it, we see, were Korah of the family of Kohath, and Dathan, Abiram, and On, of the family of Reuben. Now it is a very curious circumstance that some thirteen chapters before this, chapters occupied with matters of quite another character, it is mentioned incidentally that "the families of the sons of Kohath were to pitch on the side of the Tabernacle southward."* And in another chapter yet further back, and as independent of the latter as the latter was of the first, we read no less incidentally,

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on the south side (of the Tabernacle) shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben, according to their armies." The family of Kohath, therefore, and the family of Reuben, both pitched on the same side of the Tabernacle -they were neighbours, and were therefore conveniently situated for taking secret coun

*Numb. iii. 29.

+ Ibid. ii. 10.

sel together. Surely this singular coincidence comes of truth- not of accident, not of design;-not of accident, for how great is the improbability that such a peculiar propriety between the relative situations of the parties in the conspiracy should have been the mere result of chance; when three sides of the Tabernacle were occupied by the families of the Levites, and all four sides by the families of the tribes, and when combinations (arithmetically speaking) to so great an extent might have been formed between these in their several members, without the one in question being of the number. It does not come of design, for the agreement is not obvious enough to suit a designer's purpose-it might most easily escape notice :-- it is indeed only to be detected by the juxta-position of several unconnected passages falling out at long

intervals. Then, again, had no such coincidence been found at all; had the conspirators been represented as drawn together from more distant parts of the camp, from such parts as afforded no peculiar facilities for leaguing together, no objection whatever would have lain against the accuracy of the narrative on that account. The argument, indeed, for its veracity would then have been lost, but that would have been all; no suspicion whatever against its veracity would have been thereby incurred.

2. But there is yet another feature of truth in this same most remarkable portion of Mosaic history; and this has been enlarged upon by Dr. Graves.* I shall not however scruple to touch upon it here, both because I do not take quite the same view of it throughout, and because this in

* On the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 155.

cident combines with the one I have just brought forward, and thus acquires a value beyond its own, from being a second of its kind arising out of one and the same event -the united value of two incidental marks of truth being more than the sum of their separate values. Indeed, these two instances of consistency without design, taken together, hedge in the main transaction on the right hand and on the left, so as almost to close up every avenue through which suspicion could insinuate the rejection of it.

On a common perusal of the whole history of this rebellion, in the 16th chapter of Numbers, the impression left would be, that, in the punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, there was no distinction or difference; that their tents and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their

goods, were destroyed alike. Nevertheless, ten chapters after, when the number of the children of Israel is taken, and when in the course of the numbering, the names of Dathan and Abiram occur, there is added the following incidental memorandum-" This is that Dathan and Abiram who were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron, in the company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord." Then the death which they died is mentioned, and last of all it is said, "Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not." This, at first sight, undoubtedly looks like a contradiction of what had gone before. Again, then, let us turn back to the 16th chapter, and see whether we have read it right. Now, though upon a second perusal I still find no express assertion that

*Numb. xxvi. 11.