BY THE HEBREWS. 45 



As descriptions of natural scenery, the writings of the 

 Old Testament shew as in a mirror the nature of the 

 country in which the people of Israel moved and dwelt, with 

 its alternations of desert, fruitful land, forest, and mountain. 

 They pourtray the variations of the climate of Palestine, the 

 succession of the seasons, the pastoral manners of the 

 people, and their innate disinclination to agriculture. The 

 epic, or historical and narrative, portions are of the utmost 

 simplicity, almost more unadorned even than Herodotus; 

 and from the small alteration which has taken place in the 

 manners, and in the usages and circumstances of a nomacle 

 life, modern travellers have been enabled to testify unani- 

 mously to their truth to nature. The Hebrew lyrical 

 poetry is more adorned, and unfolds rich and animated views 

 of the life of nature. A single psalm, the 104th, may be 

 said to present a picture of the entire Cosmos : "The Lord 

 covereth himself with light as with a garment, He hath 

 stretched out the heavens like a canopy. He laid the 

 foundations of the round earth that it should not be removed 

 for ever. The waters springing in the mountains descend 

 to the valleys, unto the places which the Lord hath 

 appointed for them, that they may never pass the bounds 

 which He has set them, but may give drink to every beast 

 of the field. Eeside them the birds of the air sing among 

 the branches. The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the 

 cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted, wherein the 

 birds make their nests, and the fir trees wherein the stork 

 builds her house." The great and wide sea is also described, 

 ft wherein are living things innumerable ; there move the 

 ships, and there is that leviathan whom Thou hast made to- 

 sport therein/' The fruits of the field, the objects of the 



