
850 Erratum... Book of Numbers +.» Drs. Waring and Farmer. [Dees a 
are always innocent, and enliven our 
evenings at home. 
Nov. 18, 1796. HEARTY. 
EEE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
gee Writer of the effay in your laft 
Magazine, in defence of the talents 
of women, begs leave to reétify a miftake 
of the Printer. The inverted commas 
to the quotation from Hume’s Ejay on 
‘National Character were milf iD Getiedt BS 
uotation beginning with the words [ By 
moral caufes, I mean all cireumftances 
which are fitted to work on the mind as 
motives or reafons] and ending with 
feaufes which do not appear, are to be 
eonfidered as not exifting. | 
Dies 52 1K. 0. 

For the Monthly Magazine 
CHRONOLOGICAL ee eer ON 
Book oF NUMBERs. 
F it be admitted that the Egyptians 
and Jews originally dated by lunar 
vears of one Panel each ; and that this 
mode of reckoning was “Kill prevalent 
when many or the documents whence 
the Pentateuch has been compiled were 
originally drawn up; but was already 
come into difufe at the time when the 
Pentateuch acquired its prefent form 
(fee vel. i. p. 636) it will appeae proba- 
ble, that a period of forty months ihould, 
as in the cafe of the lives of the Patee 
THE 
_archs, have been afterwards ‘taken for 
forty vears. 
Now this appears actually to have been 
the cafe withthe time paffed by the Ifrael- 
ites in the Arabian -wilderne{s, between 
their flight from Aigypt and their con- 
ae of Canaan. 
Forty months are abundantly fuf- 
paces for this fhort journey, eunered 
as it was, like the wanderings of all no- 
made nations, with a vaft fuite of cattle, 
women, and artificers. It would imply 
no common ignorance of topography and 
of the objeét ‘of their march, to lofe more 
than three or four years in this part of 
iene enterprize. - 
Either there is a chafm of narrative, 
of ee the text fhows no fymptom, be- 
tween the rgth and 2oth ch napters of Num- 
bers, which detailed the adventures of 
more than thirty-fix years of peregrina- 
tion : or there js an interpolatien in the 
-your plan, 
14th chapter, comprehending, at leaft, the 
23d and 30th veries, a paflage agreeing 
remarkably in {pirit with others liable to 
a fimilar imputation. We pofiefs a nar- 
rative of only forty months of peregri- 
nation ; we are told in the 14th chapter, 
propbeticaily, that it would endure forty 
years. 
3. So far asa book may be fuppofed 
fubjeét to fupernat tural proteétion, ‘the 
improbability of chafm or of interpola- : 
tion muft be allowed equal; but fofar as 
a book may, be fuppofed under the guar-— 
dant of the lawgiver and his priefts, 
interpolation is much the more probes 
for it may often be an object to fecure. 
a new pedigree, or a new law, the Fathi 
venerablenefs with thofe already fami- 
liar ; but it can feldom be an object to 
ae ee the memory of the exertions and 
exploits of the hallowed fathers of their 
country. 
Ought we not, 
us, to infer, that there is interpolation 
and not chafm: fince, even on the fup- 
pofition of fupernataral interpofition, 
the probability of either is in itfelf equal ? 
and fince all the external oe 
favour the latter fuppofition; -and, + 
conclude, that we poffefs the ie 
tative of the Jewifh fojourn in the wil-_ 
dernefs, which extends through a period 
of only forty months ? 
If thefe arguments fhall appear valid, 
they will authorize our lopping 36 years 
from the received duration of ‘hie life of 
Mofes, and our believing him to have 
died at the age of 84 years. 

To the Editor of the Montoly Magazine. 
7) SERS ' 
APPROVING much of your Literary 
Notices, I prefume that it enters inte 
to give fome information on 
works which have been thus promifed to 
the public. I thould be obliged to you, 
if by means of your widely-circulated 
Magazine, you could inform me in what 
fiate of forwardnefs Dr. W aring’s Moral 
Philofophy is at prefent. Great part of 
it was, I underftand, printed at the uni- 
Ce prefs of Ca smbridge above thefe 
vo years. Dr. Farmer, mafter of Ema- 
on college, in the fame univerfity, re- 
ceived fub{criptions for the Antiquities 
of Leicetier. Pray, has the book been: - 
publifhed :—I have not yet feen a copy- 
Your’s, 
Dec. 15, 1796. ia oneal 
. § Te 
s- 
then, in the cafe before, 
‘ 
