Dr. Copleston to Dr. Parr. My dear Sir, Oriel College, Dec. 20, 1816. Just before your obliging letter arrived, I had seen Dugald Stewart's Appendix, and was highly gratified by the tribute of respect he pays to you. Will you forgive me, however, if I venture to dissent from your proposed etymology? Superum limen, which Festus gives, seems to me more probable. That limen and not limus is the source, I have little doubt. In rude times most ideas borrow their names from homely objects. Thus I find in the oldest writers sublimis means standing erect, not soaring, a sense which came in afterwards. See Cato de Re Rustica, capp. 70, 71. Culmen from culmus, the thatch of the house, is another example of the same kind. I observe all your examples of sub in composition, derived from ird, denote motion, subjicio, subjecta, submitto, &c. Hence I am inclined to think that it means, in these cases, from beneath; like the well known ὑπ' εκ θανατοιο φερονται. Not that I doubt of the frequent change of p into b, euphoniæ causa; but the meaning of these words seems more obviously deducible from sub than from super. Indeed, in my etymology of sublimis, such a change is supposed; and since the word grew up in a rude and primitive state of society, when the threshold was a kind of barrier, which must be surmounted on entering, a person in that act would appear to rise, and be higher than at other times. Hence superare limen, and hence, without having recourse to Festus's superius limen (for which I believe there is no authority), the word sublimis may still be derived from super limen. That it meant standing or rising on one's legs, before it meant soaring, is I think quite clear. Pardon, I beseech you, this impertinence, and believe me, my dear Sir, ever yours with sincere respect, [Vol. vii. p. 64.] Doctor of Learning, E. COPLESTON. Emanuel College, Monday night, Having finished my English, I rise, in due climax, to my Greek. It is in the 25th dissertation of the third vol. of the Archæologia, in a letter from Mr. Tyrwhitt to Matthew Duane. The stone (of which an engraving is given) is one of three that were brought from Smyrna, and are now in the British Museum. Montfaucon has published the inscription; it is on a tombstone, but the lines are 8, not 4. Τον πινυτον κατα παντα και εξοχον εν πολιηταις Αιδεω νύχιοιο μελας υπεδέξατο κόλπος Ευσεβεων θ' οσιην εύνασεν ες κλισίην. On aedas Tyrwhitt observes very sensibly, that the expression literally translated means "cum cecineris salvete," and is hardly to be illustrated by any similar one, but may be accounted for by supposing this salutation of the deceased to be usually performed in a kind of chant. 1 Tpnxnav in original. By a like abuse of the same word poets and prophets are said canere, not because their poems or oracles were actually sung, but because they were generally pronounced with greater varieties of time and tone than can be admitted within the compass of what Aristotle, Poet. c. 4, calls ". την λεκτικήν ἁρμονιαν, the modulation of discourse." He refers also to Apollonius's Lexicon Homericum (no page) under άειδε : thus αδε, ὑμνει, τινες δε εις το λεγειν μετέβαλον την λέξιν, who quotes an unknown author, Tyrwhitt thinks Babrius, thus: Ταυτα δ' Αισωπος Ο Σαρδιηνος ειπεν, όντιν' οἱ Δελφοι Αδοντα μυθον ου καλώς εδεξαντο. Αντι του λεγοντα· ὁ γαρ Αισωπος λογοποιος. See also Strabo, edit. Casaub. lib. i. p. 18. W. BENNET. What is the proper meaning of the sun, in Electra, being called AVKOKTOVOS? Knight, in his strange treatise on the Priapëia, thinks it may be "light-extending." I suppose, from Bryant's Ammonian word luc, light, and Teww. But could the « come that way? Would it not be λUKOTOVOS, or some such word? It appears to me very whimsical; yet what is wolf-killing? Lord Holland to Dr. Parr. [Vol. vii. p. 86.] Dear Sir, Holland House, May 25. Menage, under the article Bouquin an old book, derives it from the German word Buch, the original no doubt of our word book. But he adds, that it means an old book, like those which come from Germany, and are good for nothing but squibs (à faire des fusées), and to prevent Ne toga cardyllis, ne panula desit olivis. Now I am ashamed to say that I do not know what is the English of Cardyllis, nor indeed what is the sense of the whole line. Is Cardyllus a diminutive of carduus? and is toga the down of the thistle? and if it is, how can it supply the place of waste paper? and what covering, cloak or surtout (pænula) has an olive, which serves the same purpose as paper? Neither Facciolati, Stephanus, nor Du Cange, is of any assistance to me on this occasion. Ever yours, VASSAL HOLLAND. Sunning Hill, May 30. "Ne toga cordylis, ne pænula desit olivis," is the first line of the first epigram in the 13th or 14th book of Martial; and Cordyla, or, as sometimes written, Cordulla, is (the dictionaries inform me) a small fish, which was wrapped up in oiled paper like our red mullets. The whole difficulty arose from the carelessness or affectation, I know not which, of Menage, who chose to write it "cardyllis." [Vol. vii. p. 129.] VASSALL HOLLAND. R. P. Knight, Esq. M.P. to Dr. Parr. Dear Sir, Whitehall, Jan. 22. Fox and I have been lately reading Lycophron, and having been both startled with the distinctness of some predictions of events which happened long after the age when he is supposed to have florished, we have had some correspondence on the subject, but without any other effect than increasing our perplexity. The "Testimonium Veterum," published with Potter's edition, are strong in support of the authenti city of this poem, and of its being written by one of the Pleiades, as they are called; yet in v. 1226, et seq. there is a distinct prediction of the universality of the Roman empire; and in v. 1446, as distinct a one of the fall of the Macedonian monarchy μel' éktŋv yeveàv from Alexander, who is clearly described. Perseus, indeed, was not the sixth king of Macedonia from Alexander; but, nevertheless, he was the sixth in the line of descent of his own family from that conqueror, which is more in point. Cannot you prove that Lycophron was a Jew or Atheist, who conversed with some inspired persons of that nation? What a triumph would it be for Revelation! for, except the prophecies of Isaiah concerning Cyrus, there are none in the sacred volume half so unequivocal; and the merely human testimony (the only one which infidels will admit) in support of the authenticity of the prophecies of Isaiah, is weak indeed when compared with that in support of Lycophron. R. P. KNIGHT. [Vol. vii. p. 304.] Nov. 9, 1804. Dr. Parr to the Rev. Dr. Charles Parr Burney. My dear Friend and Godson, It is my anxious wish for you not only to read but to write, to read extensively that you may write clearly, copiously, correctly, and at last elegantly; to reflect before you read, and, while you read, to mingle youthful knowlege with curious erudition, and to incorporate the best results of all your attainments with your general habits of thought and action. Philology, though it may exercise the strongest understanding, is within the reach of a very ordinary one; and such is my sense of your merits, such my opinion of your powers, and such my solicitude for your welfare, that my advice will always be directed to the joint purposes of making you not only a verbal critic, but a wise, firm, and honest man. All learning is not contained in the dramatic writers of Greece, nor even in the Greek language; and, if my counsel be followed, you will experience the soundness of it in the diversity and consistency, in the fulness and the accuracy, of your knowlege. Your father is indisputably right in desiring you to read all the plays of Euripides in continuity; and I add, that you will do well to proceed immediately to Sophocles, to Eschylus, to Aristophanes, to Menander, to Philemon, and the fragments, such as they are, both of the tragic and comic writers. This you must do diligently, and without aberration in the first year, and you will do it again in the fourth, with some additions, which I shall mention in due order; but I must state to you, generally and seriously, that I wish your morning to be invariably employed on Greek. In the second year read Isocrates, Lysias, Isæus, the twelve Orations of Demosthenes published by Allen, his Speeches and those of Eschines de falsa Legatione and de Corona twice, the Memorabilia, Cyropædia, and Anabasis of Xenophon. Do not read any more of the orators, nor of Xenophon, except one book, till you have taken your degree, and remember that I am writing to you as an Academic, that I am laying foundations only, but that I mean to make them broad, deep, and solid. In the third year, and not till then, read Herodotus, Thucydides, and the Hellenics of Xenophon, go on again with the Anabasis, Cyropædia, and Memorabilia; then take up the Dialogues of Plato by Etwall, Forster, and Routh. Then, my boy, when you are so robust, grapple with Aristotle, and read his Ethics, his Poetics, and his Rhetoric. I say, read them in this order, and observe that this is your morning course of reading, for I have provided another place in which both the Poetics and the Rhetoric are to be read, and you will be improved by the double and distinct reading. Charles, close your third year by a second and most attentive perusal of Herodotus and 'Thucydides; and when you have finished Thucydides the second time, read the Speeches, and the Speeches only, a third time, and read them as they are collected by Bauer, separately from the history, Begin the fourth year with the Iliad and Odyssey, don't despise the common Homeric clavis, and indeed on all occasions beware of despising the received practice of scholars, for by doing well what they are accustomed to do, you will be eventually enabled to do more with immediate and permanent effect. When you are engaged in Homer you will certainly be a strong scholar; and therefore holding Clarke in your hand, and reading his notes, you will avail yourself of Heyne and Wolfius. Read Wolfius twice, and fail not to read every line that has been written by Heyne. Charles, from Homer go to Pindar, and take the aid of Heyne and Jacobs, and read Pindar twice; and then go a second time through Euripides, Sophocles, Eschylus, Aristophanes, Menander, and Philemon. Charles, beware of impatience, for that which is not done to-day may be done to-morrow, and if you observe the order which I have prescribed, it will be done well; and be assured that I shall give you enough to do, but not more than enough for the godson of Samuel Parr and the son of Charles Burney. Charles, I wish your evenings laid out in the following manner. We must have Latin sometimes by itself, and sometimes intermixed with Greek, but with different Greek from that which I have mentioned, with two exceptions at which I have already hinted. Read first the common Delphin edition of Cicero's Orations, and be content with these for the present; for you are not to die when you cease to be an under-graduate, and living you are not to cease to read. Well, after this you may in the first year go on to Tacitus and to Sallust, and to Cornelius Nepos, and to the select Orations from Livy, for you have not time to read his History through, but you must get some vague general notion of his style; but I must again and again urge you to read Cæsar. After this you may read Terence through, and four plays of Plautus, but no more; and unwilling as I am to let your mind be seduced into philology for the present, I must advise you to read not only the Prolegomena to Terence in the common edition, not a word of which you must miss, but the prefaces of Bentley and Hare, every word of which must be impressed deeply on your memory. Get books which you may mark with your pencil, and insert in your commonplace book all peculiarities of diction in all Latin writers, and some elegancies, as they are called, but not all. In your second year we must look to ancient rhetoric; and here, Charles, begin with Cicero de Inventione, go on to the work de Oratore, the Brutus and Orator, then go to Quintilian. Charles, I love Quintilian; read him in Rollin's Abridgment, but have Caperonnier open before you; then proceed to Aristotle's Rhetoric, and then to the critical parts of Dionysius Halicarnassus, published by Holwell, to his work de Structura, and to Demetrius Phalereus. This is the right order, and you will find it so. Consider, that your mornings are all this time employed on the Greek orators, and excuse me for having forgotten to except Dionysius and Demetrius; they are for your evenings, and for these evenings, Charles, when you are setting about Plato, give them to the philosophical writings of Cicero, and read them as edited by Davis, whose notes are inestimable for the matter. Read the Tusculan Questions, the work De Finibus, De Natura Deorum, De Legibus, De OfficiisI pause a little about the Academics; perhaps this book, with the work De Divinatione, may be deferred till you have taken your degree. I say the same of Hermogenes de Ideis in your rhetorical reading, but at some distant time you must work at Hermogenes. Now, Charles, in your third year you may choose for yourself among the rhetorical writers whom you have read before, always, however, remembering that Quintilian, Cicero de Oratore, his Brutus, his Orator, and Aristotle's Rhetoric must be perused, and even studied, a second time. In the fourth year begin your evenings with Aristotle's Poetics; and after a first perusal of Twining proceed to a second perusal of a yet more critical sort, and work hard with Winstanley, Tyrwhitt, and Twining again. Make yourself master of this book as well as the Rhetoric; and let me just say of the Rhetoric, that I wish you to get the Cambridge edition, and also an Oxford edition, without translation or accent, but with very good notes. While you are reading Homer in the morning, take up Virgil in the evening; and depend on it that your time will be well employed in reading Virgil twice or thrice. People talk about Greek and Latin history, but do you for the present be content with knowing both from English writers. First map both in your mind by common school-boy books; then proceed as follows: read the Roman History in Goldsmith, then in Hooke, and then in an Abridgment of Gibbon. Read the Greek first in Stanyan, then in Goldsmith, but finally and twice in Mitford, and after Mitford take Gast. Charles, let not this sort of reading disturb the regular order of your morning and evening studies, for in every day there will be chasms of time which you must fill up with history; and pray don't mingle Greek and Roman. Before you sit down to Demosthenes, read the Life of Philip and the History of the Amphictyonic Council by Leland, and do not disdain to read his translations. There is little show but much sense in this advice. Godson, you have some authority in Sam Johnson's practice and my own for filling up the little nooks of time. History will do much, but not all. I wish you to be well, and very well acquainted with the forms of logic; for I never lost sight of your academical duties, relatious, and prospects. Be a critic by and by; but first make yourself a scholar and a writer, and an enlightened academic, and the rest will follow properly, usefully, honorably, and certainly, my dear Charles, I say certainly. Well, then, in logic first read Duncan, then go on to Watts, for it is a precious book, and don't be frightened when I recommend the Port-Royal Logic. Tell your father that I advise you to read these three books every year; and that after reading them I wish you even to study some admirable observations on the forms of Logic written by Dr. Reid, and inserted in the second volume of Kaimes's History of Man. Charles, the first three books will teach you the forms and principles, and the last will instruct you in the value and use of them. Charles, I do beseech you to acquire and to preserve this sort of knowlege according to this very degree. Now in the fourth year you may in the evening read Theocritus and the Bucolics, |