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ledge of Greek, was for the first time presented to the public by the celebrated Mr. PARKHURST, of Great-Britain, whose learned and useful labours for promoting the study of the ancient languages, and especially of those in which the sacred volume was originally written, are well known.

In Greek literature the learned men of Holland, for a considerable part of the century, bore the palm from the contending world. Among these, SHULTENS, HEMSTERHUIS, RUHNKENIUS, VALCKENAER, LENNEP, and SCHEID, will long be remembered with respect by the friends of learning. The first named of these great scholars, the immortal ALBERT SHULTENS, early in the century, investigated, with singular erudition and acuteness, the derivation and structure of several languages, and particularly the Greek. He was followed by his countryman, the celebrated TIBERIUS HEMSTERHUIS," who undertook to derive the whole Greek language, various and copious as it is, from a few short primitives, on a plan entirely new. His doctrines were further pursued and illustrated by his disciples, LUDOVIC CASPAR VALCKENAER, and JOHN DANIEL LENNEP, who offered to the world many refined and curious speculations on the subject. To these succeeded EVERARD SCHEID, a disciple of the same school, who wrote largely and learnedly on the proposed system of derivation, but differed materially from his preceptor and his fellow pupils. Besides the services rendered to Greek literature by the great critics above men

6 HEMSTERHUIS did not himself, it is believed, publish his doctrine respecting the derivation of the Greek language. This was done by his disciples.

i Vide LUDOVICI CASPARI VALCKENAERII Observationes, quibus via munitur ad Origines Græcas Investigandas, et Lexicorum defectus resarsciendos. j Vide JoANN. DANIEL. LENNEP De Analogia Lingua Graca, sive Ram tionum Analogicarum Linguæ Græca Expositio.

* Vide Etymologicum; and Animadversiones ad Analogiam Lingue Graca,

tioned, the Ellipses Græcæ of LAMBERTUS Bos; the Doctrina Particularum of HENRY HOOGEVEEN;" and the ingenious speculations of Lord MONBODDO, in his Origin and Progress of Language," have all contributed to unfold more clearly than before the etymology, the genius, the beauties, and the various excellences of this ancient tongue.

But the services of these eminent critics have not been all stated. While they pursued further than their predecessors, the analysis of the Greek language, they purified the Grammar from many absurdities and errors; they interpreted and amended many passages in ancient authors; and contributed in various ways to facilitate and recommend the study of those authors. And even if all their speculations respecting the analysis of the language, and especially concerning the origin and meaning of the particles, should be judged to be wholly unfounded, which probably few will suppose to be the case, they will doubtless be pronounced to have thrown much light on the subjects which they discussed. But a satisfactory view of their ingenious and useful labours can only be obtained by the careful perusal of their numerous publications.

It might have been expected, in an age in which the intercourse of men was so much extended as in the last, and in which so many rich repositories of ancient manuscripts were for the first time opened

I Doctrina Particularum Linguæ Græca, Auctore et Editore HENRICO HOOGEVEEN. 2 Tom. 4to. This is a large, ingenious, and learned work, on the origin and meaning of the Greek Particles. Lord MONBODDO speaks of it in terms of great respect and approbation. See his Origin and Progress of Language.

m Lord MONBODDO derives the whole Greek language from combinations in duads, of the w with the other five vowels, α, ε, i, o, v; the w being always last: so that aw, EW, bw, ow, vw, are the radical sounds, from which the whole language is derived. It is very remarkable, that the British philologist adopted almost precisely the same doctrine on this subject which had been before taught, though without his knowledge, by HAMSTERHUIS, and his followers, of the Leyden school.

to the inspection of the intelligent and the curious, that many remains of ancient genius, before unknown, would have been brought to light. Few acquisitions, however, of this kind have been made by the republic of letters. The industry and zeal of former times, in this pursuit, seem to have left little to be gained by modern exertions. The small additions which have been made during the last age, to the classic treasures before possessed by the world, may perhaps deserve some brief notice.

It had been long known that a composition bearing the title of an Hymn to Ceres, and ascribed to HOMER, existed in the second century; but learned men considered it as irretrievably lost. In the eighteenth century this composition was brought to light; and what is remarkable, it was found in one of the rudest and most unclassical countries of Europe. About the year 1775 CHRISTIAN FREDERIC MATTHÆI, a learned German, having been invited to settle at Moscow, in Russia, obtained access, soon after taking up his residence there, to a number of Greek manuscripts, deposited in the library of the Holy Synod in that city. Among these manuscripts he found the Hymn to Ceres above mentioned, almost entire, which he sent to his friend D. RUHNKENIUS, of Leyden, who, in 1780, committed it for the first time to the press, accompanied with learned annotations." It is, indeed, far from being certain that this Hymn, notwithstanding all its celebrity, is really the production of the immortal Grecian bard to whom it is ascribed. The learned editor himself expresses

n This Hymn was elegantly_translated into English verse, and accompanied with learned notes, by RICHARD HOLE, LL. B. 8vo. 1781.

o It is generally known that of the other Hymns ascribed to HOMER, suspicions have been entertained that the greater part, if not all, are spurious. See on this subject DAVIDIS RUHNKENII Epistola Critica in Homeridarum Hymnos et Hesiodum, ad virum clarissimum LUDOV. CASp. ValcKENARIUM, 8vo. Lug. Bat. 1749.

much doubt with respect to this point. The composition, though exquisitely beautiful, is said by good judges to want some of the more striking characteristics of HOMER, and, in particular, to be deficient in that energy and spirit for which he is so remarkable."

Nearly contemporaneous with the above mentioned discovery in Moscow, was another made in Venice, by M. VILLOISON, a learned Frenchman, who, among many valuable manuscripts which he examined in the Library of St. Mark in that city, found a very curious copy of the Iliad, made in the tenth century, and enriched with the notes and scholia, hitherto unpublished, of sixty of the most eminent critics of ancient times. Besides the notes and scholia, the manuscript was found to contain various readings, equally numerous and important, drawn from the ancient editions of Ho MER, given by Chios, Cyprus, Crete, Marseilles, Sinope, and Argos; editions before known only by name, and by some citations of EUSTATHIUS. This manuscript also exhibits various readings drawn from many other editions; so that it may be emphatically called the HOMERUS VARIORUM of all antiquity, and more especially the HOMER of the famous school of Alexandria. M. VILLOISON has since committed this copy of the first Epic poem to the press, and thereby made an inestimable present to the lovers of Greek literature.

To this chapter belongs also some notice of an event which the classical scholar regards with no small interest. Nearly thirty years ago the President DE BROSSES, a distinguished philologist of France, finding, in the course of his researches, some remains of an History of the Roman Republic,

Η Vide Ομηρον Υμνος εις Δημητραν: vel HOMERI Hymnus ad Cererem nunc primum editus a DAVIDE RUHNKENIO. Lug. Bat. 8vo. 1780.

by SALLUST, which had been supposed to be entirely lost, undertook the arduous task of restoring it. After taking immense pains to collect all the quotations which had been made from this precious relic, by the ancient grammarians and others, he found himself in possession of more than seven hundred fragments, which he laid together with so much skill and patience, as to produce a connected work, by no means unworthy of the celebrated Roman whose name it bears. This work was translated into French, and published in 1777, at Dijon, in three volumes quarto, under the following title: Histoire de la Republique Romaine dans les cours du vii. Siecle, par SALLUSTE, &c. It will be readily supposed, that a production of one of the greatest historians of antiquity, recovered in a manner so extraordinary, excited much of the attention of learned men, not only in France, but also throughout the literary world.

Among the numerous monuments of ancient genius, both in literature and the arts, which were dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum, in the course of the last age, there were many hundred manuscripts, which excited high expectations among the learned. Of these nearly eighteen hundred manuscripts, chiefly Greek, have been long deposited in the Museum at Portici, belonging to the King of Naples. But so much trouble and expense have attended all the attempts hitherto made to unrol and decypher them, that the anticipations of the curious have been hitherto but little gratified. It is hoped, however, that better success may at⚫tend future exertions in this ample field of literary labour."

In 1802 it was announced to the public, by a letter from Italy, that a manuscript of some importance had been, a short time before, found in the Museum at Portici. It seems the PRINCE OF WALES lately requested of the Court of Naples to authorise Mr. HAITER, one of his librarians, to examine the manuscripts in that museum, which were dug from Hercula

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