bifh. On one wall of a chamber he found the figures of a cow, and of the fun and moon, formed of varnished bricks. Sometimes Idols of clay are found, reprefenting human figures. I found one brick on which was a lion, and on others a half-moon in relief. The bricks are cemented with bitumen, except in one place, which is well preferved, where they are united by a very thin ftratum of white cement, which appears to me to be made of lime and fand. The mafter-workman informed me, that there were three cities in which antiquities are found: Babel, or Makloube; Brouffa, two leagues S. E. of Hella in the Defert; and Kaides, ftill farther diftant than Broaffa. I was told that many marble Batues were found in the latter, but it is dangerous to go thither without a ftrong guard. Moft of the bricks found at Makloube have writing on them: but it does not appear that it was meant to be read, for it is as common on bricks buried in the walls as on thote on the outfide. I obferved that each quarter has a peculiar impreffion: I mean, that we find but one feries of letters, and arranged in the fame manner, in one place. The bricks are every where of the fame dimeníions; one foot three lines fquare, by three inches thick. Occafionally layers of ofiers in bitumen are found, as at Babel. The quantity of this bitumen that must have been employed in building Babylon, is fcarcely credible. Moft probably it was procured from Hitt on the Euphrates, where we ftiil find it. The mafter-mafon told me, that he found fome in a spot which he was digging about twenty years ago; which is by no means ftrange, as it is common enough on the banks of the Euphrates; I have myself feen it on the road from Bagdad to Jubba, an Arabian village feated on that river. The mafter-mafon led me along a valley which he dug out a long while ago to get at the bricks of a wall, that, from the marks he fhowed me, I guess to be fixty feet thick. It ran perpendicularly to the bed of the river, and was probably the wall of the city. I found in it a fubterraneous canal, which, inftead of being arched over, is covered Hib. Mag. July, 1792. with pieces of fand-ftone, fix or feven feet long, by three feet wide. Thefe ruins extend feveral leagues to the north of Hella, and inconteftibly mark the fituation of ancient Babylon. I employed two men for three hours in clearing a ftone which they fuppofed to be an Idol. The part which I got a view of appeared to me nothing but a fhapelefs mafs: it was evident however, that it was not a fimple block, as it bore marks of the chiffe', and there were pretty deep holes in it: but I could not find any infcription on it. The ftone is of a black grain; and, from the large fragments of it found in many places, it appears, that there were fome monuments of ftone built here. On the eaftern fide I found a ftone nearly two feet fquare and fix inches thick, of a beautiful granite, the grain of which was white and red. All thefe ftones muft have been brought from fome difiance, as this part of the defert contains none. On the fame fide of the city, as I was told by the mafter-mafon, there were walls of varnished bricks, which he fuppofed to have been a temple: Idols would probably be found there, if any one would be at the expence of digging: but it would be neceffary to fatisfy the avarice of the Muffulmen, who are never very willing for Europeans to fearch lands occupied by them. Befides the bricks with infcriptions, which I have mentioned, there are folid cylinders, three inches in diameter, of a white fubftance, covered with very small writing, refembling the infcriptions of Perfepolis mentioned by Chardin. Four years ago I faw one; but I was not eager to procure it, as I was affured that they were very common. I mentioned them . to the mafter-mafon, who told me, that he fometimes found fuch, but left them amongst the rubbish as ufelefs. Black ftones which have infcriptions engraved on them are alfo met with. Thefe, I was told, were found at Brouffa, which is feparated from Makloube by the river. I was informed that an Arab at Hella had one in his poffeffion and did all I could to procure it, or at leaft to obtain a fight of it, but I could not fucceed. In 1782 one was fent to Paris, by M. And. Michaux, a botanift who was at F that that time at Bagdad. I have been af fured by the Arabs, that a days journey from the laft mentioned city, and fix leagues from the Tigris, there is a ftone of enormous fize covered with infcriptions. May we not prefume, that this ftone is of the fame origin as the pillars of Thaut? I vifited the ruins of Brouffa fix years ago. Thefe are, properly fpeaking, nothing but a mountain of earth and bricks. The difficulty of tranfporting them across the river prevents the latter being dug for. We find there a kind of hall ftill ftanding, which I conceive to be more modern than the city itfelf, as well as a fquare tower, which, though ancient, appears to have been built on its ruins. The city of Hella is not the remains of Babylon: it is a league more to the fouth. I affured myfelf on the spot, that Hella did not exift before Cuffa. Its name is written Helle, which in Arabic fignifies place, habitation, and, according to the Muffulmen, the place between the two facred places Imam-Haffein and Imam-Ali. A league from Hella, towards Makloube, is feen an ancient portico called Diemjeme, fignifying in Arabic the fkull of the head. It is pretended, that Ali here paffed the Euphrates, in his road to Cuffa, where he was killed by Giczid. I muft obferve here, that Delifle. in his map of Babylonia, places that ancient city and the celebrated mofque of Imam-Ali too near each other. They are five leagues diftant. Sultan Selim began an aqueduct for conveying water to the latter from the Euphrates, which was continued by Nadir Shah, but has never been finished. Many Muffulmen pilgrims affured me, that they drank very bad well water there. The foil is a fandy gypfous defert, producing nothing. I imagine medals muft be found in the ruins of Babylon, if fought after: but the Arabs pick them up only when they know Europeans are defirous of them. One of copper was brought me whilft I was there. On comparing it with different Parthian medals, I obferved, that all the heads of the latter bore a kind of mitre; that of the former, a crown of flowers. Laft year I procured a cup with unknown characters, which had been found, with a hundred medals in it, a few years ago, near Nemrod, and fent it to count de Choifeul-Gouffier. From this, I was informed by Ab. Barthelemy, no information could be drawn, without the medals. Of thefe I believe I now poffefs a part. M. Rouffeau, the French conful, purchafed at that period juft 100 medals of a bafe filver, and all of the fame coin. They are very ancient, and I believe Parthian or Babylonian; but of this the learned will judge. M. Rouffeau intrufted me with forty to difpofe of for him, as well as fome others which I have brought to Paris. The latitude of Hella I have afcertained to be 32° 38'; its longitude I conclude to be 41° 53' 30' eaft from Paris, from three obfervations; an eclipse of the moon Nov. 3, 1789, the immerfion of the fecond fatellite of Jupiter on the fame day, and the entrance of Mercury on the fun's difk the 5th of the fame month. Five years ago, I obferved by the compafs, that Hella was nearly under the fame meridian as Bagdad, to the S. S. E. of which Mr. Delifle has placed it. I have conftructed a map of Babylonia on the fpot; that of Mr. Delifle was formed from erroneous information. By that illuftrious geographer Borfippa, or Burfita, is placed on the river, near Madjed Haffein. That city, which does not now exift, can be no other than what the Arabs call Brouffa, or Bourfa, the ruins of which as I have already faid, are two leagues S. E. of Hella, in the defert. The city and mofque of Madjed-Haffein are equally misplaced on the map: they are not on the Euphrates, but in the defert, feven leagues from Hella, and as many from Meffeib, where the pilgrims going thither from Bagdad pais the river. fame may be faid of Kefil, or the tomb of Ezekiel, which Delifle places on the river in Mefopotamia. I vifited that mofque after the ruins of Brouffa, and took its pofition by the compafs: it is on, the other fide the river, mid way between Hella and Imam Ali. Indeed Mr. Delifle's longitudes and latitudes are in general erroneous: Bagdad he The places places in long. 67, whilft it is but 62°. Other differences will appear from the new map which I hope to publish. I requested of the Chaldean patriarch of Babylon, who refides a day's journey from Mouffoul, a catalogue in Arabic of all the books written in Chaldee or Syriac preferved in his houfe, in which the paftoral or patriarchal ftaff has been fixed for 6 or 700 years, defcending from uncle to nephew, and particularly the date of the year in which they were written. Amongst them perhaps will be found fome curious manufcripts. I alfo requefted of him fome information refpecting the religion of the Yezidis, his neighbours, and the grand Sheik, Sholi-Beig, his friend. The Yezidis neither faft nor pray. It is not known that they have any book, though they pretend to have one which they keep concealed. They call it Lohi-Mani, which I am inclined to believe a corruption of Lokman, the famous Afiatic philofopher. Every morning they prefent themselves thrice before the rifing fun. It is faid, that they will not pronounce the letter fhin, because it is the firft of the word fheitan, which fignifies Satan, or Devil. Blue is a colour they hold in abhorrence. The Yezidis in the neighbourhood of Mouffoul are probably Chriftians who have embraced the ancient fect of Manicheifin; for they ftill retain a respect for the Chaldean Patriarch and his churches. I have even met with fome of them who bore the names of our Apoftles. Objection against Miracles answered. WH HOEVER will confult Dr. Lardner's Evidence of Christianity will find the most decifive external evidence of the genuineness of the books of the New Teftament, and whoever ill pay attention to the internal evicence of their genuinenefs will find it equally ftrong; the decided marks of truth which the books carry in themfelves, and the proof from heathen authors of the authenticity of various facts recorded in them, must be fufficient to convince every one of their authenticity. The precepts which thefe books contain, are pure, benevolent, and falutary in the highest degree, and the promifes of the Gofpel are agreeable to our noblest - wishes. It is plain therefore that the only difficulty attending the reception of chriftianity by fome, muft arife folely from a reluctance to believe in the miraculous parts of it. Let us confider this objection. And here I would firft obferve, that miracles appear perfectly confonant to a divine Revelation, and therefore that they are found in the New Teftament in thofe circumftances, in which of all others they are moft likely to have been performed; and alfo that a want of miracles would have been accounted by thofe very perfons who object to them, and certainly by others, a deficiency in the evidence for a divine Revelation. I believe no one has ever yet denied that a miracle may be wrought: indeed as the original formation of the earth. and of its inhabitants, and many other appearances which we daily fee, muft have been at firft miraculous, we have proof pofitive that a miracle may be wrought and has been wrought!—But it has been faid that a miracle, if wrought, can never be fufficiently evidenced to produce a rational belief, for a miracle is a deviation from the common laws of nature, that is, from our experience: a belief in teftimony is built on experience, therefore we may as well fuppofe our experience fhould be contradicted in the latter as in the former cafe. It is not difficult to anfwer this fpecious argument. Let any one fix upon three perfons with whom he is well acquainted, who are all men of ftrict integrity and good common understanding: fuppofe thefe three fhould agree in the relation of a fact totally contrary to experience and the common laws of nature: let the fact be of a kind which they fhould have no direct nor indirect intereft to relate; fuppofe them feriously to affirm that they were eye-witnefs to this fact: I fay, in this cafe would the friend of thefe three men believe their relation? No doubt, if he believed on reafonable, grounds; for it would moft undoubtedly be a greater miracle, more contrary to experience, that their teftimony fhould not be true, that fuch men thould dece've without any temptation to it, than that any fingle fupernatural event fhould really happen. A fupernatural event, that is, an event contrary to common experience may happen. That honeft men fhould deceive knowingly cannot be the cafe; it is a plain contradiction in terms; it is impoflible: no man can deceive without fome inducement, and an honeft man cannot knowingly deceive at all. If therefore the friend of thefe men (who are free from even a temptation to deceive) do not believe the event which they relate, he muft believe that the fenfes, or perception, or minds of the three were inftantly changed by miraculous means; that is, he must believe three miracles inftead of one; he cannot poffibly avoid believing in fomething miraculous, in the violation of either the moral or phyfical laws of nature. He furely would determine more reasonably in believing one fupernatural event than three, in believing what is the leaft than what is the most contrary to experience. I conclude, therefore, that there may be fufficient evidence to induce the rational belief of a miracle. Now the only qualities which we expect, or indeed which we can defire in witneffes of any fact are honefty and common fenfe, or the free ufe of their faculties. In a court of judicature two witneffes, in whom only the latter of thefe is proved, are judged fufficient to decide on the life of a man: now if in any witneffes we can prove honesty as well as competency to judge, we have all that we can have in a human being; and enough, as I have been juft proving, to produce a rational conviction of even miraculous events. To apply this to the authors of the New Teftament: There is every reafon which operates on fimilar occafions to induce us to believe that they really wrote the whole of the books attributed to them. This, as I obferved before, is abundantly proved both by internal and external evidence; the Apoftles, therefore, and their companions are the perfons whofe credibility is to be examined by the above-mentioned ftandard. N OTE: Were they honeft? Is it poffible to receive from any one a more unequivocal decided proof of honefty than his perfifting in a relation which expofes him infallibly to danger and to great inconvenience; which inconvenience he not only expofes himself to by a bare teftimony when called upon, but which he alfo willingly encounters by a laborious fpreading of his belief? Now, could it even be proved, as fome have imagined (though there are decifive proofs to the contrary) that the Apoftles and their companions did not really fuffer much during their miffion, yet it is perfectly clear that they had every thing to apprehend; that they readily offered themfelves to receive the hatred which had raged against their Mafter, and that they had little reafon to expect mild treatment when he himself had been crucified: befides this, Chrift forewarned them of the reception they should meet with in the world, that they fhould be hated and defpifed; yet these men perfevered in their courfe, and that without the moft diftant profpect of worldly advantage. Can there be any doubt then of their honesty? With refpect to their competency as witnesses, it may be obferved, that St. Matthew and St. John were eye-witneffes, as we find from their Gofpels, &c that St. Mark and St. Luke wrote from the relations of eye-witneffes, or from what they had themselves feen; and that the authors of the Epiftles were alfo eye-witneffes, or immediately connected with them that the miracles recorded in the Gofpel are of a kind which could not be counterfeited: that the mere ufe of their fenfes (and this I fuppose will be granted them) was all which the witneffes needed to poffefs, to be adequate judges whether a paralytic man was inftantly cured or not; whether they faw Jefus Chrift after he had been dead and was rifen again, or whether they did not; whether they themfelves fpoke in languages which they had never learnt or heard, or others who were intimately connected with them did fo fpeak, or whether they did not; and fo of the other miracles. We infer therefore that the Apoftles and Writers of the New Teftament poffeffed the qualities requi fite for adequate witneffes on any occafion whatever and if belief is not given to their teftimony, muft it not be inevitably believed, that honeft men could deceive knowingly, and injure themselves by fo doing, which is impoffible; or that the fenfes, faculties, or minds of thefe men were frequently changed by miraculous means? But is this lefs miraculous than any fupernatural event which they relate? Is it not increasing much the number of the miracles? And would not these miracles be no lefs a proof of a divine Revelation? An Account of the Salt-Petre Works at Madrid. From Townsend's Journey through Spain. THEN proceeded to the faltpetre confounded, and at a lofs which to admire moft, the wifdom of the Creator, and the fecret paths in which he is conftantly proceeding, or the folly of the minifter who eftablished this manufacture at Madrid. The perfon from whom I took my information was a Frenchman, who found employment here becaufe of his fkill, acquired in other works of a nature fimilar to these. I obferved a large inclofure, with a number of mounts of about twenty feet high, at regular diftances from each other. Thefe he told me had been collected from the rubbish of the city, and the fcrapings of the highways. I examined them with a minute attention, and found nothing remarkable, but fmall fragments of gypfum in great abundance; they had remained all the winter piled up in the manner in which I found them. At this time men were employed in wheeling them away, and fpreading abroad the earth to the thicknefs of about one foot, whilft others were turning what had been previously expofed to the influence of the fun and of the air. He told me, that the preceding fummers thefe heaps had been washed, and that being thus efpofed, they would yield the fame quantity of falt again, and that, as far as he could judge, the produce would never fail; but that, after having been wathed, no faltpetre could be obtained without a fubfequent expofure. He thought Madrid, on all accounts, improper for fuch a manufacture; and faid, that from his own obfervations, he was inclined to think they could not make faltpetre for eight reals, that is, nearly twenty pence a pound. My curiofity was excited to the higheft degree by this account, which feemed to offer violence to the most established principles of chemistry. I refolved to lofe no opportunity of paying attention to this bufinels, and with that view, procured an introduction to the gentlemen who had the direction and controul of it. With them I examined a much more extenfive work at the gate of Atocha, near the general hofpital. They informed me that the number of men hundred, but for fome thort intervals, near four thousand; this latter number agrees well enough with the Abbé Cavanilles, who ftates them at four thou fand. According to their account, they have had this manufacture only a few years, and have now collected earth fufficient to laft for ever. Some of this earth they can lixiviate once a year, fome they have washed twenty times in the laft feven years, and fome they have fubjected to this operation fifteen times in one year, judging always by their eye, when they may wath it to advantage, and by their tafte if it has yielded a lixivium of a proper ftrength. When it is too weak, they pafs it over frefh earth till it is ftrong enough for boiling. Moft of the earth they ufe is common earth, and they are of opinion that all the earth in the vicinity of Madrid contains fome nitre. When the earth has been a proper time expofed, they put it into large earthen pans, ranged in a row, of the fame form with those used by fugar-bakers to refine their fugars, being a cone inverted, with the apex truncated; at the bottom they put a bit of Sparto matting covered with afhes, to prevent the earth from falling through on this they keep pouring water as falt as it filters, till it will yield no more lixivium. As it filters it falls into a .drain, which conducts it to a cifern; from hence it is pumped up in |