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ink, paint, or something of that kind must have been made use of, of which, accordingly, we read Jeremiah xxxvi. 18. But their pens must have been very different from ours: accordingly the word vow shebet, which is used Judges v. 15, for a pen, they that handle the pen of the writer, signifies a sceptre, rod, or branch of a tree, and consequently may be thought to have much more nearly resembled the modern pens of Persia, which are canes or reeds, their paper not bearing such pens as ours, than the quills we make use of. The

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Alphabet, (seconde partie, Art. Moyse) of which some are amazingly absurd, one is, that these five volumes must have been engraven on polished stones, which would have required prodigious efforts and length of time; too great, the insinuation is, to be credible. "Les Egyptiens ne se servaient pas encore du papiros; on gravait des hieroglyphes sur le marbre ou sur le bois. Il est meme dit que les tables des commandemens furent gravées, sur la pierre. Il aurait donc fallu graver cinq volumes sur des pierres polies, ce qui demandait des efforts et un tems prodigieux." But were there no other substances that could be made use of but wood or stone, before the papyrus was brought into use? Could not linen? Do not the mummies incontestibly prove it actually was made use of before Alexandria was built, consequently before the papyrus was wont to be written on? What inattention or what fraud, (which you please) must this writer have been guilty of, when he supposes the Pentateuch must have been engraven on wood or stone, if older than the use of the papyrus! How vain the consequence, that because the ten commands were engraven on stone, therefore the whole Pentateuch must! These things would have been very surprising in another writer; but the perversely witty Mons. Voltaire has so habituated us to the expectation of meeting in him with the most groundless assertions, urged with confidence and grimace, that we are surprised at nothing which we meet with in his writings.

Olearius, p. 857. See also Rauwolff, in Ray's Col. lection of Travels, p. 87.

other Hebrew word we translate pen, seems precisely to signify a thing with which they lay on colours, and consequently is equally applicable to a quill, a pencil, or a reed; it is the using the other word in poetry, which explains the nature of their pens, of which we might otherwise have been ignorant, the proper word for them not at all determining their nature.

OBSERVATION III.

Method of Preserving their Writings.

WHATEVER materials the ancient Jews wrote upon they were liable to be easily destroyed by the dampness when hidden in the earth. It was therefore thought requisite to inclose them in something that might keep them from the damp, lest they should decay and be rendered useless.

In those days of roughness, when war knew not the softenings of later times, men were wont to bury in the earth every part of their property that could be concealed after that man

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There are two other words, which in our translation are rendered pen, cheret, and set, both of which seem to signify a style or graver to cut letters on wood, metal, or stone. EDIT.

• So we find our parchments are very apt to decay that are kept in moist places, as well as our modern paper. Our pictures also prove that moisture is very injurious to painted cloth, and must be more so where oil is not used. Writing on silk was not then known, which some later Eastern writers have supposed should be made use of, in committing things to writing that were highly valued, according to d'Herbelot, in the article Macamat,

ner, not only silver and gold, but wheat, barley, oil, and honey; vestments and writings too." For that I apprehend was the occasion of Jeremiah's ordering, that the writings he de- · livered to Baruch, mentioned in his thirty-second chapter, should be put into an earthen vessel.

The experience of preceding ages must have informed him, that lying in the earth, naked and uninclosed, would soon bring on decay; if not, he had had himself a proof of it. Take the girdle that thou hast got, said the LORD to him, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take thy girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and behold, the girdle was marred; it was profitable for nothing.'

To obviate this, and preserve what was buried more effectually, the ancient Egyptians made use of earthen urns, or pots of a proper shape for receiving what they wanted to inter in the earth, and which without such care would have soon been destroyed. Maillet, describing the place in which those people used to bury their embalmed birds, represents it as "a subterraneous labyrinth, from which persons

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could not disengage themselves, were it not for the help of a line of packthread. Its several alleys are adorned on each side, with many small niches, in which are found stone-vessels and pots of earth, in which are inclosed embalmed birds, which turn to dust as soon as touched. What is admirable in this affair is, that all the variety and liveliness of the colouring of their plumage is preserved.""

If they buried in earthen pots the things they wanted to preserve in Egypt, whose subterraneous caverns are so dry, and covered with several feet of burning sand; the Prophet Jeremiah might well suppose it proper to inclose those writings in an earthen pot, which were to be buried in Judea, in some place where they might be found without much difficulty on their return from captivity.

Two different writings, or small rolls of writing, called books in the original Hebrew, (their books being only each of them a roll of writing, and these consequently being properly little books, according to their notions of things) were evidently to be inclosed in this earthen vessel, and commentators have been sadly embarrassed to give any probable account why there were two writings: one sealed; the other open

according as it is commonly understood, the one sealed up; the other left open for any one to read. One cannot imagine any cause why

'Let. 7, p. 286.-I seriously doubt this: of different Egyptian embalmed birds which I have seen, scarcely any thing remained but the bones. EDIT.

there should be this distinction made between them, when both were presently to be hid from every eye, by being buried in some secret place; and both were to be examined at the return from the captivity. No account indeed that is tolerably probable has been given, that I know of, why there should be two distinct writings for this sale of land; but still less, why one should be sealed up, and the other left open.

I would then remark, that though one of them is said to be sealed, it does not follow that it was sealed in such a manner as not to be opened. Many a conveyance of land has been sealed among us, and rendered valid to all intents and purposes, without without ever being secured so as not to be read. The distinction of one from the other by the circumstance of its being sealed, while the second was open, seems to have been the cause of its being understood to have been sealed up, so as not to be opened; to which probably may be added, their recollecting the circumstance of a book being sealed, which on that account could not be read, mentioned by Isaiah, xxix. 11. But though a letter, which in their style might be called a book, might often be so sealed, it does not at all follow, nor is it all probable, that the book of the purchase of an estate upon its being sealed so as to become valid, was sealed so as to be shut up that none could read it. Let us drop then the idea from its being hidden from the eye, and only sealed so as to be valid probably not

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