ART. I.-ANAAEKTA 'EAAHNIKA MEIZONA, sive Collectanca Græca Majora. Ad usum Academica Juventutis accommodata. Cum Notis Philologicis, quas artim collegit, partim scripsit. GEORGIUS DUNBAR, A. M. Socius Regiæ Societatis Edinensis; et in Academia Jacobi VI. Scotorum Regis Litt. Gr. Prof. Tomus III. Complectens Excerpta ex duobus principibus Oratoribus et variis poetis, atque in duas partes divisus. Londini, BALDWIN & Co. 1819. Pp. 880. Svo.

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T must be admitted, we think, that while philosophy and general literature have been cultivated in Scotland with considerable and acknowledged success, the science of Philology, more particularly as it relates to the critical investigation of the Greek and Latin languages, and the illustration of their respective writers, has comparatively made small progress among us. However we may account for this fact, it cannot surely be ascribed to a want of taste for classical literature, as the authors of Greece and Rome have long held an important place in our system of éducation; and our most elegant writers, from Buchanan down to the present time, have shewn themselves familiar with their productions. Perhaps, then, some more plausible reasons for the deficiency may be found in the nature of our literary and other establishments. The general condition of our teachers is laborious, without being lucrative; the higher situations are but few, and in some measure of the same description, scarcely holding forth an adequate reward to superior attainments; those situations again are still fewer in which men of learning can devote themselves exclusively, or even chiefly, to the study of the classics; while their numerous avocations, and the quantity of original composition to be furnished by our clergy, and some other literary characters, have made them necessarily considér such pursuits as subordinate, or merely preparatory to the duties of their respective professions. Thus we can reckon up few Scottish critics on the Latin language; and we know of no an

notator on the Greek classics, nor indeed, with the exception of Monboddo, Blackwall, and Moore, any individual of consequence who has written expressly on Grecian literature, prior to the author of the Collectanea, used in the metropolitan University.

But while we would willingly give to the alleviating or explanatory considerations, now mentioned, all the weight which they may justly merit, we cannot help animadverting a little upon the slovenly manner in which, till of late, Greek was generally taught in our public seminaries. Though introduced into this country about three centuries ago, and since that time regularly taught in our universities, its appearance in our schools is comparatively of recent date; and even in the universities themselves, so little zeal seems to have been shewn for its cultivation, and the mode of teaching it was so superficial, that, prior to the time of Dr. Moore, there were no public monuments, either of their learning or their diligence. Till Professor Dalzel published his Collectanea, we possessed, we may safely say, no class-book, by which the students could be initiated into the principles of the language, except the Grammar and Lexicon, and we are sure that the student had nothing beyond viva voce instructions, for one or two sessions, and the miserable aid of a Latin translation, by which he could either conquer the difficulties of the original, or be assured that his interpretation in disputed cases was in accordance with the genius and idiom of the language, deduced from the practice of the best writers, Farther, in estimating the merits of the plan which that excellent scholar adopted in conducting the education of his pupils, while we give all due praise to the candour, learning, and zeal which eminently qualified him to display the beauties of Grecian literature in their most engaging form, truth compels us to admit, that during his professorship, there was no elementary work which contained a systematic view of the syntax and idiom of the language, th that no exercises were prescribed to accustom the student to Greek composition, and that few or none of the methods were used by him, which are now so successfully employed in teaching almost all the languages, both ancient and modern. At that period, too, though improvements in education were rapidly advancing, the previous training of students was still defective their attendance at the university was very limited; and the acquirements of the generality were necessarily superficial.

Hence we are enabled to give a satisfactory account of origin of sundry very severe reproaches, to a certain degree just, against the classical literature of Scotland; and which are still occasionally thrown out, though the circumstances are in many

cases completely altered, and though the present state of classical education in this metropolis may bear comparison, we will venture to say, with that in England, or in any other country in Europe. In the High School, for example, there is now not only more attention paid to the Latin authors, and to Latin composition, both in prose and verse; but the study of Greek has been more closely attended to,-its grammar is taught with greater accuracy, the Collectanea Majora is read,-and, at the annual examination, we have seen many scholars in the Rector's class, profess acquaintance with the greater part, some even with the whole of the Iliad. Nor is the degree of improvement less remarkable in the literary classes of our University, in which the Greek and Latin languages are taught with the utmost accuracy and care; where every useful or necessary assistance is provided for accelerating the proficiency of the student, and training him up to habits of philological analysis, through an intimacy with the most celebrated writers of antiquity; and where he is led to philosophical views of literature in all its different branches, by numerous exercises on the structure of the language, both in prose and verse, as well as translations, criticisms, and essays on a variety of important subjects. We may add, that there are numerous academies, both public and private, besides the other universities, our county schools, and not a few parochial schools, in which the Greek and Latin classics are taught well, and to a considerable extent.

We assert, therefore, without fear of detection in an error, that classical literature is greatly upon the increase in this country; and while we entreat the impartial to satisfy themselves of the fact, by a candid examination, before they acquiesce in certain unfavourable representations, to which we now barely advert, we call upon the patriotic to continue to support the liter ary character and the public and private institutions of their country, by that encouragement which their excellence deserves, and which the best interests of the rising generation imperatively require.

Notwithstanding the defects already alluded to in the mode of teaching followed by Professor Dalzel, we confidently trace the origin of the present improved state of Grecian literature to the period of his high-toned prelections, and to the spirited exertions of some of his contemporaries. An important object was gained by the publication of the Collectanea Minora, and the two volumes of the Majora. It was an achievement unprece dented in this country, and of the utmost practical utility; for, while it is the object of these publications to promote the study of the language, by attending to its peculiar rules and idioms,

and to exhibit to the student a selection of such passages as shall at once aid him in the acquisition of the language in its purity, and give him a slight acquaintance with the works which it contains, it enabled the professor to bring together and condense into a small space, a greater variety of critical and archæological knowledge than he could possibly have accomplished by commenting on the entire works of particular authors; and in addition to the purest text, which is always adopted in it, this selected annotation is expressly accommodated to the progress: which the student is supposed to have made. To the abilitydisplayed in the preceding volumes, then, their acknowledged usefulness, and the consequent extent of their circulation, we ascribe much of the rapid progress which classical literature has lately made in this country; and we indulge the hope, that from the excellent elementary works which Professor Dunbar has put into the hands of students,-from the scientific manner in which it is now taught, and the comparative facility and accuracy with which it may be acquired, joined to juster views of its importance, and the increasing demand for it in teachers, the opprobrium which has been somewhat untenderly heaped upon us will speedily be removed.

The volume which has given occasion to these remarks, professes to be a continuation of that plan which Professor Dalzel adopted in forming the preceding volumes of the Majora. The reasons for undertaking it, assigned by the editor, appear to us quite satisfactory; and, generally speaking, its contents are such as we should like to see in the hands of young men who are finishing their classical studies in the University, and are destined, as most of our students are, to active and literary professions. The pieces which the Professor has chosen, are as follows:The Oration of Eschines against Ctesiphon, and the Defence of Demosthenes; two Tragedies of Eschylus-Prometheus Vinctus, and the Seven against Thebes; the Philoctetes of Sophocles; the Alcestis of Euripides; and the Nubes and the Plutus of Aristophanes.

We own we should have liked to have seen the Edipus Coloneus substituted instead of the Philoctetes; both because we think it the finest of Sophocles' tragedies, and because it completes the tragic history of Edipus, of which the former part only is contained in the Edipus Tyrannus, inserted by Professor Dalzel in a former volume. Waving, however, these two considerations, we have no objections to the Philoctetes, well remembering with what avidity we sought for it in our youthful days, on seeing it mentioned in Dr. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I. Sect. ii. Chap. 1. in terms of such high ap

probation. The Prometheus Vinctus, and the Seven against Thebes, are rather distinguished for their poetic than their tragic merit; and we should have preferred to them the Choephora and the Agamemnon-the former, because it must be regarded as the first finished dramatic performance,—and the latter, because, while it may be considered as the best of the performances of Eschylus, it would have furnished an opportunity to the student who has leisure, of comparing the merit of this tragedy with that of the same name of Seneca in Latin, and that of Thomson in English. Nothing perhaps serves better than such comparisons to open the mind of the student,-to furnish him with materials for thought,-to quicken his powers of observation,-to improve his taste, and sharpen his critical faculties. A similar reason might have induced us to select the Hippolytus of Euripides, as the same subject has been handled, though in a very different style, both by Seneca and Racine. In the Alcestis, however, we have some exquisite specimens of the tragic genius of Euripides; and that play seems to have a sort of claim on the attention of Scotsmen, from the poetic Latin translation of our illustrious countryman, Buchanan. The Nubes and the Plutus are selected with judgment, as being the most celebrated specimens of the comic genius of Aristophanes. And surely nothing can be better fitted for the student of oratory, than the speeches of Eschines and Demosthenes on the memorable subject of the Crown, which are justly held forth among the very noblest specimens of the art.

Having made these general remarks, we proceed to the exa mination of what is more particularly our author's own in the volume before us, and to determine with what ability and judgment he has elucidated the difficulties in the several pieces which he has chosen for the subject of his annotations.

The first piece that occurs is the speech of Æschines against Ctesiphon. The notes on it are preceded by a condensed, but spirited abstract of the life of Æschines, from which, as a very fair specimen, both of the Professor's Latinity, and his talent for characterizing the genius of his Grecian authors, we make the following quotation, which, we think, will be acceptable to many of our readers.

"Fuit Æschini ingenium ad dicendum naturæ præsidiis munitum, clara et sonora vox, memoria tenax, et corpus et facies venusta, Nec defuerunt ei doctrina rerumque scientia et Græcorum suique temporis historiæ cognitio. Dictio præterea est elegans, copiosa, dilucida, et nonnunquam altius exsurgit. Non illi quidem erat eadem vis et animi impetus ac Demostheni, non secum rapit, et quocunque velit auditores ducit, sed leniore more incedit et quoddam ornamentum et dignitatem semper præ se fert. Idem narratione luculenta et vivida excellit, rationes bene dispositas profert, rerumque