My Grandfather. yet not in the most comfortable hu The first conclusion to which I I now made an effort, for decency's sake, to read one or two of the old letters in the yet untied bundle. It was a vain attempt,-for I fell fast asleep over the first long sheet of commonplace which presented itself to me, and was haunted in my dreams, all night, by ineffectual efforts to remember its contents, in answer to the also dreamed allusion which my grandfather was continually making to them. A footman put a welcome end to my night-mare dream, by coming to my bed-room at eight o'clock with hot water. When he returned with my clothes, as I was making my toilette, I asked him at what time his master generally got up. "Oh, sir," said he, "master is always up before seven. He goes to Sydney Gardens, and smokes his pipe and drinks coffee, till nine; he then returns, and sits down to his post, and is never at home, except to very particular friends, till three." I made all possible haste to dress, that I might not be found in dishabille by my grandfather, when he should return from his two hours' walk in Sydney Gardens. As I was ready a little before nine, I strolled over there; and there, sure enough, did I soon espy the old gentleman, sitting in an alcove, shaking the ashes out of his pipe, and pouring out his last dish of coffee from a massive silver coffee-pot. A servant, and two little frisking pug-dogs, with brass collars and bells round their necks, were in attendance upon him. He was arrayed in his dressing-gown, with a large Dutch-looking green velvet cap, and a silk shade of the same colour over his eyes. wore his silk stockings and thin As usual, he [May, and appeared to be altogether as much at home as if he had been in his own garden, or upon his own lawn, in the country. He certainly seemed to me the greatest curiosity of the place; and the groups of little children, out with their nursery-maids for the morning air, Two or three wandering and solitary seemed to view him in the same light. strangers seemed quite at a loss what to make of him, in spite of several very obvious reconnoitres and attempts to satisfy their curiosity. At The first remark, of course, which I made, after the usual morning's salutation, was upon habits so early for a person of his years. Ever pleased with personal topics, "I have," said he, always been an early riser. Hamburg, for fifty years, I never was in bed after five o'clock. This gave me the start of all my competitors by at least four hours; and if you will make the calculation of four hours a day for fifty years, you will see what a prodigious surplus of time it gave me for my business. While others were always making a race of it to overtake theirs, I was ever beforehand with mine. I remember one morning, before the regular counting-house hours, respondent to this effect: Run as receiving a laconic letter from a corfast as possible, and buy me all the coffee you can lay your hands upon at the market price.' I did run; roused spondence of the day was opened; gave my brokers before the general corremy orders; got two thousand tons of tune, a large commission of some thoucoffee; made my correspondent's formerchants had read their letters. The sands for myself: and all before other moment they did, coffee rose twenty per cent in the market." Much more of the same kind followed, till the old gentleman, looking at his watch, and finding it half-past nine, made so hasty and abrupt a departure, to receive and answer his letters, and to attend to other necessary business for the day, that I was put to my quickest pace to keep up with him. "You breakfast," said he, as we walked, or rather trotted, over to Pulteney Street, "alone, at your own hour. I will send you down the papers, and any thing that is interesting in my post; and if I want you to help Anne, what I have written, I will let you know. For your amusement, I will send you some more letters, that I have picked out and arranged for you to read. By the by," continued he, "have you finished those I gave you yesterday!" Fortunately, before I could answer this puzzling question, a servant met us with a goodly "post" in his hand; and my grandfather was too eager upon getting up stairs to peruse the contents of it to wait for my reply. I was glad to find that, if I had had little inclination to read, he had then as little time to listen. Anxious to see something of Bath, and not less so to make my momentary escape from the thraldom, in the way of occupation, which I feared was preparing for me in the drawing-room, I ordered breakfast, and read, in a sort of fluttering tremour, during my repast, the Times. My grandfather always perused first the Morning Post, Advertiser, and Lloyd's List, that he might at once, as he said, "see the arrivals and departures in the fashionable world, and those of ships at home and abroad; that he might read of any accidents at sea, observe what mails were due, and how the course of exchange ran on Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Paris." He was also interested in "the rise and fall of stocks, and in the prices of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, as they were articles of daily domestic consumption." Meantime, I sallied forth, visited the pump-room, and the assembly-rooms, read the bill of the play, and lounged through one or two bazárs. I then viewed the Crescents and the Circus, and remarked upon the languor which pervaded the frames, and ennui visible in the countenances of the would-be gay. I philosophised over the great number of invalids I met at every corner-some passing in premature decay to the home appointed for all living, and some bent down under the effects of lingering, yet hopeless dis-` ease. Some were sinking into the "sear and yellow leaf," tinged with the dying hues of autumnal bleakness, and others were shrivelled into spectral automata by the corroding operation of habitual intemperance. On my return home, which was not till near three o'clock, I found outspread upon my table not only various letters and accounts for perusal, with a list of them in my grandfather's handwriting, but at least a dozen cards, graced with the names of the fashionable and the great, who, having heard of my arrival, made thus their obeisance to me, entirely, as I was aware, by way of complimentary etiquette, and what they deemed proper civility to my grandfather. The nature of his intercourse with these distinguished personages, as well as of the habits of which I presently became the passing spectator, and of the close of my relative's worldly career, I must make the subject of a subsequent and concluding paper. ARCHEOGRAPHIA. THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. THE SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES OF THE HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY OF THE JEWISH THE CONFLICTING OPINIONS OF COMMENTATORS, AND which has been made to contradict itself by every critic, from the first ages of Christianity to the present time. Every student in biblical literature knows that it records a series of afflictions and deliverances, from the age of the Egyptian bondage till the reign of Solomon, and that, if the periods assigned to both be summed up, according to the order in which they are narrated in the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel, the total of the years will greatly exceed the date assigned to the foundation of the temple in 1 Kings, vi. 1- the 480th year after the departure from Egypt, being the fourth of Solomon's reign; and that the difficulty, if any, lies in discovering the Scriptural principles and limitations for reconciling this date with the particulars. The advocates of the principle of consecutive periods of affliction and deliverance, which directly results from Judges ii. 11-19, in agreement with the whole tenor of the history, have, since the days of Josephus, invariably rejected the date in question, as an interpolation, or of uncertain import, although found in the Hebrew and Chaldee, the Latin, the Syriac, and the Arabic versions; and even reduced to the 440th year in some of the Greek copies a proof, however, that it existed in the original text-and hence have left themselves without any standard for adjusting their calculations. There are, therefore, nearly as many different opinions on the full duration of the theocratic form of government as there are writers of this class- -the computations varying from five centuries to seven centuries and a half, exclusively of the indefinite view of Isaac Vossius, who boldly pronounces the period to be indeterminable, in consequence of the silence of the record regarding the periods of anarchy, which he interposes between the deaths of the judges and the commencements of the servitudes (De Septuaginta, pp. 170, 193). It follows, that with these critics the all-important era of the exode, and every anterior scriptural date, must vary with the private opinion of each writer who treats of them. - The critics who, since the days of Eusebius, have, on the other hand, recognised the genuineness and fixed meaning of the text of 1 Kings, vi. 1, although not directly rejecting that of Judges ii. have, without any exception, made these texts contradict each other, opposing the former to the terms of the history; and differ fully as much in their views as to how the particulars are to be reconciled with that date, as their opponents differ on the chronological scope of these particulars. Now, we venture to hold the opinion, that the differences between Josephus and Eusebius, between Vossius and Ussher, result from mere oversight; and that the scriptural principles of the composition of this important portion of the inspired records are so obvious, simple, and consistent, as to ception of the biblical date of the involve no difficulty, either in the reexode, or in the resolution of the particulars: that, in fact, these principles are in clearness commensurate with the importance of this portion of ancient history, the right apprehension of which is equally desirable and interesting, whether viewed in its religious and historical bearings, or with reference to the grand international era which is founded on it-that of the departure of the Jews and Greeks from Egypt, bearing with them the seeds of European religion, civilisation, and literature, now rendered of greatly increased interest by the disinhumed records of that country. This era we hope, on another occasion, to consider, with reference to its international and synchronical characters. We shall, therefore, take some pains to place the question on its true and scriptural footing, commencing, for the sake of perspicuity, with a statement of the leading particulars in the order in which they are narrated, with the needful chronological elements and reference to the text (which will anceeds); and trusting that, should our ticipate reference as our paper prosuccess prove commensurate with our hopes, we shall have rendered no unacceptable service to the cause of biblical and archæological research and criticism, and cleared the way for what is still a desideratum in literature — a consistent popular history of the Jewish commonwealth. bular View of Sacred History and Chronology, from the departure of the Jews from Egypt until the foundation of the Temple by Solomon. history, as will appear from the following inquiry. The dates before the Christian era are added to facilitate synchronism, and the corresponding portions of the descending and ascending series of dates are distinguished. The subdivisions of the period of Joshua and the elders, and of the forty years of Samuel and Saul, are stated from Josephus and Nicephorus, in agreement with the incidental notices of Scripture; and the residue of the reign of Abimelech, together with the seven months during which the ark remained with the Philistines, are, for convenience, each represented by the interval of half a year. It is necessary to make a few preliminary observations on a portion of the theocratic intervals, which are all expressly stated in Scripture, except that which separated the date of the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan from that of the first or Mesopotamian servitude, and the period of Samuel's government, from the overthrow of the Philistines till his sons were made judges. As regards the first, it is, we think, as clearly to be inferred as if directly stated; and so clearly, that any further information would have been superfluous. The enactment of the sabbatical and jubilean periods of seven and forty-nine years, detailed in Levit. xxv. had primary reference to the sabbaths of the land, as fully illustrated in the next chapter, from the date of the first possession by the chosen people. The conquest by Joshua occupied the six working years of the first sabbatical cycle, and the land rested from war, and the division by lot took place, in the seventh or sabbatical year. This is made perfectly clear by the age of Caleb, who was forty years old when sent by Moses to spy out the land in the second year of the departure from Egypt, and eighty-five at the date of the rest and division (Josh. xiv. 7-10); and as Canaan was first invaded forty years after the deliverance from Egypt, it follows that six years had expired from the date of the invasion, and that the seventh, or sabbatical year, corresponded with the eighty-fifth of Caleb's life. The question is thus far so free from difficulty, that writers, both ancient il on the succeeding intervals of rest and affliction, regarding which writers are not so unanimous. Obedience to the law was to be temporally rewarded by prosperous and undisturbed possession of the land of promise, and disobedience visited by invasion, desolation, and, in the end, by expulsion; so that the land should enjoy her unfulfilled sabbaths (Levit. xxvi. 34, 35, 42, 43, et passim; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21). But it is manifest, that neither these nor the legal rites in general could be either entirely fulfilled or entirely broken until the expiration of a jubilee, consisting of seven sabbatical periods-until the institution of the jubilean year had been unfulfilled the year which accomplished the cycle of the Mosaic insti tutions. This was, from its very nature, a marked epoch of reward or of punishment, of deliverance or of retribution-the year of redemption and of vengeance, as repeatedly declared in holy writ; and the profane Jewish writers accordingly estimate the time of the possession of the promised land by a series of jubilean periods. As, therefore, the sabbatical period, in the first place, determined the earliest epoch of rest to the land and people from war, so the jubilean period determines the earliest epoch of punishment for crimes that could not have been fully committed before its expiration; and, as Caleb's age limits the former to the first sabbatical year from the occupation of the land, so the circumstance, that Othniel, the nephew of Caleb, was the agent appointed to deliver his nation, on repentance, from the first tribulation brought on by their disobedience, which he survived not less than forty years, equally limits the latter to the first jubilean period, embracing the residue of the life of Joshua, and of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and the rest of the elders who had left Egypt and survived Joshua; together with the succeeding anarchy, when Phinehas, son of Eleazar, was high-priest. The first, or Mesopotamian servitude, is accordingly dated at the interval of a jubilean period, or fortynine years, from the first occupation of the promised land, in the margin of the English Bibles; although this obvious ¿¿ deported from in the tabl. |