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verfification. In what follows, however, there feems to be little room for doubt, or difference of opinion.

"I think I may affirm confidently, that the almoft literal translation of feveral of the tablequent pieces is, without rhime or meafure, exquifite poetry and that nothing less than the grofleft falfification can diveft them of that title. Let what will be done with the felections from Bion and Mofchus, fo full of imagery are they, and fo amply do they exemplify the "ut pictura poefis, that, though mutilated, there would ftill be found the "disjecti membra poetæ.”

We fhall now give a fpecimen of the tranflation; but, as the originals are in the hand of every scholar, we thall not think it neceffary to prefix the Greek poem.

With refpect to the Greek printing in this publication, we fhall mention that it is throughout without accents, except the fpiritus afper, and the circumflex, to diftinguifh the Doric genitive from the accufative, or verbs of the contracted form from fubftantives; an abfurd inconfiftency, only proving, in part, the neceffity of accents, while they are in general omitted.

"Begin your grief, Mufes of Sicily, begin! With thee, O fhepherd, died all the gifts of the Mufes, the lovely kiffes of virgins, and the lips of youth: and the Loves cry fadly round thy tomb. Venus loves thee much more than the kifs with which the lately kissed the dying Adonis.

"This, O moft melodious of Rivers, is a fecond forrow to thee. This, O Meles*, is a new forrow. Heretofore Homer died, that fweet mouth of Calliope: and they fay that thou didst mourn thy. beauteous fon with torrents of tears, and filledt the whole ocean with thy voice now again thou weepest another fon, and wasteft away with fad grief. Both were beloved by the fountains. One drank from the fountain of Pegafus, and the other held the cup of Arethufa. That fung the beautiful daughter of Tyndarus, the mighty son of Thetis and Atrides Menelaus. But this fung not wars, nor tears, but Pan and he fung of herdfmen with a fweet fhrillnefs, and finging fed his flock, made flagelets, and milked the fweet heifer. He taught the kiffes of youth, and nourished Love in his breaft, and he was loved by Venus."

:

There feems little to be objected to this tranflation, and much of it worthy of approbation. Cry is a low word, and cry fadly still more bald." This Meles is a new forrow," might have been clofer and better cadenced, without repeating the auxiliary verb. The repetition of" fountain" it might have been preferable to avoid; but our choice of fynonyms of this kind is far lefs

* A river, from which Homer obtained the furname of Melefigenes. + Inftead of filledft, for the fake of euphony.

than

than in the elegant copiousness of the Greek language. And it might perhaps have been better to have faid in the close, "and he was pleafing to Venus," as nearer to the original. It has however, and fo we might obferve in general, much of the sweet and tender fimplicity of Mofchus.

The text is uncommonly correct. That of Theocritus, Bion, and Mofchus, is taken, with occafional emendations, from editions by Harles and Hefkin. But it appears, by the notes, that the edition of Brunck, in his Analecta, has been alfo ufed; and the edition of Wakefield, Lon. 1795, with fome of the best of the more early.

The critical and explanatory notes are amufing and inftruc tive. The author fhows his learning, without difplaying any oftentatious and unneceffary erudition; and submits his judg ment in a firm and decifive tone, without appearing positive or dogmatical. We regret, however, that the comments which are fupplemental, were not fubjoined with the reft to the original text: the convenience of this method amply repays any injury done to the beauty of the page by their admiffion.

The last of the additional notes to the poems, explaining why Adonis might probably be called the fon of Cinyras and Myrrha, is happy and ingenious: and we think with the writer, that it is very likely the Hebrew word kinner, the harp, may be an imitative name derived from the found itself. In the Phitus of Ariftophanes, we find the strange term glavo, Threttanels; which fignifies, fays the Scholiaft, to play on the harp, because the harp produces fuch founds when struck. From what our ears have been accustomed to, we difcover a greater fimilarity in the former word; but this is owing, no doubt, to an advantageous difference in the formation of the modern inftrument of that defcription.

The Coincidences will fhow fome very close, and other more diftant refemblances, between Shakspeare, Thomfon, and other eminent writers, and the Greek Poets; and it will probably be thought, that while it is known that the Latin authors, and chiefly the beft, drew largely from the abundant fource of the Grecian fount, one Greek writer, of no ordinary merit, has his obligations to the Roman Mufe, for the plan and conduct of a not unimportant essay.

From the title-page throughout, we think there is much typographical elegance, as well as exactness, in this ingenious and pleafing work.

enious

N

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XIV. AUG. 1799.

ART.

ART. XVII. Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's Church, in the Year 1798; at the Lecture founded by the Rev. John Bampton, M. A. By the Rev. Henry Charles Hall, B. D. Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Exeter, and late Student of Christ Church. 8vo. 277 pp. 5s. Hanwel, and Parker, Oxon; Rivingtons, London. 1799:

THE purpose of thefe difcourfes, as expreffed by the author in a few lines of Preface, is "to confider at large what is meant by the fcriptural expreffion Fulnefs of Time; or, in other words, to point out the precious fteps, by which God Almighty gradually prepared the way, for the introduction and promulgation of the Gofpel." The writer very modeftly profeffes, that in this defign there is little to attract the learned Theologian; the lectures however contain much found reasoning, and much good writing, well deferving the attention of all readers. Some judgment will readily be formed from the fol. lowing paffage, of the fecond Sermon ; where the author accounts for the feparation of Ifrael, and the mode of our Saviour's miffion.

"Such then being the ftate of by far the greater-part of the world, when our Saviour entered upon his public miniftry, if the reprefentation which I have given of their worthip and their practice be juft, what can we fuppofe would have been the fate of our holy Religion, unless the wifdom of Providence in the general depravity had preferved a chofen feed, who, although their hearts were hardened, and their understandings darkened,' blindly accomplished the purposes of his will, by preferving in the volumes of their Religion, the hiftory of the early Revelations, on which the Gofpel was founded, and by adoring in their public worship none but the God of their fathers, the Holy One of Ifrael?

"To establish a new religion in any cafe must be a work of great difficulty; but to establish it upon the ruins of inveterate prejudices, and of opinions fanctioned by time, and by habit; to tell men, that all that they have hitherto been taught is falfe, and that all the impreffions which their education has given them are nothing more than lying vanities; inftead of granting them the free indulgence of their inclinations and their appetites, to impofe rigid and fevere restraints upon both; to expofe the nothingness of the fairest ideal picture of virtue, and the brighteft exterior femblance of morality; and to require truth and purity in the inward parts; all this is a task furpaffing the powers of a human teacher, and this was the task of Chrift and his Apostles.

"Let us fuppofe then that a perfon had come with this design, not to Jerufalem, but to any of the celebrated cities of the Gentiles, to Corinth, Athens, or Rome; that, without any previous expectation of his appearance, he had announced himself as the messenger of God;

let

let his addrefs be made, not to the wealthy, the powerful, or the wife; but, as our bleffed Saviour's actually was, to the poor, the lowly, and the ignorant; let him command them, with the tone and authority of a teacher fent from God, to give up their eftablished belief, to quit their former habits, to repent of their fins, and to be converted ;what would have been the effect, is it probable, of fuch a fummons? If they had been able to reftrain their indignation, at hearing that the Deities, which they had long been accustomed to reverence and adore, were now to be forfaken and defpifed; if there had been calmnefs and moderation enough to reafon and argue upon the fubject, would not the first question have been, Who is the God you speak of, and what is his name?

Here then it would have been neceffary, in the firft inftance, to have proved the exiftence of one Supreme God, the Creator and Go vernor of the univerfe; to have proved his attributes, his power, his wifdom, and his juflice; to have proved, in fhort, all the great truths of natural Religion, upon which Chriftianity is founded.

You tell us, they would have faid, that you are a meffenger from God; convince us therefore, firft, that the God you call upon us to obey really exifts; that he did, as you pretend, create the universe by his power; and that he now fuftains, directs, and governs it by his Providence; and then it will be time for us to confider, whether the fyftem which you offer us be really his revealed will, or not.

"But let us change the fcene, and obferve our bleffed Lord addreffing himself to the inhabitants of Jerufalem': here he came to his own. The foundation of the religion which he defigned to teach was already laid in the popular opinions, and the national faith. The unity of God was acknowledged by all ranks and all descriptions of men; a call to repentance excited no aftonifhinent, and caufed no prejudice, in the first inftance, against his doctrines, because it was immediately connected with all the legal ceremonies of their Religion, and all the principal facts of their history; and a claim to the office and character of a Meffiah in the first initance prepoff:ffed them in favour of the perfon who made it, becaufe all the Prophets had given them the promife of a deliverer; and it was the first and fondeft wish of their hearts, to witnefs the accomplishment.

"Let the counsel of the Holy One of Ifrael draw nigh, and where is the promise of his coming?' were become almost proverbial expreffions amongst the Jews; to that a, teacher, calling himself the Chrift, was certain at least of finding hearers ready to attend to his inftructions, and eager to examine his pretenfions. Then there was time to obferve his character and his conduct; to discuss the nature of his miracles, and to feel the intrinfic purity of his doctrines, and the fuperior force of his arguments, till at length a body of witnesses was formed; then it was immaterial, as to its progrefs, that is, and its future fuccefs, whether the nation at large admitted the new Religion, or not; indeed their very rejection of it was, as it turned out, a convincing argument of its truth.

"It was with a view therefore to guard the fundamental doctrines of Revelation from the contagion of falfehood, and, by fo doing, to aid and affift the first publication of the Gofpel, that God thought

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fit to separate the Jewish nation from the reft of mankind; that he favoured them, above all other people, by difclofing to them, from time to time, the deep and fecret things of his wifdom;' and that be made them the depofitaries of truth, by committing to their cuftody the living oracles of his word." P. 43.

The third Sermon gives a view of the manner in which the feparation of the Jews was effected by the divine wisdom. The fourth is employed in a comparison between the first and the fecond Covenant, very ufeful for explaining the types and allufions by which the one was prefigured in the other. The witnefs of prophecy is then confidered, in a clear and useful manner. A paffage from this fifth difcourfe, will show how capable the author is of illuftrating the fubjects he takes up.

"We may go on then to the call of Abraham; at that time we learn that the extraordinary perfon, who was firft fpoken of generally as the feed of the woman' (was defigned, that is, to be born in the flesh, and to come in the form and substance of a man) was to be a defcendant of the Holy Patriach; in thee,' fays the Almighty, ⚫ fhall all families of the earth be bleffed.' Ifmael, the first born, is afterwards excluded from the envied inheritance; he is promifed the enjoyment of temporal profperity indeed, that his dominions fhall be fertile, that he shall be the head of a princely line, and the founder of a great and mighty nation; but the covenant of grace meanwhile is eftablished with Laac, and in the fame manner it was afterwards taken from Efau, and limited to the pofteriry of Jacob.

"To the Patriarch Jacob it is repeated upon feveral occafions, and in various ways; by dreams and nightly vifions, and by the perfonal appearance even of the Holy One, that the bleffing of Abraham was conferred upon him; and he in his last moments transfers it, in a remarkable, Prophecy to his fon Judah.

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Judah,' fays the Patriarch, when he is announcing to his affembled fons the fortunes which are to befal them in the last days, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren fhaif praife; thy hand fhall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children fhall bow down before thee; the Sceptre fhall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him fhall the gathering of the people be.'

66

I am aware that no fingle Prophecy of the Old Teftament has received fo great a variety of interpretations, as this remarkable Prophecy of Jacob: but they are critical interpretations of words: the general meaning and intent of the Prophecy has been admitted on all hands; and whether the word Shiloh be tranflated, as it is in the Latin Vulgate, Qui mittendus eft, he who is to be fent; whether we read with fome copies of the Septuagint verfion, à άí ry, the things referved for him, or with other copies, aоxsira, he for whom it is referved; it cannot be difputed, but that the perfon fo alluded to is ⚫ the feed of the woman,' the Meffiah of the Jews, the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind,

"And

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