, 1884-10-19
A CRITICAL REVIEW.
Judge Peck Considers DIR. Newman's
Recent Lecture.

freshness commonplace rarely e%nterinI
into his utteranees: and, coupled with hi
gift Of rhetoric is a voice hat is very re
markable for its richness. clearness. iexi
bility and grace. He has read variedl,
aud extensively: he has revealed In tn,
l~uxuries of literature ranged widely owe
the field of history-roamed freely through
the domain of speculation. He present,
multitudes Of interesting facts, inter
spersed with bold and novel suggestions
and interviewer with brilliant and fasci
mating %fancies; though not enriched with
much originality of thought. F..
There are things on the other side-a
reverse to the picture. A listener may be
permitted to suggest that the lecturer, in
his eagerness to cover the surface, has
kept above the depths-has gathered
largely, but not always carefully. The
nautilus skins over the smooth ocean
wave with a delicate and shining wing;
but its fairy voyage is the fairy voyage
still; it comes and goes, but bears no
heavy freights. The meteors may dart
thick and far athwart the sky, flashing
their rays in beauty; but the lifeless stones
will fall as the remaining substance.
If these lectures are specimens, he is
given to the use Of facts-not so much in
the narrative, which is the best form, as
the basis of instructive deduction-bul
rather a ground, from which to take fight
into exuberant rhapsody; and his presen-
tation of facts is rambling and discon-
nected; showing singular absence of the
power ofmethod, cohesion. conciseness,
simplicity and cleamess.
Quite a third of his lecture was wasted
In idle anecdote and enforced humor.
Very cursory attention was given-mere
glances to the scenic feature of the valley;
and to the HISTORIANS, Hebrews. Ma
homedans and Devil-worshipers who
dwell there-ground, where the civilian
ton of the human race was initiated; and
over which have passed the shifting
scenes, the fiuxes and refuxes, the ascen-
sions and d~eclensions of the first empires
communities, which are the decayed
fragments of the early chapters of history;
whose very traditions-mixtures of truth
and fction-envelop the Bible-path, as
far back as human knowledge goes. But
about thirty minutes were left for a sub
ject, which a day would scarcely suffice
to open; which has become a grandest in
this respondent age of research; which
has become a center to the profoundest
attention of the a~rchaeologist; which has
drawn to itself the anxious inquiry of the
scientist, historian and biblicist-the
mounds, the excavations of which have
revealed prodigies in military and in arch
itectural science, and in the art of orna-
mentations; and have brought to light the
mysterious cuneiform tongue-a language,
lost for age in the sepulchres of Nineveh
and Babylon-once dead, now living-a
language, which records the growth,
g%lories and grandeur of Babylonia, Assyria,
Media and Medic ersia-a~ language which
connects supposed fables of Herodotus
into solid facts: and, most precious and
triumphal of all, invincibly vindicates the
Elder Scriptures, till scepticism, with its
stubborn e%ffrontery, must be compelled to
bow its head in silence language.
whose characters are vet so fresh and
vivid on wall and tablet. that the vast
mounds, which buried it into silence,
seem now to have been the faithful de-
positors of the evidence. that has drawn
sacred and secular history into closer
accord.
The usefulness Of the lecture would
have been much enhanced, if-instead of
anecdote and humor, and seanty pictures
of valley aspect and life-it had explained
how the key to this language-a key,
which has opened the wondrous secret
was found by tracing back from the
modern to the forgotten Persian, thence
to the ancient Assyrian, and possibly tc
the Chaldean and Babylonian languages,
The explanation would have shown prob.
ably, that these five tongues go back tc
one root; a root, bearing diverities of
speech-diversities, beginning. it may
be. in the confusion, that was divinely i'm.
posed upon the builders of Babel; and.
showing this, it would have shown, thai
| tho Dareian Aoax+rian Dhallaou opI Rah
n
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