ceffary. The paffage in the original runs thus ΤΟ 66 spanεix ἦν ἐυρίσκεται ἑτέρα φυσικὴ καὶ ἀντιπαθής, ή Δημόκριτος μαρτυρεί λέγων, ὅτι ἐπεὶ λέων ὁ δῆρ πιοεῖται τὸν ἀλέκτορα ἰδὼν αὐτὸν, καὶ συστέλλεται, ὕτως ἐάν τις λάξῃ μετὰ θάρρος τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἀυλᾶ, καὶ περιελθῃ τὸ χωρίον, ευθέως χωρίζεται μὲν ἡ λεόντειος πόα, τὰ δὲ ὄσπρια κρέιτονα γίνεται, ὡς τῆς βολάνης ταύτης το λέοντος τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα φοβημένης. That is, there is another phyfical remedy operating by antipat y, to the efficacy of which Democritus bears teftimony, aiming that as the beaft called the lion, is terrified and alarıned at the fight of a cock, fo alto if a man confidently t. kes in his hand a cock and goes round the pot, the leonine plant inftantly gives way, and the pule improve, as if the plant were terrified by the cock." The expreflion 2éwr 5 Drip, is ufed in diflination to λέων ή βοτάνη. The accufative annlopa is governed not of oil, but of a prepofition underflood exactly in the tame mode of conflruction as afterwards occurs in the exprellion της βοτάνης το λέοντος τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα φοβεμένης. To point all the inftances of iraccurate tranflation, which we have obferved, would fill a number of our review. Thofe which we have enumerated will convince our readers that Mr. O. is either extremely carelefs, or but flighly acquainted with the Greek language. One further remark juffice to departed merit calls on us to offer. It is that many of the references to ancient write.s, who have touched upon fubjects treated of by the author, and which the translator has placed by way of notes in the margin, bad been long ago noticed by the editor Needham. This circumftance could not have efcaped the knowledge of Mr. O. and ought, in candour, to have been mentioned. He bould likewife in juftice have told his readers, that his account of the ref ̧ cctive authors, from whom the compiler of the Geoponica derived his materials, is borrowed without any confiderable alteration from the prolegomena of the fame Editor. If the information was worth retailing, the force from which it had been derived, was worthy of acknowledgement. This if not plagiarifin is very like it: and we would recommend to the attention of candidates for public favour, the words of the celebrated fabulift, Ne gloriari libeat alienis bonis, Suoque potius habitu vitam degere. It is fcarcely neceffary to add, that we do not confider the present publication as likely to give much tepat tion' to the tranflator, or to confer any material benefit either on agriculture, or on the republic of letters. ART. ART. III. Lectures en Syftematic Theology, and Pulpit Eloquence. By the late George Campbell, D. D. F.R.S. Ed. Principal of Marifchal College, Aberdeen. 8vo. pp. 542. 9s. Cadell and Davies. 1807. IT T is fometimes the misfortune of authors of high reputation, to have that reputation leffened, after their death, by the blind partiality of their furviving friends. Every thing that a man of indifputable talents and learning may have left unfinished on an important fubject, is by thofe who have been accustomed to look up to him with veneration when living, deemed of fufficient importance to be laid before the public, when he is dead; and fuch of the public as advert not to the circumftances of the case, attribute to the much injured author defects and errors, which, in reality, are difgraceful only to his injudicious friends. But it is not from the partiality of friendship only that authors of eminence have this pofthumous injury to dread. There are men, and, we are forry to fay, literary men, of fo depraved a fpirit, as to barter the fame of their deceased friends for their own profit, and fell to a bookfeller whatever manufcripts they find, on any fubject likely to attract the public attention. Hence it is, that fo many manuf cripts of real value are deftroyed by their authors at the approach of death, from the well grounded apprehenfion that were they to leave any thing behind for publication, other things would probably be published altogether unfit for the public eye. That the celebrated author of the Differtation on Miracles, of the Philofophy of Rhetoric, and of the tranflation of the Gofpels, has fuffered nothing from the venality of his furviving friends, we are perfectly fatisfied; but it is not fo evident that his reputation has fuftained no injury from their blind veneration. His lectures on Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, to fpeak of them in the gentleft terms, are not fuch as we could have expected from the pen of Dr. Campbell. They are indeed compofed in an animated ftyle, and contain many amufing anecdotes; but the violence difplayed in them against all who think differently from their author, on the fubject of church government, comes with no good grace from that calm philofopher, who treated with the utmost refpect the atheift Hume; whilft the notions which they are calculated to inftil into the public mind, can be productive of no good, and may do much evil, in thefe days of philofophical lofophical indifference, when every ecclefiaftical establishment is affailed in its very foundations. As we have elsewhere reviewed thofe Lectures at fome length, and given of them what we believe to be an impartial character, we fhould not have adverted to them again, had not the editor of the volume before us declared that one of the motives which prompted him to offer it to the public, was the favourable reception of the Lectures on Ecclefiaftical History! If this be the cafe; if thofe Lectures have indeed been favourably received, we can no longer wonder at the growth of methodifm, or at thofe combinations which are faid to have been formed for the overthrow of our ecclefiaftical establishments; for if the apoftolical church was congregational and independent, why fhould fuch eftablifhments as thofe of England and Scotland be fupported at the expence of the nation? The arguments by which Dr. Campbell fupports his ecclefiaftical opinions have indeed been expofed, in all their weakness, by different authors of unquestionable learning; but the illiterate multitude, incapable of judging for themfelves in fuch controverfies, will always lean to that fide which flatters their own importance; whilft factious innovators and impious philofophifts have no defire to discover the truth, especially when they are told by a learned profeffor of divinity, that the truth in question is of very little value, and of difficult attainment! To the lectures on fyftematic theology and pulpit eloquence the fame objections cannot be urged. They bear internal evidence of having come unfophifticated from the author of the differtations prefixed to the tranflation of the Gofpels; and of that author they are every way worthy. They difplay indeed occafional inelegancies of ftyle, repetitions of fentiment, which, had they been fitted for the prefs by Dr. Campbell himself, would undoubtedly have been removed; but these inelegancies are never grofs or offenfive, nor are the repetitions flovenly; while both furnifh a prefumption amounting almoft to proof, that the lectures have been given to the public in the very words in which they were pronounced from the profefforial chair. *Brit. Crit. vol. xx. p. 237, &c. + See, in particular, the difcourfe preliminary to Daubeny's Eight Difcourfes, reviewed in our 20th vol. p. 390, &c.; and Bishop Skinner's Primitive Truth and Order vindicated, reviewed in our 25th vel. p. 262, &c. Perhaps Perhaps the title of the book might have been improved ; for it feems to promife a connected view of the Chriftian fyftem, which if any reader expect to find in thefe lectures, he will undoubtedly be difappointed. To human fyftems of faith, Dr. Campbell appears to have been no friend. It was his object to inftru&t his pupils how to fudy the fcriptures of truth, fo as to form, each for himfelf, a fyftem of doctrines refting on that infallible bafis; and perha s this is the moft ufeful object which any lecture on theology can have in view," Lectures on the fudy of fyftematic theology," would therefore, in our opinion, be a more proper title for the first part of this volume, than that which has been given to it by its author or editor; for we really know not where the young theologian will find fo many judicious directions for the conduct of his ftudies, as are here furnifhed to him within a very moderate compafs. In four preliminary difcourfes, the learned Principal confiders, 1. The fcience of theology, and its feveral branches; 2. The pratical part of the theological profeffion, or the duties of the paftoral office; 3. In what manner the branches of theology, above mentioned, ought to be treated by a profeffor in an univerfity; and, 4. The conduct which ftudents of theology ought to purfue." In the firft difcourfe he obferves, that the Chriftian theology may be ftudied with different views, fuch as either to grafy a laudable curiofity, to qualify us for acting the part of Chriftians, by practifing the duties of the Chriftian life; or to qualify the ftudent for difcharging the office of a Chriftian paftor. As a branch of liberal education, he adds, with too much truth, theology is now very rarely, if ever, ftudied in this country, like other fciences, purely for its own fake, though why it is not, no good reafon can be affigned. With regard to the fecond view of ftudying this fcience, it is equally the bufinefs of every Chriftian to ftudy, and of every minifter of a parish to teach theology; but theological fchools and colleges have been erected for the purpole of fitting youth for the paftoral office. He then enumerates the branches of literature and science which ought to be ftudied previous to entering with this view on a courfe of theology; and accurately diftinguifhes between thofe which are abfolutely neceflary, and fuch as are only ufeful and ornamental to the accomplished divine. Among the branches of literature abfolutely neceffary, he infifts particularly on the ftudy of the Hebrew and Greek lan guages, in which the original fcriptures are written; and of ancient hiftory, facred and profane; more efpecially the hiftory of the Hebrews, and of the nations with which they were more particularly connected. He then fhows the im portance of reducing the doctrines incidentally taught in the fcriptures, into a fyftematic form; and gives fome brief, but judicious, directions, for the arrangement of fuch a fyf tem; cautioning his readers "never to think themselves entitled, even in cafes which they may imagine very clear, to form uncharitable judgments of those who differ from them." This, however, thould not make the divine lukewarm or indifferent; for, as he obferves, it is of great confequence to the minifters of religion to be able to defend it against the attacks of infidels, and the fophiftry of those, who, though they deny not the truth of Chriftianity in genefal, are yet difpofed to controvert fome of its doctrines. "Thus the great branches of the theoretic part of this profeffion are justly reducible to three, namely, Scripture Criticism, Sacred History, and Theological Controverfy. Thefe are fufficient to complete the character of the theologian, as the word is commonly understood; who is precifely what our Lord has denominated "a fcribe inftructed unto the kingdom of heaven; who can, like a provident householder, bring out of his treasure new things and old." P. 22. In the fecond preliminary difcourfe the learned Principal · enumerates the qualifications requifite to enable a man to difcharge the duties of the paftoral office in the Church of Scotland; and he comprehends these under the three branches of pulpit eloquence, purity of manners in private life, and the obfervance of propriety in the character of a judge, both in ecclefiaftical matters, and in civil. The ecclefiaftical matters on which it is the duty of prefbyteries to judge, are chiefly matters of fcandal, and the qualifications of candidates for the miniftry; and thofe of civil matters refpect the building or repairing of churches, and mefnes, or parfonage houses, the allotment of glebes to the clergy, and the licenfing of parochial fchoolmasters. The examination, here ftrangely enough called trial, which in Scotland every candidate for the miniftry undergoes, feems to be regulated in a very judicious manner, as it must furnish the prefbytery with evidence amounting to moral certainty, of the attainments made by the candidate in facred literature and pulpit elo quence. The extent of this courfe of theological fudy leads the author to lay down in the third preliminary difcourfe the method Cc BRIT, GRIT, VOL. XXXI, APRIL, 1805. |