• No. 584. Rev. ii. 17. A white stone.] The stone here re ferred to is such an one as was used in popular judicature, or in elections, the custom being to give the votes in either of these by such stones. These were either white or black; the white was a token of absolution or approbation, the black of condemnation or rejection. There were judges in the agonistical games, who awarded the prizes to the conqueror by the use of these stones, a white one, with the name of the person and the value of the prize, being given to such as were victorious.

Ovid expressly mentions, that black and white stones were used to absolve or condemn persons at Argos.

Mos erat antiquus, niveis atrisque lapillis,
His damnare reos, illis absolvere culpâ.

Metam. lib. xv. lin. 42.'

From these quotations, it will be evident that the work before us has not only been composed with considerable labour, but that this labour will be productive of much utility. Among a multitude of observations, however, it will not be expected that Mr. B. should be equally happy :-in some, perhaps, he may be credulous, or may have fallen inadvertently into error, or may have drawn conclusions not justified by the facts stated. We will not positively assert that he has placed too much confidence in the wonderful relations of Mr. Bruce, whatever may be our opinion: but we must confess that we smiled at his having seriously quoted Livy, in order to prove that there have been showers of stones which have continued two days together. His comment on Mark ix. 44. is not such as his system of interpretation requires; and the facts which explain the passage are omitted. The remark on the body of Lazarus, John, xi. 17. respecting a revolution of humours which occupies seventy-two hours in a corpse before it putrifies, has we believe) as little support from philosophy, as the account, in P. 344, of Sardanapalus introducing the worship of Helioga balus into Rome,' can derive from chronology.

We offer these strictures, not to detract from Mr. B.'s merit, nor to discourage him, but from the same motives which incited him to this undertaking.

The arrangement of the observations according to the order of Scripture, both in the Old and the New Testament, will render this work an acceptable book of reference to Divines and biblical Scholars. It is also enriched with two useful indexes; and we hope and expect that the author will meet with that encou ragement, which will induce him to prepare a more correct and enlarged edition.

ART.

Mo-y.

ART. VIII. 2. Horatius Flaccus, cum locis quibusdam è Græcis Scrip toribus collatus, que Critici in commentariis suis nondum animadverterunt. Accedit Index perpetuus ad Auctores à Wagnero laudatos; necnon Ode, O Fons, & Intermissa Venus, è Latino in Græcum conversa. auctore Stephano Weston, S.T.B. R.S.S. S.A.S. Editio altera. 8vo. pp. 170. 48. Payne.

T HE Romans, even in the zenith of their literary glory, were so little inclined to pride themselves on origin lity, that they avowedly looked up to the Greeks as their models, and were satisfied with the merit of successful imitation. Athens was the fashionable school for philosophy and polite learning; and neither the statesman nor the orator, nor the poet, could be esteemed at Rome, if his mind were not imbued with Grecian science. When the Latin writers of the Augustan age afford such ample proofs of this partiality to the Greeks, it would be strange to suppose that Horace could be an exception. Indeed, though only the son of a freedman, he had enjoyed the advantages of an Athenian education, was thus enabled to taste the elegance of the Grecian writers, and felt solicitous of transferring their beauties into his own language. The complexion of his thoughts, the turn of his expressions, and the structure of his verse, are Grecian; and many of his commentators have been employed in tracing them to their original prototypes: but not so much in pointing them out as plagiarisms, (for they are not to be classed under this denomination,) as in marking them for assiduous imitations of the writings of that people among whom he acquired the love of science and of the Muses, and the study of which he warmly recommended to his countrymen :

-Vos exemplaria Graca

Nocturna versate manu, versate diurná.

Mr. Weston conceives that this task has not yet been completely executed; and he endeavours to shew, in the work before us, that the poet of Venusium may be tracked still farther among the Greeks. He has no wish, however, to detract from the merit of Horace; he rather gives the Roman poet credit for the free use which he has made of his neighbours, and for his successful efforts to clothe the Latin tongue with the richest Attic grace. Though the opinion of Bentley be indisputable, Horatius de Gracis pendet et totus est in illis, Mr. W. does not intend to assert that every instance of coincidence is to be regarded as necessary imitation; nor does he adduce every com parison with this view:sed (continues he) ut monstrarem, quomodo eadem sententia ad exemplar antiquitatis, et pro dignitate optimorum auctorum in diversis linguis exprimi potuerit. Verum

enim

་

enimvero cum alvearia vicinorum Horatius rapiat, et furetur, non ut fucus hoc facit, sed ut apis, cui latrocinari jus est, quique locum habet in quo furta deponat, quæ adeo modestè transferuntur, ut deducta, non tracta, atque precariò, non vi, venisse videantur.

It is no bad compliment to this great poet, to allow that he stole with elegance, and created a kind of right by the happy use to which he applied his stolen goods. In some of the cases of co-incidence here noticed, however, the similarity is so faint, that a jury of critics would not be easily persuaded that Horace really performed an act of theft; or at least they would argue that the thing stolen was so much changed, that the Greek could not with a safe conscience swear to his property. Still, in many cases, Mr. Weston has been fortunate in his detections; and scholars will thank him for the labour which he has bestowed, and for the service which he has rendered: since, independently of the pleasure resulting from the comparison of similar passages, such a collection as Mr. W. suggests may assist, provided that the Greek archetype be pure, in restoring the true reading of an author so dear to the lovers of classical beauty, and the idolaters of the divine attributes of poetry. We transcribe the two following examples, as proofs of the truth of this suggestion:

EPIST. LIB. 1. XVI. VER. 38.

'mutemve colorem.'

Colorem legit Baxter, et nescit cur Bentleius prætulerit colores, sed Bentleii textum firmat locus Plutarchi de Galba ob victimarum signa perterrito, p. 392. 4to. v. 5. Χροάς ἀμείβονλι παντοδαπὼς ὑπὸ δίες. Ed. fol. p. 1064.'

Lib. 111. Ode v. Ver. 8.

• Consenuit socerorum in armis.

Armis, libri omnes. Sic Homerus quem vertit Horatius. Il. ç. v. 197.

ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ ̓ ὑιὸς ἐν ἔνεσι πατρὸς ΕΓΗΡΑ.

Mihi multo facilius est credere Horatium locum Homeri expressisse, quam omnes codices mendosos esse. Legunt Heinsius et Bentleius arvis. Nonne consenuisse potuerunt Romani milites soceris servientes sub rege Medo, tam in armis, quam in arvis, si non contra populares suos, at saltem contra alios socerorum hostes ?

The passages which we shall next extract possess such a veri-similitude, that it is most probable that the writer of the one had the other in his mind:

Αὐπῇ τον Αίδαο πύλας (καὶ μοίρας) άραξεῖ. Theoer. Idyl. ii. v. 160.
Γεγωνέ δ' εἰς δόμους,

Η σανίδα παίσας' ἢ λίγες πέμψας ἔσω. Eurip. Orest. v. 1220.
Venientes

i

(Vide

• Venientes in domum antiqui aut clamabant, aut fores pulsabant. Antiquum adhuc obtinet Sicilia fores pedibus puls ndi ante introitum. Swinburne's Travels in Sicily.) Mos autem ad fores clamitandi, re inusitata, verbis et loquendi forma tantum apud nos manet. To call upon.' Here is also an instance of the mode of expression surviving the custom in which it originated. To proceed:

Ode XIII. Ver. 12.

sive puer furens

Impressit memorem dente labris notam.

• Flora nunquam ab amplexu Pompeii abiit sine morsu, oʻx adńnlw; añeλO. Plutarch. in vita Pompeii, p. 419. 4to. Cum Lysimachus brachia et femur dentibus leonis saucia Demetrii legatis ostenderet; legati cum risu aiebant, suum quoque regem morsu lamia in collo non carere. του θηρίου δήγματα ἐν τραχήλω φέρειν. • Δάκνει μοῦ τὸ χεῖλος ἐξωτικῶς. Plut. Vit. p. 901. fol. 1624. Ismeniæ Amores, p. 86.'

Ode XXIV. Ver. 8.

Quando ullum invenient parem?

Πάντων ἄριστον ἄνδρα τῶν ἐπὶ χθονί

• Δεινού

Κτείνασ', ὁποῖον ἄλλον οὐκ ὄψει ποτέ. Soph. Trachin. v.811.
Lib. 11. Ode 11. Ver. 6.

Notus in fratres animi paterni.

Ανὴς ὁμογένης καὶ χάριτας ἔχων παλρός. Orestes Eurip. v. 244.
Ode . Ver. 1.

Equam memento rebus in arduis

Servare mentem, non secus in bonis.

Ἐτ ̓ ἔστι πάντων πρῶτον εἰδέναι τουλ

Φέρειν τὰ συμπίπτοντα μὴ παλιγκότως.

Eurip. Fragm. Oenom. p. 460. 4to. v. 2. Ed. Beck.'

Sapábas dicebantur mulieres nubentes. Il. o. v. 432. perinde est ry ανδρὶ δαμάζεσθαι, et τλῆναι ανέρος εὐνήν. Virgines vocat Sophocles, Ed. Col. ν. 1056, αδμητας ἀδελφος. Εt Dianam, των αιὶν αδμήταν, 1239. Electr. Ajacis αδάμαστος θεα explicatur a Scholiaste παρθένος ἄζυγος. Του ἄζυγος idem sonat cum adáμxolos, metaphora à juvencis sumptu. Attici uxorem δαμαξία, et virum κύριον, vocant. Ασπασία και κύριος est Aspasia et Perie cles, rouléoliv & Iegins. Schol. ad v. 965. IMEIE, Aristoph.

— πολὲ δὲ δεμνίων ἀπὸ

Πηδα δρομαῖος, πωλος ὡς ἀπὸ ζυγοῦ.

Ode x111. Ver, 19.

sed improvisa leti

Orestes Eurip. V. 44.'

Vis rapuit, rapietque gentes.

Αίθος ἀπροϊδής αμφεκάλυψε μυχός
- απροϊδής νοῦσός με συνήρπασε.

Antholog.

Lib. 111. Ode vt. Ver. 21.

Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos

Matura virgo; et fingitur artubus
Fam nunc, et incestos mores
De tenero meditatur ungui.

Ἐμπρο φόρων τε καὶ διεκίνων Ἰωνικῶς.

Aristoph. Thesmoph. v. 170. Vid. Max. Tyr. p. 190. Ed. H. Steph. Paris, 1557. 'Luan' abgórne in proverbium abiit.

Τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς Ασίης ορχηστρίδα, την κακοτέχνες

Σχήμασιν ἐξ ἀπαλῶν κινυμένων ἐνύχων.

Epigr mma Automedontis adeo festivum, ut nihil supra. Brunck, v. ii. p. 207.'

Lib. v. Ode 1. Ver. 3.

Non sum qu lis eram.

Καγὼ γὰρ ἦν ποτ', αλλά νῦν οὐκ ἐμμ ̓ ἔτι.

Loco oblits.

· οὐ γαρ δὴ τόδ' ἀρχαῖον δίμας. Sophocl. Ed. Col. v. 1tΟ.

Epodon Liber, Epod. 1. Ver. 19.

Ut assidens implumibus pullis avis.

• Ως δ' ὄρνιςαπλήσι νεοσοοισι προτέρησι Μάστακ. Il. I. v. 324. eleganter schylus in Hesychio. v. 'Emwg.

Ἐπώζειν.

ἐπώζειν· ἐπικαθῆσθαι τοῖς ὠοῖς. Αισχύλος, Νιόβη μεταφορικώς. καθημένη

Τέκνοις ἐπώζει τοῖς τεθνηκόσιν.

'Sits brooding over her dead children.'

The employment of tracing resemblances may be carried to an extreme; and our readers, perhaps, will think that this is the case when Mr. Weston refers Horice's Nil desperandum to the expression of Thucydides, Ovo; and his "Osten'dit capitolio" to Lucin's Oos incives. Such simple expressions cannot properly be regarded as imitations; nor do they receive any illustration by being placed in juxta-position with those which are similar in another language.

This work evinces Air. Weston's intimate acquaintance with the classics; and his Greek versions of two of Horace's Odes display his acknowleged skill in that language.

We hope that this learned author will be induced to execute his purpose of collating, in a similar manner, the Satires and Epistles of Horace; and, in this case, we are of opinion that his labors will be more acceptable to those admirers of the Roman bard who may not be so deeply versed in Greek learning as himself, if Latin translations of the Greek passages be subjoined.

Moy. ART.