cipation from a mechanical solution, has originated in minds of the same order. Dr. Nichol seems to be tenacious still of this error, though he has honourably abandoned that of the nebular theory. The stratification theory, like the nebular, has not a single fact in its support: it is at best mere conjecture. It has, we believe, quite sufficient evidence against it to convince those who reason closely and consistently that it is false. But we can patiently wait for facts more palpable, more conclusive, than those which have hitherto appeared, assured that they will ere long be manifest, and that the theory of stratification, with its incalculable periods for its accomplishment, will then appear as absurd as the nebular theory now appears.

We think that Dr. Nichol rates far too highly the speculations of De Beaumont: they have the boldness, but they have also the inaccuracy, characteristic of Frenchmen. The greater

portion of his facts are obsolete already, having given way before more careful examination and more scientific analysis; and, if they were true, the tendency of the whole would be much more to the subversion than to the confirmation of the principles maintained by the modern geologists.

Dr. Nichol's book, however, is a very interesting one, as containing the most recent account of Lord Rosse's brilliant discoveries among the nebule; and in those points where we may not exactly agree with him, his book still affords materials for thinking, and facts of the most valuable kind.

12mo.

The Testimony of St. Patrick against the False Pretensions of Rome to Primitive Antiquity in Ireland. By HENRY J. MONCK MASON, LLD. London: Longman and Co. 1846. THIS is an important documentary volume in the ecclesiastical history of Ireland. Its object is to demonstrate that the origin of the Irish Church was Eastern, and not from Rome; that it was entirely independent of the see of Rome, until upwards of two centuries after the alleged arrival of Patrick in Ireland, A.D. 432; and that it still maintained that independence, and rejected the Papal supremacy to a great degree, until the independence of the Irish Church was formally surrendered, and the supremacy arrogated by the Popes of Rome was generally acquiesced in, on the arrival of the English in Ireland, in the reign of Henry II. No one but an Irish scholar and antiquary could undertake and satisfactorily execute such a work as the present; which we earnestly commend to the attentive consideration of all who take a deep interest in the important subject which Dr. Monck Mason has so ably investigated, and demonstrated by irrefragable evidence.

Grammaire Raisonneè de la Langue Ottomane, par J. W. REDHOUSE, Employé au Bureau des Interpretes de Divan Imp: Ott; et Secretaire Interpréte de la Commission Anglaise de Mediation aux Conferences d'Erzroum. Paris: Gide and Co. 1846. ON reading the title of this article many light-literature searching readers would be inclined to turn to the next article, without troubling themselves about the grammar of a language which may never be of any service to them, and in which they take no interest; while the philologist may be inclined to pause at this page to ascertain the difference in the construction of this important eastern language-the remnant of a once powerful nation, whose might made all Europe tremble and Christianity quake. This simple language of shepherds, devoid of indigenous abstract terms, and generally poor in words of pure Tartar origin, the influence of the nation by which it was spoken in the affairs of three continents has raised to the highest state of cultivation-a result facilitated and accelerated by the beautiful and simple structure of its grammar, to develope which has been the self-imposed task of Mr. Redhouse, the first Turkish scholar of his day. Mr. Redhouse, in commencing his task, has struck out for himself a new system, more consonant with the genius of the language of which he treats; rejecting the formula of the Latin grammar with which the Turkish has not one rule in common; but which was adopted in a greater or less degree by all who have written on it, partly from the lingering prejudice of boyish days, partly from a mistaken view of rendering it more comprehensible to readers, but mostly we fear from ignorance, and the want of a mathematical mind capable of striking a new path out for itself. From this category we must except the author of the first attempt at a Turkish Grammar, Mininski, whose work, although attempted on this principle, may till the present time be considered the best that has appeared, despite the numerous attempts made by adventurers in the province of letters, anxious to profit by the excitement offered by eastern affairs, and the facility afforded of visiting parts of it hitherto little more than mythically known.

Hindoglou David, Jaubert, Boyd, and others, have attempted a work for which they were not qualified; and their books, which as far as grammars can be so, are in their way light, pleasant reading enough, shew a deficiency in that philological and analytical turn of mind, which, combined with great perseverance and industry, is alone adapted to such undertakings. Vignier has narrowly escaped success, and that escape is regretted by our author. It will be seen that, with the present exception and that of Major Boyd, none of our countrymen

have attempted this difficult task, although the commerce of Great Britain in the Turkish dominions, both in imports and exports, by far exceeds that of any other nation.

On first glancing over the title page we were almost inclined to quarrel with our author for having employed a foreign language as a medium of communication instead of his own; but when we reflected on the little encouragement which has been given to students of this tongue till lately by Government, and the entire absence of it at our Universities, joined with the apathy evinced by British residents in the Turkish dominions in respect to the language of the country in which it is their fate to live, we can no longer blame Mr. Redhouse for so far taking care of himself and his publisher as to write in a language which every one knows, or professes to know, and of which certainly no philologist is ignorant ; and appears, though he does not allude to this subject in his preface, to take the cosmopolitan view of the question, and make his work rather generally than particularly useful.

Having dismissed the mere matter of course and less scientific portion of his work-of letters, their value, and combination-in the first two chapters, he passes a step further, to syllables and words, concluding his first part with a subject as yet not treated of by any Ottoman grammarian-" euphony," the keystone and proof of the degree of civilization and cultivation to which this language has raised itself from its pastoral origin. We do not here deny that an unwritten language may not be euphonious in speaking; but this language demands attention in that respect also with regard to its orthography; to render which clear, the letters are divided by our author into hard, soft, and neuter; and a strict attention to this hint will teach the student where the accentuation or ictus, so as to form a sort of iambic rhythm, must be placed on any doubtful word, and determine the spelling or its variation from a general rule or its derivative.

We give the author in his own words :—

"We have seen above the euphonic difference of Ottoman words; consequently, it will be easy to comprehend the preference given to certain consonant letters over others in the orthography of words in which a discretion is permitted, and in certain vowel sounds where the orthography is settled, which is not the case in words adopted from the Persian and Arabic. The whole secret consists in seizing the tone of the word, after which it will be easy to find the pronunciation of each syllable, and in a measure the manner in which it should be written."

The analyzation and softening of double consonant letters, which our author treats of in this chapter, forms one of the most beautiful modulations of this language.

The second part treats of etymology, and contains the eight parts of speech, for the Ottoman language has no article; consequently, that great stumbling block, genders, which our author dismisses summarily, simply stating a few rules of gender for Arab derivatives; but, as in Turkish, no word is inflected to gender, it would be idle to go deeply into a research, useless to the student on the contrary, as regards the verbs-the most simple and beautifully systematized of any language in the world-he enters into the fullest detail, and sums up with a table which the want of the necessary Arabic types alone prevents us from extracting.

The nature of the Turkish verb differs from that of all other languages; and, what is the more remarkable, while the Arabic verbal root is the most irregular of any language, the Turkish is perfectly nomalous throughout; while the Arabic has many conjugations, the Ottoman has but one. The masculine and feminine forms of the Arabic verbs form a contrast to the conciseness of the Ottoman, where the intercalation of a syllable represents a sentence in our language; as, for instance, "to render it impossible that two persons be looked at mutually" is expressed by the word bakishdurlememak-the root being bak; the imperative termination, mak; and the rest, syllables intercalated at pleasure, giving at once a reciprocal, causative, passive, impossible sense. The numerous tenses on the contrary in this language all, however regularly formed, give it an immense power, accuracy, and delicacy in conversation and writing, enabling the most minute nuance of sense to be expressed without circumlocution. These Mr. Redhouse has elucidated in a most clear and elaborate manner, giving sometimes as many as three different interpretations, pour mieux preciser le sens. The whole is furnished with the proper harakets, or vowel sounds, which our author wisely prefers to the charlatan system of his predecessors, in attempting an imitation of the sound of the Ottoman words in European character-a difficulty insurmountable, inasmuch as we have no equivalent sounds in any European language. Some have endeavoured to approximate, by a mixture of the vowel sounds of German, French, English, and Italian, a system that au bout de tout is defective, and presupposes the knowledge of those languages by the student, and a judicious explication of them; whereas Mr. Redhouse only expects him to know a little French.

This division of the work we may consider as the elementary part of it, the third and fourth parts containing the derivations. Words of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic origin are successively and systematically treated of under the titles of nouns, ad

jectives, and verbs, for those parts of speech are in Turkish primitive or derivative; words of science are drawn from the Arabic, as also many abstract term.s; while the elegant similies and poetical expressions are borrowed from the Persian. To avoid tautology and repetition of the same sound, absolute synonymes-we may say almost, if not quite, unknown in English, and entirely so in French, German, and Italian—are used: thus a door is expressed by the Tartar derivative kâpoo, the Persian der-which, by the bye, is probably connected with the English word door, the root of Persian and English being one-Oupa (Greek); thüre (German); deur (Dutch); door (English); dür (Persian); to use the German orthography and the Arabic Bab, are all applied to the Downing-street of Constantinople Pashakapoosee, Bab aalee Dür aalee: it is true, there required some delicacy and discrimination in using these words, in order to avoid a language unworthy of, or above, the subject.

Having dismissed the question of Turkish and Persian derivatives, the author passes to the Arabic, which he describes as trés étendue et trés-systématique et presque totalement en usage dans la langue Ottomane.

749. Tout mot Arabe est regardeè comme derivè d'ùne racine litérale.

This method of dividing the chapters into short paragraphs cannot be surpassed in a work of logical reasoning, or as our author calls it, "Grammaire raisonnée:" for such ought every grammar to be, and such are very few grammars. Here we find an axiom or rule, and so concisely expressed that it would be impossible to spare a word; if we go to the next paragraph we find the rule laid down expanded upon the basis given, and a chain of deductions proceeding to the interminable word "feaial," to follow which through all its phases would not only require type for the purpose, but also an extract of the whole of the third and fourth chapters, covering forty-nine sides, to extract which in a review, even were it possible, would not be fair to the author, and almost amount to an infringement of copyright. This may be said to be the pearl of the work; for heretofore it was supposed, and the supposition was correct, that, to become a fair Turkish scholar, a competent knowledge of Arabic and Persian was also necessary, or in attaining which a great deal had to be learned not indispensable to the ultimate object the student had in view. This is here contracted into fifty-four sides, which give the student the cream, without obliging him to drink the skimmed milk with it; which, from its quantity, often so weakens the stomach as to create an nausea and an antipathy. During a long residence in the East we