LITERARY NOTICES.

AN ARCHAIC DICTIONARY: BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, AND MYTHOLOGICAL; FROM THE EGYPTIAN, ASSYRIAN, AND ETRUSCAN MONUMENTS AND PAPYRI. By W. R. Cooper, F.R.A.S., M.R.A.S. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons.

THIS learned work-with its modest address "To the Reader," its erudite Introduction, and its eighteen appendices-will prove a valuable addition to the literature on archaic history and philology, which is so rapidly increasing now-a-day. All classes of the reading public should gratefully hail the appearance of this volume. The students of the "dead" languages will of course con over its pages with a peculiar interest. To the devout student of the Bible it will prove a confirmation, if they required such evidence, that as there is no god like unto the God of Jeshurun, so is there no history comparable to the annals contained in that volume which was penned by holy men of God, who wrote as they were moved by divine inspiration. To the diligent students of the origin of language this work will afford evidence as to "The Uncertainties of modern Philological Science." In fact we have treated the late discoveries in archaic fields for that purpose long before Mr. Cooper published his interesting book. We have reason to know that amongst our readers are to be found all the above classes, and we therefore commend the book for their attentive study. In illustration of the utility of the work in the way we have indicated above, we give the following, rather long, extract from the Introduction :—

"The ancient inscriptions, which are only authorities for the history of their own times, are provokingly imperfect and unintelligible for the purposes for which they are now required. They recount the names and titles of the kings and officers with a monotonous verbosity, while the names of places conquered, and of monarchs rendered tributary, are written either in obscure ideographs, or imperfectly phoneticised syllables. From the want of a fixed era, and the general use of a moveable calendar, there is little accuracy in the dates of events described, even when, which is a rare occurrence, any years are mentioned. In many inscriptions the single object has been to cover so many square yards of mural space with eulogy of the reigning sovereign. When the events in his own life were insufficient for this purpose, a few years' actions from the annals of his predecessor were recklessly appropriated to his own; when on the other hand the symmetry of the design required it, or the space was limited, the succession of years was utterly disregarded, and the paragraphs were arranged to suit the ideas of the architect, and not to minister to the necessities of the historian; to magnify the glory of the king, whose successor would frequently erase his inscriptions, although that proceeding was denounced by the most awful curses. The portrait of the sove reign, and the great events of his reign were made to recur with tedious frequency, and sometimes the history of his actions is written across the dress which he wears, and at other times it is scattered over the background of the figure, regardless of picturesque effect. . . . Not unfrequently also the alteration or enlargement of a royal residence necessitated the destruction of a part of the inscribed slabs, and when that was the case, no care was taken to render the series complete by the reinscription of another slab in the place of that which was destroyed.

"In the smaller official documents, those which were inscribed upon the foundation Cylinders, or Timins of baked clay, a similar disregard of accuracy existed; the tablets were written by various scribes, who although copying from the same materials, differed widely from each other as to the manner in which they used them, and often omitted sentences which there was not room to crowd into the last lines of a column, or repeated an unimportant phrase to avoid a blank space on the monument. On the literary tablets, more especially those which were religious or mystical, two languages were generally employed, the Accadian original, and the later Assyrian translation; but even in that case the bilingual nature of the record does not render it easier of translation, for the Assyrian terms are often adaptations of the older Accadian words, and occasionally even substitutions of other ideas; and in almost every instance the two versions while substantially agreeing as to their purport, yet present so many differences of detail as to leave just those points unsettled which to the modern critic

1 See our last Number, pp. 63, 64.

or historian are of the highest value, and the uncertainty regarding which undermines all his premises, and vitiates all his conclusions.

"Another source of error and annoyance is to be found in the fact that many of the recorded inscriptions bear in themselves the evidence of a credulous untrustworthiness, an orientalism of expression which renders it impossible that all their statements should be received as the witnesses of historical truth. When it is gravely stated that a monarch like Assurnazirpal makes an inroad into a country, and captures its capital city, together with its 1200 surrounding towns; then after a few days' march besieges and destroys another great walled city, and ruinates another 1000 or 800 towns, and this statement is repeated with little variation in describing the conquest of a country only a few hundred miles in extent; it immediately becomes obvious that there has been a reckless perversion of facts, and that even if the thousands of towns were the veriest hamlets of a crowded metropolis, there would still have been employed a considerable degree of bombastic exaggeration. Hence the names of persons and places, and the details of political events, have to be simply stated as they are found recorded; they can neither be reconciled with reason or with themselves, and dangerous and ridiculous above all would it be for an historian, writing after a lapse of thirty centuries, to endeavour to sychronize or adapt them. They must wait till time, which has preserved and revealed these writings, shall have subjected them to the analysis of comparison.

"Although these remarks are intended to apply chiefly to the cuneiform inscriptions, they are equally true of hieroglyphic literature also; for the Egyptian Papyri, many of which were buried in the tombs of their possessors, and were never intended to be read, are often most perfunctorily written, and copied with the most heedless inaccuracy the one from the other. Phrases which were never entirely intelligible even to the most careful reader become on these papyri a mere chaos of fragmentary sentences and heterogeneous signs, among which the name and titles of the deceased, and those of the local deity which he worshipped, are often alone distinguishable; even the more exactly written MSS. are full of contradictions and notes, which the course of ages has rendered undiscoverable. The degrees of filiation in the family lists are often hopelessly confused, owing to the habit of the scribes of comparing the affinities of all the deceased to the various mystical relationships which prevailed among the Egyptian divinities. Almost every priest is a royal father,' and every wife is a 'royal daughter,' or 'divine sister,' while her deceased husband is equally an Osirian or one of the race of gods," &c., &c.

the name.

So much for the credibility of pagan archaic history, whether monumental or scriptory. Yet we have met with students of this branch of literature, as industrious and as discriminating as Mr. Cooper himself, who astonished us-when a question respecting an episode from sacred history was on the tapis-by superciliously asking whether there was archaic monumental evidence to corroborate the event under consideration! But ardent students of problematic sciences, which are beset with uncertainties at every turn, are apt to be fervid in their enthusiasm, even when their consistency is at stake. We could not help smiling when we read, a couple of pages further on in our author's Introduction, the following confident expectation :-“A very short time will now suffice to place in our hands a wealth of literature, of which Berosus only knew one isolated section, Pliny and Trogus Pompeius had only heard The invaluable aid of comparative philology and mythology, sciences of which Plato scarcely dreamt, and Livy disregarded, will enable us to reconstruct on an imperishable basis the history of the archaic world; to add to the list of the illustrious multitudes of heroic men, great kings, merciful legislators, learned men, and noble women also, who gloriously filled their stations in the ages past, and whose memories shall have their palingenesis in the days to come. When no longer to examples drawn from Greek and Roman history shall we point the aspirations of our young in the normal schools of the future, but shall be able to exhort them to deeds of personal courage by the heroism of a Rameses and an Anebni; to bravely contend against contending fate, like Merodach-Baladan of Babylonia, and Muthon of Tyre; shall exhort them to serve their country with the fidelity of the Egyptian chancellor Bai, and to resign themselves to the apathy of the grave, old in wisdom and years like Pentahor, proudly lamented like Menepthah the Egyptian, or Assurbanipal the glorious king of Assyria." ! ! ! We will not anticipate the inevitable expressions of surprise which the above must elicit from our readers.

We regret to find that Mr. Cooper should have been betrayed to adopt certain

untenable conjectures respecting the meaning of some Hebrew names. In explaining the causes of the many cross references which are to be met with in his Archaic Dictionary he gives one of his reasons "the fact that the Egyptian and Assyrian names were frequently translated, and not transliterated, or else were written down phonetically by the different historians, and thus it has been often extremely difficult to identify the individuals meant in the inscriptions; and this was more particularly the case when the Assyrian or the Egyptian contained the titles of their own deities. In that case the Hebrew writers from conscientious scruples almost invariably parodied or changed them; as, for example, Mephibosheth, which means 'Mouth of reproach,' for Mephibaal, Mouth of Baal;' Ishbosheth, Man of shame,' for Ithbaal, 'Man of Baal;' Coniah, Strength of the Lord,' or 'God appointed,' for Jeconiah; and Babel, Confusion,' for Babilu, Gate of God."

Could Mr. Cooper, or his authority, expect any sober-minded student to entertain for a moment the idea that Saul and Jonathan named their respective sons after Baal! The Talmudic explanation is a more ingenious and rational one than the one given in the above extract. "Why was his name called Mephibosheth?" asked one of the Rabbis. Answer, "Because with his mouth he put David to the blush in the HALACHAH." 2 With all due deference to the Talmud and Mr. Cooper, we venture to suggest two different meanings to the names ISHBOSHETH and MEPHIBOSHETH. The former we translate either "Modest man," or "Tardy man ;" and the latter either "Modest-mouthed," or "Tardy-mouthed." Both these significations are maintainable etymologically. As regards the etymology of BABEL, will Mr. Cooper pardon us if we express a preference for the etymology furnished on that word by the most reliable archæologist, according to our thinking, in the world.3

Notwithstanding the difference of opinion on minor matters between the author of the work under notice and ourselves, we recommend his latest volume as deserving the attention of students, scholars, historians, and theologians.

PALESTINE RE-PEOPLED; or, SCATTERED ISRAEL'S GATHERING. A SIGN OF

THE TIMES. By the Rev. James Neil, B.A., formerly Incumbent of Christ Church, Jerusalem. Third Edition, Revised. London: James Nisbet and Co. THERE never was a time when the elucidation of the history of the chosen people demanded such a work as the one before us as the present one. We therefore welcome Mr. Neil's little work in an especial manner. Before we enter into any particulars on some of the questions propounded in the small volume under the above title, we furnish the headings of the chapters of the volume according to our author's own naming:-1. The Gathering of the Flock. 2. The Way prepared. 3. The Shepherd's purpose in the Gathering. 4. The Fold complete. APPENDICES. A. Signs of the Time of the End. B. Farming in Palestine. C. The Scenery of Palestine. D. The Seven Hilled City. E. War against the Witnesses. F. The Greek Little Horn. G. A Papal Railway in Palestine. H. The State of Europe. I. The Russian Scourge.

Each successive chapter contains something valid and important to the PROPHETIC INVESTIGATOR and to the observer of the Signs of the Times. Mr. Neil handles his various subjects with ability, and treats them with devout earnestness. He writes forensically because he evidently feels strongly. The pious author will kindly bear with us when we frankly admit our inability to follow him in all his implied interpretation of prophecy, not because we "despise prophecies," on the contrary, we venerate them, we investigate them, we ponder and wonder over them with the gratitude of heart and soul. We feel in our heart of hearts the truth of the Evangelists' inspired dictum that "THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS IS THE SPIRIT OF PPOPHECY." But we think independently, just as we read the original texts independently, of the expositions and glosses of those who have gone before us. Our library contains almost every work that has been written and published on prophetic interpretation. We may conscientiously say that we have read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested the prophetic interpretations propounded in those works-and yet we found after all that we must examine and investigate PROPHECIES independently of already published interpretations and expositions. We do not presume to say that either Mr. Neil or his referees is, or are, wrong; all we ask for is to be borne with if, for instance, we are unable, as yet, to adopt the views propounded in Appendix A. This inability does 3 Gen. xi. 9.

2 Treatise BERACHOTH, fol. iv. col. 1.

not, however, detract from our sincere admiration of the opusculum as a whole. We read it carefully, and our interest in the perusal never flagged for a moment. We venture to think that such will be the feeling of every one who has an opportunity to come across it. We were particularly interested in Mr. Neil's description of the rise and progress of civilization at Jerusalem and in its immediate vicinity. We transfer that description here, which will give our readers an idea of the present condition of the Holy City, as well as of our author's style :

"To understand the new civilization that is arising in Syria, it will be well to trace the causes which have led to it. The coming of missionaries to reside in the country, about forty years ago, has doubtless, under God, been the chief of these causes. It can never be too often remarked that Christianity, though concerned, for the most part, in pointing men's thoughts and hopes to a future state, is ever the chief instrument in the amelioration of their condition here. No honest Hebrew acquainted with the modern history of Palestine can fail to know very well, however little he may care to confess it, that the altogether new comforts and privileges he now enjoys are due in no small degree to the work, direct and indirect, of Protestant missionaries, and more especially of the early missionaries to the Jews, if only as being the first in the field. The very presence of these men of God and their families, possessed respectively of the great advantages of English, German, and American training, was a solemn protest against the ignorance and barbarism by which they were surrounded. In Jerusalem itself, that great stronghold of Muslim, Jewish, and Apostate Christian fanaticism, at the peril of their lives they, and they alone, fought out, for the benefit of all alike, the great battle of religious toleration, and openly triumphed. It was the missionaries who, according to the best of their abilities, at once commenced the work of liberal education, totally neglected before, and so carried it on as to compel the Jews themselves to follow in the same path. It was the missionaries, too, who used their utmost endeavours to raise the Hebrew women from that depth of degradation to which they had been brought by the teaching of the Talmud, and who succeeded so far as to render it absolutely necessary for the most bigoted Jews in Jerusalem to open schools for girls, in order to keep the young people away from the missionary establishments. These messengers of the Gospel were the first to furnish duly trained and able medical men, and to found an excellent hospital, so as in this particular also 'to provoke to emulation' the rabbis, whose medical institutions, subsequently founded in rivalry, are now also becoming very efficient, and no doubt a means of much temporal good to many. Further, notwithstanding that they were opposed and persecuted on all hands, their being possessed of some European influence enabled them to act as a kind of 'watch committee,' to protect the oppressed in all communities alike, helping those to right who suffered wrong, and nowhere more than amongst the cruelly downtrodden race of Israel. Let it be remembered, also, that the thousands of children who have passed through their schools, and even of nominal converts who have joined their churches, have helped in their turn most materially to diffuse the light of Christian education throughout many parts of the land.

"Amongst other agencies of civilization, next to the work of the missionaries, must be enumerated the establishment of Consulates in various towns of Palestine, by which means most of the leading nations of Europe are now represented. This too has been a very important step. Not only has the presence of these European representatives, many of them diplomatic agents entrusted with considerable powers, been in itself a great check upon the general lawlessness which preceded their coming, but it has rendered it possible for all subjects of their respective nations to live in comparative comfort and safety. Thus no Jew who is the subject of a foreign power can now be arrested save by an officer of his own consulate, or tried before any other court than that of his own consul.

"Nor must we omit to mention amongst the causes of the present improved condition of the country, the annual influx of a very great and increasing number of visitors. The entirely new and healthful mode of travelling it necessitates, with all the excitement and pleasure of camp-life, the deep interest of its hallowed spots, the wide field it affords for exploration, and the wild beauty that still lingers everywhere on its natural features, combined to make Palestine a place of resort as soon as the modern facilities for travelling brought its shores to within an easy fortnight's distance from our own. Of late years, from the commencement of December to the beginning of

See Appendix C.

the following May, but more especially during the delightful spring season, crowds have thronged the ordinary pilgrim ways. Royal personages have been conspicuous among the number. Formerly only a few very wealthy travellers could accomplish the journey. Now it may be said to be within the reach of ordinary tourists. There are two well-known conductors of travelling parties in England, Mr. Cook and Mr. Gaze, and one in Germany. The first of these repeats his visits four times during a single season, and in that of 1874 made arrangements for no less than 270 visitors to the Holy Land. Such is the number of Germans who annually flock to the country, that within the last two years an additional volume of Baedeker's elaborate series has been published, in the shape of a handbook of travel for Palestine and Syria. American visitors, though they have to come three thousand miles further than others, are, to their credit be it said, the most numerous, and after them our countrymen furnish by far the largest contingent. This is, of course, excepting the Russian pilgrims, members of the Greek Church, who now, together with crowds from the neighbouring countries, representatives of the Greek, Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, and almost all Oriental Churches, come up every year at Easter by thousands, to witness that 'lying wonder,' the so-called miracle of the Holy Fire, in the Church of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem. In consequence of the arrival of some of the more distinguished of these travellers, and particularly the royal personages already alluded to, the principal roads have been repaired, and in some cases made anew. The improvements in this direction during the last three years have been very marked. It must be borne in mind that it still is, and always has been, a custom of the East, when any king or prince is about to travel, to send commands to the people of the various districts through which he is to pass to repair the roads. Hence the force of Isaiah lxii. 10, 11: 'Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.' Here the coming of Christ is foretold, and the spiritual preparation for the advent of Israel's Divine King commanded, under the striking figure of the usual orders issued to prepare the highway for a royal procession. Residents in Jerusalem of late have had frequent and excellent opportunities of observing the prophet's meaning, and have learnt to look forward eagerly to the coming of some royal visitor, if for no other reason, on account of the great improvement immediately made in the roads by which it is supposed he will travel. Again, some who have visited the country have come to stay, and amongst others most notable, are the highly respectable members of the German community known as 'The Society of the Temple,' also called familiarly "The Hoffmannites,' from their leader Dr. Hoffmann. These, a band of piouslydisposed Germans, to the number of about a thousand, have in the last few years settled as colonists, principally at Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haiffa, where, as tradesmen, mechanics, and domestic servants, they have helped most materially to improve the condition of the country. They believe that in thus coming they are fulfilling prophecy. God's future revealed purpose for Palestine is, according to their interpretation, that it should be colonized by Christians from out of all nations, who will finally build a temple at Jerusalem. Their tenets are in many respects peculiar, and their views of the Gospel defective. For instance, they do not administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper in their public assemblies; neither do they engage in any aggressive missionary work, believing that their duty is simply to exhibit, amidst prevailing darkness, a life of Christian morality. At present this body, with the exception of a few Jewish proselytes, consists only of Germans, drawn mostly from the worthy peasantry of Wurtemberg.

All these influences, as may well be supposed, have not been at work in vain. They have modified the whole character of life in Palestine, and have rendered the country in every way more civilized, and fit for the residence of Europeans. Particu lars without number might be given of these improvements, but I will mention only a few. First, then, the fortress-like character of several of the towns has ceased.

5 I may mention the following names :-H. I. M. the Emperor of Austria, H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, H.R. H. the Duke of Edinburgh, H.R. H. the Duke of Con naught, H.I.H. the Crown Prince of Germany, H.I.H. the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, H. R. H. the Prince of the Netherlands, H. R. H. the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, with several other German Royal Princes.