-nizes the progression of time; and, reposing on these last witnesses, as it were, of human duration, the memory glides, in solemn awe, to dwell on the walls of BABYLON; the ramparts of NINEVEH; the hundred gates of THEBES; the seven-fold walls of ECBATANA; and the solemn wrecks, that still survive the fortune of PERSEPOLIS. IX. Indulging these associations, the soul, impressed with sublime imagery, loses itself in the unfathomable depth of infinite duration. Striking,-august,romantic, and magnificent,-they form at once a sepulchre of human labour, and a monument of human genius-affording the noblest subjects for meditation in the vastness of their bulk, and in the greatness of their manner :-yet bearing ample evidence of inevitable ruin. The melancholy and interesting fate of JERUSALEM has a character of its own. Once the pride of Western Asia, it has often sat, as it were, silent, solitary, and desolate, amid the ruins of her walls and temples. Judah, being led into captivity and rendered tributary, Jerusalem, as the prophet Isaiah most affectingly expresses it, "sat as a widow; the tears were on her cheeks; and her daughters were in bitterness." Though often ruined, and once furrowed with the plough, fortune has never entirely forsaken her! She has risen from her ashes, and still lives; "shorn of her beams," it is true, but deriving consolation from her former greatness. The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus! History pre sents no parallel. was a prey to the most intolerable anarchy; robbers having broken into it, and filled almost every house with thieves, assassins, and broilers of every description. The best citizens were thrown into prisons, and afterwards murdered: without even so much as a form of trial. At this time Titus appeared before the gates; a vast multitude having previously arrived in the city to celebrate the feast of the Passover. During this celebrated siege there were no less than three earthquakes; and an aurora borealis terrified the inhabitants with forms, which their fears and astonishment converted into prodigies of armies, fighting in the air, and flaming swords hanging over their temple. They were visited with a plague, so dreadful, that more than one hundred and fifty thousand were persons were carried out of the city, at the public charge, to be buried; and six hundred thousand were cast out of the gates and over the walls !—A famine ensued; and so horrible was the want, that a bushel of corn sold for six hundred crowns: the populace were reduced to the necessity of raking old excrement of horses, mules, and oxen, to satisfy their hunger; and a lady of quality even boiled her own child, and ate it!-a crime so exquisite, that Titus vowed to the eternal gods, that he would bury its infamy in the ruins of the city. He took it soon after by storm :-the plough was drawn over it; and with the exception of the west wall and three towers, not one stone remained above another. Ninetyseven thousand persons were made captives; and Previous to the siege, the city 1 one million one hundred thousand perished, during the siege. Those, made captives, being sold to several nations, were dispersed over a great portion of the ancient world; and from them are descended the present race of Jews, scattered singly, and in detached portions, in every province of Europe, and in many districts of Africa and Asia. Thus terminated this memorable siege !—a siege, the results of which meet the eye in every Jew we see. 1 Vespasian, to immortalize the sacking of Jerusalem, stamped several medals in silver and gold, in which Titus and himself were represented on one side, and a female on the other, sitting in a melancholy attitude under a plane tree; and with the spoils of the city decorated the temple of peace. Trajan erected an arch to Titus, in memory of this victory. Under this arch the Jews never pass :-It still remains; and is said to exhibit a thousand beauties. In the grand picture of the Prophets, in the Sistine Chapel, Jeremiah is represented, as exhausted by lamentation, mourning over the ruius of Jerusalem. —It is alluded to by Fuseli, p. 128. 2 Solomon's Temple was built in the year 1008 before Christ :-The second, temple was finished under Darius in 515;-the third by Herod in 19. This temple was destroyed by Titus, A.D. 70; and Julian attempted to rebuild it in the year 363. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Adrian rebuilt the city A.D. 130, and changed its name to Elia Capitolina. Two years afterwards the second Jewish war commenced, which lasted three years; and finished in the final banishment of the Jews from Judea. Previous to the destruction of their city, the Jews were a remarkable people. We are told by Philostratus, that they were aliens to the rest of the world; and that even their neighbours were less strangers to the people of Susa and Bætica, than they were to them. Even Josephus bears testimony to the impracticability of his countrymen. So many villainies prevailed in the city, that the Jewish historian says, in the sorrow of his heart, "I verily believe, that had not the Romans come up against Jerusalem, as they did, the earth would have swallowed * Philost, in Vit. Apol. lib. v. c. 33. Olearius. Lat. Ed. CHAPTER V. The Pythagoreans derived the greatest consolation from that everchanging aspect of material objects, to swallowed it; another deluge would have overwhelmed it; or fire and thunderbolts would have fallen from heaven to destroy and consume it." From this period to that of Arcadius and Honorius,† the Jews became contemptible to all men :—from the east to the west; and to the very extremity of the known earth. Moses himself seems to have predicted this ruin:-" Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them," says he, "but shalt neither drink the wine, nor gather the grapes.— *** Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all the nations." It is curious, however, to observe, that when the city had been sometime rebuilt, and a large portion of it peopled with Christians, it was taken, during the reign of Heraclius, the sixty-first Emperor of the Roman succession, by Chosroes, king of the Persians; when he sold no less than 90,000 Christians to the Jews; who reeked their vengeance by inflicting upon them barbarities, scarcely to be paralleled in the history of the most savage nations. The associations, connected with this sublime city, would lead us into a field more hallowed, than I feel myself qualified to enter upon. I shall therefore merely remark, that a picture has been painted, within these few years, which, if I mistake not, exhibits a promise of future excellence, which England has hitherto been entirely unaccustomed to. I allude to HAYDON's picture of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem. West might well confess to me, one day, as I was observing him at work upon his celebrated picture of Christ Rejected, that there was an artist, he understood, rising amongst us, whose fame might, as far as he knew, eclipse them all. A magnanimity, worthy the genius of that amiable character! When I first saw this picture, I was far from being satisfied with the principal figure.-It was not a likeness!-There was neither an imitation * De Bell. Judaic, lib. vi. c. 16. VOL. IV. which we have alluded. There is not a finer passage in all Ovid, than that wherein he makes his celebrated of Caracche, nor of Raphael :-it was neither of heaven nor of earth. But upon a more mature reflection, I became reconciled to the propriety of this apparent anomaly. And I now esteem it the most wonderful countenance, that was ever sketched by the hand of man. It could only have proceeded from a genius of the first pictorial order. In the portraits, however, there are two lasting errors :-and one of these the painter, with all the humility of true genius, confessed to me, one evening, in conversation, when I alluded to them. He has introduced Newton, Voltaire, and Wordsworth.-Wordsworth is a fine poet, -he is one of the true sons of Nature: but Milton-Milton ought to have represented the Christian cause in a picture like this.-But the great error is the anachronism.-It turns a real scene into an imaginary one. From a fine poetical picture to a fine picture of poetry: and this, too, from one of those, who, neglected and comparatively unknown, are far more worthy of being so, than many of those, who force their way to public notice by friendly criticisms, or criticisms written by themselves. -Indeed the neglected poetry of this country constitutes a mine of secret wealth, entirely without a parallel, either in France, Italy, Germany, or Spain. The mourner speechless and amaz'd, On that mysterious stranger gaz'd; If young he were, 'twas only seen From lines, that told what once had been ; As if the hand of time Had smote him ere he reach'd his prime. Whate'er * The Widow of Nain. |