his political character. The volumes before us atteft the juftice of his literary reputation, and prove him to poffefs a luminous mind, enriched with much political fcience, and confiderable acquaintance with hiftory. The circumftances of his country will account for certain irregularities of opinion; and, with these exceptions, we may fairly pronounce, that this work will be read with fatisfaction by perfons of every perfuafion; and that those who except against the political attachments of its author, will yet find in him an elegant, an amuting, and even an inftructive writer.

ART. XII. ΠΛΟΥΤΑΡΧΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΧΑΙΡΩΝΕΩΣ ΤΑ ΗΘΙΚΑ. Pltarchi Charonenfis Moralia, id eft opera, exceptis Vitis, reliqua. Graca emendavit, notationem emendationum et Latinam Xylandri interpretationem caftigatam, fubjunxit, animadverfiones explicandis rebus ac verbis, item indices copiofos adjecit, Daniel Wyttenbach, Hift. Eloq. Litt. Gr. et Lat. in illuftri Athen. Amftelod. Profejor. Oxonii è Typ grapheo Clarendsniano. 1795. Ed. in 4to. Tom. I. 21. 7s. Tom. II. 21. 45. Ed. in 8vo. Tom. I. pars. Ima. et 2da. 145. Tom. II. totidem partibus, 14s. Chart. maj. Svo. 11. 7s. 1795.

THE specimen of talents, diligence, and learning, displayed

by Profeffor Wyttenbach in his edition of Plutarch de fera Numinis Vindicta publifhed two and twenty years ago, had clearly pointed him out to the learned world as a perfon eminently qualified to prepare a complete edition of that author's works. In the mean time, he was understood to be labouring affiduously towards the accomplishment of this object; and, at length, the delegates of the Oxford prefs, animated by that ardour for found literature by which they are diftinguithed, undertook to become the publishers of the part which was most required, and was brought the nearest to a conclufion, namely, the moral or mifcellaneous works. The task is performed, as far as it has yet proceeded, in the most admirable manner. The papers of the learned editor arrived juft time enough to efcape all danger from the unfettled ftate of Holland, and two volumes are already published, correfponding exactly, in the order and number of the tracts contained, with the fixth and feventh volumes of Reifke's edition; which, preferving the fame proportion, will allot exactly five volumes to the whole text. To these are to fucceed the animadverfions of the editor with very copious indexes, comprifed, as he affures us, certainly

certainly in a smaller number of volumes, but we cannot fuppofe lefs than four. The beauty and fplendour of thefe volumes in the quarto edition, is fuch as will not often be exceeded, even *amidit the higheft ardour for elegant typography. They greatly furpafs Bryan's lives, with which they were, perhaps, originally intended to clafs. The octavo edition is handfome of its kind, particularly in the large paper.

The annotations and obfervations being referved for ter volumes, the prefent of courfe contain or lyk fuch concife notices of various readings as venience fubjoined. The Latin verfion is tha corrected by the prefent editor. The firft vo the editor's preface, with other matters of general reader, fuch as an index of marks and abbreviations, MS., editions, and works illuftrative of Plutarch, are re to; and an index of all the materials employed by the lear profeffor, not only in the general conduct of his edition, t in every fingle tract; by which it is exactly explained on how much authority every part of the text is fupported. P. Wyttenbach has in his index briefly intimated his opinion of the genuineness of the feveral tracts, by which it appears, that out of eighty-fix, the whole number enumerated, fixteen must be deducted as either doubtful, or manifeftly fpurious. Among thofe confidered as falfely afcribed to Plutarch is the very first, Περὶ παίδων ἀγωγής.

Of the preface, which is full of interefting matter, and amply proves in how complete a manner the editor has conducted his undertaking, we think it neceffary to give some account. Three things, fays Wyttenbach, are previously to be confidered in undertaking an edition of an ancient author. 1. Whether the writer deferve to be edited? 2. Whether there be already an edition worthy of him? 3. Whether the editor be equal to the task? Concerning thefe points he answers briefly, that of the first no doubt can be entertained respecting Plutarch; of the fecond, that it is affirmed by the common confent of the learned; of the third, he leaves the reader to form his own judgement. The fulier difcuffion of the peculiar merits of Plutarch he referves to his animadverfions; on what has been performed by others, and what by himself, he treats at large in this preface. In early youth, fays he, the Greek author who most attracted my attention was Plato; and having been taught, by the animadverfions of Ruhnkenius on the Timæus, how much learning and elegance had been drawn by later authors from the Platonic fource, and how much illuftration and correction they might receive from the works of that philofopher, I took up firft Julian and Synefius, afterwards,

afterwards, as a more perfect object of contemplation, Plutarch. Repelled at firft by the obfcurity of this writer, but, by degrees, understanding him better, and becoming fond of his works, and amufing himself from time to time with emendations of his text, he determined at length upon undertaking an edition upon him, in which the morals, as the most difficult part of the task, were to be completed first; the lives referved as a kind of repofe after his labour. This refolution was taken twenty-four years ago, and in two years after he published his edition of the tract de fera Numinis Vindicta, and then announced his defign. He eftimated, however, that on the whole he had employed four years upon the preparation of that tract, and conceived that he could finish the rest in ten years. But here, fays he, I was grievoutly mistaken in the proportion that tract confifted of twenty pages, the whole of more than two thoufand. Befides this, the want of equal leifure, and many other caufes, confpired to retard his progrefs. That he was not deficient in application, will be allowed from the enfuing statement, which we render from his

own account:

"Two thick volumes of the largest fize, of an author eminently learned, and fcattering his learning in every part of his writings, may be expected to afford no little matter for the attention of an interpreter. In reading thefe volumes repeatedly, I by no means could attain that ready recollection of paffages, which I could in the former little tract. Even in the fevenih perufal, before I had reached half way, the beginning was receding from my memory. I began, therefore, to extract hit feemed remarkable; but almost every thing was to be extracted, for there was but little that appeared not worthy of notice. -To these difficulties I applied the only remedy; I threw the whole words and matter of Plutarch into indexes, to which I referred in order all the materials collected from other authors. For fuch purpofes I made feveral indexes, all copious, but four more important than the rest. An index of Greek words and names; a fecond of grammatical forms of construction; a third of authors, and paffages from them which are noticed by Plutarch; a fourth of perfons and things. My indexes, once made, greatly abridged my labour; but the formation of them occupied the greatest part of the time employed on the work, and was beyond all defcription tedious and fatiguing." The profeffor's account of his mode of proceeding in correcting the text is more pleasing:

"I had," fays he, "a little volume of Stephens's edition, convenient and portable. With this in my hands, enjoying the shade of trees in the fummer, and the uninterrupted retirement of the morning, or the tranquillity of the night in winter, I employed myself in reading Plutarch; I infinuated myself completely into the nature of his ftyle and opinions, and tracked his latent meanings like a hound

upon the fcent. Every perufal of this kind afforded me the delight of difcovery, one of the greatest that the human mind can know. Sometimes I restored a corrupt paffage, fometimes I illustrated one that was obfcure, not unfrequently I detected fome former error of my own, when, not yet understanding places that had no corruption, 1 had applied too violent a remedy to their obfcurities."

P. Wyttenbach then proceeds to defcribe the MSS. and other aids that he employed; and the fevere labours of collation, which at one time almost determined him to relinquish the whole undertaking. In the third chapter of his preface he gives what are ufually ftyled the teftimonia of authors, in the form of a connected hiftory of the writers who have spoken of Plutarch, from his own time to the invention of printing; after which is prefented a hiftory of the editions, and of the corrections and collations, of Plutarch's text. To Xylander he justly aligns the palm, as the interpreter to whom the original author is moft indebted.

"If I in fome places," he fays, " have feen what had escaped Xylander, it is to him chiefly that I owe it, who firft prepared the way for fubfequent readers to understand the works of Plutarch. Partly alfo I was indebted to my circumftances in life, which exempted me from the neceffity of that hafte which he was compelled to ufe. Xy. lander, with his fund of knowledge, had he been in fimilar circumftances, would probably have left nothing for my moderate talents to perform. Other editors and interpreters of Plutarch I regard, from the participation of the fame ftudies; but Xylander I love, for that candour of mind, that probity, that fincerity, which were manifefted, not only in his writings, but throughout his life. To thefe feelings, pity, which, as they fay, conciliates love, is fuperadded. I lament that a man fo learned and fo good, fhould have been perpetually fo oppreffed by poverty, as in his writings to publifh his neceffities to all the world."

Of the fervices rendered to Plutarch's works by Stephens, the profeffor speaks lefs honourably. The principal source of his edition was that of Aldus, with that of Jannotius: he corrected many places well, changed many for the worse, and by omitting his authorities, and the exact specification of the paffages, he threw a doubt over the whole text of Plutarch. Yet, fays W. with an equitable spirit, the inftances in which he did amifs, must not deprive him of the praise he truly deserved. It is common, he observes, for many who profit by the labours of Stephens, to make him the subject of their cenfure; so that it has become a kind of common place in prefaces to accufe him of oftentation, ill faith, and fraud.

"Nothing of this kind," he continues, "have I obferved in his Jabours upon Plutarch. If he,erred, he should be forgiven for his va

rious merits, and thefe errors were occafioned partly by the practice of his age, less fcrupulous than ours, in diftinguithing conjectures and various readings, and partly by his eager defire to render his fervices to literature as extenfive as he could. He was a man above all others moft exceffively and efficacioufly laborious, and of the most extensive learning. He had studied, and even published, more ancient authors than thofe cenfurers have read; he had written more than they have even heard of; he poffeffed more learning than they can conceive to be poffible. Such a man mult not be deprived of his praise by me who follow him."

These characters of former editors add a great intereft to the preface of Wyttenbach; and are fuch as we could not perfuade ourselves to pafs altogether unnoticed, The laft to which we shall advert is that of Reike. This editor lived only to complete the publication of the Lives, the Morals were added afterwards by the bookfeller, with nothing from Reifke, but the remarks which he had published before, in his Animadverfions on Greek authors. Thefe the prefen: editor ftates to be of little value: the greater part of the emendations fuperfluous, as applied equally to paffages corrupt and uncorrupt, and in most, even of the former inftances, evidently falfe: a fault arifing from an entire ignorance of the manner and style of Plutarch. The probable emendations are not in the proportion of more than fixteen to an hundred of the remarks; and, out of thefe, one half had been pre-occupied by former editors, which Reifke had taken, not as an act of plagiary, of which he was incapable, but fometimes meaning to repeat them, and fometimes falling upon them unconfcioully: many are from the Latin verfion of Xylander.

"Yet", adds the profeffor, "though the nature of my undertaking obliged me to declare this, the learned will acquit me from all defire of depreciating the man. There was in Reike a variety of learning, and a quicknefs in genius, in which I contefs him greatly my fuperior. From the innumerable conjectures for the emendation of Greek authors, which he haítily poured out, had he selected the best, and explained them rationally and elegantly, he might have filled an admirable volume; an exemplary work, which would have fecured his fame more laftingly than all his hafty editions and other writings. I never faw him. But, befides the union to which a fimilarity of literary purfuits might lead, there fubfilled between us, in his latter years, the intercourfe of correfpondence. He was a favourer' of my early fame. His virtues alfo conciliated affection; and, among them, candour and the love of truth were eminently confpicuous. I loved him living. and refpect his memory: but fince it was neceffary here to speak of him, I determined fo to do it as not to difguife my own opinion; neither to withhold from him real, or beftow upon him falfe, commen

dation."

Thefe