HISTORY AND DEFENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON. BY MOSES STUART, PROFESSOR OF SACRED LITERATURE IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER, Edited, with Occasional Notes and References, BY THE REV. PETER LORIMER, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND BIBLICAL LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE EDITOR. I CHEERFULLY undertook the task of superintending the present reprint in its passage through the press, under the conviction that Professor Stuart's work, in an improved form, and at a moderate price, would prove a seasonable and acceptable present to the theological readers and teachers of this country. It supplies, to a considerable extent, a long-felt desideratum, and though it is not of the nature of a complete Introduction to the Old Testament, but leaves the demand for such a work in our own language still unsupplied,-yet, as a general outline of the Critical History of the Ancient Canon, and of the argument upon which its Divine authority mainly rests, it will be found of excellent service, both to students of theology, and to general readers who are desirous of informing themselves, and coming to intelligent conclusions upon these interesting and important subjects. It is especially well fitted for use as a Text-Book in classes of Biblical literature in our higher schools and colleges. I have not always been able to accept the learned author's decisions upon points of doubt and difficulty; but I did not think it necessary, or consistent with good taste, to intrude, on all or even on many such occasions, my reasons for venturing to differ from the critical judgments of so eminent an authority. An author of his distinguished standing and services in the department of Biblical literature is entitled to be heard without interruption upon a subject with which the learned labours of a lifetime have made him perfectly familiar. It has, |