be specifically as skeletons to those irregular teachers before alJuded to, who find it difficult to read a sermon seriatim with all the freedom and animation that is desirable, (for, indeed, good readers are among them rather more scarce than tolerable preachers,) and yet, have neither leisure nor ability to compose sermons themselves. We believe that many a well intentioned itinerant, whose extemporaneous effusions are somewhat too palpably deficient in coherence and arrangement, would have been extremely thankful for such a volume as this, by the aid of which he might, with more ease to himself, and more advantage to his hearers, have discharged the function his zeal had prompted him to assume. And to many persons of very respectable talents, sketches of this kind will be of much service. The Authors deserve, therefore, the thanks of the religious public in general for their undertaking.

We waive any further remarks on the sermons themselves, as the modesty of their pretensions may justly exempt them from fastidious criticism; but we wish to suggest, in the event of a second volume, the propriety of adverting, at least occasionally, to" the terrors of the Lord," as an apostolic expedient for persuading men." There is a rather remarkable abstinence from topics of this description in the present volume. We would also recommend a very sparing use of such unaffecting and trite generalities as the following: In the natural world, objects in vast variety attract our attention, &c. (p. 12.) It has been said with a great degree of truth, that man is an animal fond of novelty.' (p. 133.) Man is naturally an inquisitive creature.' (p. 140.) Common-place sentiments are not to be discarded altogether from familiar instruction, but they should at least possess the merit of appropriateness, and derive weight from their practical importance. It is no small recommendation, in our opinion, of these sermons, that they almost uniformly advert, with sufficient minuteness, to the context. It ought never to be forgotten, that the primary business of the Christian teacher is, to open the Scriptures, by making the Bible its own interpreter.

Art. VIII. Novi Testamenti Græci Jesu Christi Tameion; aliis Concordantiæ, ita concinnatum, ut et Loca reperiendi, et Vocum veras Significationes, et Significationum Diversitates per Collationem investigandi Ducis instar esse possit. Opera Erasmi Schmidii. Acad. Witeberg. Græc. Lat. et Mathem. Prof. Accedit nova Præfatio Ernesti Salomonis Cypriani. 2 tom. 8vo. Price 11. 10s. London. 1821.

THE utility of a Concordance is too well known by the student of the Bible, to require an elaborate statement of the

advantages to be derived from this kind of publication. As aiding the memory in its recollections of particular passages, and as a directory to the single expressions and parallel texts of Scripture, an English Concordance is a valuable acquisition to the unlearned reader. But, to the reader of the Bible in its original languages, a Hebrew or a Greek Concordance answers a purpose still more important. In numerous instances, he will find no means of ascertaining the sense of words so advantageous as that which is afforded by his being furnished with lists of Vocabules related to each other. He must frequently proceed to the determination of the import of an expression, by comparing its use in its different connexions, and must therefore be supplied with a catalogue of the several places in which it occurs. When the labour which is necessary for this purpose, and the imperfect manner in which the requisite researches might generally be conducted, are considered, the learned reader will be grateful that there have been compilers as well of Concordances as of Lexicons, and he will know too well what he owes to his own improvement, to require for a Classic author an Index Verborum, and not provide himself with a Concordance to the Bible.

The ancient divisions of the Gospels in the manuscripts of the New Testament and in the volumes of ecclesiastical writers, were the TT and xaλia, the larger and smaller sections. The number of these divisions was not, indeed, uniformly the same, nor was the distinction between them always preserved; but those which were generally received and appended to the margins of the manuscripts of the Gospels, were, in Matthew, TT, n, larger sections 68. xahasa, TV, smaller sections 355.-In Mark, τιτλοι, μη, larger sections 48, κεφαλαία, σλδ, smaller sections 234.-In Luke, τίτλοι, *y, larger sections 83, κεφαλαία, εμβο smaller sections 342.-In John, TA, n, larger sections 18, xɛPaλaia, ola, smaller sections 231. These sections were very unequal, and were regulated by the order of the subjects in a more correct manner than the modern divisions. Of the larger sections in Matthew, the 5th-E. TEP TWY μaxaptoμar, "Beatitudes," included the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of that Gospel in its present form: the 8th chapter comprises no fewer than seven of the ancient TT, or larger sections, and thirtynine of the smaller. In the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of the New Testament, an arrangement was introduced nearly corresponding to the larger sections of the Gospels, but without inferior divisions. These were the Euthalian sections, so called from Euthalius, an ecclesiastical writer of the fifth century, who partly invented and partly adopted them, the Epistles of Paul having previously been distributed in this manner. The smaller portions of the Gospels were known as the Ammonian sections;

"The

and to them Eusebius adapted his arrangement of the contents of the four Gospels in the form of a harmony. The ancient divisions were preferred by Casaubon, who has recorded in the commencement of his notes to the Evangelists, his wish that they might be restored; a measure which may be considered as impracticable, since it would require the remodelling, not only of our Bibles, but also of the innumerable publications which adopt and refer to the divisions in common use. These, however, might be essentially retained, and the sacred text presented in a less broken form than that in which it is usually printed.

The modern chapters of the New Testament were the invention of Hugo de St. Caro in the thirteenth century. He was the author of a voluminous commentary on the Bible, and appears to be the first person who prepared a verbal Index to the Scriptures. In his Edition of the Bible with Notes, the chapters now in use were originally introduced; and to facilitate reference to particular passages, he inserted in the margin the letters A. B. C. D. E. F., making his Concordance to correspond to this no tation. The text which be used was the Vulgate. The" Con"cordantia Latinorum Bibliorum" of St. Caro, included only the declinable words: the indeclinables were afterwards added. Not satisfied with the apparatus provided by Hugo de St. Caro for referring to the texts of the Bible, the learned printer, Robert Stephens, divided the chapters of the New Testament according to St. Caro's arrangement, into the small portions which constitute our present verses. Henry Stephens, in his address to the reader, prefixed to his Greek Concordance, relates with apparent delight, that this division was made by his father during a journey from Paris to Lyons, and that not only had the predictions of neglect and scorn directed against the innovation totally failed, but that it had been introduced into all the editions of the New Testament-ideoque non tantum nullam laudem consequutura, sed in derisum etiam ventura. At ecce, contra eorum damnatricem instituti patris mei opinionem, in⚫ ventum illud simul in lucem, simul in omnium gratiam venit.' The verses of Robert Stephens were first introduced into his edition of the Bible published in 1551, and were used in his Latin Concordance originally printed 1555.

A Greek Concordance for the New Testament had not yet appeared. The first work of this kind appears to be the following: "Symphonia sive Novi Testamenti Concordantia Græcæ. "Fol. Basle, 1546." The author of this verbal Index to the Greek Testament, was Sixtus Betulejus, who became a follower of Luther, and died in 1554. His work was valuable, but faulty; it was succeeded by the "Concordantie Novi Testa"menti Græco-Latina" of Henry Stephens, in 1594, of which a second edition was published in 1600, and to which a supple

ment was added in 1624. The defects and errors of this work are, in some instances, so gross, that it would seem utterly improbable that they proceeded from Henry Stephens himself. The kind and number of them are assigned by Schmidt as the reasons for his undertaking a revision of the work, and publishing his own improved edition. It was first published in 1638, and afterwards in an edition by Cypriani, 1717, who furnished a preface to it of more value as manifesting the Editor's piety, than as conferring any additional benefit upon the work itself.

Schmidt's" Greek Concordance" has ever been held in the highest estimation for its correctness and completeness. To some persons, it may perhaps appear as a blameable omission, that the definitions of words are not retained; but this deviation from Stephens's plan is evidently an improvement. A Lexicon is the proper place for the explanation of words: the unincumbered exhibition of them is the object of a Concordance. The method observed by Schmidt in distinguishing the several vocabules with their examples, by a line drawn across the column, is better than Stephens's mode of denoting them by a mark, and preserves the page from the confused appearance occasioned by this manner of distinction in the work of the latter.

The present reprint of Schmidt's Concordance, is from the press of Messrs. Duncan of Glasgow, and is very neatly executed. The division of it into two volumes, should have been avoided, as all works of reference are most commodious in an undivided form; this, however, is scarcely to be objected to the present edition, as both volumes may be bound up together without the book's assuming an unsightly appearance. The principal recommendation of a work of this kind is, its accuracy. We cannot be supposed to have verified all the references of a Concordance. We have, however, taken some pains to form a judgement of this particular, by examining different pages of the volumes:-some few errors we have detected, but the work would seem to be on the whole laudably correct. In its present form, it is the neatest and most convenient of all the Greek Concordances to the New Testament.

Art. IX. An Arabic Vocabulary and Index for Richardson's Arabic Grammar: in which the Words are explained according to the Parts of Speech and the Derivatives are traced to their Originals, in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac languages. With Tables of Oriental Alphabets, Prints, and Affixes. By James Noble. 4to. pp. 135. Price 10s. 6d. London.

THE utility of a work of this description to the young stu

dent of Arabic, is sufficiently obvious. The grammar to which it is designed to be a companion, will be more advanta

geously studied with the assistance furnished by this collection of explained vocabules. Etymology is an important auxiliary to the linguist; but the study and application of it are liable to much abuse, and require, therefore, the exercise of the soundest skill in directing the acquisitions which are gathered in the fields of learning. This caution, it is of some consequence to give in reference to Mr. Noble's Introduction, which is designed to recommend the study of Etymology, and to supply examples of its use in tracing the Oriental dialects to a common origin.

Art. X. Three Enigmas attempted to be explained. By John Frank Newton, Esq. 8vo. pp. 184. Price 6s. London. 1821.

MR.

R. NEWTON'S "Three Enigmas" are, The Import of the Twelve Signs; The Cause of Ovid's Banishment; and, The Eleusinian Secret. The Twelve Signs, he considers as allegorically representing, in the first division which he makes of them, the meeting of the two primordial principles, light and chaos; in the second, the origin of the Universe; in the third, the ascendancy of evil; in the fourth, the revival of the hopes of mankind. This allegory of the Signs, the Author conceives to have been the secret of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The proposed solution of the second Enigma, is, "That Ovid was 'banished for publishing, unintentionally, and without the 'slightest suspicion of his error, a portion of the Eleusinian secret; having neglected, through timidity, to initiate at the Mysteries.' And, finally, the great and important truth declared in the Twelve Signs, is, that virtue and happiness will accompany those who obey the decrees of Nature. The allegory,' says Mr. Newton, implies that man's proper food is bread and fruit.' No truth, it must be confessed, can be more important than the 'secret of making mankind virtuous, happy, ' and beautiful.' These are the very xaλ and ayada of philosophy, the desirable objects of all discreet speculation and laudable desire, and for the discovery of the means of attaining them, the world must contract a large debt of gratitude to the revealer of the Eleusinian secret. If ever the vegetable regimen should be extensively adopted for a long series of years, the happiest effects, we are assured, would follow :-not only would the human race be virtuous, and fair, and happy, but, besides these great blessings, death would be disarmed of his terrors; for, if the due order of things were restored, men would sink without pain to their graves.

In fact,' says our Author, no rational plan, no just estimate of human life, can possibly be formed under the present mixed or carnivorous regimen. For, until it be known of what spontaneous cheerfulness, of what natural festivity of temper man has been deprived by