"Shuckford's Connex. Findlay, Part 2. p. 125. Leland against Morgan. Lowman, Heb. Gov. p. 220, &c." 1210. S. The Mosaic Law punishing idolatry with death has been represented as unjust, and giving countenance to persecution for religious opinions: but the Israelites were commanded to put to death only such Israelites as apostatized to-idolatry, and still remained members of their own community; and their government, being a Theocracy, idolatry was in it, strictly, the political crime of high treasop, which, in every state, is justly punishable with death. "Locke on Toleration. Warb. Div. Leg." "1211. It has been asserted by some, that the Law of Moses, Lev. xxvii. 28, 29, concerning devoted things to be put to death authorized human sacrifices; and, Jephtha's sacrificing his daughter, Judg. xi. 34, &c.; Samuel's hewing Agag in pieces before the Lord, 1 Sam. xv. 33.; and David's delivering seven of Saul's posterity to the Gibeonites, to be put to death by them, 2 Sam. xxi. 2, &c.; have been represented as instances of human sacrifices conformably to that law. But, as there are express prohibitions of sacrificing their children, Deut. xii, 30, 31. Ps. cvi. 37, 38. Jer. vii. 31. Ezek. xvi. 20, 21.; so, there not only is no direction to sacrifice any other human creature, nor' any rites appointed for such sacrifice, but also it would have rendered the priest unclean, by touching a dead body; and the sacrifice of a man is expressly declared abominable, Isa. lxvi. 3. As no devoted thing could be sacrificed at all, the law in question cannot possibly relate to sacrifice, and it is capable of a very different meaning; it is most probable that Jephtha did not sacrifice his daughter, but devoted her to perpetual virginity; and the other two instances alledged have no relation to sacrifice. "Sykes's Connex. c. 13. Chandler's Answ. to Hist. of the Man after God's own Heart. Lowth on Isa. xlii. 16." 1212. 4. The Scripture seems, in -some places, to ascribe to God such human passions and such actions as are vicious; but it is only by figurative expressions, which, when properly explained, imply nothing immoral. "Jealousy-fury-swearing in wrathrepenting deceiving men-hardening Pharaoh's heart-putting a lying spirit into prophets-punishing children for the sins of their parents, Isa. xl. 2. Lowth." "1213. There is no part of the doctrine of the New Testament that gives encouragement to any species of immorality; the appearance of it has arise only from "1 Chron. xxxiv. 28. xxxv. 23. Jonah. "Seeming assertions that the last day was near, 1 Cor. x. 11. Rom. xiii. 11, 12. Heb. ix. 26. Jam. v. 7, 8. 1 John ii. 18. 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13. Phil. iv. 5. 1 Thess. iv. 15, &c.”. "1215. It is asserted, that the impre cations pronounced by the Prophets, particularly in many passages of the Psalms shew a spirit of malice inconsistent with humanity, and highly vicious: it is an improper vindication of these, either, to allow that malice was consistent with the spirit of the Old Testament, though not of the New, or to say that the Prophets pronounced them against men, not as their own enemies, but as the enemies of God: but some of them appear harsh only by, the strong figurative style in which they are expressed, and, when taken out of this, appear very allowable wishes; * all of them may be considered, not as prayers, but simple predictions, the imperative béing put for the future (which is a common Hebrew idiom), and shewn to be so put, by the future being used in other parts of the prediction; and this idiom is more natural in prediction than in other kinds of composition, because it is the immediate result of combining idioms common in the prophetica style; for, as the Prophets are often commanded to do a thing when it is only meant that they should foretell it, so they often do foretell a thing by commanding it to be done, § and they often express their predictions in an address to God; the union of which two idioms gives them the appearance of imprecations. "Ps. x. 5.- Ps. xxviii. 4, 5.-‡ Jer. "1216. It is said that some of the actions which the Prophets did by the direc tion of God are indecent or immoral; but some of them are by no means so when rightly conceived; and others were either merely pear to us. "Song of Solomon. Ezek. xvi. xxiii.” As these subjects are handled in this brief manner, and must be considered as the heads of lectures which are not before us, it is impossible to enter into a discussion on any of these points. The Author, however, appears to join in the most generally received opinions, and has rarely ventured into new conceits and interpretations, in which respect he may certainly be recommended as a safe guide. One objection we have, and it is a very serious one; and, as it may be removed in a future edition, we shall state it without scruple. The Professor ought to have referred, as Doddridge and his continuator Kippis uniformly do, to the edition, chapter, or page, of every author quoted. Can it be necessary to add, that without this minute reference the student must be perpetually interrupted and embarrassed? 101. Lives of the antient Philosophers; translated from the French of Fenelon. With Notes, and a Life of the Author. In Two Volumes. By the Rev. John Cormack, M.A. Second Edition. Longman and Co. 1808. MR. CORMACK commences his Preface with a satirical descant upon the general egotism of authors, and the hopes and fears discoverable in their Prefaces; and proceeds in a singular strain of candour, which, it must be confessed, operates greatly with us in his favour. "He who, in the following pages, presents himself before the tribunal of the Publick, does not pretend to have much to say for himself. He cannot merit much praise, according to the rules by which it is dispensed; for he appears in the character of little else than a translator. He expects much blame; for he has not always pleased himself. He has, however, been actuated by the honest desire of presenting to his countrymen, and (he may be allowed to ald) countrywomen, in their own language, an interesting and useful work of the amiable and learned Fenelon. When it is considered that the work has never before appeared in English, and that the original is so scarce that a copy of it is rarely to be found, he hopes that his intention will, in some mea sure, screen the defects in its execution." Flippancy and assurance always disgust the man of sound sense and discrimination; and modesty is often neglected, but will ultimately be rewarded; and we are inclined to think Mr. Cormack is indebted, in some degree, for his success to the latter quality, which is invariably an agreeable, if not an uniformly useful, ingredient in the Preface of an Author. This gentleman justly observes, that the Lives of antient Philosophers was a desideratum in our Literature; and wonders that a work so necessary should have been neglected, when hundreds of volumes make their appearance on subjects on which every thing they afforded has long since been said, and others on which it was never worth while to say any thing at all. He mentions that Enfield's elegant work neither supersedes the present, nor is contradictory of what has been said concerning it; and supports the necessity of something of this description, by quoting a memorandum from Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, indicating that he had thoughts of undertaking Lives of the Philosophers, to be written with a polite air, in such a manner as might divert as well as instruct. It is impossible not to transcribe the following sentence with pleasure; and it is equally impossible that the Readers of this article should do otherwise than approve of and commend the heart that dictated it: "As a biographer and annotator, he has uniformly kept in view the formation of he speaks truth when he affirms that no the youthful mind; and he is confident applause can be so dear to his heart as the conviction that he has, in any one instance, eradicated a hurtful prejudice, or inspired a just or noble sentiment." Mr. Cormack adds, farther, "In composing the Life of Fenelon he has had access to several scarce and va- . luable materials, of which the Life by the Chevalier Ramsay is no less rare than' it is valuable. Nothing is produced without authority." The Translator introduced the notes, in some instances, with a view to supply the place of those remarks which the Archbishop may be supposed to have made to his pupil vivů voce. "Instead of giving geographical notes, as has, in some instances, been done, it was judged more proper to refer in this place, once for all, to the excellent "Summary of Geography and History, both antient and modern," by the learned Dr. Adam, of Edinburgh; a book which the generality of Readers must already possess, ant which none ought to want. The present work is committed to the judgment of the Publick, in the confidence that whatever be its decision, that decision will be just." Such is the conclusion of this entertaining Preface; to which we are happy to add the Author's note, belonging exclusively to the second edition, the consequence of the just aud favourable decision of the Publick: "In again presenting this little work before the Publick it has been attempted to render it more worthy of the approbation which it has received. The translation has been compared, throughout, with the original; and although it has not appeared that the sense has been mistaken, yet the expression has been sometimes varied, and, it is hoped, improved. Since, by the blessings of Divine Revelation, and the attainments of their predecessors, the moderns have so far surpassed the antients in religion, morals, and physick, such a work as this is valuable chiefly as a history of the human mind. In the notes, therefore, I have not hesitated to place, in the strongest point of view, their ignorance of every thing connected with religion and morals; from which will naturally appear the necessity and advantage of Divine Revelation. Stow, Jan. 22, 1808." The work before us contains the Life of Fenelon, of Thales, Solon, Pittacus, Bias, Periander, Chilo, Cleobulus, Epimenides, Anacharsis, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Democritus, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, Antisthenes, Aristippus, Aristotle, Xenocrates, Diogenes, Crates, Pyrrho, Bion, Epicurus, and Zeno. It seems almost superfluous to recommend a work which has already been received with pleasure by the Publick; but as there may still be pumbers of persons who have not had the advantage of perusing "The Lives of the antient Philo sophers," we beg leave to introduce it to their notice as an excellent compilation by a most valuable Writer, translated with fidelity and spirit by a Gentleman very competent to the undertaking; and shall conclude with two specimens of Mr. Cormack's style, which will serve to support our opinion of its merit. "In 1710 was introduced to Fenelon, Andrew-Michael Ramsay, a Scotsman, commonly known by the name of the Chevalier Ramsay, to whom I have been chiefly indebted in drawing-up these Memoirs. The elegant Author of the "Travels of Cyrus," born in a country where liberty of conscience is not restrained by the laws of the land, and where, of consequence, the human mind discovers itself freely, in all its forms, had not the happiness to turn to advantage this best of privileges. In Scotland, where the earlier part of his life was spent, he embraced in succession the tenets of almost every sect of Protestants, and then turned from all. He became a Deist. I could not, how, ever,' says he, shake off my respect for the Christian Religion, the morality of which is so sublime.' Such was the state of his mind when introduced to the Archbishop of Cambray; who,' he says, 'received him with that fatherly affection which immediately gains the heart.' For the space of six months, Religion was the subject of minute investigation and careful discussion. It is no small honour to Fenelon's talents for communication, as well as his engaging manners and indefatigable patience, to add, that he succceded in persuading Ramsay to embrace the Christian Religion. From this period till Fenelon's death they lived in the closest friendship; and, in his Life of Fenelon, Ramsay has left on record a testimony of gratitude to him who was the instrument of effecting what he terms the happiest occurrence in his life.' In the Life of Aristippus is the following passage: "With them it was a maxim, that we ought to attend to our friends only in proportion as we need their assistance; in the same way as we value the members of the body, in proportion to their utility." Mr. Cormack's note on this base principle does him honour: "He whose soul does not feel an indignation and spontaneous revolting of Nature at the very statement of such à sen timent, may, without any farther evidence, enroll himself among the base and selfish; among those who are as little` susceptible of the sublime, and though rare rare yet sometimes realized, felicities of true friendship, as is the oyster, that is devoid of loco-motion, that never quits its shell, and that opens it,-only to receive." 102. The Georgicks of Publius Virgilius Maro, translated into English Blank Verse, by James R. Deare, LL.B. Vi ear of Bures, in the County of Suffolk, and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. Longman and Co. 1808. THIS very beautiful little book is dedicated to the Author's parent, Philip Deare, Esq. one of the Commissioners for auditing the Public Accompts, in a handsome and affectionate manner; and introduced to the world by a Preface, of which we shall give the substance. Mr. Deare declares this to be his first offering to the Publick, which he commits to its patronage with diffidence and anxiety, as he is conscious several elegant translations have already appeared. He observes, "Neither the genius and spirit of the immortal Dryden, the peculiar qualifications of Warton, nor the poetical reputation of Mr. Sotheby, are unknown or unfelt by him; nor does he presume on any thing but the disdainful carelessness with which Dryden executed a task forced upon him by his necessitics, and which, for that reason alone, was unworthy of him; the general improvement of the language of English Poetry, even since the date of Warton's translation, and the different characters of rhyme and of blank verse." The Translator considers the approbation of scholars and of persons of taste the best reward he or Authors in similar circumstances can receive; but as the principal use of translation is to instruct those who cannot enjoy the merits of the original, he has thought it necessary to give such Readers a short account of the causes which produced the Georgicks, and to point out some of its characteristicks, in. which modern cultivators will find little more suited to their purpose than general principles; "the Virgilian system of husbandry, although it long prevailed in those parts of the Southern coasts of Britain which were principally inhabited by the Romans, having been superseded by a practice better adapt ed to our climate, and improved by experience. The great features, however, of rural econo y are still the sime; and upon these the Roman Poet has rested his claim to the ap probation of farmers of every age and of every country." In presenting the information alluded to, the Translator has made free use of Mr. Delille's Dissertation prefixed to his excellent French Version of the Geor gicks, and of the means calculated to promote his design. The greatest heroes of antiquity, and the most esteemed writers of the early ages, were extremely partial to agriculture; of the latter, Virgil is universally acknowledged to have treated the subject with the greatest judgment, as he united the abilities of a practical farmer with the acquirements of a profound scholar and a philosopher. We shall take the present opportunity to give the Reader a specimen of the Author's style in who observes, prose; "It is probable that Virgil, whose time had hitherto been divided between study and the cultivation of a small estate near Mantua, first appeared at Rome when he was about thirty years of age, to solicit the restoration of his lands, which had been seized during the civil wars, and distributed, with others of the unarmed proprietors, among the soldiers; and that he was, at this time, admitted, by the intervention of Pollio and of Maecenas, to the presence and favour of Augustus. The long duration of the civil wars had almost depopulated the country, and totally changed the habits of those who should have cultivated instead of desolating their native soil. It became, therefore, an object of supreme importance to revive among the Romans their antient taste and talent for agriculture. Marenas, to whom Virgil's poetical ability was already known, engaged his assistance in this undertaking. He was made happy, in the first instance, by the restoration of his property, and in the hope, perhaps, of being instrumental, under an enlightened prince and able ministers, in reclaiming the minds of his countrymen from the rage of civil discord to the pursuits of peace. He employed seven years in the composition of his poem; in every part of which the designs and views of his patron are visible; but particularly in that touching complaint in which he deplores the decay of agriculture, at the end of the first book; and still more in the highly-wrought eulogium upon the happiness of rural life, with which he concludes the second, and in which he seems to have assembled all the force and all the beauties of Poetry to re call the Romans to their antient love of this venerable art." As it was necessary to unite the pleasing with the useful, to accomì plish the purposes for which the Georgicks were undertaken, Virgil exerted himself, and with infinite success; the subject being the most important to man within the circle of his avocations, and connected with the contemplation of rich rural scenery, the brown fields ready for the seed, the verdant produce growing rapidly to perfection, and the golden harvest bending in graceful inclination to the earth, ready for the sickle: "the purple wealth of vineyards, the loaded orchard, flocks and herds, and bees; all those objects which, notwithstanding the de generacy of manners, and prejudices of pride, have so many powerful claims upon the miad, are to be found in Virgil: he is rich and inexhaustible as Nature herself." The conclusion of the above sentence strongly demonstrates the partiality of our Author for his favourite Original; but he proceeds still farther in his admiration, declaring that the Poet ennobles the most trivial operations of husbandry, and even the very instruments employed in cultivation, conveying the slightest precepts with beautiful variety of expression, and speaking of the sickle with the same dignity of thought as of the sword of the warrior, "of a rustic waggon as of a triumphal car.” He adds, besides, "his terms are chosen with so much propriety, and his precepts delivered with so much elegance, that, as Addison has observed, we receive more strong and lively ideas of things from his words than we could have done from the objects themselves." Aware of the difficulty attending the translation of a work so dignified and polished, Mr. Deare deprecates the severity of criticism, and seems willing to attribute the apparent tameness of certain ceptive passages to the necessity of rendering them literally, and the paucity of our language, rather than to a want of fire in himself. pre We cannot pretend to follow the Reverend Translator through the whole of his comments on the contents of the Georgicks; but we think the Reader will be obliged to us for introducing the following, from p. xii. : "After simply announcing the subject of the poem, a grand invocation to the gods who presided over husbandry, and another to Augustus (for which; when we consider how great a benefactor Augustus was to Virgil, as well as that the apotheosis of eminent men was one of the inost rational tenets of heathen theology, we shall readily acquit him, of all the apparent meanness of this splendid piece of adulation) he proceeds to prescribe the seasons of labour, and the study, and of the nature of the soil: and, that he might accustom his readers by the gentlest degrees to the dryness of precept, he almost immediately relieves them by a short digression upon the various produce of the earth. He then describes the husbandman who breaks the clods with harrows as the friend and helper of the field, and introduces Ceres looking down upon him from heaven with a benignant aspect. When he speaks of cross-ploughing, he calls it exercising empire over the earth: he expresses the advantage of moist summers and dry winters, by directing the farmers to pray for such seasons; and then, quitting the didactic style for a bold metaphor, represents the fields themselves as rejoicing in the winter's dust; and Gargarus, a district of Asia Minor famous for its fertility, as astonished at the consequent plenty of its own harvests," similes essential to a good poem; and Mr. Deare conceives well-adapted particularly admires that in the second book, comparing a well-planted vineyard to a Roman legion extended in order for battle; nor is he less pleased with another in the third, of a bull rushing on his adversary compared to a vast wave rolling impetuously on the beach, and breaking into white foam against the rocks. He has declined the labour of compiling notes upon the text, as there are few readers who do not possess some classical dictionary; and he refers the admirers of botany to Professor Martyn's edition of the Georgics, as affording much agreeable and learned information. To supply these deficiencies, he has subjoined a sketch of the plan and contents of each book, at the conclusion of which he adds: |