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This is a wonderful prediction, and related not so much to worldly rule, as to spiritual dominion over the gods of those countries, and to the abolition of their worship. We find, among other things above, that the great personage, who was to come, should smite the corners of Moab. The original word is (ND) patah; and of how doubtful purport, we may learn, from the various and contradictory interpretations in the different versions. We have seen, that in the English it is rendered corners: in the Greek hypovas, rulers: in the Vulgate of the same purport, duces: in the Latin of the Arabic, regions: in the Syriac, giants: in the Samaritan, fools. The Greek and Vulgate seem to me to be nearest to the truth; for the word petah, or patah, was common in Egypt, as I have elsewhere more than once shewn, and 'not unknown in many other countries. It denoted a priest of the first Potiorder, and is to be found in the composition of many names. phera was the priest of Phar, the sacred ox or cow; petiphree, the priest of Ree, the Sun. Petasucus, the priest of the deified crocodile. Petosiris, the priest of Osiris. To these might be added Petisonius, Petibastus, and others of the same analogy. Hence the true purport of the passage above is-He shall ruin the petah, or magi of Moab, those high-priests of Baal Peor.' P. 72.

Additional remarks are subjoined, to show that Seth was the same with Peor and Priapus, and that the Sethim were his priests. Here we have a great display of learning, from the abundant stores of the author, brought home to the scene: he thus points out the prediction to the ruin of Seth and his votaries.

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The rites of Seth were not confined to this country, but extended as far as the Deity was worshipped under this title. That they were principally of Idumea, is manifest from the context, where the prophet speaks of the star which was to arise out of Jacob, and to have sovereign rule. He shall smite, and destroy the high-priests of Moab; ano destroy the children of Seth: and Edom shall be a possession; or, as the Vulgate reads, his possession. The manner in which it is expressed, according to the Greek version, is remarkable. Kai Savon τους αρχηγούς Μωας, και προνομεύσει παντας 'μους Σηθ, και εσται Εδωμ He shall break, κληρονομία, και εσται κληρονομία Ησαν, ο εχθρός αυτού. and annihilate the rulers of Mon; and lead captive all the children of his Seth: and the land of Edom shall be his inheritance; Esau his enemy possession. The versions, in general, differ in their representation of this prophecy; though the same consequences are in all described: particularly, that the children of Seth are to be ruined, and that Edom will be under the dominion of another power. This is the Seth, in whose temple, as we learn from Plutarch, the onolatria was practised by the Egyptians; and the same rites, as we may infer, were observed in Midian and Edom. Of this we have had very strong and copious intimation. By these lights the history of Balaam, and the purport and propriety of the miracle recorded by Moses, are greatly illustrated..

• In this manner I have endeavoured to throw some light upon this ancient history. It was of great consequence to the particular people

of old, through whose hands we have received it; and by no means uninteresting at this day. It will therefore afford me great satisfaction, if I should be so fortunate as to remove any of those prejudices which have generally prevailed, and win over the disaffected to embrace the truth. It is more particularly my wish, to obviate the ill designs of scoffers, who try by ridicule to expose the Sacred Writings; and think it a sure test to try the validity of the Scriptures. But ridicule is so far from being the test of truth, that it is generally the bane of it, and of every thing serious and rationa!. It affords the only means by which truth can be wounded, and excellence degraded. It renders virtue itself, by its false colouring, contemptible; and deprives religion of its efficacy and merit.' P. 78.

We cannot help expressing an apprehension, that this explanation, however ingenious, will not be fully admitted. Too much appears to be rested on an imaginary etymology; and that the word AND signifies a priest, we never can be brought to allow, without more and stronger evidence than hath hitherto been adduced.

For the rest of this interesting volume, we must reserve our selves to a future number.

(To be continued.)

ART, X.-Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, from the thirteenth Century to the Union of the Crowns: to which is added a Glossary by James Sibbald. 4 Vols. 8vo. 11. 4s. Boards. G, and W. Nicol.

THE curiosity which that popular work, the Relics of Ancient English Poetry, has excited to examine our public libraries for ancient metrical compositions, has been the mean, perhaps, of rescuing from the obscurity of manuscripts many valuable pieces of Scottish versification. The late sir David Dalrymple published in 1770 a selection from the Bannatyne MSS collection, in the advocates' library at Edinburgh; and to the learned Mr. John Pinkerton we are indebted for two volumes, selected from that other great repository of Scottish poetry, the Maitland MSS, in the Pepysian library of Magdalen College, Cambridge. If to these miscellaneous volumes we add the three great poetical works of Scotland-Barbaur's Bruce published by Pinkerton, Henry's Wallace printed at Perth, and Macpherson's splendid and correct edition of Wynton's Chronicle-there now remains in manuscript very little worthy publication.

The editor of the work now before us presents these rolumes to the public, as a more complete collection of the ancient miscellaneous poetry of Scotland, than any hitherto published, arranged chronologically. Of the utility of such a plan, we cannot express our opinion so well as in the words of an ingenious and spirited writer. These fragments of antiquity

we value as so so many data for the philosophy of the human mind; as salient points, from whence the curious and inquisitive may trace a gradual progression from rudeness to refinement, and mark the national character, in its several stages, from its first dawn of illumination, discovered in essays of fiction and imagination, to its meridian altitude, crowned with the classical works of history and judgement.'-The first and earliest specimen of Scottish poctry is The Auentures of Sir Gawane, supposed to have been written in the reign of David II, 1341-1371, from a passage in Wynton's Chronicle, who gives a poem of that title to one Huchown, of the Awle Ryale. This poem certainly bears evidence of being the oldest, as it is of all the most difficult to be understood. Next follow extracts from Barbaur's Bruce and Wynton's Chronicle; and to these succeeds, what interests every man of learning and taste, the poetry of that accomplished prince, James the First of Scotland. Our editor, however, has ascribed two poems only to this prince, the Quair,' and the song Yas sen.'-The poem called Peblis to the Play, given to James by Dr. Percy, Mr. Pinkerton and Mr. Ritson have here placed under the reign of James II. But the authority of Major the historian, that James I wrote jucundum artificiosumque cantum At Beltayn,' is to us decisive. These words-At Beltayn'→begin no other poem than Peblis to the Play; and we cannot agree with Mr. Sibbald, that Major's words imply that the subject of the poem was the confinement of a person.-At Beltayn, quem alii de · Dalkeith et Gargeil mutare studuerunt quia in arce aut camera clausus servabatur in qua mulier cum matre habitabat.' The parody, like all modern parodies, would doubtless retain the form of the stanza; but, that it might be pointed, the subject was some well-known anecdote of James I, when confined in England, or perhaps in allusion to the King's Quair. On the same principle, of taking the best authority in doubtful cases, we are inclined to give to James I 'Christ's Kirk on the Green," agreeably to the testimony of Bannatyne, who, writing in 1568, is surely the best evidence that James V, who died in 1542, and to whom our editor ascribes it, was not the author of this poem.

To the order of the rest of these poems, we have nothing to object. The editor has, with great propriety, excluded the Gaberlunzie Man, for the antiquity of which we have no better authority, than Allan Ramsay, who first published it in his Tea-Table Miscellany.' We are surprised that the accurate Mr. Chalmers should attribute it to James V; and we may no tice, by the bye, that Mr. Chalmers has fallen Into another error, in his Life of Ramsay, in asserting that The Monk and the Millar's Wife' is the original invention of Ramsay. The story was taken from the Freirs of Berwick, in the Bannatyne Ꮓ Ꮞ

MSS, and may be dated two centuries earlier, by being also in the Fabliaux of Le Grand. The selections from sir David Lindsay's works are made with care from the rarest editions; and some unpublished pieces are given from the poems of Hume, of Polwarth, and Montgomery-the author of The Cherry and Stae. From its merit, considering the period of its composition, we are induced to extract a few stanzas of Hey, now the Day daws,' which is mentioned by Gawin Douglas, the translator of Virgil, as a favourite song among the vulgar in 1512: it is now published from the Montgomery MSS. From the language, we think it composed nearly half a century before Douglas's time.

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Hay! now the day dauis,
The jolie cok crauis,
Now shrouds the shauis,

Throw nature a none.

The thissel cok cryis,

On lovers wha lyis,

Now skaillis the skyis,

The night is neir gone.

The feilds ourfouis,

With gouans that grouis,
Quhair lilies lyk louis,

Als rid as the rone.

The turtill that treu is,
With nots that reneuis,
Hir hairtie perseuis,

The night is neir gone.

Nou hairtis with hynds
Conforme to their kynds,
The turssis thair tynds

On grund quhair thay grone.

Nau hurcheons with hairs,

Ay passis in pairs,

Quhilk deuly declairs,

The night is neir gone

The seasone excellis,

Through sweetnes that smellis,

Nou Cupid compellis

Our hairts echone.

On Venus wha vaiks,
To muse on our maiks,
Syne sing for their saiks,
The night is neir gone.

All curageons knichtis
Aganis the day dichtis,

The breist-plate that bricht is,
To feght with thair fone,

The stoned steed stampis,
Throw curage and crampis,
Syne on the land sampis

The night is neir gone."

To the fourth volume, which is otherwise entirely appropri ated to a Glossary, are prefixed some observations on the origin of the terms Picti, Caledonii, and Scotti; an investigation into the merits of which, would lead us to extend this article beyond all allowable bounds. We cannot, however, avoid noticing an ingenious conjecture regarding our ancient poetry. The most eminent critics have in vain attempted to ascertain upon what rules our Anglo-Saxon poetry was formed, being frequently destitute of rhyme, regular alliteration, and metre. Mr. Tyrwhyt could discover no other mark than a greater pomp of diction, and a more stately kind of march.' Mr. Sibbald's explanation we now quote.

The rhythm of ancient poems appears uniformly to have been regulated according to that measure which in music is called common time. The mechanism and scheme of Anglo-Saxon versification seem to depend entirely upon quantity, by which is meant the length of time employed in reciting the line, without any other regard to the number of syllables, than that the longest line shall not contain more than twice the number of the shortest corresponding line; and that both the longest and shortest shall be capable of being recited within the same portion of common time, which portion must be either one complete bar or two."

To illustrate this theory, the editor gives us the fragment of Caedmou, from king Alfred's Bede, and Athelstan's Ode, with the musical notes corresponding to the words.

As far as the Anglo-Saxon poetry is in question, we consider this theory the best solution of a very obscure subject; and we recommend it to the attention of those who study our ancient remains of poetry in that language. Yet we cannot but differ from Mr. Sibbald, where he would extend his theory to the poetry of Chaucer and Gavin Douglas, because their verses are neither iambics nor anapæsts. Dr. Farmer very justly observes, that a precise number of syllables was not the object of our old poets: the attention was directed to the casural pause.

Well wot I mocke thing is wronge,

Falsely metryd both of short and longe.'

LYDGATE.

The glossary of ancient Scottish words is by much the most copious of any hitherto published. Mr. Sibbald appears to have carefully consulted the best dictionaries of northern languages, to mark the derivation of the words; and his labour has, in

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