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ART. 49.-Case respecting the Maintenance of the LondonClergy, briefly stated and supported by Reference to authentic Documents. By John Moore, LL.B. 8vo. 18. Riving

tons. 1802.

The income of the London clergy bears no proportion to the popu lation of their parishes; and a country-clergyman, with merely a tenth part only of the duty to perform, has often a ten times greater income than several of his brethren in town. This difference arises from the different modes of payment. In the country, it is regulated by the tithe of the produce of the land; in London, by different proportions of the house-rent, or a modus, settled at different times and on different principles. The first principle is that of an oblation, taken from the recommendation of St. Paul to the early converts to Christianity, to set apart their destined charity for the support of Christians on the first day of the week. This excellent custom has unfortunately ceased to exist; and its disuse is owing to popery, which, not content with the oblations on Sunday, made a pretext of introducing various holidays for the same purpose, and insisted, at last, on the payment of such oblations as a right, not as a free gift of the donor. Hence, in the times of popery, various disputes arose between the clergy and the citizens of London, on the quantum of payment, which was at last generally settled by papal bulls: but the Reformation, by invalidating their authority, weakened the power of the clergy; and the citizens took advantage of such inefficiency, and broached the doctrine, that the clergy were not entitled to rateable payments, but to specific sums chargeable on the several houses of their respective parishes. The great fire of London brought the question to an issue; and, by an act of parliament, the maintenance of the parochial ministers of the fifty-one churches to be restored, was fixed at certain specifie sums, levied by an equal rate on the houses in their respective parishes.' Now, from the alteration of the value of money, the sum at present levied is far short of what the legislature intended to be the income of the clergyman; and hence the writer thinks there is ground for another application to the legislature. The subject is treated with great candour; and, should it ever be introduced into parliament, the work before us will claim the attention of its members. From the specimen before us, we hope to hear that the writer meets with encouragement in a prospective work, which he thus announces :- A new Edition of Walton's "Treatise on the Payment of Tithes in London," with Notes, and a Continuation by the Editor,' in one volume quarto, at twentyfive shillings. The work to be sent to press, as soon as there are two bundred and fifty subscribers.

CRITICAL REVIEW.

JUNE, 1803.

ART. I. — The Grenville Edition of Homer, continued from p. 12 of our last Volume.

BEFORE we resume our account of the text of the Grenville Homer, it may be of some use to give a short outline of the state of the ancient 'AOIAOI, and to hazard a few notices upon the manner in which those Heroic Ballads have been conveyed to us.

In the early ages of Greece, the historian and the bard were united; and the popular ballads of the 'AOIAOI, like those of the scalds of the north countrie, preserved the rudiments of real events embellished by fancy. Amongst the various means of showing pastime at the entertainments of the great, who, fond of the tales of other times,

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'call'd for harp and song,

And pipes of martial sound

this order of men was frequently introduced, who chanted, by fits or intermissions,' the feats of ancient prowess, fomenting and refining a martial spirit, and exciting those strong sensations of delight, which are felt only by untutored minds. Homer, who is described as a ' poor eyeless pilgrim,' recited, probably for small earnings and good cheer,' his poetical effusions to throngs of admiring villagers or citi

zens.

Τοῖσιν δ ̓ ἐν μέσσοισι παις φόρμιγι λιγείη

Ιμερόεν κιθάριζε

and, wherever he went, his character must have procured him hospitable reception: for

what land so savage,

Where minstrels cannot practise their loy'd art
In honour'd safety?"

And his great celebrity seems to have laid the foundation of a native minstrelsy, which successively acquired reputation and subsistence, by exhibiting their diverting talents at festivals and banquets, and by greeting the victor on his exploits at the public games. Hence Simonides

we are told,

Παρ γὰρ ἔην καὶ ἀοιδὸς ἀνὴρ

Circumire cœpit urbes Asiæ nobiles,
Mercede acceptâ, laudem victorum canens.'

CRIT. REV. Vol. 38. June, 1803.

K

Though these fragments of genius were scattered abroad by their heedless parent among his countrymen by piecemeal only, yet their merit seems to have ensured their permanence: they were learned in childhood with quickness, and preserved with purity: they were the amusements of youth, and the delight of age.

Previous to their being collected, his 'doings' are likely to have suffered material injuries from time, and not a few from interpolation: succeeding minstrels would make no scruple to alter each other's productions to suit their own convenience, or the humour and prejudices of their audience. The compilers, however, were as faithful as the mutilated state of their materials would admit. The pieces most approved were selected, and combined into such forms, as, according to their ideas, were most excellent: some passages, which, they were apprehensive, might discredit the bard, were neglected or suppressed; some conjectural supplements were attempted through an anxiety of rendering them more complete; and some insertions were made for political purposes.

We will not dispute the probability of this matchless minstrel availing himself of preceding models, which might have been transmitted to his age by successive songsters; but we can by no means accede to the wild supposition of WOLFIUS, that the compositions attributed to Homer were made up of the scraps of different rhapsodists of different ages. Hunc virum e scriptis ejus, postea epistolarum officio cognitum, unum in primis exterorum accurate literarum scientiæ caussa magni faciebat [RUHNKENIUS] ; · ejusque Prolegomena Homerica tum recens allata, singulari cum voluptate legit, etiam ubi ab eo dissentiret: velut in ea disputatione, quæ magnam libri partem complectitur, qua ostendere conatur, Homeri carmina, non ab uno sed pluribus poëtis, variis ætatibus composita, non nisi rhapsodorum meanoria cantuque servata, ignoto adhuc apud Græcos scribendi usu, Pisistratidarum demum ætate scripto mandata esse. Hanc sibi opinionem non probari aiebat Ruhnkenius: at vehementer probari designatam egregie viam carminum Homericorum ad criticam scripturæ auctoritatem restituendorum 3.

The characters of the persons, from whose memories those traditionary songs were taken, and of those critics who incorporated them, cannot now be discussed; the inquiry is hopeless, and calculated only to infuse general distrust. True fortitude of understanding consists in not suffering

Many papers of the learned and pious archbishop Wake were purchased at a chandler's shop.

2 Prolegomena, p. xxxix.

3. Wyttenb. Vita RUHNKEN. p. 214, 215,

what we know to be disturbed by what we do not know 4.' We know that the uncertainty of the compilation is not connected with our inquiries, and cannot affect our conclusions; and we also know that we have the poems of Homer pretty nearly in the same state as they existed in the times of Plato, Sophocles, and Pindar; and, for our own part, we entertain no sanguine hopes of understanding him better than they did. They had λέξεις Ομηρίκαι, as we have glossaries to elucidate Chaucer.

We do not think that any very signal alterations were introduced during the many revisals which they afterwards underwent. Certain lines, which appeared to be displaced, have been in some copies transposed: others have been retouched, or enlarged, or repeated in different places, to repair a breach: and particular words of Homeric growth inight have been elbowed out of the text, or vamped up in forms less antiquated and uncouth: yet veteris servant vestigia forma; and though transcribers, from the date of that immaculate copy tñs in tov vápennos, down to the Grenville edition, have been perpetually altering the appearance of the text, by reducing the orthography to the standard of their own times ;-still we contend, that the intrinsic alterations have been over-rated; and assert, that the poetic glory of the Mæonian bard has burst through the obstacles of time, and rolled down to us with a lustre little abated. His Muse, Ἐκ γλυκεροῦ στόματος ἔπα λειριόεσσαν ἵεισα,

teaches the nerves to thrill, and opens the minutest avenues of the heart. When the shout of war pierces the ear, she exhibits, in the heroic pride and the gloomy grandeur of the dauntless Hector, the loftiest attitude of human nature; and when she sings the song of peace,' and displays the soft unbendings of private life, her solemn-breathing sounds

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Rise like a steam of rich distill'd perfumes,
And steal upon the air.'

Yes; the everlasting verdure of Homer's laurels had nothing
to fear from the fulminations of ancient criticism. From him,
as from a fountain, gushed those refreshing streams, which
fertilised the most dreary sterility, and clothed it with the
most beautiful verdure. And he continues, to the honour of
our age
and country, to be saluted by those, who have music
in their souls, поnviσTwp, Oslos "Oμngos, to whom, as to their
source, other stars' repair, and in their golden urns draw
light.' He is, indeed, every where secure of those feel-
ings of excellence coeval with human nature, with which he
instantaneously penetrates every reader, and which render
Μουσῶν φέγγος Ομηρον, ἀγήραντον στόμα κίσμου.

4 Dr. Paley's Natural Theology.

5 Athenæus, IX. 383. B.

We will close this small but feeble effort to speak the praise of a work which time has never equaled, with the decision of a critic, whose footsteps we follow with deference: Tanta veterum criticorum religio fuit in Homeri carminibus tractandis, et ad posteritatem transmittendis, ut non, nisi rationibus bene subductis, et verecundia, quæ juvenilem inprimis ætatem decet, ad divinum opus castigandum accedam".'

II. E.

Most of the alterations introduced into the text of this book are judicious.

64. ix biopara] ED. PR. and Schol. br. which elucidate biopara ; not ixtirpara. A similar decomposition has been admitted else. where, and upon good authority; Il. B, 99. 150. 211. E, 162, 332.663. 824. Z, 396. 425. H, 334. N, 485. II, 13, 96. 223. 252. P, 207. 2, 94. 492. X, 444. 479. *, 377. n, 400. 705. Odyss. г, S1. T, 48. ,290. Why has it been neglected in II. 4, 230. M, 318. Odyss. A, 247?-The editors have also renewed some well-established combinations: Il. N, 477. E, 24. T, 118., 159. 160: they might have added nõto, ☺, 530; as, Odyss. P, 25.

μή με δαμάσσῃ

Στι η υπηρίη.
] Od. X, 118.

Toup. in Suid. v. iii. 183, 4. II. E. 141. xi, MS. Harl.; whereas, in 2, 180. 448,4%, which does not tarnish the text of the Gren ville Homer. In Il. P, 361, ayxo. Upon whose testimony? We have examined the early editions, and Cod. Ven.-but to no purpose: άyx MSS. Harl. 1771. 5600. 5693. ¿yxisTM MS. 5601.; but we cannot appeal to it: we suspected that the common lection might have been altered from analogy; but the advertisement to the reader relieved us from this surmise: Textum editionis Clarkianæ, utpote a recentioribus fere omnibus receptum, sequi destinavimus. Interea inter imprimendum oculis obversabantur nonnulla, quæ facile in melius immutari posse videbantur; præsertim cum ex editt. Ernestiana et VILLOISONIANA, et ipsam quoque intra Academiam e Codice MS. in Bibliotheca Collegii Novi adservato, qui quamplurimis in locis a vulgato textu discrepabat, at mire nonnunquam cum Lectionibus VILLOISONIANIS conveniebat, nova subsidia, quæ Clarkio ad manus non erant, ultro sese offerebant. His adjuti obiter nonnulla emendavimus, sed nihil quicquam sine justa auctoritate. If this word of nought has been removed upon the evidence of that excellent document Cod. MS. Coll. Nov. or of Wolfius's ed. Halis 17947, it should not have been concealed. We applaud curò, II. X, 110: it is alluded to in Wolfius's Prolegomena, p. xxxiv.; and we should be highly gratified with an additional voucher. aur MSS. Harl. 1771. 5600, 5601. aitèr MSS. 5693.

Of two hundred and sixty-five deviations from the text of Dr. Clarke's edition of the Iliad, we found two hundred and forty-one countenanced by the text of Wolfius. Il. E, 273, is too trifling to be termed a variation; and this unconscious coincidence, occasioned by Ruhnk. Ep. Crit. I. p. 56. ed. nov.

1 We have not his last edition of the Iliad.

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