will reward me by your loyalty to him, and that you will not allow a stranger to occupy the place of this house."

His son being accepted by the people, the aged king caused an oratory to be built for himself, closed the door against the interruptions of worldly business, and sat down in tranquillity and retirement. Happy fortune! happy end! happy king! happy reign! Henceforward he had no concern but devotion and the duties of religion. Go, learn from him how to governhow to cherish thy subjects. Turn not away from the counsels of the wise, but listen to the discourse of venerable worthies.

To me, too, the time for retirement has arrived. I, too, must totter to my corner. If he left to his son a kingdom, and betook himself to solitude, I likewise, for my dear and virtuous son, have left this renowned book, more valuable than treasure and wealth; a book by which, as long as Persian shall exist, as long as earth shall be beneath and heaven above, his name shall be perpetuated, whose end be happy! May the king not withdraw from him his favour; that king whose fortune may it be young, whose life, long!

Oh God! withdraw not thy guidance from me: deprive me not of thy grace at last! My toilsome journey is accomplished: this new work has attained completion !

F. F.

DR. ROBINSON'S "BIBLICAL RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE."* DR. ROBINSON may be said to have educated himself for Eastern travel; a journey to the Holy Land having entered, as he informs us, into all his plans of life during more than fifteen years. He was also fortunate in obtaining a companion like Mr. Eli Smith, who was not only acquainted with the inhabitants of Syria, but possessed a familiar and accurate knowledge of the Arabic language, and combined with these qualifications a taste for geographical and historical research. Dr. Robinson and his friend kept separate journals, composed from pencil-notes taken upon the spot, and fully written out in the evening. From these journals, which the travellers never compared, and which are therefore entitled to be regarded as independent witnesses, the present volumes are composed. It was the original intention of Dr. Robinson to have divested the results of his researches of any reference to personal incidents of travels; this plan he abandoned in deference to the advice of friends. In so doing, he may perhaps have acted prudently; this work, however, retains some marks of the early design.

Dr. Robinson arrived in London in the early part of August 1837, and after a residence of a few weeks in England, he passed over to Germany, proceeding by way of Vienna to Trieste. It will not be necessary to follow him in his rapid visit to Athens and Thebes; these scenes of departed beauty and grandeur have already engaged the pens of profound and diligent explorers. At Cairo the travellers made arrangements for crossing the desert. The most expedient introduction of these volumes to the notice of our readers will probably be supplied by a few references to topics of geogra

Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petræa, a Journal of Travels in the year 1838, by E. ROBINSON & E. SMITH. Drawn up from the original Diaries, with Historical Illustrations. By EDWARD ROBINSON, D. D. London, 1841. Murray,

phical and biblical interest, in the order in which they occur. To accompany the writer through his extensive journey would be obviously impossible within any moderate limits.

The interesting feature in his journey fron Cairo to Suez is the light which it throws upon the Exodus of the Israelites. The land of Goshen has been placed by the most learned Biblical scholars on the east of the Delta, and this opinion is confirmed by Dr. Robinson. The modern province Esh-Shurkiyeh now embraces this tract. He conjectures that the Israelites, like the Copts among the Muhammedans, were scattered through the Egyptian villages; a supposition which he very ingeniously supports. The Land of Goshen is called in Genesis "the best of the land;" and Lord Prudhoe ascertained that the province of the Shurkiyeh yielded the largest revenue of any in Egypt. Dr. Robinson examines the route of the Israelites to the Red Sea. The inquiry could scarcely be surpassed by any other in sacred interest, unless it be by the passage of the chosen people through the divided waters. The point of the passage has been placed by many travellers at the mouth of Wady Tawarik, south of Râs Atâkah; a position disapproved by Dr. Robinson. In the narrative of Moses, two circumstances present themselves-the instrument of the miracle, and the time of the passage. The miracle is regarded by our author, not as a direct suspension of the laws of nature, but as a supernatural application of them. He conceives that a strong wind from the north-east, acting upon the ebb tide, would "drive out the waters from the small arm of the sea which runs up to Suez, and also from the end of the Gulf itself, leaving the shallower portions dry; while the more northern part of the arm, which was anciently broader and deeper than at present, would still remain covered with water." The reader will form his own estimate of this interpretation of the inspired narrative.

The remarks upon the time occupied in the passage are strongly imbued with rationalism. Dr. Robinson, while admitting the miraculous action of the wind, is unwilling to assume that this extraordinary ebb could have continued more than three or four hours. He supposes the Israelites to have commenced the passage towards midnight, and to have completed it before the morning watch-two o'clock. Reckoning the Israelites at more than two millions-being encumbered moreover by their flocks and herds-and supposing them to cross in a body "one thousand abreast," the column would have extended, according to his calculation, two miles in depth. "It would then have occupied at least an hour in passing over its own length, or in entering the sea; and deducting this from the largest time intervening before the Egyptians must also have entered the sea, there will remain only time enough, under the circumstances, for the body of the Israelites to have passed, at the most, over a space of three or four miles." The breadth of the sea at Wady Tawarik is twelve geographical miles, a circumstance which Dr. Robinson thinks sufficient to refute the hypothesis of any passage at that point. He inclines to limit the place of crossing to the shoals adjacent to Suez on the south and south-west. "If similar shoals might be

supposed to have existed in this part, the Israelites would then naturally have crossed from the shore west of Suez in an oblique direction, a distance of three or four miles from shore to shore."

From Suez the travellers proceeded to Sinai; many interesting incidents are recorded in their journals, which it is impossible to notice. As the black and rugged peaks of the mountain opened upon them, their feelings took the solemn colouring of the scene. Horeb rose with a majestic front, of nearly fifteen hundred feet in height. The plain, which previous travellers have only slightly mentioned, drew from Dr. Robinson's companion the exclamation" Here is room enough for a large encampment." This was an involuntary tribute of the heart to the truth of the Bible. The breadth of the plain, according to the measure of Dr. Robinson, was nine hundred yards; and the northern slope he estimated to be less than a mile in length, by one-third of a mile in breadth. The surface of the plain he deems equivalent to one square mile; but this extent is greatly enlarged by the recess on the west, and the area of Wady Sheikh on the east. In this plain, Er-Rahah, the congregation might have witnessed the Lord descending" in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai," while the most careful examination of the situation pointed out Horeb as the spot from which the law was delivered.* There is beauty in the reflection of Dr. Robinson, that Moses, while watching the flocks of Jethro, had wandered over these mountains and silent recesses.

The name of Sinai, though frequently bestowed upon a cluster of mountains, more properly designates the ridge that lies between the vallies Shu'eib and Ed-Leja; to the northern part the Christians give the name of Horeb Jebel-et-Tur is the general appellation of the Arabs. In the Pentateuch, the names of Horeb and Sinai are known to be employed without any distinction. Dr. Robinson was induced, by observations upon the spot, to regard Horeb as the general name, and Sinai as the particular one. His reasons are these. Before and during the journey of the Israelites from Egypt, the place of the delivery of the law is called Horeb, and while they dwell before the mountain, it is, with a single exception, denominated Sinai; secondly, the command given to Moses, during the encampment of the Hebrews at Rephidim, to obtain water by smiting the rock of Horeb, implied the proximity of Horeb to Rephidim. Sinai, lying at the distance of a day's march, could not be referred to. Rephidim was probably situated" at the place where Wady Esh-Sheikh issues from the high central granite cliffs." Several wells are found in this district, and Dr. Robinson professes his inability to solve the difficulty thus occasioned, except by supposing that the sojourn of the Israelites at Rephidim had exhausted the supply of water-and surely this supposition removes the difficulty at once.

The entry of the travellers into the borders of Palestine was a delightful moment, after their toilsome pilgrimage over the desert. The wells of Beersheba, where the flocks of the Patriarchs wandered, where Abraham

• Exod. xix.

often abode, whence Jacob fled to Padan-Aram, and Elijah into the desert, might well awake the slumber of memory. While the travellers halted, flocks of goats were brought to be watered. Hebron was still richer in its associations; the patriarchal dwelling-places and graves, and the residence of David, arose to the eye. Here, too, the inspired minstrel had strung his harp to the praise of God. Hebron was the scene of Absalom's rebellion. The identity of the site of the ancient and modern city has not been disputed.

Dr. Robinson, while speaking with sufficient contempt of the alleged antiquities of Hebron, admits the remote age of the pools, and is willing to regard one as the scene of David's punishment of the assassins of Ishbosheth. The sepulchre of Abraham he also thinks correctly fixed by tradition. This place is impervious to Christian footsteps. The Spaniard, Ali Bey, and Mr. Bankes's servant, Finati, are the only Europeans who have entered it, and they have given a very imperfect and confused account of the interior. Dr. Robinson mentions a magnificent oak, the lower part of whose trunk measured twenty-two feet and a-half. This tree appears to have been improperly identified with the oak of Abraham, which had disappeared, as we learn, even in the time of Jerome.

In visiting Jerusalem, the single object of the traveller was to investigate its topographical and historical relations, in their widest bearing upon the illustration of the Scriptures. Without dwelling upon the personal narrative of the travellers' walks in the Holy City, we shall turn to the more careful summary of their observations upon its topography and antiquities. The reader is aware that the early part of the fourth century was fruitful in the discovery of Scripture localities. The Crusades built up the fabric of tradition. Travellers, looking, as Dr. Robinson not inaptly expresses it, through the eyes of their monastic entertainers, have propagated their religious fables of topography. The plan which he adopted was, to avoid any intercourse with the monks; to examine every spot with the Bible in his hands; to seek information from the native Arab population; and, forsaking the trodden paths, to pursue his researches in the more unvisited tracks of country. Acting upon this determination, the account of Jerusalem contains only notes made upon the spot, or intelligence communicated by natives. We shall endeavour to give an outline of the researches of Dr. Robinson and his companion, so far as they cast any new ray of light upon Jerusalem, its surrounding villages, and its hallowed scenery.

Dr. Robinson questions the present site of Gethsemane, which he supposes to have been fixed at the visit of Helena in 326; he admits it, however, to have been the one mentioned by Eusebius. It is at least certain that the garden was situated near this spot, and when the traveller sat down under one of the aged olive trees, he saw a herd of goats feeding, and "a few flocks of sheep grazing on the side of the mountain." No human voice, nor any sound of life, disturbed the solemn silence of the In the well of Nehemiah, or of Job, Dr. Robinson recognized the En-Rogel of Scripture, as mentioned in Joshua. In his walks outside the

city, he was surprised at the small number of persons whom he met. A few peasants slowly moving with their asses, a few shepherds with their flocks on Olivet, and a few women drawing water in the valley of Jehoshaphat, are described as the only living objects that recalled the traveller from the glories of the past.

Modern travellers have been accustomed to find the Bethesda of the Gospel of St. John in the deep reservoir on the north side of the area of the great mosque. This position Dr. Robinson rejects, with the remark that there is not the slightest evidence to identify it with the Bethesda of the New Testament. The confirmatory testimony of Eusebius and Jerome he considers to be ineffectual, from their silence as to the situation of the pool. Dr. Robinson regards it as the ancient fosse which protected the temple and the fortress of Antonia on the north-an opinion to which Pococke probably shewed him the way. The Pool of Bethesda, according to a conjecture of Dr. Robinson, may, perhaps, be looked for in the Fountain of the Virgin; the troubling of the water, he thinks, may be synonymous with the irregular flow of the fountain, of which he gives a curious description. It may be interesting to some of our readers to compare this hypothesis with a passage in Milman's History of Christianity. "The place was called Beth-esda (the House of Mercy), and the pool was supposed to possess remarkable qualities for healing diseases. At certain periods, there was a strong commotion in the waters, which probably bubbled up, from some chemical cause connected with their medicinal effects." The coincidence of opinion is curious, and is evidently the fruit of German criticism. The notices of Siloam,

*

The brook that flow'd

Fast by the oracle of God;

of the fountain of Gihon; of the valley of Hinnom; and especially of the Holy Sepulchre, are marked by much sagacity and diligent observation. Dr. Robinson devoted several weeks to an investigation of the antiquities of Jerusalem; and it is impossible not to acknowledge the fidelity of his hard, but often vigorous pencil. The colouring has no warmth, but the outline is without doubt usually accurate. Nor will the reader examine this picture of the Holy City, without deriving considerable information respecting its modern character.

Regarding Jerusalem as their central station, the travellers began to make excursions to the neighbouring country, cautiously varying their It will be only possible to give a slight sketch of their researches. The site of the ancient Bethel Dr. Robinson finds in the modern Beitin. The high ground to the east, where Abraham first pitched his tent, still continues to afford the richest pasturage. The ancient Gibeon is recognized in el-Gib. It was on this city that the sun stood still. From el-Gib the travellers arrived at Neby Samwil, where the tomb of the prophet Samuel is pointed out. Dr. Robinson considers the tradition to be encumbered with many difficulties. In order to confirm it, we must assume Neby Samwil to be the Ramah of the Old Testament, which it could not

T. 1, c, 215.