wash themselves from head to foot after coming from market, or any public place where they may have touched any one of a sect different from their own, esteeming all such unclean." No. 429.-ix. 41. Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, shall not lose his reward.] To furnish travellers with water is at this time thought a matter of such consideration, that many of the eastern people have been at a considerable expence to procure passengers that refreshment. "The reader, as we proceed," says Dr. CHANDLER (Trav. in Asia Minor, p. 20.) "will find frequent mention of fountains. Their number is owing to the nature of the country and the climate. The soil, parched and thirsty, demands moisture to aid vegetation; and a cloudless sun, which inflames the air, requires for the people the verdure, shade, and coolness, its agreeable attendants; hence they occur 'not only in the towns and villages, but in the fields and gardens, and by the sides of the roads, and by the beaten tracks on the mountains. Many of them are the useful donations of humane persons while living, or have been bequeathed as legacies on their decease. The Turks esteem the erecting of them as meritorious, and seldom go away after performing their ablutions or drinking, without gratefully blessing the name and memory of the founder." Then, after observing that the method used by the ancients of obtaining the necessary supplies of water still prevails, which he describes as done by pipes, or paved channels, he adds, " when arrived at the destined spot, it is received by a cistern with a vent, and the waste current passes below from another cistern, often an ancient sarcophagus. It is common to find a cup of tin or iron hanging near by a chain, or a wooden scoop with an handle placed in a nich in the wall. The front is of stone, or marble, and in some, painted and decorated with gilding, and with an inscription in Turkish characters in relievo." The blessing of the name and memory of the builder of one of these fountains shows that a cup of water is in these countries by no means a despicable thing. Niebuhr tells us, that among the public buildings of Kahira, those houses ought to be reckoned where they daily give water gratis to all passengers that desire it. Some of these houses make a very handsome appearance; and those whose business it is to wait on passengers are to have some vessels of copper curiously tinned, and filled with water, always ready on the window next the street, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 97.) No. 430.-ix. 44. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.] Dr. RYMER (Representation of Revealed Religion, p. 155.) supposes that both the worm and the fire are meant of the body, and refer to the two different ways of funeral among the ancients, interment and burning; so that our Lord may seem here to prevent an objection against the permanent misery of the wicked in hell, arising from the frail constitution of the body; as if he should have said, the body will not then be as it is at present, but will be incapable of consumption or dissolution. In its natural state, the worms may devour the whole, and die for want of nourishment; the fire may consume it, and be extinguished for want of fuel; but there shall be perpetual food for the worm that corrodes it, perpetual fuel for the fire that torments it. The words of the apocryphal writer in Judith xvi. 17. greatly illustrate this interpretation. It is said, "the Lord Almighty will take vengeance on the wicked in the day of judgment, putting fire and worms into their flesh, and they shall feel them, and weep for ever," No. 431.-X. 4. And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.] Divorces seem to have been permitted among the Jews, before the law; but we find no example of that kind in the Old Testament written since Moses. They have been less frequent with the Jews, since their dispersion among nations, which do not permit the dissolution of marriage upon light occasions. In cases where it does take place, the woman is at liberty to marry again as she shall think proper, but not with the person who gave occasion for the divorce. To prevent the abuse which the Jewish men might make of the liberty of divorcing, the rabbins appoint many formalities, which consume much time, and give the married couple opportunity to be reconciled. Where there is no hope of accommodation, a woman, a deaf man, or a notary, draws the letter of divorce. He writes it in the presence one or more rabbins, on vellum ruled, containing only twelve lines, in square letters; and abundance of little trifling particulars are observed, as well in the characters as in the manner of writing, and in the names and surnames of the husband and wife. He who pens it, the rabbins, and witnesses, ought not to be relations either to the husband, or to the wife, or to one another. of The substance of this letter, which they call gheth, is as follows: "On such a day, month, year, and place, I, N. divorce you voluntarily, put you away, restore you to your liberty, even you, N. who were heretofore my wife, and I permit you to marry whom you please." The letter being written, the rabbi examines the husband closely, in order to learn whether he is voluntarily inclined to do what he has done. They endeavour to have at least ten persons present at this action, without reckoning the two witnesses who sign, and twe other witnesses to the date. After which the rabbi commands the wife to open her hands, in order to receive this deed, lest it fall to the ground; and after having examined her over again, the husband gives her the parchment, and says to her, here is thy divorce, I put thee away from me, and leave thee at liberty to marry whom thou pleasest. The wife takes it, and gives it to the rabbi, who reads it once more, after which she is free. CALMET'S Dictionary of the Bible, art. DIVORCE. No. 432.-xiv. 3. And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman, having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.] Chardin describes the Persians as sometimes transporting their wine in buck or goat-skins, which are pitched, and when the skin is good the wine is not at all injured, nor tastes of the pitch. At other times they send it in bottles, whose mouths are stopped with cotton, upon which melted wax is poured, so as quite to exclude the air. They pack them up in chests, in straw, ten small bottles in each, sending the celebrated wine of Schiras thus through all the kingdom into the Indies, and even to China and Japan. The ancient Romans used pitch to secure their wine vessels. (HORACE, Carm. lib. iii. ode 8.) This is said to have been done according to one of the precepts of Cato. But though pitch and other grosser matters might be used to close up their wine vessels, those which held their perfumes were doubtless fastened with wax, or some such cement, since they were small and made of alabaster and other precious materials, which would by no means have agreed with any thing so coarse as pitch. To apply these remarks to the subject of this article, it may be observed that Propertius calls the open ing of a wine vessel, by breaking the cement that secured it, breaking the vessel. Cur ventos non ipse rogis, ingrate, petisti? Cur nardo flammæ non duere meæ ? Hoc etiam grave erat, nullâ mercede hyacinthos Lib. iv. el. 7. ver. 31. It cannot be supposed that Propertius meant, that the earthen vessel should have itself been shivered into pieces, but only that its stopple should be taken out, to do which it was necessary to break the cement. Agreeable to this mode of expression, we are doubtless to understand these words of Mark, that, as Jesus sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard (or liquid nard, according to the margin) very precious, and she BRAKE THE BOX, and poured it on his head. No. 433. xiv. 35. He went forward a little, and fell on the ground.] Amongst other circumstances by which the ancients expressed the greatness of their distress, they frequently threw themselves down upon the ground, and rolled in the dust. Thus Homer introduces Priam lamenting the death of Hector : Permit me now, belov'd of Jove! to steep Iliad xxiv. lin. 804. Thus also Ovid represents Oeneus behaving himself upon the death of his son Meleager: Pulvere canitiem genitor, vultusque seniles, |