der; the facred fongs of Sion, the unparalleled productions of genuine inspiration."

"The Jews, who had hitherto been confidered by the nations among whom they fojourned, as forlorn exiles, and a defpifed people, experienced after a tedious interval, a respite from their toils. They were favoured with the protection of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and partook of every immunity in >common with the rest of his fubjects. The tide of prejudice which had run fo ftrong against them, had now fubfided. The laws of their divine legiflator, which had hitherto been overlooked or fcorned, were now contemplated with reverence. During this free intercommunity and ingenious intercourse betwixt the victors and the vanquished, the language of their refpective nations could not long continue unknown to each other. The more learned and inquifitive among the Greeks would wish to become acquainted with a religion and laws, fo unlike, yet fo fuperior to their own. The curfory furvey, which they might have cafually beftowed on these facred books, would but ftimulate their zeal to examine the great original. If the language of the Greeks were familiarized to the Jews through the verfion of the Seventy, the Hebrew tongue would, in its 'turn, be familiarized to the Greeks through the knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus informed, the poet would be impatient to catch fome particles of that spirit, which breathed from the lips of infpired prophets. He would be emulous of enriching his fubfequent compofitions with nobler ideas and more exalted fentiments, than the fuperftitions of Paganism, and the dreams of Pagan poets had fuggefted."

"The truth of these obfervations will be confirmed by various paffages, felected from that conftellation of poets which gave luftre to the present period. In this poetic class the author of Caffandra holds an honourable place," -"Numerous were the competitors for fame who flocked to Alexandria; where the treasures of literature were depofited for their perufal, and where the exertions of industry and genius were munificently rewarded. In the number of these adventurers was our poet, a native of Chalcis." Pp. 4, 5, 6, 7.

It is with reluctance that I forbear tranfcribing more of this charming performance. The fpecimens of a tranflation of Lycophron which follow, are alike remarkable for easy verfification, and a lucid difplay of the manner and method of that author; whilft the notes exhibit a rich fund of critical fagacity. I haften to the remark in p. 40. on the word Ipidos, which oceurs in the 324th line of Lycophron's poem. "Ptolemy's poets read the Bible, both in the Greek verfion and orignal Hebrew. The resemblance between the ftories of Iphigenia and Jeptha's daughter, and between the names Jepthe and Iphi, could not efcape their obfervation. Iphi is a corruption from Jepthe; and the import of the word annexed, from you! is evident. But the familiar currency of common words by no means recommended them to our poet's choice. His language muft be oracular, for the speaker was Caffandra. His terms must be obfcure and rare, for oracles were ambiguous. He, therefore, in the ftead of the well known word Iphigenia, has fubftituted Ip; which is a patronymic noun, formed from Ip. It is formed by the fame analogy that regulates the words Exudis, Пprauis, and others. Thus is Ips, which means Iphi's, i. e. Jepthe's daughter, ufed as an equivalent for Iphigenia. Canter, Meurfius, and Potter, are filent with regard to this word; and the fcholiaft's remark upon it is by no means fatisfactory." I am, Gentlemen, your's truly, Jan. 11, 1802. A LONDON CURATE. BISHOP

I

BISHOP HORNE's LETTERS ON INFIDELITY.

LETTER I.

BEGIN, Dear Sir, with a few obfervations on the Apology for the Life and Writings of David Hume, Efq. drawn up foon after that work came out, but referved in expectation of Mr. H's pofthumous tracts. With difficulty I am able to perfuade my friends, that this author and myself have not written in concert; for his Apology and my Letter fit each other like two tallies. In his Dedication, he expreffes his apprehenfion, that "the CHRISTIAN clamour would be raised afreth." A clamour is accordingly raised by " one of the people called CHRISTIANS." Elsewhere he intimates his expectation that Mr. H-'s "affectionate Dr. Smith" would come in for his fhare. A letter is accordingly written to that very doctor.

You fee, Dear Sir, how I have done my beft to fulfil his predictions. Let us now enquire whether he may not have returned the favour, and been equally kind to me.

In my Advertisement I ventured to fuppofe, that, by a late publication, the admirers of Mr. H. imagined religion to have received its coup de grace, and that the attonished public was utterly at a lofs to conceive, "what they, who believed in God, could póffibly have to fay for themfelves." To convert my fuppofition to matter of fact, he opens his Apology with a kind of funeral oration, moft folemnly pronounced over Christianity as a breathlefs corpfe, about to be for ever interred in the grave of Mr. H.

"David Hume is dead! Never were the pillars of Orthodoxy fo desperately thaken, as they are now by that event!" And at p. 9, he fpeaks of the particular circumftances of this event" as "increafing the aggregate of our confternation!"

Here, the diftempered imagination of the Apologift fees Mr. H. like another Samfon, bowing kimfelf with all his might between the pillars, and flaying more at his death, than all that he flew in his life. He fees the believing world aghaft, the church tottering from its foundations, and Chriftians affembling in an upper chamber with the doors fhut, for fear of the philofophers. What may be the state of religion upon earth, before the end fhall come, we cannot tell. We have reafon to think it will be very bad. But let us hope, notwithstanding all which has happened in Scotland, that the Gofpel will laft our time.

66 as to his

Thus again-I fcrupled not to affert, that the end propofed in giving an account of Mr. H's life and death was, to recommend his fceptical and atheistical notions. Dr. Smith indeed was wary and modeft. He gave us a detail of circumstances, and then only added, that, philofophy, men would entertain various opinions, but, to be fure, all muft allow his conduct was unexceptionable," &c. But the Apologift has blurted it all out at once. David Hume's life was right, and therefore his fyftem cannot be wrong. My friend Dr. Smith will take him to tafk for this, as fure as he is alive.

And now for another piece of complaifance on my fide-p. 9. He withes only out of curiofity, to know the unaffected state of our feelings," on perufing the account given by Dr. Smith-As if I had been privy to his thoughts, the with was no fooner formed, than gratified by my Letter, which communicated to him and to the public the ftate of our feelings,

*The Apology was written before the publication of the Letter, though fent into the world after it.

feelings, and in a manner, I do affure him, perfe&ly unaffected. But it is a difficult matter to please him; for now he hath feen me, he doth not like me.

At the close of his Addrefs, he tells me, that "after accurately examining my Letter, and carefully reconfidering the whole fubject of the preceding Apology in confequence of it, he fees no occafion to alter a fingle fentence." Let us therefore take a view of the Apology, which is pronounced to be unaffected by it.

P. 11. "It is lefs the defign of these papers to defend H-'s principles, than to fhew, upon the best authority, that he was earnest in what he wrote; and that, through every part of his life, even to the very moment of his death, he made precept and practice go hand in hand together."

But, furely, if the principles are not to be defended, if they are, as they have been represented, fceptical and atheistical, does the man who propagated them during his life, and took the requifite measures that they fhould be propagated after his death--does fuch a man deferve commendation, because he was in earnest? An Apology of this kind may be offered in behalf of every felon executed at Tyburn, provided only that by dying hard, he make precept and practice go hand in hand together. And the A. very judicioufly obferved as much.

· P. 10. "Many, indeed, will think, that this, however perfpicuously proved, will be doing him no real honour; fince in proportion to the elearness of the evidence upon this matter, it will only fhew his impiety and obftinate infidelity the plainer; thereby, in the end, incurring upon him a more general difgrace."

Truly he has hit the mark. This is the very objection which caused a friend of mine, on reading his book, to fay, he thould think it a lefs misfortune, to have the difgrace of hanging incurred upon him, than to have fuch an Apologift. And yet, in the cafe before us, he had a reafon for making this Apology, namely, that there was no other to be made. The only queftion is, whether it might not have been better if he had faid nothing, and fuffered things to take their chance. However, it is now too late. The objection is fairly ftated, and we all stand, arrectis auribus, in expectation of the anfwer--Lo, it comes-

"I am of a different opinion. The terms Infidelity, Impiety, and Atheism, should not be lavishly trufted from the lip"-Such a fentence (by the way) should not have been lavishly trusted from the pen--" We hould not prefume

Sir, your very humble fervant-I moft heartily with you a good nightHere was the jugulum caufæ, the precife point to be argued, over which I hoped to have had the honour of his good company for the evening; when, in the twinkling of an eye, he flips through my hands, like an eel, and is out of fight, in the mud.

We are not about to deal damnation on any man. But are there not fuch things as Infidelity, Impiety, and Atheism? And are not the writings "of Mr. H. juftly chargeable with them? These are the questions.

The A. knows, as well as I do, that Mr. H-'s Effays contain arguments downright Epicurean, against the being of a God. Some of them are mentioned in the Summary, at the end of the Letter to Dr. Sinith, and no notice is taken of the matter. In the Natural History of Religion,

Dr.

Dr. Hurd thought our philofopher was appraching towards the borders of Theifm. But I never could find that he penetrated far into the country. Thefe fame arguments ftand to this hour unretracted; the Effays which contain them are published and republished with the reft; whether, at the hour of death, he thought there was a God, or thought there was none, we have not a fingle hint given us; and concerning his pofthumous papers, the A. informs us, in his Dedication," there is every reason to believe they turn upon fimilar researches with fuch as have been already printed; or, as it is more likely, they may carry his philofophy ftill nearer, to THAT POINT, which he might not think it DISCREET to push too vigorously in his life-time." New difcoveries in irreligion, then, it feems, ftill remain to be made. They who have duly confidered the vigour difplayed by Mr. H. in his life time, are rather at a lofs to conceive, what THAT POINT may be, to which, by pofthumous efforts, his philofophy is to be carried. It muft lie fomewhere

Beyond the realms of Chaos and old Night!

Difcretion is, undoubtedly, as Sir John Falftaffe fays, the better part of valour; but really, in thefe days of freedom, there is fcarce a plaufibility of its ever being called for. Something, however, is to come, which the A. fuppofes will occafion more CHRISTIAN clamour. When we are fo feverely pinched he imagines we fhall cry out. Certainly, it cannot be thought we are lavish of the terms Infidelity, Impiety, and Atheism, when we apply them to fuch proceedings as thefe. What other terms can we apply, or would he himself with us to apply? And he gravely apologizes for their author, by telling us, he was confiftent, he was in earneft, he died as he lived, and left blafphemies to be publifhed after his death, which he dared not to publish while he was yet alive, Whom fhall we moft admire, the Philofopher or his Apologift?

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

A Defence of Public Education addreffed to the most (Right) Reverend the Lord Bishop of MEATH, by WILLIAM VINCENT, D. D. in Anfwer to a Charge annexed to his Lordship's Difcourfe, preached at St. Paul's on the Anniverfary Meeting of the Charity Children, and published by the Society for Promoting Chriftian Knowledge. 1s. 6d. London, Cadell and Davis, 1801. THE occafion of this defence is the following note, containing a molt

ferious charge, which, if true in the extent of its meaning, is, of itfelf, not only enough to bring our public fchools into difcredit, but to deftroy that opinion of their great and general utility, which has been hitherto univerfally prevalent.

"I had propofed to fay a few words on the fad degeneracy of our Public Schools, in this moft important part of education, and their fyftematic neglect, for fuch it is now become, of that religious inftruction, which in the earlier parts of the Reformation, and even to a much later date, was fo carefully provided for the higher and wealthier claffes of the British youth; but I found the fubject anticipated by Dr Rennell, in his fermon on this anniversary, and I could add nothing to what that zealous and eloquent preacher had there urged, to call the Vol. 11. Churchm, Mag. Jan. 1802.

H

*Thefe have been fince published.

publi

public attention to this portentous evil."-This note the bishop of Meath annexed, in page 39, to an excellent difcourfe preached by his lordship on occafion of the anniverfary meeting of the charity children, at St. Paul's cathedral.—It is of a nature calculated to roufe the feelings of thofe concerned in the education of the rifing nobility and gentry of this land; and is of such a cast, that the confiderate part of this country may, if the allegation be true, with great juftice, afcribe to the "fyftematic neglect of religious inftruction," in our public fchools, the diffufion, in part, of thofe principles of infidelity, which, of late, have gained confiderable ground, and which, from being early imbibed, have tended to poifon the minds of young men.--Now that the main purposes, the principal end, and chief defign of Chriftian education; that the pious intentions and benevolent views of the generous founders of our public fchools, fhould have been so perverted by a "fyftematic" neglect of religious inftruction; in thofe Public Schools too, of which the mafters and ushers are clergymen, high in repute, for their learning, morality, and affiduous attention to the youths whom they educate,is, furely little fhort of a libel upon thofe very feminaries, wherein the most able fatefmen, which the world can boaft of, the most confummate lawyers which have dignified, and do ftill dignify the feat of juftice, and the moft eminent divines which have adorned and do now adorn the Chriftian Church,-wherein these, and the first writers in the world have received the elements of that education, upon which their acquifitions of knowledge and fcience were built, their upright principles, and virtuous characters were formed, and by which themfelves, the place of their education, and the country that gave them birth, became, and is ftill renowned. We do unequivocally affert that the lord bishop of Meath has taken for granted an affertion made in the zeal of the moment, by an eloquent and learned divine, whofe labours have, however, been meritorioufly directed to reform the manners of a degenerate age; but who, on this occafion, has fuffered the measure of his zeal to exceed that of his knowledge.-We mean his knowledge of the care taken to inculcate the pure principles of the Chriftian Religion, in the minds of the youths of at least fome, if not all of the public schools of the united kingdom.

The defence before us is a complete refutation of Dr. Rennell's affer-· tion, which though it be fan&tioned by the authority of the bishop of Meath, is no lefs void of foundation, than the glaring affertion, that the doctrines of the gospel, are not faithfully preached by the Clergy of the Church of England, becaufe fanatics and enthufiafts affirm they do not preach them faithfully.

Dr. Vincent, the learned, the indefatigable, the excellent mafter of Weftminster School, fhall peak for himself, and we are confident, that, if he is attended to with candour, the reputation of the famous feminary over which he prefides with fo much credit to himself and with so much benefit to his country, will be fo far from fuffering from this charge, however it may be fupported by great names, that it will appear still more unimpeached than if the charge had never been made.

One obfervation, however, we wish to premife, and that is, that the fubject of difpute lies entirely, as we think, between Dr. Vincent on the one part, and the lord bishop of Meath and Dr. Rennell on the other part; and that the fociety for promoting Chriftian Knowledge, the worthy and able fecretary of that fociety, and their refpectable bookfel

lers,