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Sacred Geography.

CANAAN, OR THE HOLY LAND.*

Of the principal Buildings in, and about Jerusalem.

THE only places of consideration remaining to be described, as appertaining to the Holy City, are the Royal Sepulchres, usually called the Tombs of the Kings.

This extraordinary cemetery lies about a mile distant from the present walls, in a north-westerly direction, and is certainly a costly, and a princely place of burial. The best account we have of it is that furnished by Maundrell, and Dr. E. D. Clarke.

"The next place we came to," says the former traveller, "was those famous grots called the Sepulchres of the Kings; but for what reason they go by that name is hard to resolve; for it is certain none of the kings, either of Israel or Judah, were buried here; the holy Scriptures assigning other places for their sepulchres; unless it may be thought perhaps that Hezekiah was here interred, and that these were the sepulchres of the sons of David, mentioned 2 Chron. xxxii. 33. Whoever was buried here, this is certain, that the place itself discovers so great an expense both of labour and treasure, that we may well suppose it to have been the work of kings. You approach to it at the east side, through an entrance cut out of the natural rock, which admits you into an open court of about forty paces square, cut down into the rock, with which it is encompassed instead of walls. On the south side of the court is a portico, nine paces long and four broad, hewn likewise out of the natural rock. There is a kind of architrave running along its front, adorned with sculpture of fruits and flowers, still discernible, but by time much defaced. At the end of the portico, on the left hand, you descend to the passage into the sepulchres. The door is now so obstructed with stones and rubbish, that it is a thing of some difficulty to creep through it; but within, you arrive in a large fair room, about seven or eight yards square, cut out of the natural rock. Its sides and ceiling are so exactly square, and its angles so just, that no architect with levels and plummets could build a room more regular; and the whole is so firm and entire, that it may be called a chamber hollowed out of one piece of marble. From this room you pass into (I think) six more, one within another, all of the same fabric with the first. Of these, the two innermost are deeper than the rest, having a second descent of about six or seven steps into them.

"In every one of these rooms, except the first, were coffins of stone placed in niches in the sides of the chambers. They had been

* Continued from p. 296.

at first covered with handsome lids, and carved with garlands; but now most of them were broke to pieces by sacrilegious hands. The sides and ceiling of the rooms were always dropping, with the moist damps condensing upon them. To remedy which nuisance, and to preserve these chambers of the dead polite and clean, there was in each room a small channel cut in the floor, which served to drain the drops that fall constantly into it.

"But the most surprising thing belonging to these subterraneous chambers was their doors, of which there is only one that remains hanging, being left as it were on purpose to puzzle the beholders. It consisted of a plank of stone of about six inches in thickness, and in its other dimensions equalling the size of an ordinary door, or somewhat less. It was carved in such a manner as to resemble a piece of wainscot; the stone of which it was made, was visibly of the same kind with the whole rock; and it turned upon two binges in the nature of axles. These hinges were of the same entire piece of stone with the door; and were contained in two holes of the immoveable rock, one at the top, the other at the bottom.

"From this description it is obvious to start a question, how such doors as these were made? whether they were cut out of the rock, in the same place and manner as they now hang? or whether they were brought, and fixed in their station like other doors? One of these must be supposed to have been done; and whichsoever part we choose as most probable, it seems at first glance to be not without its difficulty. But thus much I have to say, for the resolving of this riddle (which is wont to create no small dispute amongst pilgrims), viz. that the door which was left hanging, did not touch its lintel by at least two inches; so that I believe it might easily have been lifted up and unhinged. And the doors which had been thrown down, had their hinges at the upper end twice as long as those at the bottom; which seems to intimate pretty plainly by what method this work was accomplished.*

Dr. Clarke describes these sepulchres as a series of subterranean chambers, forming a sort of labyrinth, resembling the still more wonderful example lying westward of Alexandria in Egypt, by some called the sepulchres of the Ptolemies. "Each chamber," he says, " contains a certain number of receptacles for dead bodies, not being much larger than our coffins, but having the more regular form of oblong parallelograms; thereby differing from the usual appearance presented in the sepulchral crypts of this country, where the soros, although of the same form, is generally of very considerable size, and resembles a large cistern. The taste manifested in the interior of these chambers seems also to denote a later period in the history of the arts the skill and neatness visible in the carving is admirable, and there is much of ornament displayed in several parts of the work. We observed also some slabs of marble exquisitely sculptured: these we had never seen in the burial-places before mentioned.

* Maundrell's Journal.

The entrance is by an open court, excavated in a stratum of white limestone, like a quarry. It is a square of thirty yards. Upon the western site of this area appears the mouth of a cavern, twelve yards wide, exhibiting over the entrance an architrave with a beautifully sculptured frieze. Entering this cavern, and turning to the left, a second architrave appears above the entrance to another cavern, but so near to the floor of the cave as barely to admit the passage of a man's body through the aperture. We lighted some wax tapers, and here descended into the first chamber. In the sides of it were other square openings, like door-frames, offering passages to yet interior chambers. In one of these we found the lid of a white marble coffin (engraved in Le Bruyn's Travels, 1725): this was entirely covered with the richest and most beautiful sculpture; but, like all the other sculptured work about the place, it represented nothing of the human figure, nor of any animal, but consisted entirely of foliage and flowers, and principally of the leaves and branches of the vine.

"As to the history of this most princely place of burial, we shall find it difficult to obtain much information. That it was not what its name implies, is very evident, because the sepulchres of the kings of Judah were in Mount Zion. The most probable opinion is maintained by Pococke, who considered it as the sepulchre of Helen, queen of Adiabene. De Chateaubriand has since adopted Pococke's opinion.† Indeed it seems evident, that, by the royal caves, nothing more is intended by Josephus than the regal sepulchre of Helena he had before mentioned, thus repeated under a different appellation."+

[To be Continued.]

*This agrees with Dr. Richardson: "The road down to them is cut in the rock, and the entrance is by a large door also cut in the rock. It leads into a deep excavation, open above, about fifty feet long, forty feet wide, and about twenty feet deep. Heaps of sand and earth are piled up along the sides, and the whole has much the appearance of a sand-pit. The west end seems to have been ornamented with the greatest care. A cornice, with triglyph, regulus, and guttæ, passes along the top, and the vine-leaf mantles round the decorations. In the south-west corner, a low, narrow door leads into a series of chambers, in each of which there is a number of excavations, cut in the rock for the reception of the dead, like those which we saw in Malta and Syracuse, all of which are now empty, and the place is damp and disagreeable. The innermost apartment is adorned above all the rest, and has the mantling vine, with clusters of grapes, twined round the pilasters, and inscribed on the sarcophagi."

This is not quite correct. Chateaubriand mentions the opinion as a plausible conjecture; but afterwards urges a passage of Josephus, as an objection; and, from another passage in the Jewish historian, supposes the caverns to have been the sepulchre of Herod the Tetrarch. "Speaking of the wall which Titus erected to press Jerusalem still more closely than before, he says, that this wall, returning towards the north, enclosed the sepulchre of Herod. Now this is the situation of the royal caverns."-Travels, vol. ii. p. 108.

The whole of these theories are liable to objection. Indeed, considering the changes of masters which Jerusalem has suffered, and the consequent variation in the taste of its possessors, it is at this moment a matter of extreme difficulty to separate the monuments of high antiquity from those of a more modern age, or to decide what parts of their remains preserve their original form, and what parts have been subsequently altered or ornamented by later hands. See Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, p. 208, 4to.

On the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews.*

OF POETIC IMAGERY FROM THE OBJECTS OF NATURE.

"THE great excellence of the poetic dialect," as Aristotle most judiciously remarks," consists in perspicuity without meanness. Familiar terms and words in common use form a clear and perspicuous, but frequently a low style; unusual or foreign expressions give it an air of grandeur, but frequently render it obscure." When we want to adapt our language to the tone of an elevated subject, we should be greatly at a loss, if we could not borrow assistance from figures; which, properly employed, have a similar effect on language, with what is produced by the rich and splendid dress of a person of rank; to create respect, and to give an air of magnificence to him who wears it. Assistance of this kind is often needed in prose composition; but poetry could not subsist without it. Hence figures form the constant language of poetry. To say, that "the sun rises," is trite and common; but it becomes a magnificent image when expressed, as Mr. Thompson has done;

But yonder comes the powerful king of day
Rejoicing in the east.-

Or, as the Psalmist :

In them he hath set a tabernacle for the sun;
Who, as a bridegroom, cometh out of his chamber;
He rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

Psalm xix. 4, 5.

To say, that" all men are subject to death," presents only a vulgar idea; but it rises and fills the imagination, when painted thus by Horace :

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Of those expressions which Aristotle calls foreign, the principal force lies in the metaphor: but "as the temperate and reasonable use of this figure enlivens a composition, so the frequent introduction of metaphors obscures it, and if they very commonly occur, it will be little better than an enigma."* If the Hebrew poets be examined by the rules and precepts of this great philosopher and critic, it will readily be allowed, that they have assiduously attended to the sublimity of their compositions by the abundance and splendour of their figures; though it may be doubted whether they might not have been more temperate in the use of them. For in those poems, at least, in which something of uncommon grandeur and sublimity is aimed at, there predominates a continued it may almost be said, a perpetual, use of the metaphor, sometimes daringly introduced, sometimes rushing in with imminent hazard of propriety. A metaphor thus licentiously intruded, is frequently continued to an immoderate extent. The Orientals are attached to this style of composition; and many flights which our ears, too fastidious perhaps in these respects, will scarcely bear, must be allowed to the general freedom and boldness of these writers. But if we examine the sacred poems, and consider at the same time that a great degree of obscurity must result from the total oblivion in which many sources of their imagery must be involved; of which many examples are to be found in the song of Solomon, as well as in other parts of the sacred writings; we shall find cause to wonder that in writings of so great antiquity, and in such an unlimited use of figurative expression there should yet appear so much purity aud perspicuity, both in sentiment and language. In order to explore the real cause of this remarkable fact, and to explain more accurately the genius of the parabolic style, a few observations must be premised concerning the use of the metaphor in the Hebrew poetry.

In the first place, the Hebrew poets frequently make use of imagery borrowed from common life, and from objects well known and familiar. On this the perspicuity of figurative language will be found in a great measure to depend: for, a principal use of metaphors is to illustrate the subject by a tacit comparison; but if, instead of familiar ideas, we introduce such as are new, and not perfectly understood; if we endeavour to demonstrate what is plain by what is occult, instead of making a subject clearer, we render it more perplexed and difficult. To obviate this inconvenience, we must take care, not only to avoid the violent and too frequent use of metaphors, but also not to introduce such as are obscure and but slightly related. From these causes, and especially from the latter, arises the difficulty of the Latin satirist Persius; and but for the uncommon accuracy of the sacred poets in this respect, we should now be scarcely able to comprehend a single word of their productions.

In the next place, the Hebrews not only deduce their metaphors * Arist. Poet. cap. xxii. & Quint. viii. 6.

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