"The ingenious Mr. Sympson (Mr. Sympson again !) observes that we should read against the public weal:' and so it actually stands in Whalley's edition, together with a grave comment on the errors of printers and transcribers: Catiline was so closely hemmed in by Cicero's precautions that he had not power to shake even a reed belonging to the republic: this is the OBVIOUS sense of the passage which runs THUS in the original: commovere te contra REMPUBLICAM non potuisse."

Mr. Gifford, on another occasion, observing, on a trip of "Poor Sympson," as he somewhere calls him, says, "I have silently thrown out much of their lumber of course, though it has cost me some pains to abstain from exposing their absurd temerity." Now really we think that poor Sympson, in the present instance at least, though wrong in the particular misreading, which he imagines that he has detected, was stumbling on the verge of truth; and that Mr. Gifford might, like Falstaff, have "babbled of green fields" to as much purpose as of reeds.

Speaking of some other unhappy commentators, Mr. Gifford somewhere remarks on the epithet," inhabitable," for "uninhabitable."- "This trite word is sure to draw forth a note on its singular import, as often as it occurs. The commentators seem to forget (if they ever knew), that much of our language is Norman." Might it not be retorted, that " Mr. Gifford seems to forget (if he ever knew), that much of our language is Saxon ?" Rad in Anglo-Saxon is COUNSEL. Burh-rad is state-counsel: the very version of the very word of Cicero, which Mr. Gifford insists that Jonson translated, by this pastoral periphrasis! Jonson unquestionably wrote:

"So that thou could'st not move

Against THE public REDE."

The use of read for counsel in general is common enough: Spenser in his Hymne on Heavenly Love," says:

"Such mercy he, by his most holy reede,

Unto us taught:'

And Ophelia in Hamlet talks of the officious counsellor, who "Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,

And recks not his own read."

In the Fox, Act i. we have the following passage with the following comment from Mr. Gifford:

"Is your pearl ORIENT, Sir?"

i. e. bright; sparkling, pellucid. Thus Shakspeare:

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Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely shaded!" And Milton:

"His orient liquor in a crystal glass." Comus. As Shakspeare had called his pearl bright, he would not want

to call it also sparkling: Milton's orient liquor was rosy liquor: allusive to the blush of the dawn. But what sort of a question is that of "is your pearl sparkling ?" or has Mr. Gifford EVER SEEN a sparkling and pellucid PEARL?-Mosca inquires naturally "Is your pearl Indian ?”—(oriental) Is it the finest sort of pearl? Alchemist, Act iv. Scene 2.

"I am unable to explain this. It may mean that the Spanish fashion of evincing politeness is the most respectful: (for garb is sometimes used for a mode of behaviour) or stoup may signify some article of dress.

But this is all at random."

We think so too. Does Mr. Gifford really wish us to understand that stoup is literally stooping; a bend of the body, or Gil Blas salutation, as we see it in the print? He might as well have said that stoup was a cup of liquor, and that this was an allusion to the respectful mode of drinking healths among the Spaniards; or have said-" any thing-but to the purpose.' That it is an article of dress seems sufficiently plain, from its connection with the "Spanish ruffs," and Spanish perfumed gloves. As to the meaning of the term, we also confess our inability to explain it. There is no word in Spanish that gives us any help. Estopa is hemp; and it is curious enough that stoup in Armoric is tow. We suspect it to be a false reading. That the term should not be found in any of the contemporary dramaticks, nor in any of the antiquarian writers on old English dress is quite unaccountable. Chaucer, in his Parson's prose Tale, speaks of the "horrible disordinate scantnesse of clothing as ban those cutted stoppes or hanselties." The annotators of Chaucer explain this breeches; but the garment is censured as not covering that part of the person which breeches were contrived to cover. The word occurs later in our history, as a jacket with short skirts; and to this the hose, or breeches and stockings in one piece, were fastened with tags or points. Stubs, in his "Anatomy of Abuses," speaks of the English as wearing cloaks of "white, red, tawny," &c. cloth, silk, velvet, &c. whereof some be of the . Spanish, French, and Dutch fashions: some short, scarcely reaching to the girdle-stead, or knee." This is the same stoppe -called also the pattock, of which John Rows of Warwick complains; and against which, on account of its supposed unseemliness, a sumptuary law was enacted by parliament in 1463. Hall, in his account of a pageant of Henry VIII. speaks of Portugal stopps. We venture to recommend to Mr. Gifford,

Your Spanish stopp

Is the best garb--

and he may put us, if he pleases, with the other unlucky wights, who, for having guessed differently from him are committed to peine forte et dure" in sundry holes and corners of the notes to Jonson re-edited, like the captives of the giant Barbarico in the Fairy Tale.

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These parting hints at the trenchant fury of Mr. Gifford's hostility, and the biting edge and undistinguishing sweep of his ridicule, are intended rather for the consideration of future critics, than of himself. He is past the time when remonstrance is either useful, or apt to be much heeded; and it is somewhat too late to expect that the author of the Baviad should roar you as gently as any sucking dove." We desire also not to be reckoned among those who make no exceptions in favour of a man, whose life commenced in struggles against oppression; whose powers were first called into action by folly, which he chastised and reformed; whose genius cradled in adversity, was nursed on the lap of satire. They who respect honesty of purpose will find something to pardon in the aberrations of indignant spleen.

ART. X.-GLEIG'S EDITION OF STACKHOUSE.

1. The History of the Holy Bible, from the Beginning of the World to the Establishment of Christianity; with Answers to Infidel Objections, Dissertations on the most Remarkable Passages, and most Important Doctrines, and a Connexion of the Profane, with the Sacred Writings. By the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, A. M. &c. The whole corrected and improved, and dedicated by Permission to His Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. By the Right Reverend George Gleig, LL. D., &c. 3 vols. 4to. Longman and Co. London, 1817.

2. A Discourse on the Doctrine of Original Sin (occasioned by an Appendix to Stackhouse's Dissertation on that Subject, dedicated with Permission to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the Rev. Dr. Gleig, a Bishop of the Scotch Episcopal Church) preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Sunday, the 9th of March. By the Rev. Thomas Wilkinson, M. A., &c. Rivingtons. London, 1817.

THIS great work of Stackhouse has been so long in the hands of the public, and so fully appreciated by readers of the most differ

ent principles, both in theology and natural science, that it would be superfluous in the extreme to subject the multifarious matter which it contains to a regular and formal review. We may be allowed however to express a wish that the learned editor, whose labours now demand our attention, had comprehended in his plan a system of retrenchment as well as of augmentation; that as he has furnished several most valuable dissertations of his own, he had thrown out some of the less judicious of those which he found in his author; and that, in particular, as he has given strength to certain of the answers which the latter chose to make to the numerous sceptical objections brought forward by himself in almost every part of his book, he had likewise used some discretion in omitting a number of these objections altogether. It is not hereby insinuated either that his objections are unanswerable, or even that they carry with them such a show of reason as to shake the belief of any man moderately acquainted with Christian Evidences, and with the writings of our most approved divines; but we feel assured of the concurrence of all who have read Stackhouse with attention, when we maintain that he exhibits comparatively little ingenuity or power of writing except when invested with the character of an infidel objector, and also that what he urges in the latter capacity is very feebly opposed by him in his natural and orthodox designation. We have, besides, great fault to find with the style and the manner of adducing his sceptical arguments; for, strange as it may appear, considering the real character of Stackhouse, it is a fact that he brings them forward associated with all the levity and even the buffoonery which Voltaire and other enemies of our holy religion made use of in their attacks upon the sacred writings. In perusing, at the end of his chapters, what he technically denominates" the objection," we meet with a train of remark, witty, sarcastic, and shrewd; we perceive all the fire, the rapidity, and humour, all the antithesis and sly allusion which characterized the infidels of the French school; but as soon as he betakes himself to his "answer," and girds on his arms to combat the foes whom he has conjured up, we instantly recognize the heavy plodding compiler mustering all his common-places, summoning together all his authorities ancient and modern, and in many instances drawing but very lame conclusions from the facts and reasonings with which he is thus supplied. The consequence of this injudicious warfare is exactly what might be expected-the objection is remembered, and the answer is forgotten the pointed, witty, and ludicrous scepticism is perpetuated in the mind by the very associations which are created by the author's language, whilst his tedious and unconnected array of arguments and opinions, ill expressed and worse applied, are seldom found to pro

duce any effect that will last beyond the moment in which they are perused.

go

In reference to the plan adopted by Stackhouse of laying before his readers the principal objections of sceptical writers, we are disposed to condemn him not so much for the actual statements or reasonings which he has adduced, as for the full accompaniment of ironical seriousness and sarcastic jeering with which he uniformly brings them forward. A person, it is very obvious, might disseminate treason, and employ the whole vocabulary of sedition, much more effectually by following the plan of this author, than by writing directly and avowedly against the vernment. We are, besides, the more inclined to remonstrate against the practice under consideration, because in matters of religious belief, the mischief done by infidel writers arises not from the things they say, but from the manner in which they say them; the former, in general, being easily answered or explained, whilst the latter, resting upon mere artifice of style, or a humorous association of ideas, cannot be replied to by the most acute and accomplished logician. So much, indeed, do these considerations weigh with us, that we even venture to recommend, in every subsequent edition of this valuable book, a thorough revisal of the objections," and a modification, at least, of the language in which they are expressed.

After a very judicious introduction, in which he gives a rapid view of the leading arguments for the authenticity and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures, the right Reverend Editor proceeds to correct the notions contained in the original work on the subject of the Mosaical cosmogony. In relation to this inquiry, modern authors seem to have erred egregiously in the several views which they have entertained of the general learning, the physical science, and the particular theories, astronomical and geological, which Moses carried to the important task of writing the first history of the human race. Some imagine that as a philosopher he knew nothing; and that his brief details of the origin of our globe had no better foundation than the imperfect traditions handed down among shepherd nations, ever ready to trace back their customs and institutions to a remote antiquity, and to a supernatural commencement; whilst others perceive in the writings of that divine lawgiver, not only all the learning of the Egyptians and of the Chaldeans, but a complete knowledge of all the facts which the industry of philosophers has brought to light since the days of Bacon, in the various departments of astronomy, chemistry, and mineralogy. Stackhouse, adopting the latter view, and taking it for granted that the astronomical system of Ptolemy was known in Egypt in the time of Moses, gives the sacred historian some credit for not speaking a great deal," of