THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR

JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER,
NOVEMBER, AND DECEMBER.

MDCCC IV.

Haud femper errat fama, aliquando et elegit."

VOLUME XXIV.

London:

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON,
NO. 67, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

1804.

PAINTED AT C. RICKABY, PETERBOROUGH-COURT,

TAC

›FLEXT-67REST.

PREFACE.

WHAT

HAT new books are fit to be read or bought?" This question, which we often hear afked in private, we answer twice a year in public; and we anfwer it in fuch a way, that every feparate enquirer may find at once the books which most attract his curiofity, or will beft affift his ftudies. For the Divine, the Lawyer, the Philofopher, the Poet, and many more, we have various answers prepared, fuited to the nature of their feveral purfuits. When we speak of new books, we mean not those which are juft iffuing from the prefs. There must be time to read and judge; without which, it would be neither prudent nor honeft to recommend, But, when the estimate has been duly made, our half-yearly Preface gives the refult; and points to wifdom, piety, or wit, as they ftand recorded in our pages. In this enumeration, our first clafs by invariable, and in our opinion unexceptionable, cuftom, is

DIVINITY.

We have seen in this period, the completion of a first volume of that difficult, and truly important work, the Collation of the Septuagint Verfion*, by Dr. Holmes. This volume contains the Pentateuch, which is printed with accuracy and fplendor; and presents fuch an apparatus of various readings, as fuf