I think the baptismal service almost perfect. What seems erroneous
assumption in it to me, is harmless. None of the services of the church
affect me so much as this. I never could attend a christening without tears
bursting forth at the sight of the helpless innocent in a pious clergyman's
arms.
* * * * *
The Jews recognized three degrees of sanctity in their Scriptures:--first,
the writings of Moses, who had the [Greek: autopsia]; secondly, the
Prophets; and, thirdly, the Good Books. Philo, amusingly enough, places his
works somewhere between the second and third degrees.
* * * * *
The claims of the Sanskrit for priority to the Hebrew as a language are
ridiculous.
August 11. 1832.