satisfaction, which excellence of typography affords, but thanks and praises the Elzevirs and Aldi, Crispinus, Baskerville, and Bensley? In our country we have experienced this last pleasure but very imperfectly. Publick libraries have hitherto been few, and the institutions to which they have been attached embraced so many objects, and possessed so few resources, that very rarely indeed have they been able to purchase the most valuable and best editions. Some treasures of this sort, from the munificence of individual foreign benefactors, enrich the alcoves of Harvard, but taste has not been much excited, or industry employed, for discovering or describing them. Few probably know, and perhaps not many care, that there are sets of works deposited at Cambridge, of which curious collectors, learned societies, and even royal purchasers would vie for the attainment at almost any price which jewish avarice could demand of princely affluence. Among others, there is a copy of "The Court of the Gentile's by Theophilus Gale," containing the original manuscript of that portion of the work which it was necessary to expunge, in order to obtain an "imprimatur." It is well known, that this learned author was a nonconformist; and as he had discussed with too much freedom some of the ceremonies and observances of the episcopal church, he was refused the patronage of Oxford university, unless he would suppress the obnoxious chapters. They were not however destroyed; and if tradition, and the information of a thorough and elegant scholar, formerly librarian, be correct, we are indebted for them to Mr. Hollis. The writing is very fair; and the topicks of inquiry are curious

and interesting. It would gratify many, if these chapters of a profound and curious work, by an author whose bequest of his large and valuable library to our alma mater has endeared his memory to her sons, might be printed in the Anthology.

Another curiosity of immense worth belongs to this ancient seat of learning. Of the Biblia Polyglotta Waltoni,' a very few copies were impressed on paper of a very large size and superiour quality. Dibdin supposes there are about twelve of this sumptuous publication; and of Castell's Lexicon' (which should always accompany the bible) not more than three in the world. Our college has one entire set, which was a present from the author to lord Clarendon, in 12 vols. imperial folio, of this

editio princeps & optima. The Lexicon in this form is incomplete. There are two copies besides both of Polyglott and Lexion, of common size and quality.

Having mentioned Dibdin's Introduction to rare and valuable editions of the Classicks,' &c. will it be thought invidious to remark, that in a very partial examination and limited occasional consultation of it, many omissions have occurred. For some of these the author and his friends may plead, that the design and limits of the volume exclude an enumeration of the smaller and more inconsiderable editions. But is not this a defect in the design, especially as a mere catalogue, with some discriminating figure or character to designate,which of these common copies were most correct and valuable, would not have greatly swelled the work, and would have been of vast convenience and benefit to numerous portion of literary men? Most of this class in our

a

country, who possess any classicks besides those studied in the schools, are necessitated to content themselves with the small editions of Geneva and Amsterdam. Few are able to purchase the larger ones; and those who might afford, could not, till lately, procure many of the poets and historians of Greece and Rome in the best impressions. Of those which they could have, very little if any account is to be found in the work before us, and some of them we think entitled to a place, if not a description. Hesiod, Theognis, Phocyllis, Theocritus, Simmias, Bion, Moschus, Museus, and the Minor Poets,with annotations, scholia, and a latin metrical translation, by John Crispin, have intrinsick value for accuracy and neatness of type, and are curious from the history of the editor:This scholar and gentleman was a lawyer of some distinction; but having entangled himself in a religious dispute with some doctors of the Sorbonne at Paris, about 1598, he retired to Geneva and there established a press, from which were issued many of the Classicks and aGreek Testament, which possess a considerable and merited estimation.

Bond's Horace, 12mo. 1696, with marginal annotations, is recollected with regard, for the facility it afforded to juvenile studies.

El

zevir's Plautus, 12mo. Amstelod. 1652. is a very neat and a correct specimen of printing; as is SalJust, 12mo. Amst. 1643. apud Jansonium. Omitting particular notice of some good editions of Cicero De Oratore,' and ' De Officiis,' of Justin, of Ovid, and of Terence, which are not to be found in Dibdin, (though of this popular dramatist we must add, that politeness, as well as justice, seemed to require an acknowledgment to

Madame Dacier, who had favoured us with the rare gift of a translation and criticisms of a latin author from a lady ;) this tedious ramble will close by sincerely wishing and hoping, that some able person will compile and publish, as an appendix to the larger works of Bibliography, a list and comparative estimate of those impressions of the Classicks, which are in most general demand and use.

LIBRARIES.

Large collections of books have ever been the favourite haunts of the learned. They not only aid researches, but they excite a zeal and inspire ambition to acquire knowledge. Who has not felt the enthusiasm, which a valuable and extensive library kindles ? who will not acknowledge that some of the noblest plans and purposes of literary utility and elegance have originated in these repositories of genius and crudition.

If, as has been often argued, the grade of intellectual character in a people may be in a good measure computed from their attention and liberality to such establishments; it must excite the most agreeable emotions to reflect on the progress which we are making in this respect towards respectability. To say nothing of the Atheneum in this metropolis, which, if pursued with the zeal and ability with which it has been commenced and progressed thus far, will vie at no distant day with the most celebrated institutions of Europe, it must be a source of pride and pleasure to notice the attention which is now paid to mu nicipal and professional social libraries. In this town and vicinity the gentlemen of the bar, and in medical practice, have for some

Palmyra's palaces forlorn,
Unveiling in his rays.

The Spirits of the desert dwell,
Where eastern grandeur shone;
And vultures scream, hyænas yell,
Where Beauty held her throne.
In wild magnificent decay

The palsied fabricks frown, For storms have rent their strength away,

Till breezes rock them down. There oft the pilgrim, as he stands, Sees, from the broken wall, The shadow tottering on the sands, Ere the loose fragment fall. Destruction joys, amid those scenes, To watch the sport of Fate, While Time between the pillars leans And bows them with his weight. But towers and temples,crush'd by time, Stupendous wrecks! appear To me less mournfully sublime, Than the poor Molehill here. Thro' all this hillock's crumbling mould, Once the warm life-blood ran: -Man! thy own ruins here behold! Behold thy ruins, Man!

Methinks the dust yet heaves with breath;

I feel the pulses beat:
O in this little hill of death,
How many mortals meet!

By wafting winds, and flooding rains,
From ocean, earth, and sky,
Collected here, the frail remains
Of slumbering millions lie,

O that the Muse's eye might trace
Each atom's former state,
Or pierce the Spirit's hiding place,
To scan its future fate!

Ah me!-the light of heaven decays,
And through the closing night,
The visions of departed days
Gleam on my opening sight.
All ages, and all nations, rise;
For every grain of earth
Beneath my feet, before mine eyes,
Is startled into birth,

Where late the humble Molehill stood,
A mighty army stands,
From years beyond and since the flood,
From nigh and stranger lands.
Like rising mists, the shadowy forms
O'er the deep valley spread,
Vol. IV. No. 8.
3G

And like descending clouds, in storms,
Lour round the mountain's head.
O'er the wide champaign as they pass,
Their footsteps yield no sound,
Nor shake from the light trembling grass
A dew-drop to the ground.
Among their undistinguish'd hosts,
With transport, I behold
Awful, sublime, terrifick ghosts,
-Heroes and kings of old :-

Tyrants, the comets of mankind,
Whose blighting influence ran
Through all the Eden of the mind,
And smote, and mildew'd man :-
Sages, the Pleiades of earth,

Whose genial aspects smiled,
And flowers and fruitage sprang to birth
O'er all the human wild.

Yon gloomy ruffian, gash'd and gor'd,
Was he, whose care and skill
First beat the ploughshare to a sword,
And taught the art to kill,

Behind him skulks a shade, bereft

Of fondly-worshipt fame:
He built the pyramids,-yet left
No stone to tell his name!

But who is he, with visage dark

As tempests when they roar? -The first who push'd his daring bark Beyond the coward shore.

Through storms of death, and seas of graves,

He steer'd with steadfast eye;
His path was on the desert waves,
His compass in the sky.

That youth, who lifts his graceful hand,
First smote the marble block,
And Beauty leap'd, at his command,
A Venus from the rock.

Trembling with ecstacy of thought,
Behold the Grecian maid,
Whom love's enchanting impulse taught
To trace a slumberer's shade.

Sweet are the thefts of love,

She stole his image while he lay, Kindled the shadow to a soul,

And breathed that soul through clay.*

*The daughter of a potter at Corinth pencilled out the shade of her lover on the wall, by candle-light, while he slept, which her father filled up with clay, and baked the image in his furnace; thus producing the first rude portrait of the human face.