and to explain a difficult construction. The truth of this assertion, in respect to the Chaldee, and equally so in regard to the Arabic and Syriac, will be sufficiently clear by turning to any able exegetical commentary on the Bible. And this is so easily done, that we do not deem it necessary to introduce instances here in proof of it. A reference to the cognate dialects of the Hebrew is found particularly necessary and useful in the explanation of those difficult words which occur but once in the Hebrew, and are technically denominated "Au

μva. There are many pure Aramæan words found scattered in different parts of Job, Ecclesiastes, and other books of the Old Testament, and Aramæan forms, both of verbs and nouns, are not unfrequent. The aid, which the cognate dialects of the Hebrew afford in the interpretation of the Bible, is not limited to the Old Testament; they throw light also on a number of obscure passages in the New. Several expressions of the New Testament,' says J. D. Michaelis in his introduction to it, 'receive great light from the Arabic. I will not call such passages Arabisms, though many of the sermons of Christ were held on the eastern or Arabian side of the Jordan, where John the Baptist chiefly resided, and many other opportunities might have introduced Arabic expressions into the language of Palestine. The oriental languages have a striking affinity with each other; but as we know more of the Arabic, than of either Hebrew, Chaldee, or Syriac, it is not surprising that many passages of the New Testament can be explained from that language alone.' The Chaldee Targums, so called from the Chaldee word, which signifies Interpretation or Paraphrase, particularly those of Onkelos and Jonathan, have been and always will be held in estimation by the theologian, for the testimony which they afford to the genuineness of the present Hebrew text, and for the helps they offer for the better understanding both of the Old and New Testament. They are spoken of by Bishop Walton, whose merits, as an oriental scholar, no one will dispute, in the following favorable terms, selected from his Prolegomena. Primo, textui Hebræo testimonium ferunt, ejusque integritatem confirmant. Secundo, in multis locis articulos fidei Christianæ confirmant, et contra Judæos fortissima argumenta suppeditant. Tertio, in textibus difficilibus, locis obscuris, et vocabulis inusitatis multum lucis afferunt. Dum ritus, consuetudines, historias, vocabulorum significationem genuinam, sensumque

literalem explicant, quæ ipsis ex majorum traditione accepta, melius quam nobis nota erant.' The Phoenician, one of the Shemitish dialects, has become, as before remarked, nearly extinct. The history of the Samaritans is interesting on account of their connexion with the Jews, being of a like origin and a kindred religion; but the treasures of their language are so small, that the acquisition of it may be properly superseded by other studies of more prominent and real importance. Perhaps the same may be said with equal justice of the Ethiopic, especially as it is so intimately connected with the Arabic, that a knowledge of the latter will afford nearly all the aid, which could be derived from a combined acquaintance with both. The Samaritan Pentateuch, which was unknown in Europe till the seventeenth century, although quoted by the Fathers, was at length procured from the east by archbishop Usher, and was printed by Morinus in 1632 from a copy deposited in the oratory of St Honoré. It at first, as might be expected, excited much curiosity, but, although ancient, its authority and value are not wisely placed above, nor put in competition with the worth of the Hebrew text. The Samaritan Pentateuch, together with the Psalms, Song of Solomon, and New Testament, in Ethiopic, may be found in Walton's Polyglott.

From these remarks, it will be easy to infer our opinion. respecting the study of the cognate dialects of the Hebrew. To a professed biblical critic, one who makes the interpretation of the Bible his whole study, they are all of them important, but we should find no fault with the ordinary theologian, if he should exercise the wisdom and summon up the resolution to become acquainted merely with the Aramæan and the Arabic.

These, the Arabic and the Aramaan, which includes the Chaldee and Syriac, we trust will never be neglected by our young men, (those, we mean, who are preparing for the pulpit,) from principle, although we fear they will often be neglected from necessity. The Arabic in particular is not a language, like the others, which was living, but is dead, whose great men flourished, but are no more, whose works existed, but have perished. It is a living language, is very extensively spoken, and is worthy of peculiar attention. A vast number of Arabian writers flourished during that dark period, when Europe was enveloped in ignorance. Animated with New Series, No. 9.

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the true literary ardor, 'they seized and transmitted the torch of science,' when, if it had been left to other hands, it would have fallen and been extinguished. Under the patronage of Almamun, who was a great lover of learning, they translated the best Greek authors, and they did not want among themselves for men, who excelled in history, in poetry, in mathematics, and medicine. With how much sweetness and simplicity they could touch the lyre of the muses is known to many of our readers from the Specimens of Arabian Poetry,' which Professor Carlyle presented to the English public. În justice to the fine taste and poetical feeling, as well as the scholarship of their amiable translator, we cannot forbear copying one of these specimens. It is written by Ben Yousef, who for many years acted as vizier to Abou Ñasser, sultan of Diarbeker. He was passionately devoted to literature, notwithstanding his high station in political life, and composed the following stanzas, as in his travels he passed through the beautiful valley of Bozáa:

"The intertwining boughs for thee

Have wove, sweet dell, a verdant vest,
And thou in turn shall give to me,

A verdant couch upon thy breast.

To shield me from day's fervid glare
Thine oaks their fostering arms extend,

As anxious o'er her infant care

I've seen a watchful mother bend.

A brighter cup, a sweeter draught,
I gather from that rill of thine,
Than maddening drunkards ever quaffed,
Than all the treasures of the vine.

So smooth the pebbles on its shore,
That not a maid can thither stray,

But counts her strings of jewels o'er,

And thinks the pearls have slipped away.'

Princes were poets, and in many instances the sons of song were treated like princes. If our readers wish to be further informed on the subject of the Arabic and the other related dialects, to understand the treasures they contain and their connexion with biblical criticism, we refer them to the Dissertations before us, particularly that of Jahn, and note G of Professor Stuart. Such works also, as Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe, Gesenius' Geschichte der Hebräischen Sprache und Schrift, Eichhorn's Einleitung, and Walton's Prolegomena are calculated to give some true idea both of its nature and importance.

Another topic, introduced into the Dissertations, relates to the best mode of studying languages. Many of the remarks made by Gesenius, and the other authors of these Dissertations, on this point, are grounded in the nature of the human mind, are confirmed by their own experience in teaching, and are worthy the attention of the scholar, whatever his country and wherever he may be educated. It is a grand point in the acquisition of languages, while the faculties are kept in patient and vigorous exercise, not to burden them with too many dry details, and especially not to overload and constrain the memory. In the study of the Hebrew, after a person has become fundamentally acquainted with the theory of the vowels, and made himself master of the pronouns, verbs, and declensions, he ought not to be denied the pleasure of attempting to construe, and should endeavour to connect the theory and the practice, the grammar and the interpretation. Grammar,' says Jahn, is merely the medium of learning the languages with more facility, but the medium is not to be so commuted for the ultimate end, that more pains should be bestowed on the former than on the latter.' The Hebrew syntax, though not deficient in general principles, exhibits a multitude of peculiarities and exceptions. To commit to memory the whole of it, together with all the multiplied rules and exceptions, which appear in other parts of the grammar in the first instance, is unadvisable. They had better be learned by a recurrence to them, as occasion may require, after the student has begun to construe; a recurrence which will be pleasing, if he has imbibed the spirit of oriental literature. Let the student, after he has studied the whole or a part of a book, pursue the method of Wyttenbach, peruse it again carefully, and repeat the perusal, till he has trodden familiarly the crooked path of its anomalies, and its beauties begin to open more fully upon his mind.

ART. VI.-Memoirs of Algernon Sydney, by George Wilson Meadley, with an Appendix. 8vo, London, 1813.

No portion of English history presents stronger claims to attention than the last sixty years of the seventeenth century, a period in which that nation made the most rapid advances in civil and religious freedom. It is impossible to

trace without lively interest the progress of the spirit of free inquiry to which the reformation gave birth, and the great change in manners and opinions which resulted from it. This revolution in the minds of men was gradual, and for a long time unnoticed. The novel doctrines of the rights of subjects and the duties and accountableness of sovereigns, began early in that century to be agitated, rather as matter of speculation than with any view to their practical application. These opinions, however, soon gained ground, and began to be openly advanced and defended, when an ill-timed and oppressive exercise of the royal prerogative roused the resentment of the nation and led to a struggle, which terminated in the overthrow of the monarchy, and the death of the sovereign. The reaction, which naturally succeeded to a revolution so sudden and violent, had the effect to replace his son on the throne, with a degree of precipitancy and imprudence which gave no opportunity to obtain any provision for the security of the rights of the subject. These rights were accordingly disregarded by a profligate and thoughtless prince, who forgot even the trifling stipulations on which his restoration depended. The spirit of liberty had now however proceeded too far to be extinguished; the nation soon became sensible of its error; this weak and unprincipled family was again driven from the throne, and the century closed with the accession of William III, and the establishment of the British constitution nearly in the form in which it actually exists. Among the actors in this extraordinary train of events, are to be found some of the most illustrious names in modern history. Of this number Algernon Sydney is one of the most conspicuous His noble descent, his ardent and lofty spirit, the boldness of his opinions, and the intrepidity with which he supported them, the misfortunes of his life, and above all his untimely and cruel fate, conspire to excite an unusual degree of interest. As generally happens to those who fall a sacrifice to opinions, his memory has been cherished by his friends with the most enthusiastic devotion; and we may add, what can be said of few martyrs, that those who have discovered the least indulgence for his political creed, have rarely denied him the merit of consistency and disinterestedness. The part he took in political affairs is well known to the readers of history, but we have been furnished, until the publication of the volume under review, with very scanty information respecting his private life.