timent of Jonson implies ridicule, which was wholly foreign from the breast of the Roman poet, I wander not to seek for more In the 28th line of the first note in p. 183, after quoting from Mr. Good's remark, we shall be pleased to have it in our power to add a little to his stock of multifarious infor mation : Statius has, therefore, compared to the sage himself this secure and elevated cliff, on which, Lucretius and Cowper represent him as seated: Stat sublimis apex, ventosque imbresque serenus Theb. ii. 35. Firm stands its brow sublime, and winds and showers It is highly probable that from this passage of Statius, Golde smith derived his beautiful and parallel simile; which, in reality, is little more than a free translation: As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, Deserted Village. Goldsmith undoubtedly borrowed the simile in question from a passage in Claudian: let the reader compare the Latin and English. We present it to him without the aid of italics: ut altus Olympi Vertex, qui spatio ventos hiemesque relinquit, Sub pedibus nimbos, et rauca tonitrua calcat.' De Cons. Mall. Theod. Cons. 206. To Mr. Good's substantive Unsuccess,' we must unite an adjective of equal beauty, 1. 19, unanxious' quiet for the mind.” and why We are aware that we are liable to the retort, should not Mr. Good coin words if he pleases?' Forsooth, we cannot answer it. We have not room to quote many of Mr. Good's notes, which obviously put us in mind of Bish's Lucky Lottery Office, or Packwood's Razor Strops, i. e. they begin with something out of the way which excites our curiosity, and when we have followed the track through some lines we discover the evident puff with indignant vexation. We have an example at hand. Upon two verses in p. 185, there are five quarto columns of notes; the five columns, we allow, staggered us: but a reviewers' duty is superior to his disgust. We began then with Young-but alas! we ended with Roscoe! yes, with Roscoe! Oh what a falling off was there! The quotations are as follows: To save the reader further trouble on this head, we inform him once for all, that the general character of the notes partakes of a similar intermixture of chaotic learning. Even the Swedish dog- Latin of Linnæus is introduced as an imitation of the picture of a country life by Lucretius. The imitation begins thus prettily, 'O Lappo, qui in ultimo angulo mundi sic bene lates contentus et innocens. Linnæus speaks of Lapland, and Lapland gives the opportunity of mentioning those who have written on it in English and French. A principal fault which we find with Mr. Good, is the affected closeness of his translation, which occasionally, under the false idea of terse compression, leads him into arrant nonsense. We defy dipus to have made out the following enigma, or the baffled writer of this article must exclaim, Davus sum, non dipus.' P. 227... for far beyond the ken Lies the prime base impalpable of things, Its motion too elude. E'en oft the sight No motion marks where still the moving scene - However nonsensical the passage is as it stands, yet the illustration is certainly done in the spirit of the original : Præterea, magnæ legiones quom loca cursu Fulgur. ubi ad cœlum se tollit, totaque circum Et circum volitant equites, mediosque repente Thus, too, when warlike squadrons crowd the field, As Lucretius has loosely copied his thought from Homer, so has Virgil very closely followed Lucretius. Among the moderns, Camoens has not been an unsuccessful imitator. Mas ja cos escadrões da gente armada, Between the 350th and 370th lines we meet the well-known verses of Lucretius on the cow bereft of her calf. The sweet simplicity, the unaffected beauty of them drew tears into our eyes when we were children; and in a passage of such difficulty, we congratulate Mr. Good on his execution, although we by no means approve si queat usquam Conspicere amissum fetum. If, perchance, she still And still less can we suffer our fair countrywomen to be imposed upon by the following translation. 'Neu simili penetrare putes primordia formà Nor deem those atoms like, from putrid scenes The learned reader will immediately see the absurdity of the translation; and ladies in the mean time, as not understanding those atoms which spring malignant from putrid scenes,' or blazes fed from orient groves,' will take our word for it. The note is still farther from the purpose. We are told that it was the custom to strew Cilician saffron, in conjunction with several other odoriferous flowers, over the stages of their public theatres.' The passage alludes to the sprinkling saffron and rose water through tubes secretly convered through the theatre, which added to the delight and freshness of an Italian audience. But we find Mr, G, frequently erroneous in the customs and history of the ancients; we might add, the metre; where quoting from Avitus, whose description,' sayeth Mr, Good, is possessed of equal beauty' with that of Virgil, he prints • Præfert terribilis metuendum forma decorem," We now proceed to quote from v. 624 of the original, with Mr. Good's translation, which is tolerably faithful; although the largificâ stipe ditantes,' is flatly rendered 'loading the path with presents.' * JU Ergo, quom primum, magnas invecta per urbeis, Ære atque argento sternunt iter omne viarum, Thus moves the pompous idol through the streets, Who drown'd the infant cries of Jove in Crete, The following three lines would have been improved by the very flatness of which we lately complained: Thus into life th' insensate dunghill rears There is no such bombast in Lucretius's description of a dunghill. Quippe videre licet, vivos existere vermeis Upon the subject of this dunghill there are eleven quarto pages of notes: and a moderately quick reader would dabble in the muck at least half an hour. After we have sufficiently dirtied ourselves, and endeavoured to pluck a mushroom or two for our pains, we are dismissed with the following sceptical notions on dung: This theory of spontaneous vitality has been, however, expressly` controverted by Redi, the father of experimental entomology, as well as by Trembley and Bonnet. But the general force of the argumen advanced by the Roman bard does not depend upon its truth or falsehood. The fact remains the same, though, the mode of account ing for it be different. It is equally true that |