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of them being discharged at one time, they, for want of employment, became riotous, and began those seditions, which at last were the ruin both of Jerusalem, and of the Temple. Josephus informs us, that this mournful event happened on the 10th of the month Abib, A.D. 70, in the second year of Vespasian, one thousand one hundred and thirty years, seven months, and fifteen days after the founding of the first Temple by Solomon; and six hundred thirty-nine years and forty-five days after the founding of the second Temple.

This Temple, built by Herod, was considerably larger than the second, as the second had been larger than the first: for, whereas the second Temple was seventy cubits long, sixty broad, and sixty high: this was one hundred cubits long, seventy broad, and one hundred high. And, as the second seems not to have had the porch any higher than the rest of the building (for Herod, in his proposal to the Jews, mentions that it wanted sixty cubits of the height of that which was in the first Temple,) so in the Temple which he constructed, he raised the porch to one hundred and twenty cubits as at the first; and by extending it fifteen cubits beyond each side of the rest of the Temple, he made the front to be one hundred cubits; for seventy cubits, which was the width of his Temple, and twice fifteen, make exactly a hundred. The porch and Temple, therefore, would resemble the letter T, of which the top will represent the front of the porch, and the body of the letter, the holy and most holy places. All the writers among the Jews praise this Temple exceedingly, both for the beauty and costliness of its workmanship; for it was built of white marble, beautifully variegated, and with stones of large dimensions, some of them twenty-five cubits long, eight cubits

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high, and twelve cubits thick. The different sides of the building exhibited to a spectator the following appearances:-The east, or face of the porch, was a front of one hundred cubits, or one hundred and eighty-two feet four inches, from north to south, by one hundred and twenty cubits, or two hundred and eighteen feet ten inches high, of finely-polished, and beautifully-variegated white marble, highest in the middle, and diminishing in elegant proportions at either end ; divided, as we may suppose, into different stories, with rows of windows. Such was its appearance on the east. The west, or opposite end, would appear of two parts: viz. the lower part where the chambers were joined to the wall, and the upper or higher portion of the Temple wall. The north and south sides being exactly the same, their external appearance was as follows:-1. A foundation of strong work, six cubits high; 2. An upright plain wall, of forty cubits; 3. A carved and curiously wrought border, of a cubit broad; 4. A gutter cut in the stones, which stones occupied two cubits; 5. The timber, or place for laying on the roof, one cubit; 6. The roof itself a cubit thick, and formed, not of lead, as the flat roofs are with us, but of some composition spread upon reeds, that equalled stone in hardness after it became dry.

Perhaps the composition in question may have resembled that which Dr. Shaw tells us is used at this day in Barbary :-"They take one part of sand, two of wood ashes, and three of lime, which, after it is well sifted and mixed together, they beat for three days and three nights incessantly with wooden mallets, sprinkling them alternately, and, at proper times, with a little oil and water, till they become of a due consistence. This is what is used in making arches, cisterns, and the terraces,

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or the tops of houses. Both this composition (he adds,) and that of tow and lime beat together with oil only, without any mixture of water, quickly assume the hardness of stone, and suffer no water to pervade them." Such is the manner of making roofs in Barbary. But in India it is somewhat different: they first throw a joisting of seasoned wood, on which they lay a course of brick on edge, cemented with sugar in its coarsest state from the cane (there called jaggery,) after it has been moistened with a little water. When this is dried, they cover it with a pretty thick coat of pounded brick, lime (there called chinam,) and jaggery-water; all of which they beat down with wooden mallets. When this is dried, they cover it with a finer layer of the same materials, laid on with a trowel; and the whole is finished off with a thin layer of very fine lime and jaggery-water. As the joists are not laid horizontally, but raised a little in the middle, the bricks form literally a kind of arch, which supports the terrace when the wood has failed: but this rise does not appear to the eye, for the last coat of composition makes the upper surface perfectly horizontal. In laying the bricks, their mode is particular; for they always begin at a corner, and move on to the opposite one; and if the terrace have much weight to support, or be very large, they have another course of bricks above these, which starts from, and terminates in, the intermediate angles. Thus do the courses cross each other.

The person from whom I had the above information had several terraces made for himself while in India; and assured me, that it is the common method of making them in the east: he farther added, that he had seen terraces of pagodas, several centuries old, perfectly firm, although the joists had rotted from beneath them.

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Hitherto we have followed the building up almost at the same width for fifty-one cubits; but after the plas tered roof was laid on, it suddenly contracted to thirtytwo cubits, leaving thus a space of nineteen feet on each side for walking on, and other purposes: for the whole width of the Temple was seventy cubits; the building above the holy and most holy places was thirty-two; and, consequently, thirty-eight are left to be divided in equal portions of nineteen a-piece on either side. Having ascended to the height of fifty-one cubits, and reached the flat space, let us now attend to the remaining forty-nine cubits of elevation; for it will be remembered, that the whole height of Herod's Temple was one hundred cubits. In the 1st place, then there was an upright wall of forty cubits, within which was an upper room, extending the length of the holy and most holy places. 2dly. Another carved border, of a cubit broad. 3dly. Another stone gutter, of two cubits, to carry off the rain. 4thly. Another place, of one cubit, for laying on the timber for the roof. 5thly. A plastered roof, of a cubit thick, like the former. 6thly. The battlements, of three cubits, including the stones on which they were set: which battlements, in their traditions are stated, both for public and private buildings, to be ten hand-breadths high, or two feet and a-half at the least, to prevent any person falling over them. And, 7thly. The scare-crow cubit: but what that was is differently explained: for R. Nathan makes it some frightful figure to scare away the birds from defiling the roof of the Temple. Maimonides explains it of iron pikes, a cubit high, upon the top of the battlements round about, to answer the same purpose. Yet, after all, it is probable that a number of these animals built their nests among the battlements

D. Kimchi in Mid.

and carved work; for David alludes to them in Psal. lxxxiv. 3. Perhaps both these accounts may be reconciled, by supposing that there were iron spikes round the battlements on the outside, for the purpose mentioned; and that the large space of forty cubits by twenty, which was within the battlements, and extended over the holy and most holy places, was not flat, but raised in such a manner, as that the scare-crow cubit would be a cubit above the battlements, and on a level with the spikes. This would allow the water to pass more easily from the roof, and add considerably to the beauty of the Temple.-But let us now enter the second edifice, and examine it attentively.

SECT. X.

The Porch of the Temple.

The steps that led up to it: the height of the threshold above each of the inferior Courts. The length, breadth, and height of the porch. The door of the Porch—its size, and the ornaments around it; the thickness of the wall; the vestibule of the Porch; the marble and golden tables; the golden vine and candlestick; the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz : inquiry into their appearance and probable use. The apartments on either side of the vestibule. The chambers of the butchering instruments; and the apartment above the door, where the crowns of the conquered kings were kept.

On leaving the pavement of the Court of the Priests to go into the Porch of the Temple, we find ourselves obliged to ascend twelve steps, of half a cubit high each, but not all of an equal breadth. For the first and second steps were each a cubit broad, and the third, three cubits; the fourth and fifth a cubit broad each, and the sixth, three cubits; the seventh and eighth, a cubit broad each, and the ninth, three cubits; the tenth and eleventh a cubit broad each, and the twelfth four cubits. Consequently, the twelve steps, although only six cubits high in all, yet extended in this way, from the Porch

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