not only to become a Nazarite, as in the Hebrew; but also, to be fmall, inconfiderable, worthlefs, vile: in another, to dif efteem, depreciate, moleft, affront: in another, contempt, ignominy, difgrace: in another, to be cloathed in mean apparel, and to be debarred the pleafures and enjoyments of life: laftly; in another, to be of a fqualid, meagre, unfeemly complexion; and that, not through neglect of cleanliness, or decency, but on account of poverty, or fickness, or fome other affliction: in a word, to be in a condition every way unfortunate and deplorable.'

Taking it for certain therefore, that the word nazar, or, as the Greeks pronounce it, Nagaos, fignifies not only to be separated and fequeftered from other men, but also to be hated, reviled, perfecuted, and afflicted by them, he proceeds in this manner;

I believe it may be fhewn, that the term Nagpases will not only be applicable to our Saviour, as he was a fufferer in general; but that it will likewife in a furprizing manner fuit all the feveral inftances of his fufferings, fo that probably no other word could fo perfectly do it. To give fome inftances. Was it foretold that the Meffiah fhould be a "ftranger to his brethren, and an alien to his mother's children ?" This was fulfilled in Our Saviour; when he was rejected by the Jews, and denied and forfaken by his difciples and friends: and this is expreffed by the word nazar, which fignifies in the prefent Hebrew, to feparate, eftrange, or alienate: it is therefore clear both from the prediction and the event, that he was Nagapatos. Was it foretold by one prophet, that his enemies fhould" pierce his hands and his feet;" and by another," that they should look on him, whom they had pierced?" This was eminently fulfilled in the nails and fpear, the barbarous instruments of his execution. And this, the Syrians will tell us, is contained in their word nazar which fignifies to cleave, pierce, or perforate. It is therefore again manifeft, both from the prophecy and the accomplishment, that he was Nagwpates in this fenfe. Was it foretold, that the " plowers fhould plow on his back, and make long furrows " This was fulfilled, when Pilate delivered him to be fcourged and this likewife is implied in the term nazar, which fignifies, to cut, lacerate, or furrow. As it was therefore forefhewn, fo it came to pafs; our Lord was in this fenfe alfo NaZapatos. Was it foretold, that he fhould grow up as a root out of a dry ground?" This was fulfilled in his being born at Bethlehem, and educated at Nazareth, the two fmalleft and pooreft towns of their respective tribes. And this again is comprehended under the word naxar, which fignifies in Arabic, to be fmall, inconfiderable, barren. It will therefore from hence alfo follow, that our Lord was expected under the character of Nagapatos, and that he accordingly appeared under that character. Once more, and to have done with the application';

U 4

was

was it foretold by the evangelical prophet, that the Meffiah was to be a person of "no form or comelinefs, of no beauty whereby he might be defired; that he was defpifed and rejected of men; a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief: that he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, and bruifed for our iniquities ?" All these calamities and afflictions, the evangelifts will tell us, Our Saviour laboured under: and all thefe are comprized in the term nazar, as above explained. We may therefore infer, that in all these refpects our Lord was both to be, and actually was, Ναζωραιος.

I might eafily carry the comparison through the whole feries of our Saviour's fufferings; and fhew, that there is scarce a fingle circumftance of his paffion, either predicted by the prophets, or recorded by the evangelifts, which does not come within the verge of this comprehenfive appellation. Well therefore might St. Matthew, who was acquainted with the Eaftern idiom, and understood the word in its full import and extent, declare it to be foretold by the prophets, that he should be called, or rather, as the verb often fignifies, be, a Nazarene.

And as our Lord was ftyled Nagapatos from other inftances of his humiliation, and paffion; fo in a particular manner from his having been educated at Nazareth. Indeed, it was the name of this town, and the reproachful ufage our Saviour met with on account of his having refided there, which gave occafion to the citation before us. Nazareth was infamous, to a proverb, for the mean character and low fortune of its inhabitants. Infomuch, that barely to have dwelt there, for fome time, was reckoned a thing fo base and difreputable, that it not only furnished the Jews with a common topic of fcandal against our Saviour; but made a part of that malicious accufation, which was fixed to his crofs in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew"Jefus of Nazareth." Nor did this reproachful appellation ceafe with our Saviour's fufferings on the crofs. Julian, in allufion to the fame opprobrious epithet, calls him the Galilean; and it is well known, that the ufual name we Chriftians go by amongst our enemies, the Jews and Mahometans, is that of Nazarenes. The evangelift, then, writing the hiftory of his defpifed, perfecuted Mafter; and falling upon the mention of his removal to the place, which had been one great occafion of his having been thus defpifcd and perfecuted; and finding moreover an exact agreement between the name nazur, which had been given him (as he was to be a defpifed and perfecuted perfon) and NaZapatos, the name he had from the town, which had been the chief caufe of his reproaches and perfecutions; could not let flip this opportunity of obferving, once for all, that "now was fulfilled what was fpoken by the prophets, Ναζωραιος κληθήσεται, he fhall be called a Nazarene.'

By this interpretation it appears, that the prophefy in queftion is not, as it has been reprefented, a fraudulent in

vention

vention of the evangelift, but a fair prediction of the prophets; that it contains a known character of the Meffiah ; character, not founded on the fimilitude of a word, but on the reason of the thing; a character, not taken from a dubious text of a fingle prophet, but collected from the whole body of the prophetical writings.

We have now given our readers a general view of this vo lume; and have only to add, that these Observations are written with a spirit of rational and manly criticism, and cannot fail of being acceptable to every friend of facred literature, who is capable of forming a proper judgement of their real worth and excellence.

VII. The Inftitutions, Manners, and Customs of the Ancient Nations. Tranflated from the Original French of Mr. Sabbathier. By Percival Stockdale. 2 vols. 8vo. 10s. 6d. boards. Becket.

IN reviewing the tranflation of a foreign work, which is not generally well known, the character of the original has the principal claim to our notice, and that of the verfion is only a fecondary confideration. It behoves us therefore to give our readers fome account of this production, as it came from the hands of the French author.

The defign of Mr. Sabbathier in this work, feems to have been to collect all the fcattered information relative to the manners and customs of ancient nations, that is to be found in the writers of those times. This he has evidently performed with great care and industry, and likewife arranged his materials in the most perfpicuous order. If he has admitted into the narrative fuch recitals as may be deemed too extravagant to obtain the credit of faithful hiftory, he only copies the traditional authorities of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, writers even with whose fabulous anecdotes it constitutes a part of ancient learning to be not unacquainted.

The author is particularly copious in the account of the Athenians, Carthaginians, and Lacedæmonians; with respect to the two latter of whom, he produces many forcible arguments to prove, that, fo far from being illiterate, as unjustly represented by fome ancient authors, they actually cultivated, particularly the Lacedæmonians, both ufeful and ornamental knowledge with great affiduity and fuccefs. What our author advances on this fubject is chiefly extracted from a treatise written by Mr. de Naufe, of whefe elaborate enquiries, as well as the reflexions of Mr. Rollin, Mr. Sabbathier has judiciously availed himfelf. We fhall prefent our readers with

part

part of the circumftantial detail which is here delivered of the different kinds of erudition that were cultivated in Sparta.

I fhall begin with grammar, fays our author, of which Ifocrates is the only writer, who hath afferted, that they had no idea. They are totally unacquainted, fays he, with the common principles, with the elements of literature. His authority, I fhould fuppofe, will not be preferred to that of Xenophon, who fent his children to Sparta for their education, and who informs us in the plaineft terms, that literature, music, and the gymnaftic exercises were taught there, without mentioning the tudies of maturer years. We are likewife told by Plutarch, that they had as much knowledge of letters as was neceflary for their private and public tranfactions; and the fact is evinced by the series of ancient history, which represents them as people who daily applied themselves to reading and writing, like the other polifhed nations ;-by a great number of letters which they received and fent, the purport, nay, even the tenor and words of many of which have been tranfmitted to us by ancient authors,-by the peculiarities which Meurfius hath colJected with regard to the ftyle, the manner of closing and fealing thofe letters;-by Lacedæmonian infcriptions; the scarcity of which Dodwell regretted in the beginning of this century, and many of which Mr. l'abbé Fourmount hath fince brought us from the country of the ancient Spartans :-and by many other monuments, which we need not vouch here. Indeed, it would be injurious to the glorious memory of that republic, to prove by minute and elaborate demonftration, that the was converfant with the elements of Grecian literature. What regard then are we to pay to the reproach with which they were branded by Ifocrates?-He knew, and he owned, that the Lacedæmonians cared as little for his invectives as for what was faid beyond the pillars of Hercules. But perhaps he infifted that their contempt of his works, which they not only refused to anfwer, but to examine, was an incontrovertible argument that they could neither read nor write.

• Let me add, that they were excellent fpeakers. The reader has already feen, that Socrates gives the highest encomiums to their management of language, and that great orator as well as philofopher, will not allow that the art of fpeaking and writing well is foon attained, even by a good undeftanding. He attributes it to found talents, cultivated by long and laborious habit. Their masterly eloquence was then a proof of their literary application and fuccefs; -that irrefiftible and astonishing force of expreffion, which made even an Athenian, when he converfed with them, feem as poor in language as a child. Their clear, accurate, poignant, and noble mode of compofition, which is, to this day, termed the Laconic ftyle, has always been admired by polished nations. Plutarch, throughout his works, has collected many of their nervous answers and

apoph

apophthegms; and it is furprifing that fo candid and fenfible an author, who gives us various fpecimens, of their vigorous thought and expreffion, fhould fuppofe that their knowledge was confined to the elements of learning. He himself acknowledges, in more than one paffage, that from their childhood they carefully ftudied purity and elegance of difcourfe; that they endeavoured to acquire, even in common converfation, all the graces of language; that a variety of queftions were put to their young men, on purpose to try their readiness and acutenefs; and that a nervous, elegant, and fententious answer was always expected from them. Shall we then precipitately accuse this people of dulnefs and barbarifm ? or fhall we not with juftice conclude, that Lacedæmon was the feat of a most excellent literary education; and that her citizens were the greateft, and what adds to their true glory, the leaft oftentatious adepts, in ufeful, manly, and noble fcience, of any people in the ancient world?

Many were the opportunities they had of improving in eloquence. Hiftorians inform us, that they were not permitted to Ipeak in public till they were thirty years of age; that they every year pronounced orations at the tombs of fome of their illuftrious men; and they fhow, by innumerable examples, that the Spartans were habituated to make ftudied fpeeches. Æfchines, for instance, relates, that after the harangue of a Lacedæmonian, who was very eloquent, but a bad man, before fentence was pronounced, agreeably to his induction and enforcement of facts, an aged perfon arofe, and prevailed with the affembly to chufe another citizen, who should resume the caufe, and urge the arguments of the former with his best abilities— that a person of a reprobate character, faid the old man, may not have the honour to gain the fuffrages of the people. Hence it appears, that it was not difficult to find a good orator at Lacedæmon; but that a bad citizen was a phænomenon in that republic:'

Mr. Sabbathier afterwards evinces that the Lacedæmonians undoubtedly cultivated eloquence, poetry, and mufic; and in refpect to their philofophy, he enters into a circumstantial account of its origin and progress.

The Romans are the only ancient people of whom Mr. Sabbathier gives no account in this work; having purposely reserved that subject for a particular treatise.

Mr. Stockdale profeffes a very high opinion of the merit and utility of his author's work; and indeed, though the eulogium of a translator may often be influenced by partiality, it cannot be denied that, in the prefent inftance, his fentiments are perfealy juft. As a proof that we think these volumes are intitled to approbation, we shall here infert his recommendatory obfervations on the subject.

• I hope