OBSERVATION XXII.

Superior Excellence of the Wine of Lebanon.

It is surprising to me, that St. Jerom should seem not to have been acquainted with the excellency of the wine of Lebanon, which gives it the superiority above all the wines of that part of the world; and it seems to me almost as astonishing that commentators on the Prophet Hosea should content themselves with quotations from ancient writers of the most vague kind, instead of positive evidences of its excellency.

That St. Jerom appears not to have been aware of the exquisiteness of this kind of wine, though he lived long in Judea, is sufficiently evident from what he says in his Commentary, on Hosea xiv. 7:-The scent thereof, (or, according to the marginal translation, the memorial thereof,) shall be as the wine of Lebanon 3 on which he tells his readers, "We may call that the wine of Lebanon which is mixed and prepared with some fragrant substance, that it may have the most delicious smell; or that may be called the wine of Lebanon which is poured out before the LORD in the temple, con

• Vinum autem Libani possumus appellare mixtum & conditum thymiamate; ut odorem suavissimum habeat; vel vinum Libani quod Domino libatur in templo; de quo in Zacharia sub Libani vocabulo legimus; Aperi Libane portas tuas.

cerning which we read in Zechariah, Open thy doors, O Lebanon." Could a man that wrote after this manner, know any thing at all of the natural exquisiteness of the taste of one sort of wine produced in Lebanon, and peculiar to it, therefore distinguished by the name of the place of its production?

The remarks that some later commentators have made, on the words of the Prophet, are almost as astonishing, being loose and indistinct accounts of the excellency of some of the wines produced in that part of the world, not appropriate to Lebanon. David Kimchi, the the celebrated Jewish Rabbi, is in particular quoted,' as citing a physician who affirmed, that the wine of Lebanon, of Hermon, of Carmel, of the mountains of Israel, and of Jerusalem, and of Caphtor, for smell, taste, and usefulness, for medical purposes, excelled all others. Is this a proper proof of the superior excellence of the wine of Lebanon above others? Is this any thing more than the putting it on a level with the rest of the wines of Judea, and those of Caphtor, which some of the learned have supposed to mean Crete?

I should suppose the modern account of travellers, concerning the wine of Lebanon, must be much more satisfactory.

"The patriarch," says Rauwolff, speaking of his visiting Mount Libanus, was very merry with us, and presented us with some Venice bottles of his wine, whereof we drank

f Vide Poli Syn. in loc. • Vitringa in Jsaiam, cap. 14.

a good deal, for it was so pleasant that I must confess that I never in all my life drank any like it."h He afterwards mentions his supping with the patriarch, and some of his fraternity, at Canobin, adding, "they treated us very well, and gave us some white-wine to drink, which was better than that we drank on the hill," (meaning some that was given him by the common Maronites in his ascent,) "" in Venice glasses, the like whereof is not to be found, neither in Candia nor Cyprus."

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Le Bruyn is the next I would cite. His testimony is as follows. "But if it were only for what I am going to mention, Canobin would be preferable to all other places; that is, on account of their having there better and more delicate wines than are to be found any where else in the world. They are red, of a beautiful colour, and so oily that they adhere to the glass. Accordingly the Prophet Hosea derives a comparison from it, when he says, ch. xiv. 8, the smell of each of them shall be as the wine of Lebanon... The other wines are not near so good there, but in much greater abundance. As the patriarch appeared to have a great esteem for us, he always caused the best to be given us. I found it so excellent, that I did not think I ever tasted any kind of drink more delicious.'

Ray's Coll. of Travels. p. 205.

i P. 207. * A celebrated monastery on Mount Lebanon. Tom. 2, ch. 57.

I will only add one more, Monsieur de la Roque, who, in an account of his travels in Syria, speaking of his visiting Canobin in Mount Lebanon, tells us that, when he was there, the greatest part of the monks were absent, engaged in their vintage. That they were invited by those that remained to dine there. That they accordingly ate with a venerable old man, who acted as the then superior of the house. That this good father entertained them very agreeably during the repast, which consisted of eggs and olives. To which he adds," but it would be difficult to find elsewhere more excellent wines than what he gave us; which caused us to think the reputation of the wines of Lebanon, of which the Prophet speaks, was well founded. These wines are of two sorts, the most common is the red, and the most exquisite is the colour of our muscadine wine; they call it golden wine, on account of its colour."A

After this no doubt can be made of the ex cellency of the wine of Lebanon, and its supeBiority to those of the neighbourhood, and to those indéed elsewhere, that have been most celebrated the Cretan and that of Cyprus.E JA

They are not indeed all the wines that grɔw on this mountain that are so superior in quality? that presented by the peasants to Rauwolff was far inferior to that prepared for the patriarch. But when the wine of Lebanon is spoken of, by way of eminence, the best is undoubtedly meant

Voy. de Syrie et du Mont Liban. tom. 1, p. 54, 55.

Le Bruyn seems to have been mistaken, when he supposed he was distinguished by the patriarch, who treated him with red wine, that, though very excellent, not being the best, which is, it seems, of the colour of gold, consequently a kind of white-wine.

All that is farther requisite to be added seems to be this, that it is the celebrity, or memorial, ziker, as it is translated in the margin, that seems to be meant by the Prophet, the scent of this rich wine not being the most remarkable of its qualities: to which is to be added, that the smell of Lebanon had been before mentioned; and that the word more properly signifies its being celebrated, or held in remembrance, than the exquisiteness of its smell.

How it came to pass, that Jerom was not sensible of this superiority, of some of the wines of Lebanon to those of other places, may be a subject of curious enquiry, but not necessary to the illustration of the passage I am considering here. Whether locusts had injured their vines in that age, and sunk the reputation of what they produced, which Dr. Shaw tells us was the cause of great degenerating of the wines of Algiers in his time; or whether it was owing to civil commotions in this mountain, in the time of St. Jerom, and there being no person there of such consequence as to engage them to take a due care in making their wines, in his time, I shall leave to others to enquire;