power with the femblance of law. Were the judge called u to decide without a law, his decifion would be watched, tried at the formidable bar of public opinion. When he can h up a law, by the vague words of which he can fhow that his cifion is in fome fenfe allowed, at whatever expense to justice may thereby have gratified any of his finifter defigns, the bla is immediately fuppofed to be altogether, or nearly, removed fr his fhoulders. In this refpect, the extent to which vagueness vails among the mental habits of M. Bexon, difqualified him, a lamentable degrée, for the tafk he has undertaken. Happ of the cafes compofing the object of penal law, by far the gre number are distinguished by lines fo broad and strong, that aln any hand fuffices to point them out. But in all thefe, in wh the work of definition was a work of difficulty and skill, the p formance of M. Bexon has little claim to applaufe. Among inftances of greateft importance, we may fpecify his laws rela to the liberty of confcience in matters of religion, to the lib of the prefs, the refpect due to the fovereign, &c. On th laws all fecurity for liberty ultimately depends. Yet M. Bexor words his propofed enactments, on thofe important heads, as place, by mere vaguenefs, at the power of the governing m almost every thing over which they would wish to domineer. • Quiconque blâme l'autorité publiquement, ou repand le ridi sur les lois et les réglemens établis dans l'etat, de maniere à affa ou à faire mépriser le pouvoir, commet un delit.' (Code de Su &c. liv. iv. tit 1. art. 14.) Under these loose and flexible phrafes-of 'publicly blaming thority of throwing ridicule on the regulations of the state of weakening power, or of expofing it to contempt,'-it is abu antly evident, that every fpecies of criticism on public men and p lic measures may be punished; and all the fecurity for good vernment, which depends on the controul of public cenfure, off as effectually as it might be in England, by a law which the inflict punishment, if fuch a thing could be fuppofed, for p lishing an opinion, that any high character, in a high fituat is unfit for his place,' or for publifhing any thing by which feelings of another might be hurt.' Again, Quiconque, par discours tenus publiquement, ou par des éc affichés ou distribués, imprimés ou non, ou par exposition, ve debit, ou distribution de chansons, figures ou images, aura atta ou violé les principes de la sureté générale, de la paix publique de la morale universelle, ou aura provoqué au delit ou au crime, coupable d'un delit.' (Ibid. art. 92.) Here, again, under the vague phrafes-of violating the pri ples of general fecurity, '—or of public peace,'-or of uni fal morality, a privilege is given to men in power to profecute every writing which is disagreeable to them; and complete licenfe is extended to the judge to give the colour of law to any decifion by which men in power may be gratified; juft as in England, the fame privilege, and the fame licenfe, might be fecured by a law, punishing any writing tending to disturb the public peace' contrary to good order'-or good morals '-or ⚫ contrary to religion.' Far, however, as this fpecimen of a penal code is from perfection -from that perfection which there is now light enough in Europe to bestow, yet compare it with the old fyftems-compare it, for example, with the Lois Penales of old France, or of any other continental country, and its excellence can hardly receive praises too ftrong. The utility of the whole community, not that of any particular claffes, is the object conftantly held in view, and to a confiderable, though still imperfect degree, attained. Imaginary crimes are excluded. Punishment is not awarded according to the dictates of caprice, or of a blind antipathy, or a finifter intereft, but of reafon; calculating, with more or less exactness, but still fincerely, the greatest poffible prevention of evil. The greatest advantage, however, of all, and an advantage which-had the execution been many times more imperfect than it is would have been beyond all price, is the poffeffion of the penal laws in an exprefs, and (till altered by legiflative authority) an exclusive set of words. Uncertainty, obfcurity, and the range of arbitrary power in the hands of the judge-arbitrary power, in its very worst shape-masked with the vizard of the law,-are thus narrowed, how vague foever the definitions, to a compass which is as nothing, when compared with the almoft boundless dominion they ufurp, while the law is unwritten, or common; while it is yet, as in the most barbarous states of fociety, fixed by no express form of words; and by confequence is, in many of the most important refpects, whatever the judge chufes, by inference, from a vaft and varying mass of decifions or cafes, to fay that former judges have made it. ART. VII. The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, translated from the Greek into English Verse; with a Preliminary Dissertation and Noies. By Charles Abraham Elton. 1809. THE reputation of Hefiod has in all ages refted more upon another's merit than his own. Like that fteed of mortal birth, who was matched with courfers of divine pedigree in the chariot of Achilles- Ως και θνητος ων, επεθ ̓ ἵπποις αθανατοστών μας he he has run his race to pofterity in the best company. Homer and Hefiod have been familiarly named together for more than two thousand years as the twin parents of Grecian poetry. Yet this celebrity of his name has not altogether extended to his writings, which, in general, are not much noticed even by claffical scholars. The poems attributed to Hefiod are three: the Works and Days, the Theogony, and the Shield of Hercules. Of the poet himfelf scarcely any thing is known. When the Greeks, about the fixth century before our era, awaked to fcience and letters, they were attracted by the excellence of fome of their traditionary poetry. What bore the name of Homer fhone unrivalled: but, after Homer, they held in refpect certain antient lays of a Bootian, named Hefiod. But feveral ages of darkness had intervened; and as Greece had neither any history, nor even any public amufements fo early as A. C. 600, there was nothing but the faint and vague light of tradition to direct their curiofity. How little this has availed to determine the character and age of Homer, is well known; and as much less folicitude was felt about Hefiod, it is natural that, with refpect to him, at leaft equal ignorance fhould have prevailed. All that can be conjectured is from the evidence of his own writings. He lived, it feems, at Afcra near Helicon, which may perhaps have been the occafion of his devoting himself to ferve the ladies of the manor. It may be inferred that his era was much later than that of the Trojan and Theban wars, since he ranks the heroes concerned in those exploits as a fort of demigods, who preceded the iron age of man's degeneracy. If, therefore, our common chronology can be trusted as to thofe obfcure fragments of paft times, we cannot place Hefiod earlier than 900 or 1000 years before Chrift. On the other hand, there are in the whole poem of the Works and Days, obvious traces of an imperfect ftage of fociety. The government of his country seems to have been a femi-patriarchal monarchy, in which the office of judge was the most prominent part of the kingly character. No allufion is found to any art, except thofe neceflary to agriculture and clothing; while the moral precepts are partly uncouth and unintelligible fuperftitions, partly thofe fimple rules of prudence and decency, which could hardly have been required beyond the infancy of civilized life. Compared with Homer, our Baotian poet is indifputably more rude in these refpects, as well as in his language and profody: yet we cannot perhaps infer from hence his greater antiquity, fince the fame defects may have proceeded from the comparative barbarism of that part of Greece wherein he dwelt. Of the fea, though he gives fome directions for fhipbuilding, Hefiod profeffes himself ignorant: but we cannot doubt that Homer was acquainted with various regions, and mafter of whatever whatever knowledge and politeness that age of the world afforded. This exceeding fimplicity, indeed, is perhaps the chief recommendation of the Works and Days. It feems a relic of remote times and primitive manners, which strike us perhaps more in a philofophical view, thus nakedly displayed, than when shadowed out in the fplendid fictions of the Odyffey. As a poet, Hefiod is remarkably unequal. Nothing can be more stupid than his georgical precepts in the Works and Days, or his catalogue of divinities in the Theogony. Yet the Profopopoeia of Justice in the former, and the combat of Gods and Titans in the latter, rife to confiderable fublimity. It must be confeffed, that before the artifices of a poet's trade were difcovered, the just dimenfions of a plough, or even the fifty daughters of Nereus, were most impracticable themes. But his brother Boeotians took all in good part: bad verfes, like black bread, will eafily go down where the taste is unpalled by fatiety of what is better; and indeed, the early Greeks were fo far from flighting Hefiod, that they coined a filly ftory of a poetical conteft in which he carried the prize from Homer. The prefent tranflator has had two predeceffors in his task. Chapman, the first who made Homer English, produced a version alfo of the Works and Days. This, like his Homer, is executed with much fire, and strength of language; but is obfcure and uncouth, and not always faithful to the fenfe. It is now an exceedingly scarce book. Some extracts are given in the Appendix to Mr Elton's tranflation. Another was made by Cooke about the middle of the laft century. This is well known; and has been republished in Anderfon's Collection of Poets. Cooke, however, was a hero of the Dunciad; and his tranflation of Hefiod will not remove him from that bad eminence.' Mr Elton pelts him unmercifully throughout his notes, and feems a little too folicitous to prove a fuperiority which no one is likely to queftion. It is a very poor triumph to exeel a graduated Dunce like Cooke; and would not, we fear, of itself place the prefent tranflation on a respectable footing. It has, however, considerable intrinfic merit. What inducement a man of Mr Elton's apparent talents and power of verfification can have had to fo ungrateful a tafk, we do not divine; nor do we dare to flatter him with the hope, that Hefiod, who has long been neglected in Greek, will now become popular in Eng But a few extracts, which we shall make, will evince, that Mr Elton is competent to more interesting works of translation. No paffage in the Theogony has been so justly celebrated as the battle of the Titans, in which it is not uninterefting to obferve th' access of that celeftial thief' Milton, who had obviously fill ed ed his imagination with it, before he wrote the fixth book of Pa radife Loft. All on that day rous'd infinite the war, Female and male; the Titan deities, The gods from Saturn sprung, and those whom Jove Roar'd; earth resounded; the wide heaven throughout Of hollow tramplings, and strong battle strokes, Of heaven; with mighty war-cries either host Nor longer then did Jove Th' immensity of forests crackling blaz'd: Yea, the broad earth burn'd red, the streams that mix Round and around the Titan brood of earth, Roll'd the hot vapour on its fiery surge; The liquid heat, air's pure expanse divine Suff |