tion of Chriftianity, and with its Progress to the prefent Time." It is primarily intended by the refpectable author for the use of young perfons of both fexes during education, but will certainly be an excellent manual for many claffes of adult readers; if executed as we have no doubt it will be executed.

The Flora Britannica will be published in the course of next winter, in three volumes, octavo. The defcriptions are made from indigenous fpecimens. The fynonyms fettled by comparifon of original fpecimens, not without confiderable labour.

The materials for the Flora Græca were collected in two journies, by the late Profeffor John Sibthorp, accompanied by an excellent draughtfman, Mr. Baver. The drawings are about one thoufand. Dr. Sibthorp, by his will, ordered them to be published in ten folio volumes, with coloured plates, to be preceded by a Prodromus, in octavo; and left a fund for the purpose, which, after the publication of these works, is to go to Oxford, to found a Profefforship of Agriculture. All Dr. Sibthorp's collection of fpecimens, drawings, and manufcripts, are now entrufted to Dr. Smith, as the editor of the. whole; by whom the defcriptions are to be made, fynonyms fettled, and the obfervations, fcattered through Dr. Sibthorp's notes, digefted.

A volume of Effays, entitled Meditations of a Reclufe, will foon be published, by the Rev. John Brewster, of the county of Durham.

We hear alfo, of a volume of Sermons on the Parables, by the Rev. John Farrer, of Reading.

We hear alfo, with fatisfaction, of feveral valuable works going on in Ireland.

Dr. Fitzgerald has ready for publication, a new Hebrew Grammar, with points.

The Rev. Jofeph Walker, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, has finished the fecond volume of his Variorum Livy; which will extend to fix volumes. He has alfo publifhed there a Letter to Mr. T. Beifham, on his Letters to Mr. Wilberforce. Dr. Browne's fecond volume of his View of the Civil Law, is expected to appear in November.

Dr. Miller, Fellow of Trinity College, has printed, in one volume octavo, Elements of Natural Philofophy, including the principal modern improvements.

Sixiy-eight plates are already engraved for Dr. Barrett's fac-fimile of the MS. of the Gospels, of which he gave an account, in the first volume of the Tranfactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The plates will be accompanied by valuable collations of ancient MSS. particularly of the celebrated Codex Montfortianus.

PRINTED BY T. RICKABY, TEKERBOROUGH-COURT, FLERT-STREET,

ART. I. Vetus Teftamentum Græcum, cum variis Lectionibus: Edidit Robertus Holmes, S. T. P. R. S. S. Edis Chrifti Canonicus. Tomus I. E Typographeo Clarendoniano. Fol. 1798.

HE principal editions of the Septuagint Verfion of the Scriptures, thofe formerly confidered as of the highest authority, were the Complutenfian, that of Aldus, iu 1518, and the Roman edition, published from the Vatican Copy, by the authority of Sixtus V, in 1587. The Paris folio of 1627, printed from the Roman, with the Latin tranflation in a parallel column, and fome notes, is alfo a good edition, and has valuable Prolegomena by Morinus*. In more recent times, however, this ver

* Other copies from the Roman edition were afterwards published, profeffing great fidelity in following it, but not fo exactly tulfilling that promife: as that of London in 1653; and that of Lambert Bos, at Franequer in 1709.

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XIV, SEPT. 1799.

fion

* PRINTED BY T. RICKABY, JETARBOROVEN-COURT, FLEET-STREET,

fion has not been neglected; Grabe, a moft learned and moft diligent editor, began to publish it, with great care and exactness, from the Alexandrine MS. and dedicated his work to Queen Anne. It was finished at Oxford after his death, according to his plan, and with the aid of his papers. John James Breitinger, a fagacious German, improved on the work of Grabe, and republifhed his text in 1730; collating with it throughout the famous Vatican MS. and fome other MSS. of known value. He prefixed alfo learned and useful Prolegomena to each volume, in addition to those of Grabe, and the valuable men who completed his edition. Still the judicious with of the pious and learned Pearfon, Bifhop of Chefter, prefixed to the edition of Grabe, remained unfatisfied. His words we will quote, becaufe they seem exactly to demand that very work which Dr. Holmes has at length undertaken, and has thus far executed with much diligence. Pearfon concludes his Prolegomena with these words; after speaking of the value and authority of the Septuagint Verfion.

"Quoniam autem hæc Seniorum Verfio, etiam S. Hieronymi tempore, corrupta fuit atque violata, danda eft opera, ut ei priftina puritas reftitui et redintegrari poffit. Certum eft, exemplaria quæ habemus, Complutenfe, Aldinum, Romanum, plurimum inter fe, et ab Alexandrino difcrepare; alios etiam Codices, aliquarum S. Scripturæ partium fatis antiquas, nunc cum nullo convenire. Optime igitur fecerit, qui Codices omnes MSS. cum editis diligenter contulerit; qui varias Lectiones, non tantum ad Hebraicam Veritatem examinaverit, fed cum antiquiflimorum Judæorum, Philonis et Josephi, et vetuftiffimorum Patrum fcriptis comparaverit, ac denique expofitiones eas, quæ apud Lexicographos Scriptuarios etiamnum extant, vel potius delitefcunt, infpexerit, atque ita nobis editionem LXX maximeTM puram adornaverit. Quale opus utinam aliquando Vir doctifmus Ifaacus Voffius, qui optime poteft, perficeret, ederetque.' At length, therefore, this pious with is likely to be completely fulfilled; and we congratulate the learned world on the profpect of poffeffing fo valuable a collation.

On Dr. Holmes's plan and undertaking, we made our remarks in our eighth volume, p. 254, when he published his Epiftle to the Bishop of Durham, and his fpecimens of the work. The text, followed by this editor, is that of the Roman edition of 1587, which is the more fatisfactory, as Breitinger had religioutly followed Grabe's reprefentation of the Alexandrine MS. and thus the comparifon of the two is ftillmore completely facilitated. At the fame time we cannot but think, that the arguments ufed by the fucceffors of Grabe, to prove the Alexandrine fuperior, in antiquity and authority, to

the

the Vatican Copy, have great force. Of all the Books of the Septuagint tranflation, thofe of the Pentateuch are undoubtedly the most ancient, and in many refpects the best. They conftituted probably the whole of what was translated in the time of Ptolemy Soter, when his fon Philadelphus was advanced to the throne with him; being at that period exclufively called The Law, and being the only part of the Holy Scriptures then regularly read in the Synagogues. They are found, from what caufe is now unknown, to agree with the Samaritan more than with the Hebrew text: but they are, beyond all doubt, a most valuable poffeffion, and highly deferving of the attention of Chriftians. Of these ancient books, the first is now before us, with the extenfive Collations promised by the learned editor. The nature of Dr. Holmes's Collations was noticed on a former occafion. His firft plan was fo extenfively laborious, that no perfeverance or life would have been equal to its execution. Even in his contracted method, every page muft ftrike the critical eye as an extraordinary monument of diligence.

We will specify one remarkable paffage, to fhow more fully the nature of the Collations. In the fourth Chapter, ver. 8, is a wellknown omiffion in the Hebrew. Our verfion renders it, " And Cain talked with Abel his Brother;" but the word, in the original, usually means faid to; and yet nothing follows which he faid. This deficiency is fupplied in the Samaritan copy by the words, and in the Septuagint by the words di

εἰς τὸ πεδίον,

is To medion, "Let us go into the field." It is remarkable, that the Vulgate also has these words fo requifite to the sense, the Syriac Version, and two Chaldee Paraphrases; but that no Jewish MS. retains them, though very many, as noted by Kennicott and De Roffi, have a space left where they ought to be inferted. St. Cyril remarks on these words, ap' oidevi tŵv humão κεῖται τὰ ῥήματα τὸ Κάιν πρὸς Αβελ, ἀλλ ̓ ἐδὲ περ' ἑβραίοις. Παρὰ δὲ τοῖς ἑβδομήκοντα κεῖται. They are found alfo in the Jerufalem Targum at Rome. To enquire the caufe of this omiffion would now be vain; and many authors of credit have defended the Hebrew Text as it stands. The fact is remarkable. On this verfe, the Collations of Dr. Holmes run thus:

« Vill. Καὶ εἶπε] είπε δε 25, 57, 73, 78, 79, 128, 131. Cat. Nic. Præmittit his vocibus fignum Arab. 1. et fignum Arab. z. Sed neuter habet fignum finale. Referenda vero videtur utriufque figni vis ad vocabula διέλθωμεν εἰς τὸ πεδιον. Κάϊν πρὸς ̓́Αβελ τὸν ἀδ.] . Αβελ *3. Abel Caine fratri. Georg. διέλθωμεν ] διελθομεν 130. ἐξέλθωμεν Cat. Nic. Stupo 0μ Chryf. ii. 129. iv. 677. Veni egrediamur Arm. 1. Arm. Ed. eamus Tert. Ambr. Lucif. Cal. 18. Cat. Nie.+ 14, 15, 20, 25, 37, 56, 57, 59, 61, 64, 77, 78, 82, 106,

δη

107, 131. + igitur Slav. + extra Georg. d. eis tò π.] His - præmittit Alex. ἐν τῷ π.] εἰς τὸ πεδιον 56, &c.”

This expreffed at large is to the following effect. For Ki ITE, feven MSS. there marked by their numbers, and the Catena Nicephori read u de. The Arabic MS. 1. prefixes the mark of infertion to these words, and the Arabic MS. 2. prefixes. But, as the editor jultly observes, the marks probably fhould rather have preceded the words anfwering to διέλθωμεν, &c. In Κάϊν πρὸς ̓Αβέλ τὸν ἀδέλφον, the MS. 73 omits "Abe. The Georgian verfion makes Abel fpeak to Cain. For SIE, MS. 130 reads Senboer. (hardly worth remarking) the Catena Nicephori, 20. Sr. Chryfoftom twice has it with the addition of depo preceding the verb. The Armenian MS. 1. and Edition, have veni egrediamur. Tertullian, Ambrofe, and others, have eamus. The Catena Nicephori inferts de. Sixteen MSS. fpecified, have dn. The Slavonian Version, igitur. The Georgian, extra. The Alexandrian MS. prefixes the mark to the words διέλθωμεν εἰς τὸ πεδίον. &c.

We shall not further pursue this illuftration. The unlearned will fee, from the fpecimen here given, the refult of how much labour is condenfed under certain abbreviations; and the learned, who are ftudious of Biblical knowledge, will refer and examine for themfelves. An Appendix is fubjoined, containing fragments from other Greek tranflators, and Scholia on the preceding book; but no part of them refers to the paffage we have inferted. The whole are comprised in fix pages and a half. We should do great injuftice to our feelings on the fubject, if we did not heartily with fuccefs to Dr. H. in the profecution of his useful but arduous task.

ART. II. Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the Year 1792 to 1798. By W. G. Browne. 4to. Il. 11s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1799.

AS particular curiofity has been excited with refpect to this

volume, and indeed as every publication illuftrative of geography is, at this time, fought after with the greatest avidity, we shall first point out the places which this gentleman has vifited, that the reader may immediately be enabled to confult thofe portions of the work which are most interesting to his feelings or purfuits.

On