18 19 20 21 22 All the kings of the nations, all of them, Lie down in glory, each in his own fepulchre: But thou art caft out of the grave, as the tree abominated; With them that go down to the ftones of the pit; as a trod- Thou shalt not be joined unto them in burial; Because thou haft destroyed thy country, thou haft flain thy people: The feed of evil doers fhall never be renowned, Prepare ye flaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers; Left they rife, and poffefs the earth; and fill the face of the For I will arife against them, faith JEHOVAH God of Hofts: 19.-like the tree abominated-] That is, as an object of abomination and deteftation; fuch as the tree is, on which a malefactor has been hanged." It is written, faith St. Paul, Galat. iii. 13. curfed is every man that hangeth on a tree:" from Deut. xxi. 23. The Jews therefore held also as accurfed and polluted the tree itself on which a malefactor had been executed, or on which he had been harged after having been put to death by ftoning. "Non fufpendunt fuper arbore, quæ radicibus folo adhæreat; fed fuper ligno eradicato, ut ne fit excifio molefta: nam lignum, fuper quo fuit aliquis fufpenfus, cum fufpendiofo fepelitur; ne maneat illi malum nomen, & dicant homines, Iftud eft lignum, in quo fufpenfus eft ille, i dva. Sic lapis, quo aliquis fuit lapidatus ; & gladius, quo fuit occifus is qui eft occifus; & fudarium five mantile, quo fuit aliquis ftrangulatus; omnia hæc cum iis, qui perierunt, fepeliuntur." Maimonides, apud Cafaub. in Baron. Exercitat. xvi. An. 34. Num. 134. "Cum itaque homo fufpenfus maximæ effet abominationi,-Judæi quoque præ cæteris abominabantur lignum quo fuerat fufpenfus, ita ut illud quoque terra tegerent, tanquam rem abominabilem. Unde Interpres Chaldæus hæc verba tranftulit DD, ficut virgultum abfconditum, five fepultum." Kalinfki, Vaticinia Obfervationibus illuftrata, p. 342. Agreeably to which, Theodoret, Hift. Ecclefiaft. i. 17, 18, in his account of the finding of the Crofs by Helena, fays, that the three Croffes were buried in the earth near the place of our Lord's fepulchre. Ibid. cloathed with the flain.] Thirty five MSS (ten Ancient), and three Editions, have the word fully written, . It is not a noun, but the participle paffive: thrown out among the common flain, and covered with the dead bodies. So ver. 11. the earthworm is faid to be his bed-covering. 20. Because thou haft destroyed thy country; thou hast slain thy people.] Xenophon gives an inftance of this king's wanton cruelty in killing the fon of Gobrias, on no other provocation than that, in hunting, he ftruck a boar and a lion, which the king had miffed. Cyrop. iv. p. 309• 2 23 And 23 And I will make it an inheritance for the porcupine, and pools of water; 24 And I will plunge it in the miry gulph of deftruction, faith JEHOVAH God of Hofts hath fworn, faying: Surely as I have devised, fo fhall it be ; And as I have purposed, that thing shall stand: 25 To crush the Affyrian in my land, and to trample him on my mountains. 26 Then shall his yoke depart from off them ; And his burthen shall be removed from off their shoulder. This is the decree, which is determined on the whole earth; And this the hand, which is ftretched out over all the nations: 27 For JEHOVAH God of Hofts hath decreed; and who fhall dif 28 29 annul it? And it is his hand, that is ftretched out; and who fhall turn it back? IN THE YEAR, IN WHICH AHAZ THE KING DIED, THIS Rejoice not, O Philiftia, with one confent ; For from the root of the ferpent fhall come forth a basilisk; 30 For the poor fhall feed on my choice firft-fruits; 23. I will plunge it-] I have here very nearly followed the verfion of the LXX: the reafons for which fee in the laft Note on De Poefi Hebr. Prælect. xxviii. 25. To crush the Affyrian-on my mountains] The Affyrians and Babylonians are the fame people: Herod. i. 199, 200. Babylon is reckoned the principal city in Affyria: ibid. 173. Strabo fays the fame thing; lib. xvi. fub. init. The circumftance of this judgment's being to be executed on God's mountains is of importance: it may mean the deftruction of Senacherib's army near Jerufalem; and have ftill a further view: compare Ezek. xxxix. 4. and fee Lowth on this place of Ifaiah. 28. Uzziah had fubdued the Philistines, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, 7; but taking advantage of the weak reign of Ahaz, they invaded Judea, and took and held in poffeffion fome cities in the fouthern part of the kingdom. On the death of Ahaz, Ifaiah delivers this prophecy. threatening them with the destruction that Hezekiah, his son, and great grandfon of Uzziah, fhould bring upon them: which he effected; for he fmote the Philiftines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof." 2 Kings xviii. 8. Uzziah therefore must be meant by the rod that fmote them, and by the ferpent, from whom fhould fpring the flying fiery ferpent; that is, Hezekiah, a much more terrible enemy, than even Uzziah had been. REV. Apr. 1780. U And 31 And thy remnant he will flay. Howl, O gate; cry out, O city! O Philiftia, thou art altogether funk in confternation! And there shall not be a straggler among his levies. 32 And what answer fhall be given to the ambassadors of the nations? That JEHOVAH hath laid the foundation of Sion; And the poor of his people shall take refuge in her. Any person who fhall hereafter be difpofed to enter more deeply into the theological explanation of the prophecies of Ifaiah, will now be enabled to purfue his defign with fingular advantage. 30. He will flay] The Lxx read, in the third perfon, VEE; and fo Chald. The Vulgate remedies the confufion of perfons in the present text, by reading both the verbs in the first perfon. 31. From the North cometh a fmoke] That is, a cloud of duft, raifed by the march of Hezekiah's army against Philiftia, which lay to the fouth-west from Jerufalem. A great duft raised has, at a diftance, the appearance of smoke: "fumantes pulvere campi." Virg. Æn. xi. 908. 32. -to the ambaffadors of the nations] The Lxx read ', Bwv, plural; and fo the Chaldee. The ambaffadors of the neighbouring nations, that fend to congratulate Hezekiah on his success; which in his anfwer he will afcribe to the protection of God. See 2 Chron. xxxii. 23. Or, if, fingular, the reading of the Text, be preferred, the ambaffadors fent by the Philistines to demand peace. ART. IV. The British Fruit-Gardener; and Art of Pruning; comprifing, the most approved Methods of Planting and Raifing every ufeful Fruit-Tree and Fruit-bearing-Shrub, whether for Walls, Espaliers, Standards, Half-Standards, or Dwarfs: The true fuccelsful Practice of Pruning, Training, Grafting, Budding, &c. fo as to render them abundantly fruitful: And full Directions concerning Soils, Situations, and Expofures. By John Abercrombie, of Tottenham-Court, Gardener; Author of Every Man his own Gardener, First published under the Name of Thomas Mawę. 4 s. bound. Davis. 1779. TH HOUGH the experienced Gardener may, perhaps, find little in the prefent publication that is altogether new, yet it is not without its use. Whatever has been hitherto written on this fubject was rarely to be met with, except in voluminous works +, intermixed with other matter in which the mere fruit-gardener had no concern; or in compendiums of gardening, in which the subject was very imperfectly treated. + We must except Mr. Hitt's valuable tratife on Fruit-trees, in one octavo volume; an account of which was given in the 13th vol. of our Review. • With With regard to the method purfued in the work before us,' to ufe the Author's own words, it may be allowable to obferve, that the directions, concerning the refpective articles, are not confufedly, fcattered up and down, in diftant parts of the work, nor are the operations belonging to ONE, confounded with thofe of another: in this Manual the reader will find every Fruit-tree feparately and completely treated of, as to its botanic clafs and genus, its growth, mode of bearing, flowers, fruit, and time of ripening; its method of propagation by grafting, budding, layers, cuttings, fuckers, or feeds; and the different stocks fuitable to the particular nature of the tree, with regard to grafting and budding. All which are pointed out under the name of that fruit-tree to which they respectively be long. As wall and efpalier trees require fingular care in the different operations of pruning and training, both in Summer and in Winter, these works are here explained with respect to the different stages of growth, and order of bearing. Concerning common ftandards, the reader will alfo find ample directions: thefe do not require, indeed, like wall-trees, a general puning; a ftrict attention, however, as well to their early growth, as to their advanced state, being neceffary, they were not to be omitted.' His fubjects are arranged in alphabetical order. The first that prefents itself is, The Almond Tree, eminent both as a fruit-tree, and for ornamenting the fhrubbery, &c, early in fpring, when in full bloom; it is the original of the ancient genus Amygdalus, which, by the botanic characters of the flowers, comprehends alfo the Peach and Nectarine, as fpecies and varieties of the fame family or genus; all of which belong alfo to the clafs and order, icofandria monogynia, i. e. flowers containing twenty or more ftamina, and one style. The botanists admit but of one real fpecies of the common Almond tree. which they term Amygdalus communis, COMMON ALMOND; and is botanically.defcribed, Amygdalus with Spear shaped fawed leaves, having glands at the bafe and with flowers mostly in pairs, fitting close to the branches, fucceeded by large oval, downy, tough fruit. containing eatable kernels, comprehending feveral eminent varieties, diftinguished by the following names and properties, viz. 1. Common Almond with a bitter kernel. 2. Sweet-kernelled Almond. 3. Sweet Jordan Almond, large and fuperior in goodness. · 4. Tender-fhelled Almond. 5. Hard-fhelled Almond. The fruit, in general, of the Almond tree is valued only for the kernel inclofed in its centre in a stone or nut, it being the only edible part; and is by many greatly esteemed as a choice deffert fruit to eat, as well as for various domeftic purposes. • Confidered as a fruit tree, the Almond, in all its varieties, deferves a place in almost every garden, to encrease the variety of eat U 2 able able fruits, especially as ftandard and half ftandard trees, in which they will also adorn the premises very confpicuoufly in fpring, during their general bloom, and fupply us with annual crops of fruit without trouble; ripening in September. The trees generally affume but a moderate growth, obtaining from fifteen to twenty feet ftature, dividing regularly into many branches, and emitting numerous ftraight shoots annually; the whole forming a large full head, adorned with long fpear-shaped leaves, and pale red flowers, having five petals, producing flowers and fruit, moftly on young wood of a year or two old, immediately from the eyes of the fhoot. They flower early in fpring, before the leaves; arifing in a vaft profufion all along the young branches at almost every eye, fucceeded by large oval downy fruit, confifting of a thick tough pulp, including an oblong nut or ftone, containing one kernel, which is the Almond, and the only efculent part, as before obferved; the whole arriving to maturity in September; the outer tough cover splits open, and discharges the ftone, with the kernel therein, which is fit both for immediate eating, and to be kept for future ufe. • The trees are all hardy enough to fucceed in any common foil of our gardens, in almoft any fituation and expofure; and in favourable fprings, when their early bloffom is not deftroyed by froft, they generally produce abundant crops of fruit. However, when defigned as fruit trees, they fhould generally be indulged with a fheltered funny fituation. They are employed principally as ftandards and half standards, trained with straight fingle ftems, fix or feven feet high for full ftandards, and four or five for half standards, branching out at these refpective heights, all around into regular heads, planted at twenty or thirty feet diftance, and fuffered to extend every way nearly according to their natural order of growth; though, for variety fometimes a few trees are cultivated, as dwarfs, for walls and efpaliers, and trained in the order of wall trees, &c. nearly as directed for Peaches and Nectarines, and in which they often furnish larger and forwarder fruit than on standards.' He next proceeds to the method of propagating them; and then, after pointing out the manner of planting, and the general culture, he concludes with particular directions for the pruning. There is a use in this book we have not yet remarked. By defcribing the genus or fpecies of each tree botanically, it will infenfibly infufe into the reader, who has not yet applied to botanical ftudies, fuch general ideas of fyftematic botany, as may lead him forward to a more intimate acquaintance with that amusing science. There are fome few inaccuracies in the ftyle of this performance, for which candour will make allowances. ART. |