the Psalmist guilty of using a most outrageous figure, when he represented God riding on a cherub, if that cherub was himself. Having duly examined the origin of alphabetic characters, and shown that, even according to the proposed theory, Abraham may have become acquainted with them during his residence in Egypt without the necessity of conjecturing Hebrew hieroglyphics, we may be allowed to state our own ideas. The great extension of commerce must soon have shown the necessity of ciphers adapted for an easy correspondence; and as the chief manzils or halting places of the caravans were in the vicinity of temples, and as from these commercial expeditions the priests derived no inconsiderable emolument, we may presume that they, in whom the chief learning of the times was centred, first directed their attention to the supply of this want. Leaving Egypt, its phonetic hieroglyphics and the Chinese characters out of the question, we perhaps shall not err in supposing the possibility of these caravans having brought the gift from other regions. From all that we can as yet discover of the nature of the arrowheaded characters in Babylonia and Persepolis, they were alphabetical; indeed some Persian MSS. affect to give the clue to the latter. We have also no evidence, that the ancient Indian alphabets proceeded from hieroglyphics; and it certainly was not a greater effort of ingenuity to invent an alphabet, than the wonderful structure and euphonic combinations of the sacred tongue of the Hindù priesthood. Where men could be found capable of such a stupendous achievement, it will not be too much to imagine, that the ear would naturally catch the sounds of language, and the genius devise some ciphers emblematic of them. This, perhaps, was the simple truth: and if it be admitted to be probable, the rise of other alphabets may, as we have remarked, be easily explained by the commerce of the times. Dr. Russell proceeds to the history of the Jews, as connected with that of the Egyptians and Assyrians, and takes occasion to rectify some chronological errors. The narrative is managed with great skill; many things are offered in a new point of view; and the connexion of profane history, with the references to it in the Bible, is forcibly and judiciously drawn. In many places he examines pagan opinions and superstitions, traces the different people to their national source, aims to discover the causes of enmity or alliance between them and the Jews, and intersperses amidst his subject observations and disquisitions which are of most valuable importance. He, however, adopts the usual idea, that only Judah and Benjamin returned from captivity; and we certainly have not direct evidence to the contrary. Yet, it would seem, that as the proclamation of Cyrus granted permission to all Jews in his dominions to return (Ezra i. 1-4), and as the decree of Artaxerxes (vii. 13) was, that every one of the people of Israel in his kingdoms, who had the inclination, ( ,might, as well as the priests and Levites (במלכותי מן עמא ישראל go to Jerusalem; we want something more than the mere silence of history to persuade us, that the offer was not as well accepted by many of the exiles in Media and Persia as by those in Babylon. We think too slightly of modern Jewish genealogies and traditions to believe, that none but the members of the two tribes were delivered from captivity; and we cannot admit that the decrees were restricted to the Persian possessions in the Babylonian empire, because in both the word is in the plural (m), and must have comprehended every place subjected to the Persian dominion. We do not mean to affirm that the ten tribes returned; but we assert, that since in these decrees a liberty of return was granted to them, we cannot reconcile the idea to probability, that none out of their number accepted it. Those who returned, perhaps, were to be found among the Samaritans. Two recapitulatory chapters, in which there is considerable digression respecting the European nations, conclude the work. Still adhering to his former positions, the author acknowledges the difficulty which the preservation of Homer's poems presents without the use of writing; but doubts if the art was practised in his time, ascribing the preservation of his verses to the memory of reciters. It may, however, be inquired, Could works of such a magnitude have been composed, if writing had been unknown? Now, Cadmus is supposed to have brought letters into Greece about three centuries and a half before the birth of Homer; and it remains to be shown, that the Pelasgi were ignorant of them; consequently, the presumption that Homer could write, is considerably strengthened. The author also conceives, that the art was for a long time lost to the Hebrews under the kings; but, weighing all his reasons, we cannot incline ourselves to coincide with him in this opinion; and notwithstanding the labour by which he has sought to substantiate his positions, we observe the following passage in his seventh chapter:-"It is certain that some species of writing was practised by the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews at the remotest periods comprehended within the range of sacred history." Such is our own notion, but we know not how to reconcile it with his former assertions; since his allusion cannot be to hieroglyphics, because the former part of the sentence relates to the traditional existence of letters among the Assyrians. In the recapitulation of that part which relates to ancient commerce, Dr. Russell imagines a certain degree of traffic with China to have been carried on by the Indian merchants, who were met by those of Arabia, Tyre, and Sidon; and thus to have been extended to the countries through which the caravans passed. Nor is this improbable. As Biblical intimations of a connexion with Eastern Asia, after noticing the mention of mercantile caravans, he adds; "We cannot hesitate to believe, that the embroidered work and chests of rich apparel, mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, as brought from Haran, Carneh, and other towns on the Assyrian border and the Persian Gulf, were drawn from the more civilized nations of Eastern Asia. Nor is it less evident, that the goods carried through Arabia in the line of Dedan and Idumæa, and of which precious cloths are specified as one of the ordinary articles, were manufactured in India." Even without these intimations, we consider, that both Von Heeren and himself have proved the point, as far as it can be proved. There is nothing to detain us in the last chapter. The work is one of great ability and patience, and is unquestionably deserving of its place in every library; but we think that it contains too much extraneous matter, and pays attention to conjectures which have no historical basis or existence, but in the notions of the imaginative theorist. We cannot in every instance satisfy ourselves of the validity of the data on which the writer has established his synchronisms, particularly when he extends them to times bordering on the fabulous. Into this part of his work we could not deeply enter, as the discussions would have carried us to a most alarming prolixity. Besides, believing the starting point to be a desideratum in many cases, we should not have been in a condition to establish the inquiry on a certainty. The book is, as it necessarily must be, in a great degree, a compendium of others; but it is a compendium of most useful information, enriched with original investigations and interpretations of Scripture. We have candidly animadverted on the things which we account to be its defects; having done so, we are prepared to award the praise justly due to its merits: and although the undertaking is professedly concluded, we hope that Dr. Russell will devote his studies to that very interesting portion of the Jewish history, in connexion with that of other people, which intervened between the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of Jerusalem. Such a work is undoubtedly necessary to the completion of the series. ART. II.-1. The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Collected and edited by HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE, Esq. M. A. 2 vols. London: Pickering. 1836. 2. Letters and Conversations, &c. 2 vols. London: Moxon. 1836. 3. Specimen of the Table Talk of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 2 vols. London: Murray. 1835. 4. Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character, on the several Grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion. By S. T. COLERIDGE. 3d edition. London: Pickering. 1836. 5. The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge. 3 vols. London: Pickering. 1834. 6. The Friend: a Series of Essays (in Three Volumes) to aid in the Formation of fixed Principles in Politics, Morals, and Religion; with Literary Amusements interspersed. By S. T. COLERIDGE. A new edition. London: Fenner. 1818. 7. The Statesman's Manual; or, the Bible the best Guide to political Skill and Foresight. A Lay Sermon, addressed to the Higher Classes of Society. By S. T. Coleridge, Esq. London: Gale and Fenner. 1817. 8. A Lay Sermon, addressed to the Higher and Middle Classes, on the existing Distresses and Discontents. By S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. London: Gale and Fenner. 1817. 9. Biographia Literaria; or, Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life and Opinions. By S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. 2 vols. London: Fenner. 1817. 10. The Watchman. 10 numbers; from March 1 to May 13, 1796. Bristol. IF there were no special reasons for a notice of the remarkable works of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the principles contained in the following paragraph would induce us to recall public attention to their merits and characteristic types. "I am persuaded that a review would amply succeed even now, which should be started upon a published code of principles, critical, moral, political, and religious; which should announce what sort of books it would review, namely, works of literature as contradistinguished from all that offspring of the press, which in the present age supplies food for the craving caused by the extended ability of reading without any correspondent education of the mind, and which formerly was done by conversation; and which should really give a fair account of what the author intended to do, and in his own words, if possible; and in addition afford one or two fair specimens of the execution,-itself never descending for one moment to any personality. It should also be provided before the commencement with a dozen powerful articles upon 6 fundamental topics, to appear in succession. By such a plan I raised the sale of the 'Morning Post' from an inconsiderable number to 7,000 a day, in the course of one year. You see the great reviewers are now ashamed of reviewing works in the old style, and have taken up essay writing instead. Hence arose such publications as the Literary Gazette,' which are set up for the purpose-not a useless one-of advertising new books of all sorts for the circulating libraries. A mean between the two extremes still remains to be taken. I profoundly revere Blanco White; his 'Doblado's Letters' are exquisite; but his 'Review' was commenced without a single apparent principle to direct it, and with the absurd disclaimer of certain public topics of discussion." -Table Talk, vol. i. It was with a conviction that such a review as is here recommended would probably command and certainly merit success, that the CHURCH OF ENGLAND QUARTERLY REVIEW was projected. Our first number can leave our readers in no doubt as to what are our principles on all the four mentioned points. No man had a greater right to dictate in such a cause than Mr. Coleridge, seeing that all his writings, whether truly or falsely, are devoted to the inculcation of principles, and of little else. In reviewing these extraordinary productions, our path is not altogether clear of difficulties; it is really not an every-day task that we undertake; and few indeed are the critics who have been tolerably competent to the office. Nor are the difficulties only of a literary nature, but they involve questions both of temporal and eternal interest, delivered in a mode exceedingly liable to misapprehension, and connected with grounds of argument exceedingly obscure, as well from the abstruseness of the subject as the unprepared state of the reader's mind. Few have been educated to think like Coleridge; and .to many of us his eloquence, whether oral or written, has been like that of the prophet of old "To men on earth his was a lovely strain, Of one who sweetly sang, and deftly played, And it is true that much of what he wrote was in an alien tongue, and he was liable to the censure of having too much Germanized his intellect; so that his modes of conceiving and expressing were strange-were passing strange-though subtle as the wisdom of the serpent, and sweet as the music to which the deaf adder shutteth her ear. Again, his works are not so much compositions as effusions; they are types of his mental moods and the stages of development to which he had attained. They are not therefore to be depended on, as giving the ultimate conclusions of his mind on any topic; but only as declaring the light to which he had arrived at the time of writing. Hence some of his labours, such as The Watchman, must be spoken of as productions which he had outgrown; nor does this remark apply |