'The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again; the account, however, abstracted from the poetical fancy shows the ignorance of Joshua, for he should have commanded the earth to have stood still.' Verse 14. 'The time implied by the expression _after it_, that is, after that day being put in comparison with all the time that passed _before it_, must, in order to give any expressive signification to the passage, mean a _great length of time_. For example, it would have been ridiculous to have said to the next day, or the next week, or the next month, or the next year; to give, therefore, meaning to the passage comparative to the wonder it relates, and the prior time it alludes to it, must mean centuries of years; less, however, than one would be trifling, and less than two would be barely admissible.' It is not true, as stated in verse 14, that there was no day before or after that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man. The Lord _before_ hearkened unto Abraham (_vide_ Genesis, chap, xviii., vv. 23 to 32), and unto Moses (Exodus, chap, xxxii., vv. 11 to 14; Numbers, chap, xi., vv. 11 to 23; chap, xiv., vv. 13 to 20). _After_, the Lord hearkened unto Samson (Judges, chap, xvi., v. 28), to David (1 Samuel, ehap. xxiii., vv. 2 to 12). Verse 26. The King of Hebron is slain and hanged in this verse, and afterwards slain again in verse 37. In the foot note to the Douay it is alleged that this was a second king, but the explanation is not correct, as only one King of Hebron was slain by Joshua (_vide_ chap. xii., v. 10). 'The burial place of the five kings was marked out to posterity by a lasting monument--a heap of stones which Joshua caused to be placed over the cave where they were buried. '"Verse 27. 'And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain _until this very day?_" *Chapter xi., v. 6. 'Thou shalt hough (or hamstring) their horses {102} and burn their chariots with fire.' Will any man attempt to defend this as a command from the Deity to Joshua? Is it consistent that the eternal omnipotent and merciful Creator of all things should order harmless and unoffending animals to be cruelly and inhumanly maltreated? We are sometimes told that the Canaanites were murdered because they were idolaters, but surely their horses took no part in the worship of Moloch or of Baal.