pleasure is received, is a duty of which I hope never to reproach myself with the final neglect.

I therefore now return you thanks for the notice which I have received from you, and which I consider as giving to my name not only more bulk, but more weight-not only as extending its superficies, but as encreasing its value.

Your book was evidently wanted, and will, I hope, find its way into the schools, to which, however, I do not mean to confine it; for no man has so much skill in ancient rites and practices as not to want it.

As I suppose myself to owe part of your kindness to my excellent friend Doctor Patten, he has, likewise, a just claim to my acknow ledgments, which I hope you, Sir, will transmit.

There will soon appear a new edition of my Poetical Biography. If you will accept of a copy to keep me in mind, be pleased to let me know how it may be conveniently conveyed to you. ↑ The present is small, but it is given with good-will, by,

You have under your hands something of Mr. Wotton, whilst he has been so kind as to offer me his help in looking over the typographical and other faults escaped in the last impression of the Silva, which I am most earnestly call'd upon to reprint. The copy, which I frankly gave about 30 years since to Allestry, is now in the hands of Chiswell and your namesake Mr. Bentley, (Booksellers), who have sold off three impressions, and are now impatient for the fourth and it having been no unprofitable copy to them, I had promised some considerable improvements to it, upon condition of

:

letting Ben: Tooke (for whom I have a particular kindnesse) into a share. This, tho' with reluctancy, they at last consented to. I will endeavour to render it with advantage, and have ambition enough to wish, that since it is a Folio, & of so popular and usefull a subject as has procured it some reputation, it might have the honor to beare the character of Dr. Bentley's new Imprimerie, which, I presume, the proprietors will be as prowd of as my selfe. To the reproch of Place, who made so many difficulties about my Booke of Architecture, as you well know, I have however made very considerable additions to that Treatise, as far as concernes my part, & meane to dedicate it to Sr Christopher Wren, his Maties Surveyor & Intendent of his Buildings, as I did the other part to Sr J. Denham his predecessor, but infinitely inferior to his Successor. I confesse I am foolishly fond of these & other rustications, which had ben my sweete diuersions during the dayes of destruction and devastation both of Woods and Buildings, whilst the Rebellion lasted so long in this Nation: and the kind receptions my Bookes have found makes me the more willing to give them my last hand: sorry in the meane time for all my other aberrations in pretending to meddle with things beyond my Talent et extra oleo: but enough of this.

THO' I made hast out of town, and had so little time to spend after we parted, I was yet resolv'd not to neglect the province which I undertook, as far as I had any interest in Sr Ed: Seymour, whom I found at his house, & had full scope of discourse with. I told him I came not to petition the revival of an old title, or the unsettlement of an estate, so often of late interrupting our late Parliaments, but to fix and settle a publiq benefit that would be of greate and universal good & glory to the whole nation. This (with y1 paper) he very kindly and obligingly receiv'd, & that he would contribute all the assistance that lay in his power, whenever it should come to the house. To send you notice of this, I thought might be much more acceptable to you than to acquaint you that we are full of company, & already enter'd into a most dissolute course of eating and indulging, according to the mode of antient English hospitality; by which meanes I shall now & then have opportunity of recom'end ing the noble designe you are intent upon, and therefore wish I had

The New Library to be built in St. James's Park.

some more of the printed proposals to disperse. Sr Cyril Wyche, who accompanied me hither, is altogether transported with it, and thinks the project so discreetly contriv'd, that it cannot miscarry. Here is D Fuller with his spouse. The D' gave us a sermon this morning in an elegant and trim discourse on the 39. Psalm, which I find had ben prepar'd for the court, & fitter for that audience than our poore country churches. After this you will not expect much intelligence from hence, tho' I shall every day long to heare of ye progresse you make in this glorious enterprize, to which I augure all successe and prosperity, and am

Worthy Dry &c.

Wotton, 25 Dec. 1697.

Translation of a Passage in Tacitus, by the late Mr. PITT.

A GENTLEMAN once observed in the presence of Mr. Pitt, that Murphy had totally failed in his translation of a beautiful passage in the Dialogue on Oratory; but that he did not himself see how the words could in English be expressed as concisely as in the original. "Magna eloquentia, sicut flamma, materia alitur, motibus excitatur, et urendo clarescit." "Oh! yes;" said Mr. Pitt, "I would translate them thus: It is with great eloquence as with a flame. It requires fuel to feed it, motion to excite it, and it brightens as it burns."

On a peculiar Signification of the words δέμας and σώμα.

IN consequence of being at present engaged in translating into. English the Commentaries of Proclus on the Timæus of Plato, and meeting in page 99 with the following Orphic line,

Τῶν πάντων δὲ δέμας εἶχεν ἐνὶ γαστέρι κοίλῃ,

it occurred to me that Aristotle, also, in the second Book of his Meteors, uses the word oua in precisely the same sense in which it is used in the above verse. For in the Orphic line, it signifies the whole: Jupiter, or the Demiurgus, of whom Orpheus is here speaking, being supposed to contain the whole of all things in himself causally prior to the production of the universe. Hence, as Proclus well observes, the Demiurgus is all things intellectually, but the world sensibly. Aristotle, likewise, speaking of the sea, says, ǹ μèv οὖν αἰτία ἡ ποιήσασα τοὺς πρότερον οἴεσθαι τὴν θάλατταν ἀρχὴν εἶναι καὶ σῶμα τοῦ παντὸς ὕδατος, ἥδ ̓ ἐστί. δόξειε γὰρ ἂν εὔλογον εἶναι σῶμα τοῦ παντὸς ὕδατος καθάπερ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων στοιχείων ἐστὶν ἠθροισμένος ὄγκος,

καὶ ἀρχὴ διὰ τὸ πλῆθος. Here it is evident that by the body of all water, Aristotle means the whole of water, or, in Platonic language, the dorms of it. It is evident, also, that according to Aristotle, each of the other elements is a whole, or, as he calls it, pooμévos yxos, a collected mass or bulk, as well as water. And this is perfectly conformable to the doctrine of Plato, in the Timæus, that the universe is ὅλον ἐξ ὅλων ἁπάντων. But the several wholes of which the universe consists are, the spheres of the stars, and the spheres of the elements. Each of these wholes, too, both according to Plato and Aristotle, is perpetual.

THOMAS TAYLOR.

NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE HEBREW.

I have been requested, through the medium of your useful publication, to reconcile the expression of the Prophet Elisha with truth. See 2 Kings viii. 10. And Elisha said unto him, Go say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit, the Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. We are told by infidel writers "Let the advocates for the Bible read this passage, and blush for the man-for the prophet of God, who here declares a falsehood, unequivocally." It certainly is much to be lamented, that for so many ages this most incongruous passage should have been retained, as so formidable a prop to infidelity. During all the revisions which have been made of the sacred scriptures, in all Christian nations, this, among hundreds of the same description, is. retained. Surely it is absolutely necessary, for the sake of harmony and good order, that all Christian governments should attend to these important things. Surely it is their duty to aid the cause of individuals, who devote their time, talents, and strength, to works of this nature. And I must say, in justice to him who sways the destinies of the British empire, that I hope others will follow his liberal example for the encouragement of a work which is intended to enable (particularly the clergy) to stop the torrent of abuse which infidels pour out against the sacred Volume.

If I read this passage in the original Hebrew, I cannot find any thing to reconcile-I can only find fault with the translators in all the Christian ages; and it is a very unpleasant thing to find fault: I have been very liberally abused for so doing; but then it has been by those who know nothing of the Hebrew language, and still assert, that the common version was translated from Hebrew, or rather revised, in the time of James; on which account, and because such writers will not sign their articles for fear of exposure, I have omitted sending many articles for your in

sertion.

-which liter וַיֹּאמֶר עָלָיו אֱלִישָׁע לֵךְ אֱמָר־לֹא-In this verse Iread

ally reads-Then Elisha said to him, Go, say NOT. Here the reader will see that the translators have left out the negative lo. The passage reads like every other passage in the Divine original, Then Elisha said to him, Go, say not, Thou shalt certainly recover, for Jehovah hath shewed me that dying, he shall die. The repetition of the verb in Hebrew, viz. the participle, and the third person future of the verb, is very proper-dying, meaning that he was dying at that time; and therefore the Prophet said without any equivocation-He shall die. He could not err, because he received his information in the usual way, from the mercy-seat above the Cherubim.

I have said, that no national translation has been made from the original Hebrew, for near 1700 years-and such passages as this will confirm my words. J. BELLAMY.

Literary Intelligence.

LATELY PUBLISHED.

The Third Part of Professor Wolf's Analecta Litteraria, is just published, the Table of Contents of which we subjoin:

1. De anacoluthis apud Ciceronem, A. Matthiæ. 2. Conjecturæ de locis nonnullis Achillis Tatii, Xenophontis Ephesii, Callistrati, aliorum, F. I. 3. De substantivis in as exeuntibus, C. A. Lobeck. 4. Miscella critica in aliquot loca Scriptorum veterum, A. by E. H. Barker; B. by G. Hermann; C. by T. F. Boissonade; D. by Wolf. 5. In Pollucis Onom. iv, 19. de Theatri Græci partibus, impr. de parasceniis et hyposceniis, G. E. Groddeck. 6. Anfang der Odyssee, mit Anmerkk, W. 7. Die neu aufgefundenen Æginetischen Bildwerke, Hirt. 8. Explication du système métrique de Héron d'Alexandrie et détermination de ses rapports avec les autres mesures de longueur des anciens, Le Cte de Fortia d'Urban. 9. Diogenes Laertius und der Engländer Burley, J. G. Schneider. 10. Thom. Reinesii Eponymologicum, C. G. Müller. 11. Notitia codd. Venetorum Hesiodi, in qua Trincavellianæ edit. fontes ostenduntur, B. Kordes. 12. Melanthonis Vitæ Lutheri ejusdemque in eundem Orationis funebris editionum recensus, B. K. 13. Supplementa Litteraria, E. H. - Barker, W., J. Fr. Boissonade. 14. Die einzige Porson'sche Ausgabe des Eschylus in kl. 8., W. 15, Casaubonus oder Casaubonus? 16. Ehrenbezeigung Ludwigs XIV. an Thom. Reinesius, M. 17. Les Grecs d'aujourd'hui. 18. Etwas Griechisch von Chr. Thomasius. 19. Die bekannte Cæsura podica.'

1 We shall take a future opportunity of gratifying our readers with Extracts from that important work. ED.