that the frequent citation of the Septuagint in the New Testament does not pledge its writers to its sacred and canonical character, but that they adduce it only as Paul quotes some of the classic poets. But this is a very false and dangerous assertion. The citations of the Septuagint by the Evangelists and Apostles are not mere obiter dicta; they are direct appeals to their veracity and authority. When an English or American judge cites any law-book to confirm his opinion, he raises it to what is called authority in the courts of law; and were he inspired, or infallible, the passages he adduced would also become identified with his own assertions. We think, therefore, that the citations of the Septuagint in the New Testament necessarily acquire the same authority as that which belongs to the context; and on no other ground can we vindicate the divine authority of the Evangelists and Apostles. We limit our reasoning to the passages quoted; we do not extend it to the entire version.

But when every reasonable deduction has been made, it leaves the Septuagint on a high and singular ecclesiastical elevation. It is impossible to degrade it to the level of any ordinary version. Its primeval importance as the Porta Gentilium, its summons as heard and obeyed on the day of Pentecost, the citations from it by inspired writers, its sole reign for three centuries and more over the Universal Church, and its perpetual reign in the Eastern, all proclaim its catholicity, and distinguish it from every national and vernacular version. Still, we do not raise it to an equality with the Hebrew text. It is Proximus, sed longo intervallo. It stands alone. It is alike dangerous to overrate and to depreciate its worth. If we overvalue it, we consecrate its errors and stereotype its mistakes. If we underrate it, we repudiate past obligations, we ignore the authority of the primitive Church, we shake the validity of the New Testament, and unduly exalt our modern versions. Medio tutissimus ibis, is the watchword we should ever remember in such theological decisions.

It is now peculiarly opportune to impress these convictions, as the restored Septuagint of Mr. Field is calculated to bring the study of this version into more general cultivation. Its merits and demerits will henceforth be more closely and equi

tably investigated. We deprecate all invidious comparisons between the original and the version. Let them be collated, not contrasted. The knowledge of the Hebrew text may be often assisted by a friendly comparison; but its value can never be heightened by depreciating its copy. The excellence of the Septuagint should always be viewed as subordinate to that of the original. But its hold upon us consists in its claims as the herald to the Gentiles, in its identity of style with the New Testament, in the authority which it derives from Evangelists and Apostles, from the early Fathers and Councils, and in its wide diffusion in the East by the numerous versions made directly from it. It should be regarded as a necessary and essential evidence of the Old and New Covenants, -as the intermediate station between Judaism and Christianity. We should abjure the paltry disputes of commentators, and the long and loud quarrels of controversialists, and contemplate the alliance of the Hebrew and Greek texts in unbroken unity.

The main importance and interest of the labors of the Seventy, as we have already stated, will ever consist in their service as our leaders and instructors in the interpretation of the New Testament. Grammatically and philologically considered, the inspiration of the Evangelists and Apostles may be traced to their perpetual remembrance of the doctrinal language and expression of the Greek version of the Old Testament. There is no book in the world which so closely resembles another in its idioms and phraseology, as the Greek of the New Testament corresponds to the Greek of the Septuagint. If we were to ransack all the Greek classics, poets, philosophers, historians, we could not produce a tenth of the verbal illustrations of the New Testament to be derived from this source, and those which were produced would be purely accidental, and very seldom exactly apposite. But when we consider, also, the far more important doctrinal illustrations. and prophetical predictions contained in the Septuagint, we must arrive at the conviction that the original Hebrew of the Old Testament lives, another, yet the same, united to the Hebrew-Greek of the Septuagint and the New Testament.

Tria juncta in uno,- they constitute the same language, the sacred language of the Holy Scriptures; and however diversified by modern versions, the Hebraic stamp conveyed in Hellenistic Greek will go down from age to age, in its imperishable character, to the close of criticism and to the end of controversy.

In conclusion, we must say a few words respecting the plan and execution of this admirable edition of the Septuagint. It is now fifteen or sixteen years since the Christian Knowledge Society resolved to undertake an impression of the Alexandrian text for the use of the Greek clergy; and accordingly they applied to the Royal Synod at Athens to superintend its execution. In the regulations laid down by the Society, the Apocryphal books were to be separated from the Canonical; but, from some misunderstanding, it was found that it exhibited the apocryphal additamenta to Esther, and that Bel and the Dragon was annexed to the Prophet Daniel. At the close of the Psalms, also, were introduced several apocryphal prayers. The "Magnificat" was headed with the objectionable title, Προσευχὴ Μαρίας τῆς Θεοτόκου. As might have been expected, several of the members felt uneasy, and, with the aid of the late Bishop of London, it was resolved that this edition should not be placed on the Society's list. It thus became expedient to prepare another and a better one. former was printed at Athens; but it was determined that the present should be printed at Oxford, and under the immediate supervision of the Society's Committee of Foreign Translations. The plan was now rendered more definite and complete. First, the books, chapters, and verses were to be arranged according to the Hebrew order; secondly, the transpositions, mutilations, and interpolations were to be rectified; and, thirdly, the Apocryphal books were to be separated from the Canonical. The committee selected Mr. Field, who had previously distinguished himself as the editor of Chrysostom's Homilies, to carry out their design. They could not have chosen a more competent or trustworthy editor. Mr. Field, not content with adhering to the letter of his instructions, resolved to undertake a minute and laborious collation of

The

the Grabian text with the original manuscript in the British Museum, and to adjust the punctuation and orthography. We have no hesitation in pronouncing this edition far superior to all which have preceded it, and likely to create a new epoch in the study of the Septuagint. By those who know the number and intricacy of the transpositions which have been rectified, the amount and value of Mr. Field's labors will be duly appreciated; but as he has worked exclusively on the Alexandrian text, the Vatican still remains in its accumulated corruptions. The common English editions, as well as those on the Continent, are all printed "Juxta Exemplar Vaticanum," that is, according to the Sixtine edition of 1586. A more unsatisfactory edition was never published. The Vatican Manuscript should never be confounded with the Vatican Exemplar. Without studying the Preface and notes of Mr. Field, no one can estimate the very little dependence which should be placed on the text of 1586. We think that the time has arrived when the unsatisfactory state of our common editions of the Septuagint should be accurately investigated, and that it well becomes the delegates of the Clarendon Press to undertake its revision. But till that is accomplished, the edition of the Christian Knowledge Society will remain unrivalled.

ART. II.1. How to lay out a Garden. Intended as a General Guide in Choosing, Forming, or Improving an Estate (from a Quarter of an Acre to a Hundred Acres in Extent). With Reference to both Design and Execution. By EDWARD KEMP, Landscape Gardener, Birkenhead Park. From the Second London Edition. New York: Wiley and Halsted. 1858.

2. A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences. Comprising Historical Notices and General Principles of the Art, Directions for laying out Grounds and arranging Plantations, the Description and Cultivation of hardy Trees, Decorative Accompaniments of the House and Grounds, the Formation of Pieces of Artificial Water, Flower-Gardens, &c. With Remarks on Rural Architecture. By the late A. J. DownING, Esq. Sixth Edition, enlarged, revised, and newly illustrated. With a Supplement, containing some Remarks about Country Places, and the best Methods of making them; also, an Account of the newer Deciduous and Evergreen Plants lately introduced into Cultivation, both Hardy and Half-hardy. By HENRY WINTHROP SARGENT. New York: A. O. Moore & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 576.

THE works whose titles we have placed at the head of this article mark the progress and present condition of ornamental gardening, in Europe and America. Mr. Kemp, the author of the first, is distinguished in his profession both as a writer and a landscape artist. The famous Birkenhead Park at Liverpool bears ample and enduring testimony to his scientific attainments and his practical skill. The book he here gives to the public exhibits much excellent sense, and is written in a clear, unambitious style. It does not display great familiarity with the literature of its subject; and in this respect it differs from the writings of Mr. Downing. He says in his Preface, that, "since the completion of his volume, the best works on the art have been glanced over, and a few valuable hints gleaned from Sir Uvedale Price, Mr. Repton, and Mr. Loudon." It