THE word mother in these Books often denotes mother

city or metropolis, as Gal. iv. 26. Heb. xii. 22.

3158.2-4.] The bloom of youth, and particularly that of the healthful virgin, was compared by the Orientals, with roses, lilies, and other elegant flowers; she was introduced in allegorical description, to represent odoriferous spices, balms, and oils, and was made the subject of pastoral and other poems. How easy, then, the transition from fancy to belief, that the exhalations of vigorous and healthy persons must be highly conducive to the support of exhausted age; that they, like the fragraut balms of the East, were capable of softening the rigidity of the fibres, of exciting the vital spirits, and, in short, of supplying the aged with a fresh stock of health. The history before us furnishes a striking illustration of this renovating process. And the celebrated Boerhaave informs us, that he advised an old and decrepit Burgomaster at Amsterdam to sleep between two young persons; and that his patient, who before was sinking under the weight of infirmities, obviously recovered strength and cheerfuluess of mind. Upon more accurate inquiries, however, it is pretty evident that most and perhaps the whole of the benefits which the aged derive from this expedient, may be placed to the account of the imagination, and its surprising effects on the body. For, as every living being necessarily vitiates the air more or less by its respiration, how is it possible that matters or substances, hurtful to one body, if retained, should be useful to another, if communicated? Or, was it supposed, that the watery parts of insensible exhalation from the juvenile body, could moisten and refresh the parched fibres of the aged? To accomplish this purpose, we are possessed of remedies, much purer and more effectual. Natural warmth or heat is the only means competent to produce such a salutary effect; as that alone is capable of excit

All living bodies transpire; every instant half the pores of the skin exhale a very subtle humor, that is more important than all the rest of our evacuations. At the same time another kind of pores receive part of the fluids which surround us, and communicate them to the vessels. These are invisible torrents, which issue from our bodies, and there find admittance. It is evident, that in some cases this inspiration is very considerable. Strong people perspire more; weak people, who have scarcely any proper atmosphere, inspire more than the others; and this perspiration of healthy people contains something nutritious and strengthening, which being inspired by another, invigorates him.

3172. [25.] Under his vine, in summer; under his fig-tree, in winter, The branches of the banyan, fig, striking bunches of roots from their extremities, form so many arcades which support and secure the principal trunk, and cottage built under it, against the wintry storm and tempest. The foliage of this tree is so thick that not a single drop of rain can penetrate it. How happily might the virtuous dwell under such a shade! (See St. PIERRE'S Works, vol. iv. p. 31.) The Asiatics again, who have various kinds of the largest grapes, train up their vines to raised lattice-work or arbors, which become so many summer pavilions, under whose shelter the inhabitants reclining enjoy the refreshing breeze.

SMITH'S Wonders of Nature and Art, vol. i. p. 151.
Superest

Tum leves calamos, et rasæ hastilia virgæ,
Fraxineasque aptare sudes, furcasque bicornes ;
Viribus eniti quarum, et contemnere ventos
Assuescant, summasque sequi tabulata per

ulmos.

VIRG. Georg, 2. l. 358, &c.

The next precaution of their rural cares
A range of reeds, and forked props prepares;
On these the vines their clasping progress form,
And brave the rigors of each rising storm ;
Ascend the hospitable elm, and spread
Their swelling clusters o'er its verdant head.

Nat. Delin. vol. ii. p. 242.

3173. [1 Kings iv. 25.] The Asiatic, contented with a little rice, and some of the simplest productions of nature, reclines beneath the shade, and gives labor and luxury to the winds.

3174.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist of Women, vol. i. p. 277.

In America, what are called Indian figtrees grow in moist grounds twenty or thirty feet high; then spread a large top, having on the stem or trunk neither bough nor twig. From the extremity of the head-branches issues a gummy juice, hanging downward like a cord or sinew, and in a few months reaching the ground into which it instantly strikes root. Then being filled from the top-bough, and from its own root, this cord becomes a tree exceeding hastily, and lets fall like cords as the first stem did. These several cords in a year or less, become trees as thick as the nether part of a lance, and as straight as nature can make them, casting forth a shade, and making such a grove, as no other tree in the world can do. In this way one of these trees will cover a whole valley, and would shroud four hundred, or four thousand horsemen, if they please.

Sir WALTER RALEIGH's Hist. of the World, part i. book i. c. 4, § 2.

3175. [26.] He of course had broken the Divine precept, Deut. xvii. 16. And for ever after his kingdom declined. He hereby made his reign expensive. See ch. xii. 4.

rainy clouds in parched and dry situations, as chains and rods of iron attract thunder-clouds.

In general, vitreous bodies and stones susceptible of polish are very proper for this purpose; as water, when diffused by a general thaw in great quantities through the air, attaches itself principally to the glass windows and polished stones of our houses. St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. ii. pp. 252, 325, 333.

3177. [1 Kings iv. 33.] Tea, as a beverage, has been made use of for ages, by millions of people in various parts of Asia. (Sir JOHN SINCLAIR'S Code of Health, vol. i. p. 287.) - It is said, in Barrow's Travels in China, p. 349, that the Chinese, notwithstanding their want of personal cleanliness, are little troubled with leprous or cutaneous diseases, and they pretend to be totally ignorant of gout, stone, or gravel, which they ascribe to the preventive effects of tea. (Ibid. p. 288.) - Is the tea-tree the hyssop here; and in Lev. xiv. 4, where water tinctured with it is directed to be used even outwardly, in the cleansing of the leper? Or is the tea-tree the rue of Luke xi. 42, which, on account of its great consumption, was made a titheable article? Woodroof excels in flavor the teas of China; and the first leaves of whortle-berry, properly gathered and dried in the shade, cannot be distinguished from real teas. In this way, nothing can be more excellent than Balsamic Sage and Garden Balm. Ibid. p. 295.

See No. 340.

See No. 137, 1050, 1051.

3176. [- 33.] The cedar of Lebanon sends forth the lower part of its branches in an upward direction toward heaven, and-lowers their extremities by bending them downward to the earth. By means of the first disposition, the rain-water is conveyed along the sloping brauch to the trunk; and by the second, the snows in the regions of which it delights to dwell, slide away from off its foliage. Besides, the attitude of an arm raised up into the air, with the hand gently inclining, is suited admirably to the commanding air of this king of vegetables, and to the majestic port of Lebanon.

The pellitory which grows on the sides of walls, by attracting the water which floats in the air in imperceptible vapors, has its leaves almost always in a humid state like the tree called garoe in a mountain of Ferrol, which travellers tell us is always surrounded with a cloud that distils copiously along its leaves, and fills with water large reservoirs constructed at the root of this tree; the cloud thus affording, like that which accompanied the camp of Israel, an abundaut supply for thousands of people.

In the same way, by means of electric stones, it might be possible to form artificial fountains, which should attract the

3178. [1 Kings v. 6. Lebanon] This belonged to the Tyrians and Sidonians originally, but to the Israelites latterly.

3179. [ 8.] In North America, the Thuya tree is reckoned the best wood for keeping from putrefaction, and is much preferable to the fir in that point.

[See KALM's Trav. in Pinkerton's Coll. part liv. p. 618.

3180. [ 10.] Teak-wood is now used in the East, particularly at Calcutta and Bassorah, as far preferable to oak for ship-building. Contrary to expectation, one description of this timber has been found to be lighter than oak, and another about the same weight. It also splinters less than oak; and contains an oil, which preserves iron, and destroys the worm; whilst the acid of oak corrodes iron, and appears peculiarly grateful to the taste of the worm. Nor is Teak subject to that incurable cause of rapid decay in oak, called the dry rot.

Month. Mag. for Dec. 1814, p. 456.

1

3181. [1 Kings v. 11. Twenty measures] Twenty thousand baths, 2 Chron. ii. 10.

Verse 16. Three thousand and three hundred] Three thousand and six hundred, 2 Chron. ii. 17.

3182. [1 Kings vi. 1.] When the Tabernacle (according to the reading in the printed Hebrew text) was 480 or (according to another reading, which Josephus and Paul found in the Bibles in common use in Palestine in their time) 592 years old, and must certainly have been pretty much decayed, Solomon began the building of his Temple. See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 388.

3183. [18. Open flowers] A species of gourds, supposed to be orbicular, and full of seed.

3184.

HUTCHINSON'S Use of Reason recovered, p. 235.

As the calyx of the Lotos plant, according to the Indian mythology, is assigned to the gods (representatively) as a place of residence, the Indians have copied it in their architecture, and applied it on the columns, pillars, and architraves of their temples. This calyx is a symbol of that dip which is made in the atmosphere of our earth in the place of contact where the atmosphere of a heavenly body exhibits to us an image of that floating body, as of a Lotos in its calyx.

See BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston,
Pp. 342, 386, 394.

3185. [ 27.] The temple had also golden vines above it, from which hung clusters of grapes as tall as a man's height.

JOSEPH. Wars, b. v. ch. v. § 4. vol. vi.

there were no fewer than twenty men required to shut them every day. JOSEPH. Against Apion, b. ii. § 10.

3188. [1 Kings vi. 38.] This Temple was built, says JOSEPHUS, six hundred and twelve years after the Jews came out of Egypt. It had four several courts, encompassed with cloisters round about, every one of which had a peculiar degree of separation from the rest. Into the first court every person was allowed to go, even foreigners; all the Jews went into the second, as well as their wives, when they were free from all uncleanness; into the third court went the Jewish men when they were clean and purified; into the fourth went the priests, having on their sacerdotal garments; but into the most sacred place, none went but the high-priests, clothed in their peculiar garments.

3189.

Ibid. § 2, 8.

This Temple, though extolled as one of the wonders of the antient world, did not surpass our larger sort of private houses; the generality of habitations then, were probably no better than what we call huts, or cottages. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iv. p. 307.

3190. [1 Kings vii. 8.] Prince Radziville thinks Balbeck, the most considerable place in Syria, to have been the Palace built for Pharaoh's daughter.

See Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 245.

3191. [ 14.] This Hiram, here said to be a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, is described 2 Chron. ii. 14, as the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan: this change in parentage must have been caused by adoption. See Frag. to CALMET, vol. ii. p. 58.

3195.26.] The lily imperial, with tulip-form flowers, is originally from Persia. The tulip itself grows spoutaneously in the vicinity of Constantinople. (St. PIERRE'S Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 311.) The lotos is a waterlity, whose broad leaf, in the greatest inundations of the Nile, rises with the flood, and is never overwhelmed. (BRYANT. See Bib. Research. vol. i. p. 269.) The rivulets in the environs of Damietta are covered with the majestic flower of the (white) lotos, which rises upwards of two feet above the water. (M. SAVARY.) - This plant is a species of the water-lily; its leaves float on the water, and cover its surface, producing many flowers which were formerly wove into the crowns of conquerors.

3196.

Beauties of Nature and Art displayed,

vol. xii. p. 141.

The brazen laver, when quite full, might contain 3,000 baths (2 Chron. iv. 5.); but, when filled partially to its usual mark, only 2,000 baths.

Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 392.

3197. [1 Kings viii. 2.] This feast of the Dedication, according to USHER (Ann. sub. A. M. 3001), was solemnized in the ninth Jubilee, on the eighth day of the seventh month of the sacred year, which was the first of the civil year, answering to the latter part of our October. It lasted seven days, and the feast of tabernacles following immediately, the vast concourse of people who had been invited by the king, were detained at least other seven days at Jerusalem.

The Athenians had a coin, says JULIUS POLLUX (Onomastic. lib. ix. c. 6), called ox, from the figure of that animal enstamped upon it. The Heathens say too, that the impress of a sheep was marked on their first coins, and that their money was thence called pecunia. This ingenious substitute for animals in barter, the Roman shepherds, says Dr. GREGORY, might have derived from the