sentence with the Adonic; of which the natural use is to conclude the metre. The excellent Tweddell harps amiss on this string.

iii. Prosody. Res parva sand, sed laboris improbi.

1. Hiatus of long vowels. The distinction is important to remark between the two different kinds of movement, dactylic and trochaic, which prevail in the same Sapphic verse.

In the Adonic line, doubtless,

are both of them most legitimate forms.

Nor in the other dactylic parts of the Stanza, running thus,

P. 192.

νῶτα; πᾶ σταθήσομαι ; ἢ δοκεῖ μοι κ. τ. λ.

and in the following, altered from the Hippolytus, v. 549.

[δυστυχῆ] τὸ πρὶν καὶ ἄνυμφον, οἴκων κ. τ. λ. is there any just cause to object, if we may be allowed to rest on the grounds partly of analogy, partly of fact.

One doubt remains. May a long vowel ad finem vocis, supported by the ictus, form a long syllable before another word beginning with a vowel? That is to say, would the following words,

φαίνεται κείνῳ ἰσόκληρος ἔμμεν,

form a legitimate verse? It might be difficult to disprove it. Still, the safer and easier way upon the whole should seem this, to avoid the occasion of doubt, rather than incur what is at best doubtful.

Of some other cases far more common in modern Sapphics, there is neither doubt nor difficulty; where, for instance, in the Trochaic movement, a long vowel or diphthong with an hiatus forms a short syllable.

The following lines, therefore,

Ρ. 108.
Ρ. 116.

καὶ Σθένος τοι μακρὰ βιβὰν, καὶ οὕρως,
δεσμῷ ἔμπλεξεν κρατερῶ πλανάτας

and all other verses like these, Quintilius would bid you at once incudi reddere.

The error lies in arguing or in seeming to argue from what obtains in dactylic to what is lawful in trochaic movement.

Iliad. 4. 88.

Πάνδαρον ἀντίθεον διζημένη, εἴπου ἐφεύροι evidently affords no justification for a Sapphic line ending thus,

nor

Γ. 450.

εἴπου εὕροι:

Εἴπου ἐσαθρήσειεν ̓Αλέξανδρον θεοειδέα for one thus beginning, Ὃς καὶ αἰχματᾶν ταμίας κεραυνῶν.

2. Apostrophe of short vowels ad finem vocis before others.

This seems in general to be the practice of all poets, more or less, but not with all poets indiscriminately in all cases. Some instances of apostrophe are of common occurrence; others more rare and apparently avoided.

rests on a single passage in Homer. How much wiser always, in re dubiâ, vertere quàm defendere!

P. 107. πολλάκ ̓ ἐμπείρως

is quite indefensible: aut ego fallor, quod tamen hic loci vix suspicor. 3. Contraction or elision. In Contractions, such as these, acopos, xaxɛice, or in others at all like them, it is far more prudent to avoid whatever wants clear and strong lyric authority, than to exhibit what may be defended indeed, but only by instances doubtful or rare.

Besides the verse strictly called Sapphic, allow the appeal also to verses of mixed movement most resembling the Sapphic, in the Tragic odes and in those of Pindar: how are the following elisions to be supported?

P. 109. Βῆν μεν-

P. 117. ἄρξομ ̓ ὑμνῶν

et similia,

4. Syllabic quantity. Those pairs of consonants, which in the Tragic writers permit a syllable short by nature, in the same word, to continue so [vid R. P. ad Orest. v. 64.] may hereafter be called, for the sake of shortness, permissive combinations. With regard to these then, the law stands thus for Sapphic prosody.

Where such a pair of consonants is in the same word preceded by a short vowel, the syllable may be formed long, or it may remain short, as the metre requires, almost indifferently.

Where any of those pairs commences one word preceded by a short vowel at the end of another, the metrical ictus determines the quantity. If the ictus does not fall on the vowel, the syllable may be short: if the ictus does so fall, the syllable must be long. Of the two following examples,

P. 112.

P. 114.

ταλίκα τρίβει νεότης
λοξὸν ἀκτίνεσσι βλέπει

it is an obvious caution to avoid the latter: the former is perfectly legitimate.

-the

To distinguish nicely the gradations of change in this curious rather than useful question, from Homer down to Aristophanesmaterials are in promptu. Verùm nil tanti est.

Thus have I, in some sort, made good three at least of the five promises, with which this letter sets out. For princes or for privates, now-a-days, that is a very fair rate of performance. Give me a little longer time and a little more credit: I may yet live to trouble your readers with all that I have threatened.

In the mean while, I remain, Sir,

faithfully your's,

1812.

JAMES TATE.

LATIN LETTER.

'AMONGST Dr. Smith's MSS. N. 91." says the learned and industrious antiquary HEARNE, is an excellent letter in Latin written by N. N. to Patrick Young, in which are divers curious observations about men's uncovering their heads in churches, and women's covering them. To have the head uncovered was formerly an argument of authority, on the contrary to have them covered. This came from the Eastern countries. "HEARNE'S MSS. Diaries," Anno 1713. vol. XLIII. page 21.

As this letter may not be unacceptable to some of your antiquarian as well as classical readers, I have transcribed it from the original, now preserved in the Bodleian. MSS. Smith 75. (olim 91.)

"PATRICIO JUNIO, N. N.

Doctissime Juni, Quando ita vis, ut quid ego, prorsus amusus, de conjectura tua sentiam, dicam. Ingenue profiteor Gothofredi meo quidem palato magis sapere, non quod hæc tua non sit eruditissima, et Chrysostomi autoritate suffulta, sed quod illa scopo Apostoli magis accommoda videtur. Manifesta etenim antithesis est in textu inter virorum aperta et fœminarum operta capita in cœtu ecclesiæ. Has velari vult, illos contra revelato sive aperto capite orare. At vero quis dixerit, viri caput aut etiam fœminæ velatum, si solis capillis contegatur, quantumvis illi calamistrati sint et cincinnis nodorumque annulis aut etiam gemmis et auro ornati, quæ fere omnia plerumque pendula sunt, et capita magis ambiunt quam tegunt aut obvelant. Sed et hæc omnia etiam fœminis nedum viris interdicta sunt. 1. Tim. 2. 9. et 1. Pet. 3. 3. Ratio antitheseös fundata est in ætatis Apost: consuetudine, quæ ab Oriente ad Romanos derivata obtinuit, præsertim stante Republica, ut servorum esset κατὰ κεφαλῆς ἔχειν, (simpliciter loquendo de obnubendo capite quocunque velamine aut tegumento: unde fortassis proprie loquendo solis fœminis competit Tà nubere, intuitu, viz. velaminis, quo nova nupta caput et faciem operiebat) et generaliter eorum omnium qui alieno essent subjecti imperio. Vult itaque Apostolus fœminas in cœtu ecclesiæ velatas esse in subjectionis testimonium; viros contrà aperto capite in signum potestatis et authoritatis quâ præcellebant. Et hoc sexûs discrimen pluribus argumentis confirmat, quæ parum aut nihil concluderent, si antithesis esset in solo capitis ornatu. Quin et meo quidem judicio, quæ de viris hic asserit Apostolus, eo tantum fine dicuntur, ut ex antithesi clarius concludat mulieres esse velandas, qui præcipuus loci scopus esse videtur. Ideoque concludens, subjungit versu 10. novum illud argumentum a juvenibus ne scilicet eorum animi avocarentur a Dei cultu pulchritudine et illecebris fœminarum, unde factum est, ut adolescentis ecclesiæ temporibus obtinuerit non sola hæc velandarum mulierum consuetudo, sed insuper ut non promiscue viri cum fœminis,

sed locis separatis sederent; qui mos non solum in synagogis, sed in ipsa Noæ arca usurpatus; ubi constat ejus filias separatim a fratribus divertisse, atque inde antiphonias precum reddidisse, ut citat D. Gregorius Oxon. ex catena Arabica in archivis Cantabrig. Neque sane video, quare debeant velari propter Angelorum magis, quam ipsius Dei et Spiritûs sancti præsentiam, multoque minus, quare sumptuose ornanda contra præceptum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli. Jam quam facilis lapsus fuerit transcribentium pro et geminandi y ex similitudine characterum patet. Nam de voce exuvium in Atticam transferenda, quando tu nihil objicis, parum attinet dicere.

Vides, clarissime Juni, quam ingenue et simpliciter sine ullo verborum aut scriptorum autoramento ego sensum meum proruam-Animus erat, eoque distuli responsum, ut ad D.Pauli concederem, et Interpretes consulerem; sed neque vacat, neque fortasse decorum foret tam sollicite versari in aliena provincia, et nobis jampridem proscriptis alia tela pertexenda est. Vale."

Of PATRICK YOUNG it is unnecessary to say any thing in this place, since his life hath been admirably written in Latin by Dr. Smith, and published (with those of Usser, Cosin, Briggs, Dee, &c.) in 4to. Lond. 1707; which account was abridged by one of the unknown writers in the old Biographia Britannica. It is sufficient to state, that he was an assistant to Walton in his Polyglott, and the friend of Usser, Selden, Langbaine, and Sir Robert Cotton. Who' N. N. the writer of the letter is, I have been unable to discover.

Oxford.

B.

INSCRIPTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. SIR, I Transmit to you some fac-similes of Inscriptions, from bricks found on the real, or supposed, site of the ancient Babel. These bricks were picked up and brought to this country by Mr. W. Wauchope. The father of this Gentleman, Mr. Wauchope, of Niddry, has allowed me, with the politeness, which characterises him, to take the fac-similes. I can answer for the exactness with which Numbers 1. 2 and 3. have been executed. Concerning Number 4. I must speak with more diffidence, because it was done by a less skilful hand. You will observe, that this No. 4. differs from the other three. The character is evidently what has been termed the Arrow Character, of which Cornelius le Bruyn has given specimens in his account of the ruins of Persepolis.

The favorable manner, in which my Essay on the Inscriptions of Saguntum has been mentioned in the last Number of your Journal,

encourages me to

send you. In your

undertake to write on those which I now next Number, therefore, I shall offer some remarks to you on these very curious monuments. In the mean time I remain,

Sir, your very humble servant,