error, and how shall we discover it?' He maintains the necessity of cutting off cyphers as the only possible method of correcting and verifying those apparently incredible numbers. Having cited and established some apposite instances from the Asiatic Researches, Herodotus, and Diodorus Siculus, he judiciously concludes with stating: 'Since then we find, that the ancient Hindoo books, the ancient Chaldean books, the ancient Egyptian books, all agree in the same mode of incorrectness, and are apparently restored to correctness, by removing the cyphers, need we wonder if a similar evil has, in one or two places, attended the Hebrew copies also? But to what could this be owing? Did the original writers use cyphers? Or, did they use terms whose genuine signification was afterwards lost, or the notation of which became afterwards misunderstood? How should this happen in countries so remote from each other? There must be some common source of this error, for that it is a wilful mistake, I cannot allow." The Arabians have a very singular idiom in their dates, and other large numbers, placing generally the units before the tens, the tens before the hundreds, and the hundreds before the thousands; though it is not uncommon, even in the same passage, to follow both methods. (Richardson's Arab. Gram. p. 48.) May not this satisfactorily explain the enumeration of 1 Sam. vi. 19, placing the numbers on the principle of the Arabic notation? Certainly this is a much more probable number than the 5070 of our common version! Apparent contradictions in the Sacred Writings, arising from the difference of numbers, may proceed from the Scriptures speaking in whole or round numbers-from numbers being taken exclusively or inclusively-from various readings-and from the New Testament writers sometimes quoting numbers from the Septuagint version instead of the Hebrew text.-Horne's Introd. &c. i. p. 594-598. 2d ed. As writing, and numeration also, has certainly undergone variations in the manner of being read; having been sometimes read from left to right, at other times from right to left, it is evident that a small degree of inattention in copying, to adjust passages where numbers are recorded, would have the effect of producing cyphers, where they were not originally intended. The influence which this change of mode might have, may be readily perceived by inspecting the figure of an abacus,' or numeration tablet. "We are not to blame the Sacred Books for our own non-understandings: if we cannot reckon their numbers properly, what follows? Not that they are erroneous, but that we are ignorant; and if we be ignorant, the thought should not only stimulate us into further researches, but should render us grateful to any who, by communication of their remarks, may help to lead us to more correct principles." "It is very true, that these numbers are not articles of faith, nor can they justly pretend to equal importance; but they are of importance. They have furnished arguments to freethinkers and infidels, of which it is desirable honestly and fairly to deprive them: they have embarrassed the humble but hearty friends to revelation; and is it not then to be wished that they were entirely corrected? not by fancying errors in the sacred books, but by superior information and knowledge, derived from those very countries where the Scriptures were originally written: especially as to this day they have retained some of those peculiarities, which we in our western situation find perplexing; and others might in time be traced and unravelled by persevering diligence." Oswestry, April, 1822. ATHENARUM PANORAMA, SEU GRÆCIE VETERIS ENCOMIUM, QUUM mea respiceret primæ tentamina musæ J. W. So called from pax, dust; because it was a little table strewed over with dust, on which the ancient mathematicians drew their schemes and figures. Very ancient-if later than computing by the fingers, and by lapilli or stones, (which obtained among the Egyptians,) it was prior to the use of numeral letters, or figures wrought with the pen. In use among the Chinese, Greeks, Romans,' &c.-Howard's Encyclop. p. 6. VOL. XXVI. NO. LI. B Cl. Ji. Mitteret,' Ausoniæ decora immortalia linguæ, Ecce viri socio properabant agmine; doctum Cogimus; et totum parvus tenet angulus orbem. Le Duc de Richelieu, Président du Conseil des Ministres, a envoyé à l'Auteur un exemplaire des Classiques Latins. 2 La rue de la Paix, et le boulevard des Capucins. 2 Isacidæ hic nuper, vaga gens terrasque per omnes Le Panorama de Jérusalem. 2 M. Boissonade, professeur de littérature grecque à la faculté des Lettres de Paris, éditeur de Philostrate, de Tiberius Rhetor, d'Herodien, de Nicetas, &c. 3 M. Gail, professeur de littérature grecque au collège de France; auteur d'une traduction française de Théocrite, éditeur de Thucydide, etc. * M. Burnouf, professeur d'éloquence latine au college de France, auteur de la grammaire grecque adoptée par l'Université; éditeur de Salluste, etc. 5 M. Planche, ancien élève, puis maître de Sainte-Barbe, dont les poésies latines dans tous les genres sont très-connues; auteur d'un Dictionnaire grec, adopté par l'Université; editeur de Démosthène ; etc. Le Panorama d'Athènes, qui vient d'ajouter un nouveau titre à la grande réputation de M. Prévost. Hos accede locos, monumentaque temporis acti Ut vidi, ut stupui! sacer ut me perculit horror! Omnibus idem animus cognoscere fata locorum, Et Graiis eheu! Coraës' dudum exul ab oris. "Salvete, æterni cineres, memoresque ruinæ ! Pallas ubi est? Quid enim tanta de sorte relictum ? 1 M. Coraï, né en Grèce, et auquel les plus savans hellénistes de Paris se plaisent à céder la palme. 2 Le Parthenon, bâti sous Périclès, en l'honneur de Minerve, avait résisté aux injures des temps et des révolutions, lorsqu'en 1687, Athènes, assiégée par les Vénitiens, vit tomber sous leurs coups une partie de ce majestueux édifice. C'est dans ce temple qu'était la statue de Minerve, chef-d'œuvre de Phidias. |