Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

they reckoned him a faint, that was neither murderer, traitor, nor guilty of perjury; who avoided the company of those who had committed fuch crimes, who kept up the rights of hospitality, and places of refuge; who faithfully performed his vows, and gave liberally towards facrifices and public fhews. Religion was looked upon as a trade; they "made offerings to the Gods, that they might obtain what they defired in their prayers. Debauchery was fo far from... ⚫ being condemned by religion, that it was fometimes enjoinSed; there was no celebrating the Bachanal feafts in a proper

manner without getting drunk, and there were women who • prostituted themselves in honour of Venus, particularly at Corinth. It is well known what the God of gardens, and the myfteries of Ceres and Cybele, were.

[ocr errors]

Thus they honoured the Gods whom they thought kind and beneficent. But for the infernal deities, Hecate, the Eumenides, the Parcæ, and others, with the ftories of whom they were terrified, they were to be appeafed with nocturnal facrifices, and frightful inhuman ceremonies. Some buried men alive, others facrificed children, and fometimes their own; as the worthippers of Moloch, mentioned with so much deteftation in Scripture, who ftill kept up this abominable custom in Africa in Tertullian's time.

To this fear and dread were owing all the reft of their cruel and troublesome fuperftitions. All their luftrations or expiations for crimes, confifted in purifying the body by water or fire, and performing certain facrifices: but there was no mention of either repentance or converfion.-It will feem ftrange, perhaps, that people fo wife as the Grecians, fhould give into fuch grofs fuperftitions, and fo easily suffer • themselves to be impofed upon by Aftrologers, Diviners, • Soothsayers, and many other forts of Conjurers. But it must be confidered, that, till Alexander's time, and the reign of the Macedonians, they had made no great progress in fuch learning as might cure them of fuperftition. They excelled in arts; their laws were wife; in a word, they had brought every thing to perfection, that makes life eafy and agreeable: but they took little pains in the fpeculative fciences, Geometry, Aftronomy, and Phyfics. The anatomy of plants and animals, the knowlege of minerals and meteors, the fhape of the earth, the courfe of the ftars, and the whole fyftem of the world, were ftill mysteries to them. The Chaldeans and Egyptians, who already knew fomething of them, kept it a great fecret, and never fpoke

2

of

❝ of them but in riddles, with which they mixed an infinite • number of fuperftitious fables.→→→

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

1

A proneness to idolatry was not therefore peculiar to the <Ifraelites. It was a general evil; and the hardness of heart, with which the fcriptures fo often reproaches them, is not for being more attached to earthly things than other people, but for being fo much as they were, after having received • fuch particular favours from the hand of God, and seen the great wonders he had wrought for them. It is true, much ⚫ refolution is neceffary to refift the influence of bad example in all other nations. When an Ifraelite was out of his own < country, and amongst infidels, they reproached him with having no religion at all, because they did not fee him offer any facrifice, or worship idols: and when he told them of his • God, the Creator of heaven and earth, they laughed at him, and asked where he was. These taunts were hard to bear: • David himself fays, that when he was an exile, He fed • himself day and night with his tears, because they daily afked him, where his God was. Weak minds were ftaggered ⚫ with these attacks, and often gave way to them.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The propenfity that all mankind has to pleasure height⚫ened the temptation: as the Heathen feafts were very frequent and magnificent, curiofity eafily prevailed upon young people, especially women, to go and fee the pomp of their proceffions, the manner of dreffing out the victims, the dancing, the choirs of mufic, and ornaments of their temples. • Some officious body engaged them to take a place at the feast, and eat the meat that was offered to idols, or come and lodge at his house. They made acquaintance, and carried on love intrigues, which generally ended either in downright debauchery, or marrying contrary to the law. Thus did idolatry infinuate itself, by the most common allurements of · women and good cheer. In the time of Mofes, the Ifraelites were engaged in the infamous myfteries of Baal Peor, by the Midianitifh women, who were the range women that perverted Solomon.

[ocr errors]

Befides, the law of God might appear too fevere to them. They were not allowed to facrifice in any place but one, ⚫ by the hands too of fuch priests only as were defcended from Aaron, and according to fome very ftrict rules. They had but three great feafts in the whole year, the Paffover, Pentecoft, and feast of tabernacles; a very few for people that • lived in plenty, and in a climate that inclined them to pleafure: as they lived in the country, employed in husbandry, they could not conveniently meet together but at feafts, and

for

for that reason were obliged to borrow fome of ftrangers, ' and invent others. Do not we ourselves, who think we are fo fpiritual, and no doubt ought to be fo, if we were true Chriftians, often prefer the poffeffion of temporal things to the hope of eternal? and do we not endeavour to recon cile many diverfions with the Gofpel, which all antiquity has judged inconfiftent with it, and against which our inftructors are daily exclaiming? It is true, we hold Idolatry in deteftation, but it is now no longer a familiar fight, and < has been quite out of fashion above a thousand years. We 6 are not then to imagine, that the Ifraelites were more stupid ⚫ than other people, because the particular favours they had

[ocr errors]

received from God could not reclaim them from Idolatry. • But it must be owned, that the wound of original fin was very deep, when fuch holy instructions, and repeated miracles, were not fufficient to raise men above fenfible things. We fee, however, a much greater degree of blindness in other nations, as the Greeks and Egyptians, who were, in other refpects, the most enlightened.'

Our Author comes now to fay fomething of the political ftate of the Ifraelites, their domeftic power, their administration of justice, and their wars. In the third part of his work he takes a fhort view of their laft ftate, from the Babylonish captivity to their entire difperfion; but the extracts we have already given will be fufficient to convey to our Readers a just idea of the whole performance, and likewise render it unnecessary to say any thing of the translation.

The Civil and Natural Hiftory of Jamaica. By Patrick Brown, M. D. continued from Page 43 of the Review for July, 1756.

TH

HAT part of this Work which relates to the Civil Hiftory of Jamaica having been already taken notice of, we now proceed to give fome account of what relates to the natural productions, which, as has been before obferved, employ a large fhare of this volume. It is here our Author's more arduous task begins; and truly his induftry and application are particularly confpicuous. Thefe fubjects are treated of in three books; the firft, befides a circumstantial account of the Foffils of the island, their uses and properties; with fome remarks on its waters, ores, and foil; profeffes to contain a new and eafy method of claffing Foffils in general,

[ocr errors]

• with

• with an account of the nature and properties of each clafs.' The propofed improvements in the diftribution of Foffils is thrown into a fynoptical table. With refpect to the products of this clafs, peculiar to Jamaica, as they are here defcribed, they afford very little worth particular attention.

Book II. is intitled, a Hiftory of the Vegetable Productions; ⚫ claffed and diftributed nearly according to the Linnæan fyftem; with the characters of fuch as were not hitherto known, or have been but imperfectly reprefented: to which we have added the Synonyma, from the moft approved au⚫thors, as well as the heft methods for cultivating and manufac⚫turing the more ufeful fpecies; with the properties and uses • of each in mechanics, diet, and phyfic. Dr. Brown seems to think it no inconfiderable recommendation of this part of his undertaking, that, whereas Sir Hans Sloane hath not collected above eight hundred fpecies of plants, in all his travels, he [our Author] has examined and described, in Jamaica alone, about twelve hundred, This exuberance may, indeed, be admitted as a proof of his affiduity, but will it be confidered as an equal teftimony of his judgment? Surely English readers could not want any information with respect to the artichoke, carrot, parfnip, and many other productions common at every table, and in, almoft, every garden in Great Britain.-But let the lowing extracts fpeak for our Author.

[ocr errors]

• ZINZIBER. I. Foliis lanceolatis, Floribus fpicatis, fcapa "florifero partiali.

AMOMUM fcapo nudo, fpicâ ovatâ, L. H. C. & Sp. Pl.
Zinziber & Gingiber Off. & Zingiber. C. B. Slo. Cat. 60.
Zinziber Anguftiori folio famineo, &c. Thez. Zey. &
• Infchi H. M. Part XI. t. 12.

Ginger.

This plant is fometimes cultivated with great care in our Sugar Colonies, and frequently furnishes a confiderable branch of their exports; but as the demand is uncertain, and the price very changeable, it is not fo regularly planted as fo valuable a commodity ought to be: It is propagated by the fmaller pieces, prongs, or protuberances of the root, each of which throw up two different ftems; the first bears the leaves, and rifes fometimes to the height of three feet, or more, though its usual growth feldom exceeds fixteen or ⚫ eighteen inches: when this fpreads its leaves, and grows to full perfection, the second stalk fprings up, which is alfo fimple, and furnifhed only with a few fcales below, but at the top is adorned with a roundifh fquamofe flower-fpike, and fel

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

a

• dom

dom rifes above two thirds the height of the other. The plant thrives beft incarich cool foil; (that lately cleared is beft) and grows fo luxuriantly in fuch places, that I have <fometimes feen a Hand of Ginger weigh near half a pound: it is, however, remarked, that fuch as are produced in a more clayey foil fhrink lefs in fcalding, while thofe raised in ⚫ the richer free black moulds, are observed to lose more confiderably in that operation.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The land laid out for the culture of this plant is firft well cleared and hoed, then flightly trenched, and planted about the month of March or April it rifes to its height and flowers about September; and fades again towards the end of the year. When the ftalks are wholly withered, the < root is thought to be full grown and faturated, and then fit to dig; which is generally done in the months of January and February following. When thefe are dug up they are < picked and cleaned, and then fealded gradually in boiling watert: after this they are fpread and exposed to the fun, from day to day, until the whole be fufficiently cured; they are then divided into parcels of about one hundred weight each, and put into bags for the market. This is called • Black Ginger

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The White fort differs, little from this; it is, however, more agreeable to the eye, and generally more pleasing; but the difference is wholly owing to the different methods of curing them; for this is never fcalded, but instead of that eafy procefs, they are obliged to pick, wafh, and scrape every root separately, and then to dry them in the fun and open air, which takes up too much time and pains for any real advantage it can produce,

But to preferve this root in fyrup, as it is ufually done, it must be dug while its texture is yet tender and full of fap, and then the fhoots feldom exceed five or fix inches in height: these roots are carefully picked, and washed, and ⚫ afterwards fcalded until they become tender enough for the

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The larger fpreading roots are called Hands in Jamaica.

For this purpofe they have a large kettle fixed in the field, or fome convenient place, which is always kept full of boiling ← water, during the whole procefs; the picked Ginger is divided into small parcels, put into baskets, and dipped, one after another, in the boiling water, in which each is kept for the space of ten or twenty minutes; it is then taken up and spread upon the common platform: and thus they proceed till the whole is fcalded; but they always take care to change the water, when it is highly impregnated with the particles of the root.?

[ocr errors]

purpofe;

« AnteriorContinuar »