Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Extracts From The Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Edward Gibbon, Esq.
" DR . ADAM SMITH TO MR . GIBBON . " fry DEAH FRIEND , Edinburgh , Dec . 10 , 178 S . " I have ten thousand apologies to make , for not having long ago returned you iw best thanks for the very agreeable present you made me of the three last volumes of your Llistoiy . I cannot express to j-ou the pleasure it gives me to find , that , by the universal
assent of every man of taste and learning , whom I either know or correspond with , it sets 3 -ou at the very head of the whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe . I ever am , my dear friend , most affectionatety yours , ADAM SMITH . " Our present Number concludes the Extracts from the Memoirs of
the Historian of the Roman Empire ; and we hope , and trust , that our selections have , throughout , been such as have afforded our readers instruction and delight . The Letters selected this Month are truly valuable , as specimens of the epistolary style of some of the greatest men Britain has produced . We cannot close the article , without expressing our wish that Lord Sheffield had not published
the correspondence between Mr . Gibbon and Dr . Priestly . Posterity will regret that the Historian treated the Philosopher with so little respect .
Curious Particulars Relative To The Jews.
CURIOUS PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE JEWS .
From " ANECDOTES HISTORICAL AND LITERARY , " just published .
TPIERE are no people in the world so zealously tenacious of the precepts of their religion , as the Jews . If they are sensible of the most minute omission , which , to persons of a different persuasion , would seem so trifling as not to deserve notice , they have no rest till the necessary ceremony for their purgation is performed . If we look into the New Testament , we may find sufficient
instances of their exactness in observing the traditions of their elders ; which they think equal , and , in some cases , even prefer , to the law of Moses : for it is an article of their creed , " That the law which Moses left them was entirely dictated by God himself , and that it does not contain one syllable belonging to Moses ; and , consequent ^ , that the explanation of those precepts , handed down by tradition ,
came wholly from the mouth of God , who delivered it to Moses . " Here , then , we see they are subject to two kinds of laws ; one given b 3 ' Moses , and founded on tradition ; both of equal validity , as both proceeding from God . The first was delivered to them in writing bj their great lawgiver , and the other given by him verbally to their elders , who transmitted
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Extracts From The Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Edward Gibbon, Esq.
" DR . ADAM SMITH TO MR . GIBBON . " fry DEAH FRIEND , Edinburgh , Dec . 10 , 178 S . " I have ten thousand apologies to make , for not having long ago returned you iw best thanks for the very agreeable present you made me of the three last volumes of your Llistoiy . I cannot express to j-ou the pleasure it gives me to find , that , by the universal
assent of every man of taste and learning , whom I either know or correspond with , it sets 3 -ou at the very head of the whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe . I ever am , my dear friend , most affectionatety yours , ADAM SMITH . " Our present Number concludes the Extracts from the Memoirs of
the Historian of the Roman Empire ; and we hope , and trust , that our selections have , throughout , been such as have afforded our readers instruction and delight . The Letters selected this Month are truly valuable , as specimens of the epistolary style of some of the greatest men Britain has produced . We cannot close the article , without expressing our wish that Lord Sheffield had not published
the correspondence between Mr . Gibbon and Dr . Priestly . Posterity will regret that the Historian treated the Philosopher with so little respect .
Curious Particulars Relative To The Jews.
CURIOUS PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE JEWS .
From " ANECDOTES HISTORICAL AND LITERARY , " just published .
TPIERE are no people in the world so zealously tenacious of the precepts of their religion , as the Jews . If they are sensible of the most minute omission , which , to persons of a different persuasion , would seem so trifling as not to deserve notice , they have no rest till the necessary ceremony for their purgation is performed . If we look into the New Testament , we may find sufficient
instances of their exactness in observing the traditions of their elders ; which they think equal , and , in some cases , even prefer , to the law of Moses : for it is an article of their creed , " That the law which Moses left them was entirely dictated by God himself , and that it does not contain one syllable belonging to Moses ; and , consequent ^ , that the explanation of those precepts , handed down by tradition ,
came wholly from the mouth of God , who delivered it to Moses . " Here , then , we see they are subject to two kinds of laws ; one given b 3 ' Moses , and founded on tradition ; both of equal validity , as both proceeding from God . The first was delivered to them in writing bj their great lawgiver , and the other given by him verbally to their elders , who transmitted