manners and customs, their business and actions, their daily life and walk. These serve more than all else to bring us to a close personal acquaintance with that remarkable people; they enable us to be present with them in their houses, at their meals, in their affairs; to see them with their wives, their children, and their servants; in their rising up and lying down; in their going out and coming in; in short, in every thing relating to the persons and employments of themselves and families. Without an acquaintance with all these particulars, the interpreter can never be thoroughly furnished for his work. Whatever may be his qualifications in other respects, he can never enter fully into the meaning and spirit of very much of the sa

cred text.

It is greatly to be regretted, that this last branch, the Domestic Antiquities of the Hebrews, is just that which has been most neglected. There are perhaps books enough on the Jewish ritual; but I know of only a single important work in the English language, and that a translation, which gives any thing like a complete view of the domestic life and manners of this people.

VII. It is not necessary to dwell here on the importance of a knowledge of Biblical Chronology. This is perhaps the branch of biblical learning, which of all others has been most readily acknowledged, and most extensively and ably cultivated in the English tongue, as is testified by the distinguished names of Usher, Newton, and Hales. Yet, after all, the difficulties are by no means wholly cleared up; and many of the results as to dates, can be regarded only as conjectural estimates. Hardly any two of the chronological systems agree throughout. Even in regard to the times, in which the several books of the New Testament were written, there exists great diversity of opinion and statement. All this does not affect, however, in the slightest degree, the question of their authority; it serves only to show that the biblical student has before him no light task, while he delves in the mists of gray antiquity, in search of some faint traces, which may serve as landmarks in the course of times and

seasons.

VIII. A branch of biblical study which has excited comparatively little attention in English literature, and yet is one of great interest, is Biblical Geography. While geography in general, both historical and physical, has been cultivated with great success in England and in our own land; while the classic soil of Italy and Greece, and even that of India, has been

traversed and described by multitudes; while we have treatises from the highest names on the geography of Herodotus, and other ancient profane writers; the geography of the Holy Scriptures has remained unsettled and unexplored, and even the physical features of the Land of Promise are to this day in a great measure unknown. Strange as it may appear, even the efforts of British science in behalf of navigation, have not been extended to this quarter. While even the polar regions have been traversed and explored; while the results of exact surveys and soundings are laid down in the latest charts of the Red Sea, and those of the coasts of Asia Minor and Northern Africa; the coasts of Syria and Palestine, that land of the earliest history and deepest interest, have never been surveyed, and cannot be given on any map, on the basis of astronomical observation or scientific measurement. As the theatre of recent naval war, it is to be hoped that these coasts may no longer thus remain a reproach to nautical science.

Another strange fact appears in the history of biblical geogra phy. I mean the circumstance, that of all the multitude of pilgrims and travellers who have thronged the Holy Land for the last five centuries, not one of them has gone thither with any reference to the geography of the Scriptures, or made the slightest preparation to qualify himself for instituting researches, or forming a judgment, on subjects falling within this important department. At least nothing of the kind has appeared before the public. The travellers have often been acute and observing men; but they have never inquired, in respect to the Holy Land, what was already known, or what was unknown; what was certain or uncertain; what was forgotten, or yet to be sought out. Hardly one has ever yet travelled with a sufficient knowledge of the Arabic language, to collect information for himself from the people of the land. The consequence has been, that travellers have mostly only listened to and reported the traditions and legends of the foreign monks; and no one has ever thought of seeking after what might yet remain among the common people.

These monastic traditions began early to take root and spring up; and as ages rolled on, they flourished more and more luxuriantly. The centuries of the crusades added to their number and strength; and then, and in later times, a mass of foreign tradition, which had thus foisted itself upon the Holy Land, spread itself over Christendom, until it has come to be received

almost without doubt or question. Yet it frequently contradicts the express testimony of the Scriptures or of Josephus; and is, in fact, in itself worthless, unless when supported by collateral evidence. In looking down through the long period that has followed the labors of Eusebius and Jerome, in the fourth century, it is interesting, though painful, to perceive, how the light of truth has gradually become dim, and at length often been quenched in darkness. It is certain, that in the long interval between Eusebius and the crusades, very much was forgotten by the church, which still continued to exist among the common people; and in the subsequent period, the progress of oblivion has perhaps been hardly less rapid. Even within the last two centuries, so far as the convents and travellers in Palestine are concerned, I fear the cause of sacred geography can hardly be said to have greatly advanced.

Yet there can be no doubt, and I speak from personal experience, that there does exist among the native population of Palestine, the Arab Fellâhs of the villages and hamlets, a species of tradition, which is destined to throw great light upon the ancient topography of the land. I mean the preservation of the ancient names of places among the common people. This is a truly national and native tradition; not derived in gree from the influence of foreign convents or masters; but any dedrawn in by the peasant with his mother's milk, and deeply seated in the genius of the Semitic languages. Such names still exist in every part of Palestine; and we ourselves, in travelling through regions both visited and unvisited, were enabled to collect many such, of which apparently there has been no written mention since the fourth century.

We all recognize the benefit and importance of a knowledge of geography, in reading the current works of the day, and even the newspapers. Of how much higher importance must it then be, for the due understanding of the Scriptures; in which the physical and topographical features of the country are so distinctly and definitely traced out, that we, like other travellers, found the Bible to be the best, and only accurate guide-book in the Holy Land. The delineation of a place or region on plans and maps, aids exceedingly to render definite our impressions of events; but how much more distinctly and vividly do they stand out before the mind, when we ourselves have been present in the very spots and scenes. I never felt the full force and energy of the eloquence of Paul, until I stood upon the Areopagus

in Athens; nor the definiteness, and beauty, and power of the biblical history, until my feet had trod the courts and fields where God of old had dwelt; where the Saviour of the world had lived, and taught, and died; where patriarchs, and prophets, and holy men had walked and held converse with the Most High. It was with an absorbing and exciting interest, that we thus visited these spots; it was almost like communing with those holy men themselves; and served, in a high degree, to give us a deeper impression of the reality and vividness of the Scriptural narrative, and to confirm our confidence in the truth and power of the sacred volume.

IX. Connected with the physical Geography of a land, is also its Natural History; and allusions occur on almost every page of the Bible, to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, as they exist in Palestine. Here, too, the interpreter is often at fault, for want of full and specific information. The animals of the Holy Land have never been thoroughly investigated; nor its botany explored; nor its minerals and geological structure scientifically examined. The leading geologist of the continent of Europe once remarked to me, that he had long sought in vain for specimens of the limestone around the holy city; and the Elah or terebinth of the Hebrews, has, until recently, remained as undetermined among botanists, as the unicorn of the English version is still unknown to the zoologist.

*

X. Another important source of information for the interpretation of the Bible, and the only one which time permits me further to mention, may be termed the History of Interpretation. Under this branch I must here include the efforts and results of all former interpreters of the Holy Scriptures;-a wide and fertile field, in which abundant fruit has been produced, both good and bad. The earliest documents of this kind are to be found in the literature of the Jews themselves; since the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, the version of the Septuagint, as well as the history and philosophy of the Jews, are all imitations of, or founded upon, their inspired writings. Of the same class is the vast mass of tradition and direct interpretation, collected in the Talmuds, and the labors of the later Rabbins. Here is a mine never yet fully explored, which is probaby destined yet to yield, along with much rubbish, not a little ore, for the use of

* Leopold von Buch.

the biblical interpreter. Then follow the ancient versions into various tongues, and also the comments of the Fathers and of interpreters in all subsequent ages; to whose numerous tomes we might almost apply the hyperbolical language of St. John, that "even the world itself cannot contain the books that have been written." Yet amid all this mass of literature, besides the many treasures of commentary, most volumes have some grains of wheat mingled with much chaff; and these it is the duty of the interpreter to seek out, and transplant to a kindlier soil, and cause them to grow and flourish in his Master's field.

XI. We have thus passed in review the main branches of study, which go to make up the department of Biblical Literature, and furnish the sources and materials, from, and with which, the interpreter is to illustrate the Word of God. A due acquaintance with all these may be said to comprise his objective qualifications; being such as are drawn from without himself. As to what relates to the inner man, the disposition of the mind, which we may term his subjective preparation, I would remark, that all external aids and qualifications will be in vain to the interpreter, without the spirit of prayer, and of humble reliance on the divine assistance. Without this spirit, the human heart and human mind are of themselves prone to wander from the truth in divine things, and to set up human judgment and human authority, above the revealed will of the Most High. The ancient Jews clung to the letter of their law, which they understood better than we; but they failed to imbibe its spirit. So the interpreter of Scripture, who rests merely on the support of human learning, will abide in the letter, while the spirit must ever remain beyond his comprehension. "The natural man," says St. Paul," receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, seeing they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual, judgeth all things." The truth here propounded by the apostle, applies to the interpreter as well as to the hearer of the Scriptures; and unless he can stand the trial, even though he might speak with the tongues of men and of angels; though he might have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; yet without the spirit of love, he would be nothing,' and his teaching become only as "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

It may be asked, Why this spiritual frame of mind should be necessary for the interpretation of the Bible, more than of any