Cardinal Wiseman's works

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TWELVE LECTURES

ON THE

CONNECTION BETWEEN SCIENCE

AND

REVEALED RELIGION.

DELIVERED IN ROME, BY

CARDINAL WISEMAN".

VOL. II.

Science should be dedicated to the service of religion."

GULISTAN, viii.

NEW YORK:
I*. O'SHKA, FTJBLISHKR,

27 BARCLAY STREET.

1872.

CONTENTS.

VOL. II.

LECTURE VII.

PAGE

ON EARLY HISTORY 1

LECTURE VIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 52

LECTURE IX.

ON ARCHAEOLOGY 101

LECTURE X.
ON ORIENTAL LITERATURE 147

LECTURE XI.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 213

LECTURE XII.
CONCLUSION. ..... . 261

LECTURE THE SEVENTH;

ON

EARLY HISTORY.

PART I.

CONNECTION of this subject with the preceding. — INDIANS:
Exaggerated ideas regarding their Antiquity. — Their
Astronomy. Bailly's attempt to prove its extraordinary
antiquity. Confutation by Delambre and Montucla.
Researches of Davis and Bentley. Opinions of Schaubach,
Laplace, and others. — Chronology. Researches of Sir
W. Jones, Wilfort, and Hamilton. Attempts of Heeren to
fix the commencement of Indian History. Discoveries of
Colonel Tod.— OTHER ASIATIC NATIONS. Latest re
searches into the early history of the Armenians, Georg
ians, and Chinese.

AFTER having thus ascertained, as far as we
may, when was first constructed and adorned this
theatre, upon which have been acted all the great
scenes of human life, it may seem superfluous to
interrogate those who have trod its stage, how
long it is since they commenced their varied
drama of war and peace, of barbarism and civil
ization, of rude vices and of simple virtues.
For, in Nature, whom we have hitherto consulted,
there is no pride, no desire, and no power, to
represent herself other than in reality she is.
VOL. ii. — i.

2 LECTUKE THE SEVPJNTH.

But if we ask the oldest nations when they
sprang up, and when they first entered on the
career of their social existence, there arise in
stantly, in the way of a candid reply, a multitude
of petty ambitions, jealousies, and prejudices;
and there intervenes between us and the truth
a mist of ignorance, wilful or traditional, which
involves the inquiry both in mystery and per
plexity, and leaves us to find our way by the aid
of the most uncertain elements, with the constant
danger of most serious error.

There have been, moreover, learned and acute
investigators, who, having peculiar ends to gain in
their researches, have allowed themselves to be
borne away by these representations, — have ad
mitted as history wrhat was only mythological
fable, — have calculated upon dates which were
the purest fiction, — and, not granting to the
Jewish books the authority which they allowed to
the Indian Yedas, or the Egyptian lists of kings,
have most inconsistently condemned our sacred
records, because they imagined, at first sight,
that they agreed not with those of other nations.
Fortunately, however, we have discovered methods
which they knew not ; we have learned to cross-
question nations in their early history; we have
accustomed ourselves to pore, with lawyer-like
skill, over worn-out documents, till we have made
out their value, or detected their flaws : we have
lost the relish for sarcastic disquisition, that levity
in examination which could give a witticism the

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 6

force of an argument, and have learnt to love a
sober and solemn mood in every office of science,
— to prefer the real to the brilliant, — fact to
theory, — and patient, plodding comparison to
vague analogies.

The preference to which I have alluded, as
given by learned and able men, to any document
discovered in distant lands, over those which
Christianity received from the Jewish people, is
assuredly one of those many facts which, com
bined, establish a strange phenomenon of the hu
man mind, the extravagant love of the wonderful
in all that is out of our reach, and the desire of
disparaging that which we possess. I have at
home an Arabic manuscript, professing to give,
among other very miscellaneous matter, an account
of the principal cities of the w^orld ; and, of course,
Rome could not be well excluded from the number.
But, alas ! not the charmed city of the wildest
romance, not the fabulous splendor of the eastern
Irani, not the dreamy imaginings of the most vis
ionary Utopian, ever were planned with such a
noble contempt of the possibilities of human wealth,
as this sober representation of the Eternal City ! It
is described as a city of some sixty or eighty miles
in length, through which flows the majestic river
called the Romulus, over which are several hundred
bridges of brass, so constructed that they may be
removed upon the approach of an enemy ; the gates
of the city are numerous, and all of the same ma
terials ; a minute description is given of the dimen-

4: LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

sions and riches of many churches, among which,
unluckily, St. Peter's is omitted ; and the author has
been careful to note how many gates of brass, and
how many of silver ; how many columns of marble,
how many of silver, or of gold, each of them con
tains. Strangely absurd as this may seem, it is but
a faint parallel of what well-educated Europeans
have indulged in, when first describing the histori
cal and scientific wealth of eastern nations, then
comparatively but little known among us. There
were to be found astronomical processes of the most
refined character, requiring observations at epochs
incalculably remote one from the other ; there were
periods or cycles of time, necessarily framed when
the state of the heavens was countless ages younger
than at present ; there were books manifestly writ
ten many thousand years before the West gave any
signs of human life ; there were monuments obvi
ously erected ages before the desolating flood is
said to have swept over the face of the earth ;
there, in fine, were long lists of kings, and even of
dynasties, well attested in the annals of nations,
which must reach back far beyond the epoch as
signed, in the comparatively modern books of
Moses, to the creation of the world !

And now, what has become of all these won
ders ? Why, you, who have seen, can transmute
the Arab's fancies into their vulgar realities, the
mighty Eomulus into the yellow Tiber, the brazen
gates into wooden portals, the gold and silver into
stone and marble ; and you have perhaps trotted

LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

round the huge city in your morning ride. And
so I trust will you be able to treat the no less base
less visions of philosophical romance ; after we shall
have visited, to-day and at our next meeting, the
countries where all those scientific and literary
marvels were said to exist, you will, I trust, be con
vinced, that those are but as other lands, confined
like ourselves within reasonable limits of duration ;
that the stream of their traditions bears down with
it its due proportion of rubbish and defilement ;
that the precious materials, wrhereof their monu
ments and temples were said to be composed, are
but the ordinary substance of w^hich all things
human must consist. But in both cases the truly
valuable has been overlooked. The Arab was not
refined enough to understand the treasures of art
which we here possess, and wThich are far more val
uable than gates of silv;er, or pillars of gold ; and
the vain philosophers of the last century were too
blind, or rather blinded, to examine the real wealth
which the East was opening to their industry, in
the confirmation of primeval truths, in the illustra
tion of holier pursuits, and in the field of ethno
graphical and moral knowledge which it affords.

Opposed, however, to what I have said on the
tendency of men to despise what they hold in the
hand, and to exaggerate what is far removed, are
the very objects of which I am going to treat.
For, while among us there seems to be this strange
propensity ; while any discovery at variance with
Scripture is eagerly seized upon by many, — of

6 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

which we shall have yet plenty of examples, if the
past lectures have not given enough — while there
is an unnatural value set upon anything brought to
light which seems to clash with some assertion of
the sacred text ; the nations of the East so jealously
cling to their sacred books, and so pertinaciously
reject every fact which may prove them wrong ;
the Chinese, and the Indians, and the ancient Egyp
tians, have been ever so attached to the unerring
accuracy of their respective records, that we must
seek some other explanation than a natural cause
for the ease wherewith ours are so often abandoned.
Nay, I believe, that had the book of Moses not
been preserved by Christianity, but discovered for
the first time among the Jews of China, or by Dr.
Buchanan among those of Malabar,* they would
have been received as a treasure of historical and
philosophical knowledge by those who have, under
the present circumstances, slighted and blasphemed
them.

It is not my intention, of course, to go over the
ground, which has been completely drained of its
interest by older writers, such as the antiquity of
the Chaldeans or Assyrians, and the objections
drawn in former times from the fragments of Bero
BUS or Sanconiathon. They belong to the class of
mere dry chronology, without a particle of histori
cal interest, — they have been exhausted by many
popular writers, — and they may be said to have

* Where copies of the Pentateuch were really found.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 7

been abandoned by the school which used to give
them some value. I will, therefore, at once pro
ceed to a country the early history of which pos
sesses much stronger claims to our attention, and
will afford a strong illustration of the principle 1
have chiefly in view, through this course of lec
tures.

The peninsula of India should seem to be the
field especially delivered by Providence to the culti
vation of our countrymen, and ought certainly to
possess a peculiar interest for us. Nor could any
thing have happened more opportunely for the
wrants of the human mind, than the discovery
of its literary wealth. The taste of Europe, which
the political and religious convulsions of the six
teenth, and seventeenth centuries had driven to
seek delight and food in the recollections of ancient
classical lore, had almost begun to pall with the
sweet but unvaried repast ; the stream of newly-
discovered authors, which for a time flowed from
the young press, had ceased its refreshing supplies ;
every manuscript had been collated, every accent
adjusted, every debatable letter made the theme of
learned essays ; we longed, if possible, for some
thing quite original, and able to rouse and stimu
late our languishing appetite. Arabia and Persia
had been tried in vain. Mohammedanism sat as
an incubus on all their religious literature — their
exquisite poetry was too sensuous to satisfy the
intellectual demands of European refinement, and
their history was too limited, too modern, and too

8 LECTUJRE THE SEVENTH.

well known from its connections with our own to
excite any powerful interest. Whatever our antici
pations of India may have been, they have been
more than surpassed. We appear, on a sudden,
introducd to the very fountains of ancient phil
osophy, to the laboratories of those various opin
ions which formed the schools of the West ; to the
nursery of our race, where the first accents of our
language are preserved in their simplest forms ; to
the very oracle or sanctuary of all ancient hea
then worship, — to the innermost chamber of all
mystic lore and symbolical religion. Here every
thing bears the stamp of aboriginal freshness and
simplicity ; and we feel that whether we examine
the philosophical meditations of its sages, or the
early and mythological annals of its history, we
are perusing the results of native genius, and
the uninterpolated records of national traditions.

But we must not allow our feelings to carry us
too far, nor allow ourselves to be dazzled by the
novelty of the scene, to an exaggeration of its real
beauties. As well might the naturalist, upon wit
nessing the gigantic growth of the African or Amer
ican forests, compared with the pigmy stature of
our trees, calculate that, if the oak has required its
hundreds of years to reach its strength, they must
have been rooted for thousands in the soil, as the
philosopher conclude, that so many ages must have
been requisite to give to the systems of science
which we there find their consistency and consol
idation, anterior to the appearance of philosophy

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. V

in the West. There are other elements to be
calculated besides time ; there is, in the one in
stance, the succulent vigor of the soil, and the ri
pening energies of the climate ; and, in the other,
the complex action of physical and moral influ
ences caused by an early settlement in a congenial
country, by the fortunate preservation of earliest
recollections, and a peaceful state amid objects
which draw the mind to contemplation.

I fear I have allowed my thoughts to ramble
from reflection to reflection, without sufficient re
gard to the more important and substantial enter
tainment w^hich you require at my hand; and I
therefore proceed at once to my task. I have not
to consider the Indians to-day in reference to their
literature, but only to their history. And this I
will divide into two parts. First, I will trace the
history of inquiry into the antiquity of their scien
tific knowledge, particularly their astronomy ; for
this has been one of the most alarming topics in
the hands of men hostile to religion. Then I will
trace for you a brief sketch of the researches made
into their annals, and the success experienced
in unravelling the perplexities of their political
history.

The first man of any reputation in science, who
gave an unnatural antiquity to the astronomical
discoveries of the Hindoos, was the unfortunate
Bailly. During his life he possessed, at least
among less profound mathematicians, a very bril
liant reputation ; but he was infected with all the

10 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

defects of his time, — a love of bold and startling
hypothesis, splendidly supported by ingenious and
diversified arguments. " It was not for learned
men that he wrote," says Delambre ; " he aspired
to a more extensive reputation. He yielded to the
pleasure of entering into the lists with Voltaire ;
he revived the old romance of the Atlantis ; he had
a good many readers, and that ruined him. The
success of his first paradox led him to create others.
He devised his extinct nation, and his astronomy
perfected in mythological times ; he made every-
thing bear upon this favorite idea ; and was not
very scrupulous in his choice of means to give color
to his hypothesis."* In his History of Ancient
Astronomy, he started the theory here alluded to.
By analyzing the astronomical formulas of the Hin
doos, as far as known through the imperfect com
munications of Le Gentil, he concluded that they
must be based upon actual observations, but that
the present state and character of the Indians will
not allow us to consider them their original discov
eries. He consequently treats the actual astronomy
of that country as only fragments and wrecks of an
earlier and far more perfect science; and adding
to these -conjectures others of another class, based
upon surmises, allegories, and obscure hints, he
brings out his celebrated theory, that a nation,
which has long disappeared from the world, existed
many ages ago, in the North of Asia, from which

* " Astronomie du Moyen Age." Par. 1809, p. xxxiv.

LECTl'KE THE SEVENTH. 11

all the learning of the southern peninsula was de
rived. The Indians, he says, formed, in his opin
ion, a fully constituted nation from the year 3553
before Christ ; and this is the reduced date of their
dynasties. It is astonishing, he adds in another
place, to find among the Brahmans astronomical
tables which are five or six thousand years old.* I
will give you one specimen of his reasoning in
favor of the northern origin of astronomy. The
Chinese have a temple dedicated, it is said, to the
northern stars ; and it is called " the palace of the
great light." It contains no statue, but only an
embroidered drapery, on which is inscribed, " To
the spirit of the god Petou." The Petous are, he
says, according to Magelhaens, the stars of the
north. " But may not this temple be dedicated to
the aurora ~borealis? It would appear that the
name of ' palace of the great light J would suggest
that conjecture. Why should they have made a
divinity of the northern stars, rather than of those
of any other quarter ? They have nothing re
markable, whereas the phenomena of the aurora
borealis, those crowns, those rays, those streams of
light, appear to have something in them quite di
vine." This conjecture is then confirmed by another
of M. de Mairan, that Olympus was the seat of the
Grecian gods, because that mountain was particu
larly seen surrounded by the northern lights. But
then the aurora borealis is not at all remarkable in

* " Histoire de 1'Astronomie ancienne.'
107, 115.

12 LECTUEE THE SEVENTH.

China ; for in thirty-two years, Father Parennin
never saw anything worthy of the name. " We
therefore see," thus he concludes, "in this species
of worship, rendered to the northern lights, and to
the stars of the north " (here the two objects before
exchanged are artfully united), "a very strong
trace of the superstition of an earlier period, and
of the anterior seat of the Chinese in a more north
ern climate, where the phenomenon of the aurora
borealis, being more extended and more frequent,
must have made a more lively impression ! "*

Is this science, or is it romance ? is it history
or vision ? Even Voltaire, with all his love for the
new and the rash, could not stomach this creation
of a new people, and this attribution of the origin
of astronomy, which all the world thought must
have required bright skies and mild climates, to
the country of almost perpetual snows and hazy
mountains; and he addressed to Bailly several
letters; written with all that levity of tone, and
carelessness about the truth or falsehood of the
matter, which characterizes all his works. He
merely seems anxious not to give up the Brah-
mans, whom he had taken under his especial pro
tection, or sacrifice his own favorite theories on
the historical antiquity of the Indians. " Nothing
ever came out to us from Scythia," he writes,
" except tigers who have eaten up our lambs.
Some of these tigers, it is true, have been a little

* P. 101.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 13

astronomical, when they have gained leisure, after
sacking India. But are we to suppose that these
tigers came forth from their lairs, with quadrants
and astrolabes? . . . "Who ever heard of any
Greek philosopher going to seek science in the
country of Gog and Magog ? "* In his answers,
Bailly enters fully into the explanation and
grounds of his theory. It is, I must own, almost
nauseous to read the terms of fulsome compliment
in which he addresses the superficial master of
infidelity. " The Brahmans," he replies to these
observations, u would be indeed proud, if they
knew they possessed such an apologist. More
enlightened than they can ever have been, you
possess the reputation which they enjoyed in an
tiquity. Men go now to Ferney as they used to
Benares ; but Pythagoras would have been better
instructed by you ; for the Tacitus, the Euripides,
and the Homer of the age, is by himself worth all
that ancient academy.'1 — " If the immortal songs
of the Grecian bard no longer existed," he writes
in another place, "M. de Voltaire, after having
described the combats and triumphs of the
good Henry, would have conceived how Homer
wrote the Iliad, and deserved his fame."f But,
passing over these disgusting flatteries, I need
only say that, in this work, Bailly sums up and
presents in a more popular form the arguments

* " Lettres sur 1'Origine des Sciences." Lond. and Par.
1777, p. 6.

\ Pp. 16—207.

14 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

produced in his more scientific work in favor
of his primeval people, source of all human
science.

Still, he was not contented ; and he undertook
the more formidable task of verifying mathemat
ically the Indian calculations, and reducing to the
test of rigid formulas the astronomical processes
and results contained in the statements of travel
lers and missionaries. It would be foreign to my
plan, and could hardly be interesting to you, to
follow him step by step in this toilsome under
taking. I will content myself, therefore, with
giving you a slight idea of his method and results.

Three sets of astronomical tables had been
made known in Europe ; one of these was mani
festly borrowed from another of the number, and
therefore Bailly excludes it. The other two pro
fess to have different dates, the one 1491 of our
era, the other 3102 before it. Bailly proceeds to
establish that it was exceedingly improbable that
the Indians borrowed their date from other nations,
because in their methods they differ essentially
from them. He concludes that both the periods
must have been fixed by actual observation ; in
asmuch as the account given of the heavens at
each is accurate. The places of the sun and moon
are given, for the early period, with a correctness
that could not be obtained by calculating from our
best tables ; there is mention of a conjunction of
all the planets, and the tables of Cassini prove
that such a conjunction occurred about that period,

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 15

though Venus was not in the number.* All these
particulars, which I have very unscientifically
stated, are apparently established by rigid calcula
tion through the course of his work.

Such was the specious theory of this unfortu
nate man. In his earlier work he had imagined
the scientific researches of his extinct nation to be
antediluvian, and supposed the Indians, Chaldees,
and others, to be the races who inherited the
broken fragments of early science, after the great
catastrophe, f In this, however, no notice is taken
of that hypothesis, but the astronomy of India
is treated as an indigenous invention ; or, at least,
Bailly contents himself with attempting to demon
strate that the supposed date of that early observa
tion in India must be correct. It was not, how
ever, long before, among his own scientific coun
trymen, he found an adversary fully equal to the
task of confuting his romantic theory. Delambre,
in his History of Ancient Astronomy, was neces
sarily led to treat of the supposed observations of
the Hindoos ; and, without entering into any very
profound mathematical examination of the pro
cesses and formulas so extolled by his fellow-acade
mician, laid open, one by one, the inaccuracies
committed by him in the statement of the ques
tion, and his gratuitous assumption of the data on
which he conducted them. He shows that there

* "Traite de 1'Astronomie Indienne et Orientale." Par.
1787, pp. xx. segq.

f " Histoire de I'AstronomK1," p. 89.

16 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

is no ground on earth to admit the truth of the
supposed observations ; but approves of the solu
tions given by the English writers, of whom I
shall presently speak.*

We may, perhaps, allow that the tone in which
Delambre conducts his confutation of Bailly is not
such as would greatly delight an admirer of his
dreams. For throughout there is but little respect
shown to the science or to the character of that
philosopher ; not only the correctness of his mathe
matical inductions, but the fairness of his state
ments, is constantly called in question. It was in
our country that Bailly found a champion to un
dertake his defence. Between the epoch at which
Bailly wrote, and the time wrhen Delambre con
futed him, much important light, as I have hinted,
had been thrown on the question ; and the publi
cation of a valuable collection of Indian mathe
matical treatises by Mr. Colebrooke, gave an op
portunity to the Edinburgh Review to exalt the
antiquity of Hindoo science, and censure the con
duct of Delambre. The occasion, I think it must
be owned, was a strange one; for Colebrooke's
work affords strong presumptive grounds for sup
posing the comparatively modern origin of mathe
matics in India. For he gives us, in his valuable
Notes and Illustrations to his Preliminary Dis
course, a list furnished by the astronomers of

* " Histoire de 1'Astronomie ancienne." Par. 1817, pp.
400, seq.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 17

Ujjayaiii to Dr. Hunter, of their most celebrated
astronomical writers ; and the oldest of these is
Yaraha-Mihira, whom they place in the third cen
tury of the Christian era. But of him there is
nothing known ; whereas another astronomer of
the same name is very celebrated, and him Cole-
brooke shows to have lived, as is stated in Dr.
Hunter's table, about the latter end of the sixth
century. He quotes, it is true, more ancient
treatises, called the five Siddhantas ; but there is
time enough for these to have existed and become
old before his age, without arriving at any very
extraordinary antiquity.* In like manner, Brah-
megupta, one of the oldest mathematical writers
extant, some of whose treatises Mr. Colebrooke
published in this collection, cannot be considered
older than the seventh century ; nay, this sagacious
and critical orientalist, after showing the probabili
ties in favor of Aryabhatta's being the father and
founder of Hindoo algebra, proceeds to establish
his antiquity, and concludes that he flourished
" as far back as the fifth century of the Christian
era, and perhaps in an earlier age." He was thus
nearly contemporary with Diophantus ; though
Mr. Colebrooke thinks he was superior to the
Greek mathematician, in having methods of solv
ing complicated equations, which the other did

* " Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, from the
Sanscrit." Lond. 1817, pp. xxxiii., xlviii. But see Bentley's
"Historical View of the Hindoo Astronomy."
p. 167.

VOL. i IT. — 2

18 LECTUKE THE SEVENTH.

not possess.* These statements and acknowledg
ments of so competent a judge as Colebrooke,
could not have been well supposed to form a good
foundation for an assertion of the Hindoo claims
to great antiquity in astronomical renown. But
the reviewer, admitting all these facts, boldly as
serts that we must by no means consider Aryab-
hatta as the inventor of his methods, but admit
that many ages must have elapsed between their
first invention and his improvements. f Though
the writer confesses that Bailly was inaccurate,
from want of local knowledge, from too great con
fidence in his informers, and from the spirit of
system which carried him away, he still maintains
that not only is the originality of Hindoo science
quite vindicated by Mr. Colebrooke's publication,
but that all must now confess that science to be
only a wreck of what flourished in the Indian
peninsula wThen the Sanscrit was a living lan
guage, or perhaps, " some parent language, still
more ancient, sent forth those roots wrhich have
struck with more or less firmness into the dialects
of so many and so remote nations, both of the
East and of the West." ^ A conclusion which
would lead us back far beyond all reach of history,
and pretty nearly to wrhat Bailly would have
desired.

As the name of Delambre w^as mentioned some
what invidiously, with a charge of undue severity

* P. x. f " Edin. Rev." vol. xxix. p. 143. \ P. 163.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 19

upon the memory of his brother academician, the
learned astronomer lost no time in replying to the
reasonings, as well as the censure of the reviewer ;
and an opportunity was afforded him b;f the pub
lication of his work on the Astronomy of the
Middle Ages. In his preliminary discourse, he
examines in detail the different grounds for admi
ration proposed by the anonymous critic ; and con
cludes that, although the Indians may have now
been shown to have acquired a certain degree of
skill in solving algebraical problems more remark
able for their ingenuity than for their utility, noth
ing has been yet done to prove them possessed of
anything approaching to a correct and scientific
knowledge of astronomy.*

If I have dwelt at some length upon the opin
ions of Delambre, it would not be fair to omit
the concurrence in the same sentiments of another
celebrated historian of mathematical science, who
wrote too while his country was still more under
the influence of that philosophical school to which
Bailly had unfortunately attached himself. I al
lude to Montucla, who with the utmost impartiality
addresses himself to the task of examining the
grounds assigned by Bailly for the excessive antiq
uity of the Hindoo astronomy. He analyzes, for
instance, the great period of the Cali-Yuga, consist
ing of 4,320,000 years, and finds that if divided by

* " Histoire de 1'Astronomie du Moyen Age." Par. 1819,
p. xxxvii.

20 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

24,000, it gives as quotient 180 ; which gives rise
to a suspicion that this period is only the half of
another composing the product of 24,000 by 360.
Now, as the Arabs consider 24,000 years the term
in which the fixed stars, by their progressive move
ment, would make one complete revolution, it
would appear that, having borrowed this idea from
them, the Indians made their great period equiva
lent to a year of 360 days, the primitive length of
the year, each day of which consists of one com
plete revolution of the heavens. This he confirms
from similar calculations among the Arabs; and
this, among others, is a reason for his concluding
that, so far from Indian astronomy boasting such
wonderful antiquity as his ill-fated countryman had
imagined, it was borrowed from the inhabitants of
western Asia.*

But it is fair to turn to the labors of our coun
trymen in this branch of astronomical history. Mr.
Davis was the first, as Colebrooke has remarked, to
give an accurate account of Hindoo astronomy from
native treatises. Montucla had observed that the
Surra Siddhanta, an astronomical work supposed
to have been inspired, would be a precious acquisi
tion ; " but who," he adds, " will ever force these
mysterious men to communicate it ? "f It is pre
cisely from this very work that Mr. Davis drew
his materials ; and he states that he found no jeal-

* " Histoire des Matliematiques." Par. n. vii. torn. i. p.
439.

* P. 443.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 21

ousy on the part of the Brahmans in either commu
nicating the book, or assisting to explain it. The
object of his researches was merely to discover the
processes or formulas by which the Hindoos calcu
late their eclipses ; and thus far he may appear to
throw little or no light upon the subject of our in
quiry. But still it is manifest, from his prelimi
nary remarks, that he considers the remote periods
assumed by the Hindoos as the bases or points of
departure for their calculations, to have been as
sumed arbitrarily by a retrograde computation,
and not selected, as Bailly fancied, by actual obser
vation.*

Mr. Bentley, however, must be acknowledged to
have most earnestly and most successfully studied
this and other important works of Indian astrono
my, with a view to determine the true antiquity
of the science : and with his researches, which ex
tend over a long period of time, I shall close this
portion of my task. His first essay upon this sub
ject appeared in the sixth volume of the Asiatic
Researches. It may be divided into two parts. In
the first, he examines the astronomical methods
of the Indians, and shows how easily a European
unacquainted with them might fall into grievous
error in assigning their date. He then proceeds
to investigate the age of the Surya Siddhanta, to
which the Brahmans modestly give an age of sun
dry millions of years. " The most correct and cer-

* " Asiatic Researches." vol. ii. p. 228, ed. Calcutta.

22 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

tain mode of investigating the antiquity of Hindoo
astronomical works," he writes, " is by comparing
the positions and motions of the planets computed
from them, with those deduced from accurate Euro
pean tables. For it must be obvious, that every
astronomer, let the principle of his system be what
it will, whether real or artificial, must endeavor to
give the true position of the planets in his own
time ; or, at least, as near as he can, or the nature
of his system will permit ; otherwise his labor will
be totally useless. Therefore, having the positions
and motions of the sun, moon, and planets, at any
proposed instant of time, given by computation
from any original Hindoo system ; and having also
their positions and motions deduced from correct
European tables for the same instant ; we can from
them determine the points of time back, when
their respective positions were precisely the same
in both."* Mr. Bentley proceeds to apply this
simple rule. He takes his data, on the one side,
from the Indian treatise, and on the other from
Lalande's Tables ; and by finding the number of
years requisite to give the erroneous results deduci-
ble from the former, he discovers different periods
of 600, 700, and 800 years, as having elapsed from
the time it was composed. But not' so content,
Mr. Bentley gives strong reasons to conclude that
its author was Varaha, whose disciple, Sotanund,
is known to have lived about TOO years ago, a

* P. 5G4.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 23

period corresponding with the mean given by the
deductions from the Surya Siddhanta itself.*

The critical periodical, which I before men
tioned as having so earnestly defended Bailly's
fanciful theories, was thereby only following up
the views it had taken in its first number of Mr.
Bentley's labors. To the severe and studied
attack which it made upon the essay I have
quoted, he answered in a strong and clear manner,
in the eighth volume of the Researches yf but I
pass over this paper, because he has since given
a more enlarged and corrected, and far more valua
ble, explanation of his views ; and this I proceed
to mention. In the very year that Mr. Bentley
published his Historical View of the Hindoo
Astronomy, the learned Ideler complained at
Berlin that no one had as yet been found who
united together a competent knowledge of the
Sanscrit language and of astronomy.:): In this
instance, however, these two acquirements seem to
have been combined with that firmness of purpose
and eagerness of inquiry which were necessary
for directing them in their troublesome undertak
ing; and probably, the severity wherewith their
possessor had been treated for his first attempt,
nerved him to the task, and materially forwarded

* P. 573. This, however, has been denied by Mr. Cole-
brooke, in his " Algebra."

f Pp. 193 et seqq.

\ " Handbuch derMatliematischcn und Technischen Chro-
nologie." Berlin, 1825, vol. i. p. 5.

24 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

the researches which they were intended to im
pede.

In this work, Mr. Bentley, after a preface, in
which he confirms his former assertions regarding
the Surya Siddhanta by new calculations, treats
systematically of the different epochs into which
Hindoo astronomy may be divided. He estab
lishes eight distinct ages or periods in its history,
each of which he endeavors to define and fix by
astronomical data. The first operation in any
system of astronomy, must be the division of the
heavens; without which all astronomical deter
minations would be impracticable. The earliest
Indian division is into Lunar mansions, formerly
28, and now 27 in number. While history places
this operation at a period between 1528 and 1375
B. c., the astronomical data mentioned in conjunc
tion with it exactly coincide. For the place of
the equinoctial and solstitial points give the year
1426 B. c. ; and the singular mythology of the
operation, which states the planets to have been
born from different daughters of Daksha, when
reduced to the astronomical language of occul-
tations of the moon in the respective lunar man
sions, gives precisely the same period, 1425 B. c.*
Now, if this calculation is correct, we have un
doubtedly a date for the preliminary operation of
Hindoo astronomy, quite within the range of
probability. The next observation on record,
Mr. Bentley places in 1 181 before the Christian

* P. 4.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 25

era ; when the sun and moon were in conjunction,
and the astronomers found that the colures had
fallen back 3° 20' from their position at the
former observation. This consists of the giving
proper names to the months; the conditions of
which decide the period.

The next important era, which is decided by
the astronomical data it supposes, is the age of
Rama, whose exploits form the noblest theme of
Indian poetry. " The Ramayuna," or epic poem
which celebrates him, gives a minute description
of the heavens at his birth, and upon his reaching
his twenty-first year ; and the result is, that such
a state could only have occurred about 961 years
before Christ.* There is, too, I may remark, in
his history, a passage minutely corresponding
with the battle of the gods and giants in Greek
mythology.

I will not follow Mr. Bentley through the
later stages of his course ; because all that we can
possibly desire is gained in the first. It matters
little to us, that the Hindoos should place the
ages of their astronomers back in absurd an
tiquity ; that Garga and Parasara should be said
by them to have lived and written 3,100 years
before Christ; so long as it can be proved that
the science, in which they were manifestly profi
cients, did not commence its preliminary observa
tions till many centuries later. But it is just to
say, that the Vasishta Siddhanta, and the Surya
* P. 15.

26 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

Siddhanta, which the Hindoos used to date at
some million or two of years back, have been
brought down by his computations to the tenth
or eleventh century of the Christian era.

There is one Indian legend of considerable
importance, the age of which Mr Bentley en
deavors to decide by astronomical computation;
that is the story of Krishna, the Indian Apollo.
In native legends he is represented as an Avatar,
or incarnation of the Divinity ; at his birth, choirs
of Devatas sung hymns of praise, while shepherds
surrounded his cradle; it was necessary to con
ceal his birth from the tyrant Cansa, to whom it
had been foretold that the infant should destroy
him. The child escaped, with his parents, beyond
the coast of Yamouna. For a time he lived in
obscurity ; but then commenced a public life,
distinguished for prowess and beneficence; he
slew tyrants and protected the poor; he washed
the feet of the Brahmans, and preached the most
perfect doctrine ; but at length the power of his
enemies prevailed, he was nailed according to one
account, to a tree by an arrow, and foretold before
dying the miseries which would take place in the
Cali Yuga, or wicked age of the world, thirty-six
years after his death.* Can we be surprised that
the enemies of Christianity should have seized

* See this legend in Paulinus, a S. Bartholomaeo " Systema
Bralimanicum." Rome, 1802, pp. 146, seqq. Creuzer's " Re
ligions de 1'Antiquite," par Guigniaut, torn. i. Par. 1825
p. 205.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

27

upon this legend as containing the original of our
gospel history ? The names Christ and Krishna,
perverted by some of them into Kristna, were pro
nounced identical, and the numerous parallelisms
between their histories declared too clearly defined
to permit any doubt respecting their being one
and the same individual.* The ease with which
the first explorers of Indian letters allowed them
selves to be borne awTay by their enthusiasm, to
wards ascribing extravagant antiquity to every
thing they found, came in here to aid these bold
assertions. For Sir W. Jones, who was considered
an infallible authority in all such matters, and
whose judgment certainly deserves due consid
eration, had pronounced it quite certain "that
the name of Krishna, and the general outline of
his history, were long anterior to the life of our
Saviour, and probably to the time of Homer."
Hence, acknowledging the impossibility of so
many casual coincidences, in the two lives or his
tories, he conjectures that the points of minute
resemblance were engrafted, in later times, from
spurious gospels, upon the original legend.f Mau
rice, in like manner, admits its antiquity, and
meets its difficulties in a manner still less quali
fied to assist an adversary of Christianity by
considering it a remnant of an ancient, primeval
tradition, concerning the future coming of a re-

* Volney's " Ruins, or Meditations on the Revolutions of
Empires." Par. 1820, p. 267.

f " Asiatic Researches," vol. i. p. 273.

28 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

deemer, who was to be truly an Avatar, or incarna
tion of the Deity.*

Now, it is to the examination of the age when
this god-like hero lived, that Mr. Bentley has
applied astronomical calculation. For he dili
gently sought out, in the notices regarding him,
some data upon which to base an inquiry into the
era of his life ; and after finding all these too scanty,
though it was stated that the celebrated astron
omer Garga assisted at his birth, and described
the state of the heavens at that interesting moment,
he was fortunate enough to procure the Janam-
patra of Krishna, which contains the position of
the planets at the time of his birth. From
computation, grounded upon European tables,
reduced to the meridian of Ujein, it appears that
the heavens can only have been as there described
on the 7th of August, A.P. GOO.f Mr. Bentley
therefore concludes that this legend was an artful
imitation of Christianity, framed by the Brahmaris
for the express purpose of withholding the natives
from embracing the new religion, which had begun
to penetrate to the uttermost bounds of the East.

It may probably happen that many will not
agree with this writer in some of his opinions ;
and I must say that, without more positive proof,
I cannot go to the lengths he does upon many
particular points. But still, to his demonstration

* " History of Hindostan." Land. 1824, vol. ii. p. 225.
P. 111.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

of the modern date assignable to Indian observa
tions and Hindoo astronomical works, he. cer
tainly has the suffrages of the best modern mathe
maticians. Not to mention Delambre, who
considered his paper on the age of the Surya
Siddhanta as quite satisfactory, we have the
opinion of Schaubach, who maintains all the
knowledge possessed by the Hindoos, in astron
omy, to be derived from the Arabs, and, conse
quently, to belong rather to modern than to
ancient science.* Laplace, whose name will
surely be respected by every astronomer of
modern times, far beyond that of the overrated
Bailly, whose friend and warm admirer he was,
thus expresses himself upon this matter: "The
origin of astronomy in Persia and India is lost,
as among all other nations, in the darkness of their
ancient history. The Indian tables suppose a
very advanced state of astronomy; but there is
every reason to believe that they can claim no
very high antiquity. Herein I differ, with pain,
from an illustrious and unfortunate friend." This
expression clearly shows, that it was from no
leaning towards our cause that Laplace decided
against the claims of Sanscrit astronomy. After
these remarks, he proceeds to a detailed examina
tion of the point, which, I am sure, I have quite
often enough repeated, whether the observations

* In the Baron de Zach's " Monatliclie Correspondenz,"
Feb. and March, 1813.

30 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

placed by the Indian tables as bases for their cal
culations, 1,491 and 3,102 years before the Chris
tian era, were actually ever made ; and concludes
that they were not, and that the tables were not
grounded upon any true observation, because the
conjunctions which they suppose cannot have
taken place. " The same results," he concludes,
"are obtained from the mean motions assigned
by them to the moon, in reference to its perigee,
its nodes, and the sun ; which, being more accel
erated than they are according to Ptolemy, indi
cate that they are posterior to that astronomer-
For we know from the theory of universal gravi
tation, that these three movements have been
accelerated for a great number of years. Thus
the results of this theory, so important for lunar
astronomy, serve also to elucidate chronology."*
To these testimonies we may add that of Dr.
Maskelyne, personally communicated to Mr. Bent-
ley, f of Heeren,J Cuvier,§ and Klaproth, who
thus writes : " Les tables astronomiques des Hin-
dous, auxquelles on avait attribue une antiquite
prodigieuse, ont ete construites dans le septieme
siecle de Fere vulgaire, et ont ete posterieurement
reportees par des calculs a une epoqueanterieure."|

* " Exposition du Systeme du Monde," 6tli ed. BruxeUet,
1827, p. 427.

f Preface, p. xxv.

J "Ideen iiber die Politik, Handel, und Verkehr der alten
Volker," 4th ed. 1 Th. 3 Abtheil. p. 142.

§ Cuvier, " Discours prelim." 8vo. Par. 1825, p. 238.

| " Memoires relatif s a 1'Asie." Par. 1824, p. 397.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

31

After these confirmatory authorities, in addi
tion to the opinions of the older French mathema
ticians before cited, we may reasonably doubt
whether any other champion will arise to defend
the excessive antiquity of Indian astronomical
science. It will be difficult, at any rate, to rein
state its pretensions in such a position as shall
threaten a conflict with the Mosaic chronology.
There are other branches of Indian learning, which
must appear to you deserving of equal investiga
tion, such as the age of the sacred and philoso
phical writings, to which such absurd antiquity
was attributed by some men a few years back ; but
as it is my intention, in pursuance of my promise,
to dedicate a special discourse to Oriental Litera
ture, I shall reserve to it what appears to me most
important on this head. I will, therefore, pass
from the astronomy to the history of the Indians,
and see if it can, any more than the other, pretend
to rival in age the records of the Pentateuch.

It was, indeed, only to be expected that the
national ambition, which led to extravagance in
fixing an epoch for the rise of science, should have
suggested a corresponding remoteness of time for
the governments under which it flourished. One
fiction necessarily supposed the other ; and when
Oriental nations set about giving a mythological
era to their origin and early history, they do not
stop at trifles, or allow themselves to be restrained
by the European rule of attending to probabilities.
A million of years are as soon invented as a thou-

32 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

sand ; very few kings are required to fill them with
their reigns, if you give them a gross of centuries
apiece ; and your readers will believe it all, if you
can only get them over the first step, that of be
lieving the kings to have been descendants of the
sun and moon, or some such unearthly progenitors.
We cannot indeed help pitying those who have
been deceived into the belief of such absurdities ;
but I think we must also be inclined to extend our
compassion to those who first attempted to analyze
the mass of fable presented to us by Indian history,
and to separate the few grains of truth which lay
concealed in this Augean confusion.

Sir W. Jones led the way in this, as in most
branches of Indian research. He took, for the
groundwork of his inquiries, the genealogical lists
of kings, extracted from the Puranas, by the Pun
dit Khadacanta ; and sat down to the task of
unravelling their history, with a determination
not to be swayed by any consideration, however
sacred, towards an unfair decision. " Attached,"
he writes, " to no system, and as much disposed
to reject the Mosaic history, if it be proved erro
neous, as to believe it, if it be confirmed by sound
reasoning, from indubitable evidence, I proceed to
lay before you a concise account of Indian chron
ology, extracted from Sanscrit books." * He soon,
however, discovered that he had to deal with the
high-born races before alluded to, which claimed

* " On the Chronology of the Hindoos." — Asiatic Re
searches, vol. ii. p. 11.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 33

exemption from all the laws which limit the dura
tion of mortal dynasties. Yet, nothing daunted
by this appalling discovery, which would have
driven a less enthusiastic inquirer to despair, he
attempts to account for these absurdities, and to
reconcile all contradiction. He draws up tables of
kings, and assigns dates to them, according to the
most plausible conjectures he can devise. The
result of these very unsatisfactory labors you shall
hear in his own words. " Thus," he concludes,
" have we given a sketch of Indian history, through
the longest period fairly assignable to it ; and have
traced the foundation of the Indian empire above
3,800 years from the present time."* Taking,
therefore, even from a most prejudiced investigator,
the extent to which the annals of Hindoostan can
possibly be stretched, with any regard to plausi
bility, we have the establishment of a government
in that country no earlier than 2,000 years before
Christ, the age of Abraham, when the book of Gene
sis represents Egypt as possessing an established
dynasty, and commerce and literature already
flourishing in Phenicia.

Sir W. Jones wras followed by Mr. Wilfort,

who endeavored to reduce to something like order

the dynasties of Maghada, given in the Puranas.f

Hamilton succeeded him in the same course ; J

* P. 145.

f " On the Kings of the Maghada." — Asiatic Researches,
vol. ix. p. 82.

\" Genealogies of the Hindoos extracted from their sacred
Writings." Edirtb. 1819.

34 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

but both these patient investigators found them
selves checked at every step, by wilful misrepre
sentations or blundering contradictions. The first
of these writers is an unfortunate example of the
extent to which Pundits will carry their imposi
tions, and, consequently, a proof of how far we are
to trust them in those passages of their books
which would carry us back to unreasonable antiq
uity. For Mr. Wilfort found that a most confi
dential man, employed by him, at considerable
expense, to assist him in his labors, did not hes
itate to erase and alter passages in his most
sacred books ; and even, when he found that the
originals would have to be collated to verify his
extracts, went so far as to compose thousands of
verses to screen himself from discovery.* Mr.
Wilfort found, in reference to our subject, that
these holy men of India had no scruple about in
venting names, to insert between those of more
celebrated heroes, and defended their conduct on
the ground that such had ever been the practice
of their predecessors. Now, after all due abate
ments and allowances have been made, we shall
find but sorry materials left wherewith to con
struct any certain or even probable history. For
the two authors I have mentioned have only,
in the end, produced a series of personages, for
whose real existence we have no better authority
than poems and mythologies.

"In that case," says a sagacious writer, who,

* " Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 250.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 35

however, is rather inclined to overrate than to
depress the antiquity of Hindoo literature, " they
are of no more authority than the generations of
heroes and kings among the Helleni ; and the
tables so published hold the same rank in Indian
mythology which those of Apollodorus do in the
Grecian. We cannot expect to find in them any
critical or chronological history ; it is one by poets
composed, and by poets preserved ; and, therefore,
in this respect a poetical history, without being
on that account entirely a fictitious history."*
" The chronology and history of the Hindoos,"
writes another, "are in general as poetical and
ideal as their geography. In this people, the
imagination prevails over every other faculty. "f
In fact, Klaproth places the commencement of
true chronological history in India in the twelfth
century of our era4

Heeren, however, has taken considerable pains
to trace the Hindoos back to their earliest in
stitutions, and reconstruct their earliest political
state. He enters at length into proofs that the
caste of Brahmans are a different nation or tribe
from the inhabitants of the peninsula, and follows
their march from their supposed mountain-seats
in the north, along a line marked by temples in

* " Es let eine von Dichtern behandelte, und durcli Dich-
ter erlialtene (Qeschichte) : also in diesem Sinne eine Dicliter-
Gescliiclite, ohne das sie deslialb eine ganzlich erdiclite Ge-
scliichte zu seyn braucht." — Heeren, ubi sup. p. 242.

f Guigniaut on Creuzer, ubi. sup. torn. i. 2de partie, p. 585.

J Ubi sup. p. 412.

36 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

the south. He cites the authority of travellers
to prove that they are of a lighter complexion
than men of the other castes ; an assertion which,
you will remember, is at variance with the ob
servations of other travellers, whom I quoted to
you, in treating of the varieties in the human
species. However, I do not see any strong ob
jection to this hypothesis, which alone seems to
account for the absolute sway of the Brahmans
over the bulk of the nation.* And, after all,
though this supposes a very remote period (for
the oldest accounts of India show this system to
have been firmly grounded in their times), it does
not lead us to any definite result.

The war between the Coros and Pandos, the
Greeks and Trojans of Sanscrit poetry, appears
to him to afford, in its historical basis, evidence
of a very early political organization in the regions
of the Ganges. But so far, again, we have only
great antiquity — no decisive chronological epoch.
And in reference to this event, it is consistent to
remark, that it is so essentially connected with
the history of Krishna, that if Mr. Bentley's
theory regarding this be correct, the other must
share its fate, and be reckoned a modern invention.

However, Heeren applies himself patiently to
the task of arranging and reconciling the various
fragments which remain of the early annals ; he
endeavors to discover what were the earliest
states, and the contemporary dynasties which

* UU svp. p. 257.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 37

possessed them ; but the results at which he ar
rives, after his long investigation, through which
I have no wish to lead you, is such as need not
alarm the most timid believer. "From all the
foregoing considerations," he writes, " we may
conclude the region of the Ganges to have been
the seat of considerable kingdoms and flourishing
cities, many centuries, probably even 2,000 years,
before Christ."* Such, then, are his conclusions.
Instead of the six thousand years before Alex
ander, attributed by some writers, on the credit
of Arrian, or the millions deduced from the fables
of the Brahmans, we have, as Jones and others
had conjectured, the age of Abraham, as the ear
liest historical epoch of an organized community
in India.

After having thus, and at some length, carried
you through the history of Indian chronology
during the last forty years, it would be both a
grievous mission, and a violence to my feelings,
to pass over without due notice the labors of one
whom I have the honor to count among my
audience, and whose presence it might be thought
should have made me shrink from speaking on
researches which he may be said to have com
pleted. I am sure that no one can peruse the
two splendid volumes on the Annals and Antiq
uities of Rajasihan^ without feeling that their

* P. 272.

f By Lieut.-Col. James Tod. Lond. vol. i. 1829, vol. ii.
1832. Since these lectures were delivered, death has robbed
our literature of this learned, diligent, and amiable man.

38 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

anther has been able to bring to researches appar
ently exhausted, a stock at once of new materials
and of superior sagacity, by which he has thrown
considerable light, not only upon the subject
which occupies us now, but likewise on those
which have preceded it. And if we descend to
the later periods of history, he has certainly been
sufficiently fortunate to find a vast unoccupied
tract to explore, in the annals of those states
which he has been the first to describe. He has
thus been able to combine, what few discoverers
before him have had the good fortune to unite,
new events with a new field, the varied drama of
a history hardly known, with a theatre decked
out in the most gorgeous scenery which nature
can give, and with the most sumptuous monu
ments that eastern art could add. Whether we
consider the geographical, the historical, or the
artistic additions to our knowledge of India com
municated in this work, or the interest of the
personal narrative it contains, we may safely, I
think, rank it among the most valuable, as well
as among the most beautiful works upon eastern
literature.

Colonel Tod has certainly gone further than
any of his predecessors in correcting and arrang
ing the lists of Indian dynasties. He shows that
there is a general conformity between the gene
alogies produced by Jones, Bentley, and Wilfort,
and such as he himself had collected from differ
ent sources ; and as there is sufficient discrepancy

39 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

among them to warrant their being derived from
various originals, he concludes, not improbably,
that they have some foundation of truth. The
two principal races, as I before observed, are those
of the Sun and Moon ; and it is remarkable, that
the number of princes in the two lines, through
the entire descent, preserves a tolerable proportion.
Now assuming Boodha to be, what seems not un
likely, the regenerator of mankind after the Del
uge, as he is the beginning of the lunar line of
princes, we should have, according to the genea
logical tables, "fifty-five princes from Boodha to
Crishna and Youdishtra " (I quote Colonel Tod's
own words) ; " and, admitting an average of twenty
years for each reign, a period of eleven hundred
years ; which being added to a like period calcu
lated from thence to Vicramaditya, who reigned
56 before Christ, I venture to place the estab
lishment in India proper of these two grand races,
distinctively called those of Soorya and Chandra,
at about 2,256 years before the Christian era ; at
which period, though somew^hat later, the Egyp
tian, Chinese, and Assyrian monarchies are gener
ally stated to have been established, and about a
century and a half after that great event, the
Flood." * Thus far, certainly, there is nothing to
excite a moment's uneasiness ; and if we take the
chronology of the Septuagint, which many mod
erns are disposed to follow, we have even an am
pler period between that scourge and the epoch
* Vol. i. p. 87.

40 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

here allotted to the establishment of these royal
houses.

What may serve to confirm this calculation, is
the uniformity of other results obtained by a simi
lar process.

But the most original, and doubtless most valu
able of Colonel Tod's discoveries in the Hindoo
annals, consist in the historical connections which
he seems clearly to have established between the
early Indians and those tribes towards the west,
which, we before saw, exhibited a common origin,
through the evidences of comparative philology.
He shows, in the first instance, that the Hindoos
themselves establish the birth-place of their nation
towards the west, and probably in the region of
the Caucasus. But at different periods those
tribes which remained in that portion of Asia and
had received the name of Scythians, seem to have
become the invaders of the new settlements of
their brethren, and to have considerably modified
Indian manners and religion, at the same time
that they gave rise to some of the most distin
guished lines of kings. About 600 years before
Christ, we have notice of an irruption of those
tribes into India, which is nearly contemporary
with a similar invasion, from the same quarter,
towards Asia Minor, the north of Europe, and
eastward as far as Bactria, where they overthrew
the Greek dominion. The ancient Getse are to be
discovered in the Jits of modern India, where
they are spread from the mountains of Joud to

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 41

the shores of the Mekran, and yet follow the same
nomadic form of life which they did in their more
northern latitudes. The Asi of ancient history are
probably the Aswa race of India.* After estab
lishing these resemblances in name, the learned
writer proceeds to trace such points of similarity
between the inhabitants of the north and the pres
ent occupiers of the Rajasthan, in dress, in theog-
ony, in warlike customs, in religious forms and
civil observances, as cannot leave any reasonable
doubt regarding the affinity of the two races.f
"Whether the hypothesis be well sustained, that
these resemblances arise from a subsequent inva
sion, or whether they are remains of a primary
affinity, may be, I think, a matter of free discus
sion. And whether some of the etymolgies can
be maintained, I have reason to doubt ; for I fear
in some places the resemblance of names is not
sufficiently confirmed by historical data to warrant
our conclusion of identity of objects. But all
these are considerations of secondary importance ;
quite enough has been done by my learned friend
to satisfy us of the earlier connection between the
tribes that yet occupy Scandinavia, and those
which still hold dominion in India. And this will
afford grounds for several reflections.

For you will perceive how, on several occa
sions, besides my principal object of tracing the
bearings of scientific researches upon sacred truths,
I have endeavored to call your attention to the
* P. 63. f Pp. 65-80.

42 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

light which one pursuit casts upon another. And,
so here, I wish you to note how our former in
quiries seem to receive striking illustration from
these totally different researches, yet so as to con
firm still further the evidence they gave in favor
of the inspired narrative. Thus we found that
every new step in the comparative study of lan
guages brought us nearer to a positive demonstra
tion, that mankind were originally one family;
and the investigation of the early history of na
tions assisted by the observation of their manners,
religions, and habits, brings us to precisely the
same conclusion. Nor is this confined merely to
the members of the same ethnographic family,
such as the Germans and Indians; but Colonel
Tod has certainly pointed out such curious coin
cidences between the origin assigned to their res
pective nations by the Monguls and Chinese, and
the early mythological annals of the Indians, as
seem to place us, in the historical investigation of
their common origin, much in the same position
as the discoveries of Lepsius and others do in re
spect of the ethnographical inquiry, that is, in the
possession of strong probability that families of
men, now completely distinguished by different
languages, may be shown to have been originally
one. In each science, perhaps only one step has
been made, but that is so successful as to augur
still fuller and more satisfactory discoveries. And
if the common origin of these nations can be his
torically established, we have a strong proof that

LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

43

some great and unknown cause must have acted to
give each of them a language so essentially pecu
liar and distinct.

Again, by these researches we have it still
further proved, that climate or some other cause
may change the outward habit and physiognomy
of a people. For, taking the learned writer's hy
pothesis to its full extent, and supposing the race
now occupying the Rajasthan to be a northern
tribe, who invaded it from the north only 600
years before Christ, indeed to be a portion of that
nation which, about the same period, took posses
sion of Jutland, we have it shown how two colo
nies of the same tribe may, in the course of some
centuries, have acquired the most different physi
cal characteristics; the one receiving the fair and
xanthous traits of the Dane, — the other, the dusky
hue of the Indian. But, if we do not go so far,
and only suppose the resemblances of names and
manners to be traces of a primeval affinit}^ we
may still draw a similar conclusion, varying only
in a comparative vagueness of date, that the Geta3
of Scythia formed the fairest of the Caucasian race,
while those of Hindoostan rank among the darkest
of the Mongul. This reflection, too, will go far to
overthrow Ileeren's hypothesis of the existence of
two different races in the Indian peninsula, dis
cernible at this day by variety of color, and con
stituting the Brahman and the inferior castes.

The complete resemblance between the mytho
logical systems of India, Greece, and Scandinavia,

44 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

obvious not merely in the characters and attributes
of their respective deities, but even in their names
and in the minutest circumstances of their legends,
is a discovery which belongs to the earlier history
of these studies. Sir W. Jones, Wilfort, and oth
ers in the last generation, had abundantly estab
lished this point. The last-mentioned writer also
renewed with elaborate care the old hypothesis, that
a close affinity existed between the ancient worship
pers of the Nile and the Ganges ; but, unfortunately,
the circumstances I have already detailed regard
ing him, have cast a damp upon the interest which
his researches must have otherwise excited. Colo
nel Tod has, however, added many interesting
points of resemblance to those which we already
possessed, between the mythologies of the two
countries. I will content myself with alluding to
his description of the festival of Goure, as kept
with great solemnity in Mewar, and to the remarks
wrhich he has added as a commentary upon it.*
Here, then, again, we have an accession of strength
to those reasons which would lead us to suspect
affinity between two nations belonging to different
families, according to their philological distribu
tion.

This growing accumulation of proof in favor of
the common origin of nations, drawn from re
searches which have no natural direction to its dis
covery, must greatly strengthen our confidence in
the usefulness of every study, when reduced to

*P.570

LECTURE THE SEVENTH, 45

proper harmony with its sister sciences, and made
to advance with them at an even pace.

After having thus seen the chronology of India
brought down to reasonable limits, and new an
alogies discovered, in its early history, with the
origin of other nations, there can be little to de
tain us amid the inhabitants of Asia. No other
people of that continent has afforded scope for
such assiduous investigation, partly because none
has materials of equal interest to stimulate the in
dustry of scholars, partly because our connection
with that country has given us greater opportu
nities of cultivating the language in which its
records are written. But that I may not appear
uncourteous to other nations, and that no suspicion
may arise that their annals are not so easily dealt
with as those which I have discussed, I will briefly
give you the opinion of one or two writers who
have, in our time, taken pains to unravel their
native chronologies.

Klaproth, in an essay several times reprinted
by him, in various forms and languages, has at
tempted to fix the dates for the commencement of
certain and of doubtful history, in different Asiatic
nations, following chiefly their own historians.*
He soon disposes of all Mohammedan kingdoms,

* " Examen des Historiens Asiatiques," first published in
the " Journal Asiatique," Sep. and Nov., 1823 ; then reprinted
in his " Memoires relatifs a 1'Asie," vol. i. p. 389, which I shall
refer to in the text. The essay re-appeared, under the title of
" Wiirdigung der asiatisehen Gcschichtschreiber," in his
" Asia Polyglotta," pp. 1-18.

46 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

which have no early history except what they bor
row from Moses, or engraft upon a Jewish stock.
Even the Persian annals can hardly go back be
yond the accession of the Sassanides to the throne
in 227. Cyrus appears in them as an heroic or
mythological person ; before him we have the
dynasty of the Pishdadians, a region of mere
fable;* and it is a dispute among the learned,
whether Gustasp, the contemporary of Zerdusht,
or Zoroaster, is the Hystaspes of history, or a sov
ereign coeval with Ninus,f or, in fine, Median
Cyaxares. J

In much the same condition are those Christian
nations whose history, comparatively modern, has
fallen into the hands of the clergy, the natural
annalists of a less refined people. These would,
of course, reject those crude legendary traditions
which form the remote history of pagan nations,
whom they would not wish any longer to resem
ble, by descent, from unclean and impious deities ;
and they would seek to substitute such early
records as the inspired writings afforded them, in

* Hyde, " De Religione veterum Persarum," p. 312. •
Von Hammer, " Heidelberg Jahrbiiclier," 1823, p. 86. Guig-
niaut, vhi sup. p. 688.

f Rhode, " Die heilige Sage . . . der alten Baktrer,
Meder und Perser." Frank/. 1820, p. 152, seqq. Volney,
" Recherches nouvelles sur 1'Histoire ancienne." Par. 1822,
p. 283.

\ The opinion preferred by Tychsen, " Comment. Soc.
Goetting." vol. xi. p. 112, and Heeren, " Ideen/' i. Th. i. Abth.
p. 440.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 47

their room. This we find to be actually the case
with the Georgians and Armenians. The first
portion of their annals is drawn from the Bible :
they endeavor to find their forefathers in that
storehouse of primeval history — the book of
Genesis; they next fill up a long space with
accounts gleaned from foreign historians, and at
last, attach to them their own meagre narra
tives, too modern to trouble the most delicate
sensitiveness, on the score of revelation. The
earliest period to which anything among them
pretending to the name of history can reach, is,
according to Klaproth, two or three centuries
before Christ.*

But we still have China to dispose of; and
surely it, at least, must be excepted from the
remarks which I have made; for it possesses a
native literature of great antiquity, and pretends
to be the first or primary nation of the globe.
We all know, too, that it carries back its annals
to a very formidable age; and it might be ex
pected that as much attention should be devoted
to its claims as we have bestowed on its rivals in
India. I will, however, content myself with
laying before you, in a few words, the conclusions
to which Klaproth came, from the study of
its authors, to which he was principally devoted ;
and I can assure you, that you will have the
decision of a judge by no means disposed to

* P. 412.

4:8 LECTUKE THE SEVENTH.

second our desires, by depreciating the glories
of the Chinese.

According to him, therefore, the earliest histo
rian of China was its celebrated philosopher and
moralist, Confucius. He is said to have drawn
up the annals of his country, known under the
name of Chu-King, from the days of Yao, till his
own times. Confucius is supposed to have lived
about four or five hundred years before Christ,
and the era of Yao is placed at 2,557 years before
the same era. Thus, then, we have upwards of
2,000 years between the first historian and the
earliest events which he records. But this antiq
uity, however remote, did not satisfy the pride
of the Chinese ; and later historians have prefixed
other reigns to that of Yao, which stretched back
to the venerable antiquity of three million two
hundred and seventy-six thousand years before
Christ.

That you may estimate still more accurately
the authenticity of the Chinese annals, I must not
omit to state, that two hundred years after the
death of Confucius, the Emperor Chi-PIoangti,
of the dynasty of Tsin, proscribed the works of
the philosopher, and ordered all the copies of them
to be destroyed. The Chu-King, however, was
recovered, in the following dynasty of Han, from
the dictation of an old man, who had retained it
by memory. Such, then, is the , origin of histor
ical science in China; and in spite of all due
veneration for the great moralist of the East, and

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 49

of respect for his assertion, that he only wrought
on materials already existing, Klaproth does not
hesitate to deny the existence of historical cer
tainty in the Celestial empire, earlier than 782
years before Christ, pretty nearly the era of the
foundation of Rome, when Hebrew literature was
already on the decline.*

The Japanese, in historical knowledge, are but
the copiers of the Chinese. They, too, pretend to
their millions of years before the Christian era.
But the first portion of their annals is purely
mythological ; the second presents us with the
Chinese dynasties as reigning in Japan ; and it is
not till the accession of the Da'iri to the throne,
only 660 years before Christ, that any dependence
can be placed upon their record s.f

In glancing back over the chronology of the
different nations of which I have treated, you
cannot help being struck with the circumstance,
that every attempt has failed to establish, for any
of them, a system of chronology derogatory to the
authority of the Mosaic records. In most of them,
even when we have granted a real existence to the
most doubtful portions of their history, we are not
led back to an epoch anterior to what Scripture

* P. 406. Abel-Remusat is disposed to allow Chinese
history to reach back to the year 2200 before Christ, and
plausible tradition to go as far back as 2637. Even this an
tiquity presents nothing formidable to a Christian's convic
tions. — " Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques," torn. i. p. 61. Par.
1829.

f P. 408.

VOL. n. — 3

50 LECTURE THE SEVENTH.

assigns for the existence of powerful empires in
eastern Africa, and enterprising states on the
western coast of Asia.

The learned Windischmann, whom I feel a
pride in calling my friend, admits the entire
period of Chinese history allotted by Klaproth to
the uncertain times, and shows its agreement writh
another form of computation, drawn from the
cycles of years adapted by the Chinese; and the
result is a sufficiently accurate accordance between
the date assigned to the foundation of the Celes
tial empire by Fo-hi, or Fu-chi, whom some have
even supposed to be Noah, the time of the
Deluge, according to the Samaritan Pentateuch,
and the beginning of the Indian Cali-Yuga, or
iron age.* The philosophical Schlegel not only
concurs in the same .view, but approves also of
Abel-Remusat's idea, that the written Chinese
character must be 4,000 years old ; " this," he
observes, " would bring it back within three or
four generations from the Deluge, according to the
vulgar era, — an estimate which certainly is not
exaggerated." f

Even in India, you have seen authors, like
Colonel Tod, assuming, almost without limitation,
the chronological tables of the country, and yet
coming pretty exactly to the same period for the
commencement of its history. Surely a conver-

* "Die Philosophie im Fortgang der Weltgeschiclite," 1
Tli. 1 Abtheil. Bonn, 1827, p 18.

f " Philosophy of History," vol. i. p. 106, Robertson's transl.

LECTURE THE SEVENTH. 51

gence like this must have force of proof with the
most obstinate mind, and produce conviction that
some great and insuperable barrier must have in
terposed between nations and any earlier definite
traditions, at the same time that it allowed some
faint rajs of recollection to pass, of the original
state and happier constitution of the human raee.
A sudden catastrophe, whereby mankind were, in
great part, though not totally, extinguished, pre
sents the most natural solution of all difficulties,
and the concurrent testimony of physical phe
nomena, with the silent acknowledgment of the
vainest nations, must assuredly shield, from every
attack, this record of our inspired volume.

There is yet another nation, whose history is
perhaps more interesting than any which wre have
discussed; but it will afford us sufficient matter
for another meeting.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH;
EARLY HISTORY.

PAET II.

EGYPTIANS. — 1. Historical Monuments. Mystery of their Mon-
numents. — Excessive Antiquity ascribed to the Nation.
— The Rosetta Stone. — First Researches into the Egyp
tian Characters on it, by Akerblad and De Sacy, Young
and Champollion. Hieroglyphic Alphabet. — Opposition
raised. — Applications of the Chronology discovered
through it to the illustration of Scripture by Coquerel,
Greppo, and Bovet. — Inedited Letter by Champollion on
this Subject. — Rosellini ; his Series of Egyptian Kings ;
their coincidence with those of Scripture. — Vindication
and illustration of a Prophecy in Ezekiel.— 2. Asti o.io-
mical Monuments. Zodiacs of Dendera and Esneh. —
Absurd Antiquity ascribed to them. — Discoveries of Mr.
Bankes, MM. Champollion and Letronne. Proved to be
purely Astrological. — Commentary on some Observations
in the British Critic.

FKOM the soil of Asia, over which late we
strayed, fruitful in every science, and varied by
the display of every degree in cultivation, from the
restless nomade, or the untamed mountaineer, to

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 53

the luxurious Persian, or the polished Ionian, we
have now to turn to a country whereon nature
seemeth to have set the seal of desolation physical
and moral. One redeeming spot alone of Africa
has been the seat of an indigenous civilization, a
native dynasty and a domestic class of monuments ;
and the valley of the Nile appears rightly placed
in such a geographical situation, as almost detaches
its inhabitants from the degraded tenants of the
wilderness, and links them with the more favored
regions of the East.

At every period, this extraordinary nation has
interested the attention of the learned. Its origin
seemed to have been a problem to itself, and con
sequently to all others. The mysterious allegories
of its worship, the dark sublimity of its morality,
and, above all, the impenetrable enigma of its
written monuments, threw a mythological veil
over its history. The learned approached it, as if
in the most obvious facts they had to decipher a
hieroglyphic legend ; and we were inclined to look
upon the Egyptians, as a people, which, even in
its more modern periods, retained the shadowy
tints and ill-defined traits of remote antiquity, and
which might consequently boast an existence far
beyond the reach of calculation. We were almost
tempted to believe them when they told us that
their first monarchs were the gods of the rest of
the world.

When, after so many ages of darkness and
uncertainty, we see the lost history of this people

54: LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

revive, and take its stand beside that of other
ancient empires ; when we read the inscriptions
of its kings, recording their mighty exploits and
regal qualities, and gaze upon their monuments,
with the full understanding of the events which
they commemorate, the impression is scarcely less
striking to an enlightened mind, than what the
traveller would feel, if, when silently pacing the
catacombs at Thebes, he should see those corpses,
which the embalmer's skill has for so many ages
rescued from decay, on a sudden burst their cere
ments, and start resuscitated from their niches.

While such a darkness overhung the history
of Egypt, it is no wonder that the adversaries of
religion should have retreated wdthin it, as a
stronghold, and eagerly attacked her from behind
its shelter. They collected together the scattered
fragments of its annals, just as Isis did the torn
limbs of Osiris, and tried to reconstruct, by their
re-union, a favorite idol, a chronology of count
less ages, totally incompatible with that of Moses.
Volney had no hesitation in placing the formation
of sacerdotal colleges in Egypt 13,300 years before
Christ, and calling that the second period of its
history ! * Even the third period, in which he sup
poses the temple of Esneh to have been built, goes
as far back as 4,600 years before that era ; some
where about what we reckon the epoch of creation !
But the mysterious monuments of Egypt formed
the most useful intrenchments for these assailants.
* " Recherches," vol. ii. p. 440.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 55

They called upon those huge and half-buried
colossal images, and those now subterraneous tem
ples, to bear witness to the antiquity and early
civilization of the nation which erected them ;
they appealed to their astronomical remains, to
attest the skill, matured by ages of observation, of
those who projected them. More than all, they
saw in those hieroglyphic legends the venerable
dates of sovereigns, deified long before the modern
days of Moses or Abraham ; they pointed in tri
umph to the mysterious characters which an un
seen hand had traced on those primeval walls, and
boasted that only a Daniel was wanted that could
decipher them, to show that the evidences of
Christianity had been weighed and found want
ing ; and its kingdom divided between the infidel
and the libertine ! Yain boast ! The temples of
Egypt have at length answered their appeal, in
language more intelligible than they could possibly
have anticipated ; for a Daniel has been found in
judicious and persevering study. After the suc
cession had been so long interrupted, Young and
Champollion have put on the linen robe of the
hierophant ; and the monuments of the Nile, un
like the fearful image of Sais, have allowed them
selves to be unveiled by their hands, without any
but the most wholesome and consoling results hav
ing followed from their labor.

The history of the discovery to which I allude
is not perhaps difficult to unravel ; but it is by no
means easy to allot to each claimant his share of

56 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

merit. There certainly were approximating steps
in the researches of sagacious antiquaries, before
the announcement of a complete system of hiero
glyphic literature flashed upon Europe. It is
more than probable that Champollion would not
so easily have attained it, had not the way been
pioneered before him ; but still, the step which he
at once made, from the conjectural course and de
tached applications which others had pursued be
fore him, to a general system, at once applicable
to any case, — and yet more, the public interest
which his publication drew upon the study, mak
ing it pass from the hands of a few profound
scholars, into the general literature of the day —
are grounds which he might well advance for
being considered the discoverer, or restorer, of
hieroglyphic learning.

In the last century, Warburton, and after him,
Zoega, had conjectured that the hieroglyphics in
reality represented letters, but neither could pre
tend to have verified the opinion by any practical
observation. In fact, it was not even known with
accuracy what the language of ancient Egypt was
Jablonsky had made it extremely probable that it
was the same as the Coptic, or modern ecclesiasti
cal language of the same country ; for he had suf
ficiently explained from this the Egyptian names
and words which occur in the Old Testa nent.*
But, if any doubt existed regarding this mat-

* " Opuscula quibus lingua et antiquitas ^gyptiorum,
difficilia LL. SS. loca illustrantur." Lugd. Bat. 1804.

LECTURE THE ETftHTir. 57

ter, it was completely removed by the learned
Quatremere, in his interesting work on the lan
guage and literature of Egypt,* wherein the iden
tity or close affinity, of the ancient and modern
languages was amply demonstrated. One great
obstacle, therefore, to the deciphering of ancient
Egyptian inscriptions was removed, supposing
them to be composed of alphabetical characters. It
is just, also, to observe, that before the discovery
which dimmed the glory he would otherwise have
received from his further researches, Champollion
was one of the first and most assiduous to gather
information from Coptic literature, upon the geog
raphy and history of ancient Egypt.f

When the language is known, or may be prob
ably conjectured, in which inscriptions are written,
there are certain rules whereby they may be re
duced to intelligible characters. The great diffi
culty is to know where to begin, for the first step
must be conjectural. Thus it was, for instance,
with the arrow, or nail, or wedge-headed inscrip
tions of Persepolis, which had perplexed the learn
ed world since they were first made known by
Niebuhr, till they were almost simultaneously de
ciphered by Saint-Martin, in Paris, and Grotefend,
at Vienna. The process followed by the former
was exceedingly simple and obvious. The lan
guage, he supposed, would be Persian, and the

* " Recherch.es sur la Langue et la Litterature de 1'Egypte."
Par. 1808.

f " L'Egypte sous les Pharaons." P(ir. 1814.

58 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

ancient dialect is sufficiently known in the modern
and in the Zend, to give him some lever where
with to commence his work. He selected an in
scription, from its form arid position manifestly
historical ; and assuming that in any such, if in
honor of a Persian monarch, the title of " King of
Kings " would be found, he turned his attention
to two words or groups of letters placed together,
exactly similar, except that the termination of one
was sufficiently varied to give ground for suppos
ing that it was the plural of the other. Having
by this means acquired the power of the letters
which composed these two words, he applied them
to a proper name, which nearly resembled them,
and thus was in possession of the name of Xerxes,
which does, in reality, bear an affinity in sound to
the old Persian title of King.* The groundwork
was thus laid, and by applying the letters gradually
discovered to other words wherein they occurred
in conjunction with others unknown, these in their
turn yielded to his investigation, and placed him
in possession of his alphabet.

The process pursued in the examination and
discovery of hieroglyphics was precisely similar.
The difficulty, as I before hinted, was where to
begin ; but fortunately a plausible conjecture,
which, as in the other instance, proved well
grounded, gave a firm foundation to the entire
system of discovery. You cannot have failed to
observe, how, on all Egyptian monuments, certain

* " Journal Asiatique," torn. ii. 1833, pp. 75, 79.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 59

groups of hieroglyphics are inclosed in an oblong
frame, or parallelogram, with rounded corners.
It had long been conjectured, with great appear
ance of plausibility, that these distinguished
hieroglyphics expressed proper names ; and noth
ing was wanting to begin the work upon them ;
for proper names could never be well expressed in
any language by emblems, but must be somehow
composed of phonetic, or sound-expressing char
acters. This is the case even in Chinese ; where
the language is ideographic, or representative of
objects or ideas, yet is reduced to the necessity of
adopting a different system for words which repre
sent neither, but only an artificial combination of
sounds, denoting a person or place. If, therefore,
it could be once possible to know a single name
contained in one of these squares, the decomposi
tion of it into its primary elements, or letters,
would give the nucleus of an alphabet, which might
be easily extended.

All this reasoning is extremely simple, and
though, in detailing it, I am rather giving you a
retrospective view of acts and their consequences,
than a line of argument, distinctly and systemati
cally planned beforehand, it may serve to show you
by what consistent and well- warranted steps the
entire investigation proceeded. These were not,
indeed, the work of one man, nor of one country ;
and so far from any rivalry or jealousy being felt
by learned men on different sides of the Channel,
about the apparent appropriation of each other's

60 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

literary discoveries, I think it should be matter of
congratulation to observe how two nations, after
having fought bravely for the time-worn spoils of
Egypt, have been led to sit down together in peace
and harmony around them, for their illustration ;
and if the mutilated fragment of the Rosetta stone
has been to us a military trophy, it has been to our
neighbors the monument of a more glorious con
quest over the darkest mysteries of a hidden art.

This celebrated stone is, at present, an irregu
lar block of basalt, smooth on one side, and may
be considered the foundation-stone of this impor
tant study ; as all discoveries in it owe their origin
and strength to the first elements of knowledge
which it supplied. This almost shapeless mass,
which a few years ago would have been thrown
aside into the lumber-room of the Museum, is now
one of the most valuable monuments of our na
tional collection, and was originally discovered by
the French expedition in digging the foundation
of a fort near Rosetta. It contains three inscrip
tions, one in Greek, another in hieroglyphics, and
a third in an intermediate alphabet, which in the
Greek legend is called enchorial.* It was evident
from this, that each inscription contained nearly
the same sense, and that each was probably a ver
sion of the others. Here there was some hope of

* This custom of polyglott inscriptions, intended only for
one country, which might be frequented by strangers, illus
trates and explains the reasons of Pilate's commanding a
trilingual inscription to be placed over our Saviour's cross.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 61

a discovery in the unknown, from its being joined,
as in equation, with the known. The Greek
inscription contains proper names, so must the
other two ; but in the h'rst instance, probably from
considering the task as hopeless, the hieroglyphic
inscription hardly obtained attention from the
learned, who rather applied themselves to the study
of the enchorial, or, as it has since been called,
demotic legend. Perhaps I should observe that
the language so called was the vernacular dialect
of Egypt, the Coptic, and that the alphabet used in
it is a linear one, formed, however, undoubtedly,
through several gradations from the hieroglyphic.

The illustrious Silvestre de Sacy was the first
to make any interesting discovery on this subject.
He observed that the letters or symbols used to
express the proper names, in the demotic character,
were grouped together, so as to have the appear
ance of being letters ; and by comparing different
words, wherein the same sounds occurred, he found
them represented by the same figure ; and thus he
extracted from them the rudiments of a demotic
alphabet, which was further illustrated and ex
tended by Akerblad at Rome, and Dr. Young in
England. All these researches and partial discov
eries occurred as early as 1814, and by no means
close the history of the demotic literature of Egypt.
Dr. Young, who truly deserves the title of the
father of this portion of Egyptian studies, pushed
them forward to the almost complete formation of
the current alphabet, and was aided in his re-

02 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

searches by some most extraordinary combinations
of circumstances.

Thus, for instance, a copy of a demotic manu
script, brought to Europe by Casati, was placed
in his hands by M. Champollion at Paris, in 1822,
because it seemed toJbear considerable resemblance
to the preamble of the 'Hosetta stone. Champol
lion had already deciphered the names of the wit
nesses who signed it, for it seemed to be a deed.
It so happened that after Dr. Young's return to
England, Mr. Grey placed at his disposal a Greek
papyrus, which he had purchased at Thebes,
together with others in Egyptian characters. The
very same day he proceeded to explore this treas
ure, and to use the Doctor's own expression, he
could scarcely believe that he was awake and in
his sober senses when he discovered it to be
nothing less than a translation of the very manu
script which he had procured at Paris ; and it
actually bore the title of " a copy of an Egyptian
writing." " I could not therefore, but conclude,"
he says, " that a most extraordinary chance had

•s s «/

brought into my possession a document which
wras not very likely, in the first place, even to
have existed, still less to have been preserved un
injured for my information, through a period of
near two thousand years ; but that this very ex
traordinary translation should have been brought
safely to Europe, to England, and to us, at the
very moment that it was most desirable to me to
possess it, as the illustration of an original which

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 63

I was then studying, but without any other rea
sonable hope of being fully able to comprehend
it ; this combination would, in other times, have
been considered as affording ample evidence of
my being an Egyptian sorcerer."*

But I have pursued further than was necessary
the history of this secondary branch of Egyptian
discovery ; which is interesting 'from the influ
ence it had on the deciphering of hieroglyphical
legends. Here also Dr. Young decidedly took
the first step, however imperfect it may be con
sidered. He conjectured that the frames which
occurred in the inscription of Rosetta included
the name of Ptolemy, and that another, in which
was inscribed a group, with wrhat he considered
justly the sign of a feminine, contained that of Ber
enice. This conjecture was correct ; but it must
be allowed that the principle on which it was
maintained could hardly be called a preliminary
step to the discoveries of Champollion. For, as
he observes, Dr. Young considered each hiero
glyphic to be syllabic, and to represent a conso-

* "An Account of some recent Discoveries in Hiero
glyphical Literature :" Lond. 1823, p. 58. A writer on this
subject increases the strange combination recorded in the
text still further, by asserting that both the documents were
copies of a bilingual inscription in Drovetti's collection,
which Dr. Young, with an illiberality most unusual in Italy,
had not been allowed to copy. See the Marquis Spineto's
" Lectures on the Elements of Hierogly phics : " Lond. 1829
p. 68. But of this still more extraordinary coincidence not a
hint is given bj Dr. Young.

64: LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

nant with its vowel, a system which would liave
fallen to the ground on the very next attempt
at verification. For he read the two names, PTOLE-
MEAS and BIRENIKEN, and not, as was subsequently
proved correct, PTOLMES and BRNEKS.* Dr. Young
seems, therefore, entitled to little more than the
praise of having practically attempted the dis
covery of a hieroglyphical alphabet ; an attempt
which perhaps spurred Champollion on to his
more successful efforts.

If the merit of the very first step has been
thus contested, the second has been no less an
object of rival claims. This was taken as fol
lows: — In the island of Pliilse, situated high
up the Nile, an obelisk was found, and thence
brought to England, on which were two car
touches, or frames containing hieroglyphics, joined
together. One of these presented invariably the
group already explained in the Rosetta stone by
the name of Ptolemy. The other evidently con
tained a name composed, in part, of the same
letters, and followed by the sign of the feminine
gender. This obelisk had been originally placed
on a base bearing a Greek inscription, which con
tained a petition of the priests of Isis to Ptolemy
and Cleopatra, and spoke of a monument to be
raised to both.f There was, consequently, every

* " Precis du Systeme hieroglyphique des anciens Egyp-
tiens." Par. 1824, p. 31.

• . , f Tliis inscription was illustrated by Letronne in a learned
essay upon it, entitled " Eclaircissements sur une Inscrip-

LECTURE THE EIGHTH, 65

reason to suppose that the obelisk bore these two
names conjointly ; and observation proved that the
three letters common to both, P, T, and L, were
represented in the female name by the same signs
as occurred for them in the king's. Thus, there
could be no reasonable doubt as to this second
name, which put the learned investigators in pos
session of the other letters which enter into its
composition. All this Champollion claimed as
exclusively his own.* Mr. Bankes, however,
maintains that he had previously deciphered the
name of Cleopatra, and endeavors to show that
Champollion must have been aware of the discov
ery. For he says, that he had been led to the
observation, that when two figures occur together
on any temple, they are so repeated throughout.
Now, over the portico at Diospolis Parva, is a
Greek inscription to Cleopatra and Ptolemy, the
only instance of the female preceding; and so,
through the temple, she is always placed before
the effigy of the king. Over the latter is the
same hieroglyphical group as Dr. Young had
assigned to the name from the Rosetta stone, and
therefore Mr. Bankes plausibly conjectured that
the legend over the other expressed the name of
the queen, Cleopatra. He then ascertained that
both on the obelisk and on the temple at Plulse,
which were determined, by Greek inscriptions, to

tion Grecque," etc. Par. 1822. The inscription had been
copied by the diligent and accurate Cailliaud.
* " Lettre a M. Dacier." Par. 1822, p. 6.
VOL II. — 5

y

66 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

be dedicated to the same two sovereigns, similar
hieroglyphic groups were found. This led him to
the certain conclusion, that as the one designated
Ptolemy, so the other must contain the name of
his consort. As these circumstances were marked
by him in pencil on the very engraving of his
obelisk which he presented to the Institute, as
they alone could have suggested a clue to Cham-
pollion's conjectures, and as he referred to this
very print, Mr. Bankes and his friends conclude
that this important step in hieroglyphic investi
gation should be attributed to him.*

When these first and more laborious measures
had been once taken, the work was comparatively
easy, and Champollion, who at first imagined that
his system could only apply to the reading of
Greek or Latin names hieroglyphically expressed
soon found that the older names yielded to the
key ; and that the successive dynasties of Pharaohs
and of Persian monarch s who had ruled in Egypt
had recorded their names also, with their titles and
their exploits, in the same character.1)* It was
after his researches had reached this point that
they could be said to possess a real value for his
tory, and aid us in unravelling the complicated
difficulties of the early Egyptian annals. But, be
fore proceeding to trace the history of their re
sults, I must pause to explain the system which
they introduced.

* Salt, " Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Ohampollion's pho
netic system of Hieroglyliics." Loud. 1825, p. 7, note.
t " Precis du Systeme," etc. p. 2.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 67

Many scattered passages exist in ancient wri
ters regarding the hieroglyph ical writings of the
Egyptians, but there was one which seemed to
treat the subject with peculiar detail. It lay treas
ured up in that vast repertory of philosophical
learning, the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria ;
but so encased in impenetrable difficulties, that it
may rather be said to have been explained by these
modern discoveries than to have led the way to
wards them. It has, however, rendered them
most essential service by strongly corroborating
what must be considered the essential foundation
of their results, the position that alphabetical let
ters were used by the Egyptians. When this pas
sage was examined, after Charnpollion's discovery,
it was found to establish this point, which had not
been suspected by older investigators, and more
over to explain the various mixture of alphabeti
cal and symbolical writing used in Egypt, in a
manner exactly corresponding to what monuments
exhibit. The result of this passage as translated,
and commented on by Letronne, is, that the Egyp
tians used three different sorts of writing: the
epistolographic, or current hand ; the hieratic, or
the character used by the priests ; and the hiero
glyphic, or monumental character. Of the two
former we have sufficient examples ; the first being
the demotic or enchorial, of which I have already
spoken ; the second a species of reduced hierogly-
phical character, in which a rude outline represents
the figures, and which is found on manuscripts

68 LECTUKE THE EIGHTH.

which accompany mummies. The third, which is
the most important, is composed, according to
Clement, first of alphabetical words, and secondly,
of symbolical expressions, which again are three
fold, being either representations of objects, or
metaphorical ideas drawn from them, as when
courage is represented by a lion, or else merely
enigmatical or arbitrary signs.* Now observation
has fully confirmed all these particulars ; for even
on the Rosetta stone it was noticed, that when
some object was mentioned in the Greek, the hier
oglyphics presented a picture of it, as a statue,
a temple, or a man. On other occasions objects
are represented by emblems which must be consid
ered completely arbitrary, as Osiris by a throne
and eye, and a son by a bird most resembling a
goose.

Suffice it to say, that new discoveries have
gradually enlarged, and perhaps almost completed,
the Egyptian alphabet, till we are in possession of
a key to read all proper names, and even, though
not with equal certainty, other hieroglyphical texts.
To proper names the application is so simple that
you may be said to possess a means of verifying
the system perfectly within reach. For you have
only to walk to the Capitol, or the Vatican, with
Champollion's alphabet, and try your skill upon

* " Precis," p. 330. See also the passage in the Marquis de
Fortia d'Urban's Essay, " Sur les trois Sistemes (sic) d'Ecri-
ture des Egiptiens" (sic) : Par. 1833, p. 10. The passage of
Clement occurs in " Stromata," lib. v. § 9, p. 245, ed. Potter.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 69

the proper names in any of the Egyptian inscrip
tions.

The fate of this brilliant discovery was the
same as we saw allotted to Geology and to other
sciences. Scarcely was it announced to Europe
than timid minds took the alarm, and reprobated
it as tending to lead men to dangerous investiga
tions. It was feared, apparently, that the early
Egyptian history, thus brought to light, would be
employed as that of the Chaldeans and Assyrians
had been in the last century, for the purpose of
impugning the Mosaic annals. Rosellini, who
was the first to make the new discovery known in
Italy, as he has been the means of bringing it to
its perfection, justly observed, that such an out
cry has been raised against every important dis
covery. Those who raise it, he adds, do but little
justice to the truth by being so timid on its ac
count. " This truth is founded on eternal bases,
neither can the envy of man disprove it, nor can
ages deface it. And if men eminent for their
piety and learning, admit the new system, what
has revelation to fear from it?''* In fact, the
holy Pontiff who then set in the chair of St. Peter,
expressed to Champollion his confidence that his
discovery would render essential service to reli-
gion.f In spite of this high sanction, the oppo
sition has since continued, and, I regret to say,

* In his Italian abridgment of '* Champollion's Letters to
the Duke de Blacas."

f " Bulletin Universel," ?e sect. torn. iv. p. 6. Par. 1825

70 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

with a degree of personal feeling and a severe ani
mosity, which seem hardly worthy of a just mind
employed on literary pursuits.*

Perhaps the best-conducted attack on the sys
tem, because, while free from the feelings which I
have just blamed, it is united to the desire of sub
stituting something better in its place, is that
lately made by the Abbe Count de Robiano, who
ingeniously exposes the weak parts of the hiero-
glyphical system, especially through the demotic
* character. He institutes a very patient and suc
cessful analysis of the demotic text on the Hosetta
stone, as compared with the Greek, and concludes,
with great apparent reason, first, that the one is
not a verbal or very close version of the other, and
secondly, that nothing has been done, or well can
be hoped, towards proving the identity of the Egyp
tian phrases thus discovered, with corresponding
Coptic words, f The Abbe is himself of opinion,
that the language of Egypt is of Sernetic origin, and,
on this hypothesis, he attempts to explain one or

* I will not mention the various essays by Riccardi ; but
the learned Professor Lanci has been particularly zealous in
his resistance. " Svanira," he writes, " il timore che il nuovo
geroglifico sistema possa mai adombrare in alcuno parte,
quella storia che sola merita la universale vererazione."
"Illustrazione di un Kilanoglifo," in his " Osservazioni sul
Ba»so Rilievo Fenico-Egizio." Rome, 1825, p. 47. — See Cham-
pollion's answer, in the " Memorie Romano di Antichita."
182 \ Append, p. 10.

f " Etudes sur 1'Ecrituro; les Ilk'roglyphes, et la Langue
de 1'Egypte." Paris, 1834, 4to. with atlas of plates, pp. 16-
24, etc.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 71

two inscriptions by the Hebrew language.* This
attempt, though ingenious and learned, does not
seem to me successful. However, I do not think
it necessary to follow the arguments of this learned
ecclesiastic ; because it does not strike me that any
theory which he has advanced at all affects the
only part of the system interesting to our present
inquiry — its power of deciphering proper names.
One of the first applications made by M. Cham-
pollion of his discovery, was an attempt to restore
the series of Egyptian kings. The table of Aby-
dosf had given him a list of pronomens, and the
examination of monuments exhibited the names of
the kings who bore them. These corresponded
pretty accurately with the eighteenth dynasty, con
tained in the list of kings quoted from the Egyptian
priest Manetho, by Eusebius, Syncellus, and Afri-
canus ; and by combining the two documents to
gether, he endeavored to trace the ancient history
of Egypt. As the Museum of Turin had supplied
him with the greater part of his monuments, he
communicated his results in letters upon that
magnificent collection, addressed to his gre^t
Mecsenas, the Duke of Blacas4 His relative, M.
Champollion-Figeac, previously known for his
learned work on the Lagides, added as an appen
dix to each of these letters, a chronological dis-

* P. 43. f " Precis du Systeme." p. 241.

\ " Lcttres a M. le Due dc Blacas, relatives au Musee
Royal Egyptian de Turin, Premie re Lettre." Paris, 1824, 2de,
1826.

72 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

quisition, having for its object to reconcile together
the discrepancies in the quotations from Manetho
given by ancient writers.

It was natural to expect that a comparison
between the chronology thus established and that
of Scripture, would soon be instituted, and in this
instance the task was undertaken by the friends,
not as heretofore by the enemies, of revelation.
That malignant spirit, which at the last century's
close had so often induced able and learned men
to direct the whole force of their genius, and many
years of deep research, to the overturning of sacred
history, had now passed away, or at least altered
its form of attack.

The first who appeared in the field was M.
Charles Coquerel, a Protestant clergyman at Am
sterdam, who, in a pamphlet of a few pages, in
1825, compared the two chronologies, and pointed
out the advantages which one derived from the
other.*

I believe I had the satisfaction of being the
second in the field. In making out his Egyptian
chronology, Champollion-Figeac found it necessary,
on one occasion, to depart from his usual guides,
and adopt the term of years attributed to Horus
by only one document, the Armenian translation
of Eusebius's chronicle. I was fortunate enough
to discover a Syriac fragment in the margin of

* " Lettre a M. Charles Coquerel sur le Systeme Hierogly-
pliique de M. Champollion considere dans ses rapports a vec
I'Ecriture Sainte." Par A. L. foquerel. Amat. 1825.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 73

a Vatican MS. which coincided exactly with this
view, and in publishing it, I took occasion to
sketch out a comparison between the sacred and
the Egyptian chronologies.* I was not, however,
able to see Coquerel's pamphlet till several years
later.

In 1829, a learned and diligent investigation
of this subject was published by M. Gretto, vicar-
general of the diocese of Belley, entitled, Essai
sur le Sysieme hieroglyphique de M. Gli<Mn>pollwn
le Jeune, et sur les avantages qu?il off re a la
critique sacree. After a clear and popular ex
position of Champollion's system, and a few re
marks on some philological connections which it
seems to have with early Hebrew literature, the
author proceeds to a minute analysis of the bibli
cal and Egyptian chronology, endeavoring to dis
cover in the latter each of the Pharaohs mentioned
in Scripture.

The same year, another work upon the same
subject appeared in France, entitled, Des Dyn
asties Egyptiennes, by M. Bovet, formerly Arch
bishop of Toulouse. The parallel into which
he enters of the two chronologies is much more
minute than Greppo's, but on some points, as in
the attempt to find the Ilyk-Shos, or shepherd
kings in the Jews, he does not seem to me so
judicious. He appears to have imbibed much of
the opinion introduced before the Revolution, by
Boulanger and Guerin de Rocher, that a great
* " Horae Syriacae," torn. i. Rome, 1828, particula iv. p. 203.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

part of all ancient annals only contains the history
of the Jewish people. All these authors have
undertaken the same task of demonstrating what
beautiful confirmation sacred history and chronol
ogy have received from the latest discoveries in
hieroglyphical and Egyptian learning.

But, in the meantime, great and important
advances have been made in the history of the
Egyptian dynasties, by persons laboring in that
country. Messrs. Burton and Wilkinson, the lat
ter of whom only returned within a few months,
remained several years in Egypt, copying, print-
ign and illustrating its ancient monuments. Bur
ton's Excerpta Ilieroglyphiea was lithographed at
Cairo ; Wilkinson's' Materia Hieroglyphic^ con
taining the Egyptian Pantheon, and the succes
sion of the Pharaohs, was published at Malta in
1828 ; and by reason of their appearing in such
remote places, I believe both works have been
comparatively little known. Burton's book is
valuable for our studies merely from the accuracy
of its drawings, especially of the table of Abydos.
Wilkinson's contains many interesting discoveries
applicable to the illustration of Scripture, and I
shall refer to it more than once.

Every preceding work, however, has been
eclipsed by the splendid and accurate publication
now in the press at Pisa, under the direction of
Professor Kosellini. He was the companion of
Champollion in the literary expedition sent, at
joint expense, by the French and Tuscan govern-

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 75

ments. Champollion's death threw the entire task
of publication upon Rosellini, who is acquitting
himself of it in a manner that leaves nothing to
regret. The monuments of the kings are already
published, and two volumes of text contain their
illustration from historians and other monuments.

Before showing you, by examples, the advan
tage derived by sacred chronology, and the authen
ticity of Holy Writ, from this modern study, I
must lay before you a highly interesting document
connected with our inquiry. The chronological
part of the letters to the Due de Blacas was
entirely executed by Champollion-Figeac, as I
before observed ; but the author of the great dis
covery, though well known to be perfectly sound
in his principles, never published anything tending
to prove the conformity of his chronology with
that of Scripture. But I have the pleasure of
laying before you an original letter from him in
my possession, wherein he not only indignantly
repels the imputation that his studies tend even
slightly to impugn Scripture history, but endeav
ors to show how exactly the two histories give
and obtain mutual support. This interesting
document I will read you in the original. It is
dated Paris, May 23, 1827.

u J'aurai 1'honneur de vous adresser sons beu
de jours une brochure, contenant le resume de mes
decouvertes historiques et chronologiques. C'est
1'indication sommaire des dates certain es, rjue por
tent tons les monuments existants en Egypte, et

70 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

sur lesquels doit desormais se fonder la veritable
chronologic Egyptienne.

" MM. De San Quintino et Land trouveront
la une reponse peremptoire a leurs calomnies,
puisque j'y demontre qu'aucun monument Egyp-
tien n'est reellement anterieur a 1'an 2,200 avant
notre ere. C'est certainement une tres haute an-
tiquite, mais elle n'offre rein de contraire aux tra
ditions sacrees ; et j'ose dire meme qu'elle les con-
firme sur tons les points : c'est en eifet en adoptant
la chronologie et la succession des rois donnees par
les monuments Egyptieiis, que 1'histoire Egyp
tienne concorde admirablement avec les livres
saints. Ainsi par exemple ; Abraham arriva en
Egypte vers 1900, — c'est-a-dire, sous les JRois Pas
teur s. Des rois de race Egyptienne n'auraient
point permis a un etranger d'entrer dans leur pays,
— c'est egalement sous un roi pasteur que Joseph
est ministre en Egypte, et y etablit ses freres, — ce
qui n'eut pu avoir lieu sous des rois de race Egyp
tienne. Le chef de la dynastie des Diospolitians,
dite la XVIII6 , est le rex novus qui ignorabat
Joseph de 1'Ecriture sainte, lequel etant de race
Egyptienne, ne devait point connaitre Joseph, min
istre des rois usurpateurs ; c'est celui qui reduit les
Hebreux en esclavage. La captivite dura autant
que la XYIII6 dynastie ; et ce fut sous Ramses Y,
dit Amenophis, au commencement du XVe siecle,
que Moyse delivra les Hebreux. Ceci se passait
dans 1'adolescence de Sesostris, qui succeda im-
mediatement a son pere, et fit ses conquetes en

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 77

Asie pendant que Moyse et Israel erraient pendant
qnarante ans dans le desert. West pour cela que les
livres saints ne doivent point parler de ce grand
conquerant. Tons les antres rois d'Egypte nommes
dans la Bible, se retrouvent snr les monuments
Egyptiens, dans le meme ordre de succession, et aux
epoques precises, oil les livres saints les placent.
J'ajouterai merne que la Bible en ecrit mieux les
veritables noms, que ne Font fait les historiens
Grecs. Je serais curieux de savoir ce qu'auront a
repondre ceux qui ont malicieusement avance que
les etudes Egyptiennes tendent a alterer la croy-
ance dans les documents liistoriques fournis par les
livres de Moyse. L' application de ma decouverte
vient, au contraire, invinciblement a leur appui.

" Je compose dans ce moment-ci le texte ex-
plicatif des Obelisques de Ttome^ que Sa Saintete a
daigne faire graver a ses frais. C'est un vrai ser
vice qu'Elle rend a la science, et je serais heureux
que vous voulussiez bien mettre a ses pieds I'hom-
mage de ma reconnaissance profonde."

But it is high time to lay before you the re
sults of these combined labors : and always anx
ious to select them from the latest and best writ
ers, I will run through the connections between
sacred and Egyptian history as given in the differ
ent parts of Rosellini's work, to show you what
new lights and striking confirmation the former
has received from these researches, and how
groundless were the alarms of their early antag
onists. In the first place I must observe that

78 LECTURE THE EJGIITIT.

Rosellini takes the Scripture chronology as a neces
sary basis to all his calculations so far that he is
willing to reject every part of the early history
of Egypt which cannot enter within the limits
prescribed by Genesis.*

The first point in Scripture on which the la
bors .of Rosellini throw a new light, is the origin
and signification of the title of Pharaoh ; though
on this point he may be said to have received a
hint from our learned countrymen, Wilkinson and
Major Felix. By several analogies between the
Hebrew and Egyptian letters, he shows the title
to be identical with that of Phra, or Phre, the
sun, which is prefixed to the names of the kings
upon their monuments.')' Coming down to a
later period, we have an extraordinary coinci
dence between the facts related in the history of
Joseph, and the state of Egypt at the period when
he and his family entered it. We are told in the
book of Genesis that Joseph, upon presenting his
father and brethren to Pharaoh, was 'careful to tell
him that they were shepherds, and that their trade
had been to feed cattle, and that they had
brought their flocks and herds with them 4 But
in his instructions to them there seems to be an
extraordinary contradiction : — u When Pharaoh
shall call on you and say, ' What is your occupa
tion ? ' ye shall say, i Thy servants' trade hath

* " I Monument! dell' Egitto e della Nubia," vol. i. p. 111.

f P. 117.

J Gen. xlvi. 33, 34 ; xlvii. 1.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 79

been about cattle, from our youth even until now,
both we and also our fathers ; ' that ye may dwell
in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an
abomination unto the Egyptians."* Now why
make it such a point to tell Pharaoh that his fam
ily were all shepherds, because all shepherds were
an abomination to the Egyptians? This contra
diction is removed by the circumstance that when
Joseph was in Egypt, the greater part of its king
dom was under the dominion of the Hyk-Shos,
or Shepherd Kings — a foreign race, probably of
Scythian origin, who seized upon the kingdom.
Thus we have it, at once, explained how strangers,
of whom the Egyptians were so jealous, should be
admitted into power; how the king should be
even glad of new settlers, occupying considerable
tracts of his territory ; and how the circumstance
of their being shepherds, though odious to the
conquered people, would endear them to a sover
eign whose family followed the same occupation.
These Hyk-Shos are supposed by Champollion to
be represented by the figures painted on the soles
of Egyptian slippers, in token of contempt.f By
this state of Egypt we can also more easily
explain the measures pursued by Joseph during
the famine, to bring all the land and persons of
the Egyptians into the feudal dependence upon
their sovereign.;): And before leaving this period,

* 2b. xlvi. 34, cf. xlvii. 6, 11.

f Cliampollion, Lettre i. pp. 57, 58.

\ Rosellini, ib. p. 180.

80 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

I may obseve that the name given to Joseph of
" Saviour of the world," has been well explained
by Rosellini from the Egyptian language.

After the death of Joseph, the Scripture tells
us that a king arose who knew not Joseph. This
strong expression could hardly be applied to any
lineal successor of a monarch who had received
such signal benefits from him. It would lead us
rather to suppose that a new dynasty, hostile to
the preceding, had obtained possession of the
throne. " The Scripture," says James of Edessa,
" does not mean one particular Pharaoh, when
it says a new king, but all the dynasty of that
generation."*

Now, this is exactly the case. For, a few
years later, the Hyk-Shos, or Shepherd Kings,
who correspond to the 17th Egyptian dynasty,
were expelled from Egypt by Amosis, called on
monuments Amenophtiph, the founder of the
18th or Diospolitan dynasty. He would natur
ally refuse to recognize the services of Joseph, and
would consider all his family as necessarily his en
emies; and thus, too, we understand his fears lest
they should join the enemies of Egypt, if any war
fell out with them.f For the Hyk-Shos, after
their expulsion, continued long to harass the
Egyptians, by attempts to recover their lost do
minion .J Oppression was. of course, the means

* Cod. Vat. Syr. 104, fol. 44.

f Exod. i. 10. Also Maretho, ap. " Joseph, cont. Ap-
pion." lib. i. \ Resell, p. 291.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 81

employed to weaken first, and then extinguish, the
Hebrew population. The children of Israel were
employed in building up the cities of Egypt. It
has been observed by Champollion, that many of
the edifices erected by the 18th dynasty are upon
the ruins of older buildings, which had been mani
festly destroyed.* This circumstance, with the
absence of older monuments in the parts of Egypt
occupied by the Hyk-Shos, confirms the testi
mony of historians, that these usurpers destroyed
the monuments of native princes; and thus was
an opportunity given to the restorers of a native
sovereignty to employ those whom they consid
ered their enemies' allies, in repairing their in
juries. To this period belong the magnificent
edifices of Karnak, Luxor, and Medinet-Abu. At
the same time we have the express testimony of
Diodorus Siculus, that it was the boast of the
Egyptian kings, that no Egyptian had put his
hand to the work, but that foreigners had been

compelled to do it.f

It was under a king of this dynasty, accord
ing to Rosellini, of Ramses, that the children of
Israel went out from Egypt.J The Scripture nar-

* Champollion, 2de Lett. pp. 7, 10, 17.

f 14 torn. ii. p. 445, ed. Havercamp.

J Lib. i. p. 66, ed. Wesseling. I omit noticing the opinion
formerly held by Josephus, and others (ubi sup.), repeated,
by many modern writers, as Marsham (Canon ^Kgypt. Lips.
1676, pp. 90, 106) and Rosenm tiller (Scholia in Vet. Test. Pa.
i. vol. ii. p. 8, ed. tert.), and upheld even since the discovery
of the hieroglyphical alphabet by a few, as Bovet and Wil-
VOL II — 6

82 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

rative describes this event as connected with the
destruction of a Pharaoh, and so the chronological
calculation, adopted by Rosellini, would make it
coincide with the last year of that monarch's
reign.*

At this point we are met with a serious diffi
culty. Ancient historians speak of Sesostris as of
a mighty conqueror, who, issuing from Egypt, and
passing along the coast of Palestine, subjected in
numerable nations to his sceptre. The Scripture
never once alludes to this great invasion, which
must have passed over the country inhabited by
the Israelites. And this silence has been charged
against sacred history as involving a serious omis
sion, ruinous to its authenticity. For a long time
it was supposed that the Sethos JEgyptus of Man-
etho was identical with the Sesostris of Herodotus.
Even Champollion, from a want of sufficient mon
uments, had fallen into an error on this point, and

kinson (Materia Hieroglyphics, Malta, 1828, part ii. p. 80),
that the shepherd kings were no other than the children of
Israel. This opinion appears now quite untenable, and not
likely to find many supporters. The Hyk-Shos, as repre
sented on monuments, have the features, color, and other
distinctives of the Scythian tribes.

* As the Scripture speaks, with the exception of one poet
ical passage, of the destruction of Pharaoh's host, rather than
of the monarch's, some writers, as Wilkinson (p. 4, Remarks,
at the end of Materia Hieroglyph.} and Greppo, to whom I
cannot now refer, maintain that we need not necessarily sup
pose the death of a king to coincide with the exit from Egypt.
In Rosellini's scheme this departure from the received in
terpretation is not wanted.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. S3

subsequently changed his opinion. Rosellini has
taken great pains to prove that the two were dis
tinct, and by this discovery entirely removes all
difficulty. For he shows that the great conqueror,
Ramses Sethos .^Egyptus, a totally different person
from Ramses Sesostris, or the Sesostris of Herodo
tus and Diodorus, was the sovereign who con
ducted that mighty expedition, and founded the
nineteenth Egyptian dynasty. As the Israelites
had left Egypt shortly before the conclusion of
the eighteenth, it follows that the exploits of this
conqueror, and his passage through Palestine, hap
pened exactly during their forty years' wandering
through the wilderness, and could have no influ
ence on the state of that people, and consequently
needed not to be recorded in their national
annals.*

Connected with this application is a curious
and interesting monument, which has for some
time formed the topic of discussion among our
Roman antiquaries, and deserves a passing notice.
Herodotus mentions that the great conqueror Ses
ostris marked the route which he took by a series
of monuments, some of which he himself saw in
Palestine, while others existed in Ionia. f Maun-
drell was the first to notice " some strange figures
of men, carved in the natural rock, in mezzo
rilievo, and in bigness equal to life," on the moun
tain which overhangs the ford across the river
Lycus, or the Nahr-el-Kelb, not far from Beirut.
* Rosell, p. 305. f Lib. ii. c. 105.

84 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

Champollion, in his Precis, noticed this mon
ument as Egyptian, and as appertaining to Ram
ses or Sesostris. It appears that his information
came from a sketch made of it by Mr. Bankes ; but
an earlier one, by Mr. Wyse, had led Sir W. Gell
to the same discovery of the hero whom it repre
sents. Mr. Levinge, at Sir "William's request,
examined the monument, and pronounced that the
hieroglyph ical legend was quite defaced.* Mr.
Lajard published a further notice, from a sketch by
MM. Guys, but turned his attention chiefly to the
Persian monuments which are on the same rock.
Later he collected all the information he could
from M. Callier, who had not, however, any draw
ings to illustrate his description.f Mr. Bonomi
at length fully investigated this interesting matter,
and his observations, with the drawings that accom
pany them, both published by Mr. Landseer, leave
little more to be desired.

It appears, then, that on the side of the road,
which passes along the side of a mountain skirted
by the Lycus, are ten ancient monuments. Two
of these are comparitively of small interest, being
a Latin and an Arabic inscription regarding some
repairs done to the road. Of the others Mr. Bon
omi speaks as follows : " The most ancient, but
unfortunately the most corroded of the antiquities,
are three Egyptian tablets. On these may be

* " Bulletino dell' Institute di Corrispondenza Arclieolo-
gica," Gennaro, 1834, No I. &, p. 30 ; No. VI. Luglio, p. 155.
f Ibid, and " Bulletino," No. III. a, Marzo, 1825, p. 23.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 85

traced, in more places than one, the name, ex
pressed in hieroglyphics, of Ramses the Second /
to the period of whose reign any connoisseur, in
Egyptian art would have attributed them, even if
the evidence of the name had been wanting, from
the beautiful proportions of the tablets, and their
curvetto mouldings."* I will content myself with
mentioning, that beside this is a Persian rilievo,
representing a king, with astronomical emblems,
and covered with an arrowheaded inscription. Of
this precious monument a cast was made, with
great difficulty, by Mr. Bonoini.f Mr. Landseer
supposes it to represent Salrnanasor, or some other
early Assyrian invader.^ The chevalier Bunsen,
without having inspected the cast or drawing, con
jectures, with great appearance of reason, that its
hero is Cambyses.§

But to return to our Egyptians : — Champollion,
and after him Wilkinson, considered the Sesostris
of history to be identical with Ramses II., to whom
Bonomi attributes the hieroglyphical legend on the
Syriac monument ; || but, probably, he added the
number to his name only on account of that
received idea. Champollion changed his opinion,

* '• Landseer's Sabean Researches continued." Land. 1835,
p. 5. See the drawing prefixed to his essay.

f The original cast is at present in the possession of my
friend W. Scoles, Esq. \ lb. p. 14.

§ " Bulletino," No. III. a, 1835, p. 21.

1 " Lettres ecrites d'Egypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829."
Par. 1833, pp. 362, 438. Wilkinson's " Topography of Thebes,"
Lond., 1835, p. 51 ; also " Materia Hieroglyph."

80 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

I believe, before his death, and was followed, as you
have seen, by Rosellini. But M. Bunsen, who has
long been occupying himself with an attempt to
unravel the complications of Egyptian chronology,
has observed, that Ramses III. is undoubtedly the
Sesostris of the Greeks ; and that there is a mis
take of three or four centuries in the date assigned
by Champollion to the commencement of his
reign.*

Proceeding downwards in order of time, Rosel-
lini, with all other chronologists, places the fifth
year of Rehoboam, when Shishak overran the king
dom of Judah, and conquered Jerusalem, in the
year 971 B. c.f Now, in Egyptian monuments, we
find that Sheshonk began his reign with the twen
ty first dynasty precisely at the same period.;):

Rosellini has published many monuments of
Shishak, one of which particularly affords the
strongest confirmation of sacred by profane history
hitherto anywhere discovered. But this morning
I am treating only of pure chronology, and must,
therefore, reserve this interesting monument for
our next meeting, when we shall discuss archaeol
ogy.

The Zarach of the Second Book of Chronicles
(xiv. 9-15), has been supposed by Greppo and oth-

* " Bulletino," ib. p. 23.

f 8 or 1 Kings xiv. 25.

J Resell, p. 83. See also Champollion, 2de Lett. pp. 120,
164. Also his letter to Mr. G. A. Brown, in " Les Principaux
Monumens Egyptiens du Musee Britannique, par le T. H.
Charles York, et M. le Col. M. Leake." Land. 1827, p. 23

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 87

ers to be the Osorchon of monuments. Rosellini,
however, rejects this opinion, though, I confess, I
do not think his reasons very satisfactory ; they
consist in the slight difference of the name and in
his being called an Ethiopian, a circumstance which
rather confirms the coincidence, for the dynasty to
which he belonged was the Bubastian, considered
by Champollion Ethiopian.*

Rosellini, however, has added new monuments
to those already furnished by Champollion, as com
memorating two other kings mentioned later in
sacred history : — Sua, the Sevechns of the Greeks,
and the Shabak of monuments, commemorated
in the palaces of Luxor and Karnak, and by a
statue in the Villa Albani ; and Teraha, commem
orated at Mediiiet-Abu, under the name of Tah-
rak.f

To conclude these chronological details, one of
the most striking confirmations of Scriptural accu
racy yet remains. In Ezekiel xxix. 30-32, and
Jerem. xliv. 30, we have a donation made by God
of Pharaoh and his land to Nabuchodonosor ; and
" there shall be no more a prince of the land of
Egypt." Yet we find mention made of Amasis by
Herodotus and Diodorus as king of Egypt after
that period.

How are these two facts to be reconciled? By
his monuments, first published by Mr. Wilkinson.
Upon them Amasis never receives the Egyptian

* Ubi sup. p. 122.

f Pp. 107, 109. Wilkinson, pp. 98, 99.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

titles of royalty, but, instead of a pronomen, lias
the Semitic title of MeLek, showing that he reigned
on behalf of a foreign lord.* Two circumstances
put this, I may say, beyond a doubt. First ; Dio-
dorus tells us that Amasis was of low birth ; con
sequently he did not inherit the kingdom. Sec
ondly ; a son of Amasis seems to have governed
Egypt under Darius, for he bears the same title.
Now, certainly under the Persian conquest, there
was no native king, for monuments bear the names
of the Persian monarchs. The title Melek will
thus be proved to denote vice-regal authority ;
which again is still farther confirmed by a monu
ment published by Rosellini, wrho does not seem
to have observed Wilkinson's remark. This is an
inscription at Kosseir, belonging to the times of the
Persian domination, recording "the Melek of
Upper and Lower Egypt."f Thus is a serious dif
ficulty removed ; Amasis was not a king, but only
a viceroy.

But it is time to turn to another application
of Egyptian researches, — to the illustration of its
astronomical representations. The attention to
Egyptian monuments and literature in modern
times, has been indeed fertile in objections to sacred
history, which, like every other study, it has over
thrown in its advance. The controversy upon the
zodiacs of Dendera, the ancient Tentyris, and
Esneh, or Latopolis, is a remarkable proof of this
assertion.

* " Materia Hierogl." pp. 100, 101. f P. 243.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

89

The expedition into Egypt under Napoleon,
which shed as much lustre on the literary ardor
of France as it cast shadow upon her martial
prowess, first made us acquainted with these curi
ous monuments. At Dendera were found two ;
one was an oblong painting, formed by two paral
lel but separate bands, enclosed within two mon
strous female figures. Upon these bands, in an
inner subdivision, were disposed the zodiacal signs,
with numerous mythological representations ; on
the outside were a series of boats, representing the
decans of each sign. This zodiac was painted in
the portico of a temple, where, like all the others,
it occupied the ceiling. The second zodiac, or
rather planisphere, is circular, and has been trans
ported to France from an upper chamber of the
same temple by MM. Saulnier and Lelorrain.
Esneh contributed also two zodiacs, one from the
greater, the second from the smaller of its temples.
These two, with the rectangular zodiac of Dendera,
can alone claim particular attention ; the circular
planisphere must follow the fate of the zodiac
painted in the same temple.

No sooner were representations of these monu
ments published, than Europe, and particularly
France, teemed with memoirs and dissertations dis
cussing their antiquity. It was in general taken
for granted that they represented the state of the
heavens at the period when they were projected,
and when the edifices which they adorned were
erected. Some discovered in them the point in

9(> LKCTUUK THE EIGHTH.

which the solstitial colures cut the ecliptic at that
time, and with Burckhardt, attributed to the great
zodiac of Esneh the frightful antiquity of 7,000, to
that of Dendera of 4,000 years ; while Dupuis,
upon the same premises, stinted the latter to 3,562.*
Others assumed that they represented the state of
the heavens at the commencement of a Sothic
period ; and, like Sir "W. Drummond, assigned to
that of Dendera 1,322, f to that of the great temple
of Esneh 2,800 years before our era.f A third
class, in fine, saw in them the heliacal rising of Siri-
us at some given period, and concluded with Four
ier, that the zodiacs of Esneh were constructed
2,500, that of Dendera 2,000 years before Christ,§
or with Nonet, that the latter was traced 2,500, the
greater of the former 4,600 years anterior to that
era. | I need not weary you farther by enumerating
such systems as these. The same basis led different
speculators to opposite conclusions ; and error thus
betrayed itself by the characteristic variety of its
hues.

Early in the contest there was a class of inves
tigators who ventured to suggest, that the alarming
antiquity thus conceded to these curious monu
ments should be examined, not upon astronomical,
but upon archaeological principles. The venerable

* See Cuvier. ubi sup, p. 251.

f " Memoir on the Antiquity of the Zodiacs of Esneh and
Dendera." Loncl 1821, p. 141 ; vid. p. 7.

\ 2b. p. 59. § See Guigniaut, p. 919.

| Volney's " Rechcrches nouvelles." 3e partie. Par,
1814, p. 3«>6.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 01

and learned Monsignor Testa, and the celebrated
antiquary Visconti, were among the number.* The
latter remarked, in particular, that the temple of
Dendera, though of Egyptian architecture, bore
characteristic marks which could not be more an
cient than the Ptolemies, and that Greek inscrip
tions upon it referred to a Caesar, who, he thought,
must be Augustus or Tiberius. This reasoning,
however, was overlooked for twenty years, and
astronomical illustrations were alone admitted.
Mr. Bankes, during his visit to Egypt, paid con
siderable attention to this interesting investiga
tion ; and in a letter to Mr. David Baillie, commu
nicated his grounds for believing these temples to
be of no greater antiquity than the reigns of Adrian
and Antoninus Pius.f He remarked, that while
the capitals of the most ancient columns of Thebes
are a simple bell, and placed on polygonal or fluted
shafts, those of Esneh and Dendera are laboriously
rich with foliage and fruit. More than this, the
hieroglyphics upon the columns are not certainly
Egyptian, for Mr. Bankes found an inscription,
stating that they were traced in the reign of Anto
ninus.:):

The archseologieal arguments, however, for the
modern construction of these monuments, received
their full development from the hand of M. Le-

* " Testa sopra due Zodiaci novellamente scorperti nell't
Egitto." Rome, 1802. Visconti, in Larcher's Herodotus, vol.
ii. p. 5G7, seqq. \ Sir W. Drummoud's Memoir, p. 56.

f\ Ib. p. 57. This, I suppose, is meant of the temple at the
north of Esneh, known by the name of the small temple.

02 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

tronne. This learned scholar collected all necessary
information from the publications and reports of
travellers regarding their architecture, and illus
trated the inscriptions still existing upon them.
MM. tluyott and Gau furnished him with interest
ing particulars on the former subject. Among
other facts they proved from its style, and from the
colors employed, that the pronaon of the small tem-
l le of Esneh, in which the zodiac is painted, is of
the same date with the temple itself. Now an in
scription, probably the same alluded to by Mr.
Bankes, was copied by these artists from a column
of the latter, in which it is stated that two Egyp
tians caused the paintings to be executed in the
tenth year of Antoninus — the 147th after Christ.*
Such, then, is the date of the small zodiac of Esneh,
to which an age had been assigned of from two to
three thousand years anterior to Christ. The tem
ple of Dendera has shared the same fate. A Greek
inscription on its portico, which had been over
looked, declares it to be dedicated to the safety of
Tiberius.f

While Letronne was thus occupied in examin
ing the Greek inscriptions on these supposed vesti
ges of hoary antiquity, M. Champollion was ma
turing his alphabet of hieroglyphics, and soon con
firmed by his researches the conclusion of his
friend. On the pronaon of the temple of Dendera

* " Recherches pour servir a 1'Histoire dc 1'Egypte pen
dant la domination des Qrecs et des liomains." Paris, 1823,
p. 456. f 76. p. 180.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 93

he also read the hieroglyphical legend of Tiberius.*
On the circular planisphere of the same temple he
deciphered the letters AOTKRTR ; or. supply
ing the vowels, AYTOKPATOP, the title which
Nero takes upon his Egyptian medals, f Only the
zodiac of the great temple of Esneh remains, and
M. Champollion has disposed of its antiquity, to
gether with the temple on which it is painted, in
an equally unceremonious manner. When at Na
ples, in August, 1826, Sir William Gell communi
cated to him accurate drawings of the Esneh zodi
ac, taken by Messrs. Wilkinson and Cooper ; and
he discovered that this monument was dedicated,
not as the astronomers would have conjectured,
under the reign of some rough-named Egyptian
Pharaoh, but under the Roman emperor Commo-
dus.J The sculptures of this temple he had before
demonstrated to have been executed in the reign
of Claud ius.§

It was with justice, then, that the Minister of
the Interior, the Yiscount de la Rochefaucauld, in
a letter addressed to the king of France, dated May
15th, 1826, attributed to M. Champollion the merit
of having decided the controversy in the opinion
of every unprejudiced person.

" The public suffrage," says he, " of the most
distinguished learned men in Europe has conse-

* Lettre a M. Letronne, at the end of " Observations,"
etc., as below, p 111.

f Lettre a M. Dacier, p. 25, Letronne, p. xxxviii.

$ "Bulletin universel," ut sup. torn. vi. § Letronne.

94: LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

crated results, the application of which has already
been very useful to the truth of history, and the
assurance of sound literary doctrines. For your
Majesty has not forgot that the discoveries of M.
Champollion have demonstrated, without opposi
tion, that the zodiac of Dendera, which appeared
to alarm public belief, is only a work of the Roman
epoch in Egypt."

It was not, however, to be expected that the
resistance of adversaries wrould be fully overcome
by these vigorous attacks. Too much learning had
been expended in the support of elaborate theories,
too much confidence had been exhibited in assert
ing favorite systems, for their authors to yield them
up without a pang, and in some instances without
a struggle.

" Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem." *

The temples, it might be granted, were indeed
proved to be modern, and consequently the zodiacs
which they bear; but the latter must have been
copied from others of an ancient date. " Thus, the
original scheme of the round zodiac of Dendera
must have been formed at least seven centuries
before our era." Such was the defence raised by
the late Sir William Drummond in his last work,f
and when he penned it, he cannot have been

* Catul. Car. Ixxvi. 13.

f " Origines ; or, Remarks on the Origin of several Em
pires," vol. ii. p. 227. Land. 1325

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 95

acquainted with the learned dissertation published
a few months before, in which Letronne gave the
finishing stroke to this and every other defence of
the absurd antiquity of the zodiacs.*

The enterprising travellef, Cailliaud, on his
return from Egypt, brought, among other rarities,
a mummy discovered at Thebes, and distinguished
by several peculiarities. The two most important
were, a Greek legend much defaced, and a zodiac,
very exactly resembling that of Dendera.f In
the dissertation to which I have alluded, M.
Letronne undertakes the illustration of these two
points, and their application to the zodiacal repre
sentations in the Egyptian temples. The inscrip
tion he restores with a felicity that must satisfy
the most supercilious critic, and discovers the
mummy to be that of Petemenon, son of Soter
and Cleopatra, who died at the age of twenty-one
years, four months, and twenty-two days, in the
nineteenth year of Trajan, the 8th Payni, or June
2, A. D. 1164

The zodiac on the interior of the case, I have
already said, resembles that of Dendera. Like it,
protected by a disproportioned female figure,
whose arms are extended, it exhibits the zodiaca)
signs in two parallel bands, ascending and descend

* " Observations critiques et arclieologiques sur 1'objel
des. Representations Zodiacales." Paris, Mars, 1824. Sir W.
Drummond's dedication is dated Sept. 17, 1824.

f " Voyage a Meroe au Fleuve Blanc," etc. Par. 1823,
fol. vol. ii. pi. Ixxi. | P. 30.

96 LECTUJRE THE EIGHTH.

ing precisely in the same order, and in a similar
style of design. Even the cow reposing in a
boat, and emblematic of Isis or of Sirius, is not
wanting. The identity, therefore, of the two rep
resentations, may l?e said to be fully established.
But there is one peculiarity in the miniature rep
resentation. The sign of Capricorn is withdrawn
from the series, and placed over the head of the
figure, in. an isolated situation, where it appears to
dominate.*

The very existence of a zodiac upon the case
of a mummy must suggest the idea that it has a re
ference to the embalmed ; in other words, that it
is astrological, and not astronomical. In this case,
the detached sign may be supposed to represent
that under which the individual was born, and
which consequently was to rule his fate through
life. This hypothesis is easily verified. We have
the exact age of Petemenon, with the date of his
death. Calculating from these, wre find that he
was born on January 12, A.D. 95. On that day
the sun is situated at nearly two-thirds of Capri
corn. If instead of the sign we prefer the constel
lation, the conclusion will be the same ; for, calcu
lating from Delambre's table, according to the
annual precession, we find that at the period in
question the whole constellation was comprised in
the sign, and that on the 12th of January the sun
was about the 16th degree of the former, f

We can therefore entertain 110 doubt that the
* P. 49. f Pp. 53, 54.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 97

zodiac expresses a natal theme ; and analogy would
lead us to the same conclusion regarding that of
Dendera, even if the appearance of the dec-axis,
recognized by Yisconti and demonstrated by Cham
pollion, who has read beside them the names
given them in Julius Firmicus, did not already
authorize us to consider it astrological.

M. Letronne, however, does not content him
self with this general conclusion, but enters into
an elaborate examination of the astrology of the
ancients. This, originally the offspring of Egypt,
passed into Greece and Rome, and returned to its
mother country, ennobled and consecrated, by the
patronage of the Caesars.* Precisely at the mo
ment when the celebrated zodiacs were sketched,
this science, if it may bear that name, had attained
its zenith, and culminated over its native soil. Man-
ilius, in the reign of Augustus, Vettius Yalens in
that of M. Aurelius, wrote their treatises concern
ing it ; but the numerous astrological medals of
Egypt, under Trajan, Adrian, and Antoninus, de
monstrate its prevalence in that country. f This
was likewise the age of astrological sects, of Gnos
tics, Ophites, and Basilidians, whose Abraxes,
exhibiting various astrological combinations, had
been gravely taken by some of the illustrators of
the zodiacs for monuments of 3,863 years before
the Christian era.J This concentration of evidence,
the modern and nearly contemporary dates of all
the zodiacs, the decided astrological character of
* Pp. 58-86. f Pp. 86-92. \ P. 70.

VOL. ii. — 7

98 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

one, the decans upon another, and above all, the
prevalence of astrological ideas at the only time
when any zodiac existing in Egypt was made, leaves
no room to donbt that all such representations
are purely remnants of the occult science, and
only exhibit genethliacal themes.*

What a waste of talents, of time, and of learn
ing, has not truth to deplore, in retracing the his
tory of this memorable controversy ! Over what
a glittering heap of ruined systems has not error to
mourn — systems where all wras brilliant, all was
imposing, all was confident, but where all was, at
the same time, hollow and brittle and unsound.
"We have, indeed, many cases, where a sportive or
malicious fraud has deluded the ingenuity and
study of an antiquary, and made him pay, like
Scriblerus, to modern rust, the veneration and
homage reserved to that of antiquity. f But never
before did the world see an instance where " a
spirit of giddiness " had so completely invaded such
a large portion of learned and able men, as that
they should ascribe countless ages to monuments
comparatively modern, undeterred by the fall of
system after system —

" And still engage

Within the same arena where they see
Their fellows fall before, like leaves of the same tree."

CHILDE HAROLD, Canto iv. 94.
* Pp. 105-108.

f See Disraeli's " Curiosities of Literature," 2nd series,
2nd edit. Land, 1824, vol. iii. p. 49, seqq. But many other
curious examples might be added to those cited by D'Israeli.

LECTURE THE EIGHTH. 99

Never, in fact, did error bear more completely its
hydra form. Each head was cut off the moment
it appeared, but a new one rose instantly at its
side, equally bold, and equally " speaking great
things." For more than twenty years this gall
ing warfare continued ; but, as prejudice was grad
ually exhausted, and true science gained strength,
the vital powers of the monster became less vig
orous, and the wounds which it received more
fatal. Its last gasp has long since died away ;
the last flap of its mortal struggles has ceased;
and, only existing among the records of history,
it can now present no more terrors to the most
simple and timid, than the "gaunt anatomy," or
well-preserved coils of some desert monster, in
the cabinet of the curious.

Still, it is a pleasure to see the catalogue of
great names who did not bend their knee to this
favorite idol, and it is only justice to record
them. A writer in an English journal, long after
the last researches which I have detailed, had the
boldness to assert that " on the Continent," — and
he is speaking of France in particular — " the
antiquity of the zodiacs of Dendera has been con
sidered as quite sufficiently established to prove
that the Egyptians were a learned and scientific
people long before the date which our belief
affixes to the creation of man :" while in England,
not only was this denied, but the contrary
demonstrated, for the first time, by Mr Bentley !*
* " British Critic," April, 1826, p. 137, cf. 149.

100 LECTURE THE EIGHTH.

By a logical process, unfortunately too common
in the pages of that journal, the writer finds the
cause of this phenomenon in the religions of the
countries. " The baneful influence of Popery,"
he says induces the philosophical inquirer " to
reject all revelation as no better than priestcraft ;"
while, " in our own free country, the encourage
ment given to a full and free examination of the
evidence of Christianity has taught acute reasoners
to know his strength."* All this was written two
years after the last work of Letronne had closed
the lists in France on the subject of the zodiacs.
But if the critic had been less borne away by the
desire of tilting against Catholicity, even where
his challenge was with infidelity — the common
adversary — he surely would have recollected the
names, not only of Letronne and Champollion,
but of Lalande, Yisconti Paravey, Delambre,
Testa, Biot, Saint-Martin, Ilalma, and Cuvier,
every one of whom had assigned a modern epoch
to these mounments. And were not numbers,
but astronomical science, is required, such names
as those of Lalande, Delambre, and Biot, may
surely weigh in the balance against many others,
and redeem the French savans from the sweeping
imputation so injuriously cast upon them.

* P. 136, seq.

LECTURE THE NINTH;

ON

ARCHEOLOGY.

INTRODUCTORY Remarks. — MEDALS : Reconciliation of an
apparent contradiction between Genesis and the Acts. —
Frohlich's application of Medals to the defence of the
chronology of the Maccabees. — Alexander called the first
king among the Greeks : Death of Aiitiochus Evergetes.
Acknowledgments of his opponents ; accordance of Eck-
hel. M. Tochon d'Annecy's objections. — Apamean med
als ; History of them ; comparison with other monuments.
— INSCRIPTIONS : Verbal illustrations of Scripture from
them. — Gibbon and Dods well's assertions regarding the
small number of Christian martyrs, and Burnet's objec
tions, answered by Visconti, from inscriptions. — MONU
MENTS : Use of wine in Egypt denied, and the Scripture
consequently assailed. Confutation of this cavil from
Egyptian monuments. — Costaz, Jomard, Champollion,
and Rosellini. — Curious vase found in the Roman Cam-
pagna, referable to the Deluge. — Conquest of Juda by
Shishak, represented at Karnak. Concluding remarks.

OUR last inquiries have gradually led us
among the monuments of antiquity: and, from
the examination of such great chronological points
as touched on the authenticity of sacred history,
we found ourselves almost imperceptibly brought
to the discussion of individual monuments of

102 LECTURE THE NINTH.

kings, and of their people. It might, therefore,
be said, that the study on which we have now to
enter has been already introduced ; or, at least,
that the connection between what has been said
and what will follow, is so close and natural as
hardly to warrant a separation into two distinct
pursuits. But in all the histories hitherto ex
amined, we have had one specific object in view —
the reconciliation of their early monuments with
sacred chronology, and the process we have pur
sued has been consequently uniform and simple.
We have followed the actual progress of science,
and, comparing its results with our sacred records,
have invariably discovered that it removed all
difficulties, and gave us a variety of new and in
teresting chronological coincidences.

There are, however, a multitude of monuments
bearing upon the Christian evidences which could
not enter into this class, and which, if introduced
under the same science, would have disturbed our
process, and broken the unity of our design.
These, therefore, I will throw together into a
distinct class, under the name of archaeology.
Obviously, its character will hardly allow us to
pursue so uniform and progressive a method as
in our last researches ; for, like the objects which
it discusses, it is necessarily of a fragmentary
nature. It owns not the unities of time, place, or
action ; it professes to deal with the remains of
every age, and of every country, composed of
every sort of materials, and shaped in every pos-

LECTURE THE NINTH. 103

sible form. Thus, as it turns its attention from
Greece to Italy, from Sicily to Egypt, as it deci
phers an inscription, discusses a medal, fixes the
locality of an edifice, or judges of its age, it must
vary its rules, its methods, and its direction.
Hence, as a science, it cannot be said to have one
definite onward movement, tending to the de
velopment of any general conclusion. Our course
must be of a similar nature ; we will here pick up
a medal ; there will pore over an inscription ; we
will content ourselves with such monuments as
chance shall throw in our way, and carefully store
up in our cabinet such illustrations or confirma
tions, however slight, as they may seem to afford
to our sacred convictions.

To these remarks I must further add, that here
I can only pretend to glean what others have left
behind. Of the species of confirmatory evidences
which these lectures pursue, none has been oftener
or more fully handled than the illustrations from
such antiquarian remains. Every elementary in
troduction to Scripture dedicates a chapter to this
subject; though, in some instances, as in the
monument of the Assyrian captivity given by
Home from Kerr Porter, the examples are far
from certain ; in others, as in the Apamean medal,
by no means accurate. Now, I have pledged my
self to bring forward no examples already given
in works upon the evidences, and therefore I must
be content with such as the industry of others
may have overlooked.

104 LECTURE THE NINTH.

I cannot avoid mentioning, in this place, a
work which has taken one class of monuments
out of our hands — those that relate to the his
tory of Christianity. I mean Walsh's Essay on
ancient coins, medals and gems, as illustrating
the progress of Christianity in the early ages.*
It is a work, however, which must disappoint
expectation. Most of its materials are but a
secondary interest ; a great portion of the volume
is taken up with an account of the Gnostics, and
their doctrines, and makes but a sorry figure be
side the profound researches of such continental
writers as Neander and Halm. The second part
of the work gives a series of medals, illustrative
of the imperial history from Diocletian to John
Zemiscus in 969, and so far is interesting ; but it
contains many inaccuracies, and gives the author
opportunities of displaying an ill-timed illiberality.

With these disadvantages, we will enter upon
our researches among the medals, inscriptions,
and monuments of antiquity.

I. There is an apparent contradiction between
the narratives in Gen xxxiii. 19, and in Acts vii.
16, relating to the purchase of a field by Jacob
from the Hemorites. For St. Stephen, in the
latter passage, tells us that the price was paid in
a sum of money, ripfe ap-yvpiov, whereas the orig
inal text of Genesis says that it was paid by a
hundred lamls, or sheep. At least, the Hebrew
word there used, wr»p (Kesitd], is so rendered by
* London, 1828.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 105

every ancient version. Hence, the English ver
sion, which renders it by pieces of money, has
added in the margin, as nearer the original, the
other interpretation. Supposing this rendering
of the ancient versions to be correct, and there
must have been some reason for their all giving
that meaning to the word, there was a very simple
method of reconciling the two passages, by con
sidering the same term to have expressed both
objects ; in other words, by conjecturing that the
ancient Phenician coin bore upon it the figure of a
lamb, for which it was an equivalent, and that from
this emblem, is also derived its name. For nothing
is more common than such a substitution. Among
our ancestors, the angel and cross, so often alluded
to in Shakspeare, received their names from the
representation they bore ; and among the Romans,
the very name of money, pecunia, is allowed to be
derived from the exactly similar case of a sheep
being stamped upon it. Any apparent difficulty
would thus be satisfactorily removed by a highly
probable conjecture. But the publication of a
medal, found by Dr. Clarke near Citium in Cyprus,
has given us all the evidence we might desire.
The late learned Dr. Munter presented a disserta
tion on this subject to the Royal Danish Academy
inserted in their Acts for 1822.* In it he observes
that the coin, which is of silver, is undoubtedly
Phenician, as it bears upon the reverse a legend
in Phenician characters. On the obverse is the

* Philosophical and Historical Class.

106 LECTURE THE NINTH.

figure of a sheep ; and no doubt can be entertained
of its extreme antiquity. Here, then, he concludes,
it is extremely probable, that we have the very
coin alluded to in Scripture ; at least, we now know
for certain that the Phenicians had a coin with a
symbol corresponding to the meaning of the word
Kesita ; and the element alone wanting to make
the conjectural reconciliation morally certain now
exists.*

A most complete and valuable application of
numismatics, to the vindication of sacred chron
ology, has been made in reference to the latest
historical works of the Jews, the two books of
Maccabees. ]STo books of Scripture had been
subjected to a stricter examination than these,
because they entered among the topics of religious
dispute, after the Reformation. The Catholic,
who believes them to form part of the canonical
Scriptures, feels necessarily a livelier interest con
cerning them ; but to all Christians they must ap
pear of immense value, from forming the last and
only historical link in the connection between the
old and new dispensations, and the only record
of the fulfilment of those promises w^hich foretold
the restoration and continuation of the Jewish scep
tre till the Messiah should come. Great difficul
ties, however, existed regarding the dates assigned

* On the reverse, with the legend, is a crown of pearls.
One would be tempted to suspect that such a circumstance
may account for the strange translation of the two Targums
of Onkelos and Jerusalem, which both render
a hundred Kesites, by "p^:n72 nxa a hundred pearls.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 107

by them to events related no less in classical his
tory and the manner in which they recounted them.
By some strange inconsistency it has almost always
happened that when the evidence of any sacred
book is compared with that of a profane author, it
is taken for granted that the form must be in error,
if both do not agree. This we have seen to be the
case in treating of Indian and Egyptian antiqui
ties. Where they did not harmonize with Scripture
chronology, this was pronounced in fault ; though,
critically speaking, it must be allowed at least an
equal weight with them. Now, precisely the same
course was pursued here. Discrepancies were un
doubtedly found to exist between the dates assigned
to events in these and in other authors later in
time and more distant in country from the scene
of those actions ; and of course, the sacred book
was condemned as inaccurate. Erasmus Frohlich,
in the preface to his Annals of the Kings and
Events of Syria, a numismatic wrork of great
authority and research, has undertaken the task
of comparing the chronology of these books, not
with the vague testimony of other historians, often
differing among themselves, but with the contem
porary and incontestable evidence of medals. And
the result has been a table confirming, in every
respect, the order and epochs of events recorded
in the inspired history.*

* " Annales compendiarii Regum et Rerum Syrioe." Ed
sec. Vien. 1754. The second part of his Prolegomena is en
tirely taken up with the vindication of these books.

108 LECTURE THE NINTH.

You will easily suppose that the objections
were not given up without a struggle. The first
edition of Frohlich's work appeared in 1744, and
two years later, Ernest Fred. Wernsdorff appeared
in the field against him.* His efforts were not con
sidered satisfactory by his party, and his brother,
Gottlieb, came to his assistance in the following
year.f Both were fully answered by an anony
mous work in 1749 ; ^ and, in spite of the viru
lence exhibited by the two brothers, I think, who
ever reads the controversy will be satisfied that the
victory was not with them. However, in giving
two or three examples of Frohlich's illustrations, I
will select such as the Wernsdorffs themselves
acknowledge to be satisfactory.

In the first book of Maccabees, vi. 2, Alexander
the Great is introduced with this description, —

5? eftamfavae Trpwrof ev rolg "Ehfyai — W/10 first WdS Icing

among the Greeks. This, it has been alleged,
is false; inasmuch as Alexander had several pre
decessors in Macedon, who certainly were kings,
and reigned among the Greeks. It may be an
swered, indeed, that he was the first among them
who founded an empire bearing their name ; but
the solution given by Frohlich is far more satisfac-

* " De fontibus Historic Syrise in Libris Maccabaeorum
prolusio." Lips. 1746.

f " Gottlieb Wernsdorffii Commentatio historico-critica de
fide historica librorum Maccabaicorum." Wratislau, 1747.

J " Auctoritas utriusque libri Maccab. canonico-historica

adserta a quodam Soc. Jesu sacerdote Curante Cas-

paro Schmidt bibliopego." Vien. 1749.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 109

tory. For it is extraordinary, that whatever may
have been the power of other monarchs before him,
not one ever took the title of Bcurcyevc, or king,
upon his coin, before him. " Certainly," says Froh-
lich, " it is not without importance, that no medal
of undoubted genuineness of sovereigns in Mace-
don, anterior to Alexander, should bear the title of
king. They have barely the names of the mon
archs, as Amyntas, Archelaus, Perdiccas, Philip ;
and some coins have simply Alexander, but many
more King Alexander."* Gottlieb Wernsdorff
acknowledges that this solution is correct. " This,"
he says, " is right, I could hardly suppose that any
doubt could exist on this point. For Jewish his
torians, under the name of Greeks (rav 'EAA^wv),
always understand the Macedonians, and by king
dom, the Macedonian empire, or more peculiarly
that of the Seleucidee." He, however, charges
Frohlich with a double fraud ; first, in attributing
to Philip Aridseus a medal of Philip Amy n tor,
given by Spanheim, on which the title of king
occurs ; secondly, in overlooking a medal of Argse-
us. — " Dicitur quoque extare numus Argsei, regis
antiquissimi cum epigraphe Apyeiov Baff^^,"* To
these objections the anonymous defender of Froh
lich replies — that the supposed Amyntor of Span-

* " Sane non de niliilo est, veterum qui ante Alexandrum
fuissent Macedonia regum certa numismata Bacr^ewf titulum
non prae se ferre : sola comparent regum nomine : A/nvvra vel
A/uvvTov, Apxefatov, Hepfitmtov, ^^TTTTO?;, et quaBdum numis
mata Afagavtipov legimus, alia plura Bamfauc; AXefavrfpov." —
FKOHLICH, p. 31. f " Commentatio," § xxii. p. 39.

HO LECTURE THE NINTH.

lieim is manifestly, from the style of art, a coin of
a Gallo-Grecian king ; and that the Argsens of Tol
ling, no one had ever seen, or could pretend to
trace. He assures ns also that he and Frohlich had
carefully examined every medal in the imperial and
other cabinets, and had never found the title upon
any prior to Alexander.*

Again, the second book gives us, in the first
chapter, a letter from the Jews of Palestine to their
brethren in Egypt, dated in the year of the Seleu-
cidse 188, and containing a detailed narrative of the
death of King Antiochus in Persia. What Anti-
ochus, it has been asked, could this be ? Inde
pendently of chronological objections, it could not
certainly be Antiochus Soter, who died at Antioch ;
not his successor, Antiochus Theus, who was pois
oned by Laodice ; nor Antiochus Magnus, who was
friendly to the Jews. Of Antiochus Epiphane's
end we have quite a different account in the very
same book (ix. 5). Antiochus Eupator, his suc
cessor, after a reign of two years, was killed by
Demetrius, and the infant of the same royal name,
who was proclaimed king by Tryphon, was soon
poisoned by him as well. No other sovereign of
this name remains but Antiochus Sidetes, called
also Evergetes, whose reign alone coincides with
the time of the letter. But a difficulty, apparently
as serious as any of the preceding, seemed to exclude
him ; for this monarch commenced his reign in
174, and Porphyrius and Eusebius agree in assign-

* Oper. cit. p. 170.

LKfTUKK THE NINTH. Ill

ing less than nine years as the term of its duration.
He must, therefore, have died in war, according to
them, about the year 182. How, then, could the
Jews, in 188, give an account of his death as of a
recent event ? Could we imagine, for instance, the
members of any religious community nowadays
writing a common letter to their brethren in a very
near country, to convey the intelligence that the
sovereign who oppressed them was dead, full six
years after that event ? This concurring testimony
of two historians was considered decisive against
the Jewish historian, and Prideaux unhesitatingly
adopted it as correct.* JSTow Frohlich has proved,
beyond a doubt, that they must be wrong. First,
he produced two medals bearing the name of Anti-
ochus, with dates, one of 183, the other 184 ; con
sequently later by two years than the time which
those historians assign to his death. One is as
follows : —

BAICAEJ2C. ANTw^ou TYP : IEP : ACT. AHP.

Of King Antiochus ; of Tyre, the sacred Asylum,
184.f

The controversy upon these medals has been
carried down into our own times. Ernest Werns-
dorff acknowledges the genuineness of the medal,
and allows that it satisfactorily proves Antiochus
Sidetes to have lived beyond the period assigned
to him by profane history ; and even seems to add
his own testimony to that of Frohlich. For he

* "Old and New Testaments connected." Chronolog.
Table at the end of vol. iv. ed. 1749.

f P. 24. See the medals in his plate xi. Nos. 27, 29.

112 LECTURE THE NINTH.

thus expresses himself: " Quamquam igitur quod
ad numismata et annos iisdem inscriptos attinet
facile assentior; eidem cum ipsi inihi, beneficio
consultissimi viri complures ab Antiocho procusos
numos oculis usurpare manibusque tractare con-
tigerit." * His auxiliary, however, was more un
yielding, for he suggests that the legend has been
misread, and that, probably, a slight alteration in
a letter has changed the number 181 into 184. f
But if even we allow all that has been written
against these two medals to be valid, there are
others, produced subsequently to the animadver
sions of the two brothers, which seem to place the
matter out of doubt. For Frohlich afterwards
published a medal of the same king with the
date of 185;J and Eckhel added a fourth, struck
in 186.§

This point of sacred chronology was re-exam
ined a few years ago by M. Tochon d'Annecy,]
who was manifestly guided by no desire to
weaken the authority of the books of Maccabees.
He proves what every one will allow, that serious

* " De fontibus liistoriee Syrise," p. xiii.

f "Commode legi posset AIIP 181, cum elementum A et
A adeo similibus lineis exaretur, ac numus ipse mutilus sit;
ut ne nomen quidem Antioclii distincte exliibeat." — Ubi sup.
sec. xlii. p. 79 ; cf. the reply, p. 288.

\ " Ad numismata regum veterum anecdota et rariora ac-
cessio nova," p. 69.

§ " Sylloge Numorum veterum," p. 8. " Doctrina Numo-
rum veterum," torn. iii. p. 236.

I " Dissertation sur 1'Epoque de la Mort d'Antiochus VII.
Evergetes Sidetes." Paris, 1815.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 113

difficulties surround every hypothesis, and that
the concurrent testimony of historians should not
be lightly rejected. Apparent contradictions, in
deed, must meet us in every part of history ; the
difficulty is where to lay the blame. The medals
struck for the coronation of Louis XIY. give a
different day from that which all contemporary
historians accord in fixing for the date of that
event. Of them all, only one, D. Ruinart, has
noticed a circumstance which reconciles this dis
crepancy. For he alone has recorded that the
coronation had been appointed to take place on a
certain day, the one given by the medals, which
were accordingly prepared, but circumstances
caused a delay till the one which historians assign.
Nothing can be more simple than all this ; yet, in
a thousand years, had no such explanation been
given, antiquaries might have been sadly per
plexed to find a reconciliation. In that case, then,
the medals were wrong, and the historians right ;
in ours we are equally driven to condemn one
class of authorities, and I think the critic will
hardly hesitate which to prefer. For, in the ex
ample given, the medals are inaccurate, from the
date once placed on them not having been
changed, when the event which they commemo
rated was deferred ; but here we must suppose the
incredible error of successive false dates, in conse
quence of new medals being struck to a monarch
who was long before dead.

M. Tochon rejects the two earlier medals,

VOL II. — 8

114: LECTURE THE NINTH.

chiefly that of 184, on grounds different from
WernsdorfFs but admitted by Eckhel, that the
supposed A, or 4, which is somewhat indistinct,
appears to be a B, or 2, of peculiar shape.* But
against the two later medals lie urges nothing but
plausibilities ; the difficulties which we incur by
considering them genuine, to the disparagement of
so many historical authorities.! In some respects
he is hardly just to Frohlich ; for he assumes
throughout that the learned Jesuit places the death
of the king in 188,^: and consequently asks how it
happens that we have medals of his successor,
Antiochus Grypus, with the date of 18T.§ Now
Frohlich places the death of the Antiochus Ever-
getes in 186. || In this manner the circumstance
of no medal of Antiochus Grypus bearing an older
date, forms a negative confirmation of his opinion.
Thus far, therefore, it should seem, that the appli
cation of medals has served to defend the chronol
ogy of these sacred records.

I will now call your attention to a class of
medals long the subject of serious disputes and
endless conjectures, and allusive to that great rev
olution which has already several times occupied
our notice. After the proofs we have seen of the

* " Dissertation," p. 22. f P. 64. J Pp. 24, 29, etc.

§ " Commet alors supposer, que la mort d'Antioclms Ever-
getes puisse atre arrivee Fan 188 ? Elle serait posterieur au
egne de son fils " (p. 61).

I "Anno CLXXXVI. Circa hoc tempus contigisse exislimo
cseden Antiochi VII. Evcrgetis" (p. 88).

LECTURE THE NIJS'TH. 115

Deluge in the traditions of every country, " from
China to Peru ; " after the visible evidences of its
action, which we have discovered piled up on the
mountains and scooped out in the valleys of our
globe, it will perhaps appear mere trifling to occupy
ourselves about the petty monuments on which
any particular nation, much more any city, may
have thought proper to inscribe its traditions con
cerning it. Still must we not neglect small things
on account of greater ; but make all contribute,
where they can, to the noble and glorious cause
of religion. It is evident that the ancients had two
very different legends of the Deluge, one a popular
fable adapted to their national mythology, another
far more philosophical, derived from the traditions
of the East, and consequently much more in accord
ance with the scriptural narration. The former is
the Deluge of the poets, such as Ovid has de
scribed it ; and Millin has observed, that no monu
ment exists whereon it is represented.* The other
account of this event is preserved in the writings of
Lucian and Plutarch. According to this tradition,
Deucalion is represented as making an ark or chest
(Adpm/ca), into which he retired, taking with him
a couple of every species of animals, as well as his
wife and children. In this ark they sailed so long
as the inundation lasted, and " this," says Lucian
at the end of his narrative, "is the historical
account given by the Greeks, concerning Deuca-

* " Galerie Mythologique." P<tr. 1811, torn. ii. p. 136.

116 LECTURE THE NINTH.

lion."* Plutarch adds, that the return of a dove
first gave notice to Deucalion of the waters being
dried up.f Now the medals of which I am going
to treat, with another monument, which I shall
by-and-by describe, contain the representation of
this traditional history.

These imperial bronze medals of the city of
Apamea, in Phrygia, bear on one side the head of
different emperors, of Severus, Macrinus and Philip
the elder. The reverse is uniform, having the
representation drawn on the lithograph placed in
your hands (pi. 1, fig. 1). It is thus described by
Eckhel : " A chest swimming upon the waters,
in which a man and woman appear from the breast
upwards. Without it, advance with their faces
turned from it, a woman robed, and a man in a
short garment, holding up their right hands. On
the lid of the chest stands a bird, and another, bal
anced in air holds in its claws an olive branch.";):
The small compass of a medal could hardly give a
more expressive representation of this great event.
We have two different scenes, but manifestly the
same actors. For the costume and heads of the
persons standing outside do not allow us to con
sider them others than the figures in the ark. We
have these individuals first floating over the waters

* "£>e dea Syra," vol. ii. p. 661, ed. Bened. Amst. 1687.

f "Utrum animalia terrestria aut aquatica magis sint
Bolertia." Oper. Par. 1572, torn. iii. p. 1783-

\ " Doctrlna Numorum veterum." Vienna, 1793, part I.
vol. iii. p. 130.

TPLATJE -I

L.th. oy Kimmei c Vtrigi Z

LECTURE THE NINTH. 117

in an ark, then standing on dry land in an attitude
of admiration,* with the dove bearing the symbol
of peace above them.

But the most interesting circumstance yet
remains. On the front panel of this ark are
some letters, and the discussion of their import
has been the subject of many learned dissertations.
The first who published these medals was Octa-
vius Falconieri, in Rome, in 1667. The engrav
ing which he gives of the Paris Severus, has the
letters NHTfiN; which he reads in continuation
of MAP //aywTTwu.f Yaillant pretended to read
on it, and on the Chigi medal of Philip, NEQK,
for veuimpw. The Eev. Mr. Mills gave an essay
on this subject, inserted in the fourth volume of
the Archceologia, by the Royal Antiquarian Soci
ety, in which he maintains all to be spurious
which read not thus. Bianchini published two
copies of this medal, on one of which he reads
M2E, and on the other NEQ,^ the former of
which readings Falconieri also gives upon another
medal. Thus we had four versions of this legend,
and every new inquiry seemed still more to in
volve the controversy. The reading NftE appeared
too favorable to the object proposed in the first
publication of these medals, not to be held in

* Eckhel, ibid. p. 136.

f " De nummo Apamensi Deucalionei diluvii typum ei-
hibente Dissertatio, ad P. Seguinum." Rome, 1667.

t " La Storia universale provata con monument!." Rome,
1697, pp. 186. 191.

118 LECTURE THE NINTH.

suspicion ; and such was the dread of admitting
anything so good to be true, that Mr. Barrington,
allowing this to be the correct legend, would not
believe it to have any allusion to the scriptural
name, but rather supposed it to stand for Nfli, we,
dual of ey«, and be a compendious representation
of Ovid's words : " Nos duo turba sumus ! "*
The fact is, that of all these readings not one is
correct; for Eckhel has proved that the medals
only bear two letters, NO. This he has proved
from his own and Frohlich's observation of the
Vienna and Florence medals, from Yenuti's of
that in the Albani cabinet, and Barthelemy's, of
the Paris Severus. Indeed, in some only the N
is visible, but at the same time, in most, trace of
a third letter is discernible, which has not been
purposely erased, but worn out from being the
most prominent point in the relief. Eckhel, after
examining the different explanations given by
others to this legend, rejects them, and concludes
that as the entire1 scene represented on the medal
bears manifest reference to the Noachian Deluge,
so must the inscription on the ark; and that,
consequently, it is the name of that patriarch.
This he illustrates from the coins of Magnesia
in Ionia, on which is the figure of a ship, bear
ing the inscription APHZ ; no doubt for the pur
pose of clearly specifying the mythological event
to which it refers, the expedition of the Argo-
nauts.f

* " Arcli?eoloo-ia," vol. iv, p. 315. f P. 133.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 119

But here an obvious difficulty occurs ; what
could have induced the Apameans to choose such
an event for their symbol on their coins ? This
difficulty, too, is satisfactorily removed. It was
customary for cities to take, as their emblems, any
remarkable event which was fabled to have hap
pened there. Thus the city of Thermse, in Sicily,
has Hercules upon its coins, because he is supposed
in mythology to have there reposed. Now, this is
precisely the case with Apamea ; or, as it anciently
was called, Celsene. For the Sibylline books,
which, however spurious, are sufficient testimony
of the existence of a popular tradition, expressly
tell us that in the neighborhood of Celaene stands
the mountain Ararat, upon which the ark reposed.
This tradition, evidently having no reference to
Deucalion's deluge, the seat of which was Greece,
is sufficient to account for the adoption of such a
representation upon the Apamean coins. Hence,
too, probably arose another ancient name of this
city, K«6wror, the Ark, as "Winkelmann has shown ;
and this name is the very word used by the Sep-
tuagint and Josephus in describing Noah's ark.*

Here, then, we have an instance of a monument
illustrative of Scripture, which owes its certainty
and authority to the progress of the very science
which first presented it. For wre have seen the
learned medallist, who may be said to have first
reduced the study of coins into a systematic order,

* See Winkelmann's " Monument! antichi inediti." Rome,
1767, torn. ii. p. 258. Eckhel, ib. pp. 132, 139.

120 LECTURE THE NINTH.

arid incorporated the whole science into one plan,
was also the first to clear away all uncertainty from
these interesting documents, and place their mean
ing above all doubt.

But it might be objected that such a represen.
tation of the ark can hardly be considered in ac
cordance with either the sacred or the profane des
cription of the Deluge before rehearsed ; inasmuch
as these suppose not merely Noah and his wife, but
all his family, and many animals, to have been shut
up in the ark. Such circumstances can hardly be
expressed by the representation of a small chest,
containing two individuals. To remove this diffi
culty, I would propose a comparison between the
early Christian monuments and the representations
on the medals, for in the former, no one can doubt
that the Scripture narrative was kept in view. In
them the ark is always represented as a square
chest, floating upon a stream of water. In it is
seen only the figure of the patriarch from the waist
upwards ; and above, the dove bearing the olive
branch towards him. Such is the representation
on four marble sarcophagi given by Aringhi,*
and in the painting of the second chamber in
the cemetery of Callistus.f An exactly similar
representation is given from a metal lamina by
the senator Buonarotti,;); and illustrated by Ciam-

* " Roma subterranea." Rome, 1651, torn. i. pp. 325, 331,
333 ; torn. ii. p. 143.

t lb. p. 539. See also pp. 551, 556.

^ " Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di
vetro," torn. i. fig. 1.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 121

pini.* Some of these paintings seem to show the
cover of the chest raised open above the head of the
patriarch, as in the Apamean medals.f Again, as in
these, the figure of Noah is sometimes seen out of the
ark, standing on dry land, with the symbolic dove
to specify who he is. For so Boldetti enumerates,
among the common Christian symbols : " Noe den-
tro e talvolta fuori dell' area, colla colomba."J In
fine, the dove is sometimes seen perched upon the
ark, as on the medal ; but then the figure of the
patriarch is wanting. Thus it is on the Fogginian
gem, described by Mamachi.§ To enable you bet
ter to make the comparison between the sacred and
profane representations, I have had a painting from
the cemetery of Callistus drawn beside the Apa
mean medal (Fig. 2). And I think, after seeing
the two together, you will conclude, not only that
thereby is removed every difficulty as to whether
such an ark as Noah's could ever have been repre
sented as we see it on the medals, but that the

* " Dissertatio de duobus emblematibus Mussel Card.
Carpinei." Home, 1748, p. 18. Biancliini lias also published,
from an ancient glass, a miniature representation of the same
scene. (Demonstratio historiae ecclesiasticse quadripartite
comprobatae monumentis. Rome, 1753, p. 585.) It is marked
No. 159, in the last sheet of the second plate, illustrative of
the second century.

f See examples in Aringhi, torn. ii. pp. 67, 105, 187, 315.

J " Osservazioni sopra i Cimiterri, etc. Rome, 1720, lib. i.
p. 22.

§ " Originum et antiquitatum Christianar." lib. xx. torn.
iii. Rome, 1731, p. 22, tab. ii. fig. 6.

122 LECTURE THE NINTH.

resemblance between the two classes of monuments
is such as to warrant our considering their subjects
identical. Add to this, that the difference of age
between the two cannot be very great ; and that it
is evident the Christians, in these paintings, which
are so uniform in different monuments, had a com
mon type, quite distinct from the sacred narrative,
for their designs, and that this type was probably
borrowed from other traditions.

II. From medals let us turn to inscriptions, a
higher order of monuments, inasmuch as they are
generally more detailed in the information they
convey. The greatest advantage which has been
derived from this class of ancient remains, consists
in verbal illustrations of obscure passages in Scrip
ture, which they have often afforded ; but were I
to enlarge upon this species of philological con
firmation or explanation, which the sacred text
has received from them, it is plain that I should
lead you into minute detail and learned disquis
ition, hardly suitable to the purport of these
lectures. Yet, whatever throws new light upon
any passage of Scripture, and whatever vindicates
its phraseology from any charge of inconsistency
or barbarism, tends likewise to increase our clear
apprehension of it, and gives us additional evi
dence of its authenticity. I will therefore content
myself with one example, taken from a learned
dissertation by Dr. Fred. Miinter, entitled, Speci
mens of Sacred Observations from, Greek Mar
bles ; inserted a few years ago in the Copenhagen

LECTURE THE NINTH. 123

Miscellany.* In John iv. 46, mention is made of
a r«f paatliKoe, a certain nobleman, or ruler, or cour
tier, for in all these ways it is rendered. The
English verison has the first, with the other two
in the margin ; and of this interpretation a modern
commentator observes, that it " conveys the notion
of hereditary rank, and certain dignities, to which
there was nothing in Palestine, or even in Syria,
that corresponded." f Some have thought it meant
one of the royal blood, another a royal soldier ;
others have considered it a proper name. The
most probable explanation of the word seemed
that of Krebs, that it signified a minister or ser
vant of the kings. ;f The examples he brought

* " Symbolae ad interpretationem N. T. ex marmoribus,
numis, lapidibusque caelatis, maxime Graecis." In the " Mis
cellanea Hafnensia theologici et philologici argument!," torn. i.
fascic. i. Copenhag. 1816. f Campbell, inloc.

\ " Observations Flavians," p. 144. Six of Griesbacli's
codices read paatMaKoe, and it is evident that the translator
of the Vulgate read it so; for that version has " quidam
regulus," or as we have rendered it, " a certain ruler." Schle-
usner supposes this reading to have risen from the Vulgate,
but the contrary is much more probable. It may not be out
of place to remark in this note, that although the Vulgate
has rendered the word by a diminutive, in Hellenistic Greek
it has by no means that signification. This appears from an
inscription of Silco, king of Nubia, first published from a
less perfect copy of M. Gau, by Niebuhr, in his " Inscrip-
tiones Nubienses," Home, 1820 ; and again, from one of M.
Caillaud, by Letronne, in the " Journal des Savans," Feb.
1825, pp. 98, 99. This king begins the magnificent recital
of his victories by E/CJ 2^/l/cw fiaadicnoc;, TCJV Novpatiuv MIL
TCJV AidioTTuv. Even if the judicious axiom of M.

124 LECTURE THE NINTH.

from authors did not satisfy many commentators.
A new one produced by Miinter from an inscrip
tion on Memnon's statue, written in the same
Greek dialect, the Hellenistic, as the New Testa
ment, puts this translation on a more secure foot
ing. For in it mention is made of ApreptSupoe UTO%-
efiaiov paffdiKos, Artemidorus, the courtier, or servant,
of Ptolemy. For the addition of the king's name
will admit of no other translation.*

To come now to instances of more general im
portance and interest, and from words to things,
I will give you an example of the services which
inscriptions may render to the great evidences
of Christianity. Whoever has but superficially
studied these, is aware of the importance of the
argument drawn from the alacrity with wjiich
the early Christians encountered death in defence
of their religion. From the visions of the Eevel-
ations to the great ecclesiastical history of Euse-
bius the Church annals present us a cloud of
witnesses, a host of martyrs who returned love
for love, and life for life, sealing their confession

Salverte, in his " Essai sur les Noms propres," " Jamais
peuple ne s'est donne a lui-meme un nom peu honorable,"
did not apply to monarchs, in the proclamation of their
titles, the words in the tenth and eleventh lines would leave
no doubt of the true meaning. For he there says : ore eyeyove
urjv paatfaaKoe, " I was not behind other princes, but I have
been superior to them." M. Letronne illustrates many
phrases of this inscription from the Greek of the Septuagint
and New Testament.

* " Miscellanea," p. 18.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 125

with their blood, and setting at nought the malice
and cruelty of relentless persecutors. And in
this firmness of conviction, this steadfastness of
faith, this boldness of profession, and this enthu
siasm of love, we have surely proof of the power
ful might with which a thousand evidences, now
read, but then seen and felt, laid hold of their
minds ; and, in the strength which supported
them through every cruel trial, we have a de
monstration of a strong inward principle counter
acting in them the feebleness of our nature ; and
in the nothingness of every effort to overcome
them or utterly destroy them, we have evidence
of a protecting arm, of the secure promise of
One who could bring to nought every weapon
forged against His work. Who, then, can be
surprised at the ingenuity with which every
discredit has been thrown upon that interesting
fact of ecclesiastical history, and that Gibbon
should have employed all the meretricious bril
liancy of his own style, and borrowed all the
learning of his predecessors, to prove that Chris
tianity had but few martyrs, and that these
suffered death rather from their own imprudence
than from any malice or hatred to Christianity
in their enemies: that they were driven to the
scaffold by an ambitious or restless spirit rather
than by any hallowing and inspired motive. —
" Their persons," he concludes, " were esteemed
holy, their decisions were admitted with defer
ence, and they too often abused, by their spir-

126 LECTURE THE NINTH.

itual pride and licentious manners the predom
inance which their zeal and intrepidity had ac
quired. Distinctions like these, while they dis
play their exalted merit, betray the inconsiderable
number of those who suffered, and of those who
died for the profession of Christianity."'5' The
learned Dodwell, in his dissertations on St.
Cyprian, had prepared the way for this attack
upon the historical evidences of Christianity, by
maintaining that the number of martyrs was but
inconsiderable, and that, after the reign of Dom-
itian, the Church enjoyed perfect tranquillity.f
Doubtless Ansaldi and others have well performed
the task of confuting these assertions upon his
torical grounds ; but monumental inscriptions,
afford the most direct and satisfactory means of
overthrowing them. Yisconti has taken the pains
to collect from the voluminous works on Chris
tian antiquity, such inscriptions a show the num
ber of those who shed their blood for Christ.J

The cruelty of the heathen persecutions, even
under emperors of mild principles and gentle rule,
is sufficiently attested by a pathetic inscription
given by Aringhi from the cemetery of Callistus.
" Alexander is not dead, but liveth above the stars.
and his body rests in this tomb. He finished his

* " Decline and Fall," ch. xvi.

f " Dissertationes Cyprianicae." Dissert, xi. p. 57. ed. calc.
Cypr. Opp. Oxon. 1682.

\ In the " Memorie Romane di Antichita," torn. i. Rome,
1825.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 127

life under the Emperor Antoninus, who, when he
saw that much tavor was due, instead of kindness
returned him hatred. For, when bending his knee
about to sacrifice to the true God, he was dragged
oft' to punishment. Oh unhappy times ! wherein
amidst our sacred rites and prayers we cannot be
safe even in caverns. What is more miserable
than life? But, on the other hand, what more
miserable than death ? for we cannot be even bur
ied by our friends and families."* This pathetic
lamentation will explain the difficulties wrhich the
Christians must have experienced in recording the
names of their martyrs, and wrhy they were so
often obliged to content themselves with giving
their numbers. Thus we have the following in
scriptions in the catacombs :f

MARCELLA ET CHRISTI MARTYRES CCCCCL.
(Marcella and 550 martyrs of Christ.)

HlC REQUIESCIT MEDICUS CUM PujRIBUS.
(Here rests Medicus with Many.)

CL MARTYRES CHRISTI.
(150 Martyrs of Christ.)

* " Alexander mortuus non est, sed vivit super astra, et
corpus in hoc tumulo quiescit. Vitam explevit cum Antonio
Imp. qui ubi multum benefitii antevenire previderet pro-
gratia odium reddit : genua enim flectens, vero Deo sacrifica-
turus, ad supplicia ducitur. O tempora infausta ! quibus in
ter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari possimus !
Quid miserius vita ? sed quid miserius in morte, cum ab am-
icis et parentibus sepeliri nequeant ? " — Aringhi, " Roma Sub-
terranea," torn. ii. p. 685.

f Visconti, pp. 112, 113.

128 LECTURE THE NINTH.

These inscriptions clearly prove the cruelty
of the persecutions, and the great number of the
martyrs.

Having thus seen the custom of commemora
ting in one short inscription so many sufferers
for the faith of Christ, we are led to the natural
conclusion that when a simple number is found
inscribed upon a stone, it may refer to the same
circumstance. This, the antiquarian to whom I
have referred, seems satisfactorily to have proved ;
for it had often been supposed that such numerals
referred to some series in which the inscriptions
had been arranged. But not to say that any such
series or any approximation to it cannot be dis
covered, these ciphers are sometimes inscribed in
a manner which could hardly have been adopted
were they simply progressive numbers. For in
stance, they are sometimes surrounded by a wreath
supported by doves ; in one place the word TRIG-
INTA, thirty, is written at full, with the monogram
of Christ's name before and after, which excludes
all idea of its being merely a reference to a pro
gressive series : in another the number xv is fol
lowed by IN Pace, in peace. The conjecture that
such simple inscriptions record the death of as
many martyrs as the numbers signify, passes into
absolute certainty when confirmed by a passage in
Prudentius, writing on the catacombs while the tra
ditions regarding them were yet fresh : " There
are many marbles," he tells us, " closing tombs,
which only indicate a number; you thus know

LECTURE THE NINTH. 129

how many bodies lie piled together ; but you read
not their names. I remember I learned there that
the remains of sixty bodies were buried under one
heap."

" Sunt et multa tamen tacitas claudentia tuinbas

Marmora quse solum significant numerum.
Quanta virum jaceant congestis corpora acervis

Scire licet, quorum nomina nulla legas.
Sexaginta illic defossa mole sub una

Reliquias memini me didicisse hominum."*

These verses leave us nothing to desire ; they
put us in possession of a great many inscriptions
which, while they only record numbers, prove
most sufficiently that they were truly many who, in
those first ages, bore testimony to the Lord Jesus.

But a new antiquarian difficulty here meets us.
For Burnet has asserted that no monument has
been found whereby it can be proved that the
Christians possessed the catacombs before the
fourth century. f General negative assertions are
always easy to make, and doubtless hard to prove ;
but, on the other hand, they are the easiest to
confute, for one instance to the contrary will
suffice. So it is here. One only of the numeral
inscriptions already explained will demonstrate all
that we want. It runs thus :

N- XXX- SUKKA- ET SENEO COSS-

(30. In tlie consulate of Surra and Senecio.)

* " Carmina." Rome, 1788, torn. ii. p. 1164, Carm. xi.
f " Some Letters from Italy." L n,d. 1724, p. 224.
VOL. II. — 9

130 LECTURE THE NINTH.

Now Surra and Senecio were consuls in the
year of Christ 107, the very era of Trajan's per
secution. But there is another most valuable
inscription given by Marangoni, which places this
question out of doubt. It is that of Gaudentius,
an architect, whom this learned antiquarian be
lieves to have been the director in building the
Colosseum. The inscription in the Catacombs
tells us that he suffered death under Vespasian.
Nor can it be supposed that it was erected later
to his honor. For it is distinguished by a par
ticular sort of accents, or apices, over some syl
lables, which the learned Marini has shown to
have been in use only from Agustus to Trajan.*
Consequently the inscription must have been en
graved before this emperor's reign.

These inscriptions are a strong additional
evidence what numbers must have laid down their
lives for the faith, and have thus conduced to
wards confuting a powerful objection against one
of the most interesting and beautiful confirmations
of Christianity.

III. Although medals and inscriptions may
justly be considered monuments, yet I have
reserved this term rather for the class of more
completely commemorative symbols, which, by
representations speaking to the eye, preserve the
remembrance of great events, or of the practices
and customs of ancient times. The value of such

* « Atti del Fratelli Arvali," p. 760.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 131

monuments must be very great ; for they are the
deliberate committal of the fame of generations
to those that follow them; — the representatives
and substitutes of nations, who, knowing them
selves to be perishable and mortal, have erected
them, fashioning them as best they could to their
own image and likeness, — have clothed them
with that grandeur and splendor which might best
symbolize their own estate, — have written on
them all the thoughts of pride which influenced
their own hearts, have embodied in them all the
vastness of their ambition, and the immeasurable-
ness of their wishes, and have breathed into them
a soul of silent recollections, an appealing power,
which fastens on the sympathies, and speaks to
the heart of living generations as though they
communed with the concentrated energy of the
whole extinguished race. And alas ! too well
have they made them in general typical of them
selves : epigraphs, like their history, an enigma
for the scholar to pore over; ground-plans, like
their constitutions, a ruinous labyrinth for the
antiquarian to restore; sculptured images, like
their national character, time-worn and featureless,
for the poet to muse on ; mighty fabrics, like the
mighty men who raised them, disjointed, moul
dered, scattered into dust, whereon the philosopher
may meditate, and whereby human pride may be
humbled. But a far sweeter lesson will they
speak to us if man's design, or Providence's
guidance, shall have somewhere caused them to

132 LECTURE THE NINTH.

bear any slight uneffaced memorial of things
sacred to us, though worthless to those who noted
them, if, as among the sculptured images on
Titus's triumphal arch, the emperors who erected
them, and who ride thereon in triumph, shall have
been mutilated, disfigured, and almost blotted
from the very record of their greatness ; but the
golden candlestick of the temple, the lamp of
holy evidence, shall remain upon them, — a trophy
then of war, now of prophecy, — a token to them
of victory, and to us of unconquerable strength.

In the last century, the books of Moses were
often attacked on account of grapes and vineyards
being mentioned in them,* and perhaps wine,f as
used in Egypt.J For Herodotus expressly tells us,
that in Egypt there were no vineyards,§ and Plu
tarch assures us that the natives of that country
abhorred wine, as being the blood of those who had
rebelled against the gods.J So conclusive did these
authorities appear, that the contrary statements of
Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and Athenseus, were con
sidered by the learned authors of the Commentct-
ries on the Laws of Moses, as quite overbalanced
by the testimony of Herodotus alone.^ Hence, he

* Gen. xl. 9 ; xliii. 13.

f Num. xx. 5.

\ See Bullet, " Reponses critiques," Besancon 1819, torn,
iii. p. 142; Duclots "Bible vengee," Brescia, 1821, torn ii.
p. 244.

§ Lib. ii. cap. Ixxvii.

| " De Iside et Osiride, " § 6.

1; Vol. iii. pp. 121, segq. English trans.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 133

concluded that wine was ordered in the Jewish
sacrifices expressly to break through any Egyptian
prejudice regarding it, and detach the chosen peo
ple still more from their overweening affection for
that country and its institutions. In this opinion
he has been followed by many able men. Dr.
Prichard mentions oblations of wine among those
rites, which stand either " in near relation or con
tradiction to the laws of Egypt ; " * and as it can
not certainly enter into the first of these classes, I
presume we must consider him of the same opinion
as Michaelis. So long as the authority of Herodo
tus was thus held superior to the concurrent testi
monies of other writers, the reply to the objection
was necessarily feeble. Accordingly, we find the
authors who undertook this reply, either having
recourse to conjecture, from the improbability of
such a statement, or else supposing a chronological
difference of circumstances, and a change of custom
between the ages of Moses and Herodotus.

But Egyptian monuments have brought the
question to issue, and have of course decided in
favor of the Jewish legislator. In the great
description of Egypt, published by the French gov
ernment, after the expedition into that country,
M. Costaz describes the minute representation of
the vintage in all its parts, as painted in the hypo-
gese, or subterraneans of Eilithyia, from the dress
ing of the vine to the drawing-off of its wine ; and

* " Analysis of Egyptian Mythology," p. 422. Guenee,
" Lettres de quelques Juifs." Par. 1821, torn. i. p. 192.

134 LECTURE THE NINTH.

he takes Herodotus severely to task for his denial
of the existence of vineyards in Egypt.*

In 1825, this question was mooted once more in
the Journal des Debats, where a critic, reviewing
a new edition of Horace, took occasion to observe
that the vinum mareotieum, mentioned in the 37th
Ode of the first book, could not be an Egyptian
wine, but the production of a district in Epirus
called Mareotis. This was in the paper of June
26 ; and on the 2nd and 6th of the following
month, Malte-Brun examined the question in the
same paper, chiefly in reference to the authority of
Herodotus ; but his proofs went no further back
than the times of Roman and Grecian dominion.
M. Jomard, however, took occasion to discuss the
point more fully ; and in a literary periodical, bet
ter suited than a daily paper to such discussions,
pushed his inquiries into the times of the Pharaohs.
In addition to the painted representations already
quoted by Costaz, he appeals to the remains of
amphorae, or wine vessels, found in the ruins of old
Egyptian cities, and as yet encrusted with the tar
tar deposited by wine.f But since Champollion's
discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet, the ques
tion may be considered as quite decided ; as it now
appears certain, not only that wine was known in
Egypt, but that it was used in sacrifices. For, in

* " Description de 1'Egypte, Antiquites Mem." torn i. Par.
1809, p. 62.

f " Bulletin Universe! ," 7e section, torn iv. p. 78.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 135

the paintings of offerings, we have, among other
gifts, flasks colored red up to the neck, which re
mains wrhite as if transparent ; and beside them is
read in hieroglyphics the word EPH, which, in
Coptic, signifies wine.*

Rosellini has given, in the plates of his splen
did work, representations of every department of
a vintage and wine-manufactory. But before this,
he had published at Florence an. Egyptian basso-
rilievo, from the Grand-Ducal gallery, containing
a prayer in hieroglyphics, as he supposes, to the
goddess Athyr. She is requested to bestow upon
the deceased wine, milk, and other good things.
These objects are symbolized by vessels supposed
to contain them, with their names written in hie
roglyphics around them. Bound the first are the
feather, mouth, and square, the phonetic charac
ters of the letters EPir.f And here I will ob
serve that the learned Schweighauser, in his ob
servations on Athenseus, appears to doubt the cor
rectness of Casaubon's assertions, that fym? was the
Egyptian for wine,;): though proved clearly from

* " Lettres a M. le Due de Blacas," 1st Lett. p. 37.

\ " Di un basso-rilievo Egiziano della I. e. R. Galleria di
Firenze."— Ib. 1826, p. 40. Wilkinson has also read the
same word, " Materia hieroglyphica," p. 16, note 5.

\ Athenaeus, " Deipnosoph. Epit." lib. ii. torn. i. p. 148, ed.
Schweighauser, has the word fyms in a quotation from Sap
pho, though, in another passage (lib. x. torn. iv..p. 55.), he
reads bhmv. The learned critic seems to have proved that
the latter is the correct reading. (Animadv. in Athen. Ar-
gentor. 1804, torn. v. p. 375.) This discovery, however, of

136 LECTURE THE NINTH.

Eustathius and Lyeopliron. Had he written after
tin's discovery of the word in hieroglyphics, he
would doubtless have altered his opinion. And,
on the other hand, I doubt not but Champollion
and Rosellini would have confirmed their inter
pretation from those ancient writers, had they
been aware of their testimony.

Allow me now to claim your attention to an
extremely curious monument, which seems to bear
no other explanation but such as we saw given to
the Apamean medals ; the considering it as com
memorative of the deluge. In the year 1696, in
excavating a monument in the neighborhood of
Rome, a workman found an earthen vase, covered
with a tile. In removing this, the cover fell and
broke. The workman then drew out a number
of seals and amulets, consisting of closed hands,
oxen's heads, and olive-berries, all rudely worked
in stone. Below these he felt something hard and
even ; and in his impatience to discover it, broke
the vase in two, and not so satisfied, broke it open
below ; upon which there dropped out a bronze
circle, which had fitted exactly into the lower por
tion of the vase, and a thin plate which evidently
had covered it. It had no bottom ; but, from the
fibres of wood which were found mixed with the
earth, it was conjectured that this was originally

the Egyptian name given to wine by ancient writers, in
hieroglyphic characters, under the circumstances noticed in
the text, must be considered a strong corroboration of the
correctness of the phonetic system.

Lith. by Kimmel & Voigt 254 & 256 Canal St. N.Y

TIES

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LECTURE THE NINTH. 137

formed of that material. At the same time, there
fell out a number of figures which I will presently
describe. This curious monument came into the
possession of the antiquarian Ficoroni, and a mi
nute account of it was published by Bianchini in
the following year.* An engraving accompanies
it, very rudely executed ; but a later edition of
this exists, without date, but stating below that
the objects were in the house of the Ab. Giovanni
Domenico Pennacchi. From this I have had a
copy made, without attending to the imperfect
drawing exhibited in both the engravings, which
are sufficiently different from each other to show
that perfect accuracy of design was not an object
in either. You have it before you,f and I pro
ceed to explain it.

The figure is divided into three compartments.
The first, on the left hand, represents the vase A,
made of earthen- ware of a different quality from
ordinary terra-cottas, inasmuch as it was mixed up
with shining metallic fragments, and bits of mar
ble. In shape it somewhat resembles a small bar
rel, or the vase represented on the Isiac pomp in
the Palazzo Mattei. The figure represents it as it
was broken and shows the distribution of the trink
ets within at C. Beside it, B is the cover which
was found upon it. Passing to the second com-

* " La Storia Universale provata coi Monument!," pp. 178,
seqq.

t See PI. II. prefixed to this volume.

138 LECTUUE THE NINTH.

partment. you have the shape and proportion of
the lower part of the vase, two-thirds the size of
the reality. In the same proportion nearly are the
figures distributed in this and the third compart
ment. D represents the metal circle which lined
the lower portion of the vessel, composed of small
plates nailed together, as if in imitation of a
wooden frame-work. At intervals are windows or
open spaces, with shutters over them. There is no
door, but to supply this deficiency, there is a bronze
ladder of five steps, as if intended to give entrance
above. The structure of this metal box seems
thus evidently to indicate a desire of representing
a building or edifice, probably of wood, not to be
entered from the ground. At certain distances,
the side is raised higher than the rim of this little
chest, like the breast-works of a battlement ; two
of these elevations appear in the design, these
seemed to hold on the cover, which was fastened
to them by certain metal pins, one of which,
fastened in the cover, is seen at E, in the left
division.

The figures consisted of twenty couple of ani
mals,* twelve of quadrupeds, six of birds, one of
serpents, and one of insects. There wrere two
other unpaired insects, the fellows of which were
probably lost in the excavation. The animals
were a lion and lioness, a couple of tigers, horses,

* Bianchini, in liis description, says there were nineteen
couple ; but this does not accord with his enumeration of
them in detail.

LECTURE THE NINTH. 130

asses, deer, oxen, wolves, foxes, sheep, hares, and
two others not specified. There were, besides,
thirty-five human figures, some single, some
grouped ; but all, with two or three exceptions,
showing signs of trying to escape from drowning.
The hair of the females is all dishevelled, and they
are borne away on the shoulders and backs of the
men. In this case they perform the task of
closing the mouth and nostrils of their protectors.
Single figures do the same for themselves. All
are represented as raised to their utmost pitch
of stature, and on the right you have a group of
three figures standing upon a corpse apparently
drowned, as if to add somewhat to their height.
The figures were all of exquisite workmanship,
indicating a very perfect state of art, with the ex
ception of four, w^hich seem to have been supplied
by a much ruder hand. The same may be said
of the animals, in which pieces broken or lost
seemed to have been supplied in later times. In
the description we are nowhere told of what ma
terials the figures were composed. If of bronze,
we might compare them to the number of little
images of animals, always in pairs, found in
Pompeii, of which many may be seen in the
museum of Naples. Neither am I aware what
has since become of this curious relic.

I will not follow the learned illustrator of this
monument into the variety of arguments which
he brings to prove that this was a vase used in the
festival of the hydrophoria, or commemoration of

MO LECTURE THE NINTH.

the deluge. The different amulets are certain1 y
very like what Clement Alexandrinus, Arnobius,
and others, have described as placed by the
heathens in their mystic baskets; but if the one
given in the acts of the Academy of Cortona be
correct,* as it seems most probable, this vessel
could hardly be considered as belonging to that
class of monuments. I must observe that a chain
and lock were found close to our vase, as if
belonging some way to it.

But be this as it may, it is difficult to give any
other explanation of this singular little monument,
than what must obviously strike at once, that it
alludes to the destruction of the human race, with
the exception of a few, who, with pairs of animals,
were saved in some species of ark or chest.

In my last lecture, treating of the chronology
of Eygpt, as now established by monuments, I
mentioned one remarkable synchronism of Shishak
and Rehoboam, as given by Rosellini. This king
of Egypt is totally omitted by Herodotus and
Diodorus, though Manetho mentions him under
the name of Sesonchis, as founder of the 22nd
dynasty. I mentioned the discovery of several
monuments bearing the name of this king as
Shishonk. This agreement between the two an-

* "Atti. dell' Academia di Cortona." Rome, 1742, torn,
i. p. 65 ; cf . also, the dissertation of Prof. Wunder, " De
discrimine verborum cistce et titellce," in his " Variae Lectiones
libjorum aliquot M. T. Ciceronis ex cod. Erfut." Lips.
1827, pp. clviii. seqq.

LECTURE THE NINTH.

nals in so definite a manner, makes this point the
proper basis of any system of Egyptian chrono
logy, and as such Rosellini takes it. But I re
served for this meeting one monument completely
establishing this harmony, and affording, at the
same time, one of the most striking confirmations
yet discovered of sacred history. This I proceed
to lay before you.

The first book of Kings (xiv. 24) and the second
of Chronicles (xii. 2) inform us that Shishak, king
of Egypt, came against Juda, in the fifth year of
Eehoboam, with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horse
men, and a countless host ; that, after taking the
fortified places of the country, he approached to
besiege Jerusalem ; that the king and people
humbled themselves before God, and that He,
taking pity on them, promised them that He
would not destroy them, but still should give
them into the invader's hand to be his slaves;
"nevertheless they shall be his servants, that
they may know my service, and that of the king
doms of the nations." Shishak therefore came
and took the spoil of the temple, and among it
the golden shields which Solomon had made.*
In the great court of Karnak, the exploits of this
mighty conqueror, and restorer of the Egyptian
power, are represented at full. We might nat
urally expect this conquest of Juda to be in
cluded among them, the more so as that kingdom

* 2 Chron. xii. 8.

14:2 LECTURE THE NINTH.

might be considered at its zenith, just after
Solomon had overawed all neighboring nations
by his splendid magnificence. Let us see if this
is so. In the representations at Karnak, Shishak
is exhibited, according to an image familiar in
Egyptian monuments, as holding by the hair a
crowd of kneeling figures heaped together, and
with his right hand raised up, ready with one
blow of his battle-axe to destroy them all. Be
sides these, the god Ammon-Ra drives forward
towards him a crowd of captives, with their hands
tied behind them. If the first group represent
those whom he destroyed, the second may well
be supposed to contain those whom he only made
his servants, or simply overcame, and subjected
to tribute. According to the promise made him,
the king of Juda was to be in this class, and in it
we must look for him. Among the figures of cap
tive kings we accordingly find one, witli a phys
iognomy perfectly Jewish, as Rosellini observes.
lie has not as yet given the copy of this monument,
though he has the legend ; * but that you may
convince yourselves how truly unegyptian, and
how completely Hebrew the countenance of
this personage is, I have had it exactly copied
for you, from the engraving published of it at
Paris, by Champollion.t (PL III.) The profile,
with its beard, is every way Jewish, and to make

* " I monumenti dell' Egitto," Parte i. Monum. stor. torn
ii. p. ?9.

| In his " Lettres ecrites d'Egypte."

PILATE .I
MSOTUM3EHPE? O3P

-immel & VoiSt 2M 8 256 Canal St. NY

LECTUEE THE NINTH. 143

this more apparent, I have placed beside it an
Egyptian head, quite characteristic of the natural
type. Each of these captive monarchs bears a
shield, indented as if to represent the fortifications
of a city ; and on this is written a hieroglyphic
legend, which we may suppose to designate who
he is. Most, if not all the shields are so far defaced
as to be no longer legible, except that borne by our
Jewish figure, which remains, as you see it in the
drawing. The two feathers are the letters J. E. ;
the bird OIL ; the open hand, D. or T. ; thus we
have Jeoud, the Hebrew for Juda. The next five
characters represent the letters, H. A. M. L. K.,
and supplying the vowels, usually omitted in
hieroglyphics, we have the Hebrew word with its
article, Hamelek, the king. The last character
always stands for the word Kah, a country. Thus
we have a clear demonstration that this was the
king of Juda, treated just as the Scriptures tell us
he was, reduced to servitude by Shishak, or Shi-
shonk, king of Egypt. "Well may we say, that
no monument ever yet discovered gives such
new confirmatory evidence to the authenticity of
Scripture history. I will close my observations
by remarking that Paravey thinks a resemblance
clearly discernible between the face of the king
of Juda and the received type of our Saviour's
countenance, particularly in the lower part ; and
thus a family likeness wroiild exist between the
ancestor and descendant.

Let these examples suffice ; for when I reinem-

14:4: LECTURE THE NINTH.

ber where we are, in the very heart and citadel of
this science, where its great influences are drunk in
by every sense, and we ourselves become as it Avere
identified with the recollections of its sacred mon
uments, I feel as if the detailing of a few insignifi
cant instances of its power to aid our faith must
appear almost a needless importunity. There has
been one who sat upon the ruins of this city, and
was led, by the train of reflections they suggested,
to plan that work upon its later history to which I
have to-day referred, —

" Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer."

But surely a believing mind must rise from
such a meditation with very different feelings,
oppressed, indeed, with the wrhole weight of his
natural feebleness, humbled in spirit before the
colossal wrecks of matchless grandeur, more than
ever sunk into littleness before the memorials of
almost superhuman power ; but at the same time
cheered by other and more consoling thoughts. For
even those heathen monuments have many holy
recollections ; of the three triumphal arches, one re
cords the fulfilment of a great prophecy, the other
the triumph of Christianity over heathenism : and
the Flavian amphitheatre was once the scene of the
martyrs' witnessing. And surely, whatever creed
any may profess, he cannot visit, but with soothed
and solemn feeling, those many old and venerable
churches which stand alone amidst the ruins of
ancient buildings, not because they were erected in

LECTURE THE NINTH. 145

solitude, but because, like the insulated cones that
rise on the flanks of mountains, the inundations of
many ages have washed down around them the less
durable masses that enclosed and connected them
together. And if he enter some of these, and see
them yet retaining all their parts and decorations,
even as they were in early times, so unmoved, so
unchanged, as if the very atmosphere breathed in
them by the ancient Christians had not been dis
turbed ; methinks it were not difficult for you to
feel, for some short space, as they did. to wish that
all else had suffered as small mutation, and long
that religion could once more strike its roots as
deeply into our hearts as it did into theirs, and if
it produce no more the martyr's palm, put forth at
least the olive-branch of peace. And wherever we
move among the remains of the ancient city,
whether in search of amusement or instruction,
there is caught a tone of mind which the most
thoughtless cannot escape, essentially subduing of
all selfish and particular feelings, an approximation
to a religious frame of soul, which shows how nec
essarily the destruction of all mere earthly power
was a preliminary step to the introduction of a
more spiritual influence, even as the contemplation
of that destruction opens the way to that influence's
personal action. And thus may we say that arch
aeology, the study of ruins and of monuments,
while it enlightens and delights us, may well form
the basis of the strongest religious impressions and
individual evidences.

VOL II. — 10

LECTURE THE TENTH;

ORIENTAL STUDIES.

PART i.
SACRED LITERATURE.

INTRODUCTORY Remarks on the connection of these studies
with Religion. CRITICAL SCIENCE : Its objects and prin
ciples. Old Testament. — Houbigant, Michaelis, Kennicott,
De Rossi. — Encouragement given by Rome to these stud
ies. New Testament. — Anticipations of Freethinkers. —
. Wetstein, Griesbach. Results : 1. Proof obtained of the
purity of the text in general ; 2. Authentication of partic
ular passages ; 3. Security against future discoveries. —
Confutation of an anecdote related by Michaelis and Dr.
Marsh. SACRED PHILOLOGY. — Hebrew Grammar. — Its
origin among Christians. — Reuchlin and Pellicanus, etc.
Application of cognate Dialects, De Dieu, Schultens :
Dutch School of Sacred Literature. German School ;
Michaelis, Storr, Gensenius. — His application of it to inval
idate the prophecy of Is. lii. liii. — Confutation of his rule
by later Grammarians ; Ewald. Hermeneutical Studies. —
1. Use made of this science to attack the character of the
Fathers. — Vindication of them, drawn from the very pro
gress of the study. Winer, Clausen, Rosenmiiller. — 2.
Vindication of old Catholic Commentators by the same ad
vance. — 3. Attacks upon Scripture, principally the Pro
phecies, drawn from the imperfect state of Biblical her-
meneutics ; the Rationalist School — Return to sound prin-

148 LECTURE THE TENTH.

ciples. — Hengstenberg. — 4. Practical application of Philol
ogy to the refutation of objections made to the genuine
ness of Matt. i. ii. from expressions therein used.

THE East lias already more than once engaged
our attention ; and assuredly it would be vain to
look for collateral evidences of Christianity, or doc
uments confirmatory of its sacred writings, with
greater chance of success in any other country
than in that which gave it birth. The East bears
a character in regard to us and the entire human
race which no relative situation can ever alter ; to
the scholar and philosopher it opens a mine of
reflections, sacred and historical, which yields,
every time it is further explored, new and exhaust-
less treasures. It is the womb of nations, not
only where the species originally came into being,
and was renewed after the deluge, but whence, by
a power given to no other portion of the globe,
successive races of men have come forth, pushing
forward each other as waves, to the shore, from the
unmoved calm of the ocean. Apparently without
the power of giving the last development of intel
lectual energy to its own inhabitants, it hath so
fitted and prepared them that, under proper influ
ences, they have advanced to every possible degree
of civilization, of culture, and of power.

For so long as they remain in their native
birth-place, as though it were but a nursery
wherein their growth is stunted, the nations of
Asia appear incapable of rising above a certain
degree' of moral preeminence. While physical life

LECTURE THE TENTH, 149

seems brought to the highest possible perfection ;
while every luxury which nature has bestowed
upon the world is there a gift rather than a pro
duction ; while the outward vesture of man, his
corporal endowments of beauty, agility, strength,
and temperate endurance, is dressed out in sur
passing excellence ; while every institution, of
government, of morality, of society, and religion,
bears the impress of a sensuous happiness, carried
to its highest stretch of gratifying power, — there
is a boundary set upon all these qualities, a separa
tion impassable between them and a nobler order
of excellence ; the civilization there can never
give full growth to the spirit's wings, to raise it
into the higher regions of pure intellectual enjoy
ment ; the inventive powers are forever supplied
by mere contriving skill ; the steadiness of rule is
replaced by boisterous and transitory conquest, or
by stagnant despotism ; and civilization stands,
age after age, at a dull unvarying level, seldom
sinking below, and never rising above an ap
pointed mark.

But this strange contrast between the inhabi
tants of Asia and those races which, when once
issued from it, have shown such marvellous
powers of thought and design, is withal a source
of great and interesting advantages. For it gives
to the former a fixed and unaltering character,
which enables the latter to trace back their history
and institutions into the remotest ages, and gives
connections between the present and th

150 LECTURE THE TENTH.

which must otherwise have been effaced, and
which afford us now many rich and valuable
illustrations of our most sacred monuments. Yain
would be the attempt to discover the state of any
country in Europe, of Germany for instance, of
Britain or of France, two thousand years ago,
from such institutions, habits, or appearances as
yet remain. Except the great unchangeable fea
tures of nature, mountains, seas, and rivers,
nothing is there which has not been altered and
modified ; languages, government, arts, and culti
vation, the face of the field, and the countenance
of man, all is different, and gives tokens of com
plicated change. But if we travel to the East it
is far otherwise. We find the Chinese just as his
oldest literature describes him ; we have the
wandering Monguls and Turcomans, with their
wagon-houses and herds, leading the Scythian's
life; we see the Brahman performing the same
ablution in the sacred river, going through the
same works of painful ceremony, as did the
ancient gymnosophists, or rather as is pre
scribed in his sacred books of earlier date ;
and still more we discover the Arab drinking at
the same wells, traversing the same paths, as did
the Jew of old, on his pilgrim journeys ; tilling
the earth with the same implements and at the
same seasons ; building his house on the same
model, and speaking almost the same language as
the ancient possessors of the promised land.

Hence, it follows, that innumerable illustra-

LECTURE THE TENTH. 151

tions of holy writ may be found, at every step,
through that blessed country. But, indepen
dently of this, there is comprised in that unchang
ing uniformity of more eastern nations, a tenacious
grasp of all great traditions, an earnestness in the
preservation of all that records the primeval
history of man ; and thus is given us, in the
present, a test which cannot deceive us, when
used to assay what is delivered of the past; a
means of connecting links, otherwise irretrievably
dispersed, of that chain which continues the
history of man's mind, from the first-taught les
sons of his childhood to the bolder thoughts of
his manlier years.

Having now entered upon that department
which more strictly forms my own particular pur
suit, and feeling the materials whereof it is com
posed more immediately under my hand, my
principal difficulty to-day, and in my next lecture,
will consist in selecting out of innumerable ex
amples a few of more general interest, and in
confining myself to such simple outlines of things
capable of much higher finish, as may be easily
retained. And I will divide my subject into two
portions, treating to-day of sacred, and at our next
meeting of profane, Oriental literature.

The portion of my task wThich I have allotted
to this day, I shall divide under the two heads of
critical and philological pursuits. For, to preserve
some measure of proportion between this and our
next entertainment, I must place under the head

152 LECTURE THE TENTH.

of profane studies such antiquarian illustrations as
are drawn from uninspired sources. The subject
of this day's lecture will wholly consist of such
studies as have the Scriptural text alone in view.

Of all these pursuits, critical science may be
justly considered the very foundation. For, if
the understanding the words of Scripture aright,
necessarily form the groundwork of all true inter
pretation, the reading of them correctly must be
a preliminary step to that accurate understanding.
Now, the science of sacred criticism undertakes
this office. First, it investigates what are the
true words of any single text, it examines all the
varieties which may exist therein ; and, weighing
the arguments in favor of each, decides which
reading the commentator or translator should
prefer. But then it goes further, and generalizes
its results, by inquiring into the correctness of
the entire sacred volume, after the revolutions of
so many ages.

The influence of this study upon the Christian
evidences is manifestly very great. For, as to its
particular application, very much may be gained
or lost, by a word or a syllable. The application
to Christ of the beautiful prophecy, Ps. xxii. 16,
" They pierced my hands and feet," is disputed
by the Jews, and by all theologians of the ration
alist school ; and the dispute turns entirely upon
the reading of the words. For, the present read
ing of the Hebrew text gives a totally different
meaning to the passage, that is, " as a lion are my

LECTURE THE TENTH. 153

hands and feet ;" and innumerable are the disqui
sitions published upon the true reading of the
text. In the New Testament, it is singular that
the most important passage affecting the Socinian
controversy should be in the same condition, and
form the subject of the most complicated critical
investigations. I hardly need mention the endless
dispute, whether the celebrated verse of the Three
Witnesses, 1 John v. 7, be a part of the original
text, or a later interpolation. But besides this,
another most important passage, bearing upon the
same dogma, is in a still more curious position.
This is 1 Tim. iii. 16, where a serious dispute
exists, whether we should read, " God appeared
in the flesh," or ft who appeared in the flesh ; "
and this dispute has been not only contested with
the pen, but has literally been made the object of
microscopic investigation. For it turns upon
this : whether the word in the most celebrated
manuscripts be OC, who, or ec., the abbreviation
for Gfof, God. Now, the pronoun and the ab
breviation are the same, excepting in the trans
verse stroke which passes through the 0, distin
guishes it from the O, and in the line drawn over
it, as a sign of abbreviation. Some, for instance,
assert, that in the celebrated Alexandrian manu
script in the British Museum, these lines are
added by a later hand ; all agree that they have
been most imprudently retouched. Others have
maintained that some remnants of the original
stroke might be seen in a strong light, with the

154 LECTURE THE TENTH.

aid of a good lens ; and their opponents again
rejoin that it was only the transverse stroke of a
letter on the other side of the page, which ap
peared through the vellum, when raised to the
sun.* In line, this dispute has been continued,
and the passage positively handled, till strokes
and letters, retouchings and originals, have been
equally cancelled, and the decision for posterity
must rest on what judgment it can form from so
many conflicting testimonies. A similar variety
of opinion exists regarding the passage in another
most celebrated Paris manuscript, called the " Co
dex Ephrem ;" Woide, Griesbach, and Less exam
ined it, yet could not ascertain which is its true
reading.

But the great and most important office of this
study, particularly in connection with the object
of these lectures, consists in giving us the means of
deciding how far the text of Scripture, as we now
possess it, is free from essential alterations, and
corruptions ; and consequently, in removing all our
anxiety and uneasiness regarding its interpretation.
And to show how far it has been successful in its
researches, I will briefly sketch out the history of
the science as exercised upon the text of both Old
and New Testaments.

I need not say that, from the earliest ages of
the Church, the necessity of having correct texts,
and the duty of taking pains to procure them were

* See Woide, " Notitia Cod. Alexandrini." Lips. 1788, p.
172, 8 Ixxxvii.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 155

fully admitted ;* with this difference, that, as the
language of the Old Testament was little known
to Christians, their labors were chiefly directed
to the perfecting of their versions. Origen, Euse-
bius, Lucian, and other learned Greeks, dedicated
their talents to this object, purged the Septuagint
version of the errors which had gradually crept
into it, and produced different texts, yet discern
ible in the different MSS. of that translation. In
the West, St. Jerome, Cassiodorus, and Alcuin, took
no less pains writh the Latin version. But all the
ecclesiastical writers who, besides those already
enumerated, occupied themselves with critical sub
jects, particularly St. Augustine, and Ven. Bede,
repeatedly acknowledged the necessity of having
recourse to the originals and endeavoring, as far
as possible, to procure a correct text.f

When the study of Hebrew began to be more
cultivated among Christians, and the invention of
printing made its text accessible to all, there sprang
up an important controversy upon its accuracy.
In many most important passages, as the one I
have cited from Ps. xxii, it was found to differ from
the versions then in use ; and suspicions were raised

* " Codicibus emendandis primitus debet invigilare soler-
tia eorum qui Scripturas nosse desiderant." St. Aug. " De
Doctrina Christiana," lib. ii. cap. 14. torn. iii. pa. i. p. 27, ed.
Maur.

f " Ubi cum ex adverse audieris proba, non confugias ad
exempla veriora, vel plurium codicum vel antiquorum, vel lin
guae praecedentis, unde hoc in aliam linguam interpretatum
est." Adv. Faust, lib. x, cap. 2, torn. viii. p. 219.

156 LECTURE THE TENTH.

against the Jews, who had so long monopolized it,
as though they had taken advantage of that circum
stance, to alter and strangely corrupt the original
text, in divers places. Hence, many assumed that
the versions were to be preferred to the original ;
others of more moderate principles, that this was
at least to be corrected by them. But, even before
critical studies had received their full development,
or been reduced to principles which in every science
must follow, not precede observation, the accurate
examination of almost every psssage quoted in
support of these opinions was found to lead to
their confutation : and the Jews were proved upon
incontestible evidence to have preserved the sacred
volume free from all intentional alteration. Such
is the judgment which all now agree in pronounc
ing on the animated folio controversies between
Cappellus and the Buxtorfs.

Still there were many who were not con
vinced ; and their obstinacy led to the most im
portant step in this branch of sacred literature, to
laying the foundation of all satisfactory critical
investigation, by the collection of various readings
from the examination of MSS., various, and an
cient quotations. Such at least was the motive
which excited the industry of F. Houbigant. He
fancied that the Hebrew text was essentially cor
rupt ; and therefore attempted, in 1753, to publish
it in four splendid folios, purged of its errors, and
restored to its original purity, by the examination
of several manuscripts in the libraries of Paris, and

LECTURE THE TENTH. 157

by the comparison of the oldest versions. Bash as
were at once his theories and their application, no
alarm was felt by the friends of religion, lest they
might lead to any serious consequence, — no ob
stacles were thrown in his way by his ecclesiasti
cal superiors, and the Pope sent him a splendid
gold medal as a testimony of approbation for his
industry and zeal.*

This same path was, however, pursued upon
higher and better motives by other learned men.
John Henry Michaelis, whose reputation has been
unjustly much eclipsed by that of his nephew, pub
lished in 1720, after thirty years' incessant labor,
an edition of the Bible, with notes, in which, among
other valuable matter, are given the varieties dis
coverable in three manuscripts preserved at Erfurt.
Our own country, however, has the merit of pro
ducing the greatest and most valuable work on this
important science, the one to which all later re
searches must necessarily be attached as supple
ments and appendixes. The learned Benjamin
Kennicott occupied more than ten years in prepar
ing the materials for his great critical Bible, which
issued from the Clarendon Press in 1776 and 1780.
For this purpose he did not content himself with
collating all the manuscripts in England, but ex
tended his researches over all the continent, and
everywhere received the most liberal encourage
ment. The results of his labors, and every inter-

* See Orme's " Bibliotheca Biblica : " Art Houbigant.

158 LECTURE THE TENTH.

esting discovery which they made, he communi
cated to the public every year in an annual report,
which kept alive the interest of the learned, from
the first announcement, to the completion of his
herculean work.

Nothing has been more common than to charge
us who dwell in Rome, and particularly those who
have authority here, with discouraging all critical
research, especially in sacred literature, and with
throwing every obstacle in the way of those who
cultivate it. I shall have to advert, a little later,
to a specific charge of this nature ; but the con
duct and feeling manifested in Rome towards Ken-
nicott and his undertaking, affords sufficient proof
of how groundless are such accusations. He him
self tells us, that the first place which gave him
encouragement, and offered him assistance, was
Rome ; and he gave us the following letter, written
to him by Cardinal Passionei, librarian to the Vat
ican, dated May 16, 1761, and entitled by him,
" The Roman Testimonial."

" The undertaking of anew edition of the Bible
to be made at Oxford upon all the Hebrew MSS.
existing in the most celebrated libraries, has here
met as many approvers as persons who have heard
it mentioned. And to favor the author of so
important a work, I have permitted with pleasure
the collation of the ancient Hebrew MSS. existing
in the Vatican Library, and I have granted it offi
cially as Librarian of the Holy Roman Church."*

* Kennic. Vet. Test. Prof. p. viii.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 159

In 1772, F. Fabricy, a Dominican, published
in Rome two very large volumes, directed almost
entirely .to prove the great benefit which religion
must receive from a free and complete examination
of the critical state of our present Hebrew text
such as was promised by Kennicott. "What
must chiefly interest us," he says, " is, that it will
infallibly give religion powerful arms to confound
a fundamental error of the impious and the liber
tine, on the actual state of our Hebrew text. From
the inspection of Heb. MSS. compared with our
common text, and with the most ancient versions,
an interesting fact must result, the assurance of our
divine Scripture being essentially incorrupt. We
cannot give a better confutation of their hypothesis,
who call themselves philosophers in our days, and
who refuse credit to the sacred books, on the pre
tence that the originals of Scripture are essentially
corrupt, and are now in extreme confusion and
disorder."*

It was only, indeed, by the existence of such
kind encouragement, that the next and last laborer
in this field could have accomplished his extraor
dinary undertaking. This was John Bernard de
Rossi, -4 poor and modest professor of Parma. In
an interesting account of his labors, which he pub
lished shortly before his death, he considers him
self only a humble instrument in the hands of

* " Des Titres prhnitifs de la Revelation," torn, prern. p
3. See torn. ii. pp. 3C2, 373, 521, etc.

160 LECTURE THE TENTH.

divine Providence, for the work which occupied
his life, the collection of manuscripts and rare edi
tions of the Hebrew text. Without fortune, in
fluence, or connections he dedicated himself to
this task ; he devoted to it all his little means : he
employed every art to overcome the repugnance
which the Jews had to part with their written re
cords ; and by his steady, undeviating attention to
one great and religious object, succeeded in his de
sign beyond his most sanguine expectation. Kenni-
cott, through the whole of Europe, had only been
able to collate 581 Hebrew manuscripts ; nor does
any public library in England, or on the continent,
possess more than fifty such documents. In 1784,
De. Kossi published the first volume of his various
readings, as supplementary to Kennicott's collec
tion, and in it he gives the catalogue of 479 manu
scripts in his own possession. Before the comple
tion of the fourth volume in 1788, his collection
had increased to 612 ; and in 1808 he published a
supplementary volume, in which 68 new manu
scripts are described, making in all 680 Hebrew
manuscripts. As he went on amassing till his
death, a few years ago, this invaluable collection
is now much greater. Every temptation was held
out to this worthy ecclesiastic to part with his lit
erary treasure. The Emperor of Russia offered
him an enormous price; but he replied that it
should never go out of Italy. Pius VI. had before
proposed to purchase it, and the thought of having
his library united to that of the Vatican, perhaps

LECTUKE THE TENTH. 161

tried him more keenly than gold ; but he preferred
accepting a trifling compensation for himself and
his niece from his own sovereign, and bequeathed
it to the library of his native city. With the val
uable labors of this humble, but enterprising indi
vidual, the history of this department of sacred
criticism may be said to close ; its results we shall
see united to those of the other more interesting
branch — the critical examination of the New Tes
tament.

Yery early after the first publication of this
sacred collection, it became the custom to examine
the manuscripts of it, which abounded in every
library, though with no great accuracy, and on no
uniform plan. It was not till the great edition of
Mill, in 1T07, which condensed all the labors of
his predecessors, corrected their errors, and greatly
increased their stores, that sacred criticism could
be said to have assumed a systematic form. After
him the task of collecting rapidly advanced, and
successive critical editions occupied the attention
of the learned, through the whole of the eigh
teenth century. That of Wetstein, in 1751 and
1752, far eclipsed all that had gone before ; but
he, as well as they, has yielded the preeminence
which he long enjoyed to the great reformer of
the science, John James Griesbach. To him we
owe the leading principles which have swayed it
ever since, almost with an iron rule.

It was chiefly with reference to this branch of
critical science that the interest of the learned,
VOL. n — IT.

162 LECTURE THE TENTH.

and of theologians in particular, was much excited.
For it was chiefly here that the opposers of re
ligion, or of its most essential dogmas, had hoped
for something useful to their cause. It had been
anticipated, indeed, that some various reading
would probably be discovered more favorable to
Socinian opinions ; and, at any rate, many believed
that such an uncertainty would arise concerning
the entire text, such difficulty of choice between
conflicting readings, as would unsettle all belief,
and utterly destroy the authority of Scripture as a
guide to truth. Such was the view taken of the
critical labors of Mill and others, by the celebra
ted Anthony Collins, in his " Discourse on Free-
thinking." He took advantage of the differences
between Mill and "Whitby, about some passages,
and about the value of various readings in general,
to conclude that the entire New Testament was
thereby rendered doubtful. He was soon, however,
chastised by the heavy lash of Bentley, who, in
his disguise of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, thor
oughly exposed the folly of Collins's assertions,
and vindicated the condition of the inspired text.
And, in fact, we may well inquire, what has
been the result, of this laborious and acute re
search, — of this toilsome collation of manuscripts
of every age, of the many theories for classifying
critical documents ; in fine, of all the years which
able and learned men have dedicated to the zeal
ous task of amending and perfecting the sacred
book ? Why truly, if we exclude the great and

LECTURE THE TENTH. 163

important conclusions which we have at present
in view, the result is so trifling, that we should
say there had been much unthrifty squandering
of time and talents thereupon. ~Not indeed that
there has been lack of abundant differences of
readings; on the contrary, the number is over
powering. Mill's first effort produced 30.000,
and the number may be said daily to increase.
But in all this mass, although every attainable
source has been exhausted ; although the fathers
of every age have been gleaned for their readings ;
although the versions of every nation, Arabic,
Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Ethiopian, have
been ransacked for their renderings ; although man
uscripts of every age from the sixteenth upwards
to the third, and of every country, have been
again and again visited by industrious swarms to
rifle them of their treasures ; although, having
exhausted the stores of the West, critics have
travelled like naturalists into distant lands to
discover new specimens, — have visited, like Scholz,
or Sebastiani, the recesses of Mount Athos, or the
unexplored libraries of the Egyptian and Syrian
deserts — yet has nothing been discovered, no not
one single various reading, which can throw doubt
upon any passage before considered certain or
decisive in favor of any important doctrine. For
in the instances which I before quoted, as 1 Tim.
iii. 16, the doubt existed already from the variety
found in the ancient versions. These various
readings, almost without an exception, leave mi-

164: LECTURE THE TENTH.

touched the essential parts of any sentence, and
only interfere with points of secondary importance,
the insertion or omission of an article or conjunc
tion, the more accurate grammatical construction,
or the forms rather than the substance of words.
For instance, the first verse of St. John's Gospel
had been the subject of various critical conjectures,
with a view of destroying its force in proving the
divinity of Christ. One author had maintained
that the reading should be in the genitive, " and
the Word was of God ;" another that the sentence
should be differently pointed, and that we should
read, " and God was," leaving " the Word" to be
joined to the next period. Now, after examining
all the evidence within the reach of unexampled
industry, exercised by men noways unfavorable to
the cause supported by those conjectures, what
discoveries have been made in this passage ? Sev
eral various readings, to be sure ; such as Clement
of Alexandria's having once, " the Word was in
God," instead of with God ; one manuscript, and
St. Gregory of Kyssa, reading the word God
with an article, "was the God." These are the
only variations found in the text, while the great
doctrine which it contains, remains perfectly un
touched, and the presumptuous conjectures of
Photinus, Crellius, and Bardht, are proved to be
frivolous and ungrounded.

In fact, if we look through the new text pub
lished by Griesbach, the first critic who ventured
to insert a new reading into the received text, and

LECTURE THE TENTH. 165

see, as we may in a moment from the difference
of type, how few are the instances where the great
quantity of documents which he consulted sug
gested to him any improvement, we cannot but
be surprised at the accuracy of our ordinary text,
formed as it was, without selection, from the first
manuscripts that came to hand after the invention
of printing ; or rather we must feel great satisfac
tion at the small difference between the best and
the most inferior manuscripts, and consequently at
the consoling manner in which the integrity of
the inspired records has been preserved.

So completely did this result disappoint the
expectations of those who opposed religion, that
we are told by a celebrated scholar of the last
century, that they began to think less favorably
of that species of criticism which they at first so
highly recommended, in the hope of its leading to
discoveries more suitable to their maxims than the
ancient system.*

This result is precisely the same as has been
obtained from the critical study of the Old Tes
tament. It has been acknowledged by the
learned Eichhorn, that Kennicott's various read
ings hardly present any of consequence, or suffi
ciently interesting to repay the labor bestowed on
their collection. f Even within these few years
we have had a new and striking confirmation of

* Michaelis, torn. ii. p. 266.

| " Einleitung," ii. Th. S. 700, ed. Leipzig, 1824.

166 LECTURE THE TENTH.

this result. Dr. Buchanan, in 1806, procured and
brought to Europe a Hebrew manuscript used by
the black Jews, settled from time immemorial in
India, where they had for ages been cut off from
all communication with their brethren in other
parts of the world. It is a fragment of an
immense roll, which, when complete, must have
been about ninety feet long. Even as it now is, it
is made up of pieces written by different persons,
at different epochs, and contains a considerable
portion of the Pentateuch. It is written on skins
dyed red. An interesting collation of this MS.
has been made and published by Mr. Yeates ; and
the result is, that, comparing it with the edition
of Yan der Hooght, considered always as the
standard edition in such collations, it presents not
more than forty various readings, not one of
which is in the least important, for the most part
affecting letters, such as jod or vau which may
be inserted or omitted with perfect indifference.
Indeed, comparing it with other printed and very
correct editions, this number is considerably
reduced. The collator well observes, that here we
have " specimens of at least three ancient copies
of the Pentateuch, whose testimony is found to
unite in the integrity and pure conservation of
the sacred text, acknowledged by Christians and
Jews in these parts of the world."*

But, once more returning to the New Testa-

* " Collation of an Indian Copy of the Pentateuch," p. 8.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 167

ment, and the critical attention paid to its text,
the advantages which this has procured us are
far from stopping at the assurance that nothing
has been yet discovered which could shake our
belief in the purity of our sacred books. This
advantage was but the first step gained by it in
the earliest labors of Mill and Wetstein. The
critic, with whose name I closed my list, went
much further ; he gave us, in addition, a security
for the future. His great theory of the classifica
tion of manuscripts, was, however, first suggested
by an amiable and profound scholar, John Albert
Bengel. This learned man is a noble model of
the principles in action which I have been
striving to inculcate through this course of lec
tures. He was perplexed by the quantity of
various readings discovered in the New Testa
ment, and feared that, by them, all security in its
correctness was essentially destroyed. He had
no one to consult ; he feared to open the state of
his mind : and with an uprightness and a courage
which do him honor, he resolved to face every
difficulty, to dedicate himself to critical inquiries,
and to find, in the science itself that suggested
them, the solution of his scruples. The result
was what might have been anticipated — his own
individual conviction of the purity of the text,
and the simplification of the inquiry to all who
might find themselves in a similar position. He
Boon observed, that it was lost labor to count
manuscripts upon any passage ; for a great num-

1(58 LECTURE THE TENTH.

ber of them always herded together, so that when
you knew how one read, you might consider it
a type or representative of many more, which
belonged, as it were, to the same family. Thus
he suggested, that if you found upon any text one
celebrated old manuscript, agreeing with any very
ancient version, you might safely consider their
joint reading as certain.

This, however, was but a rude germ of the
system discovered and introduced by Griesbach.
He found, by a long and diligent research, that
all known manuscripts are divided into three
classes, to which he has given the name of Recen
sions, because he supposes them to have been
produced by corrected editions of the text in
different countries; and he, consequently, gives
them the titles of the Alexandrian, the Western,
and the Byzantine Recensions. Every known
manuscript belongs to one of these classes ; and
though it may occasionally depart from its type,
it accords with it on the whole. The consequence
of this arrangement is obvious. We no longer
speak of twenty manuscripts being in favor of
one reading, and as many on the other side, nor
think of examining their individual value, nor
have we to weigh numbers against intrinsic
worth, and decide between them. Individual
manuscripts have now no value; but we only
decide between families. If two families agree,
their joint reading is probably correct ; if they are
so blended together that manuscripts of all fam-

LECTURE THE TENTH. 169

ilies are confusedly mixed on both sides, the ques
tion cannot be decided. But here we have a secu
rity against the discovery of any future docu
ments. For, if any manuscript, however vener
able and precious, were to be discovered, it must
enter into the ranks, and submit to be classified
with one of the families, whose weight it might
increase, while it lost all individual authority ; and
thus it could noways disturb our security. And
if it presented such anomalies as would exclude
'it from them all, and prevent its classification, it
must be considered a vagrant and outlaw, arid
could no more derange the system than a comet
cutting through the orbits of the planets could be
said to disturb their order, by refusing to come
into their arrangement.

This great and important step in the critical
study of the New Testament has received import
ant modifications, all tending to simplify it further.
Nolan, Hug, Scholz, and many others, have pro
posed various arrangements, and distributions of
manuscripts ; but they have gone little further
than varying the names and numbers of the
classes ; the principles they have preserved entire.
Scholz, indeed, may be said to have proposed the
most important change. After travelling all over
Europe, and a great part of the East, to collate
manuscripts, he published in 1830 the first volume
of a new critical edition ; in the preface to which
he reduces the families to two, thus rendering the
application of Griesbach's principle still more at-

170 LECTURE THE TENTHS

tainable. By a letter which I lately received from
him, I learned that the second volume is now in
the press.

Thus, may we say, that critical science has not
only overthrown every objection drawn from doc
uments already in our possession, but has given us
full security against any that may be yet dis
covered ; and has, at the same time, placed in our
hands simple and easy canons, or rules for decid
ing complicated points of difference. And these
results will be still more within our reach when a
new edition, now preparing, shall have appeared,
in which only select readings, examined with
great care, and given with great accuracy, shall
have been completed.

Besides these general advantages, we may
moreover say, that many particular passages, over
which a cloud of doubt before hung, have been
cleared of their difficulty, and fully secured. For
instance, the eleven last verses of St. Mark, con
taining very important and interesting matter,
had been doubted of by many critics ; and the
same may be said of Luke xxii. 43-45, wherein
the account is given of our Saviour's bloody sweat
in the garden. Now, the progress of critical re
search has so completely placed these two passages
on a level with every other part of the New Tes
tament, that it is quite impossible they can ever
again be called in question.

There is an anecdote connected with this sci
ence, to which I before alluded,' and which it

LECTURE THE TENTH. 171

would be unjust not to inquire into before con
cluding it. The Yatican library possesses, as all
of you must be aware, the most valuable manu
script of the Septuagint version, and the New
Testament, now in existence. It is known by the
name of the Codex Yaticanus, and was published
in 1587, by order of Pope Sixtus Y. Michaelis,
and his annotator, Dr. Marsh, has informed us,
upon the authority of Adler, that in 1783 the
Abbate Spaletti, or, as they call him, Spoletti, ap
plied to Pope Pius YI. for permission to publish
a fac-simile of the entire manuscript upon the same
plan as the Anacreon which he had printed ; that
the Pope was favorable to the scheme, but " re
ferred the matter, according to the usual routine,
to the Inquisition, with the order that F. Mam-
achi, the magister sacri palatii, should be consul-
ted in particular ; whose ignorance, and its usual
attendant a spirit of intolerance, induced him to
persuade the Pope to prevent the execution of the
plan under the pretence that the Codex Yaticanus
differed from the Yulgate, and might therefore, if
made known to the public, be prejudicial to the
interests of the Christian Religion." A second
memorial was presented to the Pope, " but the
powers of the Inquisition prevailed against argu
ments, which had no other support than sound
reason." De Rossi, in a letter to Michaelis, an
swered this accusation against the character of his
patron, the Pope; but Dr. Marsh replies,
" this at least is certain, that no public pei

172 LECTURE THE TENTH.

was ever given to Spoletti, though lie repeatedly
asked it ; he was therefore obliged to abandon the
design, since the private indulgence of the Pope
would have been no security against the vengeance
of the Inquisition."* It is really a pity to see
such a tissue of misrepresentations as are here
strung together, repeated by writers of authority,
from whom they are, of course, copied into pop
ular works, become universally current. Mr.
Home, naturally, has not overlooked it.f

When I first read this story some years ago, 1
lost no time in examining its accuracy. The lead
ing fact is indeed true, that the Abbate Spaletti
applied for permission to publish a fac-simile of
that immense manuscript ; and, doubtless, had he
applied for permission only, it would have been
soon obtained. But, unluckily, his demand was,
that he should publish it at the expense of the
government ; and this was the sole ground of re
fusal. This I was told by one who had known
Spaletti intimately, and was acquainted with the
whole transaction, and had no idea that any dif
ferent account, or, indeed, any account of it at all,
had been ever published.;): It would have been a
pity, he added, if Spaletti had been allowed ; for
he was but a superficial scholar, and merely de
sired to undertake this immense task as a good

* Michaelis, vol. ii. part i. p. 181 ; part. ii. p. 644.
f Vol. ii. p. 125.

J The late Canonico Baldi, sotto-custode of the Vatican
Library.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 173

speculation. When we consider that it required
the interference of Parliament, and its engage
ment to pay all expenses, before Mr. Baber's fac
simile of the Alexandrian manuscript of the Old
Testament alone could be undertaken ; and that,
even then, on account of the enormous expense,
only 250 copies have been printed, we surely have
reason enough for the government here declining
the extravagant outlay necessary for carrying
Spaletti's projects into execution. Besides this
leading incorrectness, there are others of minor
importance in the anecdote. The Inquisition
could not have been ever referred to, according to
the " ordinary routine," as Dr. Marsh expresses it ;
for to any one acquainted with the course of busi
ness here, such an assertion sounds as probable as
if some foreigner were to state, that Mr. Baber's^
proposal to publish the Alexandrian manuscript
was referred, according to " the usual routine," to
the Horse-Guards, or the Board of Control. Nor,
in fact, was it ever referred to the Inquisition at
all. So far from any misunderstanding having
ever existed between Spaletti and the members of
that office, he continued to the end of his life to
spend all his Sunday mornings in their society,
within the walls of that dreadful tribunal. Nor can
I pass over the learned Bishop of Peterborough,
speaking of the ignorant Mamachi ; a man who
holds a place among the illustrators of ecclesiastical
antiquity second to none, and whose works will
fortunately last as long, at least, as this aspersion

174 LECTURE THE TENTH.

on his memory. However, Dr. Marsh himself
affords the best confutation of the motive attribu
ted to this ignorant clergyman, who surely knew
that the Vatican manuscript had been published
nearly two centuries before, when he tells us that
Dr. Holmes found no obstacles in the way of col
lating the manuscripts of the Vatican for his edi
tion of the Septuagint.* And, in fact, Spaletti
was employed among others in making it, and
the very manuscript in question was one of those
examined.

When Monsignor Mai, lately librarian of the
Vatican, suggested to Leo XII. the propriety of
publishing the New Testament of the Codex Vat-
icanus, his Holiness replied, that he would wish
the whole, including the Old, to be accurately
printed. Upon this, the learned prelate under
took the task, and advanced as far as St. Mark's gos
pel. Not satisfied with the execution of the work,
he has since recommenced it on a different plan.
The New Testament is finished, and the Old
considerably advanced. This publication will be
the most satisfactory proof how little apprehen
sion is felt in Home of any " injury to the Chris
tian religion " from the critical study of the Holy
Scriptures.

* The collation of this manuscript was interrupted by the
French revolution. Why it was not resumed after the res
toration of the Codex, the officers of the library were at a
loss to discover. Surely a critical edition of the Septuagint,
in which a collation of the best and oldest manuscript is
wanting, labors under an essential defect.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 175

But, to conclude this last portion of my task,
we have thus seen this science run precisely the
same course as so many others ; afford, in its
imperfect state, some ground of objection to free
thinkers against the basis of Christian revelation,
and then, by pursuing its own natural direction
without fear, not only overthrow all the diffi
culties which it had first raised, but replace them
by such new and satisfactory assurances, as no fur
ther inquiry can possibly weaken or destroy.

After the text has been settled by critical
research, the next task is to interpret. This is
primarily the province of philology, which ex
amines the signification of the words whether
singly, or combined in phrases, and, by deciding
on their value, arrives at the sense of entire sen
tences and paragraphs. Now, the different parts
of this study, strange as it may seem, have been
progressive, and their progress has uniformly
tended to the vindication of Scripture, and the
confirmation of the evidences. Grammar is nec
essarily the basis of all study which has words
for its object : and I commence with it.

You will perhaps be inclined to smile when
I speak of the grammar of a language dead two
thousand years, as in a state of progress and
improvement. You will doubtless be no less
tempted to incredulity, when I assert that its
progress has even slightly added to our security
in essential doctrines. And yet both assertions
are really true. For the sake of such as may feel

176 LECTURE THE TENTH.

an interest in such researches, I will sketch you
an outline of its history, and then exemplify the
useful and important applications to which it may
be directed.

The grammar of the Hebrew language nat
urally originated with the Jews ; nor did any
Christian, in modern times, commence 'its study,
until it had received from them all that per
fection which their defective methods could be
stow on it. Still the study among us may be
said to have been conducted upon independent
grounds. Elias Levita was employed in giving
to the grammatical researches of the Kimchis
all the improvements which they were ever to
receive from writers of his nation, when Conrad
Pellicanus, in 1503, and Reuehlin, three years
later, published the first rudiments of Hebrew
intended for Christian education. The former, a
monk at Tubingen, had made himself acquainted
with the language at the age of twenty-two, with
no other help than a Latin Bible ; and embodied,
consequently, in his grammar, only such im
perfect elements as he had thus gleaned. Reuch-
lin took lessons at Rome, from a Jew, at the
extravagant price of a golden crown an hour;
and to him we are indebted for most of the
grammatical terms now used in the study of the
sacred language. Sebastian Miinster, a scholar
of Elias, soon eclipsed his predecessors ; and his
labors, which were copied almost entirely from
the Rabbins, yielded, in their turn, to the more

LECTURE THE TENTH. 177

comprehensive and more lucid method of the
elder Buxtorf. Nor were grammatical researches
wanting in other parts of Europe besides Germany.
Santes Pagnini in Italy, and Chevalier in France,
published introductions to the study of the sacred
language. This may be styled the first period
of Hebrew grammar among Christians, a period
ending with the middle of the seventeenth
century.* Its characteristics are those of the
Jewish school, from which it sprang, a minute
attention to the complicated changes of letters
and vowel-points, and to the derivation and
formation of nouns ; while the general structure
of the language is in a great measure over
looked. Besides Buxtorf, one other honorable
exception must however be made. Solomon
Glass, whose Philologia Sacra, especially in the
improved edition of Dathe, should never be
absent from the table of the biblical student,
collected a treasure of syntactical remarks, which,
besides their utility for Hebrew grammar, had
the merit of first bringing the language of the
New Testament into relation with the Old.

While the study of Hebrew grammar was thus
slowly advancing, the cognate Semitic dialects,
then known by the general name of the Oriental
languages, were cultivated with considerable atten
tion. At the period which, after Gensenius, I have

* Gensenius, " Geschichte der hebraipchen Sprache und
Schrift," Leipzig, 1825, pp. 101, 107.
VOt. II. — 12

178 LECTUKE THE TENTH.

assigned to the termination of the first Christian
school, the study of them began to exercise an in
fluence on Hebrew grammar, and thus marked the
commencement of a second epoch. Louis DeDieu,
in 1628, first published a comparative grammar of
Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac. He was followed
by Hottinger (1649), and Sennert (1653), who
added the Arabic to the languages previously
compared. The celebrated polyglot lexicon of
Castell, in its prolegomena, further contributed
the Ethiopic, or Abyssinian.

This was a new and important instrument for
the study of Hebrew grammar ; but the syntax of
these kindred languages was itself imperfectly de
veloped, and the application of them wras therefore
principally confined to the declensions and conju
gations. At the beginning of the last century, a
more extensive application of one branch at least
of this comparative philology was introduced by
the learned and sagacious Albert Schulteiis. Deeply
versed in Arabic literature, and having at command
a treasure of oriental manuscripts in the Leyden
library, he devoted most of his life to the illustra
tion of Hebrew philology from these new sources.
Great as his merits are, his devotion to the system
which he was the first to introduce, necessarily led
him too far. He sacrificed the advantages, which
a comparison with all the kindred dialects affords,
to his predilection for one. He went further still ;
for he often neglects the peculiar structure and

LECTURE THE TENTH. 179

idiomatic uses of the Hebrew language for a paral
lelism, however faint, with Arabic.*

He was the founder of what is called the Dutch
school in Hebrew philology. As might be ex
pected, many of his scholars copied the faults of
their master, though a few, more judicious, were
careful to avoid them. While rash Arabisms, as
they were called, and forced etymologies, disfigure
the works of Venema, Lette, and Scheid, others,
like Schroder, have brought a more chastened
judgment to the study of grammar. The institu
tions of this judicious author, f was for many years
the standard work in Germany, and is, I believe,
as yet considerably used, and deservedly esteemed
in England. His syntax is copious and accurate,
and may be reckoned the best substitute by those
who have not access to the larger German works
of Gensenius and Ewald.

While the Dutch school was in its perfection,
the Germans were laying the foundation of that
system which, though not matured so early, was
the only true and solid method of proceeding. This
consisted in not attempting to reach at once a full
and comprehensive system of grammar, but in illus
trating particular points, either from the cognate
dialects, or by a collation of numerous passages in
the Bible itself. Christian Benedict Michaelis lauda-

* 2b. p. 128.

f " Institutiones ad Fundamenta Linguae Hapraicae." The
last German ed. Ulm, 1792. It was reprinted at Glasgow in

1824.

180 LECTURE THE TENTH.

bly attended to both methods ; Simonis, Storr, and
numerous others, contributed valuable observations
towards methodizing the Hebrew syntax, and its
analogies. Materials were thus accumulated at
the commencement of this century, which only
required a learned, judicious, and patient investi
gator to arrange, discuss, and complete them.

From the first school, the modern one diners,
much in the same manner as the tactics of the
present day do from those of ancient times. As
these trained the phalanx, or legion, through a
maze of manoeuvres which depended chiefly upon
the exact movements and positions of individuals,
so the whole system of ancient grammar depended
upon the minute changes which occurred in every
single word, upon the complicated evolutions of
each point, its advance, its retreat, or its charge.
The modern grammarian, on the other hand, neg
lects not indeed these minor movements, but be
stows his greatest attention on the co-ordination
of the parts of speech, on the force of the particles
in every varied circumstance, on the different
powers of peculiar forms of words, and on the
mutual dependence of the lesser and greater mem
bers of the sentence ; — he looks mainly to more
extensive combinations, and more important ef
fects.

The first school, however, used one advantage,
which its successor neglected or despised, the Rab
binical grammarians. All, indeed, at the begin
ning, was Jewish, whether in grammar or in lexi-

LECTURE THE TENTH. 181

cography ; while, during the following period, the
Rabbins were discarded in both. Forster (1557)
published his lexicon, " non ex Rabbinorum com-
mentis nee nostratum Doctorum stulta imita-
tione ; " and Masclef determined to purge Hebrew
grammar of the points, "aliisque inventis Maso-
rethicis." I know not whether his followers con
sider the existence of syntax and construction in
Hebrew as a Rabbinical invention ; but those
grammars which treat of the language without
points, generally unshackle it no less of grammati
cal ties, and thus represent the language of inspi
ration as a speech, wherein almost every word is
vague and indeterminate, and every sentence de
void of rule and iixed construction.

But be this as it may, the moderns make it a
point to neglect no source of information, and
much that is valuable in the grammar and lexico
graphy of the present day must be attributed to a
proper attention to Jewish sources. The gram
mar also of the cognate dialects has improved in
like manner. The Baron de Sacy has totally
changed the face of Arabic grammar. Hoffman
has left little hope to those who cultivate the field
of Syriac philology.*

With these principles and these advantages it
was that Gensenius undertook the task of publish-

* Hoffman's work, however, must be considered rather a
consequence of the latest advances in Hebrew and Arabic
grammar, than as a co-ordinate improvement. — " Grammat
ics Syriacae, Libri ties," Halce, 1827, p. viii.

182 LECTURE THE TENTH.

ing a complete Hebrew grammar, which appeared
in 1817.* This work, with his lexicon, forms an
era in biblical literature : though many severe
Btrictures were at first passed, it gained very gen
eral and merited approbation ; and many writers
hesitate not to consider its author as almost mo
nopolizing the Hebrew learning of the day.

I have detained you too long with the history
of so barren a district of science as Hebrew gram
mar ; it is time that I should apply it to the ob
ject of these lectures.

The influence of grammar upon the interpre
tation of any passage is too obvious to require ex
planation. No modern commentator would ad
vance an illustration of a text, without showing
that the meaning of each word, and its connection
with the passage, warrant the sense which he has
selected. To demonstrate, on the other hand, that
his opinion involves the text in a conflict with the
established rules of grammar, would be its most
unanswerable refutation. But hence, you must
instantly see the importance of having the stand
ard rules, to which every one appeals, certain and
satisfactory ; and how easily a general grammati
cal canon may be laid down, upon the authority
of a few instances, which will fatally deprive us of
an important dogmatical proof, or give a totally

* " Ausf iihrliclies grammatisch-kritisches Lehrgebaude
der hebraischen Spraclie, mit Vergleiclmng der verwandten
Diaekte." Leipzig, 1817, 8vo. p. 908.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 183

new meaning to passages hitherto deemed clear.
In such a case, it becomes our duty to examine
the universality of the rule ; we may have to en
ter into the minutice of philological discussion ;
and in vain shall we aspire to be commentators
without being grammarians. The progress of
study may therefore refute these difficulties, and
regain the ground which such partial researches
appear to have conquered.

All this has, in fact, happened. When I in
form you that the most magnificent and most cir
cumstantial prophecy in the Old Testament had
been denied ; that the dispute concerning it had
been mainly reduced to a grammatical discussion
of the force of one little wTord, supposed to be the
key to the entire passage ; that a rule had been
framed by the standard grammarian whom I have
just eulogized, depriving this word of the only
signification compatible writh a prophetic interpre
tation ; that, in fine, the researches of later gram
marians have overthrown this rule ; you will al
low that important results may' be gained by the
progress of this study, for the vindication of
prophecy, and consequently, for confirming the
truth of Christianity. For there could hardly be
pointed out a passage in the Old Testament from
which this class of evidence can be established so
satisfactorily, as from the fifty-second and fifty-
third chapters of Isaiah. Nothing, therefore, re
mains for my proof, but briefly to sketch out the
history of this controversy, making it as intelli-

184 LKOTUKE THE TENTH.

gible as possible to those who are unacquainted
with the Hebrew language.

In the three last verses of the fifty-second, and
through the whole of the following chapter, are
represented the character and fate of the Servant
of God. Perhaps no portion of the same extent
in the Old Testament is so honored by quotations
and references in the New ; it is the passage which
divine Providence used as an instrument to convert
the eunuch of the Queen of Ethiopia.* As early
as the age of Origen, the Jews had taken care to
elude the force of a prophecy which described the
Servant of God as afflicted, wounded, and bruised,
and as laying down his life for his people, and
even for the salvation of all mankind. f Though
the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan,
understood it of the Messiah, the later Jews have
explained it either of some celebrated prophet, or
of some collective body. The modern adversaries
of prophecy have generally adopted the latter in
terpretation, though with considerable diversity as
to the particular application. The favorite theory
seems, that it represents, under the figure of the
Servant of God, the whole Jewish people, often des
ignated under that title in Scripture, and that it is
descriptive of the sufferings, captivity, and restora-

* Acts viii. 32, 33.

f Chap. liii. 12. Compare Mat. xxvi. 28 ; Rom. v. 19 ; IB.
lii. 15 : on which see Jahn, " Appendix Hermeneuticee," fasc.
ii. Vien. 1815, p. 5.

LECTUKE THE TENTH. 185

tion of the whole race.* Others, however, prefer
a more restricted sense, and apply the whole passage
to the prophetic body. This explanation has met
with an ingenious and learned patron in Gen-
senius.f

It is true that this servant of God is represen
ted as one individual, but the advocates of the col
lective application appeal to one text as containing
a decisive argument in their favor. This is the
eighth verse of the fifty-third chapter, " for the
sin of my people a stroke (was inflicted 'upon
him, ' )." The pronoun used here is one of rare
occurrence, found chiefly in the poets ^i& lamo).
This, it is asserted, is only plural, and the text
should therefore be rendered, " a stroke is inflicted
on them" Now, this meaning would be absolutely
incompatible with a prophecy regarding a single
individual, and is therefore assumed as giving
the key to the entire passage, and proving that a
collective body alone can be signified under the
figure of God's servant. The prophecy therefore
would be totally lost ; instead of a clear prediction
of the mission and the redemption of the Messiah,
we should only have a pathetic elegy over the
sufferings of the prophets, or of the people ! To
this word the learned Rosenmiiller appeals in his
prolegomena to the chapter, for a decisive termin-

* Eckermann, " Theologisclie Beytrage," Erst. St. p. 191.
Rosenmiiller, " Jesajse Vaticinia." Lips. 1820, vol. iii. p. 326.

f " Philologisch-kritischer und liistorischer Commcntar.
iiber den Jesaia," Zweiter Th. Lcip*. 1821, p. 108.

186 LECTURE THE TENTH.

ation of the contest, and supposes the prophet to
have used this pronoun for the express purpose of
clearing up any difficulty regarding his meaning.*
To it Gensenius in like manner refers for the same
purpose ;f and he considers it a mere prejudice to
render the passage in the singular, as has been
done by the Syriac version and by St. Jerome.J
But Gensenius, as I have before hinted, had al
ready prepared the way for his commentary, and
prevented the necessity of any discussion in it, by
framing a rule in his grammar, evidently intended
for this passage.

There he has laid down that the poetical
pronoun ^ is only plural ; and that though
sometimes referred to singular nouns, it is only
when they are collectives. After noticing a cer
tain number of examples, he adds the text under
consideration. " In this passage," he remarks,
" the grammatical discussion has acquired a dog-

* Omnino autem quo minus de singula quadam persona
vatem loqui existimemus, illud vetat, quod versu 8, exeunte,
de ilia, qui loquentes inducuntur, dicunt. . . . ;,t3^ enim collec
tive duntaxat pro tj^V usurpari videbimus ad eum locum,
voluitque vates ilia voce usus ipse significare, niinistrum il
ium divinum, de quo loquitur, esse certain quandam plurium
hominum ejusdem conditionis collation em unius personae
imagine reprsesentatam. Quum igitur omnis interpretatio,
quae singular! alicui personse lianc pericopam accommodare
student, plane sit seponenda," etc., ubi sup. 330, cf. p. 359.

f Ubi sup. pp. 163, 183.

\ Erst. Th. erste Abtli. pp. 86, 88. The Targum, Symmac-
1ms and Theodotion, wlio are not Christian interpreters, ren
der the word in the same manner.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 187

matical interest. The subject of this chapter is
always mentioned in the singular, except in this
text, but it is perfectly intelligible how it should
be changed in ver. 8 for a plural, since, as appears
to me certain, that servant of God is the repre
sentative of the prophetic body."* You see,
therefore, how important a discussion, in itself of
small consequence, may become ; how the inquiry,
whether an insignificant pronoun is only plural or
may be singular, has become the hinge on which
a question of real interest to the evidence of
Christianity has been made to tiirn.f

The grammatical labors of Gensenius were not
so perfect as to deter others from cultivating the
same field. In 1827, a very full critical grammar
was published by Ewald, who necessarily discussed
the grammatical rule laid down by Gensenius on
the subject of this pronoun. He brings together

* Lehrgebaude, p. 221.

f It must be remembered that the discussion of this
particular prophecy is closely connected with the principle
whether prophecy exists at all in the Old Testament. It is
by such special explanations that rationalists get rid of the
whole system of prophecy, whereby the truth of Chris
tianity is so much confirmed. This passage, moreover, is of
peculiar importance in proving the mission of Christ, and
his identity with the promised king of the Jews. I must
also observe, that besides the solutions in the text, others
have been given which secure the prophecy, and yet leave
the pronoun in the plural. One is in Jahn, ubi sup. p. 24 ;
another, I think more conformable to Hebrew usage, in
Hengstenberg's <l Christologie des alten Testaments." Berlin,
1820. Erst. Th. zweit Abth. p. 339.

188 LECTURE THE TENTH.

•

more examples, and by an examination of their
context or parallel passages, determines satisfac
torily, that this unusual form may well bear a
singular signification.* The difficulty against the
prophetic interpretation is thus removed by one of
the most modern grammarians, and all those
internal arguments in its favor are restored to
their native force, by perseverance in the very
study which had been brought to confute them.
Hermeneutics, or the principles of biblical in
terpretation; will scarcely appear to you a science
more capable of improvement than Hebrew gram
mar. Did not the early writers of the Church
understand the sacred volume, and must they not
have been, therefore, guided by fixed and correct
rules in its interpretation ? I well understand the
force of this question, which will receive, perhaps,

* Kritische Grammatik der Hebraischen Sprache aus-
fiilirlich bearbeitet von D. Georg H. A. Ewald." Leipzig,
1827. p. 365. It would be out of place, in a popular lecture,
to enter into the minute confirmations of a grammatical
rule. I will therefore observe in this note, that, besides the
examples given by Ewald from Job xxvii. 23, but especially
Is. xliv. 15, 17, which is quite satisfactory, other considera
tions confirm the singular rendering of itaV 1. The suffix
'itt attached to nouns is certainly singular in Ps. xi. 7. — TW-S
"his face," speaking of God. A plural suffix is never
referred to the name m'rr as a plurale majestatis (Ewald ib)
and hence Gensenius supposes the use of the suffix to have
been a mistake of the author's (ubi sup. p. 216.) 2. In Ethio-
pic the suffix •'»'•) is <ertainly singular. Lud. D Deu. Grit
Sacra, p. 226. Animad. in V. T. p. 547. This pronoun seems
to be common not only to both numbers, but also to both
genders, as it seems to be feminine in Job xxxix. 7.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 189

a sufficient answer in what I shall presently say.
But when I speak of hermeneutics as a science, I
mean that regular digest of principles and rules
which qualifies the student to study, with com
parative facility, God's holy word ; and just as we
have certainly better grammars of the Greek and
Latin languages than those who spoke them,
without our therefore claiming to know or
understand them better than they, so has modern
diligence collected and arranged with care those
principles of sacred hermeneutics, founded on
reason and logic, which are to be found scattered
in the writings of the ancients, and were applied
by them when interpreting literally, without
referring to them as rules.

I am not afraid of this last assertion being dis
puted. It is true that the fathers often run into
allegories and mysteries which the taste of the age
required, and which conduced to the moral
instruction of their readers or hearers. It is true,
that when commenting even literally, they do not
always follow those theoretical maxims which
they have themselves clearly laid down, but prefer
appropriate theological discussions, to the less
engaging occupation of the scholiast. But, not
withstanding this, I do not hesitate to affirm that
the best principles of biblical interpretation are to
be found in their treatises, and the most judicious
and acute application of them in their commenta
ries.

The fathers knew verv well the difference

190 LECTURE THE TENTH.

between literal and allegorical interpretation. St.
Ephrem, for instance, is careful to warn his read
ers when he is going to neglect the literal for the
mystical sense.* Indeed Jmiilius has assured us
that a course, introductory to Scripture, was deliv
ered in the Syriac school of Nisibis, in which St.
Ephrem lived ; and has given a compendium of
the principles there taught. These he collected
from the mouth of a Persian scholar, and they
certainly compress in a few words the chief sub
stance of modern hermeneutics.f The merit of
St. Chrysostom as a literal commentator, who
knows how to use all the pretended improvements
of modern biblists, is acknowledged by Winer, a
critic of the severest school.^ Nor does he deny
unequivocal praise to his disciple Theodoret.§
But as I am upon the subject, you will, I trust,
indulge me a few moments while I trace an

* See " Horse Syraicae," p. 54 ; and Gaab's Essay on the
method of commenting followed by St. Ephrem in the " Mem-
orabilien" of Paulus. No. i. p. 65, seqq.

f " De Partibus Divinse Legis," in " Biblioth. magna Pat.
Col." torn. vi. p. ii.

\ " In iis enim, quas ad singulos SS. libros confecit homi-
liaB, nihil antiquius habet, nisi sensuum et singulorum verb-
orum et integrorum commatum e loquendi usu, ex historiis, e
scriptorum denique sacrorum consiliis explicare, eaque in re
idoneam probavit solertiam, ita ut si qua parum recte nihil
tamen temere dictum repcriatur" — " Pauli ad Galatas Epietola
Greece, perpetua annotatione illustravit Dr. G. Ben. Winer."
Lips. 1828. p. 15. Of what modern commentator can as much
be said ?
§ Ib. p. 16.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 191

important revolution in the opinions of the mod
erns, and show how the increasing attention to
this branch of theology has served to vindicate the
early writers of Christianity. A few years ago it
was the fashion to consider the Fathers of the
Church as devoid of fixed or solid principles of
interpretation, and their commentaries as a tissue
of blunders or mistakes. The progress of her-
meneutics has produced this fruit, among others,
that this prejudice has worn away, and those
learned and pious men have regained, in modern
works, that respect and deference which had been
so inconsistently refused them. Two examples
of this change of sentiment will fully justify my
assertion.

Of St. Augustine, the candid Ernesti has writ
ten, that " had he been acquainted with Hebrew
and Greek, the greatness and subtlety of his
genius would have raised him to a preeminence
above all ancient commentators."* Guarded as
this praise may be, it is the language of pane
gyric, when compared with the unmeasured cen
sure and scurrilous language of the elder Rosen-
miiller. In his History of the Interpretation of
Scripture in the Christian Church,^ which had
been for some years a book of reference in Ger
many, he undertakes to discuss the character and

* " Instit. Interp. N. T." Lips. 1809, p. 342.

f " D. Jo. Georg. Rosenmiilleri Historia Interpretations
Librorum SS. in Ecclesia Christiana," 5 parts, Hildburg and
Leips., 1798, 1814.

192 LECTURE THE TENTH.

merits of that holy Bishop. He details the wan
derings of his youth, in order to conclude that he
rather " obscured than illustrated the sacred writ
ings ;" and that, as " he preferred the authority of
his master, St. Ambrose, to all the principles of
sound reason, it is no wonder that the disciple was
no wiser than his master."* That St. Augustine
was not unacquainted with the principles of inter
pretation, Rosenmuller is not bold enough to
deny ; but his conclusion is " Augustinum nomine
interprets vix esse dignum;" nor does he even
allow him that acuteness and talent which Ernesti
so unrestrictedly concedes.f Such a character of
the learned and pious Bishop of Hippo, is, how
ever, worthy of a history which gives the first
rank, among Christian commentators, to the here
tics Pelagius and Julian ! J

But a vindicator has not been wanting; and
the merits of this great father have been dili
gently canvassed, and solidly demonstrated, with
in these few years, by Dr. Henry Clausen. His
interesting little volume, published at Copenhagen,
has placed the merits of St. Augustine, as a bib
lical scholar, in a new and honorable light.§ It

* Pars iii. Lips. 1807, pp. 404, 406.

f " Augustine is not worthy the name of an interpreter."
P. 500, seqq.

t Pp. 505, 537.

§ " Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis Sacrae Scripturse
Tnterpres." Hauncei, 1827, 8vo. 271 pp. The author is a
Protestant.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 193

is there proved, that he was sufficiently acquain
ted with Greek to make a useful application of
it in his commentaries ; * that he has laid down
clearly all those principles " which are the stamina
and first elements of chaste and sound criticism ; "f
that he has both diffusely given, and condensed all
the best maxims of hermeneutics ; J that by the
good use of these, joined to his natural sagacity,
he has been frequently most happy in elucidating
the obscurities of Scripture ; § in confuting, by
accurate research, the erroneous interpretations of
others ; || and that he has frequently removed dif
ficulties by acutely penetrating the views of the
inspired writers, and adducing parallel texts.

St. Jerome, the illustrious contemporary and
friend of St. Augustine, has been the object of
still falser obloquy, conveyed in even coarser
terms. Of him Luther had said, that, instead of

* Pp. 33, 39 ; cf. Rosenmiil. 1. c. p. 404.
f P. 135.

\ P. 137, seqq. St. Augustine names three qualities, with
which any one attempting the illustration of Scripture should
be furnished : 1. A knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek lan
guages (scientia linguarum, or, as he elsewhere explains him
self, lingua Hebrm et Grcecce cognitio). 2. A knowledge of bibli
cal archaeology (cognitione rerum quarundam neccssarium),
elsewhere detailed as a knowledge of the philosophy, his
tory, physics, and literature of the Bible. 3. An acquaintance
with the critical rules for discussing the proper reading of
the text (adjuvante codicum veritate quam solers emenda.
tionis diligentia procuramf).— De Doct. Christ. 1. i. c. i. Clau
sen, p. 140.

§ P. 181. seqq. || P. 207, ftcqq.

VOL II. 13

194- LECTURE THE TENTH.

reckoning him a Doctor of the Church, he con
sidered him a heretic, though lie believed him
to have been saved through his faith in Christ.
He adds, " I know none among the Doctors to
whom I am more an enemy than Jerome, because
he writes only of fasting, meats, and virginity." *
But the elder Rosenmuller is more definite and
more violent in his charges against him as a
biblical expositor. He scarcely allows him a sin
gle good quality. According to him, his knowl
edge of the languages, and of Palestine, is fully
counterbalanced by his groundless etymologies,
his rabbinical subtleties, and his total inability
to seize the views of his author ! f Nay, these
are the lightest of his failings ; what erudition
he did possess, he only employed to pervert the
doctrines of Christianity, nor can he be considered
as possessing the slightest pretensions to theolog
ical knowledge ! $

* " Hieronymus soil nicht unter die Lehrer der Kirche
mitgerechnet noch gezahlet werden ; denn er 1st ein Ketzer
gewesen ; doch glaube ich, dass er selig sey durch den Glau-
ben an Christum. Icli weiss keinen unter den Lehrern dem
ich so feind bin, als Hieronymus ; denn er schreibt nur von
Fasten, Speisen und Jungfrauschaft." — " Luther's samm-
lichte Shriften," Th. xxii. p. 2070, ed. Walch.

f Rosenmiiller, ubi sup. p. 346.

\ I trust it will be with deserving indignation that the
following bitter passages are read by all who value the vea-
erable ornaments of early Christianity : — " Maxime autem
dolendum, est, hunc tantum virum eruditione sua tarn tur-
piter abusum esse, ad pervertendam doctrinam Christianam,
in sacris literis traditam, atque ad omnis generis supersti-

LECTURE THE TENTH. 195

For a change of opinion among modern schol
ars upon the merits of this Father, we need not
step beyond the family of his accuser. The
younger Rosenmuller, by his eulogiums and prac
tical approbation, has compensated for the scurri
lous and indecent censures of his father. He has
observed that the commentaries of this learned
doctor must be held in the greatest estimation, on
account of the learning with which he always sup
ports whatever interpretations he embraces.* He
is not content with verbal praise, for the constant
use made in his commentaries, of the exegetical
labors of our Father, amply shows the sincere esti
mation in which he holds them. Through his
Scholia on the minor prophets, he seldom has oc-
casi$n to depart from the sentiments of his illus
trious guide.

I have detained you long on an early period
of biblical literature, because it proves that even
the history of hermeneutics is an advancing sci-

tiones defendendas et propagandas." He then proceeds to
attribute to him, " immodicum studium suas absurdissimas
opiniones tuendi, incredibilis animi impotentia et superstitio,
furor quo abreptns," etc. p. 369. — " Ex hactenus dictis satis,
ut opinor, apparet, Sanctum (si Diis placet) Hieronymum
cum omni sua eruditione hebraica, graeca, latina, geograph-
ica,etc., fuisse Monachorum superstitiosissimum, omnis verae
eruditionis theologicae expertem. Ut paucis dicamus, relig-
ioni plus nocuit quam profuit." — P. 393.

* " Ezechielis Vaticinia," Lips. 1826, vol. i. p. 26. We
may forgive filial affection, when he refers us to the work
of his father for the character of St. Jerome, whom he him
self portrays so differently. — P. 25.

196 LECTURE THE TENTH.

ence, and that its advance has served to remove
prejudices against the early writers of Christianity,
and to vindicate their character from the rash and
unwarranted aggressions of the liberal school.

Having thus shown that, however modern this
science may be in its code, it is as ancient as Chris
tianity in its principles, we must pass over the
lapse of a thousand years of its history, and ap
proach nearer our own times. Upon the revival
of letters, numerous commentators arose among
our divines, whose works have shared the obloquy
heaped upon those of the fifth century. It has
been esteemed a duty to decry the voluminous
productions of these diligent, and often sagacious,
expositors, as a mere mass of literary rubbish, fit
perhaps to fill the shelves of a library, but not to
encumber the table of the student.

But though they are often too prolix, and tend
too much to allegorical interpretation, it would be
injustice to deny that in the diligent collection
and discussion of others' opinions, in a sagacious
examination of the context and bearing of a pas
sage, and in the happy removal of serious difficul
ties, they have cleared the way for their successors^
and effected much more than these are always
careful to acknowledge. The commentary, for
instance, of Pradus and Yillalpandus, on Ezekiel,
which was published at Rome, from 1596 to 1604,
is still the great repertory to which every modern
scholiast must recur, in explaining the difficulties
of that book, and is acknowledged, by the most

LECTURE THE TENTH. 197

learned of them, to be "a work replete with
varied erudition, and most useful to the study of
antiquity." * The annotations of Agelli upon the
Psalms, published also at Rome in 1606, have been
pronounced by the same writer, after Ernesti, the
work of a u most learned and most sagacious au
thor, who is peculiarly happy in explaining the
relations of the Alexandrian and Vulgate ver
sions." f Even greater commendations are lav
ished by the learned and ingenious Schultens,
upon the Spanish Jesuit Pineda, whose notes
upon Job (Madrid, 1597) he acknowledges to
" have eased him of no small part of his labors."
He styles their author, " Theologus et Literator
eximius, magnus apud suos, apud nos quoque." \
Maldonatus on the Gospels has been praised and
recommended by Ernesti, though, as might be ex
pected, the recommendation is recalled in harsh
terms by his annotator Ammon.§ When, some
years ago, it was proposed in Germany to repub-
lish Calmet's commentaries, the very mention of
such a scheme excited the ridicule of the liberal
school ;|| yet I have been assured by a very sound

* Rosenmiiller, " Ezechielis Vaticinia," vol. i. Lips. 1826,
p. 32.

f " Psalmi," vol. i. Lips. 1821, Prsef. (p. 5).

\ " Liber Jobi cum nova versione et commentario per-
petuo," Lug Eat. 1737, torn. i. Praef. (p. 11).

§ " Inst. Jut." p. 353.

|| If I remember right, there is a paper on this subject
somewhere in " Eichhorn's Allgemeine Bibliothek."

198 LECTURE THE TENTH.

scholar, that he had compared his notes on Isaiah
with Lowth's, and had generally found the most
beautiful illustrations of the English Bishop an
ticipated by the learned Benedictine. Another
learned friend has pointed out to me considerable
transcriptions from him, in modern annotate rs,
without the slightest acknowledgment.* But no
one has put the truth of these observations in a
stronger light than my late amiable and excellent
friend, Prof. Ackermann, in his commentary on
the Minor Prophets.f Through the whole of this
work, the opinions of the old Catholic divines have
been collected and honorably mentioned. It is
pleasing to see these writers, whose names it has
become so unfashionable to quote, once more
treated with respect ; and there is something al
most amusing in the frequent juxtaposition of
Rosenmiiller and Cornelius a Lapide, Oedmann
and Figueiro, Hort and De Castro.

If I have wandered into such long digressions
upon the older commentators, you will allow that
the results obtained bear strongly upon my sub
ject, and unite their conclusions with the general
issue of these discourses. For it will, I trust,
have appeared, that the study and application of

* For instance, Rosenmiiller's " Proplietae Minores," vol.
ii. Lips, 1813, p. 337, seqq., is taken almost verbatim from
Calmet's preface on Jonas, " Commentaire literal," vol. vi.
p. 893 fol. Par. 1726.

f " Prophetae Minores perpetua annotatione illustrati a
Dre. P. F. Ackermann."— Vienna, 1830.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 199

hermeneutics, though not digested into a system,
have always been followed in the Church, and that
the progress of the science has removed old pre
judices, and vindicated the memory of men entitled
to the respect and gratitude of every Christian.

From them I must turn to a very different
class. After the middle of the last century, Sem-
ler gave the first impulse to what he denominated
the liberal interpretation of the Scriptures. A de
nial of inspiration, the resolution of every miracle
into an allegory, or a vision, or a delusion, or a
natural event clothed in oriental exaggeration, and
a total denial of prophecy, are the characteristics
of his school. That belief in inspiration cannot be
required from any Protestant divine, Semler ar
gues from the acknowledged principles of all the
Reformed Churches ;* for this impious explana
tion of miracles, actual rules have been laid down
by Ammon ;f and practical applications of them
abound in the works of Eichhorn, Paulus, Gabler,
Schuster, Rettig and many others. But it is
chiefly on the progress of hermeneutics in the
interpretation of prophecy, that I wish to detain
you a few moments ; because, by it the Old Tes
tament principally is connected with the evidences
of Christianity.

* In his preface to " Vogel's Compendium of Schultens
on the Proverbs," Halle, 1769, p. 5.

f " De interpretatione narrationum mirabilium N. T."
prefixed to his Ernesti, ed. sup. sit. He seems, however, to
allow some miracles, p. xiv.

200 LECTURE THE TENTH.

Any one accustomed, as you have been, to hear
the prophecies of the Old Testament treated, not
merely with respect, but with veneration, must be
shocked to see with what open liberty they are
handled by authors of this school. De Wette, for
instance, never thinks, in his Introductory Manual,
of even noticing the belief that there is such a
thing as real prediction in the writings of Isaiah,
or of his fellow prophets. The only difference
between them and the seers of pagan nations is,
that " these wanted the true and moral spirit of
monotheism, by which the Hebrew prophecy was
purified and consecrated. "'x' I will not further
shock you by following the history of this wretched
school, the impieties of which have unfortuately so
widely prevailed on the continent as to be openly
taught by persons holding theological chairs in
Protestant universities, and published by men who
call themselves, on their title-page, pastors of
Protestant congregations. It will be sufficient
to state, that the late Professor Eichhorn reduced
to system the rationalist theory of prophecy, and
pretended to establish a complete parallelism be
tween the messengers of the true God and the
soothsayers of heathenism.f

With such principles as these, we must expect
to find the interpretation of prophecies dreadfully

* " Lehrbucb. der historiscli-kritischen Einleitung. Zweyte
verbesserte Auflage." Berlin, 1822, p. 279.

t " Einleitung in das Alte Testament," 4th ed. Gutting.
1824, vol. iv. p. xlv.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 201

perverted. Hence, in many modern commenta
ries the predictions relating to the Messiah are
either totally overlooked, or systematically at
tacked. Jahn, though a rash unsound writer, did
something towards vindicating and illustrating
many of them ;* and the prophecies in the Psalms
are much indebted to Michaelis for an able de-
fence.f In Rosenmiiller there is much inequality ;
on some occasions he takes the side of our adver
saries, as on the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and in
impugning the genuineness of the latter portion
of that book. On other occasions he stands forth
as a learned and able advocate for the prophetic
sense ; and I need only instance his annotations
on the 45th Psalm, and his dissertation on the
celebrated prediction in Isaiah vii.;j;

The depraved state into which hermeneutical
science had thus sunk was sure to produce a re
action, and through it, a return to better prin
ciples. This has already in a great measure been
the case, and works have appeared which, having
profited by the great erudition brought into play
on the other side, have drawn some good out of
the mass of evil accumulated on this study. For
they have fully shown that the learning and inge
nuity displayed in attacking divine prophecy may
be well enlisted in the better cause, and retain all

* " Appendix Hermeneut." Vienna, 1813, 1815.
f "Critisches Collegium iiber die drey wichtigst
Psalmen von Christo." Frankf. & Gutting. 1759.
\ " Jesajae Vaticin." torn. i. 292.

202 LECTURE THE TENTH.

their brilliant, though they lose their dazzling power.
I will only notice the work of Hengstenberg upon
the prophecies regarding Christ, in which the
series of prophetic announcement is analyzed and
vindicated with great sagacity and solid learning.
The doctrines of a suffering Messiah, and of Christ's
divinity, as foretold in the Old Testament, are
admirably exposed ; all that Rabbins and Fathers,
oriental and classical writers, can contribute, is
lucidly and effectively brought together; the
objections of adversaries are skilfully solved or
removed, and a great felicity and tact is exhibited
in unravelling the sense of obscure phraseology.*
We may indeed say that in his hands the very
science which till lately appeared ruinous to the
cause of inspired truth, becomes a most efficient
instrument for its vindication.

Allow me now to give you what I consider an
example of a higher order of application ; and
pardon me if, for a few moments, I depart from the
popular form which I have endeavored to preserve
throughout these Lectures ; for the subject may
well seem to merit, and certainly requires, more
learned disquisition. Among some arguments
urged by Michaelis for rejecting the two first
chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel is one founded
on the following circumstance. They contain

* " Christologie des alten Testaments, und Commentar
tiber die messianischen Weissagungen der Propheten,"
Berlin, 1829, vol. i. parts i. ii. Other parts have since been
published.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 203

several references to the Old Testament, intro
duced by the formulas, " all this was done, that
it might ~be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the
prophets ;"* "for so it is written by the pro
phet ;"f " that it might be fulfilled which the
Lord spoke by the prophet ; "^ " then was fulfilled
that which was spoken."§ According to him,
the texts thus quoted do not appear literally to
correspond to the events to which they are ap
plied ; and he refuses to consider them as mere
quotations, or adaptations, on account of the
strong forms of introduction. No examples, he
observes, can be brought, of any phrase, so strong
as the ones which I have quoted, being used to
introduce a mere accommodation of a text. He
must, therefore, consider the writer's meaning to
be, that the circumstances which he describes,
truly formed the fulfilment of those ancient
prophecies. Now, proceeding on the principle of
private interpretation, he thinks they cannot be
so taken, and, as an inspired wrriter could not
have committed an error, he will rather attribute
those chapters to some other, and that an unin
spired author, than bend these phrases to signify
simply an adaptation of Scripture texts. ||

It is this objection which I wish to meet. I
am not going to examine the texts singly, and

* Matt. i. 22. f Matt. ii. 5.

\ Matt. ii. 15. § Matt. ii. 17.

|| Michaelis's " Introduction to the New Testament," vol.
i. pp. 206, 214, Marsh's translation.

204 LECTURE THE TENTH.

prove that they may well be considered applica
ble to the events of our Saviour's life ; I wish to
meet the broad question, and show how the pro
gress of oriental research cuts away the ground
from under the rationalist's feet, and totally over
throws the chief argument on which the rejection
of those two important chapters has been based.
Most commentators, Catholic and Protestant,
will be found to agree that some texts, even when
thus introduced, may be mere allegations, without
its being intended to declare that the literal ful
filment took place on the occasion described.
Many writers have taken great pains to prove
that even the forms of expression which I have
cited, are not incompatible with this idea; and
for this purpose they have chiefly used the
writings of the Rabbins, and of classical authors.
Thus, Surenhusius produced a large volume upon
the forms of quotation, used by the Rabbins ; but
did not adduce a single passage where the word
fulfilled occurs.* Dr. Sykes asserts, that such
expressions are to be found in every page of
Jewish waiters ; but does not quote one single
example.f Knapp repeats the same assertion,
saying "that the Hebrew and Chaldaic verb, sVra,
and the Chaldaic and Rabbinical words, tpn, trH-x,
and "is* signify to consummate, or confirm a

Amsterd. 1713.

f "Truth of the Christian Religion," Lond. 1725, pp.
206, 296.

LECTUKE THE TENTH. 205

thing. * He then gives an example of the first
word, from 1 Kings, i. 14, where the meaning is
only, " I will complete your words." Prof. Tho-
luck has, indeed, brought several examples from
the Rabbins to establish this meaning. The two
strongest are these: "He who eats and drinks,
and afterwards prays, of him it is written, i Thou
hast cast me behind thy back.' " — " Since the TEW
(Shamir, a fabulous animal) has destroyed the
temple, the current of divine grace, and pious
men, has ceased, as it is written, Psal. xii. 2." To
these he has added a passage from the chronicle
of Barhebraeus, a Syriac writer of a much later
age. It simply says — " They saw the anger
whereof the prophet says, I will bear the anger
of the Lord, because I have sinned."f The force
of which wrords extends no further than this, —
" they saw the anger of the Lord." Mr. Sharpe,

* Georgii, Christ. Knapp. " Scripta varii argument!
maximam partem exagetici et historic! argument!," ed. 2,
Halle, 1823, torn. ii. p. 523.

f " Commentar zu dem Evangelic Johannis," Hamb.
1827, p. 68. Some years ago this learned professor asked
me whether, in the course of reading, 1 had met with
passages, in Syriac writers, calculated to remove these
difficulties, and to illustrate the phrases in question. I
pointed out the examples given in the text ; and, at his
request, furnished him with a copy, and gave him full
permission to use them. It is possible, therefore, that they
may have appeared in some German work which I have not
Been ; and I consequently feel it right to mention the cir
cumstance, lest I should be suspected of taking to myself
credit for any other person's industry.

-206 LECTUKE THE TENTH.

and others, have quoted a few passages from
Greek classics ; but they are far from coming up
to the determinate and strong form of the
phrases in the New Testament.* For, after all,
Michaelis' s observation stands good, that none of
them equal in force the words, " Then was ful
filled that which was spoken by the prophet;"
and his annotator's question remains unanswered,
" was this expression used in this sense by the
Kabbins?"t

One example, however, may seem to escape
this censure. It is a passage quoted by Wetstein
from the compendium of St. Ephrem's life given
in Assemani's B'lbliotlieca Orient aUs] where an
angel thus addresses a saint : — u^-.: ;j? acraai
u.o ;^V- r2 **~>=»*? £**^a? -or ^Ai* — (k Take
care lest that ~be fulfilled in thee which was
written, Ephraim is a heifer,' etc.";); This instance,
however did not appear to Michaelis satisfactory,
because, I suppose, it was unsupported by others,
and on account of its admonitory form.§

The field, therefore, may be considered, open,
and worthy to occupy the attention of scholars.
Now, though it may appear presumptuous, I think
I have it in my power to solve the difficulty, sim-

* Ap. Home, " Introduction," vol. ii. p. 444, note,
f " Notes on Michaelis," vol. i, p. 487.
t"Assem. B. O." torn. i. p. 85. "Acta S. Ephr. Oper."
torn. Hi. p. xxxvi. Wetstein in Mat. i. 22.
§ Vol. i. p. 214.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 207

plj by the course which I have been endeavoring
to suggest through these Lectures, by the prosecu
tion, however feebly, of the very study to which it
belongs. In endeavoring to meet it, I need not
premise that I, by no means, allow any validity to
Michaelis's arguments, or mean to admit that the
quotations in St. Matthew's first chapters may not
be proved accurately applicable to the events there
described. On these points there is very much to
be said ; but I wish to waive the long investigation
into which they would lead us, and simply take up
the question upon the objector's own grounds, and
prove that even granting all that he assumes, he
has no reason for rejecting that portion of Scrip
ture, or impugning the inspiration of its writer. In
other words, I wish to show, that, even in those
texts could not be applied to certain events, other
wise than by accommodation, the phrases which in
troduce them will easily bend to that explanation,
and so destroy the argument drawn from their
force. For I will show you, by examples from the
earliest Syriac writers, that in the East similar ex
pressions were used for accommodating Scriptural
phrases to individuals, to whom the writers could
not possibly have believed them primarily or orig
inally to refer.

1. The phrase " to be fulfilled " is so used, and
that in a declaratory form, and not merely as in
the instance given by Wetstein. In a fuller life
of St. Ephrem than the one which he quotes,
we have this remarkable passage: —

2U8 LECTURE THE TENTH.

kA 007

" And in him was fulfilled the
word which was spoken concerning Paul to Ana
nias ; he is a vessel of election to me." * The
author is here speaking of St. Ephrem, and clearly
expresses himself, that the words which he applies
to him were really spoken of another. But the
saint himself, the oldest writer extant in that
language, uses this phrase in a more remarkable
manner. For thus he speaks of Aristotle : —

J.1

" In Mm was fulfilled that which was written con
cerning Solomon the Wise ; ' that of those who
were before or after, there has not been one equal
to him in wisdom.' " f

2. The expression, as it is written, or as the
prophet says£ is used precisely in the same
manner. St. Ephrem uses it manifestly to intro
duce a mere adaptation of a scriptural text. —

" Those who are in error have hated the
source of assistance ; as it is written, ' The Lord
awoke like one who slept.' "§ To see the force of

* " St. Ephrem Oper." torn iii. p. xxiv.

f Serm. i. torn ii. p. 317.

§ Serin, xxxiii. adv. Haeres torn. ii. p. "13. To such as are
conversant with the Syriac language, I would observe, that
the Latin version translates the ;^^ by nmentes, whereas

LECTURE THE TENTH. 209

this application, the entire passage must be read.
I pass over some less decided examples,* and
hasten on.

3. Even the strongest of all such expressions,
" this is he of whom it is written," is used with the
same freedom by these early oriental writers. In
the Acts of St. Ephrem, which I have more than
once quoted, it is so applied. For example, speak
ing of the Saint — x*ic2 ;bo*? ^oboa u^o2?
<xio7 £*.b2a Js>2? — " This i# he of whom our Saviour
said, ' I came to cast fire upon the earth.' "f In
another place the same text is applied to him by
St. Basil in still more definite terms. :f

Still further to confirm' these illustrations, I will
observe that the Arabs, in quoting their sacred
book, the Koran, apply it in this manner to pass
ing events. I will give you one or two instances
out of many which I have noticed. In a letter
from Amelic Alaschraf Barsebai to Mirza Schah-

througliout all these sermons it means wanderers, or heretics.
Cf. pp. 526, 527, 559, etc. By it St. Ephrem seems to mean
the Manicheans.

* For instance, in the Acts of St. Ephrem, p. xxv. where,
however, only a moral precept is cited, which in fact does not
occur in the Bible. Again, torn. ii. p. 487, where " as it ia
written," introduces a quotation.

\ P. xxxviii.

\ P. xlviii. He expressly says, "This is he of whom our
Saviour said," etc., whereas in the other text the words in,
italics are understood. Assemani, the translator of this life,
renders the phrase by " propterea ipsi accommodatum iri ilia
Domini verba," etc.
VOL. II. — 14

210 LECTURE THE TENTH.

rockh, son of Timur, published by De Sacy, we
have these words : — " We, indeed, if the Most High
had wished it, could not prevail over you ; but he
has promised us victory in the venerable book of
God, saying, 'Then we gave you the advantage
over them.' "* Which words were clearly spoken
of a quite different person. The following exam
ple approaches more to the phrases in question : —

s> * \

j^uij\V* <£ t£^V\« ^iy J <J)\ Jj^/. *y^ ™

" We resemble the Prophet, when he says, ' Never
did prophet suffer what I suffer.' "f

I fear lest this disquisition may have proved
tedious to many ; if so, I will only request them to
consider how important its object may well appear.
For it is directed to wrench out of the hands of
rash scholars a pretended argument for rejecting
two of the most important and beautiful chapters
of gospel history. It serves, too, as another illus
tration of how continued application to any pur
suit is sure to obtain possession of a sufficient clue
to unravel the difficulties drawn from its lower
stages.

Desultory as the subjects of which I have
treated may appear, they have, I trust, presented
a variety of points illustrative of the object pur
sued in these Lectures. In every one of the mem-

* De Sacy, " Chrestomatliie Arabe," 1st ed. Arab, text,
p. 256, vers. torn. ii. p. 325.

f Humbert, "Anthologie Arabe," Paris, 1819, p. 112.

LECTURE THE TENTH. 211

bers which compose the direct study of the Bible,
we have seen a natural onward progress ; and in
every instance the spontaneous consequence of
that progress has been the removal of prejudice,
the confutation of objections, and the confirma
tion of the truth. I will only add, that the
personal and practical application of the various
pursuits which have been grouped together in this
Lecture will satisfy any one, that even in that con
fined form they have the same power of develop
ment, and the same saving virtue. Experience has
long since satisfied me, that every text, which
Catholics advance in favor of their doctrines con
troverted by Protestants, will stand those rigid
tests to which modern science insists upon submit
ting every passage under discussion. This, how
ever, is the province of dogmatic or polemic theol
ogy, and therefore must not be intruded upon
here.

The study of God's word, and the meditation
upon its truths, surely forms our noblest occupa
tion. But when that study is conducted upon
severe principles, and with the aid of deep re
search, it will be found to combine the intellectual
enjoyment of the mathematician, with the rapture
of the poet, and ever to open new sources of edifi
cation and delight, to some of which I hope to
open you a way in my next discourse.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH;

ORIENTAL LITERATURE.

PART II.
PKOFANE STUDIES.

INTRODUCTORY Remarks. Illustrations of particular pas
sages. — Collections of Oriental customs and ideas from trav
ellers. — The growing nature of such illustrations exempli
fied in Gen. xliv. .5, 15. — Difficulties raised by earlier writ
ers ; illustrations furnished by later authors. — Luke ii. 4,
supposed to be not conformable to any known law among
the ancients ; difficulties removed by a passage of an ori
ental author. — Geographical elucidations lately made by
Messrs. Burton and Wilkinson. — Philosophy of Asia. Gen
eral remarks on the confirmation it gives of the funda
mental principles of Christian faith, by the unity of its
conclusions in different countries. — On the Oriental philos
ophy. — Its influence on the Jewish doctrines ; Scriptural
phrases illustrated by Bendsten.— Sabian doctrines ; their
use in explaining some parts of the New Testament. — Opin
ions of the Samaritans, lately ascertained, remove a diffi
culty in John iv. — Chinese school of Laotseu ; its doctrine
of the Trinity shown to be probably derived from the
Jews. — Indian philosophy ; excessive antiquity attributed
to it ; opinions of the moderns ; Colebrooke, the Windisch-
nianns, Ritter. Supposed antiquity of the Ezour Vedam ;
the work discovered to be modern. — Historical researches.
Serious historical difficultv in Is. xxxix. removed bv a

2L-4 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

newly-discovered fragment of Berosus. — Attack on the ori
gin of Christian rites, from their resemblance to the
Lamaic worship. Discovery, from oriental works, of the
modern origin of that system.

IN my last Lecture, I treated of those illustra
tions of the sacred text which had its own substance
for their object, whether in the letter or in its signifi
cation. There are obviously many of another class,
which oriental studies must afford, similar to those
which we have seen furnished by other sciences.
In fact, there is no branch of literature so rich in
biblical vindications and illustrations as those stud
ies which I have characterized as "Profane Ori
ental Literature." The epithet here given is
unfortunately equivocal, and I wish we had some
other to substitute in its place. The term c pro
fane,' when applied to studies not essentially con
nected with sacred subjects, seems almost to cast a
reproach upon them. Being often used to express
not merely the absence of a peculiarly sacred char
acter, but the addition of positive unholiness, and
applied to express the guilt of acts otherwise indif
ferent, it has unfortunately the same force in the
minds of some, when applied to literary pursuits.
Among the errors of thought which the use of
equivocal words has introduced, there are few more
hurtful, and yet few more common than this. In
my concluding lecture I may have occasion to
notice the opposition made at all times by many
to human learning ; for the present I will only
obsersre that they are the epithets by which it has

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 215

been distinguished from more sacred studies, which
have chiefly led weak minds to their rash decision.
The names of secular, or human, or still more
profane learning, have in reality suggested or en
couraged the abhorrence which such men have felt
and expressed for all but theological pursuits.

These terms, however, are all relative, and only
framed thus strongly to exalt the other, which nec
essarily excels them, as all things directed to the
spirit and its profits, must surpass whatever is but
the offspring of earth. But wisdom and knowl
edge, wherever found, are gifts of God, and the
fruits of the right use of faculties by him given ;
and as we find that the Christians of former ages
scrupled not to represent on their most sacred mon
uments the effigies of men whose science or grace
ful literature had adorned the world even in ages
of paganism, so may we consider the learning of
such men well worthy of a place among the illus
trations and ornaments of the holy religion to
which those buildings were devoted.

At the same time, therefore, that I esteem such
pursuits most worthy of our attention, the consid
eration of what I have remarked leaves me no scru
ple in placing among profane literature, such illus
trations of Holy Writ, as may be found in oriental
writers of the most venerable character, arid of the
most holy minds. For I use the term in no other
sense than as a conventional distinctive of a class
of learning most useful and most commendable.

I shall divide the subject of this morning's

216 LECTUKE THE ELEVENTH.

entertainment into three parts ; first, I will treat
of such particular illustrations as eastern archae
ology may glean in the East : secondly, I will
give a few instances of the influence which our
growing acquaintance with the philosophy of Asia
has had upon the vindication of religion ; and
thirdly, I will try to select one or two examples of
the use to be made of oriental historical records.

The first of these classes has been long justly
popular in this country. No other nation has sent
so many enterprising travellers to explore the East ;
and it was natural to expect that it wrould take the
lead in applying the results of their observations,
which became a part of its literature, to the illus
tration of Scripture. Accordingly, we have been
almost overrun with collections from travellers, of
manners, customs, and opinions existing in Asia,
and tending to throw some light upon the biblical
narrative. Often the examples which follow the
order of the books and chapters of Scripture, are
quite unnecessary, sometimes they are insufficient ;
on all occasions they do not possess the value of
systematic treatises on Scriptural antiquities, in
which the results are digested, and compared with
all the passages on which they seem to bear. It
is hardly necessary to remark, that whatever ad
vantage such compilations may present to religion
and its sacred volume, is necessarily of a growing
character. The mine is inexhaustible ; every trav
eller succeeds in discovering some new coincidence
between the ancient and modern occupants of Asia,

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 217

and at every new edition, the works to which I
have alluded swell in bulk, and increase the num
ber of their volumes. Burder's " Oriental Cus
toms and Literature," when translated by Rosen-
miiller into German, received great and valuable
accessions, which have in their turn been trans
lated, and added to the original work. I believe I
should have to add to the number of my Lectures,
were I to offer you the gleanings which I have
made in this branch of literature, after the plenti
ful harvest of my predecessors. Well might the
Oriental Translation Committee pronounce, not
only that " the sacred Scriptures abound in modes
of expression, and allusions to customs, in many
cases imperfectly understood in Europe, but still
prevailing in the East," but also, that many addi
tional illustrations might be expected from the pub
lication of more oriental authors.*

I will select one instance, almost at random,
which seems to exemplify the increasing nature
of such researches.

In Gen. xliv. 5, 15, mention is made of a cup
in which Joseph divined ; of course, keeping up
the disguise which he had thought it necessary to
assume. " The cup which you have stolen is that
in which my lord drinketh, and in which he is

wont to divine And he said to them, Why

would you do so? know ye not that there is no
one like me in the science of divining?" Now,

* " Report," Lond. 1829, p. 7.

218 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

formerly this gave rise to such a serious objection,
that very able critics proposed an alteration in the
reading or translation of the word ; for it was sup
posed to allude to a custom completely without
any parallel in ancient authors. " Who," ex
claims Houbigaiit, " ever heard of auguries taken
by the agency of a cup ? " * Aurivillius goes still
further : — " I acknowledge," says he, " that such
an interpretation might be probable, if it could be
proved by the testimony of any creditable his
torian, that, either then or at any later period, the
Egyptians used this method of divination." f
Eurder, in the first edition of his Oriental Cus
toms, produced two methods of divining with
cups, given by Saurin from Julius Serenus and
Cornelius Agrippa, neither of them very applica
ble to this case4 The Baron Silvestre de Sacy
was the first to show the existence of this very
practice in Egypt in modern times, from an inci
dent recounted in Norderi's travels. By a singu
lar coincidence, Baram Cashef tells the travellers
that he had consulted his cup, and discovered that
they were spies, who had come to discover how
the land might best be invaded and subdued.§
Thus we see the condition complied with on
which alone Aurivillius, half a century ago, agreed

* Note in loc.

f " Dissertationes ad Sacras Literas et Philologiam Ori
entalem pertinentes," Gutting, and Lips. 1790, p. 273.
\ " Oriental Customs," Land. 1807, vol. i. p. 25.
§ " Chrestomathie Arabe," Paris, 1806, vol. ii. p. 513.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 219

to be satisfied with the sense at present given by
the text. In the Revue des Deux Mondes, for
August, 1833, a very curious and well-attested in
stance was given of the use of the divining-cup, as
witnessed by the reporters in Egypt, in company
with several English travellers, which bears a
character highly marvellous and mysterious.

But so far from its being any longer difficult
to find a single instance of this practice in Egypt,
we may say, that no species of divining can be
proved more common throughout the East. For
instance, in a Chinese work, written in 1792,
wrhich contains a description of the kingdom of
Thibet, among the methods of divining in use
there, this is given : " Sometimes they look into a
jar of water, and see what is to happen."* The
Persians too, seem to have considered the cup as
the principal instrument of augury ; for their
poets constantly allude to the fable of a celebrated
divining-cup, originally the property of the demi
god Dshemshid, who discovered it in the founda
tions of Estakhar, and from whom it descended to
Solomon and Alexander, and formed the cause of
all their success and glory. Guignaut adds
Joseph to the list of its possessors ; but I know
not on what authority. f All these examples
suppose the augury to be taken by inspection. I

* " Quelquefois ils regardent dans une jatte d'eau, et
voient ce que doit arriver." — " Nouveau Journal Asiatique"
Oct., 1829, p. 261.

\ "On Creuzer," torn. i. part i. p. 312.

220 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

will add another example of a different manner.
This, the authority of the oldest Syriac Father, St.
Ephrem, who tells us that oracles were received
from cups, by striking them, and noticing the
sound which they emitted.* Thus, then, we see
a growing series of illustrations of a passage not
many years ago considered untenable, from its
being unsupported by any.

And having produced this last example from a
.class of oriental literature too much neglected at
present, I cannot refrain from giving one more
illustration from it, of a difficulty which I believe
has not as yet been removed. It is stated in
Luke, ii. 4, that Joseph was obliged to go to Beth
lehem, the city of David, there to be enrolled and
taxed with his virgin spouse, on occasion of a gen
eral census. This was evidently an obligation ;
and yet there appears no other example of such a
practice. Lardner proposes this difficulty, and
suggests a solution from Ulpian, who tells us that
all should be enrolled where their estate lies.
" Though Joseph," says he," was not rich ; yet he
might have some small inheritance at or near
Bethlehem."! He was not, however, himself satis
fied with this answer ; because as he observes, had
Joseph possessed any land there (ager is the word
used by Ulpian), some house would .probably have
been attached to it, or at least his tenant would

* " Opera omnia," torn. i. Syr. et Lat. Rome, 1737, p. 100.
f '• Lardner's works," Lond. 1827, vol. i. p. 281.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 221

have received him under his roof. And more
over, the reason given is, " 'because he was of the
house and family of David." Lardner, therefore,
further suggests, that it wras some custom of the
Jews, to be enrolled in tribes and families : but
there could be no necessity for this troublesome
method of observing it, nor has it been shown
that such a custom ever existed. But the fact is,
wre have an example of this very practice in the
same country in later times. Dionysius, in his
chronicle, tells us that " Abdalmelic made a cen
sus of the Syrians in 1692, and published a posi
tive decree, that every individual should go to his
country, his city, and his father's house, and be
enrolled, giving in his name, and whose son he
was ; with an account of his vineyards, his olive-
yard, his flocks, his children, and all his posses
sions." This, he adds, was the first census made by
the Arabs in Syria.* This one instance is suffi
cient to take away all strange appearance from the
circumstance as recorded in the Gospel, and makes
it unnecessary to assign a reason for it.

I can hardly give any motive for allowing these
instances a preference over many others, which
would have equally shown how this branch of
oriental pursuits, the inquiry into the habits and
state, physical and moral, of the East, goes on, so
long as it is pursued, removing all difficulties, and
shedding new light upon Scriptural narratives.

* Assemani, " Biblioth. Orientalis," vol. ii. p. 1(

:/

LIBRARY

222 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

To conclude tins branch of my subject, I will
notice the information lately gained upon Scripture
geography by the discoveries in Egyptian literature.
For instance, Mr. Burton has made us acquainted
with the Zoan of Numbers (xiii. 22), and Ezekiel
(xxx. 14), the hieroglyphic name for which he has
discovered and published.* In like manner Mr.
"Wilkinson has cleared up the controversy respecting
the JTo-Ammon, or No of Nahum (iii. 8), Jeremiah
(xlvi. 25), and Ezekiel (il.) ; for he has proved it
to be the Egyptian name for the Thebais.f The
Septuagint has indeed translated it by Diospolis,
the ancient name of Thebes among the Greeks.
In fact, the name Thebes, or Thebse, is supposed
by Champollion to be the Egyptain word Tape,
the head or capital, in the Theban dialect. The
Hebrew name, No-Ammon, is purely Egyptian,
and signifies the possession or portion of the God
Amun, by which the same version once renders it
ftsplc 'Afifiuv (Nahum iii. 8)4

It must not be thought that the department of
biblical illustration on which I have so long dwelt,
has been entirely in the hands of such popular
writers as I have before alluded to. On the con
trary, the natural history of the East has been

* " Excerpta Hieroglyph." No. iv.

t Communicated by Sir W. Gell, in the " Bulletino dell'
Institute di Corrispondenza Archeologica," Rome, 1829, No.
ix. pp. 104-106.

\ " Handbuch der biblischen Alterthumskunde," or
"Biblische Geographic, von. E. F. K. Kosenmuller," Leipz.
1828, dritter Band, p. 299.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 223

profoundly studied, since the time of Bochart and
Celsius, by Oedman and Forskal, with wonderful
success; the manners and customs of the Jews
have received invaluable light from Braun and
Schroder; nay, we have a volume by Bynseus,
replete with much curious erudition, de calceis
Hebrceorum, — 011 the shoes of the Hebrews.
But let us pass forward to more important sub-
iects.

The philosophy of the East may be viewed in
many lights, and in each reflects differently upon
sacred truths. We may simply consider the phil
osophy of different nations as the character
izing indication of their mind, as that distinct
ive which, in reference to the operations of
their understandings, takes the place held by
the outward features in regard to their charac
teristic passions. Every national philosophy must
necessarily bear the impress of that peculiar sys
tem of thought which nature or social institutions,
or some other modifying cause, has stamped upon
the mind ; it will be mystical, or merely logical,
profound or popular, abstract or practical, accord
ing to the character of thought prevalent in the
people. The experimental philosophy which we
owe to Bacon, is the exact type of the habit of
thought pervading the English character, from the
highest meditations of our sages to the practical
reasoning of the peasant. The abstracting and con
templative, half-dreaming mysticism of the Hindoo,
is no less the natural expression of his habitual

224 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

calm and listlessness, the flow of bright deep
thought, which must be produced in one who sits
musing on the banks of his majestic streams.
Where there are many sects, we may rely upon
most of them professing foreign, and often uncon
genial, doctrines. Hence arise those almost con
tradictory appearances in some parts of the best
Greek philosophies, that admission of great truths,
and yet the weakness of proofs, which we meet in
their sublimest writer.

But hence it follows, that when we see all the
philosophical systems of nations quite distinct in
character, perfectly unlike each other in their
logical processes, arriving at the same conse
quences on all great points of moral interest to
man, we are led to a choice of one of two conclu
sions ; either that a primeval tradition, a doctrine
common to the human species, and consequently
given from the beginning, has flowed down to ITS
through so many channels ; or else, that these
doctrines are so essentially, so naturally true, that
the human mind, under every possible form, dis
covers and embraces them. Ancient philosophers
concluded, from the consent of mankind in some
common belief, that it must be correct ; and thus
did prove many precious and important doctrines.
By the deeper study of the philosophy of many
nations, we have advanced the force of this reason
ing an immense step ; for we now can tell the
grounds on which they received them. Had we
met one system in which the future and perpetual

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 225

existence of man's soul was denied, and the denial
supported by processes of reasoning, conducted on
principles perfectly independent of foreign teach
ing, we certainly should have felt before us a
difficulty, of some weight to overcome. But when
we find the mysticism of the Indian arriving at
the same conclusion as the synthetic reasoning of
the Greek, we must be satisfied that the conclusion
is correct. In the portion of the Akhlak e
Naseri, a Persian work upon the soul, which Col.
Wilks has translated, all the questions relating to
that portion of man are discussed with marvellous
acuteness ; and though, from some resemblance to
the Greek philosophers, the translator thinks the
reasoning is borrowed from them,* it seems to me
that the turn of thought, and form of argumenta
tion, display a decidedly original character.

Thus have we gained an additional force for
our convictions upon points of belief essentially
necessary, as the groundwork of Christianity, and
still further developed by its teaching. But there
are several systems of Asiatic philosophy, which
come into close contact with the Scriptures, from
their being alluded to in it, or perhaps attacked ;
and which being known, may throw considerable
light upon particular passages.

The principal of these is what is commonly
known under the name of the oriental philosophy.

* " Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great
Britain and Ireland," vol. i. pp. 514. seqq. I,ond. 1827.
VOL. II. — 15

220 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

This consists of that peculiarly mysterious system
which formed the basis of the old Persian religion,
and from which the earliest sects of Christianity
sprung up ; the belief in the conflict between op
posite powers of good and evil, and in the exis
tence of emanated influences, intermediate be
tween the divine and earthly natures; and the
consequent adoption of mystical and secret terms,
expressive of the hidden relations between these
different orders of created and uncreated beings.
This philosophy pervaded all the East : there can
be no doubt but that its influence was felt among
the Jews at the time of our Saviour's coming, and
that in particular the sect of Pharisees held much
of its mysterious doctrines. It penetrated into
Greece, affected greatly the Pythagorean and
Platonic philosophies, and acted on the people
through the secret religions mysteries. In many
of its doctrines it approached so near to the truth,
that the inspired writers were led to adopt some
of its terms to expound their doctrines. Hence it
is, that our great acquaintance with this system
of philosophy, from the greater attention paid to
it, has tended to confirm and illustrate many
phrases and passages formerly obscure. For in
stance, when Nicodemus either understood not,
or affected not to understand, our Lord's expres
sion that he must be "born again," we should be
rather inclined to think such an expression by no
means easy, and to consider the censure as severe :
" Art thou a master in Israel, and understandest

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH, 227

not these things ? " * But when we discover that
this was the ordinary figure by which the Phari
sees themselves expressed, in their mystic lan
guage, the act of becoming a proselyte, and that
the phrase belongs to that philosophy, and is used
by the Brahmans of such as join their religion, f
we at once perceive how such an obscure phrase
should have been well understood by the person
to whom it was addressed. Bendsten has care
fully collected such ancient inscriptions as contain
mystical allusions drawn from this hidden philoso
phy, and has produced several illustrations of
phrases in the New Testament. :{: It may suffice
to say, that such expressions as light and dark-
ness, the flesh and the spirit, the representation
of the body as a vessel or tabernacle of the soul,
images so beautiful 1J- adapted for expressing the
purest doctrines of Christianity, as none other at
that time could be, all have been found to belong
to this philosophy, and have thus lost the obscu
rity wherewith they used to be reproached.

But to come to one particular sect or modifica
tion of this system ; a curious elucidation has been
obtained of a difficult portion of the New Testa
ment, by our acquaintance with a sect of Gnostics
yet existing, but of whom little or nothing was

* John iii. 3.

f See the author's " Lectures on the Real Presence," Lond.
1836, p. 95. See Windischmann's " Philosophic," etc. p. 558.

J In the " Miscellanea Hafnensia," torn. i. Copenhag. 1816»
p,20.

228 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

known till the end of the last century. From a
small treatise, of no great celebrity, published
above a hundred years ago by F. Ignatius a Jesu,
a missionary in Asia, Europe first became" ac
quainted with a semi-Christian sect, settled chiefly
in the neighborhood of Eassora, evidently de
scended from the ancient Gnostics, but having a
peculiar veneration for St. John the Baptist.*
They are called Nasareans, Sabians, Mendeans, or
disciples of John. The last is the name they give
themselves. Evidence is not wanting to prove
that they have existed from the earliest ages ; and

«/ c?

the whole of their belief is grounded upon the ori
ental philosophy, the system of emanations from
the Deity. Prof. Norberg was the first who
made this strange religion better known, by pub
lishing, not many years ago, their sacred book, the
Codex Adam, or Codex Nasaraeus.f It is written
in a peculiar character and dialect of very corrupt
Syriac, and is extremely difficult to be understood.
Their principal work, which JSTorberg so much de
sired to see published, is yet inedited. It is an
immense roll covered writh curious figures, and is
called their Divan. The original copy is in the
Museum of the Propaganda ; from this I have had
two fac-similes made, whereof one is in my pos
session, and I have brought it for your inspection ;

* Ignatius a Jesu, " Narratio originis et errorum Chris-
tianorum S. Johannis."

f " Codex Nasareeus liber Adami appellatus," torn. i.
Hafnia. No date.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 229

the other I have deposited in the Library of the
lioyal Asiatic Society in London.

It had been well known that St. John, in his
writings, entirely attacked Gnostic sects, princi
pally those known by the name of Ebionites, and
Cerinthians. This circumstance explained many
expressions otherwise obscure, and led us to
understand why he so constantly insisted upon
the reality of Christ's being in the flesh. It was
evident that the iirst chapter of his gospel con
tained a series of aphorisms directly opposed to
their tenets. For instance, as these Gnostics
maintained the existence of many ^Eons, or ema
nated beings inferior to God, one of which they
called "the Word,'' and another "the only begot
ten :" another " the light," el c. ; and asserted the
world to have been created by a malignant spirit ;
St. John overthrows all these opinions, by show
ing that only One was born from the Father, who
was at once light, the word, and the only begot
ten, and by whom all things were made.*

But there were other things in this sublime
prologue, not so easily explained. Why is the
inferiority of the Baptist so much insisted upon ?
why are we told that he was not the light, but
only a witness to the light ; and why is this twice
repeated ? Why are we told that he was a mere
man ? These reiterated assertions must have
been directed against some existing opinions,

* St. Irenams, " Adv. Heeres." lib. i. c. i. § 20.

230 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

which required confutation as much as the others :
jet we knew of no sect that could appear to have
suggested them. The publication of the Sabiaii
books has, to all appearance, solved the difficulty.

When the Codex Nasarseus was first published,
several learned men applied its expressions to the
illustration of St. John's gospel. The evidence
for this application was at iirst considered strong,*
but was afterwards, particularly, if I remember
right, by Hug, rejected as of small weight. Still,
011 looking over the book, I think we cannot fail
to be struck with opinions, manifestly ancient,
which seem exactly kept in view by the Apostle,
in the introduction to his gospel. First, the
marked distinction between light and life; sec
ondly, the superiority of John the Baptist to
Christ; thirdly, the identification of John with
" the light."

The iirst of these errors was common, perhaps,
to other Gnostic sects ; but in the Codex Nasa-
raeus, we have the two especially distinguished as
different beings. In it the iirst emanation from
God, is the king of light ; the second, iire ; the
third, water; and the fourth, life.f Now, this
error St. John rejects in the fourth verse, where
he says, " and the light was life." The second
error, that John was superior to Christ, forms the
fundamental principle of this sect. Its members
are called ]\£ende Jahia, disciples of John, from

* Micliaelis, '• Introduction," vol. iii. p. 285, seqq.
\ Norberg, p. viii.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 231

this very circumstance. And an Arabic letter
from the Maronite Patriarch in Syria, published,
by Norberg, tells us that they worship John before
Christ,* whom they carefully distinguish from
" the life." In the third place they identify John
with " the li^ht." These two last errors will be

o

at once brought home to them by one passage,
which I take without selection, upon opening the
book. " Going forward and coming to the prison
of Jesus, the Messiah, I asked, l Whose place of
confinement is this ? ' I was answered, ' It over
shadows those who have denied the life, and fol
lowed the Messiah.' "f The Messiah is then
supposed to address the narrator in these words :
" Tell us thy name, and show us thy mark, which
thou receivedst from the water, the treasure of
splendor, and the great baptism of the Light"
And on seeing the mark, the Messiah adores him
four times.J After this, the souls that are with
him ask permission to return into the body, for
three days, that they may be baptized in the
Jordan, " in the name of this man who has passed
above him."§ Here, then, we have John and his
baptism superior to Christ ; the Messiah distin
guished from "the light," and the baptism of
John called "the baptism of the Light." Now,
we can hardly fail to observe how pointedly the
evangelist contradicts every one of these blas-

* Notes to the Preface. f Tom. ii. p. 9.

\ Ib. p. 11.

§ Ibd. p. 13. " In nomine hujus viri qui te praeteriit.

232 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

phemous opinions, when he tells us, that in
Christ " was life ; " that John " was not the light,
but only a witness to it" (vv. 7. 8) ; and that John
was inferior to Christ, according to his own testi
mony. And on this point, the very words of the
gospel seem selected to meet the error. " John
beareth witness, and crieth out, saying : ' This was
he of whom I spake, He that shall come after me
shall he preferred heforeme, because he was before
me' "— (v. 15).

That the opinions of this strange sect have been
much changed in the lapse of ages, we have every
reason to suppose ; but their conformity to the
Gnostic system, and some historical evidence, prove
that the religion is not modern ; indeed, it seems
to have sprung from those who only received the
baptism of John. At any rate, the publication of
these documents, and our better acquaintance with
this sect, have shown opinions to have existed
among the Gnostics, exactly corresponding to the
errors condemned by St. John. Expressions,
which before were unintelligible, have thus become
clear ; and the series of apparently unconnected
propositions, or axioms, which compose his proeme,
and which seemed unnecessarily to insist upon
points to us of little interest, have been shown to
point at blasphemous doctrines confuted in the
gospel.

Another example of a difficulty being cleared
away, by our becoming acquainted, in modern
times, with the opinions of an oriental sect, may

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 233

be drawn from the Samaritan literature. This
sect sprung from the Jews, in part at least, at an
early period of their history ; and acknowledged,
as is well known, no sacred hooks but those of
Moses. Their religious hatred to the Jews was
violent ; and as they never could be united to
gether in friendship, so does it appear improbable
that one sect would have ever borrowed opinions
from the other. In the fourth chapter of St. John,
a Samaritan woman professes her belief that a
Messiah would speedily come (v. 25) ; and after
wards the inhabitants of the city publicly avow
the same expectation (vv. 39, 42). Does not
this seem highly improbable ? For, surely, the
Pentateuch alone could hardly have furnished
grounds for so rooted and general a belief. This
difficulty increases when we reflect that the only
passage in those books, which could appear to
suggest the doctrine with sufficient clearness, is
not interpreted by them of the Messiah. I allude
to Deut. xviii. 15 ;" The Lord thy God shall raise
up unto thee a prophet," etc., which Gensenius,
in his essay on the theology of the Samaritans,
has shown they do not apply at all to his coming.*
And yet we have now every evidence that we can
desire upon this point. For, the Samaritans, who
are reduced to about thirty houses in Naplous, yet
profess to expect such a Messiah under the name
of Hathab. In the last century, a correspondence

* " De Samaritanorura Theologia." Halce, 1822, p. 45.

234 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

was entered into with them, for the purpose of
clearing up this question ; it was published by
Schnnrrer,* and the result is precisely such as we
could desire, to confirm the gospel narrative. This
conclusion has been still further illustrated by the
Samaritan poems in the Bodleian library, which
Gensenius has published. For in them the ex
pectation of a Messiah seems clearly expressed.f
Thus, then, is an important illustration obtained
by our modern acquaintance with the doctrines
of this remnant of the Samaritans, for a passage
otherwise presenting some difficulty.

Having seen the influence exercised by foreign
philosophy upon the expressions, and consequently
upon the explanation, of Scripture, let us turn the
tables, and see if from this we can throw any light
upon the philosophy of other oriental nations, and
thereby remove objections made against our re-

* " Eicliliorns Biblisches Repertorium," ix. Th. S. 27.
There had been other similar correspondences between the
few remaining Samaritans, and Scaliger, Ludolf, and the
University of Oxford. See De Sacy, " Memoire sur Fetat
actuel des Samaritains," p. 47.

f " Carmina Samaritana e codicibus Londinensibus et
Gothanis," Lips. 1824, p. 75. On the objections made by sev
eral reviewers, Gensenius is not disposed to enforce the allu
sion to the Messiah in this verse, and allows that it may be
differently interpreted. But, knowing that the word there
used, Hathab, " the converter," is the Samaritan name for
the Messiah, there seems no reason to depart from his orig
inal interpretation. At any rate, his commentary places our
proofs of the expectations of a Redeemer among the Samari
tans upon a more secure footing than it had before.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 235

ligion ; and by this course we shall return to the
oriental philosophy, from which we have somewhat
wandered.

An extraordinary resemblance had been dis
covered between some of the most mysterious
dogmas of Christianity, and expressions found in
this philosophy. Some traces of a belief in a
Trinity, you are probably aware, may be found in
Plato's celebrated epistle to Dionysius of Syracuse.
Philo, Proclus, Sallustius the philosopher, and
other Platonists, contain still clearer indications
of such a belief. It was agreed that it could only
be derived from the oriental philosophy, in
which every other dogma of Platonism is to be
discovered.

The progress of Asiatic research placed this
supposition beyond controversy. The Oupnekliat,
a Persian compilation of the Yedas, translated and
published by Anquetil Duperron, contains many
passages in still clearer unison with Christian doc
trines than the hints of the Greek philosophers.
I will only quote two from the digest of this work,
made by Count Lanjuinais : " The word of the
Creator is itself the Creator, and the great Son
of the Creator."— "Sat" (that is, truth) "is the
name of God, and God is trabrat, that is, three
making only one."1*

From all these coincidences, nothing more ought

* "Journal Asiatique," Par. i823, torn, iii. pp. 15, 83.
The name Oupnekhat, is a corruption of the Indian Upan-
ishad.

236 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

to be deduced, than that primeval traditions on
religious doctrines had been preserved among dif
ferent nations. But instead of this conclusion
being drawn, they were eagerly seized by the ad
versaries of Christianity, and used as hostile wea
pons against its divine origin. Dupuis collected
every passage which could make the resemblance
more marked, not even neglecting the suspicious
works of Hermes Trismegistus, and concluded
that Christanity was only an emanation of the
Philosophical school which had flourished in the
East, long before its divine Founder appeared.*

But if one did borrow this doctrine from an
other, it must now be acknowledged that the very
research, which extended still further this con
nection between the different philosophic schools
of the East and West, has discovered the stock
from which they all originally descended. China,
too, is now proved to have possessed its Platonic
school ; and the doctrines of its founder, Laotseu,
bear too marked a resemblance to the opinions
of the Academy, not to be considered an offspring
of the same parent. The early missionaries had
presented the public with some extracts from his
writings and some account of his life. The former,
however, were incomplete, the latter was mixed
with fable. To Abel-Hemusat we are indebted
for a satisfactory and highly interesting memoir

* " Origine de tous les Cultes." Paris, Tan in. vol. v
p. 283, seqq.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. • 237

upon both.* Not only are the leading principles
of Platonism expressed in his works, but verbal
coincidences have been traced in them by this
learned orientalist, which cannot be explained
without admitting some connecting link between
the Athenian and Chinese sages, f The doctrine
of a Trinity is too clearly expounded in his writings
to be misunderstood ; but in one passage it is ex
pressed in terms of a most interesting character.

" That for which you look, and which you see
not, is called I : that towards which you listen,
yet hear not, is called Hi (the letter H) : what
your hand seeks, and yet feels not, is called Wei
(the letter Y). These three are inscrutable, and
being united, form only one. Of them the supe
rior is not more bright, nor the inferior more ob
scure This is what is called form without

form, image without image, an indefinable Being !
Precede it, and yet find not its beginning ; follow
it, and ye discover not its end."J

It is not necessary to comment at any length
upon this extraordinary passage, which obviously
contains the same doctrine which I have quoted
from other works. I need only remark, with
Abel-Remusat, that the extraordinary name given
to this Triune essence, is composed of the three

* " Memoire sur la Vie et les Opinions de Lao-tseu, phi-
losoplie Chinois du VI, siecle avant notre ere, qui a professe
les opinions communement attributes a Pythagore, a Platon,
et a leurs disciples." Paris, 1823.

f See pp. 24, 27. \ P. 40.

238 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

letters, I II Y ; for the syllables expressed in the
Chinese have no meaning in that language, and
are, consequently, representative of the mere let
ters. It is, therefore, a foreign name, and we shall
seek for it in vain anywhere except among the
Jews. Their ineffable name, as it was called,
which we pronounce Jehovah, is to be met, vari
ously distorted, in the mysteries of many heathen
nations; but in none less disfigured than in this
passage of a Chinese philosopher. Indeed, it
could not have been possibly expressed in his
language in any manner more closely approaching
to the original.*

The learned French orientalist is far from see
ing any improbability in this etymology. On the
contrary, he endeavors to support it by historical
arguments. He examines the traditions, often
disguised under fables, which yet exist among the
followers of Lao-tseu ; and concludes, that the
long journey which he made into the West, can
only have taken place before the publication of
his doctrines. He does not hesitate to suppose
that his philosophical journey may have extended
as far as Palestine; but though he should have
wandered no farther than Persia, the captivity of

* law is probably the Greek form approaching nearest to
the true pronunciation of the Hebrew name. Even pro
nouncing the Chinese word according to its syllables, I-hi-
wei, we have a nearer approach to the Hebrew, le-ho-wa, as
the oriental Jews rightly pronounce it, than in the Chinese
word Chi-li-su-tu-su to its original Christus.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

the Jews, which had just taken place, would
have given him opportunities of communing
with them.* Another singular coincidence of
his history is, that he was nearly contemporary
with Pythagoras, who travelled into the East to
learn the same doctrine ; and perhaps brought to
his own country the same mysteries.

With these conclusions of Abel-Remusat, au
thors agree, of no mean name, whether we con
sider this a question of philosophy or philology.
Windischmann, whom I have before quoted, and
of whom I shall have occasion again to speak,
seems to consider the grounds given by Abel-
Rernusat for his opinion, as wwthy of great con-
sideration.f Klaproth, in like manner, defends
his interpretation against Pauthier's strictures ;
observing that, though he does not think it proba
ble that the name Jehovah is to be found in Chi
nese, he sees no impossibility in the idea, and main
tains that his learned friend's interpretation has
not been solidly answered.^:

This instance renders it sufficiently probable,

* " Effectivement, si Ton veut examiner les choses sans
prejuge, il n'y a pas d'invraisemblance a supposer, qu'un
pliilosoplie Cliinois ait voyage des le Vie siecle avant notre
ere, dans la Perse ou dans la Syrie " (p. 13). One tradition
among his followers is, that, before his birth, his soul had
wandered into the kingdoms west of Persia.

f '• Die Philosophic im Fortgang der Weltgeschichte,"
Erst. Th. Bonn, 1827, p. 404.

J " Memoire sur 1'Origine et la Propagation de la Doctrine
du Tao," p. 29.

10 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

that, it' any connection be admitted between the
doctrines delivered to the Jews, and those which
resemble them in other ancient nations, these de
rived them from the depositories of revealed truths.
It satisfies us, that in other instances similar com
munications may have taken place ; and there is
an end to the scoffing objections of such writers as
I before quoted, that Christian dogmas were drawn
from heathen philosophy.

Let us now, after these partial applications, look
at the general progress made by one branch of re
search in Oriental philosophy, which long used to be
employed as a formidable weapon against Scripture.
You will remember how the Hindoo astronomy
and chronology, exaggerated to an excessive de
gree, were found to have come down wonderfully
in their pretensions, and that I reserved for this
place the examination into the age of philosophi
cal literature in India. I need not say, that the
unbelievers of the last century did not confer a
more reasonable antiquity on those sacred books
of the Indians, wherein are contained their philos
ophical and religious systems, and which are well
known by the name of the Yedas : in fact, so extrav
agant an antiquity was attributed to them, that the
writings of Moses were represented as modern
works in comparison with them. It must, there
fore, be a matter of some interest to ascertain how
far this opinion has been confirmed or confuted
by the great progress made in our acquaintance
with Sanscrit literature.

. LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 241

The first consideration which must strike us,
is, that works of this character are the most easy
to invest with appearances of age; since a certain
simplicity of manner, and mysticism of thought,
will lead the mind to attribute to them an an
tiquity which cannot be tested, as in the other
branches of literature or science, by dates or scien
tific observations. But, at the same time, we may
further remark, that when other portions of a
nation's literature have been proved, in spite of
high pretensions, to be comparatively modern,
any other- class which shared their unmerited
honors, may also, w^ith great show of justice, be
made partaker of their degradation, and con
demned to aspire no higher than its associates.
Thus, therefore, the moral philosophy of the
Hindoos, having been considered a part of the
very ancient literature of India, may well, in part
at least, yield to those investigations which have
deprived the rest of its fancied antiquity.

But specific researches have not been wanting ;
and they present much more detailed and striking
results. And first, let us take the extreme most
favorable to our opponents. The authority of
Colebrooke well be considered perfectly compe
tent to decide questions connected with Sanscrit
literature ; and he certainly has never shown a
disposition to underrate its importance and value.
Now he takes, as the basis of his calculations, the
astronomical knowledge displayed in the Yedas:
and concludes from such data as it presents, that

242 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

they were not composed earlier than fourteen
hundred years before Christ.* This, you will say,
is a great antiquity ; but, after all, it does not go
back, by nearly two hundred years, to the age of
Moses, and the time when the arts had reached
their maturity in Egypt.

There is a more recent investigation into this
question, which seems to me still more remark
able for its results, no less than interesting from
the character of its author. This is Dr. Frederick
Windischmann, whom I have a real delight in
calling my friend, not merely on account of his
brilliant talents, and his profound acquaintance
with Sanscrit literature and philology, but far
more on account of qualities of a higher order,
and of a more endearing character, and for virtues
which will be one day an ornament to the eccle
siastical state to which he has devoted his future
life. Free from the remotest idea of either ex
aggerating or diminishing the antiquity of these
books, which he has minutely studied, he has
ingeniously collected all the data which they
afford for deciding their true age. Now, what
strikes us particularly in his investigation, is, how
manifestly the struggle of Sanscrit philologers
now is to prevent their favorite literature being
depressed too low, and how, instead of claiming,
on its behalf, in the spirit of older writers, an
unnatural term of ages, they contend with eager-

* " Asiatic Researches," vol. vii. p. 284.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 24:3

ness, to have it raised to a reasonable period
before the Christian era. The course of argument
followed by my amiable young friend, is simply
this. The Institutes of Menu appear, from inter
nal evidence, to have been drawn up before the
custom of self-immolation was prevalent, at least
completely, throughout the peninsula of the
Ganges. As we learn from Grecian writers of
the time of Alexander, that this rite was then
practised, this work must have been composed
anterior to that age. Now the Institutes suppose
the existence of the Yedas, which are therein
quoted, and said to have been composed by Brah
man.* The argument, as thus stated, does injus
tice to the great acquaintance manifested by the
young author with the minutiae of the language
and the contents of these sacred volumes. Every
position is supported by a profusion of erudition,
which few can fully appreciate. The same must
be said of the remainder of his arguments, which
principally consists in proving, by philological dis
quisitions, interesting only to the initiated, that the
style of the Yedas is much more ancient than
that of any other work in the language.f Still
the conclusions to which he comes are noways
definite ; they allot a high antiquity to the Vedas,
but not such as can startle the most apprehensive
mind.

* " Frederic! Henr. Hug. Windischmanni Sancara, give
de Theologumenis Vedanticorum." Bomice, 1833, p. 52.
f Pp. 58, seqq.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

After doing so little justice to this learned
author, I fear it is less in my power to render
a proper tribute to the labors of his father,
whose reputation in Europe, as a philosopher,
must raise him above the necessity of any
preliminary remarks from me ; especially as, in
making them, I should certainly appear to
be carried away by my feelings towards him,
as an admiring and revering friend. The
work of this extensive and profound scholar,
which I have already quoted to-day, has ar
ranged, in the most scientific and complete man
ner, all that we know of Indian philosophy. He
does not so much consider it chronologically, as in
quire into its internal and natural development,
and endeavor to trace through every part of the
systems which compose it, the principles which
animated it, and pervaded all its elements. Now,
in this form of investigation, which requires at
once a vast accumulation of facts, and an intellec
tual energy, that can plunge into their chaos, and
separate the light from the darkness, Windisch-
mann has been, beyond all other writers, success
ful. The epochs of the Brahmanic system, he
examines by the doctrines and principles which
they contain ; and his results are such as, while
they attribute great antiquity to the Indian books,
bring them forward as confirmatory evidence of
what is described in the inspired records. For the
earliest epoch or period of Brahmanic philosophy
exhibits, according to him, the exact counterpart

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 245

of the patriarchal times as described in the Pen
tateuch.*

But there is another author of deserved reputa
tion among the historians of philosophy, who is
far from being disposed to admit the claims -or
the arguments advanced by Orientalists in favor
of this high antiquity. Ritter, professor in the
UmVersity of Berlin, has sifted, with great acute-
ness, all that has been advanced on its behalf.
The astronomical reasonings, or rather conjectures,
of Colebrooke, he rejects, as not amounting to
any positive or calculable data ; f and he is in
clined to concede very little more force to the
arguments drawn from the apparent antiquity of
Indian monuments, or the perfection of the San
scrit language. For, he observes, the taste for
colossal monuments is not necessarily so ancient,
seeing that some have been erected in compara
tively modern days : and language receives its
characteristic perfection often at one moment, and
cannot form a sure criterion of antiquity, unless
relatively considered by epochs discoverable within
itself.:): The entire reasoning pursued by Bitter,
tends more to throw down the supposed antiquity
of Indian philosophy, than to build up any new
theory. However, his conclusion is, that the
commencement of true systematic philosophy

* " Die Philosophie im Fortgang der Weltgeschicte,"
Zweites Bucli. pp. 690, seqq.

f " Gescliichte der Philosophie," 1 Th. Hamburg, 1829,
p. 60. J P. 62.

246 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

must not be dated further back than the reign of
Vikramaditja, about a century before the Chris
tian era.*

Before quitting the subject of Indian philo
sophical works, I will give you an example of the
facility with which men, who take pride in being
called unbelievers, swallowed any assertion which
seemed hostile to Christianity. In the last cen
tury, an Indian work, extremely Christian in its
doctrines, was published by Ste. Croix, under the
title of the Ezour Vedam.\ Voltaire pounced
upon it, as a proof that the doctrines of Chris
tianity were borrowed from the heathens, and
pronounced it a work of immense antiquity, com
posed by a Brahman of Seringham.J Now, hear
the history of this marvellous work.

When Sir Alex. Johnston was Chief Justice in
Ceylon, and received a commission to draw up a
code of laws for the natives, he was anxious to
consult the best Indian works, and, among the
rest, to ascertain the genuineness of the Ezour
Yedam. He therefore made diligent search in
the southern provinces, and inquired at the most
celebrated pagodas, particularly that of Sering-
ham ; but all in vain. He could learn no tidings
of the Brahman, nor of the work which he was
said to have composed. Upon his arrival at

* Pp. 120, 124.

f " Ezour Vedam, ou ancien Commentaire du Vedam."
Yverdun, 1728.

\ " Siecle de Louis XV."

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 247

Pondicherry, he obtained permission from the
governor, Count Dupuis, to examine the manu
scripts in the Jesuits' library, which had not been
disturbed since they left India. Among them he
discovered the Ezour Yedam, in Sanscrit and
French. It was diligently examined by Mr.
Ellis, principal of the College at Madras ; and
his inquiry led to the satisfactory discovery, that
the original Sanscrit was composed in 1621, en
tirely for the purpose of promoting Christianity,
by the learned and pious missionary, Robert de
Nobilibus, nephew of Card. Bellarmin, and near
relative to Pope Marcellus II.*

From philosophy, we may now proceed to
examine what has been done for religion by the
progress of Oriental history ; and I shall content
myself with one or two examples.

The thirty-ninth chapter of Isaiah informs us
that Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon, sent an
embassy to Ezekiah, king of Judah. This king
of Babylon makes 110 other appearance in sacred
history ; and even this one is attended with no
considerable difficulty. For, the kingdom of the
Assyrians was yet flourishing, and Babylon was
only one of its dependencies. Only nine years
before, Salmanassar, the Assyrian monarch, is
said to have transported the inhabitants of Bab
ylon to other parts ;f and Manasses, not many

* " Asiatic Researches," vol. xiv. "British Catholic Col
onial Intelligencer." No. ii. Lond. 1834, p. 163.
f 2 (4) Reg. vii. 24.

24:8 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

years after, was carried captive to Babylon by the
king of Assyria.* Again, the prophet Micheas,
about this very period, speaks of the Jews being
carried away to Babylon, while the Assyrians are
mentioned as the enemies whom they have princi
pally to fear, f

All these instances incontestably prove, that at
the time of Ezekiah, Babylon was dependent on
the Assyrian kings. Who, then, was this Mero-
dach-Baladan, king of Babylon ? If he was only
governor of that city, how could he send an
embassy of congratulation to the Jewish sover
eign, then at war with his liege lord ? The canon
of Ptolemy gives us no king of this name, nor
does his chronology appear reconcilable with
sacred history.

In this darkness and doubt we must have
continued, and the apparent contradiction of this
text to other passages would have remained inex
plicable, had not the progress of modern Oriental
study brought to light a document of the most
venerable antiquity. This is nothing less than a
fragment of Berosus, preserved in the Chronicle
of Eusebius. The publication of this work, in a
perfect state, from its Armenian version, first
made us acquainted with it ;J and Gensenius,
whom I have so often quoted as opposed to us in
opinion, I have now the pleasure of citing, as the

* 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.

f Mic. iv. 10; cf. v. 5,6.

} " Eusebii Chronicon" Venet. 1818, torn. i. p. 42.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 249

author to whose ingenuity we owe its applica
tion.*

This interesting fragment informs us that after
Sennacherib's brother had governed Babylon, as
Assyrian viceroy, Acises unjustly possessed him
self of the supreme command. After thirty days
he was murdered by Merodach-Baladan, who
usurped the sovereignty for six months, when he
in his turn was killed, and succeeded by Elibus.
But after three years, Sennacherib collected an
army, gave the usurper battle, conquered and took
him prisoner. Having once more reduced Baby
lon to his obedience, he left his son Assordan, the
Essarhaddon of Scripture, as governor of that city.

There is only one apparent discrepancy between
this historical fragment and the Scripture narra
tive ; for the latter relates the murder of Sennac
herib, and the succession of Essarhaddon before
Merodach-Baladan's embassy to Jerusalem.f But
to this Gensenius has well replied, that this ar
rangement is followed by the prophet, in order to
conclude the history of the Assyrian monarch,
which has no further connection with his subject,
so as not to return to it again.

By this order also, the prophecy of his murder
is more closely connected with the history of its
fulfilment.^ But this solution, which supposes

* " Commentar iiber den Jesaia," Erst. Th. 2 Abth. pp.
999, seqq.

f Isaiah xxxvii. 38.
\ Isaiah xxxvii. 7.

250 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

some interval to have elapsed between Sennac
herib's return Niniveh and his death, is rendered
probable by the words of the text itself, — " He
went and returned and abode in NiniveJi / and it
came to pass," etc. ; and moreover becomes certain
from chronological arguments. For it is certain,
that Sennacherib's expedition into Egypt must
have been made in his iirst or second year (714 B.
C.); since the twentieth chapter of Isaiah men
tions Sargon as reigning just before that event
(716). Now, according to Berosus, at the conclu
sion of the above-quoted fragment, Sennacherib
reigned eighteen years before he was murdered by
his sons. He must therefore have survived, by
many years, his return to Nmiveh.* The account
of Berosus, that the Babylonian revolt happened
in the reign of Sennacherib, is thus nowise at
variance with the sacred text ; and this only diffi
culty being once removed, the fragment clears up
every possible objection to its accuracy.

For we have it perfectly explained how there
was a king, or rather a usurper, in Babylon, at a
time when it was in reality a provincial city of the
Assyrian empire. Nothing was more probable
than that Merodach-Baladan, having seized the
throne, should endeavor to unite himself in league
and amity with the enemies of his master, against
whom he had revolted. Ezekiah, who, no less
than himself, had thrown off the Assyrian yoke,f

* " Gensenius," p. 1002 ; cf. the Table, 2 Th. p. 560.
f 2 (4) Reg. xviii. 7.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 251

and was in powerful alliance with the king of
Egypt, would be his first resource. No embassy,
on the other hand, could be more welcome to the
Jewish monarch, who had the common enemy in
his neighborhood, and would be glad to see a di
version made in his favor, by a rebellion in the
very heart of that enemy's kingdom.* Hence
arose that excessive attention which he paid to the
envoys of the usurper, and which so offended the
prophet Isaiah, or rather God, who through him
foretold, in consequence, the Babylonian capti
vity^

Another instance of the advantage which the
progress of Oriental historical research may bring
to matters of religious interest, is afforded us by
the light lately thrown upon the religious worship
of Thibet. When Europe first became acquainted
with this worship, it was impossible not to be
struck with the analogies it presented to the reli
gious rites of Christians. The hierarchy of the
Lainis, their monastic institutes, their churches,
and ceremonies, resembled ours with such minute
ness, that some connection between the two seemed
necessarily to have existed. " The early mission
aries were satisfied with considering Lamaism as a
sort of degenerate Christianity, and as a remnant

* From what has been said in the text, it appears proba
ble that the revolt in Babylon took place during Sennach
erib's expedition against Judea and Egypt.

\ Isaiah xxxix. 2, 5.

252 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

of those Syrian sects which once had penetrated
into those remote parts of Asia."*

But there have been others who have turned
this resemblance to very different purposes. " Fre
quent mysterious assertions and subdued hints, in
the works of learned men," says a lamented orien
talist, to whose memoir on this subject I shall have
to refer just now, " led many to doubt whether the
Lamaic theocracy was a remnant of Christian sects,
or, on the contrary, the ancient and primitive
model, on which were traced similar establishments
in other parts of the world. Such were the views
taken in the notes to Father D' Andrada's Journey,
to the French translations of Thunberg and of the
Asiatic Researches, and in many other modern
works where irreligion has sought to conceal itself
under a superficial and lying erudition."-)- " These
resemblances," says Malte-Brun, " were turned into
arguments against the divine origin of Christian-"
ity.";f In fact, we find these analogies affording
matter for peculiar merriment to Volney.§

At first these objections were only met by
negative answers. It was well argued by Fischer,
that no writer anterior to the thirteenth century

* Abel-Remusat, " Apercu d'un Memorie intitule Recher-
ches chronologiques sur 1'Origine de la Hierarchic Lamai-
que," reprinted in the " Melanges Asiatiques," Paris, 1825
vol. i. p. 129.

•f Ib. note 2. " Melanges," p. 132.

\ " Precis de la Geographic universelle," Paris, 1812, vol.
iii. p. 581.

§ " Ruines," Paris, 1820, p. 428.

LECTUliE THE ELEVENTH. 253

gives a hint of the existence of this system, nor
could any proof be brought of its antiquity. But
it had been the fashion to attribute an extravagant
date to all the institutions of central Asia, upon
the strength of plausible conjecture. The vener
able age given to this religious establishment
was in perfect accordance with Bailly's scientific
hypotheses regarding the same country, and formed
a natural counterpart to the romantic system which
made the mountains of Siberia, or the steppes of
Tartary, the cradle of philosophy. Since that
period the languages and literature of Asia have
made a wide step ; and the consequence has been,
the thorough confutation of these extravagant
hypotheses from the works of native writers.

Abel-Hem usat is once more the author to
whom we are indebted for this valuable expo
sition. In an interesting memoir, he has made us
acquainted with a valuable fragment preserved in
the Japanese Encyclopedia, and containing the
true history of the Lamaic hierarchy. Without this,
we should perhaps have been forever left to vague
conjectures ; with its assistance we are able to
confute the unfounded, though specious, dreams
of our assailants. The god Buddha was origin
ally supposed to be perpetuated upon earth in the
person of his Indian patriarchs. His soul was
transfused in succession, into a new representative
chosen from any caste ; and so confident was the
trustee of his divinity, that he possessed an amulet
against destruction, that he usually evaded the

254 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

sufferings of age, by ascending a funeral pile,
whence, like the phoenix, he hoped to rise into a
new life. In this state the god remained till the
fifth century of our era, when he judged it pru
dent to emigrate from Southern India, and fix his
residence in China. His representative received
the title of preceptor of the kingdom ; but only
added, like the later khalifs at Bagdad, a religious
splendor to the court of the celestial empire.

In this precarious condition the succession of
sacred chiefs was continued for eight more centu
ries, till, in the thirteenth, the house of Tchingkis-
khan delivered them from their dependence, and
invested them with dominion. Yoltaire has said
that Tchingkis-khan was too good a politician to
disturb the spiritual kingdom of the grand Lama
in Thibet ;* and yet, neither did a kingdom then
exist in Thibet, nor did the high priest of Sham
anism yet reside there, nor was the name of Lama
yet an appellation. For, it was the grandson of
the conqueror thirty-three years after him, who
first bestowed sovereignty on the head of his re
ligion ; and, as the living Buddha happened to be
a native of Thibet, that country was given him for
his government. This was the mountain of Poo-
tala, or Botala,f made the capital of this religious

* " Philosophic de 1'Histoire ; Essai sur les Mreurs." Abel-
Remusat, p. 137.

f See the " Nouveau Journal Asiatique," Oct. 1829, p. 273,
note 1.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 255

kingdom, and the term Lama, which signifies a
priest, first applied as distinctive title to its ruler.

This account of the origin of the Lamaic
dynasty accords perfectly with another interesting
document lately brought before the public. This
is a description of Thibet, translated from the
Chinese into Russian, by the Archimandrite, F.
Hyacinth Pitchourinsky ;* and from the Russian
into French, with corrections upon the original,
by Julis Klaproth.f From this document we
learn that Tchingkis-khaTi overran that country,
and established a government which comprised
Thibet and its dependencies. The emperor Khou-
bilai, seeing the difficulty of governing this distant
country, devised a method for rendering it sub
missive, which was conformable to the usages of
the people. " He divided the country of the Thou-
pho into provinces and districts ; appointed officers
of different degrees, and subjected them to the au
thority of the Ti-szu (preceptor of the emperor).
At that time, Bliadibah, or Pag~ba, a native of
Sarghia, in Thibet, held this office. At the age
of seven years he had read all the sacred books,
and comprehended their most sublime ideas, for
which reason he was called the spiritual child. In
1 260 he received the title of king of the great and
precious law, and a seal of oriental jasper. Besides
these, he was invested with the dignity of chief

* St. Petersburg, 1828.

f In the " Nouveau Journal Asiatique," Aug. and Ott.

1829

256 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

of the yellow religion. His brothers, his children,
and descendants, have enjoyed eminent posts at
court, and have received seals of gold and oriental
jasper. The court received Bhachbah with dis
tinction, entertained towards him a superstitious
faith, and neglected nothing which could contri
bute to make him respected."*

At the time when the Buddhist patriarchs first
established themselves in Thibet, that country was
in immediate contact with Christianity. Not only
had the Nestorians ecclesiastical settlements in
Tartary, but Italian and French religious men
visited the court of the Khans, charged with im
portant missions from the Pope and St. Lewis of
France. They carried with them church orna
ments and altars, to make, if possible, a favorable
impression on the minds of the natives. For this
end, they celebrated their worship in presence of
the Tarter princes, by whom they were permitted
to erect chapels within the precincts of the royal
palaces. An Italian Archbishop, sent by Clement
V., established his see in the capital, and erected
a church, to which the faithful were summoned by
the sound of three bells, and where they beheld
many sacred pictures painted on the walls.f

Nothing was easier than to induce many of the
various sects which crowded the Mongnl court to
admire and adopt the rites of this religion. Some
members of the imperial house secretly embraced

*" Nouveau Journal Asiatique," August, 1829, p. 119.
f Abel-Remusat, p. 138. Compare Assemani, inf. cit.

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 257

Christianity, many mingled its practices with the
profession of their own creeds, and Europe was
alternately delighted and disappointed by reports
of imperial conversions and by discoveries of their
falsehood. * It was such a rumor as this, in ref
erence to Manghu, that caused the missions of
Rubriquis and Ascellino. Surrounded by the cel
ebration of such ceremonies, hearing from the am
bassadors and missionaries of the West accounts
of the worship and hierarchy of their countries,
it is no wonder that the religion of the Lamas,
just beginning to assume splendor and pomp,
should have adopted institutions and practices al
ready familiar to them, and already admired by
those whom they wished to gain. The coincidence
of time and place, the previous non-existence of
that sacred monarchy, amply demonstrate that the
religion of Thibet is but an attempted imitation of
ours.

It is not my province to follow the learned
academician in the later history of this religious
dynasty. It has continued in dependence on the
Chinese sovereigns till our days, at one and the
same time revered and persecuted, adored and op
pressed. But its claims to antiquity are forfeited
for ever, and its pretensions as a rival, still more as
the parent of Christianity, have been fully exam
ined and rejected.

* " Assemani Bibliotli. Orient." torn. iii. part ii. pp. cccd.
xxx. seqq. " Di Marco Polo e degli altri viaggiatori Venez-
iani piu illustri Dissertazioni del P. Ab (afterwards Cardinal)
Zurla," Yen. 1818, vol. i. p. 287.
VOL. II. — 17

258 LECTURE THE ELEVENTH.

I have prolonged my disquisition so far, that I
must forego the many reflections which its subject
might well suggest. But it would be unjust to
take leave of it without alluding to the proud pre
eminence which our country is taking in the pros
ecution of these studies ; and if our education have
not qualified us, like our continental neighbors,
for such deep research into the abstruser parts of
Asiatic literature, we are at least learning to con
tribute those vast means which Providence has
placed at our disposal, towards bringing to light
much which otherwise would have remained con
cealed. It would, indeed, be disgraceful to us, if,
in after-ages, the history of all our colonies should
present to the inquiring philosopher only pages
ruled into balances of imports and exports, and
statements of annual returns to our national coffers;
or, if the annals of our mighty empire in India
should present nothing better than a compound
establishment of commercial and military agents,
passing through varied scenes of mercantile war
fares and kingly speculations. It is, indeed, an
honor to our national character, and the greatest
proof of its moral energies, that so much has been
done by those whose professions seemed necessarily
at variance with literary and scientific pursuits ; and
and I know not whether the public discredit will
not be hidden by the honor reflected from the per
sonal merit of so many illustrious individuals.
For posterity will not fail to observe, that while
the French, in their Egyptian expedition, sent sci-

LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. 259

entific and literary men to accompany their army,
and bring home the monuments of that country,
England has needed not to make such a distinc
tion; but found among those who fought her bat
tles and directed her military operations, men who
could lay down the sword to take up the pen, and
record for us every interesting monument, with as
much sagacity and learning, as though letters had
been their sole occupation.* But still there is a
hope of a higher national feeling ; and the found
ation under royal patronage of the Committee for
the translation of oriental works has already
greatly increased our stock of oriental lore. It has
interested in these pursuits those who otherwise
could hardly have been led to patronize them ; it
has cheered many a scholar who otherwise would
have drooped in silent obscurity ; and it has en
couraged many, who otherwise could not have felt
the necessary strength, —

" Eoam tentare fidem, populosque bibentes
Euphratem —

Medorum penetrare domos, Scythiosque recessus
Arva super Cyri Chaldaeique ultima regni,
Qua rapidus Ganges, et qua Nyssaeus Hydaspes
Accedunt pelago." (Lucan. viii. 213.)

* The author's lamented friend, Colonel Tod, was among
the number.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH;

CONCLUSION-

OBJECT of this Lecture. — Character of the confirmatory
Evidence obtained through the entire course, arising from
the variety of tests to which the truth of religion has been
submitted. Confirmed from the nature of the facts ex
amined, and of the authorities employed. Auguries thence
resulting for the future. — Religion deeply interested in the
progress of every science. — Opponents of this opinion.
First, timid Christians; confutation of them by the an
cient Fathers of the Church. Second, the enemies of re
ligion, in former and in later times. — Duty of ecclesiastics
to apply to study, with a view of meeting all objections;
and of all Christians, in proportion to their ability. — Ad
vantages, pleasure, and method of such pursuits.

I HAVE now accomplished the task on which I
entered, encouraged by your kindness. I prom
ised to pass through the history of several sciences,
and to prove by that simple process how their
progress has ever been accompanied by the acces
sion of new light and splendor to the evidences
of Christianity. I promised to treat my subject
in the most unostentatious manner, to avoid such
exemplifications as had already found their way

262 LKCTURE THE TWELFTH.

into elementary hooks upon the subject, and to
draw my materials, as much as possible, from
works which were not directed to a defence of
Christianity.

And now having, to the best of my small abil
ity, discharged my duty towards you, it may be
given us to rest a little, and look back upon the
course we have followed ; or, like those who have
journeyed together awhile, sit down at the end of
our travel, and make a common reckoning of what
we have therein gained. Our road may have
seemed in part to lie over barren and uninteresting
districts ; I have led you through strait and toil
some ways, and perhaps sometimes have bewil
dered and perplexed you ; but if, while we have
kept company, you have to complain of having
found but an unskilful guide, he in his turn may
perchance rejoin that he has found but too much
encouragement to prolong his wanderings, and
too much indulgence to have easily discovered his
going astray. But there has been sufficient vari
ety, at least in the objects which have passed un
der our observation, to make compensation for the
labors of our journey ; and we have throughout
it kept one great point in view, which sooner or
later could always bring us back to our right track,
and give a unity of character and uniformity of
method to our most devious wanderings. And by
looking for one moment upon this again, we shall
be able, in a few moments, to run over the road
through which our course hath led us.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 263

And first, I may naturally be asked, what ad
dition I consider myself to have made to the evi
dences of Christianity. Xow, to this question I
should reply with most measured reserve. I hold
those evidences to be something too inwardly and
deeply seated in the heart to have their sum in
creased or diminished easily by the power of out
ward considerations. However we may require
and use such proofs of its truths, as learned men
have ably collected, wrhen reasoning with the op
ponents of Christianity, I believe no one is con
scious of clinging to its sublime doctrines and
its consoling promises, on the ground of such log
ical demonstration ; even as an able theorist shall
show you many cogent reasons, founded on the so
cial and natural laws, why ye should love your
parents, and yet both he and you know that not for
those reasons have you loved them, but from a far
holier and more inward impulse. And so, when
we once have embraced true religion, its motives,
or evidences, need not longer be sought in the rea
sonings of books ; they become incorporated with
our holiest affections ; they result from our find
ing the necessity for our happiness, of the truths
they uphold ; in our there discovering the key to
the secrets of our nature, the solution of all men
tal problems, the reconciliation of all contradictions
in our anomalous condition, the answer to all the
solemn questions of our restless consciousness.

Thus is religion like a plant, which drives its
roots into the centre of the soul ; having in them

264: LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

fine and subtile fibres, that pierce and penetrate
into the solidest framework of a well-built mind,
and strong knotty arms that entangle themselves
among the softest and purest of our feelings. And
if without it also put forth shoots and tendrils in
numerable, wherewith, as with hands, it apprehends
and keeps hold of mundane and visible objects, it
is rather for their benefit and ornament than from
any want of such support ; nor does it from them
derive its natural and necessary vitality. Now,
it is with this outward and luxurious growth, that
our husbanding hath been chiefly engaged, rather
than with its hidden foundations and roots; we
have, perhaps, somewhat extended its beneficial
connections ; we have sometimes wound it round
some decayed and neglected remnant of ancient
grandeur ; we have stretched it as a garland to some
vigorous and youthful plant, and mingled the
fruits of its holiness with less wholesome bearing,
and we have seen how there is a comeliness and
grace given to both, by the contact ; how it may
cast an interest and an honor and a beauty over
what else were useless and profane. And we may
also, by this partial tilling, have given to the plant
itself some additional energy and power to
strengthen.

In other words, these lectures have been mainly
directed to watch the relation between the evi
dences of Christianity and other pursuits ; to trace
the influence which the necessary progress of these
must have upon the illustration of the former.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 205

With the true internal proofs of the Christian re
ligion, we have not dealt : but, by removing ob
jections against the external form of manifestation
in which this religion appears, and against the
documents in which its proofs and doctrines are
recorded, and against many of the specific events
therein registered, we may in some measure hope
that the native force of those grounds of evidence
will be something increased and fitted for receiv
ing a more powerful development in our minds.
This consideration admits of many different views,
and leads the way to many even more important
conclusions, which will form the subject of this my
last address. And first, I will say a few words
upon the direct application of what has been hith
erto treated, to the general evidences of Christian
ity, and to the vindication of those sacred docu
ments whereby the principal evidences are authen
tically enforced.

The great difference between specious error
and a system of truth, is, that the. one may present
certain aspects, under which, if viewed, it gives no
appearance of fault ; it is like a precious stone that
has a flaw, but which may be so submitted to the
eye, that the play of light, aided by an artful set
ting, may conceal it ; but which, when only slightly
turned, and viewed under another angle, discovers
its defect. But truth is a irem which need not be

O

enchased, which, faultless and cloudless, may be
held up to the pure bright light, on any side, in
any direction, and will everywhere display the

266 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

same purity, and soundness, and beauty. The one
is an impure ore, that may resist the action of
several re-agents brought to act upon it, but in the
end yields before one of them : the other is as an
nealed gold, which deh'es the power of every
successive test. Hence, the more numerous the
points of contact which any system presents to
other orders of intellectual or scientific research,
the more opportunities it gives of assaying its
worth ; and assuredly, if it no ways suffer by
their continued progress towards perfection on dif
ferent sides, we must conclude, that it hath so deep
a root in the eternal truth, as that nought created
can affect its certainty. Nothing has been ofteaer
attempted than the forgery of literary productions,
but nothing has been more unfortunate. Where
the author, like, perhaps, Synesius, has confined
himself to philosophical speculation, which may
have been the same in any age, it may be more
difficult to decide on the imposture. But wiiere
history, jurisprudence, manners, or other outward
circumstances enter into the plan of the work, it
is almost impossible for it to succeed in long defeat
ing the ingenuity of the learned. The most cel
ebrated literary frauds of modern times, the his
tory of Formosa, or still more, the Sicilian code of
Vella, for a time perplexed the world, but were
in the end discovered.

Now, such has been the object and tendency
of our investigation, to examine the different
phases which revealed religion presents, from the

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 207

reflected light of so many various pursuits ; to see
what are its aspect powers under the influence of
such diversified powers, and thus ascertain how far
it is capable of resisting the most complicated assay,
and defying the most obstinate and most unfriendly
examination. And surely wre may say that rio sys
tem has ever laid itself open more completely to de
tection, if it contained any error, than this of
Christianity ; no book ever gave so many clues to
discovery, if it tell one untruth, than its sacred vol
ume. In it we have recorded the earliest and the
latest physical revolutions of our globe ; the dis
persion of the human race ; the succession of mon-
archs in all surrounding countries, from the time
of Sesostris to the Syrian kings ; the habits and
manners, and language of various nations ; the
great religious traditions of the human race ; and
the recital of many marvellous and miraculous
events, not to be found in the annals of any other
people. Had the tests whereby all these differ
ent ingredients were to be one day tried, existed
when they were thus compounded together, some
pains might have been taken to secure them
against their action. But against the future, no
skill, no ingenuity, could afford protection. Had
the name of a single Egyptian Pharaoh been in
vented to suit convenience, as we see done by
other oriental historians, the discovery of the hier
oglyphic alphabet, after 3,000 years, would not
have been one of the chances of detection against
which the historian would have guarded. Had

208 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

the history of the creation, or of the dehige, been
a fabulous or poetical fiction, the toilsome journeys
of the geologist among Alpine valleys, or the dis
covery of hyenas' caves in an unknown island,
would not be the confirmations of his theory, on
which its inventor would have ever reckoned. A
fragment of Berosus comes to light, and it proves,
what seemed before incredible, to be perfectly true.
A medal is found, and it completes the reconcilia
tion of apparent contradictions. Every science,
every pursuit, as it makes a step, in its own natural
onward progress, increases the mass of our confirm
atory evidence.

Such, then, is the first important result which
we have gained ; — the acquisition of that powerful
proof which a system receives from multiplied
verifications. This proof will be greatly enhanced
in value by a few obvious considerations. And
first I would remark, that the sacred volume is not
the work of one man, nor of one age, but is a
compilation rather of the writings of many. Now,
if one very skilful writer had attempted the task
of forging the annals of a people, or of writing
the fictitious biography of some distinguished per
son, or of drawing up imaginary systems of na
ture, or of describing from fancy the great events
of her history, he might, by possibility, have guar
ded himself on every side against detection, and
measured every phrase, so as to suit the specific
purpose which he held in view. But to imagine,
that during the 1600 years from Moses to St. John,

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 260

such a system could have been carried on, by a
series of writers having no connection, of the most
unequal abilities, writing — if we, for one moment,
admit the impious hypothesis — under the most di
verse influences, necessarily viewing the past and
the future under different aspects, is to imagine a
stranger combination of moral agents for an evil
work than the world ever beheld. But this is not
our present consideration. It is evident that the
power could not have seconded the will to deceive,
supposing this to have existed ; the points of con
tact with other facts would have been too infinitely
multiplied to fit exactly in every case : if we sup
posed Moses to have been accurately acquainted
with the Egypt of his time, it would be improba
ble that every succeeding annalist should have
possessed a similar acquaintance ; if the opinions
of his time, concerning the physical constitution of
the world, were so accurate as to give no chance of
their being falsified by modern discoveries, this
would not have secured to Isaiah accuracy in re
counting the affairs of Babylon. In fine, the
greater the extent of time and territory, events
and usages, embraced by the sacred Book, the
greater the dangers of discovery, had it contained
aught untrue or incorrect.

Secondly, we may remark that the points which
our researches have verified have seldom been
leading events, or the direct subject of which the
inspired authors treated ; but generally incidental,
and almost parenthetic observations, or narratives,

270 LECTUEE THE TWELFTH.

on which they could hardly have expected much
research to he made. The common origin of all
mankind, or the miraculous dispersion of our race,
are not matters paraded at length ; but the former
is left almost to inference, and the latter is recorded
in the simplest manner. Yet we have seen what
a long process of study has been required to bring
out the proofs of these events, against the strong
prepossessions of first appearances, and the boasted
conclusions of ill-studied science. The various
historical incidents, on which light has been shed
by our modern application, are mostly episodes to
the general narrative of Jewish domestic history ;
all are such passages as would have been penned
with a less guarded hand, and with the smallest
suspicion that they would be used for assaying
the work. Yet even such passages as these have
been searchingly assailed without any unfavorable
result.

Thirdly, we might have been somewhat jealous
of the experiment, had it been conducted exclu
sively by friends. But though these have labored
much in the work of verification and illustration,
the greater part has been done by two other
classes of men, equally above suspicion. The
first consists of those who have quietly conducted
their studies, without intending at all to apply
them to sacred purposes, or even suspecting that
they would be so applied. The antiquarian, when
he garners up, and then deciphers, a new coin,
knows not till the process is complete, what

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 271

tidings from the olden world it will bear hiin.
The orientalist pores over his defaced parchments,
unable to conjecture what information it will give
him of distant usages, till he has overcome its
difficulties. Neither the one nor the other pur
sues his studies from a surmise that what he shall
discover will prove of use to the theologian ; no
possible anticipation of mind could have led the
learned Aucher to hope that a fragment of Be-
rosus would be found in the Armenian version of
Eusebius, which had been lost in the original ; still
less that such a fragment, if discovered, would
disperse a difficulty which clouded an important
narrative. Now, this has been essentially a por
tion, or rather a condition, of my plan, to have
recourse chiefly to authors that have conducted
their researches, without attention to any advan
tages thence accruing to Christian evidences.

But the second class of writers, to whom we
are indebted for a large portion of our materials in
this investigation, are removed a step further from
all suspicion of partiality to our cause. You will
naturally understand me to signify such as are
decidedly hostile to our opinions. These, again,
may be subdivided into two classes. The iirst
may contain such writers as do not admit the con
clusions which we draw from our premises, though
they assist us in establishing them ; or who do
not impugn, though they admit not our belief.
Thus, you have seen Klaproth deny the dispersion,
and Yirey the unity, of the human race, yet both

272 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

accumulating evidence of importance towards es
tablishing these two points. Others have been
pressed into our service much more unwillingly;
for their ingenuity and talents have been exercised
to combat the very propositions which I have en
deavored to establish. Nay, the genius of Buffon
seems to have been quickened by the idea that he
was taking a bolder flight than men are wont to at
tempt, and striving to pass the limits of universal
conviction. The miserable fragments then pos
sessed of Hindoo astronomy never would have
occupied the genius of the unfortunate Bailly,
had not his eagerness been sharpened by the vain
hope of thereby, constructing a chronological
scheme, more in accordance with the irreligious
opinions of his party, than with the venerable be
lief of former ages. And yet the imagination of
the former first devised the theory of a gradual
cooling of the earth's mass, which now is consid
ered by so many as a sufficient solution of the
difficulties regarding the Deluge ; and the latter
may be said, by trying to reduce that astronomy
to a scientific expression, to have laid the train for
Its total exposure.

These considerations must add greatly to the
power of the argument proposed in these Lectures.
For they must remove every suspicion that the
authorities on which it is based have been care
fully prepared by a friendly hand.

The first result of this reasoning is obvious ;
that every security which an endless variety of

LKCTI'RE TTTK TWFLFTH. 273

tests, applied to a system without injuring it, can
give us of its truth, the Christian religion, and its
evidences, may justly boast. But this consequence
has also an important prospective force, for it pre
sents a ground of confidence for the future, such
as no other form of argument could present. For,
if all that has yet been done has tended to confirm
our proofs, we surely have nothing to fear from
what yet remains concealed. Had the first stages
of every science been the most favorable to our
cause, and had its further improvements dimin
ished what we had gained, we might indeed be
alarmed about any ulterior prosecution of learning.
But seeing that the order of things is precisely the
reverse, that the beginnings of sciences are least
propitious to our desires, and their progress most
satisfactory, we cannot but be convinced that
future discoveries, far from weakening, must nec
essarily strengthen the evidences we possess.

And thus we come to form a noble and sublime
idea of religion, to consider it as the great, fixed
point round which the moral world revolves,
while itself remains unchanged ; or rather as the
emblem of Him who gave it, the all-embracing
medium in which every other thing moves, in
creases, and lessens, is born and destroyed, with
out communicating to it essential mutation, but,
at most, transiently altering its outward manifes
tation. We come to consider it as the last refuge
of thought, the binding link between the visible
and invisible, the revealed and the discoverable,
VOL 11. — 1 8

274: LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

the resolution of all anomalies, the determination
of all problems in outward nature and in the in
ward soul ; the fixing and steadying element of
every science, the blank and object of every medi
tation. It appears to us even as the olive, the em
blem of peace, is described by Sophocles — a plant
not set by human hands, but of spontaneous and
necessary growth in the great order of creative
wisdom, fearful to its enemies, and so firmly,
grounded, as that none, in ancient or later times,
hath been able to uproot it.

Scuav

TO /J.EV Ti$ ovre veo$ ovre
dhiuoei %ept

After what I have said, it may appear superflu
ous to conclude that the Christian religion can have
no interest in repressing the cultivation of science
and literature, nor any reason to dread their general
diffusion, so long as this is accompanied by due
attention to sound moral principles and correctness
of faith. For if the experience of the past has
given us a security that the progress of science
uniformly tends to increase the sum of our proofs,
and to give fresh lustre to such as we already pos
sess, in favor of Christianity, it surely becomes
her interest and her duty to encourage that constant
and salutary advance. Yet, from the beginning
of the Church there have been found men who

* (Edip. Col. 694,

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 275

professed a contrary opinion, and they may be
divided into two classes, according to the motives
which have instigated their opposition to human
learning.

The first consists of those well-meaning Chris
tians, who, in all ages, have fancied that science
and literature are incompatible with application
to more sacred duties, or that they draw the mind
from the contemplation of heavenly things, and
are an alloy to that constant holiness of thought
which a Christian should ever strive to possess ;
or else that such pursuits are clearly condemned
in Scripture, wherever the wisdom of this world
is reproved. This class of timid Christians first
directed their opposition to that philosophy wrhich
so many fathers, especially of the Alexandrian
school, endeavored to join and reconcile with
Christian theology. They were, however, strenu
ously attacked and confuted by Clement of Alex
andria, who devoted several chapters of his learned
Stromata to the vindication of his favourite stud
ies. He observes very justly, that " varied and
abundant learning recommends him who proposes
the great dogmas of faith to the credit of his hear
ers, inspiring his disciples with admiration, and
drawing them towards the truth ;"* wrhich is in
like manner the opinion, of Cicero when he says,
" magna est enim vis ad persuadendum scientise."t
Clement then illustrates his arguments by many

* " Stromata," lib. i, cap. 2, torn. i. p. 327, ed. Potter,
f " Topica," Oper. torn. i. p. 173, ed. Loud. 1681.

276 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

quotations from the Holy Scriptures, and from
profane authors. I will read you one remarkable
passage.

" Some persons having a high opinion of their
good dispositions, will not apply to philosophy or
dialectics, nor even to natural philosophy, but
wish to possess faith alone and unadorned, as
reasonably as though they expected to gather
grapes from a vine which they have left unculti
vated. Our Lord is called, allegorically, a vine,
from which we gather fruit, by a careful cultiva
tion, according to the eternal Word. We must
prune, and dig, and bind, and perform all other
necessary labor. And, as in agriculture and in
medicine, he is considered the best educated who
has applied to the greatest variety of sciences,
useful for tilling or for curing, so must we con
sider him most properly educated who makes all
things bear upon the truth .; who, from geometry,
and music, and grammar, and philosophy itself,
gathers whatever is useful for the defence of the
faith. But the champion who has not trained him
self well, will surely be despised."*

These words, I must own, afford me no small
encouragement. For if, instead of geometry and
music, we say geology, and ethnography, and his
tory, we may consider ourselves as having, in this
passage, a formal confirmation of the views which
we have taken in these Lectures, and an appro-

* Ibid. c. ix. p. 342.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

277

bation of the principles on which they have been
conducted.

As this opposition continued in the Church, so
was it met by zealous and eloquent pastors, as
most prejudicial to the cause of truth. St. Basil
the Great seems particularly to have been thought
a most strenuous defender of profane learning, in
his age. He himself earnestly recommends the
study of elegant literature, at that age when, ac
cording to him, the mind is too weak to bear the
more solid food of God's inspired word. He ex
pressly says that, by the perusal of such writers as
Homer, the youthful mind is trained to virtuous
feelings; at the same time, however, that care
must be taken to withhold all that can corrupt
the innocence of the heart.*

St. Gregory of Nyssa speaks of him with great
praise, because he practically brought these prin
ciples to bear upon religion, and illustrated them
by his great learning. "Many," he writes, "pre
sent profane learning as a gift to the Church ;
among whom was the great Basil, who, having
in his youth seized on the spoil of Egypt, and
consecrated it to God, adorned with its wealth
the tabernacle of the Church. "f

But the illustrious friend of St. Basil has
entered more at length into the merits of this
question. St. Gregory Nazianzen has been his

* " Basilii Opera," torn. i. horn. 24.

f " De Vita Mosis." " S. Gregorii Nysaeni Opera," Paria,
1638, torn. i. p. 209.

278 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

school-fellow at Athens ; where both, animated by
the same religious spirit, had devoted themselves
with signal success to the prosecution of study,
considering truth, according to the expression of
St. Augustine, " wherever found, to be the prop
erty of Christ's Church." Indeed, so well did
their schoolmate, Julian, understand the value
which they and other holy men of their time at
tached to human learning, and the powerful use
which they made of it to overthrow idolatry and
error, that, upon his apostacy, he issued a decree,
whereby Christians were debarred from attending
public schools, and acquiring science.* And this
was considered by them a grievous persecution.
One passage, from St. Gregory's funeral oration
over his friend, will be sufficient to satisfy you
concerning his opinion :

" I think that all men of sound mind must
agree that learning is to be reckoned the highest
of earthly goods. I speak not merely of that
noble learning which is ours, and which, despising
all outward grace, applies exclusively to the work
of salvation, and the beauty of intellectual ideas,
but also of that learning which is from without,
which some ill-judging Christians reject as wily
and dangerous, and as turning the mind from
God." After observing that the abuse of such
learning by the heathens is no reason for its rejec
tion, any more than their blasphemous substitution

* " Socrates Hist. Eccles." lib. i, cap. 12.

LECTUKK THE TWELFTH. 279

of the material elements for God can debar us from
their legitimate us*, he thus proceeds : " There
fore must not erudition be reproved, because some
men choose to think so ; on the contrary, they are
to be considered foolish and ignorant who so reason,
who would wish all men to be like themselves,
that they may be concealed in the crowd, £nd no
one be able to detect their want of educa
tion."*

The terms here used are indeed severe ; but
they serve to show, in the strongest manner, the
sentiments of this holy and learned man, on the
utility of human science and literature. Turning
to the great lights of the Western Church, we
find no less severity of reproof used in dealing
with those that oppose profane learning. St.
Jerome, for instance, speaks even harshly of those
who, as he says, " mistake ignorance for sanctity,
and boast that they are the disciples of poor fisher
men.'^ On another occasion he illustrates the
Scripture from many topics of heathen philosophy,
arid then concludes in these words : — " II sec au-
tem de Scriptura pauca posuimus, ut congruere
nostra cum philosophis doceremus." — " We have
alleged these few things from Scripture, so to show

* S. Gregor. Nazianzeni, " Funebris oratio in laudem
Basilii Magni," Oper. Par. 1609, torn. i. p. 323.

f " Responsum habeant non adeo me hobetis fuisse cor-
dis, et tarn crassae rusticitatis, quam illi solam pro sanctitate
liabent, piscatorum se discipulos asserentes, quasi idcirco
pancti sint, si nihil scirent." — Ep. xv. ad Marcellum, Oper.
torn. ii. partii. p 62, ed, Martianay.

280 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

that our doctrines agree with those of the phil
osophers."* Which words clearly intimate that
he considered it an interesting study, and not un
worthy of a good Christian, to trace the connec
tions between revealed truths and human learning,
and to see if the twro could be brought into har
mony together.

His learned friend, St. Augustine, was clearly
of the same mind. For, speaking of the qualities
requisite for a well-furnished theologian, he enu
merates mundane learning among them, as of
great importance. Thus he writes : — " If they
who are called philosophers have said any true
things, which are comformable to our faith, so far
from dreading them, we must take them for our
use, as a possession which they unjustly hold."
He then observes that those truths which lie
scattered in their writings, are as pure metal
amidst the ore of a vein, "which the Christian
should take from them, for the rightful purpose
of preaching the Gospel. "f " Have so many of
the best faithful among us," he continues, " acted
otherwise? With what a weight of gold, and
silver, and precious garments, have we not be
held Cyprian, that sweetest Doctor and most
blessed martyr, laden as he went forth from
Egypt ? How much did Lactantius, Yictorinus,

* " Adv. Jovinianum," lib. ii. ib. p. 200.
f " Debet ab eis auferre Christianus, ad usum justum
prsedicandi evangelium."

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 281

Optatus, Hilary, bear away? How much innu
merable Greeks?"*

It is not difficult to reconcile with such pas
sages as these, thoso many places where the
Fathers, seem to reprobate human learning ; as
where St. Augustine himself, in one of his letters,
speaking of the education he was giving to Pos-
sidius, says that the studies usually called liberal
deserve not that name, at that time honorable,
which properly belongs to pursuits grounded on
the true liberty which Christ purchased for us ;
or where St. Ambrose, to quote one passage out
of many, tells Demetrius that u they who know
by what labor they were saved, and at what cost
redeemed, wish not to be of the wise in this
world. "f For it is plain that they speak, on
those occasions, of the foolish, vain, and self-
sufficient learning of arrogant sophists and wily
rhetoricians, and of that science which, void of
the salt of grace and of a religious spirit, is in
sipid, vapid, and nothing worth. And how can
we, for a moment, think otherwise, when we
peruse their glorious works, and contemplate the
treasure of ancient learning therein hoarded, arid
trace in every paragraph their deep acquaintance
with heathen philosophy, and in every sentence
their familiarity with the purest models of style ?

* " De Doctrina Christiana," lib. ii. cap. 40, Opera, torn. iii.
part i. p. 42, ed. Maur.

f " Epistolar." lib. iv. Epist. xxxiii. Oper. torn. v. p. 204,
ed. Par. 1632.

282 LECTUKE Tin-; TWT:T.ETII

Who can doubt, or who will dare to regret, that
Tertullian and Justin, Arnobius and Origen, were
furnished with all the weapons which pagan learn
ing could supply, towards combating on behalf of
truth? Who can wish that St. Basil and St.
Jerome, St. Gregory and St. Augustine, had been
less versed than they were in all the elegant
literature of the ancients ? Nay, even in the very
letter to which I have alluded, St. Augustine, if I
remember right, speaks without regret, and even
with satisfaction, of the books on music which his
friend had expressed a wish to possess.

The sentiments of the early Church have un
dergone no change from time, on this, any more
than on other points. Mabillon has proved, be
yond dispute, that even among men of monastic
life, learning was encouraged and promoted from
the beginning.* Bacon writes with great com
mendation of the zeal for learning which has been
always shown in the Catholic Church. God, he
whites, " sent out his divine truth into the world,
accompanied with other parts of learning, as her
attendants and handmaids. We find that many
of the ancient bishops and fathers of the Church
were well versed in the learning of the heathens,
insomuch, that the edict of the Emperor Julian,
forbidding the Christians the schools and exer-

O

cises, was accounted a more pernicious engine

*" Traite des Etudes monastiques," part. i. cap. TV, p.
112. Parr. 1691.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 283

against the faith, than the sanguinary persecu
tions of his predecessors. It was the Christian
Church, which among the inundations of the Scyth
ians from the north-west, and the Saracens from
the east, preserved in her bosom the relics of even
profane learning, which had otherwise been ut
terly extinguished. And of late years the Jesuits
have greatly enlivened and strengthened the state
of learning, and contributed to establish the Ro
man see."

" There are, therefore," he concludes, il two
principal services, besides ornament and illustra
tion, which philosophy and human learning per
form to religion ; the one consists in effectually
exciting to the exaltation of God's glory, the other
affording a singular preservation against unbelief
and error."*

Between the two extremes which Bacon has
named, the ancient Fathers and the Society of
Jesus, there is a long interval, during which, in
spite of ordinary prejudice, we must not allow
ourselves to imagine that the fostering spirit of
the Church was not exerted in favor of profane
learning. " I would observe," writes a learned and
amiable author, " that to a Catholic, not only the
philosophical, but also the literary history of the
world is prodigiously enlarged ; objects change
their relative position, and many are brought into
resplendent light, which before were consigned to

* " De augmentis Scientianim." — Baron's Works, Lond.
1818, vol. vi. p. Ixiii.

284 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

obscurity. While the moderns continue, age after
age, to hear only of the Caesars and the philoso
phers, and to exercise their ingenuity in tracing
parallel characters among their contemporaries,
the Catholic discovers that there lies, between the
heathen civilizatiojn and the present, an entire
world, illustrious with every kind of intellectual
and moral greatness ; the names which are on his
tongue are no longer Cicero and Horace, but St.
Augustine, St. Bernard, Alcuin, St. Thomas, St.
Anselm ; the places associated in his mind with
the peace and dignity of learning are no longer
the Lycseum or the Academy, but Citeaux, Cluny,
Crowland, or the Oxford of the middle ages."'54'

I will only refer you to his rich and glowing
page for sufficient proof that classical and philo
sophical pursuits were zealously and ably followed
in the solitude of the cloister, by —

" The thoughtful monks, intent their God to please,
For Christ's dear sake, by human sympathies
Pour'd from the bosom of the Church."f

But I cannot withhold from you the opinion of
one who was a bright ornament of those calum
niated ages. Among the exquisite sermons of
St. Bernard on the Canticles, is one on this very
theme ; " that the knowledge of human learning
is good ; " in which the eloquent Father thus

* " Mores Catholic!, or Ages of Faith," book iii. Lond.
1833. p. 277.

f " Yarrow revisited," 2nd ed. p. 254.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 285

expresses himself. " I may, perhaps, appear to
depreciate learning too much, and almost to re
prove the learned, and forbid the study of letters.
God forbid ! I am not ignorant how much learned
men have benefited, and now benefit the Church,
whether by confuting those who are opposed to
her, or by instructing the ignorant. And I have
read, * because thou hast rejected knowledge, I
will reject thee ; that thou shalt not do the office
of the priesthood to me.' "*

Such then have been the feeling and conduct of
the Catholic Church regarding the application of
profane learning to the defence and illustration
of truth : and perhaps the best answer which can
be given to such inconsiderate Christians as say
that religion needs not such foreign and mere
tricious aids, is that of Dr. South : " If God hath
no need of our learning, he can have still less of
your ignorance."

The second class of writers who assert that re
ligion is not interested in the progress of learning
is actuated by very different motives. For it com
prises those enemies of revelation against whom
these Lectures have been principally directed, and
who pretend that the onward course of science
tends to overthrow, or weaken, the evidences of
revealed religion. I have had so many opportu
nities of practically confuting these men, that I
shall not stay to expose any further the folly of

* " Serm. xxxvi. super Cantica," Opera, p. 608, Basil, 15GO.

286 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

their assertions. I will only observe, that this
ungrounded reproach was not made for the first
time by the modern adversaries of Christianity,
but is in fact the oldest charge brought against it.
For Celsus, one of the most ancient impugners of
its truth, whose objections are on record, especially
taunted us with this hostility to science, from a
fear of its weakening oar cause. But he met with
an able and victorious opponent in the learned
Origen, who triumphantly rebuts the calumny, and
draws from it a conclusion which I cannot refrain
from quoting: "If the Christian religion shall be
found to invite and encourage men to learning,
then must they deserve severe reprehension who
seek to excuse their own ignorance, by so speak
ing as to draw others away from application."*
This remark, while it shows the security felt by
Origen, that Christianity could not suffer by the
encouragement of learning, is also a just rebuke
to that timid class of friends who are alarmed at
its progress.

More than once I have had opportunities of
vindicating Italy, and Home especially, from silly
calumnies in this regard. I have proved that this
city has been the foremost in encouraging and aid
ing science and literature, the tendency of which
was to probe the foundations of religion to their
very centre, without jealousy and without alarm.

* " Contra Celsum," lib. iii. Opera, torn. i. p. 476, ed. De
la Rue.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 287

There is no country, perhaps, where the higher
departments of education are so unreservedly
thrown open to every rank, where the physical
sciences are more freely pursued, and where Orien
tal and critical literature have been more fostered
than here. This city possesses three establish
ments in the form of a University, in which all the
branches of literature and science are simultane
ously cultivated under able professors ; and there
is a chair in the great University of a character
perfectly unique, wherein the discoveries of modern
physics are applied to the vindication of Scrip
ture.* In my own case, I should be unjust to
overlook this opportunity of saying, that on every
occasion, but principally in reference to the sub
ject of these Lectures, I have received the most
condescending encouragement from those whose
approbation every Catholic will consider his best
reward on earth.f

* The chair of " Fisica sagra."

f I feel a pleasure in relating the following anecdote : —
A few years ago, I prefixed to a thesis held by a member of
my establishment, a Latin dissertation of ten or twelve pages,
upon the necessity of uniting general and scientific know
ledge to theological pursuits. I took a rapid view of the dif
ferent branches of learning discussed in these Lectures. The
essay was soon translated into Italian, and printed in a Sicil
ian journal ; and I believe appeared also at Milan. What
was most gratifying, however, to my own feelings, and may
serve as a confirmation of the assertions in the text, is, that
when two days after I waited upon the late Pope, Pius VIII.,
a man truly well versed in sacred and profane literature, to
present him, according to form, with a copy of the thesis pre-

288 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

But from all that I have hitherto said, and I
hope proved, we may surely draw some practical
conclusions. And first I beg to turn myself, with
all becoming deference, to those who share the
duties and the dangers of my own calling; and
without presuming so far as to instruct or even to
advise them, as a friend and brother, entreat them
to lose no opportunity of giving the lie, by their
deeds, to the persevering reproach of religious
enemies. It is not by abstract reasoning that we
shall convince mankind of our not dreading the
progress of learning ; it is by meeting it fairly, or
rather accompanying it in its onward march, treat
ing it ever as an ally and a friend, and exhibiting
it as enlisted on our side, that we can reasonably
hope to satisfy them that truth is God's alone, and
that his servants and their cause may fear it not.
The reason why infidelity proved so mischievous
in France during the last century, was, that its
emissaries presented it to the acceptance of the
people, tricked out with all the tinsel ornaments
of a mock science ; because they dealt in illustra
tion and in specious proofs drawn from every
branch of literature ; because they sweetened the
edge of the poisoned cup with all the charms of

pared for him, I found him with it on his table ; and in the
kindest terms, he informed me, that having heard of my
little essay, he had instantly sent for it ; and added, in terms
allusive to the figure quoted above from the ancient Fathers,
" You have robbed Egypt of its spoil, and shown that it be
longs to the people of God."

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 289

an elegant style and lively composition ; while un
fortunately they who undertook to confute them,
with the exception of Guenee, and perhaps a few
others, dealt in abstract reasoning, and mere didac
tic demonstration.* And is it too much to de
mand that equal pains be taken by us to deck out
religion with those charms that are her own ves
ture, given unto her by God, which her enemy has
impiously usurped?

The shifting forms which infidelity takes,
the Proteus-like facility with which its shape
and motions vary, should keep us in a state of un
wearied activity, to face it in all its changes, with a
suitable resistance, and so be able to quell it in
all its fantastic apparitions. " The versatility
of error," says an eloquent writer of our times,
" demands a correspondent variety in the means of
defending truth : and from whom have the public
more right to expect its defence, in opposition to
the encroachments of error and infidelity, than
from those who profess to devote their studies
and their lives to the advancement of virtue and

* As an instance of this defect, in one who has taken a
higher ground than I have thought necessary, and tried to
carry the war into the enemy's country, I might mention a
work, published at Naples towards the end of the last cen
tury, " L'irreligiosa liberta di pensare nemica del progresso
delle scienze." It is a large quarto, but from the first page
to the last, does not contain a single illustrative fact to prove
that infidelity has been hostile to the progress of science.
It is a work of dry reasoning, with a good deal of declama
tion

290 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

religion ? . . .As the Christian ministry is estab
lished for the instruction of men, throughout
every age, in truth and holiness, it must adapt it
self to the ever-shifting scenes of the moral world,
and stand ready to repel the attacks of impiety and
error, under whatever form they may appear."*

But these sentiments, spoken of the instructors
of any religion, have been uttered more than a
thousand years ago, concerning our ministry, by
the glorious Chrysostom, in the golden book which
he wrote for those of our profession. For thus he
speaks upon this very point : — " Wherefore we
must take all pains that the doctrine of Christ
dwell abundantly within us. For the preparations
of the enemy's battle are not of one form ; for the
war is in itself various, and waged by divers foes.
All use not the same arms, nor conduct their as
sault on the same plan. He, therefore, who under
takes to fight them all, must understand the arts
of each. He must be at once an archer and a
slinger, subaltern and commander, soldier on horse
back or on foot, equally able to fight in tlie ship
and on the bulwark. For in ordinary warfare,
each one opposes his adversary after that manner
whereunto he hath been trained; but in this con
flict it is far otherwise ; since, should he who must
gain the victory be not intimately acquainted with

* " Modern Infidelity considered with respect to its Influ
ence on Society," in a sermon by R. Hall, M.A. Lond. 1822,
pp. iv. & 11.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 291

every separate art, the devil well knows how to
take advantage of some unguarded point, and in
troduce his despoil ers to seize and tear the flock.
This is not the case where he knows the shepherd
to be provided with every acquirement, and aware
of his deceits. It behoveth us, therefore, to be
prepared on every side."*

To this encouraging testimony of the cor
rectness of the views which I have taken, I can
add that of an illustrious Father of the Latin
Church. For St. Jerome, commenting on Ec-
cles. ii. 8, " I heaped together for myself silver
and gold and the wealth of kings," thus expresses
himself: — "By the wealth of kings we may
understand the doctrines of the philosophers and
profane sciences, which the ecclesiastic understand
ing, by his diligence, he is able to catch the wise
in their own toils."f

It is, you will say, a toilsome task to acquire
the necessary preparation for this varied warfare ;
but such, no less, is the qualification for every
other noble office of society —

" Pater ipse colendi

Haud facilem esse viam voluit."t

Shall the Roman orator declare that no one need

* " De Sacerdote," lib. iv. § iv. p. 177. Cantab. 1710.

f " Possunt regum substantise et philosophoruni dici dog
mata et scientiae saecularea, quas ecclesiasticus vir diligen-
ter intelligens, appreliendit sapientes in astutia eorum." —
Comment, in Eccles. torn. ii. p. 726

$ Virgil Qeorg.i. 121.

292 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

hope to attain the perfection of his profession,
"unless he shall have acquired the knowledge
of all the sciences ; "* and this to cajole a mul
titude, and perhaps even to turn the course of
justice ;f and shall we be deterred from a similar
application, sweet in itself and full of fruit, by
an idea of labor and of difficulty ; when our object
is the noblest and the holiest which earth can
propose : when the sciences themselves, daughters
as they are of the uncreated wisdom, will receive
consecration, and be made the priestesses of the
Most High, by the very errand whereon we lead
them? That time will be consumed in the
preparation necessary for this method of meeting
error and illustrating truth cannot be denied ;
but how, I may confidently ask, could time be
better spent ? Surely not on the flitting topics
which occupy for a day the public mind; not
on the flimsy literature which issues in an un
failing stream from our national press ; not upon
the insipid gratifications which general society
can offer. " Break," I would say with the poet,
"through the trammels of such chilling cares,
and follow the guidance of heavenly wisdom, that

" Ac mea quidem sententia, nemo poterit ease omni
laude cumulatus orator, nisi erit omnium rerum magnarum
atque artium scientiam consequutus." — De Orat. lib. i. p. 89,
ed. cit.

f " Discitur innocuas ut agat facundia causas ;
Protegit haec sontes, inmeritosque premit."

Trist. ii. 273.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 293

we may be an honor to our country, and possess
a fund of happiness within ourselves."

" Quod si

Frigida curarum fomenta relinquere posses,
Quo te coelestis sapientia duceret, ires.
Hoco pus, hoc studium parvi properemus et ampli,
Si patriae volumus, si nobis vivere cari."*

Yes ; parvi properemus et ampli • let all, great
and little, forward this noble work. It is in
every one's power so to order his literary oc
cupation as to render it subservient to his reli
gious improvement, to the strengthening of his
own solemn convictions ; even though he be not
blessed with talents sufficient to add unto the
sum of general evidence, for the public benefit.
For if few are destined by Divine Providence
to be as burning lights in his Church, not to be
hidden under the bushel, yet hath each one a
virginal lamp to trim, a sm ill but precious light
to keep burning within his soul, by feeding it
ever with fresh oil, that it may guide him through
his rugged path, and be not found dim and clog
ged when the bridegroom shall come.

And yet I know not why any one who pos
sesses but ordinary abilities may not hope, by per
severing diligence, somewhat to enlarge the evi
dences of truth. There are humble departments
in this as in every other art ; there are calm, re
tired walks, which lead not beyond the precincts
of domestic privacy, over which the timid may

* Horace, " Epist." 1. i. ep. iii. 25.

294: LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

lyander, and, without exposure to the public gaze,
gather sweet and lowly herbs, that shall be as fra
grant on the altar of God as the costly perfume
which Bezaleel and Oholiab compounded with so
much art.* The painted shell which the child
picks up on the hill-side may well be sometimes
as good evidence of a great catastrophe as the huge
bones of sea-monsters, which the naturalist digs
out of the limestone rock ; a little medal may at
test the destruction of an empire, as certainly as
the obelisk or triumphal arch. " While others,"
says St. Jerome, " contribute their gold and their
silver to the service of the tabernacle, why should
not I contribute my humble offerings, at least, of
hair and skins ? "f To this beautiful iigure, which
each one may utter in his own name, I will only
add, that while the gold and silver are for the orna
ment of God's house, those humbler gifts — the
skins and haircloth — are for its shelter and pro
tection.

You all, I doubt not, have often admired those
exquisite paintings on the ceilings of the Borgia
apartments in the Vatican, wherein the sciences
are represented as holding their separate courts ;
each enthroned upon a stately chair, with features
and mien of the most noble and dignified beauty,
surrounded by the emblems and most distinguished
representatives of its power on earth, and seem
ing to claim homage from all that gaze upon it.

* Exod. xxx. 35 ; xxxi. 11.

f " Prologus Galeatus," prefixed to the Vulgate.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 2J5

And judge what would have been the painter's
conception, and to what a sublimity of expression
he would have risen, had it been his task to repre
sent that noblest of all sciences, our divine religion,
enthroned as ever becomes her, to receive the fealty
and worship of those her handmaids. For if, as
hath been proved, they are but ministers unto her
superior rule, and are intended to furnish the evi
dences of her authority, how much above theirs
must be the comeliness and grace, and majesty and
holiness, with which she must be arrayed 1 And
what honor and dignity must be conferred on
him who feels himself deputed to bear the tribute
of any of these fair vassals ; and how must his ad
miration of their queen be enhanced, by finding
himself thus brought so near unto her presence !

But whosoever shall try to cultivate a wider
field, and follow from day to day, as humbly we
have striven here to do, the constant progress of
every science careful ever to note the influence
which it exercises on his more sacred knowledge,
shall have therein such pure joy, and such growing
comfort, as the disappointing eagerness of mere
human learning may not supply. Such a one I
know not unto whom to liken, save to one who
unites an enthusiastic love of nature's charms, to a
sufficient acquaintance with her laws, and spends
his days in a garden of the choicest bloom. And
here he seeth one gorgeous flower, that has un
clasped all its beauty to the glorious sun ; and
there another is just about to disclose its modester

296 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

blossom, not yet fully unfolded ; and beside them,
there is one only in the hand-stem, giving but
slender promise of much display ; and yet he
waiteth patiently, well knowing that the law is
fixed whereby it too shall pay, in due season, its
tribute to the light and heat that feed it. Even
so, the other doth likewise behold one science after
the other, when its appointed hour is come, and
its ripening influences have prevailed, unclose some
form which shall add to the varied harmony of
universal truth, which shall recompense, to the
full, the genial power that hath given it life, and,
however barren it may have seemed at first, produce
something that may adorn the temple and altar of
God's worship.

And if he carefully register his own convictions,
and add them to the collections already formed, of
various converging proofs, he assuredly will have
accomplished the noblest end for which man may
live and acquire learning,— his own improvement,
and the benefit of his kind. For, as an old and
wise poet has written, after a wiser saint —

" The chief use then in man of that he knowes,
In his paines-taking for the good of all,
Not fleshly weeping for our own made woes
Not laughing from a melancholy gall,
Not hating from a soul that overflowes
With bitterness breathed out from inward thrall ;
But sweetly rather to ease, loose, or binde,
AB need requires, this fraile fallen human kinde.

" Yet some seeke knowledge, meerely to be knowne,
And idle curiosity that is ;

LECTURE THE TWELFfH. 297

(Some but to sell, not freely to bestow,

These gaine and spend both time and wealth amisse,

Embasing arts, by basely deeming so ;

Some to build others, which is charitie ;

But these to build themselves who wise men be."*

When learning shall once have been conse
crated by such high motives, it will soon be hal-
Iqwed by purer feelings, and assume a calmer and
more virtuous character than human knowledge
can ever possess. An enthusiastic love of truth
will be engendered in the soul, which will extin
guish every meaner and more earthly feeling in
its pursuit. "We shall never look with a partisan's
eye upon the cause, nor estimate it by personal
motives, but, following the advice of the excellent
Schlegel, we shall " eschew all sorts of useless con
tention, and uncharitable hate, and strive to keep
alive a spirit of love and unity ."f We shall con
sider the cause as too sacred to be conducted under
the influence, or with the aid, of human passions.
In the words of the poet, it will seem to address

* Lord Brooke : " Treatise on Humane Learning." These
lines are but a paraphrase of the following beautiful passage
of St. Bernard : " Sunt namque qui scire volunt eo tantum
fine ut sciant, et turpis curiositas est. Et sunt qui scire vol
unt, ut sciantur ipsi, et turpis vanitas est. Et sunt item
qui scire volunt, ut scientiam suam vendant, verbi causa pro
pecunia, pro honoribus, et turpis qusestus est. Sed eunt
quoque qui scire volunt ut sedificent, et charitas est. Et
item qui scire volunt ut aBdificentur, et prudentia eat." —
Sermo xxxvi. super Cant. p. 608.

f " Philosophische Vorlesungen," p. 265.

298 LECTURE THE TWELFTH.

us ; inciting us indeed to seek victory, but only in
the power of God :

Botvlou Kparetv /aev, %vv 0e£ d' aec Kpareiv. *

But these motives will have a still stronger
power ; they will insure us success. For if once
a pure love and unmixed admiration of religion
animate our efforts, we shall find ourselves inflamed
with a chivalrous devotion to her service, which
will make us indefatigable and unconquerable,
when armed in her defence. Our quest may be
long and perilous, there may come in our way
enchantments and sorceries, giants and monsters,
allurements and resistance ; but onward we shall
advance, in the confidence of our cause's strength ;
we shall dispel every phantasm, and fairly meet
every substantial foe, and the crown will infallibly
be ours. In other words, we shall submit with
patience all the irksomeness which such detailed
examination may cause: when any objection is
brought, instead of contenting ourselves with
vague replies, we shall at once examine the very
department of learning, sacred or profane, whence
it hath been drawn ; we shall sit down calmly, and
address ourselves meekly to the toilsome work;
we shall endeavor to unravel all its intricacies,
and diligently to untie every knot ; and I promise
you, that however hopeless your task may have
appeared at first, the result of your exertions will

* Sophocles, " Ajax," 764.

LECTURE THE TWELFTH. 299

be surely recorded in the short expressive legend,
preserved on an ancient gem, which I trust I may
consider as the summary and epilogue of these my
Lectures :

" RELIGIO, VICISTI."

RELIGION, THOU HAST CONQUERED.

THE END.

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The connection between .A3
ooionoo cna rovoalod •- v'°l-.12-

T.TLE

vCis eman , N . P

-he cornection between vol..
science and revealed religion