has taken from the son his motive! a motive confessedly important to happiness and virtue, in the present state of things. He is bound, therefore, by every consideration of prudence and humanity, neither to attempt to drag him forward without a cheering, animating principle of action, nor recklessly to abandon him to his own guidance, nor to poison him with the love of lucre for itself; but, under new circumstances, — with new prospects, at a totally different starting-place from his own, to supply other motives, - drawn from our sensibility to reputation, from our natural desire to know, from an enlarged view of our capacities and enjoyments, and a more high and liberal estimate of our relations to society. Fearful, indeed, is the responsibility of leaving youth, without mental resources, to the temptations of splendid idleness! Men who have not considered this subject, while the objects of their affection yet surround their table, drop no seeds of generous sentiments, animate them with no discourse on the beauty of disinterestedness, the paramount value of the mind, and the dignity of that renown which is the echo of illustrious actions. Absorbed in one pursuit, their morning precept, their mid-day example, and their evening moral, too often conspire to teach a single maxim, and that in direct contradiction of the inculcation, so often and so variously repeated; It is better to get wisdom than gold.' Right views, a careful choice of agents, and the delegation, betimes, of strict authority, would insure the object. Only let the parent feel, and the son be early taught, that, with the command of money and leisure, to enter on manhood without having mastered every attainable accomplishment, is more disgraceful than threadbare garments, and we might have the happiness to see in the inheritors of paternal wealth, less frequently, idle, ignorant prodigals and heart-breakers, and more frequently, high-minded, highly educated young men, embellishing, if not called to public trusts, a private station.

"For the consideration of those who confound leisure with idleness, we would merely observe, that, in their proper acceptation, the phrases, a man of leisure,' and an idle man,' are about as nearly synonymous as the terms, Patriot and Politician.

"With such a class ornamenting the circles of our chief cities, we should soon see a modification of claims. The arrogance of simple wealth would stand rebuked, before the double title of those who superadded intellectual distinction. Accomplished minds, finding the air of fashionable assemblies more respirable, would more frequently venture into them. Society might be lively, various, and intelligent; an alliance of wit, learning, genius, and fortune, on terms of just appreciation. Meanwhile, the higher standard of public sentiment in relation to intellectual pursuits would thrill along the nerves of litera

ture and the arts, to thousands, who now act in the belief, that money is the true and only Kalon. With the juster recognition of mental claims, and the increasing honors paid to letters by the few, would follow an increase of respect in the many. Thence would ensue rectified perceptions as to man's true aims; a calmer and righter mind; and a less blind subserviency to our too-besetting passions.

"The People (meaning the mass) have been sharper-sighted to their true interests than the rich. The means of elementary education are scattered everywhere; munificent funds are established in many of the States, which insure the benefit of common schools to all. Those inferior departments of knowledge, whose utility is more obvious to the multitude, and within their aims, have been provided for. But where are the great foundations of the affluent ? where the evidences of their high appreciation of a noble education? The sons of the laborer and mechanic are pushing forward; the distance is growing less and less between them and the heirs of the wealthiest citizen: nay, often, privation and seclusion have done for the heart and the intellect of the one, what the amplest means and opportunity have failed to purchase for the other, -- failed because misapplied, or not applied at all. Blindness to the real value of intellectual accomplishment lies at the root of common opinion; and must first be cured. The possessors of wealth may, then, be disenchanted of the notion, that their sons, if not installed in the counting-room, or distributed among the professions, must be blotted from the roll of useful citizens. They must and can be convinced, that our greatest want is the want of an order combining superior means with illuminated minds; and that the two especial testimonies, required by their country, at the hands of the opulent, are, - building towers of light to preserve rational liberty, amidst the fogs and shallows of democratical fanaticism; and bequeathing to her their sons equipped, either for public or private life, by a consummate education.

"These views, carried out, would soon enrich us with intellectual men of fortune, numerous enough to infuse a nobler flavor into miscellaneous society; and from whom, as from a springhead, would flow more elevated and just conceptions of the social duties of a freeman and a gentleman, exempted by his patrimony from the task of acquiring property. Their habits, opinions, and attainments would be admired and imitated. We should have a class performing the functions of an Aristocracy, without its intolerable appendages. Our ornamental order would resemble one of our own peerless rivers, always present, to diffuse fertility and beauty, but always changing its healthful waters."- pp. 125–130.

The Discourse concludes in the following beautiful strain; "It is impossible to expand the subject further. True-hearted earnestness, concentration, and perseverance would effect a change. The sincere cooperation of the rich alone would put causes in action, that would soon pervade and stimulate the whole community. But, whatever present disappointment may await hopes like these, literary men ought never to relax their efforts, never to undervalue their noble calling. Overlooked they may be, in the busy world, or beside the political idols of the hour; but they have sources of cheerfulness, and sustaining dignity, within, which neither fickle fortune, nor fickler party, can take away. Their peace of mind is not laid up in vessels which a demagogue can shatter; their honors are not transitory as the tenure of office; their independent thoughts are not tortured to conformity by the machinery of party; their soul's vital aspiration is not staked on the issue of a canvass; old age is not, to them, the pining atrophy' of worn-out or disappointed statesmen. A living fount of mental gladness sparkles in their bosom. Solitude is not solitude to them the shadows of the past, the wide-spread, ever-varying Universe, are passing before them, and visions of the future beckon them on. Sometimes, perhaps, amidst the glare and hurry of a great metropolis, struck with the results of her confederated minds, the man of letters may feel useless and alone. Let him reflect, that all usefulness, and all happiness, are a compromise; and that periodical eclipses are the price of habitual enthusiasm. Let him ponder and compare; but never mistake so widely as to link, even in wish, his immortal part to the dragrope of the world's affairs. His pursuits refer to higher, though less obvious things; to ideal beauty, abstract truth,- universal interests, enduring principles: they bring wealth to the soul, and transport to the mind: they drop seeds which shoot up a growth for perpetuity: they collect radiance for the torch which Faith waves to man, contending with shadows and billows on this world's shore, ere his eye catches that fixed and purer beam, which burns alway on the battlements of his final home."-- pp. 141 - 143.

We have no words of common compliment with which to take our leave of Mr. Hillhouse. From one who so well understands the reasonableness, and has found the benefit, of the nonum prematur in annum, the public cannot expect to hear often; but certainly there are very few living writers, from whom the announcement of a new work would give equal pleasure.

ART. XI.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1.-1. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, translated from the Eleventh German Edition, by T. J. CONANT, Professor of Hebrew, and of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation, in the Literary and Theological Institution at Hamilton, N. Y. With a Course of Exercises in Hebrew Grammar, and a Hebrew Chrestomathy, prepared by the Translator. Boston: Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 325 and 60.

2. Theory of the Hebrew Verb, by the Rev. W. YATES. (Calcutta.)

3. Biblical Apparatus, in Four Parts; designed to assist in the Correction of present, and the Preparation of future, Versions of the Sacred Scriptures. By the Rev. W. YATES. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist Mission Press, Circular Road. 1837.

GESENIUS is so well known by Biblical scholars, as the first Hebraist of the age, that the appearance of his Grammar, for the first time in an English dress, must be regarded with high favor. His name alone is sufficient to stamp it with value and give it currency; and when we add, that Professor Conant has executed the translation with much judgment, and with some valuable additions, in the shape of Grammatical Exercises, it must be evident, that he has established a strong claim on the gratitude of the theological and philological student. The work of Gesenius requires no eulogy from us, nor is this the place to enter into a detailed examination of his theoretical views, or practical expositions of the structure of the language; but we concur with the Translator in considering, that, as a philosophical arrangement and explanation of its grammatical phenomena, it has no equal, and that it is particularly distinguished by a chaste simplicity and attractive clearness of method, qualities which not only imply a correct taste and a logical understanding, but evince, also, a thorough mastery of the subject.

Our opinion would be less entitled to consideration, if it were indiscriminating; and for the sake, therefore, not of finding fault, but of showing how little there is to be found fault with, we may state, that Gesenius appears to have fallen into a slight mistake, regarding the oriental mode of pronouncing the letter Ayin. Referring to the two sounds of this letter, with and without a diacritical point, he says, "In the mouth of the Arabian, the first often strikes the ear like a soft guttural r; the

second, as a sort of vowel sound, like a." (p. 22.) The former sound, as we have heard it in the mouths of Arabians, both Jews and Mohammedans, is any thing but a soft guttural sound. It is the hardest and harshest guttural, that we have ever attempted to master. One grammarian (Lumsden) says, that the sound is "unknown to our language, but may be easily recognised by Scotchmen" (Lumsden himself was from the north of the Tweed)" as a hard and harsh guttural, having a good deal more of the letter G, than the Scotch guttural GH, in the word DAUGHTER, pronounced DOKHTER; another (Yates) says, that it is pronounced strongly in the throat as in the act of gargling; and a third (Shakespear) compares it to the Northumbrianr, comparisons and explanations which show that the epithet soft is strangely misapplied.

Notwithstanding the general excellence of Gesenius's Grammar, we must acknowledge, also, with great diffidence, that we have not felt entire satisfaction with his explanation of the Præter and Future Tenses, Sections 123 126. He justly says, that "it is a partial and false view, which regards the socalled Præter and Future, not as tenses, but as designed, originally, to express distinctions of mood (Indicative and Subjunctive) rather than relations of time." This, however, is the view adopted by Mr. Yates, and defended with great research and acuteness, in his "Theory of the Hebrew Verb," with this difference, that he has substituted the Potential for the Subjunctive mood, and considers, that each of these moods, the Indicative and Potential, contains three tenses, the present, past, and future. But when Mr. Yates has shown, that the so-called Præter is also used in the present and future tenses, and that the so-called Future is also used in the present and past tenses, he has only shown that they are both aorists, indefinite as to time, and no additional idea is gained by calling these aorists moods or modes. Then when he has further shown, that his so-called Indicative and Potential modes, "when employed to describe moral and religious truths, should be rendered in the present tense; when employed to describe historical events which transpired before the time of the writer, in the past tense; and when employed to describe future and prophetic scenes, in the future tense; "- when he has shown this, he has not shown wherein they differ from each other, and what is the distinct and definite use of each, the only points which present any difficulty, but he has in effect shown, that they are identical and undistinguishable, and that one of them, consequently, is redundant and unnecessary. But although Mr. Yates has failed to establish his own theory, he has very successfully shown the inadequacy of the usual explanations of