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hand of God triumphing visibly over the powers of darkness. For the season in which the frogs appeared, and these insects swarmed, was contrary to all experience. They used to be produced in Egypt at a different, and for the most part an opposite, time of the year: and before this season, they were either diminished, or extinct. As As many authorities have been brought from ancient writers concerning Egypt, and its wonderful river, I will now apply to the evidence of a modern, that curious naturalist, Frederick Hasselquist, who will illustrate very much what I have been saying. "We went, (says he), on the "17th of September, on board one of the ves"sels in the Nile.---The ground appeared "clothed with a charming verdure; a great part sown with Turkey wheat; and some

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parts, though but few, with lucern: the lat"ter not being commonly sown, before the

water has entirely decreased." The water therefore had begun to subside; and had entirely decreased upon those spots, where this grain was sown: and this was upon the 17th of September. He saw a variety of birds, but none attracted his attention so much as the

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crane, or ibis. "A person, (says he), who "has the least knowledge of nature's econo

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my, may easily find the Creator had order"ed that bird to come in such numbers to "the marshy fields of Egypt at this time. "Here they find in great abundance their pro66 per food from the number of frogs, which "cover the country, when the waters decrease and multiply extremely during the "time of the flood. The water in the chan"nel at Cairo had on the 24th of September evidently decreased, &c.---Flies were now

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seen in much greater numbers."---Upon the 12th (of October) we are told that the country was in full beauty, the water being in great measure drained from the fields. February or Mechir seems to have been the wintry month. The 22d is mentioned by Hasselquist as very cold: at which time the trees lost their leaves; but began to put forth new. Agreeably to this, Pocock says---" The cold"est time is about the beginning of Feb

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I P. 94.

"The rice

He mentions gnats near Rosetta in June. "fields, because they are constantly under water, occasion a "swamp, fit for the support of these vermin; and in these "they lay their eggs." p. 54.

2 P. 106.

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ruary." p. 195. In another place he mentions February, when the weather is coldest. P. 96.

It is indeed said by Hasselquist, that flies are always to be found in Egypt. The same is observable in Great Britain and we must necessarily expect to meet with them in a country above twenty degrees to the South. But still the time above mentioned, a' wintry month, was not the season for them to breed and swarm; nor for frogs to multiply, and to cover the whole land: to have been in such numbers, that when they died, they lay in heaps; so that the whole country was polluted with the stench.

The change wrought in the waters of the Nile, when they were turned to blood, might in like manner by sceptics be imputed to a natural cause. It is certain that the stream

'It has been said, that in Egypt the days are at all times warm and the earth has a constant verdure. However, Pocock tells us, that-in winter nights and mornings are very cold, p. 195. There were seven days in particular, which the Arabians called-Berd il Agiuz, or the cold of the old hag. They begin about the 7th of February, and continue till the 14th. The mornings are then very cold, the sky cloudy: and the winds are commonly boisterous. Vansleb, p. 22.

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has sometimes a red colour; and the same is said of the river Adonis, near Biblus in Phenicia. But this appearance is always during violent inundations; when the rivers, by the exuberance of their waters, wash away ocre, and other minerals, from the sides of their banks. This circumstance in Egypt never happens but in summer; when the Nile is rising; at which times the waters are turbid. In Tybi, or January, the river is not only reduced to its channel; but is lower than in any of the preceding months, and particularly pure and wholesome. The same is observable in Machir, or February, the month immediately following. This change therefore mentioned by Moses, and its consequences, could not have been produced by any natural cause; such as mineral tincture, and common pollution: the season of the year shews the contrary.

The three first judgments brought upon the land were experienced by the Israelites as well

'See Pocock, p. 199. The Nile red about June. Also p. 200.

* Maundrell, p. 34, 35.

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1. 2.

Βραχυς τον χειμώνα άπαντα
c. 19. p. 112.

Lucian de Syriâ Deâ, p. 880.

διατελεί εων (ὁ Νείλος.) Herod.

as by the Egyptians. They were not so grievous as those which succeeded. Yet they were sufficient to teach the inhabitants of Goshen, that there was no illusion in these mighty operations which perhaps they might have suspected, had they not seen and felt, and borne some share in the evil. On the other hand, Pharaoh and his servants, when they saw God's people involved in the same calamities with themselves, might have fancied, that there was nothing particular in the judgments; and in consequence of it, not so distinctly seen to whom they were directed.

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* How intolerable a plague flies can prove, may be known from places near lakes and pools, which have been on their account deserted, and rendered desolate. Such was the fate of Myuns in Ionia, Pausan. 1. 7. p. 527. and of Atarnæ, ibid. The inhabitants were forced to quit these cities, not being able to stand the flies and gnats with which they were pestered. Trajan was obliged to raise the siege of a city in Arabia, before which he had sat down, being driven away by the swarms of these insects. Dion Cassius, 1. 68. p. 1145, The fly of Egypt seems to have been proverbial.. -Hence Isaiah says-The Lord shall hiss for the fly of Egypt, ch. vii. ver. 18. We are told by Moses-that the hornet drove out the Canaanite by which we may infer, that before the coming of the Israelites several cities had been evacuated through the terror of this insect. Μυων (or rather μυίων) πληθος ανέςησε Με yageas, Paonλiras de opnxes. Elian de Animal. 1. 11. c. 28. p. 641.

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