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sufficient to occasion the popularity and success of a dramatic piece, founded on the mania, and performed at the Neapolitan theatre. To this, succeeded the system of Heinermann, which was practised here by one of his pupils of the name of Necker. But now, every thing is beaten off the field by mustard seed. Mr. Turner (who is making a crusade, not to plant the cross on the walls of Jerusalem, but to plant mustard-seed in the ⚫ stomachs of all the inhabitants of the globe,) has been here also. He would persuade us, that there is now no longer any occasion for disease or suffering; all the evils of life are at an ⚫ end, and we have only to live on in peace and quiet to the ex⚫tremest old age, without pain and without anxiety. We have ' nothing to do but to take mustard seed !'-And let the man, we would say to the angry pamphleteer above referred to, go on in the undisturbed enjoyment of his visits and his visions; it will do himself good, and many others good also, without an equivalent harm; and when this tub for the whale of public ennui shall be sunk or shall have floated away, let another and another be thrown out to keep excitation alive. This self-same mustard seed is, indeed, no actual novelty; we remember it being in fashion some thirty years since, though the quia caret vate of that period might have hindered its then being so very far famed as it has now become.

It is like every thing else, good in its place, and bad out of its place; and we do not know that we can express ourselves in better terms about it, than by quoting the words of Dr. James Johnson, which, in our judgement, contain a much more correct account of the matter than the following smell-fungus expressions of the enraged B. when speaking of mustard-seed partizans.

Already have they had the impious hardihood to advertize their calling" a blessing to mankind;" and if aught can beget the genuine feeling of contempt, and make that feeling amount to indignation even, it is surely to be pardoned when we see our religion prostituted to so base a purpose.'

The white mustard seed,' says Dr. J.,' has lately attracted considerable attention, and I have known a great number of dyspeptic invalids take it-some with advantage, others without much effect, and in a very few instances it appeared to do harm. It certainly is not calculated for a very irritable state of the gastric and intestinal nerves, since all spicy or hot aromatic substances are injurious in such cases. It is where the bowels are very torpid, the appetite bad, and the whole system languid and sluggish, that the white mustard seed promises to be serviceable. If it keep the bowels open, and produce no unpleasant feeling in the stomach, alimentary canal, or nervous system, it may be taken with safety. If it do not produce

an aperient operation, it can do little good, and may, perchance dø mischief.'

It may be expected, before we finally close the present disquisition, that we engage in an estimate of the respective and comparative merit belonging to the several writers that have now passed before us in review. But the necessity of this somewhat ungracious task has been superseded by our extracts, All the productions, we have pleasure in stating, manifest acquirement and talent; and if they are all likewise occasionally prosing and common-place, the fault, as we have before intimated, lies with the subject rather than the author. Perhaps we might object in the gross to publications of this kind, on the score of their having an ad captandum appearance, but even this, to a certain extent, may be pardoned in works, the writers of which have professionally and professedly to think of themselves while they are preparing for the public.

Before we conclude, we would further just intimate, that originality is often supposed and assumed on the part of experimenters and speculatists without a foundation in fact. In the Anniversary Oration delivered before the Medical Society of London* a few weeks since, it was said, that a careful comparison of the physiology of the ancients with that at present received on the hackneyed subject of assimilation, will fail to detect much that is really new.' This may be stretching a correct principle a little too far; but it deserves to be well considered, whether a change in terminology always implies an advance in knowledge. Even actual facts are often served up again and again, under the feeling, on the part of their exhibiters, that they are calling public attention to absolute novelty; and when Dr. Philip presented to his readers those experiments and deductions to which we referred in the first part of these papers as curious and interesting, we verily believe him to have been as ignorant as we ourselves were at the time we summoned attention to them, that they had been clearly, and to the letter, anticipated. In giving, then, the following quotation, let it be understood, that we are far from wishing to prefer the charge of plagiary against our ingenious and able author. We merely point out to the reader, what has been but very recently pointed out to us, as an absolute counterpart of Dr. Philip's announcements; and it will be received as a striking instance in confirmation of the correctness and necessity of our present strictures.

*By Mr. Kingdon.

The work from which we quote, is on the Duodenum, and bears the date 1715.

In stomacho, præviâ masticatione in ore & præparatione ciborum, in diversis animalibus diversâ, succus interioris tunicæ obvenit, ex parietibus ventriculi undique exsudans, quem tempore cibationis, dum complectitur assumpta arctiùs stomachus copiosius exprimi & influere probabilitate non caret. Qui quidem succus ingestorum massam & superficiem primo exteriorem lambendo dissolvit corticatim & successivè; adeo ut exterior ejus portio, quam primò contingit glandularum stomachalium succus jam liquescere videatur, manente interiori mole integra & intactâ: id quod successivè abhinc dum contingit, tota moles ciborum solvitur & in liquamen convertitur: ita tamen, ut, quæ circa superius orificium stomachi versantur, minùs solventis menstrui efficaciam experta; contra quæ circa fundum ejus seu pylorum inveniuntur, jam in liquamen chylosum conversa deprehendantur.

'Quæ dum fiunt, succus eliquatus constrictione fibrarum muscularium stomachi, tanquam manu exprimitur in intestinum duodenum, dum interea nova massæ alimentariæ superficies nondum soluta occurrit, quæ simili ratione perfusa ac irrigata menstruo ventriculi corticatim & lamellatim dissolvitur, usque dum tota massa alimentaria virtute & efficacia hujus menstrui soluta & concoctio ventriculi ritè peracta sit. Quæ quidem vel oculis usurpavi in hominibus decollatis, antè supplicium pastis; in canibus, in piscibus præsertim & avibus, quæ integra nonnunquam animalia deglutire solent.'

Art. III. 1. A Greek and English Lexicon: originally a Scripture Lexicon, and now adapted to the Greek Classics; with a Greek Grammar prefixed. By Greville Ewing, Minister of the Gospel, Glasgow. Large 8vo. pp. 1150. in double columns. Price 11.4s. Glasgow and London. 1827.

2. A New Greek and English Lexicon; principally on the Plan of the Greek and German Lexicon of Schneider: the Words alphabetically arranged; distinguishing such as are Poetical, of Dialectic Variety, or peculiar to certain Writers and Classes of Writers; with Examples, literally translated, selected from the Classical Writers. By James Donnegan, M.D. Large 8vo. pp. 1152, in triple columns. Price 11. 11s. 6d. London. 1826.

3. The Tyro's Greek and English Lexicon; or a Compendium in English of the celebrated Lexicons of Damm, Sturze, Schleusner, and Schweighäuser: comprehending a Concise, yet Full and Accurate Explanation of all the Words occurring in those Works which, for their Superior Purity and Elegance, are read in Schools and Colleges. With an Analysis of the more difficult and irregular Words. By John Jones, LL. D. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 772. in double columns. Price 11. 1s. London. 1826.

THE

HE increase of attention to Classical and Biblical Literature which has shewn itself in our country within the last

thirty years, is not less astonishing than gratifying. This is put out of doubt, by the number and the superior execution of editions of the Greek and Roman authors, which have flowed from the London presses and those of the Universities; by the variety and the infinitely improved character of Grammars and other subsidiary works; (justice requires us to mention particularly those of Mr. Charles Bradley, Mr. Bosworth, and the Valpys;) not like the paltry things of the Clarkes and Stirlings of a past generation, temptations to idleness, and frauds upon learning, but admirably calculated to give tone as well as stimulation to the minds of youth, to fix in them the habits of solid judgement, and to inspire them with a taste for the unsophisticated beauties of composition; and, finally, in a degree not less striking, by the republication or the original composition of Lexicographical works which possess the highest merit. Who would have thought, thirty years ago, that we should live to see the Herculean THESAURUS of Henry Stephens issuing with ample additions from a London press? Or that three new editions of Scapula would be effected in our country, enriched with signal improvements, and adorned with an accuracy and a beauty at which the Elzevirs might turn pale ?

It is certain that the English, German, and other languages descended from the Teutonic, are more ready and perfect vehicles for conveying the meaning of the Greek, whether in single words or in composition, than is the Latin tongue. On the other hand, the advantages of universal conveniency and of maintaining the familiar use of Latin, are exceedingly important, and may well lead us to hesitate at concurring in the wish to substitute vernacular Lexicons and Grammars for those by which we and our fathers were trained. It would be a serious calamity, if Roman studies should be sacrificed to Grecian. If ever an accomplished Greek scholar should be produced, who possessed but a mediocrity of Latin erudition, such a man would be the first to bewail bitterly his defect. Upon this question, however, we are not now allowed to have a choice. The custom of construing Greek into Latin is almost exploded in our schools; and, it must be confessed, with no small gain to the progress and pleasure of the learner. Vernacular Lexicons have been the slowly growing but inevitable consequence of this revolution; and the general merit of those works, apart from their language, places them so much above Schrevelius, and even Hederic, that we are compelled to give them our suffrage.

Professor Schneider of Breslau, who died about a year ago, published an excellent Greek and German Lexicon, of which

we have the third much enlarged and improved edition, in two closely printed quarto volumes, 1819.

There were, we believe, some previous attempts to construct an English-Greek Lexicon, but they were obscure and abortive, before Parkhurst's valuable work for the Greek Testament, of which the first edition was published about fifty years ago. Its size and plan rendered it unsuitable for school use, and fit only to answer its avowed end of aiding theological and biblical studies. We suppose that Mr. Ewing was the first, in our own time, to compose a small and cheap Grammar and Lexicon to the Greek New Testament, for the use of persons unacquainted with Latin, or engaged in business, but who laudibly desire the satisfaction of examining, with increased facility, the oracles of God in the language in which they were de⚫livered to men.' This volume met with deserved approbation, and was extremely useful, although,' (says the excellent Author,) 'the Grammar was far too concise, and the Lexicon was little more than a Vocabulary.' A still smaller work of this kind appeared in 1821, in a very neat pocket volume, by Mr. J. H. Bass; intitled " A Greek and English Manual Lexicon "to the New Testament."*

After a few years, Mr. Ewing enlarged his work to an octavo volume, by amplifying the prefixed Grammar, by increasing the information under the individual articles, and by inserting the words of the Septuagint and the Apocrypha. The most important words were illustrated at considerable length, presenting not a few valuable contributions to Scripture Criticism. The silly affectation of horror at the Apocrypha which some rash zealots and ignorant persons have endeavoured of late to propagate, will not deter a student, if he be possessed of good sense, from deriving stores of philological benefit from those ancient and often excellent, though not sacred, writings. Having thus touched this subject, we trust to our readers' indulgence for introducing a passage from a work too little known in England; the Preface of the celebrated John David Michaelis to his New Version, with large Annotations, of the First Book of Maccabees, which alone of the Apocryphal Books he judged proper to connect with his "Translation of "the Bible, with Notes for the Unlearned," in twenty-four small quarto volumes, published at Gottingen, through the years 1770 to 1790, and the concluding parts only a short time before the Author's death. The astonishing attainments of Michaelis in Oriental literature, and in every branch of

* See Eclectic Review, N. S. Vol. XVI. p. 563.