The Bible and Modern Discoveries. By Henry A. Harper. (A.
P. Watt.)—" The author," says Mr. Walter Besant, in the preface which he has prefixe I to this volume, "has attempted a thing hitherto untried. He has taken the sacred history as related in the Bible step by step, and has ratold it, with explanations and illustrations drawn from modern research and from personal observation." The words "hitherto untried" seem a little too strong. We seem to remember books which have done something of this kind. But there is certainly a systematic illustration of the Old Testament in this volume from the results of recent dis- covery such as we have not before come across. Here is a curious and interesting specimen. Mr. Neville writes of the bricks of Pithom :—" Many of them are made with straw, or with fragments of reeds, of which traces are still to be seen ; and some are of Nile mud, without any straw at all." And some of the photo- graphs taken by this traveller show "brick chambers of a huge size—in the lowest course the bricks are well made ; in the higher courses, rough straw and rushes in the bricks ; last courses, neither." How this illustrates the story of the "straw and the stubble" in Exodus ! Another specimen may be taken from the story of the rich woman of Shunem. Her son is brought in from the field in the morning, and dies at noon. With us noon is the worst time for sunstroke ; but in Palestine it is the morning sun, striking as it does on the nape of the neck, that is most dangerous. The noonday sun falls upon the crown of the head, which is better protected. The "dove's dung" of the siege of Samaria is a" despised kind of bean," so called from a resemblance. But surely liazael's speech to Elisha, " Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ?" is a deprecating remark to the effect that he was too insignificant a person to do such great things, rather than an indignant disclaimer of the will to commit such cruelties. Such certainly seems to be the bearing of Elisha's answer, "The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be King over Israel." We most cordially recommend this volume to all our readers.
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