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RYEHOUSE PLOT-RYSWICK.

the florets awnless or nearly so; the culm flattened, assassinate the king on his return from Newmarket. from one foot to three feet high; the root producing The deed was to be perpetrated at a farm belonging leafy barren shoots, which add much to the agricul- to Rumboldt, one of the conspirators, called the tural value of the grass. This grass is highly Ryehouse Farm, whence the plot got its name. valued for forage and hay, and is more extensively The R. P. is supposed to have been kept concealed sown for these uses than any other grass, not only in from Monmouth, Russell, Shaftesbury, and the rest Britain, but on the continent of Europe and in North of those who took the lead in the greater conspiracy. America. It grows well even on very poor soils. It owed its defeat to the circumstance, that the The Common Perennial R. is the kind most generally house which the king occupied at Newmarket took cultivated. A kind called Annual R.-not really fire accidentally, and Charles was thus obliged to an annual plant, although useful only for one year leave that place eight days sooner than was is sometimes cultivated, but is, in almost every expected. Both the greater and lesser conspiracy respect, inferior. -ITALIAN R. (L. Italicum, or L. were discovered before long, and from the connec multiflorum, or L. Bouchianum), a native of the tion subsisting between the two, it was difficult altogether to dissever them. The indignation excited by the R. P. was extended to the whole Whig party; Lord Russell, Algernon Sidney, and Lieutenant-colonel Walcot were brought to the block for treason; John Hampden, grandson of his more noted namesake, was fined £40,000; and scarcely one escaped who had been concerned in either plot.

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1, Common Rye-grass; 2, Italian Rye-grass. south of Europe, is much esteemed as a forage and hay grass. In many soils and situations in Britain it succeeds extremely well, and is remarkable for its verdure and luxuriance in early spring. It is preferred by cattle to the Common Rye-grass. The young leaves are folded up, whilst those of the Common R. are rolled together. There are many varieties of Rye-grass. It is nowhere so much valued or cultivated as in Britain. It was cultivated in England before the end of the 17th century. Italian R. was introduced into Britain in 1831 by Mr Thomson of Banchory and Messrs Lawson and Son of Edinburgh. R. is generally sown along with some kind of corn, and vegetating for the first year amongst the corn, appears in the second year as the proper crop of the field.

RYE'HOUSE PLOT. In 1683, at the same time that a scheme was formed in England among the leading Whigs to raise the nation in arms against Charles II., a subordinate scheme was planned by a few fiercer spirits of the party, including Colonel Rumsey and Lieutenant-colonel Walcot, two military adventurers; Goodenough, under-sheriff of London; Ferguson, an Independent minister; and several attorneys, merchants, and tradesmen of London-the object of which was to waylay and

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RY'OT (from the Arabic raaya, to pasture, to protect, to govern; hence, literally, the governed, a subject) is the vernacular term for a Hindu cultivator or peasant.

RYOTWAR (literally, according to or with ryots) is the term applied to the revenue settlement which is made by the government officers in India with each actual cultivator of the soil for a given term-usually a twelvemonth-at a stipulated money-rent, without the intervention of a third party. This mode of assessment prevails chiefly, though not exclusively, in the Madras presidency, See H. H. Wilson, Glossary of Judicial and Revenuo Terms (Lond. 1855), under RAIYATWÂR.

RYSBRACH, MICHAEL, a sculptor of considerable talent, born at Antwerp in 1693. He settled in London in 1720, and executed numerous works there, in particular the monuments to Sir Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey, and to the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, a bronze equestrian statue of William III. for the city of Bristol, a colossal statue of George II. for the parade at Greenwich Hospital; a Hercules, and busts of many of the eminent poets, wits, and politicians of his time. Scheemakers, also a native of Antwerp, and Roubilliac, a Frenchman, were contemporaries and rivals of his, and shared with him most of the commissions for works of sculpture in England at the period. With Scheemakers was placed as a pupil Nollekens, who became so distinguished for his busts, and as one of the founders of the English school of sculpture. R. died 8th January 1770.

RY'SWICK, PEACE OF, a treaty concluded in 1697 at Ryswick, a Dutch village between Delft and the Hague, which was signed by France, England, and Spain on September 20, and by Germany on October 30. It put an end to the sanguinary contest in which England had been engaged with France. It has been often said that the only equivalent then received by England for all the treasure she had transmitted to the continent, and all the blood which had been shed there, was an acknowledgment of William's title by the king of France; but it must not be forgotten how much the allies were benefited by the check given to the gigantic power and overweening ambition of France.

S

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SAAʼRBRÜCK, a town of Rhenish Prussia, on the Saar, 40 miles south-south-east of Treves. It is the seat of an active industry, of which coal-mining, spinning, and the manufacture of woollen and linen fabrics, and of pottery and tobacco, are among the principal branches. Pop. (1868) 7193. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 commenced on August 2, 1870, by an attack upon the town of Saarbrück.

SAA'RDAM. See ZAANDAM.

SAAZ, a town of Bohemia, on the Eger, 45 miles west-north-west of Prague. Hops are largely cultivated in the vicinity, and important corn-markets are held. Pop. 8870.

THE 19th letter in the English and of the Fichtelgebirge (Bavaria), and flowing northother western alphabets (the 18th ward through several minor states, and finally across in the Latin), belongs to the dental the Prussian province of Saxony, falls into the Elbe, series, and marks the fundamental about 25 miles above Magdeburg, after a course of sound of the hissing or sibilant 200 miles. It is navigable only within the Prussian group, 8, 2, sh, zh. The Sanscrit dominions. has characters for three hissing or 8sounds; the Semitic languages had four (see ALPHABET). The Hebrew or Phoenician character, from which the modern 8 is derived, was called shin-i. e., tooth, and in its original form probably represented two or three teeth. The same character, with the presence or absence of a diacritic point, marked either s or sh. In Eng., 8 is used both for the sharp and flat sounds, as this, those thoze. The nearness of the s-sound to th is seen in the Eng. loves loveth, and in the phenomenon of lisping-yeth yes. This seems to furnish the transition to the so frequent interchange of the High-Ger. 8 for the Low-Ger. t, as in Ger. wasser = water; Ger. fuss foot. Comp. Gr. thalassa thalatta. The substitution of r for 8 is noticed under R. In such cases as melt, compared with smelt; pike, with spike; lick, with sleek; Ger. niesen, with Eng. sneeze; Eng. snow, Goth. snaivs, with Lat. nix (gen. niv-is); Gr. mikros, with smikros; short, A.-S. sceort, with curt-it is difficult to say whether the form with, or that with out the s is the older. Grimm considers & as the remnant of an old prefixed particle (as, is, us), having, perhaps, the force of ex in Lat. exopto, I wish greatly; or ur in Ger. urklein, very small. An initial 8 before a vowel in Lat. corresponds to Gr. ; comp. Lat. sub, sex, sal (salt), with Gr. hypo, hex, hals. In Greek and Latin, & was pronounced feebly at the end of words, and still more so between two vowels. It thus frequently disappeared in these positions, and this was one of the chief sources of the irregularities in the declensions and conjugations, which had originally been formed on a uniform system (see INFLECTIONS). The dropping of s is one of the ways in which the forms of modern French words have become so degraded; compare Lat. magister, old Fr. maistre, modern Fr. maître; presbyter, prestre, prêtre. Even where still written, final 8 in French is mostly silent-e. g., vos, les.

SAAD-ED-DIN, a Turkish historian, was born in 1536, and died at Constantinople in 1599. His history, entitled the Taj-al-Tuarikh (the Crown of Histories), a work held in high estimation by scholars, gives a general account of the Ottoman empire from its commencement in 1299 till 1520; it has never been printed, but MS. copies of it are found in most of the great libraries of Europe, and an inaccurate translation into Italian was published in 1646-1652. S. also wrote the Selim-Nameh, or History of Selim I., which is chiefly a collection of anecdotes regarding that prince.

SAA'LÉ, a river of Germany, distinguished from other and smaller rivers of the same name as the Saxon or Thuringian S., rises on the western slope

SABADELL, a rising manufacturing town of Spain, in Catalonia, 14 miles by railway north-west of Barcelona. It has risen into importance only within recent years, and it is now the Manchester of Catalonia. Woollen and cotton fabrics are the staple manufactures, and of the 100 factories in the town, by far the greater number are engaged in these manufactures. Pop. about 16,000.

SABADI'LLA, CEBADILLA, or CEVADILLA (Asagræa officinalis, formerly Helonias officinalis), a Mexican plant of the natural order Melanthaceae, the seeds of which are employed in medicine, because of properties analogous to those of White Hellebore (Veratrum album). The plant has a bulbous root, and grows in tufts; the leaves are linear and grassy, about four feet long, and not above a quarter of an inch broad; among them rises a round scape (leafless flower-stem), about six feet high, bearing a very dense raceme, a foot and a half long, of small white flowers. The seed-vessels are papery follicles, three together; the seeds one, two, or three in each follicle, two or three lines long, winged, and wrinkled. The powdered seeds have been known in medicine since the end of the 16th century. On submitting them to chemical analysis, they are found to consist of fatty matter, two special organic acids, to which the names Cevadic and Veratric acids have been given; of varieties of resin, yellow colouring matter, gum, and a highly poisonous alkaloid named Veratria in combination with gallic acid; and to these constituents, a French chemist, Couerbe, has added a crystalline body named Sabadilline.

Notwithstanding its highly poisonous properties, S. is prescribed on many parts of the continent as a vermifuge in cases of tape-worm and ascarides, and it may be administered to an adult in 8 or 10 grain doses, mixed with a little sugar, and a few drops of oil of fennel. In the form of powder, it is sometimes applied to the head to destroy lice, but if the skin be broken, some other remedy should bə selected, as absorption to a dangerous extent might

SABÆANS-SABBATH.

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ensue. From its stimulating properties, it is usefully doubtless exaggerated. The country itself, according employed in the form of tincture (which, however, to the reports of Greek writers, grew spice-wood to is not an officinal preparation) as an external such an extent that its odour caused apoplexy application in chronic rheumatism and paralysis, and in cases of nervous palpitation.

The active principle of S., the Veratria, in doses of th of a grain, gradually increased, and taken thrice a day, has been found very efficacious in acute rheumatism; and applied in the form of ointment, it has been highly recommended in scrofulous diseases of the joints. When prescribed internally, its use should be at once suspended if the patient complain of pain in the throat or stomach, vomiting or diarrhoea. Similar qualities are said to exist in the seeds of Veratrum Sabadilla, a native of Mexico and the West Indies, and in some of the species of Helonias, natives of the southern parts of North America.

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among the inhabitants, and bad smells had to be used to counteract these over-potent influences. The meanest utensils in the houses of these merchant princes were-if we were to credit those writerswrought in the most cunning fashion, and were of gold and silver; their vases were incrusted with gems, their firewood was cinnamon. Their colouies must, in the nature of things, have extended over immense tracts of Asia-the Ethiopian S. probably being one of the first foreign settlements; yet nothing beyond the vaguest conjectures can be given about them. Regarding their government, Dio Cassius informs us that they had a king, who never was allowed to leave his palace, and that the first child boru, after the accession of a new king, into one of a certain number of noble families, was considered the heir-presumptive for the time being. Commerce had also done for them what it did for the Phoenicians-it civilised them, and caused them to carry civilisation further; and they stand out among the ancient semi-barbarous Arabs as a commonwealth of high culture. Respecting their religion, see ZABISM. Their language is supposed to have been a Semitic (Arabic) dialect, which, however, is almost entirely lost to us now. Some tablets with Himyaritic inscriptions have been found, but their readings are not quite satisfactorily fixed as yet. See SHEMITIC LANGUAGES, ARABIA.

SABÆ'ANS, the supposed descendants of one, two, or three Shebas mentioned in the Bible. Historically, the S. appear chiefly as the inhabitants of Arabia Felix or Yemen (to the north of the present Yemen), the principal city of which was called Saba, and the queen of which is said to have visited Solomon, attracted by the fame of his wisdom. Josephus, however (Ant. viii. 6, 5), makes her the queen of Ethiopia (Meröe), and the modern Abyssinians claim her as their own. Her name, according to their tradition, was Makeda; and her visit to Jerusalem made her not only a proselyte to the religion of Solomon, but she became one of his wives, and had by him a son, Menilek, who after- SA'BBATH (Heb. Shabbath, Sabbathon, &c., from wards ruled Ethiopia (q. v.). The Arabs, on the shabath, to rest; not from shub, to return, or shebah, other hand, call her Balkis, the earliest name that seven) designates the seventh day of the week, set occurs of a Himyaritic queen; but there is no more aside, in the Old Testament, as a period of cessation historical value to be attached to this tradition from work. Without entering into the question of than to the innumerable legends that have clustered its origin, i. e., whether it be an institution of preround her name in connection with the great king. Mosaic times-either of 'paradise' or of 'heaNumerous passages in Greek and Roman writers, thenism'-or whether it be purely Mosaic, we shall as well as in the Bible, testify to the vast impor- merely state that, according to our only available tance of these dwellers in Yemen as a wealthy, source, the Pentateuch, the division of the Week widely-extended, and enterprising people, of fine (q.v.) into seven days appears at a very early period; stature and noble bearing. Their chief greatness but the celebration of the seventh day as a day lay in their traffic, the principal articles of which consecrated to Jehovah, is first mentioned after consisted of gold and perfumes, spice, incense and the Exodus from Egypt, and seems to have preceded precious stones, a very small portion of which, how- the Sinaitic legislation, which merely confirmed and ever, was of home production, Yemen being only invested it with the highest authority. On the productive in corn, wine, and the like matters of occasion of the manna (Ex. xvi. 23), the S. and its ordinary consumption. But the fact was, that the solemnity seem presupposed, and the 'Remember S. held the key to India, and were the intermediate the Sabbath-day' of the Decalogue, further seems to factors between Egypt and Syria, which again indicate its previous institution. There is no trace of spread the imported wares over Europe; and even its celebration in the patriarchal times, although the when Ptolemy Philadelphus (274 B. C.) had estab- Semitic traditions of the creation, and of the divine lished an Indian emporium in Egypt, the S. still completion of it on that day, had undoubtedly remained the sole monopolists of the Indian trade, marked it early as a special day of sanctity among being the only navigators who braved the perilous the Abrahamites. The significance that was supervoyage. As in many other respects, they also added to it after the Exodus, i. e., that of being a resembled the Phoenicians in this, that, instead of remembrance of the freedom from bondage, makes informing other people of their sources and the it appear likely enough that its first legal promultracks of their ships, they told them the most gation dates, as a Talmudical tradition has it, from preposterous tales about the countries they visited, Marah, where Moses 'set them laws and rights and the fearful dangers they encountered; and in (Ex. xv. 25). While it thus on the one hand formed regard to most things, endeavoured to impress a sort of general human memento of the creation upon the minds of their customers that what they and the Creator of all things, as it is characterised sold them was, if artificial, their own manufac- in the first redaction of the commandments in ture-if natural products, home growth. Being

the principal merchants of those things which the Exodus, it became also, on the other hand, a national over-refined luxury of late classical times consi- day of record of the bondage and the liberation from dered as absolute necessities of life, they could not it, a notion prominently brought forward in the fail to gather enormous riches; e. g., in the 3d c.second rescension of the Decalogue (q. v.) (Deut. v. of the Roman empire, every pound of silk-a15), and the 'rest' that was inculcated for everymaterial enormous quantities of which were used body-kindred, strangers, slaves, even animals — that came from Arabia was paid by a pound of silver, received a double meaning. at times even of gold. As a natural consequence, the S. became luxurious, effeminate, and idle. The pictures of them drawn by the classic writers are

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It is in the latter

sense also denominated a sign between Jehovah and the generations of Israel (Ex. xxxi. 13): a kind of badge of nationality, a token of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel for ever (Ex. xxxi. 16,

SABBATH.

cf. Ezek. xx. 12, Neh. ix. 13, &c.). It is constantly those who had fled into caves to escape the permentioned together with institutions of the same secution of Antiochus Epiphanes, allowed thempeculiar nature; such as reverencing the sanctuary selves to be butchered wholesale, nay, burned (Lev. xix. 30), celebrating the feasts of a national alive, without any attempt at flight or resistance; character (Hos. ii. 11), keeping the ordinances (Ezek. 'because they made a conscience to help them xlv. 17), &c. And in like manner it was made one selves for the honour of the most sacred day' of the first obligations for proselytes, as one by (2. Macc. vi. 11). It was only in consequence which they were taking hold of the covenant' (Is. of these horrible catastrophes, and in consideration lvi. 6). A few special cases only are furnished by of the probability of the enemy's always choosing the Pentateuch in explanation of the word 'work' the hallowed day for his attacks, and thus gradually used in the prohibition-lighting a fire, gathering rooting out the nation, that fighting in self-defence sticks, going out of the camp for the purpose was allowed; although it appears the enemy was of gathering manna. The violation of this law of not to be disturbed in his siege works. Yet this rest was, as a crime of high treason against Jehovah, relaxation in favour of the defensive appears again punishable with death; yet cessation from labour to have been abrogated through the influence of the was only the negative part of the celebration of the fanatical Chassidaic party. Both Pompey and Herod, day, which is called, like the other festivals, a it would seem, took advantage of the S. for the 'holy convocation.' It is difficult to decide now preparation of the storm on Jerusalem, relyingwhat precise meaning is to be attached to these and successfully-on the strict observance of that words, as referring to the early periods of Israelitish day by their antagonists. The incessant tribulɩhistory, particularly before the institution of the tions, however, that followed almost without interprophets or sacred orators had been fully devel- ruption till the final destruction of the Jewish oped. It may be conjectured that the convocation empire, together with the influence of new schools was a kind of general religious assembly, in which and views, wrought an immense change. Shammai readings and some kind of exposition of the law himself, the austere interpreter of the law, and formed the principal features; and there is indeed the so-called antagonist of the milder Hillel, a tradition to that effect recorded in the Talmud. pronounced not only the defensive but the offenSome, however, suppose that it was a festive meet- sive legal and righteous (Sabb. xix. a): as, indeed, ing in honour of Jehovah, and refer to Neh. viii. in his days, human life was placed, under all 9-18 for proof that such a celebration was con- circumstances whatsoever, higher than any divine sistent with Jewish notions of keeping days holy or human precept about the Sabbath. 'The Law,' to the Lord. As a further celebration of the day, it is said with regard to the S., was given, accorda special burnt-offering, consisting of two lambs of ing to the Scriptures, like other laws, that man the first year, with the corresponding meat and should live by them, not that he should die drink-offering, besides the ordinary daily sacrifice, through them' (Tos. Shab. xvi. 5). That Joshua was instituted, and the shew-bread was renewed in had never stopped in his sieges on the S., was not the sanctuary. considered so weighty an argument as the dire and imminent necessity that forced itself upon the military and spiritual leaders of the people, of preserving at all hazards a remnant at least of the fast perishing nation.

Thus far the Pentateuch on the Sabbath. Turning to the later biblical books of the times before the Exile, we find casual references to it as a day of rest and joy, exalted over the other days of the week, and on which agricultural labours and all things connected with them, such as carrying loads, selling and buying, &c., ceased. No deeper signification seems to have been attached to it yet. Although both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, single it out especially, in common with monotheism and the laws of morality, yet they both rest satisfied with the inculcation of its outward observance, which seems occasionally to have fallen into entire disuse. With the return from the Exile, however, a new phase was inaugurated. It is well known how energetically Nehemiah carried out his reformation, or rather the restoration of the primitive laws, as in other respects so with regard to the S.; how he testified' against those who were treading wine-presses on the S., and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses, &c., and, further, against those men of Tyre' who brought 'all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem.' It is by profaning the S., he urges, that their fathers have caused all the evil and wrath that befell the nation and the city. He had the gates shut from Friday evening to Saturday night, and drove away those merchants who still kept lodging outside, by threats of 'laying hands on them.'

What Nehemiah had reinstituted, seems to have been most rigorously upheld, and in many cases made more binding even than he ever intended it, or, at all events, than the originally promulgated form of his words would seem to imply at first sight. With respect to the S. in particular, we find it not more than 100 years afterwards kept with such severity that the people would not even stir in defence of the city of Jerusalem, stormed by the soldiers of Ptolemy I. on that day. Later still,

It was probably after the Exile that the first attempts at legally fixing, or rather 'fencing about the divine ordinance in a minute and rigorous manner, were made. As we have seen before, no special definition of the 'work' prohibited-save in a few instances-is to be found in the Old Testament. Whether it was the 'men of the great synagogue,' or the later schools, that promulgated the special precepts and prohibitions-part of which were traced to the legislation on Sinai itself (Oral Law)—is difficult to decide. The Mishna only enumerates thirty-nine principal (father-') works, each of which, again, carries a certain number of minor (begotten') works with it, which are strictly forbidden on the Sabbath. A certain portion of these inhibitions and prohibitions refers to work connected with agriculture and the chase; another to domestic labours generally performed by women (such as spinning, sewing, &c.); another again to trades (of builders, mechanics, labourers, &c.) and the like. One of the most harassing of precepts, and one which had at last to be amended by a number of new enactments, was the prohibition of moving things from one place into another (from public to private localities, and vice versa). The minor prohibitions referred chiefly to things which might easily 'lead' to the violation of the S., such as riding on horseback, climbing trees, &c. The 'Sabbath-day's journey,' or prohibition, based on Ex. xvi. 29, of walking more than the supposed utmost space between the ark and the extreme end of the camp, seems to belong, in the Mishnaic form at least, to the Roman times; the mil to which it was limited, and which contains the requisite 2000 yards, being a Roman measure.

SABBATH.

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However it is to be reconciled with the well study in the law, and to serenity and joyfulness. known narrative of Christ's healing on the S.-day, Respecting this last point, it must be borne in mind contained in the New Testament, there is absolutely that the day is distinctly called a day of joy and no doubt about the fact that, according to the so- delight (e. g., cf. Ps. xcii., Is. lviii. 13, Hos. ii. 11, 13, called Pharisaical code-i. e., the Oral Law, the &c.-the words in Is. translated in the authorised highest and absolute authority of Judaism-the version by doing thy pleasure,' in reality mean safety of life and limb utterly over-rules not only doing thy work; the Hebrew word in this passage the S., but even the day of Atonement itself. It is exactly corresponding to our affairs,'' business"). only certain smaller alleviations of momentary pain, A variety of minor regulations referring to bodily such as could not by any chance place the patient indulgences on that day, abundantly prove-if in the slightest danger, about which we find some further proof were needed-its recognised character kind of casuistical discussions. Practically-that is, as a 'feast-day' in the natural and general sense according to the final enactments (see Maimonides of the term, in Judaism. It was to be honoured Yad Chasaka)-it is not only the regard to life, but by the wearing of finer garments, by three special to the health and well-being of the patient, that sets meals of the best cheer the house could afford all Sabbatical prohibitions at nought. The law of (fish, meat, &c.); and it was considered a par'rest,' according to the Talmud, applies no more to ticularly meritorious thing on the part of the the case of the sick or those anyhow endangered, master of the house to busy himself personally as than it did with regard to the temple, and all the much as possible with the furnishing of the viands, 'work' therein, which, indeed, was much heavier on nay, the fetching of the very wood for the cooking, so S. and feast days than at other times. Another as to do as much honour to the 'bride Sabbath' as difficulty is found in the words in which Christ in him lay. Wine, if the means of the individual refers to the beast that is to be taken out of would anyhow allow it, was to crown the repast, a pit on a S.; the Jewish law ordaining, in special blessings being duly pronounced over it with reality, that it should be aided in its own efforts, reference to the holy day, both at its coming in and if it endeavoured to get out by itself; if it did at its going out. From the circle of the family, this not succeed, it should be left there, food being let custom of welcoming, as it were, the S., and taking down to it, until the end of the S. (Luke xiv.; leave of it, with the cup of blessing, with lights, Matt. xii. 11; Sabb. 128 b). Could it be that and with spice, found its way at an early period the common people (the Hediots or Idiots-i. e., the into the synagogue, on account of those strangers untutored in the law) were ignorant of the real who, having to stop on their journey during the scope and purport of the Pharisaical' code, and twenty-four hours, were often lodged and fed in or that the argument was directed against their crude near the synagogue, and on whose behalf the blessing notions, as directly opposed to the law as estab- had to be pronounced generally. Fasting, mourning, lished?-But on this we must not enlarge here. mortification of all and every kind, even special It is also impossible to enter into any of the supplicatory prayers, are strictly prohibited; but, various ancient and modern ways of looking at on the contrary, the number of 'a hundred benedicthe S. in an allegorical and symbolical light, e. g., its tions,' said at all varieties of enjoyments of the senses, being connected by Philo and his school with the are to be completed on the S., were it even by eating planets, the spheres, the number seven and the like different kinds of fruit, smelling different spices, &c. mystical notions. Nor can we follow here those Those who study hard during the week are to relax speculations which make out a close parallel between somewhat on that day, while those bent on business the divine work and rest and human work and rest; all week may indulge more freely in their readings; and shew how well-rounded and entire time itself even school children are to be released from hard appears when shaped into a week after the model of lessons on that day. Nay, the Friday itself particithe six days of creation, and how man's life is, pated in a manner in the solemnity of the Sabbath. through it, conformed to that of his Creator. Its very name was sunk in 'Eve of Sabbath.' At an early hour in the afternoon, trumpets were blown from the steps of the temple in Jerusalem and certain shops, the stopping of whose business required some time, began to close. Again and again the trumpets resounded at certain intervals, and other trades ceased, as, indeed, nothing might even be begun on Friday which could not be finished or stopped at the end of that day: walking also was restricted to a certain extent on Friday, and judgment over life and death was entirely suspended. At last, when the sun disappeared from the horizon-irrespective of the situation of the place, whence a difference arose between the beginning of the S. among the dwellers in valleys or on elevations-the hallowed period commenced, and lasted until three stars were visible in the following evening.

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There can be no doubt about its meaning in the Old Testament. It is intended as a principal testimony of faith in the Creator of the universe. Hence its supreme importance. Though the threatened punishments for S.-breakers never seem to have been carried out to the full during the times of the established commonwealth, in the scheme of Judaism it was placed on a par with the entire body of the Law. He who transgresses the S. is considered legally, according to Maimonides, as one who has set the whole law at defiance, and is to be looked upon in every respect as like a worshipper of stars 'i. e., a heathen.

Regarding the development of the positive side of the Sabbatical observance, we have to mention first, that in conformity with the precept making it a day of 'holy assembly,' the synagogue (irrespective of the temple-service, its special sacrifices, prayers, and psalms for the day), assembled the faithful on that day within its precincts in every town and hamlet in and out of Palestine before and after the final Exile. A certain portion of the Pentateuch, to which afterwards was added a prophetical pericope, the Haftarah, was read, translated into the vernacular, and expounded homiletically. Special prayers and psalms, in addition to the ordinary slightly-modified service, with special reference to the sanctity of the S., were said and sung, and the rest of the day was devoted to pious meditation,

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The original formulas, much enlarged in later times, as far as they are to be traced now, of the introductory benediction, as well as the valedictory prayer, both of which we subjoin, shew the character and scope of the day in Judaism so fully, that they may stand instead of any further explanation of our own.

1. (Kiddush.) 'Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who hath sanctified us by His Laws, and hath made us participate in His Grace, and hath, in His Love and in His Mercy, given us the Sabbath, as a remembrance of the

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