likewise urged against them are not solid; for the Persian is infinitely easier than the Latin, as is the Arabic, when the student does but once rightly understand the proper distinction of the radicals and the serviles, and the nature of the metonymical and extended significations of The first ode that occurs in the oriental collections is from the Deewan of Khosroo, which I shall translate according to my own MS. as it contains three distichs more than that of the learned editor.

a root.

زین پاپ ادب نیست که در کویتو آیم سازم زدو دیده قدم و سویتو آیم اپ کاش شوم زود تیري حال كه باري با باد شوم همره و پهلوی تو آیم از كويتو كره شوم از بویتو با آنکه آنجا هم ازین رهبری بوی تو آیم

خورشیدی و من دره کنم بپ سروپا رقص آن لحظة كه در جلوه که روی توآیم

کویپ کء برد جان من از من چه روم چون هر كجا روم شب یک هوپ تو آیم

حر سحره بوسیده شجو اهم كء چون کوشه محراب دو آبروی تو

كم

و آیم

برسي غم خسرو زبب شرح زبان کو

چون پش نمکدان سخن كويتو ايم

Alas! I find no kind inducement to address thee; yet from thy two eyes I direct my steps, and advance towards thee. Would, gracious Heaven! that soon it be my lot to proceed with the blessing of the Almighty, until I reach thee. From thy ears am I rejected as well as from all hope, possessed with which I would deem myself secure, and trusting to its guidance, would approach thee. Thou art the sun, and I a seal-ring dancing without head or feet: give but one glance more, that I may arrive at the splendor of thy visage. Thou askedst what it is that steals my soul from me, as I walk :-it is that wherever I move, I meet one continued picture of my love to thee. Distracted as I am, the power of thy fascinating charms clothes my deep woe, whilst I move towards thy two eyebrows, as a hearer to the

Mehrab. Yes, Khosroo, thou hast arrived, supporting thy grief, then utter thy complaint.-Yes, to thy very presence I advance with the tale of my distress.' There is a species of Asiatic Paranomasia in the third beet or distich; and in the shetaeeshgahè, the term which the poet chuses to express the presence of his beloved is literally a saltcellar, salt metonymically being considered the best part of a thing. Above a year and a half since, your learned correspondent Dr. Adam Clarke transmitted to me a curious specimen of Paranomasia from the Shah wa Gedar of Hulalee,

which is as perfectly UNTRANSLATABLE, as the much quoted eulogy of Vieyra, "el mismissimo Vieyra en su misma mesmedad."

To-day, whilst the season is delightful to the soul, the cups foam over, yet the apartments are deserted. Who knows, what event may take place on the morrow? haste then-be the present time employed in love and jovial friendship. For oh! my soul becomes more inflamed by the fire of separation, and the wine tastes the sweeter, when the nightly meeting returns. From its very nature it would attract the world, if you would that from it proceeds even the sugar in the cane. The bumper is sparkling in my hand, expecting me to drink it. Ah more do I regard the jolly set, than I do the highest potentates of the earth.'

Cambridge, April 1812.

say,

D. G. WAIT.

Beyond doubt this contains more beets than are in the oriental collections, but not having the MS. I cannot insert them.

Examination of a Criticism on Falconer's Edition of Strabo.

NO. I.

BEFORE I proceed to examine the justice of the Reviewer's Criti

cisms, and the truth of his assertions, it may be as well to correct what was perhaps only a mistaken opinion, concerning the responsibility of the University for works printed with the approbation and assistance of the Delegates of the Press.

The Clarendon Press has been liberally endowed, and the management of its concerns is entrusted by the University to a board of Eleven Members, called Delegates of the Press, who derive no emolument from their office. They have the entire disposal of its funds: they direct what books shall be printed; and to what extent the Authors or the Editors shall be favored with their aid. A constant and regular supply issues from this press, of Bibles, Common Prayer Books, and reprinted editions of the most useful works. Persons who project improved editions often submit their proposals to the Board, which are always attentively considered, and encouraged in proportion to the opinion entertained of the competency of the person, and the general merits of his plan. If the plan be adopted, the money for carrying it on is supplied, and the whole risk is thrown upon the public fund. It is also common for undertakings of this kind to originate with the Delegates themselves; and in that case, individuals are sought out, who are thought well qualified for conducting them, and who have given, either in public or private, some proof of their fitness.

In none of these proceedings do the Delegates take on them that kind of responsibility which belongs to the Editor of a work, except as far as the printing is concerned. For the general plan, and the general competency of the person employed, they are responsible, but not for the detail of the execution. Mistakes both in matter and in language may be made, for which an Editor may be blamed: but the disgrace attached to these mistakes cannot in any fairness be imputed to the Delegates; especially if the work contain valuable materials procured by their means, and openly communicated to the world.

With these general remarks premised, let us proceed to examine the charge brought against the University by this Reviewer. The . introductory reflections I leave untouched: they are intended only to heighten the effect of what follows: and if I can show that what follows is false, unjust, and ignorant, the efficacy of this rhetorical florish will not be great.

The writer clearly does not pretend to be a Logician; or to understand when two propositions are opposed to each other. For instance, he says, "the most confident hopes are excited, that every new im

pression of a classic volume from the Clarendon Press will exhibit it with every remaining obscurity or ambiguity explained." But this hope, he adds, is constantly disappointed: and why? " because although this learned body have occasionally availed themselves of the sagacity and erudition of Ruhnken, Wyttenbach, Heyné, and other foreign professors, they have, of late, added nothing of their own.” Where insult and abuse are uppermost in a writer's mind, it is no wonder that he forgets his reason. The absurdity of saying that editions issuing from the Oxford Press are inferior to expectation, because they incorporate the labors of foreign critics of the first eminence, instead of British, is too gross to require a comment. The reader is next reminded of an 66 unhappy attempt at an improved edition of Apollonius Rhodius," by which the critic supposes "the Graduates of Oxford were satisfied that degrees neither implied nor conferred science, but that a man might become a Master of Arts without possessing any knowledge or skill whatsoever in that particular art which he professed, and which he was chosen and appointed to practise for the benefit of the community."

If the edition be a bad one, where is the need of exaggeration? At any rate it has no business here. I do not call it a good edition : but it is a useful one; and, notwithstanding the wrong readings which it has, I will undertake to match the latinity of the Editor against that of this Critic, if ever he should favor the world with a similar attempt. The quotation above is somewhat abridged. The following I give entire.

"Certain it is, that no such attempt has been made since, except in the single and minute, but very successful instance of Aristotle's Poetics; which was produced by an auxiliary volunteer, residing in the metropolis, engaged in business, and never secluded from the avocations of society. By not enjoying the leisure, perhaps, he never contracted the indolence or apathy, of a Monk; but preserved the activity, even by the distraction, of his faculties. His name stands in the title-page plain Thomas Tyrwhitt - without any decorative adjunct or title of degree,-though it would have done honor to the proudest which the most exalted seat of learning could bestow."

Lest it should be imagined that there is any truth in what the Reviewer intimates, that Tyrwhitt took no degree at Oxford, and was not even a member of the University, I will add a very brief summary of facts and dates concerning that illustrious critic.

He was born in 1730; came from Eton to Queen's College, Oxford, 1747; took the Degree of B. A. in 1750; was elected Fellow of Merton in 1755; took the Degree of M. A. in 1756; and remained Fellow of that College seven years; i. e. till 1762; when he was made Clerk of the House of Commons, and resigned his Fellowship. He quitted all public employment in 1768; from which time till his death in 1786, he occupied himself chiefly in critical and other literary studies, to which the greater part of his former life had been devoted. His Poetic is a posthumous publication from unfinished notes, and the title-page was of course arranged by another hand.

A preliminary charge of the Critic relates to the edition commonly called the Grenville Homer.

"The editors," he says, "have religiously retained all the errors of Clarke's edition, even those introduced on the authority of mere conjecture, and in instances where the true reading had been twice before published on the authority of the Venetian Manuscript. One of these so appalled us, in the 20th line of the first Iliad, as to deter us from all further critical examination: for, when a gross violation of Idiom in the use of the moods and voices, introduced arbitrarily to supply a defect in the metre, neither excited suspicion, nor suggested inquiry, no one who values his time can think it worth while to go farther."

To this I answer, that the Editors have not religiously retained all the errors of Clarke's edition — that although Clarke's text was the basis, many readings were corrected during its progress through the press, on the authority of MSS. collations in the editions of Ernesti and Villoison, and of a MS. in New College Library. Of these new readings there are twenty-five in the two first books of the Iliad, and near three hundred in the whole Poem. In the Odyssey there are above one hundred and fifty; and the collations of the Harleian MS. by Porson, some of which are incorporated with the text, are given entire at the end of the volume.

Now, with regard to the 20th line of the first Iliad, which so appalled the Reviewer, it may be proper first to state, that the plan of the edition was simply to give the text. No critical remarks or discussions were to be introduced. No reading therefore was to be received which required discussion to support it.

The 20th line in Clarke runs thus,

tà

Παῖδα δέ μοι λύσαιτε φίλην, τὰ δ ̓ ἄποινα δέχεσθε.

2

In the editions of Wolfius and Heyné it is,

Παιδα δ' ἐμοὶ ΛΥΣΑΙ ΤΕ φίλην, τα δ' ἄποινα ΔΕΧΕΣΘΑΙ.

Clarke has a note of some length, giving reasons for rejecting λύσατε, which had been a common reading, and λύσασθε, which Barnes had adopted, and ending with a conjecture that XUGOTE is the true reading; but as Xicaire had the authority of the Vatican and Florentine MSS. he prefers it. uol he himself prefers to de poi, as being more emphatic, but he does not alter the text. He objects to the reading,

Παΐδα δέ μοι ΛΥΣΑΙ τε φίλην, τὰ δ ̓ ἄποινα ΔΕΧΕΣΘΑΙ,

as not agreeing in construction with what follows, 'Aloevo. To this objection Ernesti has since replied, by pointing out similar cases of construction; but he expresses no disapprobation of λucaire, and no preference of the other. The reading is also confirmed by the Venice and other MSS. which have δέχεσθαι, although with λύσαιτε instead of λύσαί τε. Bentley conjectured λύσαντε, which would certainly accord with the sense and construction; but it is not necessary to have recourse to that remedy.

After this view of the case, I will leave it to the reader to determine whether he ever met with a more despicable instance of conceited pedantry, than the exclamation of the Reviewer, that he was appalled

1 Page 431.

2 Wolfius indeed reads, without assigning his authority, rd T' äñoiva dixiobai.