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deceptious colouring of his writings, flashed out in true English threats of tossing him in a blanket!" Visit, &c .P. 118.

The Americans have no dearth of bugs, which appear to be autochthonous. For rats, they say, they are indebted to the English. Water is not in much request: none is ever taken up stairs at a tavern, unless by special order; a few tin basins are placed under a shed in the morning, in which each guest rubs his face and hands; but ablutions beyond these, are considered unnecessary; and an English youth happening to let his shirt down to the waistband, in order to obtain a more effectual dabble, called forth by this his unusual act, loud shouts of laughter and surprise.

Mr. Welby is far from recommending the Western country to any farmers who have not made up their minds to some risk, much trouble, and a total sacrifice of numerous comforts. The gentleman and the idle man he thinks wholly misplaced there. Young Physicians may open taverns for their support: but there are Lawyers enough for the population; and the only profitable speculation for professional men appears to exist among dissenting teachers in Religion.

Some farms are easily held by the tenant: but on a tenure which we should think was not quite agreeable to the landlord.

"An instance of this lately occurred in a distant part of Pennsyl vania: a proprietor having heard of several settlers upon his land without purchase or permission, mounted his horse and journeying to his allotment soon came up to a good log house; a Squatter was at his door, and the owner, by way of entering into conversation with him, observed that he had erected a comfortable dwelling there; to which the other assented. But my friend, I am told that you and several more have built here without any title to the land, and the owner is coming to remove you. The man, who had his rifle in his hand, immediately pointing to a pig at a distance took aim and shot it dead; then turning to the alarmed proprietor told him, that if the owner should ever come to disturb him he would serve him as he had served that pig.” Visit, &c. P. 165.

Mr. Welby was present at the celebration of Washington's birthday, (Feb. 22,) which took place during his stay in Philadelphia. Drums and fifes awakened the citizens before daybreak. At 10 A. M. a large company assembled in Washington Hall, where half a dozen wind instruments played English tunes. The city militia at the same time entered with the aforesaid drums and fifes, and having ordered arms between their legs, sate down upon benches. A young student of the law had been selected to pronounce

an oration. When he ascended the rostrum the six wind instruments struck up the National Air "Yankee Doodle," and every leg, arm, and head was quickly in motion to beat time to this animating strain. The address was received with thunders of applause; at its close the drums, fifes, and wind instruments renewed their harmony; and the company dispersed, much gratified by the amusements of the day.

We had no intention of emigrating to America before we opened Mr. Welby's volume, and we see nothing in his statements which is likely to inspire us with a wish to that' effect after reading them.

ART. IX. Iliadis Fragmenta Antiquissima, cum Figuris; item Scholia Vetera ad Odysseam. Edente Angelo Maio, Ambrosiani Collegii Doctore, Regiarum Galliæ, Belgii, Bavaria, et Neapolis, Academiarum Sodale. Mediolani, Regiis Typis, M.DCCC.XIX. Royal folio, pp. 283. Plates Iviii.

ART. X. Ulphila Partium Ineditarum in Ambrosianis Palimpsestis, ab Angelo Maio repertarum, Specimen, conjunctis curis ejusdem Maii et Caroli Octavii Castillionai editum. Mediolani, Regiis Typis, M.DCCC.XIX. 4to. pp. xxiv. 36, with two Plates

THE revival of classical literature was one of the principal circumstances which contributed to restore society, in Europe, from the moral and intellectual degradation into which it had fallen in the dark ages, that is, from the sixth to the eleventh century. During that period, though Latin was the language of the ecclesiastics, yet we rarely meet with any quotations except from the Vulgate, or from theological writers. The study of those great authors, who illustrated the Augustan age, especially the poets, was almost prohibited. A change for the better took place in the course of the twelfth century; and the polite literature, as well as the sciences of antiquity, became the subject of cultivation. In the following century, the prevalence of the scholastic philosophy, with all its refined subtleties, seems to have caused the decline of classical literature: but, about the middle of the fourteenth century, or perhaps a little earlier, an ardent zeal

* These publications are imported by Messrs. Treuttell and Co. by whom they have been communicated to the Editor.

for the restoration of ancient learning 'began to display itself: libraries were formed in various parts of Europe; and Petrarch, Boccacio, and Coluccio Salutato (a man of less general fame) distinguished themselves by their indefatigable researches after ancient manuscripts preserved in the monasteries, to the discovery of which, however, the gross and supine ignorance of the monks interposed almost incredible · difficulties. What Petrarch began in the fourteenth century, was carried on by a new generation with unabating industry. The whole lives of Italian scholars, in the fifteenth century, were devoted to the recovery of manuscripts, and to the revival of philology: and, among these restorers of ancient learning, Ambrogio Traversari, general of the monastic order of Camalduli, eminently signalized himself, not only by bis personal efforts in discovering the works of Greek and Latin Authors, but particularly by inspiring the munificent and princely merchant, Cosmo de' Medici, with similar zeal and assiduity and the same vessels, which were freighted with the most costly productions of the East, also brought him the most precious treasures of classic Greece. The discovery of an unknown manuscript was regarded almost as the conquest of a kingdom; and, besides the names already mentioned, those of Poggio Bracciolini, Niccolo Niccoli, Laurentius Valla, Francesco Filelfo, and Giovanni Aurispa, will ever be dear to all who cherish any regard for the sciences and literature of Greece and Rome. In our own times, (to omit the successful researches of the late Professor Carlyle and Dr. E. D. Clarke in Greece, and of Dr. Buchanan in India), Signor Maï, the editor of the splendid volume now before us, stands pre-eminent among the literati of Europe, for the number, variety, and importance, of the classical productions which he has rescued from oblivion and upwards of twenty publications attest at once his industry, and the success which has crowned his researches, during the time that he held the office of Professor of the Oriental Languages in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Among these publications we may enumerate the Fragments of six inedited Orations of Cicero (which have been reprinted in this country,) the hitherto inedited works of Marcus Cornelius Fronto, together with some inedited Letters of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Appian; Fragments of eight Speeches of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, some Fragments of Plautus, and some Commentaries on Terence; the entire Oration of Isus on the estate of Cleonymus (part of which only had hitherto been published), an oration of Themistius, an epitome of part of the Antiquitates Romanæ of

Dionysius Halicarnassus, the original of which is not known to be extant; sundry Fragments of Porphyry; Commentaries on Virgil, by the antient interpreters, Asper, Cornutus, Haterianus, Longus, Probus, Nisus, Scaurus, Sulpicius, and an anonymous writer; the Chronicles of Eusebius, in two books, (the first of which was never before printed); the Itinerary of Alexander; three books on the transactions of Alexander the Great, translated by Julius Valerius, from the Greek of Æsop; the fourteenth book of the Sybilline Oracles; two tracts of Philo-Judæus; a specimen of Ulphilas's Gothic Version of the thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, and the Fragments of the Iliad. It is much to be regretted that but few of these valuable remains of classical literature have hitherto found their way into England. Our knowledge of the pieces just enumerated is derived principally from the information communicated by Signor Mai himself, of which only the two last have come to our notice.

1. The first of these publications is a magnificently printed folio volume. The Fragments of the Iliad, with the illustrative engraving, fill fifty-eight pages, to which are subjoined six pages of critical remarks of the various lections furnished by the Ambrosian Manuscript. These are succeeded by scholia of various ancient Grammarians upon the Odyssey, in 163 pages, which have been collected from different MSS. in the Ambrosian Library; and to the whole is prefixed a tediously prolix Dissertation, from which we have abridged the following particulars. The manuscript in question originally contained the entire Iliad in Greek, and was illustrated with paintings, representing the principal subjects of the poem, though fifty-eight only have come down to our time. These paintings are executed in the same style as those found in the Vienna MSS. of the Book of Genesis and of Dioscorides, in the Cotton MS. of Genesis in the British Museum, and in the Vatican MSS. of Virgil and Terence. The figures were first drawn with very pale ink, and afterwards coloured. The Ambrosian Homer is written on vellum; the paintings are on one side of the leaf, and on the opposite side is the poem. This reverse had been covered on silk paper, on which a later hand had written some scholia and the arguments of some of the books of the Iliad. On detaching this paper, Signor Maï discovered the original writing. About eight hundred verses of the Iliad have been preserved, which correspond with the Aristarchian edition of Homer. They are written in the uncial, or capital letters, peculiar to MSS. of the fourth or fifth century, to which date Signor Maï, with great

probability, refers the Ambrosian Codex. The spirits and other orthographical and critical remarks are sometimes introduced by a contemporary hand, though frequently they are wanting, and appear to have been inserted according to the opinion of grammarians. The scholia above noticed, on being collated with the Roman edition of the scholia on Homer, and also with that published by Villoison, were found to correspond minutely with these-a very few unimportant instances excepted, which Signor Maï did not think it worth while to transcribe. In printing the verses discovered beneath the pictures, which he has caused to be engraved, Signor Maï has supplied the words deficient in the MS. and has underlined them, to shew that they are wanting there.

The latter part of the preliminary dissertation is occupied chiefly with a description of forty-six MSS. of different portions of the writings of Homer, executed between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and affording a copious harvest of various lections to future editors of the Grecian bard. Signor Maï has given an outline of the manner in which he conceives that Homer should be edited: but the labour and expence of such an undertaking, we apprehend, will be found so great, that none but royal munificence will ever be able to remunerate the editors and publishers of such a work.

Signor Mai has collated these fragments of the Ambro sian MS. with six different editions of Homer, viz. the editio princeps, printed at Florence; the first Aldine edition, and those published by Ernesti, Heyne, Wolff, (it 1804), and Villoison. This collation has enabled him to detect nearly two hundred various readings, which, together with the Scholia on the Odyssey, will doubtless be printed in the next critical edition of Homer that issues from the press. As the cost of Signor Maï's publication, and the difficulty of procuring copies from Italy, must place it out of the reach of the majority of classical readers, we think it will gratify them to learn that Professor Buttmann re-printed the scholia on the Odyssey, at Berlin, in a commodious octavo volume, in 1820.

2. The second publication of Signor Maï is singularly interesting to biblical students: it contains a specimen of the hitherto inedited portions of the Gothic translation of the Bible, executed by Ulphilas, a celebrated bishop of the Mæso-Goths, who assisted at the council of Constantinople, A.D. 359, and was sent on an embassy to the Emperor Valens about A.D. 378. Of this version, only the four Gos

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