Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

AUR

natural information. Accustomed to regulate by these monitors their rural occupations, the shepherd and the husbandman (then the whole of mankind) were led, by the most excusable association of ideas, to consult the same advisers in the few other concerns of life that fell to their lot: but on the foundation laid by superstition, imposture assuredly raised a fantastic structure.

From how many unnecessary fears, from what days and nights of unfounded anxiety and false alarm, has not natural and experimental philosophy delivered mankind!

[blocks in formation]

luminous wreaths, like the curling flames that meet at the top of an oven.

Besides this variable, undulating light in the north, there is sometimes seen a broad permanent arch from 15 to 20 wide, rising from the magnetic In some instances, it east, and passing near the zenith at right angles to the direction of the streamers. has been observed to have a slow motion, and to throw out small coruscations to the north. It breaks up gradually and by piecemeal, sometimes leaving faint yellow clouds occupying the place of it.

The absolute height of this arch, on account of its definiteness and permanency, is more easily computed than that of the other lights. It has been estimated at from 50 to 70 miles above the surface The height of other parts of an auroIt has been of the earth. ra borealis is much more uncertain. differently estimated by different persons. Some have supposed it to be nearly 1000 miles, while others have made it only, 50 or 100. The latest and best observations have reduced it to about 150. The duration of this light is generally in proporSometimes it contion to its intensity and extent.

AUGUST. The eighth month, from Augustus, Lat: the term implies majestic or grand, and was first given to Octavius, the Roman emperor, he being named Augustus Caesar in consequence of his victories. This month was therefore dedicated to his honor, and still goes by his name. This is the harvest month in this and most other The harvest, temperate European countries. chiefly, it should be observed, the wheat harvest, used almost universally to be finished by a feast called harvest-home, when for a few hours the mas-tinues only for a few minutes. It is frequently ter and the servant was forgotten, and both mingled observed in a greater or less degree during most of in social companionship: modern manners have, the night; and, in some instances, it has lasted sevhowever, a good deal contracted such intercourse; eral days, and even a week, without interruption. One of the most remarkable circumstances atand although harvest home be not quite abolished in agricultural districts, we fear it is greatly on the wane. tending this phenomenon, is that it sometimes does Many fruits, among which may be named the ap- not appear for many years together. It is but a pricot, are now fully ripe; plums, peaches, and little more than a century since it has been so frenectarines may now also be obtained. Of flowers quent and conspicuous as to attract any consideraand flowering shrubs, natives of foreign climes, ble attention. No appropriate name was given to many may now be seen of great beauty; such are it by the ancient philosophers, and no very distinct African marygolds China asters, persicarias, chrys- account of it is to be found among their writings. anthemums, dahlias; the clematis, or virgin's bower, In the Book of Job, we read, "Men see not the adorns the cottage porch. Geraniums and hy-bright light which is in the clouds, but the wind drangeas are now also in their greatest glory; so also is the passion flower.

Our song-birds, the thrush, the lark, and redbreast chiefly excepted, are for the most part silent during this month; some of the migratory birds assemble in flocks previously to their departure.

zon.

AURORA BOREALIS. The aurora borealis is one of the most striking and splendid spectacles in the heavens. In the temperate latitudes it appears as a faint, beautiful, yellow light, like the morning or evening twilight. It generally rises from a kind of dark cloud, or collection of vapors, which runs along from the north to the east and west, through 50, 100°, and sometimes 150°, with an even edge, elevated 15° or 20° above the horiSometimes it is perpetually changing its altitude, and seems to roll like the sea in a storm. The luminous matter immediately above this cloud is pretty steady and uniform. But from this there are streams that dart up toward the zenith with great rapidity. These are suddenly extinguished and renewed, and continually shift their places; sometimes they rise only a few degrees and with a faint light, at other times they mount in a broad and bright beam to the zenith. Ordinarily the streams do not rise more than 50 or 60°. They often resemble the tail of a comet, being more con densed at the point from which they issue, and growing fainter as they ascend. Sometimes they extend to the zenith, forming a beautiful canopy of

passeth and cleanseth them. Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty." The original word here rendered fair weather, answers to the Latin word aurum, which is used figuratively for almost any thing of a bright, gold color, and especially for the light of the sun and other celestial phenomena. It will certainly bear to be rendered a yellow light, as well as fair weather; and considered as referring to the aurora borealis, it agrees much better with the succeeding part of the verse, "with God is terrible majesty." Fair weather is rather emblematical of mildness and benignity than of terror, and with what propriety can it be said to come from the north? We do not know that there are any meteorological appearances in Oriental countries to warrant this construction.

It is very surprising, that after the revival of letters, and after the spirit of observation and inquiry had begun to be awakened, we meet with no record of any such phenomenon, till about two centuries and a half ago. The earliest account, in English, relates to one that appeared in 1560. From this time they happened frequently for about ten years. For the next forty years there are none on record. From 1620, for two or three years there were several remarkable ones, and then no more for eighty years. This brings us down to the commencement of the eighteenth century, during which they have appeared at irregular intervals.

That the aurora borealis is not a recent, temporary light, but is to be referred to permanent causes

[ocr errors]

foxes in the confines of the icy sea, are often overtaken in their course by these northern lights. Their dogs are then so much frightened that they will not move, but lie obstinately on the ground till the noise has passed.

The remarkable noise which, in this account, is said to attend the aurora borealis, deserves particular attention. It has been noticed by others, particularly by persons at Hudson's Bay, and by the Greenland whale-fishers. Something of the kind has been perceived also in lower latitudes. Mr. Cavallo declares that he has repeatedly heard a crackling sound, proceeding from an aurora. Mr. Nairne, the electrician, states with great confidence that, at a time when the northern lights were very remarkable in England, they were attended with a hissing or whizzing sound. Dr. Belknap, in his account of these lights as they appeared in NewHampshire in 1719, says, “In a calm night, and in the intervals between the gentle flaws of wind, an attentive ear, in a retired situation, may perceive it to be accompanied by a sound like that made by a silk handkerchief rubbed along the edge by a quick motion of the thumb and finger."

and the physical constitution of our globe and its atmosphere, is rendered the more probable from the constancy and very great splendor with which it presents itself to the benighted inhabitants of the polar regions. The account which we have given, it is to be recollected, is borrowed principally from observations that were made in the more cultivated parts of Europe, where it is not only of rare occurrence, but, for the most part, incomplete, feeble, and imperfect. As we approach the polar circle we are greeted with this light almost as regularly as with the light of the milky way, and it is welcomed as gladly as that of the moon. Maupertuis, who, with several others, went to measure an arc of the meridian on the confines of the frigid zone, continued to prosecute his nice and difficult work by the aid of this light, long after the sun had left him. He says, that it is sufficient, together with the light of the heavenly bodies, for most of the occasions of life. "No sooner are the short days closed," he continues, "than fires of a thousand figures and colors light the sky, as if intended to make up for the absence of the sun. These lights are perpetually varying. Sometimes they begin in the form of a great scarf of bright light, with its extremities upon the horizon, In confirmation of the same point, and in proof which, with a motion resembling that of a fishing- of the near approach of these lights to the surface net, glides swiftly up the sky, preserving a direction of the earth, we will here state what appeared in a nearly perpendicular to the meridian; and com- newspaper a few years ago, attested by three very monly, after these preludes, all the lights unite at respectable persons in Vermont. We are here inthe zenith, and form the top of the crown. The formed, that an aurora borealis appeared at Hartmotion of these meteors is commonly that of two ford, in that state, with its base elevated but a few standards waving in the air, and the different tints degrees above the horizon, lying in a regular line, of their light give them the appearance of so many very bright, and not much wider than the rainbow; streamers of changeable silk." "I saw," says the above this, in several places, streams shot up tosame observer, "a phenomenon of this kind that, in wards the zenith, as usual. "We had not viewed the midst of all the wonders to which I was now it long," they continue, "before we observed the every day accustomed, excited my admiration. To eastern part of it had settled so low, as actually to the south a great space of sky appeared, tinged with be between us and the highland on the north side so lively a red, that the constellation of Orion look-of White River, at the distance from us, perhaps, ed as if it had been dipped in blood. This light, which was at first stationary, soon moved, and, changing into other colors, violet, and blue, settled into a dome, the top of which stood a little to the southwest of the zenith. In this country, where there are lights of so many different colors, I never saw but two, that were red, and such are always taken for presages of some great misfortune."

of about one mile and a half. The meteor, we apprehended, must have been nearly perpendicular to White River, and distant about half a mile."

We have now mentioned the principal phenomena respecting these lights as they show themselves in this hemisphere. We know very little of those which appear about the south pole. They presented themselves to Captain Cook, when he had proceeded as far as latitude 58°. They consisted of long columns of a clear white light, shooting up from the horizon to the eastward, almost to the zenith, and gradually spreading over the whole southern part of the sky. These columns were sometimes bent sideways at their upper extremities, and though in most respects similar to the northern lights, yet they differed from them in being always of a whitish color.

In the northern districts of Siberia, according to the description of Gmelin, cited and translated by Dr. Blagden, the aurora is observed to begin with single bright pillars, rising in the north, and almost at the same time in the northeast; which, gradually increasing, comprehend a large space of the heavens, rush about from place to place with incredible velocity, and finally almost cover the whole sky up to the zenith, and produce an appearance as if a vast tent was expanded in the heavens, glittering with The most plausible theory of the aurora borealis, gold, rubies, and sapphire. A more beautiful spec- seems to be that which gives to the northern and tacle cannot be painted. But, whoever should see southern lights an electrical origin. The appearsuch a northern light for the first time, could not ance of the light itself is very similar to that which behold it without terror. For, however fine the is produced by sending the electric fluid through illumination may be, it is attended, as I have learned a portion of air rarefied to the same degree as that from the relation of many persons, with such a his- in the upper regions of the atmosphere. The rasing, crackling, and rushing noise through the air, pidity of the motions that are observed in the light as if the largest fireworks were playing off. To and beautiful streams that play from the horizon to describe what they then hear, they make use of au the zenith, and dart through this space in a few expression, which signifies "the raging host is pass-seconds, answers to no power with which we are ing." The hunters who pursue the white and blue acquainted so well as to electricity.

AUTOMATON. A self-moving engine, more particularly the figure of any animal having the principle of motion within itself by means of wheels, springs, and weights; those in the figure of a man are called androides, as the mechanical chess-player, &c; those of animals are properly called automata. It is said that Archytas of Tarentuin, 400 years before Christ, made a wooden pigeon that could fly; and that Archimedes made similar automata. Regiomontanus made a wooden eagle, that flew forth from the city, met the emperor, saluted him, and returned; also an iron fly, which flew out of his hand at a feast, and returned again, after flying about the room. Dr. Hooke made the model of a flying chariot, capable of supporting itself in the air. M. Vaucanson made a figure that played on the flute; also a duck capable of eating, drinking, and imitating exactly the voice of a natural one; and, what is still more surprising, the food it swallowed was evacuated in a digested state; also the wings, viscera, and bones were formed so as strongly to resemble those of a living duck. M. le Droz, of la Chaux de Fonds, presented a clock to the king of Spain, which had, among other curiosities, a sheep that made a bleating noise, and a dog watching a basket, that snarled and barked when any one offered to take it away.

AVALANCHES. The name given to those immense masses of snow which are precipitated from the Alps, and which often overwhelm whole villages in their destructive course. When the snow begins to melt by the heat of summer, the water which is produced runs below, and destroys the adhesion between the snow and the earth, and a new snow sometimes falling upon the older mass, increases its weight and determines its fall. These masses are often detached by the impulse of the wind; and the inhabitants of the Alps are so convinced that the least sound will produce their fall, that they take off the bells from their mules; and when the avalanches are too slow in falling at pla

[ocr errors]

B

ces where they are precipitated annually, the inhabitants endeavor to accelerate their fall by the report of their muskets. These avalanches sometimes occasion dreadful hurricanes. In the winter of 1769, 1770, an avalanche, produced by the immense quantity of snow which had fallen, rolled down upon the pastures on the mountain of Sixt in the Alps. The impulse which was given to the air by the fall of this huge mass was so dreadful, that it levelled with the ground a forest of beeches and firs, which covered the declivity of the mountain, stopped the course of the river Gipre, which runs through the subjacent valley, and overthrew a number of trees and barns on the opposite shore of the stream.

AXIOM. In philosophy, is such a plain self-evident, and received notion, that it cannot be made more plain and evident by demonstration; because it is itself better known than any thing that can be brought to prove it: as, that nothing can act where it is not; that a thing cannot be, and not be, at the same time; that the whole is greater than a part thereof; and that from nothing, nothing can arise. By axioms, called also maxims, are understood all common notions of the mind, whose evidence is so clear and forcible, that a man cannot deny them, without renouncing common sense and natural reason.

The rule whereby to know an axiom, is this: whatever proposition expresses the immediate clear comparison of two ideas, without the help of a third, is an axiom. But if the truth does not appear from the immediate comparison of two ideas, it is no axiom.

AXIS. In geometry, the straight line in a plane figure, about which it revolves, to produce or generate a solid: thus, if a semicircle be moved round its diameter at rest, it will generate a sphere, the axis of which is the diameter.

of Baal and Astarte or Astaroth.

B. Is the second letter, and the first articula- | immodest actions were committed in the festivals tion, or consonant, in the English, as in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and most alphabets. In the Ethiopic, it is the ninth letter, and its shape is that of a hut. Perhaps from this or other like figure, it received its Hebrew name, beth, a house.

BAAL, OR BEL. A god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites. Baal and Astaroth are commonly mentioned together; as it is believed, that Astaroth denotes the moon, we conclude with apparent reason, that Baal represents the sun. The name Baal is used in a generical sense, for the superior god of the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and Moabites. Baal is the most ancient god of the Canaanites, and, perhaps, of the East. The Hebrews too often imitated the idolatry of the Canaanites, in adoring Baal: they offered human sacrifices to him, they erected altars to him in the groves, on high places, on the terraces of houses. Baal had priests and prophets consecrated to his service. Many infamous and

[ocr errors]

Some learned men have asserted, that the Baal of Phoenicia was the Saturn of Greece and Rome; and indeed there was great conformity between the services and sacrifices offered to Saturn, and what the scriptures relate of the sacrifices offered to Baal. Others are of opinion, that Baal was the Phonician (or Tyrian) Hercules, a god of great antiquity in Phoenicia; perhaps, in fact, this opinion is not inconsistent with the other: but it is generally concluded, that Baal was the sun; and on this supposition, all the characters of this god which we find in scripture may be easily explained.

The great luminary was adored over all the East and is the most ancient deity whose worship is acknowledged among the Heathen. The Greeks paid divine honors to men; they spread their false religion among the Romans, and almost throughout Europe; but they received their rites from Egypt, as Egypt had received them from the East:

tices. Others have thought that as Baal is a general name signifying Lord, Peor may be the name of some great prince deified after his death. Mede supposes, that Peor being the name of a mountain in the country of Moab, on which the temple of Baal was built, Baal-peor may be only another name of that deity, taken from the situation of his temple; as Jupiter is styled Olympus, from his temple built on Mount Olympus. Selden, who is of this opinion, conjectures hikewise, that Baal-peor is the same with Pluto; which he grounds upon these words of the Psalmist, Psal. cvi. They join

accordingly, therefore, as the Eastern people adored the stars and elements, the Egyptians, though afterwards so lavish of their worship to men, to animals, and to things insensible, yet in the beginning, they had no other deities than the heavens, the stars, and the elements, whose worship they transmitted to their connexions. Their religion, which both appears to be, and really is, monstrous and ridiculous, became so, principally, by their endeavors to blend the theology of the Greeks with their own. At last, however, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, ashamed of such extravagant religion, of their vicious and mortal gods, bethought them-ed themselves unto Baal-peor, and eat the offerings selves of reviving the principles of the ancients; and under names of great pomp, and personages of great mystery, they professed to mean nothing more than Nature, the mother of all things.

But it is impossible to excuse the absurdities of idolatry, by whatever colors it may be decorated, or under whatever pretences it may be concealed. The worship of a star or of an cleinent, is no more reasonable than the worship of any other creature; and if the later Heathen, instead of making vicious and corrupt men and women the objects of adoration, had uniformly chosen persons venerable for their innocence and virtue, they might, indeed, have been condemned for worshipping fellow mortals, but they would have avoided the reproach of having deified sin and lewdness.

Those who held that the stars were themselves pure intelligences, or who believed them to be, at least, animated and directed by angelic residents, were less inexcusable. Supposing this to be true, they saw nothing in Nature more perfect than the sun, the planets, and the stars: they were blamable, because they did not rise from the creature to the Creator, but deprived God of the honor exclusively due to him, by paying that honor to the productions of his power: nevertheless, by worshipping intelligences superior to mankind, they avoided the deification of weakness, and unworthiness.

The Hebrews sometimes called the sun BaalShemesh; Baal the sun. Manasseh adored Baal, planted groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven. Josiah, desirous to repair the evil introduced by Manasseh, put to death "the idolatrous priests that burnt incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. He commanded all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven, to be brought forth out of the temple. He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.

Human victims were offered to Baal, as likewise they were to the sun. The Persian Mithra (who is also the sun) was honored with like sacrifices. Appollo sometimes required such victims. Jeremiah reproaches the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalein, with building the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal.”

BAAL-PEOR. An idol of the Moabites and Midianites. We are told, that Israel joined himself to Baal-peor, and that Solomon erected an altar to this idol upon the Mount of Olives. Baalpeor has been supposed a Priapus, and that the worship of him consisted in the most obscene prac

of the dead; though by the offerings of the dead, in this passage, may be only meant sacrifices made to idols, who are very properly called the dead, in contradistinction to the true, who is justly and emphatically styled the living, God.

BABEL, TOWER OF. It is not, in the least, to be doubted, that Noah and his family, for some years after the flood, continued to reside in the neighborhood of the mountains of Armenia, where the ark had rested. But his descendants, in course of time, having a numerous progeny, the greater part of them quitted this place, and, directing their course eastward, came at length to the plains of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates. Attracted by the convenience of its situation, and the natural fertility of the soil, they resolved not to proceed any further, but to make this their fixed place of residence. Having formed this resolution, in order to render themselves famous to future generations, they determined to erect a city, and in the city a building of such stupendous height as should be the wonder of the world. Their principal motives in doing this, were, it is supposed, to keep themselves together, in one body, that by their mutual strength and councils, as the world increased, they might bring others under their subjection, and thereby become masters of the universe.

The idea of the intended tower gave them the most singular satisfaction, and the novelty of the design induced them to enter upon its construction with the greatest alacrity. One inconvenience, however, arose, of which they were not at first apprised, namely, there being no stone in the country with which to build it. But this defect was soon supplied by the nature of the soil, which being clayey, they soon converted into bricks, and cemented them together with a pitchy substance, called bitumen, the country producing that article in great abundance. As the artificers were numerous, the work was carried on with great expedition, and in a short time the walls were raised to a prodigious height. But the Almighty being dissatisfied withr their proceedings, thought proper to interpose, and totally put an end to their ambitious project; so that the first of their vanity became only a monument of their folly and weakness.

Though the descendants of Noah were at this time exceedingly numerous, yet they spoke the same language.-In order, therefore, to render their understanding ineffectual, and to lessen the towering hopes of these aspiring mortals, the Almighty formed the resolution of confounding their language. In consequence of this, a universal jargon took place, and the different dialects caused such a distraction

of thought, that incapable of understanding or making known to each other their ideas, they were thrown into the utmost disorder.

dug out, was employed in making the bricks for the walls of the city; so that one may judge of the depth and width of the ditch by the extreme height and thickness of the walls. There were a hundred gates to the city, twenty-five on each of the four sides: these gates, with their posts, &c. were of brass. Between every two of these gates were three towers, raised ten feet above the walls, where necessary; for the city being encompassed in several places with marshes which defended the approach to it, there was no need of towers on those parts.

By this awful stroke of divine justice, they were not only deprived of prosecuting their intended plan, but of the greatest pleasure a social being can enjoy, namely, mutual converse and agreeable intercourse. We are not, however, to suppose, that each individual had a peculiar dialect or language to himself; but only the several tribes or families, which are supposed to have been about seventy in number. These detaching themselves according to their res- A street answered to each gate, so that there were pective dialects, left the spot, which, before the con- fifty streets in all, cutting one another at right-ansequences of their presumption, they had considered gles; each fifteen miles in length, and one hundred as the most delightful on earth, and took up their fifty-one feet wide. Four other streets, having temporary residences in such places as they either houses only on one side, the ramparts being on the pitched on by choice, or were directed to by chance. other, made the whole compass of the city, each of Thus did the Almighty not only defeat the de- these streets was two hundred feet wide. As the signs of those ambitious people, but likewise accom- streets of Babylon crossed one another at rightplished his own, by having the world more gene- angles, they formed six hundred and seventy-six rally inhabited than it otherwise could have been. squares, cach square four furlongs and a half on The spot on which they had begun to erect their every side, making two miles and a quarter in cirtower, was, from the judgment that attended so cuit. The houses of these squares were three or rash an undertaking, called Babel (afterwards Baby-four stories high, their fronts were adorned with lon) which, in the Hebrew.tongue, signifies confu- embellishments, and the inner space was courts and gardens.

sion.

The confusion of tongues, and dispersion of the family of Noah, happened 101 years after the flood, as is evident from the birth of Peleg, the son of Heber (who was the great-grandson of Shem) and was born in the 101st year after that memorable period. He received his name from this singular circumstance, the word Peleg, in the Hebrew language, signifying partition, or dispersion.

The descendants of Noah being now dispersed, in process of time, from their great increase, they scattered themselves to distant parts of the earth, and, according to their respective families, settled in different parts of the world. Some took up their residence in Asia; some in Africa; and others in Europe. By what means they obtained possession of the several countries they inhabited, the sacred historian has not informed us. It is, however, natural to suppose, that their respective situations did not take place from chance, but from mature deliberation; and that a proper assignment was made of such and such places, according to the divisions and subdivisions of the different families.

BABYLON. This city, the capital of Chaldea, was built by Nimrod, adjacent to the tower of Babel. It was the capital of Nimrod's empire; so that its antiquity is unquestionable. The city was square, fifteen miles, every way, the whole circuit being of sixty miles. The walls were built with large bricks, cemented with bitumen, a thick glutinous fluid, which rises out of the earth in the country hereabouts; it binds stronger than mortar, and becomes harder than the brick itself. These walls were eighty-seven feet thick, and three hundred and fifty high. Those authors who mention them as only fifty cubits high, refer to their condition, after Darius, son of Hystaspes, had commanded them to be demolished down to that height, as a punishment for a rebellion of the Babylonians.

The city was encompassed with a vast ditch, which was filled with water; and brick work was carried up on both sides. The earth which was

The Euphrates divided the city into two parts, running from north to south. A bridge of admirable structure, about a furlong in length, and sixty feet wide, formed the communication over the river; at the two extremities of this bridge were two palaces, the old palace on the east side of the river, the new palace on the west. The temple of Belus, which stood near the old palace, occupied one entire square: the city was situated in a vast plain, whose soil was extremely fat and fruitful.

To people this immense city, Nebuchadnezzar transplanted hither an infinite number of captives from among the many nations subdued by him.

Something should be said of those famous hanging gardens which adorned the palace in Babylon; which are ranked among the wonders of the world. They contained four hundred feet square: they were composed of several large terraces; the platform of the highest terrace equalled the walls of Babylon in height, three hundred and fifty feet. From one terrace to that above it, was an ascent by stairs ten feet wide. This whole mass was supported by large vaults built one upon another, and strengthened by a wall twenty-two feet thick, covered with stones, rushes, and bitumen, and plates of lead, to prevent leakage.

There was so great a depth of earth, that the largest trees might take root. Here was every thing that could please the sight; the largest trees, flowers, plants, and shrubs. On the highest terrace, was an aqueduct supplied with water from the river. From whence the whole garden was watered. It is affirmed, that Nebuchadnezzar undertook this wonderful and famous edifice, out of complaisance to his wife Amytis, the daughter of Astyages; who being a native of Media, retained strong inclinations for mountains and forests: which abounded in her native country.

In the year of the world thirty-four hundred and sixty-six, Cyrus the king of Persia, took the city of Babylon, by turning the river Euphrates, and marching his troops through its former channel, while the

« EdellinenJatka »