THE ANTI-JACOBIN Review and Magazine; &c. &c. &c. For SEPTEMBER, 1801. Ceux qui ne font pas inftruits de nos obligations & de nos devoirs, regardeut nos exer cifes comme des amufemens que nous nous procurons, & fe font une idee riante de nos peines même & de nos travaux. MONTESQUIEU. ORIGINAL CRITICISM. A Comparison of the Inftitutions of Mofes with thofe of the Hindoos, and other ancient Nations, &c. &c. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F.R.S. 8vo. Pp. 428. Kennedy, Northumberland, America. Johnson, London. 1799. L' ITTLE as we are difpofed to fpare fchifmatics of any defcription; and much as we approved of the just severity exercifed fome years ago on the author before us; it is with no fmall pleasure we behold fectaries laying afide the little fpicula of wafpifh controverfy and peevish oppofition to the church, to wield the more manly quarterftaff of argument against those who deny the divine origin of our religion altogether. To confound a philofophical unbeliever, or ftrenuoufly to fupport the purity of the inftitutions of Mofes, are occupations in which Dr. Prieftley will always find us ready to applaud him. It was not without fome eagerness to commend, that we opened the volume now in our hands, We were curious alfo, to learn how the fpontaneous exile employs his time, in the new region which he has chofen for his country, in preference to Great Britain. The work might, with more propriety, have been ftiled an Epitome of the Inftitutions of the Hindoos; for the inftitutions of Mofes are very feldom introduced: and as Bishop Lowth obferved to his antagonift Warburton, that fix pages would contain all that he had faid of Mofes in his divine legation, fo may Anti-Jacobin Critics fay of Priestley's Comparifon. It is dedicated to the Duke of Grafton; a curious fact, for which the conftant readers of our Review will be able to affign a very found UNITARIAN reason. NO. XXXIX, VOL, X. B In In his Preface the Doctor throws out a tub to the balana Britannica; in other words, he gives us a broad hint that he has drawn up Notes on all the Books of Scripture, a work of confiderable extent, "at the lervice of my friends, and the public whenever it fhall be called for." Equally ready to leap from the prefs, when fummoned to appear, is "my Church History" in five Volumes, 8vo. The author adds As before the riots in Birmingham i was engaged with fome friends in a new tranflation of the Scriptures, and had nearly finished the part that I had undertaken, which was the Hagiographa,* and which was deftroyed at that time, I fhall here publifh the plan," &c. In fuch a manner does the doctor fwell his work with matter not neceffarily connected with the fubject in debate. The plan, which we shall not stay to difcufs, and the whole of Section XXII, extracted from Buxtorfs Synagoga Judaica and Leo de Modena, might in our opinion have been spared. We haten to the work itself. M. Langles, the French tranflator of the Hindoo Hitopades, having impudently maintained, that the five Books of Mofes are copied from Egyptian works, which were derived originally from India, Dr. P. enters the lifts in oppofition to this hafty opinion. The argument is, of courfe, greatly in his favour; but he fluctuates in no small degree, as to the antiquity of the Hindoo inftitutes, which we have never found reafon to imagine were more ancient than those of Moses. No truft can be reposed on the calculations of the Hindoos themfelves; we muft rely upon internal evidence alone. If they have written teftimony of Paradife, the tree of immortality, the ferpent, and a being which counteracted the mifchiefs of the ferpent; if they read that the first man was called Adam, and the first woman Manan-iva; if they have unequivocal açcounts of an univerfal deluge which deftroyed all mankind except eight perfons; if they have upon record the intoxication of the Patriarch thus preserved, if they ftile his fons Sherma, Charma, and Jyapeti, and fay, that he curfed Charma faying, Thou fhalt be the fervant of fervants; if, moreover, they appear to be acquainted with the principal circumftances of the History of Ifhmael, and the facrifice of Ifaac; we are perfuaded that these facts must have been communicated to them by the Books of Moses. To the fame fource they undoubtedly owe their knowledge of Brahma (or Abraham) and his wife Saravadi, that is, Sarah the lady, or princess. From the fame fountain of intelligence they must have learned, that the world was created by God out of nothing; for none but an infpired writer could have communicated fuch a fact; and man could not have invented it, because it is contrary to his experience. But Mofes had exprefsly faid that all was originally void, n. Again, he had afferted that the Spirit *Pfalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Efdras, Chronicles, Canticles. Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclefiaftes, and Either. of |