Let not then thy intellect

Be disturbed by these accidental names ;
For Paradise is represented

In terms which are vernacular to thee;

It is not indigent,

Because it is clothed with things like to thee :—
Thy nature rather is very imbecile,

Which is not able to attain to its greatness.

Insipid would be its beauties,

Were it depicted in the colours

Which are natural to thee!

For eyes which are feeble
Have not sufficient power
To contemplate the bright rays
Of its celestial beauties.

He hath clothed its trees

With the names of our trees,

And its figs are called by the names of our figs ; And its leaves, which are spiritual,

Are realized and embodied;

They are transformed, that their vesture

May resemble the vesture of earthly things.

The flowers of that country

Are more numerous and brilliant

Than the starry lights

Of this visible heaven;

And a fragrance proceeds from it,

Borne along in its gracious influence,

Like a physician sent to the maladies

Of a land which is cursed :

By its healing odour

Curing the distemper,

Which entered by the serpent.

By the gale which blows

From the blessed region of Paradise,

Sweetness is communicated

To the bitterness of this region;

This renders ineffective

The curse of our earth.

The Garden is thus the vital breath

Of this diseased world;

And dwelling among the sickly,

It proclaims that a living balsam
Is sent to our mortality.

Thus when the blessed Apostles
Were assembled together,

The place was moved,

And there was a sweet savour of Paradise;
Which stirred up its repositories,

And caused its perfumes to flow forth:

It diffused its odours on the messengers,
By whom men were to be made disciples,
And come as guests to the feast.

Thus it seemed good to the high Majesty

Of Him who loved the children of men.'

To this piece are appended twenty-two notes, by which its connection and meaning are greatly illustrated.

Dr. Burgess declares his object to have been to introduce a fine and interesting writer to plain English people, and at the same time to make the volume useful to the scholar. We consider that he has succeeded admirably in both these objects. The Introduction and the notes evince his complete mastery of the subject, and will furnish valuable help to those who are inclined to take interest in, and engage in the study of a language and literature which has been so long neglected; but is beginning to attract the attention to which it is entitled. The work is therefore especially opportune in the aid it offers and the stimulus it supplies; and we doubt not that it will decide many waverers to embark in a study which they will now perceive to be by no means barren of intellectual gratification or religious profit. In his other aim, his clear perception of the duties of a translator, as stated in his Introduction, and the poetical taste and faculty of which he had other opportunities of evincing the possession, have enabled him to render these fine old Eastern hymns with a spirit and vigour, and with a felicitous choice of phrase, admirably contrasting with the baldness and fatiguing aridity of many analogous efforts at translation from Oriental poetry.

To do well the work which Dr. Burgess undertook required a complete mastery of the language, a familiarity with the

forms of thought and expression in the Hebrew Bible, and an aptitude in the conception and utterance of poetical ideas. These qualities are not easily found in combination; and it is to the fact of their union in him that we ascribe the undoubted success of Dr. Burgess's present achievement. We trust the result may be such as to encourage him to persist in cultivating this almost unknown department of Church learning; and we are glad to learn that the probable result of such encouragement would be translation and annotation, by the same hand, of Ephraem's long, practical piece on the Repentance of Nineveh, already noticed, which Dr. Burgess not inaptly designates 'a fine epic poem,' and which, apart from its interest for general readers, must be presumed to be of special interest to students of Christian literature and antiquities.

The volume is very beautifully and most correctly printed ; and those who have had reason to be aware of the difficulty and labour of ensuring accuracy in the use of Oriental types, will highly value this quality of the work before us. The Syriac type is mostly found in the notes, the translator having been deterred by the expense from giving the original text of the poems he has translated.

ART. VIII.

BRIEF REVIEWS.

1. Commentaries on the Laws of the ancient Hebrews; with an introductory essay on civil society and government. By E. C. Wines. New York: Geo. P. Putnam & Co.

1853.

We are happy to open our list of recent publications with the notice of a book so truly valuable and so thoroughly original as the one indicated above. For although learned works have appeared on the same subject, as those of Michaelis and Warburton, they do not cover the same ground, nor accomplish the same objects. Professor Wines, too, enjoyed advantages

for the elucidation of his theme, which none of his predecessors possessed. The subject which he illustrates, with great ability, is the civil constitution delivered by Moses; a theme of vast importance both to the legal and clerical professions. The Bible is not only the repository and fountain of religion but of law, and is thus, by its original grant, made "profitable for all things; having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come;" securing to man the best interests of a well regulated civil government, as well as those of a spiritual government; and that not by indirect moral influences, but by direct legal enactment. The high political wisdom of the Mosaic Institute; the republican character of its principles; its precedence of all others; the influence which it has exercised upon all subsequent legislation; its adaptation, in substance, to the exigences of all nations; the progressive unfolding of its excellencies with the advancement of society, and its vindication from the sneers of infidelity, are topics which will render its perusal a source of instruction and pleasure equally profound. Prior to its publication, in this form, it was delivered before several theological institutions, and in many of the principal cities of the United States, in lectures, and was read in manuscript by several distinguished lawyers and divines. It makes its appearance, on these accounts, with the unqualified approval, as a work of peculiar merit, of such men as the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler; Hon. Wm. Kent; Hiram Ketchumi, Esq.; Judge Woodbury; Rev. Dr. Woods. Our own testimony is feeble compared with these.

2. Philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, Bart., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Edinburgh University; arranged and edited by O. W. Wight, translator of Cousin's "History of Modern Philosophy." New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1853.

While the entire works of Sir William Hamilton are in a course of publication by the Harpers, the Appletons, under the supervision of Mr. Wight, have presented the American public with his philosophy. If on any subject not directly theological, an editor should commend with judgment and with caution, it is on that of philosophy, which has so much to do with the foundations of knowledge and belief. Without pretending to any special competency to pronounce opinions on contributions to this department of science, a personal examination of the work before us, enables us to speak in its praise, and to recommend it heartily to such as are fond of philosophical investigations. The book is arranged, by the editor, from the various essays of the author, so as to reduce them to a system. The parts in which it is divided are; The Philosophy of Common Sense: The Philosophy of Perception; The Philosophy of the Conditioned. If as a system, as here presented, it is not complete in all its parts, it has the merit of making positive additions to a science which has really stood still for the last twenty-five years, while other spheres of knowledge have almost indefinitely widened. Any one conversant with such studies will be

convinced of the truth of this remark, by an examination of either of the three parts of the work. On the question of "Common Sense," so much discussed, and so much decried, as a legitimate ground of philosophic inquiry and argument, he has displayed a degree of strength and learning that is amazing, and has settled its foundation with a solidity which cannot be shaken; and in doing so, has given a certainty and universality to metaphysical speculations, which we doubt not, will vastly promote them into the character of a true science. The doctrine of Perception, he has thoroughly canvassed, with a refutation of those errors into which the idealists ran, and which have so materially unsettled the course of philosophy, as well as the laws of belief. He adopts the basis of Reid, and defends it against the systems opposed to it. Perhaps, the most useful portion of the book, is The Philosophy of the Conditioned, in which he establishes, on irrefutable principles, the limitations of human knowledge, and erects an impassable barrier to those wild and erratic reveries which have, of late, filled the world under the name of philosophy. These few reflections will suggest the general outline of the treatise, but can give no idea of that athletic power with which it is executed. On such subjects, Sir William is at home. He is acknowledged, on them, to be "the most formidable man in Europe." Apart from his intrinsic merits, as a philosopher, his entire system is in accordance with the principles of revealed religion. These are his own words; "Above all, I am confirmed in my belief, by the harmony between the doctrines of this philosophy, and those of revealed truth." Let us add, that no man can study these papers without feeling that his whole intellectual man is roused to activity.

3. Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; with travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, and the desert: being the result of a second expedition undertaken for the trustees of the British museum. By Austen H. Layard, M. P.: Abridged from the larger work. New York : G. P. Putnam & Co. 1853.

The second expedition of Layard was more fruitful than the first, wonderful and useful as it was; and those who followed him in the former, will feel that the latter is a necessary and illustrious sequel to it. Besides the remains of ancient art and civilization which he has disentombed from the sepulchre of the Assyrian Metropolis, reposing in the silence of thirty centuries, he has performed two achievements which will entitle him to the gratitude of mankind. He has added a chapter to ancient history. By the well connected series of bas-reliefs and the authentic records in the cuneiform character of that remote age, a consecutive account of the reign and exploits of Sennacherib will be written out, and discordant points of history and chronology will be settled. These disclosures are even now rapidly progressing. But the most important of all his discoveries is the independent and undoubted confirmation which they give to the truth of Scripture history and prophecy. To have found on the crumbling sculptures