1797 | 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. 
SIR Ma 
ryOUR correfpondent W.F. (vol. Til; 
p-252) thinks, that Homer was 
acquainted with the year of Jemfhid.— 
The common opinion ts, that the earlier 
Greeks dated by an erroneous year of 
360 days ; and that Thales firft added 
the five deficient days. The paflage 
cited does not interfere with this opinion. 
2. He difinclines to admit, that the 
captivity of the Jews is antedated in the 
received fyftem of chronology. One ar- 
gument: may be drawn from the age of 
Ezra, and another from the account of 
Zerubbabel, to corroborate what has been 
already advanced on this fubject. 
Ezra (vii. 1) was the fon of Se- 
raiah, the fon of Azariah, the fon of 
Hilkiah. Now, from 1 Chronicles 
(vi. 14, 15) we learn, that Jehozadak, 
a fon of this fame Seraiah, who was flain 
zt the taking of Jerufalem (2 Kings, 
xxv. 18) went into captivity with 
Nebuchadnezzar. Suppofe Ezra, then 
an infant, to have accompanied this bro- 
ther, fill he muft have been more than 
feventy years of age, according to W.F.’s 
mode of reckoning, at the migration of 
Zerubbabel, whom he attended back, 
(Nehemiah, xi.1)..: But Ezra . was 
living, and was active ftill, during the 
governorfhip of Nehemiah, and muft 
have attained a truly patriarchal longe- 
vity, if we confent to confider the 70 
years’ captivity-as already elapfed at the 
period of Zerubbabel’s fettlement. 
Again, in the enumeration of thofe 
children of the province, who, went up out 
of the captivity with Zerubbabel (Ezra, 
ill, 1 2) we find, that they came 
again unto Jerufalem and Judah, every 
one unto his city. If the captivity had 
already lafted 70 years at this period, as 
W.F. fuppofes, would there have been 
any children of the province, any na- 
tives of Paleftine ftill living ?—any co- 
lonifts anxious for returning each to his 
own city ? 
Befides, Daniel exprefsly tells us, that 
Darius took poffeffion of the Perfian 
throne (v. 31) during the captivity 
of the Jews, If W.F. will not allow 
this to have been Darius the fon of Hyf- 
tafpes, he muft inven: fome new Darius, 
wholly unknown to ancient teftimony, 
for the hero of this conqueft ; a fuppo- 
fition too wild to need a ferious reply. 
3. He appears to think, that no fatraps 
of the Perfien emperor would affume the 
title of -Aimg. Probably, the kings of 
Zobah, Damafcus, Hamath, and Gethur, 
MontH1iy Mage. No. XVIII. 
Reply to Chronological Remarks. 
421 
mentioned in Scripture, were no more 
than dependent provincial governors. 
It may be very true, that the firft 
year of Cyrus correfponds with the year 
536 or 538 before Chrift; was, therefore, 
fubfequent to the captivity of the ten 
tribes, under Hlofhea; and that Jofephus 
places in this year a return from cap- 
tivity. Jofephus was acquainted with 
the Jewith fcriptures from the Septua- 
gint verfion, and infers from them a 
chronology liable to ftrong objeétions. 
The theory here fuppofed, by no means 
requires that. Cambyfes fhould conduct 
the Jews to Babylon ;—Smerdis, the 
Mage, will make as good a Nebuchad- 
nezzar ;—and the interval which, in Da- 
niel’s legend, he pafles among the beaits 
of the field, may be then applied to the 
extraordinary difappearance of this 
prince, during the anger of Cambyfes. 
P.S. Mr. WoopHouss (p. 343) finds 
it difficult to reconcile the adventures of 
certain patriarchs with probability, even 
on the fuppofition of their lives being ef- 
timated by the lunar year. For it is cer- 
tain, that the relative duration of growth, 
and of declenfion, ought tobe the fame 
in human animals of whatever longe- 
vity , and that to mifs the due proportion 
of infancy, or of manhood, tends to inva- 
lidate altogether the teftimony. The 
inftances of apparent precocity, with 
which he makes fo merry, are equally ri- 
diculous, or honourable, on either hy- 
pothefis. May we not, however, fuf- 
pect, that in common with other nomade 
nations, the forefathers of the Jews 
were very negligent of regifters; and 
even began, perhaps, to reckon their 
ages only from the period of their be- 
coming,adult ? But all this is of little 
confequence : for who can hope to afcer- 
tain the bafis of hiftoric faét, which cer« 
tainly lies at the bottom of thefe docu- 
ments, farther back than the difperfion 2 
(Gen. x). 

To the Editor. of the Montoly Magazine. 
SIR, 
l. be much obliged to any of 
your readers, if they will inform me, 
through your Magazine, whether there 
is any exifting ftatute which annexes a 
puniihment to an aét of cruelty done to 
brute animals >—and, if there be, what 
ftatute ? I here mean more particularly 
a punifhment for cruelty as fuch, and not 
merely becaufe it may have fome bad ef- 
feéts on the manners of the human race, 
fuch as the prohibition againft throwing 
at cocks, &c. A Constant READER. 
2. ee) 
