298 good for his countrymen, continuing with king Cyrus than anywhere else. Nor could the king easily spare so useful and prudent a minister, the loss of whom would have occasioned him much perplexity. Those who remained behind made, however, large contributions, towards the building of the temple. The Hebrews, collected together, with their wives and little children, their camels, horses, and other cattle, which were loaded with their goods, they formed a caravan, or body of persons travelling in company, and thus proceeded slowly over the desert towards Jerusalem. When they reached that city, it was precisely seventy years cince Daniel and his companions had been carried into captivity. Nearly fifty thousand persons thus returned to their own land.' They laid the foundation of the new temple aoid the houting of the younger part of the company; while some வி the old men wept when they remembered the glory of the first, ten ple, and thought how impossible it was for them, in their circumstanges, to build another which would be equally sumptuous and beautiful.
