1781. Imitated from the Norfe Tongue. In the Is. 6d. ART. VII. Runie Odes. Manner of Mr. Gray. Becket, &c. ATHER with a view to gratify curiofity, than from the expectation of communicating pleasure, has Mr. Mathias, we prefume, printed his runic odes. The wild and monftrous fyftem of northern mythology, though it may occafionally furnifh a fublime or magnificent image, yet when confidered as a fubject for modern poetry, contains little that can be interefting. Should we be told that the tranflations of Mr. Gray are exceptions to this remark, we may afk what could not the genious of Gray have given animation to? We wish it not to be inferred, however, that we are diffatisfied with the attempts of Mr. Mathias; his tranflations being in general spirited and harmonious. In proof of this we give the following paffage from his firft Ode, intitled, The Twilight of the Gods; or the DeArullion of the World: Why does beauteous Lina weep? Whence thofe lorn notes in accent deep? Aloft in diftant realms of air, Mark the murd'rous monster stalk, In printiefs majesty of walk. Odin kens his well known tread; The lordly ferpent rolls along, Nor fears the brave, nor heeds the ftrong: But hark, 'twas fate in thunder spoke ; The wolf Fenris, by whom Odin was flain. Lays Lays the death-doom'd monster low, From the cavern deep and dank, No more this penfile mundane ball Who shall fay, the things have been ? Veils creation's ruin'd work. In the eighth line of the above quotation, the Tranflator has inadvertently admitted the fatal fifters clipping the thread of life, a fiction that properly belongs to the Mythology of Greece. In the laft Ode, alfo, intitled an Incantation, founded on the northern Mythology, is an impropriety of the fame kind : While the midnight torches gleam, Rivals of pale Cynthia's Beam. The Dialogue at the tomb of Argantyr has been more than once translated before. There is a well-executed translation of it in a collection of poems published a few years ago by Mr. Stephens of Magdalen College, Oxford. See our Review, Vol. LIII. 263. • Immediately previous to the deftruction of the world, the Edda fuppofes, that the Stygian dog, named Garmar, will be unbound. c.t.t, ART. VIII. A Differtation on the Judicial Customs of the Saxon and ART. IX. Differtation on the National Affemblies under the Saxon and HESE Differtations are confiderably connected in their general object, and particular line of ftudy; and may be looked upon as the natural fruits of a young Barrister's re searches fearches into the customs and inftitutions of early times. We fhould have pronounced the first of the two, viz. the Differtation on the Judicial Cuftoms, &c. to have iffued from the Robertfonian School, did not Mr. Ibbet fon speak of the subject as being in its nature novel and peculiar; whereas it could hardly appear very novel to any person who has read and remembers (and it is impoffible for one who has once read to forget) Dr. Robertfon's mafterly introduction to the "Hiftory of the Emperor Charles V. with the proofs and illuftrations annexed to it." The object of the fecond Differtation is to fhew the origin of national affemblies in this country, rather than the prefent conAtitution of Parliament. The traces of general or national councils and conventions, are indeed abundantly evident in our hiftory; though they appear to have been differently constituted at different periods, under the Saxon governments ftrongly verging to democratical freedom, and in the Norman times to Ariftocratical tyranny: till at length the introduction of po. pular reprefentation, cherished and fupported by a fortunate coincidence of events, reftored in fome measure the rights of the people, and brought our conftitution to its proper poife. These changes and thefe events Mr. Ibbetson has deduced with greatingenuity. His ftile is animated and vigorous, his authorities are full and fatisfactory. Though Mr. I. is fufficiently fevere upon the unfriendly genius of the feudal Ariftocracy, he will not fuffer any other writer to exaggerate its oppreffions. In his Postscript, addreffed to the Dean of Gloucefter, he convicts the Reverend Polemic of a grofs mistake relating to the antient boroughs, and Jikewife in afferting that the military tenants were the only freemen of the realm, and that the tenants in focage were held in a ftate of flavery. The intention of thefe mifrepresentations (fays Mr. Ibbetfon) is fufficiently apparent, they evidently tend to invalidate the exiftence of political, and indeed of civil, liberty, beneath the feudal goverment, except in the inftance of the barons to reduce the husbandmen and the tradesmen to a state of villenage; to deny the existence of the rights we at present enjoy, till they were wrung from the crown by the arms of its vaffals, and diffeminated by fimilar ufurpations of the commons: and finally by thefe infidious deductions to ftrengthen the Author's attack upon the privileges we feel, and the conftitution we revere.' T. ART. X. ART. X. Vindicia Flaviana: Or, a Vindication of the Teftimony given by Jofephus concerning our Saviour Jefus Chrift. By Jacob Bryant, Efq. 8vo. I s. 6d. Cadell, &c. 1780. 66 T must be owned," fays Dr. Jortin, with his ufual plea Tamry, to have been a generous proceeding in Vof fius, to take the weaker ffde on feveral occafions, and to be an advocate for those who stood most in need of affiftance; in which charitable behaviour he has been, and will be imitated.” We wish that Mr. Bryant, the very learned Writer now before us, may not have fome concern in this remark and prediction. The authenticity of the paffage in Jofephus concerning our Saviour Jefus Chrift, though it be found in all the copies of his Works now extant, has been, with great reafon, called in queftion by fome of the most learned men and able critics of this and the two preceding centuries. Mr. Bryant, in the present publication, has enumerated the following: Gifanius and Ofiander, Jacobus Salianus, Daniel Heinfius, Jacobus and Ludovicus Capellus, Boxhornus, Salmafius, Gronovius, Vorftius, Frenchemius, Tanaquil Faber, Sebaldus Snellius, Blondell, and Lardner. He might have added Le Clerc, Vitringa, Warburton, &c. On the contrary, it has been received as genuine, and defended by Cave, Huet, Fabricius, Whifton, Spanheim, Daubuz, and many others. The Reader will find a very juft and impartial account of the argument on both fides, with many judicious remarks, in Dr. Lardner's Jewish and Heathen Teftimonies to the Truth of the Chriftian Religion, Vol. I. p. 150, and Preface to Vol. II. writer in this country, profeffedly in vindication of the paffage, was Dr. N. Forfter, who, in a Diflertation published at Oxford, 1749, attempted, by an arbitrary alteration of the text, to render it more confiftent with the known character and fentiments of Jofephus. Dr. Lardner, in the latter of the two places above referred to, has, in our opinion, given a fatisfactory reply to his arguments. The laft Mr. Bryant has now ranked himself among the defenders of this celebrated paragraph; endeavouring to prove it genuine, by taking into confideration the character and circumftances of the hiftorian, together with the temper of the times, and the difpofition of the Jews, both when our Saviour lived, and when Jof phus wrote; and by giving fuch an interpretation of the pallage itself, as may render it confiftent with his fentiments and fituation. My purpofe,' fays he, is to fearch into the internal evidences with which this hiftory is attended: to confider the fituation of the Jews in general, and of Jofephus in particular, and of their difpofition towards our Saviour and his Rem on Eccl. H. Vol. I. p. 294. 3 miracles: miracles and laftly, to fhew that there is nothing in the account transmitted of Chrift, the Man of Wisdom, but what an hiftorian, fo fituated and circumftanced as Jofephus, may be supposed to have given.' In order to enable our Readers to judge of the merit of his argument, and of the ability with which he hath fupported it, we fhall firft lay before them his tranflation of the paffage, and then give a few fpecimens of his reafoning in defence of it. His tranflation of the paffage, as corrected by himself in his remarks on the feveral parts of it, is as follows: At this time Jefus appeared to the world, a man diftinguished for his wifdom; if it be right to speak of him merely as a man. For he was a performer of wonderful works: a teacher of those who were well inclined to religion and virtue. And he won over to his doctrines many of the native Jews, and alfo many of the Hellenifta, who were of other countries. This was the perfon named Chrift. And when Pilate, upon an accufation of the principal perfons among the Jews, had condemned him to be crucified, thofe, who had from the beginning fhewed their regard for him, fiill perfified in their affection. For he appeared to them upon the third day restored to life, according to the predictions of the facred Prophets; who had foretold this, and many other wonderful circumftances concerning him. And to this day there exifts a fect, who are from him denominated Chriftians.' The learned Reader will perceive, by comparing this with the original, that in feveral places it is rather a paraphrase, than a tranflation. Mr. Bryant fupports his interpretation by confi dering each fentence apart, and endeavours to prove that there is nothing in the whole, but what may be fairly fuppofed to have come from the pen of Jofephus. We proceed to give fome fpecimens of his reasoning on the fubject. Ἦν γὰρ παραδόξων ἔργων ποιητής: For he was a performer of wonderful works. A Chriftian writer,' fays Mr. Bryant, would probably have fpoken of thefe works by the terms Dauration eyev: Dr. Lardner, in his Remarks on Dr. Forster's Diflertation above-mentioned, has brought inftances to prove, that the word magadogos in Jofephus has a precife and determinate meaning, and is equivalent to miraculous. He like wife obferves, that Eufebius applies the term magadótos to the miracles of Jefus in the title of the chapter in which he introduces the paffage in queftion from Jofephus; and that in two different paffages of his Demonftratio Evangelica, he makes ufe of the very expreffion, παραδόξων ποιητὴς ἔργων, when fpeaking of our Saviour. Mr. Bryant's remark therefore falls to the ground; and it even becomes probable, that either Eufebius him Jew. and Heath. Teft. Pref, to Vol. II. p. 9. felf, |