the gay or sorrowful scenes of their sleeping hours. The morning is the time for the young and the old to tell their wondrous stories, and many a sage prognostication is then delivered to the attentive hearers. Men and women often take long journeys, perform arduous penances, and go through expensive ceremonies, from no other cause than a dream. The crafty Bramin finds this to be a powerful medium of access to the superstition and purses of the people. How many a splendid temple has been built or repaired; how many a rest-house erected; how many a costly present has been the result of a real or pretended dream! Mendicants, pandarams, priests, and devotees, have all had their profitable revelations from the gods. Does a needy impostor wish to have a good berth and a settled place of abode, he buries an idol in some lonely place, and at the expiration of about twelve months he has a dream, and a vision into the bargain, for the god actually appears to him when he is not asleep, and says, "Go to such a place, and you will find my image: there long, long has it been in disgrace; but now you must build a temple to my glory." The knave affects to be greatly excited, and relates the whole as a profound secret to a few of his select friends. The story soon gets abroad, and numbers of people beg of him to go to the sacred place in search of the deity. At last he consents; but expresses many a fear, as they proceed, that he has been deceived, or that his or their unbelief will hinder him from finding out the place. In approaching the scene of operation, he hesitates, thinks he cannot be far off-" the country had just such an appearance in his dream:" he then says, "Dig;" and numbers of the people fall to work in good earnest. After some time, is not here." He then points to the real spot, and again his he shakes his head, repeats his incantations, and says, "It gulled attendants commence their meritorious operations. At last the god is found, and the multitude make the wel kin ring with their shouts of joy. They fall before the grave impostor, and worship at his feet. His object is gained; money and materials come in on every hand; and shortly after a temple and its goodly courts arise, in which he dwells for life. The good or evil of dreams is minutely described in some of their scientific works; and it is not a little amusing to see that some of their notions agree with the English, and especially with those of the inhabitants of North Britain. Does a man dream about the sun, moon, the gods, a mountain, river, well, gold, precious stones, father, child, mother, elephant, horse, car, temple, Bramin, lotus, flesh of animals, flowers, fruits, swan, cow, fowl, toddy; or that he has his hands tied, or is travelling in a palanquin; that the gods are making ceremonies; that he sees a beautiful and fair woman, arrayed in white robes, coming into his house; that his house is on fire; that he sees a chank, or lamp, or full water-pot; that he roasts and eats his own flesh-he will be a king: that he wears new cloth; that he plays in the mud; that he climbs trees; that swarms of anis creep over his body;-these are all good-" he will have great felicity." But to dream the gods laugh, dance, run, sing, weep, or clap their hands, is for the country very evil. That you see a crow, eagle, hawk, ass, black cobra capella, pig, monkey, jackal, or salt, curds, milk, sandals, butter, lime, cotton, mud, red flowers, firewood, a black dog, a devil, a giant, a water-melon, jack-fruit, pumpkin, a hare, an alligator, a bear, a tiger, a ghost; that you go to, or come from, the sea; that the teeth fall out; that the hand is broken; that you wear dirty clothes; that the walls of the temple fall; that you miss your way; that you travel towards the south; that you fall into a pit; or that you see a company of serpents;-these are all evil tokens. To avert the evil implied by those dreams, (and a thousand others not enumerated,) a person must make offerings to the Bramins, and give articles of food. Alms must be bestowed on the poor, and on the Pandarams and other religious mendicants, and the person must bathe in holy water. Let him also listen to the song of Paratham, and all the malignity of his nightly visitations shall be removed. -ROBERTS. Ver. 6. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers. These, and many other passages, show how much the term bosom is used in the scriptures, and that it generally denotes something of great value or security, affection and happiness. Any thing which is valuable or dear to a person is said to be madeyilla, i. e. in his bosom. When a husband wishes to express himself affectionately to his wife, he says, "Come hither, thou wife of my bosom." Is she dead, "Ah! I have lost the wife of my bosom." In the Scanda Purina, the goddess of Vishnoo is said to rest in the bosom of the god "Vishnoo, whose bosom is the abode of Lechimy." To a father it is said respecting a bad son, "Notwithstanding this, you press him to your bosom ;". and of a flatterer, "He would cause the child to fall from the bosom of its mother." (See on Luke xvi. 22.)—Roberts. CHAPTER XIV. Ver. 1. Ye are the children of the LORD your God. Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. Not only common readers, but even the learned themselves appear to be perplexed about the meaning of that prohibition of the law of Moses, contained in the latter part of the first verse of the 14th of Deuteronomy, Ye shall not cut yourself, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead; but it seems to be clearly explained by a passage of Sir John Chardin, as to its expressing sorrow, though it is probable the idolatrousness of the practice may, at this distance of time, be irrecoverably lost. Sir John tells us, "that black hair is most esteemed among the Persians, as well on the head, as on the eyebrows, and in the beard. That the largest and thickest eyebrows are the most beau tiful, especially when they are of such a size as to touch one another. The Arab women have the most beautiful eyebrows of this sort. The Persian women, when they have them not of this colour, tinge them, and rub them with black, to make them the larger. They also make in the lower part of the forehead, a little below the eyebrows, a black spot, in form of a lozenge, not quite so large as the nail of the little finger." This is probably not of a lasting nature, but quickly wears off. These notions of beauty differ very much from those of the ladies of Europe. None of them, I think, are fond of having their eyebrows meet; but, on the contrary, take pains to keep the separation between them very distinct. But if the eastern: people are of a different opinion, it is not at all surprising, at at the same time that they laid aside the hair of their heads, with their more artificial ornaments, in a time of mouting, they should make a space bald between their eyes too, since it was their pride to have them meet when in a joyful state, and even to jom them with a black perishable spot, rather than have an interruption appear between the eyebrows. But as the sacred writers admitted the making their heads bald in mourning, while Moses, forbids not only idolatrous cuttings of the flesh, but this making the space bald between the eyebrows, it appears there was something of idolatry in this too, as well as in those cuttings, though it is not easily made out. After this circumstance, relating to eastern beauty, is known, the addition to bishop Patrick's account of the heathens being wont to shave the eyebrows, in times of mourning, will, I presume, give no pleasure: "Or,” says this worthy writer, "(which some think is the meaning of between the eyes,) the hair in the forepart of the head, or near the temples, as R. Solomon interprets it. Which seems to be the meaning of the Hierusalem Targum, which translates it, 'Ye shall not make any baldness in the house of your countenance.'"-HARMER. Ver. 4. These are the beasts which ye shall eat; the ox, the sheep, and the goat. See on Lev. 11. 2. CHAPTER XV. Ver. 6. For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee. From the numerous allusions in the sacred writings, to the subject of lending and of usury, it is easy to perceive that this was a very common practice among the ancients of the East. There are thousands at this day who live on the interest of a very small capital, and thousands who make immense fortunes by nothing but lending. So soon as a man has saved a small sum, instead of locking it up in his box, it goes out to interest at the rate of twelve, and sometimes twenty, per cent. People of great property, on account of their anxiety to put out every farthing, often leave themselves in considerable difficulty. Children are taught, in early life, the importance of this plan: hence, striplings may be heard to boast that they have such and such sums out at interest. This propensity often places government in circumstances of great loss in reference to their shroffs, or native treasurers. They lend cut money from the chest to a great amount, merely to gain the inter"Ah! you shall lend money to many people," is one of the blessings pronounced on a youthful pair. When a person acquires a new situation, when a man is prosperous, it is said, "He will lend to many people;" which means, he will be rich, and have much influence.-ROBERTS. est. Ver. 8. But thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Of a liberal man, it is said, "He has an open hand." "That man's hand is so open, all will soon be gone." When a poor man asks a favour of a rich man, in the presence of another, the bystanders will say, Open your hand wide to him." A person who has been refused a favour, says, on his return," Alas! he would not open his hand; no, not a little."-ROBERTS. Ver. 16. And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee, (because he loveth thee and thy house, because he is well with thee,) 17. Then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever: and also unto thy maid-servant thou shalt do likewise. 18. It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest. Moses specifies two periods, at which the Hebrew servant was to regain his freedom; the seventh year, Exod. xxi. and Deut. xv; and the fiftieth, or year of jubilee, Lev. xxv. How these periods are reconciled with each other, considering that the year of jubilee must always have immediately followed a sabbatical year, and that of course the servants must have been already free, before its arrival, deserves inquiry. Here then all depends upon the sense in which Moses understands the seventh year; whether as the sabbatical year, in which the land lay fallow, or as the seventh year from the time when the servant was bought? Maimonides was of the latter opinion, and to me also it appears the more probable. For Moses uniformly calls it the seventh year, without using the term sabbatical year. What then is more natural than to understand the seventh year of servitude? And besides, when he describes the sabbatical year in Lev. xxv. 1-7, we find not a word of the manumission of servants. The apparent inconsistency of the two laws thus ceases. The servant was regularly restored to freedom after six years' service; but supposing him bought in the forty-sixth year of the Jewish calculation, that is, four years before the jubilee, he did not, in that case, wait seven years, but received his freedom in the year of jubilee, and with it the land he might have sold. In this way Moses took care that too great a proportion of the people should not be slaves at one time, and thus the state, instead of free citizens to defend it with arms in their hands, have only the protection of a number of unarmed servants. There might still be other cases in which a slave only recovered his freedom in the fiftieth year. For instance, if a man was sold for debt, or for theft, and the sum which he had to pay exceeded what a servant sold for six years was worth, it is certainly conformable to reason that the said debtor or thief should have been sold for a longer period, at least for twice six years: but still, in that case, his servitude would cease on the coming of the jubilee, when every thing reverted to its former state. It has been generally supposed, that those servants who did not choose to accept their freedom in the seventh year, and of whom I shall immediately speak, became free at the year of jubilee. Here, however, a doubt has occurred to me, whether any such servant could, after he had become so much older, have ventured to accept freedom in the fiftieth year; and whether he would not rather wish and expect, that the master to whose service he had, from attachment, generously sacrificed his best days, should keep and maintain him in his old age? At the same time, it occurs to me to observe, on the other hand, that in the fiftieth year every Israelite received the land he had sold: so that the servant, who before refused his freedom, because he had nothing to live on, might now accept it with joy, when his paternal inheritance returned to him quite unincumbered." Moses, as I have just remarked by the way, presupposes it a possible and probable case, that a servant, who had a good master, might wish to remain with him constantly during life, without seeking to be free; particularly if he had lived in contubernio with one of his master's female slaves, and had children by her, from whom, as well as from himself, he must separate, if he left his master's house. In such a case, he permits the servant to bind himself for ever to the service of the master, with whose disposition he had by six years' experience become acquainted. But, in order to guard against all abuse of this permission, it | was necessary that the transaction should be gone about judicially, and that the magistrate should know of it. The servant was therefore brought before the magistrate, and had his ear bored at his master's door. It does not belong to my present subject, but to that of Hebrew antiquities, to enter into a particular illustration of this custom, which, in Asia, where men generally wear ear-rings, was not uncommon, and was, besides, among the other Asiatic nations a mark of slavery; and, therefore, I here merely remark, that it was the intention of Moses, that every Hebrew who wished to continue a servant for life, should, with the magistrate's previous knowledge, bear a given token thereof in his own body. He thus guarded against the risk of a master having it in his power either to pretend that his servant had promised to serve him during life, when he had not; or, by ill usage, during the period that he had him in his service, to extort any such promise from him. I may further observe, en passant, that the statute of Moses made boring the ears in some degree ignominious to a free man; because it became the sign whereby a perpetual slave was to be known. And if the Israelites had, for this reason, abandoned the practice, Moses would not have been displeased. Indeed, this was probably the very object which he had in view to get imperceptibly effected by his law; for in the wearing of ear-rings, superstition was deeply concerned. They were very frequently consecrated to some of the gods, and were thus considered as amulets to prevent the sounds of enchantment from entering the ear and proving hurtful. If, however, the servant was willing to accept his freedom, not only was it necessarily granted him, but Moses besides ordained in one of his latter laws, as an additional benefit, that the master, instead of sending him empty away, should make him a present of sheep, fruits, oil, and wine, to enable him to begin housekeeping anew, Deut. xv. 13-15. On this occasion he observes, that such a servant does his master twice as much service as a servant hired by the day; which I thus understand. If a man bought a servant for six years, he only paid half as much as a hireling would in that period have received besides his maintenance: because the purchase money was necessarily paid down on the spot, and the purchaser had to run the risk of his servant dying before the term of his service was expired. But when this risk was passed, and the servant had actually earned him his daily hire, his master was bound, in recompense of the advantages he thus brought him, to grant him some little gratification. At the same time, Moses reminds the Israelites that their forefathers had all been slaves in Egypt, and that therefore it was their duty to act with kindness towards those of their brethren, whose fate it was to feel the hardships of bondage. -MICHAELIS. CHAPTER XVI. Ver. 16. Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty. Moses instituted other festivals besides the Sabbath; and three of them, which we usually denominate High Festivals, were distinguished from the Sabbath and all other holydays, by this remarkable difference, that they lasted for seven, one of them, indeed, for eight, successive days; and that all the males in Israel were then obliged to assemble at the place where the sanctuary stood. That every people interested in the preservation of their religion, must set apart, I will not say a day, but certainly a specific time for divine worship, is obvious. This is a point, the proofs of which I willingly leave to theology, or even to philosophical ethics, from which I may here assume it as well understood. But besides this, (and here I must beg leave, as it is more agreeable to present usage, to employ the word days for times, without meaning, by day, either the precise period of 24 hours, or that from sunrise to sunset,) there is a necessity for days of rest and pleasure. By unintermitted labour, the body becomes weakened, loses that activity and vigour which the alternations of labour, rest, and amusement, produce, and grows soon old. Bodily labour otherwise, no doubt, increases strength; and the peasant who works with his hands, will always be a stronger man than the person who folds them across his breast, or only writes with them; but then it must not be unceasing labour, and without repose, or else it will have the contrary effect. The man who is obliged to toil day after day without intermission, and especially if he has done so from infancy, becomes in a manner cramped, stiff, and awkward, at all other bodily exercises; continues, as it were naturally, of small stature, and, like a horse daily hacked, is prematurely worn out. Alternation is the grand maxim of dietetics; which, indeed, holds good so universally, that the very best rules of diet prescribed by the ablest physician, will be found in most cases detrimental, if too strictly observed. Even the exercises which serve to strengthen and refresh us, if we constantly use any one of them without variation, such as walking or riding, will become irksome and hurtful, if we are obliged to take it every day without intermission. The daily runner, who knows no intervals of rest, will not, it is true, be affected with hypochondria, but will, nevertheless, feel his health otherwise impaired. The postillion, who rides every day, Sunday not excepted, commonly grows old before his time; and his whole figure shows, that he has not had a healthy occupation. We see this, even in countries where posts travel so intolerably slow, that the violence of the motion can certainly not be blamed for the injury which incessant riding occasions to their health. The trooper in the field, and the sportsman in the chase, ride perhaps more and harder, and that too in all weathers, but yet we do not remark in them the appearances of premature old age and decrepitude, visible in the postillion, who sits on horseback day after day, and must soon be discharged in consequence of his infirmities. Putting all this, however, out of the question, that man can have no enjoyment of life, who is obliged to toil perpetually, and in the same irksome uniformity of employment. Yet every man ought to have some enjoyment of life, were it only for a single day of recreation occasionally wherefore else is he in the world? If he never tastes the pleasures of life, he soon dwindles into wrinkled insignificance. Nor is it merely rest from his daily toil that he ought, in justice, to enjoy on such occasions; but he should have it in his power to sport away the time in social enjoyment, in feasting, dancing, or whatever else is most agreeable to his taste, if not contrary to good morals. By this variety of pleasure, the mind is roused from its usual dull uniformity, enlivened, and restored; the powers of the body are renovated; and it becomes more supple, and fitted for greater exertion. In short, the common man throws off the slave, the porter, the hind, the tailor; and the man of learning the dull pedant. It were cruel to deprive even the slave of a share in such enjoyments, for they are, as it were, a recompense for the hardships of his life; and every man who lives, manifestly has a right to partake in them: and it were no less foolish than cruel; for his health, vivacity, and bodily vigour will suffer in consequence of such privations. It is, therefore, prudent to allow him seasons of recreation: although selfish and tyrannical masters, who only look to immediate advantages, are, from their ignorance of human nature, and the effects of unceasing labour, sometimes inclined to be of a different opinion. In this way, the three annual festivals were, in fact, so many additional and prolonged seasons of pleasure, in which the people were to indulge themselves, exclusive of the weekly enjoyment of the Sabbath. Seven successive days spent in such a manner, serve as a recreation both to body and mind, and we think ourselves after them, as it were, regenerated. To bodily health, such relaxations undoubtedly contribute; for that man will always have more strength and activity, who, from his youth, has occasionally mingled in the cheerful dance, than the person who has been subjected to unvaried and uninterrupted labour. For that particular sort of labour, the latter may, no doubt, manifest great strength; but he will become stiff, and in all other applications of his bodily powers, awkward, and almost as if lamed. This is a dietetical remark, in regard to which, we find a coincidence of opinion, between learned physicians and those officers who have to enlist or select soldiers. And as to the mind, by festivities of this nature, it likewise becomes better humoured, and more cheerful: We return to our ordinary labours with more spirit and activity, after spending a whole week in the enjoyment of the pleasures of such extraordinary occasions; which, however, certainly must not be the constant business of our whole lives, but only that of festal seasons. Hence it seems to have been one of the great objects of the Mosaic polity, that every individual, without exception, should, along with the evils, occasionally taste also the pleasures of life; the legislator having taken care, that not even the poorest persons, not even the very slaves, should be excluded from sharing in these, during the festivals. The words which, without once thinking of any thing learned, or of the subject of the present work, I have, in the poem entitled Moses, and annexed to the second edition of my "Poetical Sketch of the Ecclesiastes of Solomon," put into the mouth of Moses, when he is entreating Pharaoh for a three-days festival to the Israelites, will, perhaps, be found to express, with tolerable accuracy, his real ideas on this point, as far as the tenor of his laws enables us to portray them. But three days rest they ask, to keep the feast But without reference to this point, the institution of the three high festivals had, in many other respects, salutary influences on the community. The most important of these, and what the legislator, without doubt, had principally in his view, was, that the whole people would thus become more closely connected together, learn to regard each other as fellow-citizens and brethren, and not be so likely to be perpetually splitting into different petty states. They consisted, as has been already mentioned, of twelve tribes, of which each had its own common weal, and sometimes one was jealous of another. The consequences of this might have been, considering the narrow-minded patriotism of those ancient times, that they might have hated, and, in process of time, been completely alienated from each other. The yearly festivals had the greatest possible effect in preventing this misfortune. For while the Israelites thus frequently assembled all together for the purposes of religious worship and social enjoyment, they learnt to be more intimately acquainted with each other, and laid the foundations of firm friendships. That such friendships often have their origin in social intercourse of this kind, and that when people are met at the festive board, many little grudges are forgotten or removed, is an ancient and well-known obser vation. If, on a day of mirth and jollity, we experience pleasure in the society of others, we naturally wish for its frequent repetition; we seek fresh opportunities of interccurse with them, and thus form friendships before we are aware. It was, indeed, only specially commanded, that males should go to the Israelitish festivals; but fathers, no doubt, gratified their daughters, by taking them along with them to these solemnities, which consisted in dancing, and entertainments; and thus the men had an opportunity of seeing all the young beauties of the different tribes. This must naturally have occasioned intermarriages of one tribe with another, by which the interests of families belonging to different tribes would become more and more closely connected, and thus the twelve petty states, be not merely nominally, but really, and from social love, united into one great people. If any of the tribes happened to be jealous of each other, or, as was sometimes the case, involved in civil war, still their meeting together in one place for the purposes of religion and sociality, had a tendency to prevent their being completely alienated, and forming themselves into two or more unconnected states: and even though this had at any time happened, it gave them an opportunity of again cementing their differences and re-uniting. This is so correctly true, that the separation of the ten tribes from the tribe of Judah under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, could never have been permanent, had not the latter abrogated one part of the law of Moses relative to the festivals. In every case it is quite a sufficient recommendation of any measure of legislative policy, when experience has proved that the evil, which it was its object to prevent, could not possibly have taken place without an abrogation of the law; and that the destroyer or revolutionizer of the state, could not have effected his purpose, without annulling the statutes that regard religion; diffiAult though it always be to manage such an attempt without discomposing and exasperating the minds of the people. Now, Jeroboam immediately perceived, that the ten tribes would one day re-unite with the tribe of Judah, and subject themselves again to the rightful sovereign of the house of David, if they continued to frequent the high festivals at Jerusalem; which, by reason of the suspension of arms, at the holy place, would still have been quite in their power with perfect safety: and, therefore, in order to maintain his own authority, and to perpetuate the separation, he prohibited the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and, contrary to the law of Moses, appointed two places for divine service, within his own territories, (1 Kings xii. 27-30;) in which, no doubt, the true God was worshipped, but, in order to gratify the propensity of the Israelites to idolatry, it was under the similitude of a golden calf. In order to make still surer of his point, he transferred the celebra ion of the feast of tabernacles, and probably of the other two festivals likewise, to a different season from that appointed by Moses; making it a month later, (1 Kings xii. 33 ;) in doing which, he very likely availed himself of the harvest and vintage being, in the tract adjacent to Lebanon, and which extended through the mountains, sometimes a little later than in the other parts of Palestine. Another effect of these festivals regarded the internal commerce of the Israelites. I will not positively assert, that Moses had this effect in his view; but God, who instructed him as to the laws which he was to enact, certainly foresaw all the future uses of those laws; and it was an object in his view, though Moses might not have known it. From the annual conventions of the whole people of any country for religious purposes, there generally arise, without any direct intention on their part, annual fairs and internal commerce; for, even if it were for no other purpose, merchants, who are always on the watch to espy and embrace every favourable opportunity of a sale, will resort thither, in order to dispose of their commodities. That our yearly fairs in Germany originally arose in this manner, is evident from the name, which the principal ones bear, Messen, or Masses. In ancient Catholic times, masses were said on certain days in particular places, in memory of different saints; as, for instance, on the Wednesday after Easter, near Querfurt, in the place called the Asses-meadow, from the Ass, which is so much celebrated in the history of the church; and, as many people assembled for devotion on such occasions, merchants, who had various wares to sell, likewise made their appearance; and so from the masses then read by the Catholic priests, arose what we now, in mercantile language, denominate Messen. Our country, therefore, is indebted to religion, or rather to religious meetings, not indeed enjoined by God, but merely devised by men, for a great part of its trade and commerce; which still subsists, long after people destitute of education have ceased to know wherefore our great yearly fairs, that are of such importance, have been called Messen. Among the Mohammedans similar festivals have had the very same effect; for, notwithstanding the difficulties of travelling through the deserts, and the dangers to which the caravans are exposed from banditti, and the great intolerance of Islamisin, which is such, that no uncircumcised person dare approach Mecca, without the risk of circumcision; not to mention the perpetual variation of the time of the pilgrimage thither, in consequence of their strange mode of reckoning by lunar years;-circumstances which, anywhere else, would ruin the most flourishing fairs-still the annual pilgrimage of the Mohammedans to Mecca, has given birth to one of the greatest markets in the world, where people from the extremities of the East and of the West, meet for the purpose of trade and commerce. Now the very same effects, and to a still higher degree, must, without any effort on the part of the legislator, have resulted from the high festivals of the Israelites, to which the whole people were bound to assemble; and more particularly, as far as regards internal trade, which is always the most essential branch of commerce to any people. Let us only figure to ourselves, what would follow from such festivals being once set a-going. Every man would bring along with him every portable article which he could spare, and wished to turn into money; and, as several individuals would go from the same place, they would contrive various expedients to render their goods portable: for they would, for one thing, have to carry the ipsa corpora of their tithes, that were to be consumed during the festivals; not to men tion other articles necessary to their accommodation, and which would require means of conveyance (or, as I might perhaps more properly term them, voitures) expensive in the regions of the East; for they consist, not as with us, of wagons and horses, but of asses and camels; beasts of burden which are highly serviceable in promoting the commerce of Arabia, and the neighbouring country of Palestine. There never could be any want of buyers, when the whole people were convened; and the wholesale merchants would soon find it for their advantage to attend and purchase the commodities offered to sale by individuals, especially manufactured articles; nor would the owners of goods, as they must require money to make good cheer on such occasions, hold them at unreasonable rates. Whoever wished to buy any particular articles, would wait the festivals, in order to have a choice; and this too would lead great merchants to attend with all manner of goods for sale, for which they could hope to find purchasers. That Moses was by no means anxious to engage the Israelites actively in foreign commerce, I have already admitted. The most important species of commerce, however-that whereby every man has it in his power to convert at a particular place whatever he can spare, that is at all portable, into money, and with that money to buy, at first hand, whatever he wants from any other quarter-must have been, by means of their festivals, much brisker among the Israelites, than we could ever hope to see it in Europe on such occasions. That people, having a national religion from God, and having God himself for their king, enjoyed, in this respect, an advantage, which no other people can enjoy: for if it is not God, but only the sovereign, who enjoins a pilgrimage to a festival, every one who can, will endeavour to get quit of the trouble of the journey, or, at best, to make it with reluctance; and if religious imposture is resorted to, in order to enforce attendance, the fraud will soon be discovered, and the political artifice thereby come to naught.-Michaelis. Ver. 18. Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. Among the persons that appear in the Israelitish Diet, besides those already mentioned, we find the Schoterim, (a) or scribes. They were different from the judges; for Moses had expressly ordained (Deut. xvi. 18) that in every city there should be appointed, not only judges, but Schoterin likewise. It is very certain that Moses had not originally instituted these officers, but already found them among the people while in Egypt. For when the Israelites did not deliver the required tale of bricks, the Schoterim were called to account, and punished; Exod. v. 6—14. Now, as satar in Arabic, signifies to write; and its derivative, Mastir, a person whose duly it is to keep accounts, and collect debts, I am almost persuaded that these Scholerim must have been the officers who kept the genealogical tables of the Israelites, with a faithful record of births, marriages, and deaths; and, as they kept the rolls of families, had, moreover, the duty of apportioning the public burdens and services on the people individually. An office exactly similar, we have not in our governments, because they are not so genealogically regulated; at least we do not institute enumerations of the people by families. But among a people whose notions were completely clannish, and among whom all hereditary succession, and even all posthumous fame, depended on genealogical registers, this must have been an office fully as important as that of a judge. In Egypt, the Levites had not yet been consecrated and set apart from the rest of the tribes; there, of course, the Schoterim must have been chosen either out of every family, or, perhaps, merely according to the opinion entertained of their fitness for the office. In the time of the kings, however, we find them generally taken from the tribe of Levi; 1 Chron. xxiii. 4. 2 Chron. xix. 8-11. xxxiv. 13. This was a very rational procedure, as the Levites devoted themselves particularly to study; and among husbandmen and unlearned people, few were likely to be so expert at writing, as to be intrusted with the keeping of registers so important. Add to this, that in later times, the genealogical tables were kept in the temple. We find these Schoterim mentioned in many other pas |