ART. XXVII. The Juvenile Tourist; or, Excursions through various Parts of the Island of Great Britain; including the West of England, the Midland Counties, and the Whole of Kent. Illustrated with Maps, and interspersed with Anecdotes and poetical Extracts, for the Improvement of the rising Generation. In a Series of Letters to a Pupil. By JOHN EVANS, A. M. 12mo. pp. 450.

CHAPTER VI.

ANCIENT CLASSICS.

THE late year has not been distinguished in England by the publication of single edition of any ancient author, of critical note. To works of this nature deed the times are unfavourable; silent inter arma Musa. Yet notwithstanding is aspect of affairs, we have reason to hope that the present year will afford us ›me valuable acquisitions of this nature. The arrival of foreign editions has proibly been suspended by the tumults of war, which have greatly impeded the direct tercourse with the continent. Mr. Forster's Anacreon is chiefly valuable as a ecimen of beautiful typography.

In the department of translation, the Dublin press has furnished the Apollonius hodius of Mr. Preston, who is also known as an occasional contributor to the ransactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The merits and demerits of this work e have endeavoured to distinguish in our review of it. An anonymous author is been making experiments in a version of Horace, the reception of which from e public, will not, we believe, be very flattering. Dr. Girdlestone has added 1other name to the translators of Anacreon. We dare not, however, say, that he is eclipsed the labours of his predecessors.

The literary treasures of this country, have been lately increased by the acession of some important manuscripts, collected during a journey in Greece and e adjoining islands by two adventurous travellers, members of the university of ambridge. Their success may perhaps encourage others to explore more carelly, the mouldering repositories of learning, which are still scattered through me parts of those once happy regions. A fragment of a statue of Ceres, which rmerly attracted veneration from the initiated at Eleusis, and was even, in moern superstition, supposed to communicate a fructifying influence to the neighouring fields, has been gratefully dedicated by them in the vestibule of the temple f their Alma Mater, the public library at Cambridge. A short account of the vidence of former travellers respecting the existence of this statue, of the hypoheses which have been formed respecting it, and the means used in procuring its emoval, has been published anonymously.

Mr. Faber has been engaged in a voyage, almost as adventurous as that of the uk, without sails, rudder, or compass, in quest of the helio-arkite mysteries, midst the darkness of ancient mythology. The result of his discoveries he has communicated to the public, which incredulous readers will, however, we fear, be aclined to class with the "true history" of Lucian.

EDITIONS.

ART. I. Anacreontis Odaria, ad Textus Barnesiani fidem tiones, curâ EDVARDI FORSTER, A. M.

ANACREON is an author who has in several instances been selected by eminent printers, as a subject for their exhibition of the beauties of the typographic art; and the small size of the volume, and the sprightly gracefulness and popularity of the pieces of which it consists, render it very well adapted for this purpose. The readings of this edition do not differ, except in a very few instances, from those of Barnes; but it

emendata accedunt varie Lu 8vo. pp. 130.

is an exquisite specimen of typograpical skill. The letters are oblique, like the Italic form of the Latin letters. The only fault which we have to find is, tha: the circumflex accent approaches too nearly to a straight line, so as sometimes to be scarcely distinguishable from it without minute attention. This edition is correctly printed, though it is not, what some pains should have been take to render it, absolutely immaculate.

TRANSLATIONS.

chus his master. This enmity was, how. ever, probably either extinguished during the lives of the two poets, or the death of Callimachus effaced from the mind of his surviving rival, the trace of his resentment, if, according to or of the anonymous biographers, the ashe of the disciple were deposited in the same tomb with those of his master.

Apollonius appears to have been 1 man of great learning. Several of works are mentioned by the ancients, i which only the poem of the Argonauts has descended to the present time. As epigram of two lines is extant, which attributed to this author, and appears to have been written during his contentia with Callimachus. A few verses of the original edition of the Argonautics are scattered among the Greek scholia.

ART. II. The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, translated into English Verst, with Notes critical, his orical, and explanatory, and Dissertations, by WILLIAM PRESTON, Esq. M. R. I. A. In Three Vols. 8vo. APOLLONIUS, author of the Argonautics, was a writer of considerable merit in the Alexandrian school, which flourished in Egypt with great reputa-. tion under the dynasty of the Ptolemies. He is by some authors ranked among the seven poets of pre-eminent rank, who were considered as worthy to compose a constellation of genius under the name of the Pleiades. The particulars of his history, which have reached us, are scanty. The short Greek lives which are sometimes, prefixed to his poem, inform us that he was by birth an Alexandrian; that he studied under the direction of the poet Callimachus, and at an early period of life published the first edition of the Argonautics, which was so unfavourably, received, that unable to support the disgrace, which he considered as consequent upon his failure, he retreated to Rhodes; from his residence in which island he probably assumed or derived his surname. Hav ing here employed himself in a careful revision of his work, he published it a second time; and in this amended form it experienced from the Rhodians a reception so favourable as to procure for its author the honours of the state. He is said to have afterwards returned to his native city; to have lived there in great reputation, and to have succeed. ed Eratosthenes in the charge of the Alexandrian library. We are told, that at one period of his life he was engaged in a bitter contest with Callima

These are nearly all the circumstance respecting the life of the poet, of whit we are in possession; and the supp mentary essays, which are annexed: the present work, are extended by i aid of reflections, the introduction contemporary anecdote, the descrip of the circumstances and manners of t age, and other similar topics, into a par tive of almost thirty closely printed pag

The poem of the Argonautics, the judgments of Quintilian and Li ginus, does not appear to have very popular with the ancients; and superior merit and great facility Homer have caused him to be com ratively neglected by modern critics

readers. Nor do the two translations
of this work into our own language,
which have preceded the present, appear,
from whatever cause, to have attracted
much attention from the public. Quin-
ilian characterizes it as a work not con-
emptible, written in a kind of equal
nediocrity; and Longinus quotes our
uthor as an instance of those writers,
who escape great faults by not aiming
it great excellencies. Yet it may be
airly questioned, whether a careful
Jerusal of his poem will not incline and
authorize a candid reader to form a
more favourable estimate of its merits.
This has at least been the opinion of
most of those modern critics, who have.
mentioned the subject, and may be con-
sidered as most competent to pronounce
a judgment respecting it. Nor are the
frequent, and sometimes close imitations
which occur in Virgil, to be considered
is slight testimonies of praise from an
uthority which all will acknowledge to
e beyond exception.

A learned commentator on Longinus,
nextenuation of the sentence of that
ritic, remarks in the first place in fa-
Four of Apollonius, that he adheres
closely to his subject; that he accurately
follows the order of place and time as
established by tradition; that the epi-
des grew out of the work, and scarce
ly wear the appearance of digression;
and that the events both of a common
and marvellous nature, are related with
probability, if we refer them to the sen-
timents and belief of the age. Thus he
Characterizes the fable of the poem; this
s, however, a praise which scarcely
rises above the faultless mediocrity to
which the ancient critics would reduce
t; and it must be acknowledged that
the fable is in a great degree destitute
of some of the higher excellencies of an
epic story.
It is deficient in unity.
It relates a series of adventures in chro-
nological order, many of which have no
greater connection with each other than
the successive assaults, victories, and de-
feats, of the Greeks in the siege of Troy.
In this he has chosen to imitate the prac-
tce of the cyclic writers, rather than
that of the great parent of epic song.
Half the poem is spent before the heroes
anchor in the Phasis. In the construc-
tion of his fable the poet has certainly dis-
played no art, though it is not, perhaps,
in itself, of a nature sufficiently ample
to admit a better method of exhibition.

The characters display some degree of discrimination, though the poet has by no means reached consummate excellence in this department of his art. Jason and Medea are necessarily the two most prominent figures. Jason is always brave and prudent, and may, perhaps, be placed on a level with Æneas. The reader cannot, however, forgive the base treachery by which the murder of Absyrtus is accomplished. Medea, though the delineation of her character is very far from being destitute of skill, will appear but a feeble archetype of Dido, drawn by the Roman poet with a force and beauty which transcend our praise. The sentiments which the poet attributes, are generally assigned with propriety, and appear to be supplied by a cultivated and well-furnished mind.

The diction of the narrative is often wrought with great elegance, sweetness, and precision, though the style is frequently obscure, in comparison with that of Homer, in consequence of its more artificial structure, and sometimes by long and involved clauses, the em ployment of unusual words, and the al lusions which are perpetually recurring to the mythological and antiquarian learning of his age. Though Apollo, nius does not frequently transport is reader, by any powerful or exalted feelings, yet instances indubitably occur of passages both sublime and pathetic, to a high degree of excellence.

The most characteristic parts of the Alexandrian bard, are, perhaps, the descriptions and the similitudes. The descriptions are usually laboured with great care and accuracy, if not minuteness, and frequently with great success. The comparisons are often possessed of a great degree of originality and beauty, and are, in some instances, transplanted by Virgil. Apollonius abounds more than most poets in circumstances drawn from common life, which are frequently applied with great felicity. A striking example of the difference of the manners of the Greek and Roman poets, may be supplied by the well-known descriptions of night, in the third book of Apollonius, and the fourth of Virgil; the lat ter of which passages is confessedly an imitation of the former. The lines of Virgil are familiar to most readers; we however transcribe them for the sake of comparison, without the trouble of re

ference.

preciate the labours of writers. It may ap pear to many, that a new translation of author, who has been twice translated, might well be spared-yet, in one point of view, I hope my attempt will appear allowable, and free from the imputation of vanity. Wintever may be the demerits of the present translation; I flatter myself they will find ind gence and pardon from the candid reader; for the sake of the concomitants, of whi this version is introductory. He will ta large extracts from the Greek scholia, whi En. iv. 522. deserve to be well known to the classical der-a variety of hints, critical, historica, and explanatory, some few of them extracted from those of Fawkes, and the Oxford edtor, but, for the most part, wholly new, f which some may not be altogether unaccep able, even to those who read Apollonius, which if they shall succeed in making re the original text.-And, lastly, certain essa, reader an admirer of this delightful pra, they will have contributed to an act of je tice.