scarcely say, that, though it was not incumbent on him to be acquainted with the civil law, yet, that since he did undertake to treat of the subject, his mode of proceeding renders him unworthy of all future credit.

If, without the laborious research, the examination and careful weighing of evidence by which alone the truth is to be arrived at, facts, taken at second hand, are assumed almost as caprice seems to dictate, history may be converted into an agreeable substitute for romance ;-but never can be rendered useful as a source of reflection, or as containing materials, which may afford the lesson of experience to other times and nations. Living at a period distant from the acts recorded, and unconnected with the political parties in the nation, of which he treats, M. Guizot might have been expected to avail himself of the new sources of information, so as to give an entirely original aspect to events, and the motives of the individuals who performed a conspicuous part in the actions recorded. Far, however, from sifting old authorities, and taking advantage of recently discovered materials, he has servilely, almost without comment, adopted the statements of authors whose accuracy had been impugned, or whose want of candour and veracity are no longer a subject of doubt. His work accordingly, as it presents nothing new in the form of detail, contains no original reflections, to which a different representation of facts that documents would have fully supported, might have been expected to have given birth-is embellished with no speculations which, blending philosophy with the narrative of human affairs, impart to history the advantages of a moral and political treatise; and thus combines, with the interest excited by the events, genuine utility. Not penetrating beyond the surface, and aiming merely at a light narrative, he has been so far successful; the composition being not entirely destitute of grace, his sketches occasionally attractive, and a dramatic effect sometimes produced. Entertaining most erroneous notions relative to the constitution of English society, his descriptions of the feelings and passions of the different classes, as affected by events, cannot possibly have the recommendation of correctness and consistency. Masterly delineations of character, powerful pictures of events, where facts are so represented as seemingly to require no skill in the narrator, who is himself forgotten in the interest he has, and who to appearance, unconsciously, contrived to communicate-are, on the other hand, no where discernible in the work before us; and, indeed, judging by the specimen here afforded, had required a vigour of intellect and vividness of conception, of which we are by no means disposed to think M. Guizot pos

sessed.

SHORT

526

SHORT REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

Alcaei Mytilenaei Reliquiae. Collegit et annotatione instruxit Aug. Matthiae. Lips., 1827.

THE chief editions of the fragments of Alcaeus were, before the publication of the present collections, those of Neander, Henry Stephens, Ursinus, and Blomfield in the Museum Criticum. This last is by far the best and most complete; but Mr. Matthiae, thinking that he could render it still better and more complete, has published the small volume before us. This collection, indeed, had been made before the appearance of the Bishop of London's edition, and had been destined for the third volume of Wolf's Analecta ; among whose papers it remained at the time of his death. The number of fragments in the Museum Criticum is 85, which Mr. Matthiae has raised to 130, although there is no additional fragment of importance. In fragment 4, νῦν χρὴ μεθύσκειν καί τινα πρὸς βίαν | πίνειν, ἐπειδὴ κάτθανε Μυρσίλος, we cannot agree with Mr. Matthiae in rejecting the ingenious emendation καὶ χρόνα πρὸς βίας παίειν; for, although it is just possible that Horace might have taken his nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus from what followed, we cannot think that Alcaeus would have exhorted his companions first to get drunk and then to drink. In the next fragment it is quite unnecessary to write ἐπαινοῦντες for ἐπαινοῦντες, which is in all the editions and MSS. of Aristotle, and is likewise so quoted by Plutarch. The 8th fragment has, since the publication of Mr. Matthiae's edition, been the subject of one of the most certain and ingenious emendations in the annals of criticism. Mytilene (says Strabo, xiii. p. 617) formerly contained men of great renown, such as Pittacus, and the poet Alcaeus and his brother, Antimenidas, ὃν φησιν ̓Αλκαίος Βαβυλωνίοις συμμαχοῦντα τελέσαι μέγαν ἄθλον, καὶ ἐκ πόνων αὐτοὺς φύσασθαι, κτείναντα ἄνδρα μαχαίταν, ὥς φησι, βασιλήων παλαιστ τὰν (παλαστὰν cod. Mosc.), απολιπόντα μόνον ἀνίαν τ' ἀχέων (παχέον cod. Par.) ἀποπέμπων. This Otfried Müller (Rheinisches Museum, vol. i. p. 289,) corrects in the following admirable manner, ὅν φησιν ̓Αλκαίος Βαβυλωνίας συμμαχοῦντα τελέσαι μέγαν ἆθλον, καὶ ἐκ πόνων αὐτοὺς ρύσασθαι, κτένναντα άνδρα μαχατάν, ὥς φησι, βασιλήιον, παλαιστὰν ἀπολείποντα μίαν μόνον παχέων ἀπὸ πέμπων, i. e. who when_an ally of the Babylonians, is said by Alcaeus to have gained a great trophy, and to have rescued them from danger, by killing the King's champion, who wanted only one hand's breadth of five cubits." The inflexion of is is satisfactorily defended by Mr. Müller; and he arranges the words into verse as follows. Krinas ärdea μαχατὰν βασιλήιον | παλαιστὴν απολείποντα μίαν μόνον | παχέων ἀπὸ πέμπων ; which are in the same metre, and probably from the same ode as the lines cited from Alcaeus by Hephaestion as an instance of the Asclepiadean metre (p. 58, Gaisford.) Frag. 12. Schol. Soph. Oed. t. 56, vdges Tóλews Túgya ägźia. Elmsley, partly after Blomfield, reads ἄνδρες πόληος πύργος ἀρήμοι. This seems to us very much preferable to Mr. Matthiæ's ävdess yäg xóλews, múgyes äęści, in an Aeolic writer. Fragm. 36. ovos jag üvéęwπois diogov. Dr. Burney corrects adgaon, because Alcaeus always makes the middle syllable of this verse short. But, says Dr. Blomfield, this is rather a bold assertion; for out of the seven instances of the third line which are extant, two make the syllable in question long; viz. in fragm. 2 of his edition. Matthiae quotes two additional instances, of which, however, one, aidas xí rsus oùn tixiv äxter'* is (to say the least) rather doubtful; for the best reading seems to be that received

*We cannot help taking this opportunity of noticing a singular oversight committed by Dr. Blomfield in some additional observations on Sappho and Alcaeus, published in the second volume of the Museum Criticum. In p. 601 he says, "Fateor autem caussam mihi non liquere quare Hermannus in me, hujusmodi Aeolismos restituenti, tam acerbe invehat." If the learned Prelate had read over this sentence before he sent it to the press, he would probably have corrected restituentem and invehatur.

by

by Mr. Gaisford from a Dresden MS. quoted by Naeke, Choerilus, p. 266 aidas ní o' oùx äv xe upar', Aristot. Rhet. 1. 9, 20. Another instance of the middle syllable being short may now be added from a grammarian published since the edition in the Museum Criticum, Fragm. 946, ooi za odav | λmugòv korúpiλižs móvrov. On fragm. 37 there is a long unsatisfactory discussion whether a short poem attributed to Theocritus (Carm. xxIx.) is or is not the production of Alcaeus. Thiersch and Boeckh think that it is not; Matthiae decides that it is the genuine offspring of the Syracusan poet. We have, nevertheless, no doubt that it is (as Müller says, Dorier, vol. ii. p. 297) a fragment of Aeolian lyric poetry: but whether it is the work of Alcaeus is a point which, unless some fresh information is discovered, cannot be determined, the words of the scholiast to Plato being too much mutilated to admit of any certain inference from them. Fragm. 49, ap. Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 306. 'Αχιλλεῦ ὅς τᾶς Σκυθικᾶς μέδεις. Blomfield, nr. XLII. comparat Scolion ap. Athen. xv. p. 694 D. ¡ù ràv ös 'Aguadías midus x. r. 2." Matthiae. Compare also fragm. 22, (Matth.) xaige Kuλdúras öμidus, &c. In fragm. 53, for παννέλοπες read πανέλοπες, i. e. πηνέλοπες. Fragm. 54, Strabo ix. p. 411. ̓Αλκαίος δὲ καλεῖ Κωράλιον, λέγων· ὥστ ̓ ̓Αθάνα ἀπολε ἀπὸ Κορωνείας ἐπὶ δεῦ πάροιθεν ἀμφὶ Κωραλίω ποταμῶ παρ' ὄχθας. Some MSS. collated by Casaubon have Κυραλίῳ ποταμῷ ἱδρύσαντο παρ ̓ ὄχθαις. Hence Otfried Müller restores the stanza thus. "Ανασσ' ̓Αθαναία πολίων, ἀπὸ | τᾶς σᾶς Κορωνείας ἐπὶ δεῦρ ̓ ἴθι, | πάροιθεν ἂν ἱδρυσαμεσθα | Kagaλíw ToTaμã zag öxtas. Fragm. 88. Etym. Mag. p. 521. Aλxaïos, μù μέγαν περὶ ανάφον περιστείχει ἕνα κύκλον. Mihi color orationis et metri genus," says Mr. Matthiae, "Alcaeum potius comicum prodere videtur; metrum enim videtur iambicum: μὴ μέγαν περὶ | ανάφον περιστεῖχ ̓ ἀνὰ κύκλον —. Upon the whole, this is the best edition of the fragments of Alcaeus, inasmuch as it is the most complete, and (with one remarkable exception noticed by us) contains the latest emendations of verbal critics. Mr. Matthiae has, however, done little more than collect the fragments of his poet, and the observations of others upon them; and has added little of original matter, either in the way of illustration or correction.

66

Glossarium Sanscritum a Francisco Bopp.

1828. 4to. min.

.

Fasciculus prior. Berolini,

THE numerous works on Indian literature which have lately appeared in Germany, give the best evidence of the interest which the study of the Sanscrit language begins to excite among the learned of that country. Professor Bopp, whose name is already known most advantageously to all Oriental scholars, has powerfully contributed to the advancement of this study by several of his excellent works, which are particularly calculated to assist the progress of beginners. We allude to his Nalus, which is now out of print, and to his Sanscrit grammar, which was at first published in German, but of which a. new edition in Latin is now in the press. After these publications, nothing indeed remained, which the Sanscrit students could more eagerly wish for, than a glossary or short dictionary, adapted to the Sanscrit works which have already been printed in Europe; and the first part of such a glossary it is, which forms the object of the present notice.

In using it, we have admired everywhere the same accuracy and precision, which are the distinguishing characters of all works of Mr. Bopp. We shall make here only one slight observation on a point upon which we are inclined to take a different view. Page 45, the following significations are attributed to the pronoun kas kà kim. 1) quis. 2) quispiam; praecipue cum sequente api. 3) cum praecedente relativo et sequente api, quivis, quisque, quicunque." We think that the true power of the pronoun, standing by itself, is always interrogative: quis? and we doubt whether any instance can be produced,

66

where

where standing alone, and without api, chana or chit affixed to it, it signifies quispiam. The passage of the Gita I. 21, to which Professor Bopp refers, Katham sa purushah Pùrtha kam ghàtayati hanti kam

in our opinion, contains a question, which is at first generally introduced by the particle katham, how and then turned more individually through the two interrogative pronouns kam. We should literally translate it thus: "How can such a man, whom can he destroy, whom can he cause to destroy?" It appears that kopi kapi kimapi is perfectly the same as kinchit or kinchana, and must be considered as a derivative pronoun, just as the Latin quispiam, to which it corresponds also in its meaning; yat kimapi is then equal to yat kinchit, and signifies whatsoever.

Professor Bopp assigns a separate article to the adverb kim, (cur?) though this is only the neuter of the pronoun used adverbially, after the same principle, according to which yat is used to signify quia.

Berichtigungen und Zusätze zum ersten Bande der zweiten Auflage von B. G. Niebuhr's Römischer Geschichte.

WE sincerely wish that there was some person who stood to Mr. Niebuhr in the same relation as Dumont stands to Mr. Bentham. Every fresh composition of Mr. Niebuhr's that we peruse, more strongly convinces us that, however valuable what he has to say may be, he is quite incapable of saying it. "Whoever," says Thucydides, "cannot clearly explain what he thinks, may as well not have thought at all." Accordingly, all nations have agreed, for the dispatch of business and the extortion of the truth, that instead of suitors pleading their own causes, hired advocates should be employed, who are to lay before the court the facts of each case, and the law applying it. No assignable number of courts would in any country be sufficient, if the litigants were to manage their own pleadings, state their own facts, and argue their own case. Sedet aeternumque sedebit infelix judex. But the irritable race of authors have a very different opinion of their own explanatory and rhetorical powers. To suppose that a person could not digest his own materials, would be considered almost an insult. Yet we think that the King of Prussia would do a great benefit to the reading world if he instituted a board of writers for the numerous authors in his dominions, a sort of lawyers to plead their causes before the public; and enacted that no considerable book should be published without going through the ordeal of this college of rhetorical censors. These gentlemen should be armed with full powers to reduce all sentences to a certain legal length, to expel Greek words, and to arrange, recompose, and weed all massive heaps of future print, while yet in a manuscript state. At any rate, we think, that it would be a profitable speculation to set up a joint-stock-company, for supplying rédacteurs for the German market: with a convenient set of penal laws against parentheses, and other Germanic flowers of rhetoric. There is no person, we feel convinced, who has read Mr. Niebuhr's Roman History, either in the original or in its English garb*, who will not sympathize with us in this wish.

We are

We wish that any arguments of the Foreign Reviewers could persuade Messrs. Hare and Thirlwall to consider themselves as rédacteurs rather than translators. perfectly convinced that a literal version of a very clear, not to say a very obscure, German work, would be nearly unintelligible. Such, however, is the process adopted by them with regard to the book in question. Indeed, it appears to us, that an attempt to introduce to the English public a genuine German writer in his natural state, is about as reasonable as if the official personages appointed to receive the King of the Sandwich Islands, had presented him at St. James's without the customary appendage of cloth about the nether parts, or the previous application of combs and razors.

The

The pamphlet before us contains some corrections and additions to the second edition of the first volume of Mr. Niebuhr's Roman History. It exhibits many proofs of his diligence and accuracy in historical subjects; but no changes have been introduced for the sake of clearness. Indeed, we find that these after-thoughts are delivered in as obscure and oracular a manner as the work to which they are supplementary. See, for instance, a discussion on the Alban towns in p. 38, seq. Our readers would not be interested by a detailed account of these minute alterations and additions; and we will give one remark only, as being very ingenious, if not quite convincing. It is stated by Cicero in his treatise de Republica, that the earliest observed eclipse of the sun, recorded in the Annales maximi, was that which took place about the year 350 U.C. when, as Ennius says, "Nonis Junis soli luna obstitit et nox." (I. 16.) "Now, (says Mr. Niebuhr,) it appears from the diligent investigations of a learned astronomer at Cologne, that this solar eclipse can be no other than that which fell on the 21st of June, in the (astronomical) year 399 B.C., but which did not take place at Rome till after sunset. At Cadiz, where the shadow was more than 11 digits, the greatest darkness was three minutes before sunset; and this gives an unexpected meaning, and removes the tautology of the words, soli luna obstitit et nox. The intercalation will account satisfactorily for the nones falling on the 21st of the month; nor is there anything surprising in the Gaditane observation being known at Rome. The astronomical science of the inhabitants of Cadiz, agrees with the known fact that they worshipped the year and month as deities"-(compare note 792).

Swioutynia Sybillis, &c. Ziawinie sie Emilik, &c..-(The Temple of the Sybil; the Apparition of Emily, 1828.)

THE author of these two works is Paul Woronicz, Archbishop of Warsaw, Primate of Poland. The Temple of the Sybil has nothing to do with mythology-it is a national poem, the subject of which is as follows:-" After the last partition of Poland, an illustrious lady, Princess Isabel Czartoryska, mother of Adam Czartoryski, palatine of the Polish kingdom, conceived the idea of collecting and depositing in one spot, the monuments of the ancient glory of her country: for which purpose she caused a temple to be built, on the model of that of the Sybil at Tivoli. It stands on the banks of the Vistula, at the family residence of the Princess at Pulawy. There are collected the arms of the bravest, and the memorials of the most celebrated among the citizens of Poland, the autographs of many of her kings, and the banners of defeated foes. To those Poles who, in the trophies of the past, find hopes for the future, this temple of the Sybil is the asylum of national glory, an object of profound veneration, and of patriotic pride, which is religiously visited by pilgrims from all the provinces of the Ancient Republic. On the occasion of its being opened to the public, Woronicz devoted his talents to the poetic enumeration and recital of the most memorable events in the history of his country. Written in the closing year of the last century, the poem could not be then printed, by reason of the political state of things; but a great number of manuscript copies were circulated, till, in 1818, a patriotic Pole furnished a first edition of it, without, however, giving the name of the printer, or the place of publication. The edition which we now announce has appeared for some months. Rarely have we met with compositions of greater energy than this of the venerable Archbishop. The recollection of the past, and indignation for the present, awaken in him the most sublime emotion, which glow in every line, of a style majestic, vigorous, and grave. The pictures of the reigns of Casimir the Great, and Sigismond Jagellon I., an apos

trophe