it has rested principally on the assertion of Jerome who is really no authority on such a subject, and who has told us that his knowledge of Hebrew was acquired from the instructions of four Jews at different times, and who probably heard the story from one or other of his Jewish teachers. In more recent times Brian Walton is the first authority, and all his followers have taken the same line of argument, which rests principally upon the fact that sheckels have been found, bearing Samaritan characters, of far greater antiquity than any which bear the square characters. This is true; but it is now proved that all the sheckels which have square characters are modern counterfeits, and that none of the other sheckels are older than the time of the Maccabees, and therefore become an argument against instead of one in favour of the opinion.

The science of numismatics has made very great advances in our age, and in nothing has its value been more remarkably shown than in the light which has been cast thereby upon history, by rejecting spurious coins and by connecting such as are genuine with those events or personages to which they really appertain. The best numismatists are unanimous in asserting that there was no coined money in use among the Jews before they were led into captivity-far less before the separation of the ten tribes-and on the supposed existence of which the argument for the ancient use of the Samaritan letters wholly rests; and they are as unanimous in asserting that the most ancient sheckels in existence are of the age of the Maccabees-a fact proved by their all being of one style of execution, and many of them bearing the initials of Simon and the year in which they were struck: so that these prove that the Samaritan letters were those that were in use among the Jews after their return from the captivity in Babylon; and the contemporaneous existence of the two forms of letters-the square being restricted to the Bible and its commentaries-that is, restricted to sacred purposes-and the other, or Samaritan letters, being used on the coins and for all secular purposes-is only in analogy with the present practice of the Jews, who restrict the pure Hebrew to the Scripture, and use the Rabbinical letters for all ordinary occasions: and, as we know that the same distinction into sacred and profane characters prevailed in the Syriac, and Cufic, and Amharic alphabets, and is found in the sacred and demotic forms of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, it is probable that it may have been observed from a very early period among the Israelites; and thus, as the ten tribes had no priests among them when they separated from Judah, they could only carry with them that form of letters which they used

for secular purposes, and copied the Pentateuch into that which was the only form they themselves understood.

We, therefore, regard the supposition of a change in the Hebrew letters, not merely as improbable and destitute of proof, but regard all the arguments that have been adduced as tending to an opposite conclusion, and as fortifying the position which we were induced to take by the internal evidence of the language itself—namely, that Hebrew is the primitive language, and that the square letters constitute the primitive characters in which the Hebrew language was originally written; and we not only agree with those who maintain that man did not teach himself to speak, being endowed with the faculty of speech at creation, but we also agree with those who hold that alphabetic writing was not of human invention, but came by revelation from God. The giving of the law from Mount Sinai—the tables being expressly declared to be written with the finger of Godteaches us that writing was an endowment not unworthy of the divine interposition; though we think it probable that the first communication of the art of writing to man long preceded the time of Moses, and may even have been made to the antediluvians, for its origin is lost in its unfathomable antiquity.

But this much we are assured of, that, setting aside all speculation and making the known alphabets of mankind the basis of our investigations, there is not one among them which cannot be traced back historically to the Hebrew, or to a people who had themselves acquired their knowledge of letters from the Hebrew. There is no known instance of any nation having invented letters for themselves: there is not even an instance of the conversion of hieroglyphics into letters. The Chinese to the present day use their old hieroglyphics written in a more compendious form; and the Egyptians did little more than the Chinese have done, save that they restricted themselves to a few of those hieroglyphical forms which had before been unlimited and innumerable. It was by becoming acquainted with the advantages of alphabetic writing that the Egyptians reduced their cumbrous system to that limited number and more compendious form of hieroglyphics which we find in the papyri; but it is still merely hieroglyphical, and just because it is so it has opened up to us the contents of the hieroglyphical inscriptions; and because all are hieroglyphical, and not alphabetic, they have by their meagreness disappointed, and will continue to disappoint, the expectations of the public.

If it was worthy of God to give a revelation of his will at all, then it is also worthy of God that he should give to man the means by which that revelation might be transmitted unim

paired from generation to generation. The word spoken dies away in the utterance the memory of that word and the power to make it known to others perishes with the individuals to whom it was first spoken; but, in the wonderful art of writing, the transient breath of man is seized hold of and stamped with the features of eternity. "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you."

When we examine the earliest of the heathen fragmentssuch as those attributed to Hermes, Sanchoniatho, and Berosuswe find indisputable evidence of their Hebrew derivation and origin. This appears not only in the general tenor and particular facts of these traditions, and in the absurdities and contradictions of the heathen cosmogonies becoming capable of reconciliation with each other by the help of the scriptural record-it appears also in the introduction of Hebrew names, which conveyed no meaning in Greek, but much in the original Hebrew. The creative wind is called "Colpias" by Sanchoniatho, which is "Col Pi," the voice of the mouth or the creative word. The dark and formless void is called "Baau," or "Bohu," in the Hebrew. The sun is called "Beelsamin," or "Baal Shamaim," the Lord of the heavens. So also "Misor," ruler; "Sydic," just; "Ilus" and "Eloeim," God; "Elioun," the Eternal; and many similar names, which are sometimes interpreted, sometimes not so; and which make it manifest that the tradition had none other than a Hebrew origin, however much it may have been corrupted by the heathen.

It is

Many of these traditions are noticed by Mr. Smith, and are turned to a good account in better establishing the truth. Indeed, he has told his readers, at the beginning of the volume, that it was the want experienced in his own case, at the commencement of his investigation of ancient history, that prompted the present undertaking. This is only the first volume of a work which it is expected may be completed in two other volumes of the same size, and thus carry down the chronology of the Bible to the commencement of the Christian era. a work, therefore, which has about it the satisfactory character of being really called for, and carries with it the impression of real substantial earnestness, in which there is no room for speculation. This earnest tone is sustained throughout from its being begun in faith, and with the determination to make the Scriptures, as the word of God, the standard and the test of truth; and, from the natural consequence of this faith, "that it has been throughout an integral part of the author's design

to impart to the work a decidedly religious character." His piety, however, has not cramped his investigations or narrowed his judgment; but, confident in the truth of Scripture, he has not hesitated to carry its torch into the dark labyrinths of the heathen, knowing that the divine light would not only suffice to guide him safely through, but might also enable him to bring back from those deep recesses some precious treasure as a votive offering to the shrine of faith, which, as it is one, so also has it been perennial, and must be indestructible: and we beg to assure the author that, if we have seemed to differ from him or to question some of his conclusions, the difference between us is more in appearance than in reality; and it has proceeded from the desire to do what in us lay, by suggesting matter for consideration which may be useful in the further prosecution of the work, not in order to cavil at that portion of it which is already before us.

In the further prosecution of the work, however, chronology will become more and more important; for the time of the Exode is of great consequence, both as the accomplishment of the four hundred and thirty years predicted to Abraham, and as fixing the age of Moses and the giving of the law. The time of the Judges is also attended with difficulty, as some of them seem to have ruled one portion of the land, while others judged in other districts at the same time. We expect to follow our author with pleasure in discussing these points in his future volumes.

And to our clerical readers especially we would cordially commend this volume as being a compendium of information on subjects which cannot but come before them frequently at the present day; and as containing extracts of nearly all that is valuable from works which are very voluminous, and, from their rarity, are not brought within the reach of many of our parochial clergy. The author himself has deeply felt the inconvenience of being situated at a distance from public libraries, where alone some of the requisite authorities are generally to be found; and, on the principle of doing to others as he would be done by, he has made his references as full as can be required; and they are given either in the very words of the writers or in approved translations. The table of contents is pretty full, but an index would have been a valuable addition to this volume. We take it for granted that there will be one of the whole work: for where so many authors are quoted, and such various topics are referred to, the readers require frequently to consult former passages in the work, which cannot easily be found without the assistance of an index.

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ART. II.—History of the Reformation in Germany. By LEOPOLD RANKE. Translated by SARAH AUSTIN. Vol. III.

HAVING already laid before the readers of this Review (No. xliv.) a copious account of the former two volumes of this important work, we resume our labours with the third, which forms the second division of the whole scheme, as originally planned by its author. We do not think it necessary to make any apology for again resuming the same subject-the same in name, though widely different in contents-as in no single article could justice be done to five thick octavo volumes. It may also be recollected that we expressed a wish to make this Review a permanent depository of the more generally interesting portions of these volumes, for the benefit of those readers whose avocations or habits place such a work beyond their reach, but who may nevertheless be desirous of knowing the opinions of so profound, learned, and independent a thinker upon one of those events in history in which all mankind are, or will be, interested.

For many years the history of Germany was made up of the struggles between the spiritual and temporal powers, in which the latter ultimately succumbed to the former, which thus became a power of the first-rate order. Just when, however, an alliance of amity was formed between the papacy and the vanquished imperial power, the empire fell into confusion and anarchy at home and lost its respect abroad; till at length, seemingly helpless amidst endless disorders, the nation felt only that such a state of things must somehow pass away.

The history of the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century exhibits the conflicts of the German nation in its efforts to remedy these evils, by creating a power in the empire resting at once on the principles of the Emperor and those of the States. The radical changes which would naturally be proposed in such an attempt, as might be expected from the evil passions of our imperfect nature, threw Germany into universal confusion.

Hence, failing in the reform of secular abuses, the nation seized on the affairs of the Church and the functions of the papacy, which exercised so large a share of power in the empire. And now, Ranke observes :

"The wonderful coincidence was, that just as (papal) abuses had risen to the most intolerable height, the study of the sacred books in their original tongues once more revealed to the world, in all its ra