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ten in a language which the people generally understood, were made up in a great measure of sayings from the Agada, with accounts of the festivals and other occasions on which they were employed. The evil was augmented by introducing the poems of Eliezer Hakkaler, which are chiefly of a didactic nature, and not at all calculated to excite feelings of devotion. When the people came, in process of time, to take an active share in the exercises of the synagogue, these pieces were recited aloud as unintelligible formula; for to understand them requires a knowledge of the Hebrew language and of the Agada, such as the mass of the people could not possibly possess. These defects are much less conspicuous in the ritual adopted by the Jews of Spain and Portugal, and which is chiefly compiled from the productions of Solomon ben Gabirol. This man, although he lived only till about his thirtieth year (between 1040-50 and 1070-80), distinguished himself by his philosophical treatise, entitled the Art of Improving the Mind (p); besides which he was an excellent commentator and poet. He founded and closely adhered to a strict system of metre and rhyme, and his religious poems are characterized by a biblical style and a truly poetic cast of thought; they comprise hymns (p), prayers (non), and elegies (), and are very numerous. In order to give a better idea of the character of his poetry than can be communicated by mere description, we will conclude with an extract or two from his compositions. The following verses, which, it will be perceived, consist of couplets of sixteen syllables each, form the introduction to his poem entitled the Royal Crown.

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By rehearsing my prayer, a man may benefit;
For he may thereby learn purity and rectitude.

Therein have I declared the wonders of the living God;
Though briefly, and not at length.

I have made it the first of my hymns of praise,
And called it the Royal Crown.

This poem forms part of the Portuguese service for the Day of Atonement. The author begins by recounting, in glowing and highly poetical language, the adorable attributes of God; he describes his wonderful deeds in the creation of the world; and lauds his goodness in the formation of angels and men. He

mourns over the frailty and disobedience of mankind, and concludes with a confession of his own unworthiness and an humble supplication for divine mercy. This composition is not in verse, strictly speaking, but in a sort of rhymed prose, in imitation of the style adopted in the Koran and other ornate Arabic writings. We will give, as a specimen, the following description of the celestial inhabitants, which is quite in the Arabian

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O Lord! who can fathom the depth of thy thoughts, when thou didst form from the lustre of thy divine presence, the splendor of souls; and the exalted spirits, even the angels who perform thy will, and minister in thy presence; they are the excellent in power, and the mighty of the kingdom, in whose hand is the flaming sword, which revolveth. They perform their work, whithersoever thy Spirit directs them. They all are as polished rubies, exalted creatures; the inner and the outer all view thy paths. They proceed from the holy place, and draw their existence from the fountain of light. They are divided into troops, according to their standards and ensigns, as engraven by the pen of the ready writer. Some of them are princes, and some servitors; some in hosts run backwards and forwards, they are neither weary nor fatigued; they see, but are not seen. Some are hewn from the flames; some are waving winds; some are compounded of fire and water. Some are as burning coals, some as flashes of fire, some as lightning, and some as sparks of fire. And every troop of them boweth down to him who rideth upon the heavens; they all stand in the highest sphere, by thousands and ten thousands, divided into watches, observing both by night and by day the beginning of the watches, to arrange songs and praises to Him who is girt with mighty powers. They all with fear and trembling prostrate themselves, and worship thee, saying, We gratefully acknowledge unto thee, that thou art the Lord our God, thou hast made us, we are crea

tures; and we all of us are the work of thy hands. Thou art our Lord, and we are thy servants; thou art our Creator, and we are thy witnesses.

The following extract, from the Additional Service for the same day, is in a more elaborate style, resembling that of Hariri and his Hebrew imitator Alcharisi. The reader will observe that, in addition to the ryhmes, the two last words of each clause of the Reader's portion form a close paranomasia.

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Read.-I will extol thee, O my Strength and my Portion; when I come in the ardency of my pursuit and my knocking; and when I pour forth my supplication and my cry. Cong.-"O God of my salvation, answer me when I call." Read.-I have sought thee at morn and evening-time: O give ear unto my humble supplication and prayer; and pardon now my iniquity and sin. Cong.—"Return, O Lord! and deliver 'my soul." Read.-Heal, I beseech thee, the iniquity of my insidious and treacherous appetites; bind up the wounds of my grief and affliction: O cleanse the caul of my sinful heart. Cong." And renew the spirit of rectitude within me.' the day that I thus stand, surrounded by old and young, subdue, O Lord! my obstinacy and perverseness; for unto thee do I spread forth my hand, and lift up my countenance. Cong." And with tuneful lips my mouth shall praise thee."

Read.-On

ARTICLE VIII.

REVIEW OF QUINCY'S HISTORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

By one of the Professors of Yale College.

The History of Harvard University, by Josiah Quincy, LL.D., President of the University. In two volumes. Cambridge: John Owen.

1840.

THIS history, from its subject, the high character and st 'tion of its author, its literary execution, and the circumstances uider

which it comes before the public, prefers unusual claims to attention. It must, at first view certainly, be considered of indisputable authority as to all matters of fact; and destined as a work to be appealed to for the determination of all doubts, respecting any subject to which it relates. Time likewise will soon give it additional sanction; and, within a short period, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to question successfully its statements or its reasonings. Hence the importance of an early and free inquiry into its historical merits. If this history contains mistakes either as to facts, characters or motives, these mistakes can now be most easily corrected; and an attempt at such correction, if unsuccessful, so far from injuring, will strengthen its authority. We have no motive in making this production of President Quincy the subject of remark, but to determine, if possible, in a few instances, what is historical truth. For the author himself, and for the venerable institution over which he so honorably presides, we entertain no feelings, but those of respect; but parts of this history seem to impose on us the duty of suggesting our doubts as to their conformity to fact; and no objection to this course can, we suppose, arise from any quarter, provided in our comments we keep within the limits, and use the language, of fair and honest dissent.

It is by no means our intention or wish to enter on a general examination of the contents of these volumes. It is our object to look only at the allusions in this work to Connecticut, and more particularly the remarks on the origin and history of Yale College, in connection with a few other topics so closely allied to these, as not easily to be separated from them. Yale College President Quincy supposes to have owed its foundation and its characteristic features to a prevailing influence of the more rigid and strictly orthodox portion of the clergy and laity in Boston and the vicinity. Hence to exhibit more fully the character and operations of parties, at an early period, in the neighborhood of Harvard College, he has thought it necessary to mark some particulars in the rise and progress of the new institution in Connecticut; and Yale College has served the author the double purpose of illustrating the design and nature of domestic proceedings, and of giving greater prominency and of setting off more advantageously some bright parts of his picture by the strong aid of contrast.

The great fact alleged by President Quincy as the foundation of most of his reasoning respecting the religious parties in

Massachusetts, so far at least as they have been connected with the college at Cambridge, is this, that the college was established on the broad principles of religious liberality, as this species of liberality is now understood; or to use his own language;* that "there is unquestionably a liberality of religious principle manifested in the several charters of this (Harvard) college, apparently irreconcilable with the general conduct and policy resulting from predominating religious opinions in that day." He supposes, that "among the early emigrants, there existed men who were true disciples of the great principles of the Reformation, and who even carried them to a degree of theoretic perfection, scarcely exceeded in our time." What reason there is for this assumption, we may find it necessary to inquire as we proceed; at present, we advert to the fact merely, that such is his opinion, and that it is the foundation, upon which much of his superstructure rests. Two religious parties, it appears from President Quincy's narrative, early arose in Boston and the neighboring towns; one of which was formed on the principles of liberality, to which we have already referred, and the other was composed of the representatives of the more rigid Puritans of the original stock. The latter, from opposition to Harvard, which was the chosen seat of catholicism, instigated the clergy of Connecticut, who were predisposed to have a college of their own, to found such an institution on principles entirely consonant with the peculiar religious views in which they both agreed. This party of strict Calvinists in Massachusetts, therefore, must be considered the real founders, and, in an important sense, the efficient patrons and supporters of the seminary, which was afterwards called Yale-College. This seems to be the obvious inference from the story told, and it appears to have been so understood by some who have commented on this history.

It is a matter of some curiosity to trace the progress of events in Connecticut, as represented in this work, from the settlement of the colony to the founding of its college. "The first settlers of Connecticut," we are told, "had emigrated from Massachusetts for the purpose of being under a stricter form of worship, than they could here attain." Of this assertion we look in vain for any proof. The first settlers of Connecticut certainly did not emigrate for the purpose of forming a closer connection between their religious and civil concerns. In Massachusetts,

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