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THE

APPENDIX

TO THE

SEVENTY-FOURTH VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

ENLARGED.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I. Mélanges de Critique, &c.; i. e. Critical and Philolo gical Miscellanies, by S. CHARDON DE LA ROCHETTE. 8vo. Paris. 1812. Imported by De Boffe. Price 11. 16s.

THE

3 Vols.

HE classical scholar is here presented with a very learned and amusing collection of essays: but, as the veteran author candidly (if not judiciously) intimates in one portion of his work, it is not a collection adapted for indiscriminate perusal. Many of the subjects are of too confined a nature for the entertainment of the general reader, and sundry passages in every volume are calculated only for the inspection of initiated eyes. To speak plainly, it is our opinion that, on some occasions, a little less learning and a little more reserve would have improved these miscellanies. It shall, however, be our business to render justice to their several attractions; to give a sufficient though succinct account of their stores of information; and to dwell particularly on those divisions of the book which seem most curious, and most worthy of general attention.

In a concise preface, we are informed that a part of these essays has appeared in the periodical publications of France, but especially in that literary journal which bears the title of "Le Magasin Encyclopédique;" and which in its merit, and popularity on the continent, is stated to be the genuine" suc cessor of "Le Journal des Savans:"-nay, in the opinion of APP. REV. VOL. LXXIV.

G g

those

-

those among whom it circulates out of France, to be superior to its precursor. On these matters we shall be better able to form a judgment in England some time hence; when opportunity shall have been given us to profit by the present happy change in the state of the world; and we shall have renewed our old freedom of literary intercourse, as well as free communication of every kind, with the continent. The portions of these miscellanies which had been already published are here corrected, and cast into a new form. They were well received at first, and the author hopes that they will deserve a continuation of public favour. The three leading articles, which introduce each volume, are now first printed: they are also the most interesting in the work, according to our judgment, and we shall therefore devote the best portion of our attention to them: but we shall previously state the contents of the whole collection to our readers, and notice some detached passages of curiosity or interest in the other essays.

An air of good humoured criticism pervades this publication, which, we confess, coincides with our ideas of what is correct and proper on such occasions. The authors, indeed, who are selected for criticism, are in general those whose reputation is established; and who, in the opinion of all readers, deserve a much ampler portion of praise than of censure. Still, when faults are necessarily to be found, there is room for a prodigious difference of manner in alleging those faults; and, however earnest or vehement the critic may be in defending his own favourite ideas against any who impugn them, it can only be the wilfully indiscriminating, or the impenetrably dull, who mistake this earnestness or vehemence for self-conceit, for illtemper, or for malignity. The marks of deliberate bitterness of spirit are, we think, so easily distinguishable from those which belong to an occasional burst of honest affection, or even of pardonable indignation,—such a coldness appears about the one, and such a warmth about the other, that they can run no danger of being confounded, except by those who will mistake, or who cannot discern. M. CHARDON DE la Rochette is still less exposed to the chance of misrepresentation. has the utmost tenderness for the reputation of others; and in truth, on most occasions, he offers a model of that well-bred style of criticism which, we grieve to say it, seems to be so little known, or at all events so little practised, in that family of scholars who by eminence, or by courtesy, (if their rivals please,) are intitled classical. We were induced to refer with approbation to an extract on this subject from a preface of Markland, inserted by Dr. Butler in the notice prefixed to his

II

He

Eschylus;

Eschylus; and we are so much pleased with any exemplification of the gentlemanly principles there inculcated, that we cannot omit to mention the liberal feeling of the present author towards all his literary rivals.

M. CHARDON DE LA ROCHETTE apologizes for the insertion of a republished letter from the learned Coray, but with that confidence which any composition of that excellent scholar must inspire in the publisher. We shall notice it in its place.

In his fourth volume, which he tells us will be almost entirely devoted to Greek Philology, he promises with much solemnity the Greek text, the French translation, and two Latin verse translations, (with we know not how many commentaries,) of what composition, will our readers suppose, after all this pomp of promise? - of a poem of Paul the Silentiary! - Now, really, let the said Paul be as elegant an epigrammatist as the warmest admirers of the Anthology can describe him to be, yet this grave declaration of an intended publication of one of his poems cannot but make the common reader smile; and we have several other opportunities of observing, in these volumes, that unconscious importance which classical critics are apt to betray, and which is so ludicrous to the unlearned observer. The fourth volume is also to contain a general and analytical table of contents of the first four volumes. - Vol. V. (which, if its predecessors succeed, will make its appearance in due season, and which, itself, will not be the last!) will give an unedited romance of Nicetas Eugenianus; the Greek text, a French version, and notes. This, we have no doubt, will be an addition to our stock of Greek literature:- but we shall return presently to the subject of the Greek romances. The author concludes his preface by requesting his reader's indulgence for the misprints in the work; which we have not observed to be unusually numerous; and most of which are of so palpable a nature as to occasion the reader not a moment's doubt as to their origin.

In our specification of the criticisms collected in these volumes, we shall omit the three leading articles before mentioned, and review them in succession after we have dismissed the essays of minor importance. - Volume I. supplies some remarks on certain passages in Suidas; an explanation of a Greek inscription, preserved at Aix in the cabinet of M Fauris St. Vincens; an account of an edition of Anacreon, by the

We hope ere long to give an account of the remaining volumes of this most useful and laborious variorum edition of Eschylus. (See Review, Vol. Ixiii. N.S. p.162.) We have to make our peace with our classical readers for so long delaying the continuation of this critique.

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Abbé de Rancé, in 1639; a dissertation on two Greek epigrams of Philodemus: a letter to the Abbé de St. Leger on some editions of the Greek Anthology; on the facetious work called "Le Chef-d'œuvre d'inconnu;" on Panatius on the Greek anthology of De Bosch, with the Latin version of Grotius; and on the poem of Petronius intitled "The Civil War." Of these

subjects, that which has most occupied the attention and called forth the learning of the present author seems to be the Greek Anthology; and indeed this was naturally to be expected from M. C. DE LA ROCHETTE, at whose hands every classical scholar is so anxiously waiting for the complete edition of all the extant remains of these Grecian flowers. From the specimens here given of the editor's intimate acquaintance with his subject, in many of its branches, we cannot but anticipate the highest gratification to all the lovers of antient literature, when the promised work appears.

M. de Bosch seems to have conceived a most erroneous idea of the respect entertained by the present author for the labours of Grotius on the Anthology. M. C. DE LA R. clears himself from the mistaken charges of the German editor; and, on this as on all similar subjects, he shews the greatest urbanity and good humour in his literary arguments. Among many curious pieces of bibliographical information which this volume contains, we have observed the following notice of the Anthologia Inedita, (as it is commonly called,) which may be acceptable to some of our readers:

It is ascertained that there does not exist in Europe * (at least if it be not in some library at Constantinople) any other manuscript of the collection of Cephalas than that which was transferred from the Palatine library to the Vatican, and which forms a part of those with which we have been furnished by the Pope. All the others which are scattered over Europe, and pass under the name of the Anthologia Inedita," are derived from it. I know only two entire copies of this unique manuscript; that which the Duke of Saxe Gotha purchased from the heirs of Spalletti, and that which I have in my possession. All the other MSS. are only extracts, of greater or less extent, from the Palatine MS.'

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In the note on this passage, and all the articles there enumerated are enriched with curious annotations, we have a singular specimen of the rapaciousness which seems to have pervaded every department of the late French government; a rapaciousness, we cannot help remarking, which the legitimate rulers of the country will do well to disavow, by restoring the

*This round assertion, that the author has proved a negative, may startle some of our more cautious logicians.

plundered

plundered treasures, (trying to their virtue as this restoration. in some instances will be,) without exception, to their respective countries *. We need not say that our remark is applicable to the case before us; although we should wish M. CHARDON DE LA ROCHETTE to have every temporary use that he can wish of the Vatican MS. The Pope was so sollicitous for the preservation of this MS., that he caused it to be conveyed to Terracina with his most valuable jewels. But our Commissaries directed it to be brought back; and, perceiving that it had been newly fastened together, and that the Anacreon had been detached from it, they ordered that to be brought back also, and these two parts were reckoned as only one manuscript.' Here ends this precious story; which we cannot peruse without considerable indignation. We are not much better pleased with the eulogies too plentifully sprinkled through a scholar's pages on that immortal Emperor, whose glory has set in darkness and degradation. The author may have been an object of his favour: but, in the character of an admirer and supporter of antient literature, surely he cannot consistently panegyrize that person as the patron of the learned languages, who gave nothing like a general encouragement to classical instruction, but, on the contrary, (during one period of his reign at least,) only wished to promote the study of Greek and Latin inasmuch as they were necessary to the explanation of the technical terms of art, and favourable to the improvement of military science.

M. C. DE LA R. proceeds to detail the earlier adventures of the Palatine MS. † He gives us an Italian letter of Leo Allatius on the subject, the original of which exists in the rich library of Carpentras, among the voluminous correspondence of Peiresc; and he states his belief that it was never before published. It contains an account of the mission of Leo Allatius to Heidelberg to collect and arrange, previously to its transportation to Rome, the celebrated Palatine library, which Maximilian of Bavaria had presented to the Pope. It is assuredly a curious document, and will be a rich treat to a certain class of literary epicures.

The second article of Volume II. furnishes a sketch of a history of medicine by the celebrated Coray, and the third gives some account of the edition of Theophrastus published by the

We are greatly pleased with the manly boldness of a member of the Spanish Cortes, in a late meeting, for proposing this demand on the part of Spain.

May we not ask, en passant, why, in this age of bibliography, we are not occasionally favoured with the "Adventures of an Unique MS." or "The Literary Life of an Editio Princeps ?"

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