of imminent danger, to lay afide, for a time, the practice of borrowing, and to call upon the individuals of the kingdom, for a direct aid; equal to the public occafions. This aid, he thinks, may be given, by every perfon's paying a certain rate or portion of his real capital or income; and if the money were raised in this manner, it would fall much lighter, he fays, than in the mode of borrowing. In order to judge whether it is practicable to raife, in time of war, the neceffary fupplies within the year, he endeavours to form fome calculation of the national wealth, and mentions one or two modes by which this computation may be made. He then says, that I per cent. of every man's capital, to be paid by inftalments, in the courfe of two years, would be fully adequate to the purpose of supporting, with the ordinary fupplies, a vigorous war of two years at least. But for what he fays, in fupport of his opinion upon this. fubject, we must refer our Readers to the Confiderations at large, and fhall only obferve that, though his plan will generally be looked upon as chimerical, yet if it could be carried into execution, it would, in all probability, have a decifive effect on our national affairs, and make this country the object of admiration to every European power.--BUT ALAS! ART. VIII. ISAIAH. A new Tranflation; with a Preliminary Dif- PERE ERHAPS there never was a work, of fo critical a nature, and which fo peculiarly relates to biblical and hebraical literature, that hath excited a greater expectation than the prefent performance. This hath been owing to the high and juft reputation of the Author, from whose genius, tafte, and learning, the Public had every thing to hope for, on the fubject he had undertaken. But thofe would be the most pleased with the Bishop of London's having chofen the Book of Ifaiah for the object of his illuftration, who were beft acquainted with his Lordship's lectures on the facred poetry of the Hebrews. We fpeak from a very particular study of that work, when we give it as our opinion, that, from the elegance of its compofition, the ingenuity and juftnefs of its remarks, the accuracy and. beauty of its tranflations, and the new light it throws on the poetical writings of the Jews, and on many important parts of the Old Teftament, it is the first critical production of the age. Though it hath been much read, it has, nevertheless, not been fo univerfally attended to, as it deferves. Even fome good claffical fcholars have been deterred from ftudying it, from an apprehenfion that they could not reap the benefits of it, unless they they were fkilled in the Hebrew language. But though an acquaintance with that language would be of confiderable use in reading the Bishop's Prælectiones, yet the paffages produced by him are tranflated with so happy a conformity to the fpirit and manner of the original, that every man of taste will receive a degree of inftruction and pleasure from them not greatly inferior to what are enjoyed by the best Oriental critics. To all, therefore, who understand the Latin tongue, we would recommend the perufal of Dr. Lowth's lectures on the Hebrew poetry: and we now have the pleasure of congratulating the merely English Reader, that the knowledge of the nature and fpecies of that poetry is laid open to him in the prefent work; befides the many valuable advantages which the learned and Christian world will otherwife derive from it. Our excellent Prelate begins his Preliminary Differtation with informing us, that the defign of the tranflation of Ifaiah is not only to give an exact and faithful reprefentation of the words and fenfe of the prophet, by adhering closely to the letter of the text, and treading as nearly as may be in his footsteps; but, moreover, to imitate the air and manner of the author, and to give the English reader fome notion of the peculiar turn and caft of the original. The latter part of this defign coincides perfectly with the former; as it is indeed impoffible to give a juft idea of the prophet's manner of writing, otherwife than by a clofe literal verfion: and yet, though fo many literal verfions of this prophet have been given, as well of old as in later times; a juft reprefentation of the prophet's manner, and of the form of his compofition, has never been attempted, or even thought of, by any tranflator, in any language, ancient or modern. Whatever of that kind has appeared in former tranflations, has been rather the effect of chance than defign, of neceffity than ftudy. It has, Dr. Lowth thinks, been univerfally understood, that the prophecies of Ifaiah are written in profe. The ftyle, the thoughts, the images, the expreffions, have been allowed to be poetical, and that in the highest degree: but that they are written in verfe, in measure, or rhythm, or whatever it is that dif tinguishes, as poetry, the compofition of those books of the Old Teftament, which are allowed to be poetical, fuch as Job, the Pfalms, and the Proverbs, from the hiftorical books, as mere profe; this has never been fuppofed, at least has not been at any time the prevailing opinion. The opinions of the learned concerning Hebrew verfe, have been various; their ideas of the nature of it vague, obfcure, and imperfect: yet ftill there has been a general perfuafion that fome books of the Old Teftament are written in verfe; but that the writings of the prophets are not of that number. Our Author hath met with only one exception to the univerfality of this opinion. About the beginning of this century, Herman Vonder Hardt, the Hardouin of Germany, attempted to reduce Joel's Elegies, as he called them, to Iambic verfe; and, confiftently with his hypothefis, he affirmed that the prophets wrote in verse. But his affertion was looked upon as one of his paradoxes, and little attention was paid it. What fuccefs he had in making out Joel's Iambics, the Bishop of London cannot fay; having never feen Hardt's treatise. Our ingenious Writer, having fhewn that both the ancient and modern Jews have been uniformly of the fame opinion with the learned in general, adds: But if there fhould appear a manifeft conformity between the prophetical ftyle, and that of the books fuppofed to be metrical; a conformity in every known part of the poetical character, which equally difcriminates the prophetical and the metrical books, from thofe acknowledged to be profe: it will be of ufe to trace out and to mark this conformity with all poffible accuracy; to obferve how far the peculiar characteristics of each ftyle coincide; and to fee, whether the agreement between them be fuch, as to induce us to conclude, that the poetical and the prophetical character of ftyle and compofition, though generally supposed to be different, yet are really one and the fame.' The confideration of this subject is purfued much farther, and to a greater degree of minutenefs, in the Differtation before us, than it had been in the 18th and 19th of our learned Author's lectures on the Hebrew poetry: and, in order to make the proper comparison between the prophetical and the poetical books, he remarks, that it will be neceffary, in the first place, to ftate the true character of the poetical or metrical ftyle; to trace out carefully, whatever plain figns or indications yet remain of metre, or rhythm, or whatever else it was that constituted Hebrew verse; to feparate the true, or at least the probable, from the manifeftly falfe; and to give as clear and fatisfactory an explanation of the matter as can now reasonably be expected, in the prefent imperfect ftate of the Hebrew language, and in a fubject, which for nearly two thousand years has been involved in great obfcurity, and only rendered ftill more obfcure by the difcordant opinions of the learned, and the various hypothefes, which they have formed concerning it. The firft and most manifelt indication, fays the Bishop, of verse in the Hebrew poetical books prefents itself in the Acroftich or Alphabetical Poems: of which there happily remain many examples, and thofe of various kinds; fo that we could not have hoped, or even wished, for more light of this fort to lead us on in the very entrance of our inquiry. The nature, or rather the form, of thefe poems is this: the poem confits of twenty-two lines, or of twentytwo fyftems of lines, or periods, or fianzas, according to the num ber ber of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; and every line, or every ftanza, begins with each letter in its order, as it ftands in the alphabet; that is, the first line, or first stanza, begins with, the fecond with, and fo on. This was certainly intended for the affittance of the memory; and was chiefly employed in fubjects of common ufe, as maxims of morality, and forms of devotion; which being expreffed in detached fentences, or aphorifms, (the form in which the fages of the most ancient times delivered their inftructions,) the inconvenience arifing from the fubject, the want of connection in the parts, and of a regular train of thought carried through the whole, was remedied by this artificial contrivance in the form. There are ftill extant in the books of the Old Teftament, twelve of these poems; (for I reckon the four first chapters of the Lamentations of Jeremiah as fo many diftinct poems;) three of them perfectly alphabetical; in which every line is marked by its initial letter; the other nine lefs perfectly alphabetical, in which every stanza only is fo diftinguifhed. Of the three former it is to be remarked, that not only every fingle line is diftinguished by its initial letter, but that the whole poem is laid out into ftanzas: two of thefe poems each into ten flanzas, all of two lines, except the two laft ftanzas in each, which are of three lines in these the fenfe and the conftruction manifeftly point out the divifion into ftanzas, and mark the limit of every stanza. third of thefe perfectly alphabetical poems confifts of twenty-two ftanzas, of three lines: but in this the initial letter of every ftanza is alfo the initial letter of every line of that ftanza; fo that both the lines and the ftanzas are infallibly limited. And in all the three poems the paufes of the fentences coincide with the pauses of the lines and ftanzas." The It is alfo further to be obferved of thefe three poems, that the lines, fo determined by the initial letters, in the fame poem, are remarkably equal to one another in length, in the number of words nearly, and probably in the number of fyllables; and that the lines of the fame ftanza have a remarkable congruity one with another, in the matter and the form, in the fenfe and the conftruction. Of the other nine poems lefs perfectly alphabetical, in which the ftanzas only are marked with initial letters, fix confift of two lines, two of ftanzas of three lines, and one of flanzas of four lines: not taking into the account at prefent fome irregularities, which in all probability are to be imputed to the mistakes of tranfcribers. And thefe ftanzas likewife naturally divide themfelves into their diftin&t lines, the fenfe and the conftruction plainly pointing out their limits; and the lines have the fame congruity one with another in matter and form, as was above obferved in regard to the poems more perfectly alphabetical. Another thing to be obferved in the three poems perfectly alphabetical is, that in two of them the lines are fhorter than those of the third by about one third part, or almoft half: and of the other nine poems, the ftanzas only of which are alphabetical, that three confift of the longer lines, and the fix others of the thorter.' From thefe examples, which are not only curious, but of real use in the prefent enquiry, Dr. Lowth proceeds to draw fome K 3 fome conclufions, that plainly follow from the premises, and must be admitted in regard to the alphabetical poems themselves which also may, by analogy, be applied, with great probability, to other poems, where the lines and ftanzas are not fo determined by initial letters; and yet which appear in other refpects to be of the fame kind. In the first place, continues he, we may fafely conclude, that the poems perfectly alphabetical confift of verfes properly fo called; of verfes regulated by fome obfervation of harmony or cadence; of measure, numbers, or rythm. For it is not at all probable in the nature of the thing, or from examples of the like kind in other languages, that a portion of mere profe, in which numbers and harmony are totally difregarded, fhall be laid out according to a fcale of divifion, which carries with it such evident marks of study and labour, of art in the contrivance, and exactnefs in the execution. And I prefume it will be eafily granted in regard to the other poems, which are divided into ftanzas by the initial letters, which stanzas are fubdivided by the paufes of the fentence into a certain number of lines eafily diftinguished one from another, most commonly the fame number of lines to a ftanza in the fame poem; that these are of the fame kind of compofition with the former, and that they equally confift of verfes. And in general, in regard to the rest of the poems of the Hebrews, bearing evidently the fame marks and characteristics of compofition with the alphabetical poems in other refpects, and falling into regular lines, often into regular ftanzas, according to the paufes of the fentences; which ftanzas and lines have a certain parity or proportion to one another; that thefe likewife confift of verfe; of verfe diftinguished from profe, not only by the ftyle, the figures, the diction; by a loftinefs of thought, and richness of imagery; but by being divided into lines, and fometimes into fyftems of lines; which lines, having an apparent equality, fimilitude, or proportion, one to another, were in fome fort measured by the ear, and regulated according to fome general laws of metre, rythm, harmony, or cadence. Further, we may conclude from the example of the perfectly alphabetical poems, that whatever it might be that conftituted Hebrew verse, it certainly did not confift in rhyme, or fimilar and correfpondent founds at the ends of the verfes: for as the ends of the verfes in thefe poems are infallibly marked; and it plainly appears, that the final fyllables of the correfpondent verfes, whether in diftichs or triplets, are not fimilar in found to one another; it is manifelt, that rhymes, or fimilar endings, are not an effential part of Hebrew verses. The grammatical forms of the Hebrew language in the verbs, and pronouns, and the plurals of nouns, are fo fimple and uniform, and bear fo great a fhare in the termination of words, that fimilar endings must sometimes happen, and cannot well be avoided; but fo far from conftituting an effential or principal part of the art of Hebrew verfification, they feem to have been no object of attention and study, nor to have been industriously fought after as a fayourite acceffary ornament. • That |