some difference between them; the first being an hundred and sixty paces long; the second, two hundred; the third, two hundred and twenty. They are lined with stone, and plastered, and contain a great depth of water."

C

"d

From these facts, it may be seen with what peculiar force and beauty our Lord compares his people, on account of their inherent purity, the work of his own Spirit, and the blessings which they are the means of diffusing wherever they come," to a fountain of gardens," so indispensable to the verdure and fruitfulness of a garden in those parts of the world. Nor is it with less propriety Jehovah promises to his ancient people: "Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not ;" lovely, rich, and flourishing in holy dispositions, and in works of righteousness; the delight of God, the glory of Christ, the admiration of angels, the joy of the whole earth. But" the beauty and value of a garden refreshed by shade and water is perhaps no where more highly estimated than by the prophet Jeremiah in his prediction concerning the return of the captives from Babylon: "Therefore shall they come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all."e

Though the oriental garden has few pretensions to design or elegance, still some attention is discovered in the arrangement of the plots, and in their cultivation.

Aleppo, the whole extent of their gardens, which are separated from each other by low stone walls, is subdivided

b Maundrell's Journey, p. 89, 90. c Song iv, 5.

* Jer. xxxi, 12. Forbes's Orient. Mem. vol. ii, p. 241. sel's Hist. of Aleppo, vol. i, p. 50, 51.

d Isa. lviii, 11.

See also Rus

into square or oblong fields, irregularly bordered with dwarf trees, flowering shrubs, and trees of taller growth; among which the plane, the weeping willow, the ash, and the white poplar, make a conspicuous figure. Within some of these enclosures are cultivated apples, melons, and cucumbers, together with a variety of esculent roots, greens and legumes, for the kitchen; in others, cotton, tobacco, sesamum, palma Christi, and lucern; and some are sown with barley, to be cut green for the use of the horses in the spring.

3

Interspersed among the kitchen enclosures, are large plantations of pomegranate, of plum, or of cherry trees; and sometimes groves composed of the various fruit trees which the country produces. All these trees are standards; and though sometimes planted in rows, they are for the most part crowded close together with little regard to symmetry, forming wild and impervious thickets. In other parts of the grounds, a more complete shade is formed by tufts of lofty trees, which uniting their branches at top, give shelter to roses of different sorts, and to a profusion of wild aromatic herbs, which, thus protected from the sun, long retain their fragrance. To such a mode of arrangement, the inspired writers more than once allude. Thus, the prophet Ezekiel in his parable of the two eagles and the vine: "There was also another great eagle, with great wings, and many feathers; and behold, this vine did bend her roots towards him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantations. It was planted in a good soil, by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine."h

The extensive gardens in various parts of Syria, de

scribed by Russel and other travellers, will enable us to form a tolerably correct idea of the gardens and orchards of Solomon, in whose fragrant and umbrageous retreats, he seems to have so greatly delighted. That magnificent prince appears to have had a range of such enclosures, appropriated to the cultivation of particular fruits; in which he was imitated by the succeeding kings of Israel and Judah. In allusion to this arrangement, our Lord says to the church, "Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits. I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley." The prophet Isaiah compares the daughter of Zion to a garden of cucumbers; and Ahab desired to have the vineyard of Naboth for a garden of herbs.

But the people of Israel, and other oriental nations of those days, appear to have bestowed particular attention on the cultivation of the vine. The site of the vineyard was carefully chosen in fields of a loose crumbling soil, on a rich plain, or on a sloping hill rising with a gentle ascent; or, where the acclivity was very steep, on terraces supported by masonry, and turned as much as possible from the setting sun. The plot was enclosed with a wall; the stones and other encumbrances were removed, and the choicest plants were selected to form the plantation. Within the vineyard, low walls were sometimes raised for the purpose of supporting the vines; a practice which seems to have been adopted before the days of Jacob, for in the blessing of Joseph, he speaks of it in a manner which shews that it was quite familiar to the vine-dresser: "Joseph is a fruit

i Song iv, 13; and vi, 11.

j 1 Kings xxi, 1.

* Varro de Re Rustica, lib. i, cap. 26. Columella de Re Rust. lib. iv, cap. 3, &c.

ful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose bran ches run over the wall." The Persian vine-dressers do all in their power to make the vine run up the wall and curl over on the other side, which they do by tying stones to the extremity of the tendrils. In some other countries, the vine is frequently made to entwine on trelleses, round a well where in the heat of the day, whole families collect and sit in the shade. By this beautiful image then it appears that while the dying patriarch justly appreciated and highly praised the admirable qualities of his beloved son, he intimated to his family in the most delicate but significant manner their obligation to Joseph for the protection and comfort they enjoyed under his government.m

The wine-press constructed for expressing the juice of the grapes, does not seem to be a moveable implement in the cast; and our Lord in the parable of the vineyard, says expressly, that it was formed by digging. Chardin found the wine-press in Persia was made after the same manner; it was a hollow place dug in the ground, and lined with mason work. Besides this, they had what the Romans called lacus, the lake, a large open place or vessel, which, by a conduit or spout, received the must from the wine-press. In very hot countries it was perhaps necessary, or at least convenient, to have the lake under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the rock for coolness, that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must."

To these circumstances, the prophet Isaiah distinctly refers in the beginning of the fifth chapter: "My well beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he m Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 241. Lowth on Isaiah, vol. ii, p. 61.

1 Gen. xlix, 22.

n

fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof; and planted it with the choicest vine; and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes; and it brought forth wild grapes." The tower which the prophet mentions, and which our Lord also introduces into one of his parables, is generally explained by commentators, as designed. for the keepers of the vineyard to watch and defend the fruits. But for this purpose, it was usual to make a little temporary hut, called in the first chapter, not a tower, but a cottage, which might serve for the short season while the grapes were ripening, and was afterwards removed. The tower, therefore, according to Lowth, means a building of a more permanent nature and use; the farm of the vineyard, as we may call it, containing all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for cultivating the vineyard and making the wine. To this image in the allegory, the situation, the manner of building, the use, and the whole service of the temple exactly answered." They have still such towers for pleasure or use, in their gardens in the oriental regions; for Marcus Sanutus, as quoted by Harmer, informs us, that, in the thirteenth century, the inhabitants of Ptolemais beat down, the towers of their gardens to the ground, and removed the stones of them, together with those of their buryingplaces, on the approach of the Tartars. The gardens of Damascus are furnished with the same kind of edifices." In most of the gardens near Aleppo, summer houses are built for the reception of the public. In others, at a greater distance,are tolerably commodious villas, to which the Franks resort in the spring, as the natives do in the n Lowth on Isaiah, vol. ii, p. 60. • Maundrell's Journey, p. 122.