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lioration of the human race in mental power, is not the prime object of the providence of God; for he does actually reject the most suitable means, and does actually employ the most important impediment.

Undiscerning or groveling minds, says Mr. F.,

"Having no employment in which to occupy themselves, would exist hereafter in vain; and such is the constitution of mind, that if it is not employed it sinks into thoughtlessness, and loses its intelligent character. But those minds that engage in the pursuit of intellectual improvement, or in the study and diffusion of science, when they remove from this world, will find themselves only placed in a better situation for advancing successfully in their career. Their employment cannot come to an end, for it is infinite; and their minds will continue for ever to become still more active, more discerning, and more enlarged.

Whatever is defective or imperfect, and has no tendency to improve. ment, will gradually pass away and disappear for ever; but the minds that shoot forth vigorously towards excellence, will be cherished, and endure, and flourish without end.'

But who is to be thus favoured, without having merited it, and what degree of intellectual vigour must be attained, to qualify for admission into this indefinite and uncertain region? Many, it seems, who will be permitted to enter, having but a small degree of intellectual vigour, will flutter for a season, like a bat in a winter's sun, and then fall asleep; while others may continue to spin for ages, before they sink into nonentity, beneath the pressure of fatigue. In his second volume, perhaps Mr. F. will furnish us with rules somewhat analogous to those of life assurances, by which the value and duration of existence in eternity may be calculated, with certainty, by some ratio of mental capacity in the present life. But whence can Mr. F. satisfy us on this important subject? He must put himself into a fever, a dream, or a drunken fit; and procure an amanuensis to record his delirious, somnolent, or crapulous oracles. A few of our readers will suspect a part of this work to have been fabricated by some such expedient; and therefore will value it-just as Mr. F. values the reveries of Christianity. At the same time, while it is impossible to impute a bad motive to the primitive Christians, for disseminating their opinions, it is impossible for Mr. F. to claim the credit of a good one.

At the conclusion of his present volume, Mr. Forsyth has introduced a Persian tale, which he has denominated The Vision of Hystaspes, who is presumed to relate to the world some momentous information which he received from the angel of instruction. This information is in fact nothing less than the monstrous system of the author, which we have been review. ing. Thus has Mr. F., according to his own account, actually realized a Persian Vision!

Hystaspes, when the angel of instruction departed from him,

tells us, p. 520, that "he pondered much on the vision that had he seen. And I wrote it in a book (he adds,) and hid the same in a cave of the mountains, as thou goest over towards the land of Magog, that it might be long preserved, and peradventure be found by some one whom the angel of instruction might conduct thither; but I revealed it not to the wise men of Babylon, lest they should say that I talked of strange things, and wished to overturn the religion of their fathers, and the dominion and the honour of Cyrus the King." We cannot but regret, that Mr. Forsyth, for the sake of his own reputation, had not adopted this hint of his own pen.

We have been thus minute in animadverting upon this volume, not from any persuasion, that the plausibility of the reasoning, the strength of the arguments, or the fascinating light in which the theory before us is placed, was likely to make proselytes-of those, at least, who have any distant hope of obtaining immortality; but to expose what we deem a most absurd, impious, and pernicious book, to general abhorrence. We can recommend it only to one class of men; to those who have embraced the principles of infidelity. And this we do with the full conviction, that they must at least blush for their system, and shudder at its practical tendency. We have termed it toothless in a scientific view," because on men of sound sense and judgement it cannot effect the smallest injurious impression. But the sagacity even of a vigorous mind is often duped by the depravity of the heart; and therefore a very absurd book may exert the most awful influence on the fate of the ignorant and vicious, if it propose opinions which suppress the salutary voice of conscience, encourage the grossest crimes, subvert the basis of social happiness, and conceal the terrifying realities of the invisible world. Such a book is Mr. Forsyth's: a book, which does not contain five pages so far worth reading as to redeem it from total reprobation, and which we could wish to be utterly forgotten, or remembered only, among, the mournful extravagances of crazy infidelity, with the sneer of contempt, or the sigh of hopeless commiseration.

Art. IV. HERODOTUS; Græcè & Latinè. Accedunt Annotationes Se

lectæ, necnon Index Latinus. Ex Editionibus Wesselingiiget Reizii, In vii. tomis, duodecimo. pp. 2080. Price 21. 16s. Edinb. è prelo Academico, impensis Gulielmi Laing. 1806.

WHEN a new edition is given to the world, of a writer, whose title to public regard has been settled to the full extent of the semper, ubique, et ab omnibus of literature, the only points presented to the investigation of a critical journal, are the accuracy, commodiousness, and beauty, with which the pure text is

represented, and the learning and judgement which are employed in the subsidiary elucidations. Especially is this the case with those venerable masters, whose original and mighty powers, combined with astonishing exertions of mental labour, and an unrivalled felicity of extrinsic advantages, have raised the noblest monuments of human genius and intellect, and won the prize of indisputable superiority from all succeeding competitors. Persons whose acquaintance with the Greek and Latin languages and idioms has never capacitated them to understand with readiness a superior classic, or who are devoid of true taste and the faculty of critical judgement, may continue to object against the means of acquiring ancient profane learning, and its utility when acquired. But the fact is, that all persons, in every age and nation, competent to read the best classics with facility and intelligence, bave unanimously considered an acquaintance with them as highly conducive, if not absolutely necessary, to the formation of a just taste and habit in composition, to the complete knowledge of the human character, to the most advantageous study of the Holy Scriptures, and to the due appreciation of the glorious Gospel. The apostate emperor, that bitter and subtle enemy of our faith, calculated judiciously on the tendency of his machinations, when he forbade the Christians to teach in their schools the heathen poets, moralists, and historians. It would be well if all modern friends to the gospel were as perspicacious as Julian was, in discerning the connection between the treasures of ancient learning, and the great cause of revealed truth.

TO HERODOTUS," the Father of History," as Cicero honourably styled him, and the earliest prose writer extant in an European language, these observations bear a full application. He was born at Halicarnassus in Caria, about 404 B. C. and, according to the testimony of his countryman, Dionysius, he lived to the time of the Peloponnesian war. His life, therefore, coincided with the most splendid and celebrated period of Grecian history; a period commencing with the invasion of Greece by the myriads of Darius and Xerxes; marked in its progress by the battles of Marathon, of Thermopyla, and of Salamis, and by the doubly triumphant day of Platææ and Mycale; and terminating in the total discomfiture and disgrace of the Persians, and their everlasting expulsion from Greece, after every exertion of their massy power for thirty years. Of this instructive portion of time, the history of Herodotus gives a narrative, unparallelled, except in the historical books of Scripture, for simplicity, fidelity, and interest. This principal part of the historian's work is not suddenly thrust upon the attention of the unprepared reader, but is introduced by a natural and easy series of unbroken connection with the early history of the Ionian VOL. III. $

Greeks, the Lydians, the Persians, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians. Of these nations, the civil and natural history, the topography, the manners, and the religion, are depicted from the historian's actual observation, and from the best sources of information to which his indefatigable diligence could obtain access, in each country. At the same time, he is ever careful to distinguish between the results of his personal observation and knowledge, and the traditionary notices communicated by the priests and natives of the respective regions; the degrees of credibility in which, he always marks in the fairest manner. Beside these direct objects of his attention, this valuable author interweaves in the tissue of his plan, many curious pieces of information relative to the Scythians, the Syrians, the Arabians, the Libyans, the Ethiopians, and the inhabitants of the interior of Africa. Of the latter vast and almost inaccessible tract of country, it is remarkable that very recent discoveries have confirmed the intelligence and fidelity of this first and most ancient profane historian.

It has been not unsuitably observed, that the proper commencement of the history of Herodotus takes place at the point where the sacred history of the Old Testament terminates; thus throwing a most important light on the course of public events, and the plans of providence.

Herodotus is to the prose classics, what Homer is to the poets. The same character of simplicity, perspicuity, and mellifluous sweetness, distinguishes the style of each; and they both write in the Ionic dialect, so favourable to a copious, rich, and various quality of expression. Between these illustrious authors, and the inspired writers of the historical Scriptures, there is alsó an interesting coincidence in many instances of phraseology, and allusions to facts and customs.

Such is the author of whom this convenient and beautiful edition is issued from the University Press of Edinburgh. It owes its commencement, as the preface informs us, to that first of Grecians, Mr. Porson: but for some reasons which are not specified, the Cambridge Professor proceeded only through the Clio, and then relinquished the labour of editorship to whomsoever the respectable publisher could find competent and willing to undertake the continuation. About fifty pages of the Euterpe were revised by an anonymous hand; and then Mr. Dunbar acceded to the proposals made to him for completing the work.

The Greek text is fundamentally that of Peter Wesseling's celebrated, and now costly edition, Amsterdam, 1763. The editor has adopted some emended readings, chiefly from the edition of the late F. W. Reitze, Leipzig, 1778; but his parsimony in the admission of textual alterations, forms a strong contrast to the boldness of innovation which distinguishes some recent German

editors. He has shewn less timidity, but much judgement, in using a more perspicuous punctuation than Wesseling's copy presents. It may seem difficult to determine, whether greater inconveniences arise from a superstitious retention of the text and divisions of early editions of ancient writers, or from an excess of boldness in supposed emendation. We are disposed, however, to think that less injury can accrue from a fault in the latter, than in the former respect. In the present day, the fundamenta criseos are more numerous and valuable, the art of using thein has become more determinate and scientific, and far greater advantages are possessed from so much experience in criticism, than, in any of these respects, could be the case in the sixteenth or even the seventeenth century. Besides, if occasionally an editor of the SCRIPTURES or the classics should be dishonest or injudicious, rash or sportive, in the discharge of his duty as a critic, the circumstances which we have enumerated will always sufficiently check the admission of such unfounded innovations, and prepare due severity of rebuke for their proposers.

To restore the text of Herodotus to its pristine purity, it is probable that much yet remains to be done. Our admirable countryman, Thomas Gale, in the preface to his excellent edition of Herodotus, London, 1679, has pointed out the chief desideratum which subsequent editors ought to have bent all their forces to supply: this is, to restore the native face of the Ionic dialect. "I apprehend," says he," that I have at least opened the vein for the restoration of Herodotus. I have certainly wished to do it: and to obtain my purpose, I have amplified and enriched a collection of Ionic words and phrases from Galen, Hesychius, &c. and I have diligently compared my author with Athenæus, Eustathius, Suidas, and other writers who have quoted him. Herodotus was anciently the standard of the lonic tongue; yet, in the common copies, there are so many substitutions, so many aberrations from that dialect to others, that I believe scarcely a third part of the Ionic idiom to be now surviv ing in them. Innumerable readings of this description might have been restored from the MS. of the Archbishop of Canterbury,* but there was no opportunity of introducing them. O that some one may arise, who has both leisure and abilities for a thorough purification of Herodotus!" To fulfil this earnest wish, the younger Gronovius published his edition, Leyden, 1715; a work which has met with more censure than applause from the learned world. He effected something truly respect

* This MS. then the property of Archbishop Sancroft, is preserved at Cambridge. It was collated for Wesseling by Dr. Askew. Rev.

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