expreffed by the participle pref. D'The king here spoken of is primarily Hezekiah, and fecondarily the Meffiah. Chap. xlv. ver. 15. Verily] Certainly thou, O God, art myfterious, abounding in fecrets.-This verfe comes in very abruptly according to the tranflation, and indeed the original feems to be obfcure, and inconfiftent with ver. 19, and the drift of the whole chapter, which predicts the ceffation of idolatry, effected in the Jewish ftate by Ezra, chap. ix. x. and by Nehemiah, chap. ix. and xiii. with eminent zeal and severe injunction. Chap. liii. ver. 9. Becaufe] Notwithstanding, although-Ending the former part of this verfe with a colon or full-point after death, agreeable to the atnach in the original, the latter reads better in connection with ver. 10, thus, "Although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased—————” Chap. lxi. ver. 7. For your fhame] For your twofold (great, Tyndal) fhame and confufion, they (thofe who fhall return from their captivity) fhall rejoice in their inheritance, for which purpose the land they fhall have a poffeffion a fecond time.-This is an tempt to make fome fenfe, though perhaps not the right tranflation of this difficult verfe. 6 Jer. chap. iii. ver. 19. A pleafant] The defirable-that is, reftore thee to thy land, after it hath been poffeffed by the Affyrian and Chaldean armies. Chap. xviii. ver. 14. Will a man leave] Will any one leave the fine stream, that comes from the rock, for the fnow water of Lebanon Or fhall the cool flowing fpring be forfaken for the strange, that is, impure, muddy waters? See Numb. xi. 8. Job xxiv. 9. 2 Sam. i. 21. Pf. xxxii. 4. where fignifies fome fine liquid, fluid, or moisture, as oil, milk.-" Thou fhalt fuck the milk of kings, Ifa. lxi. 16. and lxvi. 11.—— Chap. xx. ver. 14. Curfed] The word doth not convey the horrid idea of curfed, and ought to be foftened into difregarded, difefteemed, or fome fuch expreffion. He that fuffers great affliction or bafe ingratitude for well doing, will know how to excufe this prophet, who was but a man, with other men of great feelings, for violent refentments. Dan. chap. x. ver. 13. Withstood] Stood before me-as in ver. 16. It were better to own our ignorance who is the prince of the kingdom of Perfia and of Grecia, and who Michael is, than to fay that by them are meant guardian angels and contending genii, like the gods in Homer: furely fuch interpretations as thefe favour ftrongly of heathenifm and popery. Hof. chap. vi. ver. 5. Hewed them] Hewed with the prophets, by their means, acting as a ftone carver to bring men and things into form and fhape-Slain them] Teafed them, namely, the prophets-that thy (relative to Ephraim and Judah, not God) judg. ments may be The 8th verfe of the last chapter of Hofea Dr. Bayly tran flates in this manner: "When Ephraim fhall fay, What have I to do any more with idols? Then I will answer and reform him; from me as a tree ever green, even from me fhall thy fruit be found." Ꭲ 4 The The notes on the minor prophets are much fewer than we fhould have expected, efpecially as it is generally faid these books are more incorrectly tranflated than most other parts of the Old Teftament. The above collection of notes will probably be acceptable to fome of our Readers, and affift them to judge concerning the importance and value of the work. These volumes afford the Reader a convenient opportunity of comparing the Hebrew with the English tranflation, and no better expedient, perhaps, as the Editor obferves, could be proposed to render the ftudy and knowledge of that language easy and attainable. With this view, he says, he offers to the Public the cheapest and most commodious edition of the Hebrew fcriptures, that ever was printed. It is decorated with a frontifpiece reprefenting Mofes receiving the law on Mount Sinai, and illuftrated by two maps; one, of journies performed by the Ifraelites, and the other, of their fettlement in Canaan. Hi Publications on the Subject of LITERARY PROPERTY continued: See our laft. N° 6. ART. IV. A modeft Plea for the Property of Copy-Right. By Catharine Macaulay. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Dilly. HOSE writers who poffefs the greateft fhare of original genius, having undoubtedly the fairest profpect of immortality, are the perfons who are principally interested in the decifion of the queftion concerning literary property. After the ftriking infances of female genius which the present age has produced, it is with peculiar propriety that a female writer fteps forth in fupport of the rights of authors. And though it would, perhaps, be unreasonable to expect, in the fudden effufions of female genius, a connected train of reasoning, or a full investigation of truth, we may generally promise ourselves the fatisfaction of meeting with fenfible obfervations, and lively ftrokes of wit or fancy; and whatever subjects it takes in hand, we may hope to fee them placed in a new and entertaining point of view. With fuch expectations we entered on the perufal of this apology for authors: and we can with truth affure our Readers that we have not been difappointed. We do not indeed find in this work any feientific explanation of the nature of literary property; any philofophical refearches into the grounds on which the rights of authors reft; or any learned examination of their pretenfions to an exclufive property in their works, derived from common law. We even find, at the beginning of the work, pofitions concerning the nature of common law, which feem to confound it with the general principles of equity, and 4 and the univerfal law of nature; and, confequently, to leave a difcretionary power in the breast of the judge to determine what is law, by appealing to his own ideas of natural right and moral fitness: a confequence which fo judicious and zealous an advocate for liberty as Mrs. Macaulay would be loth to admit. But notwithstanding thefe defects, we find the fubject treated with fo much good fenfe and rectitude of fentiment, that it is a queftion with us, whether our heroine has not discomfited the enemy as much by this flight fkirmish, as the veteran forces by their regular attack; and whether it has not happened in this conteft, as it fometimes happens in military encounters, that the light and flying troops do as much execution as the reft. Mrs. Macaulay endeavours to convince the world that it is not beneath the dignity of an author to liften to the folicitations of Nature; and that he is not the lefs likely either to covet fame, or to deferve it, because he at the fame time wishes to eat his daily bread. Authors it feems are beings of a very high order, and infinitely above the low confiderations of the ufeful, the convenient, and the necessary ! ! Inceffantly they toil, to inftruct and please mankind, Though thank'd by few, rewarded yet by none, For fame is all that authors afk below! These are undoubtedly fine fentiments; but, alas! the love of filthy lucre, or the cravings of Nature, will fometimes prevail, even over the refinements of genius and science! There are fome lowminded geniuses, who will be apt to think they may, with as little degradation to character, traffic with a bookfeller for the purchase of their mental harvest, as opulent landholders may traffic with monopolizers in grain and cattle, for the fale of the more fubftantial product of their lands. They will be apt to confider that literary merit will not purchase a shoulder of mutton, or prevail with fordid butchers and bakers to abate one farthing in the pound of the exor. bitant price which meat and bread at this time bear; the brewer, the linen-draper, the hofier, &c. &c. will all think their ignorance in letters an excufe for extorting, for the mere neceffaries of life, fums which the wretched author has not wherewithal to pay; and it is to be doubted, if a fheriff's officer, when a caft of his office is neceffary to conduct the felf-denying philofopher to the laft fcene of his glory, it is to be doubted, I fay, whether he will abate one tittle of his accuflomary extortions. Three members of the Upper Houfe, the Bishops of Gloucester and Bristol, and Lord Lyttelton, have not thought it beneath their station as authors and nobles, to take large fums of booksellers for their literary publications.' ⚫ Thefe • These are evils which the fublime flights of poetic fancy do not always foar above.' To prove that the most celebrated geniuses have not been wholly indifferent to thofe motives which have the chief fway over the generality of mankind, our Author remarks, that Shakespeare wrote plays upon the fingle motive of filling the houfe; that Bacon gained his fortune and title by prostituting his glorious talents to the interefts of an arbitrary court; that Locke, living at a time when the rights of Nature and the interefts of the Sovereign were supposed to be inseparable, did not go without his reward; and that Newton was gratified with a place and penfion. Mrs. Macaulay then proceeds to answer feveral objections, which had been urged against fecuring literary property in the House of Lords, particularly by Lord Camden. To the objection, that if perpetual property in copy was granted, booksellers would fet their own price upon their publications, and print them in what manner they please; the replies: It is the true intereft of the proprietor of every copy, to fell off at the most moderate price, as many editions as with all his art and industry he can difpofe of. Is the edition near fold is the eager queftion of every author to his bookfeller. And fuppofe the proprietor of a valuable copy fhould, on mistaken grounds of intereft, be led to keep up the price of his work, by giving none but expenfive editions to the Public: that Public, according to what the noble Lord obferved on another occasion, may have recourfe to the unlimited power of printing editions of English authors, claimed by the Irish and the Americans. But bookfellers in thefe times underftand their intereft better than to give very bad editions of authors. We have in general better paper, better print, and more elegant editions of English authors, than I believe were ever known fince literature flourished in England; and in regard to moderatenefs of price, books in these times, when every commodity, every material in the way of trade, pay fuch a high tax to the government; books, I fay, are the cheapest articles fold. This is fo notorious a truth to thofe enlightened, generous individuals, who understand the ufe of literature, and respect learned and ingenious perfons, that they lament that frivolous tafte, which is fo generally prevailing, as to occafion both fexes to give with pleasure, to fee a farcical reprefentation on the ftage, or to revel at a mafquerade, double, treble, and in the laft inftance, often above ten times the fum, which they grudge to beftow on an inftructive book.' On the question whether laying open literary property would be advantageous or difadvantageous to the ftate of literature in this country, our Author fays: 6 This question, I think, is easily answered, that it will not only be disadvantageous, but ruinous to the state of literature. If literary property becomes common, we can have but two kind of authors, men in opulence, and men in dependence. • The The Romans, even in their degenerate days, had that high sense of merit in general, and of fervices rendered the Public, that, according to Pliny, and other writers, in proportion to a man's character for literary abilities and virtues, in proportion to his power of rendering himself ufeful to his country and fellow-citizens, and in proportion to his exertion of this power, he was fure of meeting from the generous hands of individuals an equal reward. • Pliny, if I remember right, in fpeaking of his own fuccefs in life, and that of one of his cotemporaries, mentions the leaving legacies to learned and good men, as a practice common and familiar. We were of the fame age, faid he, we entered into life together, and we had the fame number of legacies bequeathed us. This being the custom among the Romans, with what ardour muft it inspire every youthful breaft, to deserve fuch grateful, fuch useful returns of bounty? But, alas! there never was any thing Roman in the characters and conduct of the English people! When did ever an Englishman grow rich from the real fervices he had rendered his country? No! Gothic inftitutions have, from the first establishment of our aucestors in these parts, tainted the minds of their pofterity with fuch a leaven of the corrupteft kind of felfishness, that an Englishman perfuades himself he is acting with propriety, when he bequeaths the whole of his eftate to a blockhead he defpifes in the fiftieth degree of relationship, though he leaves behind him many worthy ingenious friends, whom a small legacy would help out of very intricate circumstances. If there ever is any money left in this country, out of the channel of relationship, the inftances are rare: they are commonly returns for fervile compliances with the will of the benefactor; or else the œconomical bequefter once for all pays for a feat among the manfions of the bleffed, thofe fums to hofpitals and public charities, which he denied to the starving poor, whilft he preferved any power of felf-gratification. "That watchful guard, selfishness, is a never failing check to any generous fally of the mind, or to any benevolent inclination in the human breaft; and the means of obtaining wealth from the good opinion of his country or his friends being thus barred from a man, whom fortune has denied to favour, yet of merit, of genius, and of virtue, fufficient to inftruct and to enlighten mankind. If fuch a man is deprived of the neceffary lucrative advantage by the right of property in his own writings, is he to ftarve, or live in penury, whilft he is exerting, perhaps vain endeavours to ferve a people who `do not defire his fervices? Suppofing this man has a wife and children, ought he, for the meer whiftling of a name, to exert those talents in literary compofitions, which were much better employed in fome mechanical bufinefs, or fome trade, that would fupport his family? Will not fuch a man, if he has the tender feelings of a huf band and a father,—if indeed he has the confcience of a religious or a moral man; will he not check every incentive arifing from vanity, which would tempt him, for the purchafe of an ili bought fame, to expofe to poverty and contempt thofe who, by the law of religion and nature he is bound to cherish and protect? Every |