Strictures on Mr. Harmer's Obfervations. Mr. URBAN, Feb. 1. YOUR Reviewer (vol. LVII. p. You 1091) has bestowed all due praife on the two additional volumes of the Obfervations on Scripture, lately publifhed. I am going to add my mite of applaufe on the, to me, unknown author, Had he been within the pale of the established church, he might have received his reward in a ftall or a deanery. He may now be only the humble paftor of an obfcure congregation of Proteftant Diffenters, at a distance from the metropolis, and hardly known to his higher and more eminent brethren there. He appears to poffefs equal ingenuity and modefty, and to make good ufe of the books which his good friends and neighbours, who delight in the fame purfuit with himself, help him to. But, with all refpect for Mr. Harmer's penetration, I am apprehenfive he has carried it too far, in various inftances, in the prefent volumes. He will forgive a critic, who profeffes the fincereft regard for him and his fubject, offering fome reflections on fuch "Obfervations" as appear to him not fo well founded or pertinent as many in the book. Obf. 13. Zebul fays to Gaal, Thou feeft the fhadow of mountains as if they were men." Την σκιαν των ορίων συ Brettes ws ardgas. LXX. “Umbras montium vides quafi capita bominum, et hoc "He miftook errore deciperis," Vulg. the fhadow of the rocks for men," Jofephus. A difference is here ftrained between rocks and mountains, to ferve a fanciful hypothefis. Obf. 10. No fhadow of authority for rofe leaves or branches ftrewed before our Lord. Exozlav nλades, or rebadas και εδρώννυον εν τη οδώ. Obf. 11. In Gent. Mag. L. 527, is a quære, whether parcht corn might not have been coffee. The word corn is printed in Italics, as if not in the original when connected with parched. In the LXX and Vulgate it is flour. Obf. 14. Though there is no accounting for the inexhauftible wealth of India, one cannot help fufpecting the balls of Fatima's tomb were only gilded, and not folid gold. Obf. 15. Pavilion, in our old records. feems to have been an inferior kind of tent, papillones being put after tenta in the wardrobe account of Edw. 1. p. 91. Obf. 17. The pigeons of Mahomet GENT. MAG. February, 1788. 113 have a reference with the pigeon which was fuppofed to have whispered inspiration into his ear. The gold-colour, p. 58, may be a ftrong and brilliant cream-colour. Obf. 18. Was it Herod, or fome Roman General, who thus moaked the banditti in their caves, in Jofephus? Obf. 19. P. della Valle's relation feems a little inconfiftent: no inhabited place near, and yet the nearest village in the foreft and no want of provifions. Jonathan frengthened David's band in God, by animating him to fresh affurances of his favour. All the reft is too far. fetched for the fake of a comparifon. Obf. 24. Qu. Was the pit, there mentioned, wet or dry? were they not flain at it for the convenience of cafting the dead bodies into it? The LXX tranflate it Baibanal Tur woμEYW; the Vulgate, "camera paftorum," and "cifterna ad cameram paftorum." Obf. 25. The paffage of Ifaiah means, "leading a large unconnected body of people with as much cafe as a man manages a firey courfer in the open plain, where he has space to be frifky in, and with all the compofure of a herd of cattle, or even a single beaft, defcending from the hills into the vallies for change of pafture." The wilderness is compared to a mountain, and oppofed to the vallies or cultivated country. Obf. 30. With the remains of truc tures on Mount Tabor, compare our Beefton calle, Dinas Bran, and a hundred more fuch, in Wales, &c. or even Stonehenge, though on a plain, Obf. 31. The binding the fcarlet line, by which the fpies were let down, in Rahab's window, Joh. ii. 15, does not appear to have been done in a net-work form, to answer the purpofe of a lattice, but merely tied fo as to ferve for a mark of diftinction to the Ifraelites when they took the city. Nor is the colour fuch a matter of difficulty. Obf. 38. The tower at Conifborough caftle, with its ftairs, or rather steps. for they are all on the outside of the approach, does not feem calculated for were or or was anointed in an inner chamber of the keep, or that there are rooms within one another in Conisborough keep, but rather over one another. Whether the niches in the two ftate or upper, not in ner, roums, were really cells for idols or not, they are most unhappily paralleled at Shechem by an bold of the houfe of the god Berith." The LXX fays the people came eis ouvido Ba-, 8 Beg9; the Vulgate, "ingreffi funt fanum dei fui Berith," and then add this paraphrafe, "ubi fœdus cum eo pepigerant, et ex eo locus nomen acceperat qui erat munitus valde;" fo that it was only a fortified temple, not a temple in a citadel. Obf. 44. It is not eafy to comprehend where the difficulty can be raised from, in the compariton of fupplies to different perfons in different circumstances. Obf. 57. Adonijah's feaft was purely political, to court popularity, and fecure a party to fupport his claim to the crown. Ifa. xlix. 9, means to make the deliverance as public as poffible. Solom. Song, vii. 11, means merely, let us go into the country. Feftivity and pleasure are not intended in Ifaiah, bet merely freedom from confinement. The captivity of the Jews in Babylon was only the tranfplanting them from their own into a ftrange land. There is no implication of affociation with other nations being forbidden to the Jews in Jer. xxix. 4-7. Obf. 58. Zech. iii. 10, does not mean, call to his neighbours who were fitting under trees, but, call his neighbours to fit under trees with him, i. e. form parties together; and Ifiacl, on their return from captivity, were to invite one another, friends and neighbours, as in the parable of the loft money and theep. Obf 59, p. 210. Jacob travelled all alone for very different purposes from Tobit's travellers. Ob 64. The paffage in Tobit vii. 1, is fo different in the LXX and Vulgate, that one would rather incline to the latter, that Raguel exigio: but whether it was the act of the father, or the daughter, it means only greeting, neither faluting with affectionate pleasure, nor killing his hand. Jacob killed Rachel as his relation and future wife. The harlot's kifles should not have been mentioned. Obf. 79. "The Children of Ifrael went up barnejed out of the land of Egypt," Ex. xii. 18. The Vulgate Toys, armati. The LXX, in the fifth generation, weμl yeyea, the Children of Ifrael went up out of Egypt; and to this probably, by five, our margin refers, and in a rank is only a glofs. Bp. Patrick prefers the former fenfes, which feem to imply, that they went up wellmarthalled, and in good array, and perhaps too in order of battle, and prepared for accidents; for, though they were led out of the way of war, they foon fell in with it from the Amalekites. It may refer to Pla. cv. 37, "There was not one feeble perfon among their tribes." At all events, the referring it to the order of their cattle is too great a refinement.We fhould not be told what the margin of our tranflation fays, but what it is in the original. Obf. 71. According to the Obferver's idea, p. 265, an English translation of the prefent day fhould fay, "make turnpike-roads through the country." A tranflation in the Auguftan age of Rome would have talked of making military ways. Obf. 74. furely fpeaks of thofe plaudits which are expreffed by clapping both hands together, both in Pf. xlvii. 1, and 2 Kings xi. 12, Ifa. lv. 12. All these bursts of loud applause would not be expreffed by gentle gefticulations. Obf. 77. There is a print of the Grand Seignior, in his fan feathers, in Motrave's Travels. P. 291, 1. ult. Inftead of "from whom thofe feathers are taken," rather read, "who furnish the plume," &c. Obf. 78. The dancing before Saul and David was triumphal and congra tulatory, very different from that before Tott, in hope of a reward. Thele muficians were men, and not, as the Obferver doubts not it would appear, women. Obf. 82. The throne, Nchema. iii. 7, means nothing more than the repdence of the governor, as we ule the word feat of government in the like fente; and fo Mr. H. explains it, Obf. 14, p. 49. Obf. 84. Silver, in Jofephus, means cloth of filver, filver fue, improperly called, by our Author, threads or wi és of filver. Obf. 85. The article of red fhoes is too bad to be admitted; and the fublime paffage, 1 Kings ii. 5, is frittered down to nothing. Obf. 86. is not lefs exceptionable. The enumeration of habits is no more redundant than that of the various mufical inftruments, or officers belonging to the Government, The whole chapter Strictures on Harmer.-Taylor's "Liberty of Prophefying." 115 is as minute as Homer himself would have been. Decency no more required putting men into a red-hot oven in breeches, than the martyrs at the stake in Smithfield, who were ftripped to their fhirts. Nothing can be more unfortunate than the fuppofition, that the men were hurried to execution with their hammers, or maces, or any badges The later of office, in their hands. drawings of Nienbuhr detect the inexactnefs of Chardin and Le Bruvn. In fhort, the three articles here defcribed were the apparel of their beads, bodies, and lower parts, whether habits of ceremony, or common drefs; for it is to be prefumed that, were they arrayed in the richest robes, they would have had fome clofer, drefs under them. A key, as a badge of office, is by no means peculiar to the houfholds of David or Nebuchadnezzar; it is ftill to be feen in that of Geo. III. fo that the illuftration from the figures at Perfepolis is abfolutely improbable. Obf. 93. The couch, as Bp. Lowth tranflates the paffage of Ifai. Iviii. 5, is not confined to the purposes of fleeping. -The Turks certainly kneel on carpets for cleanlinefs, as Chriftians in churches prefer haflocks to the bare floor. The Turkish idea of the earth on which they speak to God being boly, and therefore to be stood on bare-footed, is taken fron, the command of God himself at the burning bufh, to pull off his fhoes, becaufe the ground whereon he ftood was holy, i. e. made fo by the immediate prefence of God. So alfo the Captain of the Lord's hoft to Joshua, Joh. v. 15. This whole obfervation is perplexed; nor is the following happily illuftrated from Dr. Chandler's account of a Greek practice.-As to the obfervance of the Sabbath here recommended, what are we to fay to the manner in which Sunday afternoons are kept by all foreign Proteftants? Y (To be continued.) Feb. 2. One wonders the author could not fee P. 1162, col. 2, 1. 1, read Sir John Fig. 6, in your Supplement plate, is Fig. 7, if truly drawn, bears on one found with it fmells very fufpicious, p. YOUR 66 LVIII. p. 31, col. 1, 1. 11, г. Gilpin, Feb. 4. Mr. URBAN, VOUR correfpondent P. Q. who wishes to take into his course of reading whatever is ufeful or informing, defires to exprefs his acknowledgements to your correfpondent A. B. in your laft Supplement, p. 1168, for pointing out to him Dr. Jer. Taylor's very valuable book, intituled, The Liberty of Propbefying; and, at the fame time, to obferve to him, that, in the very dedication of that valuable work, the good Bishop fets out with making liberty of receiving him confcience confift in that is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful difputations; therefore, certainly to charity, and not to vexations, not to thofe which are the idle effects of impertinent wranglings. And, although it be a duty of Chriftians that we all peak the fame thing, that there be no divifions among us, but that we be perfectly joined together in the fame mind, and in the fame judgement, yet this unity is to be eftimated according to the unity of faith, in things neceffary, in matters of creed, and articles fundamental; for, as for other things, it is more to be wished than hoped for. Thefe, and thoufands more to the fame purpofe, are the doctrines of Chriflians, whofe fenfe and intendment I have profecuted in the following difcourfe, being very much dipleofed that fo many but more troubicd opinions and new doctrines are commenced among us; that every man, that bath an opinion of bis own, thinks bis own and other men's falvation is concerned in its main enance; but most of all, that men should be perfecuted and afflicted for dilagreeing in fuch opinions, which they cannot with fufficient grounds obtrude upon otter because they cannot propound both infallible, and because they have no warrant from Scripture fo to do." Such then is Bp. T's' opinion of the liberty of prophesying. What he says here of religious differences, he would certainly have extended to political ones, had his fubje&t led him to it. But politics were not his profeffion. Bp. Lowth's Liberty of Prophesying was confined to matters of literature. And here finally refts, with the fatisfaction of finding fuch great names on his fide, this difference of opinion on the part of P. Q Mr. URBAN, THE Feb. 5. HE College of Phyficians, in their laft Difpenfatory, altered the name of the preparation of tin, fulphur, falammoniac, and quickfilver, from aurum Mofaicum to aurum mufivum, as I apprehend, without a juft foundation. For I do not imagine that this compofition hath any connexion with that kind of teffelated work corruptly called Mofaic, instead of mufaic or mufive, from the Greek word pechov. Thefe chequered pictures have certainly nothing to do with Mojes, or any of the Hebrews, as the name now erroneously implies. On the other hand, when I firft faw this medicine, which fo greatly refembles gold in powder, I concluded, that the inventor had obviously denominated it Mofaic gold from the following paffage: "And Mofes took the (golden) calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and ftrawed it upon the water," Exod. xxxii. 20. A procefs, however, beyond the power of modern chemistry, and therefore likely to dwell the ftronger on the mind of the operator. Had the early practitioners of the hermetic art always found titles fo applicable, it would have prevented their icience being difgraced with much unmeaning jargon, and involved in much needlefs obicurity. I mention this circumflance of the impropriety of changing the term auru'n Mojeicum into aurum mufivum as a probable Conjecture only; for he who *Even Milton does not feem to be aware of the error which hath crept into the orthqgraphy of this word: Each beauteous flower Iris all hues, rofes, and jelamin, Rear'd high their flourish'd heads between, Mofaic. [and wrought Par. Lof, b. 4, v. 697. peremptorily contradicts the learned Pemberton ought to produce the most decifive evidence. Perhaps it is not generally known to your readers, that Mofaic gold, fixed on the rubber with a fmall quantity of. mercurial ointment, is the best inciter of electricity yet difcovered, even fuperior to the amalgamas made of tin, or zinck, and quickfilver. T. H. W. 66 P. S. At p. 313, col. 1, of your laft vol. inftead of tree-worship," read free-worship." In p. 860, col. 2, by the omiffion of the word to, the fenfe of a paffage is totally perverted. "Thriving timber, while vigorous, increases in value 10 or 15 per cent. in a year; but the progrefs is fo gradually flackened, that, before it totally ftops, the annual growth decreases to two or three per cent. fo that the profitable time to cut timber is, when the growth ceafes to exceed the intereft of money." P. 861, col. 1, "an abftinence from fome of thefe animals as to food," dele to. POSSIBLY fome of your numerous readers may be able to explain the following hiftorical paradox, for fo it appears to me, after having tried in vain every method I could think of for accounting for the fact here stated. Mr. Rapin, in his Ala Regia, p. 151, tranfcribing from Rymer, fays, And yet in November laft (that is, 1337) he (Edward III.) had fent the Bishop of Lincoln, and the Earls of Narthampton and Suffolk, with 10,000 facks of wool into Brabant, to make retainers in High Germany; and there, at the fame time, they fold all their wool, every fack for forty pounds, which amounted in all to 400,000l. That the price of English wool in former times was higher than it has been for a century paft, was a fact I well knew; but that it ever should have fold at the enormous price here ftated, appeared to me impoffible; fo that I think there must be here fome miftake that I cannot account for. That a juft idea of the amount of the fum here fpecified may be obtained, your readers will pleafe to advert, that, in the year 1337, a pound fterling contained 5262.22 grains of pure filver, and that a pound fterling at prefent contains only 1718.7 grains of pure filver, confequently 401. in 1337, contained as much pure filver as 122l. 9s. 3d. at prefent. And as Mr. Hume computes that the value of filver, at the beginning of Strictures on the modern Syftem of Education. of the 14th century, was nearly ten times greater than at the prefent tin.e, it would feem that a fack of wool, in the year 1337, was equal in value to about 12241. 10s. in the year 1787. This appears to be fuch an extravagant price, that I cannot perfuade myfelf that it could be fo; and I fhould be glad to fee where the error lies. Yours, &c. CANDIDUS. N. B. A fack of wool contains 364 pounds; fo that, at the above rate, the price of a pound of wool thould be 31. 75. 54.4. LETTERS ON EDUCATION. way. SIR, IN March 26, 1786. N my laft, I approved of parents making their fons MEN at twelve, that they might be BOYS all the reft of their lives; and as people wish to remain young as long as they can, I hope the fyftem was not difpleafing. If I may judge from practice, it is indeed much otherwife than difpleafing, and it undoubtedly has a manifest advantage in faving time. Why, Sir, a few years ago, a Boy in your country was a Boy till he had paffed the greatest part of his academical ftudies, and bashfulness and modefty even marked the demeanour of riper years. Boys were then laughed at, and hiffed by their fchool-fellows, as filly infignificant puppies, who were taken up about drefs, or in attending the miffes but now, before they have half learned their grammar and exercifes, they commence men of gallantry; after which parents and mafters may attempt indeed to teach them, but in rea lity their education is finished. The mauvafe bonte, which my friend Chefterfield labours fo much to conquer, is now fon got over, and you have knowing little fellows long before they go to college. Some of your graver fort of people wonder at the periness and impudence of the boys, but these unfashionable people are wearing out. Some moral writers (who, by the way, I am glad to fee fo little attended to,) boldly affert, that IGNORANCE OF VICE IS THE SUREST GUARDIAN OF VIRTUE. This is ftrange doctrine 117 to hold in this enlightened age! when knowledge of what by are pleafed to cali VICE is fo much in fashion; and, among the young, it is the only knowledge valued, or even talked of—naỳ, alfo among thofe who are no chickens! Indeed, a young perion cannot remain long ignorant in your improving ftate of police and manners; and all preceptors, as well as myself, fay, that the more a young perfon knows, fo much the better. By the former fyftem, a young per fon's taste and principles were formed before he became a man-he had fources of elegant entertainment within himself -a relifh was formed for the acquifition of knowledge from works of geniusthe study of nature-the purfuit of moral fcience-the fine aris, &c. while frivolous amufement and dillipation were held as unmanly and unworthy. But how much fuferior to all thefe is the prefent early knowledge of life!-The purfuit of a hare or a fox--or of an honeft man's wife or daughter-a tafle for champaign and claret-for drefs-for cards-horfe-racing-cock-fighting tavern parties and, above all, the divine culinary fcience! This is to live! - the other was to think-and which, I pray you, has the better bargain ?. Every fine fellow will tell you, if you are doubtful. As you have hitherto been very indulgent to me, I will not oppreis you with a long letter at prefent, but profecute the steps of fashionable education in my next. I am, &c. BELZEBUB. |