language whatever. The three quiefcent vowels with their feveral canons may at first startle and perplex the learner,— Hoc opus, hic labor,but they may be mastered by time and industry. And tho' the attaining what is called a perfect knowledge of it may be attended with fome trouble and difficulty, yet that should not deter us entirely from applying ourselves to the study of it.

In magnis voluiffe fat eft.

Every one cannot expect to be a fecond Pococke. Enough: may easily be attained to illuftrate and explain the Hebrew: and he has little pretenfions to the name of a scholar, who will not be at fome pains to acquire that character.

Far be that character from thofe, who thro' the affectation of mere polite learning despise others, who think it worth their while to employ themselves in these ftudies. To such cenfurers one may answer in the words of the learned Reland. An ergo nulla eft utilitas linguæ Arabicæ, ut multi opinantur? Non, dicam. Ergo ftultiffimi fuerunt illi viri, qui ei addifcendæ & promovendæ tam fedulam navarunt operam Pocockius, Bochartus, Erpenius, Golius, Hottingerus et alii.

Many of the ancient Latin and Greek authors, which are loft to us, are preferved in the books and libraries of the Arabians. Several of our medicinal and chemical terms, as Elixir, Syrup, Rob, Julap, and others, together with that common expreffion Adept, are derivable from the fame words in Arabick. *

The copioufnefs of this language is another no fmall recommendation of it, one word being often fo full and expreffive as to denote a whole fentence. But it would exceed the bounds of our Mifcellany to enlarge upon every favourable circumftance.

* Vide Hunt de Antiquitate, &c. Linguæ Arabica.

We

We of this Univerfity have the greatest encouragement to encite in us a love for this ftudy. We have the benefit of a moft learned Profeffor to apply to, who is as willing as he is able to inftruct us. We have befides the advantage of a noble collection of Arabick books and manuscripts given us by our great patron and benefactor Archbishop Laud and

others.

I fhall conclude with those well known words of Dr. Pococke.

Meritò vobis commendatum reddat linguæ Arabicæ ftudium vel unus hic ejus ufus, quo Hebraicæ tam feliciter ancillatur. Quàm latè pateat per totam humanioris literaturæ Encyclopædiam ejus ufus, fatebuntur multi, qui quid ullâ ex parte Theologiæ ftudiofis conferat, planè dubitant. Ego verò, fi quid fentiam, Theologo adeò utilem exiftimo, ut fi textum Hebraicum aliquando penitiùs excutere necessarium ducat, eâ fine manifefto veritatis præjudicio, ne dicam difpendio, carere non poffit.

OxON. February, 1750.

***

RELIGION the Bafis of TRUE HONOUR.

HON

ONOUR, like Happiness, tho' univerfally difcourfed of, has never yet been justly defined. It is a kind of Chameleon, which affumes a different colour in different fituations. In a woman it is chastity, and in a foldier valour. While we endeavour to ascertain its properties, it rises in a new shape: we are going perhaps to draw its picture from the heart of an hero, and it catches our eyes in the delicacy of a Clariffa: till at last wearied with obferving its operations thro' fo many characters, we give up the pursuit without ever lofing fight of the game.

own it

I an arduous undertaking to attempt fixing this volatile fpirit; to venture upon a fubject where fo many have

been

been bewildered; and to attempt in an effay the nature of a science which is the darling of the polite and gay, and has been long an ænigma to the learned and contemplative.

-

How much fhall I difappoint the men of gallantry withqut reafon, of daring without courage, of nice punctilio without common, decency, the women of exactness in their play-debts without charity to their neighbours, and all the other votaries of falfe HONOUR, when I prefume, to, affirm, that the principle of true HONOUR is -RELIGION.

When HONOUR is established upon this foundation, it strikes its root into the very centre, and extends its branches to heaven. Its ornaments are intrinfically valuable, and its effential properties lovely and engaging. The folid exce!→ lencies of virtue are adorned with all the graces that affability and true politenefs can beftow; and thofe graces of affability and politeness are confirmed and made durable by the more important excellencies of virtue.

To prove that real HONOUR has its rife from Religion, we need only confider those points in which the nicety of it is allowed to be more particularly confpicuous: and if these are all naturally contained in RELIGION when improved to their highest perfection, it must neceffarily follow, that RELIGION certainly comprehends, HONOUR in its moft refined ftate; or in other words, that HONOUR is then most real and illuftrious, when it has RELIGION for its bafis.

Among the efforts of HONOUR there is none more univerfally admired than the noble fortitude of the. hero, who maintains his poft against the united force and artifice of his enemy; who prefers his character of intrepidity to the preservation of his life; and tho' many opportunities might offer of retaining the one by abandoning the other, chufes rather to fall valiantly in the station where his military duty has, placed him, than to lengthen out a life without glory, and gradually fall into oblivion, even fooner than into his grave.. Such a behaviour is undoubtedly brave: it has HONOUR for

its conftituënt, and justly exalts the name of the person who an exert it.

But how mean does even this behaviour appear, when laid in the fcale against the refolved and uniform Chriftian, firm against perfecution, wary against temptation, and fuperiour to contempt who maintains the poft his Creator has given him, not against men, spears, chariots, and horses, not against human policy and perishable weapons, (for these are scarce worthy of being mentioned as important circumstances in his warfare) but against thrones, dominations, and powers; against a vicious world, and the legions led forth by the prince of darkness; against lufts and paffions, against pleasures more formidable than danger, and more infinuating than the wiles of the most refined statesman. How much greater is his Fortitude, how much more exalted his principles of Honour.

Is it juftly believed that HONOUR is amiably and nobly exerted, when the innocent and beautiful virgin preferves by unfhaken resolution the native innocence of her heart; when neither perfuafion nor deceit, neither force nor negligence can influence her to violate the unfpotted temple of her bofom ?-More, much more justly should that principle of RELIGION be applauded, which preserves that original purity of the foul in which she delights; which flourifhes against more than a lover or a ravisher; against every corrupt inclination, against the depraved appetites which nature herself implants; against even the appearances of vice and which is itself the parent and caufe of every virtue which the defends.

Is APICIUS efteemed a man of frict HONOUR, becaufe he is punctual to his promises; because he is fcrupulous in paying his debts, and rigorously just in discharging the duties of his ftation?-The pious man certainly has a much greater flaim to that character in fo diligently acting the part he owes to creation, and in the moft refined fenfe paying his debts to nature, while he confiders that the univerfe has a

2

claim

claim to the industry of each individual, and that he was fent into the world to advance the felicity of it.

The duke DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT calls HONOUR the good sense of pride. But it furely is giving it a much higher encomium to say it is the picture of RELIGION; a tranfcript of her excellencies without her name äffixed, and whose value is alone derived from its resemblance to that original; a beam of her light which will penetrate into hearts not purified enough to imbibe all her rays; a polish which prepares the human breast for reflecting her power more ftrongly when it shall be more enlarged. That HONOUR in a word is a well cut jewel which exhibits different dyes, but all beautiful, in different pofitions; but that RELIGION is the fun which gives every one of them its colour and radiancy.

New Experiments concerning the TORPEDO

SIR,

THE

To the STUDENT:

HE various and contradictory accounts, which authors have given of the Torpedo or Cramp-Fish, induce me to fend you a faithful defcription of this animal, with the wonderful effects it has on human bodies: I had an opportunity of trying the experiments at Surinam, a colony once belonging to the English, but exchanged with the Dutch fome years fince for New York, fituated in South America about fix degrees north latitude:

IN

N the month of January 1745, I arrived at Surinam, being fent for by his Excellency Mr. J. J. MAURICIUS from Barbadoes; his lady and himself at that time labouring under a disorder, which required my affiftance as a furgeon

NUNB. II.

G

in