An Apology for the Septuagint, in which its Claims to Biblical and Canonical Authority are briefly stated and vindicated. By E. W. Grinfield, M. A. [pp. 541-557]

Grinfield's Apology for the Septuagint. [OCTOBER
All this is by no means an ideal speculation, suggested by
the name of transcendental Germany, but an experimental truth which, in the highest degree, savours of the realty.
In other words, it is associated, in the closest manner, with
the beautiful octavo now before us, which, in point (f paper,
ink, and press-work, is among the choicest products of the
Chiswick press and of Pickering's Aldine book-manufactory.
If the merits of publishers and printers could expiate the sins
of authors, Mr. Grinfield might well claim to be acquitted
without trial. But according to the common law of criticism,
he must answer for himself, and of himself we know nothing
beyond what we have gathered from this volume and the advertisements appended to it. From these we learn that he is
a member of the Church of England; a Master of Arts, no
doubt of Oxford or Cambridge; a classical scholar of no mean
attainments; a devout believer in the inspiration and divine
authority of Holy Scripture; a moderate and soberminded
thinker upon all subjects which he touches except one; unusually free from all appearance of vanity or ambition'; which is
the more remarkable in one who has spent thirty years in a
laborious and (to most men) uninviting study, the fruits of
which he has given to the world in two works hitherto unknown
to us, but of which we may hereafter give a more particular
account. The first is a Hellenistic edition of the New Testament, in which it is explained by illustrations from the Septuagint; the other Hellenistic Scholia on the New Testament,
derived from Philo and Josephus, the Apocrypha and Fathers.
The almost exclusive study of Hellenistic Greek, for so long a
period, while it must have placed him at the head of this his
favourite department, has not failed to contract and distort his
views of other subjects, and if not to originate at least to
strengthen habits of weak and inconclusive reasoning, the
more surprising because found connected both with learning and
with moral qualities, which entitle their possessor-to the most
unfeigned respect. Of this logical deficiency, or intellectual
disproportion, we have been painfully sensible in trying to obtain a clear view of the author's doctrine as propounded in the
book before us, and of the grounds on which it rests, the result
of which attempt, such as it is, we shall now proceed to lay
544