work relative to India; and being anfwered in the affirmative, fprung forward and embraced him with great emotion, apologizing for this Liberty, by affuring him, that he was under more obligation to him than to any man living; for that his work had been of greater fervice than all the other documents he could procure, towards redeeming his father's honour, and recovering his property; owing to the clear and intelligent detail it contained of the tranfactions on the coast of Coromandel, in which M. Lally bore so principal a fhare, and to the juft representation it gave of the conduct of the French in that quarter.' p. lin. Of the smaller pieces, there are fome imitations of Horace executed with a good deal of point and vivacity, and fome elegies and epiftles in a very pleafing ftyle of compofition. The reft are mere vers de focieté. We add the two following parodies, which have the merit, we think, of being very ludicrous. Occafioned by the Author hearing of a Clergyman, who, in a violent fit of Anger, threw his Wig into the Fire, and turned his Son out of Doors.. "Now by this facred periwig I fwear, Which never more fhall locks or ringlets bear, He fpoke; and furious with indignant ire, And, loft in fmoke, attenuates to air. p. 332. 333. On meeting at Mr Garrick's an Author very fhabbily dreft in an old Velvet Waistcoat, on which he had fewed Embroidery of a later date. Three waistcoats in three diftant ages born, The bard with faded luftre did adorn. The firft in velvet's figured pride furpaft; To make a third he joined the former two.' P. 350. Upon the whole, this is a book which the rich will do well to buy, and the poor may be very well contented to want. is is very handsomely printed, and is embellished with about a dozen portraits of the author's celebrated friends, and two views of his places of refidence. ART. V. Publii Virgilii Maronis Opera; ad lectiones probatiores dili genter emendata, et interpunäione nova fæpius illuftrata. Cura Joannis Hunter, LL.D. in Academia Andreapolitana Litt. Hum. Prof. Andreapoli. 12mo. 1800. A CRITICAL edition of a claffical author from a Scotish press, is fo very rare an occurrence, that we fhould be inclined to take fome notice of this book, even if its intrinfic merits did not entitle it to our attention. The task of an editor, however, we are forry to fay, does not appear to afford any great encouragement to the perfeverance of thofe who have already proved their qualifications for the discharge of it. It is now feveral years fince Dr Hunter prefented the public with a very correct and valuable edition of Horace, in which a variety of emendations on the text and punctuation were supported and illuftrated by the addition of notulæ quædam et variantes lecționes. Virgil, however, now comes out without any notes or various readings whatfoever. The text is reprinted almoft exactly from the fecond edition of Profeffor Heyné; and the only critical obfervations which the volume contains, are prefented all together in a short preface, which every reader, we believe, has wifhed longer. It is not only the great merit of most of thefe remarks that makes us anxious for fomething of a more detailed annotation from the fame hand, but an intimation which Dr Hunter himself gives in the outfet, that he has adhered to the reading of Heyné in feveral places, where he could not help having confiderable doubts of its propriery, through his unwillingness to fet up conjectural emendations againft manufcript authority. This is undoubtedly a very laudable diffidence, in fo far as the text is concerned; but from what we have feen of Dr Hunter's obfervations, we are perfuaded that thofe conjectures which are now altogether fuppreffed, would have afforded matter for many very excellent and inftructive notes; and we cannot help regretting, that he fhould have been prevented, by any circuraitances, from submitting them to the confideration of the public. The preface, which may be confidered as a specimen of Dr Hunter's talents for annotation, contains a confiderable number of very interefting difcuffions, We fhall mention a few inftances. In the twelfth Eneid, Eneas is defcribed, after his wound, in the following lines, which stood thus in all the editions previous to that of Heinfius. Stabat acerba fremens, ingentem nixus in haftam, Eneas, magno juvenum et morentis Iuli Concurfu lacrimisque immobilis. Now this, which is the reading of almost all the manuscripts, is undoubtedly the right reading according to Dr Hunter. The meaning is, that he remained unmoved juvenum concurfu et lacrimis Iuli. Heinfius, however, who does not appear to have underftood this form of conftruction, took it upon him to expunge the que after lacrimis, and to perplex the whole paffage by a wrong punctuation. Both Burman and Heyné have followed this erroneous correction; and the passage stands thus in all the recent editions. • Stabat acerba fremens, ingentem nixus in haftam, In order to confirm his own and the ancient reading of this paffage, Dr Hunter here takes occafion to observe, that it is not at all uncommon for the best writers to enumerate together, a number of things that have each fome feparate and peculiar relative, or appropriate adjunct, and then to fubjoin all the relatives and adjuncts in a separate lift, leaving the reader to pick out and assort all the connected words, from their obvious fenfe and connexion. In Virgil, he obferves, there are many examples of this, as• Munera portantes, aurique eborifque talenta Et fellam.' That is, talenta auri, et fellam eboris. In the fame way- The fame peculiarity of construction occurs in this paffage of Ολλυντων τε, και ολλυμένων. The meaning is evidently, ευχωλη ολλύντων, και οιμωγή ολλυμένων. Τε English poetry, the fame conftruction is quite familiar. In the notorious tranflation of Sappho- Bleft as the immortal gods is he, Pope Pope alfo fays Annual, for me, the grape and rofe renew The juice nedareous and the balmy dew.': In thefe inftances, no ambiguity or confufion appears to arife from the disjoined pofition of the correfponding words; and we perfectly agree with Dr Hunter in thinking, that the paffage which Heinfius and Heyné thought it neceflary to alter, is infinitely more intelligible and graceful, according to the old reading, and upon this view of the conftruction. At the fame time, we may obferve, that this dislocation of the affociated words becomes faulty and ungraceful, whenever the number of feparate objects, thus enumerated together, is fo great as to produce any degree of confufion. We do not remember that any of the ancient claffics have ever employed it where more than two things were taken together. Shakespeare, however, in the following verfe, has ufed fomething of a larger license. The courtiers, scholars, foldiers, eye, tongue, fword. O'er bog, or fleep, thro' ftrait, rough, dense, or rare, In fuch paffages, the crowd and hurry of the primary objects is fo great, that when we meet the relative fecondary one, it is almoft impoffible to determine to which it fhould be referred. When fo many couples, in fhort, are mingled together in diforder, it is quite impoflible, at one glance of the eye, to affign to each word its proper partner. In the Fourth Aneid, Dr Hunter has made a very ingenious obfervation on a paffage that has perplexed all the commentators from Bentley to Heyne. It is that where, after comparing Mercury to a bird skimming along the water, the poet fays, Haud aliter terras inter coelumque volabat; Bentley, holding the phrafe fecare littus' to be abfurd, is for fubftituting legebat in the first line. Dr Hunter, however, retains the common reading, upon the authority of all the MSS.; and, merely taking away the point at the end of the firft line, reads, Volabat littus arenojum Libya.' In juftification of this conftruction, he obferves, that it is by no means unufual for an intranfitive verb to affume, in fome degree, the power and activity of a tranfitive; in which cafe, it admits the fame fyntax, and acquires the fame fame power of government. Thus, Virgil himself has used and conftrued the verb trepidare. Multa manu medica, Phœbique potentibus herbis, Nequidquam trepidat.' Ardere, in like manner, takes an active form in formofus paftor Corydon ardebat Alexin:' and Horace has exfudare caufas.' Although we do not recollect any inftance in which volare is conftrued in this manner by any of the poetical clailies of antiquity, it is remarkable that Servius has employed it in this way in his commentary upon the word velivslus, which, he fays, fignifies either id quod velis volatur feu tranfitur, or quod velis fertur. Virgil himfelf, we may finally remark, has ufed the phrafe, cava trabe Now, if it be allowable to fay, currere æquor,' we certainly do not fee why it fhould be thought inconsistent to fay volare littus. currimus æquor. In the Fifth Book, the common editions read, • Tum fenior Nautes, unum Tritonia Pallas Dr Hunter reads hic in the third line, understanding those verses as a kind of parenthetical defcription of the prophet; and, we think, rightly. There is no form of conftruction more common, than this refuming of the nominative cafe after the sentence appears to be proceeding to fomething elfe. Nay, there are many inftances in which an object is first introduced, in fome of the oblique cafes, in the courfe of conftruction; and then the nominative is refumed, without regard to that conftruction, for the purpofe of ftating or expounding fome circumftance attending it. Thus, in the Tenth Book of the Aneid, we have rapiens immania pondera baltei, Impreffumque nefas-' all in the accufative; but the farther defcription of the nefas is given, without any interval, in the nominative: --una fub nocte jugali Caefa manus juvenum foede, thalamique cruenti.' Ariftotle, in the following paffage of his Rhetoric, has ufed the fame conftruction: Avayan ayala eivai tad, in the accufative; and, immediately after, sudova, dizaiorum, aròpsia, &c. We fhall be the more readily excufed by our clafiical readers for enlarging upon this minute particularity of fyntax, when we ftate, that a learned |