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nota fuisse videntur. sleve, S. de Baldenzeel in historiâ peregrinationis insertâ Lectionibus antiquis Canisii, tom. iv. p. 342. Fuit in Ægypto circa annum, 1315. In superioribus, inquit, Egypti, est una Smarag dina, unde ibidem eruuntur Smaragdi meliores, et in meliori formâ, quàm in aliquâ mundi parte habentur. Quin etiam auctor quidam seculi 16. cujus ex scriptis excerpta leguntur in Notices des manuscr. de la bibliothéque du roi 1. p. 253. pro certo tradidit, fuisse fodinas istas prope Aswan."

Eorum meminit Gulielmus de Bolden

D'Herbelot, under the article of Assuan the Ancient Syene, says, "On tient même que la seule mine des émeraudes Orientales, qui soit connue dans tout le monde, se trouve dans son terroir." We are informed, too, by D'Herbelot, that in an Arabian work, written by Ibrahim Ben Ouassaf Schah, on the superior natural advantages of Egypt, there are enumerated thirty articles of produce peculiar to that country, beginning with the mine of oriental Emeralds.

On referring to Chardin, who was a jewel-merchant, and consequently a very competent judge of the precious stones, which he met with in his travels through Persia, we shall find two passages in which mention is made of the Egyptian Emeralds.

"Il m'apprit que dans les Poètes Persans, les Emeraudes de vieille roche sont appellées Emeraudes d'Egypte, et qu'on tient qu'il y en avoit une mine en Egypte qui est à présent perdue. vol. ii. 8vo. p. 239." In vol. iv. p. 64. he enters more fully into the history of the Emerald: « J'ajoute à ce chapitre, que les Persans font une distinction entre les Emeraudes, comme nous faisons entre les Rubis. Ils appellent la plus belle sorte Emeraudes d'Egypte, la sorte suivante Emeraudes vieilles, et la troisième sorte Emeraudes nouvelles. Avant la découverte du nouveau monde, les Emeraudes leur venoient de l'Egypte, plus hautes en couleur à ce qu'ils prétendent et plus dures que les Emeraudes d'Occident, Ils m'ont fait voir plusieurs fois de ces Emeraudes qu'ils appellent Zemeroud Misri, ou de Misraim, l'ancien nom de l'Egypte, et aussi Zmeroud Asvani, d'Asvan ville de la Thébaïde, nommée Syene par les anciens géographes, mais quoiqu'elles me parussent très belles, d'un vert fort enfoncé et d'un poliment fort vif, il me sembloit que j'en avois

vu d'aussi belles des Indes Occidentales. Pour ce qui est de la dureté, je n'ai jamais eu le moyen de l'éprouver et comme il est certain qu'on n'entend point parler depuis long-tems de mines d'Emeraudes en Egypte, il pourroit être que les Emeraudes d'Egypte y étoient apportées par le canal de la Mer Rouge, venant, ou des Indes Occidentales, par les Philippines, ou de Pegu, ou du Royaume de Golconde sur la côte de Coromandel où on tire journellement des Emeraudes."

At whatever period then the Emerald mines ceased to be productive in Upper Egypt, whether in the 13th century, according to Teifashi, or the 14th, according to Boldensleve, there appears to be a general persuasion among the Persian and Arabic writers of their former existence, and according to Chardin, the Emeralds, which were produced by those mines, still continued to be known and distinguished in the East from all others.

It would be superfluous to add to these testimonies those of Pococke and Mallet; the former of whom speaks of an Emerald preserved at Cairo, under the name of the Emerald of Said, or Upper Egypt, and of fragments of Emeralds found in great quantities in the ruins of Coptos; and the latter writer amuses his readers with a tale relative to the mine of Emeralds, which shows, at least, the current opinion upon that subject in Egypt.

I shall now beg leave to recur to a point of this inquiry, which has been too hastily conceded by Philosmaragdus, from a reliance on the authority of Tavernier, who affirms that the Emerald is not found in India.

Respectable as this authority may be, I shall oppose to it that of another jewel-merchant and traveller, Chardin, who in the above extract from his work must be understood as speaking from his own personal knowledge, having visited Golconda, in the year 1679. vide vol. iv. p. 178, 8vo edition. Moreover, Hindostan was his principal residence, from 1674 to 1681. vid. p. 124. v. x, and I presume, that on any point, where these two authorities contradict each other, there can be little doubt which of them is most intitled to our confidence.

Nor is the Peninsula of Hindostan the only country of the East which is said to produce the Emerald. There is a memoir in the Oriental Repertory, which enumerates, among the product

ions of Siam, Saphirs and Emeralds, and there is a curious display of the choice native productions of those countries in the title, which the King of the Buraghmahs gives himself in his letter to the Governor of Madras, in 1760. viz. Sole and supreme Lord of the three Pegu kingdoms, with all their provinces, also master of the mines of gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, saphirs, Emeralds, amber, and all manner of precious stones, in these my dominions.

But it is time now to conclude these remarks on a subject which will interest, perhaps, only a few of your readers. I shall, therefore, take my leave, for the present, and subscribe myself your well-wisher,

CORNUBIENSIS.

ANSWER to the Defence of Dr. G. S. CLARKE'S " Hebrew Criticism and Poetry."

Including important elucidations of some difficult passages of Scripture.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL.

ON reading an Article in your last Journal, called, by its writer, "Defence of Dr. Clarke's Hebrew Criticism and Poetry," in answer to some observations made by me in No. III. p. 624. and No. iv. p. 850. I was surprised to find, that he has either not understood, or cannot have read, my remarks concerning the serious errors, and false doctrines, held forth in what he terms, "Hebrew Criticism and Poetry." I certainly did not mean to trouble you with any more observations on his production, had he not altogether misrepresented what I have said in my criticisms concerning it.

Dr. Clarke boldly declares, with every Socinian, that the prophesy of Isaiah, viz. “A virgin shall conceive and bear a

son, and shall call his name Immanuel;" does not mean Christ, though the Apostle declares, " Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." For this reason, I suppose, it is, that Dr. Clarke wishes to expunge the two first chapters of Matthew. He calls in Drs. Blaney, Newcombe, Michaelis, and Marsh, to his aid; but we know, that all Socinians wish to get rid of these, and all other chapters, which confirm the divinity of Christ, and the fulfilment of the prophecies in him.

Dr. Clarke says, "the author (himself) of Hebrew Criticism and Poetry, ought not to be stigmatised for his discovery;" meaning, that Immanuel spoken of by Isaiah was not the Emmanuel spoken of by St. Matthew, which, without any proof, he triumphantly asserts to be true. God deliver me from having any thing to do with a "discovery," so contrary to the positive declarations of the sacred writers.

But this is no discovery of Dr. Clarke's. I suppose this gentleman must be acquainted with the opinions of some of the early heretical professors of Christianity, not to mention the Jews, who were then, and are now, of the same opinion. Cerinthus, Carpocrates, Samosatenus, and several others, entertained this notion; but these, compared with the great body of Christians at that day, who were of the Apostles' opinion, were of no more consequence in the scale of truth, than some writers are at present, when compared with the orthodox professors of Christianity.

I shall proceed to lay before the reader a piece of the most profound ignorance in criticism, that was ever manifested by any man. Dr. Clarke charges me with not knowing that the masculine pronouns in Hebrew must be translated by the neuter pronoun in English, when applied to inanimate things, The passage, which he selects to prove the above, is in Isaiah, chap. ii. 2. "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto IT." In this verse, I translate, unto him, for this is the literal meaning of the word throughout the scriptures; see

Gen. viii. ix. ver. 11.-Exod. x. 3. and said

unto him.But he says, "suppose the English language makes mountain and house both neuter, while the Hebrew, and other languages, have expressed them by masculine nouns, must not the masculine pronoun of these languages be rendered by the English neuter pronoun ?" To which I answer, undoubtedly, if the masculine pronoun referred to a house; but I have said, that it does not refer to a beeth, the remote noun in the sentence, but to the proximate noun Jehovah. I have also given the construction of the sentence as it stands in the Hebrew, and none but those who are truly, or wilfully, ignorant,

the mountain of the הַר בֵּית יְהוָה .can possibly mistake it, viz

house of the Lord, and not the mountain of the Lord's house, as it is in the translation. From which it must be evident, that this writer either does not understand the construction of the passage in the original, or that he has been wholly guided by the translation.

Had a house, or mountain, been the nearest noun, then there might have been some ground for translating the masculine pronoun in Hebrew, by the neuter pronoun it; but this could not be the case in Hebrew, there being no neuter in that language; which ought to have convinced this gentleman, that the translation was wrong and of which he would have been sensible, had he had a sufficient knowledge of the language, to have qualified him for the business signified by the ostentatious title of his book. Neither can this possibly be the case in any other language, when the passage is truly translated; besides, the syntax is perfectly agreeable to the English, and the language is far more elegant and expressive, when the masculine pronoun refers to Jehovah, as in the original, instead of a beeth, as it does in the translation. The passage truly reads thus-"The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established on the top of the mountains, and all nations

T:

.UNTO HIM אליו shall fock

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After Dr. Clarke has made this unpardonable blunder, supposing himself to be perfectly accurate, he florishingly says, "how fares now the great Hebrew scholar, the new light, who

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