were well called the wolves and bears of human society, and by their conduct deserved their universal reputation, which was coined into a proverb current throughout the Roman Empire, "All the publicans are altogether robbers."*

Such a government did as little to preserve public tranquillity as to promote public prosperity. The sense of national oppression, intensified by religious rancor, kept the entire population in a state of suppressed ferment, which ever and anon broke out in open riotings, and eventually culminated in the dreadful scenes which accompanied the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. The irregular administration of justice by courts lax and corrupt left each individual to redress. by private revenge his real or fancied wrongs. The insecurity of life and property, and the unfruitfulness of honest industry, in a community where the rich were the lawful booty of the government drove men, embittered by injustice, into lives of professional robbery and pillage.

The southern deserts were full, as they still are, of wandering tribes of Bedouin Arabs, and the wild and rocky fastnesses of Northern Galilee with troops of well-organized brigands. These, making constant incursions into the open and cultivated country, bore off in a single night the ripened fruit of the year's labor. Only where their wide-extended desolations left nothing for the tax gatherers did the Roman legions undertake to guard the community from their rapacity.

Such a state of society forbade a scattered rural population. No well-stocked farms clothed the naked land with fruitfulness as with a garment. No peaceful country homes, embowered in trees, greeted the traveler with a kindly smile. The peasant population gathered in towns and villages for mutual protection. For greater security, these were built, in general, on the summit of the hills. From these centres the farmers issued in the morning to their daily toil, and returned at sunset to their nightly rest. But the land they tilled was constantly subjected to a predatory warfare like that which * Smith's Bib. Dict., article " Publicans."

cursed the border counties of England and Scotland in the days of Bruce.

The cities were often considerable in size and pretentious in character. They were almost universally surrounded by walls, whose gates seldom admitted the traveler after nightfall. A council of elders, answering to our Common Council, and a governor of the city, resembling our mayor, maintained the form of municipal government, but, under the centralized despotism of Rome, little else than the form. There was no adequate police. The ancient watchmen, who in the days. of Isaiah announced at night the hours as they passed,* were in effect supplanted by the centurion with his band, who was quartered in every considerable town, and who was answerable to his superior for its order. A foreign military force is a poor substitute for a domestic local police. So it proved in Palestine. Public riotings were quickly quelled; private wrongs were rarely redressed.

In other respects the administration of city government presents but a sorry aspect in contrast to that presented by modern civilization. The city of New York expends annually one million of dollars on her public charities, and sustains not far from one hundred private institutions for the relief of the sick, the suffering, and the destitute. The only resemblance in Palestine to this intricate, though not always wisely-administered charity, was a tax levied on all residents and transient guests for the partial relief of the poor. Ten thousand lights in store and street give to the modern city its gayest aspect after dark, and for purposes of business and of pleasure turn night into day. The only relief to the darkness with which night enveloped the Jewish city was the flaming torch, borne in the hand of the adventurous spirit whom necessity compelled to traverse the narrow streets whose overtopping houses shut out the light even of the stars, and afforded admirable lurking-places for the thieves † Acts xxi., 31, 32; xix., 40.

* Isa. lii, 8; lxii., 6. + Acts xviii., 17.

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who infested every considerable town. One hundred and forty miles of sewerage underlying the streets of Paris constitute an admirable and intricate system of water-courses, cleansing the city from its continually accumulating filth. There was not a sewer in all Palestine. In Jerusalem the, sole substitute therefor were the fires of Gehenna, which, burning night and day in the Valley of Hinnom, consumed the offal of the city. In lieu of the broad, light, sunny, wellpaved streets of the modern metropolis, were narrow, muddy, unpaved lanes, barely wide enough to enable two beasts of burden to pass each other. They were innocent of sidewalks, and unrelieved by a single shade-tree.

The imperious demands of thirst in Palestine compelled some provision for its relief. Often the water was brought some considerable distance by hand from neighboring wells. Thus Sychem and Nazareth were supplied. Sometimes the city depended on cisterns which caught and accumulated the falling rain. To such cisterns, broken and in ruins, the prophet compared the false gods for whom Israel had forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters.* To Jerusalem a supply was brought from Bethlehem by an aqueduct built by .Solomon, renewed by Hezekiah, and rebuilt by Herod, the ruins of which remain to this day. nicipal conveniences, our provision said to be the only one borrowed from the past.

Thus, of our modern mufor fresh water may be

The Jewish town did not make up in beauty what it lacked in comfort. The narrow streets of a city, whose population was necessarily crowded within the compass of its walls, gave but little opportunity for architectural display, and none for those gardens which so greatly enhance the attractiveness of our rural towns. But, on the other hand, the suburbs were not characterized by that inextricable chaos which usually belongs to an American city. There was no growth, and none of that immaturity and imperfection which always accompanies growth. Just outside the city walls the wealth* Jer. ii., 13. Eccles. ii., 5, 6. 2 Kings xx., 20; 2 Chron., xxxii., 30.

Wide-extended vine

ier classes had their summer retreats. yards, orchards, flower and vegetable gardens, supplied the city with fruits and vegetables, a staple article of diet, and filled the air with the fragrance of blossoms in their season. For thirty miles in every direction these gardens surrounded the city of Damascus. It was literally embowered in luxuriant vegetation.

If we pass from the city to the individual home, we shall find as little to covet. The peasant's hut, built of mud or sun - burnt bricks, gradually dissolved under the influence of the weather; its perishable material alternately washing away in muddy streams in winter, and blown about in clouds of dust in the heats of summer. Sometimes an entire village was nearly destroyed by a violent storm of rain.* A single room combined parlor and chamber, kitchen and stable. The cattle shared this hovel with their owners. A platform, slightly raised above the earthy floor, prevented an intimacy too intolerable. Christ was not the only infant whom Palestine had seen cradled in a manger. Without window, fireplace, or chimney, the room was lighted; if at all, by an opening in the side or roof, which admitted, with disagreeable impartiality, rain and sunshine; and warmed by a fire burning on the floor, filling the room and blackening the ceiling with its smoke.

The houses of the wealthier classes, built of brick or stone, were frequently magnificent, never truly comfortable. In structure they were all similar.

Let us in imagination visit lhe house of a Jewish Rabbi. Passing through an arched gateway which constitutes the front door, and pausing a moment to gaze at the inscriptions from the Jewish law which cover the door-posts, in compliance with the ancient Mosaic requirement,t we find ourselves in a court-yard in the centre of the house. The air is fragrant with flowers, and musical with the singing of birds and *Brown's Antiq., ii., 215. To this fact Christ perhaps refers in Matt. vii., 27. Compare also Isaiah xxx., 13; Psalm lxii., 3. † Deut. xi., 20.

the merry laughter of a fountain. Here our host is accustomed to receive his guests. A rude bench affords us a momentary seat while we await his coming. The rooms of the first floor you observe all open from this central square, and there in the corner of the yard a staircase shall conduct us presently to a balcony, which, running round the house, forms the hall of the second story. The servants' quarters are there, and perhaps a room for children or for guests. But the principal rooms are below; for the Jew, like the Southron, is not fond of stairs, and prefers to live on the ground floor. Reader, I beg leave to introduce you to our friend, the Rabbi Nicodemus.

You will not extend to him your hand, but will make him a low and somewhat obsequious bow. You are hardly familiar enough with him to proffer the kiss, and your American pride will scarcely allow you to recognize his superiority by kissing the hand which, nevertheless, he may with haughty condescension extend to you for that purpose. You will greet him with "Peace be with you," or "The Lord be with you ;" and you will mean about as much by it in Palestine as you mean by "Good-by," or "How do you do?" in America.

It is not likely that we should ever see any thing more of the Rabbi Nicodemus's house than we see now, had we not some special privileges, as readers always have; for the Rabbi's guests seldom pass beyond this court-yard, which is at once hall, reception-room, and parlor. But, having special privileges, we will avail ourselves of them to enter the rooms within; and certainly it is our first impression that art has added nothing in the nineteenth century to the luxury of the first. Resplendent curtains of cloth and silk, purple, blue, crimson, cover with their magnificent draperies the otherwise naked walls of stone. Rich carpets from the East, whence still our richest fabrics come, partially cover the tiled floors. The ceiling of wood, painted, carved, paneled, outvies in costly elegance our most elaborate frescoing.* Cush*See Jer. xxii., 14.