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houses of different ranks of people among them. And the oppofing bricks, unburnt bricks, to a material fo much more beautiful and durable as tone, if not marble, is placing the vaunting of Ifrael in a very ftrong point of light: "The bricks are "fallen down, but we will build with hewn "Stones."

to vary,

The image appears to when the prophet fpeaks of fycomores and cedars, and from the demolition of houses, he feems to turn his thoughts to the deftruction of their woods, fince he uses the term cut down, not pulled down, as it should have been, had he been fpeaking of the ruin of houses, built with different degrees of expenfiveness in the wood-work, where cedar was reckoned a moft magnificent material'; but Isaiah feems rather to refer to the Eastern way of making war, by cutting down the trees of a country "The fycomores," (which grew in abundance in the low-lands of Judæa3, and were not much esteemed,)" are cut down, but "we will change them into cedars," (planting the precious cedar in the room of defpicable fycomores).

This fame paffage teaches us, that when great houfes are spoken of in the Scriptures, it fhould feem that we are to understand the term as expreffing their much fuperior

See 2 Sam. 7. 2. Jer. 22. 14, 15.

2 Obfervations, vol. 2. ch. 8. obf. 20.

3 1 Kings 10. 27. 2 Chron. 1. 15. ch.
I. 9, 27.

height,

height, as well as the extent of the ground that they covered-two or three ftories high, while common houses had only the groundfloor.

OBSERVATION XXVII.

What makes the comparison ufed by our Lord fo painful to the mind, when he said, "It is easier for a camel to go through "the eye of a needle, than for a rich man

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to enter into the kingdom of God'," seems to be it's appearing quite unnatural, as we are wont to have no conception of it's being at all in ufe to make a camel pafs through any narrow paffage. Very widely extended deferts is the idea we affociate with that of a camel; fuch an animal's being put to force it's way through a narrow paffage we have no notion of it therefore appears unnatural, and gives us uneafinefs. But this is wholly owing to our unacquaintedness with local circumstances.

I have elsewhere given an account of it's being common for the Arabs to ride into houfes, and commit acts of great violence, if measures are not taken to prevent them. The Eastern doors therefore are often made very low, in order to guard against them, not above three feet in height.

Matt. 19. 24, and in two of the other Evangelifts. * Obferv. vol. 1. ch. 2. obf. 8.

This keeps out the Arabs, who are almost centaurs, and seldom tempted to dismount in their excurfions, but, we fhould fuppofe, must be very inconvenient for the inhabitants, who make fo much use of camels, and must often want to introduce them into their courtyards; but, though they are fo much taller than the Arab horfes, this is done however by training up their camels, not only to kneel down when they are loaded and unloaded, but to make their way on their knees through such fmall door-ways.

This must sometimes, without doubt, be attended with great difficulty, and makes the comparison of our Lord fufficiently natural : It would be as eafy to force a camel through a door-way as fmall as the eye of a needle, as for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Strong painting this, according to the Eaftern cuftom! it is allowed; but nothing unnatural, fince camels are often forced through a small aperture, though certainly much larger than the eye of the largest needle that ever was made: the Arabs of the times of our Lord, and indeed long before, being of the fame plundering difpofition with thofe of the prefent generation, and confequently must have been guarded against in much the fame manner.

I have not only met with an account in fome book of Travels, of camels making

* Jer. 3. 2.

their way on their knees through the low Eaftern door-ways; but I have found in the papers of a very ingenious clergyman, containing obfervations of a fimilar kind to thefe, that he had been affured by a gentleman that lived many years in Morocco, that the entrances into the houfes there are low for a fimilar reason, and that loaded camels pass them on their knees.

OBSERVATION XXVIII,

That ferpents fometimes concealed themfelves in the holes and chinks of the walls of the Eastern boufes, is fuppofed by the prophet Amos, when he fays, " As if a man "did flee from a lion, and a bear did meet "him; or went into the house, and leaned "his hand on the wall, and a ferpent bit"him"."

This is confirmed by a remarkable story, in the collections made by M. d'Herbelot from the Eastern writers, which is in fubstance as follows. Amadeddulat, who reigned in Perfia in the 10th century, and was a most generous prince, found himfelf reduced to great difficulties, arifing from his want of attention to his treafury, his troops beginning to difband themselves from want of pay, when Fortune, which had raised him from a

• Ch. 5, 19.

very low state, (for he was nothing more than the fon of a fisherman, who exercised his occupation on the Cafpian-Sea,) undertook to maintain him in it. For, walking one day in one of the rooms of his palace, which had been before that time the refidence of Jacout, who had been his antagonist, he perceived a ferpent, which put it's head out of a chink of the wall. Upon which he immediately ordered that the place fhould be fearched, and the serpent killed. In opening the wall there, they found a fecret place, in which they could not difcover the ferpent, but a treasure, which was lodged in feveral coffers, in which Jacout bad depofited his most precious effects, confijiing of gold, jewels, and clothes'.

In like manner, I remember to have met with an account, in fome of our travellers into the Levant, though I cannot exactly point out the place, in which the writer gives an account of their being alarmed by a perfon's being stung by a fcorpion, which was concealed in an hole of the wall of an houfe in which they then were, and on which that perfon had inadvertently laid his hand.

As venomous animals creep, not unfrequently, into holes in the walls of houfes, fo we fhall have occafion, in a fucceeding Obfervation, to take notice of the loofer ftructure of many of the walls about their grounds, where it is reasonable to believe these venomous creatures ftill oftner hide themselves.

Art. Amadeddulat.

OBSER

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