It need now scarcely be added, that we regard the present work as a most valuable addition to the stores of classical literature, and a complete repository of ancient and modern criticism on the works of Homer. They who have not leisure or opportunity to peruse the voluminous compilations of the ancients, will thank the editor for the compendious and accessible form to which he has reduced them; and they who have, will often choose to consult them in a judicious selection, rather than labour through all the mass of foreign and uninteresting matter which so often loads and disguises their really valuable information. In forming an estimate of the literary merits of M. Heyne, we feel wholly disposed to accede to the eulogium passed on him by his countryman, the learned and elegant editor of Eschylus, as "litterator et philosophus, qui in veterum poetarum interpretatione, Gratias et Musas amabili vinculo consociatas adhibuit, artium politioris elegantiæ universum orbem subtili, si quis alius, scientia comprehendit, auctoritate, doctrina, literis illustravit, morumque humanitatis venerabili exemplo nobilitavit." If not absolutely the first in some of those

particular departments of ancient criticism, which have been occupied with such eminent distinction, by the great scholars of the last century, and their successors of the present day, in every respect worthy to fill their place, he is at least the pentathlus of Longinus, v Taxpos van, and in his own province of taste and elegant judgment, he is perhaps unrivalled.

Though the title of the work, as well as intimations, which occur in the course of it, authorize us to look for the pub. lication of the Odyssey, we are not in formed how soon its appearance may be expected. With regard to the external decorations of the present edition of the iliad, the superior copies are ornamented with vignettes, taken from antique spe cimens. In each of the three editions, there are also copies of the writing of six manuscripts, which have been used in the execution of the work, and among the rest, a fac-simile of that of Mr. Townley. The type is good, but the inferior edition, like other German pro ductions, is printed on bad paper. A good index, of which the work is totally destitute, would have been a most valu able addition.

AS there is but little in this work which can in any sense be called original, we shall not detain our readers with a long account of it.

"It was suggested some years ago,"says the author, "to the compiler of the following pages, that a work, containing an account of the manners and customs of the Greeks, upon a plan somewhat similar to that of Dr. Adam, in his very useful book on the Roman Antiquities, would be a profitable companion to the student of literature."

To the encomium on the utility of Dr. Adam's work, we very cordially

assent.

"On this subject," continues Mr. Harwood, "the work of Archbishop Potter has been much consulted; but it is found to be so encumbered with historical and mythological digressions, and with long quotations from the classics, that the labour of enquiry is not always without difficulty repaid."

"It would be useless," says the author, "to enumerate the variety of learned autho rities to which he has referred; he will only acknowledge that in the long catalogue of authors which he has consulted, he has freely borrowed from every quarter, whatever could be selected for the utility and illustration of the subject."

We, on the contrary, have been able to discover in the work of Mr. H. very little more than an abridgement of that of Archbishop Potter, with the exception of a few of the concluding pages, prin

and measures.

WE are told by metaphysicians, that the human mind is capable, by long familjarity, of forming a disinterested at tachment to any pursuits in which it is engaged, and any objects with which it is connected, which are not absolutely and strongly disgusting, however devoid of attraction they may appear to the rest of mankind. It has been said of the miser, that he ultimately acquires a disinterested love of money. There is no character to which this remark is more applicable, than that of the collector of books, who, if he enter into the full spirit of his pursuit, may furnish, by his eager ness and enthusiasm, a subject not unworthy the pen of Theophrastus or La Bruyere. Independently of the instruction or pleasure which he has experienced, or for which he hopes, from their perusal, the mere sight of books is sufficient to excite in his mind the liveliest perceptions, and a rare specimen or a splendid and extensive collection to exalt him into raptures, in which the uninitiated spectator is so far from participating, that he finds it difficult even to conceive of their origin.

If compared with other tribes of virtuosi, without treating even the lowest of that order with contempt, it may be allowed, that the lover of books has chosen a province which is next in dignity to that of the truly scientific collector of the interesting objects of nature. A classical and elegant taste is often connected with his pursuit, and the objects of his curiosity are at once the monuments of human genius and wisdom, and of the noblest of human arts. The formation also of extensive collections of the valuable works of literature, public or private, especially if left liberally accessible to the occasional use of men of learning, is worthy of the highest praise.

Bibliographical works similar in design to the present, if well executed, are capable of affording considerable instruction and entertainment. Though

a scholar, if he wish to make his exertions useful, must particularly connect himself with some single department of the great region of literature, yet he will not feel himself sufficiently the master even of his own ground, without possessing some general knowledge of the surrounding provinces. In classical erudition the arrangement and classification of editions is often an object of critical importance. The editor of the present publication seems to possess very strong persuasion of the difficulty of his undertaking. A perfect work of this kind, he says, never yet saw the sun, and perhaps in bibliography especially, perfection is unattainable. We are disposed, on the contrary, to think, that, with leisure, a moderate share of learning, and the opportunities which are open to every schofar in a learned country, it would not be very difficult to give to such a work almost all the value of which it is capable, which indeed principally consists in judgment of selection and accuracy of report.

We cannot however say, that the present work is executed with all the accuracy which is necessary. Some of the errata are noticed, with an apology, in the advertisement; others which are less excusable occur. We mention only the following. Page 42, the remains of the Greek poet Alcæus are said to have been published in the Corpus Poetarum of Mattaire, which is only a collection of Latin writers, and of which work a wrong date is also given. P. 76, the catalogue of Aldine classics, in octavo and duodecimo, is imperfect. P. 105, the account of the editions of Aristophanes is singularly confused and inaccurate: in several instances, accounts of the same editions are repeated. P. 112, the edition of Aristotle by Sylburgius, published in 1587, is dated 1787, and chronologically arranged according to this date. P. 152, of more than sixty editions of the writers de re rustica, enumerated by the Deuxpont Society, only three, and those not

the most valuable, are mentioned. The last of these is not noticed by Fabricius, or the Deux-pont editors.

In this work, only the first volume of which has yet appeared, it is intended to include the whole of the fourth edition of Dr. Harwood's View of the Classics,

Dr. Harwood's judgments are, however, frequently not to be depended on. The present publication, notwithstanding its imperfections, may be useful, from the want of any similar work executed with greater accuracy.

THIS publication is rather a specimen of a larger work which the editor has prepared, than a complete treatise in itself. Many valuable authors, and vahuable editions are omitted. The plan however is convenient. The text is formed by a tabulated arrangement of editions, according to the name of their printer, the place of their execution,

their size, date, price, and general cha racter. Notes are subjoined, containing further information, from De Bure, Har wood, &c.

Page 3, Canter's duodecimo Achylus is said to be in quarto. In the note, the Eschylus of Porson, and that of Glas gow, 1795, are erroneously considered as distinct

THE present work appears a second time before the public, under circumstances which are rather unusual, When an author has once arrived at the conelusion of a long and laborious undereaking, and has received the judgment to which he submits himself, he will not frequently be tempted, either by praise

or censure, to renew his course, or at least to expend on his concluded labour, such a degree of additional attention, as shall entitle it, which in the present instance is the case, to the appellation, rather of a new than a revised work.

But to Mr. Cowper the translation of Homer was unfortunately more important as an alleviation of acute mental suffering, than as a literary undertaking. It was happy for himself that an object, which engaged in a pleasing, and therefore salutary exercise, many of those hours, which would otherwise have lingered painfully along, under the weight of intellectual depression, was originally adopted and pursued by him; and happy, that after its attainment, he had the resolution, which few perhaps would have excrted, to resume the occupation from which he experienced his most powerful relief, under the gloom which unhappily clouded his mind.

In his preface, the editor, the rev. Mr.

Johnson, a kinsman of the poet, gives an account of the progress of the work, from which we extract the following particulars..

"I was summoned to the house of my inestimable friend, the translator, in the month pleted a revisal of his Homer, and was thinkof January 1794. He had happily coming of the preface to his new edition, when all his satisfaction in the one, and whatever he had projected for the other, in a moment vanished from his mind. He had fallen into a deplorable illness; and though the foremost wish of my heart was to lessen the intenseness of his misery, I was utterly unable to afford him aid.

any

During two long years from this most anxious period, the translation continued as able to divert his melancholy, I had alit was, and though in the hope of its being tempted more than once to introduce it to its author, I was every time painfully obliged to desist. But in the summer of ninety-six, when he had resided with me in Norfolk twelve miserable inonths, the introduction, long wished for, took place. To my inexpressible astonishment and joy, I surprised hand; and with an excess of delight which him, one morning,. with the Iliad in his I am still, more unable to describe, I the. next day discovered that he had been writing. Were I to mention one of the happiest moments of my life, it might be that which in troduced me to the following lines:

The ample shield, stood aiming at his neck. "He had written these lines with a pencil, on a leaf at the end of his Iliad; and when I reflected on the cause which had given them birth, I could not but admire its disproportion to the effect. What the voice of persuasion had failed in for a year, accident had silently accomplished in a single day. The circumstance 1 allude to was this; I received a copy of the Iliad and Odys sey of Pope, then recently published by the editor above mentioned, with illustrative and critical notes of his own. As it coinmended Mr. Cowper's translation in the preface, and occasionally pointed out its merits in the notes, I was careful to place it in his way; though it was more from a habit of experiment which I had contracted, than from well-grounded hope of success. But what a fortunate circumstance was the arrival of this work! and by what name worthy of its influence shall I call it? In the mouth of an indifferent person it might be chance, but in mine, whom it rendered so peculiarly happy, common gratitude requires that it should be, Providence."

By the former edition of his translation, Mr. Cowper does not appear to have completely satisfied either the expectations of the public, or his own wishes. The learned readers of Homer would, probably, be fastidious in estimating the merits of the copy, in their enthusiastic admiration of the original. They who knew him only through the medium of his popular paraphrase, would often esteem the harmony, richness, and point of Pope, ill exchanged for the simplicity, and sometimes rug gedness of Cowper. Yet, by every can did and capable judge, the work of the

latter was allowed to be, at least, a great, and, to a considerable extent, a successful undertaking, a more faithful exhibition of the author, if not a more finished than that of his illustrious poem, predecessor. Rivalship indeed, Cowper has himself disclaimed "None," says he, "is supposable between performers on different instruments." In fact, the translations of Pope and Cowper are The works of two different classes. former spreads his canvas; he takes his subject from Homer, he adopts his figures, and gives them the same dis position, but he employs his own colour ing, and in the detail often does not scruple to add circumstances which he esteems ornamental, and to omit or disguise others, which he either himself disapproved, or which he thought it necessary to sacrifice to the taste or prejudices of others. Cowper, on the other hand, professes to represent his author such as he is, with as much of his native character as the skill or fortune of his translator should permit him to transfuse. After apologizing for some remarks which he had found it necessary to make on the subject of Mr. Pope's translation, he adds, " On this head the English reader is to be admonished, that the matter found in me, whether he like it or not, is found also in Homer; and that the matter not found in me, how much soever he may admire it, is found only in Mr. Pope. I have omitted nothing; I have invented nothing." Pref. P. xxiii.

We may add, that for the execution of a translation of Homer on these principles, and with these views, no person could, perhaps, have been selected more happily qualified than Mr. Cowper.

It is interesting to reflect on the fortunes of Homer's works. Two magnificent poems, to which that name is annexed, have descended to us in a state apparently but little impaired, or at least not materially injured in their more essential parts. All acknowledge that not a single circumstance is known with certainty respecting the history of their author, beyond his name and country; while others even profess their doubts, whether they were the work of any single author. Yet, so long as we possess the history of these writings, they have been subjects of the warmest and most extensive admiration. Ages have inter vened; the world has been civilized; it

has relapsed into gnorance and rudeness; it has even reverted to a state of greater cultivation than it had known before; yet never in these revolutions, if we except some obscure cavillers, has the name of Homer been mentioned but with admiration: never, amidst the change of manners and ideas, has any thing further than the knowledge of his language, and the possession of the sentiments of humanity, been necessary to understand and enjoy his beauties. They must, therefore, touch some general and immutable principle of our nature.

The general structure of Homer's works, we are not now called on to criticise. We will merely advert to those parts of his poetical character with which a translator is concerned.

Homer appears to have been an attentive and accurate observer of nature. His descriptions are vivid and picturesque. Sometimes the images which he conveys are expressed by single words; sometimes they are drawn out at greater length; but every where they present the reflection of nature: yet they never over-load the subject to which they are attached, but while they animate the picture, are still subservient to the principal object.

He was an equally just observer of the human mind, of its ways of operation, and the modifications of which they are susceptible. Hence the great variety and distinctness of his characters, in which he excels, perhaps, every epic writer by whom he has been succeeded. He has not been less successful in the exhibition of those passions which are suited to his characters. The blood thirsty revenge of Achilles, and the tenderness and fears of Andromache, are expressed in sentiments and language equally appropriate and feeling.

His style possesses a character almost entirely different from that of most other great poets. It is simple and unassuming. That system of poetic diction, which was employed in a subsequent age, and carried to its perfection by Virgil, was unknown to Homer, though the rudiments, perhaps, of all poetical ornament, may be found in his works. His merit, therefore, consists principally in the life and beauty of his descriptions, the just delineation of his characters, and the energy, propriety, and pathos of his sentiments.

. His language and the structure of his

verse, were circumstances highly favour able to him; the former is, perhaps, the most flexible and copious, and at the same time magnificent and expressive of the various idioms of speech; and the latter by its flow, and the variety of its feet and pauses, the most melodious combination of syllables which the poetry of any nation has possessed.

The true nature of poetical translation has been a subject of dispute. Mr. Cowper controverts the common rule, that a translator should direct himself by imagining the style which his author would probably have used, had the language into which he is rendered been his own. A direction, he says, which wants nothing but practicability to recommend it. But however difficult it may be to assign rules on this subject, it will not, perhaps, be disputed, that the object of such a translation is, to excite in the mind of the reader, sentiments, images, and feelings, similar to those which he would experience in the perusal of the original work.

It may reasonably, therefore, be expected from him who undertakes the office of translating a great poct, that he previously estimate the similarity of his own powers to those of the author whose interpreter he becomes. If tried by this test, Mr. Cowper certainly will not be excluded from the number of those who are authorised to assert a claim of affinity with the father of poetry.

Of his ability for the structure of a long and interesting epic narration, he has given the world no proof, and it was, in the present instance, already provided for him by his author.

The poet of the "Task" will continue, while his language shall remain, to occupy a distinguished place among the observers and describers of nature. His pictures are lively, original, and just; and he has, in this department, considerably added to the acquisitions of English poetry. His interesting letters, recently published by Mr. Hayley, contain many proofs of his constant habit of viewing the scenes of nature with a nice and discri minating observation, which enabled him to collect that store of pleasing images, by which his poetry is embellished.

He appears also to have marked with an accurate eye, the varieties of character, and modes of life, which had passed under his observation, to have been no stranger to the human mind, in the nice