chisel their stories, chambers, galleries, and colonnades in the bodies or roots of growing trees. Then, other species

which furnish lodging to the industrious little beings which construct this singular monument.

Section of a Bank, shewing the NESTS of the MASON-ANT. construct nests among or upon the branches of trees, various in their kinds and dimensions, but all wonderful instances of the results of the art and industry of co-operating numbers, even among creatures so small that myriads may be crushed unregarded beneath the foot. Some of these nests are as large as hogsheads; others from the size of a human head to a fist,-the latter being formed by the powerful bending of large leaves, and glueing the points of them together so as to form a purse. 'But when

NEST of TERMITES in the Branch of a Tree.

we look at the buildings erected by the white ants of tropical climates, all that we have been conveying dwindles into insignificance. Their industry appears greatly to surpass that of our ants and bees, and they are certainly more skilful in architectural contrivances. The elevation also of their edifices is more than five hundred times the height of the builders. Were our houses built according to the same proportions, they would be twelve or fifteen times higher than the London Monument, and four or five times higher than the pyramids of Egypt, with corresponding dimensions in the basement of the edifice. These statements are perhaps necessary to impress the extraordinary labours of ants upon the mind, for we are all more or less sensible to the force of comparisons.' See Insect Architecture, chap. xiv.-xvi., for this and most of the other facts in this note; and where also may be found numerous details concerning the ingenuity and industry of ants, to which our limits do not allow us to refer, however illustrative they might be considered. The nests just mentioned are frequently twelve feet high, and some have been mentioned so high as twenty feet, and large enough to contain twelve men. This is an exterior shell containing an interior building, in which are formed a vast number of apartments, galleries, and magazines. In the same regions also does the smaller white ant erect its strong pillar, with its overhanging roof or capital, in the form of a mushroom. These erections are about three feet high, the interior being divided into numerous angular cells

TURRET-NESTS of the WHITE ANT.

labour, the alacrity and zeal with which the overburdened are assisted, their care in observing the times and seasons, the judgment with which they avail themselves of favourable circumstances, and the grand evidence which even these minute creatures are enabled to offer of the effects producible by the co-operation of numbers in a good and useful object,-are all circumstances which explain and enforce the injunction of the sacred writer.

13. Eyes...feet...fingers.-The Orientals are very expert in making communications to each other by means of signs and gestures, with the eyes, hands, or feet. The number of signs of this sort, having a well-understood conventional meaning, and in current use among the people, is very great, and which, although unintelligible to Europeans, are common to different nations in the East. In this way many a question is put and answered, and many an expressive intimation conveyed, even by children, who learn this language of signs much sooner than their mother tongue. Mr. Jowett, in his Christian Researches, suggests that the allusion to the feet, in the present text, should be considered in connection with the mode of sitting on the ground in the East, which brings the feet into view nearly in the same direct line with the hands, the whole body crouching down together, and the

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hands, in fact, often resting upon the feet. But, besides such common significant movements or signs, it is a fact that artificial systems of signs, by which any kind of communication may be held without speaking, and by means of which even the deaf and dumb may receive instruction, and communicate and understand, existed in the East long before such systems were thought of in Europe for the education of the deaf and dumb; and it is not impossible that something of the sort may be alluded to in the present text, as employed by guilty persons in making their communications to each other. In confirmation of this observation, we may refer to the mutes of the Grand Signior's seraglio at Constantinople, which we cannot do better than in a brief extract from the excellent account, given more than two centuries ago, by 'Master Robert Withers,' in Purchas. In the seraglio 'there are many dumb men, both old and young, who have liberty to go in and out with leave of the Capee Agha. And this is worthy the observation, that in the seraglio both the king and others can reason and discourse of anything as well and as distinctly, alla mutesca, by nods and signs, as they can with words: a thing well befitting the gravity of the better sort of Turks, who care not for much babbling. The same is also used among the sultanas and other the king's women: for with them likewise there are divers dumb women, both old and young. And this hath been an ancient custom in the seraglio: wherefore they get as many mutes as they can possibly find: and chiefly for this one reason, that they hold it not a thing befitting the Grand Siguior, neither stands it with his greatness, to speak to any about him familiarly: but he may in that manner more tractably and domestically jest and sport

CHAPTER VII.

1 Solomon persuadeth to a sincere and kind familiarity with wisdom. 6 In an example of his own experience, he sheweth 10 the cunning of a whore, 22 and the desperate simplicity of a young wanton. 24 He dehorteth from such wickedness.

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

9 In the twilight, 'in the evening, in the black and dark night:

10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

1 Deut. 6. 8, and 11. 18. Chap. 3. 3. 6 Heb. she strengthened her face, and said.

with the mutes than with others that are about him.' The public officers and governors, who acquire the knowledge of this system of communication when young, in the seraglio, for the sake of communicating with the mutes, employ it afterwards among themselves in their secret transactions and communications.

25. Neither let her take thee with her eyelids.-This probably refers to the care with which women in the East paint their eyelids, in a great measure in order to captivate the men, who, from the manner in which they are muffled up, can often see no more of their persons than their eyes which may indeed be one reason why so much pains are taken to set them off.

28. Can one go upon hot coals, and not be burned?— This image would hardly occur to us, who never go barefoot, and are never or rarely exposed to any liability of treading upon burning coals. If we desired to express the same sentiment by a similar image, we should say, 'Can one handle hot coals, and not be burned?' But in the East travelling parties kindle fires in the open air, for cooking and for warmth, and a passenger might easily burn his naked foot by treading inadvertently upon the hot but not glowing place of one of these recently quitted fires. It seems to us that this is the natural connection of the image, although to Europeans, whose usages are different, it naturally enough suggests the idea of ordeals by fire-being the only way of treading on hot coals of which we have historical knowledge. We have seen the text copiously illustrated under this notice; but if the opinion of a gipsy were taken he would probably assign to it the same interpretation that we have given.

11 ('She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and "with an impudent face said unto him,

14 'I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, alocs, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

19 For the good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

20 He hath taken a bag of money "with him, and will come home at 'the day appointed. 21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. 27 "Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Verse 6. At the window of my house I looked through my casement.'-The word rendered casement here is the same rendered lattice' in Judg. v. 28. The two passages are indeed exactly parallel: in both the person seated in the window, or kiosk, which projects from the house something like a bow-window, surveys what is going on without through the lattice, which enables one to see without being seen. As the mode of its construction enables it to catch every breath of air, this kiosk is a favourite station of the principal inmate of the house, not only on that account, but as one is there enabled to while away the time by observing what passes in different directions. In the present case, the person seated at one end of the kiosk could, without being observed, look through the latticework opposite to him all down the street, till the turning or corner intercepted his view.

10. The attire of an harlot.'-It seems, from this and other passages, that women of this class were obliged or accustomed to distinguish themselves by some peculiarity of dress. In some parts of Greece also they were obliged to dress differently from other women. Speaking with reference to the present text, Archbishop Potter observes, 'What sort of habit this was is not certain; but if the Athenian custom was in this, as in many other things, taken from the Jews, we may conclude that their harlots wore flowered garments; for the Athenian law-giver, thinking it necessary to distinguish women of innocent conversation from harlots by some open and visible mark, ordered that those should never appear abroad but in grave and modest apparel, and that the rest should always wear flowered garments. Hence Clemens of Alexandria hath remarked that, "As fugitive slaves are known by their stigmata, so flowered garments are the indication of an harlot." In India, women of this class usually dress in scarlet (see Rev. xvii. 4). The customs in this matter vary in different parts of the East, and frequently there is no other distinction than that of choice, which operates in rendering the dress of such persons more gay and less concealing than that of respectable women. Perhaps no more is meant in the present text.

14. I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.'-Those sacrifices which were offered in grateful acknowledgment of mercies received, and as a means of preserving the favour and blessing of God, are called peace offerings in the law. If the sacrifice was a sheep or goat, the fat parts with the kidneys and the tail were alone consumed on the altar; the breast and right shoulder was the due of the priest, and the rest was appropriated as an offering-feast, to be consumed by the offerer and his friends. It is therefore to such a feast, prepared with the remains of a peace offering which she had made in fulfilment of a vow, that the woman here invites the unwary youth; as if she had said, 'I have an entertainment for thee at my house, for, having this day paid my vows, I mean to devote the remains of my offering to conviviality and joy.'

16. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry,' etc.-We have intimated more than once that the beds of the East are made by heaping upon one another, upon the carpeted or matted floor, a number of mattresses, which are usually of padded cotton, and about three inches thick. Persons of hardy habits will be content with a few of these; and we ourselves habitually used a large one doubled, so as to give two thicknesses; but among luxu

rious persons, and generally in the harams of persons of quality, many more are used, perhaps as many as fifteen, forming a pile three or four feet high. This is necessary to introduce an explanation of what is meant by the rich coverings' here indicated. Miss Pardoe, from being much in the harams of persons of rank at Constantinople, had rare opportunities of witnessing their more luxurious arrangements, and she thus describes the beds: Our beds were composed of mattresses laid one above the other upon the floor, and these were of the most costly description, mine being yellow satin brocaded with gold, and that of my companion violet-coloured velvet richly fringed. A Turkish bed is arranged in an instant; the mattresses are covered with a sheet of silk gauze or striped muslin; half a dozen pillows of various sizes and forms are heaped up at the head, all in richly embroidered muslin cases, through which the satin containing the down is distinctly seen, and a couple of wadded coverlets are laid at the feet carefully folded: no second sheet is considered necessary, as the coverlets are lined with fine white linen. Those which were provided for us were of pale blue silk worked with rose-coloured flowers. At the lower end of every Turkish room are large closets for the reception of the bedding, and the slaves no sooner ascertain that you have risen, than half a dozen of them enter the apartment, and in five minutes every vestige of your couch has disappeared.' City of the Sultan, i. 22.

Fine linen of Egypt.'-In different parts of the Hebrew Scriptures there are several very different words, all of which are equally rendered 'fine linen' in our version. And this seems very proper; for, as it is impossible to distinguish the character and quality of the several tissues which the respective words denote, it was as well to take one general name for all as to offer uncertain conjectures. At present we will be content to assume two points as perfectly clear, namely, that the Jews derived their fine stuffs from Egypt; which we know, indeed, from profane sources, to have been famous for its 'linen' manufactures, which formed a principal branch of industry to its inhabitants, and from which the nearer nations in Asia and Europe were supplied with goods of this description; and that, from the variety of the terms employed, fabrics of different qualities, and all highly appreciated by foreign nations, were produced by the Egyptian loom. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary, laboured under a very great error when he called the Egyptian manufactures coarse;' it may indeed be true generally of the linen (for it is linen) in which the mummies are wound up, and from which his inference was derived. But this was only one of many sorts concerning which the dresses of the numerous figures, and other draperies, painted in Egyptian tombs, enable us to draw some tolerably certain inferences. These exhibit a large variety of qualities, colours, and patterns. Some sorts are so fine and transparent that every detail of the figures which they envelop is seen with perfect clearness through them-suggesting the idea of fine muslin or gauze; while other qualities, of various thickness, exhibit, so far as can be judged from paintings, rich and delicate workmanship; and sometimes furnish patterns and styles not unworthy our imitation, and always a brilliancy of colour which we can scarcely rival.

6

In the present instance it is to be understood that the whole of the verse applies to one and the same article. In 161

this description some difficulty arises from the occurrence of two principal words which we find nowhere else in the Bible. These are, that rendered 'carved works' (ni khatzuboth), and that translated fine linen' ( etun); and which possibly form the Egyptian name of the Egyptian manufacture. By comparing the intimations of the text with the more probable interpretations of the ancient versions, the following may perhaps be offered as the meaning of the verse:-I have covered my couch with variegated coverings of Egyptian tapestry.' To which it may also be added, that the use of the word aupiráτo in the Septuagint would suggest that it was the same on both sides. From this, in connection with the use to which the text states it to have been applied, we may gather that it was some rich figured stuff, employed for coverings to divans or sofas (which must often be understood where our version has beds '), and perhaps also to cover such thin mattresses or quilts as now serve in Western Asia for coverlets or counterpanes. This forms, in fact, one of the chief articles of domestic luxury in the East; for, as the best rooms have no other furniture than sofas and cushions, every one desires that the stuffs with which these are covered should furnish evidence of his taste and wealth. This also extends to the curtains with which the doors are hung during the warm weather;

and in general it may be said, that, studious as the Orientals are of richness in their personal attire, they are not less, and perhaps still more, anxious about the draperies of their principal apartments. The present, and other texts of similar force, seem to evince that the case was the same in ancient times. The Medes and Babylonians were famous for their stuffs of the description indicated; and we know that their noted tapestries, etc., were figured by the needle. But we are also informed that in even this class of fabrics the Egyptians rivalled the Babylonians; and this we may well believe, when we consider the various evidence of their skill to which we have already alluded. If the variegated coverings mentioned in the text had been Babylonian, we should have concluded that they contained figures wrought by the needle; but, as the Egyptians not only excelled in needlework, but also produced variegated patterns in the loom, as well as by the subsequent application of colours to stuffs that were woven plain, this is a point concerning which no satisfactory conclusion can be obtained.

CHAPTER VIII.

1 The fame, 6 and evidence of wisdom. 10 The excellency, 12 the nature, 15 the power, 18 the riches, 22 and the eternity of wisdom. 32 Wisdom is to be desired for the blessedness it bringeth.

DOTH not 'wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.

3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.

4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.

6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

7 For my mouth shall speak truth;

and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.

9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

10 T Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

11 'For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

12 ¶ I wisdom dwell with 'prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil : pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.

15 ¶ By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.

16 By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.

17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.

19 'My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice

silver.

20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:

21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.

22 ¶ The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

2 Heb. the abomination of my lips. 5 Or, subtilty. 10 Or, the chief part.

23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

1

26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the 'fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there when he set a compass upon the face of the depth;

28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

29 12When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of