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with too little respect; and his opinion on this fubject is oppofed by the general voice of antiquity. In the brighteft 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 είρηκε της ἑαυτε πατρίδος

Εγκώμιον τοιέτον διον Ευριπίδης.

The well known treatment of the Athenian prisoners 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 exafperate 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 these 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 houfes, treated with all the honourable diftinctions of ancient hospitality, and, after learning from them the most admired paffages of their favourite poet, they restored 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 Hiftory 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 greateft. beauties of the court of Amyntas were prefent. Such, however, was the rude severity of Macedonian manners, that the ladies were not blended promifcuously 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 diftance afforded, tended rather to excite than to gratify curiofity. The Perfian, ambassadors therefore requested Amyntas that his fair subjects might be brought nearer, obferv

Long. fect, 40.

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ing that, in their prefent fituation, these beautiful women were torments to the eyes, akyrimas ughh. Upon this expreffion Longinus obferves, as fome excufe for Herodotus, that he has put it in the mouth of a drunken barbarian; and adds, with the ftern haughtiness of criticism," but he ought not, in the language of fuch a perfonage to have given to all posterity an indelible mark of his littleness of foul. Is it the foul of Heredotus that is little, or is it the foul of Longinus that is overgrown, fwollen, and gigantic?

We shall mention, with peculiar pleasure, another example of the feverity of our critic, because it gives us an opportunity to juftify the character of an ancient writer, which, though exceedingly admired at Athens, in the age of Socrates, and equally admired at Rome in that of Cicero, has not, till very lately, met with due regard in modern times. Longinus (fect. 38.) afferts," that Ifocrates, in his panegyric, speaks like a child." The subject of that discourfe is to prove, that Greece has received more good offices from the Athenians than from the Lacedemonians. But on entering upon this topic, he fays, “that eloquence can reprefent the fame objects under many different terms, and at pleasure leffen or enlarge them." Is it thus, therefore, Ifocrates, might the audience exclaim, that you are to deceive us concerning the respective pretenfions of the Athenians and Lacedemonians? For the encomium which you bestow on eloquence may be confidered as an admonition not to give credit to your difcourfe." The impropriety of this farcaftic obfervation, which has been adopted by the Archbishop of Cambray, and other French critics (See Lettres à l'Academie Fransoife) will evidently appear, by confidering the whole paffage in liocrates; which, as it is fhort, we shall transcribe from the English translation: "Many pretended sophists, I know, have already exhorted you to lay afide your private differences, and to declare war against the barbarians. I purpose once more to address you on the fame important topic, hoping to treat it in a manner fo different from that in which it has been hitherto handled, that the subject will yet appear new and unoccupied; and thofe furely are the nobleft fields of eloquence, which, by their vastness and extent, afford an opportunity to display the utmost abilities of the speaker, and which, if properly cultivated, may promote the highest interest of his hearers. The fubject, which I have chofen, unites these advantages, and is, besides, particularly feasonable at the present juncture; for our affairs ftill continue in the fame unhappy condition, because those who undertook to retrieve them, have proved unequal to so arduous a task: Why should I, then, decline any labour or exertion by. which Greece may be healed of her prefent wounds, delivered

from

from her inteftine divifions, and faved from those final calamities which threaten to overwhelm her? Though I make use of the fame materials which my prececeffors have already employed, my observations fhall have nothing in common with theirs; for eloquence can reprefent the fame objects under many different forms, and, at pleasure, leffen and enlarge them." Thofe parts which appeared moft bright, the orator can throw into the fhade; to those which were faint or obfcure, he can give brilliancy and colour: he can exhibit what is new in a venerable ancient garb; and adorn what is ancient with all the graces of novelty.

We acknowledge that Ifocrates here fpeaks of himself in a manner that must offend the refined artificial modesty of modern times; but he is juftified by the general practice of ancient writers, who had not yet learned the art of difguifing, with ftudied politeness, the fenfe of their own importance. The question, however, is to decide, not concerning the vanity of Ifocrates, but concerning his eloquence; and we appeal to the candour of our Readers, whether the encomiums, which he here bestows on the art of compofition, feem introduced, as Longinus afferts, on purpose to admonish his hearers not to believe his discourse, or whether these encomiums are not evidently defigned to awaken the reluctant attention of his audience to a fubject on which they had been often addreffed, but always unsuccessfully. The criticifm of Longinus appears, at first fight, fevere and unjuft; but to thofe who examine the paffage of Ifocrates with attention, the obfervation made upon it by our critic will appear to be abfurd. It is abfolutely impoffible the audience fhould exclaim," Is it thus, Ifocrates, that you are to deceive us concerning the respective pretenfions of the Athenians and Lacedemonians? "For Ifocrates has not as yet faid a single word about these pretenfions; nor does he propofe them, as Longinus afferts, for the fubject of his difcourfe.

Longinus (fect. 13.) praifes thofe who have imitated the ancients, and compares them to young combatants who enter the lifts against famous veterans, in which conteft 'tis glorious even to be conquered. In this light Longinus fought to be confidered; though none of the commentators, as far as we know, have taken notice of it. He takes the field (to carry on his own comparison) against all antiquity, affects the large stride, and fublime gait, of the great heroes of old, with all the confidence of certain victory. What can be loft, he cries, when monarchs are the combatants? Noble as this man appears to the blindness of prefumption, it must feem far otherwife to the spectators of the conteft. How completely ridiculous is it for the dwarfs of modern times to ape the ftalk of ancient giants: and many of thofe who would fuftain no unequal and difhonourable conteft

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with Dares, Epeus, and Euryalus, would be justly exposed to contempt, fhould they prefume to throw the gauntlet with Cadmus and Hercules, Eryx, and Entellus. But to drop the comparifon our opinion of Longinus is, that when he attempts to improve upon the ancients, he draws himself into a very unfavourable point of view, and finks in the approbation of his readers. We muft obferve, too, that the commentary of this rhetorician cannot, with any propriety of language, be ftiled a work of criticism in the fame fenfe in which we apply that word to the writings of Ariftotle, Horace, Dryden, Boileau, and Pope. It may be called a florid declamation on the beauties and faults of the ancients, abounding with all the pride of felf-applauding panegyric, and the laboured vehemence of rhetorical indignation. Thefe, we apprehend, are the faults of Longinus. His excellencies are many and great. He is adorned with extenfive learning, and variety of knowledge. His genius is warm and vigorous, rich and lofty; and he fometimes attains the true fublime. The comparison of the declining faculties of Homer to the fetting fun, is well imagined, and finely expreffed, and that of the beautiful extravagancies of the Odyffey to the "dreams of Jove," is perhaps one of the moft happy and grand conceptions of antiquity. In fhort, though we confider Longinus as a great man, yet we cannot efteem him as the prince and flower of critics; and we are unwilling to rank him with fuch illuftrious names as Ariftotle and Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, or even with the learned and judicious critics who adorn the prefent age. Take his character in his own words, which he defigned for the portrait of Timæus:

σε Θάτερα δε, ών είπομεν (λέγω δε τε ψυχρο) πληρης-ανηρ τα То μεν αλλά έκανε και προ λόγων ενιοτε μεγεθΘ, εκ αφορΘ, που λύκτωρ, επινοητικο πλην αλλοτείων μεν ελεγκτικωτατος αμαρτημάτων, avemalady de iday Szo de spate To EazyvonσELS DEL NIVELY πολλάκις εκπιπίων εις το παιδαριώδες αίον. Altero vero eorum, de quibus mentionem fecimus (dico autem frigido) plenus eft-vir in aliis fatis peritus virtutibus fcribendi, & nonnunquam in Sublimitate fcriptorum, non fterilis, eruditus, fenfibus abundans, fed maximus alienorum vitiorum infectator ad sua vero non attendens quique præ ftudio femper concipiendi novos & peregrinos fenfus fæpe incidit in id quod maxime puerile eft."

ART.

385)

With incidental Obfervations on feveral phyfiological and chemical Questions, connected with the Subject. By P. D. Leflie, M.D.. 8vo. 6 s. Crowder, &c. London. Gordon, &c. Edinburgh. 1778.

SCAR

CARCELY any thing in the animal economy has more excited the attention and inquiry of philofophers than the cause of vital heat; and from the variety of opinions ftill prevailing concerning it, we may conclude that their refearches on this head have not yet proved in general fatisfactory. There can be no doubt, therefore, of the favourable reception of any new attempt to illuftrate this fubject, on principles deduced from that experimental mode of reafoning, which, to the credit of modern philofophy, is the only kind of investigation at prefent thought worthy of regard. Whatever be the degree of conviction produced by the inquiry before us, we do not in the'. leaft question that it will be univerfally allowed the merit of great ingenuity, and that many of the obfervations it contains will be thought no lefs valuable than original.

The Author informs us in his Introduction, that the fubftance of this work was published in an inaugural thefis at Edinburgh in 1775; and that the perfuafions of fome ingenious phyfiologifts have induced him to give it more at large, in its present form.

He begins with fome general obfervations on animal heat; and then proceeds to a particular account of the phenomena attending it. These he treats of in four fections: in the first of which he fhews that the latitude in the temperature of animals is confiderable; in the fecond, that the uniformity in the temperature of animals is remarkable; in the third, he confiders the connexion between the fate of refpiration, the colour of the blood, and the degree of heat in animals; and in the fourth, the connexion between the state of circulation and the degree of heat in animals.

The Author's third chapter prefents us with a view of the prevailing opinions on the cause of animal heat. Most of these, he obferves, may be referred to one or other of the three general causes of heat, mixture, fermentation, and mechanical means. The notion of an effervefcence occafioned by chemical mixture producing heat in the animal body, which was that of Van Helmont, Sylvius, and others, is juftly reckoned by our Author too chimerical to need much refutation. That fermentation is not the agent in this operation is proved, by remarking that the putrefactive fermentation (the only fpecies which can with probability be fuppofed to take place in the body) has been found, by accurate experiments, to produce no heat at all; as, indeed, is very apparent in a dead body, which continues cold, though running ever fo faft into putridity. The mechanical generation

of

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