Page images
PDF
EPUB

122

deplored the present degraded state of
society which such a scene but too pow-
erfully witnessed.

"The voice of female sorrow is powerfully eloquent, and is ever sufficient to move the heart with pity and commiseration, excepting the hearts of villains and cowards. Humanitas felt it deeply now; but the unfeeling bands by whom he was surrounded experienced it not; no muscle of the hard evil-faced slave-dealers was moved; innumerable scenes of a similar description had calcined every vestige of humanity, and left nothing in their sordid breasts but the brutal or satanic avarice which their trade had begotten.

IN abridging the following description she reached the spot where already her sale. Here she received the afflictive of a slave-sale, from an able article lately beloved foster-sister stood exposed for written on this subject by a cordial friend "The deep feeling of his mind had information that several regular traffickers to our cause, it is necessary to explain that the person here designated by the thrown him into a state of absence so in human beings were present, who were name of Humanitas is a gentleman of perfect as to have rendered him altoge-able and disposed to purchase her at a high benevolent character and literary ther indifferent to the things and persons price much above what she was able to celebrity, who, on leaving Cape Town to by whom he was surrounded. From this raise. Among this number was one from visit a friend in the interior, consented to abstraction he was roused by the plaintive an adjacent town, who was fully acbecome the bearer of three thousand rix-and heart-rending moans of a female; he quainted with her worth, and who had dollars to a clergyman resident at a town turned, almost mechanically, and beheld declared his intention to possess her, althrough which he was obliged to pass. It an interesting young woman of colour, though a sum should be set upon her was in the course of this journey that he standing apart from her companions in head doubling the usual price of an ordiwitnessed the scene which is described in captivity, the intensity of whose grief nary slave. might be better conceived of by the the following narrative :agony which shook her frame, than expressed by the cold language of narraClose by her side stood another tion. female, whose dress bespoke her of respectable connexions, but her countenance wore not the reprobatory hue (as some men seem to think a tawny skin is) possessed by the others, and yet her sorrow was not less intense than her's whose complexion had made her a slave. In her arms she held a sweet infant, which "While Humanitas was making his inat intervals she pressed to her bosom in convulsive agony, as she gazed with phrenzied emotion on the black for whom quiries, receiving an answer, and comher tears flowed so profusely. The scene menting on the distressing circumstances, was, in all its parts, a painfully interest- the sale was going on; a number of artiHumanitas felt it cles had been disposed of, and then a ing and novel one. so; and, prompted by a strong desire to slave was brought forward. The rapacious ascertain, if possible, the cause of so pow-individuals before referred to pressed erful a sympathy on the part of a white round her, and, with a degree of cruelty person, so unusual, even in the female and indelicacy which could only be disbreast, in the brutalizing regions of slave- played by such besotted and beastlyry, towards a slave, he enquired of some minded creatures, commenced their exbone and muscle, of a being which bore who were connected with the sale for a amination of her person, treating every solution of the mystery. the image of the great Creator, as if a beast of burden had stood before them: she was soon disposed of; and then the slave to whom reference has been made already was brought out, and, after undergoing the same mode of scrutiny, was put up for sale.

A considerable number of persons had already assembled, and not a few of those whose countenances would have led the powerfully descriptive Shakspeare 'villains.' to have denounced them They were those whose whole contour seemed an index to their hearts, hardformed, ill-favoured, and tanned to semiblackness. The outragers of the laws of nature--the bold defiers of God! bearing human forms, but in whose breasts flowed not a drop of human kindness-whose names and deeds will live in endless execration whose calling all good men abhor, and which, by God's providence, will, ere long, be blotted from our world as one of the foulest stains which mars the beauty of the Almighty's moral and intellectual kingdom-they were SLAVE

DEALERS!

"A variety of articles were exposed for sale, over which Humanitas cast a careless eye; for, as they were composed chiefly of household requisites and implements of husbandry, there was not any thing in them calculated to engage his attention. Scarcely, however, had he finished his vacant survey of the above varieties, before his eye was arrested by another portion of property, ranged in a line with the horned cattle which flanked the enclosure, the whole of which was to be disposed of by the fall of the hammer. This was a group of unfortunate beings whose forefathers had been stolen from the land of their birth, and these their hapless progeny were, therefore, adjudged worthy to be branded by the opprobrious name, and treated with the barbarity, of slaves and beasts of burden.

"The spirit of Humanitas groaned within him, and his whole soul rose in indignation at the cruelty of his fellows, as he surveyed the sable group; for once he blushed to think he was a man, or that, as being such, he was classed with the unlawful retainers of his fellow-men in bondage. He viewed, through the medium of his own feelings, the unjust and inhuman system, a brief exhibition of which he now surveyed; and, while contemplating in his mind the fearful result which will, in all probability, at some future day, proceed from the explosion of so nefarious a system, he mentally

"A few words informed the inquirer that the white person was the daughter of the late farmer, whose effects were now to be disposed of, and that the slave over whom she so affectionately wept was her foster-sister. From infancy they had "I will not attempt a description of been associates-in childhood they were undivided. The distinction which colour made in the eyes of some, to them was the maiden glow of shame and modest not known. The marriage of the farmer's indignation which passed over her fine daughter was the first cause of separation open countenance, and lit up her large they had ever known, and even then a keen eye, as the treatment of the mercipain such as sisters only feel at parting less dealers was forced upon her, nor was felt by each of them as they said the crushing agony which evidently Farewell! She had retired with her hus- wrung her soul, as she gazed, halfband to a distant part of the colony, and franticly, on her foster-sister, while the there received the mournful intelligence cruel jest and little-minded laugh curled of her father's death, and the account of the lips of those by whom she was surthe public sale of his property; included rounded. Oh! no, no!-attempt here in this, she was certain, would be found would indeed be idleness, if not prothe slave in question: her father's insol-fanity; the feeling heart can better convent circumstances rendered this una-ceive of it than the most eloquent and voidable. With an affection which dis- ready pen can find language to describe tance, fatigue, and danger could not affect, she had travelled four hundred miles, cheered by the hope of being able to purchase her freedom. "The pleasing delusion which strength-dently a strong feeling of rivalry among ened and encouraged her, during the the dealers concerning the slave for which fatigue of her toilsome journey, fled as they were bidding. Having, however,

it.

"The sale proceeded with unusual spiThere was evithousand rix dollars. rit until it had reached the sum of two

THE TOURIST.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

* The stranger was an officer in the East India Company's service. He had come to the Cape for was attracted by the crowd in the valley, and prohis health; and, while shooting on the mountains, videntially arrived in time to perform the noble action, than which none is more imposing in the compass of history.

reached the sum stated, they flagged gra- | sciousness, the voice of the stranger was took her hand and led her to her fosterdually, the contest evidently subsiding; heard-Three thousand one hundred sister, whose agony was still intense, to 'One hundred more,' shouted whom he presented her, saying, ' Receive one after another ceased to bid, and, at dollars.' 'Another hundred,' said the your friend, no longer as a slave, but as your daily suplength, two only maintained the strife. the dealer. One was the agent of a clergyman's stranger. A look which would, had it your companion; and, in lady, who, it was known, would treat her been possible, have annihilated his per-plications at the throne of grace, forget well; the other, the dealer, who had fully son, was given by the dealer, as he voci- not to implore a blessing on the head of Another fifty,' Major Mmade up his mind to possess her for the ferated, Fifty more.' purpose of letting her out as an animal continued the stranger. Fifty more,' of labour. Two thousand five hundred shouted the dealer. One hundred more,' dollars was the last bid, and a pause en- echoed the stranger; she is mine,' he sued; the dealer was now the highest added, with spirited firmness, at any bidder; expectation was on the tip-toe; price.' The pulse of the mortified and all eyes were turned towards the auc- enraged trafficker in human beings might tioneer, and "any advance?" was asked have almost been heard as the unwelcome Silence conti- sounds saluted him. He had, however, in an audible voice. nued, and the question was repeated proceeded as far as he dared, and there- THE CATARACT AND THE STREAMLET. when the attention of the company was fore answered not the repeated call of the auction man. 'One, two, three,' at directed from the auction by the ance of three figures who were seen de- proper intervals, was repeated; and, at bescending the side of a mountain in the length, the hammer fell, the stranger distance. It appeared as if they were ing the purchaser at the sum of Three hastening to the sale, and, the lot which thousand four hundred and fifty rix dolwas now up being an important one, the lars. seller felt something like obligation to suspend the fall of the hammer until they reached the spot. The persons were soon discovered to be a gentleman on horseback, accompanied by two Hottentot

servants on foot.

appear

"A few minutes only elapsed, during which the auctioneer sipped some lemonade, to assist him the better to support his future garrulity, when the stranger rode up. A large military cloak enveloped his whole person, so as entirely to cut off all possibility of ascertaining who he might be. He almost immediately dismounted, and, giving his horse to one of his servants, surveyed the things around him with perfect indifference. The sale went on-another bidding was made by the agent-the dealer followed the agent bid again, when, as if at once to close the protracted affair, the dealer shouted, Three thousand rix dollars.' This ended the struggle the agent retired. 'Once, twice,' responded he who held the hammer is there no advance?' He cast his eyes round the assembly with the inquisitiveness of his calling-neither wink, nod, or voice, gave answer to his question. A dead pause ensued-it was fearful, but short. The hand of the auctioneer was again raised-when the poor slave, in a tone of sublimated agony, shrieked out,Jesus, help me!' and, clasping her hands wildly, fell senseless on the ground.

The shriek of the unfortunate thrilled through the ear of the stranger, and entered his soul; and, while some simple measure was employed to restore her to animation, he looked round, as if seeking information concerning what he had heard and saw. His gaze caught the eye of Humanitas, who instantly recognized in him an old friend. A brief but graphic explanation was immediately furnished; and, as the slave again returned to con

The business, although nearly terminated, was not yet closed. Payment was to be made, and immediate payment was demanded. The gentleman offered his checque on the bank at Cape Town; but the auctioneer, who experienced a degree of vexation at the disappointment which his friend (the dealer) had met with, determined to throw every possible obstacle in the way to prevent the bargain, and therefore refused the checque. The stranger looked perplexed, and argued the validity of the payment; but the hammer-man was inexorable.

Of

BY BERNARD BARTON.
Noble the mountain-stream,

Bursting in grandeur from its vantage-ground;
Glory is in its gleam
brightness;-thunder in its deafening sound!
Mark, how its foamy spray,
Tinged by the sun-beams with reflected dyes,
Mimics the bow of day
Arching in majesty the vaulted skies ;-

Thence, in a summer-shower,
Steeping the rocks around :-O! tell me where
Could majesty and power
Be cloth'd in forms more beautifully fair?

The

Yet lovelier, in my view,
streamlet, flowing silently serene;

Traced by the brighter hue,
And livelier growth it gives ;—itself unseen!

It flows through flowery meads,
Gladdening the herds which on its margin browse ;
The alders that o'ershade it with their boughs.

Its quiet beauty feeds

Gently it murmurs by
The village church-yard :-its low, plaintive tone
A dirge-like melody
worth and beauty modest as its own.

More gaily now it sweeps
And o'er the pebbles leaps,
By the school-house, in the sunshine bright;
happy hearts by holiday made light.

Like

In

May not its course express, characters which they who run may read, The charms of gentleness,

Were

"Humanitas marked the conduct of the
man carefully, and, as he did so, he felt
those pleasing emotions (for the exist-For
ence of them he could not account),
which the purchase of the slave by his
friend had created, suddenly subsiding.
At this moment, his thoughts rested on
the sum of which he was the bearer to the
clergyman, and, aware it could be re-
placed in a day or two, he presented the
gentleman with it. Three thousand he
produced from his pocket, and, in silver,
they made up to the amount of fifty more
between them;-still the sum was not
complete, and this modern Shylock de-
manded the whole, or its equivalent. The
stranger hesitated a moment, and then
drew forth a handsome gold watch and
appendages, and, throwing the whole on
the table, concluded the purchase.

"Still ignorant of her future fate, but
as if happy to have escaped from the
power of the slave-dealer, the weeping,
trembling creature rushed forward, and
fell at the feet of her purchaser. A scene
followed which baffles all description :-
angels, in their messages of mercy to the
sons of men, might have been arrested in
their flight, to notice and applaud it; but
the act received the approving smile of
Him who is the God of angels. The
stranger bended over the prostrate female,
and, having raised her from the earth,

but its still small voice allow'd to plead?

What are the trophies gain'd
By power alone, with all its noise and strife,

To that meek wreath, unstain'd,

Won by the charities that gladden life?

And

Niagara's streams might fail,
But Egypt would turn pale,
human happiness be undisturb'd;
Were her still Nile's o'erflowing bounty curb'd!

LINES

Sent to a Lady by the Right Hon.

staying late at her House the Night before.
Too late I staid-forgive the crime;
Unheeded flew the hours:
How noiseless falls the foot of time,
That only treads on flowers!
What eye with clear account remarks
The ebbing of the glass,
When all its sands are diamond sparks,
Which dazzle as they pass?
Oh! who to sober measurement
Time's happy swiftness brings,
When birds of Paradise have lent
Their plumage to his wings?

after

[blocks in formation]

THE present position of the anti-slavery cause must be highly gratifying to every friend of humanity and religion. Considerable progress has been made during the last twelve months in awakening public attention to the enormities of our slave system, and in inducing a general demand for its immediate and entire abolition. The people of this country have at length ascertained the true nature of colonial slavery. Their honest judgments were for a long time deluded by colonial misrepresentations; and the friends of the negro had, in consequence, to deplore their supineness and inactivity. But the information which has lately been supplied to the public has effectually removed this delusion, and united all religious and honest men in a deep and unmitigated abhorrence of the slave system.

The progress of our cause is strikingly evinced in the altered language of our opponents. Instead of maintaining with a fearless front, as they were accustomed to do, the rectitude of this system, and the madness of attempting its overthrow or mitigation, they profess to regret its existence, and to be prepared for the adoption of measures which may ultimately secure its extinction. We must be excused if we say we do not rely on the honesty of such statements. Had we never looked into the records of colonial duplicity and oppression-had we never tracked the course of these men in other stages of the controversy-had we never been cognizant of the meanness and artifice by which they have often attempted to evade the demands of justice-we might rely on their good faith. But we know too much of their past history to be thus deluded any longer. After the experience which we have had of their tactics, we should be the veriest fools in creation if we suffered ourselves to be deceived once more.

What we demand is the immediate abolition of that system which makes man the property of his fellow-man. This request is perfectly compatible with the adoption of any regulations which Parliament may deem necessary for securing the good order and tranquillity of the new state of society. It cannot be supposed that the slave population of our colonies are competent to the discharge of all those duties which devolve on the inhabitants of our

highly civilized land. No such thought has

entered the minds of abolitionists, however it

may have answered the purpose of their opponents to attribute it to them. It is admitted that regulations may be expedient in the colonies which would not be tolerated here. But, in perfect consistency with an approval of such measures, we claim for the negro race-that they be no longer the goods or chattels of another, nor be subjected to the arbitrary will of a capricious, sordid, or cruel master. Let them have the protection, as well as the restraints, of law. Let them share in the blessings of that freedom which has long been naturalized

to our soil.

The enemies of emancipation are at present endeavouring to arm, in their defence, the fears of the public mind. After telling us, for years, of the measures which have been adopted for the improvement of their slaves-of the provision which has been made for their reli

gious instruction, and of the happy effects | subject which we propose inserting in our cowhich have resulted from those enactments, lumns. Our readers will bear them in mind they now turn round and falsify their own in the perusal of what may follow. We shall averments, by representing the negro race as close this paper by a quotation from a letter so debased in intellect and morals as to be bearing date December 5, 1832, signed by of life unless coerced by the driver's whip. Society, and John Crisp, &c., from which it disqualified for discharging the simplest duties Thomas Pringle, Secretary to the Anti-Slavery They cannot expect a serious reply to such may be seen we have not written without contradictions. Let them reconcile their pre- authority. sent statements with their former declarations, before they venture to look honest men in the

face.

It is amusing to observe how they pervert Such conduct betrays their our language. weakness, and thus strengthens our confidence An honourable opponent of early victory. would not descend to the employment of such means; but it is not to be expected that the advocates of oppression and cruelty should be very scrupulous about the methods they adopt. The phrase, immediate emancipation, has been which it has been employed by abolitionists to interpreted to mean any thing rather than that express. We have, therefore, thought it advisable to offer these explanatory remarks, as an introduction to a series of papers on this

"An explanation of the meaning of the words 'immediate emancipation' having, in some instances, been requested by the friends of the abolition of slavery, both the Anti-Slavery and Agency Societies have considered that the following mode of putting the ques tion may obviate the difficulty which some candidates, who are really favourable to our cause, have hitherto felt in giving an explicit answer in the affirmative.

"In the event of your becoming a member of the next Parliament, will you vote for, and of colonial slavery, subject to such provisions strenuously support, the immediate abolition as Parliament may deem necessary in order to secure the industrious habits and orderly conduct of the negroes?''

[graphic]

POPE'S VILLA AT TWICKENHAM,

WE extract the following short account of the residence of Pope, represented in the above engraving, from his life by Dr. Johnson.

"This year (1715) being, by the subscription, enabled to live more by choice, having persuaded his father to sell their estate at Benfield, he purchased, I think only for his life, that house at Twickenham, to which his residence afterwards procured so much celebration, and removed thither with his father and mother.

sure of an Englishman, who has more frequent need to solicit than exclude the sun; but Pope's excavation was requisite as an entrance to his garden; and, as some men try to be proud of their defects, he extracted an ornament from an inconvenience, and vanity produced a grotto where necessity enforced a passage. It may frequently be remarked, of the studious and speculative, that they are proud of trifles, and that their amusements seem frivolous and childish; whether it be that "Here he planted the vines and the quin- men, conscious of great reputation, think cunx which his verses mention; and, be- themselves above the reach of censure, ing under the necessity of making a sub- and safe in the admission of negligent interraneous passage to a garden on the dulgences, or that mankind expect from other side of the road, he adorned it with elevated genius an uniformity of greatfossile bodies, and dignified it with the ness, and watch its degradation with matitle of a grotto, a place of silence and re-licious wonder; like him who, having foltreat, from which he endeavoured to per-lowed with his eye an eagle into the clouds, suade his friends and himself that cares should lament that she ever descended to and passions could be excluded. a perch."

66

A grotto is not often the wish or plea

The grotto alluded to by his biographer

has been immortalized by Pope in the Approach; but awful! lo! th' Egerian grot, following lines:

TO MY GROTTO AT TWICKENHAM,

Where nobly pensive St. John sat and thought;
Where British sighs from dying Wyndham stole,
And the bright flame was shot through March-
mont's soul.

Composed of Marbles, Spars, Gems, Ores, and Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor,
Who dare to love their country, and be poor.

Minerals.

[blocks in formation]

a whole waggon-load of these new heretics (the Methodists); but, when he asked what they had done, there was a deep silence, for that was a point their conductors had forgot! At length one said, 'Why, they pretend to be better than their neighbours; and, besides, they pray from morning to night.' The magistrate asked, 'But, have they done nothing besides?' Yes, sir,' said an old man, 'an't please your Worship, they have convarted my wife. Till she went among them, she had such a tongue; but now she is as quiet as a lamb.' Carry them back, carry them back,' replied the Jus tice, and let them convert all the scolds in the town." "

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[graphic][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

AMERICAN QUAKERS.;

IN 1790, the American Quakers presented the following Address to General Washington, then President of the United States:

"We would neither trespass on thy time nor on thy patience-to flatter were utterly inconsistent with our general behaviour; but, as our principles and conduct have been subject to misrepresentation, it is incumbent upon us, by the strongest assurances, to testify our sincere and loyal attachment to thee, and all those set in authority over us. Our most fervent prayers to Heaven are, that thy presidentship may prove no less a blessing to thyself than the community at large."

To this address General Washington returned the following answer :

"Liberty of worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of our conscience is not solely an indulgence of civil government, but the unalienable right of men, as long as they perform their civil obligations. Society can have no further demands. Men are only answerable to Heaven for their religious opinions. With your principles and conduct I am not unacquainted; and I do the Quakers but common justice when I say that, except in the instance of their refusal to support the common cause of their fellow-citizens during the war, no sect can boast of a greater number of useful and exemplary citizens."

ANNIBAL CARACCI.

Ir is said of this great painter that, when the conversation in which he was engaged referred to any thing that could be made an object of the pencil, he used to take out his pencil and draw it; giving as a reason, that, as poets paint by words, so painters should speak by their pencils.

The gallery of the Farnese palace at Rome is a standing monument of his attention in his art. It took him up eight years to finish, and he was paid only five hundred gold crowns for it. He died of a broken heart, in consequence of it, at the age of forty-nine; immortalizing no less the detestable avarice of his employer, Car dinal Farnese, than his own transcendent genius.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

volume, and the evidences as to its genuineness suggested by its contents. And the first circumstance to be noticed is, that it makes no pretensions to inspiration, but most modestly purports to be a mere chronicle of traditions. In the last verse of his fourth chapter,

THE BOOK OF JASHER: with Testimonies and Notes, Critical and Historical, Explanatory of the Text. Translated into English from the Hebrew by FLACCUS ALBINUS, of Britain, to read the volume as often as I would, in the Jasher informs us, that he received all the in

Abbot of Canterbury. 4to.

WE have the pleasure of introducing to our readers, in this volume, a work of no small interest, whether its pretensions to antiquity be genuine or spurious. It purports to be the Book of Jasher, quoted in the Old Testament, in the books of Joshua and Samuel. Every document which refers to so early and obscure a period of the world's history, and which records events previously known to us only on the testimony of divine revelation, must be an object of much curiosity; and this we will endeavour, in the present instance, to gratify, by bringing before our readers the evidences which attest its authenticity, and some account of the subjects on which it treats.

sent word back that he would meet me in the
library at the ninth hour. The time being come,
the treasurer, the custos, and I, met at the library,
where the treasurer, having unlocked the chest,
gave me the book; then locked the chest and gave
the key to the custos, saying, that I was at liberty
presence of the custos and in the library. After
this, I had free access to the Book of Jasher. It is
a large scroll, in width two feet three inches, and
in length nine feet. It is written in large cha-
paper on
racters, and exceeding beautiful. The
which it is written is, for thickness, the eighth of
and to the eye as white as snow.
an inch. To the touch it seemed as soft as velvet,

The first thing that commanded my attention was a little scroll, entitled, the Story of the Volume of Jasher. This informed me that Jasher was born in Goshen, in the land of Egypt, that he was the son of the mighty Caleb, who was general of the Hebrews, while Moses was with Jeshro, in Midian; that, on the embassy to Pharaoh, Jasher was appointed verger to Moses and Aaron, to bear the rod before them; that, as he always accompanied Moses, Jasher must have had the greatest opportunities of knowing the facts he hath recorded; The Editor, to whom we owe the publica- that, from his great attachment to truth and uption of the volume before us, states in the out-rightness, he early received his name; that Jasher set that he is unable to assert any thing respecting it, of his own knowledge, further than the account given by Alcuin, the discoverer and translator of it; which, he says, carries with it such an air of probability and truth, that he does not doubt of its authenticity. This account we have condensed into the following narrative :

I, Alcuin, was desirous of travelling into the Holy Land and into Persia, in search of holy things, and to see the wonders of the East. I took with me two companions, Thomas of Malmesbury, and John of Huntingdon, who learned with me the languages necessary to be known, under able teachers: and, though we went as pilgrims, yet we took with us considerable riches. We embarked at Bristol, and went first to Rome; where the Pope blessed us, and encouraged us in our undertaking. From Rome we went to Greece, and thence to the Holy Land. After having visited every part of the Holy Land, particularly Bethlehem, Hebron, Mount Sinai, and the like, we crossed an arm of the Persian Gulf at Bassora,

and went in a boat to Bagdad, and thence by land to Ardevil, and so to Casbin. Here we learned, from an ascetic, that in the furthermost part of Persia, in the city of Gazna, was a manuscript in Hebrew of the Book of Jasher, which he reminded them was twice mentioned in the Bible, and ap

pealed to as a book of testimony. We immedi

ately undertook the journey to Gazna, and, on arriving there, we laid aside the pilgrim's dress; and I hired a house, where we dwelt during our stay in the city-a period of three years.

I soon became acquainted with the keeper of the library, which belongs to the community of this city, and inquired of him concerning the Book of Jasher, of which the recluse at Casbin had told us. He said, he had read of such a manuscript in the catalogue of the library, but had never seen it, though he had been custos for fortyfive years; that it was locked up in a chest and kept among the antiquities in a separate part of the library. I made him a present of a wedge of gold, in value fifty pounds, and begged him to allow me to see the volume. He conducted me to a room where was the chest in which it was contained, but informed me that the key was in the hands of the city-treasurer. To the latter, how ever, he introduced me, and told him the substance of my request. The treasurer smiled, and said, he was not then at leisure, but would consider of it. The next morning I sent John of Huntingdon to him with a wedge of gold, of the value of one hundred pounds, by way of a present; and he

[blocks in formation]

formation he communicates from his grandfather Hezron, his father Caleb, and his mother Azuba. In the almost total absence, however, of other books, it appears to have been well known and credited among the Jews, from the kind of reference made to it in the sacred writings: "Behold, it is written in the Book of Jasher," 2 Sam. i. 18; and more especially in Joshua x. 13, " Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?" Here the sentence being framed as an appeal, clearly indicates the notoriety and credence generally attaching to the volume. The greater part of it is a history of the events recorded in the Pentateuch, with some inaccuracies, and some remarkable omissions. Among the first may be mentioned the account of the birth and preservation of Moses. On this point Jasher appears to have been misinformed; as he says nothing of his concealment by his parents; but simply states, that, on the issuing of Pharaoh's barbarous edict, he was taken by his mother to the princess, who compassionated and adopted him. "And Pharaoh's daughter said, Give unto me the child. And they did so. And she said, This shall be my son. And it came to pass that the wrath of Pharaoh was turned away from slaying the males of the Hebrews. And the child Moses grew and increased in stature, After reading the volume through, I conceived and was learned in all the magic of the a great desire of returning to England with a Egyptians."-(Chap. v. ver. 12-14.) In this wish we transcript of it and the notes. Of the omissions of Jasher, the most sinmet with the strong opposition of the treasurer;gular are the murder of Abel, and the Deluge. with whom, and with the recorder of the city, we It seems impossible to suppose that these eventually succeeded by presents of gold, and so obtained permission to make a translation in the events should not have been known to him; library and in the presence of the custos. This especially as the story of them may be recogwe conducted in the following manner :-the nized (more or less fantastically clothed) in some of those systems of pagan mythology, manuscript was laid on the table, round which the custos and we sat. The custos opened the volume, which were constructed in a darkness that and we read the first chapter, which we were per- scarcely received a single ray from the distant mitted to set down in the original, from whence we light of revelation. It is also highly impromade each a translation, and then the custos burnt bable that these omissions should have been the part we had transcribed. In this way we accidental; though, from what motives in the proceeded to the end of the volume, and, after mind of the writer they arose, it is perhaps much difficulty, obtained leave to depart with it difficult to conjecture. for England, after a solemn promise not to let any

wrote the volume which bears his name; that the
ark in which it was contained was made in his life-
time; that he put the volume therein with his
own hand; that Jazer, the eldest son of Jasher,
kept it during his life; that the princes of Judah
were successively the keepers of it; that the ark
and book, in the last Babylonish captivity, was
taken from the Jews, and so fell into the hands of
the Persian monarchs; and that the city of Gazna
had been the place of its residence for some hun-
dreds of years.

person take a copy of it in any place we passed

through on our return.

66

With respect to the internal evidences to the antiquity and genuineness of this book, we think that nothing can be inferred from the similarity of its style to that of Moses. Men are such imitative animals, and have practised such successful frauds by means of this faculty, that we confess we assign no limits to the exercise of it, and consequently have but little faith in the species of evidence alluded to. We believe that the author of the 66 It Rejected Addresses" could have produced an imitation of the style of the Pentateuch as close as any in the Book of Jasher.

Such is Alcuin's account of the volume be-
fore us, and it embodies all the external evi-
dence respecting it which we are able to
furnish. Its subsequent history is more ob-
scurely stated by the Editor. "The following
translation," he says in his advertisement,
was discovered by a gentleman in a journey
through the North of England, in 1721.
lay by him for several years, until, in 1750,
there was a rumour of a new translation of
the Bible, when he laid it before a noble earl.
Since 1751, the manuscript has been preserved
with great care by a gentleman who lived to a
very advanced age, and died some time since.
On the event of his death, a friend, to whom
he had presented it, gave it to the present
Editor," &c.

Now, what can be the Editor's motive for
withholding the names of the parties alluded
to above, and so breaking the continuity of a
simple and satisfactory account, we cannot
divine. Whatever it be, we esteem the omis-
sion as more strongly invalidating the authen-
ticity of the document than any other fact it
presents. But it is time to bring our readers
acquainted with the subject-matter of this

The most satisfactory evidence of an internal kind, which has been suggested to our mind by the perusal of this work, arises out of the many inaccuracies and omissions-some of which we have been specifying-in connexion with the general congruity of the narrative with the inspired books. For, if this document be not what it purports to be, the only admissible alternative is, that it was written at a subsequent period, probably long after the date it professes to bear. Upon this supposition the chief aim of the writer would obviously have been to adhere as closely as possible to the Mosaic record, in order to secure any degree of attention from the only class of persons who would be at all interested in bis

« PreviousContinue »