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Untitled Article
the virtues of patriotism , con - tempt of gain , compassion and other qualities of the ehewy kind , were in high estimation . He says that at this period , science had unveiled her splendours , and irradiated the discovered globe , from pole to pole . When Mr . C . flourishes in this way , is he forgetful , or is he ignorant , that science ,
though not literature , was then in its infancy , and that the globe , which is now very imperfectly known , could then hardly be said to be known at all ? In
enumerating the evils arising from the civil institutions then prevalent , he forgets to mention domestic slavery and the liberty of divorce . Some inaccuracies of style might be pointed out , which , if the work come to a second edition , should be corrected . In two or
three instances the word each is pnadethe nominative of a plural verb . Esau is callecj ^ fratricide , though fratricide means the murder not the murderer of a brother . A tract of country is more than once called a track . Instead of
saying that this or that event occurred or took place , our author constantly uses the word transpired , which has by no means the same signification . Something too much like
affectation and parade may be observed in some parts . The lectures are preceded by a long list of writers , whom jYlr . C . is supposed to have been studying deeply for
the purpose of obtaining information from them , several of whom have no written remains whatever , and concerning one in particular , Orpheus , whose exact date is here assigned , it is quite uncertain whe-
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ther any such pefson ever existed * Many examples ocdur of that kind of prettiness of manner , which makes the vulgar stare and the judicious grieve . For instance , describing in flowery language
Abraham intending to offer up Isaac , he breaks off , saying , " But we will no longer attempt to scent the violet and to paint the rain . \> o \ v . " Wheti he is admiring the concise terms in which the death
of Joseph and of the whole of that generation is mentioned by the historian , he exclaims , 4 < One should imagine that Moses had snatched a feather from the wins of time to record the swiftness of
his flight and the rapidity of his desolation . " In some places our author appears to deviate from the humble pretensions with which he sets out , and assumes the tone of a veteran critic , to whom the opinion of the world may be expected to bow * * We wish it to be un .
derstood as our decided opinion that at the destruction of Babel a new language was introduced , and this by the miraculous and immediate interposition of divine power . "
It may admit of a doubt , whether our author ' s distinction between statutes , commandments , judgments and testimonies * a * used in the Old Testament , will hold good . The terms seem often to be used indiscriminately . Instances may be produced , where statutes cannot be confined to
positive institutions , as where David says , " Thy statutes have been my jrong in tile house of my pilgrimage / ' In Lcvit . iv . 13 , the word commandments seems appli * ed peculiarly to the Levitical ri *
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6 O 4 Revie ® . - * -Collyer * $ Lectures *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1807, page 604, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2386/page/40/
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