of the city have raised the surface, and "leaves great reason to believe that some of the works of art existing in the time of Pausanias may be found amidst the accumulated soil." He has given an excellent exposition of the description of Sparta by the writer just referred to, in illustration of a valuable topographical sketch of the ruins.

In the course of his survey of Laconia, Colonel Leake found an inscription of a curious character in a Greek cottage. The author's narrative of this incident will afford a glimpse of the domestic economy and habits of the modern Greeks.

As we approach the Finikiótika kalyvia, the inhabitants fly and hide themselves. I soon get admission, however, into the best cottage in the village, in which the first object that meets my eye is an inscribed marble. The house is constructed, in the usual manner, of mud, with a coating of plaster; the roof is thatched, which is not a very common mode of covering the cottages in Greece. There is a raised earthen semicircle at one end for the fire, without any chimney; towards the other, a low partition, formed of the same material as the walls, separates the part of the building destined for the family from that which is occupied by the oxen and asses used on the farm, one door serving for both apartments. The usual articles of furniture of a Greek cottage are ranged, or hung around, namely, a loom, barrel-shaped wicker baskets, plastered with mud, for holding corn, a sieve, spindles, some copper cookingvessels, and two lyres. The floor is the bare earth, covered, like the walls, with a coat of dried mud. An oven attached to the outside of the building, and in the garden some beans, artichokes, and a vine trailed over the roof, indicate a superior degree of affluence or industry. The inscribed marble is inserted in the wall on one side of the door, and turns out to be an interesting monument. It was erected in honour of Caius Julius Eurycles, who, in the time of Strabo, was governor of Laconia, and was so powerful that the island of Cythera was his private property. His name is inscribed on the Lacedæmonian coinage in brass, struck under his government. Strabo adds, that Eurycles abused the friendship of the Roman emperor so much as to excite an insurrection, which, however, soon ceased in consequence of his death. Pausanias tells us, that he built a magnificent bath at Corinth. On the present marble, unfortunately, the name of the dedicating city is not mentioned. The master of the cottage, when he returns home in the evening from his labour in the fields, tells me that he found the stone at Blitra, as they call some ruins near Kavo-Xyli, and that a Turk, who is now dead, advised him to convey it to his house: "But how do I know," he adds, “that it may not bring some mischief upon my house, having belonged perhaps to some church ?" The Turk's reason for being unwilling to have any thing to do with the marble, was because it had been a work of the infidels. The mischief contemplated by the Greek was my arrival with men and horses, which he thought would bring expense upon him, if nothing worse. While I was at dinner five oxen entered, and took up their abode for the night behind the low partition.

The inscription is given at the end of the third volume, with a vast number of others, as follows:

απολισγαιονιουλιονευρυκλε. . . νεαυτασευεργε.ανανθεντατο.λλιονευτοναίωνα· Passing over the very full delineation of Laconia, which was carefully investigated by our author as far as its most southern extremity, the Tana

rian promontory, in the peninsula of Mani,* we proceed with him to Messenia.

On his route thither from Kalamata, the very ancient Phare, and Andrussa, Colonel Leake discovered the ruins of a Roman building, apparently a palace, in an uncommon state of preservation, part of the roof still remaining. Messene, its ruin at least, is situated at a short distance from Andrussa. The road near Messene is, "at every step, bordered or crossed by ancient foundations, mixed with pieces of columns, and the remains of buildings." Colonel Leake entered the ruined city by the northern gate, the same described by Pausanias, which our author describes as "one of the finest specimens of Greek military architecture in existence." It is double, with an intermediate circular court of sixty-two feet diameter, in the wall of which, near the outer gate, there is a niche on each side for a statue, with an inscription over it, one of which is legible, indicating that the niche and its contents had been provided by Quintus Plotius Euphemion: Κοιντος Πλοτιος Ευφημ' ν επεισκευασεν Colonel Leake notices the peculiar form of the verb : but ἐπεισκευάζω for επισκευάζω might be merely a blunder of the artist. This gate, he adds, is but one of the fine specimens of Hellenic architecture among the ruins of Messene: some of the fortifications built under the orders of Epaminondas are still remaining, showing the military architecture of the Greeks when at its highest point. These ancient ruins are constructed entirely of large squared blocks without rubble or cement. The other defences, like the generality of Greek works of this kind, consist of an exterior and interior facing of masonry, filled between with rubble: the facings are, in general, formed of equal and parallel courses, but not always of rectangular stones. The details of these very curious remains are given with considerable fullness, and are illustrated, as usual, with an excellent plan.

We pass over the interesting particulars regarding Sphacteria and Coryphasium, to Neleian Pylus, the scene of a late memorable naval engagement. Of this ancient demesne, our author gives a good plan and chart (though he does not profess to clear up the difficulties as to the site of the Nestorian city), and he disserts, with great skill and learning, upon the topography of the Messenian province, illustrating his dissertation by an admirable map.

In a subsequent visit to Arcadia, he examines the remains of Megalopolis, or the Great City, built by Epaminondas; they consist of little besides its "mountain of a theatre," and the site of the Agora, or forum, which furnish some elucidation of the description of the city by Pausanias: amongst the ruins of the Agora are Dóric shafts two feet eight inches in diameter.

Colonel Leake's second journey embraced those parts of Achaia, Eleia, Arcadia, and Laconia unvisited in his former journey, Corinthia, Phliasia, and Sicyonia. He embarked at Epakto (Naupactus), crossed the strait of Lepanto, and landed in the Morea, near Patras, or Patræ, whence he commenced his survey of the maritime parts of Achaia. Neither here nor in the adjoining territory of the Eleia are Hellenic remains so abundant as * Some interesting extracts from a Romaic poem descriptive of Mani are given by Col. Leake.

elsewhere; for this circumstance Colonel Leake assigns very sufficient reasons, one of which is the peculiar soil of Eleia, which is extremely subject to alluvial changes. It is some consolation to consider, however, that such a soil is best adapted speedily to conceal, and therefore to preserve works of art; and thus, "if there is less above ground in the Eleia than in any of the provinces of Greece, there may be more below the surface." The only visible remains of Elis are a few dispersed and shapeless fragments of brick walls.

The remains of Psophis, or Tripotama, as it is now called, in Arcadia, are the subject of a good plan and description in the work before us; as are those of Tiryns or Tirynthus (hod. Paleo Anapli), a fortress of the Cyclopian architecture, of which Colonel Leake has given an elaborate description. "Homer," as he observes, "in using the words Tiguva Ts Tuxia, shews that the walls, which Pausanias regarded with so much wonder, were equally an object of regard with the poet."

Further specimens of the Cyclopian style were seen by Colonel Leake at Mycenæ; e.g. the most ancient parts of the walls of the citadel, the entire circuit of which still subsists, and in some places the ruined walls are fifteen or twenty feet high. Our author's excellent description of this ancient city, of the "gate of lions," and of the Spilia, or subterraneous "treasury of Atreus," we can only glance at: it will be read by the architectural antiquarian with great pleasure. He observes that "nothing can more strongly shew the extreme antiquity of the remains at Mycenae, and that they really belong to the remote ages to which they are ascribed by Pausanias, than the singularity of some parts of them, and their general dissimilarity to other Hellenic remains,"

The descriptions of the remains of Argos, Ægina, the temple on Mount Panhellenium, "of which the magnificent remains will continue, as long as they exist, to attract persons of taste from every civilized nation of the globe;" of the Posidonian Trozen, of Corinth and Sicyon, of the topography of the battle-scenes in ancient Greek history, &c. &c., we must leave altogether unnoticed; and contenting ourselves with this imperfect analysis of half only of Colonel Leake's work, shall sum up our opinion of it in a few words: these volumes are indispensable to the student of ancient Greek history and geography, as well as to the intelligent traveller in Greece; and, they ought to be, and we doubt not that they will be, found in every classical library.

Our notice of the other works intended to be reviewed in this article, which has extended itself to a sufficient length already, must be deferred,

ON TRANSLATION OF CHINESE POETRY.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR: Being an admirer and a student of Chinese literature, I trust you will give a place in the Asiatic Journal to a few observations upon Mr. Davis's version of the Chinese novel, entitled the Fortunate Union.

Previous to the publication of this work, there appeared an article in the Quarterly Review on the Sorrows of Hān, and on Chinese poetry in general, in which the attention of the public was called to the Chinese novel, as then about to appear. Amongst other eulogiums bestowed upon Mr. Davis, the reviewer was pleased to say that that gentleman was the only person capable of rendering Chinese verse. By this sweeping commendation, he would endeavour to cast into the shade a translation of a poetical work,* published some years since, from that difficult language, on account of a few inelegancies and ungrammatical constructions. My opinion, on the contrary, is (and my opportunities have, perhaps, enabled me to appreciate Mr. Davis' talents as a translator of Chinese more justly than the Quarterly reviewer), that Mr. Davis, with all his advantages of long study, local experience, and native assistance, judging from the specimens he has given in the Fortunate Union, is unable to render Chinese poetry; which I shall endeavour to show in the course of this letter.

I would previously advert to a remark by Mr. Davis, in the 13th page of his preface to the translation of the Fortunate Union, when noticing some of the Chinese honorary titles: "but to tack such household appendages as 'mistress' and 'miss' to foreign names like the Chinese, can only be attended with ridiculous effect, and certainly does not convey a just impression of the original." This remark seems intruded unnecessarily upon the reader, with an invidious allusion to the Chinese Courtship and the Affectionate Pair. It happens that in the Fortunate Union, the name of the heroine, Shwuy-ping-sin, never occurs (and it occurs nearly two hundred times) without the term Seaou-tseay Apostfixed, which can only be rendered "Miss ;" and I am confident that Mr. Davis could not converse for five minutes with any respectable Chinese without using, where the conversation required it, the correponding complimentary epithets of “ Mr.," "Mrs.," "Master," or "Miss:" Chinese etiquette, in personal intercourse, as well as in books, demands them.

If Mr. Davis will be at the trouble of looking into Dr. Morrison's View of China, under the " Nine Ranks," he will notice that Chinese ladies have as many terms of respect as those of England.

At page 18, Mr. Davis criticises M. Rémusat's translation of the following verse in the Yuh-keaou-le. "It is singular," Mr. Davis remarks, "that M. Rémusat should have misunderstood the meaning of lines so simple as the following:

不 是 才 名動天下

不是才

如何到處有逢迎

'Mais ce n'est pas le mérite et la renommée qui remuent le monde,

Est-il bon de recevoir ainsi l'hospitalité en tous lieux ?'

The Chinese Courtship, by Mr. P. P. Thoms.

It is conjectured that Mr. Davis aided the writer in the Quarterly (from the reply to M. Rémusat)

when reviewing the Sorrows of Han and Chinese poetry. I hope this is not the fact.

"The very opposite," says Mr. Davis, "is the sense of the original;" and he renders it thus :

'If talent and reputation did not move (or affect) the whole empire,
How could he every where meet with such reception ?'

While I do not approve of M. Rémusat's rendering, I am certain that Mr. Davis has not hit the sense, simple as the lines are; I should translate them thus:

"Is it not wealth and fame that affect or move the whole empire?

How then, but in every place (possessing such talents) must he not meet with kind reception ?"

The third character should be read in the sense of tsae "wealth," not literary attainments, for that is understood in ming, “fame" or " reputation," the result of talent. The same idea occurs in Dr. Morrison's Dialogues, at page 61, and in the Pa-tsae-tsze, where le-ming "gain and reputation," occurs instead of tsae-ming "talent and reputation." From the latter

work I quote the following line, which, in connexion with what precedes it, may be thus rendered :

總為利名牽繫緊

"It is gain or fame that incessantly drags us through life."

I shall now submit to your readers a comparison between Mr. Davis' version of the poetry contained in the first two chapters of the Fortunate Union, and what I contend to be the right version. The reader will be enabled, from this comparison, to form his own judgment of the propriety of the sweeping commendation bestowed upon Mr. Davis.

With natural feelings-who is there but Having natural feelings, who but loves loves arched eye-brows?

arched eye-brows (i.e. the fair)?

Were it not for the obstacles that distract Patiently wait, without desponding; for

by persevering,

his thoughts, Here were the examples among mortals of Those who delight in song never fail of a a perfect union.⚫

response.

To die for his prince is the proper duty of The minister, who dies for his prince, a faithful minister:

To mourn for his father completes the obli

gations of a pious son;

proves himself loyal,

And he who mourns a deceased father, a

most dutiful son.

On this line Mr. Davis has the following note: "In the original, chang-suy, "to sing and accompany," is a phrase for marriage. I beg to differ from Mr. Davis.

Asiat.Jour. N.S.VOL. 2, No. 5.

F