Page images
PDF
EPUB

Пlepoin before whose temple the same people erected a statue of Adrastus. Plutarch, in the life of Artaxerxes II., tells us of that monarch having made Aspasia priestess of Artemis Aneitis at Ecbatana.

"This agrees with the account given by Clement of Alexandria, on the authority of Berosus, that Artaxerxes II. introduced into his dominions the adoration of images instead of fire-worship; and, after setting up the image of Aphrodite Tanaïs, at Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana, caused her to be worshipped by the Persians and Bactrians, as well as by the people of Damascus and Sardis. This passage serves to identify Tanith with Aphrodite as well as with Artemis. Strabo tells us that the Medes and Armenians practised the sacred rites of the Persians, especially the Armenians, who worshipped Tanaïs. We learn from the same author how extensively the cultus of the goddess prevailed in the east, from there being a temple of Anea, near Arbela; and he tells us that the Persians, to commemorate their victory over the Sacæ at Zela in Cappadocia, raised a mound by heaping up earth round a natural rock, so as to give it the appearance of a hill, and erected upon it a temple to Anaitis, and the gods worshipped with her Omanes and Anadatus, Persian divinities.'9

[ocr errors]

"The question which, however, naturally suggests itself is, How does a Persian divinity come to obtain so high a renown at Carthage? Sallust supplies us with the answer:-He informs us (and his authority was a Carthaginian work of king Hiempsal's) that the Gætulians and Libyans were the first who possessed Africa. These,' he says, 'were governed neither by customs, law, or rule of any kind, roaming about for a restingplace wherever night overtook them. But after Hercules died in Africa, his army, composed of various nations, soon fell to pieces after the loss of their leader. The Medes, Persians, and Armenians seized those parts which are nearest to our sea. The Persians extended as far as the ocean, and used for dwellings the hulls of the ships which brought them to Africa, turned bottom upwards, instead of cottages, for want of materials or opportunity of buying or bartering any from Spain; and, moreover, a wide sea and a language unknown to them prevented any commerce. These men by degrees mingled with the Gætulians by means of marriages, and, having wandered about to test the soil, they called themselves Numidæ. To this day the rustic Numidians have their cottages oblong and covered over, with curved sides, and are just like the keels of ships. But the Libyans joined the Medes and Armenians, for these lived nearer the African sea, whereas the Gætulians lived towards the sun. . . . The Libyans by degrees altered their names, calling them Mauri instead of Medi. But the affairs of the Persians increased in a short time, and afterwards the Numo-Numidæ, on account of their great numbers, having separated from their parents, possessed that region, which being close to Carthage, is called Numidia." The Persians and Armenians, thus early brought into this part of Africa, undoubtedly introduced their religion

Ibid., vii., 6, 4.

d Clem. Alex., Protrept, 5. * Strabo, xi., 8, 4.

e Plut., Artax., 27.

e Strabo, xi., 14, 16.

Strabo, xvi., 1, 4. Sall., Bell. Jug., 18.

also, and propagated it among the natives, with whom they themselves were in course of time amalgamated. In this manner the goddess Tanaïs was found here on the arrival of the first Phoenician settlers; and, indeed, the worship of that deity was at that time already so fully established, and her authority acknowledged, that her name was given to one of the towns, and perhaps the largest town then built on this portion of the African coast. Tunis in Punic is written precisely in the same manner as the name of the Persian Venus. It would be unreasonable to suppose that this was accidental, particularly as it was customary to call towns after the gods; as is evident from Venerea, the modern Kef, only a few days distant from Tunis. If the goddess Tanais was not already familiar to the Phoenician colonists before their landing in Africa, it required no great stretch of conscience, on their part, to embrace her peculiar worship (if any particular existed), since she only differed in name from the chief female deity of their native country. In all other respects she appears to have been the same. The Phoenicians, moreover, had an object in view : they were strangers, and their aim was to accumulate wealth, and to make themselves ultimately masters of the country. It would, therefore, have been extremely impolitic on their part to have manifested any scruples on a subject on which, in those days, no scruples existed. It was sufficient patriotism in them not to have abandoned their national religion altogether; and if it were then considered meritorious to propagate a creed, then they certainly adopted the most judicious policy in accommodating themselves to the peculiar religious views they found in the country. In this manner they were enabled to adore their principal female deity under the name of Tanaïs or Tanis, without abandoning Astarte, 'the queen of heaven;' and having thus satisfied the local creed, they had, most assuredly, a right to expect some concession from the natives.

"By such a mode of procedure the Phoenician settlers were, in the course of time, permitted to introduce into their adopted countries their national mythology. But the prominence Tanas thus received was by habit and custom so confirmed, that she apparently retained her dignity during the whole period that the Phoenicians wielded the sceptre in Africa. Her origin was, in all probability, in the course of time quite forgotten; and her very ambiguity, no doubt, tended only considerably to enhance her popularity, and increase her importance."-Carthage and Her Remains.

Sir Charles Lyell on Transmutation of Species. It may be thought almost paradoxical that writers who are most in favour of transmutation (Mr. C. Darwin aud Dr. J. Hooker, for example), are nevertheless among those who are most cautious, and one would say timid in their mode of espousing the doctrine of progression; while, on the other hand, the most zealous advocates of progression are oftener than not very vehement opponents of transmutation. We might have anticipated a contrary leaning on the part of both; for to what does the theory of progression point? It supposes a gradual elevation in grade of the vertebrate type, in the course of ages, from the most simple ichthyic form to that of the placental

Cicero, De Nat. Deor., iii., 16.

mammalia, and the coming upon the stage last in the order of time of the most anttropomorphous mammalia, followed by the human race: this last thus appearing as integral part of the same continuous series of acts of development, one link in the same chain, the crowning operation as it were of one and the same series of manifestations of creative power. If the dangers apprehended from transmutation arise from the too intimate connection which it tends to establish between the human and merely animal natures, it might have been expected that the progressive development of organization, instinct and intelligence, might have been unpopular, as likely to pioneer the way for the reception of the less favoured doctrine. But the true explanation of the seeming anomaly is this;-that no one can believe in transmutation who is not profoundly convinced that all we know in paleontology is as nothing compared with what we have yet to learn; and they who regard the record as so fragmentary, and our acquaintance with the fragments which are extant as so rudimentary, are apt to be astounded at the confidence placed by the progressionists in data which must be defective in the extreme. But exactly in proportion as the completeness of the record and our knowledge of it are overrated, in that same degree are many progressionists unconscious of the goal towards which they are drifting. Their faith in the fulness of the aunals leads them to regard all breaks in the series of organic existence, or in the sequence of the fossiliferous rocks, as proofs of original chasms and leaps in the course of nature-signs of the intermittent action of the creational force, or of catastrophes which devastated the habitable surface. They do not doubt that there is a continuity of plan; but they believe that it exists in the Divine mind alone, and they are therefore without apprehension that any facts will be discovered which would imply a material connection between the outgoing organisms and the incoming ones.

Scientific Expedition to Palestine.-From the Natural History Review for January 1864, we borrow an account of a well organized expedition which left this country in November last for Palestine; under the leadership of the Rev. H. B. Tristram, a gentleman whose name is well known as that of the author of The Great Sahara, and of many other valuable contributions to literature and science. The object of Mr. Tristram and his friends (Messrs. C. P. Meddlycott, G. G. Fowler, and H. M. Repcher) is to enlarge our very imperfect knowledge of the zoology, botany, geology, and physical geography of Palestine and Syria; for which purpose they have secured the additional assistance of Mr. H. Bowman, as photographer, Mr. E. Bartlett as zoological collector, and Mr. B. T. Lowne, as botanist. They proposed to devote November and December to the country between Beirût and Jerusalem; January and February to the Dead Sea and surrounding country; March, April, and the beginning of May to the Jordan valley, from Jericho up to Tiberias; and to pass the summer in the Lebanon, returning home in the autumn. Happily, thanks to the exertions of the authorities at Kew, Mr. Tristram has been supplied with a very promising young botanist, who is already favourably known. as the author of a Natural History of Great Yarmouth. Mr. Lowne is, we understand, to be aided by a donation from the Government grant to

the Royal Society, and the arrangements made for him by Mr. Tristram and his party are most liberal and encouraging. Syria and Palestine contain one of the richest floras on the globe. Several thousand plants have already been collected there by Bové, Boissier, Roth, Gaillardot, and others; but few specimens have as yet found their way into general herbaria; and owing to the multiplication of species, and incompleteness of their descriptions, the flora of that country is in a state of greater confusion than that of any other part of the Mediterranean region.

Furthermore the floras of Europe, Asia, and Africa, here meet; and a collection of the various forms which the eastern and western regions assume on this neutral ground, cannot fail to throw great light on some most interesting points connected with the origin and distribution of species.

Fulfilled Prophecy.-Of the prophecies relating to earthly kingdoms, the first place must be given to those which relate to the descendants of Abraham. These are found in great numbers in various parts of the Old Testament; but the most striking is that which is recorded towards the end of the Book of Deuteronomy. We have there a series of promises, and a series of denunciations, both expressed in terms so definite as to impress the reader with the conviction that the future of the people was present to the vision of the prophet; and both promises and denunciations have been fulfilled in the fortunes of that people in a manner which gives to the prophecy the exactness of history. Unbelieving criticism has indeed endeavoured, contrary to all rational evidence, to bring down to comparatively recent times the date of the Pentateuch; and on this ground has alleged that parts of the prophecy were written after the events. But there are other parts, and these the most important, to which no device of the kind can possibly be applied. Long after the canon of Scripture was closed, the words of Moses began to receive their most exact fulfilment ; and the known history of the Hebrew people, their present unique condition in the world, and the aspect of the Holy Land, constitute a standing demonstration of the faithfulness of the Divine Word which no honest mind can resist; while the unquestionable truth of these parts of the prophecy affords an abundant warrant for confidence in the whole. With regard to the promises contained in that wonderful address to the Israelites-made at a time when neither the people of Israel nor the country to which they were tending, afforded anything like the hope of such prosperity-there is every proof that it was exuberantly fulfilled. In a Psalm, written probably after the acme of their prosperity had passed, the prophet could say, "He hath blessed thy children within thee; He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the flour of the wheat. . . . He hath not dealt so with any people." In fact, the Holy Land, besides supplying abundantly the wants of a full population, exported large quantities of grain and other products to neighbouring nations. And then, with regard to the conditional "denunciation," accompanied as it was with the remarkable mitigation that they should not suffer the "annihilation" denounced against other peoples,-it is terrible to read in their history how every word of the Mosaic description of their fate has been verified:

and the present condition of Palestine is an awful comment on the words: "He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." In short, as Dean Goode remarks; "The Jewish nation, and the land they once possessed, remain to this day standing witnesses, presented to the eyes of all men, of the Divine origin of the prophecies of Holy Scripture, and, consequently, of the revelation with. which they stand connected."-Clerical Journal.

A New Commentary on the Bible.-(The following from the Guardian, some time since went the round of the press, was intended for insertion in our last, but was accidentally left out.) We are happy to see that the objections brought against certain portions of the Bible are about to be met by leading theologians of the Church of England in a very practical way. If a false and unfair system of interpretation has been applied to the text of Scripture, the best way of confuting it is to apply a true and legitimate one. The honour of originating the plan is due to the speaker of the House of Commons, who consulted several of the bishops on the subject, and the Archbishop of York, at his instance, undertook to organize a plan for producing a commentary which should "put the reader in full possession of whatever information may be requisite to enable him to understand the Word of God, and supply him with satisfactory answers to objections resting upon misrepresentation of its contents." The plan has received the sanction of the primate. A commitee, consisting of the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Lichfield, Llandaff, Gloucester and Bristol, Lord Lyttelton, the Speaker, Mr. Walpole, Drs. Jacobson and Jeremie, takes the general supervision of the work. The Rev. F. C. Cook, preacher at Lincoln's-Inn, will be the general editor, and will advise with the Archbishop of York and the Regius professors of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge upon any questions which may arise. The work will be divided into eight sections; the first of which will consist of the Pentateuch a difficult subject, and will be edited by Professor Harold Browne, the Revs. R. C. Pascoe, T. F. Thrupp, T. E. Espin, and W. Dewhurst, contributing. The historical books Is the Pentateuch, then, not "historical?"] will be consigned to the Rev. G. Rawlinson, editor, and the Revs. T. E. Espin and Lord Arthur Hervey, contributors. The Rev. F. C. Cook will edit, and the Bev. E. H. Plumptre, W. T. Bullock, and T. Kingsbury will annotate, the poetical books. The four great prophets will be undertaken by Dr. McCaul as editor (since deceased), and by the Revs. R. Payne Smith and H. Rose as contributors. The Bishop of St. David's and the Rev. R. Gandell will edit the twelve minor prophets, and the Revs. E. Huxtable, W. Drake, and F. Meyrick will contribute. The Gospels and Acts will form the sixth section; the first Gospels will be edited by Professor Mansel, the Gospel of St. John by the Dean of Canterbury, and the Acts by Dr. Jacobson. The editorship of St. Paul's Epistles is appropriately assigned to Bishop Ellicott and Dr. Jeremie, with Dr. Gifford, Professor T. Evans, Rev. J. Waite, and Professor J. Lightfoot as contributors. To the Archbishop of Dublin and the Master of Balliol is assigned the rest of the sacred canon. This really promises to be a work second only in importance to the LXX.,

« PreviousContinue »