331

OXFORD ENGLISH PRIZE POEM,

FOR 1823.

STONEHENGE.

WRAPT in the veil of Time's unbroken gloom,
Obscure as death, and silent as the tomb,
Where cold oblivion holds her dusky reign,
Frowns the dark pile on Sarum's lonely plain.
Yet think not here with classic eye to trace
Corinthian beauty, or Ionian grace;

No pillar'd lines with sculptured foliage crown'd,
No fluted remnants deck the hallow'd ground;
Firm, as implanted by some Titan's might,
Each rugged stone uprears its giant height,
Whence the poised fragment tottering seems to throw
A trembling shadow on the plain below.

Here oft, when evening sheds her twilight ray,
And gilds with fainter beam departing day,
With breathless gaze, and cheek with terror pale,
The lingering shepherd startles at the tale,

How, at deep midnight, by the moon's chill glance,
Unearthly forms prolong the viewless dance;
While on each whisp'ring breeze that murmurs by,
His busied fancy hears the hollow sigh.

Rise, from thy haunt, dread genius of the clime,
Rise, magic spirit of forgotten time!

"Tis thine to burst the mantling clouds of age,
And fling new radiance on Tradition's page:
See! at thy call, from Fable's varied store,
In shadowy train the mingled visions pour;
Here the wild Briton, 'mid his wilder reign,
Spurns the proud yoke, and scorns th' oppressor's chain;
Here wizard Merlin, where the mighty fell,

Waves the dark wand, and chants the thrilling spell.
Hark! 'tis the bardic lyre whose harrowing strain
Wakes the rude echoes of the slumbering plain;
Lo! 'tis the Druid pomp, whose lengthening line
In lowliest homage bends before the shrine.
He comes-the priest-amid the sullen blaze
His snow-white robe in spectral lustre plays;
Dim gleam the torches through the circling night,
Dark curl the vapors round the altar's light;

O'er the black scene of death each conscious star,
In lurid glory, rolls its silent car.

"Tis gone! e'en now the mystic horrors fade From Sarum's loneliness, and Mona's glade ; Hush'd is each note of Taliesin's lyre,

Sheath'd the fell blade, and quench'd the fatal fire.
On wings of light Hope's angel form appears,
Smiles on the past, and points to happier years;
Points, with uplifted hand, and raptured eye,
To yon pure dawn that floods the opening sky;
And views, at length, the Sun of Judah pour
One cloudless noon o'er Albion's rescued shore.

THO. STOKES SALMON,
BRASENNOSE COLLEGE.

NOTICE OF

INSTITUTES of LATIN GRAMMAR, by JOHN
GRANT, A. M. 8vo. 1823.

THIS is a new edition of this learned and instructive work. A translation of the Port Royal Grammar was at first the only book written in English on the subject. Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, which is a critical commentary on Lilly's Grammar, is the most interesting work written in our language on the Latin language. Milner's Practical Grammar, although containing some valuable observations, is written in a confused method, and is now seldom used. We are not speaking of Elementary Grammars for the use of schools, of which the number is almost infinite. Mr. Grant has the merit of combining the merits of his predecessors; and in this edition has produced the best work, which our language can boast; and we think Mr. Johnson's arguments in favor of Grammars in the vernacular tongue conclusive. Mr. Grant has adopted a clear metaphysical mode of explaining the rationale of Latin Grammar; and he has condensed in a moderate volume the observations made in various critical commentaries. He has embraced every part of the subject; and even in Prosody, we have nothing equal, except Dr. Carey's work, which is written on that part of Grammar exclusively.

That we may not be thought to deal in unqualified praise, we may observe, that Mr. Grant is inaccurate in some of his French quotations. We will correct two lines, p. 409.

Il faut nous entre-aider, c'est la loi de nature.
Ce tiran, protecteur d'un tiran comme lui.
The last line is in the first scene of Voltaire's Brutus.

NOTICE OF

SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY, digested on a new plan; or, the principal facts of Sacred History arranged in the order of time from the creation of the world to the destruction of Jerusalem. Lond. 12mo. Pr. 3s. 1822. For Schools.

THIS little work we can safely and strongly recommend to the young student, not only of the Scriptures, but of Jewish History. It is written by a learned dignitary of the Church, who has thought it consistent with his duty to assist the masters of schools and the tutors of colleges in what they no doubt consider as an important part of their labors.

While this book is adapted by its simplicity to the least instructed capacity, it is by no means beneath the notice of the maturer biblical scholar. The author has selected the dates from the best authorities; and has given lists of the names and order of the Judges, of the Roman Procurators of Judea, and of the family of the Herods. He has given an account of the various particulars, in which the persons, who typified our blessed Redeemer, both before and after the law, chiefly resembled their great Antitype.

NOTICE OF

ESSAIS sur les PREPOSITIONS, considérées surtout géographiquement, ou nouveau Supplément d la GRAMMAIRE GRECQUE; ouvrage dans lequel on explique souvent les Textes grecs à l'aide des Cartes géographiques, et où, parfois, à l'aide des Textes, l'on corrige les anciennes Cartes. Par J. B. GAIL. Paris.

THE extreme obscurity in which that important department of Greek literature, the use of the prepositions, is involved,

would intitle the present attempt to render it perspicuous, to the attention of scholars, independently of M. Gail's prior claim, from his reputation as an ingenious critic. The confused and contradictory notions which have been published on this subject are thus forcibly pointed out by M. Gail in his Preface:

Karà et rapà, disent des grammairiens d'ailleurs très-judicieux, expriment le lieu où l'on s'arrête; et ils sont réfutés par cent exemples de carà et rapà qui expriment, non le lieu où l'on s'arrête, mais le lieu que l'on traverse. (Voy. l'index aux mots κarà et Tapá.)-Eis est pour pòs, nous dit-on. Je n'ose encore rien prononcer contre Zeune, cité par M. Hermann. (2e éd. Idiot. Gr. p. 593.) Mais je dirois presque: pòs indique l'action d'aller vers; eis ou es, la mise en présence de. Ἐλθεῖν πρὸς Ἀχιλῆα signifiera aller vers Achille; exoeiv eis 'Axiña (Il. 17, 709.) aller vers Achille, et d. p. et surtout en présence d'Achille. Lorsque Priam (II. 24, 309.) dit à Jupiter, Aós μ' és 'Аxiλλños éλoeïv, il dit, fais, Jupiter, que j'arrive en présence d'Achille (et non que j'aille vers,) trouvant grace devant lui.-'Ek, dit-on (v. p. 79.) est pour dià, vrò, etc. et signifie dans.-'Ek signifiant dans est assez curieux. -Exì, dit-on encore, est pour Tapà, pour év, p. 93.-Пepì est pour ὑπὲρ, εἰς, ἐν, ἀντὶ, ἐπὶ, παρά.--Voilà encore du curieux. Voy. p. 166.-Пpòs avec gen. et acc. sont presque synonymes: πρὸς sæpissime idem est quod imò vel rapà," mot de Vigier, en partie adopté par M. Hermann (Idiot. Gr. 659.)-Yep pour éπì ou Kara, p. 245.-Yrò signifie a, ab, abs, propter, præ, cum, etc.; se met pour διὰ, p. 248. Ὑπὸ στέρνοιο, ὑπὸ στέρνον, déclarés. synonymes par Eustathe, p. 250.-Après avoir donné ces notions coufuses, d'illustres grammairiens vous disent, on vous a expliqué les principales difficultés, les grammairiens et les lexicographes vous donneront LE RESTE. (Vigier, Idiot. Gr. 572.) Cherchez le reste, chez les grammairiens? ils ne le donnent pas; chez les lexicographes? même, le prince des lexicographes, H. Estienne, dans les colonnes de son Thesaurus ling. Gr., ne donne quelquefois pas une seule acception des prép. considérées géographique

ment.

P. 13. 'Avà, avec le sens de cum, dit-on. Xpvơéy ȧvà okýttpy, (Il. 1, 15.) infulam habens cum sceptro aureo. Ainsi traduit M. Heyne: mais je propose de rendre par au haut de son sceptre d'or, et par conséquent, de regarder ici àvà comme adverbe et non comme préposition. Je crois tenir cette bonne remarque de M. Belin, mort il y a deux ans.

This valuable observation has, however, a much higher origin, as Stephens has indicated in his Greek Thesaurus:

"'Arà, ap. poët cum dat., pro Cum: ut Il. A. 14. Eréμμar' ëxwv ἐν χερσὶν ἑκηβόλου Απόλλωνος, Χρυσέῳ ἀνὰ σκήπτρῳ, Una cum aureo Sceptro: ou T XρVow оKÝπTPW, inquit Eust., subjungens, Vel, secundum alios, ἀνὰ pro ἄνω ἵνα νοῆται τὸ στέμμα ἐξαρτᾶσθαι τοῦ σKÝTTроV. Sunt et qui àvà pro Circa hic accipiant."

Of the latter class are Clark and Ernesti.

"Præpositionis ávà ea, ni fallor, hic vis est, ut dicatur Chryses sceptro, quod in manibus gesta bat, infulam indidisse." Clark. "Recte interpretatur xp. ȧva ok. Itaque vertendum erat: devinctam sceptro, vel deligatam." Ernesti.

Similarly the Scholiast explains it by περὶ τῷ κεχρυσωμένῳ σκήπτρῳ. And that this is the meaning of ἀνὰ can scarcely be doubted from a comparison with the opening of the Edipus Tyrannus, where the supplicants are introduced as ἱκτηρίοις κλάδοισιν ἐξεστεμμένοι: on which the Scholiast remarks: τὸ δὲ ἐξεστεμμένοι, ἀντὶ τοῦ, κεκοσμημένοι· εἰώθασι γὰρ τῷ στέφειν χρῆσθαι ἀντὶ τοῦ κοσμεῖν· στέμμα δέ ἐστι τὸ προσειλημέ vov égion Tų daλλ. The parties are so identified as supplicants and worshippers of Apollo, that little doubt can be entertained of the similarity between the κλάδος and σκήπτρον, and that the σTéμμa was wound round each in precisely the same manner. See Brunck's note and Potter's Antiquities, T. i. p. 239. From the word xexpuowμeve above cited, and a previous note on the word oréμpara, it is evident that the Scholiast Pseudo-Didymus considered the σxйтро to be nothing more than a_gilt olive-branch. See Stephens' Thesaurus v. rupa. The interpretation of xg, và σx., round. about a golden sceptre, is justified by the use of the compound verb ἀναστέψω, Plut. Theseo 22. Τὴν δὲ εἰρεσιώνην ἐκφέρουσι, κλάδον ἐλαίας ἐρίῳ μὲν ἀνεστεμμένον.

P. 19. "Avo, dans une acception remarquable et ignorée. Пop-' púpeοi Táπητes årw, Theocr. 15. 125. Le schol. Grec se tait. X traduit, in superiore parte. Mais je propose, purpurea tapeta in superficie extima, des tapis à l'endroit. Kárw signifieroit à l'en

vers.

P. 28. 'Arò, séparément de, et non par, dans l'exemple suivant d'Herod. 9, 66. Λειπομένου Μαρδονίου ἀπὸ βασιλῆος. X traduit, Mardonium a rege relinqui. Est-ce le sens ? Non. Je propose, Artabaze n'avoit pas été d'avis que Mardonius fût laissé maître de ses actions et agissant séparément du roi. M. Sturz Lex. Xen.. dit, arò est vel putatur esse pró vó: mais son axiome ne seroit pas plus applicable à l'drò d'Hérodote, qu'à l'ò d'Isocrate (Paneg. 9.) cité par M. Sturz.