numerable multitude of ftated conftant inhabitants, that not fo much as the wandering Arab fhall pitch his tent there for a night, nor fhall the lonely fhepherd here feed or fold his flocks: "But wild beasts of the defert shall lie there, and "their houses fhall be full of doleful creatures; " and owls fhall dwell there, and fatyrs (or wild goats) fhall dance there; and the wild beafts "of the island fhall cry in their desolate houses, "and dragons, or enormous ferpents, in their pleasant palaces." What difmal folitude, as to mankind! what utter devaftation of this proud imperial city! Savage beafts, birds of night and melancholy, and broods of huge ferpents full of deadly poison, make their undisturbed nefts and dwellings in those houses, in those palaces where monarchy fat enthroned in universal empire, where pride gloried in its unrivalled fplendor, where luxury reigned in unbounded profusion, and where nations of men dwelt at large, the walls of Babylon being, according to HERODOTUS, above sixty miles in compass. I know not where we fhall find a pafsage equal to this defcription of the total ruin of once a ftrong and moft magnificent city, except that in Zeph. ii. 13. " And

25

he will stretch out his hand against the north, " and deftroy Affyria, and will make Nineveh a defolation, and dry like a wilderness. And " flocks fhall lie down in the midft of her, all "the beafts of the nations: both the cormorant " and the bittern fhall lodge in the upper lintels " of it; their voice fhall sing in the windows, $$ defolation

SS

"defolation fhall be in the thresholds *ss After

$$

producing these passages, how flat and languid will the lines of HORACE appear, that describe a similar desolation, no less than that of the famous Troy?

While grazing herds infulting bound

Where PRIAM and where PARIS lie,
And the wild beafts in peace profound
In caves conceal their progeny t.

Another inftance of the Hypotypofis from the Scriptures may be taken from the Prophet JOEL, who describes the plague of Locufts with an inimitable

*If the Reader would entertain himself with an account of Nineveh and Babylon in their greatness and magnificence, and at the fame time fatisfy himself as to the accomplishment of thefe Scripture-prophecies concerning their ruin, I would particularly recommend him to the perufal of Dr Newton's Differtations on the Prophecies, vol. i. p. 246-313.

"Juft before the village of Elugo" (fays RAUWOLF, a Ger man traveller, who paffed that way in the year 1574)" is the "hill whereon the caftle of Babylon stood, and the ruins of its "fortifications are still visible, though demolished and unin"habited. Behind it, and pretty near to it, stood the tower "of Babylon. It is ftill to be feen, and is half a league in " diameter; but fo ruinous, fo low, and fo full of venomous "creatures, which lodge in holes made by them in the rubbifh, that no one durft approach nearer to it than within half a league, except during two months in the winter, when "these animals never flir out of their holes." RAY's Edition of thefe Travels, part ii. chap. 2.

Dum Priami Paridifque bufto

Infultet armentum, & catulos feræ

Çelent inulta

HORAT, Od. lib. iii. od. 3.

X

mitable propriety and force. Chap. i. 6. For " a nation is come up upon my land, strong and " without number, whofe teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great slion.SS

Very poetically is fuch a fwarm of Locufts, as fhould produce the devaftations afcribed to them, called a nation, in the fame manner as VIRGIL ufes the word concerning the bees,

The nation too is diff'rent as their kings *.

Not let it seem strange that their teeth should be called the teeth of a Lion, and their cheekteeth, the cheek-teeth of a great Lion, for the teeth of Locusts are very fharp and strong; and PLINY tells us, "that they bite through every "thing, and even the doors of houses t."

Verfe 7." He hath laid my vine waste, and "barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean

bare, and caft it away; the branches thereof 35 are made white."

That the Locusts make this havoc upon trees is a fact, and their mischief in this refpect is here most truly as well as most awfully defcribed. Dr CHANDLER, in his Commentary on Joel t, obferves, "that 3p properly signifies

Ut binæ regum facies, ita corpora gentis."

" to

VIRGIL. Georgic. lib. iv. ver. 95.

+ Omnia morfu erodentes, & fores quoque tectorum. PLINII Nat. Hift. lib. xi. cap. 29.

CHANDLER on Joel, page 33.

• to burn or foam with anger; and that accordingly the word here used may signify, either that thefe Locusts fhould fcorch or burn up "the trees by their touching them, it being obt

ferved of them, that they fcorch many things "by their very touch, so that trees perish and

wither by it or elfe it may denote, that they fhall reduce the trees to a fcum, or cover them "over with froth, and fo cause them to perifh

or die. Thus the word is ufed, Hofea x. 7. "And I have observed, fays the Doctor, of the caterpillar-kind, that they actually leave a fort of fcum upon those plants and trees where they fettle, which kills the branches upon which they lay it. And this is confirmed by a passage cited by BOCHART from MUFFETUS. They not only hurt by their biting corn, paftures, meadows, gardens and orchards, but alfo by a blackifh, greenifh, fharp, rank kind "of dung; and especially by a bilious and four fpittle, which, as they gnaw, they pour out of "their mouths in great plenty +."

xc

The defcription of the invasion of this terrible army is renewed in chap. ii. 3. " The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a defolate wilderness, yea, and nothing fhall efcape them."

+ Nec folum morfu, fegetibus, pafcuis, pratis, hortis, pomarüfque nocent; fed etiam ftercore item nigro, viridi, mordace, gravi, biliofaque imprimis atque acri faliva, quam multam ex ore inter rodendum fundunt. BOCHART. de Animalibus, lib. iv. cap. 4. p. 468,

No words can possibly exprefs the ravages of an army of Locufts in livelier terror. The land is like a blooming paradife in their van, but they leave a defolate wilderness in their rear, fo that no flowers, fruits, or verdure, fhall efcape their devastation.

Verfe 4. The appearance of them is as the " appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so shall they run."

They fhall be like horfes and horsemen for fierceness and rapidity.

$$

Verse 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains fhall they leap, like the noife of a flame of fire that devours the $ stubble, as a strong people fet in battle-array." "The Locufts, fays PLINY, fly with such a "noife of their wings, that they might well "be imagined to be a larger kind of flying «creatures * "9 And BoCHART quotes REMIGIUS ALTISSIODORUS upon Joel, who fays, " that they make fuch a found in their flight, as may "be heard at the diftance of six miles." And that learned Writer produces a passage from Cy RILL, who affirms, " that while the Locufts are "eating the fruits of the earth, they make a "noise like that of the wind driving the flames « before it +."

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Let

Tanto volant fridore, ut alia alites credantur. PLING lib. xi. cap. 29.

+ BOCHART. ibid. p. 475