had rested on Moses should animate and direct his suc cessor."

FANNY, AS Moses and Joshua were directed in their whole conduct, step by step, I do not very well see, why they should have been enlightened in any unusual degree.

MRS. M. Although the very letter of the law was dictated to Moses, yet he had much need of an enlightened understanding in the management of his community. But it was the heart also, as well as the intellect, that was improved by Divine Grace; and no man was ever more imperiously required to "keep his heart with all diligence," than was this tried servant. You see, with all the aids he received, in one instance the weakness of his nature prevailed. The people, whose turbulent tempers had overcome the weakness of Moses, were indeed dead; but their children inherited their characters, and would demand of Joshua the continual exercise of resolution and constancy; of patience and integrity.

He was to be honoured in the performance of miracles as his predecessor had been. He was to drive out nations superior in numbers and strength, to dispossess them of their fields and fortified cities, and re-people them with his brethren.

Joshua was to divide the land of Canaan equally amongst them, giving to the larger tribes, the greater portion, and the smaller to the less. Their relative location by tribes was to be determined by lot; those only of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh excepted. These last, having more numerous flocks than the others, requested of Moses the country taken from Og and Sihon,

because the grassy plain on the margin of the river seemed peculiarly adapted to cattle.

Their suit was at first received by Moses with much displeasure. Supposing it to be their intention to remain in security, while their brethren encountered the populous nations beyond the Jordan, he accused them of want of faith-of discouraging their brethren by their timidity, as their fathers had done at Kadesh, and thereby excluded themselves from the promised rest.

But Reuben and Gad disclaimed the selfish designthey would, they said, build folds for their cattle, and leave their wives and children in the conquered cities, while themselves would go over armed with their brethren, and not quit them, until they had obtained peaceable possession of their inheritance. To this condition Moses assented, and the two tribes, and half the tribe of Manasseh, were settled in the land of Gilead, from Mount Hermon on the north, to the river Arnon, the border of Moab, on the south.

FANNY. To live in cities, and pasture great multitudes of cattle, which it is evident the Israelites must have done, were it only for their sacrifices, is irreconcileable with our notions of things; it was certainly very inconvenient.

MRS. M. You are not to imagine the cities of the Israelites, either here or on the other side of the river, were large and confined like ours. They were villages rather, although they had walls, surrounded by their land, both for pasture and tillage. They went into the fields to their occupations in the day time, and returned into the city at night. Their simple habits required but few of the arts, and in those days perhaps they had no artizans by profes

sion. They were all husbandmen, rich only, or chiefly, in flocks and herds, and in the productions of the earth.

In the enumeration made by Moses and Joshua, a chasm appeared in the family of Hepher, and tribe of Joseph. Zelophehad, his son, had died in the wilderness, leaving no male heir to receive his portion, and transmit his name. But five females, his daughters, appeared before the rulers, petitioning for the right of inheritance. "Why," said they, "should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son ?" He had not deserved this disgrace, they affectionately argued; he had not leagued with the companies that had been cut off in the guilt of rebellion, but had " died in his own sin." "Give us, therefore," said they," a portion among our brethren." Their case was brought before the divine Oracle, and became the occasion of a permanent statute, for the distribution of property in Israel. "The daughters of Zelophehad speak right-thou shalt surely give them an inheritance among their father's brethren. If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren. And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him, of his family; and he shall possess it, and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment.'

The chiefs of the house of Joseph objected, that this regulation might operate to the prejudice of their tribe, inasmuch as the possessions of the daughters of Zelophehad,

* Numbers, xxvii. 8, 9, 10, 11.

would go with them to the tribe into which they should marry---destroying thereby the contemplated equality of the nation. To prevent this consequence, it was provided, that a female possessing an inheritance should not marry out of her own tribe---and these heiresses were therefore united to their kinsmen.

The tribe of Levi, deriving their chief support from the sacred treasury, were to have no landed property---but forty-eight cities, taken from the other tribes, and in proportion to the extent of each, were to be allotted for their dwellings, with suburbs, or pasture grounds for their cattle.*

Six of the forty-eight, to be "cities of refuge," for the involuntary homicide; to which he might flee and receive protection from the vengeance of the friends of him whom he had slain. This immunity continued during the life of the officiating high priest; and after his decease, the offender might return securely to his home. But should he be found beyond the limits of the city, and fall into the hands of those who sought his life, within that period, they were not accountable for any punishment which they might inflict. For a deliberate, premeditated murder, no satisfaction might be taken. Of this most atrocious of all crimes, the utmost abhorrence is unequivocally expressed, in these emphatic words :---" Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are----for blood defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein,

but by blood."+

* About 305 acres surrounding each city.

+ Numbers, xxxv. 31, 33.

FANNY. To confine a man to one place, and at a distance from his family and friends, perhaps, as it might happen, for a number of years, would seem rather to be a punishment, than a favour---considering, too, that the homicide was involuntary.

MRS. M. When the life of a man is taken away by accidental violence, the fact will frequently be attended with circumstances exciting suspicion in the minds of those most nearly interested, and instigating them to revenge. The city of Refuge was then an asylum for him who might unhappily become the object of vindictive or unreasonable passion. Besides, life under any circumstances, is a valuable treasure, because it is the season for repentance, and preparation for a longer and a better state of existence. To be, therefore, even the innocent cause of depriving a fellow-creature of this invaluable opportunity, must fill a reflecting mind with the most poignant regret, and has been, in many instances, the means of bringing sinners to contrition. Seclusion, for a time, from the objects that had most fondly occupied the heart, was well adapted to promote this most important end, and was indeed a blessing though it might at first seem a punishment.

FANNY. But would it not have been better, that the suspected reputation should have been cleared up, as it is done with us, in the trial by jury, than that it should have remained under a cloud for ever--- whilst sympathy and safety were only procured by the death of the High Priest ---a circumstance altogether unconnected with the guilt or innocence of the offender?

MRS. M. The trial by jury, my dear, is an admirable institution for us, whose circumstances are altogether different from those of the Israelites. Nor were they the