Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

formed in the carth should, upon being dug up, be found enveloped in a crust different from the rest of their substance, and bearing evident marks of having undergone the action of heat in contact with the air.

to rest satisfied with recording the fact, and leaving it under all its difficulties,than to increase its wonders by the addition of a miracle.

The same remark may be extended to those, who have fancied that the constituent parts of the The same unquestionable re- stones exist in the atmosphere, and semblance which prevails among are united by the fire of a meteor, all these bodies, and, still more, or by the electrick fluid. We have the peculiar nature of the pyrites no right to make any such hypowhich they contain, prove very thesis. We have never seen iron, clearly that they have not a volca- silica, &c. in the gaseous state. nick origin. Even if such an hypo- These bodies may, for ought we thesis were liable to no other ob- know, be compounds of oxygen jection, it would be inadmissible and azote or hydrogen, &c.; but on this ground, that we know of as yet we have no reason to think no volcano that throws up so small So. Besides, he who amuses us a portion of matter, and so uni- with this clumsy and gratuitous formly of the same kind. But explication, will probably account though we were to admit the ex- for every other phenomenon by a istence of this volcano, where similar process of creation : He must we place it, that its eruptions may, with equal plausibility, conmay extend from Bengal to Eng- ceive the earth to be formed by a land, France, Italy, and Bohemia; union of burnt gases, and then conay, from Siberia to Senegal and ver it with vegetables, and people it South-America? And if we are with living creatures, by a few more forced to admit the existence of a conflagrations and explosions. Such, series of such volcanoes, which however, is the theory most heavare known to us only by these pe- ily expounded by M. Izarn-spun, culiar effects of their eruptions, do with tiresome and unprofitable inwe not acknowledge that we are dustry, into cobwebs, which touch compelled to imagine a set of every fact, without catching itcauses, without any other founda- and enveloping in the mist of gention for our belief in them, than eral logical positions, which faintour occasion for their assistance in ly conceal the fundamental postuexplaining the phenomenon? In late an entire act of creation.

short do we not account for one
difficulty, by fancying a greater?
But if it is alleged that the stones
come from
volcanoes already
known, we demand, what volcano
exists in the peninsula of India,
or in England, or in France, or in
Bohemia? And if it is said that
these bodies are projected by He-
cla, Etna, &c. to all manner of
distances, we must ask, whether
this is not explaining what is puz-
zling, by assuming what is impos-
sible? It is surely much better

From the whole, we may safely infer, that the bodies in question have fallen on the surface of the earth, but that they were not projected by any volcanoes, and that we have no right, from the known laws of nature, to suppose that they were formed in the upper regions of the atmosphere. Such a negative conclusion seems all that we are, in the present state of our knowledge, entitled to draw. But an hypothesis may perhaps suggest itself, unincumbered by any

of the foregoing difficulties, if we attend to the following undoubted truths.

As the attraction of gravitation extends over the whole planetary 'system, a heavy body, placed at the surface of the Moon, is affect ed chiefly by two forces; one drawing it towards the centre of the Earth, and another drawing it towards that of the Moon. The latter of these forces, however, is beyond all comparison greatest at or near the Moon's surface. But as we recede from the Moon, and approach to the Earth,this force decreases, while the other augments; and at one point between the two planets, these forces are exactly equal so that a heavy body, placed there, must remain at rest. If, therefore, a body is projected from the Moon towards the Earth, with a force sufficient to carry it beyond this point of equal attraction, it must necessarily fall on the Earth. Nor would it require a very great impulse to throw the body within the sphere of the Earth's superiour attraction. Supposing the line of projection to be that which joins the centres of the two planets, and supposing them to remain at rest; it has been demonstrated, on the Newtonian estimation of the Moon's mass, that a force of projection moving the body 12,000 feet in a second, would entirely detach it from the Moon and throw it upon the Earth. This estimate of the Moon's mass is, however, now admitted to be much greater than the truth; and upon M. De la Place's calculation, it has been shewn that a force of little more than one half the above power would be sufficient to produce the effect. A projectile, then, moving from the Moon with a velocity about three times greafer than that of a cannon ball, Vol. V. No. 1.

C

would infallibly reach the earth; and there can be little doubt that such forces are exerted by volca noes during eruptions, as well as by the production of steam, from subterranean heat. We may easi ly imagine such cause of motion to exist in the Moon, as well as in the Earth. Indeed, several observations have rendered the existence of volcanoes there extremely probable. In the calculation just now referred to, we may remark, that no allowance is made for the resistance of any medium in the place where the motion is generated. In fact, we have every reason to believe, from optical considerations, that the moon has no atmosphere.

A body falling from the Moon upon the Earth, after being im pelled by such a force as we have been describing, would not reach us in less than two days and a half. It would enter our atmos. phere with a velocity of nearly 25,000 feet in a second; but the resistance of the air increasing with the velocity, would soon greatly reduce it, and render it uniform. We may remark, however, that all the accounts of fallen stones agree in attributing to the luminous bodies a rapid motion in the air, and the effects of a very considerable momentum to the fragments which reach the ground. The oblique direction in which they always fall, must tend greatly to diminish their penetrating power.

While we are investigating the circumstances that render this account of the matter highly probable, we ought not to admit one consideration, which lies wholly in the opposite scale. The greater part of these singular bodies have first appeared in a high state of ignition; and it does not seem ea

sy to conceive how their passage through so rare a fluid as the atmosphere could have generated any great degree of heat, with whatever rapidity they may have moved. Viewing as we do, the hypothesis of their lunar origin as by far the most probable in every other respect, we will acknowledge that this circumstance prevents us from adopting it with entire satisfaction. And while we see so many invincible objections to all the other theories which have been offered for the solution of the difficulty, we must admit that the supposition least liable to contradiction from the facts, is nevertheless sufficiently exceptionable, on a single ground, to warrant us in concluding with the philosophical remark of Vauquelin, Le parti le plus sage qui nous reste á prendre dans cet etat des choses, c'est d'avouer

franchement, que nous ignorons entierement l'origine de ces pierres, et les causes qui ont pu les produire.'

If, however, a more extensive collection of accurate observations, and a greater variety of specimens, shall enable us to reconcile the discrepancy, and to push still farther our inquiries into the nature of the new substance, a knowledge of the internal structure of the Moon may be the splendid reward of our investigations. of our investigations. And while the labours of the Astronomer and Optician are introducing new worlds to our notice, Chemistry may, during the nineteenth century, as wonderfully augment our acquaintance with their productions and arrangement, as she has already, within a much shorter period, enlarged our ideas of the planet which we inhabit.

For the Anthology.

NOTICE OF GRIESBACH'S EDITION OF THE NEW-TESTAMENT, NOW PRINTING AT CAMBRIDGE.

WE are extremely glad to find that proposals are issued for printing at the University press, Griesbach's edition of the Greek Testament, with a selection of the most important various readings. The edition from which the American is to be exactly copied, was published at Leipsick in the year 1805, under the inspection, we understand, of Dr. Griesbach himself, and by its size is intended for common use. His large critical edition in two thick vols. royal octavo (commonly called the duke of Grafton's edition) is not so convenient for academies and schools, or for the daily reading of theological students, as it is for reference on the shelves of the library.

This large edition is also extremely scarce, and cannot now be procured even in England, except at a price which few of our clergy can easily afford. After the theological world had waited impatiently for the second volume of this standard edition, as soon as it appears, it is found that first volumes cannot be obtained; so that a complete set of this valuable Testament is hardly within the reach even of the few, who know how to prize so laborious a work. We consider the publishers of this small edition as

rendering a great service to the studious and pious portion of the community, by placing within the reach of every student and espe cially of ministers, a pure text and

select reading, of the Greek Testa- Symbola Critica and other works of Dr. Griesbach.

ment.

Dr. Griesbach's accuracy, fidelity, and industry are well known to the learned in every part of Europe. He is a Lutheran by profession, and orthodox it is said in his religious opinions; but he has no where discovered in his few alterations of the received text the slightest bias, or want of impartiality. Marsh, the learned commentator on Michaelis, and now Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge, loses no opportunity of praising his unwearied labours of more than thirty years in this kind of criticism, his scrupulous exactness, and above all the fairness with which he has quoted authorities, and the unbiassed judgment he has discovered in his decisions on the relative value of readings. His principles of criticism are to be found stated and justified in the Prolegomena to his critical edition, which we have mentioned above, & are very nearly the same with those adopted by Wetstein his great predecessor. But Dr. Griesbach's edition derives a value superiour to every other, from the more accurate collation, which has been made in late years of some of the most important manuscripts, from the discovery and examination of many others unknown to Mill and Wetstein, from the aids which biblical criticism has received from the various labours of the learned in the last half century, and more especially from the great discovery, which Dr. Griesbach has sufficiently substantiated, of the division of MSS. in families, or as he terms it recensiones. Those who wish for full satisfaction on all these subjects, may consult Michaelis's introduction, as it is enriched with the notes of Marsh, and the

It is also proposed, if this commodious edition should meet with the expected encouragement, to publish a supplementary volume, which shall contain an English translation of Griesbach's Prolegomena to his large critical edition, and the authorities, extracted from this, for every departure which he has made from the received text, and for every reading, which, tho' he has not ventured to insert it in the text, he considers of equal authority to the received. Perhaps also some other treatise or extracts may be added, calculated to awaken a curiosity, diffuse a taste, or promote a knowledge in biblical criticism.

There can be no doubt, that every man who feels a due respect for the sacred oracles, and especially every clergyman who must take them for the ground of his publick instructions, will be solicitous to have them in the purest form, in which they can be obtained by the aid of sober and accurate criticism. Enthusiasts in classical literature spare no labour or expense to obtain correct texts of the immortal authors of Greece and Rome; and shall the most valuable of all an tient writings, the books of the New Testament, be more incorrectly edited, than the works of Homer and Virgil ? No man would read his Homer or his Virgil in a common sixpenny edition picked up at a stall, if he could use the standard edition of Heyne ; and is it of less importance that the word of God should be studied in its most correct state ?*

The following extract from Griesbach's Prolegomena, contains this sentiment eloquently expressed. "Cæterum quidquid ad sacri codicis integritatem tuendam, puritatemque textui sacre

If there be any who fear that a degree of uncertainty is thus induced in the oracles of religious truth by this representation of the importance of more accurate editions, than those in common use, it would be a sufficient answer perhaps to refer to the case of any other work of the antients, which has been transmitted to us. But it would be worthy of their apparent concern to enquire, what is the authority of that text, which they have been in the habit of receiving all their lives, as neither more nor less than the very words of inspiration, from which it is unlawful to depart. If they enquire, they will find, that they are defending, as the precise language of inspiration, a text, which was given us by two printers of Leyden, in the infancy of sacred criticism. Our common editions contain,what is called the Elsevir text. This was compiled by the Elsevirs from the editions of Beza, and Beza copied the third of Robert Stephens, excepting a few changes, which he made according to his own judg ment, and sometimes without sufficient authority; the 3d of Stephens closely follows the 5th of Erasmus, except in the Apoca lypse, and a few other places, where the Complutensian edition

restituendam pertinet, leve videri debet nemini. Quodsi enim in emaculandis Ciceronis aut Terentii scriptis non sine

Jaude versata est tot doctorum virorum diligentia, nec quisquam tam ineptus est & impudens, ut triobolarem editionem horum auctorum quamcunque equiparet optimis editionibus a summis criticis incredibili labore emendatis ; quanto magis summa contentione conjunctisque criticorum studiis enitendum est, ut sacrorum librorum editio tandem aliquando extet in omnibus, minimis etiam, quantum fieri potest purissima, et a mendis quibuscunque, levioribus æque ac atrocioribus, expurgata."

[Griesb. Prol. p. xxxix.]

was preferred to that of Erasmus; and Erasmus constituted the text as he could, by the help of very few manuscripts, and those of no great antiquity, without any other critical subsidia, than the interpolated Vulgate, and some inaccurately edited Fathers. Besides; as the text of our common editions has not received any publick,much less binding sanction, it rests only on the authority of the editors we have enumerated; and why, at the present day, when sacred criticism has received so much improve. ment, we should still be taught to consider as sacred, a text settled two centuries ago upon much few. er authorities than we now possess, it would not be easy perhaps to say. Indeed, it may fairly be ask ed, who discovers the most rational respect for the word of God; the man who persists in considering a text constituted long ago by two printers of Leyden, as totidem verbis, syllabis literis the only, sacred, and unalterable language of inspiration; or the man who is still anxiously solicitous to ascertain, by all the established rules of criticism applied to the testimony of MSS., Versions, and Fathers, what was the original text of the sacred writings. Nothing is more generally acknowledged, than that the essential facts and doctrines of Christianity are in no degree endangered by the alterations, which just criticism demands in the present received text; and by very few of the various readings is the sense of passages at all affected. It is the glory of this branch of theological study, that it has engaged learned men of the most opposite persuasions in laborious contributions to its success. Among the collectors of va rious readings and the editors of the New Testament, we find the

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »