withering curse of darkness and superstition over the wide range of their intellectual effort. The truth enunciated in the first verse of the Bible would have emancipated their minds from benighted thraldom, and thus have given spirit and life to the philosophy of the world. The Scripture doctrine of creation would have overturned the fundamental errors which corrupted the learning of Greece; and not of Greece only, but of all other countries unenlightened by revelation. Ignorant of this truth, the most profound researches of the greatest minds served only to plunge them into all the subtleties and absurdities of pantheism; the universe was confounded with its Maker: and, imbued with this false principle, the more they reasoned, the deeper they sank into error; it haunted them on every side, and blinded them to every just notion of God, of nature, and of themselves. Thus it has always been, wherever revelation has been unknown, or its teaching rejected. (Pages 107, 108.) 66 This chapter is followed by another of equal ability, on The Primitive Condition of Man, his Fall, and the Promise of a Redeemer." The doctrinal views of the author are here elicited; and, we need hardly say to those who have read his former productions, are clear and evangelical. The corroboration of the three circumstances that form the subject of the chapter, which Mr. Smith has been able to furnish from ancient tradition, history, and mythology, is full and satisfactory, and will not fail to impart an interest to the entire discussion. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe the author's reflections at the close of the chapter. How deeply interesting, how truly sublime, is the view here presented to our consideration! A creature so wonderfully formed, yet so deeply fallen; possessing such high intellectual powers, yet spiritually prostrated in consequence of sin; a being who had held intimate communion with his Maker, subjected to punishment on account of sin; and yet again restored by a divine plan of redemption into covenant relation to his God! "How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, "The History of Mankind from the Fall to the Flood" forms the subject of the third chapter. Our author takes up each generation from Adam to Noah consecutively, and presents us with everything important that has been written respecting them, either by sacred or profane writers. The rapid sketch of the history of this period, with which the chapter is concluded, is in Mr. Smith's best style. Here is a description of the licentiousness which prevailed amongst mankind previously to the Flood :— But, as we have seen, licentiousness and wickedness subsequently sprang up in connexion with elegance and luxury. Various indications are given, among the fragmentary traditions relating to this period, of rebellion against God, and the profane assumption of divine names and titles; while it is asserted that idolatry arose, with all its evil influence, to shed its withering curse over the family of man. This is the root of all social and political evil. A rejection of God, an abandonment of his service, an idolatrons substitution of earthly or imaginary creatures on his throne, must, in the very nature of things, induce, in any age, or among any people, degradation and ruin. In the present case, this was accompanied by other evils. Licentiousness prevailed: the moral dignity of woman was not respected. She was not sought as a help-meet for man. Her loveliness and amiability, her angel power to support. the distressed mind, and to minister blessings to man in every circumstance of life, as his partner, as the friend of his bosom, his wife,-were all overlooked, and only served to raise and to fan a base and sensual desire. Under this malign influence, pride and power trampled on order and right, and ravished the daughters of men. Polygamy was introduced, and all its concomitant evils were realized. (Page 226.) A chapter on "The Religion of the Antediluvians immediately succeeds. The subjects which are introduced and discussed are of great moment; and Mr. Smith has proved, we think, that a considerable knowledge of the character and will of God obtained in those early ages. The nature and origin of sacrifice forms a principal topic of inquiry, and the author's reasoning upon it is clear and conclusive. We were especially delighted with his critical investigation of the much-controverted passage in Gen. iv. 3-7. The fifth chapter, entitled, "The Deluge," contains a full and complete review of the entire subject. The principal circumstances of this tremendous event, as furnished by Moses, are graphically narrated, the different objections to an universal deluge which have been made by geologists and others are answered, and historical corroboration of the event is furnished from Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, Hindoo, Scandinavian, and other records, as well as from the traditions and mythology of those nations. It is a chapter which will well repay a careful and attentive perusal. We call especial attention to the manner in which our author deals with the advocates of a partial deluge : But the words of the sacred narrative refer as distinctly to the entire surface of the earth, as to the whole animal creation : "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.” (Gen. vii. 19.) We ask, What language can be more explicit than this? And yet it has been contended that this "earth under the whole heaven " means a small and limited locality in central Asia; and that "all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven," means no hills at all that the water did not cover the hills, but only inundated a low district! Again : We are told that a universal deluge was unnecessary. We ask, Can any thing be conceived more unnecessary than the erection of the ark, and the crowding it with living animals, if a few waggons and the journey of a few days would have effected the object designed? Why, in such a case, was not Noah, like Abraham afterwards, called of God to And this is put forth to sustain the leave his father's house, and to journey into another land? Such a pilgrimage as that taken by the latter Patriarch would, according to the theory of a partial deluge, have abundantly sufficed to carry Noah to a place of safety. Should those whose scheme is open to such objections talk to us of what is unnecessary? (Pages 303, 304.) "* Dr. Pye Smith, while labouring to show that a universal deluge was unnecessary, expresses his humble opinion that the population of the antediluvian world 'was really small, that it was in a course of rapid progress towards an extreme reduction, which would have issued in a not very distant extinction.' And so a partial deluge was necessary to destroy the few men who remained, before they all died off!" This chapter is followed by a "History of Mankind, from the Deluge to the Dispersion." We cannot refrain from quoting the following affecting and graphic description of the circumstances in which the family of Noah were placed on emerging from the ark : The thousands of their fellow-men, with whom they had lived in social intercourse, had been swept away with a sudden and terrible destruction; they themselves had been confined a whole year in the dreary solitude of the ark; while the earth lay shrouded in death, buried beneath a wide expanse of waters. But now they had emerged from that which had been at once their sanctuary and their prison; they again walked forth on the green earth in the sun-light of heaven, and felt that they had been preserved by the mighty power of God, and were appointed to renew the existence of the human family on the face of the earth. which their senses had been formerly Descending the mountain, and once more entering upon the ordinary business of life, these eight human survivors of the deluge were to renew the population of the world. Helpless as they then were, amidst the wreck of almost everything in nature and in social life, in which their hearts had been before interested, or with In the seventh chapter is narrated one of the most remarkable events in the history of the world, and one which has exercised the greatest influence upon the character, condition, and destiny of mankind,-"The Dispersion." Our author regards the influence which Nimrod gained, and the intolerance which he exercised over the descendants of the arkite family, as not merely political, but spiritual also; and discovers in this circumstance the reason of the appellation which is given in the New Testament to the persecuting Church of Rome, "BABYLON THE GREAT." We cannot follow him in his extended and ingenious investigation into this subject, but shall leave this task to our readers. We merely give the results: The conclusion to which we have been conducted also explains that otherwise unintelligible reference to Babylon in the apocalyptic predictions respecting Papal Rome, to which reference has already been made. If Nimrod at Shinar, professing to adhere to the great truths of the patriarchal faith, pretended that he was in some mysterious manner invested with divine authority, and was therefore empowered to claim political pre-eminence, at the same time that he demanded religious adoration; what could be more pertinent than that the antichristian Church, which, professing to be guided by revealed truth, has nevertheless arrogated to herself a political and divine authority essentially opposed to the uniform tenor of Scripture teaching, and whose earthly and human head, "as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God; "-what could be more appropriate than that this apostate Church should be designated by the appellation of the first apostate nation, and that the thunders of heaven should roll the terrible truth to the ears of the children of men,-that, as antichristian Rome sustains the same character as apostate Babylon, so they shall be the same in infamy and in perpetual ruin ? (Page 396.) The eighth chapter contains, a " History of the Scripture Patriarchs, from the Dispersion to the Death of Isaac." This, according to Mr. Smith's favourite plan, is followed by another, on "The Religion of the postdilu vian Patriarchs." These two chapters contain much information and research respecting the age in which Job lived, and the doctrines taught in the inspired book which bears his name. The different views which have been taken of these controverted subjects by biblical critics are fairly stated and considered, and, on most of them at least, an impartial decision pronounced. The character and faith of Abraham are also clearly and fully described ; and brief historical sketches of Lot, Ishmael, and Isaac are introduced. The mass of sound biblical criticism which these chapters contain, renders them among the most valuable in the entire work. The tenth chapter, on "The Rise of Empires, and the Progress of Idolatry," deserves the most careful attention from the student of history. Mr. Smith has furnished the most valuable of those records respecting the ancient empire of Babylon which were compiled by Berosus, a Priest of the temple of Bel, and handed down to us by Syncellus and Alexander Polyhistor, and has inserted tables of the several dynasties which succeeded in the government of that empire. Most that is certainly known of the ancient Assyrian, Chinese, Persian, and Egyptian empires, is also recorded, and the progress of idolatry in each carefully traced. The "General View of the Postdiluvian Period," with which our author has next enriched his volume, forms a suitable addition to the previous five chapters. The principal subjects embraced are, the state of civilization, the progress of the arts, and the existence of commerce. We have been quite astonished at the information which is furnished on the mode of travelling, the use of metals, coined money, military arts and weapons, musical instruments, hunting, sporting, &c., &c. We transcribe the following account of the state of military arts and warfare in those early periods :— The book of Genesis plainly declares, that wars were waged, districts and communities subjected and brought under tribute; and afterwards, that a desperate but unsuccessful conflict was hazarded in the hope of retrieving independence. Profane history abundantly confirms this account, and exhibits the rise of empires, the progress of ambition, and, at length, the subjugation of Babylonia and Persia to the Assyrian power. In the records of those times are found several allusions to a state of warfare, and to the arts, weapons, and materiel, then employed in military operations; to which we may now briefly refer. The book of Job contains many such allusions. In chap. vi. 4, we have a reference to arrows, and to arrows rendered more deadly by being charged with poison. "Behold, the ARROWS of the Almighty are within me: Their poison drinketh up my spirit." Many efforts must have been made in the art of human destruction, before poisoned arrows were invented; yet it is clear that they were at least as ancient as the book of Job. It is admitted that the language.........is figurative, but.... the fact must have existed before it could have been made the basis of a figure...... VOL. III.-FOUTTH SERIES. The But what is still more surprising, we have.........an allusion to the use of bows manufactured of steel or brass. authorized version gives the text thus:"He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through;" (chap. xx. 24;) and Dr. Mason Good renders it, "Should he flee from the clashing steel, The bow of brass shall pierce him through." ،، I was at ease, but he hath broken me up ; He hath even set me as a mark for him; He pierceth my reins without mercy; But none of these allusions, plain and the spirited description of the war-horse given in the thirty-ninth chapter of this book. "Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his He goeth to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; The glittering spear and the shield. And he smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains and the shouting." We have no hesitation in asserting that this highly poetic picture could only be produced in an age in which military tactics and martial prowess existed in great perfection......... Men may laugh as they please at the fabulous accounts which have been handed down to us of the wars of Ninus and Semiramis; but while such passages as those which we have quoted are found in the Book of Job, we shall continue to believe that, He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and long before those Sovereigns were born, rage; He standeth not still at the sound of the trumpet. At the blasts of the trumpets he saith, Ahah! the art of war was well known, and practised to a fearful extent. (Pages 577-580.) The "Concluding Observations," contained in the twelfth and last chapter, have tended to increase our estimation of the author, even more than the antiquarian learning and research which are displayed in the preceding pages of his work. In these days of semi-infidelity, in which the inspired truth of God is set aside, or perverted, to satisfy the demands of a false philosophy, it is quite refreshing to find an author giving utterance to such sentiments as the following: We do not wonder, that infidels, who reject the light of revealed truth, ascribe the origin of man to accident, or to some absurd and unnatural excitation of material bodies; or that they should look for the progenitors of mankind among monkeys or other brutes. There is something congruous and seemly in their placing the origin of man in the state to which their boasted philosophy is sure to conduct him. That those who leave man no hope beyond the grave, should raise him from the mud; that they who Let us hear Mr. Smith again. These being our views, the reader will not be surprised at our having made the Bible our text-book throughout the whole inquiry. If he has met with any passage in which we have seemed to depart from scriptural truth, he is requested to ascribe this to any cause rather than design. We have regarded holy Scripture, throughout the entire investigation, as an outline-map of the way. We have gone to the records of science, to the annals of ancient nations; we have even waded through the impure fables of idolatrous religions, not for the purpose of adulterating the truth, but that we might deny him an immortal spirit, should ascribe his origin to a brute; this is not wonderful. But that moral philosophers and Christian Divines should speak of the creation of the world as the result of natural causes, and of spiritual religion as though it arose from some manifestation of grace first made under the Gospel dispensation, while the early history of man is supposed to be one of darkness and degradation; this is truly surprising ! (Page 599.) be enabled to some extent to fill up the chart. The result has been, a deeper reverence for the book of God, a stronger confidence in the uniform truth of its teaching, than we ever before entertained. In the whole range of our inquiry, we have not met with a single historic fact, related on any authority that would secure the assent of a candid and intelligent mind, which stands directly opposed to scriptural truth; while, on the contrary, the history and monuments of every nation afford evidence confirmatory of the Scriptures. (Page 600.) We have sketched this rapid outline of Mr. Smith's work, with the intention of affording our readers some general idea of the arrangement which the author has adopted, and the subjects which are brought under discussion. But we despair, after all, of being able to convey a just idea of the |