6 commerce is to be free, and, in 1790, among other things concerning population, he said, that when it is arrived at a certain limit, marriages ought to diminish so that population should not increase.' He was, moreover, the only Italian economist of the last century who defended entails. He was a Venetian, and argued that nobility, the depository of public liberty, must be hereditary, and rendered independent by large landed entailed properties. Filangeri, so warm an admirer of our laws and institutions, was a follower of the principles of freetrade, and condemned the high duties charged upon foreign commodities in this country. Ricci, who was one of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of charitable institutions in the Duchy of Modena, published his report in 1787, in which he said he was quite satisfied that beggars and poor are in proportion to the alms and assistance given to them by public charities and institutions. He thought that frugality and labour only could extirpate poverty, and insisted that these are the only means for increasing population. Lastly, Delfico contended that nations are but individuals of one great family; that to diminish a free intercourse between the different members of the same family must be injurious to the whole of it, and consequently says, that he who shall succeed in banishing from the world, the words duties, custom-houses, tariffs, &c., will have conferred the greatest blessing on mankind. Such are some of the most remarkable opinions of the Italian Economists, whose works are to be found in Custodi's collection, and which are analyzed in Chev. Pecchio's book. We shall conclude with observing, that great credit is due to those men who, in a despotic country, dared to raise their voices against existing abuses, and call for a remedy. When we compare the passed governments of Italy with those of modern times, we are obliged, bad as they were, to praise them, since the unprincipled, shameless, and accursed system adopted by the governments now existing-more particularly by the Austrianwas unknown in Italy in the last century. The Austrian government a disgrace to the civilized and Christian world-has gone so far as to forbid not only the publication of works on laws concerning industry and commerce, but even the asking for permission to print them without the authors producing a certificate, proving the order received from government to write such books. Can any thing be more abominable than this? To forbid a writer to point out, even in the terms which the censors of the press will be pleased to allow, the faults into which the government may fall; and this concerning subjects on *_Circolare dell' Imp. Reg. Governo di Milano, 18 Giug. 1823. P 2 which which the very existence of thousands may depend? Can the principle of passive obedience be carried further? Need we be surprised if such a government be detested? and if people, driven to madness, oppressed by the utmost despotism, seek for the wildest republican government as a remedy? Nor is it only theories and books on political economy that are so meddled with by Austrian legislation, but the improvements which a man may think proper to carry on in his own land, are subject to obstacles and to a tyrannical interference. A proprietor cannot cut a road within his own domains without the consent of the military authorities.* Such is the manner in which Italy is governed in our days. But the evil recoils on the perpetrators. Whilst all the powers of Europe have their eyes turned to the East, Austria is obliged to follow the tamest and, no doubt, vilest policy. What else can she do? With Hungary indignant at the repeated infringement of her constitution ;with Italy watching only for an opportunity for avenging the insulting and cruel wrongs inflicted upon her,-Austria knows full well that she must keep quiet. Foreign powers are aware of this as well as herself. They know that it is from Hungary and Italy that Austria draws her best resources, both military and economical. Generals know that should the Hungarians be unwilling to enter into a contest, the military power of Austria is paralyzed; and the Jews know that should a revolution take place in Italy, there are no hopes of recovering a single farthing of loans from a government whose bankruptcy is inevitable. To any other nation it would be dishonourable, and it might be expected that no efforts would be spared to avoid such a disgrace; but a nation which has already failed three or four times in thirty years, and swindled its creditors with the greatest impudence, has no honour to lose. The only thing which can support its credit -public faith-has never been known in Austria, and there the very name of it is only pronounced as a bye-word for laughter. Circolrae dell' Imper. Reg. Governo di Milano, 3 Agosto, 1823. SHORT REVIEWS OF BOOKS. Leontii Carminis Hermesianactei Fragmentum emendatum et Latinis versibus expressum a F. A. Riglero et C. A. M. Axtio, Coloniæ ad Rhenum, 1828. WE confess that we look back with some regret to those times, when Porson could say Νήϊδές ἐστε μέτρων, ὦ Τεύτονες ; before ischiorrhogic iambics were invented; and when tragic choruses had given no occasion for thick and learned books, and uncouth names for feet and verses. Certain, however, it is, that the study of metre has taken deep root, and borne fruit largely among the learned writers of Germany; and that if Porson could rise from the dead, he would find himself very far from possessing a monopoly of the knowledge of iambic metre, and greatly indeed behind his neighbours in the more abstruse learning of dochmiacs and epitrites. But though the Germans far surpass us in metrical, as in every other branch of classical reading, there is one point in which the English still (in our opinion) retain a preeminence, viz. in the very important matter of Latin poetry. Some of the verses, for instance, which have been written in Germany, by scholars of the greatest learning and ability, would not (we conceive) be much applauded, if produced by a boy in one of our public schools. Take, for example, the following lines, lately published by Mr. Hermann, in his Opuscula, vol. iii., p. 348. Again Quem non mollities, non ducit blanda voluptas, Et facit impigra membra senescendo ut juvenescunt, Idem consilio prudens, et rebus agundis Strenuus, et dubium solvere quodque sagax, Ne foret ambiguum fasve nefasve, cavens, &c. &c. These, and the following effusion of loyalty, (vol. ii., p. 359,) appear to us to have no other attribute of poetry than the ingenious arrangement of long and short syllables.— Verusque dicti, et propositi tenax, When Mr. Hermann prints such lines as we have cited, what are we to expect from Mr. Rigler and Mr. Axt translating, verse for verse, a very corrupt and difficult fragment of Hermesianax, celebrated for its beauty and elegance of expression and metre? They have attempted to render a Greek elegy into Latin, as Homer and Shakspeare have been translated into their own tongue, viz. word for word—a literal and exact copy. The Latin language is not, however, sufficiently flexible or copious for such a method; and nothing more than a paraphrase or imitation is possible. We will * To counterbalance the poorness of Mr. Hermann's Latin poetry, there are, in the Acta Monacensia, some passages of Schiller's Wallenstein' admirably translated by him into Greek trimeter iambics, vol. iii. p. 144, sq. select select a few lines as a specimen of their performance, requesting our readers to turn to Athenæus, p. 598, v. 27, for the original. Adde quod ipse deus vatum dulcissimus ille Terram Ithacæ in tenuem cum carmine divus Homerus Ob quam multa ferens parva tellure resedit, Et liquit patriæ jugera panda procul. Atque Icari genus et populum plorabat Amycli, Et Spartam, propriis prensus et ipse malis. Mimnermusque sonum qui passus multa suavem, &c. Why the acres of Homer's country should be crooked (panda), we are quite at a loss to discover. In line 42, Pactoli tendit littora læta fluvi,tendit means stretches-not 'reaches,' as the authors wish; and fluvi is inadmissible in elegiac poetry. The following lines we will take the liberty of extracting from the original: Φοίτα δ' ἄλλοτε μὲν λείπων Σάμον, ἄλλοτε δ ̓ αὐτὴν Οἰνηρὴν δούρει κεκλιμένην πατρίδα Λέσβον ἐς εὔοινον, τὸ δὲ μύριον εἴσιδε Λέκτον Πολλάκις, Αἰολικοῦ κύματος ἀντιπέρας. For úgy, Casaubon reads ù giov; the translators understand it to mean 'large, boundless,' and write thus: Nunc agros linquit Samios, mox linquit et ipsa Vitiferæ patriæ rura subacta suæ. Vectus et uviferam Lesbon Lectum sine fine We recommend the following couplet to the attention of our poetical readers: In muliebre genus, curvato ictum tamen arcu In v. 86, reperit, in the past tense, should be reperit, or repperit, as they have correctly written elsewhere (Repperit et teneri flamina pentametri, p. 15). Of a version of the remains of an elegy of Phanocles, which follows, we shall only extract two lines, with which our readers will probably be satisfied Namque suis Calain dum formosum haurit ocellis, We have found nothing of value in the critical notes to the Greek text; and, upon the whole, our readers will probably agree with us in thinking that the fame of Messrs. Axt and Rigler would have been in no wise diminished by the omission of this act of poetical bankruptcy. Aristotelis de Anima, de Sensu, de Memoria, de Somno, similique Árgumento. Ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri. Berlin, 1829. Aristotelis Meteorologica. Ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri. Berlin, 1829. IT has been the singular fate of Aristotle, since the revival of letters in Europe, to be read without being understood, and to be censured without being read. In the flourishing times of the scholastic philosophy, the writings of the great Stagirite were perverted and misinterpreted to suit the subtle theology and quibbling dialectics of the day; and the odium which the admirable works of Bacon and Locke, and other modern philosophers, have most justly attached to the Aristotelians, has most unjustly been fastened Short Reviews of Books. fastened on Aristotle himself. To dissipate the common error, that Aristotle was ignorant of the importance of experience and induction, it is only necessary to peruse his extant works, in which not only its theory is clearly explained, but its practice admirably illustrated. In proof, however, that the study of Aristotle's writings (except some particular treatises) has generally been given up of late years, we may mention that the last complete edition of his works was published by Duval in the year 1629;* while, since the year 1780, there have appeared no fewer than five editions of the complete works of Plato, besides two others now in course of publication. In Germany, however, the study of the ancient philosophy has begun to revive, and several single treatises of Aristotle have been published there in this century, e. g. the Politics, by Schneider and Goettling; the Nicomachean Ethics, by Zell, (and lately, also, in our country, by Mr. Cardwell, at Oxford); the Metaphysics, by Brandis ; the History of Animals, by Schneider; the Categories, by Lewald; the Poetic, by Hermann, and others, &c. ; and we should not omit the excellent edition of the Rhetoric, by Mr. Gaisford. To fill up this chasm in modern editions of the ancient classics, the celebrated Mr. Bekker has undertaken to publish a complete edition of Aristotle's works, at the press of the University of Berlin, containing the Greek text, with various readings, in four quarto volumes; part of which has, we understand, been already printed. The two volumes at the head of our article are, probably, reprints of the text of his larger edition; but there are no various readings at the bottom of the page, nor is there any preface or notice, stating on what authority the changes in the text have been made. We take it for granted, however, that the cautious and learned editor has generally proceeded on the authority of manuscripts. The text is, on the whole, both by the introduction of new readings, and a correcter punctuation, very much improved. In order to give our readers an idea of the extent of the changes, we have accurately compared the first chapter of the short article On Sleep and Waking, with Duval's edition, and will here set down the collation: Aristotle περὶ ὕπνου καὶ ἐγρηγόρσεως, p. 101, 27—104, 21, ed. Bekker. και Page 120, line 30, τίν' αἰτίαν [Β. τίνα αἰτίαν D. We shall not mention the other varieties of this kind, of which there are several; Aristotle, from his love of brevity, making frequent use of the apostrophe, ib. σκεπτέον Β, ἐπισκεπτέον D. p. 102. 5. οἱ καθεύδοντες Β. καθεύδοντες D. 6. τοῖς καθεύδουσιν Β. 10. πράσσεσθαι θεύδουσιν D. 7. καὶ εἰ τοῦτο γίνεται Β. κἂν εἰ τοῦτο γίνηται D. (See Hermann de particula ἄν 11. 7. and Classical Journal, No. 78, p. 196). μόνον Β. μόνον πράσσεσθαι D. (Read πράττεσθαι). 14. τὰ ἐναντία Β. τὰ ἔσχατα D. αἰσθανόμενον τοῦτον ἐγρηγορέναι D. 22. τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ 20. αἰσθανόμενον ἐγρηγορέναι Β. κινήσεων. Β. τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τινὸς κινήσεων. D. 24. τούτῳ καὶ ἐγρήγορε Β. τούτῳ ἐγρήγορε D. 31. χωριζομένου τῶν ἄλλων ἐν τοῖς ἔχουσι σώμασι ζωήν Β. χωριζομένου τῶν ἄλλων D. 32. ἄνευ τούτου Β. ἄνευ τούτου ὄντος D. p. 103. 2. τῶν ζώντων Β. ζώντων D. 3. ἔχουσι Β. 11. οἷον ἀεί τι γένος ζῴων καθεύδειν ἢ ἀεί τι ἔτι ὅσων ἐστί τι ἔργον 7. εἴ τί ἐστι Β. εἴ ἐστι D. ἔχει D. ἐγρηγορέναι Β. οἷόν τι γένος ζώων ἀεὶ καθεύδειν ἢ ἀεὶ ἐγρηγορέναι D. κατὰ φύσιν ὅταν ὑπερβάλλῃ τὸν χρόνον ᾧ δύναται χρόνῳ τι ποιεῖν Β. ἔτι ὅσων ἔργων τι κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶν ὅταν ὑπερβάλλῃ τὸν χρόνον ἐν ὅσῳ δύναται τι ποιεῖν D. τὸ μὲν ἀνάγκη παρεῖναι B. τὸ μὲν ἀνάγκη θάτερον ἀεὶ παρεῖναι, the words θάτερον ἀεὶ being inclosed in καὶ τἆλλα πανθ' ὅσαπερ brackets D. 27. ὁ γὰρ ὕπνος τι τοῦ αἰσθητικού μορίου ἐστίν Β. ὁ γὰρ ὕπνος πάθος τι τοῦ 4. φανερά Β. φανερόν D. αἰσθ· μορίον ἐστίν D. 31. καθεύδον Β. καθεύδοντα D. p. 104· 3. ἔχει ὀφθαλμούς Β. καὶ ἄλλα πάντα ὅσα ἔχει ὀφθαλμούς D. 11. τρόπον τινὰ τὴν μὲν ἀκινησίαν Β. τρόπον μέν τινα τὴν ἀκινησίαν. As all these varieties occur in less than three pages, the reader can form * In 1792, Buhle began to edit a complete edition of Aristotle, to form part of the Bipont Classics; five volumes only were, however, published, containing the Organon, the two Rhetorics, and the Poetic. some |