Extinct my love of mansions late denied, No wish now leads me to Cam's reedy side: non nocenda numina," he is justified not only by analogy but by the sole authority which can be produced on the occasion, and as such to be admitted, the authority of Seneca, who in two places uses it as short" Sic temere jacta colla perfundant comæ." Hippo. 392. "Pondusque et artus temere congestos date." Id.-1244. For these instances I am indebted to Dr. Parr. By Gray this syllable of temere is improperly made long-Hospiti ramis temere jacentem. I have omitted to state that in the iambics on the death of Felton, Bishop of Ely, Neobölen is substituted without autho rity for Neobulen. This I believe to be an accurate and full statement of Milton's real and imputed transgressions of Latin prosody in all its just severity; and this will vindicate me for saying that his offences of this description are few, and not sufficient to support in its full extent the charge which has been brought against him. I am aware however, though the circumstance was not in the contemplation either of Salmasius or of Heinsius, that Milton has frequently sinned against the celebrated metrical canon, (advanced by Dawes, and acknowledged by the chief scholars of the present age,) which determines that in Latin prosody a short vowel is necessarily lengthened by the immediate sequence, though in a distinct word, of sc, sp, and st. But, though I must thus dissent from the opinion of Dr. Parr, from which it is impossible to dissent without a feeling of trembling diffidence, I cannot profess myself to be certain of the authenticity of a law which has not been invariably observed by the greatest masters of Roman numbers in the purest age of Roman taste-of a law, in short, which has been broken by Catullus, by Horace, by Virgil, by Ovid, and by Propertius. To get rid of an infraction of this rule by Virgil, its supporters are reduced to the violent expedient of erasing the offending line without the authority of a single MS. and when Horace with his fine judgment and nice ear, is guilty, as he frequently is, of this imputed crime, the circumstance is attributed to the laxity of the numbers, the "carmina sermoni pro Where genial shade the naked fields refuse; priora," which he professes to employ. Well-be it so: but what is to be said of the following instances, which have not been hitherto produced, of a neglect of this rule by other writers of the golden age of Roman poetry, and particularly by the learned Propertius; in whom more instances of a similar nature are to be found? "Testis erit magnis vertutibus unda Scamandri." CATUL “Brachia spectavi sacris admorsa colubris." PROPER. "Consuluitque stryges nostro de sanguine, et in me." Id. "Tuque O Minoâ venundata Scylla figurâ." GALLI ELEG. If this last instance, as brought from a work the authenticity of which has been suspected by Broukhusius and others, should be thrown out of the question, examples enough have been adduced, (and their number might easily be increased,) to vindicate Milton when, with many of the first-rate scholars of the age just past, he disregards a rule of prosody which, whatever may be advanced in its support by the great scholars of our own times, must be considered as possessing at the most only doubtful authority. Though Homer, if he may be allowed to have written his Iliad or to have known the orthography of one of the rivers of the Troad, has frequently transgressed this rule, it was very generally observed by the Greek poets: and by the poets of what has been called the silver age of Roman composition, it has not, as far as I can discover, been ever violated. It would seem that to a Greek or a Roman ear the immediate sequence of the strong con. sonants in question suspended the voice on the preceding short vowel; but not in that degree as to make inattention to its effect an unpardonable offence against the harmony of the verse. I have occasionally hinted that Milton's Latin prose composition is not altogether faultless: but its faults are few and trivial; and to dwell on them would expend time for an insufficient object. On his Greek composition, of which the errors are more numerous and perhaps of greater magnitude, I have purposely forborne to offer any remarks, as that accomplished scholar and very acute And ill my soul a master's threats can bear, " On this passage, which probably would not have been published if it had referred to critic, the Reverend Doctor Charles Burney, has completely exhausted the subject. When the almost infinite niceties of the Greek language are considered, and it is recollected that the great. Sir William Jones, and even Dawes, the most accurate Grecian perhaps whom this island till the present day has ever produced, have not in every instance been able to observe them, the lapses in Milton's Greek composition will possibly be regarded as venial, and not to be admitted in diminution of the fame of his Greek erudition. " It may be proper to give a literal translation of these lines, that the English reader may form his own judgment on the extent of their testimony. "Now neither am I anxious to revisit reedy Cam, nor does the love of my lately forbidden college give me uneasiness. Fields naked and destitute of soft shades do not please me. How ill-suited to the worshippers of Phoebus is such a place! Neither do I like always to bear the threats of a hard master, and other things which are not to be submitted to by a mind and temper like mine. If it be banishment to return to a father's house, and there, exempt from cares, to possess delightful leisure, I will not refuse even the name and the lot of a fugitive, but exultingly enjoy the condition of an exile." As it may amuse some of my readers to see the entire elegy, I will transcribe it in its complete state, with a translation very inferior to the merits of the original. R L ELEG. I AD CALORUM DEODATUM. Tandem, chare, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ, Pertulit et voces nuncia charta tuas : Vergivium prono quà petit amne salum, any transactions dishonourable to the writer, is rested the whole support of the accusa Multùm, crede, juvat terras aluisse remotas Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum, Nuda nec arva placent, umbrasque negantia molles; O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset, Non tunc Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero, Detonat inculto barbara verba foro. Sæpe novos illic virgo mirata calores Quid sit amor nescit, dum quoque nescit, amat. Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectâsse dolendo, tion, preferred against our author's college life, from his own to the present times. The Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe latemus; Nos quoque lucus habet vicinâ consitus ulmo, Ah quoties dignæ stupui miracula formæ, Et quæcunque vagum cepit amica Jovem. Et quot Susa colunt, Memnoniamque Ninon, |