DR. WISEMAN, ON SYRIAC LITERATURE.

THE REV. Nic. Wiseman, D. D. has recently published, in Rome, a volume of dissertations on Syriac literature, intermixed with extracts from valuable MSS. in that language never before published. We are of opinion that this work will be found highly deserving the attention of the learned, and will obtain for its author a distinguished place among the most celebrated oriental and biblical scholars of the age. We earnestly invite the attention of our clerical readers to the Rev. Dr. Wiseman's work, and with this view we here present them with a brief analysis of his labours.

The volume of which we speak contains, among other matter, four dissertations, the first of which bears the following title. De objectionibus contra sensum literalem locorum, Matt. xxvi. 26-28. seu verborum SS. Eucharistiæ sacramentum instituentium ex indole linguæ Syriaca nuperrime instauratis, Commentatio Philologica, continens specimen supplementi ad lexica Syriaca. This dissertation is directed chiefly against the Rev. Hartwell Horne, and is a triumphant refutation of that gentleman's argument against the real presence in his Introduction to Scripture. Mr. Horne's argument may be stated as follows: If the words of institution had been spoken in English or Latin, we might say they were to be taken literally but they were spoken in Syriac, a language in which there is not a single word to express the idea of a figure: nor would any one at this day, among the people to whom the language is vernacular, use any other words to express This is a figure of my body, than these, This is my body. Such is Horne's argument.* Dr. Wiseman shows that Horne is either ignorant of the Syriac language, or that he has knowingly asserted of it what is untrue, and has misled his readers. He shows that the Syriac abounds with words that express the idea of figure; and in proof of the truth of this, be gives a list of words meaning a figure, to the amount of upwards of forty, arranged in alphabetical order. These words are taken from the works of those writers whom the Syrians esteem as their classical and standard

Our readers are aware, no doubt, that this argument was urged by Mr. Pope, at the late memorable discussion in Dublin, and its inconclusiveness clearly shown by the Rev. Mr. Maguire in his reply, but on grounds very different from those taken by Dr. Wiseman.

authors; and he proves that the meaning which he attaches to them is the true one, by appropriate citations from the above-mentioned authors, some of whose writings exist only in MS. in the Vatican Library. So prodigal is he of proof, that every word is backed by one or more examples in Syriac translated into Latin; and he refers in some cases to thirty or forty other passages where the word in question has the same figurative meaning. It speaks much in praise both of the industry and accuracy of the learned author, that in all his references he always points out the page of the book or MS. and the part of the page where the word occurs.

Having thus convicted Horne either of ignorance or imposture, Dr. W. proceeds, in the next section, to discuss whether it be the genius of the Syriac language to say a thing is another, for is its figure. This gives him an opportunity of showing, that it is less the genius of the Syriac than of the Latin to use such a mode of expression. In illustrating and proving this, he refers to the Coinmentaries of St. Ephrem, (the Tully of Syria,) and shows that he uses words meaning a figure until it is almost tiresome to repeat them. He quotes a variety of places from him and other authors, in which words of a figurative meaning are crowded together in such numbers and variety, as to bid defiance to translation. In the third section, Dr. W. takes up Horne's gauntlet, and accepts his appeal to those to whom the language is vernacular. Horne says that a Syrian would use no other words for This is a figure of my body, thau these-This is my body. Now in opposition to this, our author produces some passages from writers of the early ages, which prove directly the contrary. One of these passages is from S.Maruthas, who wrote and spoke Syriac in the fourth century. These writers are fair judges of what a Syrian would say to express the idea of figure. Now they assert that we must believe the real presence, BECAUSE Christ did not say THIS IS A FIGURE OF MY BODY, but THIS IS MY BODY. Thus they not only give us the words which Christ might have used, but declare that no Syrian wishing to institute a figure of his body, could say This is my body. This Dissertation is followed by a piece enti tled, Excursus de Lingua Christi et Apostolorum.

The Second Dissertation is intended to illustrate the history of the Syriac versions of the Old Testament. Among other interesting matter which is presented to the public for the first time, we may mention the two texts of the Syriac historian Barhebrous, which are published entire.

The third Dissertation is one which will perhaps excite and gratify

the curiosity of the profound biblical antiquarian more than any other. part of the work. It professes to be Recensionem Karkaphensem nunc primum describens. How Michaelis or Adler would have exulted to have met with such a treasure! The enigma which has hitherto puzzled the most learned among the cultivators of Biblical literature, is at length resolved. What has been considered by the most industrious and acute antiquaries as a sort of terra incognita, which it was forbidden them even to hope to explore, it has been Dr. Wiseman's singular good fortune to discover and make known to the world. He asserts that he has discovered the genuine Karkaphensian text to which Barhebrous occasionally alludes in his notes on the Psalms. He discusses the character, anthor, age, and country, of this celebrated version, and gives a copious collection of various readings, He has enriched his work with a fac-simile of the Karkaphensian MS. in the Vatican.

The fourth Dissertation is to illustrate an unpublished Syriac scholium on the chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of the Egyptians. One thing in this is curious; viz. it confirms in a remarkable manner some of Champollion's researches on that period.

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STATEMENT BY THE COUNCIL OF THE LONDON UNIVERSITY, EXPLANATORY OF THE NATURE AND OBJECT OF THE INSTITUTION.

THE British nation seems determined to turn to the best account the advantages of the long peace which it has enjoyed. Within the last few years, in particular, the thirst for knowledge, and the spirit of literary enterprise, have become every day more ardent and more general. Scarce a month elapses without witnessing some important discovery in the useful arts. In almost every great town associations have been formed for the encouragement of literature and science; extensive libraries have been opened; a noble emulation in the cause of learning pervades every class; and, under the fostering hand of Royalty itself, a National Gallery of Art has been erected.

Nor, indeed, are these the only beneficial consequences of that peace, so necessary to Europe after her long troubles and misfortunes, and the value of which she should not easily forget. It is with nations as with individuals; mutual intercourse seems to dispel prejudices, to enlarge the mind, to soften antipathies, and, by diminish

ing that overweening vanity and presumption which long seclusion is apt to generate, to prepare the way for salutary improvements. The free intercourse which of late years has subsisted between this country and all parts of the Continent, has, in some measure, produced these effects. England, divided from the rest of Europe by her insular situation, by her singular constitution, by her civil jurispru dence, which disclaims any affinity to the Roman law, which is more or less predominant in other countries ;-England, we say, divided not only from Catholic, but from Protestant Europe, by the peculiarity of her ecclesiastical discipline and government, as it is the country where national and religious prejudices are the most violent, so it is the one which is most likely to be benefited by the intercourse of which we speak. Accordingly, the good sense of Englishmen has already perceived the deficiencies in their national literature, the only subject to which we now direct our attention.

A journal of jurisprudence, entitled "The Jurist," has already been established, in imitation of many of the same kind on the Continent. At a moment when projects of reform in our civil and criminal codes so strongly occupy the public mind, such a journal promises to be of the utmost utility; nor will it confer a trifling service on the British public, if it only tend to revive the too-much neglected study of the Roman law-a study which is not only necessary to illustrate the history and antiquities of that remarkable people, which forms a bond of connexion between the ancient and the modern world, but a study which throws so much light on the history of modern nations, their civil and ecclesiastical jurisprudence, their secular and religious tribunals.

Nor must we omit to notice another journal-"The Foreign Quarterly Review," which is calculated to supply a most serious deficiency in the literature of the country.

But while we sincerely rejoice at these laudable efforts in the cause of learning, and anxiously wish them success, we lament the more deeply that the national energies should be frittered away in false, vicious, and impracticable schemes of education; for under this class we are obliged to comprise the project known by the name of the "London University."

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In the statement which the Council of this University have published, explanatory of the nature and object of the Institution," it is said that it has long been a subject of regret that a very large proportion of the youth of England, whose future professional occupations are such as to render an University education most desirable,

have, owing to various causes, been deprived of that most important benefit. Oxford is by its statutes accessible to those only who belong to the Established Church, and although Cambridge has so far relaxed the strictness of its rules, that dissenters, while deprived of the privilege of obtaining degrees, may still receive their education there; that university is practically scarcely less exclusive than Oxford on the score of religion. Another, and a very serious cause of exclusion, is the very great expense incurred at those Universities, an evil arising, it is true, not from University fees, or the payments of instruction-for these are extremely moderate-but partly from College charges, and still more from expensive habits of living among the under-graduates, which have been increasing year after year, which the authorities in both places have been unable to check, and which are in some respects the unavoidable consequence of the youth living separated from their parents." These two passages comprise the two principal arguments which the authors of this project have advanced in support of its utility, namely, the adaptation of this University to persons of all religious persuasions, and, secondly, the economy of its charges.

The economy of its charges is no doubt a great advantage, but an advantage which, in our opinion, might be as well acquired, or nearly so, by judicions reforms in the existing establishments of education, as by the formation of a new University. The admission of persons of all religious persuasions is, no doubt, another great advantage, if such admission be not purchased at the price of religion and morality.

We shall now proceed at once to the examination of this important subject, and shall endeavour to prove to the satisfaction of our readers, first, that the internal constitution of this University is eminently defective; and, secondly, that the plan of education proposed is prejudicial alike to the interests of religion, morals, and learning.

1. The Constitution of the University.-In effect, what is the constitution of this University? We are informed by the official statement above cited, "that the whole power of government is vested in the council, consisting of twenty-four persons, elected by the proprietors from their own body at an annual general meeting. Six members of the council go out of office every year, and only three of those can be re-elected, until after an interval of one year. The council, it continues, make all appointments and enact all regulations, whether relating to the course of study, or to discipline." And what constitutes a proprietor? a share of one hundred pounds in a