men, as we know from the testimony of Moses and Josephus, who speak concerning the wells of bitumen, in the valley of Siddim. Lightning kindled the combustible mass, and the cities sunk in the subterraneous conflagration. M. Malte Brun ingeniously suggests, that Sodom and Gomorrah themselves might have been built of bituminous stones, and thus have been set in flames by the fire of heaven.' Chateaubriand. But to this we have to oppose the opinion of Mr. Madden. 'The face of the mountains and of the surrounding country has all the appearance of a volcanic region and hav ing resided for some years at the foot of Vesuvius, having visited Solfatara, Etna, and Stromboli, I was tolerably conversant with volcanic productions. I have no hesitation in saying, that the sea which occupies the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma, Zeboim, and Zoar, covers the crater of a volcano, and that, in all probability, heaven made that mode of destruction the instrument of Divine vengeance. I must confess I found neither pumice-stone, nor genuine black lava, but the soil was covered with white porous and red veined quartz, which had decidedly undergone combustion.' To the same effect De la Martine observes, 'It is a Sea that seems petrified. And how has it been formed? Most like mixing with the bitumen, form a small | be admitted in the catastrophe of the lake, where, previous to the awful vis-guilty cities, without offence to religion. itation, a fruitful valley lay. Thus Sodom was built upon a mine of bituwould perish the cities and their polluted inhabitants; whilst the lake would remain as a lasting memorial of God's power to punish as well by fire as by a deluge of water. Chateaubriand, however, ranges himself among the opponents of this theory, though he seems inclined to admit that physical agencies were not excluded from the judgment which overthrew the Pentapolis. 'I cannot coincide in opinion with those who suppose the Dead Sea to be the crater of a volcano. I have seen Vesuvius, Solfatara, Monte Nuovo, in the lake of Fusino, the peak of the Azores, the Mamelif, opposite to Carthage, the extinguished volcanoes of Auvergne, and remarked in all of them the same characters, that is to say, mountains excavated in the form of a funnel, lava, and ashes, which exhibited incontestable proofs of the agency of fire. The Dead Sea on the contrary, is a lake of great length, curved like a bow, placed between two ranges of mountains, which have no mutual coherence in form, no homogeneousness of soil. They do not meet at the two extremities of the lake, but continue, the one to bound the valley of Jordan, and to run northward as far as the Lake of Tiberias; the other to stretch away to the south till lost in the sands of Yemen. Bitumen, warm springs, and phosphoric stones are found, it is true, in the mountains of Arabia; butly, as the Bible tells us, and as all probI met with none of these in the oppo- ability declares, it was the vast centre site chain. But then, the presence of of a chain of volcanic mountains which, hot springs, sulphur, and asphaltos, is stretching from Jerusalem to Mesoponot sufficient to attest the anterior ex- tamia, and from Lebanon to Idumea, istence of a volcano. With respect to burst open in a crater, at a time when the ingulphed cities, I adhere to the ac- seven cities were peopled on its plain. count given in Scripture, without sum- The cities would have been overthrown moning physics to my aid. Besides, if by the earthquake. The Jordan which we adopt the idea of Professor Mich- most probably flowed at that time aelis, and the learned Büsching, in his through the plain, and emptied itself Memoir of the Dead Sea, physics may into the Red Sea, being stopped all at once by the volcanic hillocks, rose high above its bed, and ingulphing itself in the craters of Sodom and Gomorrah, might have formed this sea, which is corrupted by the union of sulphur, salt, and bitumen-the usual production of volcanic eruptions. This is the fact from all appearances.' (Trav. p. 234.) On the whole, we cannot but consider the volcanic theory as the best sustained of the two. The objection of Chateaubriand that the usual phenomena of extinct volcanoes such as a crater, lava, ashes, &c. are wanting, is of little weight when opposed to the counter testimony afforded by actual appearances and immemorial tradition. Not to advert to the consideration that abundance of such materials may have been covered by the waters of the lake; not to insist on the remark of Clarke (Trav. in the Holy Land, p. 372) that he noticed a mountain on its western shore resembling in form the cone of Vesuvius, and having also a crater upon its top, which was plainly discernible; the physical characters of the region exhibit the most conclusive evidence that strata of bituminous and sulphureous matter, capable of explosion, did formerly exist on the spot. Deep clefts or pits containing hot springs at the bottom of which bitumen is found, occur in the immediate vicinity of the Lake, while the floating asphaltum which gives to the lake one of the many names is collected by the Arabs, and is not only used as pitch, but enters into the composition of medicines, and seems to have been anciently much employed in Egypt in the embalming of bodies. The shores of the Bea, and also the neighbouring hills, furnish a sort of stone or coal, which readily ignites, and yields an intolerable stench in burning. Captains Irby and Mangles collected on the southern coast lumps of nitre and fine sulphur, from the size of a nutmeg up to that of a small hen's egg, which, it was evi dent from their situation, had been brought down by the rain; their great deposit must be sought for, they say, in the cliff.' If then the sulphur and asphaltum be indigenous to the soil, and not a relic of the material engendered miraculously for the destruction of Sodom, it remains to inquire whether the same can be said of the salt.Almost every traveller has spoken of the vast quantities of salt by which not only the waters of the Lake are impreg nated, but which also spread a kind of frost-work over the shore and encrust nearly every object. The origin of this mineral,' says Volney (Trav. v. i. p. 191), 'is easy to be discovered: for on the south-west shore, are mines of fossil salt, of which I have brought away several specimens. They are situated in the side of the mountains which extend along that border, and for time immemorial, have supplied the neighbouring Arabs, and even the city of Jerusalem.' But we have still stronger proof in the following account of the 'Valley of Salt' which the American editor of Calmet places in the near vicinity of this Lake. 'This valley would seem to be either the northern part of the great valley El Ghor, leading south from the Dead Sea, or perhaps some smaller valley or ravine opening into it near the Dead Sea. The whole of this region is strongly impregnated with salt, as appears from the report of all travellers. According to Captains Irby and Mangles 'a gravelly ravine, studded with bushes of acacia and other shrubs, conducts [from the west] to the great sandy plain, at the southern end of the Dead Sea. On entering this plain, the traveller has on his right a continued hill, composed partly of salt and partly of hardened sand, running south-east and north-west, till, after proceeding a few miles, the plain opens to the south, bounded, at the distance of about eight miles, by a sandy cliff from sixty to 324 ern shore, the salt is also deposited by the evaporation of the water of the lake. The travellers found several of the natives peeling off a solid layer of salt, several inches thick, with which they At another point, loaded their asses. eighty feet high, which traverses the | On the southern extremity of the eastvalley El Ghor like a wall, forming a barrier to the waters of the Lake when at their greatest height.' On this plain, besides the saline appearance left by the retiring of the waters of the Lake, the travellers noticed, lying on the ground, several large fragments of also where the water, being shallow, rock-salt, which led them to exainine retires or evaporates rapidly, a considthe hill, on the right of the ravine by erable level is left, encrusted with a which they had descended to the plain, salt that is but half dried and consolidescribed above, as composed partly of dated, appearing like ice in the comsalt and partly of hardened sand. They mencement of a thaw, and giving way found the salt, in many instances, nearly ankle deep. All these appearances are surely sufficient to justify the hanging from the cliffs, in clear perpendicular points resembling icicles. appellation of Plain or Valley of Salt.' They observed also strata of salt of Robinson's Calmet. If then we find considerable thickness, having very lit- the very materials of this awful visitatle sand mixed with it, generally in per- tion at hand in the neighbouring hills, pendicular lines. During the rainy what shall prevent us from supposing season, the torrents apparently bring that a volcanic eruption, perhaps from down immense masses of this mineral. the identical crater, which Clarke deWas, then, this 'gravelly ravine,' the scribes, pouring down upon the guilty particular Valley of Salt? or was cities a shower of inflamed sulphur or this term applied more generally to this nitre mixed with heated salt, while the whole plain, which exhibits similar whole adjoining plain underwent a characteristics? Strabo mentions, that simultaneous overthrow in consequence to the southward of the Dead Sea there of a bituminous explosion? There is are towns and cities built entirely of nothing, that we can see, in this supsalt; and although,' add the travel-position at variance with the really lers, such an account seems strange, miraculous character of the event-for yet when we contemplate the scene be- it was omnipotence that waked the fore us, it did not seem incredible.' The sleeping subterranean fires at that parsea had thrown up at high-water mark ticular juncture-nothing but what is a quantity of wood, with which the in strict accordance with the geological travellers attempted to make a fire, in phenomena that now distinguish this order to bake some bread; but it was remarkable region. Indeed the more so impregnated with salt, that all their close and rigid have been the researchefforts were unavailing. The track, af- es into the physical characters of the ter leaving the salt-hill, led across the basin of the Dead Sea, the more clearbarren flats of the back-water of the ly have the results appeared to be prelake, then left partly dry by the effects cisely such as might be expected from of evaporation. They passed six drains the truth of the foregoing hypothesis. running into the sea; some were wet, The objection stated above by Paxton, and still draining the dreary level which that the presence of sulphur and salt they intersected; others were dry. would be inconsistent with the asserted These had a strong marshy smell, sim- primitive fertility of the plain, is obviailar to what is perceivable on most of ted at once by the remark, that by our the muddy flats in salt-water harbours, very supposition these substances were but by no means more unpleasant. not originally found on the plain, but ་ in the mountains and that the water | its fertility, and submerged the ground is so largely impregnated with saline and sulphureous properties is probably in part at least to the fact that it now extends on either side to the base of the mountains, and thus comes in contact with the materials of which they are composed. On this whole subject see Mod. Traveller, vol. i. pp. 188, 199, Am. Ed. itself under the waters of the Jordan, that the foot of man might never tread it more. The destruction was complete and irreparable; the country was in a manner blotted out of the map of Palestine, so fierce was the indignation, so terrible the overthrow. The original word ( yahaphok) is emphatic, and by being applied not to the build they stood, would seem to imply that kind of physical disruption which could be caused only by an earthquake or volcano, or the combined action of both, which we have above endeavoured to show to be nearer the truth. Its leading idea in such connections as the present, is that of subversion, and this is obviously an effect additional to any thing that would be caused by the mere descent of a fiery shower from heaven. The catastrophe, therefore, if our interpretation be admitted, was marked The Lord rained-from the Lordings only, but to the ground on which out of heaven. This phraseology is remarkable, and has led some comment ators to understand the words as a distinct intimation of a plurality of persons in the Godhead, q. d. 'The Lord, who appeared and conversed with Lot, the Son of God, rained from the Lord who is invisible, from the Father in heaven, the destroying tempest.' But it is perhaps safer to understand it as a mere Hebraic idiom, equivalent to saying, that Jehovah rained in this fearful manner from himself out of heaven. That is, such was the appear-with the united horrors of earthquake, ance of the phenomenon. Parallel modes of speech are not unusual in the sacred writers. Thus, Ex. 24. 1, 'And he (the Lord) said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord,' &c. Hos. 1. 7, 'I will save them by the Lord God.' Zech. 10. 12, 'I will strengthen them in the Lord. 1 Kings, 8. 1, 'Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon.' The scope of the words is probably to intimate that the fiery shower was extraordinary and miraculous, altogether out of the common course of nature, something to be referred to the hand of Omnipotence. - Upon Sodom and Gomorrah. And also upon the mighty cities Admah and Zeboim, as is evident from Deut. 29. 23. Hos. 11. 5. 25. Overthrow those cities, and all the plain, &c. That is, he consumed its productions, he destroyed its beauty, he extinguished the very principles of and volcano, the latter described as a 26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became 1 a pillar of salt. Luke 17. 32. 27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: nal fire! m m ch. 18. 22. them, notwithstanding their signal in- It was total. 'And he overthrew those gratitude, breaks out into the following cities, and all the plain, and all the inanimated address, in the name of the habitants of the cities, and that which Lord, Hos. 11. 8, 'How shall I give grew upon the ground.' It was an thee up, Ephraim; how shall I deliver utter ruin, and absolutely irreparable. thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Every habitation was overturned, every Admah, how shall I set thee as Ze- animal destroyed, every vegetable conboim? My heart is turned within me, sumed, every soul of man, excepting and my repentings are kindled togeth- Lot and his party, involved in the dread er.' But however interesting may be disaster. Had ten righteous persons the event geologically or philosophical- been found in it, it would have been ly considered, it is practically fraught preserved for their sakes; but as the with far more important lessons. (1.) degeneracy was universal, so also was The destruction of these fated cities the destruction. What a striking dewas extraordinary. It was unprece- monstration of the exceeding sinfuldented; there has been nothing like it, ness of sin, and of the direful conseeither before or since. It was emphat- quences it draws after it! What a ically destruction from the Almighty. fearful intimation of the final doom of He rained down out of heaven, in the the ungodly, when they shall be conmanner above described, fire and brim-demned to suffer the vengeance of eterstone upon their habitations, and at the same time upturned the soil on which they stood by the agency of subterranean burnings and explosions. We can enter experimentally into the feelings of those who are overtaken in a fearful storm of thunder and lightning; but who can enter into the feelings of the inhabitants of these devoted cities, when the Lord himself had become their enemy, when he was evidently fighting against them with his great power, and unlocking the magazines of his vengeance for their total destruction! The burning of Moscow by the Russians, to prevent its being sacked by the French, was an awful calamity; but then it was not supernaturally wrought; it was occasioned by human agency, and the inhabitants might flee to a place of safety. But in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah escape was hopeless. Divine vengeance closed in its victims on every side, and as the perdition was inevitable, so (2.) 26. His wife looked back from behind him. This seems to imply that she was following her husband, as is the custom at this day. When men, or women, leave their house, they never look back, as 'it would be very unfortunate.' Should a husband have left any thing which his wife knows he will require, she will not call on him to turn or look back; but will either take the article herself, or send it by another. Should a man have to look back on some great emergency, he will not then proceed on the business he was about to transact. When a person goes along the road, (especially in the evening), he will take great care not to look back, because the evil spirits would assuredly seize him.' When they go on a journey, they will not look behind, though the palankeen, or bandy, should be close upon them; they step a little on one side, and then look at you. Should a person have to leave |