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whether the old fire-worshippers conformed to the reigning religion in some particulars, so as to avoid persecution, is a question on which we need more light in order to decide. The name Yezd or Yezid, it will be remembered, is the name of the Supreme Being in the Zend-Avesta, as well as the name of a heretical Mohammedan. Or the sect may

have been a colony from the city of Yezd in Persia, and have obtained it in that way. One thing seems settled, that the present creed of the Yezidees, so far as they have any, and the external organization of their sect, date as far back as the eleventh century, and how much further future investigations must determine. How much of Manichaeism has entered into its composition; whether the doctrines of Zoroaster or Mohammed form the main body of its tenets; these and similar questions can only be answered when we know more about them. The Kotchek seemed disposed to claim relationship with the Druzes on the faith of the report of a Mosulian who had been in Mt. Lebanon. But he evidently knew next to nothing about them, and the sheikh knew still less. They averred, however, that there were many Yezidees in Persia and some in Damascus. Query-Are the Guebres of Persia the Yezidees here spoken of?

وس honor

As for their reputed worship of the devil, it is true that they will not endure to hear his name mentioned, and will by no means repeat it themselves or even anything that resembles it in sound. To such a degree do they carry this that they never utter the usual name for the Tigris near Mosul, bl, from its resemblance toi, nor even, the name of a horse-shoe, because it resembles (curse), one of the works or attributes (it is hard to say which) of Satan the accursed. Still they say they do not worship but only blo,-(Melek Taoos) or king Peacock, the sobriquet .with which they honor his satanic majesty, or rather the alias under which they make mention of him,-as a servant whom his master is now displeased with, but will one day restore to his ancient honors. Said one of them in justification of this rendering honor to Satan: "I am a servant of the pasha. Suppose that I know that one of his officers now in disgrace, will one day be restored to favor, ought I not to befriend and honor that officer during his temporary disgrace?" They also justify their attachment to him by the assertion that Melek Taoos so loved Christ, that he snatched the arrow from a Jew on one occasion who was about to kill him; and when he was about to be crucified he conveyed him away, and substituting an image in his stead, thus saved him from death. The Son of God, they say, cannot die. I need not here remind the biblical student of the heresy of VOL. V. No. 17.

15

the Gnostics already, as is probable, manifesting itself before the death of the beloved disciple, who in his first epistle speaks of "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son," 1: 7, and again, "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God," 4: 2. See also ch. 4: 15 and 5: 6.

In defence too of their belief that it is a sin to read, one of them observed, "You dishonor the word of God by putting it into the hands of children who tumble it about and treat it irreverently. You put it in the market to be sold like any other piece of merchandise. We honor it by forbidding any one to read it out of the family of our sheikh. It is too honorable, too sacred, to be touched by any other hands."

If Tractarians and Roman Catholics find themselves here sitting side by side with devil worshippers, I cannot help it, I am only repeating their own declarations. These worshippers are certainly more thorough going than some sects in admitting the devil and all his angels to a seat in heaven, as well as the finally impenitent.

This sect is now so reduced, and their sacred place is at such a distance from their villages, that its inmates are constrained to hire the head of a neighboring Koordish village to defend them from the depredations of the mountaineers, and he told us that they worshipped Melek Taoos under the figure of a bird with only one eye. But the sheikh insisted that they had no images, that it was sinful to make them, for how could matter represent a spirit? just so difficult is it to get at the truth. They defend their worship of the sun by saying that they adore it as an emblem of Christ, the light of God.

I must not omit to mention an occurrence that took place on the last night of our stay, after the people had begun to assemble for the feast. After midnight we heard a loud and rapid lamentation, uttered very passionately as though one was in extreme terror from the sight of some. present and inevitable doom, interrupted by frequent bursts of weeping. It began at a distance, gradually came nearer and finally entered the temple where the same sounds continued for some time. I could compare it to nothing but the passionate remonstrances of a Hindoo widow, as she was forced to ascend the funeral pile, now and then broken in upon by a burst of despair as her inhuman tormentors still urged her forward. But on inquiry in the morning, we could only learn that it was part of their religious observances.

While we were there we climbed several times to the top of the mountains that surround the valley, and could plainly distinguish the snowy summit of the range near Ashetha, bearing north 7° east. But the plain of Mesopotamia was so obscured by the hazy atmosphere of

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summer, that we could not distinguish Mosul, though high enough to have had a fair view of it had the atmosphere been clear. It seemed like entering another world to exchange the withering blasts of the plain for the invigorating air of the mountains. During our stay there the thermometer averaged 75° in the morning, 85° at noon, and 81° in the evening. To us, accustomed to a temperature that for some weeks had seldom been as low as 100° at noon, it seemed like the refreshing coolness of a spring morning in our native land.

The Yezidees were heartily glad to see us leave on Monday evening. We reached Mosul on the forenoon of the next day, having rested about three hours at Khorsabad.

ARTICLE IX.

REVIEW OF RECENT EDITIONS OF CLASSICAL AUTHORS.1

Furnished by an Association of Teachers.

AMONG the serious disadvantages to which the editors of the higher classics in the United States are subjected, is one which results from the inadequate preparation of the student for college. From a variety of causes, many lads join a collegiate institution without an accurate acquaintance with the grammatical principles of the classical languages. Passing one or two years with a private teacher, or in an academy, possibly with frequent interruptions, they repair to the higher Seminary, where, instead of entering on a course of elevated classical reading, they are compelled to study the elements, and to plod over a weary and unprofitable course, without ability to enjoy the delightful entertainments which might be spread out before them. The student should employ the four collegiate years, so far as they are de

Titus Livius. Selections from the first five books, together with the twentyfirst and twenty-second books entire. With English Notes for Schools and Colleges. By J. L. Lincoln, Professor of Latin in Brown University. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1847, pp. 329.

The Germania and Agricola of Caius Cornelius Tacitus, with Notes for Colleges. By W. S. Tyler, Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages, Amherst College. New York and London: Wiley and Putnam. 1847, pp. 181.

Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates, with Notes. By R. D. C. Robbins, Librarian in the Theological Seminary, Andover. Andover: William H. Wardwell. 1847, pp. 417.

voted to the classics, in canvassing the higher points of grammar and philology, and in becoming familiar with the principles of rhetoric, philosophy and morals, so far as they are legitimately connected with the study in question. The rudiments ought to be mastered at an earlier stage. In studying a piece, like the Oration on the Crown, when the whole time of a student is needed to investigate questions of law, of history, of legal antiquities, etc., the weightier matters must be neglected or passed over lightly, because common grammatical constructions are not familiar, at least to a considerable portion of a class. Three years, instead of one year or one year and a half, are imperatively demanded in the preparatory course. It is folly to expect that classical studies will ever flourish in the United States, till parents and guardians are wise enough to insist upon this fundamental preparation in the case of their children and wards, and until numbers cease to be the main test of the prosperity of a literary institution. When the quality of the education, not the number of those who are enrolled or matriculated, comes to be the distinguishing characteristic of a seminary, be it preparatory, collegiate or professional, then there will be an adequate motive and encouragement for putting out able editions of the profounder treatises of the masters of ancient wisdom.

Another serious disadvantage which the editors of the classics experience, is the want of large libraries. This,-which is almost the first necessity of a collegiate institution,-is not unfrequently the last which receives earnest attention. Spacious and sometimes not very sightly edifices are erected at great expense, professorships are founded, large collections in natural history are secured, observatories are built, while the library presents a most meagre aspect of empty shelves or of worthless duplicates. Means are provided for studying the heavens and the earth and the regions under the earth, while the records of man's intellectual and moral history are unknown or uncared for. That all the departments should be filled with able and accomplished teachers is an obvious and well understood proposition. But the relation between ability in a professor and a goodly library is not so much pondered. It is forgotten that a great and valuable library is the genius loci, the guardian spirit around a literary institution, the inspirer and nurse of generous purposes and high resolves. What has a more quickening influence upon an ingenuous scholar than the well ordered files embodying the wisdom and learning of past ages! The dusty alcove, the time worn parchment, the brazen clasp, the uncouth device, are full of thought and stirring reminiscences. What, on the contrary, can be more depressing than the sight of an ill-furnished, ill-assorted, poverty-stricken library? It is a great shop with

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out any tools, a vast laboratory unprovided with an instrument or a machine.

Besides, properly to edit a classical author requires an apparatus of books which is utterly beyond the means of most of our scholars. All the original sources of information, all the preceding editions, good, bad or indifferent, (for the poorest work may supply, indirectly, valuable hints); all the historical, or antiquarian or geographical productions which may serve as sources for illustration, or clear up a doubtful point, should be within reach. As it is, the classical editor, in this country, must often depend on second-hand authorities; he cannot refer to the original source; he is unable to verify his quotations by the context of the original; he must run the risk of depending on a proof which perhaps was selected for another purpose. A difficult passage

must remain unresolved, because no copy of the book which he urgently needs is nearer than Göttingen or Leipsic. No one knows so well as he, who would thoroughly accomplish a task of this nature, how many books are needed, and how important for his purpose that they should be easily accessible.

The founders and patrons of many of the universities in Europe have entertained more enlightened views and proceeded on a wiser course. The buildings have been a matter of secondary importance; the library, Mss. and other literary treasures are secured by all means and first of all. The Royal Library in Berlin, e. g., is an unimposing building with no pretensions to beauty, yet it contains about half a million of books, and nearly five thousand manuscripts. The university of Heidelberg is a plain and comparatively small edifice, yet it has one hundred and twenty thousand volumes and many inestimable manuscripts.

Another disadvantage results from the want of earnest sympathy and of fraternal coöperation. With honorable exceptions, the classical teachers in our country, labor independently, and without much substantial aid or active sympathy from those engaged in similar pursuits. Nothing exists among them, like that bond of hearty union which connects the students in the natural sciences. These are really citizens of a scientific republic, where kind wishes and effectual aid are not limited by oceans, or by dissimilarity of language or manners. This estrangement of feeling, or rather the want of earnest sympathy among the great body of our classical teachers, is owing to ecclesiastical barriers, or to ignorance, or to unfounded prejudices which mutual acquaintance would dissipate, or to the pressure of personal duties real or supposed. Whatever may be the cause, the effect is to be deplored. Rival and hurried editions of the same book are published.