apparent negligence, impropriety, and false taste. We do not consider Mr. Preston as possessed of a poetical style, sufficiently individual, uniform, and classical; we sometimes trace the imitation of one author, and sometimes of another; different ages are intermixed; modern refinements and sentiments are blended with ancient simplicity and severity. While we feel ourselves compelled to make these deductions (which we shall proceed to exemplify) from the praise of The present work, we are at the same time equally ready, in many parts, to conede to it a considerable degree of merit. We have said that Mr. Preston does not appear to us to have always apprehended with accuracy the meaning of his author. Some instances, from others which we have noted, we shall now spe. ify in the order in which they occur.

P. 5.) "For Æson's sister was his youthful bride."

The original says, that the sister of

>hiclus was the bride of Æson.

In the same page, the marvellous story Caneus, as related by Apollonius, that the Centaurs, finding him impetrable to their wounds, oppressed him tha load of trees, and beat him down, herwise unhurt, into the earth. The iracle disappears from Mr. Preston's rsion of the passage.

The baffled foes resort to missive war, ad fill the groaning air with weights from

far,

. 6.) “◇ wretched man, how transient is thy breath,

vitably doom'd to pain and death! Lybia's burning sands their tombs remain, wene far distant from their native plain, the gay scenes of Phoebus' dawning light, a the pale precincts of approaching night."

The original of this passage is in part cure, and probably corrupt, but what ellonius says is not a scene far distant m their native plain, but a scene far Cant from Colchos, as the west from east; Lybia and Colchos are menned as the opposite boundaries of the rgonautic course.

In page 25, a remarkable omission urs. Forty-seven verses of the orial, including the song of Orpheus, ANN, REV. VOL. II.

are here untranslated, of which no expla nation, so far as we have observed, is given, nor any other indication, than that the numeration of the verses proceeds at once from 758, to 829.

(P. 61.) "The men of Trachin still the custom hold."

Nothing is said in the original respecting any custom of the Trachinians, inhabitants of Greece, but of the Ciani, inhabitants of Asia, who still, says the poet, prolong the search for Hylas, and retain their concern for Trachin, where the hostages given by their ancestors to Hercules were deposited.

(P. 64.) "As at the ship he question'd their descent,

Their place of birth, and whither they were

bent."

Apollonius (speaking of Amycus) says that he asked none of these questions, as indeed appears from Mr. Preston's succeeding translation of his speech. The order of the original passage, which is rather involved, is the following, unseßaσιησιν άτισσεν εξεσθαι μιν χρειω ναυτιλίης, οι

; the translation, "he haughtily despised to ask them the occasion of their voyage, and who they were.”

(P. 88, 89.) The passage of Argo through the Symplegades affords a good instance of the descriptive powers of Apollonius. It does not however appear to have been throughout exactly apprehended by Mr. Preston. The following passage is certainly misconceived, and a sense given to the words which they will by no means bear.

"Far as a youthful crew, with labouring

oars,

Speed, at a stroke, the vessel from the shores, That distance twice their bark the Minya send."

The literal translation is as follows: as much as the vessel yielded to the impulse of the rowers, twice so much it was carried back; i. e. by the force of the refluent wave." The interpretation which Mr. Preston gives, is indeed given by one of the Greek scholiasts, but cannot be extracted from the words of the original; and another of the commentators, or the same commentator, judging better, immediately afterwards supplies the true interpretation. The reading of the common editions in this Ff

nuscript.

(P. 126.) "In prospect wide the vast of ocean lies,

And seems to mingle with surrounding skies."

This translation must have been given from a hasty and imperfect inspection of the original; the meaning is, that the ocean was displayed in wide prospect to the god, as he moved through the long tract of air.

(P. 161.) The meaning of Medea, in her speech to Jason, is considerably misapprehended.

But, when Iolcus' tow'rs rejoice thy sight; Remember me. Be some few sighs con

sign'd To the poor victim, that remains behind. For me; no pow'r shall tear thee from my soul,

Nor mother's voice, nor father's stern controul.

May fame the tidings of thy welfare bring. Some bird propitious waft them on his wing. To bear me, might the favouring breezes rise, And o'er the seas transport, and through the

skies!

While round thee all the sports and pleasures flow,

That affluence, ease, and kindred can bestow; Before thee might I stand a sudden guest, And say-through me these raptures fill thy breast?

Oh might I soon be plac'd, and long remain, A favour'd inmate, with thy household train."

The purport of the words of Apollonius is this," when you shall have come to Iolcos think on me as I also will think on you, though against the will of my parents; but should you forget me, may some voice, or some informing bird, come to me from far, or may the rapid winds bear me hence over the sea to lolcos, that urging irresistible accusation in your presence, I may remind you that you were saved by my counsel; then might I stand an unexpected guest in your palace!"

(P. 193.) The island Peuce, formed by the mouths of the Danube, is in the translation, though not in the original, placed in the Ionian, or in the geography of Apollonius, the Adriatic sea. Some other considerable errors occur in this part of the translation, which we will not stay to enumerate.

This catalogue of errata might have been easily increased, but perhaps the instances which we have adduced are al

time difficult passages are so well translated by Mr. Preston, that are surprised when those which are are mis-translated, and in fact, in some the instances which we have just p duced, we trace negligence rather ignorance.

In the remainder of our remarks

must be more sparing of examples. The following passage is scarcely telligible to the English reader.

Forbear to glide

A bird ill omen'd, as we seek the tide." I.4 The word ogus, in its primary se a bird, evidently means in this pass by a secondary signification, noza more than an omen.

(P. 199-) "Which heavenly charities a Bacchus wove."

In the place of charities should be ra stituted a proper name, Charites, or th Graces.

(P. 133.) The two last lines of the following passage are, to say no m very obscure. Similar instances m be added.

"If generous thoughts the precious fr

may yield,

No force they meditate, no listed field. Supreme in all things shall thy pleasure 5-And ample gifts for the possession pay."

Of diffuseness, from many others, select one example, occurring in the f page. The words," he rendered c ing to father Neptune and the other g but neglected Pelasgian Juno," are her thus paraphrased.

"The hallow'd banquet was to Nep

given, And all the immortal habitants of heaven Save one, With bold contempt the wis

Jove,

Selected seem'd, the irreverent slight to pro To Juno, goddess of Pelasgic ground, Nor vows are paid, nor pealing hymns 1

sound."

(P. 70.) The style of classical and Grecian purity and simplicity is violated by an imitation of a very modern school of poetry.

"To the sweet lyre the silent shores rejoice : The list ning breezes fold the While thee, Laconian son of Jove, they sing." gauzy wing,

Words which are unnecessary, and scarcely classical, are sometimes found. The translator seems much attached to words of termination like the following: heapy, steepy, sweepy, shrilly, paly, vasty: some of these words may indeed be vindicated by obsolete authority, but few of them are needed.

Expressions feeble, mean, ludicrous, or affected, sometimes occur.

The nightly path of vessels, through the tide. Orion, and the greater bear; that guide Sleep on the weary trav'lers' senses crept. Ev'n in the tow'r the careful warder slept. Subdued by rest the mother ceas'd to mourn Her darling infants, clos'd within their urn. The busy hum of crouded streets was still; And still the watch-dog's larum loud and

shrill.

search the heart of heart."

The author is so much pleased with this expression, that it occurs again in page 166.

"To search the secret of the heart of heart."

The following is the periphrasis of

butchers:

First Castor slew the slain." (P. 63.)

These are no verba ardentia, like the ime expression in Dryden's ode, but a irect and unaccountable blunder.

In the preceding quotations we have iven specimens of nearly all the classes Ef Mr. Preston's faults: it remains to dd a few words respecting the merit of is version, and to furnish some longer and more pleasing extracts.

Mr. Preston has himself made it the est of the excellence of a version, if it ead like an original work. This merit has in a considerable degree attained. His style is in general easy and fluent, and any passages may be selected entitled the praise of all the qualities desirable a version. As a whole, after making

Medea's couch refus'd the soft control; For love and Jason agoniz'd her soul.—

cast;

And oft he turn'd-oft anxious ey'd the soil; While pressing onward, o'er the stubborn Lest giant harvest should prevent his toil, plain,

The brazen footed bulls their toil sustain.— When three full portions of the time were spent,

From dawn of morning to the sun's descent;
And gladsome now their weary task to leave,
The workmen hail the sweet approach of eve;
Th' unwearied ploughman triumph'd in his
toil,

O'er all the large allotted space of soil.-
Four acres lay upturn'd, the share beneath,
All fully saturate with dragon's teeth-
The fiery monsters from the yoke he freed;
He gaz'd around.-The furrows still remain
And drove them terrified along the mead.
A blank, peopled by the giant train.
The ship he sought, and join'd the gallant

crew;

Then in his helm the cooling beverage drew. Gladly the youth indulg'd in transient rest; With words of hope his comrades cheer'd his 'breast.

His heart expanded, with increasing might, Like the fierce boar impatient for the fight, Who whets his tusks, and musters all his wrath,

་

And foaming waits the hunter in his path.

"But now the land its horrid harvest brings.

A giant arm'd from every furrow springs: And helms, and shields, and lances, all around,

Like bearded corn, rose bristling o'er the ground,

The sacred space of Mars, the scourge of

man.

To Heaven's high vaults the gleaming splendours ran.

When wintry storms, surcharg'd with vapours, flow,

And heap along the ground the drifted snow, The clouds disperse, and thro' the gloom of night,

The starry train emerge, in dazzling light;
Thus, sudden brightness shot along the land.
Admonish'd by the virgin's wise command,
A circling stone, of mighty weight and size,
A disk for dreadful Mars the youth espies;
Scarce could four men th' enormous mass
sustain.

With ease the hero rais'd it from the plain;
Then, rushing forward, with a sudden bound,
Aloft in air he hurl'd it, round and round.
Distant it fell amid th' embattled field.
The youth collected shrunk behind his
shield,

Yet with intrepid heart.-The Colchians

He bears the corn, with fearful hasté, away, Ere yet its tinge bespeaks the solar ray; Dire harvest, Jason reap'd that earth-born brood;

And all th' o'erflowing furrows boil'd with blood.

Swell'd by continual rains, as torrents spread, Despise their banks, and inundate the mead. In various postures they resign'd their breath, And grim and diverse were the forms of death.

Some bit the empurpled earth, and prostrate lay;

Some backward fell, and breath'd their souls away;

Some leand half-rais'd, and panted to the wind;

Some sidelong writh'd, in agonies reclin'd; Then, sunk, extended in eternal sleep; Like mighty whales, that slumber o'er the deep.

Entangled some, fast rooted in the ground, With head inclining droop'd beneath the wound;

High as erewhile to heav'n they reard the

crest,

So low they sunk, with damps of death opprest;

Thus youthful plants, surcharg'd with storm and rain,

Hang their moist heads, and languish to the plain,

Bent from the roots; the gardener, in despair,

Surveys the prostrate offspring of his care: And weeps his toils defrauded of their scope, The pride of autumn lost, Pomona's r vish'd hope.—

Such grief and rage the monarch's bosom knew,

As o'er th' expiring train he cast his view. He sought the city, with the Colchis throng,

Resolving vengeance, as he mov'd along The second conflict with the day was clos d The sun declin'd, and all the train reposd."

The second volume of this work con sists of notes and observations on the poem, în part extracted from the former commentators, and the Greek scholiats personal reading and judgment. The and in part supplied from the author' third volume comprises translation from the bibliotheca of Apollodorus and the Argonautics, which bear the name of Orpheus, with the following essays, the first on the life of Apolloni Rhodius, the second on the Argonauti expedition, the third, on the manners the heroic ages, considered with a re ical character of Apollonius Rhodes ference to poetry, the fourth, on the poe the fifth, Apollonius Rhodius and Vit gil compared, the sixth, on the geog