a proverb-"The work goes bonnilie on!" With him perished sir William Nisbet, a brave officer, who had commanded a regiment of royalists in England. Those butcheries took place at Glasgow. Lord Ogilvy, colonel Gordon, Mr. Murray, and colonel Guthrie, were found guilty of high treason, and sentenced to have their goods forfeited, and their heads chopped off at the market-cross of St. Andrew's. Sir Robert Spottiswoode, son of the late archbishop, was their grand victim. He underwent the same sentence, and suffered the same punishment. His last words were- Merciful Jesus, gather my soul unto thy saints and martyrs, who have run before me in this race" (Lawson's History of the Church of Scotland). The place where the captives were butchered for the expression is not too strong, considering the perfidy of the transaction and the spirit in which it was conducted-was on a spot near Newark castle, still called "the Slain Man's Lee," where, according to tradition, the outlaw Murray was put to death, and where some bones were discovered in making a drain in 1830. The situation of this castle is extremely beautiful. It is a plain, square tower, of no great size, erected by James II.; and the royal arms are still visible on the western side. It was a hunting seat of that monarch. It now belongs to the Buccleuch family, and it is the castle referred to in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, as that where the minstrel poured forth his song "He passed where Newark's stately tower With hes tating step, at last, On the opposite side of the stream is the birthplace of Mungo Park. "The sight of Yarrow does not diminish aught of the romantic picture which the mind may have previously drawn of its local character; on the contrary, there is something in the real scene which, while it is perceptible in no smaller vale, seems rather to elevate that conception. There is something highly peculiar in Yarrow. There is more than natural silence on those hills-a more than ordinary melancholy in the sound of that stream." There can be no question, as already stated, but that the disastrous events of Philiphaugh were never recovered by Montrose. The following account of his demeanour when carried as a prisoner, after Macleod's infamous conduct, may be interesting. He was on his way to trial and to death. "1650. We are now to set down the fatal preludium of one of the noblest generals the age saw in Britain, whose unexampled achievements might form a history: were its volumes far bigger than mine, it would yet be disproportioned to the due praise of this matchless hero. But now I set down that which I was myself eye-witness of. The 7th of May, at Lovat, Montrose sat upon a little shelty horse, without a saddle, but a bundle of rags and straw, and pieces of ropes for stirrups, his feet fastened under the horse's belly, and a bit halter for a bridle. He had on a ragged old dark reddish plaid, and a cap on his head; a musketeer on each side, and his fellow-prisoners on foot after him. Thus he was conducted through the country (from Caithness); and near Inverness, upon the road under Muirtown (where he desired to alight, and called for a draught of water, being then in the first crisis of a high fever), the crowd from the town come forth to gaze: the two ministers went thereupon to comfort him. At the end of the bridge, stepping forward, an old woman, Margaret M'George, exclaimed and brawled, saying, Montrose, look above. View these ruinous houses of mine, which you occasioned to be burned down when you besieged Inverness;' yet he never altered his countenance, but, with a majesty and state beseeming him, keeped a countenance high. At the Cross was a table covered; and the magistrates treated him with wines, which he would not taste till allayed with water. The stately prisoners, his officers, stood under a forestair, and drank heartily. I remarked Colonel Hurry, a robust, tall, stately fellow, with a long cut in his cheek. All the way through the streets, he (Montrose) never lowered his aspect. The provost, Duncan Forbes, taking leave of him at the town's end, said- My Lord, I am sorry for your circumstances.' He replied-'I am sorry for being the object of your pity.' "The writer then proceeds at some length, and in nearly the same strain as Wishart in his memoirs, to describe Montrose's journey to Dundee, and afterwards to Edinburgh, where he was executed. He mentions that, at Keith, the marquis heard sermon, being on a Sunday, a tent being set up in the fields, and the minister, "Master William Kinonmond" (who seems to have been a staunch Whig) preached from the words of Samuel the prophet, to Agag the king of the Amalekites"And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women." Montrose heard him patiently revile him for a long time, but the minister continuing to indulge in the same invective, he said "Rail on," and turned his back on him (Highland Note Book). ON THE Several serPENTS ALLUDED TO IN THE SCRIPTURES; AND THE PROBABLE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THEIR FREQUENT MENTION IN THOSE INSPIRED WRITINGS. BY C. M. BURnett, Esq. No. I. THE knowledge of natural history in general, and more particularly of the living creation, at that period when our authorized version of the bible was made, it will readily be supposed, was not only limited in extent, but problematical in character. Those few facts which were received, of animals inhabiting certain localities known only to a very few, were communicated by writers from hearsay; so that much error and exaggeration necessarily followed, which error was incorporated with the writings of that period. In addition to this, the very imperfect knowledge of the anatomy and general characters of many hundreds of animals rendered it impossible that anything like a correct nomenclature could be formed. Hence arose great confusion, the same 196 On the other hand, we find various Hebrew animals being differently described by different authors. But the difficulty did not stop here; words all alike rendered by the same English for, in proportion as an animal was brought more word. This is the case with the word "adder," or less under man's control, so was it more or less which occurs five times in our translation of the Little more bible, four of which have separate words in the correctly or incorrectly described. being known at this period than what would be original to express the same animal. But from comprehended in the most general characters, the well-known fact, that the most primitive languages have fewest words, it does not seem likely such, for instance, as would be common to a whole genus or race of animals, the terms made that the same animal would have different names. use of were such as could be applied with little This also is directly contrary to the fact that advantage to any animals, with a view to their I have just before alluded to, viz., that, in many specific identity. This was a method of descrip- instances, the same word has often a greater tion so indefinite, that it necessarily excludes from latitude of meaning than is even implied by the us the possibility of speaking, in many instances, word generic. Nevertheless, while implicit reliance should not be placed in all instances where at all definitively as to the animal intended. But, if this was a difficulty that arose out of the our translators have rendered different animals for the same Hebrew word, I claim for those transstate of knowledge which existed at the time our English bible was translated, how must that diffi-lators every extenuation which is due to men livculty have been heightened if we carry ourselves ing, as they did, at a time when detailed differences in the same race of animals were scarcely, back to that period when the prophet Moses wrote the pentateuch; for his prophetic know- if at all, recognised even by naturalists; much ledge did not admit of his using any other terms less probable, therefore, was it that they should in his description of animals than those which be known to the biblical scholar. It is stated by the learned Gataker, that the were comprehensible by Hebrews then in existence. Accordingly, we find the same Hebrew word nachash is in the Hebrew a general term word is not only used in the most general common to all living creatures, in water or on sense, but it is often put for the most opposite and land, that glide along, in one or the other, with a unconnected meanings. This is remarkably the wriggling kind of motion, without the use of feet or fins. We must, therefore, suppose that, in all case with one of the most common terms used for serpent in scripture, viz., nachash, which, accord- those places where the sacred writers use this ing to Buxtorf, has three separate meanings. word, the meaning is not confined to the serpents "First, it signifies to view or observe attentively, now properly so called, but might have extended to divine or use enchantments; because in them to many others. This is a strong proof that the the augurs view attentively certain omens, &c.; Hebrews did not multiply words to express one and, under this head, it signifies to acquire know- meaning or idea; but rather it is to be inferred Moreover, if any animal ledge by experience. Secondly, it signifies brass, that they multiplied ideas which they expressed and is translated in our bibles, not only by the same word. brass, but chains, fetters, fetters of brass, and, in took its name from any particular habit observed several places, steel (see 2 Sam. xxii. 35; Job in it, and that habit was also common to another XX. 24; Ps. xviii. 34); and in one place, at least, animal, however different, the same word was filthiness or fornication (Ezek. xvi. 36). Thirdly, often employed to express both. This has been it signifies a serpent; but of what kind is not de- the cause, probably, of some of the names given termined. In Job xxvi. it seems to mean the by old writers, such as Aewv acoλog (the spotted hippopotamus. In Eccles. x. 11, the creature, of lion), by Nicander, to a particular kind of serwhatever kind, is compared to the babbler-pent that was spotted like that animal, and which "Surely the serpent will bite without enchant- leaped upon its prey in a similar manner. Thus, ment; and a babbler is no better. In Isa. xxvii. in Psalm cxi. 13, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder: the young lion and the 1, the crocodile or alligator seems particularly meant by the original; and, in Isa. Ixv. 25, the dragon shalt thou trample under feet," it is ably same creature is meant as in Gen. iii. 1; for, in contended by Bochart, Merrick, and others, that the words, and dust shall be the serpent's meat,' the psalmist throughout the verse speaks of serthere is an evident allusion to the words of Moses. pents only. Accordingly, we have the word renIn Amos ix. 3, the crocodile is evidently in- dered "asp" in the septuagint, the vulgate, the tended-Though they be hid in the bottom of Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions. the sea, thence will I call the serpent, and he shall bite them.' No person can suppose that any of the snake or serpent kind can be intended here; and we see, from the various acceptations of the word and the different senses which it bears in various places in the sacred writings, that it appears to be a sort of general term confined to no one sense*." This, then, is a very grave difficulty in the way of determining at all satisfactorily the precise species of animal intended, and which can only be partially removed by taking the word with the context. brazen; There are six or seven different Hebrew words, which occur many times in scripture, and which are severally rendered into English by the name of serpent, cockatrice, asp, adder, and viper*; but the same Hebrew word is not invariably rendered the same in our translation. The cause of this is obvious. If the same word was always rendered the same, there would be a difficulty in making sense of the passage. To obviate this, the translators have, in some instances, given a marginal rendering in addition to the text. There is no doubt that these six or seven words are intended to express six or seven different species, and the • Dr. Adam Clarke's note on Gen. iii. 1. [We cannot help probability is many more; and, if the writers of saying we consider this a most infelicitous note of Dr. A. Clarke. the scriptures are supposed to allude by these several terms to the several species of serpents • There is also another called the fiery serpent. known in that part of the world in which the writers dwelt, it is probable that, with our present knowledge of natural history, some of the animals may be specified with tolerable precision. Not so, however, all of them. 1. Tzepho, tzephuon, or tziphoni, is rendered "cockatrice" in the text, as it occurs in Isa. xi. 8, xiv. 29, lix. 5; and Jer. viii. 17; but in the only other place where it is found-Prov. xxiii. 32-it is rendered "adder." There seems little doubt that serpents, having different degrees of power and malignity, were employed by God to correct man for sin. This is evident from Isaiah: "And the sucking-child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den (xi. 8): "Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent" (xiv. 29). Here one animal more venomous than the other is pointed to; but there is not the smallest reason why the word "cockatrice" should be used, for no such serpent is described by naturalists of late years; and those authors who formerly indulged in marvellous accounts of such an animal have so outwitted themselves by their exaggerated statements, that no child can now read them and be credulous enough to believe their truth. I need not repeat such accounts in this place, but there is little doubt they had their origin in fabulous history. The difficulty of identifying this serpent with any known species is very great: I do not believe there is any clew to it; and, though much praise is due to Mr. Taylor for his admirable fragment on this subject, ap pended to Calmet, yet I do not incline with him to the belief that it was the naja, or coluber naia of Linnæus. The greater probability is, that the three or four several words thus rendered "cockatrice," were all put to represent separate species; and, seeing the great doubt that surrounds their true meaning, it would have been better had they appeared in our bible in the original, like "behemoth" and others. II. The word rendered "serpent" (nachash) occurs so often in scripture, and appears to be a word of so wide an extent of meaning, that, as I have remarked above, it is sometimes translated "chains" or" fetters," and, in one place, "filthiness*." That it is not confined to the serpents strictly so called, is clear from Isaiah, where one of the lizard tribe is mentioned: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword, shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isa. xxvii. 1)t. There is, therefore, little possibility of speaking with any thing like specific correctness, where this word occurs, unless it is very much helped by the con text. III. Shephiphon, which occurs only at Gen. xlix. 17 ("Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward") there seems little doubt is the coluber cerastes of Linnæus, a true viper, remarkable for a small pointed horn on There is a great propriety in this meaning being expressed by the word in question, as, we think, could easily be shown.ED. + See my paper on Leviathan, in the 10th vol. of the Church of England Magazine. each eyebrow. It is of a greyish colour, and hides itself in the sand in Egypt, Lybia, and around those countries. It might be asked why was this, a comparatively insignificant serpent, mentioned particularly by name, while probably hundreds of other varieties are not alluded to? The answer is, that this particular viper was probably as common and as troublesome as any in those countries where it is found, and where the scene of the scriptures is so often laid: it had, consequently, received a name in the Hebrew language, while many others had not. IV. The Pethen occurs at Psa. lviii. 4, xci. 13; Deut. xxxii. 33; Job. xx. 14, 16; and Isa. xi. 8. This is supposed to be the asp of ancient writers; and there is considerable authority for believing that the coluber haje of Linnæus is the animal here intended. It is extremely poisonous, and was the animal with which the jugglers of Egypt had so much to do. We shall have occasion to allude to some of these performances in another place. It was from the arts practised upon this animal that those who were supposed to be possessed with a spirit of divination were styled IIvowves (pythones). All the great serpents of Africa and India belong to this tribe, called the "pythons ;" and it is the opinion of Cuvier that there is not any large boa, properly so styled, belonging to the eastern world. V. The word achsub is found only at Psalm cxl. 3, where it is rendered "adder." The Chaldee paraphrasts render the word acchabis, which we translate elsewhere "spider." Harris says it is derived from a word which signifies to bend back on itself; they may, therefore, have understood it to mean the tarantula. But no clew is given, by examining the root of this word, as to the particular animal alluded to, as there are many serpents which bend themselves back. VI. The ephoeh is, in our translation, given "viper." It occurs at Job. xx. 16; Isa. xxx. 6, lix. 5. This is the animal so called; and it is probable one of these species is intended in Isa. lix. 5, where the cockatrice is substituted. These are the animals devoured by the serpent-eaters. They are generally from one to three or four feet long, and their colour varies according to the sand, the earth, or the rock on which they are found; a circumstance mentioned by Pliny. VII. The animals called "fiery serpents," in our bible, are called serapim in the Hebrew. This was the serpent that bit the Israelites in the wilderness. It is mentioned in Num. xxi. 6, 8; Deut. viii. 15; Isa. xiv. 29. and xxx. 6. It is supposed that the animal took its name from the burning sensation which its bite occasioned; but, though almost all the old writers upon the oriental countries make mention of the very irritating and venomous character of the serpents in the country around the Red sea, yet the animal is not precisely determined. These are the several names used to designate certain animals of the serpent kind alluded to in scripture. I shall next endeavour to shew what were the probable circumstances which caused them to be so frequently referred to in those writings. REMARKABLE DAYS. No. VI. MICHAELMAS DAY.-SEPT. 29. THIS day derives its name from the archangel Michael, for whose ministry and that of the other angels we offer special thanks to God. The service which angels are to perform towards the redeemed church of Christ (Heb. i. 14) affords a delightful subject of meditation, and leads onwards our thoughts to that time when we shall be like the angels in the kingdom of God. It has long been a custom on or about Michaelmas day to elect the magistrates and other officers of cities and corporations. The reason assigned for this by some writers (see Brand's Popular Antiquities), that, as it is the feast of angels, who are tutelar or guardian spirits, it was therefore thought fitting at this time to appoint those who are civil guardians of the peace of men, appears more fanciful than reasonable. by St. Patrick through the assistance of the arch- Biography. JOHN VISCOUNT LONSDALE. IN retirement, sir John was still a useful mem- Nor was this a point of small consequence in the character of sir John. Many a magistrate bears the sword of justice in vain, from a vain desire of a flimsy popularity, or an anxiety to ingratiate himself in the favour of a particular party. An upright, fearless, conscientious magistracy must ever be a terror to evil doers, and conse The usage of eating a roast goose for dinner at Michaelmas, which many observe on this day according to the old style, is most ancient. There is a story current that queen Elizabeth was eating goose on Michaelmas day when she received the news of the defeat of the Spanish armada, and that ever after, in consequence, she on that day dined on a goose. But this merely shows that the custom prevailed at that time, and in no respect that it was the origin of it. In fact, there is proof that it existed at least a century before. For (see Brand) in 1470 we find that John de la Hay was bound to William Barnaby, lord of Lastres, in the county of Hereford, for one parcel of the land of that demesne, to render twenty pence a year, and one goose fit for the lord's dinner on the feast of St. Michael the archangel, with suit of court and other services. Perhaps the simple fact was that, as stub-quently an object of hatred. Referring to the ble geese are about this time in highest perfection, clamour raised against the country magistracy, by they naturally formed a part of the banquet at evil-disposed, revolutionary-minded men in our chief festivals then occurring, and hence the cus-own times, it has been well observed-" Of course tom has descended. such a class as this (i. e. the magistracy) became There are other usages locally prevalent on this peculiarly obnoxious to the republican and the day, some of which I may mention. Martin, in his democrat, to the ruthless assailant of the rights of description of the western islands of Scotland, says property and of individuals, and the implacable of the inhabitants of Skye, "They observe the enemy of law and of order. They began by atfestivals of Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, and tacking the unpaid magistracy of the country, that of St. Michael's. Upon the latter they have who were composed almost entirely of country a cavalcade in each parish; and several families gentlemen: they charged them with ignorance of bake the cake called St. Michael's bannock." their duties, or with a mal-administration of them: Of this bannock we have a more particular de- they held them up to the people, as being partial, scription in Macauley's History of St. Kilda. "It and as denying justice-charges in not one of was," we are told "till of late, an universal custom which, as they well knew, was there a single among the islanders, on Michaelmas day, to pre-word of truth; but that was of little consequence pare in every family a loaf or cake of bread, enormously large, and compounded of different ingredients. This cake belonged to the archangel, and had its name from him. Every one in each family, whether strangers or domestics, had his portion of this kind of shew-bread, and had of course some title to the friendship and protection of Michael." "In Ireland," we learn from the same author, "a sheep was killed in every family that could afford one, on the same anniversary; and it was ordained by law that a part of it should be given to the poor. This was done in that kingdom to perpetuate the memory of a miracle wrought there to the persons who brought them forward: their object was sufficiently gained, if they could only find a few individuals ignorant and deluded enough to give credence to them: they instilled the poison into their minds, and left it there to work". Though in bad health, which he attributed to excess of exercise in his youth, an imprudence which lays the foundation of many disorders, sir John uniformly enjoyed a composure of mind, the result of his temperate habits. When he presided at his table, he was hospitable, but not luxurious; encouraging the learned and the good, but "Sketches of country Life." Rivingtons, 1840. banishing with indignation the flatterer, the calumniator, and the ministers of unlawful pleasures. He seems, however, to have extended his ideas of temperance too far, when he intimates his desire of confining himself to a vegetable diet. "The herds and flocks," he says, "should live secure for me no fish nor feathered fowl should lose its life to support me: I would have nature undisturbed in the order and course that Providence hath appointed it." Surely the use of animal food is not a disturbance of that order and course. It cannot, in fact, be so, sanctioned as it is by divine example and the highest scriptural authority nay, on a lower principle, it cannot be so from the formation of the human frame. Had man been prohibited the uses of animal food, why should he have all the properties of one formed to make use of it? When he recommends the duty of sobriety, he enforces the recommendation by his own resolution: "Wine shall never dispossess my reason of its dwelling, assigned it by God who gave it me. I will never expose myself to his anger, nor to a sober man's scorn upon that account. As I am a man, I know I am of the most excellent and perfect rank of creatures that this little earth is replenished with; and I will endeavour not to degrade myself into an equality with such as we esteem most sordid." and whatever else relates to the common advantages of life: ill ones deprave the mind, and have in all those respects a quite contrary effect." He then proceeds, with great diffidence and modesty, to recommend to his son those books which he thought most worthy of his perusal, and most useful to him in that elevated station which he was to fill in the world. On May 28th, 1696, sir John was advanced to the peerage, by the title of viscount Lonsdale and baron Lowther. In 1699, he was made lord privy seal; and, when, through ill health, he was obliged to retire from business, the king would not permit him to resign the seal, but ordered him to take it into the country with him. In July, 1700, sir John was appointed one of the lords justices during the king's absence in Holland. But on the tenth of that month he departed this life, at the age of forty-five years: so short was the time allotted to him by Providence. Short, however, as that time was, he employed it in the practice of virtue, in the pursuit of every thing good and praiseworthy. Hence he was esteemed and beloved by the king, whom he faithfully served, endeared to his family, and respected by all good men. He enjoyed as great a portion of happiness as can fall to the lot of humanity. He has acknowledged this in the conOf pride he entertained the most sovereign clusion of his advice to his son. The language of contempt, while he exhibited the pattern of a exalted piety and humble gratitude in which he meek and humble spirit. He has judiciously ob- expresses his sentiments upon this occasion cannot served, that a man of birth and quality has this be sufficiently admired. "It is not to be imapeculiar advantage: "as he needs not the subter-gined that perfect uninterrupted happiness can be fuge of pride to procure him esteem and respect, so does humility and courtesy doubly add to the lustre of his birth and race." Next to his friends, in the selection of whom he was very exact, his books were the greatest comforts of his life. His eldest son, standing near him while he was writing in his library, is thus animated to the attainment of that knowledge which is treasured up in the volumes of ancient and modern literature. "What a pleasure is it one day to be a judge of the reasonableness and affection of what I am doing, and at the same time seeing round me whatever the world has produced most worth knowing! When I have at hand all that philosophers, divines, historians, poets, mathematicians, architects, &c., understood, digested into the best method and order, communicative of whatever I am most desirous to know, without any constraint upon me, ready to be laid by without offence when weary of them, and to be resumed without ceremony, what would a man give for so easy a friend? And here you have collected together the most excellent of all mortals in all ages, of all countries, without being troubled with either their impertinence, insolence, affectation, moroseness, or pride, the common failings of all great and learned men. But as the use of well-chosen books is the most excellent benefit of any thing that it hath pleased God to bestow upon the children of men, so an ill choice of them is, in the opposite extreme, the most pernicious mischief that can be. Good books instruct us in our duty toward God, toward man, and to ourselves: they form the mind to just and proper thoughts, make us good servants to God, good subjects, and useful to the state both as governors and servants, the portion of this life: that is reserved for another, for those on whom it shall please the Almighty Lord God to bestow it; but he may arrive at that which, praised be that great God, is my • "The Christian gentieman is an economist of time; and, therefore, particularly diligent that his previous hours of literary leisure be not misemployed. The frivolities which load are little suited to his taste; novelties, merely as such, engage the tables of the idle, so distinctive a mark of the present age, not his attention; nor, above all, does he ever knowingly permit his eye to fall on what may shock, or in any way disturb the feelings. And, as he would fence his own principles from unnecessary exposure, so is he equally scrupulous in guarding the principles of those who may come within his privacy. Thus he thinks it a sort of treachery to allow upon his shelves works of an evil or injurious tendency. It may not be possible, indeed, to banish, especially from a numerous collection, all of which he does not approve; for, such is the perversity of the human mind, that erroneous opinions and false sentiments will ever abound; but he makes it a point of conscience to prohibit all that pestilent, but, alas! too numerous, class of writers, who, by putting light for darkness and darkness for light" (Isa. v. 20), by making vice attractive, and religion and virtue repulsive, corrupt the hearts of the young and unwary. No wit, no prescription, no general applause, will procure his sufferance of those whom he is conscious the almighty Censor would indignantly condemn. Indeed, the library of the Christian gentleman is a sort of consecrated bound where, though all may not wear an equally religious aspect, yet innocence may walk secure from injury, and the purest delicacy without risk of offence. Awful is the responsibility, tremendous will be the doom, of those who have abused the talents committed to them, to pampering the appetites, stimulating the passions, undermining the morals, or shaking the faith of their fellows. Who can limit the evil which an able and seductive writer may convey perhaps to the latest generations? Surely his final sentence will be fearfully aggravated by the curses of those whom he has helped to corrupt unceasingly echoing through a long eternity! "A judicious selection, then, from the works of the good, the learned, and the wise, the Christian gentleman bequeaths as a valuable heir-loom to his descendants; and, if any of them should be able to say that to this care they are indebted for benefit they have gained, or evil avoided, may not the voice thereof ascend and gladden his spirit even beyond the sphere of mortal intelligence?" (a) (a) "The Christian Gentleman's Daily Walk;" by sir Archibald Edmonstone, bart, London: Burns. |