that he wrote; and as all that was told him had bearings of more or less value, we are not at liberty to regard even such descriptions as are here introduced as unimportant. The words, then, used here by Moses are of frequent occurrence in other portions of Scripture, and are used to point to the stringed and wind instruments with which the contemporaries of Moses are shown in this passage to have been acquainted. The instruments invented by Jubal had thus their representatives after the flood. This is another proof that antediluvian art had not been lost in consequence of the deluge. Reference will be made to these musical instruments in connection with other passages of Scripture.

3. Zillah's Children.-Those mentioned here are Tubal-cain and his sister Naamah. The similarity of the names of Lamech's sons take the attention of most readers-Jabal, Jubal, Tubal. Each, however, like Enoch, is expressive, and points to the profession which the individual was to follow. The root of the first signifies "increase," and indicates the pastoral life of Jabal; that of the second is equivalent to our word blowing," as on a horn, and is associated with the mention of Jubal; and that of Tubal points to the metal with which he was to work. The name Naamah, like that of Adah, is suggestive of the "beauty" of its bearer, and betokens a certain refinement of feeling among these Cainites -a supposition which finds strong corroboration both in the musical accomplishments of Jubal and in the poetry of their father, Lamech. The conclusion is warranted in this case. In ages long posterior to that now looked at, we find the key to the social and moral condition of one generation and another, in the application of historical criticism. to the names given by kings and by prophets to their children. But in their case they only followed a custom which had obtained from the beginning. The industrial arts, agriculture and handicraft, were cultivated side by side with the fine arts, music and poetry—Tubal-cain was the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.

Subjects of much interest open up to us here. The great and peculiarly interesting question of the influence of tradition in giving rise to the mythological systems of after times, in Egypt, in Greece, and Italy in the past, and in India, Central Africa, and South America at present. Are we to find a trace of the tree of life in the homage paid to the Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) by the Bhuddhist, to the oak by the Druid, to the ash by the oldest of the Teutonic tribes? Do the sphinxes of Egypt, the eagle-headed figures sculptured on the walls of Nineveh, and the human forms bearing the head of bird or beast met with in modern Hindoo superstitions, carry us back to the cherubim in the east

of Eden? Are we to identify Jabal with Pan, Jubal with Apollo, and Tubal-cain with Vulcan; and these again with corresponding deities to whom like employments are assigned by the Hindoos? It is scarcely to be doubted, that in all these we have dim traditions of Adamic times, transmitted through the household of Noah to the last epochs of the world. The now scattered rays of primeval light, which are to be met with over the wide world, can never be understood until we associate them with the descriptions of the earliest ages of the world's history preserved to us in the infallible record-the Word of God.

Fig. 70.

The metals mentioned in this verse supply subjects of interest of yet another kind. Most writers who have devoted themselves to the illustration of Scripture conclude that the "brass" referred to here can only mean copper. They have believed themselves shut up to this by such considerations as, that the state of the industrial arts at the time exclude the possibility of a knowledge of metallurgy implied in the power to make brass, and that there is no evidence in history that the mode of forming this compound metal was known until a comparatively recent period. Comparing the word used here with its use in other parts of Scripture, it is clear (1) that, under it, reference is sometimes made to native copper, and (2) to an alloy of copper with some other metal. There is the well-known passage in which, when describing Palestine as "the good land" which the Lord God had given to Israel, Moses, among other features, points to its metals. "A land," he says, "wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass" (Deut. viii. 9). There can be no doubt that the metal last referred to here was a species of copper, or Cyprian ore as it was named from Cyprus, which occurred in lodes or veins among the hills of the Promised Land, where it is still to be met with, sometimes in eight-sided crystals, but most frequently in shapeless lumps. The ores of copper are known by the various names-native copper, white, grey, black, red, and variegated copper ores; velvet, emerald, olive, and tile ores; and as copper glance, malachite, azure copper, black oxide of copper, atacamite, copper mica, copper pyrites, and the like. The forms most available in modern commerce are the copper pyrites, the grey, and the azure copper ores. Some of these can at once be distin

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guished by the eye of the mineralogist, but most of them show their true character only when treated chemically. This metal is most frequently used as an alloy. The alloys of copper are chiefly such as are formed by its union with zinc and with tin. The well-known alloy, pinchbeck, or Prince Rupert's metal, is simply an excess of copper in the constituents that go to make brass. When copper, nickel, and zinc are brought together, under certain conditions and in certain proportions, the result is the alloy known by the name of German silver. Brass, properly so called, is an alloy of copper and zinc; and bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. The best bronze used for statues contains—

Mr. Layard gives the analysis of some of the bronzes found at Nineveh, and shows that the proportion of the matters in alloy with the copper differs according to the use to be made of it. The so-called brass of the ancients was an alloy of copper and tin in certain proportions. But it is not to be imagined that the result of its alloy with zinc was only known for the first time at a date comparatively recent. At a very remote period in the past there is evidence that this alloy was formed by a chemical mixture of calamine-an ore of zinc-with copper. It is thus likely that the metal referred to so often in Scripture as "brass," and that met with in profane history as "bronze," were the same, and that the latter was not exclusively a substance similar to that from which zinc as a constituent is excluded. The knowledge of art implied in fitting the copper for industrial purposes, and for pressing the iron ore into the service of man, would be equal to the task of compounding copper with tin on the one hand, or with zinc on the other. There can at least be little doubt that one of these compounds was in use at a very early period. The uses to which it soon came to be put were such as would find a more suitable expression in brass than even in bronze, and far more so than in copper. The ingenuity necessary in order to follow successfully the occupation of Tubal-cain would not be at fault when the metals occurred in circumstances which invited attempts to combine them. But while this was so, it would appear that the knowledge of metallurgy did not descend, as did the knowledge of other arts -architecture, for example. Even in ages long after the flood, the

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knowledge of certain processes seems to have been confined to such a limited number of workers as to have made the product more precious than the simple metals, whose intrinsic value was naturally greater. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works to work in brass, and in cutting of stones" (Exod. xxxi. 2). Again, even at the most advanced era of Hebrew civilization, this art had no high-class representatives among the people; for we are told that "Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, but his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass" (1 Kings vii. 13, 14). Did the value set on this kind of work lead to the wide-spread cultivation of the handicraft itself among the Hebrews? The inductive evidence is strong. When Nebuchadnezzar came up against the land, he is represented as carrying away captive all that might be of special use to him. "He carried away all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and all the smiths" (2 Kings xxiv. 14). In two other passages the carrying away of the smiths-the true successors of Tubal-cain-is specially mentioned. Both Sennacherib and Shalmaneser may then have borrowed the art from the captives, and the bronzes of Babylon and of Nineveh may have been the work of Hebrew craftsmen. Most likely they were. But the fruits of art were to return again to Palestine. Thus among the temple furniture of Ezra, brought from the land of their conquerors by the returned captives, we are told that there were two vessels of fine copper-literally, of "yellow shining brass"-" precious as gold" (Ezra viii. 27). This passage is thus paraphrased by Josephus:-"Now Esdras presented the sacred money to the treasurers, who were of the family of priests, of silver six hundred and fifty talents, vessels of silver one hundred talents, vessels of gold twenty talents, vessels of brass, that were more precious than gold, twenty talents by weight" (Joseph. Antiq. book xi. chap. v. 2). Thus even the profession of Tubal-cain sheds light on the employments of postdiluvian times, and these in their turn become helpful to an understanding of the work of Cain's early descendants: even as the arborescent ferns of the Coal period tell the tale of a climate, and associated biological relations, analogous to what at this day obtain in intertropical regions, and the corresponding forms there help us to

understand the very circumstances amidst which the plants which we now use for fuel, under the name of coal, flourished millions of years ago. This bearing in Scripture of the Past on the Present, and of the relation of both to the Future, which in its turn is to shed new light on them, meets us even in connection with things otherwise most trivial. And thus, too, the inexhaustibly rich mine, which every aspect of thoughtful individuality has opened up to it in the Word of truth. To the philologist it ever offers topics of fresh interest-to the naturalist, never-ending occupation-to the student of comparative historical criticism, material for a long life of study-to the ecclesiastic, important aspects of church polity and law-to the theologian, the elements

Fig. 71.

for doctrinal generalizations-and for them all, as for all men everywhere, the motive for adoring gratitude and praise:-" Herein indeed is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

Tubal-cain's art extended to working in iron as well as in copper and, no doubt, in some of its compounds. Here, again, it is necessary to take for granted a much more advanced state of industrial art than at first sight might seem necessary, when we glance at the expression "artificer in iron." Men who have turned their attention to the illustration of Scripture from the point of view of science in union with theology, have,

Fig. 72.

"In

I believe, without exception, passed lightly over this passage with some not very appropriate remarks about "native iron." whatever region Tubal-cain," says Dr. Kitto, "began to exert his inventive genius, native iron might have been found, whether the site was volcanic or otherwise." But if we shall be satisfied with this view, we miss another of those opportunities of gathering together scattered elements which go, by fair induction, to present a somewhat vivid picture of these primeval days. We have fallen too much into the track of modern antiquaries,

Pyrites in Cubes.