The following cut represents the actual shape of the breastplate, with the Hebrew names inscribed thereon. In the foregoing résume of this very interesting subject, the writer has aimed at giving the highest solution of an intricate matter, on the assumption that all things were possible to this Godled people; it involves the necessity of matching varied stones in size and this, with regard to the ruby, diamond, and perhaps others of the choicer varieties, has been regarded as the problem; but it should be remembered that if we resolve to strip the circumstances detailed by the sacred chronicler of all marvel, we must understand the facts in their more limited aspect. It may seem very easy to exclude the real gem, and name an inferior article, and say, "that fits;" but then we shall never realise the traditions of supreme and dazzling splendour that have come down to us of the actual breast plate; and this at a time and in a locality where real precious stones were common, and where the practice of personal adornment with precious stones was carried to an extreme. Let any unprejudiced person dwell carefully on the prophetical description given of the King of Tyrus (Ezekiel xxviii. 13), and it will be impossible to doubt that the Jews must have been acquainted with the very perfection of jewellery, and have been disposed to place the very best of the kind in the chief and conspicuous ornament of their highest leader under God. ARTHUR HALL. ILLUSTRATED BY ruby orange jacinth onyx GLOSSARY OF MINERALOGICAL TERMS USED HEREIN. Alumina, oxide of aluminium, a metal lately discovered, chiefly derived from bauxite. It has a specific gravity of 2·56, and does not tarnish like silver. Anhydrous, destitute of water. Cabuchon, a jewel, cut en cabuchon, projects outwards, presenting a rounded form, or convex surface to the spectator. Carbon, pure charcoal, a non-metallic substance, one of the commonest forms or elements of matter. Chalcedony, a name for several semi-transparent varieties of flint. Chromic, derived from chromium, a metal derived from chromite, a sort of iron-ore. Corundum, or adamantine spar, a name for alumina in its crystalline state. Ferric, ferruginous, pertaining to or partaking of iron. Flinty, of the nature of a compact variety of quartz. Garnet, a double silicate, formed of various bases, consisting generally of alumina, lime, magnesia, manganese, &c. Glucina, a soft white earth, named from its power of imparting sweetness, in combination. Hydro-carbonate, a combination of water and carbon. Lustre, a term of comparison for the varying brilliancy of different jewels. Opalescent, a quality of smooth stones that vary in colour when looked at from a different point of view, generally of a laminated structure. Refraction (double), presenting a double image of any substance seen through it, at a given angle. &c. Rock-crystal, a pure, transparent variety of quartz, called white stone, Bristol diamonds, Silicate, silicious; a combination of silica with other substances; pertaining to or partaking of the character of flint. Spar, a stone that breaks into a regular shape, the result of crystallisation. Sulphur, or brimstone, a metalloid gas, which crystallises very readily; it is widely distributed, and of a pale yellow. Zircon, a mineral having a metallic base called zirconium. COMPARATIVE TABLE, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO DEGREES OF HARDNESS. It is requested that readers, having a special knowledge of the subjects discussed in these papers, will kindly communicate their views of the results arrived at to the writer: all letters to be addressed to the printers' care. The next No. will be on "The Spoken Language of Jesus Christ and His Apostles." NELSON & CO., Oxford Arms Passage, Warwick Lane, London. JULY 1, 1870. THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE PRICE 6d. JESUS CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES. "The general prevalence of the Greek language in Palestine, after the closest investigation I have been able to institute, appears to me to have been asserted in direct opposition to all authoriies, and upon no grounds whatever, except an inference from its gradual extension in other countries."-DEAN MILMAN. I. A MAN with a paradox is a sort of literary Quixote; such buttonholders are found to waylay you at the corner of any street, ready to prove that the world is flat, not globular: that our globe is the centre of our system, and that the sun revolves round it; that man is developed from a monkey. The particular paradox that we have now to deal with is founded upon this amiable fallacy: that the Sermon on the Mount, being the highest form of teaching that man is capable of benefiting by, it is desirable we should receive it intact, as it left the lips of the Divine Teacher, undiluted by translation; and therefore, as the original text, if delivered in the then native dialect of Syria, is irrecoverably lost, the next best thing is to believe that Christ delivered it in Greek, in which form it still survives. This is very good so far, but it involves the further contingency that hereafter we may be asked to believe that Christ delivered it in English, and in German, in French, and in Italian, and ultimately, perhaps, in Zulu-Kaffir, in order that all may possess it in its original dialect. It may be said, "Life is too short to confute all false reasoners: let the tares grow with the wheat-the truth will survive." This argument is quite sufficient for the main subject; but when a modern divine* is found able and willing to go through the Bible, and distort or misrepresent plain facts contained therein, in order to suit his particular paradox, it seems desirable to go through the matter after him, and restore to order the threads of reasoning that he leaves entangled; the sophistry that appeals to our better feelings in support of falsehood is probably far more pernicious than open denial, and wilful scepticism. II. Without entering upon questions affecting the Mosaic cosmogony, it may suffice to state that the earliest dawn of history represents the children of Israel as seated in the land of Canaan, and speaking a dialect, more or less, identical with Phoenician. The Phoenicians were a great commercial people; their power centred in Tyre, a city on the coast of Syria, now called Sur, whose importance ended with its capture and desolation by Alexander the Great, B. c. 332. That Phoenician and Hebrew were kindred dialects may be proved by the ease with which they are transliterated; for instance, we can read Phoenician by the aid of a Hebrew lexicon; this has been done-to name one celebrated instance in particular-with an inscription discovered at Marseilles in 1845, of which seventy-four words out of ninety-four may, it is said, be found in the Bible: also with the so-called Punic quotations in a drama by Plautus, called "Pœnulus," the little Phoenician; the latter, whether intended for sense or gibberish, is unmistakably imitated from Hebrew. Discussions on the Gospels, in two parts. Part I. On the Language employed by our Lord and his Apostles. Part II. On the Original Language of St. Matthew's Gospel, and on the Origin and Authenticity of the Gospels. By Alexander Roberts, D.D." Second edition. Macmillan & Co. |