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Musical Festival, held between the 30th October and 5th November, 1815. To which is added, an Essay, containing some general Observations on Music, by George Farquhar Graham, Esq. 12mo. 7s. bds.

The Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1813. Containing the History of Europe for the Year; Reflections on Trial by Jury in Civil Causes in Scotland; Chronicle of Public Occurrences; Public Financial Accounts; Gazettes; State Papers; Births, Marriages, Deaths, and Promotions; New Publications; Miscellanies; Original Poetry; and Index. 11. 1s. bds.

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Prescience; or, the Secrets of Divination: a Poem. By Edward Smedley, Jun. Small 8vo. 7s. 6d.

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An Examination of Mr, Dealtry's Review of Norris on the British and Foreign Bible Society; with Occasional Remarks on the Nature and Tendency of that Institution. By a Clergyman of the Diocese of London. 3s. 6d.

310

CORRESPONDENCE.

We have received a letter from Mr. Good relating to our review of his Translation of the Book of Job, which we insert without hesitation.

To the Editor of the Eclectic Review.

SIR,-IN your account of my "Translation of the Book of Job" inserted in your Review for last month, there are numerous errors of so gross and injurious a nature, as they have been pointed out to me by a friend, that I must request you to insert this letter in your next number in order to correct a few of them. In p. 134 the writer of the article, after commending my arrangement of the poem, takes especial care to frustrate the value of his approbation by adding, "this judicious and natural division had already been suggested by Schulteus and Grey; a circumstance which Mr. Good should not have neglected to record.”— Now before the writer had ventured to inflict this castigation, he should have been certain of the truth of his charge. He should have read the works he refers to had he done so, he would have found that his charge is utterly groundiess, and consequently his castigation uncalled for, since no two divisions can be more unlike than the divisions here brought into comparison.

The division of Grey is that of Schultens, and the division of both is that of the Bible; for they have no other breaks than those of the ordinary chapters. Schultens, indeed, has given a few hints upon the structure of the poem in his prefixed commentary; and Grey has copied that part of his commentary which contains them. In the course of these hints, all we meet with is, that Schultens conceived the middle part of this ancient production to be poetic, and of a dramatic cast, but its beginning and ending to be prosaic, and added afterwards. Yet he is uncertain whether the dramatic part should end with ch. xli. or at ch. xlii. 7. Having reached in his commentary, which examines chapter after chapter, the close of ch. xiv. " here, says he, the first round of discussions having terminated, Eliphaz takes occasion to thunder forth severely, &c."* and, arriving at ch. xxxii. he tells us that the reply of Elihu, which begins with it, follows up the battle, "as though with a THIRD ACT." And beyond these few and indistinct intimations, we have not a word of any kind with respect to arrangement. Extending, however, the views of Mr. Schultens as widely as a light so glimmering will allow us, we may conjecture that, after lopping off the opening and closing of the poem as adsistitious matter, he regarded the body of the work as consisting of a DRAMA of three acts: the first extending from the beginning of ch. iii. to a part of the poem not pointed out, but probably conceived to close with this single chapter; the second, wherever he supposed it to begin, terminating with ch. xiv; and the third extending from ch. xv. to the end of ch. xli. or to ch. xlii. 7. which Mr. Schultens leaves equally uncertain.

In direct opposition to this hypothesis, I have ventured to submit that the poem, instead of being a drama, is a regular epic; instead of being partly genuine and partly adsistitious, is wholly genuine; and, instead of consisting of THREE ACTS, is composed of SIX BOOKS; not one of which runs parallel with either of these three acts, excepting possibly book III. with act II.; while even this parallellism is uncertain, because, as already observed, Mr. Schultens has himself left it uncertain where he conceived his second act to commence. Perhaps no two hypotheses more incongruous or at variance with each other ever existed. Yet the reviewer boldly tells the public that the last was suggested by the first; and then adds that this is "a circumstance which Mr. Good should should not have neglected to record!!" What would every other critic have said if, with equal boldness, I had escaped from this charge of neglect, by appealing, with equal ignorance or error, to the opinion of Schultens as the foundation of my own arrangement?

In p. 138 the reviewer affirms, with the same unlucky looseness of reading, that I consider Job xiv. 10—15“ demonstrative of the doctrine of a future state." I have considered no such thing; but I have considered and affirmed that such a doctrine was known and admitted at the time in question, and that the passage adverted to is" demonstrative of the existence of the doctrine of a future state:

* Hinc, orbe primo certaminum evoluto, ansa ministrata Eliphazo-detonandi, &c. p. 13.

† Pugnam vehementissime depugnatam excipit, tertio ueluti actu. p. 14.

and not "of the truth of the doctrine," as this strange misquotation necessarily imports.

With inaccuracies of the same or of a similar kind the article abounds. Having quoted a passage from the notes, in which I point out under what circumstances the Hebrew may become an imperfect negative, and in what cases an imperfect negative may, in all languages, take the place of a full negative, and have its imperfection supplied by being made the connecting medium of two opposite propositions, the writer, in page 139 observes as follows. "In support of this canon we have three examples in English, and one in Latin: but not a single instance of such usage is produced from the Hebrew scriptures in its confirmation." Now the whole of the note here referred to, is a comment upon a direct instance of such usage; and till this writer shall venture to controvert the canon here laid down, which he has not done, one direct instance will be of itself a sufficient confirmation, and as good as a hundred. It was not, indeed, felt necessary to load the note with other examples, for the rule being laid down, its application was supposed easy. As the critic, however, seems to wish for further proofs, and admits himself to be incapable of tracing out other examples, let him turn to Eccles. i. 4, and he will find one quite in point. The Royal Moralist opens the chapter with the impressive apophthegm "vanity of vanities-all is vanity!" which he immediately proceeds to support by exemplifying that every thing in nature is transient and unstable ; deducing his instances from the passing generations of mankind, and the earth they dwell upon; from the restless journeyings of the sun; the changeableness of the winds: the perpetual current of the rivers; and the ebbing and flowing of the sea A more apt or congruous, assemblage of images cannot be put together. But, unfortunately, from understanding the particle in an affirmative or conditional, instead of in a half-negative sense; in that of et or sed, instead of in that of nec, (the other half negation being supplied by the contrast of the verbs pass away and come with the verb abide for ever) the aptness and congruity, and consequently the beauty of the passage has been destroyed by every previous translation, as far as I have examined them. The original is as follows;

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Literally,

דור הלך ודור בא : והארץ לעולם עמרת :.

Generation cometh, and generation passeth away;

NOR doth the earth abide for ever.

Thus rendered, the passage is clear and true to itself; and furnishes a singular parallelism with the well known lines in Shakespear,

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The common rendering, however, is as follows; equally adverse to the sense and beauty of the passage; "one generation passeth away, and another cometh, BUT the earth abideth for ever."

I have not time, nor have you space, for other examples; since it would be useless to point them out without explaining them. But I will, nevertheless, furnish you with more publicly, or the writer privately, upon the expression of such a wish. For the same reason I avoid pointing out more mistakes in the article before us. I cannot, however, help thinking it a pity that, after waiting upwards of three years for a proper person to undertake the task of reviewing my Translation, you should at last have fallen into the hands of so incompetent a judge. The man who would translate or criticize the book of Job, ought to be well acquainted with both Hebrew and Arabic; and the man who would review the translation in question, with its explanatory Notes, ought also to be acquainted with many other languages, as well modern as ancient. Yet the present critic makes no pretension to any other tongues than English and Hebrew, while he gives evident proofs that he is but indifferently acquainted with the latter, and has not fairly studied the helps on which he has depended. It is, hence, not to be wondered at that the opinion he has put forth at the close of his account, far less modestly than magisterially, should, whether intended to recommend or discountenance the work (for it is of doubtful interpretation) be utterly at variance with the reputation which every scholar

knows, or may easily know, it has for a long time been fortunate enough to acquire, not only in our domestic universities, but in many of those on the continent, as well as among critics of the first character in British India and the American States. JOHN MASON GOOD.

Caroline Place,

February 18, 1816.

Having satisfied Mr. Good's request by the insertion of his letter, we shall now, in justice to ourselves, subjoin a very concise comment on its contents. The Reviewer of the article in question, who is altogether unacquainted with Mr. Good, disclaims eyery improper feeling towards that Gentleman. We pronounced Mr. Good's volume to be on the whole creditable to him; which opinion surely is not consistent with any attempt to disparage his reputation, an imputation which we repel from us.

Our remarks (E. R. p. 134) do not touch the question of hypothesis, but refer solely to the distribution of the matter of the book. On this point we lay before our Readers the following comparison. Schultens and Grey, in common with Mr. Good, regard the first two Chapters as constituting the exordium. "Part II. extends from the beginning of the third to the end of the fourteenth Chapter; and comprises the first colloquy, or series of argument." "Part III. comprises the second series of controversy, and extends from the fifteenth to the close of the twenty-first Chapter." "Part IV. comprises the third and last series of controversy, and reaches from the twenty-second to the close of the thirty-first Chapter." "Part V. contains the summing up of the controversy; .which is allotted to Elihu, Ch. xxxii." "Part VI. the Almighty appears to pronounce judgement, Ch. xxxviii." Good. Introd. Disser. pp. xxv. xxx. xxxiii. xxxvi. xxxix.

Now turn we to Grey, Liber Jobi. Cap. xv.-" Hucusque primus orbis acrium certaminum-in hoc secundo orbe oppugnationis."-Cap. xxii.-"Tertius nunc volvitur orbis disputationum." Cap. xxxii.-"Hic ergo tertius Libri nostri actus quatuor decurrit sermonibus, ab arbitro quasi totius Controversiæ habitis, &c." Cap. xxxviii.-"Ultimus hicce actus exhibet geminam apparitionem-hæc lis et contentio ita finitur, quem admodum par erat; atque Homo pius-ad officium placide reducitur." These are the passages on which we founded our remark that the arrangement of the matter of the book of Job in Mr. Good's work was suggested by Schulteus and Grey. Of the probability docti judicent. In Mr. Good's letter, these passages are completely passed over.

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Every fair Reader of our work, we feel convinced, must have perceived that our words in p. 138, have reference to the existence or non-existence of the doctrine of the resurrection and a future life in the mind of the speaker, as developed in the passage Ch. xiv. 10-15. Why should Mr. Good charge upon us looseness of reading' in the matter of the paragraph in our work, p. 138, when he himself exhibits the same kind of language in p. lxxx.?-where he remarks that the passages opposed to the opinion that the doctrine of a future life was known to Job, cannot strictly be said to annihilate the doctrine of a resurrection.

We leave to the appreciation of our Readers the observations of Mr. Good in support of his canon that the Hebrew may, in certain cases, become an imperfect negative. We certainly do not consider Job ch. i. v. 5, as presenting a direct instance of such usage, and, as this is the only passage in the Hebrew Scriptures which appears as proof in Mr. Good's note on the verse, we could not admit his rule as an established canon. It was Mr. Good's business, not ours, to supply confirmation of his position.

It is unnecessary to notice the concluding part of Mr. Good's letter. The Reviewer will only say that he does make pretensions to other languages than English and Hebrew; that whatever may be the measure of his Biblical learning, it would, could Mr. Good have had the benefit of it, have saved his book from many gross errors; and that his knowledge of Hebrew, such as it is, would effectually preserve him from attributing a mill-stone, to the same root as, and Coustruing as a pronoun singular.

In conclusion, the Reviewer asserts the accuracy and justice of his remarks; and with the qualified measure which he has already used, repeats his recommendation of Mr. Good's work, that it is creditable to him, and that the money of the Biblical Student will be well expended in its purchase.

THE.

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR APRIL, 1816.

Art. I. 1. The Reasons of the Protestant Religion: A Discourse delivered at a Monthly Association of Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Congregations, held at the Meeting House in Islington, May 4, 1815. By John Pye Smith, D. D. pp. 60. Price 2s. Conder.

2. An Examination of the Arguments for the pre-eminency of the Roman Catholic Episcopacy, adduced by the Rev. John Ryan, in a Sermon preached in Townsend-Street Chapel, Dublin, at the Consecration of the Right Rev. Dr. Plunkett, and the Right Rev. Dr. Waldron, on the 24th Feb. 1815. By the Rev. James Carlyle, of the Scots Church, Mary's Abbey, Dublin. pp. 109.

3. A Defence of the Reformation, in Answer to a Book entitled 'Just 'Prejudices against the Calvinists: Written in French by the Reverend and Learned Monsieur Claude, Minister of the Reformed Church at Charenton; and faithfully translated into English, by T. B.-M. A. To which is prefixed, A Sketch of the Author's Life, including some Observations on the Spirit of Popery. By John Townsend. 2 Vols. 8vo. pp. xc. 345. 351. Price 11. 2s. Hatchard, Conder, 1815.

WERE the New Testament put into the hands of an intelligent person, imperfectly acquainted with the records of ecclesiastical history, for the purpose of deducing from the apostolic writings, not a system of polity, but correct ideas of what is involved in the profession of Christianity, he would feel assured, that both the doctrines and the discipline of the Church of Christ, had an exclusive relation to the moral and spiritual improvement of mankind. He would entertain no suspicion that there could be supposed to exist in the Scriptures, any basis for a monopoly of religion by human enactments; or that the efficacy of its truths could have any dependence on human regulations. He would find that the Apostles were fully satisfied with the submission of their converts to the faith and holy precepts of the VOL. V. N. S.

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