** Talleyrand tells the Pope also, that, of the numerous blunders committed by Moses, not the least was his fixing the time of the Creation at an epoch when the earth did not only exist, but had an immense population, and actually reckoned 50,000 years of civilisation: besides his pretending to look upon the Hebrews as the most ancient people on earth, forgetting or feigning to forget, that they were a mere gang of slaves who had originally escaped from Idumea, during the intestine wars which desolated that country. After having passed into Egypt, where they were again made slaves, it was after the lapse of many years, and after having robbed their masters (as their forefathers had robbed the Idumeans), that, induced by Moses, they crossed the Red Sea in Ethiopian vessels; and having gained the wood of Henon, in Arabia Deserta, they maintained themselves there during forty years, living by the robberies they committed on travellers and the people in the neighborhood. As it is not necessary to notice these miracles in Bible order, it may here be observed, that the fable about Lot's wife might have been taken from that of Euodia; but, more probably, from the ancient fiction of Baucis and Philemon, as the first and this are essentially the same. Irenæus and Tertullian affirm that, in their times, _the statue of Lots wife regularly menstruated at the usual period of women!_ Reader, these men were no unfair sample of the Christian fathers. It was a part of military discipline amongst the Persians, and other nations of the East, when marching large armies through the deserts, to carry in the van, during the _night_, fires, made with such combustible matter as would make a great flame of fire, which was elevated so high as to be distinctly seen by all in the rear, appearing, in the distance, as "a pillar of fire," and serving to point out the line of march. To direct this line during the day, such combustibles were burnt as would produce the greatest cloud or "pillar of smoke." This military usage is mentioned both by Herodotus and Quintus Curtius; and Alexander himself adopted it of the Persians. If Moses was so well provided in a supernatural fire-and-smoke conductor, why was he so anxious and pressing to get his brother-in-law Hobab (against his will) to guide the march, and to "_be to them instead of eyes_" in leading them to proper places for encampment?* Here we have a striking instance of the matchless effrontery of the Jewish fabricators, in thus turning a common usage into a miracle. * Numbers x., 29 to 32.