"These mountains," says Mitford, Hist. Vol. st. p. 151, note, speaking of those adjoining to Thermopyla," according to all travellers, are now woodless. Nor has the destruction been a modern event: it is noticed by Statius, as in his time extensive in the Roman Empire, and especially in Greece: Nusquam umbræ veteres; minor Othrys, et ardua silent Jam natat omne nemus: cæduntur robora classi. Deficit, et totos consumunt carbasa ventos. Stat. Achill. 1. v. 426." Statius, however, has no reference to any part of the Roman Empire but Greece; neither is he speaking of the desolated state of the Grecian forests in his own day, but merely describing, in a strain of characteristic hyperbole, the consumption occasioned by an event, long anterior to the period at which Herodotus and Mr. Mitford describe these mountains as covered with trees-the Trojan war. We also recommend to Mr. Mitford the correction of a gross error, one of the very few which occur in his correctly printed work-silent for sidunt. By way of a concluding bead to our long roll of parallel passages, (as Southey or any other Spanish writer might phrase it) we shall subjoin two instances, one partly classical, the other purely English. Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulcris. Juv. Sat. x. 146. Thus Jeremy Taylor, in his celebrated sermon on the death of the Countess of Carbery-" Every thing finds a grave and a tomb; and the very tomb itself dies by the biguess of its pompousness and luxury." Conrad of Würzburg, (the poet compared in a former Number to Antimachus of Colophon) as cited by the Edinburgh Review there referred to, "is for ever complaining of the apathy of the great, who had ceased to cultivate poetry themselves, and left it unpatronised in others; yet he indignantly exclaims, he cares not for their gifts,-his tongue shall not be silent, since the art itself will reward him ;-he will continue his song like the nightingale, she who sings for her own sake; -hidden in the woods; her notes assuage her cares, nor does she heed whether any stranger listens to the strain." Edin. Rev. No. LI. p. 198. Thus in one of Cowper's hymns; The calm retreat, the silent shade, Thee, if Thy spirit touch the soul, And Oh, with what joy, and peace, and love, Nor asks a witness to her song, Nor thirsts for human praise. CECILIUS METELLUS. NUGE. FRAGMENT OF THUCYDIDES. - Φωνάντα συνετοῖσι· (WE give the following as a specimen of a Ninth Book of Thucydides, which has lately been discovered at a library in Munich. The writing, though in some parts extremely clear, in others almost illegible; several names of persons, in particular, are lost, which, if preserved, would probably throw some light on certain dark parts of Grecian history. We have not room at present for farther particulars. The fragment before us, as we gather from the context, relates to a contest for the archonship of Logopolis, a colony of orators, as it appears, sent from the different republics of Greece for the purpose of perfecting themselves in that study. We are at a loss to explain, as the Platonic year has not yet revolved, the coincidence between the circumstances recorded in these chapters and others of more modern date; the only solution that occurs to us, is the maxim of the poet, that "the thing which hath been, it is that which shall be.") ó Τοιαῦτα μὲν ὁ εἶπε. μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον Νομίδης ὁ ̓Ανόμου, Μαν τινεὺς, τοιαῦτα ἔλεγε· 106. “'Ο,τι μὲν τῇδε τῇ πόλει μάλιστα ποιησάση ξυνοίσει, περὶ τού του, ὦ Λογοπολῖται, οὐκ ἔχω ὅ, τι χρὴ ξυμβουλεῦσαι, ἅτε οὐ σπουδαίων πραγμάτων ἔμπειρος ὤν· ὡς δὲ τοῦ Λογοπολιτῶν τε αὐτῶν, εἰ δὲ χρὴ λέγειν, καὶ δὴ καὶ πάσης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀγαθοῦ μάλιστα διαφέρει, ὁποτέραν τῷδε τῷ πράγματι τελευτὴν ἐπιθήσομεν, ἐκ τῶνδε τῷ τεκμη ριῶσαι πάρα. πυνθάνομαι γὰρ (Here the orator appears to have recited his pretended intelligence from Scythia, Carthage, Taprobane, and the empire of the king. This part is scarcely legible.) Εἶτ ̓ οὖν ̓Αριστοκράτης τῳ δοκεῖ παρανόμως τὸ πρότερον ἄρξαι, εἶτ ̓ αὖ ὁ Φορμίων τῇ ἀρχῇ αὐτοῦ ἀδίκως τὰ νῦν ἐπιφέρεσθαι, (τοῦτο γὰρ ἄδηλον) μήτε τις ἔχθραν του ἢ φιλίαν ἰδίᾳ προτιμήσας, τοῦ δι καίου τε καὶ πᾶσιν εὐπρεποῦς ἑαυτὸν ἀποστερείτω, μήτ' αὖ ὀλιγαρχίας τις ἢ δήμου προθυμότερον ἐχόμενος, ὡς δὴ στασιαρχῶν θατέρου ἢ τοῦδε ἢ τοῦ ἐναντίου εἴδους καλῶς ἂν δοκοῦντος προεστάναι, ἀνεπιτηδειότερόν τι γνώτω· ἀλλὰ τοῦ Λογοπολιτῶν τε αὐτῶν καὶ ἁπάσης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀγαθοῦ μεμνημένος, ὁτιμάλιστα ἐπιψηφιζέσθω. 109. “ Τοιαῦτα μὲν ὁ Νομίδης εἶπεν. οἱ δὲ (οἷον ὄχλος φιλεΐ) πολλῷ τῷ γέλωτι, περὶ τοσούτων ὅμως, ἐχρῶντο. ἦν γὰρ ὁ Νομίδης παντάπασι τοιοῦτος· καὶ οὐ μόνον ἐν τῇ Λογοπολιτῶν ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρ' ̓Αμφικτυόσιν οὐχ ὅσον ὕστερον πυλαγορῶν, περὶ κοινῆς ̔Ελλήνων σωτηρίας βουλευομένοις, ἄτοπα πολλὰ τινὰ καὶ ἀνεπιτήδεια ξυμβουλεῦσαι λέγεται, γέλωτος χάριν· ὥστε καὶ Μωμίδην ὑφ ̓ Ελλήνων ἐπικαλεῖσθαι. διὰ δὲ τοιοῦτό τι ὑπονοεῖται καὶ ἐν Ολυμπίᾳ τὰς μὲν πρώτας οὐκ ἀπενεγκεῖν, τὰς δὲ ἴσας, τοῦ ἄθλου τότε πρῶτον διχοτομη θέντος. ξυνισταμένου γὰρ τοῦ ἀγῶνος, ἵππων δὲ ἐν δρόμῳ ὄντων, δεινόν τινα αὐτῷ καὶ ἀκορεστὸν γέλωτα θείᾳ τύχῃ ἐμπεσεῖν, ὥστε καὶ μικροῦ δεῖν ἐξ ἅρματος ἐκβληθῆναι· τοὺς δὲ ̔Ελλανοδίκας, τέρας τοῦτο ἡγουμέ νους, ἀπ .... - μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον . . . . . ., ...μολπίδης ἀπ' ̓Αθ . .ῶν, ἔλεγε τοιάδε 121. “ Τὴν μὲν ἀντιστασιωτῶν μακρολογίαν, ὦ Λογοπολῖται, οὐχ οὕτω μέμφομαι· περὶ γὰρ τοσούτων, ἀρχῆς, καὶ δόξης, καὶ ἐναντίων τιμω ρίας ἀγωνιζομένους, ἀφθόνῳ λόγῳ χρῆσθαι καὶ οὐχ ὅσον ἐπεσταλμένῳ, πολλὴ ξυγγνώμη. τὸ μέντοι πρᾶγμα, ἐφ ̓ ᾧ τὰ νὺν ξύνεσμεν—κ. τ. λ. We omit the speech of the Eumolpid, together with those of several other Boeotian and Athenian orators, containing a curious picture of the state of Greece in the 92nd Olympiad. This portion of the book concludes in the usual manner: « Τοιαῦτα μὲν περί τε τῆς Φορμίωνος ἀρχῆς, καὶ τῆς ̓Αριστοκράτου ξυνωμοτῶν ἀναστάσεως ἐγένετο· καὶ τὸ θέρος ἐτελεύτα, καὶ δεύτερον καὶ εἰκοστὸν ἔτος τοῦ πολέμου τοῦδε, ὃν Θουκυδίδης ξυνέγραψε.” (From the many grammatical inaccuracies in this Fragment, the transcriber appears to have been an illiterate person.) ON THE QUANTITY OF CEDRINUS. The writer of the Life of Thomas Warton, in the London Magazine for August, (No. xx. p. 126,) mentions the fact of Warton having, in some Latin verses, made the penultima of "cedrinæ" short, which he is inclined to consider as an error in quantity. This is a mistake: cedrinus is derived immediately from the Greek; and adjectives in vos, expressive of the materials of which any thing is made, have the penultima short. So Homer, of an apartment in the palace of Ulysses-Keupivov, ὑψόροφον, ὃς γλήνεα πολλὰ κεχάνδει. We should not have thought this error worth correcting, were it not that the writer of the article is obviously a scholar.-We were struck with the happiness of the following image, illustrative of the style of Warton's lyrical pieces: "Though his diction is rugged, it is like the cup in Pindar, which Telamon stretches out to Alcides, Xpur Topxviav, rough with gold, and embost with curious imagery." SPECIMENS OF THE BATHOS IN VIRGIL. Virgil has been the object of eulogy among critics for the last two millenniums, as the poet, xar xv, of good taste; and yet there are some passages in his poems which, to modern perceptions at least, appear to be signal instances of the figure above mentioned. We shall not quote the description of the storm in the first Georgic, as it has been already commented on by greater hair-splitters than themselves; and perhaps the simile of the two Centaurs descending the mountain, (Æn. vii. 676,) dat euntibus ingens Sylva locum, et magno cedunt virgulta fragoremay be considered rather as a juxtaposition of two different but equally striking effects, than as a climax ascending from one to the other-though we remember a school-boy being censured for imitating it. But what shall we say to Nascetur pulchra Trojanus origine Cæsar, Julius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo. Æn. 1. 286. On the following, which is something like a repetition of the above: En hujus, nate, auspiciis illa inclyta Roma VI. 782. Imperium terris, animos æquabit Olympo, Septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces. To a Roman, probably, the effect of the latter bathos would be lessened, if not entirely removed; and indeed the idea of a capital comprehending, as it were, seven cities in one, is magnificent enough, and might have stood excellently well by itself, without the injudicious addition. This last line reminds us of another of Virgil's faults-the repetition of a favorite line or lines, in connexion with a subject very different from that to which it was at first applied. (Georg. 11.535.) Such repetitions produce an effect injurious to the poet. The reader naturally reverts to the former topic-compares it with the latter-and can discover no connexion between the two, except the poet's wish to ingraft on both his pet image or expression. Not only is the latter passage, by this means, deprived of all appearance of a natural effusion (to use a hackneyed term), but the original passage itself, on recollection or re-perusal, loses some of its effect. We all admire the magnificent line with which, in the spirit of Lucan, Virgil concludes the prooemium of his epic: Tantæ molis erat Romanam condere gentem! and yet, had the same verse recurred in any subsequent part of the Eneid, half its beauty would be forfeited. It is as if an act of favor, conferred specially on one friend, and thence the more valuable, were to be made common to many. Nor is this effect lessened by the comparative rarity of such repetitions, which gives them an appearance of art and choice:-they do not occur, like those of Homer,' in the course of things; we see that poet has in his stores a certain number, and only a certain number, of very good things, and that he watches his time to exhibit them. We are reminded of Ephraim Jenkins's learned discussion on the cosmogony; or of the artifice by which the people of Egesta deluded the Athenian ambassadors into an opinion of their immense riches; ἰδίᾳ ξενίσεις ποιούμενοι τῶν τριηριτῶν, τά τε ἐξ αὐτῆς ̓Εγέστης ἐκπώματα καὶ χρυσᾶ καὶ ἀργυρᾶ ξυλλέξαντες, καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἐγγὺς πόλεων-αιτησάμενοι, ἐσέφερον ἐς τὰς ἑστιάσεις, ὡς οἰκεῖα ἕκαστοι, καὶ πάντων ὡς ἐπιτοπολὺ τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρωμένων, μεγάλην τὴν ἔκπληξιν Αθηναίοις παρείχε. (Thuc. vi. 46.) Whether our readers, and especially the peculiar admirers of Virgil, (of whom we were once among the most de 1 Homer repeats himself without end; but Ilomer can afford to do so. His repetitions are like Milton's imitations: we have implicit confidence in the boundless invention of the one poet, and the perfect originality of the other; and we allow them to take their own wayi |