will take care not to tell you fo (for nothing is more painful to an Irishman than to be thought ignorant); he will either direct you by an appeal to his imagination, which is ever ready, or he will fay, "I fhall find it out for your honour immediately;" and away he flies into fome fhop for information, which he is happy to be the bearer of, without any hope of reward.

"Their hofpitality when their circumftances are not too wretched to display it, is remarkably great. The neighbour or the ftranger finds every man's door open, and to walk in without ceremony at meal-time, and to partake of his bowl of potatoes, is always fure to give pleasure to every one of the houfe, and the pig is turned out to make room for the gentleman. If the vifitor can relate a lively tale, or play upon any inftru ment, all the family is in fimiles, and the young will begin a merry dance, whilft the old will smoke after one another out of the fame pipe, and entertain each other with ftories. A gentle. man of an erratic turn was pointed out to me, who with his flute in his hand, a clean pair of ftockings and a shirt in his 'pocket, wandered through the country every fummer; wherever he ftopped the face of a ftranger made him welcome, and the fight of his inftrument doubly fo; the best feat, if they had any, the beft potatoes and new milk, were allotted for his dinner; and clean ftraw, and fometimes a pair of fheets, formed his bed; which, although frequen ly not a bed of rofes, was always ren. dered welcome by fatigue, and the peculiar bias of his mind.

"Curran, in one of his celebrated fpeeches, thus beautifully defcribed the native hofpitality of his country. "The hofpitality of other countries is a matter of neceflity, or convention; in favage nations, of the firft; in polished, of the latter: but the hofpitality of an Irishman is not the running account of pofted and ledgered courtefies, as in other countries: it fprings, like all his other qualities, his faults, his virtues, directly from the heart. The heart of an Irishman is by nature bold, and he confides; it is tender, and he loves; it is generous, and he gives; it is focial, and he is hofpitable." P. 246.

Mr. Carr has adorned this lively work with a variety of elegant engi vings, i fome of which we are able to difcriminate the finger of an artifl of fuperior accomplishments. It will be thought a little fingular that the author remained fo long in Ireland, converfed with fo many of the natives of every defcription, and of every rank, and yet left the country without hearing one bull. We can bear teftimony to the truth of the commendation which is at p. 146 bestowed upon Mrs. H. Tighe, and her elegant poem on the fubject of Pfiche, having been favoured with the perufal of a manufcript copy. We are happy to hear that the accomplished authoreís propofes to print a few copies for the gratification

of

of her friends. The general remarks in the concluding chapter of Mr. Carr's book fhow, that the author has very diligently confulted the moft authentic fources of information on the fubjects difcuffed, and he urges with particular force and judgment the neceffity of education, which few, very few indeed of the poorer Irifh have the means of obtaining.

The work is dedicated to Lord Moira, and if there is a feeming tendency throughout to exaggerate on the favourable fide, the author was doubtlefs juftified to himself by the kindness, the courtesy, and the hofpitality which he expe

rienced.

ART. III. Supplement to the Analysis of Ariftotle's Speculative Works; containing an Account of the Interpreters and Corrupters of his Philofophy, in Connection with the Hiftory of the Times in which they refpectively flourished. 4to. xlviii pp. Cadell and Co.

ART. IV. An Anfwer to Dr. Gillies's Supplement to his new Analysis of Ariftotle's Works; in which the Unfaithfulnefs of his Tranflation of Ariftotle's Ethics is unfolded. By Thomas Taylor. 8vo. 91 pp. 2s. 6d. Symonds, &c.

1804.

THE authors of thefe pamphlets are, we prefume, familiar

to the majority of our readers. The former is well known to the public, as a writer of very confiderable merit * : the latter has rendered himself confpicuous as the champion of the most extravagant follies; and as a moft rancorous, although impotent reviler of Chriftianity, and its patrons. The ardent love which he has fhown, on all occafions, for the wild and unintelligible nonfenie with which the Platonic commentators have filled their pages, and the indefatigable zeal with which he has attempted to propagate their opinions, we have more than once taken occafion to reprobate. Thefe render him extremely impatient of every thing which may contribute to leffen their eftimation; or prevent the revival of thofe ridiculous dogmas, which iprang up in the old-age

* See our account of the work, to which this tract is a fupplement, Brit, Crit. xiii. 457. xiv. 5, 6, and 148.

and dotage of reafon in Greece. To have queftioned, therefore, the value of fuch fpeculations, and to have denied the utility of the lucubrations of the eclectic philofophers, must have constituted an offence of no common order: but to have expreffed a doubt, as to the attention, which fome of the notions even of Plato the great object of Mr. T.'s idolatry deferved; this muft have been a crime neither to be forgotten nor forgiven.

Judicium.'

Manet altâ mente repoftum,

Of this enormous offence, Dr. Gillies has been guilty. For he has ventured to affert in his valuable analysis of the works of Ariftotle, that "that writer has examined the doctrines of the Pythagorean numbers and Platonic ideas, with a degree of attention of which they would appear unworthy to the tafle and reafon of the prefent age.' Mr. Taylor foon found an opportunity of refenting the infult that had been thus offered to the ideas of his adored master; and in a tranflation which he publifhed of Ariftotle's metaphyfics*, accufed the doctor of ignorance and falfhood; and maintained, that the Stagirites' firft principles of the univerfe, are no other than thofe incorporeal caufes called by Plato ideas.' To remove these afperfions, and to prove that the doctrine of Ariftotle on this fubject, was oppofite to that of Plato and his followers and to fhow by what perfons and by what means the philofophy of the former was blended with that of latter, conftitutes the objects of Dr. Gillies's Supplement. To fupport his affertions, to vindicate the commentators on Ariftotle, and to prove Dr. Gillies ignorant of the Greek language, are the profeffed purposes of Mr. T.'s anfwer.

Contests of fuch a nature are generally uninterefting. In the prefent inftance, however, the attack of Mr. T. has given birth to a publication, which has afforded us much pleasure. It has induced Dr. Gillies to come forward in fupport of the cenfure which he paffed on the Ariftotelean commentators; and has thus given him an opportunity of confidering at large, the genius and character of these fanciful enthufiafts; has led him to point out the means by which thofe abfurd notions were introduced, on which the commentators of Ariftotle and Plato delight to dwell; and has thus produced a learned and ingenious differtation which

This we have not thought it neceffary to notice.

will be read with pleafure, when the caufe that occafioned it fhall be buried in oblivion. To convey an adequate idea of the attention which Dr. Gillies has bestowed upon the fubject would require a much more extended article than we can allow ourselves to bestow upon it. Yet, defirous of giving as much intereft as poffible to our remarks, and willing to communicate to our readers fome portion of the pleasure which we have reaped from this work, we will lay before them the Dr.'s account of Ficinus and fome others, who flourished at that interesting era which was illumined by the revival of letters.

"During the intellectual flumber of the Western world, Conftantinople, after being long threatened, was finally conquered by the Turks. The danger and diftrefs of that city filled Europe with Greeks fucceffively craving public affiftance and private protection, but, whether they appeared as ambaffadors or as fugitives, always ready to affume the character of profeffors, and to teach the language and learning of their country in the fchools of Florence, Rome, and other great cities of Italy *. In that country, Manuel Chryfaloras, the Cardinal Beffarion, and the venerated mafter of both, Gemiftus Pletho, together with many contemporary Greeks of inferior renown, are celebrated as the revivers of letters in the fifteenth century, and particularly for fubftituting, instead of the fcholaftic philofophy which then reigned in Chriftendom, one more graceful and liberal, as well as more accurate and more profound t. Without examining minutely how far they are justly entitled to this comparative praise, it may be obferved that the new doctrines were warmly embraced by the great and learned in Italy, and by none more zealously than the illuftrious Cofmo de Medici, the conftant hearer of Gemiftus Pletho, and the establisher of the Platonic academy in his native city of Florence; which, after enriching it by commerce, he was ambitious to adorn by learning. Of this academy, Marfilius Ficinus continued during four fucceffive generations of the Medici to be the ornament, or rather the oracle, having addicted himself from early youth to the ftudy of the new fcience, and perfevered in it unremittingly through life, uniting and concentrating all the fcattered rays of the Greek teachers in his tranflations of Plato and Plotinus, and his elaborate comments on those authors. From the admired writings of Ficinus a juft eftimate may be formed of the merits of his Grecian contemporaries; and a very flight examination will fuffice to convince us, that both he and they viewed ancient philofophy through the delufive optics of

"Hodius de Græcis Illuftribus, p. 25. & feq." "Tirabofchi, Hiftor. Litterar, vol. vi. p. 259. & feq."

the

the Alexandrian fchool. The writings of this learned Italian are deformed by the mystical virtues of words and numbers, the dreams of astrology, the doctrines of perfectibility and theurgy, above all, the corruption of religion by falfe philofophy, and of philofophy by false religion *. The reveries of the Platonicians, thus embodied by Ficinus with Plato's genuine doctrines, found their way into the fubfequent edition of the works of that philofopher by Serranus, published an hundred years afterwards, t under the aufpices of Henry IV. of France, when better things might have been expected both from the reformation in religion and the advancement of learning. But that which time has conjoined, it is a hard task for reason to diffever.

The tenets of the Alexandrian fchool, as we have feen, were fometimes interwoven with the fpurious Christianity of Conftantinople. The logic of the western fcholaftics, pretended followers of Ariftotle, long upheld the fuperftitious hierarchy of Rome. Thus by a strange fatality, hitherto little remarked, the two great mafters of Socratic philofophy, (whofe works, properly understood, lead men, as it were, to the very threshold of the gofpel,) being mifinterpreted, perverted, and corrupted, were called in as auxiliaries to stifle confcience which they had laboured to awake, and to cloud reafon which they were admirably fitted to illumine. But the perverfions of Platonifm, taking their rife, as we have explained, in the incongruous mixture of philofophy and mythology, always continued favourable to the childish fables of antiquity. As the Platonicians under the Ptolemies exerted themselves to rivet the chains of paganifm, fo the Platonicians under the Roman emperors combated furiously to defend it, and the Platonicians, under the Medici, hoped to fee the world refume that exploded fuperftition. Gemiftus Pietho, who affifted at the council of Florence in 1438, maintained in the learned conferences held there, that all mankind would in a few years become of one religion; and being asked "whether the Chriftian or Mahometan?" replied "neither of thefe, but a religion nearly akin to that of the Gentiles:" meaning thereby

the

"Vid. Ficin. de Vitâ cœlitùs comparand. The chapters De virtute verborum ad beneficium cœlefte captandum, &c. breathe the fpirit of Plotinus' Enneads, not of Plato's Dialogues."

"+ A.D. 1578."

"Plato abounds in the rapturous yet rational enforcement of the felf-denying, as well as of the more prefumptuous virtues. From this circumftance chiefly, he is confidently oppofed to the divine author of our religion by the first learned adverfaries of the gofpel, who fometimes confider Chriftianity as a peculiar fpecies merely of that Oriental or Pythagorean philofophy, which

had