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Daily Prices of STOCKS, from 21st OCTOBER to 20th NOVEMBER, 1814.

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THE

LITERARY PANORAMA.

AND

National Register:

For JANUARY, 1815.

NATIONAL and PARLIAMENTARY | tinguish the votaries of Jaggernaut, if it

Notices,

BRITISH and FOREIGN.

OFFICIAL PAPERS ON THE SUBJECT OF A

commanded the seclusion of its professors from society, if it burst the bonds of affection, or forbad the humanities of our nature, then, indeed, the less pure it were preserved the better; then every Fac Simile Edition of the variation would become a correction; ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT. every omission, must be an improveWHATEVER difficulties attend the ment. Not so, if it recommend whatproposition, that Deity has at any ever is lovely, and pure, and well retime revealed its will to man, whether ported of;-if it command courtesy by the intervention of a power acting and benignity, brotherly kindness, and on the mind of certain individuals, or general sympathy with our fellows! If of a person appointed for the express it appeal for the truth of its credentials purpose of announcing it-that proposi- as authorized by heaven, to the heation being established, all must admit venly maxims it promulgates, and the that the instructions so communicated heavenly disposition it inculcates, then cannot but be important, while to surely every variation from its genuine preserve (or to obtain) them genuine, is dictates, hazards the application of some equally our duty with that of correctly important truth, or risques the enfeebunderstanding them, and honestly re-ling of some corrective monition. For ducing them to practice. In fact, the integrity of copies is one among the means of proof, that dogmata claiming authority from heaven, are, or are not, entitled to that distinction: for, if the copies established are mutilated, interpolated, or varied, essentially, by what means shall we judge on the character of injunctions or precepts, and determine the possibility or probability, of such commands emanating from the Supreme Source of all perfection?

To a Religion founded on morals, rather than on costly observances, this ground of argument is of infinite consequence. To Christianity, the most simple of institutions, succeeding an institution more ceremonious, and indeed pompous, this medium of proof, affects its vital interests, blends with its very existence. If this Religion prescribed the barbarous sacrifices of Moloch, if it enjoined the painful and costly exertions which disVOL. I. Lit. Pan. New Series. Jan. 1.

what are all injunctions of a similar tendency to these, but so many correctives of the human inclination ?-so many detections of that perversity which draws aside the best of us;-so many remedies against the disorders of our minds, and faculties, and opinions? If personal happiness depend also on the influence of these laws, and if those who obey them find the reward of their obedience in the protection of a guardian power, the result of an enlightened understanding, while such as scorn them wander without a guide, surrounded by darkness and dread, err almost perpetually, and stumble, not seldom fatally-then, assuredly, it is the interest of all to preserve this Code perfect, unimpaired, and our copies of it unimpeachable.

Far be it from us to damp the joy of our countrymen when victory crowns the British arms; yet victory, however grateful to the nation, costs many a

the Alexandrian Manuscript, now in the British Museum, the highest character for antiquity, authenticity, and authority.

This celebrated Manuscript was trans

sigh to the country: far be it from us to diminish the well-earned plaudits fairly due to important discoveries in science, or to beneficial inventions in behalf of diligence and industry; yet the real advantages of these gradually va-mitted to England by Sir Thomas Roe, nish as the haud of time draws over Ambassador from King Charles I. to them the veil, whose bedimming powers the Ottoman Porte. Cyril, Patriarch of envelope all mortal existence. What are Alexandria, in Egypt, being removed the laurels won by a Marlborough, once from that city to Constantinople, about the pride of a people, to the present the beginning of the seventeenth cengeneration? And if the discoveries of a tury, brought with him a valuable colNewton are justly the boast of our lection of antient books; aud, possibly, country still, and the invention of an Ark-not without apprehension of what might wright is appealed to, as originating a new æra in commercial mechanics; yet the very utmost benefit, derivable from these soon terminates, and with it their utility and their glory. A happier fate attends the principles of morals: ever the same, ever equally applicable, equally felicitous; the rudder, the compass, the anchor of the human nind! Their happy guidance has been acknowledged in ages past; their virtue and power will be felt in ages to come: by these we steer our way amid the tempests of life; and by these may our descendants avoid the dangers which will not fail to surround them, as they have surrounded all who preceded them, without exception, without remission.

befal himself, and with him, his collection, among a people so little swayed by deference to Christian learning as the Turks; or by whatever other motive influenced, the Patriarch sent the most valuable article in his treasury as a present to his Majesty of England. It was placed in the Royal Library at St. James's, whence it was subsequently removed to our National Collection; of which it forms one of the glories. It consists of four volumes: the first three contain the Old Testament; the fourth contains the New Testament; to which is annexed the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, with a portion of the Second: and this is the only copy now known to exist of that performance. Yet Clement was an Apostolic man: and his epistles were read in the churches, for edification. The first epistle, especially, was frequently read; and, no doubt, was repeated by copies in considerable numbers: of which only one representative remains! and that mutilated!

To preserve in their purity documents which contain principles so important, has been the desire and the labour of the wise and good, from the earliest times. The greatest sovereigns have considered themselves as deriving honour from their assiduity in the sacred cause of perpetuating Gospel truth; and we who live so many centuries after the The writer of this Manuscript is said promulgation of our Holy Religion, are to have been Thecla, an Egyptian lady, obliged to them for much of our know-who lived early in the fourth century;ledge of sacred things. True it is, that the vicissitudes of the world long obscured these invaluable memorials; and many, probably, by far the majority, have perished. This enhances the value of what remains ;-of the daily diminishing few; and, where is the country in Europe that does not congratulate itself, if happy enough to possess an authentic and ancient copy of the New Testainent code? Our own country is distinguished in this respect of three, the most valuable and celebrated, we possess two; and no capable judge refuses to

but, here ends our knowledge of her. There have been many ladies of this name; some of them of Roman descent, who retired into the East for devotion, perhaps for solitude; and whose piety was in the highest esteem among their contemporaries. These ladies understood the Greek language; nor could they better employ the leisure they had obtained, than by reading Holy Scripture in that tongue, and copying, or causing to be copied for their use, so much of it as they could procure;-for often it was not without diligence and good fortune

they could procure the whole. The Lady Thecla, then, to whom our Manuscript owes its existence, was a person of eminence, probably of consequence, since her copy is complete, as to its contents, though now bearing marks of accidents, to which it has been exposed. When we say " causing to be copied," we provide against an objection from those acquainted with the custom of the writing rooms in monasteries in the West; we acknowledge too, with Father Simon, that there were in the East monasteries consecrated to St. Thecla, and that possibly this copy might be written in such a one. But of this there is no proof; and whatever authority is due to tradition, or to the judgment of its owner Cyril, is adverse to any such (insidious?) proposition.

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This Manuscript had not been long in England, before its value, as an important document in behalf of Christianity, became known. Mr. Patrick Young, the learned Keeper of the King's Library, at that time, soon discovered the epistles of Clement, and was commanded by the king to publish them, which he did in 1633, with a Latin translation. The spirit of rivalship between the supporters of the Romish church, and those who protested against her errors, extended to indifferent things; and the Vatican copy merely because it was at Rome, was preferred by the learned-Catholics especially, to the Alexandrian сору, in the hands of Protestants. To restore the balance of opinion, Dr. Grabe was commanded by Queen Anne to publish the manuscript. He accordingly communicated to the world in 17071710, the Old Testament part of it; being the Septuagint translation. But the greatest honour done to this copy, or that could be done to any copy, and altogether original in its nature, was a fuc simile edition of the New Testament,

now

Many late writers have employed their utmost ingenuity and learning in endeavouring to ascertain the age of this, and its rival Manuscripts *. After a profound investigation of the subject, Dr. Woide fixes the age of this copy between the middle and end of the fourth century. Later than this a general dis-published in London in 1786, by Dr. position prevailed in the West to consider Woide, of the British Museum. In this those manuscripts as most correct which edition the work is represented page for most closely conformed to the Latin page, line for line, letter for letter, conversion authorized in the Romish com- traction for contraction, rasure for ramunion: from this blemish, a copy writ-sure, with a degree of similarity hardly ten at an earlier period, and in the East, is of course completely free. Whatever opinions, also, in subsequent ages agitated the Christian world, have had no influence on this copy; it neither omits, nor inserts, nor dismembers a word to accommodate a passage to such sentiments. It was not many removes distant from the originals, of which it is a transcript: the language was still the spoken language; and whatever ambiguities occurred (as some will always occur in all writings) they were then easily explained, and properly understood.

These are-1, the Codex Cantabrigiensis, or, Beza's copy, at Cambridge; endeavoured to be placed by Dr. Kipling, at the close of the second century, but removed by Dr. Marsh, in his notes on Michaelis, vol. ii. pp. 708-715, to the fifth century;-2, the Coder Vaticanus, now at Paris; which by Montfaucon and Bianchini, is referred to the fifth century. This has been collated, but never published.

credible. The ink was composed to suit the colour of the faded pigment; and the types were cut with the closest possible resemblance as to form, in alphabets exhibiting the variations of the original. Nothing like it had ever appeared in the learned world *. Some years afterwards, Mr. Baber, of the British Museum, published the Book of Psalins, with equal accuracy; and now

this application of the art of printing, was That which approached the nearest to the Medicean Virgil, published at Florence in 1741; but that was far from equalling the labours of our countrymen.

In 1793, a fac simile edition of the Coder Cantabrigiensis, or Beza's copy, at Cambridge, was published in the sime manner, at the expense of the University, by Dr. Kipling. It is a work that does great honour to the parties entrusted with the execution of it: nevertheless, from the difficulty of procuring it, it has hitherto proved more curious, than useful.

Q.2

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