bufinefs too foon: for it anticipates all the admonitions of Neftor.

Neftor's chariot is ftopt, and his horfes in diforder. In this distress he is alarmed, and (Boaσe) calls his fon but it does not appear, that he bid him fly. It is more probable, that he called him to his affiftance.

• Yet vain the fondling care.' The word fondling would have been more applicable to the mother of Antilochus, than the old warrior, whofe military character it depreciates.

Xaμaiteтes, &c. in tranflating this line Mr. Greene follows the common version, which is: ' in terram autem decidens fermo patris, non abftraxit filium à propofito.' But this interpretation fuppofes the father to be cowardly, and the fon difobedient. This objection is avoided, if we only tranflate the words in this manner : ' inanem autem vocem non emifit.' If this be the meaning of the line in queftion, Neftor's admonition and his fondling care,' entirely vanish; and he appears in the character of a brave foldier, encouraging his fon to oppofe the enemy with intrepidity.

The death of Antilochus is not defcribed in the Iliad, and but obliquely mentioned in the Odyssey, iii. 111. iv. 187. We' therefore cannot bring Homer to our affiftance in the explanation of this paffage; but the author's meaning, we are perfuaded, is misrepresented in the foregoing verfion.

The heaven-born fripling,' is a burlefque tranflation of Delos avnp, the godlike hero.

The language of Pindar is bold and figurative: but the translator, in order to raise his poetry, frequently introduces a variety of metaphors, which are not to be found in the original. We have a heap of them in the following lines: His [Jupiter's] nod exalts the humbler foul,

Or gives the tide of Fame to roll
On nobler heads; but Envy still
The cup of Malice loves to fill.
Yet, Envy, can thy weight prevail,
When folid Virtue bends the scale?
Can't thou, who pin'ft at others blifs,
(Too fure thy arrows ne'er cán miss)
One bofom pierce ? 'tis thine alone
On Difappointment's rack to groan.
Be mine to bear the fharper goad
(So Patience wills) of Sorrow's load!
But who up-borne on Reason's wing
Would foar, where Envy points her fling.
Mine be the task, in focial ease,

Pleas'd with the good, the good to please.'

Pyth. ii.

In Pindar we have neither the tide of Fame, the cup of Ma

lice, the arrows of Envy, the rack of Difappointment, nor the

wing

wing of Reafon. The tranflator has added thefe, and other images to the author's group, and rendered it impoffible for us to fee any one figure diftin&tly in the crowd.

The following paffage, which intimates, that the greatest profperity is fubject to viciffitudes, is thus plainly and fimply expreffed in the Greek :

But in English it is rendered obscure and enigmatical by an affectation of metaphorical elegance.

Happiness, thy darling gates
Virtue wooes, the gates of reft;
Envy robs thee of thy guest.'

I

The tranflator is unquestionably a man of taste and learn ing, poffeffed of a lively and vigorous imagination; and his performance is a work of importance: but it would have been more valuable if, both in his profe and verse, he had been content to exprefs himself with a natural fimplicity, and had not introduced fuch a multiplicity of glaring and inconfiftent metaphors.

The Lufiad; or, the Discovery of India. An Epic Poem. Translated from the Original Portuguese of Luis de Camoens. By William Julius Mickle. The Second Edition. 410. 18. 15: Cadell.

HAVING formerly given an account of this work, we have

now only to remark the improvements which occur in the prefent edition. It may be obferved, in particular, that Mr. Mickle has much extended the hiftory of the Portuguese fettlements in Afia, in which he not only traces with great accuracy the fall of that empire in the Eaft, but examines the principles advanced by Dr. Smith, in his treatife on the Wealth of Nations, relative to the India trade. The limits of our Review will not permit us to give such a detail of this subject, as fhould convey the whole force and extent of our author's arguments, on a matter of fo great importance to the commercial interefts of Britain. On this account we must refer to the history above-mentioned, where Mr. Mickle ftrongly fupports the propriety of an exclufive trade to the East Indies, in op

See Crit. Rev. vol. xli. p. 15.

pofition

pofition to the fentiments of Dr. Smith.

We shall however

prefent our readers with the following fhort, but fenfible paf

fage, as being introductory to the investigation.

The hiftories of wars, from the earliest times, are much alike; the names of the countries ravaged, the towns deftroyed, and captains flain, are different; the motives and conduct of the oppreffors, and the miferies of the oppreffed, are the fane. Portugal raifed the firft commercial empire of the modern world; the hiftory of her fate therefore opens a new field for the most important fpeculation. The tranfactions of the Portuguese in India are peculiarly the wars and negociations of commerce, and therefore offer inftructions to every trading country, which are not to be found in the campaigns of a Ca far or a Marlborough. The profperity and declension of fo reign fettlements, refulting from the wisdom or errors of the fupreme power at home, from the wisdom or imprudence, the virtues or vices of governors abroad; the ftupendous effects of unftained honour and faith; the miferable ruinous embar raffments which attend difhoneft policy, though fupported by the greatest abilities in the field or in the council; the uncom mercial and dreadful confequences of wars unjustly provoked, though crowned with a long feries of victories; the self-deAtructive measures, uncommercial fpirit, and inherent weakness of defpotic rule; the power, affluence, and ftability which reward the liberal policy of humane government; in a word, all those causes which nourish the infancy, all those which as a fecret disease undermine, or as a violent poifon fuddenly de-. ftroy the vital ftrength of a commercial empire; all these are developed and difplayed, in the moft exemplary manner, in the hiftory of the tranfactions of Portuguese Afia.

1

And all these combine to ascertain the great principles upon which that ftupendous common wealth the British Eaft India Company must exift or fall. The commerce of India is of most essential value to the British nation. By the Indian goods diftributed over Europe, the effential balance of trade is preferved in our favour.. But whether the Indian commercest fhould be conducted by an exclufive company, or laid open to every adventurer, is the queftion of the day, a queftion of! the very first importance to the British empire. And to this queftion the example of the Portuguese is of the first cont fequence. Both in the fenate, and in the works of fome. political writers, this example has been appealed to an exact knowledge of the commercial principles of Portuguese, Afia is therefore highly neceffary; particularly, if the most grofs mifreprefentations of it have already been given, with... the profeffed view of influencing the legislature.› And an

au

authenticated state of the principles of the Portuguese Afiatic commerce, were it only to guard us against the vifionary and dangerous fchemes of theory, cannot but be of some utility to that nation which now commands the commerce of India.'

To the preliminary difcourfes is fubjoined an appendix, containing fome Portuguese papers, tranfmitted to Mr. Mickle from the continent, of which he has given a tranflation, accompanied with obfervations.

The alterations in the poem, though not confiderable, afford convincing evidence of the author's correctnefs and induftry. But the former detached notes on the brahmins are, by great additions, extended to a differtation at the end of the seventh book, where we meet with a curious narrative of oriental mythology.

FOREIGN

ARTICLES.

Sebaftian Caftellio's, &c. Lebens-gefchichte; or the Life of Sebastian Caftellio, by John Conrad Fuelslin, &c. 8vo. Frankfurt on the Mayn. (German.)

THE narrative of Caftellio's life interefts the reader, not only as

it ferves to illuftrate the hiftory of literature, and of the reformation, but also as a piece of justice due to the memory of an excellent man, who, during a confiderable part of his life, had been perfecuted and ftarved. His merits as a most faithful and elegant: tranflator, and a very judicious and learned commentator of the Bible, are generally known and confeffed. But they are his dif putes with the Genevan reformers, Calvin and Beza, that characterize and endear him as a man. He was at firft highly efteemed by Calvin, who during his ftay at Strasburgh lodged him in his own house, and after his return to Geneva, recommended him to the place of rector or head-master of the gymnasium of that city: but from the diffimilarity of their characters and fentiments, this friendship was of fhort duration. Soon after, Calvin began to quarrel with Caftellio, and by the firft fpecimens of his hatred forced him to retire from Geneva to Bafil.

Their difputes feem to have originated in the diverfity of their fentiments on predeftination and religious toleration. This latter controverfy was excited by the perfecution and execution of that poor fanatic, Servetus, who was burned at Calvin's inftigation. Such a furious excefs of orthodox zeal could not fail to roufe the indignation of Caftellio, a man of fenfe, moderation, and humanity. He published a collection of treatises on religious toleration. Calvin and Beza, on the other hand, attempted to defend the fanguinary proceedings against Servetus, and to justify their own odious and dreadful doctrine on that fubject: Calvin, by his Deferfio orthodoxa fidei ;" and Beza, by his answering the question, An hæretici a civili magiftratu puniendi,' in the affirmative. It was indeed fortunate for Caftellio to have retired, at the first ebullitions of Calvin's zeal, beyond the reach of his further perfecutions. For

con

confidering that demagogue's exceffive inveteracy against him, it is hard to say where it would have stopped. In a book still extant in that reformer's theological works, entitled: Brevis refponfio ad diluendas Nebulonis cujufdam calumnias,' Calvin calls Caftellio a villain. He even accufes him of having ftolen wood: whereas this very accufation itself was a piece of the meanest villainy, because both utterly falfe, and inexpreffibly cruel! The fact, as folemnly declared by Caftellio, was this: after he had been driven from Geneva by Calvin's perfecution, he languished a long time at Bafil in mifery and want, of common neceffaries. In order to procure fewel, and keep himfelf from starving with cold, one of the most learned, most virtuous, and most refpectable men of his age, was driven to the ufual shift of the pooreft people, to feek and fish for fome fmall ftray wood in the river. And this common and allowed resource of diftreffed poverty, was by Calvin ftyled a theft!-Let pofterity, his and Caftellio's competent and unbiassed judge, compare the conduct of this Chriftian divine towards his quondam friend, with that of Demofthenes towards Efchines, his fierce and ardent rival, whom, immediately after the moft violent ftruggles against himself, he forced to accept of a confiderable fum of money to foften the rigour of his exile -Who would not a thousand times rather chufe to have been Caftellio fishing for some small stray wood, than Calvin, driving Servetus to the ftake, or infulting a poor, but great and worthy man in his diftrefs, occafioned by Calvin's own intrigues !

It is, however, a fatisfaction to think, that Calvin's flanderous afperfions on Caftellio's character, were by his own contemporaries already treated with just contempt, as appears, among other proofs, from Caftellio's fubfequent appointment to the profefforship of the Greek language in the university of Bafil.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. John Mudge Unterfuchung über geimpfte Blattern:-i. e. A German Tranflation of Mr. Mudge's Enquiry into the Inoculation of the Smallpox. Dantzick. 1778, 8vo.

WE mention this tranflation, the work of Dr. Woulf, F. R. S. an eminent practitioner at Dantzick, because he has given us a great number of new and valuable obfervations on the fmall-pox, in a large appendix joined to his tranflation. Thefe obfervations' are of fuch importance, and fo judiciously and philofophically drawn up, that we fincerely with to fee them tranflated into our language, for the use of the medical faculty, as well as of private. families.

Lettres d'Amour et d'Affaires, écrites par Catherine, Comteffe de Salmour, Marquife de Balbian, au Marggrave de Br. 8vo. Turin. (Drefden.)

Prince Charles Philip of Brandenburgh, elector Frederick the Third's brother-in-law, who in 1695, commanded the Brandenburgh troops at Turin, happened to fall in love with the countess dowager of Salmour, and refolved upon marrying her fecretly. But his brother, the elector, difapproving of this marriage, caused the countefs to be thut up in a convent, whence the wrote these letters to the margrave, in whofe pockets they are faid to have been VOL. XLVI, July, 1778.

F

found