CONTENTS OF NUMBER XVIII. I. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOHN JAY, 1. The Life of John Jay, with Selections from his Correspondence, etc. By his Son, WILLIAM JAY. 2. Life of John Jay. By HENRY B. RENWICK. II. RELATION OF PLATONISM TO CHRISTIANITY, Das Christliche im Plato und in der Platonischen Philosophie, entwickelt und hervorgehoben von D. III. ANGLO-SAXON AND EARLIEST ENGLISH POETRY, 1. The Anglo-Saxon Poem Beowulf-The Tra- veller's Song, and the Battle of Finnes-burh. Edited 2. A History of English Rhythms. By EDWIN 3. Rask's Anglo-Saxon Grammar. Part V. Of 4. Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Grammar. Part IV. IV. YOUNG'S CHRONICLES OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth from 1602 to 1625. V. TASSO AND THE ALBERTI MANUSCRIPTS, 1. Opere di Torquato Tasso, illustrate dal Profes- 2 Saggio sugli Amori di T. Tasso, da Gio. Rosini. 3. Lettre di T. Tasso a Luca Scalabrino. 4. Cavedoniane di Gio. Rosini. 5. Lettera di Gio. Rosini al Sig. Defendente Sac- chi, etc. Del Signor Marchesa Gaetano Capponi. 6. Risposta di Rosini alla lettera del Signor Cap- 7. Trattato della Dignità ed altri inediti scritti di T. Tasso; premessa una notizia, etc., del Cavaliere 8. Manoscritti inediti di T. Tasso, posseduti dal VI. DISTINGUISHED ASTRONOMERS, THE PREDECESSORS AND CONTEMPORARIES OF GALILEO, The Martyrs of Science, or the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler. By Sir DAVID BREWSTER. VII. SYSTEM OF NATIONAL DEFENCE, 1. Report of the Secretary of War, April 7, 1836. 2. Letter of the Secretary of War, transmitting a System of National Defence, May 12, 1840. VIII. MISS SEDGWICK'S LETTERS FROM ABROAD, The Life and Times of Red Jacket, or Sa-go-ye- wat-ha. By W. L. STONE. THE NEW YORK REVIEW. No. XVII. JULY, 1841. ART. I.-1. Demosthenes als Staatsbürger, Redner und Schriffsteller. Von Albert GERARD BECKER, Pastor zu St. Aegidii in Quedlinburg. Erste Abtheilung Literatur des Demosthenes. Quedlinburg und Leipzig. 1830. Quedlin Zweite Abtheilung. Nachträge und Fortsetzung der Literatur vom J. 1830 bis zum Schlusse des J. 1833. burg und Leipzig. 1834. 2. Quæstionum Demosthenicarum Particula tertia. De Litibus quas Demosthenes oravit ipse. Scripsit ANTONIUS WESTERMANN, in Academiâ Lips. Prof. Ord. Accedit epimetrum de repetitis locis in orationibus Demosthenis. Lipsiae, MDCCCXXXIV. 3. A Dissertation on the Eloquence of the Ancients, with an Appendix, by LORD BROUGHAM, in Lord Brougham's Speeches, vol. 4. Edinburgh; 1838. THE subject of popular eloquence, always an attractive one in free countries, has been invested for us with a more than ordinary interest by the events of the last year. A new era seems to have occurred in the development of our democratic institutions. There have been congresses of the sovereigns in proper person. We have seen multitudes, probably བ་༣ greater than any addressed by the ancient masters, brought together, by means of the steam engine, from the most distant parts of our immense territory, to consult with one another upon the state of the nation, and to listen to the counsels of men distinguished among us for their influence or ability. We have seen the best speakers of the country called for from all parts of it, compelled to leave their homes however remote some of them drawn forth even out of the shades of private life-to advise, to instruct, and to animate their fellowcitizens, exhausting all their resources of invention to supply topics, of strength to endure fatigue, of oratory to command attention, and even of voice to utter and articulate sound, in order to meet the almost incessant demands made upon them by a people insatiable after political discussion. It was not one part of the country that was thus awakened and agitated, the commotion was universal; yet nothing was more remarkable in these stirring scenes than the order, decorum and seriousness which in general distinguished them. These eager throngs listened like men accustomed to inquire for themselves, and to weigh the grounds of their opinions. There was to us, we confess, something imposing and even majestic in such mighty exhibitions of the Democracy. But quiet and patient as these vast popular audiences certainly were, to a degree much beyond anything that could have been imagined beforehand, their attention was far from being uniform and undiscerning. They never once failed to listen to the best speech with the deepest silence, and to award the highest honors to the best speaker. We mean the best in the proper, critical sense of the word; for our previous opinions, founded upon the experience of other times, have been fully confirmed by our own, that it is impossible to speak too well to a vast and promiscuous assembly; and that it is by qualities which would insure success at any time under a popular government similarly circumstanced, that Demosthenes, the most exquisite of writers, was the delight, the guide and the glory of the Democracy of Athens. Considering, as we do, the masterpieces of this great orator as the true and only models of popular eloquence as its beau idéal not Greek, not Attic, not ancient, not local or transitory or peculiar, as Lord Brougham vainly imagines them to be, but made like the Apollo or the Parthenon for all times and all nations, and worthy of study and imitation wherever genius shall be called to move masses of men by * the power of the living word, we know not how we can do anything more profitable or more acceptable to our readers, than to fix their attention, for a few moments, upon the excellences which distinguish him beyond every other orator that has ever appeared in any period of the world's history. Nor let it be feared that we shall be found dealing in the stale trivialities of a subject long since worn out. It is true that the name of this Homer of orators, and certain epithets which school-boys are taught to associate with it, are as familiar as household words. But it is also true, to an extent not to be conceived by any but scholars, that anything but a just idea nay, that a very absurd idea of the Demosthenian style, is suggested by those same familiar phrases. We want no better proof of this than is furnished by the dissertation of Lord Brougham, the very latest thing that has appeared upon the subject, placed, with two other publications much more entitled to the attention of scholars, at the head of this paper. But of that by and by. The truth is, that in common with all the other departments of philology, the schools of Germany have, within the last twenty-five years, addressed to this, with signal success, their vast research and their matchless criticism. The work of Mr. Becker, mentioned in our rubric, contains sufficient evidence of this. It is entitled, as our readers will have seen, the "literature" of Demosthenes, that is, it is a succinct account in two Parts containing together but three hundred pages, of all that has been published in regard to the orator, to his life and character, editions and translations of his works, or essays and commentaries upon them; everything, in short, that can make us acquainted with the man or the speaker. It is quite remarkable how much more has been done in this way, within the short period just mentioned, than during the whole seventeenth and eighteenth centuries put together. same author published in 1815-16 a work upon Demosthenes, which was one of the first contributions to a more critical knowledge of its interesting subject. That work (Demosthenes als Staatsmann und Redner) we have never been so fortunate as to meet with, having ordered it repeatedly in vain from Germany. Mr. Becker complains that living where he does, (at Quedlinburg, at the foot of the Hartz,) * Lucian Encom. 4, 5. This + F. A. Wolf first awakened the true taste for the Attic orators, and with them for the whole subject of Greek Antiquities, says Becker, p. 109. |