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Literary and Philosophical Intelligence.

UNITED STATES.

THE Rev. Dr. Dwight, President of Yale College, is preparing for the press, "Observations on a series of journies through the States of New England and New York, intended to illustrate the topography, agriculture, commerce, government, literature, manners, morals and religion, of those countries." This work, we under. stand, is considerably advanced. As its plan is new, its subjects various, useful and interesting, and its author well known in the literary world, as competent to his undertaking, the public may justly expect much entertainment and instruction from this work.

THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.

AN institution with this name has lately been established in Boston, which we are happy to learn has received respectable patronage. One of its principal objects is "to collect critical, controversial, and scarce publications in divinity, many of which are difficult to be found, and too expensive for an individual to possess." By the subscriptions of proprietors, and several liberal donations, a considerable and very valuable collection of books is already made. Among their benefactors, the Hon. JONATHAN MASON is entitled to particular acknowledgments, for a present of more than one hundred volumes. About 250 volumes have been depos ited in the care and for the use of the company, by the corporation of "King's Chapel." Among these, are a respectable number of the Christian Fathers, and other ancient divines. There is also a fine copy of Walton's Polyglott Bible, and Castell's Lexicon. The Society ask the public attention and patronage to this institution. An increase of subscribers is desired to aid in the accomplishment of the wishes of the Trustees, which are, that their room in Devonshire street, may contain one of the most complete Theologica! Libra

ries in the United States. They will gratefully accept any contributions to aid their purpose.

ANOTHER THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.

WE are happy to learn that another THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY, on a still

larger scale, is now collecting in Phillips Academy, at Andover, for the accommodation and benefit of the Theological Seminary, lately estab lished and attached to that respectable literary institution. Orders have been sent to Europe for the purchase, to a considerable amount, of a selection of the best classical and other works, for such an institution. We have confidence that a Christian public will cheerfully give their liberal patronage to an institution, which has for its object the education of young men for the sacred and most important work of the gospel ministry. Contributions to this Library will be gratefully received by the preceptor, or any of the Trustees of Phillips Academy, or by Caleb Bingham and Lincoln and Edmands at their book. stores, Nos. 44 and 53, Cornhill, Boston.

GRIESBACH'S GREEK TESTAMENT.

We are extremely glad to find that proposals are issued for printing at the university press, (Cambridge, Mass.) Griesbach's edition of the Greek Testament, with a selection of the most important various readings. The edition from which the Ameri can is to be exactly copied, was published at Leipsick in the year 1805, under the inspection, we understand, of Dr. Griesbach himself, and by its size is intended for common use. We consider the publishers of this small edition as rendering a great service to the studious and pious portion of the community, by placing within the reach of every student and especially of ministers, a pure text and select reading of the Greek Testament.

Dr. Griesbach's accuracy, fidelity, and industry are well known to the learned in every part of Europe. He is a Lutheran by profession, and orthodox it is said in his religious opinions; but he has no where discovered in his few alterations of the received, text the slightest bias, or want of impartiality. Marsh, the learned commentator on Michaelis, and now Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge, loses no opportunity of praising his unwearied labours of more than thirty years in this kind of criticism, his scrupulous exactness, and above all the fairness with which he has quoted authorities, and the unbiassed judgment he has discovered in his decisions on the relative value of readings. But Dr. Griesbach's edition derives a value superior to every other, from the more accurate collation, which has been made in late years of some of the most important manuscripts, from the discovery and examination of many others unknown to Mill and Wetstein, from the aids which biblical criticism has received from the various labours of the learned in the last half century.

It is also proposed, if this commodious edition should meet with the expected encouragement, to publish a supplementary volume, which shall contain an English translation of Griesbach's Prolegomena to his large critical edition, and the authorities, extracted from this, for every departure which he has made from the received text, and for every reading, which, though he has not ventured to insert it in the text, he considers of equal authority to the received. Perhaps also some other treatise or extracts may be added, calculated to awaken a curiosity, diffuse a taste, or promote a knowledge in biblical criticism.

There can be no doubt, that every man who feels a due respect for the sacred oracles, and especially every clergyman who must take them for the ground of his public instructions, will be solicitous to have them in the purest form, in which they can be ob tained by the aid of sober and accurate criticism. Nothing is more generally acknowledged, than that the essential facts and doctrines of Chris. tianity are in no degree endangered

by the alterations, which just criticism demands in the present received text; and by very few of the various readings is the sense of passages at all affected. It is the glory of this branch of theological study, that it has engaged learned men of the most opposite persuasions in laborious contributions to its success. Among the collectors of various readings and the editors of the New Testament, we find the names of the Romish divines of Complutum, the catholic Erasmus, Beza the disciple of Calvin, Walton, Mill, and Bentley of the Church of England, the mystical Bengel, Wetstein suspected of heresy, Matthai of the Greek church, and the Lutheran Griesbach. With such examples, every Christian who feels a proper respect for the scriptures must wish to have the words of everlasting life, as nearly as they came from the lips of our Saviour, and the pens of the apostles, as it is now possible to obtain them.

This Dr. Griesbach has effected in the opinion of competent judges, far beyond any other editor of the Greek Testament. His edition has been long received as a standard in all the universities of Germany, and it is appealed to with confidence by theolo gians in England and every part of Europe. The present edition is admirably adapted to common use. We have no doubt, from what we have learnt, that this American impression will be superintended with the utmost care, and we hope, as it is to be printed page for page with the Leipsick edition (in the text of which no erratum, has, we believe, yet been found) that it will rival it in typographical accuracy. The subscribers' price (which is two dollars in boards) for a book of 600 pages, is we think extremely moderate.

That the nature of this edition may be completely understood, we have translated the following passage from the short preface which Griesbach has prefixed.

"Wherever I have altered the common text, as it was edited by El. sevir in the year 1624, I have given the common reading in the margin, that every one may have an opportunity of using his own judgment and choice; for I am not so presumptu.

ous as to wish to obtrude my decision upon the reader. Those variations of my text from the received, which relate only to the order of words without affecting the sense, or which are only differences of spelling, I have thought it unnecessary to note in the margin; but every other variation, however trifling, I have pointed out with the most religious scrupulosity. I have also collected in the margin the most select and valuable, various readings, which differ both from my own and the common text. In selecting them, I have endeavoured to consult the advantage of students in theology; who will find here almost any reading, which may happen to be mentioned in the usual lectures of professors upon the books of the New Testament. But this edition will not be a useless manual to other readers; for it will enable them to discover whether the immense collections of readings which have been made by the unwearied labours of the learned, contain any thing of sufficient importance to the criticism or interpretation of particular passages, to invite to a more careful examination, or consultation of copious critical commentaries. Nay, more, I have not left unnoticed the conjectures of learned men, and the different punctuations of passages, that I may thus open a wider field to students for the exercise of their judgments on subjects of criticism. For the authorities upon which I have determined any reading to be genuine, more or less probable, or utterly inadmissible, I must refer to my large critical edition printed at Halle." [Anthology.

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paper, and to have it executed with great care and accuracy.

The whole will be comprised in two large quarto volumes; and to those who subscribe before the printing of it commences, it will be delivered at ten dollars for each copy in boards, to be paid when the first volume is finished. The second volume will be put to press when the first is finished, and will be completed as soon as the nature of the work, and careful, attention to accuracy, will admit.

The printing of the work will be begun as soon as five hundred copies, or nearly that number, are subscribed for; but few additional copies will be printed; and should these be subscribed for during the printing of the first volume, the price of such copies will be twelve dollars for each set in boards, payable when the first volume is completed; at which time the subscription will be closed.

ing for nine copies, shall be entitled Any person subscribing, and payto receive a tenth copy gratis.

DARK DAY.

Huntingdon, (Penn.) Nov. 12, 1807.

Thursday last was the most remarkable dark day that has ever been witnessed by the citizens of this place. The darkness occasioned by the eclipse of the sun in June, 1806, was nothing in comparison to that of then sitting, tavern keepers, and ma Thursday. The court, which was my private families were obliged to light candles at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, and keep them burning for nearly two hours; the fowls went to roost, and every thing had the ap pearance of night: Indeed it was the opinion of some, that the court ought to have suspended "the business of the country," as there was every ap. pearance of a sudden termination of earthly affairs, and that they, as well as others, would soon have to appear before a higher tribunal. The morn ing had been foggy and the atmos phere extremely cloudy, but whether that could have occasioned the darkness at noon, we cannot pretend to say.

FOREIGN.

VARIATION OF THE COMPASS.

MR. Robertson, in a late communication made to the Royal Society, has related a remarkable circumstance in the history of the variation of the compass. Since 1660, the compass has not varied at Jamaica. It is now what it was in the times of Halley, 6 1-2 degrees east. Of the

grants, a map was given upon a magnetic meridian, and the direction of the magnetic meridian remains the same. Since the original grants, new maps, upon new scales, have been constructed, and all of them are found to agree with the first maps in the direction of the magnetic meridian. If the boundary line passed through a forest of marked trees, such trees as are found are coincident with the present meridian. The districts were formerly by the cardinal points, and examined by compass, the lines are found the same. Such well attested facts discover to us how little is truly known of the science of magnetism. And as very much depends upon a full knowledge of the variation, the variation is recommended to every friend of useful discovery.

Lancaster's new Method of instructing

the Children of the Poor.

MR. Lancaster announces for publication, by subscription, at twelve copies for a pound, an abbreviated account of his newly invented method of instructing the children of the poor. Perhaps one of the most interesting spectacles to be seen at present in or near London, is the Free School of this benevolent man, situated about two hundred yards from the Obelisk, in St. George's Fields.

In this school, nearly one thousand poor children are rapidly taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, by the master, on the plan of Mr. Lancaster, for a total expense not exceeding three hundred pounds per annum. The leading principle of this well re. gulated and orderly establishment is, that the senior classes teach the junior, and that emulation through every class is excited by rewards and proVol. III. No. 9.

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motion. The methods of teaching are also much simplified; for example, the children learn to read and write the alphabet at the same time, by forming the letters in sand with their fingers, as each letter is successively called by the Monitor; they afterwards learn to read and write monosyllables in the same manner; and the precision and rapidity with which the smallest children perform their operations is very surprising, and highly interesting.

Aided by this plan, the children of the poor may, without exception, be initiated in the first rudiments of

knowledge; and we congratulate the country on the prospect of its speedy adoption by the legislature, on the introduction of Mr. Whitbread.

[Eng. M. Mag.

NORWAY.

PHILANTHROPIC ESTABLISHMENTS.

IN 1803, Mr. Tank, a merchant of Bergen, bequeathed to that city 60,000 crowns for the foundation and support of a primary school. In 1805, a glover of Odensee, named Kahn, bequeathed his own dwelling house and 50,000 crowns for the establishment of an asylum for orphans, and other destitute children. Mr. Glar: up of Copenhagen, in the same year, left legacies for the relief of the poor, and for the support of the school masters of the little island of Gioel.

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EXPORTATION OF BOOKS PROHIB. ITED BY THE CHINESE.

THE Indian Directors, some time since, sent orders to their supercargoes to procure, if possible, some elementary books of the Chinese language, for the use of their College at Hertford. Mr. L'Amiah has been particularly zealous in his endeavours to obtain some books of this description from Pekin, but without effect; for the government, whose suspicions are excited on the slightest occasion, has prohibited their exportation under the severest penalties.

THE "BLACK HOLE," AT CALCUTTA, IN INDIA.

The "black hole," at Calcutta, is proverbial among Englishmen for a place of insufferable torment, on account of the following tragical event. When Surajah Dowlah, in 1756, reduced Calcutta, the English prisoners to the number of 146, of whom Mr. Holwell was one, were confined in the black hole prison. It was about 8 o'clock when these 146 unhappy persons, exhausted by continual action and fatigue, were thus crammed together into a dungeon about eighteen feet square, in a close, sultry night in Bengal; shut up to the east and south, the only quarters from whence air could reach them, by dead walls, and by a wall and door to the north; open only to the west by two windows, strongly barred with iron, from which they could receive scarce any circulation of fresh air.

They had been but a few minutes confined before every one fell into a perspiration so profuse, that no idea can be formed of it. This brought on a raging thirst, which increased in proportion as the body was drained of its moisture. Various expedients were thought of to give more room and air. Every man was stripped, and every hat put in motion: they several times sat down on their hams; but at each time several of the poor creatures fell, and were instantly suf focated or trodden to death.

Before nine o'clock, every man's thirst grew intolerable, and respiration difficult. Efforts were again made to force the door; but still in vain. Many insults were used to the guards, to provoke them to fire in upon the prisoners, who grew outrageous and many of them delirious. "Water, water," became the general cry. Some water was brought: but these supplies, like sprinkling water on fire, only served to raise and feed the flames. The confusion became general, and horrid, from the cries and ravings for water; and some were trampled to death. This scene of misery proved entertainment to the brutal wretches without, who

supplied them with water, that they might have the satisfaction of seeing them fight for it, as they phrased it; and held up lights to the bars, that they might lose no part of the inhu. man diversion.

Before eleven o'clock, most of the gentlemen were dead, and one third of the whole. Thirst grew intolera ble but Mr. Holwell kept his mouth moist by sucking the perspiration out of his shirt sleeves, and catching the drops as they fell like heavy rain, from his head and face. By half an hour past eleven, most of the living were in an outrageous delirium. They found that water heightened their uneasiness; and "air, air," was the general cry. Every insult that could be devised against the guard, all the opprobrious names that the viceroy and his officers could be loaded with, were repeated, to provoke the guard to fire upon them. Every man had eager hopes of meeting the first shot. Then a general prayer to Heaven, to hasten the approach of the flames to the right and left of them, and put a period to their misery. Some expired on others: while a steam arose, as well from the living as the dead, which was very offensive.

About two in the morning, they crowded so much to the windows, that many died standing, unable to fall by the throng and equal pressure around. When the day broke, the stench arising from the dead bodies was insufferable. At that juncture, the Soubah, who had received an account of the havoc death had made among them, sent one of his officers to inquire if the chief survived. Mr. Holwell was shown to him; and near six an order came for their release.

Thus they had remained in this infernal prison from eight at night until six in the morning, when the poor remains of 146 souls, being only 23, came out alive; but most of them in a high putrid fever. The dead bodies were dragged out of the hole by the soldiers, and thrown promiscuously into the ditch of an unfinished ravelin, which was afterwards filled with earth.

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