To these natural phenomena, the sacred writers frequently allude. The clouds are replenished by exhalations from every quarter, and when they are ready to open and pour out their refreshing showers on the parched ground, the glad tidings are announced by the rapid lightning, and the precious treasure is scattered over the fields by the attendant winds.

With respect to the weather at Aleppo, in September, Dr. Russell reports, that "during the first fortnight it is much the same as in the latter part of August, but rather more sultry. When no rain falls, the whole month continues clear and sultry; but commonly between the 15th and 25th heavy and black clouds arise, and hard squalls, blowing like whirlwinds from the west, fill the air with dust. This phenomenon forebodes rain; for within a day or two some heavy showers fall, called the first rains, by which although not considerable in quantity, the air being much refreshed, the remainder of the month is rendered very pleasant. Lightning, with out thunder, is seen almost every night, flashing from the edge of heavy clouds, in the north-west quarter; but when it appears in the west or south-west, it is a sure sign of approaching rains, which are often accompanied with loud thunder."

Lightnings, in figurative language, are the symbols of edicts enforced with destruction to those who oppose them, or hinder others from giving obedience to them. (Psalm 144. 6; Zech. 9. 14; Rev. 4. 5; 16. 18.) Thunders and lightnings when they proceed from the throne of God, as in Revelation 4. 5, are fit representations of God's glorious and awful majesty; but when fire comes down from heaven upon the earth, it expresses some judgment of God on the world, as in Revelation 20. 9. The voices, thunders, lightnings, and great hail, in Revelation 16. 18-21, are interpreted more particularly of an exceeding great plague, so that men blasphemed on account of it.

LIGN-ALOE. See ALOE.

LIGURE, leshem; Sept. Xyvptov; Vulg. ligarius, is the name of a precious stone, which is mentioned only in Exodus 28. 19; 39. 12. Castellus and others take it for the hyacinth, the Lapis Lyncurius of the ancients, as being of a red colour, and in being electric, a property ascribed to the Lapis Lyncurius, or Συλυγκύριον of Theophrastus.

The hyacinth is a sub-species of pyramidal zircon, found in the beds of rivers in the East, and sometimes in Italy and Greece. Besides zircon it contains silica and iron, is of a reddish colour, and occurs crystallized in four sided prisms; it is now little esteemed as a gem.

LILY, JW shushan, κpivov. Lilies are natives of the East, and found plentifully growing in the fields. (Cantic. 2. 1,2; Hosea 14. 5; Matt. 6. 28.) There are many varieties, but it is generally supposed that the Amaryllis lutea, or yellow amaryllis, is the flower intended in Canticles 2. 1,2, which bears some resemblance to our yellow crocus, but with a larger flower and broader leaves. The blossom emerges from an undivided spathe or sheath, and is of a bell-shaped form, with six divisions and six stamens which are alternately shorter. The flower seldom rises more than three or four inches above the soil, accompanied by a tuft of green leaves, that continue their freshness throughout the winter. It was introduced into the English gardens by Gerard, in 1596.

Mr. Salt, in his Voyage to Abyssinia, says, "At a few miles from Adowa, we discovered a new and beautiful

species of amaryllis, which bore from ten to twelve spikes of bloom on each stem, as large as those of the belladonna, springing from one common receptacle. The general colour of the corolla was white, and every petal was marked with a single streak of bright purple down the middle. The flower was sweet scented, and its smell, though much more powerful, resembled that of the lily of the valley. This superb plant excited the admiration of the whole party; and it brought imAmaryllis lutea. mediately to my recollection the beautiful comparison used on a particular occasion by Our Saviour: 'I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.""

Sir James Edward Smith observes, "It is natural to presume the Divine teacher, according to his usual custom, called the attention of his hearers to some object at hand; and as the fields of the Levant are overrun with the Amaryllis lutea, whose golden liliaceous flowers in autumn afford one of the most brilliant and gorgeous objects in nature, the expression of 'Solomon in all his glory not being arrayed like one of these,' is peculiarly appropriate. I consider the feeling with which this was expressed, as the highest honour ever done to the study of plants; and if my botanical conjecture be right, we probably learn a chronological fact respecting the season of the year when the sermon on the Mount was delivered." This species of lily is in full flower in September and October; Shaw states that he saw in January an elegant species of the blue lily, the same, he says, as the Lilium Persicum florens of Morison; Skinner saw lilies in the plain of Sharon in March; and about the middle of April, Mr. Wilde in the plain of Sharon saw numerous lilies with thousands of other gay flowers.

maasi מעשה שושן ,The work in the form of a lily

shushan, spoken of in 1Kings 7. 19, as an ornament on the pillars of the Temple, was probably work in the form of the lotus, for the lotus resembles the lily, and was very frequently used in Egypt as a decoration for the capitals of pillars.

Mr. Bardwell, the architect, in his work, entitled Temples Ancient and Modern, (1837,) says, "The two great columns of the pronoas in Solomon's temple were of the usual proportions of Egyptian columns, being five and a half diameters high, and as these gave the great characteristic feature to the building, Solomon sent an embassy to fetch the architect from Tyre to superintend the moulding and casting of these columns, which were intended to be of brass; and observe how conspicuous is the idea of the vase (the "bowl' of our translation) rising from a cylinder ornamented with lotus flowers; the bottom of the vase was partly hidden by the flowers, the belly of it was overlaid with net-work, ornamented by seven wreaths, the Hebrew number of happiness, and beneath the lip of the vase were two rows of pomegranates, one hundred in each row; these superb pillars were eight feet diameter, and forty-four feet hight, supporting a noble entablature fourteen feet high."

Among the ancient Egyptians the lotus was introduced into all subjects as an ornament, and as the favourite flower of the country; but not with the holy

Lime is a very prevalent ingredient in rocks, and, combined with carbonic acid, forms marble, chalk, and limestone, of various degrees of hardness and every variety of colour. The purest carbonate of lime is found in calcareous spar, whose crystals assume a variety of forms, all, however, resulting from a primary rhomboid. When subjected to heat, carbonate of lime loses its carbonic acid, and becomes caustic lime, which has a hot pungent taste. In this state it can be sparingly dissolved in water. If lime be subjected to an intense heat, it fuses into a transparent glass. When heated under great pressure, it melts, but retains its carbonic acid.

Lime was obtained in ancient times by calcining or burning stones, shells, and other substances. From Isaiah 33. 12, it appears that it was made in a kiln lighted with thorn bushes; and from Amos 2. 1, that bones were sometimes calcined for lime.

In reference to the passage in Deuteronomy 27. 2, "Set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister," Michaëlis remarks, "The book of the law, in order to render it the more sacred, was deposited beside the ark of the covenant, (Deut. 31. 26,) and we find the same procedure likewise observed afterwards with regard to other laws, such as that which was made on the first establishment of regal authority, or, in other words, the compact between the king and the estates, (1Sam. 10.25;) but I cannot precisely determine whether that was kept in the holy of holies beside the ark, or only in the holy place. The guardians of the law, to whom was entrusted the duty of making faithful transcripts of it, were the priests, (Deut. 27. 9;) but Moses did not account even this precaution sufficient for the due preservation of his law in its original purity; for he commanded that it should besides be engraven on stones, and those stones kept on a mountain near Sichem, in order that a genuine exemplar of it might be transmitted even to the latest generations. In his ordinance for this purpose there are one or two particulars that require illustration. He commanded that the stones should be coated with lime; but this command would have been quite absurd had his meaning only been, that the laws should be cut through the coating; for after this unnecessary trouble, they could by no means have been thus perpetuated with such certainty, nor have nearly so long resisted the effects of wind and weather, as if at once engraven in the stones themselves. Kennicott, in his Second Dissertation on the Hebrew Text, supposes that they might have been cut out in black marble, with the letters raised, and the hollow intervals between the black letters filled up with a body of white lime to render them more distinct and conspicuous. But even this would not have been a good plan for eternizing them: because lime cannot long withstand the weather, and whenever it began to fall off in any particular place, the raised characters would, by a variety of accidents, to which writing deeply engraved is not liable, soon be injured and become illegible. No one that wishes to write anything in stone, that shall descend to the most remote periods of time, will ever think of giving a preference to characters thus in relief. And besides, Moses, if this was his meaning, has expressed himself very indistinctly; for he says not a word of the colour of the

stone, on which, however, the whole idea turns. 1 rather suppose, therefore, that Moses acted in this matter with the same view to future ages, as is related of Sostratus, the architect of the Pharos, who, while he cut the name of the then king of Egypt in the outer coat of lime, took care to engrave his own name secretly in the stone below, in order that it might come to light in after times, when the plaister with the king's name should have fallen off. In like manner Moses, in my opinion, commanded that his laws should be cut in the stones themselves, and these coated with a thick crust of lime, that the engraving might continue for many ages secure from all the injuries of the weather and atmosphere, and then, when by the decay of its covering it should, after hundreds or. thousands of years, first come to light, serve to show to the latest posterity whether they had suffered any change. And was not the idea of thus preserving an inscription, not merely for hundreds but for thousands of years, a conception exceedingly sublime? It is by no means impossible that these stones, if again discovered, might be found still to contain the whole engraving perfectly legible. Let us only figure to ourselves what must have happened to them amid the successive devastations of the country in which they were erected. The lime would gradually become irregularly covered with moss and earth; and now, perhaps, the stones, by the soil increasing around and over them, may resemble a little mount; and were they accidentally disclosed to our view, and the lime cleared away, all that was inscribed on them 3500 years ago would at once become visible. Probably, however, this discovery, highly desirable though it would be, both to literature and religion, is reserved for some future age of the world. What Moses commanded, merely out of legislative prudence and for the sake of his laws, as laws, God, who sent him, may have destined to answer likewise another purpose; and may choose to bring these stones to light at a time when the laws of Moses are no longer of any authority in any community whatever. Thus much is certain, that nowhere in the Bible is any mention made of the discovery of these stones, nor indeed any further notice taken of them, than in Joshua 8, 30-35, where their erection is described; so that we may hope they will yet one day be discovered. The whole procedure of Moses in this matter, is precisely in the style of ancient nations, who generally took the precaution, now rendered unnecessary by the invention of printing, to engrave their laws on stones; only that he studied, by a new contrivance, to give to his stony archives a higher degree of durability than was ever thought of by any other legislator. What was to be inscribed on the stones, whether the whole Pentateuch, or only the Book of Deuteronomy, or but the blessings and curses pronounced in Deuteronomy ch. 27, or merely the ten commandments alone, has been the subject of a controversy, for particulars concerning which, I again refer the reader to Kennicott's Second Dissertation. In my judgment, the expression, all the words of this law,' implies, at least, that all the statutory part of the Mosaic books was to be engraved on the stones, which is far from being impossible, if we make but a distinction between the stones and the altar, which must no doubt have been too small for that purpose. It is well known that in very ancient times, nations were wont to engrave their laws in stones; and the Egyptians had recourse to stone pillars for perpetuating their discoveries in science, and the history of their country. All these circumstances considered, with this, above all others, that the Israelites had just come out of Egypt, where writing in stone was employed for so many purposes, (although, indeed, hieroglyphic characters were used, which Moses

LIME

prohibited, because, when not understood, they might give a handle to idolatry.) I do not see why the phrase, all the words of this law,' should not be left in its full force, nor what should oblige us to limit it, with Dr. Kennicott, merely to the decalogue."

The notion the Jews themselves entertain is, that the stones were to be covered with plaster, and the law written or inscribed thereon. Some think that the stones were not to have their surfaces covered with the plaster; but that it was used as a cement for the sides of the stones, joining them firmly together. Another conjecture is the one that Dr. Kennicott has adopted; and a third is, that the same mode may have been followed as we know was customary in Egypt. In that country we find paintings and hieroglyphic writing upon plaster, which plaster is frequently laid upon the natural rock, and after the lapse of perhaps more than three thousand years, we find the plaster still firm, and the colours of the figures painted on it still remarkably fresh. The process of covering the rock with plaster is thus described: "The ground was covered with a thick layer of fine plaster, consisting of lime and gypsum, which was carefully smoothed and polished. Upon this a thin coat of lime white-wash was laid, and on it the colours were painted, which were bound fast either with animal glue, or occasionally with wax." If it be insisted that the words of the law were actually cut in the rock, it would seem best to understand that the word does not here mean a plaster, but indicates that the stones, after they had been engraved, were covered with a coat of tenacious lime whitewash, employed for similar purposes by the Egyptians, who, when the face of a rock had been sculptured in relievo, covered the whole with a coat of this wash, and then painted their sculptured figures.

We read in Amos 2. 1, "He [the king of Moab] burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime." The interpretation of the Targum and some of the Rabbins is, that the burnt bones were made into lime and used by the conqueror for plastering his palace; if this explanation be the correct one, it would seem to suggest one of the uses to which bones were in those times employed. See BONES.

LINE, ban hhebel, signifies a rope, or cord, in Joshua 2. 15; in other places, a line to measure with. (28am. 8. 2; Amos 7. 17; Psalm 78. 55; Zech. 2. 1.) There can be little doubt that the Hebrews acquired the art of measuring land from the ancient Egyptians. Sir John Gardner Wilkinson observes, "To the effects of the inundation of the Nile has been reasonably attributed the early advancement of the Egyptians in geometry and mensuration. Herodotus, Plato, Diodorus, Strabo, Clemens of Alexandria, Jamblichus, and others, ascribe the origin of geometry to changes which actually took place from the inundation, and to the consequent necessity of adjusting the claims of each person respecting the limits of the lands; and though Herodotus may be wrong in limiting the commencement of those observations to the reign of Sesostris, his remark tends to the same point, and confirms the general opinion that this science had its origin in Egypt. But it is difficult to fix the period when the science of mensuration commenced; if we have ample proofs of its being known in the time of Joseph, this does not carry us far back into the ancient history of Egypt; and there is evidence of geometry and mathematics having already made the same progress at the earliest period of which any monuments remain, as in the later æra of the patriarch, or of the Great Rameses. The Egyptian land-measure was the aroura, which, according to Herodotus and Horapollo, being a square of one hundred cubits,

covered an area of ten thousand cubits, and, like our acre, was solely employed for measuring land. The other measures of Egypt were the schoene, equivalent to sixty stades in length, which served, like the Greek stade, the Persian parasang, and the more modern mile, for measuring distance, or the extent of a country; and the cubit, which Herodotus considers equal to that of Samos; for though the stade is often used by Greek writers in giving the measurements of monuments in Egypt, it was not really an Egyptian measure, as Herodotus plainly shows by ascribing its use to the Greeks, and the schænus to the Egyptians. It is highly probable that the aroura, or square land-measure, was divided into poles, answering to the kassobeh (reed), now used in Egypt, by which the feddan is measured; and in the absence of any explanation of the ancient landmeasure, it may not be irrelevant to notice the mode of dividing the modern feddan. Till lately it was a square of twenty keerat (carrots), or four hundred kassobeh (reeds) or rods; and each kassobeh was divided into twenty-four kharoobeh or kubdeh; but various alterations have taken place in the modern land-measure of Egypt; and even supposing the ancient aroura to have been divided in a similar manner, nothing can be obtained respecting the real contents of it beyond what we learn from Herodotus, of its being a square of one hundred cubits."

In Joshua 18. 9, we read, "And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh." These circumstances clearly indicate that a survey of the whole country was made, and the results entered carefully in a book. This appears to be the earliest example of a topographical survey on record, and it proves there must have been some knowledge of geometry among the Hebrews; and this had no doubt been acquired in Egypt.

LINEAGE, Tатρia, paternal descent; a family, or race. (Luke 2. 4.) See GENEALOGIES.

LINEN, bad. (Exod. 28. 42.) All the priestly garments among the Hebrews were to be composed of white fine linen, the product of a well-known plant, flax. No wool was to form or enter into the texture of the garments in which they ministered, and the reason assigned for this was, that it conduced to preserve cleanliness, which was also the Egyptian practice, for the priests of that country were of all people the most studious of personal cleanliness. They wore linen robes; and although their outer garment, when dressed in their ordinary attire, was, as among the other people, a sort of woollen mantle, they were compelled to throw it off before they entered a temple. No person was allowed to be buried in woollen, and all the bandages of mummies that have been examined are found to consist of linen. See CLOTHES; FLAX.

There is another sort of linen mentioned in the Scriptures, called shish, (Gen. 41. 42,) which is generally supposed to be the byssus, or fine white Egyptian cotton, and the cloth manufactured from it. (Exod. 26. 1.) The later name is buts. (Prov. 31. 24.) Under both words have also been understood fine linen garments; as the words for flax and cotton, in the Oriental languages, are indifferently used; thus the same clothes which in Ezekiel 44. 17 are called a bigdiy pishtim, linen or flaxen garments, are in Leviticus 16. 4 expressed by 7 bigdiy bad; and in Exodus 39. 28, michnisiy bad, the "linen breeches," are made of shish. The Chaldee has likewise often