Review of New Publications.

[In this department it will be the object of the Editors to give a complete view of the Literature of the counties through which this Magazine is circulated; and to notice every Book published within it, that shall come to their knowledge. At the same time, they will not consider it any infringement on their plan to notice other modern publications; and they will feel obliged by Authors who are desirous of having their works reviewed in the Northern Star, apprizing them of their wishes as early as possible.]

A LEXICON of the PRIMITIVE WORDS of the GREEK LANGUAGE, inclusive of several Leading Derivatives, upon a new Plan of Arrangement: for the use of Schools and Private Persons. By the Rev. John Booth, Curate of Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon, Yorkshire. 8vo. pp. 308. 9s. IT is not usual to see classical works issuing from a provincial press; but when seen, we hail them as announcing the spread of that taste for the intellectual productions of ancient days which we ourselves so highly enjoy. Our speculations on that extension of these studies by this means lead to the hope, that one day some country-printer, emulous of the fame of Baskerville, and improving on his plan, may, by the selection of the best illustrated authors, give an example that may rouse those who direct our University presses to a closer attention to their duties than they appear to have given of late years, when the Oxford and Cambridge reprints of Greek and Latin authors have been miserably deficient in those explanatory annotations that are now so plentiful as to make a judicious choice the principal difficulty-a difficulty, however, easily to be overcome by the employment of some of those idle Resident Fellows, who live on the college funds without adding any respectability to the place that supports them. Had this spirit of improvement already prevailed, the Cambridge Syndics would have been ashamed to have rejected a proposal for the publication of an edition of Æschylus by a most eminent scholar, solely on the ground that the editor would not submit to palm on the public a faulty text, when he had before printed one as perfect as the advanced state of criticism and his own unrivalled talents could produce. Nor would a London printer at the present day have procured a splendid list of patronizing subscribers to his intended republication of that pest of all good scholarship, the collection of the Dauphin Classics, with the absurd but recommendatory engagement of not giving in any instance the original text of that collection.

We must leave our dreams of hope, however, to consider how far the present work, the first published in this district since we began our labours, is likely to answer the sanguine wishes above expressed, as a commencement of that series of works which our author seems to promise to the world if his designs meet with sufficient encouragement. Had we possessed the privilege of directing Mr. Booth's labours, we should certainly have recommended a work more inviting to the general reader, and more immediately tending to establish reputation, than the toilsome, thankless drudgery of the compilation of a Lexicon. Had his ambition led him to follow the steps of those who have employed the finest talents with which nature has ever adorned her children, to clear the darkness that has for ages hung about the writings of Greece and Rome, he would have found VOL. III. Q q

many a difficulty, many a blemish even in those authors who have principally engaged the attention of the critical scholar of this and former generations, which he might have successfully attempted to remove, after the fruitless efforts of those whom it would have been most honorable to excel. In such circumstances he might have aspired to a distinguished rank among the learned host which is held in such veneration by all whose delight lies in these pursuits. But a humbler ambition has been his-not to aid in unravelling the confusion and obscurity which, more or less, are yet hanging around these sacred relics-but to introduce the votary to the outer court of one of those temples which were reared and dedicated to learning by the two renowned nations of ancient days. This is a most necessary but at the same time a very uninteresting department of the scholar's duty; but our readers will see that Mr. Booth has succeeded in throwing a good deal of entertainment into a subject which we have hitherto considered as hopelessly dry, and into which any degree of amusement would seem to be totally inadmissible. But our line of duty is so far marked out by propriety as well as by custom, as not to allow us to give our meed of praise to this ornamental part of the work before us, till we have examined its plan, the intention of the author, and the probability of his attaining the ends which he originally proposed to himself.

We confess that we have felt somewhat at a loss to account for the internal arrangement of this Lexicon, and even with the aid of the preface our difficulties were not entirely removed. With all the attention which we have been able to give the subject, we are by no means sure that we have been able to divine the aim of its author; and, feeling as we do, so little satisfaction in the result of our researches, we submit the opinion we have formed without any firm expectation that those of our readers, who will take as much pains, will arrive at the same conclusion.

Our doubts begin with the very first sentence of the preface, in which Mr. Booth unfolds his purpose in the following terms:-" This work, the plan of which is entirely new so far as is known to its author, is designed to assist and encourage in the study of the "Greek tongue; and will, it is hoped, be found of peculiar service to learners, and of "some utility to proficients in the language," Now had not our author so candidly confessed his ignorance of any previous adoption of his plan, we will as candidly own that we should have supposed that he had compiled by far the greater part of his work immediately from "The Primitives of the Greek Tongue, translated from the French "of Messieurs de Port Royal, with considerable improvements by Mr. Nugent." We will not deny that Mr. Booth may have added many improvements to his transcript from Mr. Nugent, but this does not in the least alter our conviction, that that book is the ground-work, or more properly the counterpart, of the present work, though in an alphabetical arrangement, while we here see a classification of the parts of speech.

It is a pity that the writer should have rendered himself almost liable to the suspicion of management, in withholding the source from which his book is derived. Of this we are most willing to acquit him, but he must consent to have the originality of his plan confined to the arrangement, which indeed is all he claims in his title-page, but which an unwary reader would, from the expression in the preface, have extended to the whole work. With respect to the design of this work, "to assist and encourage in the study of the Greek tongue," we think that, though it might peradventure assist a determined student, whom nothing could discourage, yet that its title to the name of an encourager of learning is very small. Had our encouragement to the task of learning Greek been no greater than is to be found in handling this Lexicon of Primitives, we fear that our perseverance would never have been sufficient to master those difficulties which, great as they always are, would then have been insuperable.

Proficients in the language are, it seems, from the last clause of the above sentence, included in the benevolent intention with which this work has been given to the world, of assisting and encouraging the study of Greek, but we are not particularly directed to the mode in which such persons are to find the promised advantage;-at the same time we are delighted to discover an excellence, which the author's modesty has prevented him from noting, and which will be found of the utmost utility to those proficients in the Latin tongue, who feel any interest in the enriching of their native language—we allude to the many elegant novelties which Mr. Booth will have the honour of introducing, which we shall have occasion to notice before we conclude. We trust that all difficulties which we feel, and which we imagine will be felt by others, as to the precise manner in which our author intends his book to be used, will be removed by a key which we are assured in the preface will be published "with all convenient speed." In the mean time our only conjecture on the subject is negative, namely, that it is surely not the intention of Mr. Booth that his work should be committed to memory, though this was certainly the object of the Port Royal Primitives, which, to render the task easy, and "to imprint them agreeably on the memory," were arranged in a long list of French verses.

There is another sentence in the preface with which we have been greatly puzzled. It occurs in page vi. "Let it be further noticed, especially among the substantives and adjectives that those words which are without a mark, are, generally, the best in the language; those with an asterism (*) are, for the most part, somewhat inferior; any with an obelisk (†) are more inferior still; aud such as have the obelisk inverted (4), rank the lowest of any in this collection." It must be first noticed that the Port Royal Primitives are divided into two classes, of which the second contains such words as are *rarely to be met with, and of themselves very inconsiderable." In this second class there is a distinction made, as the words are considered more or less inconsiderable. Mr. Booth has, as an improvement on this plan, and we suppose to shew a nice discrimination, divided those primitives that offend his eye into three instead of two classes, and in addition to those that had been before branded by his predecessors, has proscribed many words as traitors that escaped their censure, and were by them considered as 'good men and true.' We conceive that the only natural way to explain this, is to suppose that our author, aware as he must be of the probability of his whole plan being traced to its proper source, endeavoured by some additions (we cannot call them improvements) of his own, to give his book some air of originality. Of the reasons that have induced him to make the selection which he has done, we cannot at present judge; but till those reasons are given to the world we may be permitted to doubt whether, if brought before Lucian's alphabetical tribunal, the accused would be found guilty on Mr. Booth's prosecution. Indeed, we shall take the liberty to hint that no rational plan is discoverable in the choice here made, and that the words are taken nearly at random for the purpose of augmenting the numbers of the proscribed, though it is impossible to conjecture what pleasure can be taken in seeing so many miserable, and as we think innocent, wretches, with a mark of infamy on their foreheads. They are here called "bad" words, but in what sense such words as peos, Spoσos, nioσos, doλixos, and Exnλos, are to be thus calumniated, we are at a loss to conceive. We at one time tried to find the cause of our author's enmity in his opinion of the things signifled by the different terms, but were soon obliged to abandon this idea, especially as in some instances he would have been convicted of a great solecism in taste as well as judg ment. Thus, in the feathered tribe, the nightingale, the dove, and the swan have the mark

of disapprobation, while the swallow and raven are allowed to pass unmarked. The Greek words are in this example equally good and equally in use among the poets who in this as in other languages are the most ancient authors. In the caprice of his fancied power our author has, in page 47 condemned, in page 107 approved, the substantive Boorpus, a lock of hair; and in page 93, ov, the upper part of a house, and wov, an egg, are both degraded, but most unaccountably; the egg (no bad word or thing either as we think) is placed lowest in the scale of merit. In the same page, though one object of the work is to trace the meaning of words to their origin, no notice is taken of the primitive meaning of wxɛavos, though lately the subject has excited a good deal of attention among scholars, and though a clear statement of the matter may be formed in a book so well known as Dr. Maltby's edition of Morell's Thesaurus. But we really have more charity than to go through the whole catalogue of Mr. Booth's sins of omission and commission, and turn with pleasure to the bright side of the picture.

We have hinted already at an ornamental part of the volume, from which more enter tainment is to be derived than is usual with works of this character, and have no fear of disappointing any expectations which our readers may have indulged. After disposing of the substantives and adjectives, and thus breaking the neck of the business, on arriving at the verbs our author is in such good humour with his progress, as to proscribe but few of the words here arranged, and at the same time in their explanations to indulge us with an exercise of his invention that has wonderfully relieved our minds after the compara. tively dry task we have gone through. This inventive faculty he has employed with such success, that he has added many words to the language which we cannot but regret were withheld from Mr. Todd, when engaged in preparing his new edition of Johnson's Dictionary. It is difficult to conceive how Mr. Booth will rebut the charge of illiberality, in not communicating on that occasion some of the many novelties with which these pages are graced, and the absence of which from Todd's work may endanger the character of a book, whose chief recommendation with the public is its completeness. It cannot be expected that we should transcribe so numerous a list, but we cannot refrain from making some extracts from this part of the work, where the excellence above noticed casts a glory on every page. We must at the same time express our fear that the length of some articles may stagger the frail memories of some tyros, and would gladly receive directions in the promised "key," what kind of compulsion to the task Mr. Booth would recommend to be adopted. We will now no longer delay our extracts, after requesting our readers to observe how pleasantly the most familiar are blended with the most recondite phrases :

Mucow, muugo, mucum nasi extraho, emungo-to blow the nose, extract its mucus, to snuff a candle.

Xvauw, carpo, vellico; catillorum more voro et deglutio-to pluck, vellicate, tweeze, lug; to guzzle, devour in a whelpish manner, gnaw.

Xgɛu-ilw, & slilw, hinnio- to neigh, whinny.

Xęíw, ungo, inungo, perungo, lino, oblino, illino,-to anoint, pour on the Chrism, perfume with unguents, lubricate with ointment, rub, colour, besmear.

P

E'λavvw, Dor. havw, co. ¿λáw, agito, impello, stimulo, incito,exerceo, exagito, fatigo, vexo, insector, persequor judicio, arcesso, accuso, verbero, pulso, ferio, excutio, moveo, cieo, excito, abigo, expello, duco, ductilè opus facio, traduco, proveho, promoveo, progredior, evado, pervenio, equito, vulnero, transfigo-to agitate, tumble, toss, chase, drive on, impel, provoke, goad, stimulate, stir up, incite, exercise, ply, rouse, fatigue, disturb, trouble, torture, vex, pursue, sue at law, accuse, beat, strike, forge, push, hit, shake off, excuss,

move, stir, drive away, send conduct, aeedu,,pxoffe, make a ductile work, draw a ditch, wall, &c. bring from one place or side to another, change situation, decamp, turn, carry on, promote, go forth, march, advance, proceed, evade, escape, avoid, make for, come to, arrive at, ride, wound, vulnerate, transfix.

Koda, dormire facio, sopio, in lecto colloco-to make one dorm, cast asleep, lull to rest, put to bed; noάoμai, wμas, dormiendi gratiâ cubo, dormio, obdormio, sopior— to lie down to sleep, to dorm, sink into or be locked in the arms of Somnus; Metaph, Morior, mortuus sum, to die, fall into the iron sleep, be dead.

The reader, who no doubt will be sufficiently desirous, after seeing the above speci> mens, of recurring to the work itself, would think us hardly sufficiently grateful, were we to leave unnoticed some other of the unusual terms which grace the volume. We particularly recommend the following:-"to sarcastise," " rutilate," circumlave," "be morigerous," "eructate," "constipate," 66 percuss," ,” “yawn out hi-an-o-o," "mussitate," "trucidate" "be erratic," "jngulate," "emacerate," "6. conspurcate," "erudiate," "tabefy," "tabefaction," "bellaine rage," "stridulous shrieks," "mordacious language," and many others of the same charming cast might be noticed,

We are not absolutely certain that these are all of them Mr. Booth's property, but that all mistake may be prevented, and that the unlearned may understand these choice additions to their mother-tongue, we intreat Mr. Booth, in his intended "key" to the present work, to arrange these new expressions with their meanings under the names of those who have the merit of introducing them. We must now take leave of him with expressing our hopes, that the publication abovementioned, and his Lexicon of derivatives and compound words of the Greek tongue, may not long be withheld from the expecting world. Maturum reditum pollicitus-redi.

FACTS AUTHENTIC, in SCIENCE and RELIGION: designed to Illustrate a new Translation of the Bible. By the Rev. William Cowherd, late Minister of Christ-Church, Salford. Part I. 4to. pp. 158. 10s.

We know of no religious tenets which have been professed in modern times, with the exception of the mystical reveries of Joanna Southcott, that are so singular as those of the Swedenborgians, who are said to be a numerous sect in Germany, Sweden, and some parts of America. They derive their name from Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish nobleman, born at Stockholm, in 1689. We believe Mr. Cowherd to be one of their body, and as some portions of his book are intended to illustrate the peculiar doctrines of his church, it will be necessary briefly to notice some of the leading articles of their creed. We must, however, premise, that we are not aware that the members of the new Jerusalem Church adhere in every point to the creed of their founder:--but believing that they are in the main, followers of his principles, we shall make his explications of Christian doctrines the subject of our present inquiry.

The points on which the new Jerusalem church differ most widely from the prevailing religious systems of the day, are the Trinity, the three distinct senses of Scripture, -and the New Jerusalem spoken of in the book of the Revelation of St. John.

As to the first of these articles, Baron Swedenborg denied a trinity of persons in the Godhead, but contended for a divine trinity in the person of Jesus Christ alone; consisting of a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, just like the human trinity in every individual man, of soul, body, and proceeding operation.-He further maintained that the