Mak. 8. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



191 



" SUN, STAND THOU STILL UPON GIBEON ! " 

 (josh. X. 12.) 



(Vol. iii., p. 137.) 



The observations of I. K. upon this passage 

 have obviously proceeded from a praiseworthy 

 Avish to remove what has appeared to some minds 

 to be inconsistent with that perfect truth which 

 they expect to be the result of divine inspiration. 

 I. K. doubtless believes that God put it into the 

 heart of Joshua to utter a command for the 

 miraculous continuance of daylight. But why 

 should he expect the inspiration to extend so far 

 as to instruct Joshua respecting the manner in 

 which that continuance was to be brought about? 

 Joshua was not to be the worker of the miracle. 

 It was to be wrought by Him who can as easily 

 stop any part of the stupendous machinery of His 

 universe, as we can stop tlie wheels of a watch. 

 Joshua was left to speak, as he naturally would, 

 in terms well fitted to make those around him 

 Tinderstand, and tell others, that the sun and moon, 

 whom the defeated people notoriously worshipped, 

 were so far from being able to protect their wor- 

 shippers, that they were made to promote their 

 destruction at the bidding of Joshua, whom God 

 had commissioned to be the scourge of idolaters. 

 And when the inspired recorder of the miracle 

 wrote that " the sun stood still," he told what the 

 eyes saw, with the same truth as I might say that 

 the sun rose before seven this morning. Inspira- 

 tion was not bestowed to make men wise in 

 astronomy, but wise unto salvation. 



Those who think that the inspired penman 

 should have said " the earth stood still," in order 

 to give a perfectly true account of the miracle, 

 have need to be told, or would do well to remember, 

 that tiie stopi)ing of the diurnal revolution of the 

 earth, in order to keep the sun and moon's apparent 

 places the same, would not involve a cessation of 



would be ridiculous. All that can be said is, that 

 either way it is partly ridiculous to make it a 

 matter of prophecy and lamentation that a human 

 being must, sometime or other, die. 



But it is very difficult to conceive that the 

 compliments to Elizabeth should have been written 

 after her death. 



Fletcher, born in 1579, did not, in Mr. Dyce's 

 opinion, bring out anything singly or jointly with | 

 Beaumont till 1606 or 1607. [ 



The irrelevant scenes, like that of Ventidius, 

 are introduced with two objects — one to gain 

 time, the other for the sake of naturalness : of 

 the latter of which there are two instances in 

 Macbeth ; one where the King talks of the swal- 

 lows' nests: the other, relating to the English king ! 

 touching for the evil, seems remarkably suited to 

 the mind of Shakspeare. C. B. 



its motion in its orbit, still less a cessation of that 

 great movement of the whole solar system, by 

 which it is now more than conjectured that the 

 sun, the moon, and the earth are all carried on 

 together at the rate of above 3700 miles in an 

 hour ; so that to say " the earth stood still" would 

 be liable to the same objection, viz., that of not 

 being astronomically true. I, K. carries his no- 

 tion of the " inseparable connexion " of the sun 

 " with all planetary motion " too far, when he 

 supposes that a stoppage of the sun's motion round 

 its own axis would have any efi'ect on our planet. 

 The note he quotes from Kitto's Pictorial Bible 

 is anything but satisfactory ; and that from Mant 

 is childishly common-place. Good old Scott ad- 

 verts with propriety to the Creator's power to 

 keep all things in their places, when the earth's 

 revolution was stopped ; but when he endeavoured 

 to illustrate it by the little eSect of a ship's 

 casting anchor ichen under full sail, he should 

 have consulted his friend Newton, who would have 

 stopped such an imagination. Another commen- 

 tator, Holden, has argued, in spite of the Hebrew, 

 that " in the midst of heaven" cannot mean mid- 

 day, having made up his mind that the moon can 

 never be seen at that hour ! 



Such helpers do but make that difficult which, 

 if received in its simjilicity, need neither perplex 

 a child nor a philosopher. H. W. 



3SiepUei to jaHfjinr ©ufn'ci*. 



Ulm Manuscript (Yol. iii., p. 60.). — The late 

 Bishop Butler's collection of manuscripts is in the 

 British Museum, i send you a copy of the bishop's 

 own description of the MS. (which should be called 

 the St. Gall MS.), from the printed Catalogue, 

 which was prepared for a sale by auction, previous 

 to the negociation with the trustees for the pur- 

 chase of the collection for the nation. 



" Acta Apostolorum. Epistolae Pauli et Catholics 

 cum Apocalypsi. Latlne. Saeculi IX. Upon Vel- 

 lum, 4to. 



The date of this most valuable and important 

 manuscript is preserved by these verses : 



' Iste lil)er Pauli retliiet dociimenta serenl 

 Hartmodus Gallo quem contulit Abba Beato, 

 Si quis et liunc Sancti sumit de culmine GallL 

 Hunc Gallus Paulusque simul dent pestibus araplis.' 

 Which I thus have tried to imitnte : 



CI)!)^ finfte cDiittjiucS ffjc ttoctrijitpsi ai ^cjinrt 



'iDaun, 

 KlaitmnUu^ tT)nhhnt iirfac j)t ta ^fitnrt (Sail; 

 (Si)f nni» tail t\)vi hnUc from I)ugl) ^^ryiirt ©all, 

 ^f nnct'(SaU appall Ijmn antr ^ruiut iOauH I;hiu 



"san. 



Hartmodus was Abbot of St. Gall in the Grisons 

 from A.I). 872 to 874. The MS. thert-rore may be 

 earlier than the former, but cannot be later than the 

 latter date. 



