'How could Joshua write, that Israel served the Lord a long time after he was dead, nay, after all those who out-lived him were dead also? If some later writer, as Samuel or Ezra, inserted all these additions to the original work of Joshua, he would certainly have not done so in a clandestine or covert manner; but with a note attached, that "so far is the work of Joshua, and the continuation is by a later hand." Even the monkish chroniclers have displayed this species of common honesty; for we always, or nearly always, find a mark attached to those passages, which begin the writing of a new author: '"Hactenus dominus Radulfus scripsit Chronica, etc." '"So far is the Chronicle of Master Ralph, etc." 'Or, "Explicit dominus Rogerus, incipit dominus Matthaeus, etc." '"Here ends Master Rogers, of Wendover, and Master Matthew Paris begins." {106} 'Even the supposition of these additions, made by later writers, goes far towards a concession of the fact, which I would establish--namely, that we have not the Hebrew writings in their original state; but that they are a compilation, put together after the nation had returned with fresh lights, and a fresh intellectual impetus from Babylon.' Verse 33. Phineas was a Levite, and the Levites were forbidden to have any inheritance in the land; in what manner, therefore, did Phineas become entitled to this hill? This Book of Joshua simply claims to be a relation of the adventures of the Jews under the leadership of Joshua. It has evidently been written very long after the occurrences it alleges to have taken place; and the writer must have either compiled from other writings, or from oral tradition; if from the latter, which is the more probable hypothesis, it will, perhaps, account for the anti-astronomical phenomenon, related in chapter x., and for the falling down of the walls of Jericho, and similar absurdities. By tradition, facts are exaggerated and distorted, especially where the people are uneducated ana superstitious. As a history it is of little value, as a romance it is of less; it affords but poor amusement, and nought of instruction to peruse the account of the wars of the Jews. A man of martial disposition may feel a degree of interest and pleasure in reading the accounts of the struggles for freedom of a Tell, a Washington, a Hampden, or even of the terrific battles under a Napoleon or a Wellington; but of these Jews, whose best fighting was but a sham, who were cowards at heart; who only fought well when the Lord had paralysed the arms of their enemies; who took credit for victories, which the 'hornet' had won for them; who were merciless scoundrels when victorious, and pitiable poltroons when defeated; who fought not in defence of their own land, but to rob their fellow men of their native homes; I say, reading of these, a true man feels disgust and sorrow; disgust at the horrible cruelties related; sorrow that men should have been so ignorant as to imagine that the butcheries took