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the acquisition of what will prove a golden key to the treasures of their favorite Sophocles. A lexicon to the productions of this prince of tragic poets, has always been a great desideratum with the classical scholar; for Brunck's is only an approximation towards one, and Beatson's is a mere verbal index. Professor Ellendt has, therefore, fairly entitled himself, by the present publication, to the thanks of every scholar. The title of the work is a Lexicon to Sophocles, but our readers will labor under a very erroneous impression if they take this appellation in its literal sense, and suppose that they have here merely an alphabetical arrangement of the terms that occur in the dramas of Sophocles, with a word or two explanatory of their meaning. On the contrary, the true name of the work would seem rather to be, a digest of the several commentaries on the poet in question, in which the results of learned and laborious investigations are briefly and succinctly given, and references at the same time made to collateral authorities. A specimen, however, of the work itself, will best explain our meaning. It has been selected almost at random :

Ελλας. 1. Τerram Graciam significat. Ελλάδος γῆς, Phil. 256. πόλιν σθένου σιν, εἴ τιν' Ελλάδος, μέγα, Oed. Col. 738. ώ τλῆμον Ἑλλάς, Tr. 1102. τὸ κλεινὸν Ἑλε λάδος στράτευμα, Εl. 684. Et sic explicandum τὸ κλεινὸν Ἑλλάδος πρόσχημ ̓ ἀγῶνος, El. 671, in quo exemplo 'Exλádos ayvos conjuncturus erat Brunckius V. Herm. -(2) Adjective de re Græca qualicunque, oxîpa ‘Eddádos σrodñs, Phil. 223. Duo vocabuli exempla reliqua sunt aliquantum dubitabilia, σύθ' Ελλὰς οὔτ ̓ ἄγλωσσος οὔθ ̓ ὅστην ἐγὼ γαῖαν καθαίρων ἱκόμην ἔδρασέ πω, Trach. 1049, ἄγλωσσος pro βάρβαρος, nove dictum esse manifestum, et insequens yatav suadet ut hæc in unum conjungantur, et 'EXλás et äyλwocos unum subjectum habeant y. Sed Antiatt. Bekk. p. 97, 4. scribit: Ελλάς ὁ ἀνήρ. Σοφοκλῆς Αἴαντι Λοκρῷ (vii. 17 D.); itaque etiam illum Trachiniarum locum intelligi et Brunckius vult, advocans diversissima 'EXλas aron et similia, in quibus non major in est licentia quam in Exxas y, et Hermannus ad Eur. Iph. Taur. 334., qui quod exemplum profert Eur. Phoen. 1513, id Sophocle illi simillimum etiam in eo est, quod synesis y in utrumque cadit. Diversa contulere Intpp. Greg. Cor. p. 108, nec in copiis Lobeckii ad Aj. 323, p. 272, quidquam tale extat; Antiatticistæ autem impudenter mendaci ut novitiorum scriptorum peccata excuset, nihil credo. Jure igitur a Sophocle eam libertatem abjudicat Bemhardy Synt. p. 48., sed plane immemor doctrinæ de nominibus impari genere componendis a Lobeckio I. c. inchoatæ docte, mox eam, ut speramus, absolutissima doctrina exsecuturo.

We are sorry to find, from Professor Ellendt's preface, that favoritism is beginning to show its head within the precincts of German scholarship, and that those pests of all sound learning, "nec ingenio nec doctrina commendati homines," have managed to take very good care of themselves, within the sphere of our author's observation, to the detriment of real but more unobtrusive merit. We hope for the credit of that learning which has hitherto made Germany its abiding place, that the complaints of Professor Ellendt, in this particular, are merely the offspring of what would appear to be his own morbid feelings, and not sober realities. The conclusion of his preface, however, is desponding enough: "Talia quin animum frangant viresque debilitant cum fieri vix possit, lectores oro, ut ignoscant, quod serius, quam promiseram, liber meus in lucem publicam emittitur.”

3.-Lexicon Platonicum, sive Vocum Platonicarum Index. Condidit D. FRIDERICUS ASTIUS. Vol. ii. fasc. 1. Znra-Kλivw. Lipsia. 1836. In Libraria Weidmanniana.

PROFESSOR AST is already most favorably known by his edition of Plato's works, now in a course of publication; and of which the Lexicon here noticed is to form a part. Ast's Platonic Lexicon resembles a verbal index much more than Ellendt's Lexicon to Sophocles, men. tioned in the preceding article, but this is owing to the circumstance of the editor having reserved for his commentary much that would otherwise have appeared in the present work. To quote the words of the Professor, "Immensi operis ne immensa existeret moles, brevi. tati ita consului, ut nihil quidem prætermitterem quod ad sermonen Platonicum illustrandum videretur pertinere, rerum autem explanatione locorum similium comparatione variarumque lectionum censura plane abstinerem." This is all, no doubt, very well, yet still we could have wished occasionally to see more of the "explanatio" and somewhat less of the "brevitas." For example; under the head of aixía we might have had the distinction briefly stated between αἰκίας δίκη and ὕβρεως δίκη which Timæus in his Platonic Lexicon has confounded together, a negligence that can find no excuse, although Meier, in his Attische Process, p. 548, has sought to defend it. Under ȧxiváxns, the remark of Pollux, lib. 1. sect. 138, ought to have been given Περσικόν ξιφιδιόν τι, κ. τ. λ. in order to correct the vulgar error that the dxváxns was a species of scimetar. So again, under dudev, some notice might have been taken of Gottling's inaccuracy (ad Aristot. Polit. 2. 2. p. 316), when he seeks to naturalize oudev, and gives it the force of vel maxime. The change of meaning in dwpodóxos, among later writers, should also have been mentioned, in order to prevent any erroneous application of that meaning to the text of Plato. We would have been pleased also, to see under the head of popos, the error of Timæus distinctly noted, where he says, Ἔφοροι, πέντε μείζους καὶ πέντε ἐλάττους. Mueller's remark (Prolegom. p. 430) places the matter in its true light: "Es ist klar dass die 5 kleinen ephoren bei Timæus blos Gehulfen der Ersteren waren, welche die immer zunehmende Wichtigkeit des Amtes noethig machte und nichts für die ursprungliche Anordnung beweisen."

While on this subject, we cannot refrain from recommending, in addition to Ast's work, the Platonic Lexicon compiled by Mr. Mitchell, the well known translator and editor of Aristophanes. It is executed with great ability, and affords, along with Ast's compilation, a sufficient answer to the complaint of the London editor of the Variorum Plato, that the age Διδύμων τῶν χαλκεντέρων had passed away.

4. Lexilogus, or a Critical Examination of the meaning, and etymo. logy of numerous Greek words and passages; intended principally for Homer and Hesiod. By PHILIP BUTTMANN, L. L. D. Trans. lated and edited by the Rev. J. R. FISHLAKE, late Fellow of Wad. ham College, Oxford. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1836. 8vo. pp. 597.

BUTTMANN's name is already well known on this side of the Atlan tic by his excellent grammars of the Greek language, which the labors of two of our countrymen have rendered accessible to every American scholar. The present work, however, presents him in a far higher character, as a sound and accurate critic on the earlier and more obscure forms of the same noble tongue. We hail its appearance in our English dress with sincere pleasure, and regard it as putting an effectual end to the reign of Homeric pedantry, and dismissing that bane of true scholarship, the Clavis Homerica, to its original obscurity. Nothing can be more erroneous than the notion which so many of our students appear to entertain, that the Greek poets, especially the earlier ones, were enabled by the aid of such mysterious figures as Apocope, Apharesis, Paragoge, &c. to clip and trim their native tongue with the same facility that a Dutch gardener does his alleys of box. So again with regard to the dialects; it is still firmly believed by a large number, that Homer brought into his poems every dialectic form that struck his fancy or suited his verse. How would Milton or Shakspeare look, if such a principle had been adopted by either of them, and if all manner of words had been employed, from the various provincial dialects of England? Buttmann's work brings us into a purer atmosphere, and inculcates sounder doctrines.

The author very modestly entitled his work, in the original, a "Lexilogus, or Helps in the explanation of Greek words, intended principally for Homer and Hesiod." His English editor, fearing lest so indefinite a title might induce a belief of the treatise being merely an elementary book for younger students, very properly altered the appellation of the work to one more declaratory of its true character. It affords valuable aid, in fact, to every reader of Homer, and every student of one of the noblest of languages; and no one can after this lay claim to the character of sound and accurate scholarship without having made himself master of its contents.

If, where all is so highly entitled to praise, it might be allowed us to find any fault, it would be on account of the absence of Sanscrit etymologies. When Buttmann wrote his Lexilogus, the study of the Sanscrit language and literature was yet in its infancy. At the present day, however, it attracts so much attention, and throws so much light on the earlier forms of the Greek and Latin tongues, that the translator of the work before us ought not to have passed it by unnoticed. A vast mine remains still to be explored in this department of Homeric philology, and the day we trust is not far distant, when the

beauties of nature visible throughout the poem.

would be accounted a gem.

Quickly glancing, to and fro,
Listening to each sound they go:
Round the columns of the pine,
Indistinct, in shadow, seeming
Like some old and pillared shrine;
With the soft and white moonshine,
Round the foliage-tracery shed
Of each column's branching head,
For its lamps of worship gleaming!
And the sounds awakened there,
In the pine-leaves fine and small,
Soft and sweetly musical,
By the singers of the air,
For the anthem's dying fall

Lingering round some temple's wall!
Is not Nature's worship thus
Ceaseless, ever going on?
Hath it not a voice for us
In the thunder, or the tone
Of the leaf-harp faint and small,
Stealing to the unsealed ear

Words of blended love and fear,
Of the mighty soul of all?

In an old writer it

6.-Essays on Meteorology. By JAMES P. ESPY, Member of the American Philosophical Society, &c. &c. From the Journal of the Franklin Institute. Vol. xvii.

WE are induced to give the following outline of these Essays, by the fact that the Legislature of Pennsylvania have recently voted a handsome appropriation, to enable Mr. Espy to continue and perfect his experiments in Meteorology. We presume we shall gratify general readers by placing the substance of these papers before them.

In these essays Mr. Espy, proposes, and illustrates a new "Theory of Rain, Hail, and Snow, Water-spouts, Land-spouts, Variable Winds, and Barometric fluctuations:" and we are sure of bestowing a merited encomium, when we pronounce the essays above mentioned as characterized at once by modesty, simplicity, ability and truth.

Up to this time, the only plausible account which has ever been given of the production of rain, is that proposed by Dr. Hutton, and since adopted and generalized by subsequent philosophers-the substance of which is this. The process of evaporation being constantly going on, watery vapor is continually accumulating in the atmosphere, and owing to the variable action of the causes producing evaporation, more vapor will pass into the atmosphere in some districts than in others. The subtle and ever restless agency of heat, which is unceasingly modifying the density of the atmosphere, by its unequal action, disturbs the atmospherical equilibrium, and winds are occasioned; currents of different temperatures are mingled, the mixture

at the temperature which it assumes, is not capable of retaining all the moisture of the two currents, and a portion is deposited in the form of rain. Such is the outline of Hutton's theory of rain. It is founded upon the fact which experiment has established, that the capacity of air to retain moisture, increases more rapidly than the temperature does: for instance, air at 60° Fahrenheit's thermometer is capable of holding in suspension a certain quantity of vapor-air at 90°, will hold more than half as much additional vapor, and air at 120°, will hold more than twice as much. Suppose therefore two currents of air to meet, one of them being at the temperature 60°, the other at 90°, and each current to be charged with its maximum of watery vapor. After mingling, the resulting temperature must, according to established laws, be 75°; but according to what we have said, the current at 90°, holds more vapor in proportion to its temperature, than that at 60° does in proportion to its temperature-when therefore the air at 60° is raised to 75°, it can take up some of the vapor which cannot now be retained by that which is reduced from 90° to 75°; but it cannot take up all, and this excess is what is deposited in the form of rain. Such is the theory which has prevailed since Dr. Hutton proposed it. The recent one of Mr. Espy is essentially different, and in our opinion much more simple, much more general, much less liable to objections, and much more decidedly confirmed by observed phenomena.

This theory is founded, first upon the result of some highly approved experiments of M. M. Berard and De la Roche, fixing the specific heat of atmospheric air at 250, that of water being 1. Secondly, upon the celebrated discoveries of Dr. Black, concerning latent heat, and thirdly upon the admirable results developed by Dr. Wells, in his Essay on Dew. Each of these three classes of results has stood the test of the closest scrutiny, by men most competent to judge of their correctness. They are admitted by all philosophers to be mainly true, and the strictly legitimate application which Mr. Espy has made of them in his "theory of rain &c.," is both sagacious and simple.

We proceed to let Mr. Espy speak for himself, in explanation of his theory:

"It has been shown by the experiments of Berard and De la Roche, and also by those of Clement and Desormes, that the specific heat of atmospheric air is about .250, that of water being 1.

"Now, if these experiments be correct, and they appear to be so, it will be easy to account for the formation of rain, snow, and hail, and several other atmospheric phenomena, which have never yet been satisfactorily explained.

"The theory of these meteors may be given in a few words. When a portion of transparent vapor, in the air, is condensed into cloud, or water, the latent caloric given out expands the air containing it, six times as much as it contracts by the condensation of the vapor into water.'

This position is shown by Mr. Espy, by a simple calculation founded on acknowledged data-he then proceeds:

"It follows, then, from the principle here demonstrated, that the moment a portion of the transparent vapor in the air begins to condense into cloud, the VOL. I.-NO. I.

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