New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-05-09

/ healed Does not this trOuonnB vi tno "'Vo''
;nouires DIR. Robinson "lOok Ike the irregular
flow of the fountain just described :" Without eA-
/ pressing any definite cOVictiOn on the subject
| in his first volume, his second visit 70
,Ierusalem seems to have confirmed, In bis
view the probability of the suggestion.
"Tbe IRREGULAR Aow," he remarks, "certainly cor
responds. perfectly well, with the troubling OF
the water. When it is said that an angel went
down. at certain season, into the pool, and
! troubled the water probably there is no one who
would bold that on every such OCCASION there
was the visible form and appearance OF on angel.
This mysterious motion of the waters, OF which
none could comprehend Che cause, the teOple
ascribed to the direct, supernatural agency OF an
angel and this in accordance with the general
principle that God administers the laws of the
universe through the agency of the angels, his
messengers Again, when it is said that whose
ever then first, after the troubling OF the water,
stepped in, was made whole of Whatsoever disease
he had. it is evident that the healing power was
held to lie, not in the water itself, but in the cir
cumstance of first stepping in. This, of course is
contrary to the analogy of all medical waters, as II
also the other circumstance, that the power eI-
tended to the healing of all kinds of diseases. In
these particulars, We have the unerring marks OF a
current popular belief, which the Evangelist has
chosen to make the basis of his representation"
In regard to the Holy Sepulchre, DIR. Robinson
still maintains that the site which is claimed for 1t
since the time of Constantine has no valid title to
that distinction. He fortifes his original argument
with several new considerations of great force,
which seem to set aside the current tradition on
conclusive evidence. From the discussion of the
subject he draws the general inference that no
ecclesiastical tradition respecting the ancient local.
ties of Jerusalem is of any value, unless corrobo-
rated by the Scriptures, or other contemporary
testimony"
After spending more than two months in explor-
ing various regions of Palestine, DR.. Robinson re-
turns to Beirut, taking Damascus, the ruins of
Baalbek, and the Cedars of Lebanon on the way,
and reaching Beirut about the middle of June
OF the celebrated cedars, we have an interesting
description from which we copy few paragraphs.
The cedars, which still bear their ancient name,
stand mostly upon four small contiguous rocky knobs,
within compass of less than forty rods in diameter
They form thick forest without underbrtish. The
older trees have each several trunks and thus sprea0
themselves widely around but most OF the others are
cone-ike in form and do not throw cut their boughs
ateraly to any great extent. Some few trees stand
alone the outskirts of the grove; and one especially
on the south is large and very beautiful. With this
exception, Of the trees came up 10 my ldea! o
the graceful beauty of the cedar Of Lebanon, such as
| had formerly seen 1t, IN the Jardin de5 fldntes.
Some of the older trees are already much broken,
and will soon be wholly destroyed. The fashion Is
now coming into vogue to have articles made OF this
for sale IN 81 and II HlsO burned as
fuel by the few people that here pass the summer
These causes Of destruction, though gradual IN their
operation, nevertheless sure Add to TINS the CIR
cunstance that travellers, IN former years tto say
nothing of the present tme), have been shameless
enoughto large spots to be hewn smooth on the
trunks Of Of the nobest trees in order TO ln-
scribe their names. The two earliest which saw
were Frenchmen; one was dated in 1871. The wood
of the cedar Pinus CedrHS is white, with pleasant
but not strong odor; and bears no comparison, IN
beauty or fragrance, with the common red CEDAR Oh
America, JuRfperus FrgrRidno'
made no attempt to count the trees. probably
no two persons would fully agree In respect 10 the GU
ones, or in the number OF the whole Yet should 6e
DISPOSED to concur in the language or Burckhardt,
who says "Of the Oldest and best-ooking trees,
counted eleven or twelve; twenty-five very large
ones; about fifty Of middllng size; and more tnan
three hundred smaller and young ones Yet there Is
DO room to doubt that during the last three centuries,
the number Of earlier trees has diminished by nearly
or quite one-half; while the younger growth has III
great part if not wholly sprung up during that inter-
val. Btsching cnumer8tes, by name, no less than
twenty-sx travellers between A. D. l3oO and 90 from
| F. Belon to Stephen Schulz, who had described and
counted the trees and since that time the number OF
Ike descriptions has probably been hardly less than
twice as many. In the sixteenth century, the number
of old trees is varOusly given as from fwentyelght 10
tweny-three in the seventeenth from twenty-four to
sixteen; in the eighteenth, from twenty TO hiteen
After the lapse of another century the number oil the
oldest trees have seen, is now reduced TO about
| a dozen. All this marks gradual process OF decay;
and il also marks the difficulty Of exact enumeration
This is rightly ascrbed by Fuer and also by Dandni
to the fact that many Of the trees have two or more
stems, and were thus reckoned differently by dfer-
ent traveller sometimes as one tree, sometimes as TWO
| or more All the travellers of the sixteenth century
! speak only of the old trees they nowhere mention
| any young ones. Rauwo, himself botanist, seems
10 say expressly, that he sought for younger trees
without being able to End any. If this be it would
appear that, with the exception of the few remaining
ancient trees perhaps none of those which now make
| up the grove can BE- regarded as reaching back IN
| age more than three hundred years.
In the minds of the common people, an air of sane
tity is thrown around the grove, the rver and the
region. The ancient trees sacred, as coming down
| from the times Of Scripture and Solomon; and the
rver which has its source near by Is sacred ana Is
called elkadisha In former centuries, the Patriarch
of the Marontes imposed various ecclesiastical penal
ties, and even communication, on any Christian
| who should cut or inure the sacred trees; and the
story is recorded, that, when some Muslims, who
were pasturng in the vicinity, were so hardened and
inpiOus To cut of the trees, they were pun
ished on the spot by the loss of their Bocks. In
| former times too the Maronites accustomed 10
celebrate, in the sacred grove the festival of the
TIansfg uraton-when the Patriarch himself ohcated
| and said mass before rude altar of stones. This
law and these ceremonies are, To certain extent
continued at the present day; and the influence OF
them unquestonaby has been great upon the popular
mind. The rude affairs OF stones have IN. our day,
been superseded BY a MarOnite chapel built within
| the last ten years. Several persons were residing
| here during Summer, in connection with the chapel
but we did not learn what services held in it.
part OF the object of these persons seemed to be to