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eloquence; and the young student of Greck is introduced to the character of Socrates in the amiable narration of Xenophon, and the studied eloquence of Plato. Were we to designate any parts of the second volume as particularly acceptable, we should mention the two tragedies, and the extracts from the Odyssey, containing, not indeed the sublimest, but some of the most pleasing descriptions and attractive tales of the Chian Bard.

But we return to our more immediate subject, which is the merit of the edition before us. Of all the editions, which have thus far appeared in Great Britain or America, we do not hesitate to pronounce this to be the most correct. It exhibits the clearest marks of indefatigable diligence and conscientious accuracy on the part of its learned and unassuming editor. Instead of vague and indiscriminating praise, we will endeavour to explain its peculiar advantages. Our account will be a short one, though the labours which we commemorate extended through years.

The chief object of the American editor. Professor John S. Popkin of Cambridge, was, to make the book a correct one. It had gone through so many editions, and each new one had repeated so many of the errors of the last, and made so many of its own, that both the text and the notes had become very much disfigured. Not only accents and letters were often wanting, but words, and sometimes whole lines, were omitted; especially in the notes. In the third American edition, these were in a good degree amended; in the fourth the same purpose has been most assiduously pursued. To do this, the original sources of the notes and text were consulted; and these, together with other good editions of the several writers, were diligently compared. Not a few fractures and dislocations were repaired by means of an early edition of the Collectanea. When the sense was found broken and obscure, it appeared on examination that words, lines, and sometimes several lines had been omitted; particularly, where a word was repeated at no great distance, the intervening words were sometimes passed over in printing.

In the text, not many changes of reading have been admitted; and these were such as appeared plainly requisite, and

* There is one addition, which Professor Popkin, on further reflection, will probably feel inclined to condemn. A line has been admitted after v. 40 in the Medea. Ac. cording to the explanation of Mr Elmsley, the word rúgavvov means the princess;

were mostly introduced in the improved English editions, and recommended in the notes of this collection;* and the notes, with the exception of one or two slight verbal alterations and the attempt to adapt them to the changes in the text, are reprinted entire. We beg pardon of our readers for our minuteness, while we go on to observe, that here and there useful references and short notices are added to the notes. Still more good has been done by correcting and amending the references in many places, and making them, as far as possible, to chapter and section; since it is a very inconvenient practice to refer to pages only, in a work which is probably printed in many different forms. And toward the end of vol. ii. a few more notes have been added, for which the materials were furnished by editions, not published at the time when Mr Dalzel first made his compilation.

We hope we have said enough to justify our preference of Professor Popkin's edition of the Græca Majora over any other. To give a more distinct idea of what he has accomplished, we venture to affirm, after a close computation which may be relied upon, that of errata in the copy, greater and less, he has corrected as many as ten thousand. If, after all his care and pains, he has made any or left any, they can easily be marked and corrected, as the present edition has been made on stereotyped plates. It was an undertaking of long and toilsome diligence to correct the press and the copy of a work of this kind, collected from so many sources, and referring to so many authorities. Not less than five hundred volumes were of necessity consulted. Professor Popkin entered upon this task because he knew that no other would probably take the like pains, who had at the same time access to the like means. In Europe many a man has attained to a wide reputation for scholarship by exploits, which required far less

and his interpretation is probably the correct one, though it seems harsh, that this word should so soon and so abruptly be used in the feminine gender without the article. It is so used in v. 873: Tuas sugavvov. Verse 40 must indicate the children, notwithstanding the apparent abruptness and want of preparation. It is intimated in the preceding verses, and more plainly signified below, in verses 89, 118, &c.

In

For an example of this, see vol. i. p. 113. 1. 30. διίσταντο for ἵσταντο. the same volume, p. 73. l. 22, Professor Popkin has ventured to insert a for reasons mentioned in the note; and it seems too to be supported by a similar expression, p. 115. 1. 9. These we mention as the boldest instances; and surely an editor who has taken no greater liberties, cannot be blamed for teinerity.

critical skill than the present has called forth. We could wish, that the learned Professor might not be deprived of any portion of the honour due to him, because instead of preparing for the public an edition of some masterpiece of Grecian genius, in his own name and more directly for the advancement of his own reputation, he has contented himself with amending the faults, and supplying the deficiencies of others. He has shown himself to be profound in his knowledge of Greek literature, and also most exact in his acquaintance with Greek Grammar, even to the nicest points in the doctrine of the accents.

There never can arrive a time, when business will be so engrossing, and inventions so numerous, and the direct wants of society so exclusively important, that some minds cannot be spared from the current of the world to contemplate in speculative leisure the beautiful remains of antiquity. It may be a question, how far the two languages, which have so long been cherished by almost every friend of letters, should form the basis of all higher education. It is well for the country, that at least some should be imbued with this kind of knowledge, that some should be led backwards to the origin of culture, and permitted to trace the progress of knowledge, refinement, and civil liberty from their springs; and it is certainly desirable on their account to perfect as far as possible the means of instruction in the learned languages. While therefore different opinions may be entertained as to the extent of the benefit done to the cause of education by exertions like those of Professor Popkin, there can be but one mind on the subject of his industry and learning, and the advantages conferred by them on the particular branch of study, which he intended to promote.

Life and Character of the Chevalier John Paul Jones, a Captain in the Navy of the United States, during their Revolutionary War. Dedicated to the Officers of the American Navy. By JOHN HENRY SHERBURNE, Register of the Navy of the United States. City of Washington. 1825. 8vo. pp. 387.

THE name of Paul Jones has been familiar to our cars from earliest infancy; and such has ever been its magic, that we have never sought authentic information of his life and actions, without a secret anxiety lest it should trespass upon the po

etical corner, he has so long held in our minds, by the romance of his real or supposed adventures. Without any mixture of poetry, the sober judgment of the world will probably be, that for intuitive sagacity, and invincible and devoted courage as a naval commander, he has had no rival, except Nelson, in either hemisphere. In England it has been the fashion to represent him as a pirate, robber, and assassin; and never did dishonest representations more completely pervert the public mind. About a twelvemonth ago, we saw in the windows of grub-street booksellers in London, Manchester, and other towns of England, a very sanguinary and frightful engraving, it being the frontispiece of a sixpenny pamphlet, representing "the Famous Scotch Pirate, Paul Jones, in the act of blowing out the brains of his first mate for offering to strike the colours." Nearly at the same time there appeared in the "New Monthly Magazine," a tolerably liberal and candid account of his life. This was probably in consequence of the publication in this country of "The Pilot." Jones is now beginning to have that justice done him, which was denied him in his life-time, and has been but faintly rendered him even to the present day. The work before us adds to the materials, for the biography of this extraordinary man, but it neither combines nor makes them complete. It will aid essentially some other writer in producing, what itself has little pretension to be called a "Life and Character of John Paul Jones." It consists almost wholly of the writings of Captain, or rather of Admiral Jones, for to that rank he at last attained. He was a good writer, and poorly as the various documents are connected and arranged, no one can read the book without feeling a deep interest in the character and fortunes of the hero. These documents are official and private letters, marine journals, projects of naval expeditions, and plans for the improvement of the then infant navy of the United States. Capt. Jones's letters, detailing the events of his two most memorable expeditions, are uncommonly interesting. We know of no better models for composition of the kind. The following extract is from the account of the capture of the Drake sloop of war of twenty guns by the Ranger, off Carrickfergus, on the 24th of May, 1778.

Alarm smokes now appeared in great abundance, extending along on both sides of the channel. The tide was unfavourable, so that the Drake worked out but slowly. This obliged me to run down several times, and to lay with courses up, and main-topsail to the mast. At length

the Drake weathered the point, and having led her ont to about midchannel, I suffered her to come within hail. The Drake hoisted English colours, and at the same instant, the American stars were displayed on board the Ranger. I expected that preface had been now at an end, but the enemy soon after hailed, demanding what ship it was? I directed the master to answer, "the American Continental ship Ranger; that we waited for them, and desired that they would come on; the sun was now little more than an hour from setting, it was therefore time to begin." The Drake being astern of the Ranger, I ordered the helm up, and gave her the first broadside. The action was warm, close, and obstinate. It lasted an hour and four minutes, when the enemy called for quarters; her fore and main-topsail yards being both cut away, and down on the cap; the top-gallant yard and mizen-gaff both hanging up and down along the mast; the second ensign which they had hoisted shot away, and hanging on the quarter gallery in the water; the jib shot away, and hanging in the water; her sails and rigging entirely cut to pieces; her masts and yards all wounded, and her hull also very much galled. I lost only Lieut. Wallingsford and one seaman, John Dougall, killed, and six wounded; among whom are the gunner, Mr Falls, and Mr Powers, a midshipman, who lost his arm. One of the wounded, Nathaniel Wills, is since dead; the rest will recover. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded, was far greater. All the prisoners allow, that they came out with a number not less than a hundred and sixty men; and many of them affirm that they amounted to a hundred and ninety. The medium may, perhaps, be the most exact account; and by that it will appear that they lost in killed and wounded, forty-two men. The captain and lieutenant were among the wounded. The former, having received a musket ball in the head the minute before they called for quarters, lived, and was sensible sometime after my people boarded the prize. The lieutenant survived two days. They were buried with the honours due to their rank, and with the respect due to their memory.

The battle which terminated in the capture of the British frigate Serapis, was the most daring and desperate sea-fight that history records. The Bon homme Richard carried ten guns less than the Serapis, and in weight of metal was still more inferior, having only six, while the Serapis had twenty eighteen pounders. Jones's crew was numerically superior to that of the enemy by the number of sixty, but it was composed of all nations, and included forty-two boys. An unhappy misunderstanding had existed during the whole cruise, between Jones and some of the officers of his squadron, particularly Capt. Landais of the frigate Alliance, and this officer repeatedly refused to obey the Commodore's orders or reply to his signals. Landais was a Frenchman, whom Congress had taken into our service and appointed to the command of the Alliance. If half of the concurrent testimony of all the other officers who

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