cessful investigations relative to the inscription at Axum, introduced into the narrative of his former voyage. During the present, he embraced the opportunity of revisiting that curious monument; and, on a very diligent comparison, he was gratified to find that the greater part' of his former conjectures were verified. The variations which he notices are not very material, but will tend still farther to establish his reputation for accuracy of detail and minute personal inspection. He must pardon us, however, if we take the liberty to remark that, in an instance immediately preceding, his love of conjecture seems to us to have betrayed him into somewhat of the puerility generally charged on minute verbal critics. How the simple practice of tying two offenders together by the girdle, or cloak, or any other part of their clothing, should have occurred to him as illustrating the very plain and naked story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, is really a question of which the solution would seem to involve a new principle of mental association; and we cannot wonder at Mr. Salt's friend, who (as he candidly informs us in a note) observed to him that the testimony of the wife alone might have been sufficient to justify Potiphar's conduct,' without the intervention of any explanation drawn from a practice apparently so casual and unimportant as that of binding two culprits together on their way to the seat of justice. - Of a very different spirit are the author's conjectures relative to the site of the antient city of Adulis. Though he was unfortunately prevented by illness from ascertaining their result by a personal visit to the supposed spot, they afford, together with those already noticed relative to the bay of Howakil, a very favourable specimen of the peculiar talent which drew them forth; and they appear to justify us in the assertion that Mr. Salt is a person eminently qualified both by inclination and habits of mind for enlarging, by the result of actual observations, the existing stock of critical knowlege on the subject of geographical antiquities.

With regard to the writer's remaining qualifications for the difficult and hazardous enterprise undertaken by him, (of which the preceding pages contain, we believe, a tolerably correct abstract as to the general result,) it is impossible to speak too highly, as far as we may be allowed to judge of them from the evidence afforded by his work. He appears to be singularly zealous in the pursuit of his objects, and indefatigably active in the attainment of them. An union of firmness and temper, of quickness in receiving and tenacity in retaining impressions, with critical acumen in sifting and soundness of judgment in discriminating between them, constitutes the basis of a traveller's most important accomplishments; and all these we may

fairly ascribe to Mr. Salt in a degree by no means common or frequent.

Our readers may be somewhat surprized that they have yet heard nothing of the result of Mr. Stuart's mission to the unknown kingdom of Hurrur; and we confess that our own expectations were so highly wound up on the subject, that we have experienced no small disappointment when, towards the conclusion of the work, we were informed that the want of space or of time for the insertion of these details had induced Mr. Salt to abandon his original intention of incorporating them in his volume. We shall look, indeed, with confidence for the performance of his promise to make them the subject of a future publication: but we think that he ought not to have been deterred by the apprehension of their swelling the present to an unreasonable length,' from making them form a part of it, since he had certainly pledged himself that they should. We will not, however, be so unreasonable as to quarrel with him for an act of non-performance so easily rectified; especially as its omission on this occasion is to be compensated by a promised continuation of Pearce's journal, and extracts from the Ras's correspondence.

Thirty-seven excellent plates, maps, and charts, decorate this volume: but we have to regret that it is not furnished with an `Index, the want of which is inadequately supplied by an analy tical Table of Contents.

ART. II. Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians before the Time of Constantine the Great; or an enlarged View of the Eccle siastical History of the First Three Centuries. Accompanied with copious illustrative Notes and References. Translated from the Latin of John Laurence Mosheim, D.D., late Chancellor of the University of Gottingen, by Robert Studley Vidal, Esq., F.S.A. 8vo. 2 Vols. Il. Is. sewed. Cadell and Davies. 1813.

W WHETHER the theologian or the general scholar be employed in ascertaining the nature of Christianity, including both doctrine and discipline, it is of the greatest moment to investigate the state and condition of the Christian church previously to its union with the civil power, or its patronage by the emperors of the world. The period, therefore, which the history now before us embraces ought to be minutely investigated; and we are surprized that the work of Mosheim, intitled De Rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum Magnum, and which especially details the epoch in question, was not long ago translated. At last, this desideratum is supplied, and we congratulate the public on the execution of the task. To the excelREV. JAN. 1815.

C

lence,

lence, indeed, of the performance which has been the object of Mr. Vidal's labours, testimonies without end, and such as are of the greatest weight, might be adduced; for scarcely has any writer of eminence had occasion to refer to it who does not pronounce its encomium: a matter of no wonder when we bear in mind the importance of the subject, the judgment and discrimination which the author displays in treating it, the vast information which the work imparts, and the luminous and fair manner in which it is given.

Of the causes that led to the formation of the original, we have the following account in the author's preface, by which it is introduced:

The work which I here offer to the public owes its origin rather to a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, than to any regular premeditated design. My Institutes of Christian History having met with such a rapid sale, that every copy was disposed of within four years; the worthy person, at whose expence they were printed, urged me to publish an enlarged and improved edition of them. In compliance with his wishes, I sat down to a revision of the work; and having compared its contents with the original ancient authorities, together with what else was to be met with on the subject in the writings of the learned, and also with such notes and observations as a daily course of reading and reflection had enabled me to make, I perceived, or rather my attention was again caught by what for many years before I had perceived to be the case, that in the history of Christian affairs, some things had been almost entirely omitted, others not properly represented, and not a few, either from negligence, a partial view of the subject, or the placing of too great a reliance on the industry of others, altogether misconceived.

Whatever remarks of this kind presented themselves, were carefully minuted down, with a view to render the proposed fourth edition of my book both more complete and of greater utility than the preceding ones. Proceeding constantly in this way, my collection of notes at length acquired no inconsiderable degree of bulk; and the more frequently I considered them, the more disposed I felt, (for we naturally conceive a regard for what has cost us some pains,) to believe them not wholly unworthy of being preserved. In the course of time, a thought suggested itself to me of writing a set of Commentaries on Christian affairs, upon a different scale; reducing my observations within a narrow compass on such topics as had been sufficiently treated of by others, and, at the same time, giving a more copious and satisfactory discussion of those matters which a long course of study and attention had rendered more particularly familiar to me, and respecting which I had obtained a precise and accurate knowledge. I mentioned this idea to the person above spoken of, who had submitted to me the proposal of publishing an enlarged edition of my former small work, and it met with his approbation : but, as the undertaking was of some magnitude, we agreed that the work should be published in separate parts; taking care, however, that

each

each division might be so far complete in itself as not to have the ap pearance of being disjointed, or awkwardly torn off from the rest. The work was accordingly taken up by me without delay; and I have now to express my hope, that what is here offered to the public as the first part, (but which may be considered as forming a work of itself,) may be productive of the wished-for beneficial effects.'

The first part, which, as the author observes, forms a work of itself, was the only portion which he lived to finish, and constitutes the valuable addition now made to the stores of English literature. Although the subsequent portions would have been highly gratifying from such a pen as that of Dr. Mosheim, the most important is decidedly that which has been executed.

Of the translation, Mr. Vidal gives a very just account when he says that he has, throughout the whole work, endeavoured to exhibit the sense of his original with the most scrupulous fidelity, but at the same time without so closely pursuing that object as to sink the spirit of his author in a tame and servile translation.' Not less fully do we concur with him in the opinion, that his labours are not discreditable to himself or injurious to the reputation of that illustrious author, to whom it has been throughout his most anxious wish and intention to do justice.' If, however, we readily admit that the translator's style is clear, and well suited to the, subject, we cannot venture to promise that his version of the Commentaries will be so acceptable as that which Dr. Maclaine has given of the General History. The one is a work of a popular nature, calculated for numerous readers; the other, of great research, entering much into detail, and which cannot be relished except by persons who are already conversant with ecclesiastical history. The nature of the latter, also, is not the only circumstance which will confine the study of it to a few; its concoction is such as, if not faulty, renders the perusal of it highly irksome and toilsome; and the title which it bears would have allowed that the greater part of the matter, which has been thrown into the notes, should have been incorporated with the text. As it is at present constructed, it will be in request only with the inquisitive; and, although no person who makes pretensions to liberal and enlarged knowlege can dispense with the diligent study of it, the scholar can by no means be satisfied with it in frame and structure. While, however, we deliberately thus express ourselves, let us not be supposed insensible to the rare treasures which it contains.

In the first volume, we meet with two preliminary chapters, which constitute a very necessary introduction to these Commentaries. Dr. Mosheim here takes a view of the civil,

religious, and literary state of the world in general, and of the Jewish nation in particular, at the time of the birth of our Saviour. The speculative darkness and moral depravity which then prevailed are exemplified in numerous instances. Having shewn that virtue and sanctity of morals were not promoted by the polytheistic religions of the Roman world, the author proceeds to display their actual effects:

• Under the influence of such circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that the state of society should have become in the highest degree depraved. The lives of men of every class, from the highest to the lowest, were consumed in the practice of the most abominable and flagitious vices: even crimes, the horrible turpitude of which was such, that it would be defiling the ear of decency but to name them, were openly perpetrated with the greatest impunity. If evidence be required of this, the reader may at once satisfy himself of the truth of what is here said, by referring to Lucian among the Greek authors, and to the Roman poets Juvenal and Persius. In the writings of the former in particular, he will find the most detestable unnatural affections, and other heinous practices, treated of at large, and with the utmost familiarity, as things of ordinary and daily occurrence. Should any one conceive that these or other writers might give the rein too freely to their imagination, and suffer themselves to be carried into extremes by their genius for satire and sharp rebuke, let him turn his attention to those cruel and inhuman exhibitions which are well known to have yielded the highest gratification to the inhabitants of Greece and Italy, (people who, in point of refinement, possessed a superiority over all other nations of the world,) the savage conflicts of the gladiators in the circus: let him cast his eye on that dissoluteness of manners by which the walks of private life were polluted; the horrible prostitution of boys, to which the laws opposed no restraint; the liberty of divorce, which belonged to the wife equally with the husband; the shameful practice of exposing infants, and procuring abortions; the little regard that was shewn to the lives of slaves; the multiplicity of stews and brothels, many of which were consecrated even to the gods themselves. Let him reflect on these, and various other criminal excesses, to the most ample indulgence in which the government offered not the least impediment, and then say, if such were the people distinguished beyond all others by the excellence of their laws and the superiority of their attainments in literature and the arts, what must have been the state of those nations who possessed none of these advantages, but were governed entirely by the impulses and dictates of rude and uncultivated nature !'

In a summary of the uses to be made of his picture of heathenism, Dr. M. adds:

I should hope, that from this view it will appear of what infinite advantages the Christian religion hath been productive to the world, and its inhabitants; I mean not only in a spiritual sense, by opening to us the road that leads to salvation and peace, but also in the many and vast improvements in government and civilization to