own house at Wimbledon, March 19, 1812. "General Biography: or Lives, Critical and Historical, of the most eminent persons of all ages, countries, conditions, and professions, arranged according to alphabetical order. Composed by John Aikin, M. D. the Rev. Thomas Morgan, and Mr. William Johnston." 4to. Vol. VIII. The celebrity which this work has long acquired renders it unnecessary to introduce it.formally before the reader. It is sufficient to observe that the volume for the year before us extends from Pearce (Zachary) to Samuel the prophet,and exhibits the same classical simplicity of style, the same indefatigable research for genuine information, and the same freedom from personal bias which has characterised those which have preceded it. Among the works of the year that relate to ancient classics we have to notice the following: "Ricardi Porsoni Adversaria, &c." "Adversaria of Richard Porson." Notes and Emendations upon the Greek Poets, selected, arranged, and prepared by J. H. Monk, A. M. and Č. J. Blomfield, A. M. from the MS. papers of Porson, in the possession of Trinity College, Cambridge." With a vignette of the author. 8vo. 11. 5s. large paper 31. 3s. These notes are a valuable collection, and do great credit to the celebrated scholars by whom they have been compiled and digested. We are astonished, however, at the enormous price which is demanded for the volume, and which amounts almost to a prohibition of its circulation among those for whom it would appear at first sight to be chiefly intended. We by no means blame the highly respectable bookseller, whose name appears at the foot of the title-page, and who we are informed has purchased the copy-right; but we cannot avoid repeating our surprise that a college which has sent forth so many illustrious scholars, and has uniformly professed so strenuous a desire to encourage learning, and classical learning more especially, should have consented to demand such a sum for the purchase of the copy-right as to render so high a price absolutely requiste to give a chance of repayment. "Comedies of Aristophanes, viz. the Clouds, Plutus, the Frogs, the Birds. Translated into English," with Notes. 8vo. 12s. Of Aristoplanes eleven plays have reached us; and this is all that remains to us of the attic comedy. Of these only three have hitherto been presented in an English dress. The Clouds and Plutus, which have both been attempted by White and Theobald, and the former also by Cumberland, whose excellence as a Greek translator, and especially of Aristophanes, has been admitted on all sides; and the Frogs, which has been admirably given by Mr. Dunster. The two comedies rendered by Cumberland and the one by Dunster are here reprinted; to which a translation of the Birds is added by the present editor, a member of one of the universities. It is given in prose for the following reasons offered in the preface, to the whole of which, however, we by no means accede. "With respect to those who think that a metrical version would be better adapted to the purpose, we are bound in duty to give our reasons for differing from them in opinion. A sort of comico prosaic style, if we may be allowed the expression, is the style which suits best the language of English farce. The style of Aristophanes approaches nearest to this. A translation, therefore, upon this principle, will combine two advantages. The force of every passage, and the keenness of every joke, will be the more effectually preserved; while the fulness of every expression will be the more naturally represented, each line being free from the necessity of consisting of a certain number of syllables. It will come at once within the reach of the English reader, and will assist the scholar in acquiring a knowledge of the original Greek." Now each line would certainly bear a much nearer resemblance to the original Greek if in easy and regular metre; nor needs it, even in this case, be under "the necessity of consisting of a certain number of syllables; for the Iambic of ten syllables may be, as in truth it most commonly is, occasionally intermixed with a terminating alcaic or redundant syllable, or an Alexandrine verse; and all these again may casually be varied by a break or hemistich. The version, however, as it is, has considerable merit, and is for the most part well elucidated from the commentaries of Professor Beck, with occasional assistances derived from Bentley, Porson, and Kuster. The text is that of Brunck. "If the plan upon which the Birds has been executed, sball be found acceptable to the public," says the translator, we shall speedily commit to the press a second volume, containing a verson of the Wasps, the Acharnians, the Peace, and the Knights." "Funeral Orations in praise of Military Men: translated from the Greek of Thucydides, Plato, and Lycias with explanatory Notes, and some account of the Authors. By the Rev. Thomas Broadhurst." 8vo. 16s. The subjects of this ele 1813 : gant and interesting volume are the following: Life of Thucydides ; Character of Pericles; brief Remarks on ancient Funeral Orations ; description of the Funeral Ceremony, by Thucydides; Oration of Pericles Life of Plato; Menexemes, or Funeral Oration of Plato ; Life of Lysias; Oration of Lysias ; additional Observations; Index. The memoirs are purposely concise, and are chiefly intended as explanatory prolegomena. The funeral harangues are for the most part rendered from the original text as edited in 1746, by the Rev. Dr. Bentham, formerly Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, who accompanied it with a learned preface and notes. "Collections from the Greek Anthology: by the Rev. K. Bland and others." Svo. 16s. This volume commences with a preface containing an historical notice of the principal authors (as far as they are known) and collectors of Greek epigrams, with remarks on the editions of Brunck and Jacobs. The work, as intimated in the title-page, is the joint produc-. tion of several hands, indicated by a single capital letter at the foot of the piece, though the only name that appears at length is that of the editor, who is a considerable contributor. The poems are divided into classes, as moral, symposiac, amatory, satirical, humorous, and sepulchral. At the end of each class is subjoined a series of explanatory notes, interwoven with specimens of a more modern date. There is much spirit in many of these renderings, and we have already selected from them accordingly with some degree of freedom. "The two last Pleadings of Marcus Tullius Cicero against Caius Verres: translated and illustrated with Notes by Charles Kelsall, Esq. 2 C author author of a Letter from Athens." 8vo. 15s. The pleadings here presented are selected, and justly estimated, as the finest of all that belong to the Roman orator: they are in the main given fairly, though we think they might have been equally literal and possessed more aroma, or unction, as the French theologians would call it. We have also strenuously to object to the use of such finical terms as various accounts. First, we have been accustomed to contemplate the writers as peculiarly characterised by somewhat of an ebullient, though always an honest warmth, in the different kinds of controversy (sometimes, indeed, in the same kind) to which they were directed by their professional pursuits; and we here find all ebullience subsided; undue heat softened into the most polite and mutual deference fêtes champetres, boudoir, ridicule of opinion, and the storm of politics (reticulum) a little net-work bag, exchanged for the calm and purity in the present instance stuffed with of philological studies and Greek roses: as also to the promiscuous use, and Roman literature. Secondly, in the very same sentence too, of we find this subject maintained the singular and plural pronoun of with a spirit and comprehensivethe second person, as in the follow-ness of survey, for which we did ing passage: "Here Quintus Ca- not give either of the writers full tullus, I call upon thee. I am speak-credit while alive, aware, as we have ing of your splendid and beautiful ornament. It belongs to you, not only to reprobate this crime with the severity of a judge, but even that of an enemy or accuser." "Ovid's Metamorphoses: translated by William Orger; with the original Latin text." Vol. I. Sгo. 10s. This translation is rendered with great ease, sufficient fidelity, and no, deficiency of spirit. The writer's intention is to publish a Number quarterly, till the whole of Ovid has been mastered. The vo lume before us (for we have not yet received more than the first (is limited to the first seven books of the Metamorphoses. We wish Mr. Orger success; for in our opinion he well deserves it. "Correspondence of the late Gilbert Wakefield, B. A. with the late Right Hon. Charles James Fox, in the years 1706-1801: chiefly on subjects of Cassical Literature." 8vo. We have been more than ordinarily pleased with this little volume; and we have been pleased on never ceased to be, of their natural talents, and bighly cultivated understanding. Thirdly, it is a work of elegance, therefore, that breaks upon us unexpectedly, and is consequently the more cordially welcome. And fourthly, under the peculiar circumstances and period of time through which the correspondence extends, it does the highest honour to both the writers; for although there is nothing more than a few incidental allusions to the fact, it commences upon a literary subject, ' not long before Mr. Wakefield's prosecution for a libel, continues through the whole of his confinement of three years in Dorchester gaol, and terminates almost immediately upon his liberation. The opening letter is dated Dec. 17. 1790, and is from Mr. Fox to Mr. Wakefield, in acknowledgement of the present of the first volume of Mr. Wakefield's Lucretius, dedicated to himself, and evidently shows that at this time nothing more than a nominal acquaintance subsisted subsisted between them. The second is from the same to the same, in acknowledgment of the receipt of the second volume, as also of a pamphlet of Mr. Wakefield's upon Porson's Hecuba; and though without a date, must have been written in the summer of 1797, at which time this volume was published. The classical correspondence commences from this period, in consequence of a few queries proposed by Mr. Fox in relation to subjects more or less connected with the Hecuba; and from this point it spreads to a variety of other quarters of elegant criticism, chiefly, as we have already observed, Greek and Latin, though not unfrequently involving allusions to the polite literature of modern times, and especially of our own country. There is one thing with which we have been particularly please!, and that is the delicate attention and shades of advice (for they do not amount to more) that Mr. Fox ventures incidentally to address to Mr.Wakefield, upon the first severe feeling of his sentence and imprisonment. While he adverts to the subject only incidentally, yet always honestly, and therefore consistently with his own political opinions with strong expressions of disapprobation, he serms to labour with the most friendly assiduity in calling off his attention from his sense of suffering, by a more than ordinary rapidity in exercising his critical acumen, and thus drawing forth from Mr. Wakefield in his own support, the master passion of his heart. And as soon as he finds Mr. W. is about to engage, during his confinement, upon some work for the purpose of occupying his time, and benefiting his family, he strongly, but in the most gentle manner, dissuades him, by all means, from directing it to a political subject. The chief points discussed are verbal and grammatical criticisms; but they are discussed with so much taste, collateral reference, and elegant quotation, as to be always interesting and often important. Among other peculiarities of opinion on the side of Mr. Wakefield, we have to notice his hypothesis that the Iliad and Odyssey are two distinct bundles of poems, written by different blind bards. Ops rather than 'Ossos, in very early though different periods of the Greek language, and afterwards put together by some persons through the means of a few interstitial verses; and he thus endeavours to account for the different degrees of merit that belong to different parts of these excellent production, and especially for the diversities that occur in the use and omission of the digamma: to which opinion, however, his Right Hon. correspondent does not incline, though he treats it, as he does every other opinion of Mr. W. with great respect. Another singularity in Mr. Wakefield seems to have been his disJike of Cowper's blank verse, and the rhymed stanza of Spencer, to both which Mr. Fox appears to have been most warmly attached. Mr. Wakefield's observations upon the di gamma, however, and the supernumerary v at the termination of certain words in the Greek tragedians, are peculiarly worthy of attention. "A Tour through Italy, exhibiting a view of its Scenery, its Antiquities, and its Monuments; parti- : cularly as they are objects of classical interest and elucidation, &c. By the Rev. John Chetwode Eustace." 2 vols. 4to. These are splendid volumes, occasionally illustrated with engravings, and to men of classical taste, for whom they are 2 C 2 peculiarly through Bolsano and Trent, and arrives at Verona, of the ancient and modern state of which he gives an interesting account. His course then tends through Vicenzia and Padua, to Venice; from which he returns to Padua, and passes on to Mantua, where he forgets not to pay due honours to Virgil; nor to weep over the robberies his birth-place has endured, first from Austrian protection, and afterwards from French: though we are glad to find that shortly after the establishment of the Austrian government in this city, "the arts and sciences were not neglected:" that peculiarly intended, cannot fail to afford a rich as well as a plenteous entertainment. Mr. Eustace is a Roman Catholic clergyman of enlightened mind, and liberal principles, ardently attached to Greek and Roman studies, and especially to the polite literature with which they are so splendidly inwrought. The tour sketched out in the following pages," says the journalist, "was undertaken in company with Philip Roche, Esq. a young gentleman of fortune, who, while he spared no expencee to render it instructive, contributed much to its pleasures by his gentle manners," an Imperial academy was erected, and by his many mild and benevolent virtues; virtues which, as it was hoped, would have extended their influence through a long and prosperous life, and contributed to the happiness, not of his family only, but of an extensive circle of friends and acquaintance. But these hopes were vain, and the author is destined to pay this unavailing tribute to the memory of his friend and companion. The two gentlemen, who, with the author and his fellow-traveller, formed the party often alluded to in the following pages, were the Hon. Mr. Cust, now Lord Brownlow, and Robert Rushbroke, of Rushbroke Hall, Esq." The tour, as stated in the title-page, is devoted to the classical beauties of Italy, although the author cannot avoid Occasionally indulging a digressive and venial imprecation against the Goths of our own times, who have pillaged the country of its finest productions, both of nature and art, and have in a thousand instances, with the most unfeeling barbarism, wantonly destroyed many of the best monuments of Greek or Roman taste. He starts from Vienna by Inspruck, crosses the Alps, passes a noble palace devoted to its meetings, and a fine assemblage of antiquities collected in its galleries." Nothing of this sort, however, appears to have consoled the Mantuans for their second loss of liberty under the accursed kiss of French fraternity. The fostering genius of Buonaparte plundered the academy which the Austrian court had founded, and carried off the revered bust of Virgil, which having been dug out of the lake in the sixteenth century, was placed by the Austrians in the academical gallery, and esteemed by the Mantuans the richest jewel they were possessed of. To complete the farce, while this disgrace was openly cast upon the prince of the Roman poets, they celebrated with cruel mockery civic feastsin honour of him, and erected plaster busts in the place of his marble statues. Pursuing his picturesque course our author advances progressively to Cremona, Placentia, Parma, Reggio, and Modena, constantly enriching his journal with notices that evince a refined taste and a cultivated understanding. Bologna occupies a more detailed description, and he at length |