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practice is opposed by some Chinese writers as useless, but defended by others, who argue, that poetry leads to an acquaintance with the passions or feelings of human nature; and as these must be consulted by every man who would well rule human nature, poetry is a proper study for the monarch, the minister, and the magistrate. This is in accordance with the precepts of the moralizing politicians of China, who always maintain, that none can govern well, or durably, but those who win the people's hearts by an adherence to the principles of equal rights, and a clement justice. The Chinese, we believe, have nothing that can be called epic poetry. The most ancient poetical compositions were a collection of popular songs, made at the request of government, in order to ascertain the popular feeling, which, as has already been hinted, the Chinese monarchs have generally thought it right to consult. Although the ladies of China are not usually literary, there are exceptions; and in an educated family, the writing of verses, from a theme given at the moment, by one of the party, is practised as an amusing trial of skill. The triennial odes composed at the public examinations, which obtain the prize of a certain rank, and eligibility to office, are usually printed and published. And these specimens of versification, together with the prize essays, written from themes extracted from the ancient books already noticed, are almost the only new publications in China at the present day. The literati of China, now existing, are either candidates for office, who go through the prescribed routine of studies; or laborious compilers of the sayings of others.

VI. The collectanea of appeals or remonstrances from public officers; and of the opinions of philosophers; and of the disputes of controversialists; and the endless et cætera of compilers; constitute another class of literary compositions.

VII. Geographical and topographical works are also abundant; the first-named are very imperfect; the latter are voluminous and minute; marking every tomb and temple, and hill and dale, with the utmost exactitude; all of which detail interests the natives of China, but is tiresome to the inhabitants of Europe.

VIII. Medical books, containing the theory and practice of the healing art, are abundant in China. They have great confidence in the theory of the dual powers, which is introduced into this department of science and literature; and rely much on the recorded recipes of eminent practitioners. In works on medicine, the best notices of natural history, whether belonging to the animal, mineral, or vegetable kingdoms, are contained. In the medical works of China are to be found the doctrine of the circulation of the blood round the human system; the use of Glauber's salts, and of mercury, in ordinary practice; the last-named of which medicines has now, however, fallen into disrepute. The theory of the pulse is in China carried by practitioners to a degree of exactness, which baffles the most careful attention of European surgeons to discriminate. When the Chinese and English practitioners have been seated at the same table, and felt the pulse of the same patient, the one has professed to ascertain symptoms of which the other was unable to ascertain any thing. The Chinese are not at all convinced by the reasoning of the West, that, pulses being simultaneous in all parts of the body, the feeling of one pulse is therefore equal to the feeling of more than one; for they suppose that local disease may make a difference.

IX. Astronomical works in Chinese generally fall into the dreams of astrology; and state, with wearisome minuteness, lucky and unlucky, felicitous or infelicitous days, and hours, for bathing, for shaving,

for commencing a journey, or beginning to sow, or to plant, or to visit a friend, or to make a bargain, &c. &c. They can, however, without the aid of Europeans, foretell eclipses, and state, with considerable accuracy, other celestial pheno

mena.

X. A tenth species of composition in China, is the Wăn chang, or prize essays of many generations, which are preserved and published with care.

XI. Finally, the moral and religious essays of the Three sects, viz. those of the Confucian school of atheistical materialists; those of the visionary alchemic school of Laoukeum; and those of the Hindoo polytheistic school of Buddah; in addition to which may be named the essays of a sort of eclectic school, which picks and chooses from, and sometimes blends, the other three. The Mohammedan and Christian writers in China have been too few to produce any very sensible impression, beyond now and then a little scorn and philippic, such as is conveyed in the political sermons, read by an official person, on the days of the new and full moon, in the several provincial imperial halls, before the governors, deputy governors, and magistrates in each province.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

Ir may not be unknown to your readers, that for some time past a warm controversy has been in progress between the Orthodox and Unitarian Dissenters, relative to the right of the latter, either in moral or legal equity, to retain many of the places of worship at present occupied by them, but which were erected, and in some cases large endowed emoluments appended to them, for the exhibition of far other doctrines than those currently, but unjustly, because exclusively, styled Unitarian. It is a well known and most melancholy fact, and one which CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 285.

Of

affords a powerful argument for an Established Church and fixed formularies of doctrine and worship, that the Presbyterian chapels throughout England, founded, and at first frequented, by persons who, though not agreeing with the Church of England in matters of ecclesiastical discipline, were strictly orthodox as respects all the leading doctrines of Christianity-men illustrious in their generation for their eminent talents, and many of them still known and revered by their lives and writings-have long since, in nume. rous instances, become the schools first of Arianism, then of Socinianism and its cognate doctrines. true Presbyterianism, even as respects matters of discipline, these societies retain nothing but the name; and in point of fact, except as these endowments are concerned, the Unitarians are publicly considered, and I presume generally consider themselves, Congregationalists. The recession, from the doctrines of the old Presbyterians to the present system, was in most of these places gradual, though now too deeply confirmed. The incursion of the new doctrines was usually accompanied by warm debates, and in the end by the recession, or gradual falling off, of the orthodox members: after which the Unitarian managers retained the property; only numbering a few scattered converts to occupy the walls once crowded by the numerous and animated audiences of such men as Matthew Henry, and other worthies of the Presbyterian school. From the statements contained in the "Manchester Socinian Controversy," lately published, it appears that the Unitarians possess, in this island, two hundred and twenty three places of worship; of which no less than one hundred and seventy-eight, four-fifths of the whole, were originally orthodox. Taking England alone, they have two hundred and six chapels; of which thirty-six only, not one sixth, were built by Unitarians. It is stated further, that one-tenth of these 4 C

chapels would probably contain the whole of the congregations; which, though in some few instances large, are for the most part very thin; and that in many instances the whole system is mainly kept up by the bonus of the endowments, which in some cases are very considerable. I restrain my pen from recording various remarks which occur to me on this painful subject: one reflection only will I at present urge, which is applicable to all classes of Christians, to "work while it is called to-day." Present good actually effected, even on a small scale, is so much rescued from the mass of contingency and disappointment. What may arrive on the morrow, we know not; and the records of all ages and churches testify that little dependence can be placed upon the best-planned projects for futurity. No person can peruse the voluminous reports of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the abuses of our national charities, without forming the melancholy conclusion that bequests, the most beneficially intended, may too probably become a positive evil, instead of a service, to succeeding ages. To-day only is our own let us make use of it, as becomes the responsibility which we owe for the right use of our time, our property, and every other talent committed to our trust.

The above remarks are not applicable to the case of bequests to charitable societies, not intended for the purpose of prospective accumulation, but for current or otherwise prudential use. Our Bible, Mission. ary, and Educational Institutions, lay up no pecuniary stores for an uncertain futurity: they make no endowments or reserves, except what may be considered reasonably necessary to meet their express or implied engagements; and to prevent, so far as human foresight can extend, their benevolent projects falling to the ground. They strictly "work while it is called to-day," and therefore have a most powerful claim, not only on the life support,

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of these will form a fit supplement to the notice of the Old-Testament Apocryphal books in your last number, and of the New-Testament Apochrypha in your volume for 1822. They have both been published by the learned Dr. Lawrence, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford (since promoted to the Irish bench), and, though of no intrinsic value, possess a considerable degree of interestone of them at least, from some collateral circumstances, which shall be briefly noticed.

The Book of Enoch was for ages supposed to have been lost; but was discovered, at the close of the last century, in Abyssinia, and was first translated, by Dr. Lawrence, from an Ethiopic manuscript in the Bodleian Library, and published in 1821. For two centuries preceding, this book had furnished a prolific source for critical speculation, in consequence, chiefly, of its being supposed to be alluded to, or quoted, by the Apostle Jude, in his Epistle, verses 14, 15. It was well ascertained to have been known, from an early age of the Christian church, till the eighth century; for the Fathers mention it, and quote from it; but from that period it appears to have sunk into complete oblivion. Scaliger at length discovered a fragment of it, in a then unpublished manuscript, entitled,

the Chronographia of Syncellus, which fragment he gave to the world in his notes to Eusebius. It did not, however, contain the passsage alleged to have been quoted by Jude; and it continued to be controverted, among the learned, whether Jude had really seen this so called prophecy of Enoch; or whether he had only heard of it; or whether, in truth, the book itself had not been forged at a subsequent period, in consequence of the passage in Jude. Still, though no Greek copy could be discovered, it was conjectured, as early as the commencement of the seventeenth century, that the lost Greek might be itself but a translation from the Hebrew or the Chaldee; and an idea prevailed, that an Ethiopic version still existed in Abyssinia. That distinguished Ethiopic scholar, Ludolph, accordingly searched for it, but in vain; and the pursuit was pronounced hopeless, till Bruce the traveller not only proved its existence, but brought with him, from Abyssinia, no less than three manuscript copies of it; one of which he presented to the library at Paris, another to the Bodleian, and the third he reserved for himself. It was from the second of these copies that Dr. Lawrence made his translation.

The learned translator has proved that neither the Jewish nor the Christian church ever admitted the book of Enoch into the sacred canon. Tertullian, indeed, regarded it as an inspired composition, and from the pen of Enoch himself; but his opinion was contradicted by the uniform judgment of the Jewish and Christian churches, with the exception of the Abyssinian church, by which, I believe, it is, or was, considered canonical. Dr. Lawrence argues, from the internal evidence, that the book was the production of some unknown Jew, under the borrowed name of Enoch; that it must have been originally written in Hebrew, though the original is most probably lost; and that it was composed before the birth of Christ,

about one hundred years before Jude wrote his Epistle. The passage alleged to be quoted by that Apostle is thus translated by the learned prelate :-" Behold, he comes, with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and to reprove all the carnal for every thing which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him." If the book was written at the era Dr. Lawrence supposes, the source of Jude's quotation is abundantly clear; though his allusion is not any argument for the admission of it into the inspired canon, or even of his sanction to its contents-any more, for instance, than St. Paul's supposed references to Aratus, Epimenides, Menander, or other heathen poets, are proofs of his approbation of their compositions. Some sound scholars, however, still think, notwithstanding Dr. Lawrence's arguments, that it is a forgery subsequent to the date of Jude's Epistle, and intended to meet that Apostle's allusion in verses 14, 15; and that Jude had in view some older written narrative, or, more probably, tradition. Perhaps some one of your learned correspondents could furnish the grounds of this opinion.

The subject of the Apochryphal book of Enoch is a series of visions respecting the fallen angels; their posterity, the giants, which occasioned the deluge; the mysteries of heaven; and the place of the final judgment of men and angels; and several parts of the universe described as having been seen by the writer. Dr. Lawrence has printed a Latin version of many chapters by Baron Sylvestre de Sacy, from the Paris copy; of which professor Gesenius, of Halle, is, or was, preparing a transcript for publication, with a Latin translation.

The alleged "Book of Isaiah," like the Book of Enoch, had been lost for ages, till recently discovered in an Ethiopic form or translation. It contains a pretended history of the prophet Isaiah's ascension to the seventh heaven, with some fictitious

prophecies, and an account of the prophet's martyrdom. As the early writers who have mentioned it furnish no evidence respecting its date, Dr. Lawrence has resorted to the internal evidence, from which he concludes that it was written about the year of our Lord 68 or 69. It is doubtful whether it was written in Greek or Hebrew.

I cannot conclude these remarks without reminding the reader of the debt of gratitude which we owe to God, for the gift of his holy word in the form in which we at present

possess it, separated from all human admixtures, in a well-ascertained, sacred, and exclusively canonical, text. Let us adequately value, and duly make use of, this high privilege; remembering not only the woe denounced against those who shall add to or take from the words of the inspired volume; but also the guilt of those who, possessing it, neglect it; and the happiness, temporal and eternal, of those who make it the code of their faith, and the directrix of their steps.

Y.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Christian Researches in Syria and the Holy Land, in 1823 and 1824, in Furtherance of the Objects of the Church Missionary Society. By the Rev. WILLIAM JOWETT, M. A., one of the Representatives of the Society, and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. With an Appendix, containing the Journal of Mr. Joseph Greaves, on a Visit to the Regency of Tunis. London: 1825. 8vo. pp. 515. 10s.

Its

It was only in the early part of the year before last that we introduced to the notice of our readers the former volume of Mr. Jowett, containing his "Christian Researches," most properly so called, on the coasts of the Mediterranean. excellent author, after a short repose from his fatigues, embarked on another journey, with a view to prosecute his intelligent and useful labours in that still more, we may say that most, interesting portion of the globe, Syria and the Holy Land; and has accumulated fresh and truly important materials for examination, and new motives for urging on the momentous object of evangelizing the possessors of those countries, where were nur

tured, and whence issued, the first Evangelists to others.

By those who were apprized of the circumstance that Mr. Jowett was engaged in this new work, and who knew, what indeed his public life and labours amply testify, the accuracy and soundness of his classical attainments, the tempered discretion of his zeal, and, above all, the simplicity and fervour of his piety-connected with many advantages for observation, with which his local knowledge furnished him— the present volume must have been anticipated with no ordinary expectations. The past history of that land, the scenes and inhabitants of which were to be the objects of his inquiries, would necessarily awaken this interest; and the confidence due to the tried wisdom, discrimination, and Christian character of the author, could not fail-greatly to augment this interest. The traveller of taste, the sentimentalist, the man of enterprize, the classic, the Orientalist, the Biblical reader (we mean the mere reader), have all gone over this field, and opened their communications and their conjectures on their return; but the volume before us takes up ground nearly new, except as partially an

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