also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his * handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the Lord saw that 'Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Rueben; for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction: now therefore my husband will love me. "And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because "the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also; and she called his name Simeon.And she conceived again, and bare a son: and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because "I have borne him three sons: therefore was his name called 'Levi. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she' 'faid, Now will I praise the Lord: and therefore she called his name Judah and left bearing.

The first thing that catches the attention in this chapter is, Jacob's telling Rachel that he is her father's brother, which we find contradicted in the very next sentence. The next circumstance is Jacob's serving Laban for his younger daughter Rachel seven years, and from the intense love he bore towards her they seemed to him but a few days. In our days the nature of love seems to be the reverse of this; and we find when a man has fixed his attention on a female and really loves her, every day seems a year until he possesses the object of his admiration. Such long courtships are unnatural: love is too apt to evaporate by tedious delays. But we find there is a strange mixture in the character of Jacob, and he is alternately exhibited as a rogue, a fool, and a coward. Who can believe, that after seven years' acquaintance with Rachel and Leah, Jacob could be ignorant which of them was the partner of his bed? We read of a similar trick having been practised on one of the kings of England, at Andover, in Hampshire, who, having fallen in love, or at least had his lust excited by the beauty of a female of that town, demanded of her parents that he might be indulged with her company and her charms, The mother seemingly consents, and bargains for the modesty of her daughter, that she shall proceed to the bed of the king without a light. Love or lust overlooks this trifle, and the king is duped with the servant girl instead of the daughter. This tale appears probable, because the king could not be acquainted with the voice or person of his bed-fellow, but I ima-' gine that Jacob must have been half an ideot if he was really

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imposed upon as is here described, after so long an acquaintance with both daughters,—at least, I should have thought that Rachel would have stirred up a dust on this head, and have soon made Jacob acquainted with the fraud. However we find that the morality of those times was different from the present, and Jacob obtains both of them by fourteen years servitude. I cannot perceive how it can be argued, that Jacob neglected or hated Leah, She bore him four children and then is represented as ceasing to bear, not from the neglect of Jacob, but naturally. Really when we so often read in the Bible of the Lord's opening the womb of women, we are left to conclude, that the conception is like the miraculous conception of the New Testament, and that the poor husband has no hand in it. This is strongly implied in the conclusion of this chapter, where Leah is represented as saying, 'Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons."

I proceed to the thirtieth chapter:- And when Rachel saw 'that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; " and said unto Jacob, Give me children or else I die. And 'Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel; and he said, Am 'I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Bilhah hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath And Rachel said, God ( given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. And Bilhah. 'Rachel's maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled 'with my sister, and I have prevailed; and she called his 6 name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had left bearing, 'she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son. . troop cometh and she called his name Gad. And Zilpah And Leah said, A 'Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said,

Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed and 'she called his name Asher. And Reuben went in the days ' of wheat-harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and 'brought them into his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to 'Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said. unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's man

drakes also? and Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me for 'surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he 'lay with her that night. And God hearkened unto Leab, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. And Leah

said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar. 'And Leah conceived again, and baro Jacob the sixth son. And Leah said. God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. And after'wards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah. And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach and she 'called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me ' another son. And it came to pass, when Rachel had born ' Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I 'may go unto mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go; for thou knowest my service which I have 'done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by ' experience, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And ' he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he 'said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou

hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multi'tude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and 'now when shall I provide for mine own house also: and he 'said, What shall I give thee? and Jacob said, Thou shalt 'not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I 'will again feed and keep thy flock: I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and 'the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire, So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come: when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be accounted 'stolen with me. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might * be according to thy word. And he removed that day the be-goats that were ring straked, and spottod, and all the

she-goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown amongst the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his son. And he set three 'days journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hasel and chesnut-tree; and pilled white C strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they 'came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-straked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the 'flocks towards the ring-straked, and all the brown in the ( เ flock of Laban: and he put his own flocks by themselves: ' and put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass 'wkensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in; so the feebler were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, ' and camels and asses.

The first part of this chapter must have required a great deal of inspiration to write it, and the jealous Jewish deity seems to have been very fond of sowing the seeds of jealousy among his favourites. Poor Jacob had fallen into a rare family; what with serving Laban, his two wives, and their two maids, he must have been a slave indeed!! We are quite ignorant of what the mandrakes could be which are mentioned in this chapter. Almost all the Commentators on the Bible have asserted, that they were a herb or flower, which was equivalent to a love powder or potion, and that they were so strong an incentive, as to facilitate conception: but I presume the whole of this argument is drawn from the supposed eagerness of Rachel to possess them. The case is, that the Hebrew language was a very barbarous jargon, and the translator is obliged to guess at the meaning of more than half the words and phrases. Had not the fraud of these holy writings been kept up, it would have been lost on the first dispersion of the Jews; and it would have been a most happy circumstance for mankind if it had been lost. It has grieved me when I have reflected, how many men of genius and talents have wasted their whole life time in poring over the different manuscript copies of the Bible, in different languages, and vainly endea

I

vouring to draw an uniform translation from the whole. have said to myself, what benefits might the whole human race have found ere this, had the abilities of those men been applied to the discovery of something useful for man to know? What does the Bible now present to us after all those pains to make it less contradictory, less indecent, and less like a fable? Even on the ground of admitting it to be authentic, and founded on historical facts, it presents nothing to our view, but a series of lives of persons, who have distinguished themselves from their fellows by their vices and wickedness, and we can derive no further benefit from it than from the publication of the Newgate Calendar. It is a matter of much doubt, whether what we at present call the Hebrew language, ever existed as a living language, or was the language of the Jews in the times of their prosperity. It is generally supposed, that the books which compose the Bible were first written in this language, but there are those who have asserted the contrary; and as we have no proof that these books were written before the Jews returned from the Babylonish captivity, and as the IIebrew appears to be a language made up of the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee languages, and a distortion of each of those, with other provincial dialects and languages that were spoken by adjoining nations, by whom the Jews had at various times been subdued and led captive, it is but a fair inference to draw, and a fair assumption to say, that a knowledge of the Hebrew language cannot be acquired to the same extent as a knowledge of the Greek and Latin. Every day's experience will shew to us, how dreadfully a language is mutilated by the first attempts of a foreigner to speak it, how he mixes up a part of his own language, with that he endeavours to speak in, amongst those who are foreign to him. When a variety of languages are thus jumbled together with a distortion of each, a race of men might by practice and experience become intelligible to each other, but it is impossible that a subsequent and foreign translator can reach the meaning of such a barbarous and inexpressible jargon." From the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity to their conquest by the Romans there could not be sufficient time to form a pure and comprehensible language, from the mixture int which their previous captivities had involved them. Admitting that the part of the Bible is truc, where the Israelites are subject to the bondage of the Egyptians, for four hundred years; is it too much to say, that in the course of that time, they must have lost all traces of the language of Abraham,