Imbibunt herbæ nova jam venena, Febris hinc ardens furor, hinc veterni hydropicus humor; Pestis hinc velox, maculisque Lepra O simul luctus hominumque Princeps! Quæ manus pœnas, eadem levamen Undique virtus: Tela; tu matris miserata curas Non tamen justa careat Camœna Hunc suæ gratis citharæ Patronum Plaudat honori. Porr: Colleg. Sanct. Johann. Cant. Πόνος λεπτοῖσιν ἐπηδεῖ. Πολλάκις Ηρακλέης φοβερῶν ἐκράτησεν ἀγώνων 1. DALTON : Schol. Reg. Buriens. ! Gul. Browne, Equ. qui musis indulgens præmia (quorum æmulum, felix fuit hoc carmen) apud Cantab. constituit. IN VENTRILOQUUM. Salve! magna tui Britanniæque Audin'? nunc hominemve fœminamve Et nusquam tua vox et est ubique. TWEDDELL: Trin. Coll. In max. com. Cantab. The following Epitaph on the tomb of a favorite dog, from the British Museum, is so plaintive, and contains so much simplicity, that it will of itself be an apology for its insertion. In obitum Canis dilectæ. Gallia me genuit, nomen mihi divitis undæ Sed jam fata subi partu jactata sinistro, Quam nunc sub parvo marmore terra tegit. Illustration of Herodotus. L. ii. Ch. 57. ai Πελειάδες δέ μοι δοκέουσι κληθῆναι πρὸς Δωδωναίων ἐπὶ τοῦδε αἱ γυ ναῖκες, διότι βάρβαροι ἦσαν· ἐδόκεον δέ σφι ὁμοίως ὄρνισι φθέγγεσθαι μετὰ δὲ χρόνον τὴν πελειάδα ἀνθρωπηΐῇ φωνῇ αὐδάξασθαι λέγουσι, ἐπεί τε συνετά σφι ἤυδα ἡ γυνή. We cannot, perhaps, have a greater example of the power of superstition over the mind of man, where reason is unenlightened by divine revelation, than the testimony of the great historian now before us; assuring us, that the most civilised nation on the face of the earth was deluded by the juggling of two common gypsies, if the conjecture be correct, that the present race of gypsies came originally from Egypt. The most successful artifice, which they seem to have practised to delude the people, was that of causing their voice to appear to proceed from the stems of trees, from the bowels of the earth, or from any other place which might suit their purpose; an art well known at the present day under the name of ventriloquism. Those, who were unable to acquire sufficient command over their voice, made use of another species of imposition, easier indeed, but more liable to detection. A tube was conveyed to the statue of the deity from a particular spot where the priest concealed himself, and in this manner sounds emitted by the priest appeared to proceed from the mouth of the image. The words (if they could be so styled, as they were little more than an unintelligible confusion of sounds) were hastily collected by the scribes in attendance, and delivered to the person who consulted the oracle. The former method was common among almost all the more civilised nations of antiquity. It is mentioned repeatedly by Isaiah, and it is probable that the witch consulted by Saul made use of similar practices. It was considered, of course, a crime among the Jews to consult familiar spirits, and it is one of the abominations mentioned by the prophet, of which he advises the Israelites to beware; "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep1 and mutter, should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?" Isaiah, viii. 19. To terrify the imagination, and preclude suspicion, some To peep signifies to cry as young birds, to chirp, to whisper.-Dr. Johnson. wizards resorted to hollow places under ground, to which practice the following passage seems to refer: "Thus said the Lord, that created the heavens, I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." Isaiah xlv. 18, 19. Perhaps, then, the origin of the fable of the doves was derived from the noise which was made by the peeping sounds alluded to by the prophet, and not as the historian supposes by the hearing a strange and foreign language. G. P. C. In Herodotum, vii. 187. Οὐδέν μοι θῶῦμα παρίσταται προδοῦναι τὰ ῥέεθρα τῶν ποταμῶν ἔστι τῶν. Several emendations have been proposed by commentators; Εστιν ῶν, ἐνίων, &c. &c. Ενίων would certainly explain the passage; but Valckenaer considers that the word "Evo requires after it a genitive case, as ̓́Ενιοι τῶν ποταμῶν, Ενια τῶν χρημά των, &c. A more simple and moderate alteration may be found in the substitution of EGTEάTwv, which is as frequently used in Greek as synonymous with óvrov, as 'existere' in Latin for esse. I should, however, prefer the original reading given us by Schweighaeuser, with the separation of σT in the following manner; s TI Twv, i. e. μépos, which is omitted by ellipsis, of which Lambert, Bos, and Viger, give us several instances: "To γ ̓ ἐμὸν ἔτοιμον, ἐὰν οὗτος ἐθέλη,” Plat. in Theag. " Εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἀεὶ Eévov" supple μégos Xgóvou. Eschyl. in Choephor. 682. &c. &c. Zeunius says, in a note to Vig. de Idiot. Cap. III. Sect. vii. Reg. 5. "Mira est hujus nominis pépos' sive expressi, sive subauditi elegantia, si adjectivum additur conveniens." I do not exactly understand, how Schweighaeuser could have translated the passage in the following manner, unless it had been altered as above: "Minime mirandum mihi videtur fluminum nonnullorum aquam defecisse." G. P. C.. |