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to confirm it. Reading the lives of the Saints, is an employment much resembling the study of the Talmud; a thorough initiation into either of them is well calculated to serve the cause of barbarism, by paralyzing the energies of the human intellect. They are admirable handmaids to superstition, which effectually works its purpose by their aid. What can such a course of instruction as the following accomplish, in rearing man to the measure of moral learning and agency worthy of his reasonable nature?

The education of Jewish children varies in many particulars, in different countries, and according to the external circumstances of the parents; but among those who are esteemed by their brethren as the best members of their community, their daughters are generally taught to read the Hebrew prayer-book, that is, merely to pronounce the words, without understanding the meaning of a single sentence: beyond this acquisition their religious education is very rarely known to extend. Their sons begin to learn the Hebrew alphabet soon after they are able to speak; and at an early age they are taught to read the Law, the Mishna, and the Gemara, as well as the prayer-book. To these are sometimes added the Commentary of R. Solomon Jarchi, and the Yad Hachazakah, or an abridgement of the Talmud by Maimonides: but their principal attention is devoted "to the Talmud, which they reckon the foundation of all, and the best study." Very few of them learn the language grammatically, but they are instructed in the sense of what they read, according as it is understood by their teachers, who take every opportunity of establishing them in the tenets of Judaism, and especially of inspiring them with prejudice and hatred against Christianity. p. 301.

Some of our readers will probably be surprised to learn, that the privilege of reading particular lessons in the Jewish synagogue, and the performance of other public services, are put up to public auction, and assigned to the highest bidder. The privilege of reading the book of Jonah, on the day of atonement, in the principal German Synagogue in London, was, Mr. Allen informs us, once purchased (a few years ago) for two hundred pounds. The principal personage among the modern Jews, is the presiding rabbi; concerning whose office we find the following description.

• Individuals who are well versed in the Talmud easily obtain the title of rabbi, which is little more than an honorary distinction among their brethren. In every country or large district, the Jews have an officer denominated in some places a chief or presiding rabbi, and in others a chacam. He bears a spiritual authority, and, as far as is compatible with the laws of the country, exercises also a civil jurisdiction. The principal engine to enforce compliance with his decisions, is the terror inspired by the ecclesiastical censures, excommunications, and anathemas, which he has power to denounce, and the direful effects of which are supposed to extend beyond the present life.

He takes cognizance of all cases of adultery, incest, violation of the sabbath, or any of the fasts or festivals, and apostacy; of marriages, divorces, and commercial contracts; he hears and determines appeals against decisions of inferior rabbies within his district; decides all difficult questions of the law, and preaches three or four sermons in a year. To some of these cases fees are attached, and the office is accompanied with a respectable salary. In this country there are two of these officers; the Chief Rabbi of the German and Polish Jews, and the Chacam of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.' p. 322.

The public are much indebted to Mr. Allen for the pains which he has taken to furnish this portraiture of modern Judaism. It is almost a reproach for persons who acknowledge the authority of the Bible, to be unacquainted with the present opinions and ceremonies of a people whose history, and the records of whose civil and religious polity, constitute so large a portion of it. Though they live in the midst of us, and mingle with us, how little do the Christians of Britain know concerning them. The present work supplies a very important desideratum, and the spirit of the author we can most cordially applaud. "Modern Judaism,” will afford it readers no small degree of information and amusement; and it can scarcely fail to produce increased satisfaction with the reception of Christianity, as "a faithful saying and worthy of all "acceptation;" confirmed not only by the miracles which attended its introduction, but by the history and living testimony of its most inveterate enemies.

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Art. IV. The Unedited Antiquities of Attica; comprising the Architectural Remains of Eleusis, Rhamnus, Sunium, and Thoricus. By the Society of Dilettanti. Imperial Folio. pp. 59. Seventyeight Plates. Price 10l. 10s. Longman and Co. Murray. 1817. F we are gratified at seeing the results of the examinations so diligently prosecuted by men of taste, and artists, among the remains of the ancient structures of Greece, within about the last half century, it is not that we are anticipating so many fine advantages as we have sometimes heard talked of to our English architecture. There is much in the Grecian style, which must ever, from its leading uses and objects, be inapplicable to our domestic masonry; and the introduction of it by parts, in heterogeneous conformation with building of a quite different character and use, is apt to produce something little better than a burlesque of an architecture which so far surpassed in beauty every other in the world. Our chief gratification from these elegant labours, is retrospective; it is the pleasure

* As displayed graphically in the works of Stuart and Revett, Le Roy, Choiseul Gouffier, in the Ionian Antiquities, travels of Dr. E. D. Clarke, &c.

of beholding so much of the magnificent beauty of ancient Greece preserved and illustrated; while we take but slight interest in any question or experiment how far the principles and forms developed and exhibited, may be made available to modern use. It is enough for us, that these graceful relics display, as a thing of past time, the last marvellous reach of the power of mind over masses of stones; power, we do not mean as operating in the mechanical forces, but as impressing on the structures a character of majesty, and harmony, and significance; a character so perfect and so vivid, that they strike the spectator as visible forms of reason and poetry, more than mere constructions of rude matter. They have the aspect of something which he is tempted to denominate ideality.

We heard, it is long since, of a band of artists, professional and non-professional, of whom we presume that Sir William Gell was the coryphæus, deputed to investigate some of the hitherto little-explored ruins of Greece; and we may suppose that the present elegant volume gives to the public but one portion of the results of a course of labours which assuredly would never proceed languidly, when Sir W. Gell was on the ground. But it is quite in ignorance and at hazard that we suppose any thing on the subject; for the present work comes before the public in a style of the most stately reserve: no advertisement, or introduction, or account of the operations of the artists, or even mention of their names : no hint who may be the Editor; no reference to any remaining collections for a future publication: nothing in short but a bare list of the names of those magnates in virtu, the Dilettanti Society. This uncommunicative lofty sort of carriage, may be very patrician and imposing; but verily we think that any diminution possibly consequent, in our distant ceremonious respect for these dignified personages, from a little condescension shewn by them, might have been tolerably compensated by the gratitude we should have felt for being put in possession of a little preliminary information. It is not, however, that there can be any doubt of the exemplary accuracy of the delineations exhibited very satisfactory assurance for that is afforded by the combined responsibility of the artists and of the Society.

The work is arranged in nine chapters, of which the following are the titles: Eleusis-the Propylæa-the Inner Vestibulesthe Temple of Ceres-Temple of Diana-Propylæa-Temple of Nemesis-Temple of Themis-Temple of Minerva-SuniasPortico at Thoricus. About half of the small portion of letterpress distributed into these chapters, consists of explanatory notices of the plates, taken individually in their succession; the other half briefly furnishes some more general information, historical, antiquarian, and topographical, respecting the several sites of the ruins investigated.

Of these localities, Eleusis is beyond all comparison the most interesting. We will transcribe a few sentences from the general observations.

The magnificent structure erected by the great statesman of Attica for the solemnization of the mysteries of Ceres, stood a bold and prominent feature in a picture, whose back ground was formed by the walls and towers of the impending Acropolis. In front, the villas and gardens of the Eleusinians, spreading themselves around the foot of the rock, and along the borders of the Bay of Salamis, completed a scene which had no where its equal. As accessories in the composition of this grand design, the vestibule of the sacred enclosure, and the connected temple of Diana-Propylæa, were worthy of admiration. The former, little inferior to the Propylæa of the Athenian Acropolis, from which it appears to have been faithfully copied, was in itself a work of the greatest importance, and little less costly than its prototype, the execution of which is said to have involved an expenditure of two thousand and twelve talents.'

The great sanctity of the chief building was protected by a double enclosure, one within the other. The first was approached by the Propylæa already mentioned. The walls of the inner peribolus, which may still be traced at intervals throughout the greater part of their extent, formed four sides of an irregular pentagon."

The mystery cast over the Eleusinian rites, prevented all mention of the buildings in which they were solemnized. Pausanias pretends that he was deterred by a vision he saw in his sleep, from disclosing any particulars concerning the Eleusinium at Athens; and the same super-human interposition forbid him to notice any object contained within the sacred precinct of the temple at Eleusis.'

But for the imposing splendour of the page, we should be tempted' to fancy there is something rather unmeaning and almost impertinent in the joke of letting Zosimus account for the tolerable preservation of the Athenian structures, as com pared with the fate of those at Eleusis.

When we contrast the very dilapidated state of the edifices of Eleusis, with the perfect condition which those of the Athenian Acropolis retained at a period long subsequent to the irruption of the Goths, we are tempted to believe that there must have been some kind of foundation for the story of Zozimus, who relates that Alaric hastened from the straits of Thermopyla to Athens, in expectation of an easy conquest; but on reaching the city, Minerva shewed herself from the walls in a threatening attitude, and Achilles, advanced in front, appeared to dispute the approach. Dismayed by this vision, the invader granted a capitulation, by which the city was protected from insult. Ceres does not appear to have interposed between the conqueror and her votaries at Eleusis, and the demolition of their buildings was complete. Eleusis may have been taken under aggravating circumstances; for the overthrow of these mighty edifices could not have been accomplished without the most active

means, directed by vengeance, or some other powerful stimulus, to

that end.'

The present village is built upon the site of the sacred buildings, the greater part of them within the ancient limits of the sacred enclosure. It consists of about seventy cottages, inhabited by a few Albanian families.'

Previously to the examination of the vestiges at Eleusis, there is a rapid survey of the country from Athens to that city; noting various antiquities and the natural features of the tract, tracing the Sacred Way, and glancing to several spots and routes on the plains of Athens and Eleusis, separated by the ridge of Mount Icarius. Between this ridge and Athens, and stretching across the Sacred Way, and in part occupying the site of the groves of the Academy, is a considerably extensive forest of olive trees, many of which bear evidence of great antiquity.

Their trunks, torn by age into several divisions, are not unfrequently twenty feet in circumference. The olive is slow in its growth, and resists decay perhaps longer than any other wood. Centuries must have elapsed before it could attain the bulk these venerable trees exhibit; so that they may be considered, if not the natives of the ancient Academy, yet as their immediate descen, dants.'

This brief but very attentive survey, is followed by seven or eight plates, which constitute the prime grace and flower of this splendid work. The first two are maps; one, of the locality and vicinity of Eleusis, the other of the plains of Athens and Eleusis, with their divisions, eminences, and environing ridges. These are of an execution which it was reserved for very modern art to attain. It is impossible to imagine any thing more exquisite. The eye is long detained upon them as beautiful pictures. They are engraved by Walker, from drawings made by Sir W. Gell, on the authority of his own accurate survey. There is then a General Plan of the ancient buildings at Eleusis, followed by five landscapes, also from the drawings of Sir W. Gell, engraved by G. Cooke, not all in a style of the highest finishing, but with great beauty and spirit. With the exception of a view of the promontory and ruin of Sunium, all the remaining seventy plates are purely architectural, involving no circumstance or accompaniment of the nature of landscape. Probably as many as half of them are simple outlines; or outlines with a slight plain shading in some of the plans and sections. Should therefore any person of mere general taste, in seeking to acquire the work, expect to find it in its general character what we commonly denominate picturesque, to find it nearly of the same order as, for instance, the work of De Choiseul, he will be considerably disappointed. VOL. VII. N.S.

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