founded in truth, may be relied on as the lessons of experience. They furnish examples of the rewards of virtue, and the punishment of vice; they display the real traits of human character; they develope the ways of Providence; display the retributions of Divine justice, and afford lively incitements to the pursuit of an honourable and virtuous line of conduct in life.

A survey of some of the more remarkable wonders of history will, we trust, present to the reader a rich fund of entertainment, as well as instruction. In the selection of these wonders, I shall be guided by a desire to exhibit what is most striking and attractive; and shall endeavour to bring into view those characters whose names are most remarkable, and those events which have produced the most important and lasting effects on the destiny of mankind.

I shall begin with selecting some remarkable events in the history of the Jews, a nation whose very existence, at the present moment, is certainly one of the most wonderful circumstances in the history of our race. That part of their history which is included in the sacred volume abounds with miracles, which are familiar to all readers. I shall therefore select but few events from this period, and those of a nature not miraculous: because it is my purpose to present to view, wonders in the common sense of the word, and not miraculous interpositions of Providence. My principal authority will be their own historian, Josephus, one of the most distinguished men of the nation.

Josephus was a man of illustrious race, lineally descended from a priestly family, the first of the twenty-four courses, an eminent distinction. By his mother's side he traced his genealogy up to the Asmonean princes. His father, Matthias, was of upright character, as well as of noble birth: he resided in Jerusalem, where the young Joseph grew up with a brother named Matthias, with great reputation for early intelligence and memory. At fourteen years old, (he is his own biographer,) he was so fond of letters that the chief priests used to meet at his father's house to put to him difficult

questions of the law. At sixteen he determined to acquaint himself with the three prevailing sects, those of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes; for though he had led, for some time, a hardy, diligent, and studious life, he did not consider himself yet sufficiently acquainted with the character of each sect, to decide which he should follow. Having heard that a certain Essene, named Banus, was living, in the desert, the life of a hermit, making his raiment from the trees, and his food from the wild fruits of the earth, practising cold ablutions at all seasons, and, in short, using every means of mortification to increase his sanctity, Josephus, ambitious of emulating the fame of such an example of holy seclusion, joined him in his cell. But three years of this ascetic life tamed his zealous ambition: he grew weary of the desert, abandoned his great example of painful devotion, and returned to the city at the age of nineteen. 'There he joined the sect of the Pharisees. In his twenty-sixth year, he undertook a voyage to Rome, in order to make interest in favour of certain priests, who had been sent there to answer some unimportant charge, by Felix. They were friends of Josephus, and his zeal in their favour was heightened by hearing that, with religious attachment to the law, they refused, when in prison, to eat any unclean food, but lived on figs and nuts. On his voyage he was shipwrecked, like St. Paul, and in great danger. His ship foundered in the Adriatic; six hundred of the crew and passengers were cast into the sea: eighty contrived to swim, and were taken up by a ship from Cyrene They arrived at Dicearchia, (Puteoli,) the usual landingplace, and Joseph, making acquaintance with one Aliturus, an actor, a Jew by birth, and, from his profession, in high credit with the empress Poppæa, he obtained the release of the prisoners, as well as valuable presents from Poppæa, and returned home. During all this time he had studied diligently, and made himself master of the Greek language, which tew of his countrymen could write, and still fewer speak with a correct pronunciation.

On his return to Jerusalem, he found affairs in the utmost

confusion: great preparations were making for the war, and the insurgents were in high spirits. He united himself to the party who were for peace, and strongly urged the rashness and peril of the war. Apprehensive that these unpopular doctrines had made him an object of suspicion to the more violent, and dreading lest he might be seized and put to death, he retired, after the capture of the Antonia, into the inner temple. After the murder of Manahem, he stole forth from thence, and joined himself to a considerable body of the chief priests and leading Pharisees, who pretended to enter into the insurrectionary measures, that they might save the lives of those who capitulated in the palace, yet looked with anxious eagerness for the advance of Ctesius, who, it was expected, would easily suppress the revolt."*

It was thus that Josephus first entered upon the theatre where he was destined to play so conspicuous a part, and to exercise so striking an influence over those important events of which he subsequently became the historian. In the war with the Romans which ensued, he bravely defended Jotapata against Vespasian; but was at length compelled to surrender. Titus saved him from the anger of the conqueror; and after the subjugation of Judea, Josephus accompanied him to Rome, and was highly favoured by him. He is supposed to have died about the year 95. He wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews," "History of the Jewish Wars," and other works.

CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ASSYRIANS.

THE following passage from Milman, who follows the account of Josephus, displays that wonderful feature in the character of the Jews, the preservation of a complete national identity in a state of captivity and exile.

"In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, (B. c. 604,) the mightiest monarch who had wielded the Assyrian power, Nebuchad

nezzar, was associated in the empire with his father, and assumed the command of the armies of Nineveh. The prophetic eye of Jeremiah foresaw the approaching tempest, and endeavoured to avert it by the only means which remained in the impoverished and enfeebled state of the kingdom, timely submission. Long had he struggled, but in vain, to restore the strength of the state by the reformation and religious union of the king and the people. In the royal palace and in the temple, he had uttered his solemn warnings. His honest zeal had offended the priesthood. He had been arraigned as a false prophet before the royal council, where, by the intervention of powerful friends, he had been acquitted. Uriah, another prophet, who had boldly exercised that unwelcome office, after having fled, in vain, to Egypt, had been seized and put to death. At this juncture, Jeremiah again came forward. In opposition to a strong Egyptian faction, he urged the impracticability of resistance to the Assyrian forces, already on their march. But he spoke to deaf and heedless ears. He then denounced an impending servitude of the whole people, which was to last for seventy years; and to give farther publicity to his awful remonstrances, he commanded Baruch, a scribe, to write on a roll the whole of his predictions. The roll was read during a general fast, in the most public place, before the gate of the temple. The chief nobility of the city were strongly affected, but the headstrong king cut the roll to pieces, cast it into the fire, and Jeremiah and Baruch were obliged to conceal themselves from his vengeance. The event soon justified the wisdom of the prophet Nebuchadnezzar, having retaken Carchemish, (B. c. 601,) passed the Euphrates, and rapidly overran the whole of Syria and Palestine. Jerusalem made little resistance. The king was put in chains, to be carried as a prisoner to Babylon. On his submission, he was reinstated on the throne, but the temple was plundered of many of its treasures, and a number of well-born youths, among whom were Daniel and three others, best known by their Persian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. From this date commence the

seventy years of the captivity. Jehoiakim had learned neither wisdom nor moderation from his misfortunes. Three years after he attempted to throw off the yoke of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar, occupied with more important affairs, left the subjugation of Palestine to the neighbouring tribes, who, for three years longer, ravaged the whole country, shut up Jehoiakim in Jerusalem, and, at length, this weak and cruel king was slain, (B. c. 598,) perhaps in some sally. His unhonoured remains were buried "with the burial of an ass."

Jehoiachin, (Jeconias or Coniah,) his son, had scarcely mounted the throne, when Nebuchadnezzar, himself, appeared at the gates of Jerusalem. The city surrendered at discretion, the king and all the royal family, the remaining treasures of the temple, the strength of the army and the nobility, and all the more useful artisans, were carried away to Babylon. Over this wreck of a kingdom, Zedekiah (Mattaniah) the younger son of Josiah, was permitted to enjoy an inglorious and precarious sovereignty of eleven years, during which he abused his powers, even worse than his imbecile predecessors. In his ninth year, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the wise Jeremiah, he endeavoured to assert his independence; and Jerusalem, though besieged by Nebuchadnezzar in person, now made some resistance. The Egyptian faction in the city were encouraged by the advance of Hophra, (Apries,) the reigning Pharaoh, into Palestine. This march suspended, for a time, the operations of the Assyrians. The Jews, released from the pressing danger, recanted all the vows of reformation which they had begun to make: but Hophra and the Egyptian army were defeated, and the toils closed again around the devoted city. Jeremiah, undaunted by his ill-success, still boldly remonstrated against the madness of resistance. He was thrown into a foul and noisome dungeon on an accusation of treasonable correspondence with the enemy. At length famine reduced the fatal obstinacy of despair. Jerusalem opened its gates to the irresistible conqueror. The king, in an attempt to break through the besieging forces, was seized, his children