too much encouraged. As a method of impressing firmly principles of construction and details of idiom, it is without an equal in the process of education; and when we see the great effect it has in purifying and correcting the ideas of the young respecting the Latin language, we are little inclined to wonder that there have been theorists who wished to make it the only key for opening to them a knowledge of that language.

We are glad, therefore, that in this volume every facility of the kind of which we have spoken is afforded to the young Latinist. And in the same light do we view the constant care in both the volumes of which we write, to display the derivations of the words, and to give accurately the quantity of their syllables. The tracing of words to their roots, and the detection of their original and acquired meaning, is a branch of criticism of which the young are perfectly capable, and a proper attention to which will greatly facilitate and render much more agreeable their exertions in that which is the only irksome part of the task of learning a foreign language,the acquiring its vocabulary. We have spoken above of the care Mr. Gardner has used in exposing the dependence and connection of different words; by calling the attention of the pupil to these heads, and to the proper formation of words from their roots, we shall always interest and improve him more in the performance of his task. Nor should this study of derivation be turned merely to such words as are of Latin origin. The connection between the Latin and Greek languages is so close that the scholar's attention should be carefully turned to it, and a pupil who is sufficiently advanced to know a little of Greek words and idioms, will always be interested in investigating this. The volumes before us afford ample materials for such researches. We speak of this with more interest, because we fear it has not received in our academies and schools the attention which it ought.

For the same reason we are very glad that these two Lexicons, in giving, with almost undeviating accuracy, the quantity of the several syllables of the words, afford valuable material for the careful study of Latin prosody, that its principles may be acquired to a wider extent, than they are in the acquisition of the mere knowledge of the structure of a verse, that the scholar may be able to do something more than what he does in dividing a line with tolerable accuracy.

The skilful composing of Latin verse is a matter which has higher importance than as a pretty accomplishment, although it undoubtedly is a very worthy and scholarlike one, and we hope to see it one day introduced into our schools and colleges more generally than it is now. There was a certain. difficulty in this when young poets had no better authority at hand in framing their verses than the Ainsworth's Dictionaries of which we have spoken, of many of which it might be boldly said, that the marks of quantity, in all doubtful cases, deserved not the slightest respect, being quite as often wrong as right. The great accuracy with which these volumes are printed, places their notes of quantity above suspicion, and their copious extracts from the poets add to their value in this respect.

That part of these volumes which is intended to assist the scholar in changing English into Latin is by Mr. H. W. Torrey, of Boston. After what we have said of the great care and labor necessary for the proper performance of the duty imposed in the Latin-English part, we need add little of that in this branch of lexicography. In the words of Mr. Torrey,

"It is always much easier to render foreign into native words, than native into foreign. In the one case, each word, which is given as the signification of another, serves for a sign, which admits of a wide application; in the other, a word only points to a single step. In the one, the unknown is expressed in terms of the known; in the other, the familiar is exhibited in the form of the unfamiliar. Besides this difficulty, common to all languages, there are peculiar obstacles to overcome in conveying a modern language into an ancient. A living tongue is always pliant. It readily adopts and assimilates new expressions for new ideas, by giving a new tinge to words already in use, by naturalizing foreign terms, or by a direct creation. In this way it passes down from age to age without growing old. A dead language, on the contrary, being no longer kept supple by daily use, is rigid and unyielding. Additions, instead of growing into its body, must often bear the appearance of appendages merely, and thus proclaim their own strangeness. Yet, such additions must be made, or expression will be hampered by clumsy circumlocutions, and unwieldy descriptions take the place of significant names."

A work so prepared as to meet these difficulties and present to the classical scholar a manual for his use in translating English into Latin, was much needed. The old English

lexicographers seem to have considered it quite as important as the other branch of their duties. But, from the nature of the case, the changes in the English language affected this much more than it did the other part of the Lexicon. Whatever might be the purity of its English, a Latin-English lexicon will always be complete, if complete when published; because its articles relate to a dead language, which admits of no change from generation to generation; while, on the other hand, new idioms and phrases have constantly been introducing themselves into our language, which require admission into the English-Latin part of the lexicon.

The plan which Mr. Torrey proposed to himself, and the manner in which he executed it, will be best explained by the following extract from his preface:

"Notwithstanding these hinderances, it was hoped that something might be put together, which, though it could not but be imperfect, should at least be methodical and clear. As the same idea is often expressed by the use of different parts of speech in different connections, it seemed conducive to clearness, especially in so succinct a work, to bring derived words under their primitives, distinguished, however, by a smaller type. This has been, in some cases, extended to words not strictly derived, but only cognate; the objection to such a course is, that oftentimes so great a dislocation of alphabetical order is produced, as to render it difficult to find a word. This difficulty has been obviated, either by adhering in such cases to that order, or by giving the word under its primitive, and referring thither from its alphabetical place. The liberty has also been taken of omitting many words which seemed to be of slight importance. Some pages, thus arranged, were shown to Mr. Leverett, and met with his approval.

"But it was soon found impossible, from the slowness with which the work advanced, even to carry out this plan, and it was accordingly broken off at the word Commence. No course then remained but to take some manual already in use, and improve it, as far as was possible, in a limited time. Ainsworth's dictionary most readily presented itself, and the rest of this book, (being about five sixths of the whole,) is made up mainly of that. The work of Ainsworth has many faults, so many, indeed, that to correct them entirely would be as laborious as to make a new book. Among other things, it is so confusedly thrown together, that even what is there is not easily found. To this point attention has been chiefly directed. The whole has been wrought into a more orderly arrangement, which presents each part of speech by itself, and accords with what had already been furnished.". "Various other alterations, as many as time would allow, have been introduced throughout. Articles

have been entirely, or almost entirely, written anew, and much that was incorrect or redundant has been stricken out. It is hoped that, in this form, the work may be found to have gained in usefulness.”

We cannot but regret that the circumstances he has mentioned prevented Mr. Torrey from carrying out his original design. A new English-Latin lexicon would have been a very valuable addition to our treasures in classical philological science. The Lexicon he has presented us, however, is so great an improvement on what we have had before, that we feel that we have no right to complain. With what he says in his preface-of the want of arrangement in Ainsworth's Latin dictionary—every scholar who ever used that book will fully agree. We can freely say, we never consult any article in that work, which evinces any labor, without wondering what could have been the leading idea in the author's mind as to the arrangement of his facts. They are huddled together in actual chaos. All this obscurity Mr. Torrey has made it his duty to enlighten. The several articles, as he has arranged them, are such that one may have some hope of ascertaining what they do and what they do

not contain.

He has been quite too modest in his statements of his improvements. He has evidently exerted himself to exchange the pedantic, middle-aged, corrupted Latin, for which Ainsworth shows a remarkable predilection, for more elegant and more classical language; he has condensed many of the fearful circumlocutions which used to alarm the inquirer for a forgotten word; he has omitted many articles which could never but excite wonder that they were ever there, and has inserted many, in instances where the wonder is that they were not. In short, the work is well fitted to go forth as a companion to the labors of Mr. Leverett and Mr. Gardner.

The great accuracy and care observable in the mechanical execution of these volumes deserve more than a passing notice. We have seen that accuracy is no where more requisite than in books of this nature; and it is quite as much so in the minutiae of typographical detail as in particulars generally esteemed more important. The difficulty of correcting the press in works involving a knowledge of a foreign language is so great, that Latin books as accurately printed as these, are very seldom met with.

To conclude; either of the two volumes, the school-book or

the Latin Cyclopedia, if we may call it so, to each of which Mr. Torrey's Lexicon is attached, is very highly creditable to all who were engaged in its publication. They are works which have been long needed, and they are executed in a manner which leaves hardly any thing to desire, but compels the scholar to wonder that he has been able to do without them so long as he has. We welcome them as most acceptable additions to the stores of critical learning.

ART. IV. 1. Histoire du Droit Romain. Par GUSTAVE HUGO, Chevalier, etc., Professeur a l'Université de Goettingue, traduite de l'Allemand, sur la Septième Edition, par Jourdan, D. M. P.

2. Philological Museum, Vol. 2, on the Roman Coloni. From the German of Savigny.

Ir is painful to know that so little can be learned of the Roman bar under the Republic.

The profession of the advocate at that time was unquestionably illustrated by the efforts of more truly eloquent and powerful men, than at any other period of its history. But we are scarcely more familiar with the hopes and anxieties, with the daily labors and encouragements of the Ciceros and Mucii, the Scævolæ and Crassi of the Roman bar, than with the Esoteric mysteries of the priests at Memphis, or the Cours de procédure of the solicitors at the court of Minos.

There is something intensely interesting and instructive to the professional man, in the diary of the downsittings and uprisings of his professional ancestors to the lawyer, in the private histories of those whose sympathies and necessities he will be called upon most frequently to live over. Their hopes and fears, with and without briefs-their preparations and labors in private, their manner in public,their sorrowings and rejoicings-the nature of their professional dignities, the steps by which attained and how estimated the various arts resorted to for wrenching or cajoling. the court, for encouraging or confusing witnesses such are the mémoires, unwritten and unknown, the absence of which mankind must probably always deplore. That illegible