enough, nor leisure enough, to make the golden calf, in the wilderness.-See the admirable refutation of Lettres de quelques Juifs, vol. i. p. 19, &c. By a blunder the most truly ridiculous, this lying writer and miserable critic collects, that the important Book of Samuel was not written until after the time of "Alexander the Great ;" from the Witch of Endor, who, in the Vulgate Latin verfion of 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. is described as "habens pythonem.”—“ But it is ftrange," fays Voltaire, "how this word python (which is Greek) could be known to the Jews fo early as the time of SaulIt must therefore have been after they began to have commerce with the Greeks.” very Python, it is true, is Greek; wuwv fignifying "corruption ;" and was appropriated to the Dragon, who was the grand fymbol of divination among the Greeks See Acts xvi. 16, and compare Rev. xii. 9. -But the Hebrew original differs widely both in found and sense; the Witch being a votary of nya, Baalath Aub," Mif trefs trefs of Destruction,”—a title of Diana, or the infernal Hecate, the malignant Intelligence refiding in the Moon, who was styled "Queen of the Heavens" by the Phanician and Canaanitish nations, as we learn from Jerem. xliv. 17; as the "deftroying" Intelligence, Apollo, refiding in the Sun, was styled "Abaddon," or Aubadon, "Lord of Deftruction ;" and Beelzebul, by the Jews, "Mafter of the Heavens or Celeflial Manfions," as noticed in the First Part; and alfo Moloch, "King," by the Canaanites, 2 Kings xviii. 34. and xix. 13. And by a miracle the most tremendous, not a phantom or illufion was raised, but the ghost of the venerable Prophet-to the mutual terror and dismay of the Witch and Saul" And the woman faw Samuel, and fhe cried with a loud voice," &c. and defcribed him as "a God afcending from the earth "—“ And Saul knew that it was Samuel himself, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself; "-(for fo may the original paffages, 11-14, be more cor rectly tranflated.)—And the dreadful Intelligence -"To-morrow shalt thou and thy fons be with me" in Hades, fo exactly verified at the fatal battle of Gilboa, proves that it could be no other than Samuel himfelf afcending in glory, when thus "provoked" by the idolatrous fuperftition of Saul;-not "difquieted," as incorrectly rendered in our verfion, (See Farmar on Miracles, p. 492.)-to denounce his fate. Such is the Hebrew critic, (as he sometimes affects to be,) who unguardedly made the following avowal, of which the Lettres de quelques Juifs, vol. ii. p. 461, have not failed to take the most ludicrous advantage: 66 J'ai pris un Rabbin pour m'enseigner L'HEBREU, je n'ai jamais peu l'apprendre." "I engaged a Jewish Rabbi to teach me Hebrew; but I have never been able to learn it." VII. Aping his mafter, Paine, in like manner, has difcovered that the Book of Job was originally written in Greek, by fome fome heathen philofopher, of late date, and thence tranflated into Hebrew ; from the Greek names of the conftellations, Pleiades, Orion and Arcturus," adopted from the Septuagint verfion, by our English translation, in two remarkable paffages of Job, ix. 9. and xxxviii. 32.-not knowing, in the extent and compafs of his ignorance, that the original terms in Hebrew are as unlike in found as in sense (ƒ) Aish" denoting Urfa Major; "Chi mah," (f) 1. Aib, in Hebrew, fignifies " an assemblage," and is admirably appropriated, according to Aben Ezra, &c. to the conftellation of Urfa Major, the moft remarkable in the whole heavens-and, from its vicinity to the North Pole, fuppofed to prefide over the rigorous frofts of Winter. 2. Chefil, fignifies "benumbed" or torpid with cold; expreffive of the Autumnal conftellation of Scorpio, at the Sun's entrance into which the cold weather begins, and the contractions of the Earth's bofom.Hence the Jewish month Chifleu, correfponding to part of November. 3. Chimah, fignifies "charming;" admirably expreffive of the delightful feafon of Spring, when the Earth mah," Taurus; and "Chefil," Scorpio: while the fourth conftellation, "Mazaroth," left, through ignorance of its meaning, untranflated by the Septuagint and our English tranflation, is judiciously rendered by Suidas, in his fecond fignification of Ma spw" the Dog-ftar" or Sirius; where Μαζερωθ the Hebrew or Egyptian termination, (as in Naboth, or Thoth, Behemoth, &c.) marks his utter ignorance of the Greek tongue alfo. These Earth expands her bofom to the Sun's genial heat, when entering into Taurus, in April (quafi Aperilis.) "Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus; et adverfo cedens Canis occidit aftro." "When the White Bull with gilded horns opens the year; And fets (heliacally,) from the advancing Virgil. This is finely expreffive of the relative pofitions of Taurus and Sirius on the celeftial fphere; the Bull feemingly retreating backwards, as the Sun advances forwards in the zodiac, as if to avoid the fury of the Dog-ftar coming forward to face the Bull. 4. Mazaroth, |