of the victory shall infinitely more than repay the toils, and the perils, and the privations of the war.

In our next paper, we shall endeavour to point out these responsibilities as explicitly as we can, as they refer to mind, to pursuit, to effort, to association, to taste, to habit, to influence, to the person, to society, to the country, to the world, and to God.

A GOSSIP ON SUPERSTITION.

BY GEO. R. TWINN, AUTHOR OF "IS IT PEACE?" &c.

How evidently can the philosophic mind, that suffers itself to be carried back into the "flight of ages"—that is, borne in a purely contemplative mood into the gloom of primeval years, discover in the rising up and throwing down of empires-in the erection of dynasties and subversion of states-in the exaltation of distinguished characters, and the abasement of remarkable individuals-in the whole herd of mankind, both of generations dead and of the living, that Superstition has powerfully actuated motives and principles, and swayed man's actions! Superstition has had the chief part in laying the foundation of nations. Egypt, Greece, and Rome, are striking illustrations: they were based in their first rise on violence, by subduing the people, and afterwards holding them in submission by threats and superstition. Their religious system was a superstitious system; every rise of the olden nations, whether of the wild tribes of Germany, depicted by the pen of the historian Tacitus, or of the more refined Eastern countries, was mingled with superstition: the mysteries of the Egyptian Isis were pregnant with this feature; and the ancient Greeks were so scrupulous in the performance of their ceremonies, that nothing, even of the most trivial tendency or nature, could be undertaken without consulting the oracles. They had temples erected to Jupiter, and groves of sacred oaks dedicated to him: at Dodona was his chief oracle, a place selected in preference to Thebes; the former abode, by a black pigeon flying thither, and choosing the spot. The Greeks in their very commencement were a wild and barbarous people, scarcely superior in any one particular to the brute beasts: herbs, roots, and fruits, spontaneously produced by the earth in her richness, satisfied them; the open fields and woods were their place of residence. This constant exposure to the weather, rendered them extremely hardy, smce their only covering was the canopy of Heaven. By degrees refinement crept in, and though the states had a chief, yet he governed by superstition; he held the people in subjection, by instilling, through the medium of their priests, an awe which was strong and powerful. In this sketch of the early Greeks, cannot the reader trace the exact similarity to his own forefathers the Britons? Yet, upon reflection, is not the origin of all nations a picture which, viewed in any direction, offers the same landscape? Alike, and most minutely too, is the origin of Greeks, Romans, and many other people. When refinement had removed the wooden logs, which the Grecians worshipped, for superb statues of the Gods and splendid temples, the vein of superstition still lingered, and gave a colouring to their every action. No assembly was convened-no war commenced-no project planned-no public edifice erectedno renowned member of the council honoured-no one elected to a lucrative situation -no post of honour conferred-nor, in fact, was any thing done without consulting the oracle; and the answer given was implicitly obeyed:- -to keep the people's minds in that dark state, so as to render this obedience, was the end of the priest's duties; and certain it is, they well discharged it. Man in all ages-the present day is not an exception-has always possessed a natural prompting in his heart to venerate forms and practices; to love ceremony rather than real worship; and this very prompting, thus operating, is Superstition. The great and talented-the strong in intellect, as well as the weak-the statesman and the warrior-have in every period

of the world been carried away by an attachment garnered in the heart, (and fearfully held when once generated,) for any one thing savouring of superstition. He, the proud one, who wept for another world to subdue, whose ambition led him into the most violent extremes-Alexander the Great-never failed consulting the oracle.

What says the historian respecting the ancient Greeks? "After every preparation was made to begin the war, though the posture of affairs appeared ever so inviting, yet they durst not make any attempts upon their enemies till favourable omens and fortunate days encouraged them so to do. An eclipse of the moon would put a stop to the best-concerted enterprizes, and an unlucky day would prevent their taking advantage of the most promising circumstances. So strange a hold has Superstition on the mind of the wisest and best-informed in all ages." And what has given this Superstition its dark character? It is, that Imagination, depraved and poluted, triumphs over Reason, and the mind obeys her despotic voice. Were we to confine (and for the present we will do so) our remarks solely to the character of individuals who have been carried away by Superstition, we shall be enabled to discover how vitiated and corrupt have been the natures of men, well known for superiority in many respects, yet so overcome and held captive by Fanaticism, or some other folly, as superstitiously to make all they did, or thought of, hang on that dread belief inspired by fantastic visions. Had men, instead of degenerating as refinement advanced, adhered to plain, honest truth, we should not have such pictures of terrors, pangs, despair, self-imposed punishments, penances, mortifications, and monastic rigours, as are presented to us in every faithful page of the history of every country. The many sects in India, in China-nay, all the world over-have their origin in Fanaticism and Superstition. This latter vice has swayed all Europe; the casual glancer into the accounts and registers of nunneries, convents, monasteries, &c., cannot fail discovering the powerful influence gained by the operations of priesteraft, backed by Superstition. Instead of obeying this evil, what good results would have followed had men have cultivated their hearts! They might then have viewed objects in a pure light, contemning folly and elevating their natural pride; feeling an enthusiastic regard for the impulses of virtue; rendering to the same a love cherishing every good motive within; and learning from the compassionate feeling that would be engendered, an experience, whose effects would be productive of numerous benefits, and tend in no small degree to mark the way to Heaven.

(To be continued.)

DR. PYE SMITH ON "VARIOUS READINGS."*

PREVIOUSLY to the invention of the inestimable art of printing, about the year 1440, books could be multiplied only by the tedious and laborious process of taking copies in hand-writing. The method of publishing, in the classical ages, consisted in an author's having his work read among his friends, and sometimes in large assemblies of people; and, if it met with general approbation, persons were permitted or procured to write out copies for distribution or sale. From each of these, other transcripts were made; and so on, from one generation of men to another. In this way have been preserved the works of Homer, Herodotus, Hippocrates, Euclid, and an illustrious host of Greek writers besides, the eldest of whom belongs to the ninth century at least before the Christian era; and those of Cicero, Cæsar, Virgil, Tacitus, and the rest of the Roman classics. Now, whoever has any experience of the toil and liableness to mistake which attend the transcribing of even a * From his answer to "A Syntagma of the Evidences of the Christian Religion."

short pamphlet, will easily understand the difficulties necessarily accruing, when this was the only way of multiplying the hundreds and thousands of books that existed in the world; when persons fond of knowledge were obliged to spend a large part of their lives in copying books which they had borrowed (often by pledging their most valuable possessions as a security for the loan), unless they were immensely rich so as to hire transcribers; when a moderate library was, in pecuniary value, worth a barony or a duchy; and when the possessors of these costly treasures had not the means, nor perhaps were expert in the method, of comparing two or more copies together, in order to ascertain the correctness of each. In the transcribers themselves, many of whom got their livelihood by this labour, obvious causes must have been in continual operation to produce variations from the original copy; generally in a manner involuntary and purely accidental, but sometimes from design. Haste, carelessness, wandering of the attention, weak eye-sight, bad light and feeble lamps, difficulty of making out the handwriting of the copy before him, and sometimes the idea of correcting a hastily-supposed mistake in that copy; were among the numerous circumstances which were likely to betray a transcriber into errors in letters, syllables, and words. These differences would be detected, when two or more copies were carefully compared: they were called by the very proper term, VARIOUS READINGS; they became, in due time, an object of anxious study; and the art, acquired by long practice united with extensive learning and solid judgment, of determining the True Reading out of several variations, in a manner impartial and satisfactory, formed a most important branch in the Art of CRITICISM.

From this collection of circumstances the following facts naturally and necessarily ensued.

1. That, of those books which were the most frequently copied, in all periods of time and in different countries, the number of Various Readings is the greatest; and yet the settlement of the true or genuine Reading in each instance is the easiest, on account of the multitude of copies, each one being a kind of check upon the others. For example; the writings of Terence, those of Horace, and some of Cicero's, are in the best-evidenced state of purity, because the number of old manuscript copies, and consequently of Various Readings, is greater than in the case of most of the other ancient authors.

2. That, on the other hand, when very few manuscripts of a work are known to exist, the Variations are indeed few; but obscurities and difficulties attach to the text which Criticism cannot remove, except, in some instances, by the adventurous hand of Conjecture. This is the case with the writings that have come down to us of Paterculus, Hesychius, and some others.

3. That, if, in addition to manuscript copies of any ancient work, quotations from it are found in other writings of great antiquity, and ancient translations of it exist in any other language, these two are new sources of evidence, and may be, in some respects, equal and even superior to that of manuscripts. Thus the late Mr. PORSON very happily,

in several instances, confirmed or corrected the Greek text of Euripides, by adducing translations of passages from Latin authors who lived two or three hundred years later.

4. That, in proportion to the multitude of Various Readings, their individual importance becomes less and less; for they are found to refer almost entirely to very little matters, many of which could not be made apparent in a translation, and, of the rest, very few produce any alteration in the meaning of a sentence, still less in the purport of a whole paragraph. The reason of this is, that the greater multiplicity of copies, though it occasions a greater number of trifling mistakes, furnishes at the same time a strong barrier against such as would effect the meaning, and especially such as might proceed from design.

Now let any man of sense apply these facts to the history and state of the text of our Holy Scriptures. They travelled down almost fourteen centuries, in the form of written books, before they were taken up by the art of Printing. But no ancient books have enjoyed equal means of safe preservation; because no ancient books were so early and widely spread abroad among different nations, none have been so constantly and publicly read, none have been so multiplied by transcripts, none have been translated into so many languages at very early periods, from the third century to the ninth, none have been so often quoted and commented upon by both Greek and Latin authors, from the very age of their composition through all following time; and of no ancient books have the Various Readings been sought for with so much labour and anxiety, and published with so much minute care; even to a degree which would be censured as needless and trifling, if exercised upon any classic author. The consequence is, that of no ancient books whatsoever do we possess a text so critically correct, so satisfactorily perfect, as that which exists in the best editions of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.

Before quitting this subject of the Various Readings, I must remark, that the well-informed Christian is so far from deprecating the study of them, or wishing to hide the fact of their existence with regard to the Scriptures as well as all other ancient books, that he would rejoice in the further discovery of good and ancient manuscripts or versions, though they might add hundreds or even thousands to the list: for he knows that they could only have the effect of still more establishing the text of the best editions, or of putting an end to the few difficulties which still exist.

I also beg attention to a passage from the prince of classical critics, Richard Bentley. "The result of the whole is, that either, à posteriori, ALL ancient books, as well as the sacred, must now be laid aside as 'uncertain and precarious "" [the terms used by Collins, on whom he is animadverting]; "or else, say, à priori, that all the transcripts of sacred books should have been privileged against the common fate, and exempted from all slips and errors whatever. Which of these our writer and his new sect will close with, I cannot foresee. There is in each of them such a gust of the paradox and the perverse, that they

equally suit with a modern Free-thinker's palate; and, therefore, I shall bestow a short reflection on both.

"If all the old authors are abandoned by him, there is one compendious answer to this Discourse of Free-thinking.' For what becomes of his boasted passages out of Cicero, Plutarch, and his long list of ancient Free-thinkers, if the text of each is precarious? Those passages, as they came from the authors' hands, might be for superstition, which are now cited against it. Thus our writer will be found felo de se; unless the coroner, to save his effects, favours him with his own titles of fool and madman.

"But I have too much value for the ancients, to play booty about their works and monuments, for the sake of a short answer to a fool according to his folly.' All those passages, and all the rest of their remains, are sufficiently pure and genuine to make us sure of the writers' design. If a corrupt line or dubious reading chances to intervene, it does not darken the whole context, nor make an author's opinion or his purpose precarious. Terence, for instance, has as many variations as any book whatever, in proportion to its bulk and yet, with all its interpolations, omissions, additions, or glosses, (choose the worst of them on purpose,) you cannot deface the contrivance and plot of one play; no, not of one single scene; but its sense, design, and subserviency to the last issue and conclusion, shall be visible and plain through all the mist of Various Lections. And so it is with the SACRED TEXT. Make your thirty thousand as many more, if numbers of copies can ever reach that sum. All the better to a knowing and serious reader, who is thereby more richly furnished to select what he sees genuine. But even put

them into the hands of a knave or a fool: and yet, with the most sinistrous and absurd choice, he shall not extinguish the light of any one chapter, nor so disguise Christianity but that every feature of it will still be the same.

"And this has already prevented the last shift and objection, that Sacred Books, at least books imposed upon the world as divine laws and revelations, should have been exempted from the injuries of time, and secured from the least change. For what need of that perpetual miracle, if, with all the present changes, the whole Scripture is perfect, and sufficient to all the great ends and purposes of its first writing? What a scheme would these men make! What worthy rules would they prescribe to Providence! That, in millions of copies, transcribed in so many ages and nations, all the notaries and writers, who made it their trade and livelihood, should be infallible and impeccable! That their pens should spontaneously write true, or be supernaturally guided; though the scribes were nodding or dreaming! Would not this exceed all the miracles of both Old and New Testament? And, pray, to what great use or design? To give satisfaction to a few obstinate and untractable wretches; to those who are not convinced by Moses and the prophets,' but want one from the dead' to come and convert them! Such men mistake the methods of Providence, and the very fundamentals of religion, which draws its votaries by the cords of a man,' by rational,