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From prescient Ammon's sultry dome
To sacred Battus' ancient tomb,

Many as stars that silent ken

At night, the stolen loves of men," &c.-CATUL. Carm. 7.

"I have suffered woes countless as the stars in heaven, or as the dry grains of dust."—Ov. Trist. 1. 1. Eleg. 4.

3.

GENESIS XXIII.

And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth saying,

4. I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

5. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,

6.

Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.

The ancients attached great importance to the burial of their dead.-See Notes on Jer. vIII. 2., and xxII. 18.

Cheops intended the Pyramids as a place of burial for himself. They were in an island which he formed by introducing the waters of the Nile."-HDт. 1. II. c. 124.

"In this reign, when commerce was checked and injured from the extreme want of money, an ordinance passed that any one might borrow money, giving the body of his father as a pledge. By this law the sepulchre of the debtor became in the power of the creditor, for if the debt was not discharged, he could neither be buried with his family nor in any other vault; nor was he suffered to enter into one belonging to his descendants."

IBID. C. 136. "An Egyptian, when he lacks money to supply his wants, not unfrequently relieves his necessity by pawning the dead body of his brother or his father."--LUCIAN. de luctu, c. 21. 16. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver.

"The Lydians are the first people on record who coined gold and silver into money, and traded in retail."-HDT. 1. I. c. 94.

See Gen. XLVII. 17.

GENESIS XXIV.

8. And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again.

Pylades, being bound by oath to deliver a certain letter, stipulates for a similar exemption :

"Grant me this one exception; if the vessel suffer any harm, and the letter be lost in a storm, together with the goods, and I can save my person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid."—EURIP. Iph. in Taur. v. 755.

15. And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

"When near the fam'd Phæacian walls he (Ulysses) drew,
The beauteous city opening to his view,

His step a virgin met and stood before;

A polish'd urn the seeming virgin bore."-Hoм. Odyss. 1. VII. v.

18.

"Before the town a virgin, bearing forth
Her ew'r, they met, daughter of him who ruled
The Læstrygonian race, Antiphates.

Descending from the gate she sought the fount
Artacia; for their custom was to draw

From that pure fountain for the city's use."-IBID. 1. x. v. 105.

"Pygres and Mantyes, natives of Pæonia, the government of which had become the object of their ambition, adopted the following artifice :-They decorated their sister, a person of great elegance and beauty, in the best manner they were able, and sent her to draw water. She had a vessel on her head, she led a horse by a bridle, fastened round her arm, and she was moreover spinning some thread. When she came to the river she gave her horse some water, and then filled her pitcher. Having done this, she returned by the way she came, with the pitcher of water on her head, the horse fastened by a bridle to her arm, and, as before, employed in spinning."-HDT. 1. v. c. 12.

This was done with a view to persuade Darius that all the women of the Paonians were accustomed to labour.

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Cheirisophus came to a village just as it was dark, and at a fountain without the walls, he found some women and girls who belonged to it carrying water."

XEN. Anab. 1. IV. c. 5.

"The vestal approached the waterside, bearing upon her head an earthen pitcher." Ov. Fast. 1. III. v. 13.

GENESIS XXVII.

12. My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.

"Their father's curse,

Fatally cruel, sweeps them both away."-ESCH. Sept. c. Theb. v. 819.

13. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.

27.

""Tis ever found that mothers

Plead for their sons, and in the father's wrath
Defend them."

TER. Heaut. Act v. sc. 4.

And he came near and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed :

"When after long continued drought the rain has soaked the ground, then it is that the earth exhales a divine odour that is so peculiarly its own, and to which, imparted to it by the sun, there is no perfume, however sweet, that can possibly be compared."

PLIN. Hist. nat. 1. XVII. c. 3.

46. And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?

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Thou, my child, I hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign family, and cherishest a foreign alliance: intolerable to this thy mother and to the aged Laius; the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us."-EURIP. Phæniss. v. 337.

GENESIS XXVIII.

12. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

The Greeks and Romans believed in the existence of a superior order of beings whom they called Dæmons; very different in their nature from those whom the Scriptures call angels. Hierocles says "They have a superior and inferior part in them, and their superior part is an incorporeal substance, their inferior corporeal." They were supposed to be the guardians of mortal men, and especially of those who were distinguished for piety or virtue.

"The whole dæmon kind is partly divine and partly mortal. It interprets for and transmits to the gods what is sent from men, and for and to men what is sent from the gods; from men their petitions and sacrifices; from the gods their commands and returns for sacrifices; and being in the middle space between gods and men, it fills up the whole, so that by it all have been bound together into one."-PLAT. Sympos. c. 23.

"A good angel attends every man, who may be unceasingly the director of his life; but it is not to be believed that an evil genius also follows him to do him injury, for God desires that every one should be good."-MENAND. ap. Clement. Strom. 1. v.

Cassius, arguing with Brutus after he had seen the vision of his evil genius a short

time before the battle of Philippi, says :

"It is improbable that there should be any such beings as dæmons or spirits, or that if there were such they should assume a human shape or voice, or have any power to affect us. At the same time I own I could wish there were such beings, that we might not rely on fleets or armies, but find the concurrence of the gods in this our sacred and glorious enterprise."-PLUT. Brutus, c. 37.

"No sooner are we come into the world than each of us hath two angels called dæmons, appointed to us to take the charge and oversight of our life." IBID. de tranq. an. c. 15.

16. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.

17. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

"Who is there who when he thinks that he is an object of divine care, does not feel an awe of the divine presence day and night ?"-Cic. Quæst. Academ. c. 38.

18. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

19. And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

The word Beth-el signifies "the house of God," and was the usual patriarchal name for altars and other sacred structures. Sanconiatho speaks of stones called Baitulia, which were contrived by Uranus, and which possessed the power of motion, as if they were instinct with life. They were in all probability sacred rocking stones similar to those erected by the Druids in this country. The worship of these stones consisted in anointing them with oil. The title bestowed by Jacob upon the place of his vision has been adopted into all languages, in spite of the utmost diversities of belief. The very syllables of Jacob's exclamation form the title of the chief sanctuary of the Mahommedan world-the BeitAllah of Mecca.

"The superstitious man, when he passes the consecrated stones, placed where three ways meet, is careful to pour oil from his cruet upon them; then, falling on his knees, he worships and retires."-THEOPHRAST. Charact. xxx.

E

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arija reyna si wekin zestone in the island Tenos, supposed to have Calais and Zetes.

ast... remains

e; the other, lightly pois'd,

I vow-i by many a wondering eye, and moves

At the sight impulse of the northern breeze."

APOL. RHOD. Arg. 1. 1. v. 1307.

wn of Asia, there stands a terrific rock, which may be moved
e pushed by the force of the whole body, it resists."
PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. II. c. 98.

vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to

sa to my father's house in peace; then shall the

and water only. No one is so poor but he can answer this

1, then, ENOUGH? What will afford

xxx Nabit and a frugal board;

carus' little garden bore;

Nos sufficient thought before.

ared by nature's rules their blameless life :

and wisdom never are at strife."-Juv. Sat. 1. XIV. v. 318.

, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: sou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

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And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them.

Rachel signifies a sheep. It was the custom among the ancients to give the names amals to their children; as, for instance, Dorcas, the roe, Porcius, Ovilius, Caprilius, The office of a shepherd was not considered to be of a menial character in Now lius, &c. Close days.

"The divine swineherd."-HOм. Odyss. 1. XIV. 3.

Melanthius the Goatherd

"to the feastful palace straight repaired,

Familiar entered, and the banquet shared;

Beneath Eurymachus, his patron lord,

He took his place, and plenty heap'd the board.”—IBID. 1. XVII. v. 255.

GENESIS XXX.

37. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

39. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

"Any change in the water or drink of sheep will render their offspring mottled." PLIN. Hist. nat. 1. VIII. c. 72.

"While the coupling is taking place, you must use the same water; if it is changed it will render the wool spotted, and injure the womb."-VARRO, de re rust. 1. II. c. 2.

GENESIS XXXII.

27. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said Jacob. 28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

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'Among the Greeks additional names are given to some on account of their achievements, as Soter the preserver, and Callinicus the victorious; to others for something remarkable in their persons, as Physcon the gore-bellied, and Gripus the eagle-nosed; or for their good qualities, as Euergetes the benefactor, and Philadelphus the kind brother; or for their good fortune, as Eudæmon the prosperous-a name given to the second prince of the family of the Batti. Several princes have also had satirical names bestowed upon them. Antigonus, for instance, was called Doson, the man that will give to-morrow; and Ptolemy was styled Lamyras, the buffoon.-PLUT. Coriolan. c. 11.

GENESIS XXXIV.

12. Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.

It appears to have been customary for the parent to receive payment for his daughter when giving her in marriage, as is even now the case in some barbarous countries. Agamemnon, offering his three daughters to Achilles' choice, says:—

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"Her let him choose whom most his eyes approve,

I ask no presents, no reward for love."-HOM. I. 1. IX. v. 146.

Iphidamus, the Thracian had given for his bride a hundred oxen, and had promised also a thousand sheep and goats."-IBID. 1 xi. v. 244.

"With gifts of price he sought and won the dame.”—IBID. 1 xvI. v. 178.. Among the Assyrians this custom is observed every year. Such of the virgins as are marriageable are, at an appointed time and place, assembled together. Here the men

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