great length. The antithetic parallelifm gives an acuteness and force to adages and moral fentences; and therefore abounds in Solomon's proverbs, and elsewhere is not often to be met with. The poem of Job, being on a large plan, and in a high tragic ftyle, though very exact in the divifion of the lines, and in the parallelifm, and affording many fine examples of the fynonymous kind, yet confifts chiefly of the constructive. A happy mixture of the feveral forts gives an agreeable variety; and they ferve mutually to recommend and set off one another.' The author, having obferved, that there appeared to be two forts of Hebrew verfes, differing from one another in regard to their length, and having fully defcribed the fhorter kind, proceeds to treat of the longer. This diftin&tion of Hebrew verfes into longer and shorter, is, he fays, founded on the authority of the alphabetic poems; one third of the whole number of which being manifeftly of the larger fort of verfe, the reft of the shorter. He does not attempt exactly to define, by the number of fyllables, the limit, which feparates one fort of verse from the other; all that he affirms is this; that one of the three poems perfectly alphabetical, and therefore infallibly divided into its verfes; and three of the nine other alphabetical poems, divided into their verses, after the manner of the perfectly alphabetical, with the greatest degree of probability; that thefe four poems, being the four first Lamentations of Jeremiah, fall into verfes about one third longer, taking them one with another, than thofe of the other eight alphabetical poems. Example of these long verfes from a poem perfectly alphabetical. I am the man, that hath feen affliction, by the rod of his anger: He hath led me, and made me walk in darkness, and not in light. Even again turneth he his hand against me, all the day long. He hath made old my flesh and my skin, he hath broken my Lam. iii. 1 bones.' &c. Examples of the fame fort of verfe, where the limits of the verfes are to be collected only from the poetical construction of the fentences. The law of Jehovah is perfect, reftoring the foul: The testimony of Jehovah is fure, making wife the fimple: The commandment of Jehovah is clear enlightening the eyes.' &c, Pf. xix. 7. • A found • A found of a multitude in the mountains, as of many people s A found of the tumult of kingdoms, of nations gathered together: Jehovah God of hofts muftereth the host for the battle. They come from a diftant land, from the end of heaven; His lordship having endeavoured to establish, and to point out, the criteria of two forts of verfe, the shorter and the longer, fhews the reader the ufe and application of the foregoing obfervations. It is, fays he, incumbent on every tranflator to study the manner of his author; to mark the peculiarities of his ftyle, to imitate his features, his air, his gefture, and, as far as the dif, ference of language will permit, even his voice; in a word, to give a juft and expreffive refemblance of the original. If he does not carefully attend to this, he will fometimes fail of entering into his meaning; he will always exhibit him unlike himself; in a drefs, that will appear ftrange and unbecoming to all that are in any degree acquainted with him. Sebaftian Caftellio ftands in the first rank for critical abilities and theological learning among the modern tranflators of Scripture: but by endeavouring to give the whole compofition of his tranflation a new caft, to throw it out of the Hebrew idiom, and to make it adopt the Latin phrafe and structure in its ftead, he has given us fomething that is neither Hebrew nor Latin: the Hebrew manner is destroyed, and the Latin manner is not perfectly acquired we regret the lofs of the Hebrew fimplicity, and we are difgufted with the perpetual affectation of Latin elegance. This is in general the cafe; but chiefly in the poetical parts Take the following for a specimen. "Quum Ifraelitæ ex Ægypto, quum Jacobea domus emigraret ex populo barbaro, "Judæi Ifraelitæ Deo fuere fan&titati atque poteftati. "Quo vifo, mare fugit, & Jordanis retroceffit. "Montes arietum, colles ove natorum ritu exiliverunt." Surely to this even the barbarifm of the Vulgate is preferable for though it has no elegance of its own, yet it ftill retains the form, and gives us fome idea of the force and fpirit, of the Hebrew. I will fubjoin it here; for it need not fear the comparison. ' "In exitu Ifrael de Ægypto, domûs Jacob de populo barbaro, "Facta eft Judæa fanctificatio ejus, Ifrael poteftas ejus. "Mare vidit, & fugit: Jordanis converfus eft retrorfum. "Montes exultaverunt ut arietes: & colles ficut agni ovium.” Flatnefs and infipidity will generally be the confequence of deviation from the native manner of an original, which has a real merit, and a peculiar force of its own; for it will be very difficult to compenfate the lofs of this by any adventitious ornaTM ments. To exprefs fully and exactly the fenfe of the author is indeed the principal, but not the whole duty of the translator In a work of elegance and genius he is not only to inform; he muft endeavour to pleafe; and to pleafe by the fame means, if poffible, by which his author pleases. If this pleafure arifes in a great meafure from the fhape of the compofition, and the form of the conftruction, as it does in the Hebrew poetry perhaps beyond any other example whatsoever, the tranflator's eye ought to be always intent upon this: to neglect this, is to give up all chance of fuccefs, and all pretenfion to it.' -This ftrict attention to the form and fafkion of the compofition of the facred writings of the Old Teftament is not only useful and even neceffary in the tranflator, who is ambitious of preferving in his copy the force, and fpirit, and elegance of the original: it will be of great ufe to him likewife merely as an interpreter; and will often lead him into the meaning of obfcure words and phrafes: fometimes it will fuggeft the true reading, where the text in our prefent copies is faulty; and will verify and confirm a correction offered on the authority of MSS or of the antient verfions.' His lordship adds fome examples as evidences of what is here advanced, from Isaiah xxviii. 14, 15, 18, where the parallelifm has a remarkable influence in determining the fenfe of the words, and rectifying two inveterate mistakes in the text. Rabbi Azarias, a learned Jew of the fixteenth century, has treated of the ancient Hebrew verfification upon principles fimilar to thofe above proposed, and partly coincident with them. He makes the form of the verfe depend on the ftructure of the fentence, and the measures in every verfe to be determined by the feveral parts of the propofition. As he is the only one of the Jewish writers, who appears to have had any juft idea at all of this matter; as his fyftem seems to be well founded; and as his obfervations may be of use on the prefent occafion, both by giving fome degree of authority to the hypothefis above explained, and by fetting the fubject in a light fomewhat different, his lordship gives his opinion at large. He agrees with Azarias in his general principle of a rhythmus of things: but instead of confidering terms, or phrases, `or fenfes in fingle lines, as measures, determining the nature and denomination of the verse, as dimeter, trimeter, or tetrameter, he confiders only that relation and proportion of one verse to another, which arifes from the correfpondence of terms and from the form of construction; from whence refults a rhythmus of propofitions and a harmony of fentences. This This peculiar conformation of fentences, fays his lordship, fhort, concife, with frequent paufes, and regular intervals, divided into pairs, for the moft part, of correfponding lines, is the most evident characteristic now remaining of poetry among the Hebrews, as diftinguished from profe: and this, I fuppofe, is what is implied in the name mizmor; which I understand to be the proper name for verse, that is, for numerous, rhythmical, or metrical language. This form made their verfe peculiarly fit for mufic and dance, which with them were the ufual concomitants of poetry, on occafions of public joy, and in the most folemn offices of religion... But, befides, the poetical ftructure of the fentences, there are other indications of verfe in the poetical and prophetical parts of the Hebrew fcriptures: fuch are peculiarities of language, unufual and foreign words, phrafes, and forms of words, uncommon in profe; bold elliptical expreffions; frequent and abrupt change of perfons; and an ufe of the tenfes out of the common order and laftly, the poetical dialect confifting chiefly in certain anomalies peculiar to poetry; in letters and fyllables added to the ends of words: a kind of licence commonly permitted to poetry in every language. But as thefe cannot be explained by a few examples, nor perfectly understood without fome knowlege of Hebrew; I muft beg leave to refer the learned reader, who would enquire further into this fubject to what I have faid upon it in another place; or rather, to recommend it to his own obfervation in reading the facred poets in their own language.' Thus far of the genuine form and character of the prophet's compofition, which it appears to have been the tranflator's endeavour closely to follow, and as exactly to express as the difference of the languages would permit: in which indeed he has had great advantage in the habit, which our language has acquired, of expreffing with eafe, and not without elegance, Hebrew ideas, and Hebrew forms of fpeaking, from our conftant ufe of a clofe verbal tranflation both of the Old and New Testament, which has by degrees moulded our language into fuch a conformity with that of the original fcriptures, that it can, upon occafion, affume the Hebrew characer, without appearing altogether forced and unnatural. [To be continued. ] Medical and Philofophical Commentaries, by a Society in Edinburgh. 5 vols. 800. 1. 155. Murray. ΤΗ HIS work, which has been published in periodical numbers, was begun about five years ago; and, by quarterly publications, five volumes are now completed. Befides an In dex to each volume, there is now fubjoined to the fifth a general alphabetical Table of Contents to all that has been already published. By this general index the compilers tell us, that they are in hopes they fhall render the product of their first luftrum, one complete and connected work. Their quarterly publications were intended for giving early intelligence of medical discoveries. The five volumes united together by this index, are now offered to the public as exhibiting a compendious view of the most important improvements which have of late years been made in the healing art. The plan, as well as the title of this work, is in a great measure borrowed from the quarterly publication entitled, Commentarii de Rebus in Scientia Naturali & Medicina geftis, which has been regularly published at Leipfic for upwards of thirty years. The Leipfic Commentaries have long been held in very high efteem by every intelligent and induftrious medical practitioner; and we mean not to detract from the merit of that work when we obferve, that the compilers of the Edinburgh Commentaries in place of exactly following the plan on which it had been conducted, have made both alterations and additions with advantage. Each number of the Edinburgh Medical Commentaries is divided into four fections. In the first an analysis is given of different publications, which, in the opinion of the editors, claim attention for the medical or philofophical discoveries which they contain. In giving this account of books, the editors feem anxiously to have fhunned offering any opinion, respecting the merit of alleged improvements. By this conduct they may indeed avoid making enemies to themselves, among those authors of whofe works they give an abridged view; yet there can be no doubt that it would add greatly to the value of their Commentary, were they freely and candidly to give their own opinion refpecting the merit or demerit of the publications which they analyse. In this refpect they have with impropriety followed the example fet them in the Leipfic Commentaries. For by fuch an opinion the difcerning reader, when poffeffed of a fair analyfis, would never be precluded from judging for himself. In this fection their fole object feems to be, to prefent their readers with the earlieft intelligence of whatever has been published as a difcovery, either in the tranfactions of public focieties, of which many are now established in every part of the world, or in the numerous writings of private perfons. Hence, even although no opinion on the merit of them be given, it must still be an object of high importance to every medical practitioner, who has neither leifure nor opportunity for making diligent fearch himself 6 though |