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REVIEW. «< Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame.*'—Pope.
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Review. «≪ Still Pleased To Praise, Yet Not Afraid To Blame.*'—Pope.
REVIEW . «< Still pleased to praise , yet not afraid to blame . *'—Pope .
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Akt . I . —Melons Pilgrimage to Jerusalem . A Picture of Judaism , in the Century ichich preceded the Advent of our Saviour . Translated Jrom the German of Frederick Strauss , with Notes and Illustrations by the Translator . London : printed for Mawman . 1824 . 2 Vols .
Crown 8 vo . First Vol . pp . 371 . Second Vol . pp . 396 . OF Helon ^ s IVallfahrt nach Jerusalem , an abstract may be seen in the eighteenth volume of the Monthly Repository : * the article was received from a correspondent , the value of whose communications makes us
lament that the number of them is so small , and whose account of the German original , comprehended such a translation of different passages of it , as shews , beyond all doubt , that we are indebted to the same pen for the appearance of the whole in our native
language . The anonymous editor lias our thanks for rendering the work accessible to English readers : we are persuaded that " it will be found a very pleasing medium of conveying historical , geographical and antiquarian knowledge , and will gratify the
taste , while it improves the heart ;" and the judicious summary , which lie has given of the narrative , more than supersedes the necessity of our representing , at any length , the object of Helorfs Pilgrimage to Jerusalem—Its commencement , stages , incidents , immediate consequences and final
issue . It will be our appropriate and pleasing duty to make a few observations upon the several labours of the author and of his translator . In this and in a succeeding number , we shall attend exclusively to the performance of Strauss : hereafter , the version of Helotfs Pilgrimage will pass under
our . We cannot be ignorant that some individuals exceedingly dislike the admixture of palpable fads and /{ rave instruction with fictitious events and personages . Yet , in the absence of all intention to deceive , in the attempt __ _ t
* I ' n 12 29
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to blend knowledge with delight , and to fix upon the memory dates and names and circumstances , which can - not , by any ordinary methods , be so impressively and successfully communicated , writings of this class seem
justifiable , and even praise-worthy . If historical truth is not perverted , if the author ' s motive is unreservedly stated , and steadily kept in sight , why should a numerous body of readers—why should the young especially—be debarred from the benefit and satisfac
tion attendant on such familiar , engaging appeals to their taste , and their associations of ideas ? It is a capital error to suppose that well-executed volumes in this department of literature can yield no other or higher result than mere amusement . General
experience militates against such an opinion : sound criticism refutes it ; and , in our own times , some of the most vivid and correct delineations of the manners of rather a distant period , which the pencil of genius has set before us , have possessed greater
attractions , and produced a more useful effect , in consequence of their being drawn , as it were , on a canvas already occupied , in part , by an historical painting . Nor can we
perceive why the principle and the force of this reasoning should be admitted , as to the supposed adventures of a Greek , a Roman , a Scythian , while the same principle and conclusion are impugned , in respect of the imaginary adventures of an Alexandrine Jew .
Strauss has exercised considerable skill in laying the period of this pilgrimage within the interval between the return from the captivity and the birth of Jesus Christ . He is still happier in the specific date * which he lias selected . By such an
arrangement he shuns any temptation to falsify the narratives of either the Old or the New Testament , and takes his station upon a spot conveniently remote from both . Let us hear what he himself gays concerning this branch of his design :
The year A . C . 109 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/38/
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