people affembled occafionally about their ordinary business. The plaufibility of his ftory, and probably fome personal intereft befides, for the amount of the fine proves the litigants to have been men of fome confequence, procured him immediately a partner; but not fuch as to prevent his opponent also from finding rong fupport. The voices of the people therefore not being likely to determine the bufinefs, it was agreed to refer it to the council of elders, who affembled instantly, and decided fummarily. It is obfervable that in this business no mention is made of a king; and again in another paffage of Homer, where the vengeance of Jupiter is denounced against those who give unjust judgments, it is not the tribunal of kings that is spoken of, but the affembly of the people.' Λαοὶ δ ̓ ἀμφοτέροισιν ἐπήπυον, ἀμφὶς ἀρωγοί· The prize of him who beft adjudg'd the right*.' Mr. Mitford's profe-tranflation is accompanied with the fubfequent note. * Euftathius informs us, that it was antiently the cuftom to have a reward given to that judge who pronounced the best sentence. M. Dacier opposes this authority, and will have it, that the reward was given to the perfon who upon the decision of the fuit appeared to have the jufteft caufe. The difference between these two customs, in the reafon of the thing, is very great for the one must have been an encouragement to juftice, the other a provocation to diffenfion. It were to be wanting in a due reverence to the wifdom of the ancients, and of Homer in particular, not to chufe the former fenfe and I have the honour to be confirmed in this opinion, by the ableft judge, as well as the best practifer of equity, my lord Harcourt, at whofe feat I tranflated this book.' In revifing this translation fome years after it was first made, I found I had unawares differed from the fcholiaft and from all the moit received verfions. But I learnt from Pope's note upon the paffage, that the common interpretation, which he has followed, is not undifputed; and his reafon given for preferring it I fcarcely quite comprehend. A public reward propofed either for the cunningeft pleader, or the cunningeft judge, on the decifion of every cause, seems nearly an equal abfurdity; nor does it appear to me that, confiftently with common fenfe, the two talents of gold can be confidered otherwife than as the amount of the fine itself, the very object in litigation. The words of the original perfectly bear that fenfe. My verfion of the preceding line Τοΐσιν ἔπειτ' ἤίσσον, ἀμοιβηδὶς δ ̓ ἐδίκαζον, I fubmit with more doubt to the learned in the language. The fpirit of the paffage makes me with that it could be fupported, though I cannot undertake myfelf intirely to defend it. It will be but doing common juftice to Homer to mention that Pope, in his tranflation of this paffage, has taken a very unwarrant able liberty; defcribing the judges in terms of ridicule, when the original authorifes no idea but of dignity. If Pope's paffion for fatire had not been irrefiftible, his refpect for his patron lord Harcourt, whom it appears he confulted upon the paffage, fhould have guarded him against joking fo much out of feason.' After thus exhibiting the whole of the evidence on this paffage, we cannot forbear to acknowlege it as our opinion, that Mr. Pope, though fupported by refpectable authorities, has mifinterpreted the fenfe of the original. From unacquaintance with the customs of the Greeks in fuch tranfactions, the general tenor of the defcription is doubtless become obfcure, both in refpect to the perfons who addrefs the audience, and the production, as well ás deftination of the two talents of gold; but, unless a different reading could be authorised by the known manners of ancient times, which we may venture to affirm is now impoffible, we think the passage will not reasonably admit of any other interpretation than that given it by the hiftorian. Mr. Mitford feems to express some diffidence in regard to the meaning which he has affixed to the line Τοῖσιν ἔιπειτ ̓ ἤϊσσον, &c. but there appears not to us to be any just room for fuch a degree of doubt as to invalidate the authority of his verfion. Admitting that, by grammatical conftruction, cov might be applied to the judges with as much propriety as to the litigants, yet the arrangement of the paffage by no means countenances, and the apparently rational fenfe of it ftrongly oppofes fuch an application. As the judges. are reprefented to have just taken their feats, we cannot fuppofe the word Tool to refer to any other than them, without fup fuppofing, at the fame time, that Homer is guilty of an imprecifion which could hardly be committed by the most carelefs writer. But there is yet a ftronger objection against applying go to the judges; even if the general fignification of the verb AIZEN could authorife the ufe of it for exprefling any natural action of repovres (elders) in a judicial capa city, of which, we must confefs, we have fome doubt. Por by that contruction, the fentence of the majority of the judges, though they had affembled for the purpose of terminating the difpute, would be rendered indecifive; and there would enfue the abfurdity of the judges being judged by a. fuperior tribunal, of which no mention occurs. It affords us pleasure therefore to join with the learned hiftorian in fupporting the interpretation, which, in our opinion, he has fo judiciously given of the above paffage in the Iliad. In the fourth chapter, our author relates the history of Greece from the Trojan war to the return of the Heracleids; and of the Grecian Oracles, the Council of the Amphictyons, and the Olympian Games. Of all these institutions he gives a fatisfactory account, fupported by the authority of ancient writers; and in particular, difplays great attention in examining, and either refuting or establishing the opinions of different writers on chronology. In the fifth chapter he recites the hiftory of the fouthern provinces of Greece, from the return of the Heracleids to the completion of the conqueft of Meffenia by the Lacedæmonians; and, in the fixth, gives a fummary view of the state of the northern provinces, and of the establishment of the early Grecian colonies; with the hiftory of Athens, from the Trojan war to the first public tranfaction with Perfia. In the feventh, he prefents us with a view of the nations politically connected with Greece, namely, Lydia, Scythia, Affyria, and Perfia; reciting alfo the reduction of the Afiatic Greeks, under the Perfian dominion by Cyrus. Continuing the detail, he next relates the acceffion of Cambyfes to the throne of Perfia; the acquifition of Tyre and conqueft of Egypt by the Perfians; the acceffion of Darius; conftitution of the Perfian empire; and the Perfian religion. Thefe tranfactions, as well as what are related in the fection immediately fucceeding, demand only a cursory recital in the prefent history; but in the next chapter, where our author returns to the principal subject of the work, he developes the hiftory of Greece during the reign of Darius king of Perfia. Mr. Mitford, after delivering an account of the battle of Marathon, upon the authority of Herodotus, makes the following pertinent reflections. • Such Such is the account given of this celebrated day by that hiftorian who lived near enough to the time to have conversed with eye-witneffes. It is modeft throughout, and bears general marks both of authentic information and of honeft veracity. The small proportion of the Athenian flain perhaps appears leaft confiftent with the other circumstances. Yet it is countenanced by authentic accounts of various battles in different ages, and particularly by thofe in our own hiftory of Agincourt and Poitiers. When indeed the whole front of the foldier was covered with defenfive armour, flaughter feldom could be great but among broken troops, or in purfuit. We are however told that a part of the Athenian army was broken. If it might be allowed to the hiftorian at all to wander from pofitive authority, the known abilities of Miltiades, and his acquaintance with the temper and formation of the Perfian army, added to the circumstances of the action, would almost warrant a conjecture that the flight of his weak center was intended, purposely to lead the flower of the enemy's forces out of the battle, and fatigue them with unprofitable purfuit. The deep order in which the ancients fought would perhaps make such a stratagem not too hazardous for daring prudence, under urgent neceffity of rifking much. Writers who have followed Herodotus in defcribing this memorable day have, abounded with evident fiction, as well as with fulfome panegyric of the Athenians, and abfurd obloquy on their enemy.' The ninth chapter continues the history from the acceffion of Xerxes to the throne of Perfia, till the conclufion of the first campaign of that monarch's expedition against Greece. This important period of the Grecian affairs calls forth all the vigour of the hiftorian; and our author has treated it with a clearness of defcription, a fidelity of detail, and a judiciousness of remark which must afford fatisfaction to every reader. The tenth and last chapter in the volume contains the hittory of Greece, from the battle of Salamis to the conclufion of the Perfian invafion. Through the whole of this work Mr. Mitford difcovers not only an intimate acquaintance with the Greek writers, but a difcernment well adapted for the investigation of historical truth. He appreciates the merits of those authors with a precifion which reflects honour upon his judgment and learning; and by the force of these two qualifications, he has thrown more light on the earlier part of the Grecian hiftory than all who have preceded him in the fame field. The manner of fome hiftorians, of embellishing their works with characters drawn from their own imagination, he has not affected; but he is not therefore carelefs of elegance in his diction; and he is every where perfpicuous without prolixity. In a word, the volume contains fo much hiftorical information, industriously collected, judiciously arranged, and agreeably delivered, as, we doubt not, will excite in the public a defire for the completion of the work. Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica. No. XIV. 4to. 6d. Nichols. Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica. No. XV. 4to. 35. Sewed. THE Nichols. HE Fourteenth Number contains additions to the Hiftory of Stoke Newington; and, among other articles, biographical anecdotes, relative to fir Thomas Abney, Mr. Caryl the commentator on Job, and Dr. Watts. Number XV. confifts of extracts from the Journal of fir Simonds D'Ewes, in the British Museum. This Journal extends from the author's birth in 160z, to the year 1636. The extracts are curious ; and fome of them throw a light on feveral occurrences in English hiftory. The great grandfather of fir Simonds came over from Guelderland, in the reign of Henry VIII; and the family afterwards acquired a confiderable property in Suffolk. Our author was educated at St. Edmund's Bury fchool, and St. John's college, Cambridge. At the age of eighteen he formed a defign of writing a complete hiftory of Great Britain, and fpent above twenty years in collecting materials. In the long parliament 1640, he was elected a burgefs for Sudbury. In the civil war he took the folemn league and covenant; but was turned out of the parliament-houfe by the army in 1648. From that time he gave himself up to the profecution of his ftudies and literary defigns. Hearne reprefents him, not improperly, as a learned and induftrious man; but unfit for writing the hiftory of England.-Sir Simonds died in 1650. In one of thefe extracts we find a horrible character of the celebrated lord Bacon, in which the author, among other vices, particularly charges him with the habitual practice of the moft fordid crime in nature. If his account of him be not exaggerated, it affords a ftriking illuftration of these well known lines: If parts allure thee, think how Bacon fhin'd, The following obfervations on his lordship's new titles may ferve to fhew the humour of the times. 1621. By letters patent, dated the 27th day of this January, was fir Francis Bacon, lord Verulam, created viscount St. Alban; |