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(42.) "Heaven's Antidote to the Curse of Labour, by JOHN ALLAN QUINTON,” (New-York, S. Hueston, 1850: 18mo., pp. 155,) is the title of the essay to which the prize offered in England, in 1847, for the best essay on the Sabbath, by "a working man," was awarded by the committee of adjudication. Mr. Quinton, the writer, is a journeyman printer. The essay is remarkable for point, energy, and eloquence. It deserves, and we hope will secure, a wide circulation in this country.

(43.) "Mitchell's Biblical and Sabbath-School Geography, designed for Instruction in Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes:" (Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait, & Co., 1849: 12mo., pp. 122.) This book supplies, what has long been needed, a "concise and easy system of Scripture geography, moderate in extent and price." Four maps the world, as known to the Jews; Canaan, Egypt, and the route of the Israelites; the land of Israel, with the boundaries of the twelve tribes; Palestine-well engraved and coloured, with a large number of wood-cuts, illustrate the text. A chronological table of the principal events recorded in the Bible concludes the work.

(44.) MESSRS. LEA & BLANCHARD (Philadelphia) continue the publication of the neat and cheap "Classical Series, edited by Drs. Schmitz and Zumpt," of which we have spoken several times before. The last issue is, "Q. Curti Rufi de Gestis Alexandri Magni, Regis Macedonum, libri qui Supersunt VIII.:” (18mo., pp. 326.) All that has been said of the preceding volumes of the series will apply to this.

(45.) WE have seldom read through so large a book more rapidly and pleasantly, than "The Life of Ashbel Green, V. D. M., begun to be written by himself in his eighty-second year, and continued to his eighty-fourth. Prepared for the press by JOSEPH H. JONES, Pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia." (New-York: R. Carter & Brothers, 1849: 8vo., pp. 626.) The work is, in fact, not merely an autobiography of Dr. Green, but a very agreeable and gossiping narrative of Revolutionary times-and a history, to a great extent, of the origin of almost everything distinctive in the American Presbyterian Church. It was our purpose to give an extended article in this number founded on the book, but, much to our regret, it has been crowded out. Mr. Jones seems almost to apologize, in his preface, for giving so much of the "autobiography:" but, for us, that is precisely the charm of the work. As we purpose to return to it again, however, we need not say more at present.

(46.) THE finest and most sensible gift-book that we have seen for 1850, is "Women of the Old and New Testament." (New-York: D. Appleton & Co., royal 8vo. pp. 229.) It consists of a series of portraits, (ideal, of course,) of eighteen of the principal female personages of Scripture, designed by Staal, and engraved in the finest style of the art, by eminent English Engravers,―accompanied by characteristic descriptions, by American Clergy

men; among whom we notice Dr. Mason, Dr. Cox, Dr. Murray, and others. We put the engravings before the letter-press in our statement of the contents of the book, because it is clear that the text was written to illustrate the plates; and well it might be. Such plates deserve to be published, as these have been, in two hemispheres at once. The descriptions, as far as we have read them, are worthy of the beautiful accompaniments that surround them.

(47.) EVERYBODY has heard of "Poor Richard's Almanac," but few, of this generation, have seen it. A complete set has been obtained, with great effort, by Mr. Doggett, of this city, who proposes to publish them all, in almanacs, for successive years. That for 1850 is before us, containing a complete calendar, &c., for the year; and, for reading matter, Poor Richard for 1733, 1734, and 1735, with the beginning of Franklin's Autobiography illustrated.

(48.) WE have been greatly gratified with monthly visits, for the last quarter, from the "Journal of Education for Upper Canada," published at Toronto, and edited by Dr. Ryerson. It is conducted with great spirit and ability, and its pages abound in indications that the Common-School System is taking deep root in Upper Canada. We wish God-speed to the cause, and to this able Journal as its organ and exponent.

(49.) THE "Pulpit Reporter" is a newspaper, to be published every other week, (Holbrook, Buckingham, & Co., 128 Fulton-street, New-York: two dollars per annum,) containing Reports of Sermons, from living Ministers of different denominations, taken down stenographically. The first number contains four sermons, and a biographical sketch of Rev. G. Bush.

(50.) THE Exposition of the Four Gospels, (by the author of the "Peep of Day," &c.,) which has been so widely circulated under the title of " Light in the Dwelling," has been republished as "The Four Gospels, arranged as a Practical Family Commentary for every day in the year, edited, with an Introductory Preface, by S. H. TYNG, D. D." (New-York: D. Appleton & Co., 1850: 8vo., pp. 548.) It breathes a very pious spirit, and will be very acceptable to families of Calvinistic sentiments. Dr. Tyng's name is put upon the back of the book in such a way as may, perhaps, lead careless observers to suppose that he is the author of the volume. We do not suppose that this was intended: but care ought to be taken to avoid even the appearance of mercantile management in getting out devotional books.

(51.) THE long and anxiously expected "History of Spanish Literature, by GEORGE TICKNOR," has at last appeared, from the press of Harper & Brothers. We can only now say that a careful review of this great work is in preparation for our April number.

(52.) “Sketches of Reforms and Reformers in Great Britain and Ireland, by HENRY B. STANTON," (New-York, J. Wiley: 12mo., pp. 393.) A work which combines the quick, lively, graphic style of writing, which this age loves so well, with sound discrimination and industrious research. We read all the sketches as they appeared in the "Era" with great pleasure and profit; and they are now retouched, condensed, and improved. The young men of our country, especially, should read it, and learn how real reforms are carried on and won.

(53.) "The Whale and his Captors,” (New-York, Harper & Brothers: 18mo.,) is a very interesting account, by Rev. HENRY T. CHEEVER, of whalemen and their adventures, as seen by himself on a homeward cruise of the ship "Commodore Preble," with a great number of illustrative engravings. It is just the book to be both attractive and useful to children and youth.

1

ART. XI.-MISCELLANIES.

[UNDER this title we purpose to publish, from time to time, short articles, either original, or selected from foreign journals, on topics of Biblical Literature and Theology. We shall also admit letters from any of our readers who may be disposed to question any statements of fact, doctrine, or interpretation found in the pages of this Journal. It must be obvious, however, that such letters must be brief.]

I.

Remarks on Ephesians iv, 12-16.

[By Professor Dunbar. From the Biblical Review for October, 1849.]

NONE of the commentators I have had an opportunity of consulting, appears to me to have rightly understood the meaning of the words in verse 13. The apostle evidently alludes to the period of military service among the Greeks, particularly the Athenians, and to the time when it commenced. Before that period the youths were under a state of tutelage and discipline to fit them for the service of their country. But I shall begin my remarks with the words of the 13th verse, uexpI KATAVTŃOWμEV οἱ πάντες εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα κ.τ.λ. The adverb expt, denoting time, with a verb of motion or action, points to the termination of the act, and, with the subjunctive of the aorist, it implies that the time is not fixed, but uncertain. In the passage above. Exp, with the preposition ɛiç, does not signify, "until all of us shall coalesce," but, until all of us shall have met, or, arrived at the destined point. The subjunctive of the aorist frequently requires to be translated as the future perfect of a Latin verb. The preposition is does not always convey the meaning of into, but generally of to or at, when the end is reached. It may be remarked that Euclid uses this preposition when he directs a line to be drawn in an oblique or slanting direction to, or upon another, as in diagonal lines; and ¿ïì when a line is let fall perpendicular upon another line. The verb karavτáw is scarcely ever used by any writer prior to Polybius. With him

it has generally the meaning of, to tend to, to proceed to a certain end or result, iv, 21; ii, 10, &c. It cannot, therefore, signify to coalesce. In the expressions, eiç uvdpa τέλειον, εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, there appears to be a refer ence, as I have already stated, to the period of military service among the Greeks. The noun λkía, never, so far as I know, signifies stature, but the period of youth, and also of old age, scarcely ever of middle age. It is often used by Demosthenes for the period of military service, commencing at the age of twenty: korì riç k5w Tñs ĥλikias vuv; is any of you beyond the age of military service? (Olynth. ii, 38, § 10,) oi iv tñ Akia, means those of an age for military service: So Olynth. 17, § 11, perdóμevoi ovte прεoßνTÉρas ovтe vewrépaç ĥλıkíaç. See also Thucyd. vi, 24. Now, those who had arrived at that period of life were Téλelo uvdpes, full-grown men, persons who had arrived at manhood. The expression is μéтρov nλiкías, therefore, means to the standard of age, just as we say of a recruit, that he is above or below the standard. The term λŋpúμaroç also confirms the idea that the apostle had in view the military service of the Greeks. With the classical writers, particularly Thucydi des, it means generally the complement of a ship's crew, the completion or filling up of an armament. These remarks will, I think, bring out the apostle's idea in a more satisfactory manner than has been done by any of the commentators, since he evidently intended to represent the Christian life as a warfare, under the great Head of the Church, and the preparatory fitting for entering on the service. The followers of Christ must be no longer výжioi, children, or, rather, ignorant as children, but, fullgrown men, arrived at maturity, and therefore capable of exercising their judgments, and not κλυδωνιζόμενοι καὶ περιφερόμενοι πάντι ἀνέμῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας κ.τ.λ. I shall now give my translation of the 13th verse:-"Until we all shall have reached to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to complete manhood, to the standard of age for the full service of Christ."

In verse 16, there is an allegorical representation of the body of Christ, or the Church, in the description of the human body arriving at maturity by support of its several members, ἐξ οὗ (scil. Χριστοῦ) πᾶν τὸ σῶμα συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον, διὰ πάσης ἄφης τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας, κατ' ενέργειαν ἐν μέτρῳ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου μέρους, τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ σώματος ποιεῖται, εἰς οἰκοδομὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ. Our common translation is both erroneous and unintelligible. Most commentators seem to have made ἑνὸς ἑκάστου μέρους to be governed by ἐν μέτρῳ. This, however, is not the construction. They should follow Kar' ¿vépуelav. Dr. Bloomfield in his annotation on the passage has given nearly the correct meaning :-" by the operation or working of each individual part or member, according to the measure (of its power.") The term oixodou ought not to be taken in the figurative sense of edifying, but in the literal of building up. In conformity with these ideas I would translate the verse thus,-From whom the whole body, being joined together and compacted, gives increase to the system (body) through every joint (ligature) for supply or nourishment, according to the effi cient working of each separate part in its proportion (or degree,) to the building up of itself to maturity, in love; or, affection to all the members.

II.

Remarks on Proverbs xxx, 15.-The Horse-Leech.

[From the Journal of Sacred Literature, July, 1848.]

THIS passage is well known for the perplexity it has occasioned to commentators, ancient and modern. The question is, what we are to understand by the "two daughters" of the leech, for there is no ground for the distinction of species introduced

into the English version. Heb. ; Sept. Bd22a; Vul. Sanguisuga. These two daughters cannot mean daughters in the sense of offspring, for the leech brings forth but one, of either sex, at a time. Every resource of criticism has been employed by Bochart,* who concludes by deriving the Hebrew word alukah, leech, from the Arabic aluk, which means fate, heavy misfortune, or impending destiny; whence he would infer that alukah here means the fate of death attached to every man by the decree of God, and explains its two insatiable daughters as signifying Hades and the grave. He endeavours to fortify this interpretation by some semblable terms of thought and language in the Scriptures and in modern use, and shows that it was adopted by the Rabbinical writers. The great objection to this solution is, that it involves a very unlikely mistake on the part of all the ancient translators, who unquestionably understood the leech to be meant, and which creature is appropriately introduced into the passage among other emblems of avarice and rapacity. The solution we have to offer is, that the "two daughters" of the leech mean its two lips, for these it has, and most regularly formed, as the external parts of its complicated mouth. We found this explanation on those many instances in which the Hebrew word daughter is used in the sense of instrument, process, adjunct, or any conjunction whatever. In the well-known description of old age, (Ecc. xii, 4,) “ and all the daughters of music," or rather of song, "shall be brought low," the word evidently refers to the lips, front teeth, and other instruments of pronunciation. The word daughter is also applied to the "apple of the eye," or pupil, (Ps. xvii, 8,) literally the daughter of the eye, in regard to its appearance as a protuberant portion of that organ, (compare the use of the Greek word kópη, and of the Latin pupa, pupilla, and pupula.) It is also applied to the branches of trees: Gen. xlix, 22, "Joseph is a fruitful bough, whose branches," literally daughters, "run over the wall." The phrase, "daughters of cities," evidently means the excrescent villages or towns belonging to the metropolis or mother city, (Num. xxi, 25, 32; Judges xi, 26; Josh. xv, 45: Heb.) The analogical sense of the word might be pursued, as it appears in the various derivative senses of the word, a son, such as a structure. It occurs in several Arabic words. Nor is it without a distant resemblance even in our own language, as for instance in the word keelson, the next piece of timber in a ship to her keel.

Should this explanation of the "two daughters of the leech" be correct, it will afford one case out of many of the utility of an immediate examination of nature in aid of Biblical interpretation. This obvious method has hitherto been neglected in regard to the ant, among other objects, and with reference to a passage found is the same chapter, (v. 25,) and which, in our translation, apparently favours the old and now exploded notion, at least in regard to the ants of this country, that the ant lays up stores of food. The question in regard, however, to the ants of Palestine is still left open to the diffidence expressed by Kirby and Spence, respecting the inference that no exotic ants have magazines of provisions, till their habits shall have been "more accurately explored." For of all the persons who, in this age of improvements in science, have visited or resided in Palestine, we have not yet heard of any who has had the curiosity to test the question by examining an ant's nest during the winter.

*Hierozoicon, à Rosenmüller, iii, 758, &c.

↑ Introduction to Entomology, ii, 46.

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