afforded in the instance of the two beautiful plates representing this arch, in the English work, and the corresponding ones in the French. They display the difference between the genuine artist and the mere handicraftsman. Indeed all the plates taken together, (there are nine, besides one of ground plans, and four vignettes) form a fair specimen of the talents of Messrs. Cooke, and of an excellence in the art unequalled in any other country. One good subject is made of an ancient gateway, exhibited among ruins, and with landscape accompaniments. It had been concealed, and unknown till brought to light by the dilapidations of the French, who had quitted the place only a short time before our Author's visit there. In a most rich and brilliant frontispiece, all the principal antiquities, the amphitheatre, the temple of Augustus, the triumphal arch, and the gate way, are brought into one view, with a foreground of detached sculptured blocks, human beings, and other accessories, in imitation of a similar device of grouping, prefixed as an ornamental, fanciful program to Cassas's work, of which work the most valuable part is the representation of the objects which are exhibited in the English one.

The subjects of the latter being so limited in number, it was right to avoid details, and make it fully answer to the denomination of picturesque. And it is, as such, a most elegant addition to the works that are gradually bringing to our view the most remarkable spectacles in all the explored regions of the earth. The beauty of the typography and paper is in perfect fitness to the high graphical quality of the volume.

Pola is described as very finely situated, with respect to the beauty and fertility of the country and the commodiousness of its port, and yet as bearing prominently the marks of poverty and decline. It is neglected by the Austrian government, and the inhabitants are indolent; they do not exceed seven hundred, and subsist chiefly by fishing. This is a great humiliation from the state of things in that age, (presumed the Augustan,) when an amphitheatre was built to hold twenty thousand persons. This grand structure is in high preservation, and is described as a wonderfully striking object.

We entered,' says Mr. A. the Bay of Pola, when the magnificent Amphitheatre burst upon our view. Taken in all its circumstances, it is an object which has no rival among those remains of former times that attract the researches of the Antiquarian Traveller.' Again,

This magnificent structure is situated without the town, and in one of the most striking, beautiful, and perfect monuments of Antiquity. The majesty of its mass-the delightful verdure of the coasts which it crowns the calm state of the water which approaches its walls, and reflects its august figure the almost religious vene

ration which arises in the mind on viewing such splendid remains of grandeur-all conspire to awaken a sensation of pleasing melancholy, which words cannot adequately describe. The walls of the Amphis theatre are still entire, and its form is suited to its character, being an ellipsis, whose largest diameter is nearly north and south, and e measures 436 feet, its shortest 346: in the more perfect parts its height is 97 feet. This splendid edifice is scarcely exceeded in magni i ficence by that of the Colosseum at Rome, while in dimensions it is in a very small degree only inferior to the Amphitheatre of Verona. The exterior is rusticated, having two orders of Tuscan pilasters, one above the other, the lower being placed upon pedestals. The whole circumference is divided into seventy-two arches, the two at the extremities being higher and wider than the rest. The height is } divided into three stories, and, by its particular construction, displays an uncommon lightness and elegance of effect. The whole is constructed of Istrian stone, which is of a very superior quality, and both o in appearance and durability equal to the finest marble. It is placed o in the western declivity of a hill, which a little below its surface is f solid rock.'

C

H

E

IT

The large portion of writing translated, as we observed, from the French work, and here introduced as a sequel to the graphical part and its explanations, traces very laboriously the history of Istria and Dalmatia, from the time of the Roman republic down to that in which they were in the possession of Bonaparte, and then describes the character and customs of the several classes of the present inhabitants. The history is a long and horrid tragedy, an exhibition almost unequalled of devastation, barbarity, and extirpation. A little of the French illuminatism may be descried here and there in the Writer, as, h for instance, where he affects to throw discredit upon the historical representations of the odious character of Diocletian w as a persecutor. The picture of the manners of the present to inhabitants is very lively and strange.

t

la

a

Art. VII. A New Family Bible, and Improved Version, from corrected Texts of the Originals; with Notes, critical and explanatory, and la short Practical Reflections on each Chapter: together with a gew neral Introduction, on the Authenticity and Inspiration of the Sacred Books; and a complete View of the Mosaic Laws, Rites, and Customs. By the Rev. B. Boothroyd, Editor of the Biblia Hebraica. Vol. I. Quarto. Price 11. 16s. Pontefract: printed

for the Editor. 1818.

ME R. BOOTHROYD'S name is not unknown to the readers of our Journal. We have already noticed with commen. dation his critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, as a work creditable alike to his industry and judgement, and supplying numerous and great advantages to the Hebrew student. Of his qualifications as a Translator of the Scriptures, we have also

P

C

b

1

xpressed our favourable opinion when reviewing his Propectus relative to the present " Improved Version." We shall ɔw proceed to examine and report the manner in which he has secuted this portion of his labours.

Mr. Boothroyd is not one of those scholars whose prejudice favour of the Masoretic text, prompts them to the rejection the useful aids which have been provided by the collation manuscripts and versions for the revision and elucidation of e original Scriptures. He professes himself unable to concture how any person that has read the Old Testament, and mpared one place with another, can contend that the present ebrew text is as perfect as when it was first written. Fully nvinced by the clearest evidence, that one of the chief sources the errors charged upon the Bible, is to be found in the state the original text, he has availed himself of the proper means r the restoration of its purity, adopting as the basis of bis anslation, the text of his own edition of the Hebrew Bible. f his present undertaking he gives, in the preface, the folwing account.

Convinced of the necessity and of the advantages which would ise to the public in general, from a corrected translation of the oly Scriptures, I have been led by my particular studies to gage in this work; not that I suppose myself better qualified than any others, but because the avocations of others do not permit them devote their time to such an undertaking. Nor did I engage in it, I had been repeatedly solicited by persons of various denominaons, for whose judgment and piety I have reason to entertain the ghest opinion.

My great object has been to give the sense of the sacred authors, thout, on the one hand, rendering verbally, or, on the other, being o diffuse or paraphrastic. I have endeavoured to follow the rules id down by Archbishop Newcome, as not only founded in good nse, and an intimate acquaintance with the subject, but as paying at deference to the authorized version, which its general fidelity, hd its long use demand. Hence I have uniformly preferred the nguage of this version, and have rarely introduced any terms but hat are sanctioned by biblical use. Even in rendering the Hebrew articles, though I have varied considerably from the common renering in innumerable places, yet I have generally found the same articles rendered as I have done in some place or other in the mmon version. In short, I have not designedly changed the terms, it when I have been fully satisfied that they were improper, and d not express the sense of the text with perspicuity or justness. reserving as much as possible the language of the common version, have arranged that language in such a manner as to endeavour to cure precision, harmony, and strength; and I cannot but flatter "yself, that every reader of taste will find that these ends have, in me degree at least, been attained.

I have not the vanity to think, that I have always succeeded in Vol. XIII. N.S.

E

a disputable point, and, on the whole, we should give on cision for retaining the reading of the Common Version,' "Spirit of God." 1. Because, though it is not to be troverted that ruach denotes wind, nor that the word in connexion with another word, is used frequently to excellence, or greatness, no example of the word God occur with a word meaning wind, and thus denoting great or wind, is to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. The phr

לדים never ; רוח חזק רוח גדול,strong or mighty wind,is

f

2. The phrase bbs n occurs in several instances, in whis meaning is invariably the Spirit of God.' Mr. Boothn not strictly correct in citing the Targums as reading wis own version; they use the very words of the Hebrew te C connexion with a phrase (from before the Lord, "ppb which, to say the least, is not decisive in favour of the rea 'mighty wind.' Further, Mr. Boothroyd has translate words mm (2 Kings ii. 16,) by, "the Spirit of Jeho t Now, all the Targums read in this passage, precisely as the in Gen. i. 2; they cannot therefore be cited in support #f rendering of this "Improved Version" in the example befek as this would be to compel their uniform testimony in bet different readings. As Spirit of God" is the literal rend of the original Hebrew, as the words are thus translat every other instance in which they occur, and as no exam the combination s m, for mighty wind,' can be pro we should hesitate to change the common reading, and are of opinion that it is better to retain it in the English B Since, however, Mr. Boothroyd has preferred the other p he ought, we think, to have adopted the saine expression translation of 2 Kings ii. 16.; particularly as he has rem that the sons of the prophets seem to have had a notion Elijah was lost in an aërial tempest.'

ecame,' but what he attempted to become;' (See Glassius Canon in ver.) and this version, unless I am mistaken, is more suitable to e character of God, than the common one. This rendering conrts what has been regarded an irony, into the language of com. seration ; and what follows contains the reason why Jehovah expelled in from paradise; lest having violated the divine command, and inrred the penalty of death, he'should attempt to escape the punishent by eating of the tree of life.'

By an error, occasioned probably by the homoioteleuton, the ords "cattle, and reptile, and wild beast, according to their skinds," are omitted in the 24th verse of this chapter.

In his version of ch, iv. v. 1. Mr. Boothroyd adheres to the nse of the common translation, which we apprehend is the rrect one. The passage has been variously rendered, and has en construed by some commentators, as signifying the comfracency of Eve on the birth of the promised deliverer of mannd. Geddes would read, god-like man-child,' and remarks at the original is hardly susceptible of the common rendering. is own rendering we apprehend not to be at all supported by amples of the idiom in question, which, it must also be acowledged, is attended with some difficulty, as interpreted by e public Translators, and the present Editor: " I have acquired a man-child from Jehovah."

- Ch. iv. v. 10. Jehovah is the antecedent to the verb, for hich Mr. Boothroyd has substituted "God;" an alteration, deed, of no great moment, but which is unnecessarily and improperly made.

V. 15. Jehovah gave a token to Cain.' A very proper ough not original correction of the public version, which has reatly perplexed many readers by its rendering, "The Lord set a mark upon Cain."

Ch. vi. 1. And it came to pass, when men began to be numerous upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 That the sons of the chiefs saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they seized of them for wives, whomsoever they 3 chose. And Jehovah said, "My spirit shall never pronounce judgment on men unwarned. They are but flesh. Their days shall therefore yet be, one hundred and twenty years." In 4 those days were lawless warriors upon the earth. For after the sons of the chiefs went in to the daughters of men, to them they bare sons, who became mighty, the renowned men of antiquity."

Ch. vi. 2. Sons of the Chiefs. To understand (b) as enoting the pious, the worshippers of Jehovah, the Sons of God, as pposed to the wicked, seems to me a forced and very unnatural nterpretation. That such persons should act as these did, is equally nconsistent with their profession and spirit; but that the Sons of the Chiefs should become profligate from indulgence, and seize whom