Aug. 26. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



in 



printed in London, 1687; A Short Account of the 

 Ancient History, Present Oovernment, and Laws of 

 the Republic of Geneva, by George Keate, Esq. : 

 London, Dodsley, 1761 ; Dietionnaire Geogra- 

 phique, Historique, and Politique, de la Suisse : 

 Geneve, 1777. (article " Geneve.") G. Gebvais. 



EXPOSITION OF JOSHUA X. 12. 13. 



(Vol. X., p. 122.) 



Mb. Bucicton says : 



" The interpretation usually given is, that the day was 

 lengthened by a miracle ; and one mode has been con- 

 jectured, in a note on Josephus (^Ant., v. i. 17.), as a 

 stoppage of the diurnal motion of the earth for about half 

 a revolution, which appears to be the notion generally 

 entertained." 



Query, Since he acknowledges that the inter- 

 pretation usually given," and " the notion genet-ally 

 entertained," is that a miracle was wrought, liow 

 could it happen that, as he has told us in the 

 previous sentence, critics should have spent their 

 wits in a vain " attempt to extract " a miracle ? 

 Are your readers to suppose that he employs the 

 word extract as dentists do, for pulling out, to 

 cast away ? He says : 



" The whole passage in Josh. x. 12. 14. being taken as 

 poetical, historical, and commentatory {sic), will dispense 

 with the supposition of a miracle, which many critics 

 attempt to extract by a misapprehension of poetical phra- 

 seology." 



Does this mean that if we regard one part of the 

 passage as a fiction, another part as history, and 

 another as the historian's comment, this reading 

 made easy will render it unnecessary to suppose 

 there was any miracle ? Perhaps it would. But 

 the " many critics " to whom he alludes, seem to 

 have been singular persons. If they laboured to 

 prove that the passage was intended to describe a 

 miracle, they might have spared their puins, for 

 such was its obvious meaning. But if they must 

 needs meddle with what was plain quoad the 

 translation, it has not been very uncommon for 

 critics to err from a misapprehension of what they 

 attempt to mend ; but to work upon their readers 

 by a misapprehension would seem unfair. Yet 

 perhaps botli kinds of paralogism may be properly 

 acknowledged to exist together in your critic's 

 article. For when he proceeds to say, — 



" It is onlt/ necessary to call attention to the fact that 

 the lengthening of days is of common occurrence, and is 

 not made as Whiston suggests, but by varying the angle 

 of the equator with the ecliptic, which might have been 

 effected in Joshua's time by the attraction of a comet de- 

 flecting the earth from its regular motion," 



it will be evident to any scientific reader that he 

 has argued \\x\is from a misajjprehension of the 

 distinction between the earth's diurnal and annual 

 movements ; whilst, when he employs his own 



misapprehension to make the ignorant believe that 

 D''Dn UV'2 means " as on a regular (nonal or ordi- 

 nary) day," he may be said to be arguing by a 

 misapprehension. 



There are, however, misapprehensions of dif- 

 ferent kinds. He says : 



" Taking the non-miraculous view of the question, it 

 will not appear strange that the Israelites should think 

 the day unusually long, when we consider that they had 

 been in forced march all the previous night up-hill 

 (Josh. X. 9.) ; had been fighting all day, and ascending 

 the mountains in pursuit of the retreating foe in the 

 evening, which ascent would protract the day, and give a 

 stationary appearance to the moon and the sun." 



This will seem to some rather a miraculous view, 

 than otherwise, of the question. For it assumes 

 the existence of such hills in Judsea as would re- 

 quire long protracted marches indeed for ascend- 

 ing them ; and the text says plainly that the pur- 

 suit was down hill. (Jos. x. 11.) For the misap- 

 prehensions of the Hebrew text and grammar, in 

 the translation given in his note, Mk. Buckton 

 may not be answerable. Henbt Waltbb. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC COBEESPONDENCE. 



New Camera. — I am desirous of suggesting to the pho- 

 tographic readers of " N. & Q." a form of Camera for the 

 calotype process, which seems to me to possess consider- 

 able advantages. My attention was lirst directed to it by 

 an endeavour to find some easier mode of shifting the 

 excited papers into and from the dark frames, than any 

 that has yet been proposed. Of these I look upon the 

 yellow bag, suggested by Dr. Diamond, as by far the 

 most simple and most practical ; but that there are many 

 difficulties in the way of using that with facility will be 

 readily admitted by all who have tried it. The advan- 

 tage of the yellow bag is, that you require but one dark 

 frame and a portfolio for your excited paper, so that the 

 weight of jour apparatus is certainly considerably di- 

 minished ; but as, without great care and nicety in chang- 

 ing the papers, they are liable to be exposed to light, and 

 consequently spoiled, I was desirous of finding some safer 

 and easier plan. 



I first calculated how many pictures a photographer of 

 ordinary'- skill might take and develope in the course of a 

 da}', and came to the conclusion that from ten to twelve 

 pictures were as many as could well be calculated on. 

 The smaller number, in fact, appeared to me as many as 

 he could develope with ease on his return home from his 

 day's work, and on arriving at this conclusion it was that 

 the idea occurred to me which is the object of my present 

 communication. 



To secure these ten pictures without the trouble of 

 shifting the papers, or the chance of spoiling the papers 

 while so shifting them, five double dark frames would be 

 required ; and 1 propose therefore to have this number. 

 Each side of the camera is to be so constructed as to be 

 formed of two of these double frames, slipping into 

 grooves constructed to receive them in the same manner 

 as the fifth is received at the end of the camera when 

 the paper is to be exposed. These dark frames will of 

 course be numbered, and will be shifted from time to time 

 as required. This camera, which 1 propose to call the 

 Ten-view Camera, will enable the photographer to take, 

 without ribk, ^s many vi^ws as he can well develope. 



