rited from the Greeks. Sannazarius was not the first who mixed verse and prose in the same composition; but no author had infused so much sentiment and spirit into this species of writing. It is not at all surprising that his Arcadia should have successively appeared in more than sixty editions, and that it should have been the model imitated by Garcilasso de la Vega, the most brilliant of Castilian poets. Sannazarius sung also the Mysteries of the Incarnation. His poem de Partû Virginis is considered as the finest work of an age which boasts every species of literary trophy, and particularly excelled in Latin poetry. It is true, that the delusions of paganism are combined with the mysteries of Christianity; but when Sannazarius wrote, no one thought it possible to compose a poem without the aid of mythology. At a later period, this mixture of sacred and profane subjects was with great pro priety discountenanced; but at that time, the repugnance of Christian to heathen topics was so far from being recognised, that two pontiffs in their public edicts, expressed their satisfaction with the author of the de Parti Virginis. If, in this poem, Sannazarius sometimes approximates to the epic beauties of Virgil,-if, in his Arcadia, he reminds us of the bucolicks of the Latin poets,-in his Ecloga piscatoria, he displays a genius as fertile as it was original, and opens a field unknown to the Greeks and Romans. His portraitures of the manners of the class of men who subsist by fishing, is as new and interesting as those in which Theocritus and Virgil sketched the pastoral and rural manners of their eclogues and idylls.' Vol. IV. pp. 254-258. We have only room for the following notice of Tasso, with which Count Orloff closes his literary catalogue of the sixteenth century. We prefer giving it in his own words, to diluting and weakening its eloquence by a translation. 'De toutes les destinées des hommes extraordinaires, la plus bizarre sans doute fut celle des poètes epiques. Homère et Milton, dèja malheureux, puisqu'ils etoient privès de la vue, furent encore en butte dans leur vieillesse à la misère ou à d'injustes persécutions. Le Camoëns, blessé, languissant, eut pour asyle un hôpital; et le Tasse aussi, humilié, dédaigné, fut jeté dans un prison de fous, quand son délire n'était peutêtre que la fièvre du génie. Mais, après le trépas de ces poètes immortels, des cités, des royaumes, des empires, se disputèrent la gloire de leur avoir donné le jour. Justice tardive! On serait tenté de croire que les hommes envieux et ingrats ne savent apprécier le génie que lorsqu'il n'est plus, qu'ils n'aiment à courronner que des cendres. Torquato Tasso naquit à Sorrento, dans le Golfe de Naples. Sa famille était de Bergame. Nous ne retracerons point ici les étranges et malheureuses vicissitudes qui ne cessèrent d'être le partage du Tasse dans tout le cours de sa vie et publique et domestique. Quel est celui de nos lecteurs qui pourrait y être etranger? Il n'avait que dix-neuf ans, lorsqu'il composa son poëme intitulé Rinaldo; et des lors on put prévoir qu'il tendait à se faire un nom dans l'épopée. Avant lui, Trissino avait fait en ce genre un malheureux essai : il était réservé au Tasse de produire un chef-d'œuvre. Pareil à ces athlètes qui exercent long temps leurs forces afin d'assurer du triomphe, il s'essaya encore par des sonnetti, des canzoni, &c. Enfin la Gerusalemme Liberata parut, et le seizième siècle apprit qu'il etait né un Virgile nouveau. Il composa ensuite la Gerusalemme Conquistata; mais ce fut le fruit amer de ses malheurs. Obéissant trop servilement aux vaines et dangereuses leçons des critiques qui avaient froidement examiné son premier poëme, il se chargea des chaines inutiles des règles et de la méthode; et son genie sembla s'être éteint. Ce ne fut point assez pour le Tasse d'avoir obtenu les palmes et les plus brillantes faveurs de Calliope; il voulut aussi courtiser Melpomene, et m me Thalie. Sa tragédie de Torismondo, quoiqu'elle n'ait ni l'intérêt ni le mouvement qu'on remarque dans les piéces modernes, etait supérieure a toutes celles qui avaient paru dans l'Italie. Il fit de plus une comédie, qui a pour titre "Gl'intrighi d'Amore," et dans laquelle il employa le dialecte Napolitain. Mais de toutes ses pièces, la plus admirée, celle qui est le plus restée dans la mémoire, est l'Aminta, composition aussi originale que la Jerusalem. Le Tasse n'écrivit pas moins bien en prose qu'en vers. a de lui divers ouvrages en prose sur des sujets de littérature, de philosophie, de morale, de politique, &c. &c. Ils sont remarquables par l'élégance, et une certaine gravité de style qui n'en exclut point la vivacité. Mais ce qui doit le plus surprendre, c'est d'y trouver de la précision dans les idées, et une grande force de raisonnement; qualités assez rares dans les poétes. Il n'a pas moins de logique dans ses écrits en prose, que de fécondité dans ses productions poétiques. Sa raison marche toujours de pair avec son imagination.' Vol. IV. pp. 280— 282. On To this sketch, which the extent of the Author's plan has necessarily rendered more imperfect and circumscribed than might be wished, we shall subjoin only one remark, referring our readers for fuller details concerning this great poet and his works, to the "Histoire litteraire d'Italie" of Ginguené. Count Orloff has made a passing mention only of the sonnets of Tasso. It has always appeared to us, that this portion of his numerous compositions has been undeservedly neglected. Like Shakspeare's, which have incurred nearly the same fate, they are beautiful and interesting pictures of his varied and shifting fortunes, and of the internal emotions of his mind. We shall close our article by attempting to render one of them into English 'I've seen my day before its noon decline, For this is of the mind. To slay, be slain, Art. II. An Inquiry into the Books of the New Testament. By John Testament, as comprising a revelation from God to mankind, have been so frequently and so amply discussed,-the results of historical and critical investigation have been produced in such abundance,-so much skill, and learning, and patience have been employed in the examination of the varied and extensive evidence,-in short, the whole proof of the truth of the Christian Religion, has been so completely and so excellently exhibited, that it might seem to be unnecessary for any writer to increase by his labours the number of works already extant on the subject. Or, if an exception were made in favour of any author discussing afresh the evidences of the New Testament records, it would seem to be claimed as due only in those cases in which the work should be limited to a defence of Revelation against contemporary assailants. For other purposes and persons it might appear to be sufficient, that the numerous volumes of that class of writers to which Lardner and Paley belong, are in existence, and accessible to all who would examine the proofs of the Christian Religion. But something else, it should be remembered, besides the most ample accumulation of facts and arguments, may be requisite to the success of the inquiry. Reasoning, may be eminently acute and forcible, and yet, may fail in producing conviction in some minds, though it should in others induce the fullest persuasion of the truth of the propositions which it is employed to establish. The order in which inquiry is commenced and prosecuted, is of great moment in religious investigations, in reference to certain states of mind and individual characters. Diversity of method, therefore, may be justly considered as entitled to rank among the aggregate qualifications of that class of writers who have treated on the credibility of the New Testament. To some persons, the evidences of Revealed Religion may be presented in the most disjointed and imperfect manner with the entire effect of securing their assent to its truth; to others, it may be necessary that the whole of the evidence should be exhibited in an unbroken series. To these persons, it may be of the greatest consequence, that no single link in the chain of proof should be either omitted or misplaced: they may be repelled at the very outset of their inquiry, or obstructed in the progress of it, and effectually hindered from reaching the conclusion to which it is so desirable that they should be safely and wisely guided, unless the entire process of reasoning be adapted to their previous temperament. Much of our success in conducting an argument, depends upon the skilful adjustment of its parts to the mental habit of the individual to whom it may be addressed. These considerations will repress any surprise that the present production has been added to the almost innume rable Inquiries,' of some kind or other, into the Books of the New Testament. It necessarily comprises the materials which must be common to all works of its kind; but it differs very considerably from every previous publication of its own class, in the principles on which it is constructed, and in the manner in which its arguments are arranged and conducted. It is more logical in the distribution of its materials, and more philosophical in its spirit, than most, or perhaps than any of its predecessors. On this account, it will not become, in the common sense of the phrase, a popular book; (for which, indeed, it is evident that its Author never intended it ;) but it is well adapted to the service for which it was originally prepared by the learned Professor,-the instruction of his academical pupils, and is calculated for the use of intelligent readers of every description. It is an elaborate production, and possesses more of the character of an original work than the commonness of its subject prepared us to expect. In the classification and discussion of the several branches of Christian Divinity, almost all authors who have treated on the subject, are chargeable with a defective arrangement and a strange confusion of topics. It is, for instance, not at all unusual to find a writer when professedly discussing the inspiration of the Scriptures, accumulating arguments for the purpose of establishing their authenticity; or assuming topics as being true, and advancing them as grounds of premature conclusions, instead of proceeding from the first of the related subjects, established by its appropriate proofs, to the next in order, and thus reaching the conclusion by the regular and firm gradations by which it should be attained. The Inspiration of the New Testament is unquestionably a topic of the very highest cousideration, inasmuch as the Divine authority of its doctrines and precepts is involved in it. But the evidence from which its Inspiration must be deduced, cannot be arrived at till some other branches of Christian divinity have been considered. The remarks of Bishop Marsh on this subject in the first part of his Lectures, are correct and valuable, and require only to be known, to ensure, in the prosecution of theological studies, the precision requisite to their most advantageous cul tivation. The work before us is written in conformity to the arrangement recommended by the Cambridge Margaret Professor of Divinity, but, as the Author informs us, independently of his suggestion. It is, substantially, part of the outline of a course of Lectures read to the students attending the Divinity Hall of St. Mary's College, St. Andrew's. "The observations of which the following outline is given, were designed, keeping as much as possible to this plan of inquiry, to exhibit what is most essential to the elements of biblical criticism and theology, by bringing out upon the New Testament, as a text-book, whatever information appeared intimately connected with its various internal character, and its external history. For this purpose are laid down, in some preliminary observations, the ultimate principles of thought, on which it will be found that all the possible inquiries involved in the science of theology must turn, and by the right application of which the science in all its parts is to be investigated: then, with the view of shewing how fitly these apply to Christianity, is brought out in succession, what can be learnt with regard to the interpretation of the New Testament, and its peculiar difficulties-the origin and preservation, or, in other words, the authenticity and genuineness of its different books-the purposes for which each seems to have been written, and from which each receives its peculiar character-the style of the different writers-and the evidence that the New Testament contains a Divine revelation. The objections to the truth of Christianity, the inspiration of the New Testament, and its moral and religious doctrines, will remain for future consideration.' p. 12. The distribution and contents of the work, are as follow: Chap. I. Of the Elements of Theology. Sec. 1. Of the Importance of the Study of Theology. 2. Of some external Circumstances favourable to the study of Theology. 3. Of the First Principles of Natural and Sacred Theology. 4. Of the Analogy between the use of those principles in Theology, and their use in other sciences. 5. Of the Use of Reason in Sacred Theology. Chap. II. Of the Interpretation of the New Testament. Sec. 1. Of the Interpretation of the New Testament. 2. Of the Difficulties in the Interpretation of the New Testament. 3. Of Difficulties from the Metaphorical Use of Words. 4. Of Difficulties from Idiom. 5. Of Difficulties from the Subject of a Work. 6. Of Difficulties from the Purpose or Plan of a Work. 7. Of Difficulties from the Style of the Writer. 8. Of the Means of removing these Difficulties. Chap. III. Chap. III. Of the Authenticity of the New Testament. Sec. 1. Of the Nature of the Evidence for the Authenticity of Literary Works, and the Importance of ascertaining the Authenticity of the New Testament. 2. Of the |