our vaunted institutions worth, if the Sacred Majesty of Law is to be for ever trampled under foot by violent WILLS whenever and wherever the passions of the ignorant or the unprincipled can be stirred up by characterless demagogues? 10.-Notes on the Buckingham Lectures, embracing Sketches of the Geography, Antiquities, and present condition of Egypt and Palestine; compiled from the oral Discourses of the HON. J. S. BUCKINGHAM, together with a Sketch of his Life. By JAMES HILDRETH. New-York: Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1838. MR. J. S. Buckingham, who published in England some years since a volume of oriental travels, has been throwing his observations on Egypt, Syria, and Palestine into the form of a course of lectures, of which this volume professes to be an abstract made from notes. It is brief and vague, and contains nothing that might not have been written by anybody, who, without stirring from his fireside, would take the pains to turn over an Encyclopedia and read a few modern books of travels. The editor seems to be a great admirer of the lecturer, and has introduced his work by Mr. Buckingham's address to the people of the United States, and closed it by a sketch of Mr. Buckingham's life; in which two documents we find it stated that it was this gentleman who set on foot the attacks on the East India Company's monopoly, and, it would seem, caused its abrogation; that it was he, also, who suggested to the Pacha of Egypt to plant cotton and sugar, and make a canal across the isthmus; that his exertions led to the passing of the Voluntary Enlistment act, the entering wedge to the abolition of Impressment; and we are favoured with a rather trumpettoned enumeration of his other philanthropical and patriotic attempts and labours. We have nothing to object to all this. Let every man serve any good cause who can, and let every one have his reward; if distinction be the reward he covets, and it does not come, let him ask for it, or advertise for it, and get it that way if he can. But when we find a book stating the area of Egypt at 6000 square miles, and its population at 20,000,000, we see that 5 persons to an acre is too large an average for an extensive country, and we distrust the author's statistics. And when we learn that in those same lectures, though we do not find it in the notes, the old story of the deadly effluvia of the Dead Sea killing birds that fly over it has been repeated gravely, and here we find the authenticity of the places now shown by monkish impostures as the actual birth-place of Christ, the actual well where he talked with the woman of Samaria, &c. &c., discussed and advocated; we naturally lose all confidence in his judgment on questions of fact. The whole thing appears to us to have been got up ad captandum, addressed to popular prejudices, and intended to profit by the willingness of the devoutly-minded always rather to believe than disbelieve things which if true would be interesting and edifying. 11. Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. By J. G. LOCKHART. Part Sixth. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Blanchard. THIS is the most interesting portion yet published of Sir Walter's history. It shows, in a striking light, some of his characteristic failings; but it brings out gloriously the depth and strength of his character, his manliness, his generosity, and his affectionate force of attachment. It is a tear-drawing thing. to read in his secret diary the true history of that struggle which took place in his mind when his prosperity ceased, when adversity came upon him, and he turned round upon it and fought it with an undaunted face, yet with so much internal suffering. One thing he resolved to save, and that was his honour. None should suffer by him, that he was determined on. His talents were still spared him, and the favour of the public; and his industry should be unabated, or rather conscientiously increased, since the fruit was for his creditors. These are the large and striking features of the picture, and the stains on it are the occasional profanity and coarseness which we think the editor ought to have suppressed. No possible good can come to any human beimg from knowing that Sir Walter Scott would, even on paper, attempt to strengthen his expression by profaneness, or enliven it by indecency; and if it did, his son-in-law should not lift the hand of Ham. The book in general does not derive its interest from the talent of the editor. Mr. Lockhart is a man who can write well in an age when half the world writes well, but he will probably never again do so distinguished a thing as writing and editing the life of the author of Waverley. 12.-Defence of the Character of Thomas Jefferson, against a writer in the New-York Review. By a VIRGINIAN. New-York: Printed by William Osborne. 1838. WE had been told, a little while since, of the retribution that was preparing for us for our sins in the matter of Thomas Jefferson. But we have a habit (foolish perhaps) of not being scared before we are hurt. We therefore ate, and drank, and slept as usual-quietly awaiting our fate. We supposed, however, that we should be assailed by a knightly foe; and should be obliged, even for our honour's sake, to touch his shield, and to ask that the lists be cleared that we might have an " open field and fair tilt." But we discern no spurs or other authentic token that he has any claim to knightly rank: we therefore decline to break a lance with our challenger. In simple terms-we think it unnecessary to enter into any examination of this pamphlet. It has not altered any of our conclusions as to the character of Thomas Jefferson, and certainly there is nothing in its discourteous abuse of us which has ruffled the calmness of our serenity. When we wrote our remarks on the character of Thomas Jefferson, we believed we were promoting the cause of truth and social welfare. We believe so still and our own conviction has been sustained by the testimony of too many (among whom are citizens of his own State) whose suffrage is an honour, to permit ourselves to be disturbed by a thing like this. We therefore dismiss it, begging our friends to read it and judge for themselves; and intimating to the friends of Mr. Jefferson the prudent policy of silence. Let them not unwisely stir up indiscreet young men to any more such “Defences" as this. Let them beware, "Nor further seek his merit to disclose," lest they should lead some one still again "To draw his frailties from their dread abode." We have another budget still unopened: hard would it fare (if its contents were disclosed) for Thomas Jefferson's character for Patriotism, harder for Moral Principle, harder still for Purity of Life. 13.-A Critical Grammar of the Hebrew Language. By ISAAC NORDHEIMER, Doctor in Philosophy of the University of Munich, Professor of Arabic, Syriac, and other Oriental Languages, and Acting Professor of Hebrew in the University of the City of New-York. Vol. I. New-York: 1838. Wiley and Putnam, 161 Broadway. WE have gone through an examination of this work with mingled feelings of pleasure and pride; of pleasure, when we reflect on the great practical advantages, both as respects the acquisition of knowledge and the saving of time which its use is calculated to confer on all whom duty or inclination leads to a study of the original Scriptures; and of pride, at the idea that its first appearance has been made in our own country. Our doings, in the way of Oriental philology, have hitherto, we confess, been on an exceedingly small scale: translations of different degrees of merit and rafacimientos of the productions of the master-minds of Europe have been the highest points of our ambition. Here, however, we are presented with an original work, which not only comes up to any thing that has yet been produced in this branch of learning, but takes at once a position far in advance of all its predecessors. The symmetry and simplicity which characterize the whole performance, prove that its author, while well acquainted with what has been advanced on the subject by former writers, has not allowed his learning, as is too frequently the case, to fetter his judgment or damp his ardour in the pursuit of truth. Our limits will not allow us, in the present number at least, to enter into that elaborate review of the work to which it is entitled by the important influence it is evidently destined to have on the study of the Hebrew language both here and in Europe. Still we should not perform our duty as literary pioneers, were we to permit it to remain, even for a short period altogether unnoticed by us. The work, as appears from a note at the end of the preface, is to consist of two volumes of three hundred pages each, comprising a Hebrew Grammar and a Grammatical Analysis of select portions of Scripture. The Grammar is divided into three books; the first treating of Orthoepy and Orthography; the second, of Etymology ; and the third, of Syntax. Of these books the first two are contained in the volume before us. This opens with an elaborate preface of twenty-four pages, in which the author first discusses the formation of language in general, and then gives an account of the present state of Hebrew philology; in the course of which he takes occasion to characterize its two most distinguished living cultivators in Germany-Gesenius and Ewald. The aim of the author, as stated by himself, has been to unite the methodical arrangement and completeness of detail of the former writer with the philosophical mode of illustration adopted by the latter, and thus avoid the peculiar faults of each. The first point in the body of the work that particularly demands our attention, is Dr. Nordheimer's classification of the vowel sounds. He arranges them first according to the forms assumed by the vocal orifice during their utterance, and again according to the organs chiefly engaged in their production. This becomes the principal instrument in the hands of the author for reducing to order the whole system of formation and inflection. By means of it a whole host of arbitrary and contradictory rules, with exceptions far more numerous than the examples that can be brought under them, are banished from the Hebrew Grammar we trust for ever. We cannot allow ourselves to be detained by the elegant and perspicuous rules for distinguishing Sh'wa mobile from Sh'wa quiescent, and Kamets Hhatuph from Kamets; but will turn at once to the chapter on Daghesh. The principal feature in the article on Daghesh forte is an entirely new division into Daghesh compensative, which "denotes the reduplication of a letter or the assimilation of a letter to a following one," and Daghesh conservative, "whose office is to enable a preceding short vowel to form, in compliance with its nature, a mixed syllable." This division also is of considerable use in the elucidation of several obscure points. Perhaps there is no one particular in the whole range of Hebrew orthography in which grammars, amid abundance of rules, are more generally deficient, or learners more at a loss, than the insertion of Daghesh lene. The views of Dr. Nord. heimer on this subject are, that the letters,,,,,, are essentially aspirates; but that they cannot readily be pronounced with the aspiration unless immediately preceded by a vowel. To the illustration of this by rules and examples, he has devoted three pages; and we do not hesitate to assert, that he has left nothing on the score of clearness or completeness to be desired. The author's opinion on the much-disputed subject of the origin and use of the accents is, that they were first employed as signs of punctuation; and that as these were naturally placed on the tone-syllable, they came afterwards to be used in directing the recitativo, "which consists in the proper elevating and depressing of the tones of the voice." In the chapter on Imperfect Letters, the general peculiarities of the gutturals are first given; and then each letter is treated |