vocate for women. "There is nothing fo powerful "as they; for I have feen, faid he, Apamea the mif"trefs of the king my mafter, give his facred majesty "gentle flaps on the face, and take off his turban to "drefs her head with." Darius found Zorobabel's

anfwer fo fmart, that he immediately caused the • temple of Jerufalem to be rebuilt.' But no more does Voltaire give a fair and candid relation here, than in former inftances. The question was not proposed to all his court, but to his three body-guards. "When the king,' fays* Jofephus, could not fleep any more, having foon awaked, he enters into con⚫ verfation with his three body-guards; and promises, ⚫ that upon him who should give him the most true ⚫ and judicious answer to his question, he would be

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ftow gifts,--as a reward of victory.---Having pro• mifed that he would confer those gifts upon them, • he asked the first if wine had greater power; the fecond if kings; the third if women; or more than thefe, truth. After afking thefe things of them, he went to reft; but in the morning, having ⚫ called the nobles and governors of provinces, and ⚫ other rulers of Perfia and Media, and having seat⚫ed himself in the ufual place, he commanded each

of the guards, in the hearing of all, to declare his 'judgment about the question proposed:' and having told us the answers of two of them, he adds, 'when 'thus the fecond was filent, Zorobabel the third, be

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gan to fpeak---and having finished about women, he began to fpeak about truth, faying, "I have "fhewed how much power women have: they, "however, and the king are weaker than truth, &c,' See Antiq. xi. 3. 2-8.

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And when he had done, and the multitude cried ' out that he had fpoken excellently, and that truth ' alone hath power unchangeable, and which wax'eth not old, the king commanded him to ask some'thing befides these things he had promised.--- After ' he had spoken these things, he put him in mind of the vow which he had made, if he should receive "the kingdom, that he would build Jerufalem, and repair therein the temple of God, and restore the veffels which Nebuchadnezzer had plundered and brought to Babylon.'" And this, fays he, is my "requeft, which thou now fuffereft me to afk, whom "thou haft judged wife and intelligent." Where6 upon he gave orders to promote the work.' This is a fummary of Jofephus's hiftory about this affair; whence every one must see, upon the flightest attention, how different Voltaire's account is from it. In this writer's representation, there is not one fyllable about the king's inquiry concerning the power of truth, nor about Zorobabel's decifion in favour of its fuperior virtue and efficacy, which won him the applauses of the audience, and gained from the king the tendered prizes, together with the invitation to afk fomething additional. Nor is there in him any mention of the monarch's vow while in the ftation of a fubject, probably through the ardour of his friendship to the prince of the captivity; which, together with this man's preference of truth to wine, and kings, and women, are set forth by Jofephus, as the cause of his favourable edict concerning the temple in Jerufalem. In all which, the author of the first book of Efdras agrees with him.---May I not then

+ See first Book of Efdras, chap. 3. and 4. Such, however, is

fay, how falfe and defective is his detail! how injuri ous to Jofephus! and how willing to be deceived must they be, who rely upon him as a fafe guide in antient facts, which have any connection with religion!

SECTION V.

Of his Falfhoods in his Detail of JOSEPHUS's Story of JADDUA and ALEXANDER, in Chapter fortyfixth; together with his unjuft Reflection on ROLLIN.

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ET us next examine his forty-fixth Chapter, in which he is angry with Rollin for copying from Jofephus, that romance-writer, as he calls him, the ftory of Jaddua's proceffion to meet Alexander; and his exhibition of prophecies to him, which clearly indicated that he would conquer the kingdom of Perfia; ftiling the fame absurd, and considering it as framed to raise his nation. But is he fatisfied to produce this story as it stands in the Jewish author, and to dwell upon the real difficulties with which it is incumbered? No. He alters it; and then propofes

the proneness of fome men to mifreprefent things here, for the fake of a laugh, that I have seen in a foreign gazette, the fame lame and defective account of the answer of the three officers to his Majesty Darius from this author, as Mr. Voltaire hath given us thereof from Jofephus while a poetical translation of the arguments of orator Zorobabel to prove the fuperior strength and power of the fair fex is concluded thus, 'Thus far the eloquent Zorobabel. Be dumb ye modern orators! Neither lord Mansfield or lord Chatham ever spoke such 'a fpeech.' Virginia Gazette, printed by Purdie and Dixon, May 25th, 1769.

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vain and groundless cavils against it. Jofephus *, fays he, pretends that Alexander had, in a dream at Macedon, feen Jaddus the high-priest of the • Jews;' (fuppofing there was a Jewish priest whose name terminated in us) that this priest had encouraged him to undertake his expedition against the 6 Perfians, and that this was the reason that Alexander had attacked Afia.' But how fenfelefs this objection, from the termination of the high-prieft's name in the narrative! Be it that us is not the termination of any man's name in the Hebrew language, does not every perfon, who is at all acquainted with Jofephus, know that he varies the termination of the names of other perfons, from what it is in that tongue in the fame manner? and yet against their real existence, there never was, on this account, the smallest exception. Thus, † Joshua fon of Jofedec, is, with him, Jefus fon of Jofedecus; Abiud is Abius, &c. why then might not Jaddua be alfo with him Jaddus, without creating any fufpicion of his genuineness? Nor does he affirm that this high-prieft fuggefted to Alexander the design of fubduing Asia, as Mr. Voltaire's readers may naturally imagine: what Jofephus makes Alexander fay, is, ‡ That, when he was de• liberating with himself how he would become mafter of Afia, he commanded him not to delay, but ' with confidence to pafs over, for he would lead his

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army, and give him the empire of Perfia.' Mr. Voltaire goes on, He could not then avoid going fix or feven days march out of his way, after the C fiege of Tyre, to vifit Jerufalem.' This is by way of

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* See the Philofophy of History, page 220. Antiq. 11. 3. 10. and 3. 8. 1.

Ibid. 11. 8. 3. 4. 5.

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farcafm, for he had faid before, It was neceffary, ⚫ after having made Tyre submit, not to lose a mo❝ment before he seized the poft of Pelufium; fo that, Alexander having made a forced march to surprise Gaza, he went from Gaza to Pelufium in feven days. It is thus faithfully related by Arrian, Q. Cur'tius, Diodorus, and even Paul Orofius himself, according to the journal of Alexander.' But is there really fuch caufe for fcoffing? Jofephus, whofe relation Voltaire means to ridicule, does not carry Alexander from the fiege or conqueft of Tyre to Jerufalem, which, as this city stood at no great distance on the left hand of the road from Tyre to Gaza, would have been more favourable for the ftory of his interview there, with the Jewish high-prieft; on the contrary, his narrative is, 'That, having fettled af'fairs at Tyre, of which he became mafter after a fiege of feven months, he marched to Gaza, and took it after fitting two months before it; and, that having destroyed this place, he haftened to go up to the city of the Jerufalemites +;' which is making him turn backwards for feveral days; and, being inconsistent with that quick progress from Gaza to Pelufium, in which other hiftorians agree, creates much embarafliment to thofe critics who maintain the truth of that visit. Why then does Mr. Voltaire lead his readers into a belief, that Jofephus places his journey to Jerufalem before his attempt on Gaza? We may, however, eafily forgive this misrepresentation of Jofephus's fenfe, fince he has probably been betrayed into it by following fuch modern writers as make this arrangement of it. For many think it Jofephus's Antiq. 11. 8. 3. &c.

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