symbolical actions-the criteria by which true and false prophets were distinguished, and the promulgation of the prophetic declarations. We could have wished that he had now illustrated the causes of obscurity in certain prophecies, as resulting from their visionary origin, in the way and with the success with which he did in the first volume of his Christologie, and that he had given that prominence to the moral element of prophecy, which has been so justly given to it, by the late Mr. Davison and Dr. J. P. Smith.*

The articles on Natural History abound in valuable matter, much of which is new, and, coming from distinguished naturalists, entitled to particular attention. There is hardly a book on Scripture Antiquities, or Natural History, which has not treated of the hooded serpent; but the following, extracted from an article by Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton Smith, illustrates a difficult subject in a manner which will be new and satisfactory to many. Colonel Smith, we should add, is a fellow of the Royal and Linnæan Societies, and president of the Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society.

'The genus Naja-Haridi, (?) of Savary, is distinguished by a plaited head, large, very venomous fangs, a neck dilatable under excitement, which raises the ribs of the anterior parts of the body into the form of a disk or hood, when the scales, usually not im bricated, but lying in juxtaposition, are separated, and expose the skin, which at that time displays bright iridescent gleams, contrasting highly with their brown, yellow, and blueish colours. The species attain at least an equal, if not a superior, size to the generality of the genus viper; are more massive in their structure; and some possess the faculty of self-inflation to triple their diameter, gradually forcing the body upwards into an erect position, until, by a convulsive crisis, they are said suddenly to strike backwards at an enemy or a pursuer. With such powers of destroying animal life, and with an aspect at once terrible and resplendent, it may be easily imagined how soon fear and superstition would combine, at periods anterior to historical data to raise these monsters into divinities, and endeavour to deprecate their wrath by the blandishments of worship; and how design and cupidity would teach these very votaries the manner of subduing their ferocity, of extracting their instruments of mischief, and making them subservient to the wonder and amusement of the vulgar, by using certain cadences of sound which affect their hearing, and exciting in them a desire to perform a kind of pleasurable movements

† See Davison's Discourses on Prophecy,' Disc. 11., pp. 37-74, 2nd edition; and, besides Dr. Smith's 'Sermon on Prophetic Interpretation,' his Lecture on the Prophets,' addressed to Sunday-school teachers, and published by the Sunday-school Union as a tract. This is small in bulk, but contains many valuable hints, which the student would not find in most of the larger publications on prophecy with which we are acquainted.

that may be compared to dancing. Hence the nagas of the east, the hag-worms of the west, and the haje, have all been deified, styled agathodæmon or good spirit; and figures of them occur wherever the superstition of pagan antiquity has been accompanied by the arts of civilization.

The most prominent species of the genus at present is the naja tripudians, cobra di capello, hooded or spectacled snake of India, venerated by the natives, even by the serpent-charmers styled the good serpent to this day, and yet so ferocious that it is one of the very few that will attack a man when surprised in its haunt, although it may be gorged with prey. This species is usually marked on the nape with two round spots, transversely connected in the form of a pair of spectacles; but among several varieties, one, perhaps distinct, is without the marks, and has a glossy golden hood, which may make it identical with the naje haje of Egypt, the undoubted Ikhnuphi, cneph, or agathodæmon of ancient Egypt, and accurately represented on the walls of its temples, in almost innumerable instances, both in form and colour. This serpent also inflates the skin on the neck, not in the expanded form of a hood, but rather into an intumefaction of the neck. As in the former, there is no marked difference of appearance between the sexes; but the psilli, or charmers, by a particular pressure on the neck, have the power of rendering the inflation of the animal, already noticed as a character of the genus, so intense, that the serpent becomes rigid, and can be held out horizontally as if it were a rod. This practice explains what the soothsayers of Pharaoh could perform when they were opposing Moses, and reveals one of the names by which the Hebrews knew the species; for although the text (Exod. iv. 3) uses, for the rod of Aaron converted into a serpent, the word nachash, and subsequently (vii. 15) ranthannin, it is plain that, in the second passage, the word indicates 'monster,' as applied to the nachash just named-the first being an appellative, the second an epithet. That the rods of the magicians of Pharaoh were of the same external character is evident from no different denomination being given them: therefore we may infer that they used a real serpent as a rod-namely, the species now called haje-for their imposture; since they no doubt did what the present serpent-charmers perform with the same species, by means of the temporary asphyxiation, or suspension of vitality, before noticed, and producing restoration to active life by liberating or throwing down. Thus we have the miraculous character of the prophet's mission shown by his real rod becoming a serpent, and the magician's real serpents merely assuming the form of rods; and when both were opposed in a state of animated existence, by the rod devouring the living animals, conquering the great typical personification of the protecting divinity of Egypt. Nachash may therefore, with some confidence, be assumed to have been the Hebrew name, or at least one of the names, of the naje haje, el haje, and haje nacher, of the Arabs. This species may be regarded as extending to India and Ceylon; and probably the naja tripudians is likewise

an inhabitant of Arabia, if not of Egypt, although the assertion of the fact (common in authors) does not exclude a supposition that they take the two species to be only one. We are disposed to refer the 'winged' or 'flying' serpent to the naja tripudians, in one of its varieties, because, with its hood dilated into a kind of shining wings on each side of the neck, standing in undulating () motion, one half or more erect, rigid and fierce in attack, and deadly poisonous, yet still denominated good spirit,' and in Egypt ever figured in combination with the winged globe-it may well have received the name of saraph, and may thus meet all the valid objections, and conciliate seemingly opposite comments (see Numbers xxi. 6, 8; Deut. viii. 15; Isa. xiv. 29, xxx. 6; and Paxton's Illustrations,) excepting the authority of Herodotus, Pausanias, and Bochart, which, with all the respect due to their names, is not now sufficient to establish the existence of a kind of serpents whose structure is contrary to the laws of zoological organization.'-vol. i. p. 70.

Under the title BEHEMOTH, Colonel Stewart states his opinion that, while the allusions in Job present some features which are characteristic of the hippopotamus, there are several which no less strikingly indicate the elephant. He regards the term as 'a poetical personification of the great pachydermata, or even herbivora, wherein the idea of hippopotamus is predominant. This view, he thinks, accounts for the ascription to it of characters not truly applicable to one species,' which he shows to be the He adds:

case.

'The book of Job appears, from many internal indications, to have been written in Asia,* and is full of knowledge, although that knowledge is not expressed according to the precise technicalities of modern science. It offers pictures in magnificent outline, without condescending to minute and laboured details. Considered in this light, the expression in Ps. 1. 10, For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle (behemoth) upon a thousand hills,' acquires a grandeur and force far surpassing the mere idea of cattle of various kinds. If, therefore, we take this plural noun to be the meaning here briefly indicated, we may likewise consider the leviathan, its counterpart, a similarly generalized form with the idea of the crocodile most prominent; but from the very name indicating a twisting animal, and which from various texts evidently include the great pythons, cetacea, and sharks of the surrounding seas and deserts, it conveys a more sublime allusion than if limited to the crocodile, an animal familiar to every Egyptian, and well known even in Palestine.'-Art. Behemoth. vol. i. p. 317.

*The question where the book of Job was written is discussed at some length by Dr. Hengstenberg, in his article under that title. He concludes that it was written in Palestine, by an Israelite. Eichhorn was of opinion that it was written by an Israelite, but in Arabia. The author was evidently well acquainted with the natural history both of Arabia and Egypt.-Rev.

It is easy to infer from these instances how powerfully some of the articles on natural history are brought to bear on the elucidation of obscure biblical passages. Those which do not involve difficulties of this kind, are, many of them, distinguished by a clear and comprehensive treatment of their several subjects. A considerable number of interesting medical articles also occur, among which we may mention those on 'blindness,' 'blood and water,' 'bloody sweat,' and 'leprosy,' by Dr. W. A. Nicholson. The second of these contains some observations concerning the causes of our Lord's death, which tend to confirm its peculiar character, as a voluntary rendering up of his soul to God under the burden of our curse.

'Blood and water (John xix. 34) are said to have issued from our Lord's side, when the soldier pierced him on the cross. The only natural explanation that can be offered of the fact, is to suppose that some effusion had taken place in the cavity of the chest, and that the spear penetrated below the level of the fluid. Supposing this to have happened, and the wound to have been inflicted shortly after death, then, in addition to the water, blood would also have trickled down, or, at any rate, have made its appearance at the mouth of the wound, even though none of the larger vessels had been wounded. It is not necessary to suppose that the pericardium was' pierced; for if effusion had taken place there, it might also have taken place in the cavities of the pleura; and during health, neither the pericardium nor the pleura contains fluid, but are merely lubricated with moisture on their internal or opposing surfaces, so as to allow of free motion to the heart and lungs.

'It may be objected to this view of the question, that, according to the longest computation, our Lord died in six hours; and this is too short a time to occasion effusion. Indeed, reasoning from experience alone, it is very difficult to understand the physical cause of our Lord's death. The crucifixion is quite inadequate to account for it; for, even if the impression produced by this torture on a weak nervous system was sufficient to annihilate consciousness and sensibility, the death of the body, or what physiologists have termed organic death, could not have taken place in so short a time, as long as the brain, lungs, and circulation, the so-called atria mortis, had sustained no material injury. In other words, the functions of respiration, circulation, secretion, and nutrition, must have continued for a much longer time. In fact, we learn from Eusebius, (Hist. Eccles. viii. 8), that many of the Egyptian martyrs perished from hunger on the cross, although they were crucified with their heads downwards. According to Richter, some survive on the cross for three, four, and even nine days, (Winer's Bibl. Realwört. s. v. Jesus). Our Lord's death could not have been occasioned by tetanus, or else it would have been mentioned; and even this disease, though the sufferer be racked with the most frightful convulsions without intermission, most rarely puts an end to life in less than twelve hours.

Nor can we attribute it to the wound inflicted by the soldier; for although, when it is said he expired, and the soldiers saw that he was dead,' our Lord might have merely fainted, yet it is impossible to suppose that the soldier would not have perceived his error the moment he inflicted the wound, provided it was mortal; for then would have commenced the death-struggle, which, in cases of death by asphyxia and hæmorrhage, is very severe, and would have struck the most careless observer.'-vol. i. p. 339

How powerfully does the preceding extract confirm the affecting representation given by Dr. Russell, of Dundee, in the first of his well-known and interesting 'Letters,' concerning the real cause of the Saviour's death! He at last,' says Dr. Russell, expired under the curse, not so much in consequence of the exhaustion of nature by bodily pain and the loss of blood, (for in the article of death he cried with a loud voice, and Pilate marvelled when he heard of it,) as in consequence of the extreme pressure of mental torture, Matt. xxvii. 50; Mark xv. 44. This was too racking, too exquisite for nature to support-it literally broke his heart. That sorrow which is the very soul of the curse, terminated his life; and thus discovered the nature of his sufferings, together with their great and glorious design.' (Letters, 5th edition, p. 8.) . . He suffered under the power of the Lawgiver and the Judge of all; and that in such circumstances, that in the prime of life he died of a wounded spirit. . . Resigning himself into the hands of his God, he exclaimed, Father! into thy hands I commend my spirit,' and bowing his head, he gave up the ghost, (ib. p. 17). The sequel of the last extract from the Cyclopædia very well exposes the suggestion with which Strauss endeavours to destroy the credit of this part of the evangelist's narrative; but we must not be induced by any matter, however tempting, to prolong our necessarily passing notice of this department of the work. We can only add, that a very large share of the wood-cut illustrations, which are exceedingly neat and appropriate, adorn this department.

A large proportion of the geographical articles are from the pen of the learned editor, whose previous labours in this field of biblical research are a fair guarantee for the good quality not only of his own papers, but for those which he has accepted from others. Dr. Beard, the writer of the article on Sinai, agrees with the opinion expressed in Robinson's Biblical Researches,' that Mount Horeb, and not Djebel Monsa, was the mountain where the law was delivered to Moses, dissenting from the view before expressed by Dr. Kitto in his notes to the 'Pictorial Bible,' and repeated in his 'Physical Geography of Palestine,' that Mount Serbal was then so distinguished. The geography of this most interesting region is additionally illustrated