ignorance have influenced them. Thofe caufes are now happily removed. We obey not now the edicts of the Pope. We are allowed to think, and want nothing but manly learning and ftudy to think right. But while we recommend verbal knowledge, we do not mean that all men fhould wafte their strength in poring over words and fyllables; for the part of discovery and investigation happens but to few. It will be fufficient for the purposes of general ftudy, if they store up what others have delivered; and let them remember that they enjoy, in a few hours, the fruits of many painful days and many fleepless nights; nor refufe the tribute of gratitude and reverence, when they confider (what muft of neceffity happen from the limited faculties of man) that their knowledge can be purchased at no lefs a price than the facrifice of a whole life wafted in their fervice. We have detained our Readers, perhaps, too long on this fubject; yet we would remind them that it is the chief object of our plan to recommend as well as to give an account of what relates to learning.-We therefore were willing to obviate certain objections against a study highly rational, and which deferves the most attentive confideration in the present improved state of letters. We were led into these remarks upon a review of the work now before us, in which we have an excellent fpecimen of verbal criticism, for which the learned world is indebted to the labour and accuracy of Mr. Toup, who has given us a full proof of his great erudition, by reftoring the true reading of Longinus. This rhetorician, as every body knows, is full of corruptions and defects; and it is no small addition to the glory of Longinus that he has, at laft, met with a critic who will do all for him which learning and fagacity can do: Si Pergama dextra defendi poffent, &c. &c. He has been affifted with new copies and manufcripts, of which his own abilities have made good ufe. He has, very properly, likewife called to his aid writers which Longinus feems to have ftudied with peculiar care, Quintilian-Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus-Plutarch.-We have Pearce's tranflation unaltered; not that Mr. Toup was fully fatisfied with any tranflation, but he complied with the general custom, which, in all cafes, is fupreme. Where Dr. Pearce seems to have gone widely from the fenfe of the Author, he has remarked it in his notes. There is prefixed to this edition a Differtation on the Life and Writings of Longinus, compiled with great care and intelligence by the learned Schardam.-We will not trouble our Readers with any extracts from this part of the work, as the life of Longinus is well known; and our Author has rather confirmed received facts, by many new authori ties, than added to the number. To make this work ftill more complete the celebrated Ruhnkenius has adorned it with notes. REV. May, 1779. Сс and

and emendations; which difplay that extent of reading in the Greek language for which he is fo juftly famed.

It would be endless, and indeed it is inconfiftent with our plan to produce paffages in which Longinus has either been reftored or elucidated: we cannot, however, refrain from gratifying the learned reader with an inftance or two.-The famous remains of fome old tragedian, in the second section of Longi nus, which has been the subject of so much conjecture, is, at laft, discovered to be a fragment of Æfchylus, from a manufcript of Johannes Siceliota on Hermogenes. It is a fpeech which Boreas is fuppofed to roar out when refufed Orythia. The Reader ought not to wonder if the language of fuch a bluftering lover, painted in rage by fchylus, be uncommonly inflated; and if it fhould fwell into what Longinus calls "wαрα трxywdα," or into the abfurd. We think no fingle commentator has given fully the true fenfe, but that all have fupplied useful hints. Take the whole paffage, as, in our opinion, it ought to be read:

Και καμινα σχωσι μακιςον σελαρ.
Ει γαρ τιν' εσιέψου όψομας μόνον,
Μιὰν παρειρας πλεκανην χειμάρρου
Στεγην πυρώσω και καλανθρακωσομαι.
Νυν δε κεκραγα πω το γενναιον μελῶ;

The tranflation of which is: "Let them reprefs the fpiry beams of the chimney: for if I fhould fpy but a fpark, I will wind this fingle curl into a torrent of flame.-I will fire the house, and burn it to afhes! Have not I roar'd out now a lofty ftrain?"

Ridiculous as this may feem to an English ear, it is the fenfe, and, as we think, the very spirit of the original, which perhaps might appear equally abfurd to the Grecian taste.-We read Kai xaur with Pearce, who follows all the editions and manuscripts. We read μovov, not oλov, as Mufgrave. Estou is applied to fire or fparks, for the reafon which Ruhnkenius gives. Plutarch has σε Πύρ εσινψον.” Mr. Toup indeed underütands by it the perfon appointed to watch Orythia; but this fenfe is quite foreign to the fentiment of the paffage. Upon the word μar, Ruhnkenius afks, " Cur unam potius quam plures? Lege Bia." The reafon is plain from our tranflation. It adds much to the spirit to make an interrogation at the laft line. It is highly natural that fuch a character as Boreas fhould exult in his own founding pompous language, and in the wantonness of boasting rage demand the applaufes of others. But this we offer to the confideration of the learned, declaring with Mr. Toup, " De his quifquiliis nihil_certi."-We shall propose an emendation of our own on a paffage in the 30th fection, which Mr. Toup,

if

if he thinks it deferving, may infert in his next edition. Longinus, fpeaking of the great importance of fignificant words, fays, σε Ότι μεν, τοιον ή ζων κυρίων και μεγαλοπρεπων ονομάζων εκλογη θαυμαςως αγει και καλακηλει 18ς ακονίας, και ως πασί Tois propoi, &c. &c. &c.

66

The intelligent reader will perceive that it is very difficult, if not abfolutely abfurd, to apply the words μsys3, x«^^&, EUTTIVELOV, Bap&, &c. to ayaλpari. We would, therefore, by a flight tranfpofition, read, 6 και οιον ει ψυχην τινά τοις πραγμασι, ώσπερ αγαλμασι κάλλιςοις φωνήικων επιθείσα.” Every one muft fee the propriety of the emendation. Who is ignorant that good poets, like good sculptors, give life and speech to their fubjects-One more remark, and we have done.

Longinus, fpeaking of the force of fublimity, fays beautifully, “ Υψῷ δε πε καιρίως εξενεχθεντα τα πράγματα δικην σκηπε παντά διεφορησεν και την τε ρnlop G ευθυσαθρόαν ενεδειξαίο δυναμιν.

"

Upon this place Dr. Pearce makes a very ingenious remark, according to the opinion of that "true prieft of the Mufes," Smith. That our Readers may be more fenfible of the ingenuity of the remark, they fhall have it through the improved medium of Smith's tranflation: "It is not easy to determine whether the precepts of Longinus, or his example, be moft to be obferved and followed in the courfe of this work, fince his ftyle is poffeffed of all the fublimity of his fubject. Accordingly, in this paffage, to exprefs the power of the fublime, he has made ufe of his words with all the art and propriety imaginable. Another writer would have faid διαφορεί and ενδεικνυται, but this had been too dull and languid. Our Author uses the preterperfect tenfe, the better to exprefs the power and rapidity with which fublimity of difcourfe ftrikes the minds of its hearers. It is like lightning, fays our Author, because you can no more look upon this, when prefent, than yoù can upon the flash of that. Befides, the ftructure of the words in the close of the fentence is admirable. They run along, and are hurried in the celerity of fhort vowels: they reprefent to the life the rapid motion either of lightning or the fublime."-To the criticifm of Pearce, and commendation of Smith, we fhall oppose the opinion of a scholar, and "a ripe and good one" too: it ought to be tranflated, fays Mr. Toup, with Petrus Paganus,“ Řes omnes fulminis inftar disjicere, & univerfam ftatim oratoris vim patefacere folet." Here we see all the ingenuity of the remark vanishes at once. Can any one who even affects learning, be ignorant that the firft aorift ought frequently to be tranflated by foleo? The fenfe of Pearce is quite foreign from the nature of the Greek language. It is from obfervations of this kind, ignorant and trifling as they are, that a commentator is ranked Cc 2

among

among the number of elegant editors; while the manly criticifms of a fcholar, who endeavours to inform his readers, are despised as the tasteless labours of plodding dulnefs. We would have men elegant, but: firft let them be learned.

*

We cannot difmifs this edition of Longinus, without congra tulating the world on so valuable an acquifition, recommending, at the fame time, verbal knowledge, as the fureft defence against the incurfions of barbarism, and the abfurdities of priests.

We will conclude this Article with a few remarks on the style and fentiments of Longinus. His diction, like that of other rhetoricians, who flourished in the later ages, is loaded, and confequently obfcure. The Greek language is better adapted than any other to exprefs the ideas of the mind with richness and fulness. This excellence has been abufed by the rhetoricians, and they have laboured, by ftrained and unnatural combinations, to add ftrength to ftrength, and to accumulate abundance on abundance. The confequence is, that all the nerve and natural vigour of the language has been crushed under a weight of incumbrances, as the might of ancient warriors under coats of mail. The language of Longinus is full of metaphors, and thofe are generally broken and disjointed. But here should be offered an excufe, which may, with peculiar propriety, be applied to the writers in the decline of learning, that metaphors, when they become common, cease to be confidered as metaphors, and that the ftrange confufion of ftyle, which we fo much wonder at in Longinus, is nothing but the ordinary language of his own times, heightened by a ftudied imitation of the fublimity of the more ancient writers. Of the fentiment and matter of Longinus, we may obferve, that he makes but few general remarks, and thofe commonly borrowed from writers before him, as Mr. Toup has fufficiently fhewn. His aim is not to inform the judgment, to lead us into the penetralia, as Quintilian terms it, of his art; neither is it to engage our admiration in favour of his authors, but of himself. He feems to praise many paffages, only because they will admit fome quaint fancy of his own, or fome higher improvement, tacitly difplaying, at the fame time, the greatness of his own powers, which are able to paint the lily, and throw a perfume on the violet.' He takes notice that Homer has faid fublimely of Difcord, that her "head is fixed in the heaven, and her feet upon the earth;" only because he himself can, as he imagines, improve the thought, and more fublimely apply it to the genius of Homer.

Longinus is not more reprehenfible for the quaintness of his panegyric than for the severity of his cenfure. Throughout his whole performance the admired name of Euripides is treated

5.

with

with too little refpect; and his opinion on this fubject is oppofed by the general voice of antiquity. In the brightest period of Grecian literature, Euripides carried off the palm of dramatic compofition; nor was the fame of his inimitable productions confined to his own age, or to his native country. At a very diftant period the grave fober-minded Plutarch warms at the flame of this divine poet, and breaks out in the exact numbers, and with all the vigour of iambic,

Τις γαρ ειρηκε της ἑαυτε πατριδος
Εγκωμίον τοι τον οϊον Ευριπίδης.

The well known treatment of the Athenian prifoners in Sicily, is a monument to the glory of Euripides, of which no other poet can boaft. In the cruel war carried on between the Athenians and Syracufans, the refentment of the contending parties was embittered by every circumftance that can exasperate hoftility, and render it incurable. The Athenian fleet fuffered a fatal difafter in the harbour of Syracufe, by which the greatest part of their feamen fell into the hands of the enemy. The public affembly of the Syracufans immediately condemned thefe: unfortunate prifoners to a cruel and ignominious death: but from this general doom they excepted thofe, and those only, who could repeat any verses of Euripides. These they kindly. received into their houses, treated with all the honourable diftinctions of ancient hospitality, and, after learning from them the most admired paffages of their favourite poet, they reftored them to their native city in triumph. Yet to Longinus, Euripides appears a man of an ordinary genius, and a poet rather in found than in fenfe*.

Longinus affects great indignation at a phrase in Herodotus, which we think not only unexceptionable, but very natural and expreffive. In the beginning of his fifth book, the Father of History gives an account of a Perfian embaffy into Macedon. The ambaffadors were treated with every mark of attention, and invited to a magnificent entertainment, at which the greatest. beauties of the court of Amyntas were prefent. Such, however, was the rude feverity of Macedonian manners, that the ladies were not blended promifcuoufly with the other guests, but placed at a great diftance, and in a feparate body. This was not agreeable either to the cuftoms or to the taste of the Perfians. They could not get a full view of the Macedonian women after ftraining their fight; and the faint glimpse, which the remote distance afforded, tended rather to excite than to gratify curiosity. The Perfian, ambaffadors therefore requested Amyntas that his fair subjects might be brought nearer, obferv

• Long. fect. 40.