M. Renan, in his recent report of his proceedings in Phoenicia, has named two circumstances which must have had a great effect in suppressing art or architect- ure among the ancient Israelites, while their very ex- istence proves that the people had no genius in that di- rection. These are (1) the prohibition of sculptured representations of living creatures, and (2) the command not to build a temple anywhere but at Jerusalem. The hewing or polishing of building-stones was even for- bidden. " What," he asks, " would Greece have been, if it had been illegal to build any temples but at Delphi or Eleusis? In ten centuries the Jews had only three temples to build, and of these certainly two were erect- ed under the guidance of foreigners. The existence of synagogues dates from the time of the Maccabees, and the Jews then naturally employed the Greek style of architecture, which at that time reigned universally."
In fact the Israelites never lost the feeling or the tra- ditions of their earlj' pastoral nomad life. Long after the nation had been settled in the country, the cry of those earlier days, " To your tents, O Israel !" was heard in periods of excitement. The prophets, sick of the luxun,' of the cities, are constantly recalling the " tents" of that simpler, less artificial life; and the Tem])lc of Solomon — nay, even perhaps of Zerubbabel— was s])oken of to the last as the " tent of the Lord of hosts," the " place where David had pitched his tent." It is a re- markable fact that, eminent as Jews have been in other departments of art, science, and affairs, no Jewish archi- tect, painter, or sculptor has ever achieved any signal success. See Arciiitf.ctl'ke; Artificer.
VI. Climnie, etc. — 1. Temperature. — Probably there is no country in the world of the same extent wliich era- braces a greater variety in this respect than Palestine. On Mount Hermon, at its northern border, we approach
PALESTINE
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PALESTINE
a region of perpetual snow. From this we descend suc- cessively by tlie peaks of Bashan and Upper Galilee, where the oak and pine flourish, to the hills of Judah and Samaria, where the vine and (it;-tree are at home, to the plains of the seaboard, where the palm and banana produce their fruit, down to the sultry shores of the Dead Sea, on winch we tind tropical heat and tropical vegeta- tion. To determine with scientific accuracy the various shades of climate, and to arrange throughout the country exact isothermal lines, would require a long series of observations made at a number of distinct points now scarcely ever visited by scientific men. Sufficient data exist, however, to afford a good general view of the cli- mate— a view sufficiently accurate for the illustration of the Bible.
Along the summits of the central ridge of Palestine, and over the table-land east of the Jordan, the temper- ature is pretty nearly equal. The cold in winter is sometimes severe. The thermometer has been known to fall as low as 28' Fahr., and frost hardens the ground — more, however, on the eastern plains than on the Ju- daean hills. Snow falls nearly every winter; it seldom lies longer than a day or two ; but in the winter of 1S57 it was eight inches deep, and it covered the eastern plains for a fortnight. The results were disastrous. Nearly a fourth of the houses of Damascus were injured, and some of the flat-roofed bazaars and mosques were left heaps of ruin. South of Hebron snow is rare, and frost less intense. Along the seaboard of Philistia and Sharon, and in the Jordan valley, snow and frost are unknown; but on the coast fartlier north very slight frost is sometimes felt. Snow is rarely seen whitening the ground below an elevation of 2000 feet.
The summer heat varies greatlv in different locali- ties. It is most intense along the shores of the Dead Sea, owing in part to the depression, and in part to the reflection of the sun's rays from the white moinitains. The temperature at Engedi is probably as high as that of Thebes. The heat, the evaporation, and the foetid atmosphere render the whole of this plain dangerous to Europeans during the summer months. Tiberias is not so hot as Jericho, but it is sensibly hotter than the coast plain, where, owing to the influence of the sea-breeze, which sets in at ten o'clock in the forenoon and con- tinues till two hours after sunset, the heat is not oppres- sive. The dry soil and dry atmosphere make the greater part of the coast salubrious. I'alms flourish luxuriantl}' and produce their fruit at Gaza, Joppa, Haifa, and as far north as Sidon and Beyrut; they also bear fruit in fa- vorable positions on the plain of Damascus. At Hebron, Jerusalem, along the summit of the central ridge, and on the eastern plateau, the heat is never intense, the ther- mometer rarely rising to 90= in the shade, though the bright, cloudless sun and white soil make open-air labor and travel exhausting and dangerous. The following results of Dr. Barclay's observations at Jerusalem, ex- tending over five years (1851-1855), are important :
"The sreatest range of the thermometer on any year was 52° Fahr. The highest elevation of the mercury was 92°. Under favorable exposure, immediately before sun- rise, on one occasion, it fell to 28°. The mean annual av- erage of temperaiure is 60.5°; July and August are the hottest months, January the coldest. The coldest time is about sunrise ; the warmest noon: sunset is about the nieim. The average temperniure of January, the coldest montli, (liirnig tive years, w: s 49.4°; of August, the warm- est month, Ti).3°."