thing from any Indian by force, for from thenceforth we shall never be releeved; but you must use them with all courtesie." Ardwick, Lancashire, May 19, 1807. J. H. M. ART. XV. The Image of bothe Churches Hierusalem and Babel-Unitie and Confusion-Obedience and Sedition-by P. D. M. Printed at Tornay by Adrian Quinque. 1623. With licence. 12mo. pp. 461, exclusive of Dedication, Preface, &c. J. Boucher, Doct. Theol. Canon and Archdeacon of Tornay, has subjoined his sentiments of approbation to the above work, and upon the concluding page appears the following singular postscript: "Blame not my will but my wants, that the Latin is not translated into English: I had not paper, nor means, being stinted." I shall feel happy to be favoured with the remarks of any of the Correspondents of the CENSURA LITERARIA upon the above curious work, and also as to its author. Ardwick, Lancashire, May 19, 1807. J. H. M. ART. XVI. On the fanciful additions to the new Edition of Wells's Geography of the Old Testament. SIR, TO THE EDITOR OF CENSURA LITERARIA. After having given one example in regard to Caucasus, Gog, and Magog, of the little recommendation, which Mr. Wilford's meditations, deduced from Sanscrit books, are likely to afford to the excursions subjoined to the new edition of Wells's Geography of the Old Testament, I just mentioned, that in like manner those antiquarian meditations of the Editor himself seem to be nothing better supported, either from the facts or arguments adduced in their favour. Let us, however, now examine, in some few instances, the evidence contained in them, and what assistance they are able to afford to a student of the Jewish scriptures toward the illustration of any parts of them, that we may judge whether the imaginations there presented to the public be fit companions to the Bible, containing many serious truths. Now the Editor supposes, agreeably to some eastern traditions, that the ark of Noah rested on Mount Ararat, and that this was some part or other of the long range of mountains called Caucasus or Taurus; so that mankind issued from that district both east and west to occupy other more distant settlements; and also that the several devices and symbols, which various cities afterwards impressed on their coins, were intended as memorials of their descent from the neighbourhood of those mountains; particularly, that where a bull is found on a coin, it was commemorative of the colony having been brought from the neighbourhood of Mount Taurus in Cilicia, as is thus expressed in his own words: "From the annexed plates, the reader will have observed, that our drift is, to prove that the western cities and countries were peopled from the eastern parts of Caucasus; that they preserved memorials of their origin by emblems, and that these emblems, which have hitherto been contemned as mere caprices, caprices, are, when properly understood, of great use in the study of ancient geography, by which only they can be satisfactorily explained. As we conceive, that the scripture expressly affirms the same migrations of mankind from Caucasus, we consider our discoveries as corroborating the geographical accounts of scripture; but these memoranda were afterwards perverted from their true intention to idolatrous commemorations. We therefore, for the present, content ourselves with establishing our general principle." Excursions, p. 22. "The plate 4 shews principally that portion of Caucasus, which is distinguished as Mount Taurus," p. 20. Here the writer has not done justice to former antiquaries in saying, that the devices and symbols found on coins have been hitherto contemned as mere caprices; for they have always been considered as significative symbols of the cities, where the coins were struck; but why such symbols were adopted in such cities, and to what facts or circumstances in the history of those cities they referred, this, indeed, in many cases it has been not possible to discover, although it has, however, been done in several with success: it will therefore be well, if this writer can let in farther light on those symbols, which I am afraid he will not do, by referring those exhibiting a Bull as being commemorative of the descent of the inhabitants from Mount Taurus. The subject is at least harmless, and this is perhaps the most which can be said in its favour; whether his principle be true or not we do not inquire, but only whether the writer has adduced such facts and arguments as will tend to render it probable and plausible. Let us see then what he says. "The "The figure 18 represents the sun rising behind the back of a bull, Taurus, which bull is of the breed common in India, having a lump between the shoulders: it is taken from Hyde's Relig. Pers. In another plate may be seen the sun rising behind a lion, but in this behind a bull; the import of this emblem clearly implies the western situation of those who, when they made this observation, intended it as the prime point of their compass, having no better method to ascertain their bearing," p. 22. But if we turn to Hyde's own account, we shall find, that this emblem does not so clearly imply what is here affirmed, nor, indeed, that it has the least relation whatever to it, for it is a representation of the sun in the celestial constellation of Taurus, and not of any terrestrial mountain called Taurus, or the situation of any city either to the eastward or westward of it. Take Hyde's own words, "Cum Sol est in Tauro omnia florent-ut Virgilius, Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus; tunc scilicet (ut monet Macrobius) Tauro gestante Solem: sic nempe pinguntur Signa, adeo ut in hoc iconismo exhibeatur Sol in signo Tauri Persarum more designatus. Sic etiam in nummis Magni Mogul Indiæ imperat ; exhibetur Corpus Solare super dorso Tauri aut Leonis, qui illud eodem modo gestat," p.115. What could induce the writer to omit this explication of Hyde, and to substitute his own erroneous one in its place? And, again, instead of the sun, when represented in connection with a Lion, having any reference to "Mount Lion, or Mount Taurus, as parts of Caucasus," as he asserts at p. 19, No. 3, we see that Hyde more rationally explains such representations as expressing the sun in the constellation Leo. To the same same object, doubtless, the coin of Berytus refers at p. 19, No. 13, and, again, in plate 3, No. 14, and possibly in other examples, which we have no foundation for considering as mere caprices, although we are not able to comprehend the meaning of all the symbols represented on different ancient coins. Hitherto we have found no confirmation of the writer's proposed principle, but only a distortion of celestial objects to a pretended representation of terrestrial ones; in the following example we shall find a similar distortion of one terrestrial object to another. In plate 4, No. 5, at p. 20, the writer sees in the impression of a seal published by Niebuhr a bull's body and legs, which to those who employ such spectacles as do not distort objects, will appear to be more like a lion, a bear, or an elephant, than a bull; yet in reality, not intended to represent any one of them, but an imaginary animal with which the Persians were as well acquainted as Europeans with the fanciful representation of an unicorn. Certainly Niebuhr did not think it represented a bull, for he calls it a fabulous animal, as the view of it in his Tab. 20, proves it to be. His account of it is thus-" In 'the ruins of Persipolis, on two parallel walls, is seen on each in relief the fabulous animal B of my tab. 20, being 17 feet from head to tail-I obtained also an agate stone, the impression on which, represents, as there is no doubt, the very same animal as the above-mentioned larger one, only the work of the engraver of the stone is not so good as that of the sculptor." Tom. 2. p. 102. Now what can candid readers think of an author, who could transform this anomalous animal into a bull? A view of it may be seen at the page and plate referred to above, as taken |