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GENESIS IX.

3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

"In the golden age which poets speak of, oxen were so greatly beneficial to the husbandman in tilling the fallow ground that no violence was ever offered them; and it was even thought a crime to eat them :

adds

"The iron age began the fatal trade

Of blood, and hammer'd the destructive blade;

Then men began to make the ox to bleed,

And on the tamed and docile beast to feed.'

CIC. de nat. Deor. 1.II. c. 63.

He

Ovid introduces Pythagoras protesting against the use of animal food.

"Not so the golden age, who fed on fruit,

Nor durst, with bloody meals, their mouth pollute."

Ov. Met. 1. xv. v. 137.

"The ancients are said to have used only simple milk, and such herbs as the earth spontaneously produced."-IBID. Fast. 1. IV. v. 369.

4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not

eat.

Pliny maintains that the blood is the principle of life, and ridicules those "who are of opinion that the fineness of the wit does not depend upon the thinness of the blood."-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. xI. c. 92.

"There is great vitality in the blood; and when it is discharged from the body it carries the life with it."-IBID. c. 90.

The restriction concerning blood is supposed by some to have reference to the custom of eating animals while they were yet quick and warm; or of torturing them to death in order to make their flesh more delicate.

"The flesh of these pigs is sweetest when it is pierced with a spit."

ARISTOPH. Acharn. v. 795.

"In killing swine some are accustomed to thrust them through with red hot spits, that the blood, being cauterised by the heat of the iron, may render the flesh more delicate. Others leap upon the teats and udders of the sow when farrowing, that the blood, the milk, &c., being all pounded together, may make them a most dainty dish of meat." PLUT. de esu. carn. Orat. I. c. 1.

"The Ethiopians, when they have succeeded in disabling the elephant, by houghing his sinews, rush upon him, and cut off collops of his flesh while he is yet alive." DIOD. SIC. 1. III. c. 26.

"Saturn reduced his subjects from a wild and barbarous to a more civil course of life, both as to food and manners."-IBID. 1. v. c. 66.

6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

"Blood for blood has come upon him who now dies, as the bitter payment for a debt."-EURIP. Electra, v. 857.

Electra, speaking of the murder of Agamemnon (who had slain his daughter Iphigenia) by Clytemnestra, says :

"What law required it of thee ?

That law alone by which thyself must fall ;

If blood for blood be due, thy doom is fixed."-Sorn. Electra, v. 579.

13. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

"Jove's wondrous bow, of three celestial dyes,

Placed as a sign to man amid the skies."-HOм. I. 1. XI. v 27.

In the following lines, the woe that preceded the sign is remembered; the promise

of mercy to which it testified, forgotten :

"High Jove, denouncing future woe,

O'er the dark clouds extends his purple bow,
In sign of tempests from the troubled air,

Or, from the rage of man, destructive war."-IBID. 1. XVII. v. 547.

Iris, or the rainbow, is called by Hesiod the great oath, to whom the Deity appealed when any of the inferior divinities were guilty of untruth. Iris was appointed on such an occasion to fetch water from the extremities of the ocean, with which those were tried who had falsified their word.

"Swift-footed Iris, nymph of Thaumas born,

Takes with no frequent embassy the way

O'er the broad main's expanse, when haply strife
Has risen, and controversy midst the gods.

If there be one 'midst those who dwell in heaven
That utters falsehood, Jove sends Iris down,
To bring from far in golden ewer the wave
Of multitudinous name, the mighty oath,
That from a high rock inaccessible
Glides cold."

HES. Theog. v. 780.

By a singular confusion of ideas the rainbow is represented by Ovid as contributing to the waters of the Deluge, instead of being a token of their abatement.

"Then clad in colours of a various dye,
Junonian Iris breeds a new supply

To feed the clouds: impetuous rain descends;
The bearded corn beneath the burden bends :
Defrauded clowns deplore their perish'd grain,

And the long labours of the year are vain."-Ov. Metam. 1.1. v. 270.

20. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.

"There was no nation upon earth, neither Grecian nor foreign, but was indebted to this deity (Bacchus) for some mark of his munificence and favour. He taught people to plant the vine and to preserve the juice of the grape, and to lay up the fruits of the earth in proper repositories. Those who possessed a harsh and ungenial soil, not adapted to the cultivation of the vine, were shown the art of making a drink from barley, not less grateful than that which proceeded from the grape."-DIOD. SIC. 1. III. c. 73.

23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

"Cato was as careful not to utter an indecent word before his son as he would have been in the presence of the vestal virgins; nor did he ever bathe with him. A regard to decency in this respect was indeed at that time general among the Romans, for even sons-in-law avoided bathing with their fathers-in-law, not choosing to appear naked before them."-PLUT. Cato major, c. 20.

GENESIS X.

5. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

The Greeks have some tradition of this partition of the earth, which they suppose to have been by lot, and between Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. Japetus was regarded by them as the ancestor of the human race.

Neptune says

"We are from Cronus and from Rhea sprung, Three brothers; who the world have parted out

Into three lots; and each enjoys his share.”—Hoм. I. l. xv. v. 187. "The gods of old obtained the dominion of the whole earth, according to their allotments. This was effected without any contention, for they took possession of their several provinces in an amicable and fair way, by lot."-PLAT. Critias, c. 3

"The sons of Cronus ascertained by lot their several realms on earth.”
CALLIM. H. in Jorem, v. 61.

6. The sons of Ham, Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
"The Egyptians call Jupiter Ammoun; and I should think this is the reason why

the Ammonians are called by that name."-HDт. 1. п. c. 42.

"Chemmis is a place of considerable note in the Thebaid."-IBID. c. 91. "The priests of Egypt, in the mysteries of Isis, call their country Chemia." PLUT. de Isid. et Osirid. c. 33. "Many think that the proper name of Jupiter, in the Egyptian language, is Ammoun."-IBID. c. 9.

"The people of Ethiopia, of Arabia, and of India, adore the same Jupiter Ammon."-LUCAN. Phars. 1. IX. v. 517.

8. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord.

10.

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

The author of the Chronicon Paschale calls Nimrod, or Nebrod, "the hunter, the giant, the Ethiopian, whom the sacred writings made king of Babylon after the deluge." He was deified after his death, and called Orion. Homer introduces him as a giant and a hunter in the shades below:

"The huge Orion, of portentous size,

Swift through the gloom a giant-hunter flies;
A ponderous mace of brass, with direful sway,
Aloft he whirls, to crush the savage prey!
Stern beasts in trains that by his truncheon fell,
Now grisly forms, shoot o'er the lawns of hell."

Hoм. Odyss. 1. xi. v. 572.

Aratus thus describes the constellation Orion:-
"Athwart the bull first rise, majestic sight!
Orion's giant limbs and shoulders bright.
Who but admires him stalking through the sky,
With diamond-studded belt and glittering thigh?
Nor with less ardour, pressing on his back,
The mottled Hound pursues his fiery track;
Up from the east the Hare before him flies,
Close he pursues her through the southern skies."

ARAT. Phan. v. 322.

GENESIS XI.

2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

"Babylon is situated in a large plain."-HDT. 1. I. c. 178.

3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for

mortar.

Herodotus thus describes the construction of the Walls of Babylon :—

"The earth of the trench was first of all laid in heaps, and when a sufficient quantity was obtained, made into square bricks, and baked in a furnace. They used as cement a composition of heated bitumen, which, mixed with the tops of reeds, was placed between every thirtieth course of bricks.

"Within an eight days' journey from Babylon is a city called Is; near which flows a river of the same name, which empties itself into the Euphrates. With the current of this river particles of bitumen descend towards Babylon, by means of which its walls were constructed."-HDT. l. I. c. 179.

"The wall of Media was built of burned bricks laid in bitumen."

XEN. Anab. 1. II. c. 4.

"The liquid asphaltus which is called naphtha, is found in Susiana; the dry kind which can be made solid, in Babylonia. There is a spring of it near the Euphrates. Others say that the liquid kind also is found in Babylonia."-STRAB. 1. XVI. c. 1.

"There is a chasm from whence a vast quantity of bitumen is poured forth; and it is evident that the walls of Babylon, extensive as they are, were constructed with this bitumen."-Q. CURT. 1. v. c. 1.

"Semiramis is said to have surrounded the city (Babylon) with baked bricks.". Ov. Met. 1. IV. v. 58.

"The city that the brickmakers fortified."-Juv. Sat. 10. v. 171.

4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

"The temple of Jupiter Belus, is a square building, each side of which is of the length of two furlongs. In the midst a tower rises, of the solid depth and height of one furlong; on which, resting as a base, seven other turrets are built in regular succession. The ascent, which is on the outside, winds upward from the ground, and is continued to the highest tower. In the middle of the whole structure there is a convenient resting place."-HDT. 1. 1. c. 181.

"The tomb of Belus at present is in ruins; having been demolished, as it is said, by Xerxes. It was a quadrangular pyramid of baked brick, a stadium in height, and each of the sides a stadium in length. Alexander intended to repair it. It was a great undertaking, and required a long time for its completion (for 10,000 men were occupied two months in clearing away the mound of earth), so that he was not able to execute what he had attempted, before disease hurried him rapidly to his end.". STRAB. 1. XVI. c. 1.

4. Whose top may reach to heaven.

This is a common hyperbole in the sacred writings, to signify any great and lofty building It occurs frequently in profane writers also.

"On the lone island's utmost verge there stood
Of poplars, pines, and firs, a lofty wood,
Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire,
Scorched by the sun, or seared by heavenly fire."

HOм. Odyss. 1. v. v. 238.

"Oh Queen! whose far-resounding fame

Is bounded only by the starry frame."—IBID. 1. XIx. v. 107.

"A poplar, a large tree reaching to heaven."-CALLIM. H. in Cerer. v. 38.

"Pines reaching to the skies.”—VIRG. En. 1. xi. v. 136.

"This mountain [Atlas] raises its head to the heavens."-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. v. c. 1.

66

Though this palace, Augustus, whose summit touches the stars, rivals heaven, it is not so great as its Lord."-MART. 1. VIII. Epig. 36.

5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

Maximus Tyrius says that the stories related by Homer, of Jove coming down from heaven, do not signify a literal and local descent; but only an exercise of providence and causality. "Not as leaving his own heaven; but as bringing to pass and preserving by his interference."-MAX. TYR. Diss. 36.

6. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city.

The tower of Babel was probably a rude mound of earth raised to a great height, and cased with bricks. Ancient writers are unanimous that it was overthrown, and many add that Nimrod, its founder, perished in it. The history of this building and its overthrow doubtless gave rise to the fable of the war of the giants against heaven, and their destruction.

Vulcan is said to have been cast down from heaven by Juno; but Homer, who was thoroughly versed in ancient mythology, says he was thrown down ȧæò Beλôv from Belos. This is generally rendered from the threshold (i. e. of heaven); but Bryant supposes that the tower of Belos is intended.

"He seized him by the foot, and headlong threw

From the high tower of Belos."-HOм Il. 1. 1. v. 591.

Jove reminds Juno how, when the gods opposed his will,

"Headlong I hurled them from the Olympian wall,

Stunned in the whirl, and breathless with the fall."-Ibid. 17. 1.15. v. 23.

It is said of Otus and Ephialtes,—

"Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size,

The gods they challenge and affect the skies:

Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood,

On Ossa Pelion nods with all its wood.

Such were thy youths! Had they to manhood grown,
Almighty Jove had trembled on his throne;

But ere the harvest of the beard began
To bristle on the chin, and promise man,

His shafts Apollo aim'd; at once they sound,

And stretch the giant monsters o'er the ground."

IBID. Odyss. 1. XI. v. 308.

"Such ardent bolts as flew that wondrous day,
When heaps of Titans mixed with mountains lay;
When all the giant race enormous fell,

And huge Enceladus was hurled to hell."-IBID. Batrach. v. 281.

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