622 
found in the re-publication of “ The New 
Testument, translated from the Latin in 
the Year 4880, by Joun Wicurr, D.D. 
to which are prefixed, Memoirs of the 
Life, Opinions, and Writings, of Dr. 
Wictir; and An Historical Account 
ofthe Suxon and English Versions of the 
Scriptures, previous to the opening of the 
Sifteenth Century,” oy the Rev. H. H. 
Baser. 
Wiclif’s Version was originally pub- 
lished in the year 1781, by the Rev. 
John Lewis, minister of Margate, in the 
county of Kent; in the preparation of 
which for the press, he was greatly as- 
sisted by the cclebrated Dr. Daniel Wa- 
terland. Its value, as one of the best 
monuments of our early language, needs 
not to be enlarged on here. 
In the ‘‘ Memoirs of the Life, Opi- 
nions, and Writings, of Dr. Wictuf,” Mr. 
Baber has superseded the Life by Lewis. 
He concludes it with a more complete 
list of the reformer’s writings than has 
hitherto been given tu the world; men-- 
tioning, in most instances, in what re- 
positories the unpublished pieces may he 
found. ; 
“The Historical Account of the Saxon 
and English Versions of the Scriptures, 
previous to the opening of the fifteenth 
Century ;” will be found, if possible, even 
more interesting than.the Life of Wiclif. 
Mr. Baber mentions their first dawn ina 
brief description of the work of Czdmon, 
a writer who, in the Saxon times, had 
the reputation of being inspired. Eis 
parapnrastic version of several of the 
-most remarkable passages of Sacred 
History, 1s sapposed to have been written 
about the middle of the seventh 
century. After mentioning one or two 
fost translations of detached parts, Mr. 
Baber proceeds to the description of the 
celebrated imanuscript of the Gospels 
called the ‘* Durham, Book,” containing 
a Latin text, with an interlineary Saxon 
version. ‘The former written by Kad. 
frid, bishop of Lindisfarne, about the 
year 680: the latter supposed to have 
been added in the time of Alfred, and 
known to have been the work of one 
Aldred, a priest. - He also gives a par- 
ticular account of the Rushworth copy 
of the Gospels in the Bodleian, followed 
by several other manuscripts of lesser 
note. aN 
‘After mentioning one or two metrical 
Psalters of the thirteenth century, and 
- Rolle of Hampvle’s prose Psalter of the 
fourteenth, Mr. Baber proceeds to a 
more particular account of Wiclif’s vers 
Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Theology. 
sion, the first attempt toward a complete 
English translation of the Scriptures. 
What extent of aid he received, it would 
now be difficult to discover; but Mr. 
Baber has pretty clearly proved’ that he 
did receive assistance from at least one 
of the strenuous asserters of his prine. 
ciples, Nicholas de Herford or Hereford, 
of Queen’s-college, Oxford. v 
John de Trevisa’s claim to an English 
transiation of the Bible, Mr. Baber 
considers as an erroneous report, arising 
from a louse assertion of Caxton’s, in the 
preface to his first edition of the Poly- 
cbronicon. 
We heartily wish Mr. Baber encou- 
ragementin the farther extenston of his 
Jabours;. and shall be happy to see the 
Old Testament of Wiclif printed in a 
corresponding form. The words of Fa- 
bricius, quoted in his preface, are too’ 
memorable to be omitted here: 
<‘ mirum vero est, Anglos eam [ver- 
sionens} tam diu neglexisse, quum vel lingudée 
Causa ipsis in pretio debeat.” PENI 
Tt may be sufficient, perhaps, to give 
the title only of “ An Historacal and Poli- 
tical View of the Catholic Religion; from 
which Reasons are deduced that mosé 
peremptorily compel every thinking Man 
to combat the Emancipation of the Irish 
who are of the Catholic Church.” In a 
series of Letters to Lord Grenville. 
In this class 
“ A Letter to Sir John Nichol, on his De- 
cision against a Clergyman, for refusing 
to Bury the Child of a Dissenter; with @ ~ 
Preface addressed to the Archbishops ang 
Bishops of the Church,” 
Among the most important of the Szn- 
mons which have appeared, is the course 
of lectures so the king’s scholars at 
Westminster, in the years 1806, 1807, 
and 1808, by Dr. TreLanp, entitled, 
** Paganism and Christianity compared.” 
The subject, as we are informed in the 
preface, is chiefly historieal. ‘The event 
which serves as the foundation of the 
whole, is the capture of Rome by Ala 
tick, inthe beginning of the fifth century. 
Gut of this arises, in the first part, a 
defeace of the character of the church 
against the siandeis of Paganism. ‘The 
true causes of the decay of the empire 
are contrasted with the false; the impo~ 
tence of the heathen deities, to whom the 
prosperity of Rome had been attributed, . 
is exposed in the erguments employed 
by the ancient apologists of the faith ; 
and the beneficial tendency of the gospel 
is asserted, in its connection with the 
condition of man in the present life. 
This 
also we shall notice 
