from manufcripts; but all the original Welsh poems are transcribed and tranflated from ancient manufcripts. The following tunes, fongs, poems, and hiftory, are the refult of fome years research and labour, collated and adjusted at intervals. The greateft part of thefe melodies I have committed to writing from hearing them fung by the old people, and from their being played by the most venerable harpers, in North Wales; and it is very fortunate that I did fo, because most of them are fince dead. Being a native of Meirionydd, where our national customs are beft retained, and where I generally used to pass my fummers; being alfo well acquainted with most of the popular Welsh airs from my infancy, from having been brought up in the mufical profeffion, and having always had a predilection for native cuftoms, I may perhaps have the advantage of my contemporaries on this fubject, or at least I hope I fhall be found adequate to the task which I have undertaken, in refcuing fome of the Bardic lore from being irretrievably loft." P. xi.

The antiquity of the harp is then mentioned, and the probability of its being first of all other inflruments attuned to harmony or counterpoint.

Mr. J. concludes the Introduction with the following anecdote.

"Some account of the circumstance which led to this collection, will perhaps be expected. Seeing, with regret, the rapid decrease of performers on the harp in Wales, with the confequent decline of that elegant and expreffive inftrument, as well as of our national mufic, and poetry, gave me the firft idea of reviving the ancient Eisteddfod, or congrefs of musicians and poets, for a contest of skill in their art; for the lake of recovering fome of the ancient bardifm and fong; which meeting I caufed to be convened at Corwen, in Meirionethfhire, about the year 1788; where I gave a premium to the best musician, another to the belt vocal fongfter, another to the best poet; and the following year it was held at Bala: and thefe meetings have fince been annually continued in fome part or other of North Wales, under the patronage of the Gwyneddigion Society. P. xv.

"The fudden decline of the national minftrelfy, and cuftoms of Wales, is in a great degree to be attributed to the fanatic impoftors or illiterate plebeian preachers, who have too often been fuffered to overrun the country, mifleading the greater part of the common people from their lawful church; and diffuading them from their innocent amufements, fuch as finging, dancing, and other rural fports and games, which heretofore they had been accuftomed to delight in, from the earliest time. In the courfe of my excursions through the principality, I have met with feveral harpers and fongfters, who actually had been prevailed upon by thefe erratic ftrollers to relinquish their profeffion, from the idea that it was finful. The confequence is, Wales, which was formerly one of the merrieft and happiest countries in the world, is now become one of the dulleft." P. xvi.

We are extremely forry to find, that the gloomy tenets of Calvinift Methodifm have found their way into the happy mountains of Wales, and that they are likely to realize the forcible defcription of Dr. Burney, who informs us, that the "poetry and mufic of the Scalds were eternally filenced and frozen by the comfortless religion of Calvin". Hist. of Mufic, vol. ii. p. 40.

The work itself commences with 1. The Bardic Triads, followed by an account, II. of early Learning among the an cient Britons; III. of ancient British Poefy; in which (p. 9) Mr. J. has given a lift of poets, hiftorians, and grammarians who have written on the language; iv. Memorials of the Tombs of the Warriors; v. Cunobeline Incantation; vi. of a Battle by Taliefin (p. 14); VII. the Salutation between Taliefin and Ugnach; VIII. the Song of the Inundation of Cantre'r Gwaelod; Ix. fome Account of Taliefin (p. 19).

x. The Hiflory of Arthur (p. 20). Under this article Mr. J. is very diffufe, and feems to have collected into one point of view moft of the fcattered anecdotes of this hero; to which he also annexes the ceremony of making and degrading Knights about the year 516, when he reigned in Britain.

XI. Mabinogi. Part the Firft. At the end of this Part, we were rather furprised to find introduced a well-known Latin epigram, commonly afcribed to Julius, or to Caius Germanicus Cæfar; with an English verfion, by the late George Colman, Efq. dated July 19, 1785. Mr. J. in a note obferves, "I had the above epigrammatic relique from the portfolio of a gentleman who was an intimate friend of the late Mr. Colman. See alfo Ovid's Fafts, and Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum."

The epigram is that which commences "Thrax puer aftricto glacie". What this relic of an eminent literary character (or the following epigram, afcribed to Sir Thomas More) has to do with the Welfh bards, we are at a lofs to discover; but, as the prefent book is, in every fenfe of the word, alarge collection of curiofities, it is perhaps not very wonderful to find among them fome few things not exactly in their proper places.

XII. Dyhuddiant Elphin (p. 31); XIII. the hiftoric and predictal Ode by Taliefin; xiv. Taliefin's Rhapfody, or Tranfmigration; xv. Talielin's Creed; xvI. Taliefin's Comminations; XVII. the Eulogy of Owain Gwynedd (p. 36). This is the poem fo beautifully verified by Gray;

"Owen's praise demands my fong".

Mr. J. has not, however, given the original. Several Odes follow, compofed by Prince Howel, the fon of Owain Gwynedd, &c. &c.

XVIII. An

XVIII. An Ode to the Abbot of Valle Crucis (p. 44); XIX. the Legend of Tydecho, with explanatory notes; xx. the Thirteen Royal Rarities of Britain.

This is one of the most remarkable fpecimens of antiquity in the whole collection; and Mr. J. has taken care to accompany the description with ample notes, to elucidate the "hirteen rarities of royal regalia".

XXI. The Seven Wonders of North Wales (p. 50); xxII. the Elegy to Lleucu Llwyd; xxIII. the Seven rural Arts (p. 52); the Seven coufin Saints; XXIV. the Seven Sleepers; xxv. Authentic Documents of ancient British Hiftory; xxvi. an Invocation to the Wind; xxvII. an Invocation addreffed to St. Dwynwen; xXVIII. Anecdote of Einion, the Bard, &c. XXIX. an Addrefs to Owen Glyn-Dwr, &c. xxx. Philofophical Obfervations, Precepts, and Adages of the ancient British Sages; xxxI. Ode in Praise of Robert ap Meredith, &c. xxxII. on the ancient Britons (p. 60).

If

Mr. Jones here concludes his letter-prefs; and we are happy to acknowledge, that we have feldom feen threescore pages fo full of curious, and fometimes important matter. there fhould appear too little connection and analogy in the different parts of the work, it may perhaps be attributed to the great variety of materials, which were poffibly rather difficult to be reduced either to historical or chronological order.

The last fifty-two pages are engraved plates, containing fpecimens of national melodies, all arranged by Mr. J. for the harp, and fome adapted to English words. Among thefe, we have particularly noticed, p. 66, the Creation of the World; p. 70, the Tune of David the Prophet; p. 97, the Cornifh May Song.

We could have been more copious in our extracts and remarks; but, as we are forry to find Mr. Jones has had too much reason to complain of piracy, from his books having been lent, and the valuable materials tranfcribed, fo as to injure the fale, we were willing to excite, and not to allay, curiofity.

The work is certainly a very excellent companion to the firft volume; and, although circumftances have induced us to delay our account of it much longer than we ought, or wifhed, yet we hope and truft, that the high character we are enabled to give of it, from a frequent and careful examination, will ftrongly recommend it to the lovers of bardic literature.

I

ART.

ART. XIV. The divine Inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures, or Old Teftament, afferted by St. Paul, 2 Tim. iii. 16; and Dr. Geddes's Reajons against this Senfe of his Words examined. By Robert Findlay, D. D. Profeffor of Theology in the University of Glasgow. 8vo. 104 PP. 35. Cadell and Davics. 1803.

DR.

66

R. GEDDES's opinions in regard to the Jewish Scriptures are fo well known, and his confident publication of them have been fo long matter of furprife and concern to every fincere Chriftian, that we may proceed to the confideration of the work before us, without any further reference to them, than is fupplied by the title; from which it will be easily feen, that Dr. Findlay has not thrown away his criticifm upon any unimportant point, but has applied his talents to the fupport of what Dr. Geddes himfelt was pleased to call the fheet-anchor of all thofe Chriftian theologians, who defend the abfolute and univerfal inipiration of the Hebrew Scriptures" and without entering into the queftion of the actual extent and degree of this infpiration, admitted and infifted upon by "Chriftian theologians"; certainly, the authority of St. Paul, in our opinion, though not in Dr. G.'s, might well be chofen as a fheet-anchor, if we were driven to fuch fhifts as Dr. Geddes was willing to think we must be. As it is, this very important queftion is brought, not by Dr. Findlay, but by Dr. Geddes, to depend almoft entirely on a particle, The Greek particle KAI.

It must, from the nature of the cafe, be impoffible to put our readers in poffeffion of the whole of an argumen', depending, as this does, on the collation of various manufcripts and verfions; many of which alfo, to be received in evidence, require a previous difcuffion of their credit and authority: the labour and trouble of which can only be known to those who actually engage in fuch enquiries. Dr. Findlay, however, has fo managed, as almost to fettle the queftion concerning the particle xa, in his two firft fections, by fhowing that Dr. Geddes has violated fome of the firft rules of facred criticifm, in relying upon versions and citations, when the ancient MSS. were against him. For though it should be admitted, that no verfion but the Ethiopic expreffes the copulative, and that fome of the fathers, both Greek and Latin, omit it, yet if, as Dr. Findlay fhows, it occurs univerfally in the Greek MSS. (one alone excepted, and that a fufpicious one) it is taking an unwarrantable liberty with the text to reject it. Befides which general objection to Dr. Geddes's method of criticifm, the learned Profeffor has very

ably

ably shown, that what he has afferted, both of the Greek MSS. and of the fathers, is far from being correct. So much for Dr. Geddes's authority for rejecting the copulative in Sect. III.

The Profeffor proceeds to confider his objeƐuous to the confruction of the paffage, as it now ftands, which Dr. G. pronounces to be "perplexed, awkward, and ungiammatical." As we remarked before, that it was not poffible to give a fair, and at the fame time an abridged account, of an argument de pending on a collation of MSS. and verfions, fo are we equally at a lofs here to do juftice to the learned Proteffor's references, in defence of the conftruction of the paffage. But it would be very unjuft not to acknowledge ourfelves fatisfiedwith them; and particularly in regard to the propriety of including the whole canon of the Hebrew Scripture, under the expreflion a yeon, as used by St. Paul; which, fo far from being unwar: an able, as Dr. Geddes thought, the learned Profellor plainly thows to be authorized, by the use of the term without the article, in many pallages where nothing lefs could be intended. Though he admits, that commonly the article is prefixed, where the Old Teftament is fpoken of in the New. He contends alfo, that Jofeplus ufed it in the fame sense, and has a long note to prove the belief of that author to have been conftant; that the Jewith Scriptures were infpired, notwithstanding the unaccountable omiffions and variations from them. He alfo adduces paffages from feveral of the fathers, particu larly from Chryfoftom, Theodoret, and Theophylact (and refers us to many others) all tending to prove, not only that they uniformly ufed the paffage with xai, and confidered GUTOS as predicated of the Scriptures; but that they all fpeak of the Scriptures of the Old Teftament as infpired by God. Nothing can be ftronger than the teflimonies brought from Chryfoftom and Theophylact, who both infift upon it, that the wäσa гpan, of ver. 16, could only be interpreted as exprefly referring to the rà iɛpà ypáμmala, mentioned in ver. 15; and, indeed, we fhould be equally inclined to adopt the words of Beza, which the Profeffor cites, "conftat enim de certis fcriptis agere Apoflolum, nempe de eo quem Canonem Hebræorum vocamus"; for exactly in the fame light it ftruck both Chryfoftom and Theophylact, and many of the moft eminent tranflators among the moderns. In Sect. vi. Dr. F. proceeds to confi der the Syriac and Latin verfions, as appearing to favour Dr. Geddes's mode of interpretation; and he with ingenuity fhows, that neither is their neceflary meaning fuch, nor were they fo underflood by the Chrillan fathers. Such is a fhort account of this meritorious tract, which well deferves the perufal of ftudious Chriftiaus.

ART,