and extensive private palaces it is said to have contained, especially as so large a space was appropriated to the temple. On these points we are justified in rejecting many of the statements of Josephus, and should confine ourselves to the belief of the general description of the quarters of the city, the direction of the walls, and such particulars as he could not have been mistaken in, or have had any interest in exaggerating.

This walk round the walls at once familiarized us with the principal objects in the city, and features of its position, and enabled us so to arrange them in different walks, as to ensure to the careful reader the means of comparing one view with another, in such a manner as that one point should fill up the deficiencies of another, and no part remain without illustration. But before we enter upon our principal object we shall endeavour, in a brief chapter, to bring our survey of the modern city to bear upon the past; to trace the gradual progress of ancient Jerusalem, and to body forth the description by Josephus of her appearance in the time of Christ, always the most deeply-interesting period of her history. Furnished with this general idea, and means of comparison, the reader will proceed with greater profit and interest to the investigation of the modern city.

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ANCIENT JERUSALEM.

WE shall anticipate the results of our examination of modern Jerusalem, in a brief essay on her ancient condition, derived from a comparison of historical data with existing monuments. The most careful result we can form is but an approximation; yet we are not without hope that it may be useful, as well as pleasing, to the student of sacred history. Should our conclusions be rejected as unsatisfactory, we shall at least have put before the reader the means of judging for himself, by carefully comparing our illustrations of the past and present.

The remarkable geographical position of Jerusalem first requires our notice. When the Israelites under Moses, after their long sojourn in the desert, hovered on the lofty ridge of the Moab Mountains above the Promised Land, their eyes wandered over the deep valleys and rugged hilly ranges, to the Mediterranean Sea. At their feet was the long deep basin of the River Jordan, running through a most luxuriant scene of cultivation into the Dead Sea:-Jericho and her groves

were right over against them, on the further edge of this valley, the basin of which is deeper than the Mediterranean. Beyond this the eye ranged over a wild sea of hills, extending more than twenty miles towards the coast, broken into ravines, and affording, along its highest central ridge, many strong positions, still identified by their Arab names, such as Gibeon,* Michmash,† and others, in the midst of which stands Jerusalem, then the hill-fort of the Jebusites, the most impregnable and important of them all. The approach on every side but the north is difficult, and easily defended, as, during the eventful history of the city, has often been proved. Beyond Jerusalem the hill-country gradually sinks into the plain of the sea-coast, where Joppa and Cæsarea are situated, to which we have alluded in our introduction.

Supposing ourselves next before Jerusalem, in the centre of this hill country, we must be struck with its remarkable position. The diagram on the next page gives the natural formation of its site, when occupied only by the Fort of Jebus, of which the citadel does not appear to have been taken by the Israelites, but only the lower city. On the left is the strong hill of Zion, separated from Acra and Moriah by a narrow ravine, called the Tyropeon, its crest occupied by the hill-fort, or "Upper City," and the lower encircled by a wall. It is defended on the whole of its sides by the Valley of Hinnom, which

*El-Jeb.

+ Muk-mas.-ROBINSON.

unites at its base with that of the Kidron, or Jehoshaphat, which sweeps round and defends Acra and Moriah. These latter hills were also separated by an interval which, though partly filled up, still exists.

Thus, the only part of the site of Jerusalem at all weak was the plain on the north, and accordingly it is here that the city has generally been forced. An account of its capture, by David, is contained in the second Book of Samuel, chap. v. When this monarch made it his capital, and gradually subdued the surrounding tribes, it must have received a great accession of buildings; but whether they extended beyond Zion, except as rural suburbs, is doubtful. We know that at this time Moriah was similarly occupied, by the mention of the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, where the plague was stayed.

The first act of Solomon was to fulfil the pious intention of his father, David, (which had been set aside by the wars in which he was engaged,) of building a temple on Moriah, to the God of Israel. The pious monarch sent ambassadors to Hiram, King of Tyre,* to make arrangements for a supply of timber from Lebanon,†

* 2 Chronicles, xi.

So nearly has the cedar disappeared from Lebanon, that there are scattered about the environs of London, within twenty miles' distance, far more of these beautiful trees than exist upon their original and poetic soil.