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4196. [Ezek. xvii. 8.] In hot countries, the Vine is said to grow the most luxuriant in a situation which is near the water; but it is generally allowed, that the flavor of the grapes, from vines in such a situation, is much inferior to that of grapes growing in a dry soil.

SPEECHLY, on the Vine, p. 210.

and preserves mankind; and, as he often repeats, it never came into his mind to destroy them by sacrifices, &c. HUTCHINSON'S Nat. Hist. of the Bible, 'p. 124.

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4200. [Ezek. xx. 25, 26.] Did I therefore give them statutes not good? and judgments whereby they could not live ? Or thus

For, have I given them statutes that were not good, or laws whereby they should not live? Or have I made them impure by their gifts? When I consecrated to myself their first-born, to ravish them with admiration, that they might know I-AM, the LORD.

See Bib. Research. vol. i. p. 322. GOD's law, by the natural usage in marriage, propagates

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4202. [Ezek. xxii. 18.] When a mass of metal, consisting of lead and silver, is melted in the open air, the lead will be burnt to ashes, and the silver remain unaltered at the bottom of the vessel in which the mass is melted. Iron, tin, and copper, resemble lead, in being convertible into a kind of ashes, when exposed to the action of air and fire; and gold resembles silver in not undergoing any change from such action: Hence either gold or silver, or a mass consisting of both, may be purified from any or all of these metals by the mere operation. of fusion; for these inetals will rise to the top of the vessel,. in which the fusion is made, in the form of an earth or dross, leaving the gold or silver pure at the bottom. See Jer. vi. 29.

WATSON'S Chem. vol. iii. pp. 317, 318. DIODORUS Siculus (Lib. iii. pp. 183— 189), in describing the manner of working gold mines in the confines of Egypt and Arabia, mentions the melting of the mineral in conjunction with a little tin, some small portion of salt, and a lump of lead.

4203. [Ezek. xxiii. 20.] Whose flesh of grapes, in their i. e. carried by young offerings, is the flesh of asses Princes on white-asses; and whose issue or drink-offerings, to be poured out in libations of wine, is the issue of horses i. e. carried forth by the worshippers of the Sun, on white Horses, in their morning processions to meet that because Such flesh and blood of grapes, luminary. kept together till they had fermented an intoxicating wine or blood with life or spirit in it, were prohibited by JEHOVAH on two accounts, as offered to vain objects, and as intoxicating the deluded worshippers.

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4208. [Ezek. xxiv. 17. The tire of thy head] Peer (Hebr.) is supposed to have been a kind of ribbon or fillet, which went round the head, and was worn not only by Jews, but by other Eastern nations. Those of princes, though called by other names, are thought to have differed only in the richness of the materials, and of the precious stones that adorned them. See Ps. xxi. 3. 2 Sam. xii. 30. 1 Chron. xx. 2.

4209. [Ezek. xxvi. 14.] Passing by Tyre, says BRUCE, from curiosity only, I came to be a mournful witness of the

truth of this prophecy, that Tyre, the queen of nations, should be a rock for fishers to dry their nets on. Two wretched fishermen, with miserable nets, having just given over their occupation with very little success, I engaged them, at the expense of their nets, to drag in those places where they said shell-fish might be caught, in hopes to have brought out one of the famous purple-fish. I did not succeed; but in this I was, I believe, as lucky as any of the old fishers had ever been. The purple-fish at Tyre seems to have been only a concealment of their knowledge of cochineal; as, had they depended on the fish for their dye, if the whole city of Tyre applied to nothing else but fishing, they would not have coloured twenty yards of cloth in a year. See Bib. Research. vol. ii. p. 262.

4210. [Ezek. xxvii. 3.] The power of the city of Tyre on the Mediterranean, and in the West, is well known of this, Carthage, Utica, and Cadiz are celebrated monuments. We know that she extended her navigation even into the ocean, and carried her commerce beyond England to the north, and the Canaries to the south. Her connexions with the East, though less known, were not less considerable; the islands of Tyrus and Aradus (the modern Barhain), in the Persian Gulf. The cities of Faran and Phonicum Oppidum, on the Red Sea, in ruins even in the time of the Greeks, prove that the Tyrians had long frequented the coast of Arabia and the Indian Sea. But through the vicissitudes of time, the barbarism of the Greeks, and the indolence of the Mahometans; instead of that antient commerce, so active and so extensive, Tsour (Tyre) reduced to a miserable village, has no other trade than the exportation of a few sacks of corn and raw cotton, nor any merchant, says VOLNEY, but a single Greek factor in the service of the French of Saide (Sidou) who scarcely makes sufficient profit to maintain his family. Trav. vol. ii. p. 225.

This chapter exhibits a true picture of oriental commerce in antient times; and a very exact description of the port of Surat, at the present day, where we behold at once, the bazars filled with costly merchandise; picturesque and interesting groups of natives on elephants, camels, horses, and mules; strangers from all parts of the globe, in their respective costume; vessels building on the stocks, others navigating the river; Turks, Persians, and Armenians, on Arabian chargers; European ladies in splendid carriages; Asiatic females in hackeries, drawn by oxen; and on the fortifications, the motley appearance of the English and nabob's troops.

FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 247.

4211. [- — 4.] This city, standing in the sea, on a peninsula, promises at a distance something very magnificent.

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4212. [Ezek. xxvii. 7. Blue and purple] When Alexander was revelling in Persia, he sent for materials to clothe himself and his attendants with purple robes. These materials, it is said, were produced from the purpura, called in Maccabees the purple of the sea: "Then Judas returned to spoil the tents, where they got much gold and silver, and blue silk, and purple of the sea, and great riches;" ch. iv. 23.It appears from Pliny, 1. ix. c. 33, that there were several species of the purpura, but that the Pelagium and the Buccina were the most valued. From these two separately, or combined, were produced the three kinds of purple most esteemed by the Antients. One was called porphuris (Grk.), of a strong violet color inclining to black; a second was called phoinikis, inclining to scarlet; a third alourgis, azure or sky blue. Atheneus says, l. iii. c. 12, that the best and largest were found near Lesbos and the promontory of Lectus. Now Lesbos, Tenedos, and the small islands adjacent, were the isles of Elisha, whence Tyre had the articles of merchandise here enumerated.

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Editor of CALMet.

4214. It is probable, that the art of dyeing purple was discovered at Tyre, and contributed much to the opulence of that celebrated city. The Tyrian purple, according to Pliny, was of the color of coagulated blood. BERTHOLLET'S Art of Dyeing, by Hamilton, pp. ix, xi.

Though the Phenicians spared no cost in adorning their women, they did not allow them to wear the Tyrian purple, 80 famous in those days as a badge of distinction appropriated solely to men; and to such of them only as were of the first rank and dignity, though not theu, as it was afterwards, altogether confined to royalty.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist. of Women, vol. i. p. 119.

4215. [Ezek. xxvii. 14.] In antient times, Armenia was, like Egypt in the south, an aboriginal country of horses in the north, while yet many intermediate nations had no breed of their own, but received their horses either from Egypt or Armenia. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. ii. p. 473.

4216.

The mule here alluded to, is a species of wild horse (See Gen. xxxvi. 24): it resembles an ass in the mane, ears, feet, and tail, and principally in the black streak down the back; in other parts it is like a horse. It is the same which was called by Aristotle the Hemionos, found in his days in Syria, and which he celebrates for its amazing swiftness and fecundity. It abounds in the deserts of Tartary, to the south of the Russian dominions. In swiftness, it is said to outstrip the antelope. It is described by the Tarlars as exceeding fierce and so untractable as not to be tamed. - Pallas has favoured the world with an accurate description and engraving of this singular animal, in the New Commentaries of the Academy; to which we refer the Reader, as well as to Pennant's account of the Equus Hemionus in his History of Quadrupeds. See No. 1813.

COXE's Trav. in Pinkerton's Coll. part xxvi. p. 824.

4217. [ 16.] On the shores of Bombay there is a small fish, somewhat like a muscle, about four inches long, that has on the top of its back, and near the head, a small valve, on the opening of which you discover a liquor of a strong purple color, which being dropped on a piece of cloth, it retains the hue. It is found chiefly in the months of September and October; and it is observed the female fish has not this valve, which distinguishes the sexes. It is not improbable to suppose that this fish is of the same nature as the antient Murex or shell fish, by which the Romans attained the art of dyeing to such perfection; and is similar to that found formerly on the coasts of Tyre.

Quere coral.

PINKERTON, vol. ix. p. 236. whether the real Murex were not a species of

4218. [Ezek. xxviii. 12, 14.] The king of Tyre, the anointed cherub, was the colossal Idol erected on the rocky summit of the isle of Tyre, covered with gold, carbuncles, and 'stones of fire.'

Ezek. xxx. 13.

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4221. [———12, 13.] The greatest diamond that ever was known in the world is one belonging to the king of Portugal, which was found in Brazil; it is still uncut: it was of a large size, but a piece was cleaved or broken off by the ignorant countryman who chanced to find this great gem, and tried its hardness by the stroke of a large hammer on an anvil. This prodigious diamond weighs 1680 carats, and is valued at 5,644,800 pounds sterling.

The uncut diamond which adorns the imperial sceptre of Russia, under the eagle at the top of it, weighs 779 carats, and is worth at least 4,854,728 pounds sterling, although it hardly cost 135,417 guineas. This diamond was one of the eyes of a Malabarian idol, named Scheringham. Being taken thence by a French grenadier, it was sold to a ship captain for 20,000 rupees; afterward a Jew gave 18,000 pounds sterling for it at last a Greek merchant, named Gregory Suffras, offered it to sale at Amsterdam, and the late prince Orloff bought it of him for the empress of Russia.

The diamond of the great mogul is cut in rose, weighs 279 carats, and is worth 380,000 guineas.

Another of the king of Portugal, which is cut, weighs 215 carats, is extremely fine, and worth at least 369,800 guineas.

The cut diamond of the grand duke of Tuscany, now of the emperor of Germany, weighs 139 carats, and is valued at 109,520 guineas.

The diamond of the late king of France, called the Pitt or Regent, weighs 136 carats: this gem, being cut, is worth 208,333 guineas. It was sold by governor Pitt to the duke of Orleans for 135,000 pounds.

The other diamond of the same monarch called the Grand Sancis, weighs 55 (Chaptal says 106) carats, and cost, cut, 25,000 guineas.

The diamond called the Pigot, weighs, cut, 47, carats, valued at 20,000 guineas: parted with by the Pigot family by lottery in 1800.

W. H. PEPYS.

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4226.4.] Atheneus, in his Deipnosophis!, quotes a description of the Lybian lotos, from Polybius, which was used as food by the natives; but that differs very much from the lily of the Nile, or the nymphea of Hindostan. Did any of the harmless Hindoos eat the seed or fruit of this plant, as they convert its leaves into dishes and plates at their own vegetable meals, they would exactly answer HOMER'S description of the innocent lotophagi :

At length we touch'd, by storms and tempests tost,
The land of Lotos, and the flow'ry coast;
We climb'd the beach, and springs of water found,
Then spread our frugal banquet on the ground:
The people there are kind to foreign guest,
They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast;
The trees around them all their food produce,
Lotos the name; divine nectareous juice!
(Thence called lotophagi) which whoso tastes,
Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts.
See No. 980.

4227.

Odyssey.

I will cause the fish [lotos] of thy rivers to stick to thy scales.-The Lotos which grows plentifully in the Lower Egypt, especially near Rosetto, is a species of water-lily. Its leaves float on the water, and cover the surface of it, producing many flowers, which were formerly woven into the crowns of conquerors. The

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antient Egyptians made Bread of the middle or pulp of this plant dried, which resembled that of a poppy; and they also used to eat the root of it, which is round and as big as an apple. The Arabs make a drink of this Lotos, which is good for inward heat; and they eat the stalk and heads of them raw, which are very moist and cooling.

THOMPSON'S Travels through Egypt and
Arabia, vol. ii. p. 172 (London 1767).
See Num. xi. 5. See this verbatim in
Univer. Hist. vol. i. p. 401.

4228. [Ezek. xxix. 4.] The Lotos, peculiar to Egypt, is of two kinds: the more common has, on a long stem stretching above the surface of the water, a white flower that opens at sunrising and shuts in the evening; its root is eatable, and its head or pod contains a seed resembling millet, which the natives use in making bread. The superior sort, distinguished by its lofty stalks and rose-coloured flowers, has a bulbous root and a pod filled with large grains resembling small beans, which are equally most excellent food. The Nelumbo plant found in the island of Ceylon, and the Colocasia of Arabia with an edible root like an onion, are undoubtedly the second kind of Lotos characterized by its carnation flower.

See No. 977.

Abbe PLUCHE'S Hist. of the Heav. vol. ii. p. 308.

4229. [14, 15.] Such is the case with Egypt: deprived three and twenty centuries ago of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and at length, to the race of Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks. VOLNEY, Trav. vol. i. p. 74.

4230. [Ezek. xxx. 5.] Lydia was bounded by Mysia Major on the north; by Caria on the south; by Phrygia Major on the east, and lonia on the west it lay between the 37th and 39th degrees of north latitude. What the Antients style the kingdom of Lydia, extended from the river Halys to the Egean Sea.

Univer. Hist. vo .v. p. 401.

4231. [——— 13.] Since Egypt was conquered by the Persians, this prediction has been literally fulfilled; there has been hitherto no prince of the land of Egypt.

Nectanebus, the last king of Egypt, was driven out by

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-And Phibeseth shall fall] As the mouth or opening of a river or canal was called by the Hebrews Pi or Phi ; hence Phi-Haaroth is, by the Septuagint, translated, over against the opening of Haaroth; as Pithom was properly the canal of Thom; Phi-Nepthim the canal of Nepthim; and Phi-beseth the river of BESETH the ARTEMIS AGRIA, or DIANA AGRESTIS, as interpreted by the Greeks and Romans. This city, renowned for its temple and worship of the Moou, with its district (separated from Heliopolis and its province by the Sebenuetic branch and from Arabia by the Pelusiac branch of the Nile) was by the Greeks called, according to their mode of turning p into b &c., Bibesitus and contractedly Bubastus. These chief cities, thus contiguous in situation and allied by idolatry, are denounced by the prophet as inevitably to become partners in the impending calamity falling on Egypt. HEROD. ii. p. 1158.-See Bib. Research. vol. ii. p. 124.

4234. [18.] After the Medes had conquered all the upper or northern part of Asia, it was not long before a war took place between them and the Lydians, which continued for five years together, with various success. In the 6th year they engaged each other, with the utmost of their strength; intending to make that battle decisive, but while the fortune of the day seemed to hang in an equal balance, there happened a total eclipse of the sun, which overspread both anies with a horrible darkness; so that being affrighted at such a

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