loveliness of the tints. The heads, and the extremities of all the figures, are defigned with inexpreffible graces, though, in fome particulars, the defign is a little incorrect.

Two of his moft capital pictures are a Leda, and a Venus, intended as a prefent from the duke of Parma, to the emperor; the figures are naked, and the flesh was fo inimitably tender, clear, foft, and delicate, that it had more the appearance of real fleth, than the production of the pencil. In each picture there was a lovely landfchape; but, in that of the Venus, two Cupids were introduced, as trying their arrows, of gold and lead, on a touchftone; and from a rock iffued a ftream of tranfparent water, which in its courfe, flowed over the feet of Venus, and feemed fo perfectly lucid, that it rather increased the delicate fofthefs of the flesh, than concealed any part of its beauties.

But in the palace at Modena was that remarkable painting, called the Notte, or Night of Correggio. The fubject of it is the Nativity of Chrift, in which the light proceeds from the infant, illuminating the fhepherds and fpectators, among whom, one figure of a woman is reprefented, as being fo ftrongly affected by that ray of glory which iffues from the babe, that the holds one hand between her face and the infant, to avert the dazzling brightness, with which the feems as if overpowered. Julio Romano, on feeing those pictures, declared they were fuperior to any thing in painting that he had yet beheld.

In reviewing this Dictionary it ought to be remarked, that the characters of the painters delineated in it, not having been drawn from natural tafte, or personal observation on their works, but compiled entirely from different authors, who have varied in opinion, are not always juft, or confiftent. It may also be obferved, that our author has given a very particular account of feveral Flemish painters, whofe lives and works are equally uninterefting; while the lives and characters of fome of the best Italian painters are paffed over in a very cursory manner. But indeed, he every where betrays a ftrong predilection for the Flemish fchool, and is always officiously prefenting us with Vander Hecks, and Vander Heydens. We fhall infert, however, from that fchool, the life of Gerhard Douw, as Mr. Pilkington seems to have taken particular pains in his account of that artift.

GERHARD DO U W.

Painted Portraits, Converfations, and Subjects of Fancy. Died 1674, aged 61..

This admirable artist was born at Leyden, in 1613, and received his inftructions in drawing, and defign, from Bartholomew Dolendo, an engraver, and also from Peter Kouwhoorn, a painter on glass; but at the age of fifteen he became a difciple of Rembrandt. In that famous fchool he continued for three years, and then found himself qualified to study nature, the most unerring director.

From Rembrandt he learned the true principles of colouring, and obtained a complete knowledge of the chiaro-fcuro; but to that knowledge he added a delicacy of pencil, and a patience in

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work

He thinks it most probable, that Elihu was the first penman* of the hiftory of Job,' because he was the youngest of the company, might live long enough to give an account of his death, and was well acquainted with all the particulars of his life. The author then proceeds to answer fome objections which have been urged against the reality of the perfon of Job, and the truth of the facts related in the hiftory.

One objection is, that, whereas the bet writers on the fubject fuppofe Job to have been before Mofes, it was natural to expect fome mention of him in the Pentateuch. It is answered, that the business of Mofes was to inftruct the Ifraelites in the commands of Jehovah, and that there was no place for him to introduce any thing concerning Job or his history; that he never mentions either perfons or things, but fuch as were immediately connected with the people he was to govern; that his concern was with the line of Jacob and that any inftructions taken from events happening in a country inhabited by the defcendants of Efau could never have been in any degree efficacious.

Another objection is founded upon the improbability of Job and his three friends fitting Jeven days and nights upon the ground in profound filence. Our author replies, that the number feven may only denote fome confiderable time † ; that if the literal meaning be contended for, there may be an ellipfis in the text; that Job only might fit feven days, and his friends the remainder of feven days: but that, after all, no one can prove it impoffible, but that Job's friends might really fit down feven days and nights in abfolute filence and aftonifhment; for they faw that his grief was very great.

A third objection to the reality of Job's perfon, and the truth of his hiftory, is the amazing greatness and peculiarity of his afflictions. Our author anfwers, that this obfervation is of no confequence, unless it be could be proved, that it was abfolutely impoffible for fuch events to befal one person.

Fourthly, it has been objected, that the introduction of of fatan is a proof that the book is merely a dramatic fable. The author of this differtation allows, that nothing can be more abfurd than to imagine a converfation really held between Jehovah and the devil; he thinks therefore, that Satan, means fome envious adverfary, by whom Job was' publicly accufed and cenfured; and that Saran is only a figura.

,שטן

Our author however fuppofes that the book of Job had its prefent poetical form from Mofes; or that Mofes tranflated it from the Syriac, wherein it was firft written. But this a mere conjecture. + See Levit. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28. Deut. xxviii, 7, 25.

tive, or poetic expreffion, which does not affect the truth of the history.

The author, in the laft place obferves, that both a prophet in the Old Teftament, and an Apoftle in the New *, confi dered the book of Job as a history of facts.

He now proceeds to enquire into the country of Job. Uz, he obferves, was the fun of Difhan, the fon of Seir in the land of Edom t. Edom and Efau are the fame; for Efau was the father of the Edomites, or, after the Greek pronunciation, the Idumeans. Now Idumea is fouth of Jerufalem, and confequently in the neighbourhood of, or as it were among the Chaldeans and the Sabeans ; therefore Job's habitation was about the borders of Idumea. This opinion feems to be confirmed by the following paffage in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: O daughter of Edom, that dwelleft in the land of Uz.' ch. iv. 21.

The next point which this writer endeavours to determine is the age in which Job lived. In oppofition to those who think that the book of Job was written in the moft early times, he makes the following remarks. 1. The Chaldeans and Sabeans are mentioned in the first chapter, as well known and powerful people, and not as new settlers. 2. The method of cultivating land in Job's days was not the first or original method; for his fervants did not dig the ground, but his oxen plowed it. 3. The art of weaving was known, as appears by Job's allufion to the weaver's fhuttle, chap. vii. 6. 4. Job is said to have died old and full of days; whereas he was probably not more than two hundred years old when he died; for Eliphaz fays to him, chap. xv. 10. with us are very aged men, much older than thy father; and he only lived 140 years after the commencement of his fecond profperity; which is no great age compared with that of Noah, Shem, and their immediate fucceffors, who lived five or fix hundred years. But if, fays our author, we bring Job down to later times, we fhall fee the propriety of calling him old and full of days: for Isaac was only an hundred and eighty years old when he died, and he is likewife faid to have been old and full of days. 5. The mention of the fpear, the fhield, the horse, and the trumpet, is a circumftance no ways favourable to the fentiments of thofe, who contend for the very high antiquity of the book of

• St. James.

+ Gen. xxxvi. 28.

The Chaldeans and the Sabeans lived in Arabia Deserta ; and the inhabitants of that country in latter ages were called Saracens, from an Arabic word fignifying the East. See Po cocke's Specimen Hift, Arab.

Job. The most early method of war was more fimple. 6. In the Mofaic hiftory we find that Buz, the father of the Buzites, was the fon of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. Elihu therefore, who is stiled a Buzite, and of course Job, his cotemporary, must have lived after the time of Abraham. 7. Elephaz, another of Job's friends, appears to have been a grandfon of Ifaac. Gen. xxxvi. 10. From these and fome other arguments the author concludes, that Job lived about 3500 years ago: that is, about the year of the world 2275, or about the time that Jofeph was carried into Egypt. This calculation, he thinks, fuits alfo with the prefents made to Job by his friends and acquaintance, every one giving him an ear-ring of gold, and a kefitah which he translates, a lamb.

Some have fuppofed, that Ezra was the author of the book of Job: but in confutation of this opinion, he makes the following obfervations.` 1. How could Ezekiel, in his prophefy, which was written about four years before the destruction of Jerufalem, mention any thing about Job, if Ezra was the author of the hiftory? fince what Ezra wrote was to comfort the Jews after their return from their feventy years captivity. 2. If Job lived not till the days of Ezekiel, or Ezra, how can we account for his offering burnt offerings in perfon; or for Eliphaz's being ordered to do the fame thing, as an atonement for himself and his companions? fince after Mofes all offerings were confined to the priesthood. 3. We are told, that the Lord answered Job. Now whether this be looked upon as a reality, or only a poetical ornament, it will be difficult to reconcile it with fo low a date. For we fhould remember that from Mofes, even till the temple was built, oracles were given by Urin and Thummim; and after that time, by the mouth of a prophet.—Our author takes no notice of the difference there is between the fublime language of the book of Job, and the humble ftile of Ezra. Yet this is an argument of confiderable weight, in the prefent question.

The two laft pages of this differtation contain fome obferva tions in answer to thofe who have thought that Job was a king, or the fame with Jobab, a great grandson of Esau, mentioned Gen. xxxvi. 33.

In his Appendix he proves that the declaration of Job," chap. xii. 12. With the ancient is wisdom and length of days understanding, is applicable to God, and not to man.

In this article we have given an epitome of fome of the principal arguments and obfervations which our author has advanced. Thofe who are defirous of seeing them at large, must have recourfe to the work itself. Though he has not exhausted the subject, nor methodized his remarks in the most regular man

ner,

every year, prefented them with a printed account of the progrefs he had made in the faid collations. But as most of thefe little pamphlets have been long fince (in the bookfellers phrase) out of print, the author was perfuaded to republish, and prefix all his preceding annual accounts to that of the laft year; that the reader may have a complete view of the advances which have been made every year, from the commencement to the conclufion of this important undertaking.

As this work will certainly be of very confiderable service to facred literature, our readers may not be difpleafed with the following extract from the last year's account, containing the feveral objections which have been made to Dr. Kennicott's fcheme, and the Dr's. confutation of those objections.

Cafe the First. About twenty years fince I attempted a correction of fome errors in the printed Hebrew text, by comparing two parallel chapters; in doing which, the only helps, befides the great advantages of that Parellelifm, were the Context, and the Antient Versions. But here it was eafy to object, that 64 a scheme of correction, formed upon these principles, would have been much more fatisfactory, had there been any Hebrew MSS, which confirmed any of these emendations." The force of this objection is granted; and it was actually forefeen. MSS therefore were fought after, and found; by which feveral of these corrections, before made, were actually confirmed.

Objection 2. But, "how could the Antient Verfions fupport any alteration of the Hebrew Text -when they are bad Paraphrafes rather than good Verfions: becaufe none of their numerous and great differences from our Hebrew Text are at all countenanced by Hebrew MSS." Thus had men long affirmed, without the leaft proof; indeed, in a matter totally unexamined and in defiance of the ftrongest proofs to the contrary, at that very time extant in the MSS themselves. For in thofe MSS, which I at first discovered, I foon met with feveral readings, entirely different from the printed Hebrew copies; and exactly agreeing with the Greek, Syriac, and other Antient Verfions.

3. But, as the MSS, thus difcovered, were not many; perhaps these would have been contradicted, or invalidated, by other MSS in England, or by MSS in foreign countries." The very contrary was expected, as the refult of further enquiry. Further enquiry was made, and other MSS were found at home; and upon enquiries alfo abroad, many MSS were. found there likewife: almoft every one of them proving the fallibility of its tranfcriber, and many of them confirming ftill more amply the authority of the Antient Verfions.