Whose is the "Farrago?"

461

number of passages. We will select for translation a single specimen, containing what ought to be the history of the Deluge: -for translation, we say; for, be it remembered, Dr. Donaldson writes in Latin, and publishes his book in Germany, because, he says, there is not sufficient learning amongst the biblical critics of Britain that he should address himself to them; and besides, he "hates and would keep off the unskilled crowd."

Gen. vi. [5-14.] When all the earth lay overwhelmed in a flood of wickedness,

But Israel walked uprightly and religiously,

Jehovah decreed, that, snatched from the tumultu

ous waves of Rahab,

He should reach at length the land of rest.

An ark therefore was constructed by the command of Jehovah, in which he should be carried over

the waves of the earth's wickedness.

Gen. vii. [6, 11.] But Israel was six hundred years old, when he went

[12.]

into the ark.

Through the desert, as through the plains of the sea, he wandered forty years.

Gen. viii. [6.] But when these forty years had passed,

[7.] Israel sent forth a raven, (that it should explore the place of rest ;)

Which flew away and returned, but brought back no tidings.

[8.] After an interval of time, therefore, he sent forth a

dove,

[9.] Which, when it could not find a place of rest,

Returned to the ark, and was received back therein. [10.] When, however, another interval had passed, Israel again sent forth the dove,

[11.] Which at evening-time returned to him,

Having in its beak a green olive leaf, which it had plucked.

[12.] But another interval having passed, for the third time he sent it forth,

[11.]

And it returned no more again to the ark.

So Israel knew that the wild floods were at length abated,

Gen. v. [29.] And that he himself had become a man of rest (Noah); Gen. viii. [4.] And having found a resting place on the mount of holiness,

1 Kings vi.

1 Kings viii. [43.]

Deut. vi. [18.]

He there rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month;

There he built a magnificent House of God (Bethel); There, in the presence of God (i. e. in Peniel), turning towards Him continually,

And doing that which is right and good,

Ps. v. [8.] Comp. He faithfully worshipped Jehovah in His holy Ps. xlviii. [9.] S temple.

And now for the key. By doing away with all such personality as that of the Noah of our Bible; by understanding the Flood to be the deluge of wickedness which overwhelmed the earth; by reading the ark as the Divine protection around God's people Israel, which carried them in safety through this flood; by changing days into years, and so turning the forty days after the Flood into the forty years in the desert; by understanding the animals which were introduced into the ark to be the flocks and herds which accompanied the Israelites in their wanderings; by making the "rest for its foot" sought by the dove into the land of rest promised to God's people; by regarding the raven, or black messenger, as the same thing as the spies sent to spy out the land, and whose report terrified the Israelites; by taking the dove, or white messenger, on the other hand, to be certain true Israelites, who earnestly strove to enter the land of promise; by reading the thrice-occurring seven days" of the text as so many intervals between two periods of rest ;-that, namely, between the first and second flight of the dove as the interval which elapsed between Joshua and Samuel; the second, the interval between Samuel and David; and the last seven days as bringing the time down to Solomon ;-by understanding the olive-leaf brought back to Noah at evening-time, to be the thought of erecting the temple, which, though late, at even as it were, came to him like the messenger of coming peace; by transposing the ark resting on Ararat into the ark of the covenant, brought into its resting-place by Solomon; (notwithstanding that of this latter ark we read, "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb ;" notwithstanding, also, that the resting on Ararat was prior to the forty days, which have been already adopted as Israel's forty years' wanderings;) by identifying Noah with the idea of rest rather than any thing else, and especially with Solomon, the man of rest," who should enjoy "rest from his enemies,' and "in whose days should be peace and quietness unto Israel:" (1 Chron. xxii. 9:)-By these and similar bold strokes of criticism, Dr. Donaldson brings out the meaning he would fain find in the fragment of which his third part consists,—a fragment which, he says, "is so full of gaps, and in such a corrupted state, that conjecture is called for in every verse." "Nevertheless," he adds, "if not the words, I think I have restored at least the For ourselves, we confess we do not take so sanguine a view of Dr. Donaldson's success.

sense.

This book does no credit to its once esteemed author, either as a scholar and critic, or as a Christian man. As to the former, there is scholarship, truly, but scholarship perverted; there is criticism, but criticism run mad. As to the latter point, we are compelled to draw a veil. There is a feature in the book only

too prominent; let us call it-for we will not particularize-a "superfluity of naughtiness." On this we dare not animadvert, lest, by the repetition of what is offensive, we contribute to spread the evil we would most earnestly deprecate. Our pages, at least, must be kept unsullied.

One word, in fine, and we close the book, never, we trust, to open it again.

If the system on which this new Bible is put together were not itself a mockery of all genuine criticism; if the writing for which a Divine authority and inspiration are challenged, were not itself most unworthy of the Divine Spirit, and the product of none other than a most polluted mind; if we had not evidence sufficient, and far more than sufficient, of the wondrously careful preservation by the Jews of their ancient oracles; we should still, in the frequent quotation, on the part of Christ and His inspired Apostles, from the very text of our existing Scriptures; in the constant appeal for the evidence of His own Messiahship, to the very volume which we now possess; in His numerous and urgent injunctions to "search the Scriptures," those very Scriptures, as can easily be proved, which are called by Dr. Donaldson a "farrago of human invention;"-in all this and much beside which will suggest itself to every intelligent mind, we should see an authority and sanction stamped by the Son of God Himself on the heavenly oracles, as presented to us by that people to whom they were committed as a privilege, which we cannot, dare not, reject. From such attacks as Dr. Donaldson's the Bible has nothing to fear.

ART. VIII. The Works of Samuel Warren, D.C.L., F.R.S. In Five Volumes. Blackwood. 1854-55.

IN a former number we took occasion to point out some of the evils which beset, and the blemishes which disfigure, the popular literature of our day. Our illustrations were then drawn from the writings of a critic of no mean pretensions. The reader's attention was directed chiefly to faults of exaggeration and bombast, more flagrant in the instances adduced, because occurring in the didactic pages of a literary censor. We purpose showing that the same faults, though in a modified form, and others more or less nearly allied, obtain in different walks of popular authorship, and tend in no small measure to induce a similar corruption of the public taste.

The author whose claims we purpose to examine now, is not open to the same unmitigated censure. Less arrogant in his pretensions, he is naturally less ridiculous in his shortcomings. Though not remarkable for modesty, as his Prefaces abundantly testify, he has not ventured to corroborate his self-complacency by indulging a public scorn for his contemporaries, nor sought to add one cubit to his own stature by trampling on the deserts of superior men. He has contributed something to the amusement of his generation; produced, at least, one original and able work; and written always, if not in a manner most calculated for improvement and refinement, yet apparently with the sincere intention of doing good. Morality and social order are amiably reflected in his pages; and if our author has lacked the skill to invest religion with the highest grace and loveliness, he has at least succeeded in making vice hideous in some of its lower forms. These are so many claims upon our respect and courtesy ; they might, under some circumstances, avail to hide a multitude of faults; and if the writings of this gentleman had been left, as fugitive pieces, to serve the author's day and generation, we should never have challenged the grounds of their popularity and success. But the case is far different when these writings come before us in their present shape, as the "Works" of Dr. Samuel Warren, and claim a permanent and honourable place in English literature. We know how seldom have the great authors of any age obtained this distinction in their life-time. The greatest of all would as soon have thought of forming a museum of his old clothes as a collection of his old plays. He laid out his many talents with unsparing hand; and it seems never to have occurred to him, that the vested products of his industry and genius would realize a revenue of interest for all time. Milton died in good old age; but though he had laboured not lightly for the improvement of his countrymen, and cherished a hope that "the world would not willingly let die" the happiest

The Trade of Letters.

465

offspring of his muse, he came to no understanding with his publisher about a handsome and uniform edition of his "Works." So, too, with Samuel Johnson: he spent his industry far otherwise than in hunting his old prefaces and pamphlets through the literature of half a century; his age was employed in learning new languages, and making fresh incursions into the boundless empire of truth. Oliver Goldsmith saw no uniform collection: his "orient pearls," not even at random strung," were left to be gathered up by future editors; and pious hands have done it with studious care, and formed of them a matchless coronet. Charles Lamb smiled at the innocent deceit which dignified his exquisite but slender pastimes by the name of "Works." Since his day the practice has become neither harmless nor infrequent, but one of the most objectionable arts of puffery. In this and some other respects our present era differs widely from the Elizabethan age of letters. The spirit of trade has supplied a factitious stimulus for the productions of the muse, and competition and adulteration are its appropriate effects. As a body, our authors are no longer prompted by unusual gifts or guided by the loftiest principles; but vanity supplies the place of inspiration, and sordid motives are in the stead of high ambition. Hence the endless compilations of history and science in which (with many admirable exceptions) truth is let down and diluted more and more; hence the continual sacrifice of chaste and thoughtful composition to hasty patch-work and all the meretricious arts of rhetoric; and hence, above all, the loud assertions of puffery and pretension, which seek to reverse the grades of literary merit, and make the popular ear and understanding familiar only with authors of the most equivocal desert.

The remarks into which we have been led, are, of course, of general application only, and admit of limitation and exception. It must be owned, too, that the advanced condition of literary arrangements may make that to be merely customary which would formerly have indicated a personal presumption. The whole matter may be very briefly stated. An author evinces no want of proper modesty by consenting to the superintendence of his own collected writings; only such consent must always be understood as claiming for him a certain definite position in the stated literature of his country; and before such claim be finally admitted, it is a duty to scrutinize its grounds with equal fidelity and care. Of course we cannot entertain the mercenary plea of sale and demand, since that is quite beside the literary question.

The Diary of a late Physician stands first in the order of Dr. Warren's writings, in respect both of time and arrangement. It originally appeared, more than twenty years ago, in the columns of "Blackwood's Magazine;" and the popularity which it then obtained was afterwards extended to it in the form. VOL. V. NO. X.

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