8 On the supposed Change 



soon perish. " Judea vero inclyta est vel magis palmis/* 

 says that author. "Judea is particularly renowned for 

 palm-trees or dates. "....Z/ii^. xiii. Ca. 4. 



These trees were not introduced and cultivated first 

 in Judea by the Jews. The Israelites, when they mi- 

 grated from Egypt, found palm-trees in the neighbor- 

 hood of Jericho, and in the plains of Moab, in all their 

 glory. Jericho is called the city of palm-trees — Deut. 

 xxxiv 3. and the word itself, in the Ethiopic, signifies a 

 palm-tree.... Z/Wf/o^'* Lexicon, col. 37. 



No man will be sceptical enough to deny a uniformity 

 in the laws of the vegetable economy. We have then 

 certain proof that Palestine, more than 3000 years ago, 

 was a milder climate than Italy, milder than the south 

 of France, as mild as the coast of Africa, at that time, 

 and milder than South Carolina at this day. 



Another remarkable fact is decisive of this question. 

 The Jewish month ^^''^nh Abib, was named from the ripe- 

 ness of barley in Palestine and Egypt, at that season ; 

 the word signifying fullness or ripeness from the swelling 

 form of the grain. Abib answers to the latter part of 

 March and the beginning of April, which was the time 

 of harvest in the earliest ages. Now this is the precise 

 time of harvest in modern days.* 



The facts above enumerated solve all questions as to 

 the ancient climate of Judea and Egypt. Frost, snow, 

 and ice were annually seen on the hills and mountains of 

 Palestine, and were perfectly well known to writers 

 among the Jews ; hence the justness of the descriptions 

 in Job and other parts of the Old Testament. In hard 

 winters, these phenomena must have been extended over 

 the plains, along the banks of Jordan ; and perhaps on 

 the sea coast. But the plains in common years must 

 have been very mild and warm. All this is precisely the 

 state of the climate in Palestine, in the present age. 



Confirmatory and decisive of this inference is the fact, 

 that from the earliest records of history, the inhabitants 

 of Judea constructed their houses with flat roofs, as they 

 do at this day, on which they not only amused themselves 



* See Shaw's Travels, p. 364, folio, and p. 430.— -Niebuhr's Trav. 

 Sect, xxviii. ch. 3.— Park. Lex. under jn. 



