Cum Pittaci sententia conferri debet Epicharmi, ut videtur, dictum apud Plutarch. 11. p. 534. Α. Ποτὶ πονηρὸν οὐκ ἄχρηστον ὅπλον ἡ πονηρία : ita enim MS. Bruxell. pro ὅπλων. Ipse vero δίστομος exhibui vice διὰ στόματος apud Diog. Laërt. 1. p. 49. Opportune Jacobsius citat Theognid. 91. ὡς δὲ μιῇ γλώσσῃ δίχ ̓ ἔχει νόον. Cætera levia, qualia sunt, ἡ, τὸ, ἐν a ine inserta, nihil moror. Inter Solonis verba dedi προσσαίνῃ τι vice προσεννέπῃ. De verbo σαίνειν depravato nuper scripsi ad Eum.667. Vid. et Blomfield. ad S. c. Th. 379. Quod ad alterum illud Pittaci Scolium Συνετῶν μὲν ἐστιν ἀνδρῶν, πρὶν γενέσθαι τὰ δυσχερῆ, προτ νοῆσαι, ὅπως μὴ γένηται, ἀνδρείων δὲ, τὰ γενόμενα εὖ θέσθαι, manifesto ibi ne vestigia quidem metri latent; utrum vero dici, necne, idem possit de Scolio Biantis ̓Αστοῖσιν ἄρεσκε πᾶσιν, ἐν πόλει εἰ καταμένεις· πλείσταν γὰρ ἔχει χάριν· αὐθαδὴς δὲ τρόπος πολλάκι βλαβερὰν ἐξέλαμψεν ἄταν, vix definio. Certe ibi Scoliorum metricam rationem video nullam, quam primus egregie detexit Hermann in Scoliis παροινίοις; quorum omnia probe disposuit in libro de Metr. p. 694. et sqq. ed. 2dæ. MISCELLANEA CLASSICA. No. XIV. [Continued from No. XLVII. p. 13.] HERODOTUS, after relating the tragical death of Cleomenes king of Lacedæmon, proceeds to mention the opinions current in the different republics respecting the particular crime, which, in the common Grecian method of accounting for extraordinary calamities, by regarding them as punishments for special acts of enormity, was supposed to have drawn down upon him the anger of the gods: vi. 75. sqq. Κλεομένης-ἀπέθανε τρόπῳ τοιούτῳ· ὡς μὲν οἱ πολλοὶ λέγουσι Ἑλλήνων, ὅτι τὴν Πυθίην ἀνέγνωσε τὰ περὶ Δημάρητον γενόμενα λέγειν· ὡς δὲ ̓Αθηναῖοι μοῦνοι λέγουσι, δίοτι ἐς Ἐλευσῖνα ἐσβαλών, ἔκειρε τὸ τέμενος τῶν θεῶν· ὡς δὲ ̓Αργεῖοι, ὅτι ἐξ ἱροῦ αὐτέων τοῦ ̓Αργου ̓Αργείων τοὺς καταφυγόντας ἐκ τῆς μάχης καταγινέων, κατέκοπτε, καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ ἄλσος ἐν ἀλογίῃ ἔχων ἐνέπρησει -αὐτοὶ δὲ Σπαρτιῆταί φασι ἐκ δαιμονίου μὲν οὐδενὸς μανῆναι Κλεομένεα, Σκύθησι δὲ ὁμιλήσαντά μιν ἀκρητοπότην γενέσθαι, καὶ ἐκ τούτου μανῆναι.-Ἐμοὶ δὲ δοκέει τίσιν ταύτην ὁ Κλεομένης Δημαρήτω ἐκτῖσαι. (ed. Schweigh.) a passage of which Mitford has made good use in one of those occasional illustrations of Grecian manners, which render his work so interesting and valuable. Was this extract in the eye of Grotius, when he wrote the pas sage in his Annales Belgici, relative to the death of Philip the Second of Spain, which Gibbon has referred to as "judicious"? After a general view of the character and fortunés of Philip, he proceeds: "Hæc ferme prudentiorum de eo judicia fuere. Alii, ob partes infensi, suscepta temere bella, perfide gesta, neć minus cruentam pacem per Hispaniam Belgicamque, in idem sævitiæ concitas Gallias, pluraque mala publica et domestica, exprobrabant: ipsam exitus fœditatem in argumentum trahentes; innoxias scilicet filii, uxoris Isabellæ umbras, has patri, has marito pœnas irrogare, quomodo olim Herodes (quicum pleraque morum et fortunæ comparabantur) et regina Cyrenæorum Pheretime parricidia luissent: aut hostem vero religionis, omnium qui unquam fuissent acerrimum, Antiochi Illustris et Herodis alterius Cæsarisque Maximini [exemplis sc.], aut tyrannum, Cassandri et Sullæ libertatis oppressorum exemplis merito periisse-." 2. "It is not the teares of our owne eyes only, but of our friends (friends') also, that doe exhaust the current of our sorrowes, which falling into many streames, runne (runnes ?) more peaceably, and is contented with a narrower channel. It is an act within the power of charity, to translate a passion out of one breast into another, and to divide a sorrow almost out of it selfe; for an affliction like a dimension may be so divided, as if not indivisible, at least to become insensible." Sir T. Browne's Religio Medici, Part 11. Sect. 5. (The Latin translation of this characteristic passage, which we happen to have by us, is worth quoting. " Ad dolorum gurgites exhauriendos, non nostri tantum, sed etiam amicorum fletus valent. Sic etiam in plures alveos ægritudo dilapsa tranquillius et sedatius fluit, unico et solo flumine rapidius fertur. Charitas animi dolores e pectore in pectus transferre potest, et ita concisim et minutim (minutatim?) discerpere, ut pæne nullibi sentiri queant. Dimensionum enim Mathematicarum modo dividi possunt afflic tiones, donec quidem insensibiles sint, utcunque adhuc divisibiles.") Thus Casimir, in an ode, which, as it is short, we will extract whole. Si quæ juvabit dicere saucium, 'Is this Shakespeare's figure, attributing speech to the lips of a wound ? Secura ferri robora sæpius Edit amor, facilesque Luctus Ad patrii leve murmur Hallæ. LIB. 111. Od. 5. 3. In quoting a passage from Plato (Misc. Cl. No. xiii. C. J. XLVII. p. 12.) as the original of one in Glover, we omitted to notice another imitation from Homer-remarkable only on account of the romantic beauty of both the passages. That of Glover occurs in the 3rd No. of the Retrospective, p. 132. Six moons in deep obscurity she dwelt; Thus Vulcan, in the Iliad, relates the story of his concealment in the sea : For " voluit" or "cupiit:" this is in the manner of Claudian, and is analogous to his usage of "sudatus" for " elaboratus," &c. Thus Heber, in his Palestine, (a poem of which the diction bears somewhat the same relation to that of Pope as Claudian's to that of Virgil) improves Pope's line (Iliad xi.) "And every plant that drinks the morning dew" into " And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew." Τῇσι παρ ̓ εἰνάετες χάλκευον δαίδαλα πολλὰ .... ..... ἐν σπῆϊ γλαφυρῷ· περὶ δὲ ῥόος ̓Ὠκεανοῖο Σ. 400. We have always been struck with the truly Homeric power displayed in the latter clause, περὶ δὲ ῥόος, κ. τ. λ. Its conciseness, and how often is this the case with Homer's descriptions!-is unimproveable, and in modern languages almost inimitable. With these instances, we conclude our series of parallel passages; a consummation, perhaps, devoutly wished by many of our readers. We must be allowed a few words in parting. To be a hunter of coincidences and imitations for their own sake, is trifling, and unworthy of a scholar; and it is very possible, that in this way we may have sometimes erred. Our object, however, in the generality of the instances cited, has been twofold; first, to point out coincidences worthy of notice, and which had never before been noticed ;-and secondly, to indicate the most remarkable imitations, or plagiarisms, not previously discovered. Neither of these designs, we think, is without its interest. Unintentional resemblances in thought or expression tend to prove the affinity of genius in various and unconnected ages and countries;-the agreement between languages in some respects dissimilar;-and the tendency of human nature to think, and feel, and express itself more or less in one and the same manner. The detection of latent imitations, again, has its use in establishing charges of plagiarism in proving that writers of one age or country were acquainted with those of another, where such an acquaintance was not suspected-in illustrating the diversity of styles, and the artifices by which later authors endeavour to improve upon the conceptions of their predecessors with other similar uses, which need not be here enumerated. With the exception of some instances hardly worth transcribing, and of others which (as we have since discovered) had been noticed by former writers, we consider our collection as, in both these respects, not unworthy of the reader's attention, and as such, we commend it to his candor. Should materials occur, we may occasionally resume our parallelisms. read In No. XLVI. p. 204, Note, for "Ad Claudiani Uxorem,' Ad Claudiam Uxorem."-p. 296, in the second metrical line, τοῖς ἀπὸ χρησμῶν is not admissible. p. 297, art, v. in the line from Virgil, for Chloresque read Chloreaque. p. 299, in the lines quoted from the Satirist, read - so foully fit ADDENDA. "These mountains," says Mitford, Hist. Vol. 1. p. 151, note, speaking of those adjoining to Thermopylæ, "according to all travellers, are now woodless. Nor has the destruction been a modern event: it is noticed by Statius, as in his time extensive in the Roman Empire, and especially in Greece: Nusquam umbræ veteres; minor Othrys, et ardua silent Deficit, et totos consumunt carbasa ventos. Stat. Achill. 1. v. 426." Statius, however, has no reference to any part of the Roman Empire but Greece; neither is he speaking of the desolated state of the Grecian forests in his own day, but merely describing, in a strain of characteristic hyperbole, the consumption occasioned by an event, long anterior to the period at which Herodotus and Mr. Mitford describe these mountains as covered with trees-the Trojan war. We also recommend to Mr. Mitford the correction of a gross error, one of the very few which occur in his correctly printed work-silent for sidunt. By way of a concluding bead to our long roll of parallel passages, (as Southey or any other Spanish writer might phrase it) we shall subjoin two instances, one partly classical, the other purely English. Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulcris. Thus Jeremy Taylor, in his celebrated sermon on the death of the Countess of Carbery-" Every thing finds a grave and a tomb; and the very tomb itself dies by the biguess of its pompousness and luxury." Conrad of Würzburg, (the poet compared in a former Number to Antimachus of Colophon) as cited by the Edinburgh Review there referred to, "is for ever complaining of the apathy of the great, who had ceased to cultivate poetry themselves, and left it unpatronised in others; yet he indignantly exclaims, he cares not for their gifts, his tongue shall not be silent, since the art itself will reward him; he will continue his |