From this work Mr. Pettigrew has given three extracts; and as it is now very scarce, we quote the following passage to show the general style and merits of the composition:

Ah! few and full of sorrow are the dayes

Of man from woman sprung: his life decayes,
Like that frail flower, which with the sunnes uprise
Her bud unfolds, and with the evening dies.
He like an emptie shadow glides away:
And all his life is but a winter's day.
Wilt thou thine eye upon a vapour bend?
Or with so weake an opposite contend?
Who can a pure and christall current bring
From such a muddy and polluted spring?

Oh! since his dayes are numbred: since thou hast
Prescribed him bounds that are not to be past:
A little with his punishment dispence,

Till he have served his time and part from hence.

A tree, though hewne with axes to the ground,

Renews his growth and springs from his greene wound:
Although his root wax old, his fibers dry;

Although the saplesse bole begin to dye;

Yet will at sent of water freshly sprout:

And like a plant thrust his young branches out.

But man, when once cut downe; when his pale ghost
Fleets into aire; he is for ever lost.

As meteors vanish, which the seas exhale;
As torrents in the drouth of summer faile:
So perisht man from death shall never rise:
But sleepe in silent shades with sealed up eyes:
While the celestiall orbes in order roule,

And turne their flames about the stedfast Pole.

Among the Arabic Mss., the copy of the Koran, No. 2, is worthy of notice, as having belonged to Tippoo Sultan, in whose library it was found by the conquerors of Seringapatam, and whose spectacles were discovered between its leaves, as if the perusal of it had been one of the latest acts of his life. It was presented to the Duke of Sussex by Major-general Ogg, who obtained it on the spot, at the public sale of the treasures captured by the British army. The Armenian version of the four Gospels is a curious and valuable document; it bears the date of the 13th century; and being therefore more ancient than the Ms. from which the first printed edition was copied, it is worthy of being carefully studied by those who are engaged in critically investigating the history of the earliest Christian records. The contents of the Mss. in the Pali and Burman languages are unknown: we can at present therefore only look at them either as honorable proofs of the industry so successVOL. XXXIX. Cl. Jl. NO. LXXVIII. X

fully exerted in bringing together this splendid collection, or as testimonies of the well-deserved homage paid by men of talent and of learning to the high literary reputation of the Duke of Sussex.

The second part contains a catalogue of no less than 392 different printed copies of the Scriptures, in the four classes alone of Polyglotts, and Hebrew, Greek and Latin Bibles. If from this numerous list we were to begin to select subjects for particular notice, we might extend this article into a volume as ample as that which is now under our observation. We shall therefore content ourselves with a brief general view of the nature of the collection itself, and of the manner in which Mr. Pettigrew has performed his part of the task. We have unquestionably here presented to us as complete a library as can possibly be formed in this department of literature. Scarcely a single edition of any note is wanting; and the whole comprises a mass of information of the highest order, and of incalculable value to the biblical student. Among the Polyglotts are,

The Ximenes, or Complutensian. 1514-17.

The Antwerp. 1569-72.1

The Paris, or Le Jay's. 1645.

The London, or Bryan Walton's. 1657.

A very rare and valuable copy of the Pentateuch in Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian, and Arabic, printed at Constantinople in 1546.

Bagster's Polyglott, 1817. This is a presentation copy from the Bishop of Norwich.

We notice this circumstance in order to have an opportunity of giving greater publicity to the following inscription, and to the testimony which the most benevolent prelate of modern times therein bears to the excellence of religious liberality and the character of the Duke of Sussex, to whom it is addressed in these terms:

Altissimo Augusto Frederico,

Georgii Tertii, Britanniarum Regis, Filio,
Duci de Sussex, &c. &c. &c.

Principi nostrorum temporum doctissimo;
Libertatis publicæ et Religionis veræ Amico;
Qui illustris avitæ stirpis splendorem

Of this Polyglott, which, as Mr. Pettigrew observes," is and must continue of great rarity," there is a very fine copy in the Norwich city library. It was a bequest to that institution in the year 1634, and is described in the will of the donor as "a Spanish Bible of the value of twenty-five pounds."

Illustrioribus virtutis et doctrinæ radiis adauget;
Et qui in Hebraicis literis præcipue tantum profecit,
Ut perpauci sint veteris Testamenti Lectores,
A quibus

"Plenius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquæ:"
Librum hunc sacrosanctum,
Observantiæ et Amoris pignus,
Humillime offert

Henricus, Episcopus Norvicensis.

The Hebrew Bibles are numerous, beginning with the second Bomberg edition in 1521, and concluding with D'Allemand's printed at London in 1822. No. 57, " Biblia Hebraica Magna Rabbinica," published at Amsterdam, in 4 vols. folio, 1724-7, is "unquestionably the most copious and the most valuable of all the Rabbinical Bibles." Among the portions of the Old Testament in Hebrew, the most remarkable are the Prophetæ Posteriores et Priores, with the commentary of D. Kimchi, to which Mr. Pettigrew has affixed the date of 1485.

The Greek Bibles, although fewer in number, contain two of leading interest: that of 1587, edited by Cardinal Caraffa, from the Codex Vaticanus; and that of 1824, copied by the Rev. H. Baber from the Codex Alexandrinus of the British Museum.

As Latin was the prevailing hierophantic dialect of the age, in which the art of printing was first introduced, all the earliest editions of the Scriptures are of course in that language. Of these the library of the Duke of Sussex presents an ample collection. The Latin Bibles amount to 224; amongst which are,

The first Vulgate, printed by Guttenberg. Mentz, 1450-55.

The first Basle. 1470-71.

The first Roman. 1471.

The first Coburger. Nuremberg, 1475.

The first Venice. 1475.

The first Paris. 1476.

The first Naples. 1476.

and all the most celebrated editions, which have appeared from that period up to the present time; " sed nos genera degustamus, non bibliothecas excutimus."

We have already observed, that Mr. Pettigrew has discarded from this division of his work much of that minute bibliographical detail, which figured so conspicuously in the former part. The disposition to indulge in it has however occasionally betrayed itself; as, for instance, in the account given of the first Latin Bible at page 289, where we are informed that

the first volume has 324 leaves; the second 317; being 641 to the whole work. In the first nine pages there are 40 lines in a column; in the tenth 41; and in the remainder 42 lines. The columns, two in number on each page, are 11 inches in height; 31 in breadth; and there is a space of of an inch between them, &c.

This disposition had, however, previously broken out in a letter from Dr. Adam Clarke, page 12, announcing the discovery, “that certain parts of the Complutensian Polyglott have been reprinted." If this circumstance had been connected, as it is in Bryan Walton's work, with some great political change— if it had furnished another proof of submissiveness to the powers that be—if it had shown that Cardinal Ximenes had detected and expunged some latent heresy; or if even any new readings had been introduced;-we should have admitted that the labor bestowed in tracing this fact had not been thrown away.

By great industry Mr. Pettigrew has brought together much useful general information respecting the numerous editions that have been printed of the Jewish Scriptures, and the learned men of all countries who have had any share in preparing them. Next to the merit of having collected a good library, is that of letting the world know its contents by means of a complete and well-arranged catalogue. On any terms, therefore, we receive with gratitude the details which he offers us respecting the literary treasures of which he has the care; and in pointing out what we deem errors, we have been actuated by no carping spirit of captious cavilling, but by an earnest desire to render the continuation of his undertaking more satisfactory to himself, more honorable to his patron, and more serviceable to mankind. From the sample afforded in this volume, we look forward with greater interest to what is yet to come. We cannot anticipate that the Bibliotheca Sussexiana will prove as rich in other subjects as it has already shown itself in theology; but we feel assured, that whatever works it contains in those classes, they are not unworthy of the situation in which they are placed : and if the circumstances, on which Mr. Pettigrew has made the farther prosecution of his plan contingent, should hinge on the public interest taken in his labors, we trust he will have reason to know, that by completing his task he will satisfy the highlyraised expectations of the literary world. It is of course to the department of ancient history that we principally look for the

means of promoting the objects touched on in our introductory remarks; but we have already observed that for the present we expect more from the impulse given to inquiry in that direction, than from any immediate information that may be supplied. To the force of that impulse the publication of this catalogue must powerfully contribute, and on that account alone we should be anxious for the early appearance of the remaining parts. The field of history is daily enlarging, and each succeeding hour removes us to a greater distance from the transactions of the past. As that distance increases, the remoter points are continually escaping from the range of our perception; and it becomes more and more difficult to retain that knowlege of them, which has ever been found essential to the due improvement of the present. Even in the days of Quintilian, this study demanded the full vigor of mature and active intellect; and the lapse of ages has confirmed the truth of bis maxim, that “ expectanda est ultima ætas, cum studia præstent, ut quantum ad cognitionem pertinet rerum, etiam præteritis sæculis vixisse videamur."

non

CLASSICAL CRITICISM.

IN that very characteristic part of the "Nubes" of Aristophanes, where Strepsiades, in a rather long colloquy with his son Phidippides, instructs him, ludicrously enough, as to the propriety of calling ἀλεκτρύαινα and ἀλέκτως what he had indifferently denominated άλExTguv,—the latter inquires of him, if such were the nature of the learned lessons he had been taught by frequenting the schools of the sophists? to which Strepsiades replies;

Στ. χ' άτερά γε πόλλ'· ἀλλ ̓ ὅ τι μάθοιμ' ἑκάστοτε,

ἐπελανθανόμην ἂν εὐθὺς ὑπὸ πλήθους ἐτῶν.

Φε. διὰ ταῦτα δὴ καὶ θοιμάτιον ἀπώλεσας ;
Στ. ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἀπολώλεκ', ἀλλὰ καταπεφρόντικα.
Φε. τὰς δ ̓ ἐμβάδας ποῖ τέτροφας, ὦ νόητε σύ;
Στ. ὥσπερ Περικλέης, εἰς τὸ δέον ἀπώλεσα.

Now on the reading of the word TέTpopas in this place, there is some disagreement among editors and critics. Some write τέτροπας, but more τέτροφας; these latter also referring it to the root Tρéw, and rendering it by contulisti, convertisti,