of meteors is continuous, unless the breadth be considerable, we are likely to see very few of them. The best time to look out will be just before daylight on the morning of the 14th. It would be interesting to watch the Sun about eleven o'clock to see if any will cross the disc. The radiant point will then be in the south-western quarter of the heavens; and therefore any of the bodies of that system crossing the Sun would appear on the disc as a dark spot moving very rapidly from west to east. Patient watching for an hour or two would be well rewarded by such a phenomenon. A good telescope with a dark glass is the only instrument requisite. Mercury reaches its greatest western elongation, nineteen degrees, at half-past four o'clock on the morning of the 5th. It then rises two hours before the Sun, and may be easily seen with the naked eye. The form is semi-circular. It is rare to witness a morning-star so beautiful. Venus is the evening-star. It becomes visible in the south-west shortly after sunset. On account of its low southern declination, it sets early. Mars sets before Venus. It will be near Saturn on the afternoon of the 9th. ཝཱ Jupiter can now be examined at leisure. It is visible all the night. It will be in opposition to the Sun on the 8th. It will be on the meridian on the 4th, precisely at mean midnight; altitude fiftyfour degrees. It is retrograding in Aries. On the morning of the 18th it will be near the Moon. At eleven o'clock, on the evenings of the 4th and 25th, the satellites will be all on the western side of the planet; on the 13th, at the same hour, all on the eastern. The first satellite will be eclipsed, on the morning of the 5th, at 2h. 52m. 13s.; and, on the evening of the 6th, at 9h. 20m. 548.; on the 14th it may be seen emerging from the shadow at 1h. 23m. 33s. in the morning; on the 15th, at 7h. 52m. 24s. in the evening; on the 21st, at 3h. 18m. 468. in the morning; on the 22d, at 9h. 47m. 408. in the evening; and on the 29th, at 11h. 43m. 4s. in the evening. The second satellite will disappear in the shadow of its primary at 4h. 31m. 55s. in the morning of the 2d, and at 5h. 52m. 38s. in the evening of the 5th: re-appearances may be noticed on the 12th, at 10h. 43m. 388. in the evening; on the 20th, at 1h. 19m. 138. in the morning; on the 27th, at 3h. 54m. 49s. in the morning; and on the 30th, at 5h. 12m. 388. in the evening. The third satellite will disappear in the shadow on the 5th, at 4h. 49m. 278. in the morning; and on the 26th a disappearance may be seen at 4h. 53m. 278.; and a re-appearance at 6h. 40m, 50s. in the afternoon. The first satellite and its shadow may be seen on the disc of the planet on the 4th, after 5h. 48m. in the morning; on the 5th, from 0h. 14s. to 2h. 22m. in the morning; on the 7th, from 6h. 40m. to 8h. 50m. in the afternoon; on the 13th, from 2h. 4m. to 4h. 8m. in the morning; on the 14th, from 8h. 33m. to 10h. 34m. in the afternoon; on the 20th, from 3h. 59m, to 5h. 51m. in the morning; on the 23d, from 4h. 56m. to 6h. 44m, in the afternoon; on the 29th, from 0h. 22m. to 2h. 2m. in the morning; and on the 30th, from 6h. 51m. to 8h. 28m. in the afternoon. Transits of the second satellite and its shadow will be visible from 11h. 3m. on the evening of the 3d, to 1h. 8m. on the morning of the 4th; from 1h. 24m. to 3h. 33m. on the morning of the 11th; after 4h. 2m. on the morning of the 18th; from 5h. 21m. to 6h. 57m. on the evening of the 21st; and from 7h. 59m. to 9h. 15m. on the evening of the 28th. Similar phenomena with reference to the third satellite may be seen on the 8th, from 7h. 2m. to 8h. 38m. in the afternoon; on the 15th, from 10h. 54m. to 11h. 56m. in the afternoon; and on the 23d, from 2h. 55m. to 3h. 14m. in the morning. Saturn, like Mars, is too near the Sun to attract notice. Uranus rises on the 1st at 8h. 44m., and on the 30th at 6h. 47m., in the evening. It is nearly south of Pollux, distant six degrees. Neptune will be on the meridian on the 1st, at 10h. 23m., and on the 30th, at 8h. 26m., in the evening, altitude forty-four degrees. J. ROCHE, PRINTER, 25, HOXTON-SQUARE, LONDON. THE surpassing interest that attaches to the history of God's peculiar people Israel, and to the line of the inheritors of the promises, has, most naturally, turned away attention from the fortunes of the other descendents of the patriarchs. We shall, however, form but an imperfect conception of the greatness of Abraham, and of the extent of the blessings pronounced upon him, if we forget that he was, not merely in a spiritual sense, "father of the faithful," but, literally, "father of many nations." Isaac, too, inheriting the privileges of his house, was not without his share in the fruitfulness guaranteed to the chosen line, and in the honour accruing to the progenitor of VOL. XV.-Second Series,-DECEMBER, 1869, Z numerous peoples. Indeed, as late as the end of Jacob's life, it seemed as if the promise, so far as it regarded the development of a nation out of the children of Israel, was slow of fulfilment; yet even then the nationalities that traced their descent to the family of Terah, were neither few nor powerless. The sons of Lot, of Ishmael, and of Esau, together with the progeny of the numerous children of Abraham's second wife, had overspread and subdued nearly the whole northern portion of the Arabian peninsula, from the border of Egypt far into the fertile territory of Gilead. On the west, "from Havilah* unto Shur," dwelt the twelve tribes that sprang from the loins of Ishmael. (Gen. xxv. 12-18.) Further east were the possessions of the Edomites and Amalekites, and, beyond them, of Midian, Shuah, Sheba, and Dedan; while, on the farther side of the Dead Sea, Moab and Ammon had settled upon the wide and goodly lands which they afterwards lost to the Israelites under Moses. Nor, in all probability, was this great brotherhood of kindred peoples bound together only by the ties of a common ancestry. Scanty and incidental as are the notices of their history that have come down to us, there are not wanting indications of intermixture of race, and of close political relations among the communities occupying this extent of country. Esau, we are told, married a daughter of Ishmael, even before he separated from his brother Jacob to go to Mount Seir; (Gen. xxxvi. 3, 6;) and a further intimation of close connexion between the descendants of Abraham's sons is given in the fact that the merchants to whom Joseph was sold are called indifferently Ishmaelites and Midianites, and are said to have come from Gilead, a country, of all those now under consideration, the most remote from the first seats of the house of Ishmael. It would seem that the Edomites held a foremost place among these peoples, inasmuch as they alone appear to have had a regular succession of rulers, bearing at first the name of "dukes;" but afterwards, "before there reigned any king over the children of Israel" (Gen. xxxvi. 31) dignified with the royal title. Though we need not form any exalted idea of the power of these kings, we may gather, from the mention of many cities in their dominions, as well as in those of Ishmael, that they were more than mere chiefs of wandering hordes. Indeed, if we are justified in concluding from internal evidence that Job was, in very early times, an inhabitant of this region, and that his three friends belonged to kindred tribes, we have warrant for ascribing to the kingdom of the sons of Esau a considerable degree of civilization. The mention also of plundering bands of Chaldæans in the neighbourhood, would suggest a reason for coalition and united action that would naturally increase the influence of any king prominent enough to head a defensive alliance against the people who, in Abraham's time, had held in subjection the tribes of the southern desert and its borders. However that may be, we find the Edomites, * The site of this city has not been determined, EDOM. 355 of the time of Moses strong enough to refuse a passage to the hosts of Israel, and inhabiting a country of fields, vineyards, wells, and highways which, we are told, they acquired by an exterminating conquest such as that which gave Israel possession of Canaan. (Deut. ii. 12.) The spirit of hostility to the seed of Jacob his brother continued to distinguish Edom throughout his history. The arms of Saul and David are turned against their southern neighbours as against hereditary foes; and, as soon as the latter king had liberty at home, he invaded and conquered Edom; thus bringing to pass the prediction of Isaac, that "the elder" brother should 66 serve the younger." David's anticipation of the difficulty of his enterprise is shown in Psalm lx., where he inquires, "who will bring me into the strong city, ..into Edom?" The merciless slaughter with which Joab followed up his victory, deprived the Edomites of the power, though not of the will, (1 Kings xi. 14-25,) to re-assert their independence; and the Red-Sea ports of Eloth and Ezion-geber were for a long time most valuable dependencies of the kings of Judah, until the reign of Jehoram, when Edom became strong, and broke the yoke of his brother from off his shoulder; and, in spite of the brilliant victory and cruel vengeance of Amaziah, never again submitted to the northern power. Edom grew as Israel declined, and a timely submission to the Babylonian monarch saved them from sharing the fate of Palestine. They found ample occasion for gratifying their hatred to their former conquerors, and, during the seventy years of the captivity, they annexed to the territory of Selah, or Petra, a large tract in the south of Judah, including the city of Hebron, which they held until the arms of the Maccabæan princes reconquered it. From this region it was that Herod came,-in extraction a foreigner, in religion a Jew; and hence marched the thirty thousand Idumæans who joined in the defence of Jerusalem against Titus. It was while Edom was growing at the expense of its former rulers that the prophets Amos, Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Malachi pronounced against it the terrible doom that was so tardy of fulfilment, but, eventually, so complete. Utter desolation and long oblivion were predicted of the rising power, which had yet centuries of prosperity before it. * Repeating, in later times, the wise policy which Jeremiah had recommended towards Babylon, the Idumæans submitted, without loss of wealth or influence, both to the Macedonian and Roman conquerors; and, even as late as the third century after Christ, they were a populous and affluent nation; and their capital, Petra, the head of a Roman province, and the seat of a Christian bishopric. But now the longdelayed doom was about to be accomplished. The diversion of the caravan-trade, on which its prosperity mainly depended, the decrease * Amos i. 11; Obadiah 1—3, 8, 18; Joel iii. 19; Isai. xxxiv. 5, 10—17; Jer. xlix. 7-10, 12, 13, 15—18; Ezek. xxv. 13, and xxxv.; Mal. i. 3, 4. of population throughout the Roman Empire about this time, the invading hosts of barbarians which overran the whole civilized world, combined to destroy the greatness of Petra and its dependent country. As the inhabitants decreased, and the system of artificial irrigation was neglected, the desert gained rapidly upon the cultivated lands; till, at some unknown time, the once magnificent capital of Arabia Petrea was abandoned to utter desolation and emptiness. The marvellous buildings, and still more wonderful excavations, were left to crumble away and fall to the ground piecemeal; and for many hundred years the very existence of the singular ruins, thus shut up by the desert in their scarcely approachable valley, was unknown, save to a few wandering Arabs. The infidel-traveller Volney was the first to discover and explore the strange remains of "the city of the rocks," the vast extent of whose ruins, and the magnificence of whose excavated tombs, temples, and dwellings bore witness to the wealth and power of its former inhabitants; while the complete and long-continued desertion of the forgotten town showed how thoroughly the once thriving and opulent territory had been blotted out of the map of the world. Other travellers have since visited the spot, and brought back accounts that prove at once the greatness of ancient Edom, and the minuteness with which the word of the Lord against it has been fulfilled: I will "stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness." "I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate." "O Mount Seir, I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return." "Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill." B. A. G. THE COURSE OF TIME: THE emotions which prevail in the mind, vary through different periods of human life. In our early youth, when health is high, and the heart warm, hope takes the lead. Who can fail to call to mind the crowd of lively and sanguine opinions that swayed his early hours? The boy, true to his nature, must view every thing through the magic telescope of an eager fancy. Present scenes are only valuable to him in proportion as they help to shape his ambitious plotting for the future. He lives impatient for the future; the days pass away very tardily, holding him back from he knows not what, but still, from something which strongly impresses his mind with imaginary beauties, and which he is persuaded will greatly add to his happiness, at no very distant date. His early life is entirely spent in a castle of his own construction, and ornamented with the pictures of an excited expectation. Manhood alone can change the spirit of the dream, and unfold the realities of a busy world. It is then that we begin to mingle, as intenselyinterested actors, in its schemes and tumults, its windings and its turn |