fhows, that it is infinitely more dangerous, and much less useful, than the present fyftem, "if it is intended to be different from that fyftem in any thing but name." He prefers the entire abolition of the flave trade, which would force the planter to attend to his prefent ftock. The planter would then find it neceffary to refide; task-work would be introduced; and by degrees, the Negroes would be converted into free labourers, by paffing through the feveral gradations which the peafantry of Europe have done.

The fafety of the colonies, independent of any philanthropic views, requires fome alteration in the prefent fyftem; but we muft obferve, that it is not cafy to make any change that would not affect the whole ftate of fociety. By meliorating the condition of the Africans, the islands would be converted into proper agricultural ftates, fimilar to thofe on the conti nent of America; and, in this flate, they would no longer afford openings for the fpeculations of monied men. The opening of the Eaft Indian trade would then become more and more neceffary for the employment of the larger capitals.

The pleasure we have received from this work has led us to analyze it in a copious manner. The fubjects of it are dif cuffed with much ingenuity, and Mr. B. has collected his facts from the moft authentic fources. Of the flyle, our readers can form fome judgment from the quotations we have made. It certainly difplays genius and mental vigour; but, at the fame time, it frequently refembles more the vehement ardour of declamation, than the cool and fober voice of en quiry.

The work is, for the most part, correctly printed; but we observe a few inftances of that hafty compofition which marks political writings in general. In fpeaking of the colonial trade of Sweden, Mr. B. fays:

"Befides, the law, analogous to the English Navigation Act, first paffed in 1724, and revived and confirmed by the famous Bill of 3772, the ancient policy of the kingdom limited the freedom of fo reign commerce in a manner perfectly unknown in any other part of Europe." Vol. i. p. 499.

This fentence is not only obfcure, but álfo liable to mislead a curfory reader, who would be apt to imagine that the dates here given refer to our Navigation A&t, which, as Mr. B. him felf flates, in another part of his work, was paffed 15 Car. II.

In vol. ii. p. 230, near the end of the first paragraph, for "Britain," we fhould furely read "Auftria." This is pro bably owing to mere inadvertence, and may be corrected by the context; but the correction of the following error is not fo obvious.

"The

"The appearance of an Epaminondas can no longer raise a petty flate to power and influence over its neighbours, fuddenly to be loft, with that great man's life, by fome unforeseen victory at Leuc tra." Vol. ii. p. 284.

Mr. B. is too well acquainted with ancient hiftory, not to know that the battle of Leuctra was that which raised the Theban power upon the ruin of the Lacedæmonian; nor is he to learn, that it was at Mantinea, twelve years afterwards, that Epaminondas fell, in the moment of victory. To recon cile thefe facts with his expreffions will require a most harsh parenthetical conftruction. If we fuppofe Leu&tra is put erroneoufly for Mantinea, the adjective,. unforeseen, appears ill applied.

ART. II. Commentaries on Claffical Learning. By the Rev. D. H. Urquhart, M. A. Prebendary of Lincoln. 8vo. 539 pp. 7s. Cadell and Davies. 1803.

THE publication which neither excites delight from its ori

ginality, nor great intereft froin a varied difplay of talent and of taste, may nevertheless entitle its author to a confiderable degree of praife. The fcale of literary fame is numerously graduated; and they, who cannot arrive at the fummit may well be fatisfied, where all are refpectable, with obtaining fome of the fubordinate ftations. Genius itself, which arrefts with its powerful grafp the loftieft honours, feldom disdains to extend the protecting hand to fuch as are endeavouring to make the nearest advances, fmoothing the rugged nefs of the path, and promifing a portion of its own fplendor.

Thefe Commentaries on Claffical Learning are evidently the production of a gentleman and a scholar, but of one probably who has not written much before, as his ftyle wants the eafe which is only acquired by exercife, and is frequently marked by the inaccuracies which that exercise would have prevented. They alfo exhibit the fentiments of an individual who has read much, and often difcriminated with felicity; but ftill we are at a lofs to fay what chafm in literary history required fuch a work to fill it.

He who undertakes to prove that claffical learning is eminently useful, undertakes to prove what very few indeed will difpute; and biographical fketches of the moft illuftricas authors of antiquity may every where be found. The whole of the volume is occupied by these two objects.

Yet

Yet whatever has employed the ferious thoughts and labotious attention of a man of learning, must have more or less of merit; and the younger ftudent will find in this volume many valuable materials, agreeably brought together. We fhall proceed, therefore, without further introduction, to give a fummary of its contents, and a fhort fpecimen of the execution of a work, which, if we cannot praife with loud acclama tion, we admit to be deferving of confiderable respect.

The volume is divided into twenty Sections. The first, in a manner not very diffimilar to that before adopted by Mr. Kett, dilates on the various advantages of claffical learning to the lawyer, the phyfician, the divine, and the other more refpectable conditions and characters of life. The two following Sections treat of the poets of Greece, who are celebrated for their Epic and Lyric compofitions. The fourth and fifth are occupied by Greek tragedy and comedy. The fixth by the paftoral poets and writers of epigrams. The feventh is on Grecian orators. The eighth on hiftory. The ninth on Plutarch folely; and the tenth on the fatirical compofitions of Greece.

Roman literature fucceeds, and is difcuffed altogether in a fimilar manner. The following feems as creditable a fpecimen of the author's flyle and manner as we can prefent.

"During the first three ages of Roman comedy, the writers were the fervile imitators of the Greeks. But foon after the time when Terence had quitted Rome, Afranius and others whofe compofitions are loft, delivered the ftage from the tyranny of foreign perfonages, and exhibited thofe pieces only in which the stories and the characters were Roman.

"Horace applauds the fpirit of those who ventured upon this inno

vation :

"Nec minimum meruere decus veftigia Græca
Aufi deferere, et celebrare domeftica facta."

"From this period, comedy was divided into two fpecies, which took their names from the different habits of the two countries. The Roman comedy was fubdivided into four kinds; the first of which, borrowing its name from the drefs of plain citizens, was called the togata, and, when perfons of diftinction were introduced, the prætextata. This was of a ferious na ure, perhaps like the fentimental comedy of modern times.

"The fecond was of a comic caft, deriving its name Tabernaria from a town or place of refidence*, where the perfons met whose characters were exhibited.

"The Atellana was the third fpecies, in which the actors not fpeaking from written dialogues, trusted to the spontaneous effufions A palpable error. It is from taberna, a tavern. See Hor. Ars. Poet. v. 229. This account is much better given by Dr. Adam in his Roman Antiquities. Rev.

of

8

of their fancy; and it had this privilege, that the fpectators could not oblige them to unmask. Another exclufive advantage also belonged to the actors in the Atellana; they retained the right of freemen and the power of enlifting in the army.

The curious account given by Dr. Hurd of the Satyrs, Mimes, and Atellanes, is worthy an attentive perufal. He fhews us that the -latter was an entertainment so called from Atella, a town of the Ofci in Campania. The language and characters were both Ofcan, and their provincial dialect was a fource of pleasantry at Rome.

1

"In these three fpecies the fock was always, worn by the performers.

"The fourth fpecies, the Mimus, was a fort of farce, in which the actors were barefoot.

"At the funeral of Vefpafian, we find from Suetonius, that his character was represented in a mimic piece according to the Roman cuftom.

"The leading feature of Vefpafian's character was avarice, of -which a remarkable inftance is recorded. A town in Italy was about to erect a ftatue to him; when he said to his deputies, ftretching out his hand, "Gentlemen, here is the bafis whereon you must erect your Ratue."

"In allufion to this circumftance, the actor, Favor Archimimus, who played the part of the emperor, having asked the directors of the ceremony, what would be the expence of his interment,, and finding that it would amount to fome millions of crowns, cried out, "Gentlemen, let me have a hundred thousand erowns, and you may throw my body into the river."

"The divifion of the declamation between two actors took place at a very early period of the Roman drama. The anecdote is fomewhat curious. Livius Andronicus, about one hundred and twenty years after the theatres had been opened, was accustomed, like the Gre cian writers, to appear as an actor on the ftage. The people, applauding fome of his fpeeches, cried out " again" fo often, that he became perfectly inaudible by hoarseness, and was obliged to have a flave to recite his verfes, while he retained the gefture and the action.

"It is faid by Macrobius, that Cicero ufed to contend with Rofcius; who fhould beft deliver the fame fentiment, each making ufe of the talent in which he excelled. Rofcius exhibited, by a mute action, the fenfe of the phrafe which Cicero compofed and recited. Cicero afs terwards changed the words and turn of the phrafe, without enervating the fenfe, and Rofcius was obliged on his part to exprefs the fenfe by other geftures, without weakening it by action.

"Malks were introduced into Greece by fchylus; Rofcius Gallus was the firft actor who wore a mask at Rome, which he did with a view to conceal the defect of fquinting. The mafks were thought fo effential to the character, that they used to prefix to their pieces, together with the dramatis perfonæ, the figure of the [cach] mafk. The intricacy of the Amphytrio and the Menæchmi, turning upon the mistake of one perfon for another, is rendered much more credible when we confider the general ufe of marks. It was befides customary to make men aft female characters, and this mode of concealment was therefore indif penfibly neceffary.

"The

"The masks were also requifite to the immenfe fize of the unroofed theatres. Within the mouth was an incruftation of horn, to increase the natural found of the voice, that it might be heard by the fpectators, fome of whom were placed twenty-four yards from the Mage.

"The Roman actors had enormous falaries. Horace mentions a famous prodigal, who had gained two hundred and fifty thousand pounds by his profeffion; Pliny fays that Rofcius received five thoufand pounds a year; and Macrobius fpeaks of his having a falary of forty-five pounds a day entirely for his own ufe. The greatest number of the actors were born flaves, and fubject to a very rigorous apprenticeship. The most eminent of them would never fpeak a word in a morning before they had methodically unfolded their voice, letting it loose by degrees that they might not hurt their organs. During this exercife they continued in bed; after having acted, they laid down, and in this pofture as it were folded up their voice again, taifing it to the highest tone they had reached in their declamation, and depreffing it afterwards fucceffively to all the other tones, till they funk it to the loweft." P. 311.

The reader will find feveral poetical fpecimens inter*fperfed; many of which are original, and many from our most popular writers. The lines on the Origin and Progrefs of the Drama, if we are not very much mistaken, we have seen be'fore in another form, and with a different title; they are certainly not without a degree of poetical fpirit, but they appear to be introduced on the present occafion with fome awkwardnefs.

It must be admitted, that there are very few, if any, traces of original thinking, novel information, or much to excite furprise, delight, or admiration in this volume. Neither muft the author be vexed or difappointed, if his work fhall not be received into very extenfive circulation. He who only tells us, with a little variety of manner, what we knew before, may be perufed once from curiofity, but will not be referred to again. We readily, however, repeat our opinion, that the younger ftudent at the Univerfity, or elsewhere, may be faved fome trouble, and reap fome profit from this publi cation; which bears the marks of diligence, and a refpectable portion, both of tafte and learning. A long lift of errata is fubjoined; for which, however, the author makes the fatisfactory apology of abfence and ill-health; and the book is dedicated, with a fuitable infcription, to the Bishop of Lincoln, who has eminently been diftinguifhed by his patronage of literature and of literary men, of which it appears the author has not been without fome portion. Mr. Urquhart formerly published a Tranflation of the Odes of Anacreon; of which, though we have not feen it, we have heard a very favourable report.

ART.