following pages, even if they were without any thing forecedenti like precedent, (and solely calculated to gratify the

lavom mlieke curiosity, or taste.) But neither of these is the case. " cade o.- Warshield Wakefield, Monk, and many more of our recent o

other classical editors of sufficiently high authority—I may zid that too

add Porson in one instance, that, as it happens, an
impertinent one-have given their sanction to the
principle, and that, not merely in the case of Greek
and Latin quotations, which would of course be
necessary for purposes of elucidation. They have
adduced passages from some of our English poets,
but so sparingly, as to hint a want rather than to
supply it, and to justify us in asking, why, if this is
done at all, it is not done more completely? why,
if the principle

is a sound one, it is not worth fol- is öt lowing up? This may perhaps have arisen from a

dread of interfering too much with the strictly He mish of caut classical character of their works, or from a just eining o the reader caution against leading their readers to a light and gainot

agreeable perusal, rather than a severe and critical
study of the author before them. The few quota-
tions, however, which have been given, have been
favourably, not to say greedily, received and copied
by one translator and editor after another, to satiety,
till in some cases it is almost impossible to ascertain
in whom they have originated : [occasionally the debt
is acknowledged, and the name of the discoverer

w it

mentioned, as having aptly illustrated the passage

in question. The want or the advantage of these references is further acknowledged by the frequent call which is made for parallel passages in school and college examination papers. Collections of the kind have been thought worthy of publication, even without any principle of connection ; such, for instance, as have appeared in the Classical Journal, aricewofe çares

Walker in the and D’Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. It is evident that gleanings of this sort, however entertaining they may be, can only be accidentally useful: when brought forward expressly for the illustration of one or more authors, there is a certainty of reference, 18 by means of which they may be rendered available for various purposes, instead of being listlessly read, and

pronounced to be curious. Much has of late years been said, truly, though rather in general terms, on the great aptness of the English language, when compared with the Latin, for the expression of Greek ideas—an advantage depending less on mere copiousness, than on an actual similarity in the style of thought. The statement may, I think, be tested in some respects more satisfactorily by a comparison of parallel passages, than by direct translations of entire authors. The power of any

8 what?

single individual, even over the language of his own
country, is far more limited than we are at first in-
clined to suppose. To this, of course, each translator
is confined, and probably also, in a great degree, to
the fashionable diction of his own period : it is true
he chooses his author, yet he would be glad to get your han
rid of many passages of which he gives a version as a
matter of necessity, though he may be conscious that

they would be better managed by other hands. In Arhat other? the other case, we have writers of various periods,

and widely differing in their powers and modes of
expression. Here the resemblances, if accidental,
are likely to be in more sincere accordance with the

genius of the English language, as being uninfluenced Ereerisinde

altogether by the antecedent classical passages; and
if intentional, they are likely to be more spirited and
generally current phrases, which, with a slight alteration, will apply to all the
shades of ordinary ideas. Such phrases seem sometimes more than half to
dictate the thought which they express: from this apparently automatic
style, no wonder that so many take refuge in extreme simplicity, or foreign
extravagances, especially where they are not conscious that freshness of
thought will force them upon new combinations of wordssor supply them s
with new images.]

And as regards poetical writing, compare the diction, for example, of the
twenty closing lines of Milton's L'Allegro with that of the second-rate
writers of any of the eras of English literature. Common-place ornament is
easily procured, either by single figures, or in the piece, from the more chaste,

to the ultra florid; they remind us of architectural decorations cast in moulds, original which our leading writers, when they “ built the lofty rhyme,” had to chisel who are the former? for themselves, of the former we see the same patterns plastered on

5

who?

'

xi

some

t and not without ure to the general business of a uberac education. Theins ren

done in some eactions school of the Greek cays and even in eilmeniary works harinally

grammar, or Greene Composition as in the care of the care Iphop it shnore, and Inlão de bien ; where the cincidence of the file branéen Xenobhon má srake reare que pointed outo Eannet électie bubregóny segreto tatíne ailentioa hau noć

INTRODUCTION. been paid in this subject.

vigorous, having been chosen from especial preference, s [ provided, of course, that they have not been taken at

second-hand.) Hence I have been led to hope, that
the study of such passages, when presented together
with those which they resemble, may be of service
to any who are practising Greek versification : if not, Hove evien athi who
there are other ways in which some of them may

are p
be useful in an educational point of view. In the
notes to those editions of the Greek plays which have too slik shock
been published principally for the use of schools, and
also in the notes of one of our most approved Greek
grammars, there are a few short illustrations of the
more common Greek idioms, taken from some of the
English poets: it is to be regretted that there are no

: as I have found, by personal experience, that
ang construction, thus exemplified, is impressed on the
memory of a young student more readily and more
strongly than it would be by the citation of Greek or
Latin instances tending to the same point: where, author
there is opportunity

, I think it is better for the pas. 18
sages to be pointed out in the original, but this can
only be done conveniently to a small number.

In closing my remarks on the possible utility of

this work, I may add, that future editors of our with

English poets may find in it materials which, perhaps,
would not otherwise have fallen in their way.

The sources from which I have been supplied are

1