2. THE ANABASIS OF XENOPHON; based upon the Text of Bornemann. With Notes, original and selected; and Three Maps, illustrative of the Expedition. By the Rev. J. F. Macmichael, B. A. London: G. Bell. 1847. 12mo. The want of editions of the Greek and Latin classics, accompanied with notes really useful to a young student, which should help him in mastering difficulties and initiating him into the peculiar structure of the ancient languages, has long been seriously felt. Boys either had nothing but the texts, and those very often not of the best quality, or the few who could afford it, purchased bulky volumes with critical and philological notes, which they were unable to understand, and which only now and then afforded them any assistance where a passage happened to be translated in a note. Under these circumstances, it can hardly be matter of surprise that such editions as those of Dr. Anthon have met with general favour in this country, although they are notoriously bad, and calculated only to thwart all the objects which an educator can and ought to have in view, in as much as, by an indiscriminate and careless translation, all mental activity on the part of the student is rendered superfluous. Every teacher who has the good of his pupils at heart, ought to banish such editions from his class-room. Signs are appearing in various quarters, which show that we are resolved no longer to be behind hand in this branch of our school literature. The announcement of the Messrs. Chambers to publish a series of classics, with commentaries for the use of schools, has been followed by similar advertisements of other publishers; and we trust that ere long there will be no excuse for reprinting in this country the productions of one who is daily doing grievous injury to the cause of classical education, and whose literary character is more than equivocal. The present edition of the Anabasis by Mr. Macmichael, is apparently the first of a series of Grammar School Classics, and a fine specimen of what can be done, if those who undertake a task set themselves resolutely about it. The Anabasis has undoubtedly been sent forth as a specimen, and we sincerely hope that the other volumes which are to follow, may be executed as ably as the present. The text, as the title-page indicates, is based upon that of Bornemann, though Mr. Macmichael has not neglected to exercise his own judgment, and occasionally differs from his predecessors. An account of the differences between his text and that of Bornemann and others, is given in an appendix. The notes are mostly of an explanatory nature, as might be expected in an edition avowedly prepared for the use of schools. They are neither too numerous nor too few, neither too long nor too brief, and give to the student just as much information as is desirable to help him over difficulties, and urge him on to exercise his own faculties. Great use has also been made of Mr. Ainsworth's researches in the track of the Ten Thousand; and maps are added to illustrate that memorable expedition. In short, no source has been neglected or overlooked, from which light can be obtained; and the book will be found equally instructive to young teachers as to students. We have examined the notes in various parts of the book, and have throughout found them precise and accurate. The only thing which we would suggest as somewhat out of the way is, that the editor has not throughout given his notes in English; but has, now and then, quoted the explanations of others in Latin. This is indeed a small matter; but there does not appear any sufficient reason for introducing Latin notes in a commentary of this kind. We can confidently recommend Mr. Macmichael's edition of the Anabasis as the best school edition that exists in the English language; and we feel certain that it will satisfy every reasonable demand that can be made. 3. NOTES ON HERODOTUS, Original, and Selected from the best Commentators. By Dawson W. Turner, M. A., late Demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Head Master of the Royal Institution School, Liverpool. THIS volume is one of the very poorest attempts at compilation that have ever come under our notice. It is nothing but a feeble dilution and abridgment of the notes of Bähr, Wesseling, and Schweighäuser, with a few passages quoted from Heeren, Thirlwall, and one or two other equally accessible authorities. One of Mr. Turner's principal sources of information appears to be Barker's edition of Anthon's Lempriere. We do not pretend to have examined the whole volume, but have gone over a large part of the notes on the second book of Herodotus, thinking that this would furnish a fair sample of Mr. Turner's merits as an annotator. The notes are all of an extremely meagre and unsatisfactory kind, indicating nothing but the most superficial reading. Even so accessible an author as Wilkinson is never once referred to. Of Bunsen's researches, Mr. Turner does not seem even to have heard. The value of his chronological notices under such circumstances may be imagined. The reader will look in vain for a single remark which will throw any light upon the numerous difficult and interesting questions connected with the 2d book of Herodotus, or even place him in any tolerable degree in possession of the results of the most recent and valuable researches on the subject. As a specimen of the blunders of which Mr. Turner is capable, we may notice that, in his remarks on c. 99, though he actually quotes Rennell's description of the ancient course of the Nile, he imagines it identical with the Bahrhelama, and quotes in illustration, Savary's fictitious or at least highly exaggerated account of the masts and wrecks of vessels still to be found there! 4. Q. HORATII FLACCI OPERA OMNIA. Recognovit et commentariis in usum Scholarum instruxit Guil. Dillenburger. Editio altera. Bonnæ, 1848. 8vo. THE first edition of this work appeared in 1843, and was intended as a school edition of Horace, which should make the student acquainted with the results of the exegetical, æsthetical, and critical labours of Peerlkamp, Obbarius, Orelli, Düntzer, Kirchner, Lübker, Franke, and others. The notes in that, as well as in the present edition, are written in Latin, and intended for students of the highest form of a Prussian Gymnasium; they contain no historical, geographical, mythological, or grammatical explanations of subjects with which the student at that stage may reasonably be supposed to be acquainted. The edition was found very acceptable, and introduced in many public schools. The second edition is greatly improved, for not only has the text been corrected in many parts, but the notes have been extended so as to make them more generally useful, though the original object has been steadily kept in view. The book is very cheap, and has all the qualities to recommend it to be put into the hands of students. There is only one point which, perhaps, may be considered as an obstacle, and that is the circumstance that the notes are written in Latin, which, to boys in our higher forms, is not as familiar as it is to those of the corresponding forms of a German Gymnasium. We therefore hope that some English publisher will soon undertake to furnish an edition with an English translation of the notes. The book is accompanied by an excellent life of Horace, chronological tables of the time at which the several poems of Horace were composed, and of the historical events which occurred during the life-time of the poet, from B. C. 65, to B. c. 8; and lastly, by an account of the Horatian metres. The work is also provided with two useful indexes,-one, of all the proper names that occur in Horace, and the other, of words and other matters that occur either in the poems, or are explained in the notes. 5. PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, THIS Society continues with great vigour its investigations into the affinities of languages, the laws regulating the formation of words, the various organic modifications which words undergo in the process of time, and in their transference from one country to another; and, in short, into every question that can be of interest to the philologer. The first two volumes are replete with instructive papers on philological topics; and the parts which we have received of the third, are in no way inferior to their predecessors. In regard to the ancient languages, the papers of Professors Key and Malden are, as usual, of the highest interest; and it is only to be lamented that the results of their learned labours are confined to the members of the Philological Society. We, in our place, can do no more than give a list of the papers read at the Society's meetings: 1. On Orthographical Expedients, by Edwin Guest. 2. On the Formation of Words by the further modification of inflected cases, by the Rev. R. Garnett. 3. On the Construction of ows un, with a past indicative. 4. On the Elements of Language, their arrangement and their accidents, by E. Guest. 5. On the Misuse of the terms Epenthesis and Euphony, by Th. Hewitt Key. 6. On the Origin of the demonstrative pronouns, the definite article, the pronouns of the third person, the relative and the interrogative, by Th. Hewitt Key. 7. Attempts to suggest the Derivations and Affinities of some Greek and Latin Words, by the Rev. Dr. Davies. 8. On Greek and English Versification, by Professor Malden. 9. On certain Initial-letter-changes in the Indo-European Languages, by Rev. R. Garnett. 10. On the Names of the Parts of the Human Body as common to the several families of the Indo-European Languages, by Th. Hewitt Key. 6. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By R. G. Latham, M.D. THE first edition of this valuable work has met with the greatest approbation of those scholars who are most able to pronounce judgment upon it. It is now republished, revised, and greatly enlarged. Few words will suffice again to recommend it most urgently to the study of every lover of his mother tongue. Dr. Latham's work is the result of uninterrupted studies of many years; and an ingenious combination of two prominent departments of the grammatical art, which are undoubtedly required, both that we may dispense with or reform those numberless grammars of the day, and that " an educated Englishman should become familiar with the results of modern criticism, as applied to his native tongue." stated in the preface, p. xv. "The method of the present work is mixed. It is partly historical and partly logical. The historical portions exhibit the way in which words and inflections have been used; the logical, the way in which they ought to be used." In both parts Dr. Latham proves himself to be a most accomplished scholar. His knowledge comprises the whole range of Indo-European languages, from the Sanscrit to the different Celtic languages, but especially those of the Gothic stock, which are so thoroughly examined in J. Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik, and to which chain the links for this country have been fastened already by the successful efforts of men like B. Sharpe and J. Kemble. On the other hand, our author is well known as a philosopher. He has published a little work entitled, First Outlines of Logic, applied to Grammar and Etymology; and notwithstanding the fact that philological criticism at the present moment "is of an essentially historical (or etymological) character," in perusing the book, we always find the author conversant with Metaphysics and Philology in general. His very style is a proof of it; the short sentences, looking frequently like so many scattered remarks, but always strictly connected with each other; at another time arranged in the form of syllogisms, the hypothesis adapted to etymological and syntactical questions; all this reminds us of such works as Spinoza's Ethics. It is impossible for us here to go over the whole volume, or to scrutinize the particular views of the author, where he announces general principles, or introduces new terms, and to stop perhaps at an hypothesis, where we should feel inclined to dispute Dr. Latham's opinions. We shall confine ourselves to mentioning the contents of the different parts, occasionally taking up one or other particular point. In the first part, the author treats, in a short but lucid survey, the affinities of the English language to the languages of the Gothic stock, the Celtic branches, the Classic languages, and principally the Latin, and the position of the English to the Indo-European family. The second part contains the history and analysis of the English language in its different stages. The Anglo-Saxon is justly stated to be the mothertongue. “Our English would have been much as it is at present, even if the Norman conquest never had taken place," p. 81. The Celtic elements are very scanty, and were repulsed even by the Romans. The influence of the Latin language is a primary, secondary, and tertiary one; that of the Scandinavian districts is direct and indirect, and any thing but predominant. Certain ap |