CHAPTER VI.

ANCIENT CLASSICS.

NO study is more pleasing, and few are more instructive than that of philosophical history. To trace in their causes the rise and progress, the decline and fall of empires, is an occupation equally interesting to the imagination, and improving to the intellect. But the most pleasing employment of history is, perhaps, in relating the origin and advances of the arts, sciences, and civilization. The remains of ancient literature, if regarded only as containing the history of those distant times from which they have descended to us, and affording specimens of the cultivation which they had attained, would preserve a considerable degree of importance. But it cannot be denied that they have still more forcible claims upon our attention.

The progress which the ancients had made in science was by no means incon siderable. The elements of most modern improvements in physical and ethical studies, were, perhaps, possessed by the philosophers of Greece and Rome. They left indeed much to be investigated; they often wasted the most powerful efforts in pursuit of devious courses, which terminated only in error; but still they opened those paths of science which have since been more successfully traced: and the disciple of modern schools, is often surprised at meeting in the works of the ancients with hints of knowledge, which he had considered as the exclusive possession of the philosophy of a more recent period.

The vast importance of ancient literature at the period of its revival, if considered only as a source of scientific instruction, is indisputable. The world had for centuries been almost retrograde in knowledge; and if the tide had been already turned, it was still far below the mark of its former ascent. It was the lot, therefore, of the moderns, in every science to be the scholars of the ancients, and their happiness, at so critical a period, to meet with such instructors.

They were not backward to acknowledge their obligations, and discern their interest. Never was an object sought with greater ardour than the restoration of learning. Italy led the way in this honourable pursuit, and soon communicated the emulation to the adjoining nations.

The state of things is now greatly changed. Three centuries of vigorous and unintermitted improvement, have placed the moderns far above their masters. The relations of space and number have been pursued and applied to an astonishing extent. The general properties of matter have been successfully investigated in theory, and extensively applied to practice. Substances are brought to the test of examination, which in their usual state are so subtle as to elude the notice of our senses. The earth has been explored to an extent far exceeding the limits of ancient discovery. We are not strangers even in the regions of space. The

structure of our own globe has been minutely examined, so far as it is accessible to human industry. Its products have been ingeniously classified, and are thus more easily brought under the mental view. Many of their useful properties have been discovered. Man is far more intimately acquainted with his own nature, both corporeal and intellectual. Even in the intricate regions of metaphysics, something like certainty has been attained. We are taught the strength and weakness of our own faculties; the limits of scepticism and decision; and the first principles which form the postulates of knowledge. The structure and uses of language have been rationally illustrated; the powers of the human mind have been accurately distinguished; the principles of social and individual happiness have been developed with no inconsiderable success, though we are not yet suf ficiently wise to make the best application of our discoveries.

We no longer resort, therefore, to the ancients for instruction in science, because an ordinary proficient in modern education, might communicate information to Plato and Aristotle. In defending the importance of classical literature, we must now proceed upon other principles.

Within the circuit of

The ancient languages are the keys of ancient history. the Greek and Latin tongues, is preserved by far the principal part of the information which we possess, respecting the most interesting portions of the world, from the earliest memorials of history, till the decline of ancient civilization.

In the languages of Greece and Rome we possess authors of consummate and almost unrivalled excellence, in some of the departments of literature, who still remain our best models in their respective branches of composition. If the philo sophy of Plato and Aristotle is consigned to neglect; the poetry of Homer and Virgil; the eloquence of Demosthenes and Cicero; the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, Livy and Tacitus, still retain an acknowledged pre-eminence.

The structure of the ancient languages, so different from that of our own, and in many respects so superior, is alone a subject of curious and important investi gation to the philosophical grammarian.

One science especially will acknowledge its ebligations to ancient learning. Some of the most important doctrines connected with the subject of theology, are principally founded on historic facts, the evidence of which is transmitted by authors who have written in the ancient languages.

Lastly, criticism is capable of becoming a very interesting and engaging employment, as is sufficiently proved by the well-known attachment of the votaries of this study to the objects of their pursuit; and where it is not permitted to en croach on the discharge of more serious duties, the pleasure which it affords may surely be regarded as more than an innocent gratification.

A great revolution has taken place in the importance of classical literature, since the time of its revival; the principles of criticism have been both changed, and greatly improved within the same period.

The first object of classical editors, was to communicate to the world, as speedily as possible, those writings which were then accessible to very few, and were frequently in danger of being lost from the scarcity of copies. Editions were, therefore, often printed from incorrect, and sometimes from single manuscripts; and no single manuscript, however valuable, is able to afford, in every

instance, the genuine text of a writer. Illas, says an early editor of Aristophanes, referring to the two comedies which are wanting in the first editions of that author, illas tibi, ut invenimus, minus expolitas, quam nullas tradere maluimus. These editions have now, in many instances, become rare, and their rarity has often conferred on them a great extrinsic value. Yet they frequently possess a real use, as well as an imaginary importance. They were often printed from manuscripts which are not now known to exist, and are the earliest authorities for some of the readings which they afford.

The first classical editors were often men who had attained great facility in the use of the learned languages, but they did not, in general, possess either taste, or in some of the departments of learning, knowledge, sufficient to enable them to make the best use of the advantages which they enjoyed. Though their labours were highly important and meritorious, they therefore left much to be done by the sagacity of their successors.

Before the conclusion of the sixteenth century, most of the classical authors were repeatedly published. More manuscripts had been gradually consulted; more correct specimens of typography were produced; and the dawnings of a mere liberal and learned criticism began to appear, especially in the works of Casaubon.

The same progress was continued through the seventeenth century, in which, with many others, appeared the distinguished names of Gronovius and Heinsius.

A more difficult labour was imposed on succeeding editors. The sources of obvious emendation were in most instances anticipated, and the remaining corruptions could, in general, be removed only by the exercise of great skill and great learning. Bentley may be regarded as the father of the present school of criticism, and in the preface to his Horace, he has thus described the office and difficulties of a modern editor, and defended, the temperate exercise of that conjectural criticism which is often necessary, which he himself has frequently applied with the greatest felicity, and which he has sometimes, perhaps, carried to “Ne id forte necias, longe longeque difficilius est hodie, quam superioribus erat annis, emendationes conscribere. Ita omnia illa quæ ex scriptorum codicum collatione clare et ultro se ingerebant, prærepta jam sunt et anticipata, neque quidquam fere residuum est, nisi quod ex intimâ sententiæ vi, et orationis indole, solius ingenii ope sit eruendum."

excess.

With regard to the present state of classical literature, if great proficients in that branch of learning are now more rare than formerly, their attainments are, at least, of a higher order.

A modern critic will, indeed, use greater freedom in the estimate of his author's merits, than was permitted by the superstitious admiration, with which the ancients were formerly regarded. In the study of their writings he will not pledge himself to maintain every seeming defect to be a beauty; he will not be unbounded in his panegyric, but the admiration which, after every rational deduction he will still retain, will be more satisfactory, as it is more discriminating; and the benefit which he himself will derive from the exercise of an independent judgment on the models which he copies, will be far greater than that which could result from a blind, though intimate familiarity with them.

The distinctions of style are now much better understood by the enlightened scholar, than in the infancy of the critical art. Men of great erudition and talents, were formerly very deficient in this attainment, without which they must often be exposed to the danger of error in their emendations. Markland, in the preface to his edition of the Sylva of Statius, well observes, in estimating the critical merits of the elder Gronovius, that to understand with accuracy the Latin language, and the Latin poets, are two very different attainments; to the former of these qualifications, no better claim can be advanced than that of Gronovius; the latter of them was, perhaps, scarcely possessed in an eminent degree, by any scholar, before the time of Nic. Heinsius, who, from the united taste and erudition which guided his criticism, has merited the title of the reviver of the Latin poets

The introduction of a spirit of philosophy into historical investigations, united to the advantage of continued research, has greatly extended our knowledge of ancient manners, and afforded, in many instances, fresh illustration to ancient writings.

Great attention has, of late, been paid to niceties in the use of the learned lan guages, which were formerly overlooked. Many rules of Greek grammar have been established with such certainty, and rendered so obvious by the labour of modern critics, that we might justly wonder how they could have remained so long unperceived, did not experience continually teach us how much more difficult it is to discover a simple truth, than to understand from the instruction of others, a remote and complex proposition.

In one branch of classical erudition, the knowledge of the metres of the ancient poets, there is no competition between the former and the present schools of criticism. It is to be regretted, that even at present we have no treatise on this subject, which can be regarded as complete; though we have, undoubtedly, scholars, whose acquisitions would enable them easily to supply the want. Without an accurate knowledge of the metrical art, it is impossible that the works of the ancient poets can be successfully restored, for the transcribers were often ignorant of the easiest kinds of metre, and were rarely acquainted with those which are more unusual and difficult. In the manuscripts therefore, and early editions, violations of the metrical laws perpetually occur. It has been remarked by Brunck, that the restrictions of the metre have been, in a considerable degree, the cause of the preservation of some of the nicer distinctions of the Attic dialect, which are much more frequently confounded in the prose writers, where no such restrictions exist. The importance of an attention to metrical rules, for this and other reasons, is therefore obvious.

A modern editor, while severer duties are imposed on him, possesses, however, some peculiar advantages superior to those of his predecessors. The best manuscripts of the most important authors have now been in general collated, and accounts of their variations made public. Some of the ancient lexicographers were first published, and most of the others best edited during the last century.

In the present advanced state of learning, a new series of editions of classic authors, accommodated to the improvement of the times, is earnestly to be wished. Many of these have been already executed, and the rest will, in all probability, be gradually completed. No one however, without incurring the imputation of

rashness, can undertake the department of a classical editor, who does not possess leisure, talents, and learning, sufficient for the examination and employment of the remaining means of critical illustration which are applicable to his work. Successfully to establish and illustrate the text of an important author, demands endowments and opportunities of no common occurrence.

Italy, the country in which learning was first revived, has long ceased to take the lead in any department of science. The literature of Spain has never been very important beyond the boundaries of its own territory. France, though highly distinguished in every form as a literary nation, furnishes only a few names to the catalogue of critics of the first order. These have been chiefly found in England, Germany, and Holland, the countries in which classical literature is now principally cultivated. The last of these countries, though so confined in extent, was, at one period of the last century, so fertile in eminent scholars, especially in Greek learning, that a very learned critic of our own country, considered it as in this respect, equal or superior to the rest of Europe. From Germany we are now accustomed most frequently to receive our best editions. Our own country furnishes a few honourable exceptions to this observation. Long may it continue in every other respect, to hold among the nations the distinguished rank which it has hitherto possessed, and deserve to remain, till the remotest period, the seat of virtue, liberty, and learning.

EDITIONS.

ART. I. Homeri Carmina, cum brevi Annotatione.

Accedunt varia Lectiones, et Observationes veterum grammaticorum, cum nostra etatis critica, curante C. G. HEYNE. Lipsie, in libraria Weidmannid. 8 vols. 8vo.

THE learned writer to whom we are indebted for this valuable edition of the chief work of the father of ancient poetry, for the Iliad only has yet appeared, has long occupied a station of eminent distinction in the republic of letters. He has before presented the world with several excellent editions of classic authors; the Grecian lyric, and the Roman epic muse, have been illustrated by his labours; and his Virgil especially, is too well known to every admirer of that delightful poet, and to every lover of ancient literature, to stand in need of our encomium. The talents which are re. quisite to form the accomplished commentator, have in few instances been more happily and splendidly united; learning and taste, judgment, candour, and industry (and how rarely in the annals of criticism have all these quali ties been found combined) mark out the present editor as qualified, in an uncommon degree, for the important labour which he has undertaken, and in which he has long been known to have been employed.

A new edition of Homer has for some time been one of the desiderata of literature. The same spirit of improvement which, during the progress of the last century, distinguished other branches of learning and science, has also arisen in the province of criticism. Ancient prejudices have died away, the principles of philosophy have been happily united with those of literary investigation, and the Greek language especially, has received considerable illustration from the labour which has been employed in developing its history and structure. In addition to these general advantages, fresh stores of critical apparatus, before withheld, have of late been communicated to the student of Homer; a new æra has commenced in the history of the poet, the rules of judgment arc, indeed, applied with greater freedom to the estimate of his works, but if the column of his fame, which has stood through so many succeeding ages, should be stripped of any of those supernumerary orna ments which may have been affixed to it by the zeal of mistaken admiration, it