the Protestants in my province. have too much respect for your Majesty not to believe the letter is counterfeited; but if (what God forbid) the order is truly yours, I have too much respect for your Majesty to obey it." I by the most serious and the most in- The States-General of France have been often mentioned during the late eventful On their being conyears. vened by Henry III. Voltaire thus describes them. "These States resemble the Parliament of Great Britain, in their convocation, but are very different from it in their operations. As they are very seldom called, they have no rules to guide them; they are generally made up of men who never having been in any regular meeting, know not how to behave themselves, and 'tis rather a confusion than an assembly.' P. 23. Speaking of the assassinations of the Guises, he says that "such a vengeance" should have "been perpetrated with the formalities of the law, which are the natural instruments of the jus tice of kings, or the natural veil to their iniquity." P. 25. On Henry's besieging Paris in 1590, we are presented with the following passages, blending the ludicrous with the horrible. "The friars and the monks made a show, which, as ridiculous as it was in itself, was yet of great use to animate the people. They made a kind of military muster, marching in rank and files, wearing rusty armour over their coats, having at their head the figure of the virgin Mary, wielding swords in their hands, and crying they were all ready to fight and to die in the defence of the Faith. So that the citizens, who saw their Confessors in arms, thought really that they fought the cause of God. Sully passes "slightly over the horrors of this siege," declining to "enlarge on so dreadful a subject." Perefixe, writing in 1662, is very short, yet, he says "the famine was so great that the people eat even the herbs that grew in the ditches; dogs, cats, and hides of leather were food; and some have reported, that the Lanssuch quenets, or foot-soldiers, fed upon children as they could entrap." 2d. Ed. 1692, p. 124. Voltaire records how "Henry's good nature prevailed over his interest," so "that the besiegers fed the besieged," for "he suffered his soldiers to sell privately all sorts of provisions to the town." Thus time was afforded to the Prince of Parma, with an army of Spaniards from the Low Countries, to raise the siege. length Henry resolved to turn RomanCatholic-Paris opened its gates to him, and what his valour and magnanimity could never bring about, was easily obtained by going to Mass, and by receiving absolution from the Pope." P. 35. At In the works of Voltaire this History is condensed, with the omission of most of the passages I have quoted, into a few pages, entitled, Histoire Abregée des Evenemens, &c. The Essay on Epic Poetry shall employ the next number. GLEANINGS; OR, VERMICULUS. SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING.. "However, scarcity occasioned soon an universal famine. That prodigious multitude of citizens had no other support but the sermons of their priests, and the fictitious miracles of friars, who, by the way, had all things in plenty in their Convents, while all the town was reduced to starve. The miserable Parisians, lulled at first by the hopes of being soon relieved, were singing ballads in the streets, and lampoons against Henry, a fact not to be related with probability of any other nation, but suitable enough to the genius of the French, even in so desolate a condition. That short-lived wretched mirth was stopped quickly says, No. CCIII. Shakespeare's Macbeth. Act I. Scene v. Lady Macbeth, after reading her Lord's letter, informing her of his interview with the Weird Sisters, who had saluted him with, Hail, King that shall be¦ Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear; And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal. Here metaphysical is used in the sense of supernatural, infernal. Some good folks seem inclined to keep up the latter sense of the word. Act III. Sc. i. Macbeth egging on the murderers to execute his design upon Banquo's life, representing That it was he, in the times past, which [held you So under fortune,asks, Do you find Your patience so predominant in That you can let this go? your na[ture, Are you so gospell'd, To pray for this good man and for his issue, Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the [grave And beggar'd your's for ever? On the phrase, Are you so gospell'd? Johnson has the following comment; "Are you of that degree of precise virtue? Gospeller was a name of contempt given by the Papists to the Lollards, the Puritans of early times, and the precursors of Protestantism." The question then, in modern phrase, would be, "Are you such Methodists?" Act IV. Sc. i. One of the ingredients in the Witches' Caldron is Liver of blaspheming Jew. This shews the brutal bigotry of the poet's times, with regard to the unhappy nation of the Jews. But ought a modern audience to suffer this outrage against Christianity, against human nature, to be repeated? The whole tribe of these superstitious religionists, Milton (P. L. III. 474, &c.) has placed in his Limbo of Vanity. Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars White, black and grey, with all their [trumpery. Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to [seek In Golgotha him dead, who lives in heaven; And they who to be sure of Paradise Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd. This calls to mind a story of Jortin's. A certain Prince who had led a very wicked life, was carried to his grave in the humble disguise of a monk. A woman whose husband he had murdered, seeing the masquerade go by, cried to him, Ah! you dog! you think that you are finely concealed under that habit: but Jesus Christ will find you out. CCV. Clergy.---Divine Embassadors. A certain Indian of the train of the Embassador-Princes sent to us lately from some of those Pagan nations, being engaged, one Sunday, in visiting our churches, and happening to ask his interpreter " who the eminent persons were whom he observed haranguing so long with such authority, from a high place?" was answered, 66 they are Embassadors from the Al mighty," or (according to the Indian language) from the Sun! Whether the Indian took this seriously or in raillery, did not appear. But having afterwards called in, as he went along, at the chapels of some of his brotherembassadors of the Romish religion, and at some other Christian Dissenting congregations, where matters, as he perceived, were transacted with greater privacy and inferior state; he asked, "whether these also were embassadors from the same place?" "He been heretofore of the embassy, and was answered, "that they had indeed had possession of the same chief places he had seen: but that they were now succeeded there by others." "If those, therefore (replied the Indian) were embassadors from the Sun; these, I take for granted, are from the Moon." Characteristics, Vol. III. pp. 338, 339. BIBLICAL CRITICISM. A Dissertation upon the Number of the TH THE number of Hebrews who emigrated from Egypt is said (Exodus xii. 87,) to be "about six hundred thousand men, on foot beside children." In the book of numbers (ch. ii. 32.) we find a second and more particular account taken in the wilderness of Sinai, in the second month of the second year after their departure; where the "males twenty years old, and upward, all who were able to go out to war," are said to amout to "six, hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty," exclusive of the tribe of Levi, which consisted of "seven thousand and five hundred males from a month old and upward." In a third numeration (chap. xxvi. 51. of the same book) we find them to be "six hundred and one thousand, seven hundred and thirty," and the tribe of Levi to be increased to "twenty three thousand, all males of a month old and upward." Taking the number of the males then of twenty years old and upward at six hundred thousand, and adding all the males under twenty years, together with all the females of every age, in the proportion of three to one, the whole nation must consist of two million four hundred thousand souls, according to the first and lowest account, without including the mixed multitude, mostly Egyptians, as we suppose, which is said to have acmay reasonably companied them. We may compute the number then upon an average of the accounts above, including the strangers, at two millions and a half. Now let it not give offence or alarm to any pious reader, if he shall find it clearly proved, that the preceding numerations, and many other contained in the historical parts of the Old Testament, are exceedingly magnified. For those are errors which may be most naturally imputed to the negligence or vanity of the transcriber of copies. Numbers are denoted in Hebrew by the letters, and it might easily happen that the transcriber mistook one letter for another; or if he was doubtful, that he would be inclined to prefer that number which seemed to do honour to his (xii. 40,) which has been mistaken, as seventy. At the end of the first period of twenty-five years it would be one hundred and forty; of the second, two hundred and eighty; of the third, five hundred and sixty; of the fourth, one thousand one hundred and twenty; of the fifth, two thousand two hundred and forty; of the sixth, four thousand four hundred and eighty; of the seventh, eight thousand nine hundred and sixty; of the eighth, seventeen thousand nine hundred and twenty; and if we add the ninth, which reaches to ten years after their departure, thirty five thousand eight hundred and forty. No deduction is made in this computation for the slavery to which they were subject, and the destruction of their male children during almost half the time; beside the evil diseases of Egypt, which are mentioned by Moses. But to this number, the multiplication of Joseph's family which are not included in the seventy, ought to be added, which would raise the number by the same proportion a twelth part; that is to thirty eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-five: " and the mixed multitude," which is said to accompany them might probably make the whole number in the Wilderness of Sinai, to amount to upwards of forty thousand. If then we allow this number to be doubled during the last thirty years before the invasion and conquest of Canaan, the number will not much exceed at that period eighty thousand : among them there might be twenty thousand men, fit to bear arms: a number sufficient, under the command of Joshua, an able and experienced general, to conquer in five years, the small states or principalities with which he had to contend singly, and even the confederacies formed against him; but too weak after his decease, when the tribes were disunited, to extend their conquests much farther; as appears from the history. For they soon became so weak as to suffer extremely by the incursious of their neighbours, some of whom they had before defeated. II. However favourable and liberal the King, who then reigned in Egypt, might be to Jacob and his family, when by Joseph's influence they came to settle in the country; it is * Deut. vii. 15. very improbable, that he would assign to them a tract of country, so vastly exceeding their immediate use and occupation, as would be sufficient to maintain afterward such an incredible number of people. Goshen which they inhabited, was a province probably very small compared to all Egypt. III. It is not easy to conceive how the Egyptians could oppress the Israelites, to such a degree of rigour and cruelty, or how the latter would submit to it without making any resistance, unless their respective numbers and strength had been exceedingly unequal. It appears from the history, that after Egypt had been almost ruined, by various plagues and devastations, and above all by the destruction of all the first-born of man and beast, throughout the kingdom, yet the king was able to pursue them with such an army as struck them with extreme terror. The saying therefore of Pharaoh to his courtiers, Behold, they are more and mightier than we," must be understood as an extravagant expression of his fears, or rather, as a mere pretence for reducing them to slavery, and practising such severities upon them. IV. There are several circumstances related during their journeying and residing in the Arabian Deserts, which indicate their number to have been comparatively small; such as these. They journeyed three days in a hot climate without a fresh supply of water. Twelve wells at Elim, one stream from the rock at Horeb, and one at Meribah were sufficient for them and their cattle No other miraculous supply is ever mentioned, nor any murmuring for want of it. They are described (Num. xxxiii.) as pitching upon a single mountain, named Shapher, and other particular places, of too small extent to be capable of containing a number of people much above the preceding computation. Moses was able to judge and determine in person all suits and contests among them, till by his father-in-law Jethro's advice, he instituted inferior magistrates. The first engagement they had, was with the Amalekites, a petty tribe or horde, yet the victory remained dubious for a considerable time. To say nothing of the impossibility of sustaining so prodigious a multitude for forty years, in a country for the most part barren; these circumstances seem not to admit a number much greater, if at all, than that, which is specified in the preceding calculation. To all these circumstances we may add the words of Moses himself, as attesting the comparative smallness of their number, Deut. vii. 7. "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor chuse you, because you were more in number than any people; for rye were the fewest of all people.' And though he reckons them, (Chap. x. 22.)" as the stars of heaven for multitude", compared to the original number" seventy, when their fathers went down into Egypt;" yet he describes the nations whom they were preparing to attack (Chap. ix. 1.) as “greater and mightier than they," and exhorts them, (Chap. vii. 17, 18.) not to be terrified on account of their number and power. " V. Their passing the Red Sea with their flocks, herds and carriages, in one night, as is represented, or in a day and night, seems impossible, supposing them to be so very numerous. But if we reduce the number, according to the calculation abovementioned, a probable solution may be given of any great difficulty which may seem to remain. For some modern travellers, who have investigated those parts, report that there is a bay lying northward of the Red Sea, which hath a communication with it; that there is notwithstand ing a passage, commonly fordable, and sometimes quite dry; and that now people frequently pass that way to and fro, between Egypt and Arabia. This they suppose to have l'een the very place where the Israelites made their passage. It is said in the scripture that "a strong wind blew" previous to their passage, which would necessarily cause an extraordinary recess of the tide. If then, Moses took the earliest opportunity, as he undoubtedly would, of sending the carriages and cattle before him, on the day, or some days preceding, forty thousand people might pass afterward on dry ground in less than one night, the passage being scarcely one mile and when the wind ccased, a high tide might return with such force, as to overthrow the pursuing army so effectually, that in the morning the Hebrews on the other side could discover nothing of them, but dead bodies thrown upon the shore. This account is adopted by a very able and learned critic, Le Clerc. The expressions used in scripture are not to be thought violent figures of speech, at least in poetry, though it is said "the people passed through the midst of the sea," and that "the waters were as a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left." For as they certainly made their passage with great expedition, so the sea on one hand, and the bay on the other, would check the pursuit of the enemy and guard them from being surrounded, as effectually as walls. This explanation does not contradict, as some may hastily imagine, a particular or miraculous protection of heaven over that people in that event, but serves to shew, what is most credible, that a power from heaven always operates so far and no farther than the necessity or reason of the case requires. To what purpose is there any mention of "a strong wind blowing all day and night which caused the sea to go back," implying as plain as words can express, a recess of the tide; but which means nothing, if an immense gap was made in the middle of the sea, by a stroke of divine power. Was not that very wind, blowing so strong at that juncture, a sufficient and therefore more reasonable and credible interposition of providence in their favour, than the other case supposed? Or is the poetical language used in describing that wonderful and truly miraculous event, more liable to censure according to this explanation, than the phrases used when nothing miraculous appears necessary or credible; such as the "sun and moon standing still in the heaven," to denote a long day of pursuit; or the "stars fighting in their courses" against the enemy, to express a signal and surprising defeat of them? It seems not improbable, that as soon as the Hebrews had passed and the Egyptians were advanced into the midst of the channel, the wind changed its course and brought back the tide with a redoubled swell and violence; while the heavy chariots and horses of which the Egyptian army consisted, were obstructed and almost set fast, by sinking into a soft bottom; though travellers on |