Epistola, Enigma. Destituor pedibus, vox est mihi nulla; remotos Germani cur veraces? Si latet in vino verum, ut proverbia dicunt; Imitated, under particular circumstances. EPIGRAMMATA, EPITAPHIA, VARIORUM. No. IV. Lectori. Sunt qui lectori longo fastidia libro Longa ferant: fas sit scribere pauca mihi. In Phyllida. Phyllis habet maculas: maculas dum Phyllis habebit, In cœlo stabunt sidera pro maculis. In duos fratres. Una duos fratres tumuli capit urna, duosque Cenotaphium. Quis jacet hic? Nullus; nec quid, nisi marmor inane. Quamvis sis aliquid, tu quoque nullus eris. In Ambitiosum. Summa quid exoptas semper conscendere? montes Ad Conjuges. Ille fidem, mulier, tibi servet; tuque marito. Natio Tragada est. Felis, si nutrix narravit vera, volebat Stulte, quippe adeo comoda est subdola felis, In Zoilum. Mirandum non est quod carpis, Zoïle, nugas. Gutta opes. O mihi si digito tremat, et tremat unica summo The origin of the word Classic. Apud Græcos tempore adhuc Solonis, sexcentis ante vulgarem æram annis, libri erant et pauci et rari, et ni fere oratione carmine et numero ligata: docti, qui fuerant, homines, magis suo ipsi ingenio, studio, experientia, quam librorum lectione, exstiterant. Deinceps accedente prosæ scriptione, utriusque orationis scriptores indies prodierunt multi; et crescente paulatim legendi scribendique studio, jam Aristotelis ac Demosthenis, et omnino Alexandri Macedonis, ævo, tantus ferebatur librorum numerus, ut eorum cognitio, interpretatio, censura, peculiarem postularent doctrinam et quasi provinciam, quam Grammatici et Critici sibi vindicabant. Porro, Græcis literis totam obtinentibus Asiam et Ægyptum' constituendis instruendisque bibliothecis, cum 1 Quæ per Alexandrum ejusque successores Græcis colonis frequentatæ sunt. Nam qui antea jam fuerant Græci incolæ in Sicilia, Italia, et maritima ora Asia, Africæ, Galliæ, Hispaniæ, aut aliis in regionibus, hos a nobis non excludi a communione Literarum, per se patet: nec moneri necesse erat in ipso libro. Hæc annotatione monemus, tironum causa. aliis multis in locis, tum Alexandriæ et Pergami, invalescente quotidie scribentium numero, ingens librorum cum multitudo tum varietas, obesse magis quam prodesse bonis Literis et Eloquentiæ videbatur. Quod ut caverent detrimentum, duo summo ingenio et infinita doctrina Critici, Aristophanes Byzantius, et Aristarchus, centum fere et quinquaginta post Alexandri ævum, totidemque ante nostram æram annis, illam librorum multitudinem certo numero circumscribendam duxerunt, et veluti censu agendo cujusque generis optimos quosque Scriptores in suas classes redegerunt, quibus inde Auctorum classicorum nomen additum est; quippe qui soli justæ classis auctoritatem obtinerent, quæ tanquam lex et norma bene scribendi valeret. Dan. Wyttenbachii Opuscula, &c. Tom. 1. pp. 656-7. Reply to ΒΟΙΩΤΟΣ, &c. In the last No. of the Journal, p. 365, this question is asked by a correspondent signed ΒΟΙΩΤΟΣ: “ Where are the following words of Plutarch to be found ? Οὐχ ἧττον δὲ σεμνὸν ἀκοῦσαι γαμετῆς λεγούσης, "Ανες, σύ μοι ἐσσι καθηγητὴς καὶ φιλόσοφος καὶ διδάσκαλος τῶν καλλίστων καὶ θειοτάτων ?” The passage occurs in the tract entitled Γαμικὰ Παραγγέλματα, Τ. νι. p. 548. Ed. Reisk., where, however, the words are, Ανερ, ἀτὰρ σύ μοι, κ. τ. λ. The insertion of this particle is necessary, because Plutarch's words are founded upon those of Homer, Il. Z. 429. . Εκτος, ἀτὰρ σύ μοι ἐσσὶ πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ, Ηδὲ κασίγνητος, as will appear from citing the context: Τῇ δὲ γυναικὶ πανταχόθεν τὸ χρή σιμον συνάγων, ὥσπερ αἱ μέλιτται, καὶ φέρων αὐτὸς ἐν σεαυτῷ, μεταδίδου καὶ προσδιαλέγου, φίλους αὐτῇ ποιῶν καὶ συνήθεις τῶν λόγων τοὺς ἀρίστους· πατὴρ μὲν γάρ ἐσσι αὐτῇ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ, ἠδὲ κασίγ νητος· οὐχ ἧττον δὲ σεμνὸν, κ. τ. λ. From the vague manner in which the reference to Homer is introduced, it might be conjectured that ὥς φησιν "Ομηρος, or something similar, had been omitted after κασίγνητος. Among the metrical lines collected from prose writers by the same ingenious correspondent, I believe that this from Demosthenes, Olynth. r. 16. p. 10. Ed. Reisk. does not appear: Δῆλον γάρ ἐστι τοῖς Ολυνθίοις, ὅτι. It is noticed by the Scholiast on Hermogenes, p. 386. cited by Reiske on the passage: Τινὲς ῥητορικὴν ἔμμετρον τὴν (f. τινα) κωμῳδίαν ἐκάλεσαν· πολλοὺς γοῦν παρά τε τῷ ̓Ισοκράτει καὶ μάλιστα τῷ Δημοσθένει λανθάνοντας άμβους τε καὶ χωριάμβους ἐστὶν εὑρεῖν διὰ τὴν ἐναρμόνιον συνθήκην τῶν λέξεων· ὡς εὐθὺς ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ τῶν Ολυνθιακῶν· Δῆλον γάρ ἐστι τοῖς Ολυνθίοις, ὅτι (est merus et plenus senarius) Νῦν οὐ περὶ δόξης, οὐ δ' ὑπὲρ μέρους (habes senarium postremo pede mutilatum) τῆς χώρας κινδυνεύουσιν· οὐχ ὡς ῥητόρων κινδυνευσάντων καὶ ἔμμετρα λέγειν· ἀλ λότριον γὰρ τοῦ πολιτικοῦ λόγου τὸ τοιοῦτον, ἀλλ ̓ ἀποφυῶς εἰς μέτρον ἀπενεχθείσης τῆς φράσεως. I take this opportunity of commenting on a remark in the Notice of Elmsley's Baccha, Classical Journal, No. XLVI. p. 407. "Mr. E. quotes Oppian. Cyneg. 1v. 260. Пgúμvar & φραίη σέλινος καὶ κισσὸς ἔρεπτον. We are sorry that he did not take the opportunity of noting the false quantity in σéλivos, which we are unable to correct, except by reading xoσÓS TE σÉλWά T ἔρεπτον. PETTOV." It is still farther to be regretted, that it should not have occurred to the learned writer of the Notice to consult Schneider's edition, where the passage is thus corrected after Brodæus: Πρύμνην δ ̓ ὡραίη ἔλινος καὶ κισσὸς ἔρεπτον: or the note in Belin de Ballu's edition: "Quid sit σéλos ignoro. Ubique regi rò σéλvov, Apium, planta funebris, et minime Baccho conveniens, etsi evitys olvos celebretur. Itaque vos cum Brodæo omnino leg. censeo : ἡ ἔλινος est ὁ κλάδος τῆς ἀμπέλου, ἡ ἄμε πελος, Dionysius Perieg. 1157. Ζωστῆςές θ ̓ ἕλικές τε, πολυγνάμπτης τ' ἐλίνοιο : at in Oppiano lege, ὡραίη τ' ἔλινος καὶ κισσὸς ἔρεπτον.” From this corrupt passage appears to have originated the introduction of the feminine subst. réλvos into Hederic's Lexicon, which is not acknowledged by Stephens or Schneider, and should be excluded from future editions. M. CLASSICAL CRITICISM. Ir the following remarks on the Iliad be thought interesting, they shall be continued. ̓Ατρεΐδαί τε καὶ ἄλλοι ἐϋκνήμιδες Αχαιοί. 11. α. 17. Cowper renders the epithet éüxvýuides, well-booted, by gallant; and the author of a prose translation of Homer, which has recently appeared, and which seems to be the work of no mean hand, renders it by well-armed, an epithet which, though better accommodated to modern ears, widely deviates from the sense of the original; for it is an epithet which marked the Grecian chiefs as men of rank, in opposition to the body of the Greeks; just as if an old English poet, in alluding to the Order of the Garter, should call gentlemen of that Order, "well-gartered Englishmen." I know not whether another passage is to be found in any Greek writer which recognises the boot of a certain form as a badge of distinction: but the Romans had certainly copied it. For the boot with a crescent upon it was a mark of the Senatorial order. Κλύθί μευ ̓Αργυρότοξ, ὃς Χρύσον ἀμφιβέβηκας Κίλλαν τε ζαθέην, Τενέδοιό τε ἶφι ανάσσεις.—[1. α. 37. The particle is generally understood to mean might: but I maintain that it is the Hebrew y ipha, with scarcely any change, and that it means splendor in this passage, for this sense is much more appropriate here and in many other places of the Iliad. The above words were addressed to Apollo or the Sun. Hence the propriety of aμ¤ßéßŋxas, as he appears to surround the earth; and it is more characteristic to say of that luminary, that he surrounds the earth with his lustre than that he goes round it with his might. In verse 151 it means the open light, in opposi tion to an ambuscade, where the combatants lay concealed; yet the sense of fortiter even there is, however absurdly, annexed to the word. The honorable Achilles could give his friend Patroclus the caution μηδ' Εκτορι ἔφι μάχεσθαι, 11. σ. 14. not to meet Hector in an open and direct encounter, though he seems not to have thought it inconsistent with honor, if he could, to stab him sideways or in the dark. It is not to be denied that pi may mean mightily or with strength; because to one who judges from appearances, the light of the sun is his strength. It is this appearance that led the Psalmist to compare the sun to a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and "rejoicing as a strong man to run his race." It is very remarkable that the import of the following passage should have been overlooked by all the commentators on Ho mer: ̓Ατρείδη, νῦν ἄμμε παλιμπλαχθέντας δΐω *Αψ ἀπονοστήσειν, εἴ δεν θάνατόν γε φύγοιμεν. 11. α. 59. The common acception of this passage supposes that Achilles is here recommending the necessity of abandoning altogether the enterprise against Troy, a measure at once inconsistent with his character and with the feelings of the whole army. The action implied in άToyoσToe is recommended as necessary to take place, after that implied in Taλμλaxlévτas had been effected; that is, Achilles proposes to return after they had reached home. A verse of Virgil explains this. Omina ni repetant. Æneid. ii. 175. On which Servius remarks that it was usual in an enterprise or expedition, if any difficulty, or any thing of a doubtful |