mind, is never once used in the bible, in any other sense than for confeffion. The ftammering lip mentioned in Isaiah means a lying or childish story: the strange lip of the Egyptians, Pfalm 114, means that they were a barbarous people, in regard not to language but manners. And again, Ecclef. x. 12. the lips of a fool fhall swallow him up.' Not meaning the dialect he fpeaks, or his manner of pronunciation, fhall prove his own destruction; but his own counfel, thoughts and contrivances, fhall lead him to his own ruin. Which is most eminently true of imaginations in religion, they always confound themselves at long run, and all that embark in them, as the project of Babel did. Mr. Hy who contends for the commonly receiv'd interpretation, seems to fuppofe (fays Mr. Bate) a difference in lip i. e. in pronunciation, one of the things necessary to bring about a difperfion. But the difperfion would naturally produce in time a difference in pronunciation, without any miracle. We may conclude therefore, that the difference in this respect was the effect of the difperfion, and not the difperfion of a difference in pronunciation. Mr. Bate farther obferves, that in the affair of Babel, the word lip only is mentioned, the word tongue never...Though that would certainly have been the most proper, and put the thing out of dispute. If lip therefore will admit of a double fenfe, the evidence is at leaft equal between Mr. Hn and his opponents. Mr. Bate then proceeds to confider the story itself: the whole force of his arguments on this head, which we have taken the pains to collect and abbreviate for the benefit of our readers, is as follows: The fons of Noah, willing to prevent the difperfion in colonies, the time of which was drawing nigh, propofe the building a great city and a strong tower, a great city that they might all live happily together, and a strong tower for their God, whofe image they would fet on the top of it, the attempt was advancing when God thought fit to interpose, and put a stop to it. Let us go down, fays the Lord, and confound their lip, that one may not hear the lip of another; this they begin to do. The complaint against them is for their doing, not their tongue. It is faid, they were all of one lip, that * * that is, one confeffion, congregation, or community: had they had different tongues before, or even after this step, they might ftill have joined together in it, as fo many different nations often have in one common caufe. It is urged, that God confounded their project by confounding their lan guage, and their language by dividing it; but the text fays no fuch thing. Befides that the difference of tongues cou'd not counterplot such a scheme as this. More tongues were confederate together in Nebuchadnezzar's time in this very scheme, and notwithstanding their diverfity of languages, fell down with one confent before his image. But further, there was no confufion of language at Babel, nor any languages miraculously formed, because those who were the deepest concern'd in the crime must in justice have had the greatest fhare of the punishment, that is to fay, the confufion. Canaan the fon of Ham had the fame language with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and in which Mofes wrote. And if Canaan had the fame tongue with the people of God, and line of the prophets; and Nimrod with the second son of Shem, the father of the holy line, can we fuppofe that every other colony had not the fame at first, till time and fomething extraordinary occafioned so total a difference in fuch a number of places? The language of Nimrod at Babylon, and of Afber at Nineveh was the fame. Mr. Bate then endeavours to prove that Syriac and Hebrew were the fame at firft, and fecondly, that Hebrew and Ægyptian were the fame. For this new attempt of Mr. Bate's we know not how to account, but by fuppofing that our learned Rabbi having taken a diflike to the fcripture confufion of tongues, was refolved to introduce one of his own. Mr. Bate concludes his arguments on this head by facetiously observing, that if a confufion of language, or, fwallowing up the tongue of all the earth were neceffary to difconcert the wicked measures taken at Babel, the tongue feems to have come out as whole, and as unhurt, as Jonah out of the whale's belly. It being above twelve hundred This is by far the most plaufible argument which Mr. Bate has made ufe of in fupport of his hypothefis, which together with the reft we fubmit to the determination of our readers. hundred years from the difperfion, before we have the leaft hint of any difference in dialect. The book concludes thus: The study of the Hebrew has not long been revived; and when men of great parts and abilities fhall have got free of the fhackles, in reality, of pointing and cabalism, which ⚫ have thrown a falfe face over the Hebrew, and these things * are canvafs'd with less inward heat and prejudice, than novel⚫ties from inferiors are ufually received with, by those who are, ⚫ or think themselves, great; and matters are canvassed fairly and impartially, the mountains will dwindle into their ori⚫ginal mole-hills, and the niceties of the Hebrew tongue appear in another light. But while friends and enemies join, as Jab's did by him, in watching his fteps, and setting a trap for his feet, little mistakes fhall be magnified into real objections; and, as feen through the mist of prejudice, appear of a gigantic fize; while great truths are flurred over, and paffed by, or mifreprefented, I have pitched upon one ❝ monumental name always produced, not only as being better ⚫ to be accounted for, but as abfolutely neceffary to be explained, by the Syriac, against the Hebrew; and flatter myfelf, its etymology fpeaks as good Hebrew, as the other ❝ two monumental names recorded with it; and that Laban, though Syriac by birth, was yet Hebrew in his faith and language. But when we fay, that Abraham and Laban were Syrians by birth, we must remember, that they were not · fo by blood; and if Arphaxad had a different language (which the old hypothefis fuppofes) from the rest of his brethren, his and Aram's language muft alfo be different, (as one 'would think, that of Afher's fhould alfo have been, and much more that of Nimrod's) and the Syriac fhould not be s called Abraham's native language. What we call Syriac, was the language of the Syrian, Affyrian, and Babylonifh kingdoms; but Abraham's native tongue must be his family tongue, which Shem, Arphaxad and that family, might retain to themfelves, during their own lives, notwithstanding their being fojourners in the territory of Aram, as their defcendants did for feveral generations in Egypt. Such Such and fo formidable are the Hutchinfonian forces led on by general Bate against the tower of Babel. We cannot pretend to foretel the fuccefs of his attacks, till we know what army Dr. Sharp and other leaders may bring into the field against him, and in the mean time would recommend to Mr. Bate a little more candour and coolness in the future treatment of his adversary. FOREIGN ARTICLES. ART. VII. Fabularum fopiarum libri quinque. Glafcua in ædibus accademicis excudebant Robertus et Andreas TH HIS collection of Fables, though printed in Glasgow, is the work of a French author, who has evinced himfelf a master in the harmony, elegance, and energy of the Latin language. It is divided into five books, and the fables are written in the loose, iambic measure, like thofe of Phædrus. He not only poffeffes that happy conciseness and fimplicity which diftinguifh the Latin author, but has likewife fucceffully imitated the gay freedom of La Fontaine, in the following fable of Death and the Woodcutter. • Vetulus redibat nemore rufticus, ferens • Vix fe, fuumque fafcem: victus denique ་ Tum cogitare triftis omnia incipit Quæcumque perfert nunc, vel olim pertulit: Habuit, in annos fi retrò elapfos velit • Vitam aufpicatus, miferias inter mifer ་ • Reptavit infans: hinc malorum quis modus ? Ac • Ac denique mali plurimum, propè nil boni: • Gradum attigiffe credidit; mortem invocat • Mali medela mors venit, gravius malum.' The fame fenfe he has likewife included in the five following lines, of which the firft is the only one that we will venture to difapprove on account of its length and perplexity. Fafcem lignorum mifer humeros fenex fuper ‹ Portabat ægrè : longiore fed viâ Fractus, victufque, fafcern depofuit humi. • Mortem invocavit: mors advenit: tum fenex: Another edition of the fame work has been published at Paris, with fome preliminary notes, a small preface, and the addition of a new fable, which we, as authors, cannot help inferting for the entertainment of the public. quæ LIBER et PRÆLUM. Fabula. At me premendo cur gemis, dixit liber Aget huc emptorum turbam; fors etiam tibi In luce paret irridenda publicâ : Vel quod gravius eft, cum te novitas deferet, Præbebis efcas tineis, vel amicies piper. • Prelum hic quievit, at liber invicem gemens: Lector, ait, omen benevolus malum obruat!' |