of learning, and discuss, without the fear of detection, the humourous plot, and the poignant satire of the original.

"C THE PLAN OF THE AVES.

"Enelpides and Pisthetarus, two ancient Athenians, thoroughly weary of the folly, injustice, and litigious temper of their countrymen, determine to leave Attica for good and all; and having heard much of the fame of Epops, king of the birds, who was once a man under the name of Tereus, and had married an Athenian lady, they pack up a few necessary utensils, and set out for the court of that prince under the conduct of a jay and a raven, birds of great distinction in augury, without whose direction the Greeks never undertook any thing of consequence. Their errand is to enquire of the birds, who are the greatest travellers of any nation, where they may meet with a quiet easy settlement, far from all prosecu tions, law-suits, and sycophant informers, to pass the remainder of. their lives in peace and liberty.

"Act 1. Sc. 1.

"The scene is a wild unfrequented country, which terminates in mountains: there the old men are seen, accompanied by two slaves who carry their little baggage, fatigued and fretting at the carelessness of their guides, who, though they cost them a

of a groat in the market, are good for nothing but to bite matter

them by the fingers, and lead them out of the way. They travel on however, till they come to the foot of the rocks, which stop up their passage, and put them to their wit's end. Here the raven croaks, and the jay chatters, and looks up into the air, as much as to say, that this is the place: upon which they knock with a stone, and with their heels, (as though it were against a door,) against the side of the mountain.

"Act 1 Scene 2.

"Trochilus, a bird that waits upon Epops, appears above; he is frighted at the sight of two men, and they are much more so at the length of his beak and the fierceness of his aspect. He takes them for fowlers; and they insist upon it, that they are not men, but birds. In their confusion, their guides, whom they held in a string, escape and fly away. Epops, during this, within is asleep, after having dined upon a dish of beetles and berries: their noise wakens him, and he comes out of the grove,

"Scene 3.

"At the strangeness of his figure they are divided between fear and laughing. They tell him their errand, and he gives them the choice of several cities fit for their purpose, one particularly on the coast of the Red Sea, all which they refuse for many comical reasons. He tells them the happiness of living among the birds;

they

they are much pleased with the liberty and simplicity of it; and Pisthetærus, a shrewd old fellow, proposes a scheme to improve it, and make them a far more powerful and considerable nation,

"Scene 4,

"Epops is struck with the project, and calls up his consort, the nightingale, to summon all his people together with her voice, They sing a fine ode; the birds come flying down, at first one by one, and perch here and there about the scene; and at last the chorus in a whole body, come hopping, and fluttering, and twit tering in," Vol. II. P. 152.

After some quarrelling, Epops proposes that they shall unite and build a city in the air between earth and heaven, so as equally to command both gods and men. The former will thus be prevented from visiting their Semeles and Alcmanas below, and the latter will not be able to enjoy the benefit of the seasons, without permission of the winged inhabitants of this new city. This plan is finally agreed upon, and the old men are made free of the new city, and are each presented with a pair of wings. The subsequent events are described with so grave and so subdued an originality, and afford the reader so spirited and so just an idea of the Aristophanic wit, that we cannot but extract them for his amusement,

"Act 2, Scene 1.

"The old men now become birds, and magnificently fledged, after laughing a while at the new and awkward figure they make, consult about the name which they shall give to their rising city, and fix upon that of Nephelococcygia; and while one goes to su perintend the workmen, the other prepares to sacrifice for the pros perity of the city, which is growing apace.

❝ Scene 2,

"They begin a solemn prayer to all the birds of Olympus, putting the swan in the place of Apollo, the cock in that of Mars, and the ostrich in that of the great mother Cybele, &c,

"Scene 3,

"A miserable poet, having already heard of the new settlement, comes with some lyrick poetry which he has composed on this great ccasion, Pisthetærus knows his errand from his looks, and makes them give him an old coat; but not contented with that, he begs to have the waistcoat to it, in the elevated style of Pindar; they comply, and get rid of him,

« Scene 4,

"The sacrifice is again interrupted by a begging prophet, who brings a cargo of oracles, partly relating to the prosperity of the

city of Nephelococcygia, and partly to a new pair of shoes, of which he is in extreme want. Pisthetærus loses patience, and cuffs him and his religious trumpery off the stage.

"Scene 5.

"Meto, the famous geometrician, comes next and offers a plan, which he has drawn, for the new buildings, with much importance and impertinence: he meets with as bad a reception as the prophet. "Act 2. Scene 6 and 7.

An ambassador, or licensed spy from Athens, arrives, and a legislator with a body of new laws. They are used with abundance of indignity, and go off threatening every body with a prosecution. The sacred rites being so often interrupted, they are forced to remove their altar, and finish them behind the scenes. The chorus rejoice in their own increasing power; and (as about the time of the Dionysia it was usual to make proclamation against the enenties of the republick) they set a price upon the head of a famous poulterer, who has exercised infinite cruelties upon their friends and brethren: then they turn themselves to the judges and spectators, and promise, if this drama obtain the victory, how propitious they will be to them." Vol. II. p. 155.

The third section is entitled Geographical, and contains várious disquisitions upon eastern geography, and particularly upon that part of Asia which comprehends India and Persia. We have been told by Mason, that Gray had an intention, in earlier life, of publishing Strabo. Mr. Mathias is of opiniơn thất it is not discoverable from these papers that he ever had any such intention, as the matter there collected was much too various and extended to be applicable to Strabo alone. We do consider, indeed, that this treatise of Gray, comprising more than an hundred pages, is a monument of his depth in research, ac curacy in investigation, and copiousness of illustration. When it is remembered, that at the time Gray drew up this masterly memoir, the labours of Rennell and Vincent had not illumined the dark horizon of Asiatic geography, our astonishment increases. Were this treatise presented to us without title or name, we should have supposed it the work of one who had dedicated his whole life to this peculiar department of literature. It is a mass of accurate and well digested information, and we earnestly. recommend it to the notice of every finished scholar, and to the study of every rising candidate for literary honours. He will there be enabled to gain, in a short compass, and in one perfect view, that knowledge of eastern geography which, without such a resource, might cost him months, and even years to attain.

But the greatest treasure still remains behind; we mean the critical analysis and annotations upon almost all the great works

of

of Plato. The same characters which distinguish the notes upon Aristophanes, the same masterly hand, and the same powerful mind, predominate also in these. There is little here that will attract the wanderings of impotent curiosity, or minister to the satisfaction of superficial enquiry. The vigorous precision which marks the analysis, and the varied discussion and information which enrich the notes, can be understood and enjoyed by those alone who have followed the Hierophant into the abyss of the Platonic mysteries. To those only, who have already enlarged and strengthened their moral frame by a calm, dignified, and expanded view of the sublimities of Greek philosophy, or to those who, in the ardour of a vigorous and aspiring mind, are prepared to enter upon these grand but neglected fields for contemplation; to such only are addressed the labours and researches of Gray. The analyses of unknown dialogues, the exposition of unread arguments, the illustration of passages which have never been heard of, and the solution of difficulties which have never been known, can afford to the cursory and casual reader neither entertainment nor interest. To the esoteric their manly and simple style will speak in a higher tone than the voice of brilliant declamation; to the philosopher they will be inestimable, to the student invaluable. And happy shall we be if the appearance of such a guide shall lead the rising scholars of the nation to these high and commanding studies. But whatever be our feelings may be, they cannot be more fully expressed than in the sublime and animated language of Mr. Mathias, in his introduction to this portion of the work; we trust that it may have all that weight which its native power, and the name of so great and so experienced a scholar, should command, upon every studious and aspiring mind.

"Plato has certainly ever been, and ever will be, the favourite philosopher of great orators and of great poets. He was himself familiar with the father of all poetry. The language of Plato, his spirit, his animated reasoning, liis copiousness, his invention, the rhythm and the cadence of his prose, the hallowed dignity and the amplitude of his conceptions, and that splendour of imagination with which he illuminated every object of science, and threw into the gloom of futurity the rays of hope and the expectations of a better life, have always endeared and recommended him to the good and to the wise of every age and of every nation. From the legitimate study of his works, from that liberal delight which they afford, and from the expanded views which they present, surely it cannot be apprehended that any reader should be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit." Far otherwise: the mind, when rightly instituted, may hence be taught and led to reverence and to feel, with a grateful and a deep humility, the necessity and the blessings

of

of THAT REVELATION, in which TRUTH, without any mixture of errour, can alone be found, and in which ' are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.'

"Editor." Vol. II. P. 296.

We join with the editor in regretting that the last five books of the "Laws" were not completed; and we heartily wish the deficiency of Gray had been supplied by the powerful pen of Mr. Mathias.

Subjoined to these various departments of the work, which we have already enumerated, is an appendix, containing extracts from a Systema Nature, in which the arrangement of Linnæus appears to have been accurately preserved, but cloathed in Latinity, equally terse and strong, but far more classical and elegant. From these few specimens, we could much wish to have seen the entire work, which is a monument no less of the industry, than of the taste and the Latinity of their author, and is another proof of the unbounded extent of his knowledge in every department of science. The volume from which these were taken was a Linnæus, interleaved, and enriched not only with these new descriptions, but with various annotations and illustrations by their learned author. We shall extract two of these specimens for the amusement of our readers, whose attention we would particularly direct to the character of the fox, in which he clothes the most scientific accuracy in an energy and vigour of language which Tacitus himself would not have been ashamed to have owned.

"In Africa occidentali frequens, sed minor; in orientali, Asiâ meridionale, insulisque Indicis maximus. Naturâ gregarius; nec ferox, nisi lacessitus. Annos vivit circiter 200. Secreti in sylvis coeunt, fæminâ (ut credibile est) supinâ: vulva in medis fere abdomine sita est; post 2 annos pullum unicum parit. Captivi non generant. Colore variat cinereo, nigricante, vel rufo, vel (quod rarum est) albescente. Pondus 4000llb. facile portat, animal generosum, superbum, sagacissimum, gratum, fidele. Elephas optimus (in Indiâ) pretio sæpe £1500 monetæ Anglicæ venditur. Oryzæ 100lib. cum saccharo nigro et pipere quotidie comedit. Vinum amat, spiritusque ardentes. Herbas, folia, floresque odoratos accuratè seligit, insecta decutit. Aquam pulveremque super corpus suum spargit, munditiæ studiosus. Optime natat proboscide

erectâ

"Vulpes.

"Mures etiam, reptilia, insecta, pisces, fructus, (præsertim uvas) erinaceos apum favos, ora avium, &c. devorat. Hyeme coit, Aprili mense 3 ad 6 catulos parit, qui ferè biennes generant. Annos circiter 14 vivit: Hyeme varias.edit voces, ululat, latrat, ejulat more pavonis; æstate tacet. Captus, acriter mordet, animosè pugnat,

moriturus