tor understands by all others of a like fort? He concludes from all this, that learned men have not courage enough to acknowledge their ignorance on certain occafions, even when they themfelves are fenfible of it. This we believe to be very true: and this is more especially the cafe with the Latin tranflators of Greek authors, who giving word for word, and only taking care of the grammatical construction, have tranfmitted the obfcurity of difficult paffages in their tranflations, and hoped that their readers would impute this obfcurity either to the original author, or to their own incapacity.-The Abbé BATTEUX finds the paffage in question difficult, but he thinks he has hit off the true explication. His tranflation of the whole definition is as follows: Tragedy is the imitation of an action that is elevated entire, and of a certain extent, &c. producing in us, not by a recital, but by terror and pity, THESE emotions or PASSIONS, purged or purified from what is difagreeable in them. We fhewed, in a preceding Appendix †, what ideas the Abbé attaches to thefe terms. According to him, the end of tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, is, (by the exhibition of a fictitious catastrophe) to make us feel the paffions of pity and terror difengaged from the circumstances that render them painful. The Grecian philofopher had obferved, fays our Academician, that the emotions of joy from fictitious objects produce a fort of dejection in the mind when the scene is finifhed, and concluded from hence that fcenes, productive of pity and terror, were preferable in tragedy, as they excite emotion without anguish, fear without danger, and compaffion without the existence of miferable objects; and thus the paffions of fear and compaffion affect the mind without tormenting it, and are difengaged, or (as Ariftotle exprefles it) purged from the poignancy and dejection that accompany them in real life.

All this is very ingenious-but it happens not to be true: the three laft words of Ariftotle's definition have been totally mifunderstood for the word abnux is never employed by him to fignify paffions, and the tranflators have not attended to the propriety of the Greek language in the different ideas it conveys by the words παθος and παθημα; by the latter of which is always meant not paffions (which are expreffed by the former), but fufferings or calamities. Again, the word natapon does not here mean purification or refinement; for, though xalaipw fignifies often to clean, purge or purify, this is only its fecondary fignification, formed, indeed, by an eafy and natural transition from its

La tragedie eft l'imitation d'une action noble, entiere, d'une certaine etendue, &c. pour produire en nous, non par le recit, mais par la terreur et la pitie, ces emotions purgeés de ce qu'elles ont de defagréable.

+ See the Appendix to the fixty-firft volume of our Review, P. 524.

primitive

primitive and original fenfe, which is, to remove fomething entirely. So that the end of tragedy, as it is reprefented by Ariftotle, is, by exhibiting certain calamities on the stage, to remove fuch calamities (TaTv Tanμarwv) out of human life, by exciting the pity and terror of the audience at the representation of them. The first perfon (if we are not miftaken), who hit off this happy explication of the difficult paffage in question, was the late Dr. James Moor, profeffor of Greek in the University of Glasgow.

Critical Remarks on the Text, and on certain Tranflations of the Hippolytus of Euripides. By M. Dupuy.

An Enquiry into the Philofophy of Cicero. Firft Memoir. By Mr. GAUTIER DE SIBERT. In order to form a true judgment on this fubject, our Author has thought it neceflary to make a previous enquiry into the manner in which philofophy was introduced into Rome-the progrefs it had already made there in the time of Cicero-the number of academical fects, and their peculiar and diftinguishing tenets-the fect which Cicero embraced, and what he properly meant when he called himfelf an Academic Philofopher. Thefe points are learnedly difcuffed in this first part of the Memoir before us; but our Academician walks here in a beaten path of erudition, and throws no new light, as yet, on the philofophy of Cicero, whatever he may do in the fecond part, in which he promises an analytical view of the doctrine of the Roman fage, extracted from his works. Every one knows, that Cicero was not one of those cloudy-headed and fuperficial academics who doubted about every thing, against which human ignorance could form complaints of obfcurity, or metaphyfical fophiftry raise objections: it is well known, that his affuming the title of an academic was defigned to keep him difengaged from the fervitude of fyftem, and from the defpotifm of philofophical fectarifm, and thus free to embrace the truth in whatever fect or party he found it.

Remarks on certain Medals of the Emperor Antoninus, ftruck in Egypt. By the Abbé BARTHELEMY.

An Examination of the Hiftory of the Ephefian Matron, and of the different Imitations it has occafioned. By M. DACIER. Ă moft infipid mafs of philology.

An Account of a Greek Manufcript in the King's Library, in the Hand-writing of the Sixteenth Century, on 4to Paper, and marked 12912. By M. DACIER. The work contained in this Manufcript is indicated in the title by the word SYNTIPAS: we learn from the fame title, that it is a tranflation, and even a Strictly literal one, from the Syriac into Greek. A kind of ar

See a small Pamphlet of his intitled, An Effay on the end of Tragedy, according to Ariftotle; of which an account was given in Monthly Review, vol. xxx. p. 64.

gument

gument or fummary of contents, which probably has been prefixed to it by the tranflator, unfolds the fubject of it in the following manner: "The hiftory of the philofopher, written by us,

regards Cyrus King of Perfia, his legitimate fon, Syntipas, "the preceptor of the young prince, the feven philofophers of "the king, and one of his wives, who was equally ill-natured and immodeft:-the Reader will, moreover, fee in this work, "the calumnies and intrigues invented by that stepmother to "ruin the young Cyrus." This is a curious romance, and must have been well known in all nations; for it has appeared in all languages. The Greek, as we obferved already, was tranflated from the Syriac, and the Syriac was (as our Academician informs us), tranflated from the Hebrew, the Arabic, or the Perfian. The remarks of M. DACIER on this piece are worthy of the name he bears.

There are fome other MEMOIRS, of more curiofity than importance; for which we refer to the original publication.

ART. IX.

Voyage Pittorefque de la Grece. Chap. VII. & VIII.-Travels through different parts of Greece, reprefented in a Series of Engravings, Jarge Folio, No. 7 and 8, Paris 1780 and 1781. [See our late Reviews and Appendixes.]

No. VII.

FTER the ifle of Rhodes, the little ifland of Symeo, whofe inhabitants, male and female, have carried the art of diving farther than any other people, drew the curious attention of the Count de Choifeul G.- From thence he fet out in queft of antiquities for the Gulph of Macri, called, in times of old, Glaucus Sinus, which is reprefented in the fixty-third plate, the first of this feventh number. Here he met with the ruins of Telmiffus, from which city the gulph of Macri was, also, formerly called Telmiffidus Sinus, as we learn from Livy and Lucan. The origin, however, of Telmiffus has efcaped all the researches of our learned Traveller; but the remains of a theatre, and the rich fragments of magnificent tombs, which he discovered in its ruins, are proofs of its paft opulence and grandeur. These are reprefented in NINE feparate PLATES. The remains of the tombs (thofe fplendid monuments of fuperftition and vanity, fuppofed to give a kind of pre-eminence to the great even after death), are indeed magnificent. Several of their plans are fingular. The great Sarcophagus resembles an edifice built of wood; and it is well known what pains the ancients often took to give their tombs the forms of their houfes. In the marble urns that abound in Italy, it is easy to difcern the roof of a house with all its divifions; in fome alfo we fee the door fhut, in others half open, and in several, guarded by the genius of death; and, it is

more

more than probable, that the domus exilis Plutonia in Horace fignified the fepulchral monument. As the tombs of Persepolis bear a ftriking analogy to thofe of Telmiffus, our Author has given us the reprefentation of a tomb at Naxi-Ruftan, erected near the ruins of the former. These analogies, which are here the objects of a learned and ample difquifition, illustrate, no doubt, the hiftory of the arts, and the communications which they fuppofe, and which they produced between ancient nations.

The view, and the geometrical plans here exhibited, of the remains of the theatre of Telmiffus, are curious, well drawn, and like the rest of the work, perfect, as to the engraving. This theatre was formed on the declivity of a hill, in the fame manner as that of Bacchus at Athens, and, in general, all the Grecian theatres. It is built of a blue grey ftone exceedingly hard. All the circular part of the edifice, on which the fpectators were placed, is well preferved; but the extremities, which joined the profcenium, and were not fuftained by the ground, are totally deftroyed. All this part, together with the ftage, is filled with rubbish, which renders the foundations inacceffible. The interior elevation of the ftage was divided by five gates, accompanied with pedestals on which probably columns or ftatues were placed. Under this elevation appear the void spaces, defigned to receive the beams which fupported the ftage. Three paffages are also difcernible, which were under the stage, and led to the orchestra.

By an allegorical print, which concludes this Number, the Author informs us, that none of the medals of Telmiffus have escaped the ruins of time. In this compofition we see the wafting power of time, confidered in its different modes or aspects. The PAST is reprefented under the figure of an aged man, leaning upon tombs and ruins; the PRESENT under that of a youth, who deftroys every thing by his rapid fight-and FUTURITY under the emblem of a winged infant, who whets his fcythe. The French have a peculiar talent at embellishing trifles; but this is an ingenious decoration of- -nothing.

No. VIII.

PLATE LXXIII. exhibits a complete chart of the Author's voyage from the gulph of Macri to the Meander. His paffage through Caria gives him an opportunity of enlarging upon the hiftory and antiquity of the Carians, and the different fovereigns under whofe domination they lived fucceffively. After many revolutions, their reduction into the form of a Roman province under Vefpafian, obliged them ever after to fhare the deftinies and fate of the Roman empire, until the confequences of the Croifades fubjected them to new bonds, and new tyrants, among

the Afiatics.

A large tree, the view of a village, and a groupe of figures, which reprefent his fellow-travellers, furnish our Author with

the

the materials of his 74th plate, which exhibits his halt and reft ing-place near the village of Dourla h in Caria. We hope he refted well, and that his pullets were tender; for they, and an otter, are the only objects we meet with in this part of his peregrination. Why multiply plates without any vocation from tafte, inftruction, or curiofity?

The 75th plate reprefents the reception which our noble Traveller met with fron Hafan Tchaoufch Oglou at Moglad, a city raifed upon the ruins of alinda. This old man had rendered himself independent on the Ottoman Porte by his opulence and courage, and acted the fovereign with fpirit and capacity. The converfation that paffed between him and our Traveller reads well enough, when we have the handfome print of the Aga's palace before us; it would lofe by being exhibited in scraps, and we cannot afford room for the whole.

The Palace of the Aga of Efki-Hiffar is the fubject of the 76th plate, and a very poor bufinets it is. The inconfiderable village of Efki-Hiffar may have been (as Pocock and Chandler suppote) the ancient Stratonicea, which was founded by the Macedonians, and received its name from the Queen of Antiochus Soter; but there are no veftiges remaining of its ancient temples mentioned in history, as dedicated to Hecate and Jupiter Chryfaoreus, where all the cities of Caria fent, annually, deputies to offer facrifices in common, and to regulate the general affairs of their contederated republic.

The 77th plate represents a Turkish festival, which resembles a good deal the dances and merry-making of the Flemings in the prints of Teniers, with this difference, that the drefs of the Turks is more elegant, and the motions of the dancers more violent than thofe of the phlegmatic inhabitants of the Auftrian Netherlands.

The 78th and 79th plates exhibit the remains of several ancient tombs and monuments; and the two following, which conclude this Number, reprefent the ruins of Stratonicea; among other fragments, are thofe of the theatre.

This Number is terminated by a drawing which recals to remembrance the misfortunes of Monimia, and exhibits fome medals of the cities already mentioned. The medal of Alinda reprefents, on one fide, the head of Hercules, and, on the other, his club and the lion's skin. There are two medals alfo of Stratonicea, the figures and characters of which make us recollect the games that were celebrated in that city: on the first, we see an altar with the fire kindled between two torches-on the reverse, an Athletic horfeman holding a fteed by the bridle. On the fecond, there is a VICTORY holding a crown and a palm branch, and on the reverfe, the name of Stratonicea inclofed in a crown of laurel.