the people into Canaan, caused the blessings to be pronounced from this mountain, and on it built an altar of the twelve stones taken out of Jordan; and that very altar, they averred, was the one on which they sacrificed. But in regard to this they were guilty of a sacrilegious impiety in changing the sacred text in their copies; for, in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is said that Ebal was the mount on which the altar was built, for which the Samaritans substituted Gerizim. This corruption the Jews loudly charge upon them; but they with equal violence retort it upon the Jews, insisting that they are the corrupters of the Sacred Text; and bringing for argument, that Gerizim being the mount appointed for the pronunciation of the blessings, was a fit place for the altar, but not Ebal, from which the curses were pronounced. But all other copies of the Pentateuch, and all versions are against them. They have also added, in Exod. xx., after the tenth commandment, a command to erect an altar in Gerizim.

These two mountains are in the tribe of Ephraim. In the valley between them is Shechem, now called Naplous. This place the Jews by way of reproach called Sichar, which means, drunken. Near this was the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob's well, where our Saviour asked water of the Samaritan woman.

The opinion is entertained by some, that Nehemiah did not return to Jerusalem until towards the close of the reign of Darius Nothus, when he was growing old. Josephus relates that he lived to a very advanced age; and this opinion, which brings down the second administration of Nehemiah to a much later period than the date commonly assigned, will accord with the facts recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah: for it can scarcely be conceived that so great abuses could have crept in during one year: such as the profanation of the temple; the violation of the Sabbath; the neglect of sending in the tithes and prescribed offerings, and various abuses in the official duties of the priests. All that the Scriptures say in regard to the absence of Nehemiah, is, "But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem; for in the two-and-thirtieth year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, came I unto the king, and after certain days obtained I leave of the king; and I came to Jerusalem," &c. The expression "after certain days," literally is, at the end of days; a phrase which, according to the idiom of Scripture, may signify a longer or shorter time. Jahn, who adopts the above opinion, supposes that the second administration of Nehemiah was contemporaneous with the events referred to in the book of Malachi, where the desolations of Edom or Idumea are spoken of, which he thinks were occasioned by the perpetual wars carried on during during this period between the Persians and Egyp

tians, whose armies often marched through this land, and laid it waste. It is expressly asserted that Joiada was high-priest during the last administration of Nehemiah, (Neh. xiii.) and the Alexandrian chronicon places the death of Eliashib, the father of Joiada, in the eleventh year of Darius Nothus, which answers to the 412 B. C. The second arrival of Nehemiah must, therefore, be placed much later, and is by Dr. Prideaux referred to the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus, but even this date is probably too early.

We have now arrived at a period where we can derive no further aid from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, for the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah, contains the latest history found in the sacred record; and the prophecy of Malachi closes the canon of the Old Testament, which, as was observed, refers to the same state of things as is referred to in the closing chapter of Nehemiah. There is, it is true, in the twelfth chapter of Nehemiah, an extension of the genealogy of the high-priests, for a long time after this, even to Jaddua, who was in office when Alexander the Great visited Jerusalem; but, undoubtedly, the high-priests who came after Joiada, were added by some one, after the canon was closed; most probably by Simon the Just.

How long Nehemiah lived, is nowhere said, but he must have been about seventy years of age at the time when the facts occurred, which are last recorded in his book. After him, the king of Persia appointed no one to be governor of Judea, but seems to have annexed this country to the province of Syria.

Darius Nothus continued to have wars with the Egyptians, until they were subdued; and also with Medes, who had revolted, and whom he brought under a heavier yoke than before. His policy towards the Lacedemonians and Athenians, in the Peloponnesian war was, to leave them to waste and destroy each other; occasionally directing his generals to assist the weaker party, so that the war might be the more prolonged. The general who was intrusted with the management of this delicate and difficult business, was Tissaphernes, a man of great talents.

In the seventeenth year of his reign, (407 B. C.,) the king sent his younger son Cyrus, to be commander-in-chief of all the provinces of Asia Minor. Cyrus must have been, at this time, a very young man, scarcely above sixteen years of age. On receiving his commission, he was directed by his father, contrary to the policy pursued by Tissaphernes, to help the Lacedemonians. The impolicy of this course was soon manifest, for the Lacedemonians, by the aid of the Persians, soon became completely victorious over the Athenians; and being

thencefoward released from this troublesome war, they turned their forces against the Persians themselves, and actually sent several armies to invade the country; one of which was commanded by the famous Agesilaus.

Cyrus gave great offence to his father, while he resided at Sardis, by putting to death two of his own cousins, sons of a sister of Darius, for no other reason, than because they, upon meeting him, did not wrap up their hands in their sleeves, as was customary on meeting with the king. An order was therefore sent for the recall of Cyrus, by his father, but assigning as the reason, that he was sick. Cyrus, before he set out on his return, had sent to Lysander the Lacedemonian general, subsidies, which enabled him to put his fleet into such a condition as to gain over the Athenians that decisive victory at the Goats' River, on the Hellespont, which put an end to the Peloponnesian war.

Soon after the return of Cyrus, Darius Nothus died, after a reign of nineteen years. By the interposition of his mother, Cyrus was reconciled to his father; and, not contented with this, she entreated to have her favourite made king, on the same principle as Xerxes was, because he was the first born after the accession of his father. Darius, however, would not yield this point, but gave the crown to Arsaces, the eldest son of Parysatis the queen, who, on ascending the throne, took the name of Artaxerxes, and to whom the Greeks gave the name of Mnemon, on account of his extraordinary memory.

It is said, that when the father was near his end, this son, appointed his successor, asked him to inform him by what art he had been able to manage the government so prosperously. To which he is reported to have made the following memorable reply: "By doing, in all things, that which was just toward God and man."

Cyrus, being disappointed in his ambitious views, of ascending the throne quietly, began, as soon as his father was out of the way, to plot against the life of his brother; which, being discovered, he was taken into custody, and condemned to die; but his mother again interposing in his behalf, prevailed on the king to send him back to the government of Asia Minor, which had been left to him by his father's will. But no sooner did this ambitious young man find himself at liberty, and invested with authority again, than he began, on various pretences, to raise an army; and the cities under the government of Tissaphernes revolting from him, joined themselves to Cyrus, which occasioned a war between them. This served as a pretext for what Cyrus now did, in collecting forces. As Artaxerxes supposed, that the only object was to oppose Tissaphernes; and to blind the king yet more, he wrote letters to him, complaining

bitterly of the conduct of Tissaphernes, and entreating him to grant him aid against him. He now applied to the Lacedemonians, who were under great obligations to him, for the subsidies afforded them for the aid of their fleet, which they readily granted. All this time, Artaxerxes seems to have had no suspicion of the true designs of Cyrus. When he had raised and mustered his forces, he threw off the mask, and marched his army directly against his brother. It consisted of thirteen thousand Greeks, who were the flower of his army, and about a hundred thousand besides, drawn together from all parts, under the command of Clearchus. With this force, Cyrus marched forward without meeting much opposition, until he came to the plains of Cunaxa, in the province of Babylon, where Artaxerxes met him with an army of nine hundred thousand men, and a decisive battle was fought, in which Cyrus was slain at the very moment when his auxiliary Greeks were on the point of gaining a great victory. These Grecian troops, of whom about ten thousand remained, were now left in a most embarrassing situation, in the midst of the Persian empire, in the presence of a vast hostile army, and with a long distance between them and home; the inhabitants of the intervening countries being all inimical to the Greeks. But by valour and consummate generalship, they succeeded in reaching one of the Grecian cities on the Euxine sea, after a march of two thousand three hundred and twenty-five miles. This is the most famous retreat of which we have any account in history, and of which Xenophon, who was their leader, has given us so lively and interesting a description, in his work entitled Anabasis.

The death of Cyrus, and the retreat of the ten thousand, occurred in the fourth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, (401 B. C.,) being the very year in which Socrates was put to death at Athens.

The reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon was long, extending to forty-six years; that is, from the year 404 to 358 B. C. He carried on wars with the Lacedemonians, Egyptians, Cadusians, &c., but no great success attended his arms. Shortly before his decease he appointed his son Darius his successor, but on discovering that he was engaged in a plot against his life, he had him executed. The second son by the queen, destroyed himself by poison. The succession to the crown then fell to Ochus, in the year 358 B. C. He assumed also the name Artaxerxes, which seems to have been among the Persian kings what Pharaoh was among the Egyptians; but in history, this monarch is known by his own proper name of Ochus.

During the greater part of the long reign of Artaxerxes

Mnemon the Jews enjoyed peace; except when the Persian armies marched along the coast of the Mediterranean into Egypt. On one occasion there were assembled on their borders no less than two hundred thousand barbarian soldiers, and twenty thousand Greeks, together with a vast fleet, which rendezvoused at Acre.

The high-priest Joiada died in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and was succeeded by his son Jonathan, or Johanan, or Ptolemais, or John, who held the office for thirtytwo years, and was the occasion of much trouble to his country.

The brother of the high-priest Johanan, whose name was Joshua, having ingratiated himself into the favour of Bagoses governor of Syria, through his agency and influence obtained a royal order that he should be made high-priest instead of his brother. Johanan not yielding to this, a contest took place. between the two brothers, within the temple, when Joshua was rashly murdered by Johanan. Bagoses, on hearing of this outrage, came to Jerusalem to examine into the affair, and demanded to be admitted into the temple where the murder was committed; and when this was refused, on account of the sanctity of the place, he answered with indignation, “What! am not I as pure as the dead carcass which lies in your temple," and immediately forced his way into the interior, where Joshua had been slain. As a punishment for the murder of Joshua, he inflicted a fine of fifty drachms on every lamb which should be offered up in the temple. Some say the mulet was five hundred drachms, but this has arisen from a manifest mistake in the text of Josephus. This tax continued no longer than during the government of Bagoses, a space of about seven years.

Ochus, upon ascending the throne, was guilty of shocking cruelties towards his own relations. As soon as the death of Artaxerxes and the accession of Ochus were known in Asia Minor, all the provinces in that quarter revolted.

In the third year of his reign, (356 B. C.-100th Olympiad, and 385 after the building of Rome,) Alexander, surnamed the Great, was born at Pella, in Macedonia, on the same day that Erostratus attempted to immortalize himself by setting fire to the temple of Diana at Ephesus.

About the fifth year of Ochus, died Mausolus king of Caria, an event rendered famous in history by the extraordinary grief of his wife Artemisia, who was also his sister. For having gathered together his ashes, and powdered his bones, she took a portion of them every day in her drink till she had, in this manner, drank them all; thus making her own body the sepulchre of her deceased husband, and in two years pined away with grief. But before her death she erected for him