verted into the inftruments of the most shocking difafters. Of all the enemies of human nature, the most modern and the most cruel enemy is intolerant Perfecution, which, following Religion in her progrefs, ftep by step, extended itself, as the extended, and unheathed the fword wherefoever the voice of Zeal had propagated the word.'

In the fecond volume the author confiders the lot of humanity in modern times, the feodal government, and the influence of the revival of learning upon the condition of mankind. He states the progress already made towards the eftablishment of the welfare of fociety; examines into the present condition of the most enlightened nations; fhews, that agriculture and population are the trueft proofs of the happiness of the people; and lastly, points out the wounds of humanity, which ftill remain to be closed.

The author of this work is M. le Chevalier de Chatellur, brigadier of the armies of his Christian majesty, and late colonel of the regiment of Guienne. While he was engaged in this performance he frequently shifted his abode, and was alfo obliged to attend his regiment, during four months of the year: at these times he could only have recourfe to fuch books, as were at hand, many of which were translations, and but a fmall number originals. Yet, notwithstanding thefe difadvantages, he has given us a great variety of hiftorical information, accompanied with many elegant obfervations. We cannot however but think, that there are fome digreffions, and feveral paffages, which might be thortened with great propriety.

The tranflator has fubjoined a confiderable number of excellent notes and citations from Greek and Latin writers; at the fame time thus pathetically lamenting his want of books.

In the course of this tranflation, I endeavoured, as much as it was in my power, to infert copies from the originals; but confined to an obfcure spot, at an infurmountable diftance from the capital, and far, very far from any intercourfe with a man of learning, I muft lament in folitude that want of books, of which my more excentric friend (the author) fo feelingly complains. Whilft but an inconfiderable number of the claffics, and fcarcely one of all the fathers, are found within my humble library, it is with difappointment and concern, that I perceive the studies of the neighbouring clergy, as naked as my own.'

We fincerely fympathize with this learned and ingenious writer, and heartily with him a more confpicuous and advantageous fituation in the world.

VII. Ob

VII. Obfervations on divers Passages of Scripture. 2 vols. 8vo. 115. boards. Johnson.

Notwithstanding the various revolutions, which have hap

pened in the Eaft, we are affured by many writers, that there is a ftriking resemblance between the patriarchal and the prefent oriental customs and manners. Montefquieu, in his Spirit of Laws, confidering this conformity as an undeniable fact, has endeavoured to affign a natural reason for it. And the late Mr. Wood, in his Essay on the Writings of Homer, affures us, that in his travels in the Eatt, he found the manners of the people ftill retaining, in a remarkable degree, that caft of fimplicity, which we obferve in the Iliad and Odyssey, and even in books more ancient than these, the Scriptures. Upon this prefumption our author has collected from books of travels, a great variety of observations, relating to the houses and cities of Judea, the diet of the inhabitants, their tents, their manner of travelling, their methods of fhewing refpect, and many other circumftances, in order to throw a light on the Sacred Writings.

The first edition of this work was published in 1765, in one volume. The present is enlarged with a great number of obfervations, derived from books of travels, which the author had not then seen as Haffelquift's Voyages and Travels in the Levant, Bufbequii Epiftolæ, Dandini's Voyage to Mount Libanus, Plaistead's Journey from Calcutta to Aleppo, Perry's View of the Levant, Drummond's Travels, Lady M. W. Montague's Letters, &c. but particularly fix MS. volumes of the late fir John Chardin, who refided long in the East, was a very curious obferver, and paid a particular attention to fuch matters, as might serve to illuftrate the Scriptures.

These authors, together with those which were cited in the first edition of this work, form a numerous lift, including almost all the writers of confequence in this particular depart

ment.

• Ch. II. Obferv. 7. Great is the attention with which the Arabs watch for paffengers, whom they may spoil.

Jeremiah refers to this watching of theirs, ch. iii. 2. “ In the ways haft thou fat for them,, as the Arabians in the wilderness."

Every one knows the general intention of the prophet, but the MS. C. has given fo ftrong, and lively a defcription of the eagerness that attends their looking out for prey, that I am perfuaded my readers will be pleafed with it, and for that reason I would here infert it. "Thus the Arabs wait for caravans with the most violent avidity, looking about them on all fides, raif

ing themselves up on their horfes, running here and there to fee if they cannot perceive any fmoke, or duft, or tracks on the ground, or any other marks of people paffing along."

In Arabia, and other parts of the Eaft, they are wont to clofe and cover up their wells of water, left the fand, which is put into motion by the winds, fhould fill them and flop them up. This account, which is taken from Sir John Chardin's MS. our author thinks, will explain the view of keeping that well covered with a flone, out of which Laban's fheep were wont to be watered; and their care not to leave it open any time, but to ftay, till the flocks were all gathered together, before they opened it; and thus, havng drawn as much water as was requifite, to cover it up again immediately, Gen. xxix. 2.8. We are farther told by fir John, that their wells or cifterns are fometimes locked up, on account of the great fcarcity of water there; and if not, that no one dares open them, but in the presence, or by the permifion, of the proprietor. He applies this account to Jacob's watering Rachel's flock, Gen. xxix. fuppofing that Rachel had the key, or that they durft not open it, but in her prefence.

Egmont and Heyman tell us, that at Caipha, at the foot of Mount Carmel, the houses are fmall, and flat-roofed; and that, during the fummer, the inhabitants fleep on the roof, in arbours made of the boughs of trees. Dr. Pococke, in like manner, informs us, that when he was at Tiberias in Galilee, he fupped and lodged on the top of the house. This account, our author thinks, may lead us to the true explanation of

Sam. ix. 25, 26, where we are told, that Samuel converseḍ with Saul on the houfe-top, and that at the fpring of the day Samuel called Saul to the house-top, or rather, as it should be tranflated, on the houfe-top, (where he had lodged) faying, Up, that I may fend thee away."

The common tranflation, Dan. iv. 29. fays, Nebuchadnezzar Walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.' Our author obferves, that the marginal reading, upon the pabace, is preferable. Sir John Chardon thinks, the king walked upon the terrace, for the pleasure of the profpect, to take a view of the city, and to enjoy the fresh air.'

Solomon fays, Prov. xxi. 9. It is better to dwell in a corner of the house-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide houfe.' Upon which our author obferves, that Solomon means a corner covered with boughs and rufhes, and made into a little arbour, in which they used to fleep in fummer, but which must have been a very incommodious place to have made an entire dwelling, or to have lived in, during the winter,

To the fame allufion, he thinks, belongs the expreffion of the contentions of a wife being wife being a continual dropping." Prov. xix. 13.

The Arabs, as d'Arvieux informs us, take up their pottage with the palms of their hands. Our author imagines, that Solomon probably refers to this cuftom (fuppofing it was a cuftom among the ancient Jews) when he says,

• A flothful man hides his hand in the difh, Piov. xix. 24 and will not fo much as bring it to his mouth again " Our tranflators, indeed, render it the bosom, and Arias Montanus the arm-pit: but it is confeffd, that the word, every where elfe, fignifies a pot, or difh, or fomething like it, and can only by a metaphor be applied to the bofom, or arm-hole. That which has induced the learned to depart from the well-known meaning of the word, and to put upon it a metaphorical, I am afraid we may fay a whimfical fenfe, has been, their not being able to conceive what could be meant by hiding the hand in the dish; and their fuppofing there was fome refemblance between a dish and the befom, or the arm-pit but this circumstance, which travellers have mentioned, makes that perfly clear, which appeared fo obfcure. "The flothful man, having lifted up his hand full of milk or pottage to his mouth, will not do it a fecond time: no, though it be actually dipped into the milk or pottage, and covered over with it, he will not fubmit to the great fatigue of lifting it again from thence to his mouth. Strong painting indeed this, but perfectly in the Oriental

tafte.

To this may be added, that Solomon repeats this maxim, with fome variation of expreffion, ch. xxvi. ver. 15. but retains the word that has been tranflated bofom; which would induce one to fuppofe he did not use it in fuch a very remote and metaphorical fenfe, as has been imagined, fince the proper word, quite different from this, is ufed in other places, where there was occafion to fpeak of the hand's being in the bofomin Pf. lxxiv. 11. in particular.'

Obferv. LIV. The affembling together of multitudes to the place where perfons have lately expired, and bewailing them in a coily manner, is a custom ftill retained in the Eaft, and feems to be confidered as an honour done to the deceased.

That it was done anciently, appears from the ftory of the dying of the daughter of Jairus. St. Mark ufes the term ops, which fignifies tumult, to exprefs the ftate of things in the houfe of Jairus then, ch. v. 38. And accordingly, Sir J. Chardin's MS. tells us, that now the "concourfe in places where perfons lie dead is incredible. Every body runs thither, the poor and the rich; and the first more efpecially make a Arange noife."

Dr. Shaw takes notice, I remember, of the noife they make in bewailing the dead, as foon as they are departed; but he takes

takes no notice, I think, of the great concourse of people of all forts on fuch occafions; which yet is a circumftance very proper to be remarked, in order to enter fully into the fense of the word Θορυβος.

But the most distinct account of the eastern lamentations that Sir J. Chardin has given us, is in the 6th volume of his MS. by which we learn that their emotions of joy, as well as of forrow, are expreffed by loud cries. The paffage is extremely curious, and the purport of it is as follows: Gen. xlv. 2. "And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard." "This is exactly the genius of the people of Afia, especially of the women. Their fentiments of joy or of grief are properly tranfports; and their tranfports are ungoverned, exceffive, and truly outrageous. When any one returns from a long journey, or dies, his family burst into cries, that may be heard twenty doors off; and this is renewed at different times, and continues many days, according to the vigour of the paf-. fion. Efpecially are thefe cries long in the cafe of death, and, frightful, for their mourning is right down defpair, and an image of hell. I was lodged in the year 1676 at Ifpahan, near the royal fquare: the miftrefs of the house next to mine died at that time. The moment the expired all the family to the number of twenty-five or thirty people, fet up fuch a furious cry that I was quite ftartled, and was above two hours before I could recover myself. These cries continue a long time, then cease all at once; they begin again as fuddenly, at daybreak, and in concert. It is this fuddennefs which is fo terri fying, together with a greater fhrillness and loudness than one would easily imagine. This enraged kind of mourning, if I may call it fo, continued forty days; not equally violent, but with diminution from day to day. The longest and most vio. lent acts were when they washed the body, when they perfumed it, when they carried it out to be interred, at making the inventory, and when they divided the effects. You are not to fuppofe that those that were ready to split their throats with cry ing out wept as much; the greatest part of them did not shed a fingle tear through the whole tragedy.

This is a very diftinct description of eaftern mourning for the dead they cry out too, it feems, on other occafions; no wonder then the house of Pharaoh heard, when Jofeph wept at making himself known to his brethren.'

Ch. VIII. Obferv. XXXI. As the Indians of North America are not content with killing their enemies, but producing their fcalps as proofs of the number they have deftroyed; it will not be thought ftrange, I prefume, that fomething of the like kind obtained anciently in Afia too, but it is furprizing to find fome traces of it fill there.

It seems, according to the margin, that it was in the middle of the night, Sir John in bed, and the cry fo violent, that he imagined they were his own fervants that were actually murdering'.

• Thefe