“You shall see her letters with pleasure,” replied my aunt; “and I hope at some future time you will know the amiable and excellent writer herself.”
2nd. Sunday.—In speaking to-day of reading the Bible, my uncle regretted that indolence so often prevents people, when they find difficulties, or apparent contradictions, from taking a little trouble to try if they could not be reconciled. “How often,” said he, “by a small degree of attention, might we perceive that the seeming disagreement arises from some oversight of our own, and that it might be made quite clear by a little reflection.
“For instance, in 1st Kings, vii. 26, it is stated that the molten sea contained two thousand baths;—while in 2nd Chronicles, iv. 5, we are told that it received and held three thousand baths. Now the case is this: the writer of the book of Chronicles states that ten lavers of brass were made, which joined the molten sea. ‘Five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt-offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priest to wash in.’
“Hence it appears that the molten sea, with its appendages the lavers, were altogether for the washings; but each part was appropriated to distinct purposes—the lavers for the washing of burnt-offerings, and the sea for the washing of the priests; as it would not have been proper for the priests to have washed in the same water in which the burnt-offerings were washed. The lavers are not noticed in the book of Kings, in which the contents only of the sea are alluded to—but in Chronicles you perceive they are both mentioned. The lavers received one thousand baths, exactly the difference which makes these accounts appear contradictory—but which is completely explained by observing that a part only of the sea is alluded to by one writer, while the other describes the whole of it.”
My uncle mentioned some other passages in the Old Testament, which are misunderstood, in consequence of some slight inaccuracy in the English construction. I think I can give one of them nearly in his words.—“In 2nd Chronicles, chap. ii., an astonishing number of men are said to have been employed in building the Temple—a number that at first sight appears incredible, supposing them employed on the Temple only. But we are told by the learned that the original does not signify that they were all employed on what, properly speaking, was called the Temple, or inner-house, where the cherubim were kept. The expression applies equally to the outer division before the veil, which was called the greater house; and we are therefore to consider that all the buildings attached to the Temple are included in this account of the employment of the workmen. Now the buildings around the whole area where the temple stood were intended not only for the residence of the priests and Levites, but were also adapted to contain their portion, or tenth, of the produce of the land; and certainly, for these purposes, the out-buildings must have been very capacious. And besides, we must recollect that great numbers of men were necessarily occupied in quarrying stones for buildings of such extent, as well as in preparing the materials for fitting up the interior.”
When my uncle had finished this satisfactory explanation, Mary said that she had lately been comparing the history in the books of Kings and Chronicles, and that she had met with a little difficulty. In 1st Kings, ix. 23, we are told that the number of chief officers over Solomon’s work was five hundred and fifty.—But in 2nd Chronicles, viii. 10, they are said to be two hundred and fifty.—“Now, papa,” said Mary, “I know you can clear up this difficulty.”
“The accounts do seem contradictory,” said my uncle, “yet both are correct. You see in 1st Kings, v. 13, that Solomon levied out of all Israel thirty thousand men. This army was divided into tens, and every tenth man was an officer. These three thousand officers, if divided by twelve, (the number of the tribes,) will give two hundred and fifty chief officers, according to Chronicles. But we had been already told (chap. ii. 18) that Solomon employed one hundred and fifty thousand workmen, and that over them he appointed three thousand six hundred overseers. These overseers were regulated in the same manner as the officers of the army; and, therefore, if three thousand six hundred be divided by twelve, it will give you three hundred chief officers; which added to the two hundred and fifty, selected from the guards, makes five hundred and fifty officers that bare rule over the people, according to your quotation from the first book of Kings.”
3d.—I had a nice walk with my uncle to-day, to Farmer Moreland’s, with whom he had some business. As we passed through the field in which there had been meadow this year, my uncle made me observe what a fine growth had sprung up since it was mowed; the after-grass he called it. I asked, did he not consider the grasses as amongst some of the most useful plants?
He said, “The tribe of grasses yield more sustenance to man, and to the larger animals, than all the rest of the vegetable kingdom put together. Their herbage is perpetually springing, and it is adapted to almost every soil, climate, and situation. The grasses are a very extensive tribe, and yet throughout the whole of it, nothing poisonous or injurious is found, except, perhaps, the stupefying quality attributed to the seeds of the lolium, or rye-grass. The farinaceous produce of wheat, rye, barley, rice, maize, and many others, supplies mankind with the most general and wholesome nutriment.”
As we walked along, I shewed him quantities of wild ranunculus mixed with the grass, and I asked, was there no way of preventing the growth of all those weeds. He answered, that a certain proportion of what we vulgarly called weeds, are now considered useful in making the grass more palateable to cattle, and even more wholesome—“Just in the same manner,” said he, “as men could scarcely live on flour alone, so cattle cannot be well supported by mere grass, without the addition of various plants, in themselves too acrid, bitter, or narcotic, to be eaten unmixed. Salt, spices, and a portion of animal food, supply us with the requisite stimulus or additional nutriment; and, in the same manner, the ranunculus tribe, and many other plants, season the pasturage of cattle.”