MR. TAYLOR' S SECOND REPLY. 113 



A universal ncijatiou. " The old Greek poets" examined. 



"Throughout all history we discover no trace of a Sabbath 

 among the nations of antiquity/' But I " have not read all 

 history !" (p. 60.) A universal negation is rarely (if ever) 

 founded on personal experience or absolute knowledge. Its 

 legitimate ground is induction : and if the assumption be hasty, 

 it is of course open to refutation. I believe therefore that even 

 with very limited pretensions to historical knowledge, there 

 was no want of a becoming modesty in the nniversalit^ of my 

 denial. 



But, says my friend, " The old Greek poets, Hesiod, 

 Homer, and Callimachus, call the seventh day ' holjJ '* 

 (p. 50.) J. N. B. has neglected "chapter and verse;" and 

 will be puzzled to verify his references. In following Dr. 

 DwiGHT (not always accurate in his quotations), he has been 

 led into error. 



The nearest approach to the language of his qnotation, I 

 am able to find in either of these poets, is the following passage 

 from Hesiod (about 1000 b. c), distinguishing fortunate days 

 from evil days : " These days are under the providence of 

 Jove : the first day of the new moon is consecrated, also the 

 fourth day, and the seventh day^ for on this, Latona bore the 

 golden-armed Apollo : both the eighth and ninth days of the 

 crescent moon are likewise especially favorable to human af- 



* rigwToy ev», TiT^af t6, xat éSS'o^>j — tsjov »),aa^. This is the stereotyped 

 ISJo/xn — te^ov nfA.af ("the seventh day — a Åo^y day"), so currently, yet 

 so carelessly quoted by every zealous Sabbatarian, from Aristobulus, 

 the Jew (b. c. 150), to Dr. Timothy Dwight; from Dwight down to 

 the last prize essayist on " Heaven's Antidote to the cm-se of Labor." 

 The number of learned names which, in modern times, have blindly 

 followed their false guides upon this point would form a most imposing 

 catalogue. So ready is the acceptance of wished-for evidence on the 

 ene hand, so difificult the detection of a vague quotation on the other. 

 It is fully time that this piratical impressmeJit of testimony should be 

 " -withstood to the face." It is fully time that those inadvertently re- 

 lying on such perversions should be disabused, and should have the im- 

 postui'e publicly exposed. 



10* 



