learners is fo great, that the mafter cannot have time to explain every difficulty to each individual. We will venture to affirm that a youth in thefe circumstances, of a common capacity, who has fteadinefs and application fufficient to peruse it with attention, will find that he has acquired new ideas, and will become a good mathematician, with refpect to thofe properties of quantities which are expreffed by numbers, and occur in the common affairs of life. This publication, and that of the celebrated Euler on algebra, which he wrote for his grandchildren, are proofs of the advantages that refult to fociety, when men of great talents and abilities will condescend to accommodate themselves to the comprehenfion of the unlearned, and to explain the first principles of fcience. To fuch we may fay in the words of the poet, In tenui labor, ac tenuis non gloria. ART. VIII. Het Boek Job, i. e. The Book of Job, tranflated from the Hebrew with Annotations, by HENRY ALBERT SCHULTENS, completed and published after his Death by HERMAN MUN, TINGHE. 8vo. pp. 3oz. Amfterdam. 1794. IN this publication, Profeffor MUNTINGHE of Harderwyk has punctually performed the duty imposed on him by his deceafed friend. He informs us, in a fhort preface, that he found no more of the translation completed, than from the third to the twenty-ninth chapter; and that in tranflating the remainder, he has endeavoured to adhere as clofely as poffible to the defign and manner of SCHULTENS; though, where his own opinion concerning any paffage differed from that of his friend, he has taken the liberty of adding it to the annotations. The introductory differtation, which follows this preface, Profeffor SCHULTENS had drawn up in Latin. It contains a fhort view of what had been done by former critics toward elu. cidating this book, for a more particular account of which he refers the reader to his grandfather's preface to his commentary on it. He obferves, however, that, at that time, the true nature of Hebrew poetry, which Lowth firft explained, was not known; and that the fuperftitious veneration paid to the Maforetic copies was fo great, that rational criticism was in no esteem. Profeffor SCHULTENS is of opinion that the book of Job is the most antient that is extant, but thinks that the first two chapters, and the latter part of the forty-fecond chapter from the feventh verfe, were added to the poem long afterward, and probably when it was admitted into the Jewish canon. This opinion, he obferves, obviates the ftrongest objection that can be made against the antiquity of the book, which is de * See p. 504. 1. 8. from the bottom. duced are to be committed to memory, which are indeed accomp by examples, but feldom properly explained. Hence, th they may facilitate the labour of the teacher, they are fe of much ufe to the learner; and hence that art, which of the first practical applications of our rational facult generally learnt by rote, and the pupil is taught to perf feveral operations without comprehending their nature, effects on the relation of quantities to each other. The work is of a very different nature, and we are induced tion it not only on account of its intrinfic merit, but we think that fomething of a fimilar kind in English more useful than any school book on the subject that under our inspection. It is not written in the dry ca mode of question and anfwer, but in the form of a familiar yet not uninterefting dialogue between the to learner; in which the ingenious author has fo com velled himself to the capacity of the latter, that he and removed all the difficulties which occur to a you acquiring this fcience. His defign is confined to arithmetic which is neceflary in the general courfe and which the common fchoolmafter profeffes to for this he not only gives rules and examples, bu pupil to reafon with the accuracy, though without mathematical demonftration. Numeration, whic confifts of a few dry precepts for reading numb complete yet perfectly eafy explanation of their ne tion, whether confidered as integers or as fraction We highly approve the manner in which M. A the operations of vulgar fractions, as he plainly ftep, the effect, and demonftrates the neceffity and This part of the work is very different from ar have ever feen on fractions in books of arithm be of ufe to many teachers, in affifting them: precife ideas to their pupils. In the fame accu manner does our author explain the nature of its application to the feveral cafes which occur or in trade; and he inftructs the learner ho judgment in adopting thofe fhorter modes of are common in counting-houses, and in difce particular cafes, decimal or vulgar fractions geous in abridging the work. For thefe re. be very easily comprehended by any youn learned the practice of what are called t arithmetic in whole numbers, this work m. to fuch youths as have had no other inft than what is generally given in fchools, w 523 ing him , or had enlightto retri. have been muft foon , in which d to which we imagine the world, al childbood, in the limits verfity of arthe difficulties on of the facts idently the cafe and his friends. lis friends acis fufferings on adverfity is the e omniscience of e justice will yet more violent, and warmer and more ble hope of recoered as tranfitory, at even the beft of uppose these antient d unenlightened as, Juce conclufions inargument depended Amities. In propory diminished, the fufis diftrefs of mind in.r, he fometimes fears fore that of his juftificaconfcioufnefs of his inch it leads him to found in t between this confidence ob's recovery, that conftiem; this is, as it were, ends:-but this is enpaffage before us as Job aying that, duced from the introduction of Satan as the accufer and tempter of mankind; of which notion no traces are to be found in any of the books written before the Babylonish captiviy. With the third chapter, the work begins in a manner perfectly conformable to the bold abrupt ftyle of eastern poetry, and completely terminates with Job's repentance of his rafhnefs in prefuming to penetrate the counfels of the Almighty. With regard to the difputes, which have been fo frequently, difcuffed by divines, concerning the author of the book of Job, and whether it be a narration of facts, or merely a moral fiction, Profeffor SCHULTENS declines giving any opinion. These are questions, he observes, which it is impoffible to determine, and on which nothing but ingenious conjectures can be offered: they are moreover of fo little importance, as not to be worth the trouble that has been bestowed on them: they affect neither the fentiments expreffed nor the moral inculcated in the poem, the defign of which is to fhew that even the most virtuous are liable to adverfity, and that, when it befals them, it is permitted by God for wife reasons, which the human understanding cannot comprehend, and concerning which man must not pretend to decide. As a specimen of the tranflation and notes, we shall select chap. xix. 25. which we fhall render as closely as poffible. "Yea truly I know: he lives, my Redeemer ! He will at length come forward in defence of this dust, Yet with this my body fhall I behold God. Him fhall I behold as my friend; Mine eyes fhall fee him, but not as an enemy.” In his annotations, Profeffor SCHULTENS obferves that, after a very careful, and, he thinks, an impartial examination of this paffage, he cannot accede to the common opinion that it alludes to the Chriftian doctrine of the refurrection. He acknowleges that they who thus interpret it do not offer any violence to the grammatical meaning of the words; and that these verses, abftractedly. confidered, may seem to countenance fuch an application: but, in order to obtain the true meaning of the paffage, it must be confidered as a fentiment expreffed by Job, and taken in connection with the reft of the poem, the whole fpirit and tenor of which feem to indicate that the Patriarch's notions and hopes of retribution extended no farther than the prefent life. The grand argument, on which the whole poem is built, and which is evident in every part of it, is that divine juftice punishes vice, and rewards virtue. On this principle are founded the reproaches of Job's friends, who looked on his sufferings as the juft recompence of his crimes; and on this is also founded the confidence expreffed by Job that God would not put an end to his life, before he had vindicated his innocence by reftoring him to his profperity. If this principle had been difcuffed, or had been applied to any particular cafe, by perfons who, enlightened by revelation, had learned to extend their hopes to retri bution in a future ftate, the controverfy could not have been prolonged and diverfified as it is in this book, but must foon have been terminated by a reference to another life, in which the fufferings of the good will be compensated, and to which this compenfation is fometimes deferred: but, if we imagine the scene to take place in a very early period of the world, among a people who, being in a state of intellectual childhood, confine all their ideas of happiness and misery within the limits of this life, the queftion will admit of a greater diverfity of argument, and will become more interefting as the difficulties increase, which refult from the apparent oppofition of the facts obferved to the principle established. This is evidently the case in the whole courfe of the difpute between Job and his friends. The principle is acknowleged on both fides. His friends accufe him of fecret crimes, which have drawn his fufferings on him. Job pleads his innocence, denies that his adverfity is the punishment due to his conduct, appeals to the omniscience of God, and expreffes his firm affurance that divine justice will yet vindicate his integrity. In the mean time, Job's difeafe becomes more violent, and with this circumftance the dialogue grows warmer and more interefting. As long as there was any probable hope of recovery, the fufferings of Job might be confidered as tranfitory, and to fuch, experience muft have fhewn that even the beft of men were liable; for there is no reason to suppose these antient paftoral philofophers to have been fo rude and unenlightened as, from fhort and tranfient afflictions, to deduce conclufions injurious to the fufferer. The force of the argument depended on the greatness and duration of Job's calamities. In proportion, therefore, as the hope of his recovery diminished, the fufpicion of his friends was confirmed and his distress of mind increased: fo that, in the height of defpair, he fometimes fears that the day of his death may arrive before that of his justification; yet he never entirely lofes the consciousness of his innocence, nor abandons the hope which it leads him to found in the divine juftice. It is the contraft between this confidence and the apparent improbability of Job's recovery, that conftitutes the grand bufinefs of the whole poem; this is, as it were, the main fpring on which the action depends :-but this is entirely deftroyed by those who explain the paffage before us as relating to a future life, and who represent Job as faying that, though his life fhould be terminated by his great and undeferved |