Eventually the machine, being suffered to move freely, took an oblique course, and at length sunk down gradually about 100 feet from its starting place. By this the world was convinced that a balloon might, with proper management, carry a man through the air; and the first aerial expedition was determined on.

TO OUR READERS.

With this number we close our Mythological department. Those who have followed us, from the beginning through this interesting branch of knowledge, are now possessed of the whole circle of eastern Mythology. And those who have interested themselves in it, will tions and their history, but will be able to appreciate be able not only to understand the heathenish instituthe classick allusions which embellish and illustrate

will be able perchance to adorn truth in its presentation elicit the effusive efforts of their own intellects, they with graces borrowed from these classick remembrances. At any rate they will be upon a par in this respect with college scholars, and able to contend on these matters against the imposition of pedantry.

Geography will take the place of Mythology, and we flatter ourselves, that we shall present to the reader and student as good and comprehensive a system of Geocan be collected from the combined learning and regraphy as has ever been published. If the best system cords of Malte-Brun and Bell, Myers, Morse, and Goodrich, and from the journals of modern explorators and travellers, we assure the reader that no effort on our part shall be wanting to accomplish it.

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

Nov. 21, 1783, Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d' Arlandes ascended from the castle la Muette, in the presence of an innumerable multitude, with a machine containing 6,000 cubick feet. The balloon, after having attained a considerable height, came down in 25 min-poetry and eloquence. And indeed if opportunity should utes, about 9,000 yards from la Muette.--But the daring aeronauts had been exposed to considerable danger. The balloon was agitated very violently several times; the fire had burnt holes in it; the place on which they stood was injured, and some cords broken.-They perceived that it was necessary to descend without delay; but when they were on the surface of the earth, new difficulties presented themselves. The weak coal fire no longer supported the linen balloon, the whole of which fell into the flame. Rozier, who had not yet succeeded in descending, just escaped being burnt. M. Charles, who had joined with M. Robert, soon after informed the publick that they would ascend in a balloon filled with inflammable air. To defray the necessary expense of 10.000 livres, he opened a subscription. The balloon was spherical, 26 feet in diameter, and consisted of silk, coated with a varnish of gum-elastick. The car for the aeronauts was attached to several cords, which were fastened to a net, drawn over the upper part of the balloon. A valve was constructed above, which could be opened from the car, by means of cords, and shut by a spring. This served to afford an outlet to the inflammable air, if they wished to descend, or found it necessary to diminish it. The filling lasted several days; and, Dec. 1, the voyage was commenced from the gardens of the Tuilleries. The balloon quickly rose to a height of 1800 feet, and disappeared from the eyes of the spectators. The aeronauts diligently observed the barometer, which never stood at less than 26 degrees, threw out gradually the ballast they had taken in to keep the balloon steady, and descended safely at Nesle. But as soon as Robert stepped out, and it was thus lightened of 130 pounds, it rose again with great rapidity about 9,000 feet. It expanded itself with such force, that it must have been torn to pieces, had not Charles, with much presence of mind opened the valve to accommodate the quantity of gas to the rarity of the surrounding atmosphere. After the lapse of half an hour, the balloon sunk down on a plain, about three miles from the place of its second ascent.

Another ascent, which nearly proved disastrous to the aeronauts, may now be noticed. On the 15th of July, 1784, the Duke of Chartres, the two brothers Roberts, and another person, ascended with an inflammable-air balloon from the Park of St. Cloud, at 52 minutes past 7 o'clock in the afternoon. This balloon was of an oblong form, measuring 55 feet in length, and 34 in diameter. It ascended with its greatest extension nearly horizontal; and after remaining in the atmosphere about 45 minutes, it descended at a little distance from whence it had ascended, and at about 30 feet distance from the Lac de la Garenne, in the park of Meudon. But the incidents that happened in this aerial excursion deserve to be particularly described, as nothing like it had happened before to any of the aerial travellers. This machine contained an interior smaller balloon filled with common air; by which means, according to a mode hereafter to be mentioned, the machine was to be made to ascend or descend without any loss of inflammable air or ballast. The boat was furnished with a helm and oars, intended to guide it, &c.-Brit. Cyc.

Mr. Coleridge the Poet died at Highgate on the 25th day of July last. A month or two before his death, he wrote his own humble and affectionate epitaph.

Stop, Christian passer-by! Stop, child of God,

And read with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
A poet lies, or that which once seemed he;-

O, lift a thought in prayer for S. T. C. !-
That he who many a year with toil of breath
Found death in life, may here find life in death!
Mercy for praise-to be forgiven for fame

He asked, and hoped through Christ. Do thou the same." An equestrian bronze statue of his late Majesty, George the Fourth, has been recently completed by Chantrey, at the cost of 9,000 guineas. It is to be placed over the grand marble entrance in St. James's Park. The magnificent gates to be fixed to the archway, enriched with mosaick gold, are said to be the most splendid in Europe-the cost of the whole entrance when completed will be upwards of $300,000.

26,208,000 sheets are printed annually in France, and put into a book form, for the gratification of French readers.

The pageant of the Erial ship at Paris, recently, proved a failure, to the great disappointment of thousands of spectators. After it had ascended a short distance, it suddenly turned topsyturvy, and burst with a tremendous explosion! It fell into the hands of goths who tore it in pieces.

If light and heat be matter, they must be matter in a state of far more minute division than we can ever observe with our best

glasses. Were the atoms of the size of the grains of dust floating the earth like cannon-balls, and it would have been long ere this in the atmosphere, invisible to the naked eye, they would tell upon pounded into dust.

water.

Air, by being compressed, has been made twice as heavy as
Water confined in a boiler, and intensely heated becomes red-

hot.

Savages light their fires by rubbing two pieces of wood. Forests have been burned down by fires kindled by the violent friction of the branches against each other by the wind. Iron has been made red-hot by being struck a few blows with the hammer. Air may be condensed by pressure so as to set tinder on fire. Pieces of ice have been melted by being rubbed together, when great quantities of water have been made to boil by a blunt borer the air was cooled many degrees below the freezing point, and rubbing against a mass of metal immersed under the water.

A fish in Java called the jaculator, catches flies and insects by spirting water from its mouth, and seldom misses its aim at the distance of five or six feet, bringing down a fly at a single drop.

Since the commencement of the working of the gold mines, that run in a mineral belt, it may be said, parallel to the course tained to the amount of no less than 6,000,000 of dollars. of the Blue Ridge, from Georgia to Maryland, gold has been ob

A captain of one of the companies of the western Dragoons, states that the village where the recent conciliatory council was held with 8,000 of the Kioway, Camanche, and Waco Indians, is situated on a large branch of the Red River, whose waters are as salt as the sea. They derive their saltness from a cliff near the banks containing mountains of salt rock which can be used" without any preparation whatever.

SECTION XXVI.

HISTORY.

THE ISRAELITES.

The History of the Israelites now assumes a very marked and interesting character. Having lived in Egypt for about two hundred and fifteen years, as Josephus and other historians assert, groaning towards the close of that period especially, under the unrighteous bondage and oppression of the Egyptian king, who imposed upon them those intolerable tasks and hardships enumerated in the first of Exodus, they were now destined to throw off their chains, and to experience a divine deliverance. Moses, who was appointed to be their deliverer had fled into Midian to escape the envy and ingratitude of the Egyptians after having led them successfully against the Ethiopians. He had remained there about forty years, having married one of Jethro's daughters, and it is believed written the book of Job during the interval. Near the end of this long retirement, it is related, that, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." This was the commencement of that series of miracles which the Divinity saw fit to employ in the deliverance of the Israelites. From out of this burning bush the voice of God revealed to Moses the design of using him as the instrument. Moses seems to have been at first exceedingly distrustful of his abilities in accomplishing this undertaking against the obdurate and selfish Pharaoh. But the Lord having inspired him with the divine power of working miracles, and having promised to be with him, and to assist him "in his words, when he was to persuade men, and in his deeds, when he was to perform wonders ;" Moses' confidence increased, and he became convinced of the certainty of his mission. Accordingly Moses took his wife and two children, and set out for Egypt. On his way he met his brother Aaron who had been sent by divine

evil-entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all :" (Exod. vi. 5.) But God satisfied Moses, that the Israelites should be obedient to him, and he should be able to work such miracles as should at last convince the incredulity of Pharaoh. This was after Moses had exhibited to Pharaoh the wonder of changing his rod into a serpent, which that king believed to be nothing more than the art of a skilful juggler; therefore they were more astonishing miracles now that Moses was to be empowered to work, to bring his countrymen to obedience, and the king of Egypt to consent that he should lead them out from the affliction of tyrannical injustice, "unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."

These miracles were the infliction of the memorable ten plagues upon the Egyptians, to punish the obstinacy and hardheartedness of their rulers; and they were the most extraordinary manifestations of the Divine power to man, and through man, that occurred antecedent to Christ. And the conduct of Pharaoh during these events as related in all history, sacred and profane, who knew the wishes of God as well as the ruinous consequences of such conduct if persisted in, presents a tissue of folly, blindness and obstinacy unparalleled in the history of the world. It was not enough that all the waters of Egypt should be changed into blood, sickening and distressing every Egyptian who tasted them; it was not enough that innumerable multitudes of frogs should overspread the land, and infest his houses, his sleeping and his eating places with loathsomeness and filth: it was not enough that the dust should become lice throughout the fields of Egypt to torment and kill both man and beast; nor that the air should be filled with flies which spoiled and corrupted every thing they approached; these had not the power to change the mind of Pharaoh permanently, although his obstinacy relented while these Having arrived in the country inhabited by the He- plagues were immediately afflicting his country; yet brews, they communicated to them the command as soon as it was relieved of them he was base enough of God, concerted their measures, and presented them- to revoke what he had promised, and return to his old selves before the king of Egypt. "We are sent," said determination. But the cattle were smitten with a they to him, "by the Lord God of Israel, who com- grievous murrain, and all the cattle of Egypt died. mands his people, under pain of the severest punish- The men were infected with fetid and dangerous disments, to go three days' journey into the desert to cele-eases. The heavens were obscured with clouds, that brate a festival in his honour, and offer him sacrifices." poured forth torrents of rain and hail, while lightnings "But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord, that I should and thunder filled every heart with dismay. All obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, Egypt was laid waste, and the little verdure which neither will I let Israel go." To prove more evidently remained became the prey of swarms of locusts, that his contempt of this command, he oppressed the Is- came at the call of Moses. During several days this raelites with additional hardships and new depriva- unhappy country was enveloped in darkness so intense tions. The latter, who, relying on the word of Moses that there seemed reason to fear the sun had disapand Aaron, now expected a speedy deliverance, broke peared for ever; while at the same time there was out into murmurs and complaints. "And they said light in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, unto them, the Lord look upon you, and judge; be- and which was entirely exempt from all these plagues. cause ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the (Exod. ix. 26.) eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so

command.

VOL. II.

29

The last terrible prodigy remained, of which Moses informed the king, at the same time directing the Israelites to be ready to depart at the moment this last

226

THE FAMILY MAGAZINE.

thunderbolt should fall upon the Egyptians. In the | ny and falsehood of Pharaoh, and the idolatrous wick same night the destroying angel smote all the first-born edness of the Egyptians, were to undergo the last and of Egypt, from the eldest son of the monarch on the finishing act of divine retribution to be brought bout throne to the offspring of the meanest of his subjects, and signalized by such a marvellous demonstra ion of and even of the cattle, so that there was a general the omnipotence of God over the ordinary laws and mourning throughout Egypt. The Israelites took ad- processes of the material world, as should, for the time vantage of this circumstance to leave Egypt. But Mo-being, strike dumb with astonishment the worshippers ses first caused them to celebrate a feast, which they of birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and lifeless forms of called a Passover, "because," says Josephus, "on that nature, and also should remain in everlasting record, day God passed us over;" this festival was likewise an awful proof of the unsleeping government of the called 'Pascha.' They received a command to repeat Lord. May we not also surmise that, by this appait every year in the dress of travellers, with a white rently strange direction given to the march, the faith staff in their hands, and their long garments girt around of the leader was intended to be tried; for certainly, them, that they might be prepared for walking. After under the circumstances of the flight of the Israelites, having received a great variety of rich gifts or loans and the notorious reluctance and double-dealing of from the Egyptians, who now seemed glad to have Pharaoh, such a command must have seemed, at first, them go, they were prepared for the march, number- to Moses, whose practical acquaintance with the couning amongst themselves 600,000 men able to go to war. try cannot but be presumed, almost entirely destrucMoses was eighty years old, and Aaron three years tive of his nearly accomplished hopes of the deliverolder; and they took out the bones of Joseph with them ance of his fellow countrymen. as he had charged his sons to do.

"What God had foretold, and what Moses and the "When the children of Israel had completely de- Israelites had good reason, upon human considerations, tached themselves from the dominion of the king of to apprehend, took place. Pharaoh collected his forces, Egypt, the object which, in pursuance of prophecy and and followed the track of the escaping host, and came the divine command, they had to accomplish, was to within sight of them, when they were encamped bemarch to the borders of that pleasant land-the land fore Pa-hahiroth. Thus, the Israelites were completeof Canaan-which had been promised of old to them, ly hemmed in. Their situation seemed desperate to The direct the multitude; they feared the vengeance of their irrithrough their great ancestor Abraham. road to Palestine from Rameses, the chief seat of the tated task-masters, and in the bitterness of their spirits, Hebrews in Egypt, and probably the same as Goshen, they thus threw their reproaches upon Moses. Bewas to the north, by the line of the Mediterranean Sea; cause there were no graves in Egypt,' said they to ness? wherefore hast thou dealt with us, to carry us and the march in this direction, if unopposed, might him, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderprobably have been performed in the course of four or five weeks. But all this district, or at least the part forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did of it adjoining the immediate boundary of the Holy tell thee in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone, that we may Land, was inhabited by a strong and warlike people serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us called Philistines, and we are expressly told by Moses to have served the Egyptians, than that we should die that it was by special direction of God himself, that in the wilderness.' And Moses said unto the people, the Israelites declined the nearest road, and took in-Fear ye not; stand still, and see the salvation of the stead of it, a turn to the south or south-west, and came Lord, which he will show to you to-day; for the The Lord shall fight to Succoth, which Josephus supposes to be the more Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see modern Latopolis; from Succoth they advanced to them again no more for ever. Etham, at the extreme northern end of the western for you, and ye shall hold your peace.' Upon this branch of the Red Sea. This western branch was that mysterious pillar-of cloud by day, and of fire by called Sinus Horoopolites, by the ancient Greeks and night-which had hitherto appeared in advance of the Romans; and by modern nations, the Gulf of Suez. Israelites, shifted its position to their rear, and stood Here they were, as Moses says, on the edge of the up between them and the pursuing Egyptians. Then Wilderness, or that vast desert which is situated be- Moses, by divine command, stretched out his hand over the arm of the sea waich ran before the camp, and tween the rich river-soil of the Delta of Egypt, and the southern parts of Palestine. Here they had, in fact, immediately a strong east wind began to blow, the very nearly headed the gulf, and, if escape from Pha-waters were driven back, and a dry passage appeared raoh was their immediate care, the Israelites had only throughout, to the other side of the gulf. Along this to proceed a day's journey right forward, and it would awful pass the Hebrews marched during the night, be obvious that the nature of the ground, and the defi- and by the morning light were all safely arrived at the ciency of water, would effectually check the pursuit of opposite coast. The Egyptians had witnessed this a considerable army, the chief strength of which, we wonderful escape of their imagined victims, and in their blindness and fury, followed them into the miraknow to have consisted in chariots and cavalry. culous path. But now their appointed hour was come. In the words of the sacred text, It came to pass that in the morning watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot-wheels, that they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled And the waters returned, and against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hands of the

"At this critical juncture, however, God commanded
Moses to lead the great host of the Hebrews back
again from the onward road, and encamp them farther
to the south, on the west or Egyptian side of the Red
Sea. The place of such encampment was pointed out
before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. It is
said that Pi-hahiroth means an opening into the moun-
tains, and the result of much laborious investigation
has been that, in fact, the Israelites were thus led into
a glen or combe, in which their retreat was rendered
difficult by surrounding rocks, and their advance, to all
human speculation, absolutely impracticable by the
sea in front. Now we are told that God gave this re-
markable command to Moses, for that Pharaoh would
say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in
And I,
the land; the wilderness hath shut them in.
the Lord, will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall
follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pha-
raoh and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may
know that am the Lord.' Thus, therefore, the tyran-

Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon I was infested with barbarous hordes, and tribes and the sea-shore." nations of men who were inveterately inimical to them; It seems folly to speak of this passage of the Israel- they were the Amalekites, the Moabites, the Midianites over the Red Sea, as any thing else than a mira-ites, the Idumæans, &c. But Joshua led the chosen cle; though some have attempted to refer the opening people successfully against them, and in the course of of the sea to natural causes, such as wind or tide. The six years, he conquered 31 cities. Joshua died 1426 fact itself has also been denied, on the ground, it is years before Christ. declared, that it was an impossibility for those people to pass over a sea thirty or forty miles wide in one night. But this objection is answered by travellers who state, that this sea in many places is no more than four or five miles in width. Niebuhr, the Danish traveller, thinks the place of the passage was near Suez. At this point the water is but about two miles across, and Niebuhr himself forded it. But he says that the sea must have been deeper in old time, and extended farther towards the north. Buckhardt agrees with Niebuhr. Diodorus Siculus, Mons. Thevenot, Bruce and others, from personal observation, have concluded that the passage over this sea must have been miraculous, as Moses expressly declares it to have been.

The Israelites were no sooner delivered from the Egyptians, than they began to complain against Moses for the want of food. They were now in a wilderness, and numbered according to Anquetil, 3,000,000 of persons. By a wonderful providence, they were supplied every morning except Sunday with manna, a species of condensed and substantial dew, which fell around their camp. Clouds of quails were likewise sent by God; and by the rod of Moses, water poured forth abundantly from the rocks; the pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day accompanied them; and upon these merciful supplies did they subsist during the forty years they remained in the wilderness.

"After this event, the Israelites, with some intermission, were directed by leaders, called Judges, for the space of 356 years. They paid a high respect to these officers, and also to the priests, but they acknowledged no other king than God. As the people at length became weary with this state of things, and desired a king, so as to be like the nations around them, a king was, in the divine displeasure, granted to them. The people were perpetually inclined to forsake the worship of Jehovah, and to pollute themselves with the abominations of the heathen. For this they were repeatedly brought into bondage, and consequent distress. Their Judges were the instruments of delivering them on these occasions. One occasion was as follows. The Israelites, being brought into the power of the Midianites, after seven years of suffering, they cried unto the Lord, who sent an angel to Gideon to announce to him that he was chosen to deliver Israel from their oppressors. By divine direction, Gideon retained of 32,000 men whom he had collected, only 300 men, and with them, each carrying a lamp concealed in an earthen vessel, to be broken at a proper opportunity, he so terrified the Midianites, that they fled in confusion, and turned their swords against one another. Samson also delivered his countrymen by a series of extraordinary efforts of strength and courage. At the conclusion of his course, having been betrayed On the borders of the wilderness they were attacked by his wife, and deprived of his strength-upon its reby the Amalekites; but the Israelites, under the milita- turn he pulled down, by a single exertion of his musry command of Joshua, who showed himself a man cular energy, the temple of Dagon on the heads of his of great prudence and courage, completely routed them. enemies, the Philistines, with whom he perished in "The people soon after arriving at Mount Sinai, God the general ruin. Samuel, the last and most eminent gave them his law. During, however, the absence of of these leaders, and a prophet also, rendered signal Moses in the mount, they fell into idolatry, in conse-service to his countrymen, especially by the moral inquence of which 3000 of them were put to death. In fluence which he exercised over them. When old, the course of the second year after the retreat from however, he took for his assistants in the government, Egypt, Moses numbered the children of Israel from his two sons, whose mismanagement occasioned mur20 years old and upwards, and there were found 603,- murs among the people, and a desire to have a king. 550 men able to go to war, besides the Levites. About this time, twelve men were sent to spy the land of Canaan, who, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, reported unfavourably, which caused the people to murmur. Upon this offence God condemned all those who were twenty years old and upwards when they came out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness, except Joshua and Caleb. As a punishment for their murmurs, the Israelites began to travel in the wilderness 1489 years B. C. At this time Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, revolting against Moses, were swallowed by the earth, with 250 of their associates. In 1452 years B. C., the Israelites began their conquests, by the defeat of the Amorites, Bashan, Moab, &c. At the age of 120 years Moses died on Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab, having first taken a view of the promised land."

The successor of Moses was Joshua, who united in himself both the military and civil government. The administration of justice appertained to the Levites, and the people were divided into tribes, decuries or tens, and families. Every individual had his fixed post in the van, the rear, or on the side of the ark, which Moses had formed to contain the tables of the law, which was in the centre; and in their battles and retreats, the same order was observed as exactly as possible. It now devolved upon Joshua to lead the people into the promised land. Having brought them to the banks of the river Jordan, the waters of that river divided and he conducted them over on dry land: from this time the cloud that had guided them disappeared. The land of Canaan into which they entered

"Saul, the son of Kish, was the first king of Israel. Having been privately anointed by Samuel, he was afterwards publicly proclaimed, 1079 years B. C. His reign was prosperous at first, but at length was characterized by crime and ill success. He perished miserably, having spent an unhappy life, and being at war with the Philistines, had his army routed, and three of his sons slain, and he himself, having received a wound, and fearing to fall into the hands of his enemies, took a sword and fell upon it. He was succeeded by David, who, though he erred in several instances, was a man of distinguished talents, bravery, and piety; he raised his people to the highest pitch of national prosperity and happiness. David had been anointed king previously to Saul, but he at first reigned only over the tribe of Judah. But after the death of Ishbosheth, a son of Saul who had assumed the government of the tribes, he reigned over the whole of Israel. He spent a very active and perilous life, and among the conquests he made were the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Syrians, He had at length some domestick troubles, and was in danger from an insurrection of his subjects; but he lived to see his enemies destroyed, and he left a rich and flourishing realm. The wise and rich Solomon was his son and success" He laid the foundation of a magnificent temple, 1011 years B. C.

or.

It is the ornament, and, as if the soul of history, that the relation of events is illustrated by an exposition of the causes which produced them.-Bacon.

SOME ACCOUNT OF KOORDISTAN AND ITS INHAB- the north and east, declare themselves to be under the