raising silk, and making it one great branch of their commerce; if, on the contrary, they had been natives of Judea, they would still, without doubt, appear there in numbers, as they did, as our translation supposes, in the reign of king David: it is not likely then that our translation should be right.

It is much more easy, however, to determine, that they are wrong in their translation, than to find out what the original word really means. The Chaldee paraphrase contents itself with speaking of them as trees in general; the Septuagint, in Samuel, supposes they were trees that grew in a place called Weeping, and Josephus follows them in this; but this version in Chronicles supposes the word signifies pear

trees.

Were I to hazard a conjecture here, and were there a greater sameness between the notions of the East and the West, I should propose it, as no improbable supposition, that the Weeping willow is the tree meant here. Russell found it a common tree in the gardens of Aleppo,' which are known to have common trees of the field growing frequently in them, as well as other plants: Russell himself mentions the poplar, the common white willow, the horn-beam, oaks, the ash, growing in their gardens, with other trees we should more readily expect to find there, forming on the whole a wild and irregular, but agreeable

Voy. de Syrie, &c. par de la Roque, tom. 1. p. 1. f Vol. i. p. 47.

prospect. It is true, I do not remember to have met with an account of this species of willow, in the catalogue of the plants of the Holy Land which I have seen; but every one knows the Flora and the Fauna Palæstina are very imperfect. But it is so common a tree at Aleppo, we may believe it is no stranger in Judea.

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OBSERVATION X.

Of the Olive Tree in the Promised Land.

WE have before taken notice that the olivetree is very common in Judea: I would now remark, that the Scriptures frequently refer to it, and that those very references have given some pain to an ingenious traveller, on the account of trees of this species wanting a vivid verdure.

Mr. Sharp, in his forty-eighth letter from Italy, expresses his pain in these words, "The fields, and indeed the whole face of Tuscany, are in a manner covered with olive-trees, but the olivetree does not answer the character I had conceived of it: the Royal Psalmist and some of the Sacred Writers speak with rapture of the green olive-tree, so that I expected a beautiful green; and I confess to you, I was wretchedly disappointed, to find its hue resembling that of our hedges, when they are covered with dust.

The olive-tree may, possibly, delight in the barren district of Judea, but, undoubtedly, will disgust a man accustomed to English

verdure."

The objection shews, that it is of some importance to attend to minute, and even seemingly trifling circumstances mentioned in Holy Writ, which is the great design of these papers. In considering it, I cannot allow the propriety of this worthy writer's method of alleviating the difficulty he had proposed: Judea is not now so destitute of verdure, as to make a tree that looks as if it was all over covered with dust, an object sufficient to charm the eye by its colour; and such a supposition is still less admissible, when it relates to former times, when it was much better cultivated. The true way of solving the difficulty is, I imagine, to consider the word translated green not as descriptive of colour, in these passages, but of some other property, youthfulness, vigour, prosperity, &c.

It certainly must be so understood in some piaces where it occurs. No mortal ever imagined that when Nebuchadnezzar said, I was at rest in mine house, and green in my palace, Dan. iv.4, that he meant either that the colour of his face, or of his garments was green; but that he was, as our translators justly render it, flourishing in his palace-that he was in such a state, with respect to his royalty, as a tree is when it is green, considered as a vegetable. So in the fifty-second Psalm, David describes a wicked man, as soon to wither away and disappear; while he should

be like a young vigorous olive-tree, which had long to live and to flourish. The beauty of the olive-tree, marked out in other passages of Scripture, consisted in the spread of its branches, not in its colour, Hosea xiv. 6.

The disappointment then of Mr. Sharp arose, not from the misrepresentation of the sacred writers, but merely from his misunderstanding them.

In like manner, when the Psalmist says, I shall be anointed with green oil, Ps. xcii. 10, where there is the same word in the original, we are not to suppose he means oil of a green colour: would there have been any great advantage in that? Or can any passage be produced to shew it was an object of desire to the people of the East? But we are, I believe, to understand the word as signifying precious, fragrant oil, such as princes in times of prosperity were anointed with: fragrant if you will, as a field which the LORD has blessed, a flowery field, in all its verdure, to the smell of which Isaac compared the scent of the perfumed clothes Jacob had on when Isaac blessed him, Gen. xxvii. 27.

It appears from many passages, that when princes were victorious, rich presents were wont to be made them; and from the history of Hezekiah, that precious ointments, or oils in which odoriferous plants or other substances had been put, and kept there some time, were presented to them, preserved long by them

h

12 Sam. viii. 10, 2 Chron. xxxii. 23. Is. xxxix. 2.

among their treasures in part, and in part, we may believe, made use of on joyful occasions: which kind of oil is, without doubt, what the Psalmist calls green oil, and with which he was to be anointod, when GOD should exalt his power, and make his horn like that of an

unicorn.

To think of greenness of colour in the oil, would be childish; to interpret the word of oil, expressed from green, that is to say, from unripe olives, would not well agree with the accounts of some modern writers on medical preparations, who affirm that oil cannot be drawn from unripe olives; to understand the word as signifying fresh-drawn oil would be to give it much less energy than, I apprehend, was intended by the Psalmist; to explain it of oil made extremely odoriferous is, I cannot help thinking, placing it in the proper point of light.

It is natural to suppose most, if not all the oil that was made use of for anointing themselves for pleasure, was more or less fragrant; it would else have hardly answered the purpose, which was the stifling those disagreeable scents the heat of that climate often excited. On this account it became extremely necessary to the enjoyment of life; for which reason the Prophet Micah' threatened Israel, That they should tread olives, but not anoint themselves with oil. We are

Voy. Dict. des Drogues, par Lemery, Art. Omphacium "Ce que les auteurs appellent Oleum Omphacinum, seroit 'une huile tirée par expression, des olives vertes; mais on n'en peut point tirer, comme je l'ay remarqué dans ma pharmacopée." A Ch, vi. 15.