our author Agellius inftead of giving him the name by which he is generally known. Mr. Beloe continues his account of cur author thus: "Dodwell, Lambecius, and Borrichius, are of opinion that he was born in the reign of Trajan; that he was a youth in that of Adrian; that he paffed his manhood under Antoninus Pius; and that he died foon after Marcus Antoninus had been raised to the imperial throne. His inftructor in grammar was Sulpitius Apollinaris. He studied rhetoric under Titus Caftritius and Antonius Julianus. After taking the toga virilis, he went from Rome to Athens, where he lived on terms of familiarity with Calvifius Taurus, Peregrinus Proteus, and the celebrated Herodes Atticus. While he was at Athens, he began his "Noctes Atticæ." From his writings it appears that he was well skilled in philology and moral philofophy, and that he embraced the tenets of his illuftrious contemporary Favorinus. After traverfing the greater part of Greece, he returned to Rome, where he applied himfelf to the law and was appointed a judge." After all, Gellius, like many other learned men, must be content to be known more from the evidence he has left of himself, than from the teftimony which others have given of him. Nor will his memory thus be in much danger, if we may guess from the attention his work has already received. It has paffed through eighty editions, and the moft diftinguished scholars of every country have been employed in the illuftration of his matter, or the correction of his text. Of the title and plan of the work let us read the account given in the author's own words. "Whatever book came into my hand, whether it was + Greek or Latin, or whatever I heard that was either worthy of being recorded or agreeable to my fancy, I wrote down without diftinétion, and without order. These things I treafured up to aid my memory, as it were by a ftorehouse of learning: fo that when I wanted to refer to any particular circumftance or word which I had at the moment forgotten, and the book from which they were taken happened not to be at hand, I could easily find and apply it. Thus the fame irregularity will appear in those commentaries, as existed in the original annotations, *Davies, the learned editor of Cicero's Philofophical Works, and the contemporary and friend of the more learned Bentley, writes Agellius. See pages 65 and 70 of his edition of the Academics, where in the notes we read Agellius; but in the index of authors quoted on the Academics, Davies writes the name Gellius. REV. + Photius, in his preface to his Bibliotheca, informs his Brother Tarafius, that he ineant to fend him a general account of 279 volumes, which he had read during his embaffy to Affyria. The whole letter deferves to be compared with the proem of A. G. though much inferior to it in elegance and erudition. Ii 2 REV. which which were concifely written down without any method or arrange ment in the courfe of what I had at different times heard and read. As thefe obfervations at firft conftituted my bufinefs and my amufement, through many long winter nights, which I fpent in Attica, I have given them the name of Attic Nights." The Attic Nights therefore prefent us with whatever occurred worthy of notice, in the reading, or in the converfation. of a very learned and inquifitive Roman, who had travelled much, and who aflociated with perfonages the most eminent of his age for learning and knowledge. Whatever fubje&t fell under his confideration, in the courfe of his multifarious reading, whatever topic of difcourfe was introduced, in an age when it was more the custom than it is at prefent, to engage in rational and inftructive converfation, among thofe who were capable of fupporting it, Gellius carefully noted it down with a view to his future publication. Thefe materials, felected with great care, and put together in a plain but generally a perspicuous ftyle, form a great part of the work w offered to our notice. Gellius certainly is not to be praised for his originality, nor for his acuteness; but to diligence and to precision he has undoubted pretenfions; and fo long as his book lafts he will be entitled to the gratitude of thofe who are defirous of rational entertainment, and real inftruction. Do we complain that Stobæus is uninterefting, becaufe he has compiled from authors, of whom but for him, we fhould fcarce have known even the names? Is not every fcholar delighted with Athenæus, and the more delighted becaufe he abounds with a variety of exquifite erudition, drawn from the ftores of others ?-or, to use a more familiar allufion, does any one with, in the entertaining book of Mr. Bofwell, that there had been more of his compofition and lefs of Johnfon's converfation? Let us not, therefore, deny Gellius the praife he claims of having tranf * "I never looked upon Gellius in the light of a Lawyer (fays Ta or, p. 399 in his Elements of the Roman Law) and though I profels great reverence, to fay no more, for the writers of antiquity, I Could never confider him as very great in the capacity of a Critic, who has left this grammatical problem behind him as an exercife or trial of genius, which is not beyond the reach or penetration of an ordinary fchool-boy." He then quotes the contents of Cap. 14. 1. xix. the real words of Gellius are ad exercendam legentium attentione," which Taylor preffes beyond their meaning, when he fays, "a trial of genius." However, with his ufual candour, he adds, Gellius has his merits, which I would not be understood to difpute by any thing I have here said.” mitted mitted to fucceeding ages much elegant and useful matter; and let his tranflator receive our thanks for thus enriching the. ftores of English literature. Gellius extended his reading to a great variety of fubje&ts. Philology, Jurifprudence, Ethics, History, Natural Philofophy, have each occafionally contributed to the employment of his Attic Nights. Some queftions he difcufles profelfedly because they are abftrufe; and upon others, which had been controverted, he ventures not to decide. The lapfe of ages has fometimes thrown a difficulty even over those which he has endeavoured to illuftrate. The blunders of the copyist too have fometimes defaced the words of the author. From these circumstances it will easily be conceived that a translation of A. Gellius, to be executed well, could not be performed without great labour. A number of books muft neceffarily have been read by the tranflator, with a view to understand the meaning of Gellius and they mult have been read too with no ordinary care, by one who would illuftrate an author fo fully as was here Mr. B.'s profeffed intention. If we were not acquainted. with the variety, and occafional difficulty of the fubjects contained in this work; and if we could not bear our decided teftimony to the diligence with which most of thefe fubjects are explained by Mr. B, we should have regarded with a fufpicious eye the enumeration of authors confulted by the tranflator. "I must have failed," he fays truly, "either in gratifying the curiofity of the unlearned, or in obtaining the approbation of the learned readers, if I had not traversed a wider range than that which was opened to me by the labours of editors only.-Indeed I prefent Aulus Gellius to the public with greater confidence, when I recollect that scholars of the highest clafs have fometimes meditated editions of this writer, which," however, they have not completed, and fometimes inferted elucidations of the words he has ufed, or the facts he has recorded, or the fubjects he has difcuffed, in their mifcellaneous works." Pref. p. 25. We are then prefented with a catalogue of the writers to whom Mr. B. has had recourfe, and when, after perufing it, we find the tranflation correfpond with the expectations raised in us, we cannot juftly withhold from the tranflator the praise of great and fuccefsful exertions. The following obfervations are conceived with much ftrength, and contain much truth. "He that would make a tranflation agreeable, or even intelligible, muft fpend many weary hour in preparing for common minds thofe paffages, on which the ftrength of uncommon intellects has been again and again employed. He muft investigate what is deep to recommend what is plain. In elucidating the opinions, or conveying the fenfe of an ancient author, whofe works, like thofe of Gellius, embrace embrace the most curious topics of ancient learning, he must explore the writings of those moderns who are eminently learned." P. 31. Indeed, when we confider the attention that Mr. B. has employed upon his author, and the ability with which he has illuftrated the text, the work comes forward with greater pretenfions to notice than as a mere trantation. It is the performance of a fcholar, and by fcholars it will be approved.They will confider it as a publication in which the fcattered learning of former editors is fkilfully collected and concentrated; in which their fuperfluities are retrenched, their deficiencies fupplied, and their errors very often avoided. We cannot difmifs the Preface without bringing forward one circumstance. the knowledge of which will give pleasure to every liberal mind. In a note to Chap. 9. Book 11. Mr. Beloe expreffes his opinion that the charge of bribery,' which has long ftood against the illustrious name of Demofthenes *, is without foundation; and he fupports this opinion by a quotation from Paufanias, which to us, as well as to Mr. B. carries with it every internal mark of authenticity and truth." In a note to the Preface, he is enabled" to state, upon the authority of a learned friend, that the fame opinion was long ago entertained and defended by that accomplished scholar and illuftrious lawyer, Mr. Charles Yorke." He had written," Mr. B. is told, " upon this fubject a differtation, in which all the evidence fupplied by the writers of antiquity is carefully collected, and judiciously examined, and in which the decifion of this most able examiner is in favour of that man, whofe eloquence charms us in our youth, and from whofe patriotifm we are eager to wipe out every stain, which the malignity of his con Cicero has been injured by a fimilar imputation. In his Life, written by Plutarch, he is accufed of having been bribed to mitigate the fine impofed on Verres. Corradus has traced the fource of this calumny, and very ably confuted it, in his Quæftura.-See pp. 55 and 56 of the Leipfic edition, publifhed by Ernefti in 1754. As Corradus wrote two books with the fame title, Corradi Quæftura, and as the fecond part only is generally found in catalogues, it may not be amifs to ftate that the first, and fcarce part, chiefly containing emendations of Cicero's text, was published at Venice in 1537, and republished for the first time by Ernefti 1754, from a copy fent to him by Ruhnkenius. The book commonly called Corradi Quæftura may be met with easily. It chiefly relates to the Hiftory of Cicero, and was publifhed feveral years after the firft Quæftura. It has fince been often edited, and by a blunder of the Printer, or by negligence in Ernefti, is placed, in the Leipfic edition, before the book to which it was really pofterior. The order of Corradus's works is this. Corradi Quaftura, Venice, 1537. The Commentary in Brutum, Florence 1552. The fecond Corradi Quafura, Florence 1555. REV. temporaries, temporaries, and the credulity of later writers, may have endeavoured to fix upon it. The erudition difplayed in this work of Mr. Yorke's, lay, perhaps, within the reach of other fcholars; but the regularity of the arrangement, the acuteness of the reasoning, and the exquifite perfpicuity, the grace, and the energy of the ftyle, are fplendid proofs of the vigorous and cultivated mind which adorned the amiable and venerable author." Not. Pref. p. 38. We are happy to find our tranflator's liberal and manly opinion upon this fubject confirmed by the refult of fuch an inveftigation, as it feems Mr. Yorke employed: and we add with Mr. B. our warmest wishes "That the prefent Lord Hardwicke could be prevailed upon to favour the public with a compofition which would at once gratify the curiofity of scholars, terminate the controverfies of biographers, and reflect the very highest honour upon the fenfibility, tafle and learning, of his much-revered and much-lamented father." Ibid. It remains for us to make the English reader acquainted with the Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, which we shall endeavour to perform by felecting fuch paffages as may convey to him a proper notion of the tranflator's manner, as well as of the author's matter. We fhall produce fome fpecimens of the elaborate notes which accompany the tranflation, and not decline bringing forward any additional matter which may serve to illuftrate the fubject; but as the completion of this tafk will carry us far beyond the limits of a fingle article, we muft defer it to the enfuing month. (To be concluded in our next.) ART. II. The War Elegies of Tyrtæus imitated: and addressed to the People of Great Britain. With fome Obfervations on the Life and Poems of Tyrtaus. By Henry James Pye. 8vo. Is. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1795. то TO roufe the military fpirit of his countrymen, in times of preffing danger, feems a tafk legitimately connected with the Laureat's office. His immediate duty is limited indeed to the production of certain odes; but, as a kind of public poet, if he volunteers any productions, none furely can be more becorning his fituation, than fuch as are dictated by the fpirit of patriotifm. Mr. Pye is honourably gifted with this fpirit, as well as that of poetry, and their union in this little production is very pleafing. If we may credit Lord Rofcommon, the omen |