ous, and learned prelate. Our pages have, in many instances, been adorned and dignified by articles communicated, or recommended, by him. And we feel a particular gratification in announcing a publication, containing sentiments, which correspond with our own, on a most important subject. Our readers will recollect that, although we are obliged to admit articles of different opinions, which do not swerve from a proper regard for Christianity, a leaning has been expressed by us to that side, which the Right Reverend author so ably supports. Such has been the part taken by a majority of our correspondents.1 Although there has been in many Divines a tendency to subscribe to the opinion entertained by Porson, Griesbach, and the learned translator of Michaelis, that the verse in question is 'spurious, it is remarkable that later writers, besides Pearson, Stillingfleet, Bull, Grabe, Mill, Bengelius, Ernesti, Horsley, &c. have formed a different conclusion. I have taken several opportunities," says the author of the work under our consideration, "to express a different opinion from the opponents of the verse; and I can say with truth, that every renewed examination of the subject has added to my convictions of its authenticity. Among the latest inquirers, Mr. Nolan, in his profound and interesting Inquiry into the integrity of the Greek Vulgate, after stating the internal and external evidence of the verse, and the probability that the verse was suppressed by Eusebius, in the edition which he revised under the sanction of Constantine the Great, adds, I trust nothing further can be wanting to convince any ingenuous mind that 1 John, v. 7, really proceeded from St. John the Evangelist.' Dr. Hales, in his learned work 3 on Faith in the Holy Trinity, speaks with equal confidence on the authenticity of the verse: To the authority of Griesbach on this question, I shall not hesitate to oppose and prefer the authority of a celebrated German editor and critic, the learned Ernesti; with whose observations I shall close this minute and elaborate survey of the whole external and internal evidence; which, I humbly trust, will be found exhaustive of the subject, and set the controversy at rest in future.' "Mr. Grier, in his recent Reply to Dr. Milner's End of Religious Controversy, after noticing the invincible arguments' of Mr. Nolan, says, 'I feel compelled to abandon my former prejudices against the verse, and to think that a person should almost as soon doubt the genuineness of the rest of St. John's Epistle, as that of the disputed passage." A 1 Among many others, we may quote an article in No. IV. by the learned translator of Daniel. "A late edition of the Greek Testament, by the Rev. Edward Valpy, must not be omitted among the advocates of the received text. The edition is formed very much on the text of Griesbach, but without adopting all his alterations. It retains, among other passages, 1 John, v. 7.” s We earnestly recommend the perusal of this tract to all, who wish to examine the evidence with candor and impartiality; and shall only quote the conclusion of the Appendix. "What, if the fallacies should be all on the side of the opponents of the verse? For, what do their arguments amount to? 1. That the external evidence is decisive against the verse; though there is no external evidence whatever against it, during the three first centuries, and in the same period much positive evidence for it. 2. That it is not found in any of the four ancient manuscripts now extant, and therefore it never was read in any of the hundred, or thousand manuscripts, that are lost. 3. That it is first quoted at large by a Latin writer, who lived nearly four hundred years after the death of St. John; and therefore it was never known to the more ancient Greek fathers; though the Spartan decree against Timotheus is found for the first time in a Latin writer at least a thousand years after its promulgation. 4. That it is not found in any Greek manuscript extant, but one; and therefore it never will be; though the hymn to Ceres has been found at Moscow two thousand years after the time of Pausanias, who last quoted it, and of which no other copy is known to be extant. 5. That Augustin knew nothing of the seventh verse, because he interprets the eighth verse mystically of the Trinity; though the sense, which he ascribed to the term unum, (unity of essence,) made it impossible for him to interpret the aqua and sanguis of the eighth verse literally. 6. That Augustin was generally followed in applying the eighth verse mystically to the Trinity; therefore the seventh verse was unknown to the generality of the African fathers; though [Eucherius,] Vigilius Tapsensis, Cassiodorus, and Fulgentius, who constitute the greater part of that generality, expressly quote both verses. 7. That Eucherius explained the eighth verse mystically of the Trinity; though he expressly applies it to the water and the blood, that issued from our Saviour's side on the cross (John xix. 34), and distinguishes his own opinion from those, who apply the eighth verse to the Trinity. 3. That "if Eucherius wrote the allegory in the Questions, he could not possibly have the heavenly witnesses in his copy." But it is clear that the allegory quoted by him in the Questions, is not the allegory of Eucherius, but of the Plures, from whom he differs. 9. That the verse, rests chiefly, if not solely, on the authority of Vigilius Tapsensis, according to Griesbach; though Mr. Porson says it rests. on the authority of Cyprian, or the ancient Latin version; and though that version is a legitimate evidence of its Greek original. 10. That the Montfort or Dublin manuscript was a forgery of the sixteenth century, and written on purpose to deceive Erasmus; which a competent judge has shown to be a production of the thirteenth century." After stating the difference of opinion among the learned, in his note on that verse, Mr. Valpy adds: " Istis verbis e textu sublatis, nescio quid curti atque inexpleti semper mihi apparuit," 180 OXFORD ENGLISH PRIZE POEM, FOR 1821. PESTUM. 'MID the deep silence of the pathless wild, All that around them stood now far away, Between the mountains and the azure main, The gazer's heart still mutely worships there. There stood on high the white-rob'd Flamen-there The toils of Art, the charms of Nature fail, I But THEY are still the same; alike they mock Th' Invader's menace, and the Tempest's shock; Have pour'd their fury o'er th' enduring fane; G. W. F. HOWARD, CHRIST-CHURCH. ORIENTAL LITERATURE. To those who have expressed their approbation of the remarks, occasionally offered in this Journal, on books illustrating the history, geography, and, antiquities, the philology, biography, and other branches of Eastern literature, we must now apologise for having too long neglected to indicate, as highly worthy of their attention, three works published within the last twelve years by Major Charles Stewart, Professor of Oriental languages in the East-India Company's College at Haileybury, near Hertford; the recent appearance of a fourth presents to us an opportunity of including under one head some brief notices of all that able Orientalist's publications: such, at least, as have fallen under our inspection. The first to be mentioned, with reference to its date, is entitled "A descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Library of the late Tippoo Sultan of Mysore"-a large and handsome quarto volume of about 470 pages, printed in 1809, at the University press, Cambridge. From the preface we 1 The Temples. learn, that "the month of May, 1799, was rendered memorable in the East by the capture of Seringapatam, and the downfall of its sovereign, the inveterate enemy of the British nation. Nor were the wisdom and valor displayed on that occasion more honorable to the victors, than their liberality and attention to science, in determining that the library of the late Sultan should be preserved entire, (all the other property being sold by public auction for the benefit of the captors) and presented, with the exception only of a few Mss. selected for the Asiatic Society and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to the Honorable East-India Company." When we consider how seldom any attention to accuracy is evinced by persons employed in transcribing Arabic and Persian works; how generally they omit or misplace the diacritical points or marks which serve to distinguish some letters from others; and how often it is necessary to peruse several folio or quarto pages of an uninteresting preface, composed in a most turgid and difficult style, before the title or date, or even the subject of a volume, much less the author's name, can be ascertained; it will appear that Major Stewart, (then Junior Professor of the Persian language in the College at Fort William) imposed on himself a task of considerable labor, when he undertook to form a descriptive catalogue of this collection, comprehending nearly eleven hundred articles; for, according to his luminous arrangement, we find that, of Arabic and Persian books there are, on the subject of History and Biography, 118 On Sufyism or Mystical Theology, 115-Ethics, 24 Poetry, 190-Fables, 18-Letters, Forms of Epistolary Correspondence, &c., 53-Various Arts and Sciences, 19 Arithmetic and Mathematics, 7-Astronomy, 20-Physic, 62-Philosophy, 54-Philology, 45-Lexicography, 29 Theology, 46-Jurisprudence, 95-Mohammedan Traditions, 46-Korans, 44-Commentaries on the Koran, 41 Prayers, 35-Miscellaneous, 22. Of books in the Hindu and Dekhany languages, 27-Turkish, 2. Persian books presented to the College of Fort William by Major (now Sir John) Malcolm, 4-and Arabic books presented by Mr. Elliot, 23. Of these the respective titles are printed in their proper Arabic or Persian characters, being expressed also in Italics. The size or form of each Ms.sis noticed, and a concise but satisfactory account given of each author or work, where it was possible to ascertain any par |