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lences, and whose esteem and friendship is alone worth their being concerned for. In a word, they prove the happiest as well as they are the wisest ladies, that, whilst they possess the desirable qualities that youth is wont to give, neglect not the acquist [acquisition] of those that age cannot take away.

[Marriage a Lottery.]

and I have hitherto met with, do (for want of skill in the original, especially in the Hebrew) judge of it by the translations, wherein alone they read it. Now, scarce any but a linguist will imagine how much a book may lose of its elegancy by being read in another tongue than that it was written in, especially if the languages from which and into which the version is made be so very differing, as are those of the eastern and these western parts of the world. But of this I foresee an occasion of saying something hereafter; yet at present I must observe to you, that the style of the Scripture is much more disadvantaged than that of other books, by being judged of by translations; for the religious and just veneration that the interpreters of the Bible have had for that sacred book, has made them, in most places, render the Hebrew and Greek passages so scrupulously word for word, that, for fear of not keeping close enough to the sense, they usually care not how much they lose of the eloquence of the passages they translate. So that, whereas in those versions of other books that are made by good linguists, the interpreters are wont to take the liberty to recede from the author's words, and also substitute other phrases instead of his, that they may express his meaning without injuring his reputation. In translating the Old Testament, interpreters have not put Hebrew phrases into Latin or English phrases, but only into Latin or English words, and have too often, besides, by not sufficiently understanding, or at least considering, the various significations of words, particles, and tenses, in the holy tongue, made many things appear less coherent, or less rational, or less considerable, which, by a more free and skilful rendering of the original, would not be blemished by any appearance of such imperfection. And though this fault of interpreters be pardonable enough in them, as carrying much of its excuse in its cause, yet it cannot but much derogate from the Scripture to appear with peculiar disadvantages, besides those many that are common to almost all books, by being tran

Methinks, Lindamor, most of those transitory goods
that we are so fond of, may not unfitly be resembled
to the sensitive plant which you have admired at Sion-
garden: for as, though we gaze on it with attention
and wonder, yet when we come to touch it, the coy
delusive plant immediately shrinks in its displayed
leaves, and contracts itself into a form and dimensions
disadvantageously differing from the former, which it
again recovers by degrees when touched no more; so
these objects that charm us at a distance, and whilst
gazed on with the eyes of expectation and desire, when
a more immediate possession hath put them into our
hands, their former lustre vanishes, and they appear
quite differing things from what before they seemed;
though, after deprivation or absence hath made us
forget their emptiness, and we be reduced to look upon
them again at a distance, they recover in most men's
eyes their former beauty, and are as capable as before
to inveigle and delude us. I must add, Lindamor,
that, when I compare to the sensitive plant most of
these transitory things that are flattered with the title
of goods, I do not out of that number except most
mistresses. For, though I am no such an enemy to
matrimony as some (for want of understanding the
raillery I have sometimes used in ordinary discourse)
are pleased to think me, and would not refuse you my |
advice (though I would not so readily give you my ex-
ample) to turn votary to Hymen; yet I have observed
so few happy matches, and so many unfortunate ones,
and have so rarely seen men love their wives at the
rate they did whilst they were their mistresses, that
I wonder not that legislators thought it necessary to
make marriages indissoluble, to make them lasting.slated.
And I cannot fitlier compare marriage than to a
lottery; for in both, he that ventures may succeed and
may miss; and if he draw a prize, he hath a rich re-
turn of his venture: but in both lotteries there is a
pretty store of blanks for every prize.

Some Considerations Touching the Style of the
Holy Scriptures.

These things, dear Theophilus, being thus despatched, I suppose we may now seasonably proceed to consider the style of the Scripture; a subject that will as well require as deserve some time and much attention, in regard that divers witty men, who freely acknowledge the authority of the Scripture, take exceptions at its style, and by those and their own reputation, divert many from studying, or so much as perusing, those sacred writings, thereby at once giving men injurious and irreverent thoughts of it, and diverting them from allowing the Scripture the best way of justifying itself, and disabusing them. Than which scarce anything can be more prejudicial to a book, that needs but to be sufficiently understood to be highly venerated; the writings these men criminate, and would keep others from reading, being like that honey which Saul's rash adjuration withheld the Israelites from eating, which, being tasted, not only gratified the taste, but enlightened the eyes. *

*

Of the considerations, then, that I am to lay before you, there are three or four, which are of a more general nature; and therefore being such as may each of them be pertinently employed against several of the exceptions taken at the Scripture's style, it will not be inconvenient to mention them before the rest. And, in the first place, it should be considered that those cavillers at the style of the Scripture, that you

For whereas the figures of rhetoric are wont, by orators, to be reduced to two comprehensive sorts, and one of those does so depend upon the sound and placing of the words (whence the Greek rhetoricians call such figures schemata lexeos), that, if they be altered, though the sense be retained, the figure may vanish; this sort of figures, I say, which comprises those that orators call epanados antanaclasis, and a multitude of others, are wont to be lost in such literal translations as are ours of the Bible, as I could easily show by many instances, if I thought it requisite.

Besides, there are in Hebrew, as in other languages, certain appropriated graces, and a peculiar emphasis belonging to some expressions, which must necessarily be impaired by any translation, and are but too often quite lost in those that adhere too scrupulously to the words of the original. And, as in a lovely face, though a painter may well enough express the cheeks, and the nose, and lips, yet there is often something of splendour and vivacity in the eyes, which no pencil can reach to equal; so in some choice composures, though a skilful interpreter may happily enough render into his own language a great part of what he translates, yet there may well be some shining passages, some sparkling and emphatical expressions, that he cannot possibly represent to the life. And this consideration is more applicable to the Bible and its translations than to other books, for two particular reasons.

For, first, it is more difficult to translate the Hebrew of the Old Testament, than if that book were written in Syriac or Arabic, or some such other eastern language. Not that the holy tongue is much more difficult to be learned than others; but because in the other learned tongues we know there are commonly

poems. And therefore it is that the latter critics have been fain to write comments, or at least notes, upon every page, and in some pages upon almost every line of those books, to enable the reader to discern the eloquence, and relish the wit of the author. And if such dilucidations be necessary to make us value writings that treat of familiar and secular affairs, and were written in a European language, and in times and countries much nearer to ours, how much do you think we must lose of the elegancy of the book of Job, the Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon, and other sacred composures, which not only treat oftentimes of sublime and supernatural mysteries, but were written in very remote regions so many ages ago, amidst circumstances to most of which we cannot but be great strangers. And thus much for my first general consideration.

variety of books extant, whereby we may learn the various significations of the words and phrases; whereas the pure Hebrew being unhappily lost, except so much of it as remains in the Old Testament, out of whose books alone we can but very imperfectly frame a dictionary and a language, there are many words, especially the hapax legomena, and those that occur but seldom, of which we know but that one signification, or those few acceptions, wherein we find it used in those texts that we think we clearly understand. Whereas, if we consider the nature of the primitive tongue, whose words, being not numerous, are most of them equivocal enough, and do many of them abound with strangely different meanings; and if we consider, too, how likely it is that the numerous conquests of David, and the wisdom, prosperity, fleets, and various commerces of his son Solomon, did both enrich and spread the Hebrew language, it can- My second is this, that we should carefully distinnot but seem very probable, that the same word or guish betwixt what the Scripture itself says, and what phrase may have had divers other significations than is only said in the Scripture. For we must not look interpreters have taken notice of, or we are now aware upon the Bible as an oration of God to men, or as a of: since we find in the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and body of laws, like our English statute-book, wherein other eastern tongues, that the Hebrew words and it is the legislator that all the way speaks to the phrases (a little varied, according to the nature of people; but as a collection of composures of very difthose dialects) have other, and oftentimes very differing sorts, and written at very distant times; and ferent significations, besides those that the modern interpreters of the Bible have ascribed to them. I say the modern, because the ancient versions before, or not long after, our Saviour's time, and especially that which we vulgarly call the Septuagint's, do frequently favour our conjecture, by rendering Hebrew words and phrases to senses very distant from those more received significations in our texts; when there appears no other so probable reason of their so rendering them, as their believing them capable of significations differing enough from those to which our later interpreters have thought fit to confine themselves. The use that I would make of this consideration may easily be conjectured, namely, that it is probable that many of those texts whose expressions, as they are rendered in our translations, seem flat or improper, or incoherent with the context, would appear much otherwise, if we were acquainted with all the significations of words and phrases that were known in the times when the Hebrew language flourished, and the sacred books were written; it being very likely, that among those various significations, some one or other would afford a better sense, and a more significant and sinewy expression, than we meet with in our translations; and perhaps would make such passages as seem flat or uncouth, appear eloquent and emphatical.

*

But this is not all: for I consider, in the second place, that not only we have lost divers of the significations of many of the Hebrew words and phrases, but that we have also lost the means of acquainting ourselves with a multitude of particulars relating to the topography, history, rites, opinions, fashions, customs, &c., of the ancient Jews and neighbouring nations, without the knowledge of which we cannot, in the perusing of books of such antiquity as those of the Old Testament, and written by (and principally for) Jews, we cannot, I say, but lose very much of that esteem, delight, and relish, with which we should read very many passages, if we discerned the references and allusions that are made in them to those stories, proverbs, opinions, &c., to which such passages may well be supposed to relate. And this conjecture will not, I presume, appear irrational, if you but consider how many of the handsomest passages in Juvenal, Persius, Martial, and divers other Latin writers (not to mention Hesiod, Musæus, or other ancienter Greeks), are lost to such readers as are unacquainted with the Roman customs, government, and story; nay, or are not sufficiently informed of a great many particular circumstances relating to the condition of those times, and of divers particular persons pointed at in those

of such composures, that though the holy men of God (as St Peter calls them) were acted by the Holy Spirit, who both excited and assisted them in penning the Scripture, yet there are many others, besides the Author and the penmen, introduced speaking there. For besides the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, the four evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, and other parts of Scripture that are evidently historical, and wont to be so called, there are, in the other books, many passages that deserve the same name, and many others wherein, though they be not mere narratives of things done, many sayings and expressions are recorded that either belong not to the Author of the Scripture, or must be looked upon as such wherein his secretaries personate others. So that, in a considerable part of the Scripture, not only prophets, and kings, and priests being introduced speaking, but soldiers, shepherds, and women, and such other sorts of persons, from whom witty or eloquent things are not (especially when they speak ex tempore) to be expected, it would be very injurious to impute to the Scripture any want of eloquence, that may be noted in the expressions of others than its Author. For though, not only in romances, but in many of those that pass for true histories, the supposed speakers may be observed to talk as well as the historian, yet that is but either because the men so introduced were ambassadors, orators, generals, or other eminent men for parts as well as employments; or because the historian does, as it often happens, give himself the liberty to make speeches for them, and does not set down indeed what they said, but what he thought fit that such persons on such occasions should have said. Whereas the penmen of the Scripture, as one of them truly professes, having not followed cunningly-devised fables in what they have written, have faithfully set down the sayings, as well as actions, they record, without making them rather congruous to the conditions of the speakers than to the laws of truth.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727) holds by universal consent the highest rank among the natural philosophers of ancient and modern times. He was born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, where his father cultivated a small paternal estate. From childhood he manifested a strong inclination to mechanics, and at Trinity college, Cambridge, which he entered in 1660, he made so great and rapid progress in his mathematical studies, that, in 1669, Dr Isaac Barrow,

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to a very low and unhappy state; speaking with a faint voice out of the dust, for being in a weak and low condition; moving from one place to another, for translation from one office, dignity, or dominion to another; great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, for the shaking of dominions, so as to distract or overthrow them; the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passing away of an old one, or the beginning and end of the world, for the rise and reign of the body politic signified thereby.

In the heavens, the sun and moon are, by the interpreters of dreams, put for the persons of kings and queens. But in sacred prophecy, which regards not single persons, the sun is put for the whole species and race of kings, in the kingdom or kingdoms of the world politic, shining with regal power and glory; the moon for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars for subordinate princes and great men, or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ; light for the glory, truth, and knowledge, wherewith great and good men shine and illuminate others; darkness for obscurity of condition, and for error, blindness, and ignorance; darkening, smiting, or setting of the sun, moon, and stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom, or for the desolation thereof, proportional to the darkness; darkening the sun, turning the moon into blood, and falling of the stars, for the same; new moons, for the return of a dispersed people into a body politic or ecclesiastic.

politic heaven and earth; a forest, for a kingdom;
and a wilderness, for a desolate and thin people.
If the world politic, considered in prophecy, con-
sists of many kingdoms, they are represented by as
many parts of the world natural, as the noblest by
the celestial frame, and then the moon and clouds are
put for the common people; the less noble, by the
earth, sea, and rivers, and by the animals or vege-
tables, or buildings therein; and then the greater
and more powerful animals and taller trees, are put
for kings, princes, and nobles. And because the whole
kingdom is the body politie of the king, therefore
the sun, or a tree, or a beast, or bird, or a man,
whereby the king is represented, is put in a large
signification for the whole kingdom; and several
animals, as a lion, a bear, a leopard, a goat, according
to their qualities, are put for several kingdoms and
bodies politic; and sacrificing of beasts, for slaughter-
ing and conquering of kingdoms; and friendship be-
tween beasts, for peace between kingdoms. Yet some-
times vegetables and animals are, by certain epithets
or circumstances, extended to other significations; as
a tree, when called the tree of life' or of know-
ledge;' and a beast, when called 'the old serpent,' or
worshipped.

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There is a question with respect to Sir Isaac Newton, which has recently excited so much controversy in the literary world, that we cannot avoid taking Fire and meteors refer to both heaven and earth, some notice of it in this place. It is well known and signify as follows:-Burning anything with fire, that during the last forty years of his life, the inis put for the consuming thereof by war; a confla-ventive powers of this great philosopher seemed to gration of the earth, or turning a country into a lake of fire, for the consumption of a kingdom by war; the being in a furnace, for the being in slavery under another nation; the ascending up of the smoke of any burning thing for ever and ever, for the continuation of a conquered people under the misery of perpetual subjection and slavery; the scorching heat of the sun, for vexatious wars, persecutions, and troubles inflicted by the king; riding on the clouds, for reigning over much people; covering the sun with a cloud, or with smoke, for oppression of the king by the armies of an enemy; tempestuous winds, or the motion of clouds, for wars; thunder, or the voice of a cloud, for the voice of a multitude; a storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and overflowing rain, for a tempest of war descending from the heavens and clouds politic on the heads of their enemies; rain, if not immoderate, and dew, and living water, for the graces and doctrines of the Spirit; and the defect of rain,

for spiritual barrenness.

have lost their activity; he made no farther discoveries, and, in his later scientific publications, imparted to the world only the views which he had formed in early life. In the article Newton' in the French Biographie Universelle, written by M. Biot, the statement was for the first time made, that his mental powers were impaired by an attack of insanity, which occurred in the years 1692 and 1693. This averment was by many received with incredulity; and Sir David Brewster, who published a Life of Newton in 1831, maintains that there is no sufficient proof of the fact alleged. Undue importance, we humbly conceive, has been attached to this quesstudies of Newton were by no means confined to the tion in a religious point of view; for the theological concluding portion of his life, nor is the testimony of much value in a case where evidence, and not of even so great a man in favour of Christianity authority, must be resorted to as the real ground of In the earth, the dry land and congregated waters, decision. That Newton's mind was much out of as a sea, a river, a flood, are put for the people of order at the period mentioned, appears to us to be several regions, nations, and dominions; embittering satisfactorily proved even by documents first made of waters, for great affliction of the people by war and known to the world in Brewster's work, indepenpersecution; turning things into blood, for the mys- dently of those published by M. Biot. The latter tical death of bodies politic, that is, for their dissolu- gives a manuscript of the Dutch astronomer Huygens, tion; the overflowing of a sea or river, for the invasion which is still preserved at Leyden, and is to the folof the earth politic, by the people of the waters; dry-lowing effect. On the 29th of May 1694, a Scotching up of waters, for the conquest of their regions by the earth; fountains of waters for cities, the nent heads of rivers politic; mountains and islands, for the cities of the earth and sea politic, with the territories and dominions belonging to those cities; dens and rocks of mountains, for the temples of cities; the hiding of men in those dens and rocks, for the shutting up of idols in their temples; houses and ships, for families, assemblies, and towns in the earth and sea politic; and a navy of ships of war, for an army of that kingdom that is signified by the sea.

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Animals also, and vegetables, are put for the people of several regions and conditions; and particularly trees, herbs, and land animals, for the people of the earth politic; flags, reeds, and fishes, for those of the waters politic; birds and insects, for those of the

man of the name of Colin informed me that Isaac Newton, the celebrated mathematician, eighteen months previously, had become deranged in his mind, either from too great application to his studies, or from excessive grief at having lost, by fire, his chemical laboratory and some papers. Having made observations before the chancellor of Cambridge, which indicated the alienation of his intellect, he was taken care of by his friends; and being confined to his house, remedies were applied, by means of which he has lately so far recovered his health, as to begin to again understand his own Principia.' This account is confirmed by a diary kept by Mr Abraham de la Pryme, a Cambridge student, who, under date the 3d of February 1692 (being what was on the continent called 1693, as

the English year then commenced on 25th March), relates, in a passage which Brewster has published, the loss of Newton's papers by fire while he was at chapel; adding, that when the philosopher came home, and had seen what was done, every one thought he would have run mad; he was so troubled thereat, that he was not himself for a month after.' This, however, is the smallest part of the evidence. Newton himself, writing on the 13th September 1693 to Mr Pepys, secretary to the admiralty, says, I am extremely troubled at the embroilment I am in, and have neither ate nor slept well this twelvemonth, nor have my former consistency of mind.' Again, on the 16th of the same month, he writes to his friend Locke in the following remarkable terms:'Sir-Being of opinion that you endeavoured to embroil me with women, and by other means, I was so much affected with it, as when one told me you were sickly, and would not live, I answered, 'twere better if you were dead. I desire you to forgive me this uncharitableness; for I am now satisfied that what you have done is just, and I beg your pardon for my having hard thoughts of you for it, and for representing that you struck at the root of morality, in a principle you laid in your book of ideas, and designed to pursue in another book, and that I took you for a Hobbist. I beg your pardon, also, for saying or thinking that there was a design to sell me an office, or to embroil me. I am your most humble and unfortunate servant-IS. NEWTON.

The answer of Locke is admirable for the gentle and affectionate spirit in which it is written :

'Sir-I have been, ever since I first knew you, so entirely and sincerely your friend, and thought you so much mine, that I could not have believed what you tell me of yourself, had I had it from anybody else. And though I cannot but be mightily troubled that you should have had so many wrong and unjust thoughts of me, yet, next to the return of good offices, such as from a sincere good will I have ever done you, I receive your acknowledgment of the contrary as the kindest thing you could have done me, since it gives me hopes that I have not lost a friend I so much valued. After what your letter expresses, I shall not need to say anything to justify myself to you. I shall always think your own reflection on my carriage both to you and all mankind will sufficiently do that. Instead of that, give me leave to assure you, that I am more ready to forgive you than you can be to desire it; and I do it so freely and fully, that I wish for nothing more than the opportunity to convince you that I truly love and esteem you; and that I have still the same good will for you as if nothing of this had happened. To confirm this to you more fully, I should be glad to meet you anywhere, and the rather, because the conclusion of your letter makes me apprehend it would not be wholly useless to you. But whether you think it fit or not, I leave wholly to you. I shall always be ready to serve you to my utmost, in any way you shall like, and shall only need your commands or permission to do it.

My book is going to press for a second edition; and though I can answer for the design with which I writ it, yet since you have so opportunely given me notice of what you have said of it, I should take it as a favour if you would point out to me the places that gave occasion to that censure, that, by explaining myself better, I may avoid being mistaken by others, or unawares doing the least prejudice to truth or virtue. I am sure you are so much a friend to them both, that were you none to me, I could expect this from you. But I cannot doubt but you would do a great deal more than this for my sake, who, after all,

:

have all the concern of a friend for you, wish you extremely well, and am, without compliment,' &c. To this Sir Isaac replied on the 5th of October :'Sir-The last winter, by sleeping too often by my fire, I got an ill habit of sleeping; and a distemper, which this summer has been epidemical, put me farther out of order, so that when I wrote to you, I had not slept an hour a-night for a fortnight together, and for five days together not a wink. I remember I wrote you, but what I said of your book I remember not. If you please to send me a transcript of that passage, I will give you an account of it if I can. I am your most humble servant-Is. NEWTON.'

On the 26th September Pepys wrote to a friend of his, at Cambridge, a Mr Millington, making inquiry about Newton's mental condition, as he had 'lately received a letter from him so surprising to me for the inconsistency of every part of it, as to be put into great disorder by it, from the concernment I have for him, lest it should arise from that which of all mankind I should least dread from him, and most lament for-I mean a discomposure in head, or mind, or both.' Millington answers on the 30th, that two days previously, he had met Newton at Huntingdon; where,' says he, 'upon his own accord, and before I had time to ask him any question, he told me that he had writ to you a very odd letter, at which he was much concerned; and added, that it was a distemper that much seized his head, and that kept him awake for above five nights together; which upon occasion he desired I would represent to you, and beg your pardon, he being very much ashamed he should be so rude to a person for whom he hath so great an honour. He is now very well, and though I fear he is under some small degree of melancholy, yet I think there is no reason to suspect it hath at all touched his understanding, and I hope never will.'

It thus appears that, in consequence of excessive study, or the loss of valuable papers, or both causes combined, the understanding of Newton was for about twelve months thrown into an intermittent disorder, to which the name of insanity ought to be applied. That his intellect never attained its former activity and vigour, is made probable by the following circumstances. In the first place, he published after 1687 no scientific work except what he then possessed the materials of. Secondly, he tells at the end of the second book of his 'Optics,' that though he felt the necessity of his experiments, or rendering them more perfect, he was not able to resolve to do so, these matters being no longer in his way.' And lastly, of the manuscripts found after his death, amounting, as we learn from Dr Charles Hutton, to 'upwards of four thousand sheets in folio, or eight reams of foolscap paper, besides the bound books, of which the number of sheets is not mentioned,'* none was thought worthy of publication except his work on the Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms,' and 'Observations on the Prophecies.'†

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The character and most prominent discoveries of Newton are summed up in his epitaph, of which the Here lies interred following is a translation. Isaac Newton, knight, who, with an energy of mind

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* Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary, article Newton. + Should the reader desire to investigate the question more

fully, he will find it amply discussed in Biot's Life of Newton, of which a translation is published in the Library of Useful Knowledge; Brewster's Life of Newton, pp. 222-245; Biot's reply to Brewster, in the Journal des Savans for June 1832; Edinburgh Review, vol. lvi. p. 6; Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xii. p. 15; and Phrenological Journal, vol. vii. p. 335.

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