BERTHA’S
VISIT TO HER UNCLE
IN
ENGLAND.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
MDCCCXXX.
LONDON:
Printed by W. Clowes,
Stamford-street.
| INDEX. |
BERTHA’S VISIT.
April 1st.—The little buds of pear blossoms, which I told you hadenlarged so much, have this day blown out completely. They are, I dothink, a curiosity. They have been now about two months in water, butthey had lain dry so long before, that one might have thought no liferemained in them. The horse-chesnut leaves, which first came out, beginto droop; but on one of the twigs there is a nice young shoot, at leasttwo inches long, which looks bright and fresh.
The lilac buds, I am sorry to say, have withered; but some of the ashleaves have opened out finely: three of them, however, were curiouslytwisted, and filled up with a cottony substance, which on examinationwas found to contain a little greenish insect. Mary thinks it is theaphis fraxina. What a long time the eggs must have remained there, for I{2}do not think an aphis could have found out this branch in my room.
2d, Sunday.—Deuteronomy, the title of the fifth book of thePentateuch, is derived, I find, from two Greek words, which signify thesecond law, or rather the repetition of the law. Mishnah, the name theJews give it, has nearly the same meaning. “Moses, in this book,” saidmy uncle, “not only recapitulates the laws he had already ordained, butmakes several explanatory additions, and enforces the whole by the mostearnest and impressive appeals to the gratitude, the hopes, and thefears of the people. To them it is principally addressed, as most ofwhat particularly related to the priests is omitted; and as it was drawnup in the last year of their abode in the wilderness, we may supposethat it was intended as a compendium for the benefit of the newgeneration, who had not been present at the first promulgation of thelaw.
“It is remarkable that, in the preceding books, Moses speaks of himselfin the third person; but in Deuteronomy he drops the assumed characterof an historian, and addresses himself to the nation in the animatedlanguage of a prophet, and with the authority of their chieftain andlawgiver. He begins by reminding them of the many circumstances since{3}their departure from Horeb, in which they had experienced the Divinefavour; and then contrasts the success and the victories that had markedtheir progress, with the disobedience and ingratitude that had provokedthe Divine wrath. He frequently alludes to his own guilty conduct, andto the inexorable decree by which he was debarred from accompanying themto that land of promise, for which he had so zealously toiled. He dwellson every circumstance that could improve their hearts, and earnestlyenjoins the succeeding judges of Israel to do strict justice, and toinculcate the principles of obedience and piety. He rehearses thecommandments which he had delivered to the people direct from God; andexhorts them by every possible argument to fulfil the terms of thatcovenant, which the Lord had made with them. While he affectionatelyurges their future obedience, and sever