Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 23.djvu/290

278 fruit of these researches is a library of exploration, which forms a most valuable addition to our Biblical literature, not only for the knowledge it gives of sacred geography, but of the whole religious, social, and political economy of the Hebrews. While these great works, the monuments of so much learning, occupy the attention of scholars, other readers may be interested in turning over a portfolio of sketches, which claims only to present a few pictures of the desert."

From this point of view we have found the work extremely interesting. It is written in an easy and familiar style, and abounds in pleasant descriptions and common-sense reflections relating to the scenery of the country, the associations of prominent places, and the character and habits of the people that came under the author's observation. The first two chapters, devoted to Egypt and its relations to England, give an excellent summary of what is known as the "Egyptian question," and form an instructive preliminary to the subsequent chapters on the wanderings of a people so intimately associated as were the old Hebrews with the ancient Egyptians.

It was the object of our traveler to go over the ground traversed by the Hebrew people after their flight from Egypt. He accordingly crossed the desert by camel navigation, following their track, and lingering to observe the various locations that have derived their interest from the sacred history. Starting from Suez, the first point of interest reached was the wells of Moses at a mile or two on, and from this station the party pursued the route to Mount Sinai, a distance of one hundred and fifty-three miles, at the rate of twenty to twenty-five miles a day, the usual "camel's journey." After spending some time among the interesting scenes of Mount Sinai, they started through the mountains and struck into the great wilderness in which the children of Israel wandered for thirty-seven years before reaching the land of promise. The narrative then proceeds with its detail of incidents of tent-life, camping, and marching, and the description of desert scenes and memorable localities until the terrible wilderness is crossed, and the travelers emerge into the crude civilization of Palestine in the neighborhood of Gaza. From this point they proceeded through the hill country to Bethlehem, "the place where Christ was born"—a town, at present, of some five thousand inhabitants—and the chapter devoted to it is perhaps the most interesting in the book.

Of course, Dr. Field, as a good, sound, orthodox man, will not suffer his reader to suppose that he has taken this excursion from mere idle curiosity, but because of his profound religious interest in the history with which his observations are associated. The thread of narration is, therefore, once broken by an episode in which he goes into a discussion and a defense of the Hebrew polity which has been the subject of much criticism in these skeptical times. It is not so much his object to maintain the inspiration of Moses as to vindicate his wisdom and humanity as a lawgiver. His chapter on "Theocracy and Democracy," in relation to the Hebrew system of government, is readable and suggestive, but we suspect that the philosophy of the subject will not be cleared up until it is studied in the light of the great law of social evolution.

course, the importance of exercise to health is by no means a modern physiological discovery, but we undoubtedly owe to Ling, of Sweden, the most ingenious system of gymnastics, calculated to produce a harmonious development of the human organism, and to insure the preservation of health as well as the cure of diseases. It is said that Ling never used a movement of which he could not scientifically demonstrate the physiological effects, and there can be little doubt of the important influence it has exerted during the half-century that has elapsed since the promulgation of the "movement-cure."

The editor of this volume remarks that "it is dawning more and more upon the minds of physiologists and practitioners that 'motion is the principal agent in the whole process of life,' and that systematic muscular exercise is one of the best means for