IMAGERY OF DESOLATION. 229 



awful and ntter desolation. Take for an example the 

 denunciation upon Idumea, in Isa. xxxiv. : — 



"And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, 

 and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof 

 shall become burning pitch. 



"It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke 

 thereof shall go up for ever : from generation to genera- 

 tion it shall lie waste ; none shall pass through it for ever 

 and ever. 



" But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the 

 owl also and the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall 

 stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones 

 of emptiness. 



" They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but 

 none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothinor. 



" And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and 

 brambles in the fortresses thereof : and it shall be an 

 habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 



" The wild beasts of the desert shaU also meet with the 

 wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his 

 fellow ; the screech-owl also shall rest there, and find for 

 herself a place of rest. 



"There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, 

 and hatch, and gather under her shadow ; there shall the 

 vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." 



A fine accumulation is here of wild and dreary images ; 

 and I do not know a better exemplification of the category 

 of natural phenomena under consideration than this awful 

 passage of Holy Writ. 



