"In a short time, away we started to the eastward, passing the great tomb on our right. At first the ground was tolerably open, but as we advanced, the valley appeared to narrow itself, and we followed, for some time, the dry bed of a water-course. Had we continued this course, it would have led to the foot of the hills that form the eastern barrier between Petra and the desert; but at less than half a mile to the east of the great

tomb, the guides pointed out a path, by which we scrambled up to a small table-land of rock, commanding a fine view of the western rocks; and, crossing this, we came in view of a solitary archway, thrown over a chasm in the rock, in a position more singularly wild and majestic than any we had yet seen, in the midst even of Petra. We were here entirely out of the region of tombs. Indeed, this solitary arch was the only visible trace of human labour having approached the spot. Underneath it, at a great

depth below, trickled a stream, so weak, that a little further on it expired in the porous sandy bed of its own course. We were for some time under

the mistake that this was the archway described by M. Laborde, as crossing the main entrance; but on descending into the ravine, and scrambling under it, it was clear that no beast of burden,-much less a camel-could ever come here, or, if brought here, could ever move away."-Pp. 276, 277.

Every traveller who has inspected the excavations in the rocks of Petra, has given in to the opinion that it is, as it now appears, a city of sepulchres; whilst, in order to provide for the immense population that would have required these tombs, not a few have given in to the theory, that in the open spaces of the valley, there were once the buildings of the city of the Edomites, and that Time, who has spared the sepulchres of the nation, has long since destroyed their dwelling-houses. Doubtless, as but one generation can be alive at one time, and yet each generation might choose to erect its own tombs, the sepulchres of a city might very much exceed the dwellings of its inhabitants; and that the excavations of Petra are the work of successive generations, the detail of the remains is no mean evidence. Still this is a cumbrous theory-and we much prefer that of Mr. Formby-which would people the excavations themselves with the inhabitants of the city, and unite in close neighbourhood the living and the dead. To our western notions it seems impossible that a nation should live in the rocks, in an immense track of perforated precipices, rather than on the level plain, or the rich valley; but is it so inconceivable to an Eastern mind? Is not the rock-dwelling a familiar part of the domestic economy of the people of the East ?

"In the village of Siloam, near Jerusalem, the greater part of the inhabitants live in rooms cut out of the rock. In the wilderness of Engaddi are numerous caves, which local tradition relates to have been the

abodes of hermits. Indeed, St. Jerome himself spent some part of his life in that kind of solitude. The early monks, who chose these retreats, did not make them themselves; a race, of whom we know nothing, made and, doubtless, dwelt in them. The so-called Cave of Jeremiah, near the Damascus-gate of Jerusalem, is now partly a dwelling-place. Again, the caves in the rock of Upper Egypt and Nubia were, in St. Anthony's time, favourite retreats of the Egyptian monks; and yet they did not make them. Mr. Hope, a well-known traveller and architect, is of opinion that the excavated temple, as found in Egypt and parts of Asia, was the first original form of temple that the human race has possessed, and anterior to any edifice, the first attempts of which, when they began to be made, were in imitation of the excavated form. If so, why may not a rock-dwelling have preceded any attempt, on the part of man, to build himself a house, notwithstanding that the Roman poet forgot to enumerate this, as one of the stages of civilization through which he considers mankind to have passed." -Pp. 211, 212.

That the people of the East were familiar with the notion of a rock-habitation, is seen in the language of Scripture, where our own life is represented as dwelling in a tent, God's mercies, "as a dwelling in a rock." "Be Thou to me as a rock of habitation," says the Psalmist, to whom the rocks of Maon and Engaddi were more than once a refuge-house. "What hast thou here," says Isaiah, "and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and graveth a habitation for himself in a rock?" (xxii. 16.) Again, Jeremiah says, "Oh ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock." (xlviii. 28.) But these passages might be increased, even beyond what appear in Mr. Formby's chapter.

"From these and similar passages," says that writer, "it would appear that the idea of rock-dwellings was once familiar to those times. It prevails, as we have seen, in the Scripture, and is so interwoven into the genius of its imagery, as almost to become a special feature in its language. With this view of the case, then, it is difficult to refuse assent to the literal meaning of the words of the prophet? but if a strong proof be still needed, a very remarkable one is afforded in another passage of Scripture. The wilderness of Engaddi, and the whole range of rocks bordering upon the western bank of the Dead Sea, are remarkably like the rocks of Petra, and abound in excavations of a similar, but a much ruder form. This tract of country was known to have been, in former days, the settlement of the people of the Kenites, respecting whom the prophecy of Balaam speaks as follows:-'He looked upon the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, 'Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. Nevertheless, the Kenite shall be wasted, and Ashur shall carry thee away captive.' Now the two people, whose countries, to this day, exhibit the strongest vestiges of these supposed rock-dwellings, are precisely those people who are addressed by the inspired prophets, the one as putting his nest in the rock, the other as dwelling within its clefts. It may be almost superfluous to add, that St. Jerome, the catholic father of Bethlehem, who had himself travelled in this country, in a work which treats geographically of the cities of Palestine, after stating the boundaries of the territory of Edom, goes on to say, "This is the land that was in the possession of Esau: they had their simple dwellings (habitatiunculas) in the caves of the rock."-Pp. 215, 216.

The objection of uniting, as it were, under one roof, the dead and the living, as this supposition woul, to a certain extent, necessarily involve, however repugnant the custom may be to our notions, is refuted by the custom of Eastern nations, and particularly of the Egyptians of old. In the minds of the Eastern people, death and the tomb have nothing repulsive in them; they regard the one as a release from the miseries of this world, the other as an earnest of a happier life. As the children of Esau became gradually mixed up and leavened by the encroachments of their neighbours, new manners and new buildings would necessarily arise, and the Roman tombs and theatres are, equally with the remains of the very few dwellings that exist in the valley, the memorials of an age centuries later than the rock-excavations among which they stand.

There are many more most interesting and valuable chapters in the work which we have been endeavouring to review, especially those on Primeval Theology, and the Parallel Testimonies of the Egyptian Monuments, and Books of Holy Scripture considered as Sacerdotal Records; on Egypt and the Jewish Prophecy; on the Prophecies relating to Edom, and the Wanderings of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai; but we cannot now do more than mention them, and close this our notice with earnest commendations of the book, from which we have drawn so much sound sense and information, as well in the way of text as in the form of extract. The engravings speak for themselves.

Twelve Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion. Delivered in Rome by NICHOLAS WISEMAN, D.D. Second Edition. 8vo. London: Dolman, Bond Street. 1842. THE motto prefixed to these lectures shows their nature and design: "Science should be dedicated to the service of religion." Religion supplies those "poles of truth," as Lord Bacon finely calls them, around which the human mind revolves; sustains and guides it in its planetary course, and subordinates its varied movements to the great" FATHER OF LIGHTS, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Religion is the living root from which all lawful intellectual enterprises spring, and through which they draw the vital sap that nurtures even their minutest branches, adorning them with foliage and crowning them with fruit. Theology is the queen of literature and science, whose highest glory is to bear her train and cast their richest offerings at her feet. This is the theme here chosen by Dr. Wiseman.

"My purpose in the course of lectures to which I have invited you, is to show the correspondence between the progress of science and the development of the Christian evidences. And when I use the word 'evidences,' I must

be understood in a very wide and general signification. I consider that whatever tends to prove the truth of any narrative in the sacred volume,- especially if that narrative, to merely human eyes, appears improbable, or irreconcileable with other facts,-tends also essentially to increase the sum of evidence which Christianity possesses; resting, as it essentially does, upon the authenticity of that book. Any discovery, for instance, that a trifling date, till lately inexplicable, is quite correct, besides the satisfaction it gives upon an individual point, has a far greater moral weight in the assurance it affords of security in other matters. And hence a long research, which will lead to a discovery of apparently mean importance, must be measured according to this general influence, rather than by its immediate results."— Vol. i. pp. 6, 7.*

It is not pretended that every individual Christian is required to make himself master of the whole mass of evidences. One of our privileges, as members of a body corporate, is, that while we ourselves simply discharge our own individual and limited functions, and are, it may be, the least honourable parts of the body, we derive knowledge and wisdom and strength, from the exercise by other members of their peculiar and loftier functions. "If they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body." The great majority of good men must always be men of imperfect intellectual attainments, and inferior argumentative skill. But while these may safely repose upon those broad grounds which have sustained, for eighteen centuries, the faith of holy men innumerable, it is the duty of those who have received the ability boldly and patiently to examine the objections advanced against religion, and to convert, as they may, the alleged hostile facts into additional defences of the faith.

"Causa jubet melior superos sperare secundos."

"If we are firmly convinced that God is as much the author of our religion as He is of nature, we must be also thoroughly assured, that the comparison of His works, in both these orders, must necessarily give a uniform result. An essential part of my task will therefore be, to show how the very sciences, whence objections have been drawn against religion, have themselves, in their progress, entirely removed them."-Vol. i. p. 8.

This being Dr. Wiseman's design, his method of treating each science is necessarily historical. He first traces its history through successive periods, and then draws out his results.

"We shall see how the early stage of each science furnished objections to religion, to the joy of the infidel, and the dismay of the believer; how many discouraged these pursuits as dangerous; and then, how, in their advance, they first removed the difficulties drawn from their imperfect state, and then even replaced them by solid arguments in favour of religion. And hence we shall

* Our extracts from Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, with their paging, are taken from the 1st edition, in 2 vols., 1836, which we happened to have by us. The second edition, which we have named at the head of our article, is merely a reprint of the former. In the "advertisement" to this edition, Dr. Wiseman says, "In presenting this second edition of my Lectures to the public, it may naturally be expected, that considerable alterations and emendations will have been made. They have, however, been merely reprinted; and I propose rather, in a Supplement, which may be joined to either edition, to add such new matter, or make such corrections, as recent researches may suggest."