The House of Dagon.----Scripture reconciled. 19579 នះ only the effect of vulgar prejudice, often hers of people that were buried in the ruins of it, by pulling down the two principal pillars. We read (ver. 27.) that about three thousand perfons were upon the roof to bebold while Samplon must therefore have made port. been in a court or area below them, and confequently temple will be of the fame kind with the antient TEDY or facred enclofures, furrounded only in part or altogether with fome cloyltered building. Several palaces and Deuthey call the courts of juftice wanas, as in these countries, are built in this fafion; where, upon their feftivals, a B great quantity of land is ftrew'd upon the area for the (Pello-wan) wrestlers to fall upon, whilft the roofs of the cloyfters, round about, are crowded with fpectators. I have often feen feveral hundreds of people diverted in this manner upon the root of the Dey's palace at Algiers; which, like many more of the fame quality and denomination, hath an advanced cloyfter, made in the fashion of a large pent houfe, fupported only by one or two contiguous pillars in the front, or elle in the center. In fuch open ftructures as thefe, in the midst of their guards and counsellors, are the Balbas, Kadees, and other great officers aflembled to diftribute juice, and tranfact the public affairs of their Heie likewile they have provinces. their public entertainments, as the lords and others of the Philiftines had in the houfe of Dagon. Upon a fuppofition, therefore, that in the houfe of Dagon, there was a cloyftered Itructure of this kind, the pulling down the front or center pillars only which fupported it, would be attended with the like cataftrophe that happened to the Philistines. SIR, BE pleased to accept of the follow Ding Answer to the Mechanic's doubts in your last (p. 563). St Matthew and St Luke relate different occurrences, which happen'd at the birth of Chrift St Luke mentions certain events which were prior to thofe mentioned by St Matthew Doublefs, numbers G of people might hear the shepherds' tale, and give no credit to it; others, out of curiofity, might go to fee the child, of whom fuch wonderful things were noifed; but finding him born of poor parents, and laid in a manger, they defpiled him, and laughed at the story of the fhepherds. Thele tranfactions, if ever they came to Herod's ear, gave him no uneafiness; he might think it He therefore infifted, that the stran gers fhould bring him word where he was, that he alfo might worship him (or destroy him, for that was his intention) but the men, by an heavenly impulfe upon their minds, were apprifed of his wicked design, and flole out of the country privately. This difappointment vexed Herad fo, that he (ins tending to make sure work) flew all the children, at Bethlehem and the country round, of two years old and under: from whence, I think, it appears that our Saviour might be near that age, and which Herod probably found by the anfwer the wife men gave to his quellion, What time the far appeared? So that our Saviour's being presented in the Temple, at the end of 40 days from his birth, and being carried into Egypt at near two years old, are events which may very well happen without interfering, which I take to be the difficulty your Mechanic cannot account for. H One difficulty, however, may yet arife, viz. How (if it was to long after Chrift's birth) the wife men fhould find the child at Bethlehem? As St Luke fays, his parents returned with him to Nazareth, after the performance of their dury duty at the Temple, Luke ii. 39. But to me it appears they did not find him there.. "Tis true, Herod fent 'em thither, but the ftar which they had feen before, and by which they had been directed into the country of Judea, and which had then disappeared, to their great regret and forrow, now appeared to them again (to their exceeding great joy) and gave them more certain di rections where to find him. By this means alfo (that is, by going to one place, when they were directed to another) they could the more eafily flip away from Herod. Thus an unlearned perfon, who allo has not leifure to perufe authors, has endeavoured to clear up the doubts of your correfpondent.May the fpirit of God illumine his understanding, and clear up every difficulty which he may meet with in the facred writings. Your conftant Reader, Jan. 11, 1749. Mr URBAN, G A FARMER. IVE me leave to alk fome one of your readers, 1. How many diftinct parts there are in man? 2. What they are? 3. Whether or no, in fome degree, man refembles a brute, and how far? 4. The parts, and the utmoft limits of their capacity in forming or producing his difcerning faculties? A B C D Yours, c. METAPHYSICUS. B N OSTRICH is the largeft of all high: it has two claws upon each foot, one fhorter than the other, the shorter having no nail; the grain of the foot is like that of the fkin of an elephant, though not fo hard, for it will yield on preffure, like the foot of a camel, there being feet under it, and by this means it treads without noife; above the claws the skin is fcaley, and every scale an irregular quadrangle, or pentagon, fometimes a hexagon upon the breaft is an hard, callous, dark fubftance, of an oval figure, and about 4 inches in length, and another fomewhat longer, but narrower on the os pubis. On these he rests himself when he fits, which he does on his feet, with his head upright, and in this polture he is fuppofed to fleep, his wing not being large enough to cover his neck. It has a fmall head like a goofe's, on which is a flat oval place, above two in ches in length, all callous and bare, and a long neck and legs; the head is cover'd with a certain down or thin fet hairs, but in the neck are fine white feathers; the fides under the wings and the thigh are quite bare, and the lower part of the neck where the feathers be gin is white. As the wings are 'fmall they are un ufeful in flying, and defigned by nature only to afft him in running; fo that their awkard motion makes it very dis verting to hunt them. The feathers on the back of the cock are coal-black, and on the hen dafkifh, fo foft that they refemble a kind of wool. The wing feathers are of the fame colour beneath, but above in their upper part purely white. The tail is thick, bufhy, and round, in the cock whitifh, and in the hen dufkifh, with white tops, which feathers are ufed for helmets, &c. It fwallows iron, leather, bread, ftones, and whatever elfe you offer it However it doth not digeft iron and thofe other hard fubftances, as the com mon opinion is, but voids them entire. Its eggs are as big as a young child's head, and commonly weigh about fif teen pounds, being cover'd with an hard ftony fhell. The hen lays a great number of eggs, which the buries in the fand, where the leaves them to be cherish'd by the heat of the fun only, till the young are hatched. Oftriches are bred in Africa and A merica, but are very rarely found unless in the inland parts of Egypt. The better to judge of the propor tion which the parts of this bird bear to each other, the following is extracted from Dr Brown's account of that he diffected. The whole foot is 3 4ths of a yard, but the longest claw, properly the foot, only 4th, the thorter claw was five inches and 3 4ths, the nail on the longer claw 1 16th, from the heel to the knee 8ths; the thigh 14th and very thick, the body from the lower part of the neck to the rump I yard, and the longest bone in the wing 3 8ths, the neck, excluding the head, I yard, from behind the head to the end of the bill 3 8ths. ERRAT.] In the chart of the Baltic, the engraver has put the province Kimi, as ceded to Ruffia, inftead of Keymene, led into the error by fotLowing the Syftem of Geography, and not our Magazine. See July 1743, P. 391. ODE from CASIMIRE, in Mr Hervey's Meditations. Vol. I. The rains are gone, the storms are er: The Jun is dress'd in beaming smiles, I cannot fay, as I'm a finner, |