have been brought about in the ordinary course of things. Whoever considers the history, as it is afforded us, will be obliged to determine, as the priests did, and say in every instance this was the finger of God. In respect to the flies, they must have been brought upon the country miraculously on account of the time of year. These insects breed chiefly in marshy places, when the waters decrease in summer, and autumn, and where moisture still abounds. Now this season in Egypt was in September and October, after the subsiding of the river. For the Nile began to rise in June, when the sun was in Cancer: but its increase was more apparent, in the next month, when the sun was in Leo: and about the end of

I

'Incipit crescere lunâ novâ, quæcunque post solstitium ́est, sensim modiceque, sole Cancrum transeunte, abundantissime autem Leonem. Pliny, vol. 1. 1. 5. p. 256.

Κατέρχεται μεν ὁ Νειλος πληθυων, απο τροπέων των θερινέων αρξαμε νος, επι ἑκατὸν ἡμερας πελασας δε ες τον αριθμον τετεων των ημερεων Siow aжEgerai.-Herod. 1. 2. c. 19. p. 112. Ægyptum Niὀπίσω lus irrigat, & cum totâ æstate obrutam oppletamque tenuit, cum recedit, mollitos atque oblimatos agros ad serendum relinquit. Cicero de Nat. Deor. 1. 2. c. 52. p. 1230.

As the chief increase of the Nile was, when the sun was passing through Leo; the Egyptians made the lion a type of an inundation, as we learn from Johannes Pierianus. He says that all effusion of water was specified by this charac

August, and sometimes about the equinox, the river began to subside and the meadows to appear. 'Cum autem sol per Cancri sidus cœperit vehi, augescens ad usque transitum ejus in Libram, diebusque centum sublatius fluens, minuitur postea, et equitabiles campos ostendit. They are the words of Marcellinus, who had been in that country: and he agrees with other writers. Theon the scholiast upon Aratus speaks nearly to the same purpose. Τῳ Παωφι παυεται ὁ Νείλος, ός εστι κατα Ρωμαιος Οκτωβριος. OnTwEgios. The Nile stops, and subsides in the month Paophi, which answers to October among the Romans. Diodorus Siculus places the commencement of its decrease more truly at the autumnal equinox, as he does its first rising at

teristic. And he adds, that from hence has been the custom of making the water, which proceeds from cisterns and other reservoirs, as well as spouts from the roofs of buildings, come through the mouth of a lion.-Apud gentes omnes uno jam consensu receptum, ut canales, tubique et siphones qui aquam eructant per terebrata foramina in leonina capita ad id locis opportunis adsculpi solita, aquam immittant, quæ inde ex leonis rectibus evomi videatur. 1. 1. c. 13. p. 9. See the whole, which is curious.

See Marci Frid. Wendelini Admiranda Nili, c. 7. p. 55. -also Orus Apollo, c. 21. p. 37.

'' L. 22.

P. 259.

2

the solstice. ' Της πληρώσεως την αρχην απο θερινων τρόπων ποιέμενος αύξεται μεν μεχρι της ισημερίας της μεθοπωρίνης. It continued subsiding for a long time; but soon after the equinox and during the month of October the ground began to appear; which, being covered with slime and mud, produced flies and all kinds of insects. These generated at that season in the swamps and moist places; particularly in the bodies of rats and mice and other animals, not (as the ancients thought) half formed; but half putrified: from whence they proceeded in swarms. The oestrum is well known to be generated from hence. Οιστρον εκ των εν τοις ποταμοις επιπλέοντων ζωαρίων απογενναται. I believe most of the tribes of gnats and flies arise from swamps and rivers. And bees, wasps, and hornets, which proceed from grubs in the

'L. 1. p. 32.

3

The time when the Nile is highest is about the middle of September. Pocock, p. 201. Soon after it began to sink. Strabo seems to make it for forty days in a state of equilibre during its greatest height; and then gradually to subside as it arose. 1. 17. p. 1137.

3 Scholio in Apollon. 1. 1. v. 1265. The Scholiast upon Homer speaks to the same purpose. Ο οιερός απογεννάται εκ επιπλέοντων τα ύδατα διο.

των εν τοις ποταμοις πλαγίων ζωαρίων των και πλείςα περί αυτα γινεται. Homeri Odyss. x. v. 299.Οιτρος ὁ λέγομενος μυων. Ibid. v. 300,

ground, or else in hollow trees, never come forth till the weather is very warm.

Now the children of Israel took their jour→ ney from Egypt at a different time of the year. They set out after an interval of winter upon the fifteenth of the month Abib, which answers, according to our computation, to the first of April. Some of the plagues brought upon the Egyptians were doubtless in a series somewhat antecedent to this season. They were ten in number: consequently there were nine intervals between them: but of what duration each of these judgments were ; and what portion of time is to be allotted to each interval is uncertain. It is intimated, that there was a respite: and we are told, in the first instance, after the river had been turned to blood, that this respite amounted to a week.---And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river. ch. vii. v. 25. If then this were the portion of time inclusive from one event to another (and I think, it could not have been less) we shall find, that the first wonder displayed must have happened two months before the ultimate: and the three which succeeded, were proportionably antecedent. But the duration of each judg

1

ment must be likewise taken into the account : which however may be difficult to be ascer tained. The death of the first-born, which was the fast, could not have taken up many hours. All was well at even and the cry was at midnight. The darkness which preceded lasted three days inclusive: and if we allow the same term for the other plagues one with another; the first operation must have happened near three months before the Exodus. We are in consequence of this carried back from the first of April to January and February for the times, when some, the first in order, of these judgments were brought about. But these were the coldest months in Egypt; and the most ungenial of any: so that, as I have before said, none of those noxious animals brought upon the country, could have been produced at such a season in the natural way. This must have been ap-. parent not only to the Egyptians, but to the Israelites for whose sakes these judgments were displayed: and who must have seen the

2

The coldest time here is about the beginning of February. Pocock, p. 195.

* Whether the flies came from wood, or from water, this was not the season for their swarming.