HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



55 



" When we duly consider the more perfect work- 

 manship of the Divine artist, we must confess that 

 those things which we discover by our microscopes 

 and industry are but as the shadow of those which 

 hitherto remained concealed from us, not only in 

 such small animals as this now under consideration, 

 but also in larger animals and in plants. 



" It is to be hoped, then, that the inquirer into 

 Nature's works, by searching deeper and deeper 

 into her hidden mysteries, will more and more place 

 the discoverers of those truths before the eyes of 

 all so as to produce an aversion to the errors of 

 former times which all those who love the truth 

 ought diligently to aim at. For we cannot in any 

 better manner glorify the Lord and Creator of the 

 Universe, than that in all things, how small soever 

 they appear to our naked eyes, but which yet 

 have received the gift of life and power of increase, 

 we contemplate the display of His omniscience and 

 perfection with the utmost admiration." 



The following is the original of the last para- 

 graph : — 



" Want wy en konnen den Heer en Maaker van 

 het geheel Al, niet meer verheerlyken, als dat wy in 

 alle zaken, hoe kleiu die ook in onse bloote oogen 

 mogen zyn, als ze maar leven en wasdom hebben 

 outfangen, zyn Al-wysheit en Volmaaktheit, met de 

 uiterste verwoudering sien uit steken." 

 (To be continued!) 



THE JEWS AND PRE-H1STORIC IRISH] 

 ANTIQUITIES. 



rjlHERE is no direct evidence concerning an 

 ■*- immigration of Jews into Ireland. But that 

 there is strong and satisfactory evidence of a so- 

 called Phoenician immigration no one will dispute. 

 It is asserted in their own records, which are very 

 ancient. (See "Annals of Ireland," by the Four 

 Masters, and Keatiuge's "History of Ireland," and 

 others.) These again are supported by Phoenician 

 relics, by evident traces of prevailing Baal-worship, 

 and by the language. The words uttered by " the 

 little Carthaginian" in the "Poeuulus" of Plautus 

 are pure Irish. (See " Essay on the Antiquity of 

 the Irish Language." Dublin : 1772.) 



If then the Phoenician immigration be admitted 

 as established, it becomes a question how far their 

 manners and customs may not have been influenced 

 by the Israelites, and, indeed, whether there may 

 not have been a considerable blending of the races. 

 The Phoenician and Hebrew languages were iden- 

 tical. (See part ii., vol. ii., Transact. Bib. Arch. Soc, 

 where this is proved, and where the above-men- 

 tioned passage in the " Poenulus " of Plautus is 

 transliterated into Hebrew) But (what is more to 

 the point in this paper) it will be recollected that 

 Hiram, king of Tyre, had the high privilege 



accorded him of assisting at the building of the 

 Temple, where a large number of the skilled work- 

 men were Phoenicians (1 Kings v. 6, 17, 18), and the 

 head-man of these cunning craftsmen was " the son 

 of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father 

 was a man of Tyre " (2 Chron. ii. 13, 14). 



Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, was daughter of 

 Ethbaal, king of Sidon (1 Kings xvi. 31). 



But, besides this identity of language and social 

 intimacy, the Israelites, or a large portion of them, 

 — the tribe of Dan especially, — like the Phoenicians, 

 were a seafaring people. Thus Dan had ships as 

 early as B.C. 1285 (Judges v. 17) ; and the navies of 

 Solomon and some of his successors were renowned. 

 The Jewish Chron., May 2Sth, 1875, reports a lec- 

 ture delivered at the Jews' Infant School, on the 

 23rd May, to Jewish working men, by Rev. A. L. 

 Green, who stated as follows : — 



" Our forefathers, in their happiest times in the 

 golden age of the nation's glory, were indeed the 

 public carriers of their day, travellers for commer- 

 cial enterprise to all the then known countries, near 

 and far. The ships of Solomon rivalled the Phoe- 

 nician navy. The ports of Elath and Eziongeber 

 were filled with the ships of Tarshish, which sailed 

 down to the iElanitic Gulf of the E.ed Sea on to 

 the Indian Ocean, to Ophir, to Sheba, to Arabia 

 Felix, to India, and to Ceylon ; and through the 

 Pillars of Hercules ; brought home copper from 

 Cyprus and tin from Spain, possibly from Cornwall. 

 The Talmud is filled with special regulations bearing 

 on the exceptional wants springing from these 

 various avocations. Synagogues were from earliest 

 times attached to special centres of industry, and 

 frequented by special traders; and a workman's 

 ritual was specially arranged to suit the artisan, the 

 landsman, and the seafarer. The pursuits of com- 

 merce, in its various ramifications, were ordered by 

 an admirable code of commercial law. The laws 

 of agency and insurance and hypothecation were 

 codified. Promissory notes and bills of exchange 

 were formulated even in Mishnaic times." 



It has been pointed out that the Dannites appear 

 (possibly from their proximity to Tyre and Sidon) 

 to have been more thrown among the Phoenicians 

 than the other Israelites ; and it is remarkable that 

 a people called " Tuatha da Dannan," or tribe of 

 Dannan, are amongst the earliest civilized colonists 

 of Ireland. They were renowned for their skill in 

 the arts and sciences, especially architecture, and 

 for their attention to schools. The Irish historians 

 ascribe the knowledge of these Dannans to " their 

 intercourse with the Phoenicians." They are said to 

 have come from Egypt, and to have resided a long 

 time in Greece. 



In "Phoenician Ireland," by Villaneuva, trans- 

 lated by H. O'Brien, p. 184, there is this curious 

 remark on the Dannans :— " I recollect that m the 

 Phoenician language is to be found the word 



