BOOKS.

DR. ADAM SMITH'S "JERUSALEM."* JEnuseXam—the popular form is sufficiently correct if we pronounce it " Yerusiilem "—first comes into history about 7 the year 1440 B.C. It was then an Egyptian outpost, neglected by the home authorities, who were too busy with a religious revolution to "think Imperially,"—Amenhotep IV.

Jerusalem By George Adam Smith, D.D. 2 vols. London : Hodder and . Stoughton. [24e. net.] was the reigning Pharaoh. Eight of the Tel-el-Amarna letters are from the local potentate, one Abd-Khiba, and give a curious glimpse into Palestinian affairs at the time. Their Importance, of course, comes from the fact that they are the first absolutely certain mention of a world-famous place.

Dr. Adam Smith does not accept Professor Sayee's theory that "Jerusalem was then the dominant State of Southern

Palestine." Abd-Khiba was probably only one a Pharaoh's lieutenants in Syria. If he had any pre-eminence, it was

because he held the strongest of the fortresses. That Jerusalem may very well have been. It has been, as indeed it always is, an unhappy distinction. Abd-Khiba's letters to his chief are full of complaint and foreboding.

So far they are a fitting prelude to what is one of the most tragical histories in the world. Nearly twenty sieges or assaults; as many -more blockades and occupations ; "five abrupt passages from one religion to another " ; two periods of desolation,—such a succession of troubles cannot be matched elsewhere. As to realising the sum of the human suffering which these things mean, the imagination simply refuses to make the attempt.

Dr. Smith begins with a description of the natural features of the place,—the "essential city," as he calls it. That he knows all that the study of authorities and careful personal inspection could teach him is sufficiently guaranteed by the reputation which he has already achieved in the domain of Holy Land geography. We soon find proof of the insight and imaginative power which make this knowledge so fruitful. Here is a passage full of suggestion

"Hidden from the west and the north, Jerusalem, through all her centuries, has.sat facing the austere scenery of the Orient and the horizon of those vast deserts, out of which her people came to her. If the spell of this strikes even the western traveller as he passes a few evenings on her house-tops, he can the better understand why the Greeks were not at home in Jerusalem, and why Hellenism, though not forty miles from the Levant, never made her its own ; why even Christianity failed to hold her ; and why the Mohammedan, as he looks down her one long vista towards Mecca, feels himself securely planted on her site. The desert creeps close to the city gates. The blistered rocks and the wild ravines of the Wady of Fire are within a short walk of the gardens of Siloam. From the walls the wilderness of Judaea can be traversed in a day, and beyond are the barren coast and bitter waters of the Dead Sea. The siroeco sweeps up unhindered ; a dry wind of the high places of the desert towards the daughter of my people, neither to fan nor to cleanse ; gusty, parching, inflam- matory and laden with sand when it comes from the south-east, but clear, cold and benumbing when in winter it blows off the eastern or north-eastern desert plateaus. It is difficult to estimate what effect this austere influence had exercised on the temperament of the City. A more calculable result in her history was produced by the convenience of the desert as a refuge when the native garrisons of Jerusalem could no longer hold out against their besiegers. Not only was the east the most natural direction of flight for David before Absalom, and for Zedekiah when he broke with a few soldiers through the blockade of the Babylonian army ; but the desert sheltered both the troops of Judas MaccabEeus when Jerusalem was takea by the Seleucids, and those bands of zealots who escaped when Titus stormed the citadel and the sanctuary."

All the characteristics and conditions of life in such a place are of the greatest importance; but, if we are to single out one point as of special importance, it is to be found in the most essential of things,—water. We must pass over a highly interesting chapter headed "Earthquakes, Springs and Dragons" with a brief explanation of the title. That earth- quakes powerfully affect the water-supply of the countries which they visit is a familiar fact. As to springs, it is the hot springs coming from the native regions of these tremors which are chiefly affected ; but the shallower cold waters are also touched, and the popular belief, always looking for a personal agent in such phenomena, was that it was done by huge subterranean monsters. A verse which we may have repeated hundreds of times without seeing its meaning is thus accounted for. In Psalm cxlviii. 7 we read: "Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps," and naturally suppose it to refer to creatures of the sea. But it is "from the earth" that the praise is to come; the " deeps " are of the earth; it is there that the "dragons" dwell.

Of springs there seems to be but one which is beyond all doubt that which is known as the "Virgin's Spring." This, it is true, is influenced by rainfall ; always intermittent it

breaks out as many as five times daily in the rainy seasou, but once only, and not always once, after a dry season. Still, it is a spring in the ordinary acceptation of the term. And it has been so from time immemorial. It was an established fountain

in the days of David. But the water-supply of the city depended mainly on the reservoirs. Of these Dr. Smith enumerates sixteen open tanks, some of them of great size. The Sultan's pool, which comes first in the list, would contain more than twenty million gallons. Besides there are the reservoirs under the Temple, of which nearly forty have been surveyed. And there were domestic cisterns without end. One naturally asks how were these filled. The average rain- fall is twenty-six inches, and this is conveniently distributed for storage purposes. Summer rains are of little use in this direction ; but the whole fall at Jerusalem occurs between November and May. An average of six inches and a half is experienced in January. Besides the reservoirs there were aqueducts. The whole account is very suggestive. As our author puts it,—

" What thrift and storage of scanty supplies! The dykes of Holland, piled to keep the water out, tell no more eloquent tale of the labour of centuries, the piety and resolution of many generations, than does this story of what Jerusalem has done to keep the waters in—the rock cisterns of her early days ; the desperate care to bring the springs within the walls out of reach of besiegers; the execution of tunnels and pools by men hardly apprenticed to the art of engineering ; the struggle to keep pace with the rise of the City's levels above the sunken sources of the past ; and finally, the long aqueducts and deep reservoirs of more numerous and civilised generations."

From the first book, in which "The Topography—Sites and Names" is discussed, we pass to the second, dealing with the " Economics and Politics." Here, again, we have an embarrassing choice of matter. "The Natural Resources of Jerusalem" is an attractive subject. Grain could be grown well ; only there was very little room for it. The staple product was fruit, the olive, the fig, and the grape, and of these the olive was easily first. The upland slopes and terraces, with their "wash of wind and sunshine," suit it better than the richer plains. It wants care. It needs patience in the cultivator—ten years' growth is required before it yields fruit—but then it makes a rich return, and, unlike other fruit-trees, it has a very long life. Fifty or sixty years are old age to an apple-tree, but the olive lasts for centuries. The vine, which has come in a measure under the ban of Islam, was once more plentiful than it now is. The fig-tree, if we may judge from the comparative frequency of the word in place-names, comes last in the trio. The three fruits furnished materials for a large export trade. The balancing imports were, first, food,—wheat and other grain, flesh, fish (always dried); secondly, salt and other minerals ; thirdly, animals for draught or riding, the latest in date of these being the horse. Dr. Smith assigns the introduction of this animal to the time of Solomon. Jerusalem itself was not well suited to the animal, and the great Royal stables were elsewhere. Still, we hear of a "horse entry" and a "horse gate." The crafts and industries of the city were never very prominent.

"There never was a city which by its situation was more unfitted than Jerusalem was to be the home of industries."

" The Jews," says Apollonius Rhodius, quoted by Josephus, "are the only barbarians who have not contributed any invention useful to life." The city was largely the abode of an affluent clasp, and there was little employment outside the business of ministering to their wants. Still, the "multitude" of Jerusalem was an important entity in its history. The last chapter of Vol. I. is given to this subject, and it is as instructive as any in the whole book. Readers of the Gospel must often have wondered what brought about the revolution by which the popularity of the Triumphal Entry was changed into the furious enmity of the day of the Crucifixion. Here is an answer :—

"Had He ordered them to the wilderness they would have followed Him as they followed the Egyptian and Theudas. Had He promised that the walls of Jerusalem would fall before Him and the Roman garrison be swept to the sea, they would have died for Him by their thousands as they died for others. But he never spoke against Rome. He recognised their duty to Ciesar. He said that His kingdom was not of this world, and that only the truth could make them free. Therefore they turned against Him, and within a week of welcoming Him as king to the City— though Judas and the priests still feared their uncertain temper —they haled Him, a criminal, before the Roman governor, and with Rome they shared the guilt of His death."

Book III., occupying the second volume, treats of the history of the city. Considerations of space have deprived us 01 a detailed account of the last siege. We can only hope that the completing part may be given at some future time. The narrative of Josephus especially needs a critical examina- tion, because there is little doubt that in the interest of his Roman patrons he made serious misstatements. The crucial case is the destruction of the Temple, which he attributes to the rage of the fanatics, but which Tacitus, whose words are preserved by Sulpicius Severus, asserted to have been the deliberate purpose of Titus. Meanwhile we are warmly grateful for an admirable book.