TYRE: STUDY ON EZEKIEL, CH. XXVIII. 449

Petroleum truth of such oil as they strike among the flinty rocks, will be in the least interested to ascertain the meaning of prophetic phrases which perhaps have ceased even to be perceptibly melodious. But as I learned what little power of language I have been praised for chiefly in the sound of this ancient music,¹ so also, whatever I have any hope of ever being praised for teaching by good men, has been learned by following out the instructions, or the stories, contained in “the words of this song.”² Which, therefore, I am compelled in this endeavour to bring my old work to its meant conclusion, to pray my readers to consider of a little while together with me.

4. “Thou wast perfect in thy ways,” you see Ezekiel says to the great merchant City, “from the day thou wast created-till iniquity was found in thee.”

A wonderful saying, surely, to us, who have been taught so positively that nothing human can be perfect, and that everything human is just as it was before! Will you look into the wonder of this saying more closely?

How long do you suppose Tyre was perfect in her ways; what kind of life did her people lead; what Gods worship? And at what time was iniquity first found in her? You find her sin said to consist chiefly in two kinds-“By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence”; and “Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.”

The first of these sins you find presently further amplified, thus: “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by reason of the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic.” And the second thus (look back to the second and third verses): “Behold, thou art wiser than Dankiel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas.”

Words which might surely be, with the most precise truth, also spoken of England, or rather put into her mouth at this hour, only substituting the word “Zoophyte” for “God,” thus: “Behold, I am wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from me. Also I am a zoophyte, and sit in the seat of zoophytes, in the midst of the seas.” Is it not therefore of some importance to us, as existent Tyrians, to know what came of all this wisdom and beauty, this divine purple of the Sea-shell and divine wisdom of the Zoophyte? For whether this so-called prophecy of Ezekiel was written before or after the event, it does indeed, either by inspiration or research, express certain facts concerning Tyre, and suggests certain causes for them which will notably illustrate her history.

5. That history itself is not, so far as I know, summed intelligibly in any easily accessible book. I must try the best I can do with it.

First, Tyre is essentially the capital city of the land of Canaan, her power being inherited from the still more ancient Sidon (Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth³); but the real province or country of Phœnicia is a piece of the coast of Palestine about 120 miles long by twelve broad-or, approximately, what a strip of land would be measured

¹ [See Præterita, i. ch. i. § 2.]

² [Deuteronomy xxxi. 30.]

³ [Genesis x. 15.]

XXIV .2 F

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