In Mofes, fays Dr. Hunter (Sacred Biography), we have a bright example of genuine patriotifm. That moft refpectable quality appeared in him early, and fhone moft confpicuously at latt. When he was come to years, he refufed to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter; choofing rather to fuffer affiction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleafures of fin for a feafon. For Ifrael's fake, he was willing to encounter a thousand dangers, to endure a thousand hardships. For them he braved the wrath of a king; for them he laboured, fafted, prayed; in their fervice was his life fpent, and his-dying breath was poured out in pronouncing bleffings upon them. The compofitions of Mofes appear to be the oldeft writings in the world: He firft taught the chofen feed, MILTON. Mofes received the decalogue 1491 years B. C. How long is that ago this prefent year 1810? Anf. 3301. No. 11. SIEGE OF TROY.-Troy was fituated on a fmall eminence near mount Ida in Afia, at the distance of about four miles from the N. E. part of the Archipelago. The fiege of this place, which is the most famous, though not the longeft*, of any among the ancients, was undertaken by the Greeks, to recover Helen, whom Paris, the fon of Priam king of Troy, had carried away from the house of Menelaus her husband, king of Sparta. All Greece combined to revenge the caufe of this prince; and Agamemnon, brother of the injured Menelaus, was chofen general of the confederate forces. After the fiege of Troy had been carried on for ten years, the town was taken by the Greeks, who immediately destroyed it by conflagration, and put fuch of the inhabitants, as could not efcape by flight, to the fword, or carried them away captive. It is not certain whether Troy was fubdued by force, + The fiege of Tyre, by Nebuchadnezzar, lafted 13 years; and that of Azoth, by Pfammeticus, 29 years. ftratagem, ftratagem, or treachery. All agree that it was taken by night, and the poets maintain that the Greeks made themselves mafters of it by artifice. They are faid to have made a wooden horfe capable of containing a confiderable number of armed men; this they filled with the choiceft of their army, and then pretended to raife the fiege; upon which the credulous Trojans, at the instigation of one SINON, a crafty, perjured Greek, brought this fatal animal, which the author of Hudibras humorously ftyles The Trojan mare in foal with Greeks," into the city; and in the night the enclosed heroes rushed out, and opened the gates to their companions, who had returned from the place of their concealment. wooden horfe was fabricated by EPEUS. 1 * The The facking of Troy happened 184 years B. C. How long is that ago this prefent year 1810? Anf. 2994 years. N. B. The misfortunes of Troy have furnished the fubject of the two moft perfect epic poems in the world, namely, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY, written by HOMER, a celebrated Greek, who flourished about 340 years after the fiege, and is commonly accounted a native of Smyrna. The fubject of the Iliad is the wrath of Achilles, which proved fo fatal to the Greeks when befieging Troy. The Odyffey recounts the voyages and adventures of Ulyffes, after the facking of that city. The fame interefting story has likewife fupplied fome of the moft fplendid materials for Virgil's admirable poem of the ENEID, written in honour of Æneas. See Virgil, Index. Alexander the Great was fo fond of Homer that he generally placed his compofitions under his pillow, with his fword; and he carefully depofited the Iliad in one of the richest caskets of Darius, king of Perfia, whom he had conquered; obferving, that the moft perfect work of human genius ought to be preferved in a box the most valuable and precious in the world. HOMER, VIRGIL, and MILTON, are confidered as the three greatest poets that ever lived: * An epic poem is an heroic poem reciting fome great and fignal tranfactions of a hero. Thofe of Homer and Virgil, the Gierufalemme of Taffo, the Paradife Loft of Milton, and the Henriade of Voltaire, are the principal poems of the epic kind. See Chron. and Blog. Exer. 4th edit. art. Klopitock. Three Three poets in three diftant ages born, DRYDEN. The late Dr. Johnson, though he was ftrongly prejudiced against Milton on account of his political opinions, yet thought fo highly of his talents, and of his Paradife Loft, that he fays of him, " He was born for whatever is arduous; and his work is not the greatest of heroic poems, only because it is not the first ;" evidently ranking him above Virgil. No. 12. JERUSALEM TAKEN BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR.- -NEBUCHADNEZZAR, king of Babylon, took the city of Jerufalem by storm, and made a terrible flaughter of the inhabitants. Zedekiah's two fons were, by Nebuchadnezzar's orders, killed before their father's face, with all the nobles and principal men of Judah. Zedekiah himself had both his eyes put out, was loaded with fetters, and carried to Babylon, where he died in prifon. The city and temple were pillaged and burnt, and all the fortifications demolished, 588 years B. C. How long is that ago this prefent year 1810. Anf. 2398 years. N. B. It was in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar that the three young Hebrews SHADRACH, MESHACH, and ABEDNEGO, who with an invincible courage refused to comply with the king's impious commands refpecting the worship of the golden image, were miraculously preferved in the midst of the burning fiery furnace +. Great numbers of the Jews had been carried captive to Babylon some years before the deftruction of Jerufalem . Among the captives were DANIEL and EZEKIEL. No. 13. ‡. BABYLON TAKEN BY CYRUS.—The taking of Babylon is one of the greatest events in ancient 2 Kings xxv. 1, &c. Jer. xxxix and lii. + Dan. iii. 2 Kings xxiv. 10, &c. history; hiftory; and the principal circumstances by which it was attended, were long before minutely foretold in the Holy Scriptures. The pious Rollin, in his hiftory of Cyrus *, has remarked on this occafion, that nothing can be more proper to raife in us a profound reverence for religion, and to give us a great idea of the DEITY, than to obferve with what exactnefs he reveals to his prophets the principal circumftances of the befieging and taking of this famous city, not only many years, but feveral ages before it happened." Prophecy is in fact a permanent miracle on earth: a voice which fpeaks from heaven, and proclaims its author to all nations and ages. The predictions refpecting the total ruin and destruction of this proud and triumphant capital, which had fo long oppreffed the earth, and fhed the blood of its inhabitants, may be read in the writings of Jeremiah, Daniel, and particularly Ifaiah, who has compofed an ode on the occafion, which, as the ingenious writer juft quoted remarks, for elegance of difpofition, fublimity of fentiment, boldnefs of colouring, beauty and force of expreffion, ftands unrivalled among all the monuments of genius which antiquity has tranfmitted to modern times. The prophetic denunciations were executed upon Babylon (which was the capital of the Affyrian empire, and fituated upon the river Euphrates) by Cyrus, 538 years B. C. juft 50 years after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the city of Jerufalem and her temple. How long is that ago this prefent year 1810? Anf. 2348 years. No. 14. DESTRUCTION OF DIANA'S TEMPLE, The celebrated temple of Diana, at Ephefus, in Afia, on the confines of the Archipelago, was reckoned one of the wonders of the world. This famous building was erected at the common charge of all the Afiatic ftates, and CTESIPHON was the chief architect. Pliny fays that 220, but others affert that 400 vears were employed in completing it. The riches which were in the temple were immenfe, and the goddess to whom it was dedicated was worshipped with the moft awful folemnity. This Stupendous ftructure was confumed by conflagration the Ancient Hift. vol. ii. night of Alexander's nativity, by an obfcure individual named ERATOSTRATUS, who confeffed on the rack, that the fole motive which had prompted him to destroy fo magnificent an edifice, was the defire of tranfmitting his name to future ages. In the close of a tract, entitled, "Obfervations on Pliny's account of the temple of Diana at Ephefus," published in the 11th volume of the Archæologia, this temple is compared with the cathedral of St. Paul, at London, which is confeffed to be inferior: St. Peter's at Rome is allowed to be the only modern building which may claim a pre-eminence. Eratoftratus fet fire to the temple of Diana 356 years B. C. How long did the conflagration of this temple precede the current year 1810? Anf. 2166 years. N. B. The wonders of the world, popularly fo called, were, the Egyptian pyramids; the maufoleum* erected by Artemifia for her hufband Maufolus, king of Caria, a diftrict of Afia Minor, of which Halicarnaffus was the capital; the temple of Diana at Ephefus; the coloffus at Rhodes; the wails and hanging gardens of Babylon; the ftatue of Jupiter Olympus, by Phidias, at Elis, in the Peloponnefus; and the pharos of Ptolemy Philadelphus, on the fmall ifland of Pharos + in the bay of Alexandria. Instead of two of thefe, fome reckon the palace of Cyrus,. and the labyrinth of Crete. No. 15. SIEGE OF SAGUNTUM. The unfortunate Saguntum was fituated on the fpot where Morviedro in Valencia, Spain, now ftands. This brave city is famous in hiftory for the dreadful fiege that it fuftained 219 years B. C.; when the heroic citizens, after exerting incredible acts of valour, chofe to be buried in the ruins of their city rather than furrender to HANNIBAL, the * Hence all other magnificent fepulchres and tombs have received the fame name. + The Pharos was 180 cubits or 360 feet in height. It was built for the direction of the shipping to Alexandria, which is on a flat without any hill or rifing ground to point out a courfe for the veffels. This appellation has been fince occafionally given to feveral other edifices, which have been conftructed to direct the course of failors, either with lights or by fignals. famous. |