Idyllium X. - μελίχλωρον -ν. 26. melli similem colore. τὴν δ ̓ αὖ τρόπον οὐκ ἔχω εἴπειν-ν. 37. Morem vero tuum non possum exprimere. This line is remarkable. As there are no words which can adequately paint the engaging manner of an agreeable person, the reaper says, "I cannot describe your manner." Idyllium XI. *Αρτι γενειάσδων περὶ τὸ στόμα τὼς κροτάφως τε. ν. 9. · - ὑποκάρδιον ἕλκος—ν. 15. in pectore vulnus. - τὸ φίλον γλυκύμαλον -ν. 39. carum dulceque pomum. ἄμπελος & γλυκύκαρπος—ν. 46. vitis quæ dulces fructus habet. πολυδένδρεος Αἴτναν. 47. nemorosa Ætna. Κιχλίζοντι δὲ πᾶσαι-ν. 78. omnes vero rident. Idyllium XIII. ὀρτάλιχοι μινυροί.—ν. 12. pulli avium queruli. The whole of the thirteenth Idyllium is written in a very fine style. The two following verses are remarkable. Νύμφαι ἀκοίμητοι, δειναὶ θεαὶ ἀγροιώταις Εὐνίκα, καὶ Μαλίς, ἔαρ θ ̓ ὁρόωσα Νυχεία.ν. 44. Idyllium XIV. Μάστακα δ' οἷα τέκνοισιν ὑπωροφίοισι χελιδὼν "Αψορρον ταχινὰ πέτεται, βίον ἄλλον ἀγείρειν. ν. 39. Ceu vero hirundo, cibum ut suis pullis in nido-pendentibus ferat, Statim revolat, ut alium quærat victum. λευκαίνων ὁ χρόνος—v. 70. ætas quæ canos facit. Idyllium XV. Οἷοι ἀηδονιῆες ἐφεξόμενοι ἐπὶ δένδρων Πωτῶνται, πτερύγων πειρώμενοι, ὄξον ἀπ ̓ ὄξου ν. 121. Quales pulli lusciniarum insidentes arboribus Volitant, alarum periculum facientes, de ramo in ramum. *Αειδον δ' ἄρα πᾶσαι ἐς ἓν μέλος ἐγκροτέοισαι Ποσσὶ περιπλέκτοις, περὶ δ ̓ ἴαχε δῶμ' ὑμεναίῳ, ν. 7. Canebant autem omnes in unum carmen tripudiantes Pedibus connexis, circum autem resonabat domus hymenæo. From the specimens here given, and from many others which will readily occur to a reader of taste, it appears that Theocritus labored his style, and selected his words with an exquisite choice. From many of his expressions one might think that he was skilled in music. It is this felicity of phrase, and the peculiarity of his air aud manner, which renders it absolutely impossible to transfuse the Doric delicacy, wildness, and simplicity of his poems into a translation. It has been said that all poetry is untranslatable, as no translation can convey a proper idea of the air and manner of the original. The poetry of Theocritus is of all others the most untranslatable. It has been said, that nothing can be more unlike a good original poem than a literal translation. Yet we must allow that our literal translation of the Psalms gives us a juster idea of the original thran the translations of Buchanan and Johnston in Latin, or Merrick's translation in English; though it must be owned that Mr. Merrick, in some places, has hit off the true sense of the Hebrew better than our old venerable translators. Bishop Lowth's translation of Isaiah, in like manner, is preferable to any poetical version that can ever be given of that sublime and poetical prophet. He that does not understand Greek must for ever remain ignorant of the true air, manner, and genius of Homer, altho' Mr. Pope has given us so highly finished and elegant a translation of him. ON THE SCIENCE OF THE EGYPTIANS AND CHALDEANS. No. V.-[Continued from No. XXXV. p. 18.] OF CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY. If we believe Zosimus of Panopolis, both the science and the name of chemistry existed before the flood. This Egyptian philosopher assures the women, that a race of demons had commerce with the sex. "Hermes," says he, "relates this in his Physics; and nearly universal report, both public and private, I have read somewhere that a gentleman, who did not understand Greek, declared that he formed a juster idea of the characteristic manner and spirit of Homer, from the old rugged literal version in Latin, than from the most polished free translations. records it." "The ancient and divine writings say," continues Zosimus, "that the angels became enamoured of women; and, descending, taught them all the works of nature. From them, therefore, is the first tradition, chema, concerning these arts; for they called this book chema, and hence the science of chemistry takes its name." Φάσκουσιν αἱ ἱεραὶ γραφαὶ ἤτοι βίβλοι, εἶ γύναι, ὅτι ἐστί τι δαιμόνων γένος, ὃ χρῆται γυναιξίν. ἐμνημόνευσε καὶ Ερμῆς ἐν τοῖς φυσικοῖς, καὶ σχεδὸν ἅπας λόγος φανερὸς καὶ ἀπόκρυφος τοῦτο ἐμνημόνευσεν. Τοῦτο οὖν ἔφασαν αἱ ἀρχαῖαι καὶ θεῖαι γραφαι, ὅτι ἄγγελοι ἐπεθύμησαν τῶν γυναικῶν, καὶ καθελθόντες ἐδίδαξαν αὐτὰς τὰ τῆς φύσεως πάντα τὰ ἔργα. ἔστιν οὖν αὐτῶν ἡ πρώτη παράδοσις, χημᾶ, περὶ τούτων τῶν τέχνων. ἐκάλεσαν δὲ ταύτην τὴν βίβλον χημᾶ. ἔνθεν καὶ ἡ τέχνη χημία καλεῖται. Zosimus alludes perhaps to the second verse of the sixth chapter of Genesis. It is remarkable that this verse has been misunderstood by all the translators. In the English Bible it is thus rendered:-"The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives, of all which they chose." The Pseudo-Hermes and Zosimus had probably adopted a similar version. By "sons of the gods," I understand, the followers of the false gods; and by "daughters of man," I understand, women inheriting all the frailties of human nature. That men had fallen off from the worship of the only God, before the flood, may be safely conjectured and reasonably inferred from the punishment inflicted upon them. Every Hebraist knows that Elohim sometimes signifies the gods of idolators; and that beni often means disciples or followers. The word is indeed used with elegance in this sense. To those who read "the sons of God," the Egyptian tradition can scarcely appear absurd. בנות האדם There is no reason to doubt that the arts were cultivated by the Antediluvians, and that the ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans preserved some traces of the primeval history of the world. These traces were not obliterated when the philosophers and historians of Greece visited Egypt and the East; and they are even now discernible, amidst the confusion of names and dates, and in spite of the clouds of fable with which they are enveloped. My present subject leads me particularly to observe, that Tubal Cain appears to have been the prototype of Ptha, or Pthas, the Egyptian Vulcan, The Bible says, that Tubal Cain was the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron. We are told by Diodorus Siculus, that the Egyptians reported Vulcan (whom the Greeks named Hephaistos) to have been the inventor of all workmanship in iron, brass, gold, and silver, as well as of every other workmanship which admits the operation of fire. He likewise discovered all the other uses to which fire can be applied, and transmitted these arts not only to those who worked in them, but to the rest of mankind. Ηφαιστον δὲ λέγουσιν εὑρετὴν γενέσθαι τῆς περὶ τὸν σίδηρον ἐργασίας ἁπάσης, καὶ τῆς περὶ τὸν χαλκὸν, καὶ χρυσὸν, καὶ ἄργυρον, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐργασίαν ἐπιδέχεται. καὶ τὰς ἄλλας τὰς δὲ χρείας, τὰς τοῦ πυρὸς ἁπάσας προσεξευρεῖν, καὶ παραδοῦναι τοῖς τε τὰς τέχνας ἐργαζομένοις, καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις. I observe that in Syriac, cainiah, or caina, signifies a worker in brass; and that caina, in Chaldaic, signifies a goldsmith. If Tubal Cain worked in brass and iron, the knowledge of metallurgy must have been well advanced in his time. Dum interim fossile as, says Boerhaave, ut sua ex matre usui tractabile fiat, artem laboremque requirit summum: duodecies excoqui desiderans, ut sub malleo commode duci queat, Agricola teste, et Erkero. Imo et ferrum quoque excultam postulat valdeque laboriosam artem, priusquam humano serviat usui, ut iidem docent fide et peritia summi hac in arte præceptores. In tracing the etymology of the word chemia, which we have barbarised in our language into chemistry, my attention is naturally directed to Egypt, where this science had been cultivated for ages before it was known in Europe. The Greeks, indeed, seem to have named the science from the country in which they had first heard of its existence. Egypt is frequently denominated by the Hebrew writers, the land of Cham; and Chami, or Chemi, was the name by which it was most generally known to the Copts themselves. (See Wilkins's Coptic Pentateuch.) Plutarch says, that Egypt was called Chemia from the blackness of the soil. Cham, in Hebrew, signifies hot; chom signifies black; chemia, but with an ain for the final radical, signifies fermentation in Chaldaic. If the word chema be that from which chemia be derived, as Zosimus asserts, it may signify the hidden science; because chema, both in Chaldaic and Arabic, though originally meaning apparent, is oftener put, per antiphrasin, for that which is hidden. That chemistry must have been cultivated as a science in Egypt from a very remote antiquity, may be collected from the sacred scriptures. The knowledge of the arts which existed among the Antediluvians, was probably preserved, in some degree at least, among the immediate descendants of Noach. The Antediluvians had those among them who handled the lyre and the pipe, (not the organ, as in the English version,) and others who were artificers in brass and iron. The possession of these arts indicates considerable civilisation. In the time of Abraham, Egypt appears to have already become the granary of the world. About 190 years afterwards, when Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelite merchants, the rich products of the East were already transported across the deserts, to supply some of the few luxuries which nature had refused to the Egyptians in their native land. What must we think of the opulence of the inhabitants of Thebes, and of On, the city of the sun, for whose consumption the merchants of Arabia loaded their camels, not with commodities either useful or necessary, but with precious gums and resins, with aromatics, myrrh, and balm? It could have been for no trifling profit that these merchants left their own country, and performed a long and peri lous journey over the burning sands of the inhospitable desert. A part of the aromatics brought from Arabia was no doubt employed in embalming the dead. When Jacob died, Joseph ordered his physicians to embalm the body of his father. I shall have afterwards to speak of the modes practised by the Egyptians in em balming the dead; but I may here remark, that a country must be far advanced in refinement, when a great lord orders the physicians of his household, as a matter of course, to embalm the dead body of a relation. Our attention is next arrested by some remarkable passages in the 7th chapter of Exodus. Aaron had cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it had become a serpent. Then Pharaoh called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magi cians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments." We are afterwards told, that Moses and Aaron changed |