my own." The confiftency of thefe propofitions we are not at prefent to examine; the veracity of the author appears ex-, tremely ambiguous; and we have reafon to believe that Dr. Gillies has borrowed largely from Mr. Mitford, without confulting the authorities to which he refers, and without making the leaft acknowledgment. We fhall proceed to illuf trate this affertion. The Cretan policy is known, to political philofophers, to have been the firft experiment in Greece of an attempt to wards a regular government. What Dr. Gillies writes concerning it (p. 21, 2, &c.) is vifibly transcribed from Mr. Mitford, p. 13 and 19 of his Hiftory. The idea of Thefeus having introduced improvements into the Athenian government from the model of Crete, is fuggefted by Mr. Mitford, p. 14 and 48; and is tranfcribed by Dr. Gillies, p. 24. Dr. Gillies's defcription of Greece, p. 26, is borrowed from Mr. Mitford, p. 9 and 29. The western coaft of Afia Minor, the feat of Priam's kingdom, is claffically defcribed by Mr. Mitford, p. 51 and 52, with the philofophical obfervation, that it owed its fuperiority to the petty kingdoms of Greece, not, merely from a higher degree of civilization in the people, but alfo to the extent of the Afiatic plains, lefs cut, by mountains and feas, into fmall portions of difficult accefs, than the diftricts of Greece. This ingenious and juft obfervation Dr. Gillies has expanded and weakened, p. 28, to juvenile redundancy, fo as to lose the meaning. But the most curious, and most rifible circumftance of all, is, that Dr. Gillies follows Mr. Mitford even in his errors. On the occafion of the voluntary and patriotic death of Codrus, and the fubfequent decree of the Athenians, "That none but Jupiter fhould henceforth reign " in Athens," Mr. Mitford quotes the authority of Paufanias, Lib. vii. Chap. 2. - The credulous and obfequious Dr. Gillies mentions the fame fact, and quotes the fame authority, though no fuch paffage is to be found in Paufanias. The real authority for this incident is found in the Scholia on Ariftophanes in Nubib; and it is not a little remarkable, that the fame portion of cloud has hung both on the original and the imi tator *. * If the reader wifhes further to trace and detect this literary theft, let him compare Mr. Mitford, p. 30, with Dr. Gillies, p. 7 (in the note); Mr. Mitford, p. 52 and 53, with Dr. Gillies, p. 29; Mr. Mitford, p. 59 and 123, with Dr. Gillies, p. 66; Mr. Mitford, p. 124. with Dr. Gillies, p. 69; Mr. Mitford, p. 233 and 236, with Dr. Gillies, p. 74; Mr. Mitford, p. 128 and 140, with Dr. Gillies, p. 78; Mr. Mitford, p. 130, giving the origin of the Grecian oracles, literally There ་་ There are fome hiftorical mistakes in Dr. Gillies's Hiftory of Greece. He tells us, p. 11, “that the inflexible rigour of defpotifm prevailed in Egypt in all ages." On the contrary, Egypt, both in ancient and in modern times, has been under an aristocratical or oligarchical government. He appeals to Scripture for his account of the Egyptian government; but, if he had ever read the well-known ftory of Jofeph and Potiphar's wife, he would have found that the maxims of government were by no means defpotic. If the bishops of England fucceeded to their office by hereditary right, like the Egyptian priests; if they had the power of judging the fovereign, and naming to the fucceffion; and if religion had as much influence in England as in Egypt; it is easy to fee where the power of government would center. In p. 30 Dr. Gillies relates the infult offered to the beautiful Ganymede, and exprefsly contradicts it in the note. In p. 66 and 67 he destroys the panegyric he had pronounced on the Grecian manners in the heroic ages. In p. 68 he mistakes an effect for a caufe. It was not the unfettled tenure of landed property that compelled the Grecian tribes to migrate, but the fpirit of migrating, common to all barbarous tribes, that prevented them from acquiring the idea of a permanent and feparate property in land. Barbarians, according to Tacitus, are more profuse of their blood than their fweat. In p. 75 he tells us, that, after the Ionic migration, "the Athenians, ingenious and fond of "novelty, made fuch alterations in their writing and pronoun ciation, as diftinguifhed them from their Ionian brethren." If he had read Strabo, whom he sometimes pretends to quote, he would have found, that "the Ionians made the changes; and that the Athenians retained the original purity of their "language." In p. 204 he talks of the tranfcendent me rit of the Pindaric ftyle; that it is so natural, free, and un"conftrained, as to bear lefs refemblance to poetry, than to "a beautiful and harmonious profe." This applies very well to the English Pindaric odes at the end of the last, and the beginning of the prefent century. Our author feems never to have read the Greek Pindar. Whenever he talks of military or naval affairs, he difplays a profound and amusing ignorance. He calls the Grecian fhips, (p. 153) long-boats. In p. 273 he mentions separate brigades in the Perfian army; and in p. 372 transcribed by Dr. Gillies, p. 85; Mr. Mitford, p. 132 and 134, with Dr. Gillies, p. 81 and 82; Mr. Mitford, p. 146 and 148, with Dr. Gillies, p. 86; Mr. Mitford, p. 150 and 184, with Dr. Gillies, p. 89; Mr. Mitford, p. 193, with Dr. Gillies, p. 103; Mr. Mitford, p. 21 3, with Dr. Gillies, p. 129. he he fays, "the Lacedemonians thickened their ranks ;" we suppose he means "deepened their files." He informs us, p. 516, "that the Corcyreans landed in the Peloponnefus, and fet "fire to the barbour of Cyllene." Is not this idea taken from an Irish new paper, during the laft war," that the combined "fleets of France and Spain had burned and destroyed the envi"rons of Gibraltar?" He fays, p. 272, "the flames of Sar"dis brought the inhabitants from all parts of Lydia to their "affiftance." Did they come in air-balloons? He tells us, P. 413," that, in the maritime provinces of Thrace, the "climate vies with the delightful foftnefs of the Afiatic "plains." Does Ovid fay fo? Concerning the temple of Olympian Jupiter, he fays, p. 441, "that it was covered with "Pentelican marble, cut in the form of brick tiles." Bricktiles! We are informed, p. 278, that, in ancient times, the fuccefs of a naval engagement principally depended on the activity of the rowers, and the fkill of the pilots. In p. 307 he mentions the muster-roll of Xerxes' army. At the battle of Thermopyla, he fays, "the Greeks four times difpelled the "thickest globes of Perfians." Query, What was a globe of Perfians? and how thick were the thickeft globes? After a tempeft, he tells us, p. 332, "that the nearest veffels were faved by "hauling them under the fhore." This method of saving velfels we recommend to the confideration of lee-fhore admirals. In this New Hifiory of Greece the antiquarian and the philofopher will meet with little inftruction or entertainment. The merit of the work is of the rhetorical and declamatory kind; and when the author attempts to think and to speculate, to inquire and difcover, he goes beyond his depth. There is a facility and a flow in the ftile; and, along with this, the verbofity of one who has been bred up to the trade of writing, and accustomed to compofe with more celerity than correctness; and with more diffufion than energy. The manner of Mr. Gibbon is fometimes imitated; by which means the ftile abounds with inequalities; and there are grammatical improprieties to be found almoft in every page, the title page not excepted. The dedication contains fome of the groffeft violations of truth we remember ever to have read, even in a dedication. In p. ift he fays, "the victories of barbarous nations are "celebrated in the artless fong, and commemorated by the "rude monument ;" and adds, in the next sentence, their "adventures, which thus pafs unremembered by themselves:" In the following fentence he continues," one people became "an object of attention to another, only as they became con"fiderable." Separate property in land is thus defcribed, p. 8: The idea of an exclufive and permanent right to all "the the ufes of a piece of land." In p. 29 he calls "Dardanus, An ceftor fifth in degree to Priam," Mr. Mitford had called him "Ancestor in the fixth degree to Hector." Dr. Gillies has made nonsense of the phrafe. In p. 67 he begins to ufe the abftract for the concrete in imitation of Mr. Gibbon, but not in his manner. "The patient fortitude of Ulyffes regained Ithaca, but not without wading through the blood of his subjects.” And in the following page: "The avarice of individuals is unwilling to relinquish the fields which it has been the object of their induftry to cultivate." In p. 273 he uses "future occafion" for following occafion, and does fo through the whole work. In P. 350 he fays "the Athenians fkillfully encircled their enemies around." It required fome skill, indeed, for the fmaller number to encircle the greater; but "to encircle them around” -still more marvellous! In p. 351 he fays, "The victors difdained to purfue the vanquished"-a kind of difdain which was unknown to Julius Cefar. In p. 373 he tells us, "Fear hindered them to fight; the wall hindered them to fly." In p. 421 he employs a ftrange phrafeology. “ This revolution had important effects, which we fhall proceed to explain when we have punished and difmiffed Paufanias." This mode of writing was unknown to the ancients, and in modern times has been appropriated to kings and reviewers. We do not recollect any literary work that has been ushered into the world with fuch pomp of panegyric as the present *. Perhaps, on a fubject of antiquity, the author thought that he might adopt the ftile of the ancients. Sum pius Eneas, famâ fuper Ethera notus. But unmerited encomim defeats itself, and, instead of being a tribute to the living, becomes an epitaph on the dead. (To be continued.) ART. II. Anecdotes of the late Dr. Johnson, during the last Twenty Years of his Life, by Hefiber Lynch Piozzi. Small 8vo. 45. fewed. Cadell, London. THE love of anecdote is one of the most prevailing paffions, or rather appetites, of the prefent age. In the gratification of this defire, it must be confeffed, the public difcovers more voracity than tafte. Whatever hands men up to fame, or down * Dr. Gillies's Hiftory of Greece was noticed in four monthly journals, and two newspapers, with high encomiums of praife, within ferven days after its publication. Could this, without example in the annals of our literature, have happened fpontaneously or by accident? or had the author himself drawn up the articles in readiness for the purpose before his book was in general circulation ? to to infamy, becomes indifcriminately the object of the biographer; the memoirs of Charles Price, or the Brighton taylor, furnish a morning meal to the literary glutton, equally well as the life of Samuel Johnson, or the hiftory of John Duke of Marlborough. Of the nine lives of this giant in learning, as he is called, which have been promised to the public, Mrs. Piozzi's is the fifth that has been published, and in our judgment the best. This lady enjoyed the best opportunity of being acquainted with her hero, as he lived chiefly with her and her family for eighteen years; he had a profound reverence for his perfon and abilities; and, as fhe is a woman of learning and accomplishments, is fully equal to the fubject fhe has undertaken. She begins by giving fome anecdotes of his birth, figure, and education, which ferve as a key to his future character. His father Michael was a bookfeller at Litchfield. He was a man of great corporeal ftrength and fize; extremely pious; addicted to melancholy; fubject to madnefs; and always on the point of beggary. Our hero had also an uncle Cornelius, who could leap as far in his boots as any other man in his fhoes, and another uncle Andrew, who kept the ring in Smithfield for a whole year, and was the best boxer and wrestler of his age. Under his uncle Andrew he ftudied the art of boxing, at which he was very expert. Thus by hereditary sight he poffeffed that robuftness of body and mufcular merit, which is generally connected with vulgarity of mind. His father and mother were both well ftricken in years when he was born; and, as he was the fon of their grey hairs, he was immediately looked upon as a prodigy, and became the plaything of their dotage. By the inftruction of his mother, he could pronounce the words little natty at three years of age; and, having given fuch a wonderful specimen of his uncommon abilities, he was ever called upon to perform his tricks and antics, and exhibit before company; though he was fometimes fo averfe to be produced as a fhew, that he ufed to run up a tree and hide himself-perhaps in order to be found. From this early education he probably contracted the habit of exhibiting himself as a fhew, which he carried into all companies and retained to the laft hour of his life. From his father he inherited the principles of Jacobitism and attachment to Epifcopacy; which were fo much improved by his education at the university of Oxford, that through all his future life he held a whig, a prefbyterian, and an atheift, in an equal degree of abhorrence. For fome time he exercifed the office of a pedagogue or Schoolmafter, in which he learned to domineer over boys, and to employ thofe magnificent polyfyllables, and fefquipedalia verba, which not only gave the oracular dignity of darkness to what he |