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Australemve oram, aut Boreæ longè ultima regna,
Hic etiam stirpem ejectam, sparsosque Penates,
Et Solymam pœnis fœcundam in sæcula novit :

Nec, dum sanctorum meminit præsagia Vatum,
Expletamque fidem recolit, monitusque tremendos,
Hæc putat esse vices Fortunæ, et ludicra Fata,
Sed certo Cœli arbitrio videt omnia verti
Regnantem agnoscens constanti lege Jehovam.

THOMAS HOLDEN ORMEROD,
E COLL. Nov. 1818.

ENGLISH PRIZE POEM.

THE COLISEUM.

RECORD of empire past, of splendor fled,
Colossal emblem of the mighty dead!
How deeply solemn at this midnight hour
To view thy relics of departed pow'r !

And mark, 'mid skies serene, the Moon's pale beam

Through rents of ruin cast its tranquil gleam!

While Rome's dread Genius walks the hallow'd ground,
And breathes the soul of Inspiration round.

Here rifted arches, nodding to their fall,

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In triple circuit lift the pillar'd wall:
Though spoil'd by rapine of their binding brass,
Self-poised they hang-an uncemented mass:
Here ruin'd piles their rugged front display-
Commingling strife of grandeur and decay!—
Huge corridors, where sculpture breathes no more,
But rank weeds cluster on the mould'ring floor-
Deep cavern'd vaults, where tuneless night-birds dwell,
Or lurks the bandit-in the Lion's cell.

No more slow-widening with proportion'd size,
Tier above tier, those circling seats arise;

Whence erst, 'mid shouting throngs, Imperial Pride
Look'd down unpitying-while her children died-
What time the white-rob'd Vestal's stern command
Bade hero ruffians lift the hireling hand:

-

1 Tous les trous que l'on voit ont été faits dans le bas âge, pour exstraire les crampons de bronze, qui liaient les pierres ensemble.V. Vasi Marien Romain.

Proud wreck of guilty Majesty, declare

Where now thy pomp? thy crowding Myriads where?
All-all is past, and o'er the crumbling stone

Still Desolation rears her giant throne.

Yet nor barbaric sword, nor bigot rage,
Nor the slow canker of corroding Age;
But thine own Romans marr'd the grand design,-
Hew'd princely Fabrics from thy plunder'd mine;'
With Felon hand, defac'd thy form sublime,

2

And tam'd that boast, which dar'd the waste of time.-
Nor yet had spar'd thee-but her wand of peace
Religion wav'd, and bade the ravage cease;
Bade the meek Cross its guardian influence shed,
And rear'd her altars where her Champions bled.
Yes-awful Pile, declare to latest time
How join'd the reign of Glory and of Crime!
Still with that rugged form, that front severe,
Tell lost Italia what her Fathers were.
Awe-struck I scan thy massive bulk, and see
Majestic Rome's epitome in thee:

Her daring Grandeur, cast in Mountain mould-
Her pond'rous wreck, that speaks the Great of old;
For thou, like her, canst mock Oblivion's sway,
Proud in thy fall,triumphant in decay!

June 3, 1818.

THOMAS HOLDEN ORMEROD,

NEW COLLege.

DUPORT'S GREEK PRAYER BOOK.

A new edition of this curious work has just appeared in a very neat and well-executed reprint. The exactness of the copy thus presented, is injured as far as I have observed, by one thing only: the names for 1818, King George, Queen Charlotte, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are inserted instead of the original names for 1665, King Charles, Queen Catherine, the King's mother Queen Mary, and James Duke of York.

On this book being first announced as in the press, the following advertisement was subjoined to recommend it. "The old edition has been long out of print, and, from its scarcity, has become expensive: the importance of a reprint will be the better felt, when we consider that the work has, of late years, become a favorite book at the examinations of candidates for holy orders."

'The Farnese and other palaces were built from the Coliseum. V. Eustace. Many Christian Martyrs were devoured by wild beasts on the Arena.

2

On the encouragement of this hint, I speak; and suggest a few remarks-out of many which occur for the direction of young clergymen to the right understanding and right reading also of some important passages in the Liturgy.

1. In the Exhortation, it is not meant, that we ought most chiefly to confess our sins to God, merely WHEN we assemble and meet together, though some clergymen still read it so; but-when we assemble and meet together for the purpose of returning thanks, giving praise, hearing the word, and asking things needful for our bodies and souls.

Duport translates accordingly

ὅταν συνερχώμεθα ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ συνειλεγμένοι ὦμεν διὰ τὸ χάριν αὐτῷ ἀπονέμειν κ. τ. λ.

2. In the Nicene Creed, these sentences-" God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God," are usually read like the wellknown verses of Pope,

"Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,

Re-judge his justice, be the God of God."

That is, Be thou to God what he has hitherto been to his rational creatures, the judge and the king.

The original Greek shows the meaning and marks the emphasis at once, even without the context:

φῶς ΕΚ φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ΕΚ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ

3. The Curate catechising may understand the following answer. Is it usually understood by the catechumen?

"I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof."

The English is not hard to understand aright, but it is difficult to pronounce so; unless with some addition like the following,sign of grace given unto us, a sign ordained by Christ himself, &c."

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In sentences of such a kind, if the Latin is much superior to the English for perspicuity, the Greek is superior even to the Latin. Hear the Greek Professor ! τὸ ἐκτὸς καὶ ὁρατὸν τῆς ἔσω καὶ πνευματικῆς χάριτος ἡμῖν δοθείσης σημεῖον, τὸ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ διαταχθὲν κ. τ. λ.

15 July, 1818.

SIDNEYENSIS.

LETTERS ON THE ANCIENT BRITISH

LANGUAGE OF CORNWALL.

No. II. [Continued from No. XXXIV. p. 452.]
LETTER III.

HEBREW.

THE difficulty of comparison decreases, as we ascend from the Phenician to an investigation of the Hebrew, as far as it appears connected with the Cornish. The result, however, is not favorable for those who are fond of derivations, and would wish to prove a connexion between the two nations at some remote period.. The dispersion of mankind so altered languages, that all our present discoveries can amount to no more than a few fragments of words and expressions, which may indeed afford us a strong internal evidence of a common origin, but which at the same time disclaim the possibility of much former intercourse. Among nearly 7,000 words, of which Dr. Borlase's Vocabulary is composed, I have not been able to recognise more than about 20 Hebrew roots, though I have examined it carefully; and of these I am aware that several are of a disputable nature. It is possible that some future inquirer may be more fortunate, and that some words may have escaped me. Still I may be confident that these cannot be numerous. It is remarkable, that though so many of the Hebrew tenses and nouns begin with the servile letters and Л, that I have found no words under those very letters in Cornish. I am willing to grant the fullest allowances for the disguise and corruption of words; but this is so important a circumstance, that I must pronounce the two languages to be unconnected and radically different.

It may, however, be asked, by what means even these few Hebrew words were originally incorporated with the Cornish? They must be either some of those few primitives which escaped from the general confusion at Babel; or else they were introduced among the Cornish during the progress of commercial intercourse. It may perhaps have been owing to each of these causes; some of the appellatives are expressive of objects for which even the rudest

people must necessarily have names; others may have been acquired by commerce, especially of objects unknown to the natives at the period of the general dispersion. History does not leave us room to suppose, that the Israelites ever traded to Britain; but from their vicinity and alliances with the Phenicians, the Hebrew words which have been introduced in the Cornish, must have been derived through the medium of the latter, who undoubtedly traded long in Cornwall, but the extent of whose commerce seems to have been exaggerated by the antiquarian, and to have been implicitly re-echoed by the unlearned, because it flattered their national prejudices.

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It is singular, that the Hebrew for tin is neither of Phenician, Greek, nor Cornish derivation, but a primitive, 7, which was probably applied to the substance, from an allusion to the manner of procuring that metal. It is well known that the ancient workings for tin were stream works, in which, as at this day, the metallic particles were separated from the gravel, and collected by washing. Is it then fanciful to suppose, that the Hebrews would prefer to give it a name from this circumstance, rather than a foreign appellation of difficult pronunciation? They had already done so with respect to silver and lead, p2 from phe desired, and by from by dust. na brass, most probably took its name from Un, a serpent, the color and brightness of whose scales it resembled. This appears a strong confirmation that in the third of Genesis, can mean nothing else than a serpent; nor is there any other animal that could have given its name so properly to brass, or brass to it. Mr. Weld mentions, in his Travels, that there is a copper snake in the United States. We have also a parallel instance of a modern commodity, which has lost its real name for one more appropriate to its nature, like the above

TT

for tin. Anil is an Arabic word for indigo, and is still retained by its more ancient cultivators the Spanish and Portuguese; while

From, he separated.

2 Thus we have ǎpyupov from pyos, white. Ezekiel mentions all the metals, gold excepted, chap. xxii. 20.

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