•They gazed fome time, puzzled and affonifhed. The vanquifhed lay dead before them, but they no where faw the conquerors; the victory was manife, but the fpoils were not taken away; the fhip ly quie ly at anchor, though with no one on board, yet unpillaged, as much as if it had been defended by a numerous crew, atd been in perfect peace. They foon, however, gave up conjecturing, and began to think of plunder; and thanking fortune, who feemed to have delivered to fair a prey into their hands, advanced to feize it, but as they came near the fhip, and the field of flaughter,, a fpectacle prefented itself which perplexed them more than any which they had yet feen. A virgin of uncommon and almott heavenly beauty fat upon a rock; the feemed deeply afflicted at the scene before her, but amidst that affliction preferved an air of dignity. Her head was crowned with laurel; the had a quiver at her fhoulder; under her left arm was a bow, the other hung negligently down; fhe, refted her left elbow on her right knee, and leaning her cheek on her open hand, looked earnetily down on a youth who lay upon the ground at fome diftance. He, wound. ed all over, feemed to be recovering a little from a deep and almost deadly trance; yet, even in this fituation, he appeared of manly beauty, and the whitenefs of his cheeks became more confpicuous from the blood which flowed from them. Pain had depreffed his eye-lids, yet with difficulty he raised them towards the virgin; and collecting his fpirits, in a languid voice thus addreffed her: "O my best beloved, are you indeed alive? or has the rage of war taken you too as an additional victim? But you cannot bear even in death to be entirely separated from me, for your spirit fill hovers round me and my fortunes." My fate," replied the virgin, "depends on thee: do you fee this (thewing him a dagger which lay on her knee)? it has yet been idle because you ftill breathed:" aud faying this, the leapt fromerock."

We have selected this fpecimen because it is on the whole tranflated with equal force, accuracy, and fpirit. The tranflator does not in his note tell us all the difficulty which he felt. Previous to the paffage which he has omitted, is one till more. inexplicable, which he has paffed over flightly, noe ovis tus Kopns & EaUTHY JENE. The oldest translation, by the perfon of quality, has alone elucidated the paffage. Pain had deprefs ed his eyes, but the countenance of the virgin again attracted them towards her. This, adds the Bishop, afraid of being thought too circumftantial, they muft neceffarily fee, as they had a full view of her. It is evident from the defcription, that, in defcending from the mountain to the fhip, they must pass the scene of this carnage; and, in paffing, they croffed. Chariclea looking on Theagenes. It is however more clear, if we **See Virgil: Indum fanguineo veluti violaverat oftro fi quis ebur.'

Gg 2

read,

read, as Commelin feems to prefer, from the Palatine MS. O, TI excsvn ewed, for they could not help feeing clearly whatever she looked on. Bourdelot thinks this change at least unimportant, and not more perfpicuous than the paflage in its former fate. But, as Heliodorus was defcribing the changes in the countenance of Theagenes, and endeavouring to apologize for being fo particular, it feems more likely, that he intended to describe the croffing of the pirates in their way to the fhip, not as direct, but as diagonally, towards Theagenes; and this is more probable, as, before their descent from the mountain, Chariclea was hid from them. The Vatican MS. fupports this reading very strongly, fince in the margin are added the following words " αυτός της οφθαλμες αναδιάζει, which gives exactly the fame interpretation as we have done. The anonymous tranflator of 1752 has entirely mistaken the paffage, though he has fubftituted a reading with fome ingenuity. His eyes, weakened with pain and anguish, were fill directed towards his beloved virgin; and, with no fmall unenfinefs, he forced them to behold that melancholy object, only because it was she *?

The defcription of the refidence of the Egyptian pirates is characteristic, and fuppofed to be hiftorically juft.

They travelled about a quarter of a mile along the shore; then, leaving the fea on their right hand, they turned towards the mountains, and with fome difficulty afcending them, they arrived at a kind of morafs, that extended quite to the other fide of them. The nature of the place was as follows: The whole tract is called The Pafture by the Egyptians; in the midft, of it there is a valley, which receives fome overflowings of the Nile, and forms a lake the depth of which in the centre is unfathomable. On the fides it runs out into a kind of boggy, reedy ground; for, as the fhoe is to the fea, fuch is ufually this fort of border to lakes.

Here the Egyptian pirates fixed their feat: one built a sort of hut upon a bit of ground that appeared above the water: another pent his life on board a vellel, which ferved him at once for tranfport and habitation. Here their wives wait upon thein and produce their child en, who at first are nourished with their mother's milk, and afterwards with files dried in the fun : when they begin to go, they tie a string to their ancles, and fuffer them to run the length of the boat. Thus this inhabitant of the Patture is born upon the lake, nourished in this manner, and confiders this morats as his country; it affords him fhelter and protection. Men of this defcription therefore are continually flocking thither; the water ferves them as a citadel, and the quantity of reeds as a fortification. They had cut oblique paths among thefe, with many windings, known to themfe ves alone, fo as they imagined themselves fecure from any fudden

• Nor fee he would, but only her to fee.' Poet. Tranf. 1637.

invafion:

invafion: fuch was the fituation of the lake and its inhabitants.'

In the first part of this defcription there feems to be a lit tle inaccuracy. I: feems as if the lake extended from the top of the mountain to the other fide. Our author probably, meant to fay, with Heliodorus, that paffing with difficulty over the fummit of the mountain, they arrive at a lake extended over the valley bordering on the left hand fide of the mountain.' The reft of the tranflation is fufficiently accurate; perhaps it would have been proper to have added, that the fish are procured from the lake, as in the original; and, after the length of the boat, we perceive in the Greek a paffage to the following effect: using the fetter, as a new kind of guide,'

The following paffage is fingular: we may trace in this. fuperftition our own legends refpecting the appearance of gholts.

The gods, O Cnemon, when they appear to, or difappear from us, generally do it under a human fhape-feldom under that of any other animal; perhaps, in order that their appearance may have more the femblance of reality. They may not be manifeft to the prophane, but cannot be concealed from the fage. You may know them by their eyes; they look on you with a continued view, never winking with their eye-lids-fill more by their motion, which is fliding without ftep, fwimming gently forward, and fimoothly cleaving the air: for which reafon the images of the Egyptian gods have their feet joined together, and in a manner united. Wherefore Homer, being an Egyptian, and inftructed in their facred doctrines, covertly infinuated this matter in his verses, leaving it to be understood by the intelligent. He mentions Pallas in this manner:

δεινὰ δέ οι οσσε φάανθεν.

and Neptune in the lines quoted before-xa-as if swimming in his gait; for fo is the verfe to be construed—pîi amiótos, eafily fliding away; not, as fome erroneously think, pa svar, I easily knew him,'

The reafons for fuppofing Homer an Egyptian, and the idle tale of the mark of illegitimacy on his thigh, we shall omit.. Winkelman, however, informs us that the feet united, in the Egyptian ftatues, was not the characteristics of the reprefentations of deities alone. The paffage is rendered very accurate ly, and in one or two places very happily.

The following fuperftition, refpecting the Nile, confirms what Mr. Bruce has obferved to remain in its full force at the fountains, even at a very late period.

It happened that this was the feafon for celebrating the over flowing of the Nile; a very folemn feftival among the Egyptians It falls out about the time of the fummer folftice, when the

Gg3

river

river first begins to fwell, and is obferved with great devotion throughout the country; for the Egyptians make a god of the Nile, and one of the principal of their deities: they make him equal to Ou anus, or heaven: because they fay, that without clouds or rain he annually waters and fertilizes their fields. Thele are the fentiments of the common people. They, who are more refined fay, that this union of moist and dry, of the river with the earth, is the principal cause and support of animal life. Yet further, they who have been initiated in the mysteries, call this earth Ifis; this river, Ofiris. They are, beyond meafure, rejoiced when the god makes his appearance upon the plains, and proportionally depreffed and afflicted when he keeps within his banks; which they attribute to the malign influence of the evil fpirit Typhon.

These men, skilled in divine and human knowledge, do not disclose to the vulgar the hidden fignifications contained under thefe natural appearances, and veil them in fables; but are ready to reveal them in a proper place, and with due ceremonies, to those who are defirous and worthy of being initiated: fo far I may be permitted to fay with refpect, preferving a reverential filence, as to what further relates to thefe myftic rites*.

This paffage is not closely tranflated, and in one place not, we fafpect, correctly-We mean, which they attribute to the malign influence of the evil spirit Typhon.' We think the whole fentence should be rendered in this way. The goddess (the earth) burns with the most eager defire for the arrival of the deity, mourns when he does not appear, and dreads a ftorm as fomething fatal.' Tugar is an hurricane, a whirlwind, or water-fpout. The other little variations, and the abridgements, are not of importance. The tranflation printed for Owen is duly epic in one respect, femper ad eventum festinat; and the latter parts are miferably curtailed and mutilated.

We have not given an analysis of a ftory fo well known; and indeed an intelligible analysis of adventures fo artificially arranged is a difficult tafk, for all the arguments of the older editors are perplexed and obfcure. Fo the Leyden edition of 1611 are added apothegms collected from the work: we must leave the bishop to contend with the sturdier moralifts respecting the propriety of the following maxim: A lie is commendable, Kaxo, when it profits those who tell it, without injuring those who hear it.

* It is a little odd to fee a Christian bishop treat these Pagan ceremonies with fo much refpect. Perhaps before his converfion (if indeed he were converted, and not born of Chriftian parents, which does not appear) he was himself permitted to partake of them. The initiated fi fomething like our free-mafons, who affect to disclose a little of their fecret, and pretend to know more than they tell.'

FOREIGN

FOREIGN ARTICLE.

Demofthenis Oratio adverfus Leptinem cum Scholiis Veteribus & Commentario perpetuo. Accedit Elii Ariftidis Declamatio ejuf dem Caufa, in Germania nunc primum Edita. Cura Friderici Aug. Wolfii. 8vo. Halis, Saxonum.

IT

T is with great pleasure that we furvey the improvement of our German neighbours in the elegance of their typography, and the goodness of their paper. In both refpects they have been long and proverbially deficient; but the work before is executed with great neatnefs, and, if we except a few peculiarities, with great elegance. This work is of importance in another view: our editor, we find, purposes to publish a set of cheap, neat, and correct editions of the Greek claffics; and the Oration of Demofthenes on Immunities, now before us, is defigned as a fpecimen of his accuracy, the elegance of the form, and the attention bestowed. In each of thofe refpects this oration is almost unexceptionable. In this edition we have not only the old fcholia, but a perpetual commentary, a plan which he does not purpose to follow in the other authors, as it would increase the bulk and the price: he means to confine himself to a carefully corrected text, and a few neceffary notes. Diodorus Siculus is already in the prefs, and we mean to notice it as foon as it appears it will be published in England by Mr. Elmfley.

From various caufes Demofthenes has been too much neglected by claffical students, though we have the teftimony of all antiquity that he was held in the higheft eftimation. The force of his eloquence, the vehemence of his oratory, the laterum contentio, as it has been emphatically called, have been celebrated with the warmest encomiums, and the fragment of an old claffical author, preferved and tranflated by Mr. Cumber land in his Obferver, has drawn his picture in the most lively colours, at the moment of the most active exertions of his eloquence. The beauty of his language, the nice arrangement of his words, and the melody of his periods, we could eafily believe, from the fole confideration that he guided a popular affembly, whose taste was refined by the purest models, and the delicacy of whofe organs was very easily affected; if we had not the most pofitive teftimony that he excelled in each refpect in the opinion of thofe who could beft judge. The neglect therefore of later ages must be attributed to the difficulty of following his reafoning on the abftrufe politics of that period, and the little interest which the lefs important fubjects will excite. The Philippics, as more particularly connected with the history of his country, are the most popular of Demofthenes' orations, though this to Leptines has been highly efleemed by the best judges, and is called by Dionyfius χαριέστατος ἁπάντων τῶν λογῶν καὶ γραφικύταρος. It is faid to have been ipoken when Demofthenes was only twenty-five years of age, in the fecond year of the 106th Olympiad. It was tranflated into Latin by Nannius: M. Wolff has very properly given no tranflation. As one of Gg 4