of old women, lying in a state of insensibility at the point of death, and of the idle and the worthless, who follow them only for filthy lucre's sake. In another district, I appre. hend not more extensive nor more populous than the former, but in the vicinity of an opulent landholder, who has a great number of workmen in his employ, the ac count represents them four times as numerous. What are in the report termed "congregatious" must surely include the whole Romanist population for in Manchester, the two chapels cannot contain more than 5000 persons, and yet the number of the congregations is said to amount to 15,000. In this town an additional chapel was built last year, which is as likely to excite attention as that which it seems is rising in Moor-fields. This chapel was OPENED twice in January last: first, on some day about the middle of the week, when high mass was performed, the prices of admission being on a graduated scale, according to the difference of seats: on the following Sunday, the exhibition was repeated at reduced prices. The district round Stoneyhurst, your correspondent well observes, is particularly thronged with Papists." The establishment itself contains about three hundred persons. In the tract of country from which the remaining twelve hundred of their "congregation" come, there is not, I believe, a place which can pretend to the name of a village. Nothing is to be seen but scattered farm-houses and labourers cottages; so that if the number is correct, there cannot be much room for Protestants. It is, however, satisfactory to be able to add, that some churchmen still maintain their The second advertisement announced, that the opening of the new Roman Catholic Chapel would be repeated as it took place on the first occasion. REMEMBRANCER, No. 32. ground on the very borders of their estates, in spite of all the inconveniences and vexations they have to experience: but they are confined to very few families. It would not be difficult to furnish further specimens of the bigotry and uncharitableness of Romanists; but I am at present necessarily confined to the subject brought forward by your last correspondent. "A near Observer," by whom I was glad to see my former statement corroborated, corroborated, I conceive, is more surrounded by, and has more intercourse with them than myself: perhaps he may be induced to favour you with a continuance of his judicious remarks. I remain, Sir, GODWIN AND PHILLIPS'S SCHOOL BOOKS. To the Editor of the Remembrancer. Sir, THE remarks of your correspondent ΦΑΡΟΣ upon the gross partiality of Wilkes's Christian Biography have induced me to suppose that my services may not be wholly unacceptable, if I point out some examples of similar conduct in an opposite quarter. There are two London publishers who have paid great attention to supplying small schools with elementary books; the one is the notorious Godwin; and the other the not less notorious Sir Richard Phillips. By dint of hawking and advertising, the books are sold; and our third and fourth rate boardingschools, and the nurseries of the careless and ignorant are furnished with as much nonsense as they are able to consume. The religious books are dignified with the names of Barrow and Blair; Geography and History are of course assigned to Goldsmith; and the remainder 3 N is divided among Mess. Milius, Baldwin, and Watkins. Take the following as a sample. Milius's School Dictionary, contains the undermentioned definitions. Chariot. A carriage for pleasure, with two wheels. Church, A body of Christians professing the same rule. Curate. A clergyman, hired to perform the duties of another. Hierarchy. The body of priests that conduct a national religion. King. A single person in a state, to whom extraordinary power is confided for life. Liberty. Permission to any one to judge of his own duties, and to act accordingly; Revelation. Discovery of sacred truths. Barrow's "Five hundred questions on the New Testament," contains a vocabulary, and "an explanation of the offices and conditions of men," in which we have the following information. "Philip, one of the Apostles, and author of one of the epistles." P. 63. I presume, the Epistle to the Philippians." Samaritans, originally heathens, settled by the king of Assyria in the Israelitish cities after the captivity." P. 63. "Tetrarchs, who had kingly power in four pro vinces." P. 66. Adair's, "Five Hundred Questions deduced from Goldsmith's History of England," is furnished with a list of "learned and eminent men who have flourished in the British islands, distinguishing the subjects, or works, in which they excelled." I transcribe the concluding page of the Catalogue, merely observing, that it is supposed to contain the names of all the learned who departed this life between the year 1790 and the year 1813. "Sir Joshua Reynolds, painting and dis William Kirwan, chemistry, &c. Henry Cavendish, chemistry. Thomas Paine, political tracts. Such, Sir, is the manner in which books are got up, which have already done much, as Sir R. Phillips assures us in his address to the instructors of youth, "to render the next an enlightened and philosophical age, and to qualify the mass of our future population, to be able to distinguish between truth and error, consequently to protect them against the delusions of corruption, and the influence of bad passions. And as knowledge is virtue, and virtue is happiness, the effects may, in some degree, realise the hopes of the millenarians, and the poetic fables descriptive of a golden age." This is a touch of the truly sublime; and I presume that it will, in some degree, realize the hopes of the compositor, and to provide him with gold, which is nei ther poetical nor fabulous. July 2. Your obedient servant, K. To the Editor of the Remembrancer, Sir, MANY circumstances have concur red to delay the sequel of my letter on the Study of Hebrew, (pub lished in your Number for October last), which, however, I have now the pleasure to transmit to you. In the letter alluded to; I divided my intended remarks into three heads, viz. 1. On the advantage, 2. On the pleasure of an acquaintance with the Hebrew language, and 3. On the method of attaining it. The first head I endeavoured to dispatch at the time, and I now proceed to consider, 2. The pleasure which the study of Hebrew is capable of affording. The superior gratification arising generally from reading a work in the language in which it was written, no one who is acquainted with others besides his vernacular tongue, will, I should think, deny. Language is so intimately connected with thought, and the current of thought runs in such different chan. nels, in different tongues, that a translation must often fail of conveying the true spirit of the original. Indeed, to adopt the words of a spirited and ingenious writer*, "Men may talk as they chuse about translations: there is in brevity and truth no such thing as a translation. The bold outline is, indeed, preserved, but the gentle, delicate, minute shadings vanish." I appeal to any Greek and Latin scholar in attestation to the superior pleasure derived from contemplating the full drawn and coloured phenomena of thought, sentiment, and action, expressed in the writings of the poets, orators, and historians of Greece and Rome, to that received from viewing the imperfect and meagre outlines of the same furnished by translations: and I would then confidently claim his assent to the position, that none of the principal translations + of the Hebrew Scrip * Peter's Letters, v. 1. p. 164. This must be understood, with an exception, in favour of some of the oriental translations, as of those in the Syriac and Arabic languages, which may be considered as dialects of the Hebrew. 3. To give a few hints as to the method of acquiring the Hebrew language. It is well known to scholars, that there are two systems of the Hebrew language. One, according to which the alphabet of 22 letters is represented as consisting, like the Greek and Latin, partly of consonants and partly of vowels, and consequently as forming by itself a set of characters expressing elementary sounds. The other, according to which the 22 letters of the alphabet are considered as made up entirely of consonants and aspirations, and an apparatus of ten vowels is annexed, which are signified by small additional characters placed about the letters of the alphabet, called, technically, by the name of points. To these are added 28 accents, and two or three other emphatic marks, denoted likewise by different characters variously disposed about the letters, and serving the double purpose of directing the emphasis and modulation, and of uniting words and sentences together. It is not my intention in this place to touch upon the disputed question of the authority of the points, which some attribute to Moses, or at least to Ezra, and others to the Jews of Tiberias, A. D. 500, or to still later inventors. Granting them to be of considerable antiquity, and of occasonal use in the interpretation of the sacred text, it must yet be obvious, that when a language may be learned in two methods, the one differing from the other only in the article of superaddition, as is the case with the Hebrew according to these two systems, that mode should be adopted in the first instance which is least complex and consequently most easy. I should, therefore, advise every Hebrew student to commence his study of the language according to the unpointed system, and not to proceed to aequire the points (should he subsequently think fit to add the knowledge of them) until he has gained a competent facility in reading, some knowledge of the grammatical construction of the language, and a considerable copia verborum. Agreeably to these views it would be advisable for him to begin with Bishop Burgess's Hebrew Primer; a 'month's unremitting attention to which, at the rate of one hour a day, will, I am bold to say, bring him further on the road towards a knowledge of the Hebrew tongue than his most confident hopes would allow him to anticipate. He would also do well to provide himself with the same Bishop's, or Mr. Parkhurst's Grammar; the latter prefixed to a useful Lexicon. Bythner's Graminar will reveal to him the art and mystery of the vowel points, and if he aspire at the very topmost heights of Hebrew proficiency, Buxtorf, Schultens, Simonis, or Schroeder, are at hand with their larger grammars to lead him into the most recondite arcana of the language. Should he, upon considering the controversy respecting the points, decide against attaining them, I would recommend Dr. Grey's method of learning Hebrew, or Masclef's Grammar, to succeed the unpointed grammars of Bishop Burgess, or Parkhurst, together with Bishop Hare's Hebrew Psalter. The additional books which it will be desirable for him to procure, let him adopt which system he will, are Bythner's Lyra Prophetica, or Grammatical Praxis on the Psalms to which his grammar is affixed) and Simonis's admirable Lexicon, with the Bible of either Vander Hooght or Simonis. When our learner has made some proficiency in the language, and not before, he will find in the Westminster Grammar, an excellent compendium of all necessary grammatical knowledge, according to the pointed system, in the shortest space perhaps into which it could be condensed. Having thus furnished himself with the implements of his intended study, I would lay before our stu dent two plans, either of which may bé adopted accordingly as his circumstances and opportunities may direct. To those who have abundant health and leisure, I would recommend to adhere strictly to the rules laid down by Bishop Burgess, in the beginning of his grammar, (to which I refer them) adding thereto the practice of transcribing and committing to memory some Biblical passages of more prominent interest, or frequent occurrence, as, for instance, the Ten Commandments, the 53d Chap. of Isaiah, the Psalms introduced into the different offices of the church, &c. and also of construing portions of the historical books. To those whose health is weak or their time more occupied, I would suggest, that after familiarizing themselves with the few regular inflexions of nouns and verbs, with the pronominal prefixes or affixes, and with the inseparable particles they should exercise themselves in reading such passages of Scripture as are above mentioned, with a translation, not troubling themselves with a minute investigation of the Root until they find that by this method they have acquired some familiarity with the Hebrew Idiom, and a tolerable copia verborum. It should, however, be observed, that on this latter plan, no progress can be expected except what is wanting in diligence and minuteness be made up for by regularity of application. Not a single day should be suffered to elapse without the reading of a few verses, however few they may be. The ef And SIR, ficacy of the former of these plans To the Editor of the Remembrancer. must be sufficiently obvious. for the latter, the successful experience of more than one student, whom indifferent health and strict engagements have forced upon this method, may be adduced in proof of its beneficial effect. Thus have I endeavoured, in some manner, to redeem my pledge, by stating a few of the advantages and pleasures of the study of Hebrew, and by prescribing a method of becoming acquainted with that ancient and venerable language. Though myself yet but a novice in this pursuit, I can safely go so far with* Luther and Melancthon in their lofty estimate of Hebrew learn. ing, as to say that it must be a large recompence which would tempt me to forego the pleasure and benefit I have already derived from even my scanty stock. These advantages I would fain extend to others, and if these papers should prevail upon a single individual, whether cleric or laic, to take up this useful and agreeable pursuit, I shall be far overpaid for this trifling trouble, I WAS much pleased with Jhuoa's remarks, in your number for this month, on the scandalous breaches of the Sabbath, which are daily more and more offending against all divine and human laws and which certainly will bring down some striking judgment on this as well as on every other Sabbath-breaking nation, unless speedily corrected. As a proof that this is a complaint of recent origin at least in its present extent you will find it mentioned in Horace Walpole's Letters, that in the reign of Geo. II. the French ambassador was detained in London, because no carrier or waggon could be induced to take his luggage on a Sunday to Ports mouth. and earnestly pray God to bless To the Editor of the Remembrancer. such praiseworthy application with a successful result. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, אין * Scio me vix primis labiis degustâsse literas Latinas, Græcas, et Hebraicas; sed tamen hoc ipsum quod didici quantulumcunque est propter judicium de religione omnibus mundi regnis omniumque opibus longè antepono. MELANCTHON. Scio quantum mihi (cognitio linguæ Hebraica) contra meos hostes profuerit. Quare hac quantula cunque cognitione infinitis millibus aureorum carere nolim. LUTHER. Quoted by Bishop Burgess, in his "Motives to the Study of Hebrew," a book which I strongly recommend to all my readers, SIR, MAY I take the liberty, through the medium of your valuable publication, of calling the attention of your episcopal readers to a bill now before the House of Commous for regulating of gaols, penitentiaryhouses, &c. By this bill, "magistrates are to nominate a clergyman of the Church of England to be chaplain of each of the several prisons within their jurisdiction, and to appoint a salary; and no clergyman so nominated, is to officiate in any prison, until he shall have obtained a licence from the bishop of the Diocese, wherein the prison is situate, nor for any longer time than while such li cence shall continue in force." this is proper, and perfectly conformable with ecclesiastical disci All |