1829.] REVIEW.-Foreign Review, No. VIII. face; and by the way, his is no more than another accentuation and orthography of he's; and as to her, instead of she's, the former was originally their, and she's had a singular meaning, and a correct one; si being illa in the Gothic, and izor corrupted into she's the genitive. Her in ancient authors is the plural their; borrowed from the genitive plural of the Anglo-Saxon heora; but, says Hickes, whom we quote (Grammat. Anglo-Saxonica, pp. 28, 29), "A gen. sing. hipe, venit her in moderno sensu." In Herefordshire him is a nominative used for he; and, says Hickes, p. 28, note*, "hiri in Runico significat ille."-We have thus digressed, on purpose to show that (grammatical error excluded) the real origin and history of our language, as to the Northern words, is to be found in vulgar dialect, which in truth, where the words are not mere slang, is a vocabulary or glossary of barbarous English. (To be continued.) Foreign Review, No. VIII. IT is well known to medical men, that precocious talent often indicates ouly water in the brain. So it is with rapid education. Dexterity is acquired before judgment is matured, and the forcing process produces eccentric leaf and premature semination-show and not fruit, turnips and cabbages merely running to seed. To apply these remarks to the work before us. criticisms show the vast superiority of our own science; of the criticisms (with here and there an exception, which we shall notice) to the articles reviewed. The In the majority of scientific instances, the Foreigners appear to be either apprentices or projectors, not philosophers, but charlatans; indeed, it is most certain, that the March of Intellect may produce forward school-boys, but the March of Reason must endure the drill of experience and time, before that valuable knowledge can be given to the world, which promotes improvement. The curse of the present times is theory, and however foolish it may be, there is no hesitation, provided it be practicable, and overthrows veneration for ancient institutions, and thus is auxiliary to the grand object of sly seditionists, for that is a main cause why GENT. MAG. December, 1829. 529 the most wild projects and dangerous innovations find patronage. We shall now notice the articles in this number. I. Phrenology. This is known to be a German folly (for it deserves no better name), to be classed with fortune-telling, judicial astrology, and alchemy. It is most successfully exposed. II. Letters on Germany. Excellent, lively, and interesting. III. French Drama. A capital dis sertation. IV. Muller's Dorians. Learned, but suspicious. All inquiries of this remote period should be tested by the stages of society, viz. the hunting, pastoral, and agricultural; for these are the philosophical instruments by which are gauged the truth or falsehood of ancient his tory; e. g. the romanized habits of Geffrey of Monmouth's civilized Britons, are utterly irreconcileable with Cæsar's savages. Geffrey antedates by whole centuries their arts and manners; and the contents of barrows prove the latter to be correct. V. Bourienne's Memoirs of Napoleon Buonaparte. This article is commenced by the following paragraph: "It is the certain indication of a weak mind to suppose that any subject can be exhausted. Magazine critics, indeed, and drivelling newspaper-mongers may arrive at that sage conclusion, and may divulge such conclusion to their as sage readers." P. 345. As "Magazine Critics," we are of course included in this sapient insult, which may excite all the periodicals to hostility against an infant miscellany only eight numbers old. We know that not great dogs, only curs and puppies, bark at other dogs, and that the word cynic is derived from the growl and snarl of the said curs and puppies; that the term "a subject is exhausted," is a common colloquial phrase, as old as Methusalem, no more appropriate to Magazine critics and readers, than legs and arms; that it is no indication of a weak mind, only of tædium in the public; and that the merit of an article is not dependent upon its appearance in a pamphlet, instead of a miscellany. The fact is, that unpublished anecdotes of very eminent men are always acceptable; and the sapient critic, instead of introducing his article by this rational common-sense preface, has 530 REVIEW.-Foreign Review, No. VIII. adopted the blacking manufacturer's li terature by depreciating other wares; and for what purpose? to enlighten us with new information that Buonaparte was at one time a needy, and at all times a selfish and ambitious man. According to the Reviewer, it required a voyage round the world to make this discovery, and he is the Captain Cook who made it. That to usurp a crown per honestas artes is impossible, said Tacitus long before: and a M. Bourienne, who had once been a personal friend of Napoleon, and had been amply promoted by him, now rips up every unfavourable thing, that he may please the Bourbons. Yea, even his own familiar friend, whom he trusted," thus served the fine lad who beat Goliath. 66 VI. Political Economy. We shall give instances under our review of "Letters from Sidney," which show that "Political Economy" is theoretical and unphilosophical; that it is a grammar consisting of rules, by which statesmen schoolboys cannot parse their lessons; a lighthouse which leads ships to dangerous rocks: and sorry are we to say, that the decay of the agriculture, trade, and revenue of this country, begins to feel its pernicious influence, because, though never acknowledged as legally born on the Royal Exchange, it has been legitimated by the Senate. How inapplicable it is to actual business, will appear from the following paragraph: "If a farmer, by laying out 100%. more in labour or manure this year, than he did the last, can procure an additional gross produce worth 110l. he thinks he does well for himself and the public; and so he does on tithe-free land; for he has his extra capital returned, and 10l. per cent. for trading interest. But if his land be titheable, the tither will take eleven pounds worth, aud the farmer will have 997. left to replace his 100l. and no interest at all." P. 399. Now setting aside the evident fact, that if a farmer gains 107. more, a tither can only take a tenth of it, i. e. 1., and the odd nine remains; we, who pay both great and small tithes, know that this kind of calculation has no relation to the usual forms of busi [Dec. per acre; the arable (best) 10s. the highest, and so downwards; orcharding (small tithes only) 2s. 6d. per acre. Now if the crop of this meadow be only one ton of hay per acre, say worth 60s., the full tithe is a tenth, or 6s., remainder 54s. If the farmer by improvement makes the product a ton and a half, worth 90s., then the tenth is 9s., remainder 81s.; subtract 54s. from 81s., and the remainder is 27s., the additional profit to the farmer; through paying in tithe, only 3s. more than he did before. How would Mr. Coke of Norfolk have improved his estate from 2 to 20,000l. per annum, if the political economy statements had a real operation? and so far from tithe retarding improvement, every man of business knows that the burden diminishes through such improvement; for in the case before us, it is more severe to pay 6s. out of 60s., than 9s. out of 90s. Every man now pays 25 per cent. taxes, and he willingly parts with 25 per cent. more upon the accession of every new hundred, because he gains the remainder of 75. VII. Modern Italian Comedy. Here is another foolish digression (p. 409) about writing for money; but it is redeemed by the following excellent remarks upon the common plots of our comedies. "Fathers are to allow their thoughtless daughters to run away with the first vagabond who can disguise himself like an honest man to consider how a family is to live is incompatible with true love, as if the only true love should be to contrive to live at the expence of the parish; that a rogue, who seduces the affections of an inexpe rienced girl, particularly if she be a fine one, deserves all our compassion; and that daughters are to follow blindly their inclinations, and look upon their fathers not as their truest and sincerest friends, but as their bitterest enemies, or at least blinded by prejudice." P. 418. VIII. History of the Cid. The Cid, a Don Rodrigo Diaz, who lived in the eleventh century, is the King Arthur of Spain; and the object of the Essay is to discriminate the real from the marvellous. IX. General Jackson and the United States of America. The story about the General is that of Falstaff and his Men of Buckram; of course it breaks down under cross-examination. In the short reviews we meet with nothing of that relation to the English 1829.] REVIEW.-Capt. Mignan's Travels. public, which is likely to interest our readers. We hope that the notice which we have taken of certain imprudencies and sophisms, in this number, will not be considered as depreciating the general merit of this Review. Travels in Chaldæa, including a Journey from Bussorah to Bagdad, Hillah, and Babylon, performed on foot in 1827, with Observations on the Sites and Remains of Babel, Seleucia, and Ctesiphon. By Capt. Robert Mignan, of the Hon. East India Company's Service. 8vo. pp. 333. Plates. IT was customary with the oriental nations to vie with each other in their claims to antiquity; but Chaldæa exceeds them all, inasmuch as the fragments of Berosus * give us the names of ten antediluvian Kings, and inform us that Chaldæa in the first ages of the world had been peopled by a race of monsters, hermaphrodites, centaurs, and satyrs, men with the tails of fishes and heads of dogs.† Sir William Drummond (i. 33) coucludes, from an examination of the etymologies of the Royal antediluvian names, that this History of Berosus was a figment composed long after the Persians had destroyed the ancient Chaldean Monarchy. Nevertheless, there are some very deep substructions (allowed by men of judgment to be part of the foundations of the Tower of Babel), stamped with cuneiform characters, which have induced Capt. Mignan to suppose (p. 317) that these characters composed the antediluvian mode of writing; and it is also certain that the discoveries of Cuvier wonderfully accord with the monstrous stories of Berosus. Nevertheless, fossil bones might have been seen by him also or his authorities, and have formed the groundwork of his fiction; and the cuneiform characters are admitted to belong to a phonetic alphabet, which is known not to be of the earliest kind. In short, the first historical truth concerning Chaldæa, is the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod, and the erection of the Tower of Babel; events Collected by Polyhistor, and preserved by Eusebius and Georgius Syncellus. + Sir Will. Drummond's Origines, i. 41. -The zodiacal and nonstrous Egyptian figures might have originated in such a tradition. 531 which have been antedated; for that profound scholar Sir William Drummond proves that it is not irreconcileable with the sacred text to assume that Nimrod was contemporary with Abraham. He further assumes, that the Scriptural Nimrod was the same as the Chaldæan Bel or Belus, and Persian Zohak. § We have written this short preface by way of introduction to the work cumstance connected with ancient before us; and, as the principal cirChaldæa is the Tower of Babel, we shall offer some opinions upon that subject. It has been called an impious attempt to build a tower which should reach to heaven; but, as the Chaldæans were the first astronomers, through the clearness of their sky, and large level of their plains, the term "of reaching to heaven," might have been merely a metaphor, denoting the use of the tower, for an observatory, one purpose, according to our recollection, of its foundation by Belus. stupendous work, and such things were formerly erected by impressment of all the people of several provinces (a circunstance which occurs in the As it was a history of the Pyramids), a short extract from the "Picture of Australia" (p. 202) will explain the confusion of tongues. "The aborigines of Australia differ very little in the form of their bodies, their modes of living, and of making war, their implements and their habitations; yet, though in these respects they might be all taken for brothers, their language is so diversified, that, within a comparatively short distance, the one is just as unintelligible to the other, as both are to an European.' " Whether this celebrated tower was the Birs Nimrod, or the Mujellibah, is contested. Capt. Mignan observes, that a tradition handed down from time immemorial, says that near the foot of the ruin of "El Mujellibah,” is a well invisible to mortals, in which those rebellious angels were condemned by God to be hung with their heels upwards, until the day of judgment, as a punishment for their wickedness. But as these angels are Harut and Marut, mentioned in the Koran, we think that the tradition may not be older Origines, b. i. c. x. passim. § Id. c. xi. See our author, p. 162. 532 REVIEW.-Capt. Migran's Travels. than that fable. Whether Birs-Nimrod or Mujellibah be the remains of the celebrated tower (and they both consist of a congeries of heaps forming bases of pyramids),* Captain Mignan says of the latter (Mujelibah), "This solid mound, which I consider from its situation and magnitude to be the remains of the Tower of Babel, an opinion likewise adopted by Major Rennel, is a vast oblong square, composed of kiln-burnt and sun-dried bricks, rising irregularly to the height of 139 feet at the S.W. whence it slopes towards the N.E. to a depth of 110 feet. Its sides face the four cardinal points; the northern face extending 274 yards; the southern 256 yards; the eastern 226 yards; and the western 240 yards. The summit is an uneven flat, strewed with broken and un broken bricks, the perfect ones measuring thirteen inches square by three thick. Many exhibited the arrow-headed character, which appeared remarkably fresh. Pottery, bitu men, vitrified and petrified brick, shells and glass, were all equally abundant. The principal materials composing this ruin are doubtless mud bricks baked in the suu, and mixed up with straw. Brickwork may be traced along each front, particularly at the S.W. angle, which is faced by a wall, composed partly of kiln-burnt brick, that in shape exactly resembles a watch tower or small turret. On its summit, there are still considerable traces of erect building; at the western end is a circular mass of solid brickwork, sloping towards the top, and rising from a confused heap of rubbish. The chief material forming this fabric appeared similar to that composing the ruin called Akerkouff, a mixture of chopped straw, with slime (asphaltus or bitumen), used as cement; and regular layers of unbroken reeds, between the horizontal courses of the bricks. The base is greatly injured by time and the elements; particularly to the S. E. where it is cloven into a deep furrow from top to bottom." Pp. 162-166. It is certain that this pyramid, like those of Egypt, was a mausoleum, for Capt. Mignan excavated earthen sarcophagi and urns containing bones. See p. 171. Birs Nimrood, which Niebuhr and nearly all succeeding travellers have called the real tower of Babel, appears, on the western face, like an oblong hill, surmounted by a tower. The total circumference of its base is exactly 722 yards; its eastern face extends 168 * Old Sarum has a rude resemblance to Mujellibal, Birs Nimrod to Silbury-hill. According to the wood-cut in p. 205, it much resembles Gibraltar in miniature, [Dec. yards in width, and only two stages of a hill are distinctly observable; the first 70 feet high; the second 120 feet, crowned by the ruin of a turret, which is a solid mass of the finest kila-burnt masonry,—vitrified masses of brickwork appear on the hill; and over the whole summit and sides are strewed broken bricks stamped with three, four, six, and seven lines of writing, stones, glass, tile, large cakes of bitumen, and petrified and vitrified substances. Pp. 202-210. Now if the tower, as stated by Strabo and the Greeks, was a stadium (or about 500 f.) high, and its base a stadium in length and breadth, and the circumference of the Birs Nimrod is exactly 722 yards, cannot mathema ticians determine even from these rude admeasurements, whether Majullibah or Birs Nimrod has the best preten sions to have been the actual tower of Babel? Diodorus says, that upon the top was a statue of Belus, 40 feet high; and if this was intended to appear of the natural human size at the base, the tower must have been of or about 500 feet high, 20 f. higher than the great pyramid of Memphis, and 100 f. higher than Salisbury spire. P. 151. It was of a pyramidal form, with a winding path on the outside, so contrived as to preserve the regularity of the appearance; but the manner in which it was finished off at the top is uncertain. Diodorus says, as before, that the statue was at the top; but Herodotus places it lower down, and makes the summit a dome for a temple or observatory. This last, he says, was the uppermost of seven other successive turrets, the lowest of which had for its base the top of the pyramid (p. 149); and most certainly from the present appearance of Birs Nimrod, it does seem to have been an ancient fashion to finish off the tops of pyramids with towers or tarrets. It is remarkable that bronze figures of lions and other animals, being the earliest specimens of the metallurgic science, are found in the Babylonian ruins; and that Diodorus Siculus observes, that on the walls of the palace were colossal figures in bronze, xanxas sixovas, representing Ninus, Semiramis, the principal people of their court; and even whole armies drawn up in order of battle (p. 230). These Engraved in p. 230. 1829.] REVIEW.-Diary, &c. of Dr. Doddridge. circumstances show that the lions on the gate of Mycena, the bas-reliefs of Egypt and Persepolis, have claims by analogy to the antiquity assigned to them. We have now come to the extent of our limits, and can only say further, that Captain Mignan has highly gratified us, by a book full of curious matter, and most valuable confirmations of Scripture prophecy. The Diary and Correspondence of Philip Doddridge, D.D. illustrative of various Particulars in his Life hitherto unknown; with Notices of many of his Contemporaries; and a Sketch of the Ecclesiastical History of the Times in which he lived. Edited from the original MSS. by his great Grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, Esq. 2 vols. Colburn and Bentley. THE memory of Doddridge has long been enshrined in the hearts of his pious countrymen, and with whatever slight variety of complexion religious party may have pourtrayed his character, still all agree that in the main he possessed soundness of doc. trine adorned by purity of life. It is by no means equally certain that the volumes before us will more clearly exemplify the one, or increase our respect for the other. "The claim of kindred and early associations," have induced his descendant, Mr. John Doddridge Humphreys, to give them to the world, and to indite an elaborate preface in their commendation. He is not content, he tells us, with the reputation which his ancestor "has acquired as a theologian, and is anxious that he should be better known as a man, that the perfect catholicism of his spirit should be apparent, and that the joyous urbanity of his disposition should be manifest." "The piety of Dr. Doddridge," observes the editor, in a brief sketch of his ancestor's early life," had received but little bias from the system of the schools, and may be best described as a sentiment of filial love, fear, and gratitude, intensely ardent as its object was supremely excellent, and with this was mingled the persuasion of a particular providence, and the direct agency of prayer on propitiating the interference of protecting dispensations amid the occurrence of natural events." With all this, we will add, was min 533 gled a holy trust in all the offices of the Son of God, and a persuasion of the direct agency of prayer, not only as his descendant has it, "in propitiating the interference of protecting dispensations amid the occurrences of natural events," but in procuring the assistance of that Divine Spirit who could alone direct his conduct under them. To return, however, to Mr. Humphreys's preface. He observes : "The dissemination of principles which tend to encourage Christian forbearance and social cheerfulness must ever be useful; and if, from a highly artificial state of society, spiritual pride brood like an incubus over the land; if a counterfeit sanctity impose unnecessary restrictions; if meek-eyed piety be loaded with the fetters of formality, until her smile of innocent vivacity is exchanged for the frown of austerity, or sunk into the vacuity of unsocial indifference, then is the period arrived when the influence of that manly faith, which shines forth in the example of our forefathers, becomes most de sirable." It has rarely occurred to us to have copied from the writings of any professedly educated person a worse concocted paragraph than this; but, passing over the jumble of strange phrases with which it is encumbered, The meaning of Mr. H. appears to be this-that innocent cheerfulness, and social kindness, are preferable to the forbidding aspect of affected sanctity; and that if the latter be gaining ground in our land, we should do wisely to substitute the former. "Party spirit (says Mr. Humphreys in another place) is ever to be deplored; but when it obtrudes into matters of religion, it becomes something more than odious; it is even as if the pure eyes of infancy should beam with unholy fires. But when the very name of such a party is in itself an assumption of superior sanctity, stands it not self convicted? What did the Jesuits but assume the name of the meek and unresisting Jesus, to sanction a system of remorseless tyranny and may not a Christian blush, when on every side he hears the members of an influential party lauding each other with the term evangelical, until the plain man of upright intentions, and humble hope in divine mercy, stands disregarded! "As the sanguine tides of life are propelled through every portion of the animal frame, so should the influence of Christian example, to be effective, pervade the general body of society. A system of interdiction, exclusion, and suspicious reserve may gratify pharisaical pride, but will never reform the world." P. xix. |