Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

most indecent manner; while many of their coffins are scarcely covered from the public view, and the most noisome and pestilential effluvium is perpetually escaping and impregnating the atmosphere with its morbid gas. With the evil of such a practice the members of the National Institute became deeply impressed when attending the funeral of M. Dewailly, one of their. brethren-on the official notice or éloge of whom we have observed in our last Appendix-who was interred in a burial-ground of this description, a little beyond the precincts of Clichy. The commission who now make their report were charged with an examination into the subject, in consequence of the inadequacy of the spot, and the culpable negligence of those to whom it was intrusted. The report is made in the memoir before us; and several remedies are proposed, which cannot fail of being advantageous. These were all approved by the Institute, and ordered to be sent to the executive directory, constituting at that time the chief magistracy of the republic.

With this memoir the second volume of the class of Moral and Political Sciences terminates; and we now therefore return to present our readers with a continuation of the second volume of the department of Literature and Polite Arts.

IV. Memoir on the Pelasgi. By M. Dupuis.'

The Pelasgians were one of the boldest and most considerable tribes who at a very early period made an irruption into Greece, and wrested a great part of it from the hands of the aborigines, who retired before them. They were a very migratory race, of highly doubtful, origin; fond of bestowing their name on every district or country of which they took possession. Hence Thessaly, Arcadia, and the island of Rhodes, were each of them denominated Pelasgia; and Samos and Antandros were both entitled Pelasgian. We trace them from the southern parts of Greece, as far north as that part of Scythia which is bounded by the Euxine, and at present inhabited by a Tartar race.

have already had occasion to express ourselves so fully upon this wandering and ingenious people, in our review of Mr. Allwood's Literary Antiquities of Greece, that we here take our leave of M. Dupuis for the present; more especially as we shall have occasion to return to him when we come to notice his hypothesis of their source and origin in a subsequent memoir inserted in the ensuing volume.

V. Memoir on the Maris. By M. Le Roy.'

Our author rejects the term lake, which generally precedes that of Moris, in the present title; because, in his opinion, it tends to convey a false idea concerning it. The Mæris is, properly speaking, a vast canal cut from the lake Kern, which

* See pp. 11, and 131, of this volume.

comprises a part of what is now commonly understood by the Moris, and runs into the Nile in the direction of north to south: yet, as the whole of this prodigious sheet of water has for ages been possessed of one integral name, and the canal itself, if we credit the statement of Herodotus and Diodorus, originally possessed not less than 3,600 stadia in circumference, we do not see so great an inaccuracy in applying the term lake to the entire length of the Moeris as is apprehended by M. le Roy; more especially as the term canal is more appropriately, and by way of distinction, applied to the channel which forms its south-easterly termination, and by which it empties itself into the Nile; or conversely, in other seasons, derives a due degree of supply from it. The magnitude and direction of the Moeris has been very differently stated by different Greek historians; and even modern writers and travelers-so considerably have its appearance and character been changed for many ageshave been as little capable of agreeing upon the subject. It is sufficient for us to observe, that our present chartist follows, upon the whole, the steps of Strabo and Ptolemy, among the ancients; and of d'Anville, in opposition to Gibert and Savary, among later writers; and illustrates his scheme by a well-engraven plate. We may shortly, however, expect, from the joint labours of several of our own officers, now just returned from this interesting country, a more accurate account, both of the Moeris and the Bubastis, than any we have hitherto been in possession of.

VI. On Murrine Vases, by M. Mongez.'

Much doubt has subsisted in the minds of the best mineralogists, as to the substance denominated murrinum, whence were produced the beautiful goblets so highly esteemed during the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries of the Roman æra. It is stated by Pliny that these vases were procured from the east, from countries little known, especially from Parthia and Carmania. It was supposed to be a crystallised fluid, shining rather than glittering-splendor sine viribus, nitorque verius quam splendor: its chief value consisted in the variety of its colours, consisting of a number of spots perpetually changing from purple into white, or a flaming hue composed of both these, which suddenly shifted again into purple or red combined with milky white. Some gave the preference to the intensity of colours they exhibited, and the steady reflexion of their hues, as in a rainbow others were best pleased with the breadth of the coloured spot. To be translucent was esteemed a defect; while it added considerably to their estimation to be possessed of perfume. M. Mongez examines at large several of the siliceous earths which seem nearest to approximate to this and other accounts of the Roman naturalist, particularly the opal, girasol, and chalcedony; and he at last fixes on that species of the latter

which mineralogists have denominated cacholong. Guibert has long ago referred it to the onyx-chalcedony; but the former appears, in the main, best to correspond with the characteristic marks of the murrinum. Yet, after all, the odor of the murrhinum is in no respect to be traced either in the cacholong, or indeed in any of the siliceous earths with which we are acquainted in the present day; and we are still therefore involved in as much doubt as ever. It is cutting the knot, to assert with M. Mongez, that this was an adventitious quality communicated to it occasionally by perfumes with which it happened accidentally to be packed up, or from some other independent and extrinsic cause. We can scarcely imagine that the Romans could have been thus universally imposed upon; and especially in a point which appears to have been of so much consequence in their judgement as to have constituted the very name of the utensil itself. Either, therefore, the murrinum was manufac tured from an earth we are now unacquainted with, or the oriental artist must have been possessed of a mode of super-adding to it a permanent perfume, of which we can form no rational conjecture.

WI. Part of the Sixteenth Book of the Iliad translated into French Verse, by M. Villar.'

The version here presented consists of about two hundred lines, comprising the address of Patroclus to Achilles upon the subject of his absenting himself from the Grecian armament, the advance of Hector with his triumphant Trojans to the Grecian fleet, their firing it in the sight of Achilles, and his instant con◄ sent that Patroclus should lead forward his inactive troops to repel the assault. The translation is smooth and accurate, more compressed than the generality of versions in the French language, but not possessed of any peculiar merit, nor pre-eminently entitled to the notice here taken of it by the National Institute.

VIII. Report concerning several Vases found in a Tomb near Geneva, an Engraving of which was sent to the Institute by the Genevese Society for the Encouragement of Sciences and Arts. By MM. Vien and Le Blond.'

Instead of any particular account, or any probable conjectures concerning the vessels here referred to, this paper is entirely occupied with vague details concerning ancient sepultures, the doctrine of a separate state of existence, and the preparations frequently made by the relatives of the deceased for the support of the soul when severed from the body, by placing in the tomb, along with the urn containing the bones and ashes, where burning was employed, other vessels loaded with foods and wines." The vases here referred to are unquestionably however of this description. The village in which the tomb was discovered is Annimasso; but our reporters drop the immediate subject consigned to their attention as soon as they enter upon it. Their

competency for the undertaking may in some measure be decided from the following learned and correct remark.

It remains yet to be determined, whether, if the body were placed in this position, it would be a posture chosen to enable it to look towards the east on its resurrection; for such is the position affected in their funerals by those ancient nations who worshipped the sun; such was also that adopted by the Christians, who were only a sect of the religion of Mithra, in which the sun was the object of divine adoration."

But the times are changed: and our profound antiquaries have, no doubt, before this time joined in the splendid train of the great consul, and been themselves admitted into this sect of the Mithraïc mythology.

• IX. On the Work entitled Περί θαυμασίων Ακεσμάτων, (De mirabilibus Auscultationibus), printed among the writings of Aristotle. By M. Camus.'

The critics and commentators upon Aristotle have differed in opinion concerning the author of this collection of extraordinary facts, as well as upon the title itself, which it ought to sustain. Casaubon denominates it Ακεσματα θαυμασια. P. Victorius, as cited by Fabricius, asserts that in one codex he had seen it named Ilagadowy. The more common mode of entitling it, however, is that adopted by our author; which is variously rendered by the different Latin interpreters-De mirabilibus Auscultationibus, De miraculis Auditis, and De admirandis Narrationibus, As to the various opinions concerning the writer of this work, M. Camus arranges the authors of them in four classes: 1. Those who affirm that it was written by Aristotle, and that he composed it with the same views as his History of Animals. 2. Those who deny that Aristotle ever composed it, or at least the philosopher of that name who was the tutor of Alexander the Great, 3 and 4. Those who regard it as a production of the Stagirite, but not an express treatise written upon the subject to which it pretends: the former of these asserting, that it contains a mere isolated collection of facts and anecdotes, collected partly by Aristotle himself, and partly by his assistants; and the latter, that it is a mere compilation from other works of that philoso pher, by some unknown and later hand. The opinion of M. Camus is in complete consonance with the third of these classes of critics, with the exception alone that this collection of extraordinary recitals has been considerably augmented by writers posterior to the age of the original author. To this opinion are appended several remarks upon the work itself— generally explanatory, and often ingenious.

X. On Types constructed for Moneys, compared with those for Medals, By M. Mongez.',

The composition and the choice of types for moneys does

not entirely depend upon taste and inclination; it is subordinate to a knowledge of the art of minting. Medals are frequently struck with not less than twelve or fifteen successive blows of the balance, and during this time, are often exposed to the fire till they acquire a red heat, that they may assume the impression more readily and correctly. Economy, however, and the necessity of a large coinage, render a different proceeding indispensable in the minting of moneys. To attain both these objects, it is requisite to employ great expedition, and to make use of not more than a single stroke of the balance or graver. The types employed must therefore be of very different materials; and we cannot be surprised at finding many of the ancient medals, in the construction of which a vast portion of time and labour was expended, finished in a much more perfect style than the common coins of the present day. If the medal appeared imperfect, it might be struck over a second, or even a third time, with a trifling loss of value; for it was generally composed of bronze: but it is obvious that, in the case of minting, and in the higher coins particularly, this can never be attempted-the artist being limited to the most scrupulous weight, and encountering moreover a loss of metal by a repetition of the impression, which would soon terminate in his ruin. XI. Ode of a philanthropic Republican against Monarchy. By M. le Brun.'

We cannot trace the philanthropy of M. le Brun in these verses; but he is at least resolved that this hatred of monarchy shall not be so questionable. Exempli gratiá:

'O nation! ne cède plus tes droits:

Tout monarque est tyran, tout despote est parjure.
Rien ne détruit l'indomptable nature;

Et l'on ne peut changer les tigres ni les rois.'

O, with your rights, no more ye people part:
All kings are rods, all despots false at heart.
One firm, unconquered plan is nature's will;
Kings must be kings, and tigers tigers still.

XII. Ode of a philanthropic Republican against Anarchy. By M. le Brun,'

Our poet seems to dislike anarchists rather more than kings, violent as his aversion is to the latter; and, if we may judge from the increased degree of spirit, manifested in the present ode, he has been a greater sufferer since the revolution than before it.

• XIII. Observations on the two first Books of the Politics of Aristotle. By M. Bitaubé.'

These observations are divided into three distinct memoirs. The first offers us an analysis of the principles of Aristotle upon

« ElőzőTovább »