Excerpt from The Eclectic Review, Vol. 10: July-December, 1818

And how came Mr. Bellamy to rise to this superiority over all former Hebrew Scholars Has some ancient Israelite risen from the dead to become his teacher? Has he obtained a monopoly in the knowledge of Hebrew consonants, and vowels, and ac cents? Is he privileged by patent to deal exclusively in these commodities? Learning of all kinds has long been an open trade, and we are yet to learn by what hnknown advantages Mr. B. Could become more accomplished than other men in the knowledge of the original Scriptures. Has he access to any sources of information from which others are excluded? Is he the only man to whom for ages the opportunity of becoming learned in Hebrew has been afforded? And if other men have been in possession of advantages not inferior to Mr. Bellamy's, have they been less assiduous or less honest than he? Assuredly not. With equal or superior learning, they had as much uprightness of intention, and were as indefatigable in their exertions to serve the cause of truth as the Author of Bib lical 'criticisms in the Classical and Biblical Journal. But if Mr. Bellamy be assigned a level with preceding scholars on some accounts, there are others on which it would be presump tion to place any of them by his side: for arrogant assumption and the pride of dogmatism he certainly has no equal. Let the reader only recollect the names of the learned men who, since the revival of literature, have cultivated the knowledge of the He brew language, and have signalized themselves by their profound philological researches into every department of Hebrew letters, and he must feel utterly indignant at the haughty spirit with which this self-constituted professor of Hebrew depreciates their accomplishments, while he proclaims his own imagined superio' rity. Mr. Bellamy disdains the aid of the advantages which modesty and self-difiidence might contribute to his undertaking; these are virtues too humble to be his attendants. With the most preposterous folly he demands precedence of all former Hebra ists, and to Mr. John Bellamy, Author of the Ophion, even the hats of the Buxtorfs and the Castells must vail.

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