tended, and Boothroyd has rendered it, "a sharp instrument." The word rendered "rasor," however, in the second clause, points to a sharp instrument for a particular purpose, namely, shaving, and therefore cannot easily be mistaken. Now, although it was the custom of the Hebrews to let their beards grow, and rarely to shave their heads, as the modern Orientals do, some instrument for this purpose was doubtless known to them. The instrument, from these circumstances, however, may be supposed to have been uncommon. To this, indeed, there is an allusion in the prophecies of Isaiah. In one passage the prophet speaks of a hired rasor, Isa. vii. 20, which indicates its rarity. The operation of shaving the head was probably the same anciently as in modern days, in the East. This has been described, by many travellers, as performed with the greatest facility and delicacy. The operator rubs the head of the patient gently for some time with his hand, moistened with water; after which he applies the razor, shaving from the top of the head downward. The instrument with which they perform the operation is frequently very rude, and not sharp; but, from the previous rubbing of the head, the hair is removed with such extreme ease, that the process is scarcely felt, or, if it is felt, it is rather an agreeable sensation than otherwise. The most delicate sleeper, indeed, would scarcely be awakened by it, which accounts for the fact of Samson's hair being taken off while he slept, Judg. xvi. 19.

BOOKS.

It is very remarkable, that the earliest notices of writing, whether hieroglyphic or alphabetic, describe it as being performed, not on soft and ductile substances, but on the smooth surface of rocks, or on tablets of stone. The former of these methods (specimens of which are still found in different parts of Western Asia) was of course the most ancient; but inscriptions on columns, which was probably an improvement on this primitive mode of writing, appears also to have been of a very early date. Josephus, indeed, says that the descendants of Seth, the son of Adam, understanding from a prophecy of the great ancestor of the human race, that the world was at one time to be destroyed by water, and at another time by fire, erected two pillars, one of stone to resist the water, and the other of brick to resist the fire, on which they inscribed the discoveries they had made in astronomy, to transmit to those who might afterwards tenant the world. This statement, however, there is some reason to doubt, although the art of forming characters on stone and brick is of unknown antiquity, and astronomical discoveries were among the earliest that mankind thought it desirable to record. That the Babylonians recorded their knowledge of astronomy in this manner, is a fact which cannot be disputed; for, among the ruins of Babylonia, large bricks, covered with inscriptions, in a character which no man can read, are still very frequently found.

And, as regards inscribed pillars and tablets of stone, a great number of illustrative instances might be adduced to show that they were employed in the remotest ages. Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, is said to have written his theology, and the history of the first ages, on such columns; and columns were erected by Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, and Hercules, to perpetuate the remembrance of their respective expeditions. Ancient columns of this description also existed at Crete; and, in the time of Demosthenes, at Athens; and Burder says that the inhabitants of Southern Arabia were accustomed, in the earliest ages, to inscribe their laws and wise sayings on stone. In China, moreover, the most ancient monuments of literature were inscribed on hard stones; and the people of North Europe, although they had but little intercourse with the nations of Asia and Africa, in the most primitive times, recorded upon pillars of stone whatever was thought worthy of being transmitted to future ages.

The earliest mention of engraving on stone, in the Scriptures, occurs Job xix. 23, 24, where that patriarch, in claiming pity at the hands of his friends, exclaims, according to Goode's translation, which it is thought preserves the meaning and force of the original better than any other,

"Oh that my words were even now written down;
Oh that they were engraved upon a table;

With a pen of iron upon lead!

That they were sculptured in a rock for ever."

After this, we read of the tables of stone delivered to Moses on the mount, Exod. xxxi. 18; others written to supply the place of these, xxxiv. 4, 28, which that holy man broke, when he saw the people worshipping the golden calf; and others, which Joshua made at Mount Ebal, Josh. viii. 32.

From all this, we learn that rocks, and pillars, and tablets of stone, were the books of the most ancient people; and that on these they sought to transmit their laws, public acts, treatises, historical facts, and important discoveries, to succeeding generations. But we must not understand that no other book was known at a very early date, and even at the times to which we have alluded. Long after the invention of books, engraving on rocks was in use on particular occasions. Thus Hannibal inscribed the memory of his famous passage over the Alps on a rock, and Harold Hyldeland cut an inscription on a rock in memory of his father; and examples are found among the Chinese, of a still more recent date.

But we would now describe the various kinds of books in use among the ancients, and without giving priority to either. For the sake of convenience, we class them under the heads of vegetable, metallic, and animal substances. It is true, we cannot affirm that all those we shall notice were known to the Hebrews, but Scripture will show that most of them were; and, for the rest, it may be safely inferred that they were in use among them, from their connexion with other nations.

I. VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES.

1. Wood. Tablets of wood were very early in use, and they seem to have been employed in part for the same purpose as slates are used at the present day, that is, for temporary purposes. Sometimes these wooden tablets were single, but very frequently from two to five leaves were done up into a kind of a book. The Greeks and Romans wrote on such, as will appear from the following description, taken from Prideaux's "Connexion:" "Another way made use of among the Greeks and Romans, and which was as ancient as Homer, (for he makes mention of it in his poems,) was, to write on tables of wood, covered over with wax. On these they wrote with a bodkin, or style, of iron, with which they engraved their letters on the wax; and hence it is, that the different ways of many writings or compositions are called styles. This way was mostly made use of in the writing of letters or epistles; hence, such epistles are, in Latin, called tabellæ, and the carriers of them, tabellarii. When their epistles were thus written, they tied the tables together with a thread, or string, setting their seal upon the knot, and so sent them to the party to whom they were directed, who, cutting the string, opened and read them." The wax here spoken of was spread over the boards, and, when written upon, might be spread back, so as to render it fit to be written upon again. The Hebrews were, however, prevented from using wax by the heat of the climate, and,