tive men were persuaded of the existence of a Deity, by the consideration of the phenomena of the universe, whose fabric and conduct, they rationally concluded, could not be deservedly ascribed either to blind chance, or to any other cause than a divine Being. But though it be true that God hath not left himself without witness,' even to perfunctory considerers, by stamping upon divers of the more obvious parts of his workmanship such conspicuous impressions of his attributes, that a moderate degree of understanding and attention may suffice to make men acknowledge his being, yet I scruple not to think that assent very much inferior to the belief that the same objects are fitted to produce in a heedful and intelligent contemplator of them. For the works of God are so worthy of their author, that, besides the impresses of his wisdom and goodness that are left, as it were, upon their surfaces, there are a great many more curious and excellent tokens and effects of divine artifice in the hidden and innermost recesses of them; and these are not to be discovered by the perfunctory looks of oscitant and unskilful beholders; but require, as well as deserve, the most attentive and prying inspection of inquisitive and well-instructed considerers. And sometimes in one creature there may be I know not how many admirable things, that escape a vulgar eye, and yet may be clearly discerned by that of a true naturalist, who brings with him, besides a more than common curiosity and attention, a competent knowledge of anatomy, optics, cosmography, mechanics, and chemistry. But treating elsewhere purposely of this subject, it may here suffice to say, that God has couched so many things in his visible works, that the clearer light a man has, the more he may discover of their unobvious exquisiteness, and the more clearly and distinctly he may discern those qualities that lie more obvious. And the more wonderful things he discovers in the works of nature, the more auxiliary proofs he meets with to establish and enforce the argument, drawn from the universe and its parts, to evince that there is a God; which is a proposition of that vast weight and importance, that it ought to endear everything to us that is able to confirm it, and afford us new motives to acknowledge and adore the divine Author of things. * * To be told that an eye is the organ of sight, and that this is performed by that faculty of the mind which, from its function, is called visive, will give a man but a sorry account of the instruments and manner of vision itself, or of the knowledge of that Opificer who, as the Scripture speaks, formed the eye.' And he that can take up with this easy theory of vision, will not think it necessary to take the pains to dissect the eyes of animals, nor study the books of mathematicians, to understand vision; and accordingly will have but mean thoughts of the contrivance of the organ, and the skill of the artificer, in comparison of the ideas that will be suggested of both of them to him that, being profoundly skilled in anatomy and optics, by their help takes asunder the several coats, humours, and muscles, of which that exquisite dioptrical instrument consists; and having separately considered the figure, size, consistence, texture, diaphaneity or opacity, situation, and connection of each of them, and their coaptation in the whole eye, shall discover, by the help of the laws of optics, how admirably this little organ is fitted to receive the incident beams of light, and dispose them in the best manner possible for completing the lively representation of the almost infinitely various objects of sight. * It is not by a slight survey, but by a diligent and skilful scrutiny of the works of God, that a man must be, by a rational and affective conviction, engaged to acknowledge with the prophet, that the Author of nature is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.' Reflection upon a Lanthorn and Candle, carried by on a Windy Night. there are not many that have been more curiously As there are few controversies more important, so and warmly disputed, than the question, whether a public or a private life be preferable! But perhaps this may be much of the nature of the other question, whether a married life or single ought rather to be chosen? that being best determinable by the circumstances of particular cases. For though, indefinitely speaking, one of the two may have advantages above the other, yet they are not so great but that special circumstances may make either of them the more eligible to particular persons. They that find themselves furnished with abilities to serve their generaresist the temptations to which such a condition is tion in a public capacity, and virtue great enough to usually exposed, may not only be allowed to embrace such an employment, but obliged to seek it. But he whose parts are too mean to qualify him to govern others, and perhaps to enable him to govern himself, or manage his own private concerns, or whose graces are so weak, that it is less to his virtues, or to his ability of resisting, than to his care of shunning the occasions of sin, that he owes his escaping the guilt of it, had better deny himself some opportunities of good, than expose himself to probable temptations. For there is such a kind of difference betwixt virtue shaded by a private and shining forth in a public life, as there is betwixt a candle carried aloft in the open air, and inclosed in a lanthorn; in the former place it gives more light, but in the latter it is in less danger to be blown out. Upon the sight of Roses and Tulips growing near one another. It is so uncommon a thing to see tulips last till roses come to be blown, that the seeing them in this garden grow together, as it deserves my notice, so methinks it should suggest to me some reflection or other on it. And perhaps it may not be an improper one to compare the difference betwixt these two kinds of flowers to the disparity which I have often observed betwixt the fates of those young ladies that are only very handsome, and those that have a less degree of beauty, recompensed by the accession of wit, discretion, and virtue: for tulips, whilst they are fresh, do indeed, by the lustre and vividness of their colours, more delight the eye than roses; but then they do not alone quickly fade, but, as soon as they have lost that freshness and gaudiness that solely endeared them, they degenerate into things not only undesirable, but distasteful; whereas roses, besides the moderate beauty they disclose to the eye (which is sufficient to please, though not to charm it), do not only keep their colour longer than tulips, but, when that decays, retain a perfumed odour, and divers useful qualities and virtues that survive the spring, and recommend them all the year. Thus those unadvised young ladies, that, because nature has given them beauty enough, despise all other qualities, and even that regular diet which is ordinarily requisite to make beauty itself lasting, not only are wont to decay betimes, but, as soon as they have lost that youthful freshness that alone endeared them, quickly pass from being objects of wonder and love, to be so of pity, if not of scorn; whereas those that were as solicitous to enrich their minds as to adorn their faces, may not only with a mediocrity of beauty be very desirable whilst that lasts, but, notwithstanding the recess of that and youth, may, by the fragrancy of their reputation, and those virtues and ornaments of the mind that time does but improve, be always sufficiently endeared to those that have merit enough to discern and value such excel lences, and whose esteem and friendship is alone worth their being concerned for. In a word, they prove the happiest as well as they are the wisest ladies, that, whilst they possess the desirable qualities that youth is wont to give, neglect not the acquist facquisition] of those that age cannot take away. [Marriage a Lottery.] and I have hitherto met with, do (for want of skill in the original, especially in the Hebrew) judge of it by the translations, wherein alone they read it. Now, scarce any but a linguist will imagine how much a book may lose of its elegancy by being read in another tongue than that it was written in, especially if the languages from which and into which the version is made be so very differing, as are those of the eastern and these western parts of the world. But of this I foresee an occasion of saying something hereafter; yet at present I must observe to you, that the style of the Scripture is much more disadvantaged than that of other books, by being judged of by translations; for the religious and just veneration that the interpreters of the Bible have had for that sacred book, has made them, in most places, render the Hebrew and Greek passages so scrupulously word for word, that, for fear of not keeping close enough to the sense, they usually care not how much they lose of the eloquence of the passages they translate. So that, whereas in those versions of other books that are made by good linguists, the interpreters are wont to take the liberty to recede from the author's words, and also substitute other phrases instead of his, that they may express his meaning without injuring his reputation. In translating the Old Testament, interpreters have not put Hebrew phrases into Latin or English phrases, but only into Latin or English words, and have too often, besides, by not sufficiently understanding, or at least considering, the various significations of words, particles, and tenses, in the holy tongue, made many things appear less coherent, or less rational, or less considerable, which, by a more free and skilful rendering of the original, would not be blemished by any appearance of such imperfection. And though this fault of interpreters be pardonable enough in them, as carrying much of its excuse in its cause, yet it cannot but much derogate from the Scripture to appear with peculiar disadvantages, besides those many that are common to almost all books, by being tran Methinks, Lindamor, most of those transitory goods Some Considerations Touching the Style of the These things, dear Theophilus, being thus despatched, I suppose we may now seasonably proceed to consider the style of the Scripture; a subject that will as well require as deserve soine time and much attention, in regard that divers witty men, who freely acknowledge the authority of the Scripture, take exceptions at its style, and by those and their own reputation, divert many from studying, or so much as perusing, those sacred writings, thereby at once giving men injurious and irreverent thoughts of it, and diverting them from allowing the Scripture the best way of justifying itself, and disabusing them. Than which scarce anything can be more prejudicial to a book, that needs but to be sufficiently understood to be highly venerated; the writings these men criminate, and would keep others from reading, being like that honey which Saul's rash adjuration withheld the Israelites from eating, which, being tasted, not only gratified the taste, but enlightened the eyes. * Of the considerations, then, that I am to lay before you, there are three or four, which are of a more general nature; and therefore being such as may each of them be pertinently employed against several of the exceptions taken at the Scripture's style, it will not be inconvenient to mention them before the rest. And, in the first place, it should be considered that those cavillers at the style of the Scripture, that you For whereas the figures of rhetoric are wont, by orators, to be reduced to two comprehensive sorts, and one of those does so depend upon the sound and placing of the words (whence the Greek rhetoricians call such figures schemata lexeos), that, if they be altered, though the sense be retained, the figure may vanish; this sort of figures, I say, which comprises those that orators call epanudos antanaclasis, and a multitude of others, are wont to be lost in such literal translations as are ours of the Bible, as I could easily show by many instances, if I thought it requisite. Besides, there are in Hebrew, as in other languages, certain appropriated graces, and a peculiar emphasis belonging to some expressions, which must necessarily be impaired by any translation, and are but too often quite lost in those that adhere too scrupulously to the words of the original. And, as in a lovely face, though a painter may well enough express the cheeks, and the nose, and lips, yet there is often something of splendour and vivacity in the eyes, which no pencil can reach to equal; so in some choice composures, though a skilful interpreter may happily enough render into his own language a great part of what he translates, yet there may well be some shining passages, some sparkling and emphatical expressions, that he cannot possibly represent to the life. And this consideration is more applicable to the Bible and its translations than to other books, for two particular reasons. For, first, it is more difficult to translate the Hebrew of the Old Testament, than if that book were written in Syriac or Arabic, or some such other eastern language. Not that the holy tongue is much more difficult to be learned than others; but because in the other learned tongues we know there are commonly poems. And therefore it is that the latter critics have been fain to write comments, or at least notes, upon every page, and in some pages upon almost every line of those books, to enable the reader to discern the eloquence, and relish the wit of the author. And if such dilucidations be necessary to make us value writings that treat of familiar and secular affairs, and were written in a European language, and in times and countries much nearer to ours, how much do you think we must lose of the elegancy of the book of Job, the Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon, and other sacred composures, which not only treat oftentimes of sublime and supernatural mysteries, but were written in very remote regions so many ages ago, amidst circumstances to most of which we cannot but be great strangers. And thus much for my first general consideration. variety of books extant, whereby we may learn the various significations of the words and phrases; whereas the pure Hebrew being unhappily lost, except so much of it as remains in the Old Testament, out of whose books alone we can but very imperfectly frame a dictionary and a language, there are many words, especially the hapax legomena, and those that occur but seldom, of which we know but that one signification, or those few acceptions, wherein we find it used in those texts that we think we clearly understand. Whereas, if we consider the nature of the primitive tongue, whose words, being not numerous, are most of them equivocal enough, and do many of them abound with strangely different meanings; and if we consider, too, how likely it is that the numerous conquests of David, and the wisdom, prosperity, fleets, and various commerces of his son Solomon, did both enrich and spread the Hebrew language, it can- My second is this, that we should carefully distinnot but seem very probable, that the same word or guish betwixt what the Scripture itself says, and what phrase may have had divers other significations than is only said in the Scripture. For we must not look interpreters have taken notice of, or we are now aware upon the Bible as an oration of God to men, or as a of: since we find in the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and body of laws, like our English statute-book, wherein other eastern tongues, that the Hebrew words and it is the legislator that all the way speaks to the phrases (a little varied, according to the nature of people; but as a collection of composures of very difthose dialects) have other, and oftentimes very differing sorts, and written at very distant times; and ferent significations, besides those that the modern of such composures, that though the holy men of God interpreters of the Bible have ascribed to them. I say (as St Peter calls them) were acted by the Holy the modern, because the ancient versions before, or Spirit, who both excited and assisted them in penning not long after, our Saviour's time, and especially that the Scripture, yet there are many others, besides the which we vulgarly call the Septuagint's, do frequently Author and the penmen, introduced speaking there. favour our conjecture, by rendering Hebrew words For besides the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and phrases to senses very distant from those more Kings, Chronicles, the four evangelists, the Acts of received significations in our texts; when there ap- the Apostles, and other parts of Scripture that are evipears no other so probable reason of their so rendering dently historical, and wont to be so called, there are, them, as their believing them capable of significations in the other books, many passages that deserve the differing enough from those to which our later inter- same name, and many others wherein, though they be preters have thought fit to confine themselves. The not mere narratives of things done, many sayings and use that I would make of this consideration may easily expressions are recorded that either belong not to be conjectured, namely, that it is probable that many the Author of the Scripture, or must be looked upon as of those texts whose expressions, as they are rendered such wherein his secretaries personate others. So that, in our translations, seem flat or improper, or incohe- in a considerable part of the Scripture, not only prorent with the context, would appear much otherwise, phets, and kings, and priests being introduced speakif we were acquainted with all the significations of ing, but soldiers, shepherds, and women, and such words and phrases that were known in the times other sorts of persons, from whom witty or eloquent when the Hebrew language flourished, and the sacred things are not (especially when they speak ex tempore) books were written; it being very likely, that among to be expected, it would be very injurious to impute those various significations, some one or other would to the Scripture any want of eloquence, that may be afford a better sense, and a more significant and sinewy noted in the expressions of others than its Author. expression, than we meet with in our translations; For though, not only in romances, but in many of and perhaps would make such passages as seem flat those that pass for true histories, the supposed speakers or uncouth, appear eloquent and emphatical. may be observed to talk as well as the historian, yet that is but either because the men so introduced were ambassadors, orators, generals, or other eminent men for parts as well as employments; or because the historian does, as it often happens, give himself the liberty to make speeches for them, and does not set down indeed what they said, but what he thought fit that such persons on such occasions should have said. Whereas the penmen of the Scripture, as one of them truly professes, having not followed cunningly-devised fables in what they have written, have faithfully set down the sayings, as well as actions, they record, without making them rather congruous to the conditions of the speakers than to the laws of truth. * But this is not all: for I consider, in the second place, that not only we have lost divers of the significations of many of the Hebrew words and phrases, but that we have also lost the means of acquainting ourselves with a multitude of particulars relating to the topography, history, rites, opinions, fashions, customs, &c., of the ancient Jews and neighbouring nations, without the knowledge of which we cannot, in the perusing of books of such antiquity as those of the Old Testament, and written by (and principally for) Jews, we cannot, say, but lose very much of that esteem, delight, and relish, with which we should read very many passages, if we discerned the references and allusions that are made in them to those stories, proverbs, opinions, &c., to which such passages may well be supposed to relate. And this conjecture will not, I presume, appear irrational, if you but consider how many of the handsomest passages in Juvenal, Persius, Martial, and divers other Latin writers (not to mention Hesiod, Musæus, or other ancienter Greeks), are lost to such readers as are unacquainted with the Roman customs, government, and story; nay, or are not sufficiently informed of a great many particular circumstances relating to the condition of those times, and of divers particular persons pointed at in those SIR ISAAC NEWTON. SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727) holds by universal consent the highest rank among the natural philosophers of ancient and modern times. He was born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, where his father cultivated a small paternal estate. From childhood he manifested a strong inclination to mechanics, and at Trinity college, Cambridge, which he entered in 1660, he made so great and rapid progress in his mathematical studies, that, in 1669, Dr Isaac Barrow, whose pupil he was, resigned to him the Lucasian professorship of mathematics. He served repeatedly Sir Isaac Newton. in parliament as member for the university; was appointed warden of the mint in 1695; became president of the Royal Society in 1703; and two years afterwards, received the honour of knighthood from Queen Anne. To the unrivalled genius and sagacity of Newton, the world is indebted for a variety of splendid discoveries in natural philosophy and ma Birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton. thematics; among these, his exposition of the laws which regulate the movements of the solar system may be referred to as the most brilliant. The first step in the formation of the Newtonian system of philosophy, was his discovery of the law of gravitation, which he showed to affect the vast orbs that revolve around the sun, not less than the smallest objects on our own globe. The work in which he explained this system was written in Latin, and appeared in 1687 under the title of Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica-[The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy]. To Newton we owe likewise extensive discoveries in optics, by which the aspect of that science was so entirely changed, that he may justly be termed its founder. He was the first to conceive and demonstrate the divisibility of light into rays of seven different colours, and possessing different degrees of refrangibility. After pursuing his optical investigations during a period of thirty years, he gave to the world, in 1704, a detailed account of his discoveries in an admirable work entitled Optics: or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light. Besides these, he published various profound mathematical works, which it is unnecessary here to enumerate. Like his illustrious contemporaries Boyle, Barrow, and Locke, this eminent man devoted much attention to theology as well as to natural science. The mystical doctrines of religion were those which he chiefly investigated; and to his great interest in them we owe the composition of his Observations upon the Prophecies of Holy Writ, particularly the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St John, published after his death. Among his manuscripts were found many other theological pieces, mostly on such subjects as the Prophetic Style, the Host of Heaven, the Revelations, the Temple of Solomon, the Sanctuary, the Working of the Mystery of Iniquity, and the Contest between the Host of Heaven and the Transgressors of the Covenant. The whole manuscripts left by Sir Isaac were perused by Dr Pellet, by agreement with the executors, with the view of publishing such as were thought fit for the press; the report of that gentleman however was, that, of the whole mass, nothing but a work on the Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms was fit for publication. That treatise accordingly appeared; and, contrary to Dr Pellet's opinion, the Observations upon the Prophecies,' already mentioned, were likewise sent to press. An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, also from the pen of Sir Isaac, first appeared in a perfect form in Dr Horsley's edition of his works in 1779. We subjoin a specimen of his remarks on [The Prophetic Language.] For understanding the prophecies, we are, in the first place, to acquaint ourselves with the figurative language of the prophets. This language is taken from the analogy between the world natural, and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic. Accordingly, the whole world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people; or so much of it as is considered in the prophecy. And the things in that world signify the analogous things in this. For the heavens, and the things therein, signify thrones and dignities, and those who enjoy them; and the earth, with the things thereon, the inferior people; and the lowest parts of the earth, called Hades, or Hell, the lowest or most miserable part of them. Whence, ascending towards heaven, and descending to the earth, are put for rising and falling in power and honour; rising out of the earth or waters, and falling into them, for the rising up to any dignity or dominion, out of the inferior state of the people, or falling down from the same into that inferior state; descending into the lower parts of the earth, for descending 521 to a very low and unhappy state; speaking with a faint voice out of the dust, for being in a weak and low condition; moving from one place to another, for translation from one office, dignity, or dominion to another; great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, for the shaking of dominions, so as to distract or overthrow them; the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passing away of an old one, or the beginning and end of the world, for the rise and reign of the body politic signified thereby. In the heavens, the sun and moon are, by the interpreters of dreams, put for the persons of kings and queens. But in sacred prophecy, which regards not single persons, the sun is put for the whole species and race of kings, in the kingdom or kingdoms of the world politic, shining with regal power and glory; the moon for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars for subordinate princes and great men, or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ; light for the glory, truth, and knowledge, wherewith great and good men shine and illuminate others; darkness for obscurity of ondition, and for error, blindness, and ignorance; darkening, smiting, or setting of the sun, moon, and stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom, or for the desolation thereof, proportional to the darkness; darkening the sun, turning the moon into blood, and falling of the stars, for the same; new moons, for the return of a dispersed people into a body politic or ecclesiastic. politic heaven and earth; a forest, for a kingdom; There is a question with respect to Sir Isaac Newton, which has recently excited so much controversy in the literary world, that we cannot avoid taking Fire and meteors refer to both heaven and earth, some notice of it in this place. It is well known and signify as follows:--Burning anything with fire, that during the last forty years of his life, the inis put for the consuming thereof by war; a confia-ventive powers of this great philosopher seemed to gration of the earth, or turning a country into a lake of fire, for the consumption of a kingdom by war; the being in a furnace, for the being in slavery under another nation; the ascending up of the smoke of any burning thing for ever and ever, for the continuation of a conquered people under the misery of perpetual subjection and slavery; the scorching heat of the sun, for vexatious wars, persecutions, and troubles inflicted by the king; riding on the clouds, for reigning over much people; covering the sun with a cloud, or with smoke, for oppression of the king by the armies of an enemy; tempestuous winds, or the motion of clouds, for wars; thunder, or the voice of a cloud, for the voice of a multitude; a storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and overflowing rain, for a tempest of war descending from the heavens and clouds politic on the heads of their enemies; rain, if not immoderate, and dew, and living water, for the graces and doctrines of the Spirit; and the defect of rain, for spiritual barrenness. have lost their activity; he made no farther discoveries, and, in his later scientific publications, imparted to the world only the views which he had formed in early life. In the article Newton' in the the statement was for the first time made, that his French Biographie Universelle, written by M. Biot, mental powers were impaired by an attack of insanity, which occurred in the years 1692 and 1693. This averment was by many received with incredulity; and Sir David Brewster, who published a Life of Newton in 1831, maintains that there is no suffieient proof of the fact alleged. Undue importance, tion in a religions point of view; for the theological we humbly conceive, has been attached to this quesstudies of Newton were by no means confined to the concluding portion of his life, nor is the testimony of even so great a man in favour of Christianity of much value in a case where evidence, and not authority, must be resorted to as the real ground of In the earth, the dry land and congregated waters, decision. That Newton's mind was much out of as a sea, a river, a flood, are put for the people of order at the period mentioned, appears to us to be several regions, nations, and dominions; embittering satisfactorily proved even by documents first made of waters, for great affliction of the people by war and known to the world in Brewster's work, indepenpersecution; turning things into blood, for the mys-dently of those published by M. Biot. The latter tical death of bodies politic, that is, for their dissolu- gives a manuscript of the Dutch astronomer Huygens, tion; the overflowing of a sea or river, for the invasion which is still preserved at Leyden, and is to the folof the earth politic, by the people of the waters; dry-lowing effect. On the 29th of May 1694, a Scotching up of waters, for the conquest of their regions by the earth; fountains of waters for cities, the permanent heads of rivers politic; mountains and islands, for the cities of the earth and sea politic, with the territories and dominions belonging to those cities; dens and rocks of mountains, for the temples of cities; the hiding of men in those dens and rocks, for the shutting up of idols in their temples; houses and ships, for families, assemblies, and towns in the earth and sea politic; and a navy of ships of war, for an army of that kingdom that is signified by the sea. Animals also, and vegetables, are put for the people of several regions and conditions; and particularly trees, herbs, and land animals, for the people of the earth politic; flags, reeds, and fishes, for those of the waters politic; birds and insects, for those of the man of the name of Colin informed me that Isaac Newton, the celebrated mathematician, eighteen months previously, had become deranged in his mind, either from too great application to his studies, or from excessive grief at having lost, by fire, his chemical laboratory and some papers. Having made observations before the chancellor of Cambridge, which indicated the alienation of his intellect, he was taken care of by his friends; and being confined to his house, remedies were applied, by means of which he has lately so far recovered his health, as to begin to again understand his own Principia.' This account is confirmed by a diary kept by Mr Abraham de la Pryme, a Cambridge student, who, under date the 3d of February 1692 (being what was on the continent called 1693, as |