years. "God is slow to anger, and of great mercy." "Judgment is his strange work." Amidst the universal apostacy one man found favour in the sight of the Lord. Noah was upright in his generation, and Noah walked with God. To him God gave a further intimation of his intention to destroy the world. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold I will destroy them with the earth." Another circumstance is here stated; the earth itself had become the unwitting instrument of man's wickedness, and had even become corrupt through it; and God declares his intention to destroy it with its inhabitants. The command to prepare the ark immediately followed, and the destruction by a flood of water was foretold. Whether ships had ever then been built, or the art of navigation was at all known; and whether, if this were the case, the structure of the ark bore a general resemblance to the shipping of the age, are questions not easily to be determined. If Noah was previously ignorant of the art of sailing, and the building of ships, his prompt and universal and persevering obedience to the divine directions was the more remarkable, and his faith in God the more striking and eminent. For " Noah did according to all that God commanded him," and this from principle of faith; as Paul says, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things unseen as yet, moved with fear, prepared the ark for the saving of his family."

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The means of safety to be provided is called an ark. This name is given also and only to the vessel of bulrushes, in which Moses

was placed. It signifies a hollow thing; not, it is presumed, an open receptacle, but a strictlyclosed, shut-up, coffer or trunk ; and the notion of a trunk most accurately suits its use; an infant might be safely inclosed in a trunk, and a trunk would float safely on the waters. It was to be made of gopher wood, probably cypress; and it was to be smeared within and without with pitch, (bitumen) to keep out the water. "On the subject of filling the interstices between the timbers with the bitumen, it is curious enough that a patent should, a few years ago, have been obtained in this country, in favour of a principle, the practice of which is as old Noah!" In its external form, the ark was an oblong building, more resembling a house than a ship. The length of it was six times the breadth, and ten times the height; and the roof was raised or arched a cubit above the sides, so that it was nearly flat. The door was

as

set in the side of it, and a window, or transparency, or opening for the admission of light, was provided, probably, near the eaves, and the whole length of the building, except where the upright of the sides intercepted it in their way to the roof. The internal structure is not so easy to arrange. There were to be three stories above what might be termed the hold of the vessel, besides which, there would be the attic or garret in the roof; so that in the whole there were five compartments, which were probably divided into rooms, in order to furnish all the necessary conveniences for a year's residence. The hold of the vessel might be applied to fresh water, a large supply of which would be required. The next division, or first floor, might serve for a kind of

To the Editors.-A'r the conclusion of your very kind and flattering notice of my edition of Dr. Van Wynpersse's essay upon the Divinity of Christ, you were pleased to express your anxiety for the appearance of a translation of the Elementary Hebrew Grammar of Dr. Gesenius, which I had announced as preparing for publication. I think it due to your politeness and kindness to inform you that I have ultimately relinquished that design, owing to my having been anticipated by the republication, in this country, under the auspices of Professor Pusey, of Oxford, of the Hebrew Grammar of Mr. Stuart, of Andover, U. S., which is in a great measure translation of that of Gesenius. It would be folly in me, therefore, to put my translation to press; at the same time, I am unwilling that my labour should be all lost, and I accordingly propose, with your permission, to insert in the pages of your Magazine, from time to time, such extracts from that work as shall appear most likely to interest the literary portion of your readers. I am not without hopes that even in this imperfect and detached manner I may be able to advance, in some degree, the cause, (generally too little regarded,) of Hebrew literature.

Blackburn.

I am yours, truly,

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W. L. ALEXANDER.

No. I.

Introductory Remarks on the Semitic

Dialects in general.

1. The Hebrew constitutes only one member of an extensive fa

mily of languages and nations of Hither-Asia, which, originating in Palestine, diffused itself through Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Arabia, and Ethiopia. These languages have been commonly denominated, by pre-eminence, Oriental; or, (since that is too general) Semitic, most of these nations having sprung from Sem or Shem.Gen. x. 21. et seq.

2. These kindred dialects are closely related to each other, like those of the German stock, (viz. High Dutch, Low Dutch, Hollandish, Danish, Swedish,) or those of the Slavonic, (viz. Wendian, Polish, Russ,) and branch out into three great divisions ;-the Aramaic, comprising Syriac, (or Western-Aramaïc,) and Chaldee (or Eastern-Aramaïc); the Hebrew, with which the slender remnants of the Phoenician accord; the Arabic and Ethiopic. Between the Aramaic and Hebrew stands the Samaritan; of these dialects the majority is now extinct, or survives only in very inconsiderable districts. The Arabic, however, may be considered one of the most widely diffused of known languages.

3. This whole class of languages has a character and grammatical structure very different from those of the western tongues. Among its peculiarities may be reckoned a copiousness of gutturals, the derivation of almost all the parts of speech from the verb,-which latter generally consists of three consonants, the paucity of forms for the tenses of the verb, in connection with the prevailing analogy of the verba derivata, or (so called) conjugations, the construction of

the genitive in regimine, &c.* The Semitic writings also have the peculiarities of being read from right to left, the (Ethiopic excepted,) and of writing only the consonants in the line, while the vowels are denoted by points and small strokes placed over or under it, though to those well skilled in the language even these are superfluous.

Obs.—All the methods of writing employed by the Semitic tribes, however dissimilar from each other they may appear, have proceeded in various directions from the Pho. nician, as from a common mother; as is also the case with the alphabets of the western nations.

4. From this it is very evident how useful, and, for every one who would go back to first principles, how indispensable is a comparative study of these dialects. From the Arabic, especially, the etymologist will reap great advantage, as it is not only the richest of these dialects, but one of the most copious of known languages, and is used in a multitude of works still extant. The Aramaic, however, comes somewhat nearer to the Hebrew, and ought not, consequently, to be postponed to it.

Of the Hebrew in particular. 1. In the Hebrew we have banded down to us the oldest specimens of language which we possess from antiquity. This is the case, even if none of the works written in it, now extant, could, in their present state, claim an antiquity higher than the age of David or Solomon +

* These peculiarities of the Semitic dialects, as exemplified in the Hebrew, will be illustrated in the course of the present series of extracts.

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My readers are, no doubt, aware of Gesenius's unhappy attachment to the false and mischievous doctrines of Antisupernaturalism at present so much in

2. In their oldest writings, also, we find the language as copious and in as high a state of cultivation as it ever attained; whilst we have no sources of information as to its early history and progress. It is, nevertheless, highly probable that it originated in the land of Canaan, and was, with a few differences, the language of the Canaanitic and Phoenician races, by which Palestine was inhabited prior to the emigration of the family of Abraham; and that, having been adopted by them, it was carried by them into Egypt, and again brought back with them to Canaan.

pro

The facts which render this bable are, 1st. The accordance of several fragments of Canaanitish and Phoenician (preserved inscriptions, coins, and occasionally, in ancient writings,) with the Hebrew; 2dly, The Canaanitish names of persons and places, which a superficial etymology has referred to the Hebrew; and, 3dly, The occurrence of certain peculiarities of expression in both tongues, e. g. the sea, for the west. Moreover, in scripture, the language is called the language of Canaan. Is. xix. 18.

Vogue among the literati of Germany; and in the text, the cloven foot peeping will perceive, in the insinuation contained through the disguise of candour and impartiality. The theory hinted at, and which is more fully avowed by the author afterwards, seems too absurd to require serious refutation. After all, one can hardly wonder that Gesenius should not be startled at the absurdity of supposing that a fraud so gross could have been passed upon the Jews of the time of David, as must have been the case if they received for the writings of Moses the compilations of men of their own day, when he saw absurdities no less glaring, and fancies no less ridiculous, expounded by philosophers and divines, and eagerly accredited by multitudes in his own country. A.

of the manner in which that work has been executed, and hopes for their approbation.

In the first place, according to the in structions he received, the folio edition of 1611, that of 1701, published under the direction of Bishop Lloyd, and two Cambridge editions of a late date, one in quarto, the other in octavo, have been carefully collated, whereby many errors that were found in former editions have been corrected, and the text reformed to such a standard of purity, as, it is presumed, is not to be met with in any other edition hitherto extant.

The punctuation has been carefully attended to, not only with a view to pre serve the true sense, but also to unifor

mity as far as was possible.

Frequent recourse has been had to the Hebrew and Greek originals; and as on other occasions, so with a special regard to the words not expressed in the original language; but which our translators have thought fit to insert in italics, in order to make out the sense after the English idiom, or to preserve the connexion.

large corrections in this particular in an And though Dr. Paris made edition published at Cambridge, there still remained many necessary alterations, which escaped the Doctor's notice; in rely on his own judgment singly, but making which the Editor chose not to submitted them all to the previous examination of the Select Committee, and particularly of the Principal of Hertford College, and Mr. Professor Wheeler. A list of the above alterations was intended to have been given in to the ViceChancellor at this time, but the Editor has not yet found time to make it comhave been made in the heads, or conpletely out. Considerable alterations tents prefixed to the chapters, as will appear on inspection; and though the Editor is unwilling to enlarge upon the labour bestowed by himself in this particular, he cannot avoid taking notice of the peculiar obligations which both himself and the public lie under to the Principal of Hertford College, Mr. Griffith of Pembroke College, Mr. Wheeler, Poetry Professor, and the late Warden of New College, so long as he lived to bear a part in it; who, with a prodigious expense of time, and inexpressible fatigue to themselves, judiciously corrected and improved the rude and imperfect draughts of the Editor.