charity towards all mankind. It is employing the music of angels in impressing great truths on the mind. It purifies the domestic affections, and fills them with a serene and blessed light. It prepares the mind for the worship of the only FAIR, and the only GOOD. It teaches to discriminate sacred poetry with true taste. Wordsworth, like Milton, is a Hebrew in soul. He knows well how to play on "David's harp of solemn sound.”

We ought, perhaps, to suggest to our readers the importance of studying the Prefaces of Wordsworth. To a full appreciation of his merits they are indispensable. If the reader should not agree with all the positions there laid down, it is but right that the Poet should be heard on a subject which he has closely studied for forty or fifty years, and eloquently illustrated. We had prepared a view of his theory, with corresponding illustrative extracts from his poems, but on the whole concluded it best to withhold

it.

If what we have done shall be the means of directing one of our readers to the writings of this truly great poet, from whose pen have flowed

"The highest, holiest raptures of the lyre,
And wisdom married to immortal verse,"

we shall receive an abundant reward.

REASONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE HEBREW

LANGUAGE.*

THE sixth article of the Constitution of this Seminary prescribes, that under the head of Sacred Literature shall be included "Lectures on the formation, preservation, and transmission of the sacred volume; on the languages in which the Bible was originally written; on the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, and on the peculiarities of the language and style of the New Testament, resulting from this version and other causes; on the history, character, use, and authority of the versions and manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments; on the canons of Biblical criticism; on the authority of the several books of the sacred code; on the apocryphal books of both Testaments; on modern translations of the Bible, more particularly on the history and character of our English version; and also critical lectures on the various readings and difficult passages in the sacred writings."

This may justly be regarded as a comprehensive and well-condensed statement of the main points in a course of

*This Address was delivered by Professor Edwards, at his Inauguration into the Professorship of Hebrew Literature at Andover, January 18th, 1838, and was published in the Biblical Repository, July, 1838.

sacred literature. It may, possibly, be considered as an uncommonly liberal outline, if we take into account the period in which it was framed. It would have received, however, the cordial subscription of the earliest planters of New England.

John Cotton, the first minister of Boston, was able to converse in Hebrew.* Of Samuel Whiting, of Lynn, it was said, "that he was especially accurate in Hebrew, in which primitive and expressive language he took great delight." Of the very first settlers of Massachusetts Bay, not less than twenty had been educated at the English universities. The appointed course of studies in Harvard College, at its origin, embraced Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. Dunster, the first President, was understood to have been well acquainted with the Oriental languages. Mr. Chauncy, his successor, was admirably skilled in the learned languages, particularly the Oriental. In his acquisition of the

Mr.

* "Wherein this is not unworthy the taking notice of, that when the poser came to examine him in the Hebrew tongue, the place that he took trial of him by was that Isaiah iii., against the excessive bravery of the haughty daughters of Zion; which hath more hard words in it, than any place of the Bible within so short a compass; and therefore, though a present construction and resolution thereof might have put a good Hebrician to a stand, yet such was his dexterity, as made those difficult words facile, and rendered him a prompt respondent."-Life of Cotton, by John Norton.

"The fifth day reads Hebrew, and the Easterne Tongues. Grammar to the first yeare, houre the 8th. To the 2d, Chaldee, at the 9th houre. To the 3d, Syriack at the 10th houre. Afternoone. The first yeare practise in the Bible at the 2d houre. The 2d, in Ezra and Daniel, at the 3d houre. The 3d, at the 4th houre, in Trostius New Testament."

New England's First Fruits. London, 1643.

It was on this account, probably, that he was employed to “revise and publish the Bay Psalm Book," printed at Cambridge in 1640.

Hebrew he derived no small benefit, during the space of a year, from the conversation of a Jew. He was the friend of Archbishop Usher, and had been successively Professor of Hebrew, and of Greek, at the University of Cambridge, England. When he attended prayers in the hall at Harvard College, in the morning, he usually expounded a chapter of the Old Testament, which was first read from Hebrew by one of his pupils; and in the evening, a chapter of the New Testament, read from the Greek. Thomas Thacher, the first minister of the Old South Church, Boston, having spent several years under the tuition of President Chauncy, while the latter was minister of Scituate, became well skilled in Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew; in the lastnamed language he composed a lexicon.* The thesis, which Cotton Mather maintained, when he received his second degree, was "the divine origin of the Hebrew points," though he afterwards saw reason to change his mind, and to hold to the contrary opinion to the last. During seven years after his graduation, he prepared students for admission to college, hearing recitations every day in the original Scriptures, giving particular attention to the Hebrew.

In the burying-ground in the town of Northborough, in this State, there is a monument, on which the following is the inscription in part:

"A native branch of Judah see,

Which, once from off its olive broke,
Regrafted from the living tree,

Of the reviving sap partook."

This "native branch 99

was Judah Monis, the first regular

instructor of Hebrew at Harvard College. He was by birth

* Wisner's Hist. of the Old South Church, p. 12.

and religion a Jew, but embraced the Christian faith, and was publicly baptized at Cambridge, in 1722. The Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman, of Boston, preached a sermon on the occasion, which was published. In the preface, he remarks, that" Mr. Monis is a master and critic in the Hebrew. He reads, speaks, writes, and interprets it with great readiness and accuracy, and is truly didaktтikós, apt to teach. His diligence and industry, together with his ability, are known unto many, who have seen his Grammar and Nomenclator, Hebrew and English, as also his translation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, and the Assembly's Shorter Catechism into Hebrew."* For his Hebrew Grammar the Corporation paid him £35. He made use of the vowel-points in this Grammar, and insisted that they were essential to the right pronunciation of the language. He resigned his office in 1760. On the 7th of September, in the same year, the Corporation voted, "that Sir Sewall be the Hebrew instructor in Harvard College this year." He was rechosen in 1762 and 1763. In 1764 the Hancock Professorship of the Hebrew and other Oriental Languages was established, from a legacy of Thomas Hancock, an opulent merchant of Boston, who died August 1, 1764. This was the first professorship founded in America by a native. Stephen Sewall

*It was voted by the Corporation, April 30th, 1722," that Mr. Judah Monis be improved as an instructor in the Hebrew language in the College," and that his salary for one year should be £70. All the undergraduates, except the Freshmen and such others as should be exempted by the Faculty, were required to attend his instructions on four days in the week. He was rechosen in 1723, and in 1724. He then appears to have become a permanent instructor. See Worcester Magazine, II. 180, and Peirce's Hist. of Harvard University, p. 232.