the English language. But what shall we say of Pope's Homer? It must be remembered that the existence of this translation was, at the same time, the reason of Cowper's effort, and the reason of its comparative failure. The public were not Grecians,-Cowper was. The "party of the first part," judged Mr. Pope's work to be the cleverest English poem: Cowper knew his own to be more like Homer's Greek. Pope was a great rhymer-a fine poet, but not just the thing to be measured with the sire of song. Johnson said well, that Dryden should have translated Homer, and Pope Virgil. But Cowper felt the full dignity of the Iliad, and his spirit was absorbed in the illlustration of his author, not of himself. He saw instinctively that Homer in rhyme, was like Macbeth in cap and bells. He had that great primary attribute of a good translator, the instinct of knowing exactly the metre in his own tongue, that best suited the hexameter, or the what-not, of another. A worse poet would have rivalled the Poly Olbion, in another attempt at English hexameter; as poor Boyd did in the mongrel verse he made out of terza rima, and something else; while Carey seized at once the verse of Milton as what would have been the verse of Dante. On the same principle, Cowper translated Homer into blank verse; and a noble translation it is. Call it what you will, as a poem, and rank it where you choose, with respect to the rival work, Cowper's is Homer. If you prefer the other, it is only because you prefer English to Greek, and Pope to Mæonides. You have a right to your taste, and it may be you are correct in it; but in comparing the two translators, you must divest yourself of this prejudice. The only question is, which telescope brings the sun most perfectly to our vision. You may like fine colors-but a telescope is better for being achromatic.

Byron thought no one could read Cowper's Iliad through. He meant he could not, while he had Pope's all by heart; as what school-boy has not! The truth was that Byron was better adapted to judge of Pope than of Homer; that was all! And we are sure, that had he ever set about the study of "the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," and really endeavored to discover its meaning, he would not have employed his favorite to help him out of his difficulties.

But sincerely do we regret, with Mr. Grimshawe, that this laborious work should have deprived the world of more

original poetry from Cowper's pen. Yet he seems to have finished his task on earth before he commenced this; and translation was a dignified amusement for the close of life. The edition of Milton which he undertook, employed the other spare hours of his earthly existence; and his translation of Milton's Latin, and of his own versicles into that language, cannot be too much praised. But the bard was on his way to the tomb. His lines to his Mary have drawn tears in many a bright eye; and even the curling lip of Byron could not refuse them praise. Slowly, and with dignity he went down to the grave; himself the only doubter of his joyful resurrection, and denied that consolation of hope, which his pen had done so much to encourage in others.

Of no poet in the language is Mrs. Hemans' beautiful allegory of the Pearl-fisher so true as of Cowper. While we admire the chaste and holy beauty of what he has left us, we are indeed looking at a coronet of pearls, that dazzle with their beauty, while they charm with their purity. Too true it is, however, that every one of them was brought from the deep of his spirit with a sigh; and the light they throw around them, was purchased at no meaner cost than the dear life of the diver.

ARTICLE XI.

BIBLICAL CRITICISMS AND REMARKS.

By Josiah W. Gibbs, Prof. Sac. Lit., Yale College, New Haven, Con.

A PECULIAR USE OF THE NUMBER FORTY.

THERE is a peculiarity in the Biblical use of the number forty, which occasions its recurrence much more frequently than would otherwise be the case. This peculiarity consists in its being employed sometimes as a sacred, and sometimes as a round or indefinite number.

As a sacred number it is apt to occur in religious and civil institutions, in cases where originally other numbers would seem to have been equally appropriate. Thus forty days

were fulfilled for embalming Israel, Gen. 50: 3; and this is Isaid to have been the usual custom. Moses fasted forty days and forty nights, once and again, Ex. 24: 18, 34: 28, Deut. 9: 9, 18, 10: 10. Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights, 1 Kings 19: 8. Our Saviour fasted forty days and forty nights, Matt. 4: 2, Luke 4: 2. (Hence lent, Ital. quaresima, Fr. carême, a fast of forty days observed by Christians.) It was probably owing to forty days being thus the usual period of humiliation, and to this period_being spent by the spies in searching out the land of Canaan, that the Israelites were doomed to wander forty years in the wilderness, Num. 14: 33, 34. Connected with this are perhaps Ezekiel's bearing the iniquity of Judah forty days, Ezek. 4: 6, and the judgment for forty years denounced on Egypt, Ezek. 29: 11, 12, 13. Punishment by stripes was restricted by the Mosaic law to forty, Deut. 25: 3. (Comp. 2 Cor. 11: 24.) The period for the purification of the mother of a male-child was forty days, Lev. 12: 2, 4. (Hence quarantine, in law, the widow's privilege of remaining in the mansion-house for forty days, and the restraint of intercourse on a vessel from a suspected port.)

It also occurs as a round or indefinite number, although it may be difficult to specify the instances. Of the twentyeight items which make up the length of time from the birth of Moses to the death of David, ten are periods of forty years; viz. the three periods in the life of Moses, Acts 7: 23, 30, Ex. 7: 7, Deut. 34: 7; the rest which the Israelites enjoyed under Othniel, Judg. 3: 11; the rest under Deborah and Barak, Judg. 5: 31; the rest under Gideon, Judg. 8: 28; the oppression of the Philistines, Judg. 18: 1; the judging of Eli, 1 Sam. 4: 18; the reign of Saul, Acts 13: 21; and the reign of David, 1 K. 2: 11. Some of these periods are without doubt round numbers. Of a similar nature are perhaps the rain of forty days during the deluge, Gen. 7: 4, 12, 17; Noah's waiting forty days, Gen. 8: 6; and the respite allowed to the Ninevites, Jon. 3: 4.

This peculiarity of the number forty, which is properly Shemitish, is found also among the Arabians, and has passed from them to the Persians, Turks, and modern Greeks, as the following examples will show.

The palace of Persepolis whose magnificent ruins are still to be seen by travellers, is called by the natives Tshihl

Minâr, i. e. forty pillars, because it consisted of many pillars. This is noticed by Chardin, (Voyage en Perse, Tome viii. p. 403, Ed. Langles.) who adds that in Persian a court consisting of many pillars is called Tshel Setun, i. e. forty pillars, and a chandelier of many lights. Tshel Cherac, i. e. forty lights. Comp. Heeren, (Histor. Researches, vol. i. p. 146-7, Ed. Talboys,) who observes that "the pillars are not exactly forty, but the Persians use the term to express any large number, and have applied it to other great palaces, for instance, that at Ispahan;" also Malcolm, (Sketches of Persia, vol. i. p. 212,) who observes that "forty, both in India and Persia, is used to express an indefinite number or quantity."

According to Burckhardt, (Travels in Syria, p. 358,) among the ruins of Ammân, the ancient Rabbah of the children of Ammon, is a theatre having forty rows of seats.

Rev. Jonas King, an American missionary, (Miss. Her. Dec. 1825, p. 371,) speaks of the Church of the forty martyrs at Hams, the ancient Emesa in Syria.

The milleped or centiped is called in Persia tshihl pai, i. e. having forty feet, (comp. Mod. Gr. cagavrazodagoŭca, from σαράντα forty, and ποδάρι foot.)

Book of forty principles is the title of a work written by Abu Hamed Muhammed ben Muhammed ben Ahhmed al Ghasali, of the city of Thuss, in Chorasan, who died at Bagdad, A. D. 1127. The work is in MS. in the Diezian Library at Berlin. Tholuck's Ssufismus, p. 18.

Arbain or Arbainat, i. e. forty, is the name of divers collections of traditions among the Arabians. Arbain Khabar, i. e. forty histories, is the name of a Christian work, containing the lives of forty Fathers of the desert of Hobaib in Egypt and other places. D'Herbelot Biblioth. Orient.

It is mentioned in commendation of the liberality of Hatem, who lived shortly before Mohammed, that he often killed forty camels to entertain his neighbors and the poor Arabs of the desert. D'Herbelot Biblioth. Orient.

The forty robbers, an eastern tale, so called, is another example of this use of the number forty. So the story of the forty gypsies.

In Turkey the sources of the river Scamander are called the forty sources. Gesen. p. 700.

In Ptochoprodromus, (Lib. ii. v. 92), a modern Greek

poet of the eleventh century, we find mention of dagavτárnxov Bhariv, a piece of purple forty yards long, meaning a large piece of purple.

According to a popular superstition of the modern Greeks, the polypus, (Mod. Gr. xramodi-oxтañódi,) must be beaten forty times before it is fit to eat.

Examples of this kind, which might easily be multiplied, show clearly that there is something peculiar in the oriental use of the number forty, and justify the belief that this peculiarity had been introduced at a still earlier period into the sacred volume.

MISAPPREHENSIONS OF THE COMMON ENGLISH VERSION OF THE BIBLE.

Under this head I shall notice some cases in which the meaning of our translators has been perverted or misapprehended.

§ 1. Ex. 32: 32.

The literal rendering of the Hebrew is, " Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book."

:

There is evidently an ellipsis after the word sin, to express which the older editions of the common version used a dash thus: "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee out of thy book."

But in the more modern editions of our version, a comma is placed after wilt, and the dash omitted after sin, thus: "Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book." It is so also in Dr. Webster's revision.

It is not a little curious that Dr. Adam Clarke, who is very exact about such matters generally, has in this case both inserted the comma after wilt and retained the dash after sin. § 2. Josh. 24: 15, "Choose you this day whom ye will

serve."

This is often quoted by ministers in preaching as a direct injunction to choose the service of Jehovah; but if we examine the immediate context, we shall find that the command is to choose between different forms of idolatry: "And if it seem evil to you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day