after he had been absent a little more than two years, or in the course of the third fummer, he might juftly fay, that the fiery fleed Ethon, had thrice feen the fign Aries, and cloathed its back with new gold; that twice Chloris had fpred the earth with flowers, and twice the wintry wind had swept them away, fince he had feen him. To interpret thefe expreffions as defcriptive of the space of five years, feems a ftrange mode of calculation. We are perfuaded, that it is an overfight; but for this, and for what other little defects are obfervable, ample atonement is made by the valuable and amufing information collected in this body of criticism. Of this, the future Biographers of our Poet will, no doubt, avail themselves; happy in having their labour abridged by Mr. Warton's induftry. Several of the notes in this part of the work are long and curious; and it would have given us pleasure to have prefented fome of them to the readers of our periodical pages; but the length to which we have extended our extracts and remarks forbids their infertion: especially as we must make room, before we conclude our review of this work, for an obfervation on a paffage which in the former part of this article, we extracted from Lycidas*, accompanied with a note on the great vifion of the guarded mount. On a careful reconfideration of this paffage, we find it impoffible to acquiefce in our Editor's new interpretation of the laft line, • Look homeward Angel, now, and melt with ruth.' He fuppofes that here is an apoftrophe to the angel Michael (the vifion of the guarded mount); but admitting this fuppofition, we make the nine preceding lines an unfinished fentence. The addrefs, throughout, is plainly to Lycidas. He is the only perfon fpoken to. The vifion of St. Michael is only mentioned as a circumftance in the defcription of a place, not apoftrophized! The grammatical conftruction, moreover, obliges us to apply the word, angel, to Lycidas; and what the poet means to fay is evidently this: "O Lycidas! where'er thy bones are huri'd, where'er the feas have carried thee;-whether up to the Hebrides, or down into the English channel, to the foot of St. Michael's mount; in whatever part of the ocean thy body fleeps, I beseech thee, now become an angel, to look toward thy former home, and to pity us, who are fo deeply involved in grief for the lofs we fuffer by thy death." The Editor concludes his annotations on the Latin poems (which are given in English, for a good reason, affigned in the Preface) with fome general strictures on the profe works of our author, to which is added the Epitaph compofed for his monument in Westminster Abbey, by Dr. George, Provost of *See Rev. for July laft, p. 5. Eton, Eton, which, for its fpirited fimplicity and nervous elegance, deferves to be univerfally circulated: Augufti regum cineres, fanctæque faville; Rege fub Augufto fas fit laudare Catonem.' At the end of the volume, is an account of the feveral editions of Milton's Poems. We must now take our leave of Mr. Warton, but not without expreffing our obligations to him for the work he has already executed, and hoping he will not withdraw his attention from his Author, till SAMSON AGONISTES, PARADISE LOST, and PARADISE REGAINED are embellished by his learned and judicious annotations. ART. XIII. The Parian Chronicle, or the Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles; with a Differtation concerning its Authenticity. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Walter. 1788. IN Na country, where critical difquifitions have been profecuted with uncommon ardour, and unrivalled acumen, and in which they have been regarded as fubjects of general attraction, our Readers will not be furprised at the appearance of the volume now under confideration. Literary forgeries have frequently been attended with aftonishing fuccefs; and during the lapfe of many centuries, fome of these treacherous frauds have eluded all difcovery: the fame age has rarely produced a Lauder and a Douglas. The motives for practifing this fpecies of deception are undoubtedly numerous; and the adoption of phrafeology and the affumption of obfolete language, or of any particular dialect, have often given the appearance of antiquity to the productions of modern scholars. The views, alfo, which have incited the learned to attempt the detection of thefe fallacies, may be imagined with more eafe than enumerated.-For the particular circumstance which gave birth to the prefent publication, we fhall allow the Author to produce his own account: In a late publication, entitled, An Effay on Punctuation, the Author, having occafion to mention the celebrated Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles, fubjoins this note: "The Parian Chronicle is faid to have been engraved 264 years before the Chriftian æra; but is there no room to question its authenticity ?" The Rev. Mr. Robertfon, author of " An Effay on Punctuation," &c. See Rev. vol. lxxiii. p. 123. • This ⚫ This note occafioned the following letter in the Gentleman's Magazine: "The author of an Effay on Punctuation has thrown out a hint, which has furprised me not a little, as it will certainly do many others, viz. that there is some reason to question the authenticity of the Arundel Marbles. "I do not doubt the judgment of this writer; but I wish to be informed by him, or any other competent judge, what foundation there is for this furmife. A LOVER OF ANTIQUITIES." As I am thus defired to affign my REASONS for a question, which I propofed without any particular investigation, I fhall freely and ingenuously fubmit them to the confideration of the learned reader.' We cannot help obferving how often great confequences fpring from flight caufes. For if this Lover of Antiquities' had not luckily expreffed his wifhes in print, the Public would in all probability have been deprived of the pleasure and inftruction which it now derives from the perufal of this learned work. It begins with the Chronicle itfelf, in Greek and Latin, taken from the edition of 1763, by Dr. Chandler. Then follows a literal English translation, by the Author of the prefent inquiry. The ift chapter gives a fhort hiftory of the marble, and the different editions of the infcriptions. The other fixteen chapters are employed in explaining the Author's DOUBTS, which as he tells us, p. 52, arife from the following confiderations: I. The characters have no certain or unequivocal marks of anti quity. II. It is not probable, that the Chronicle was engraved for PRI VATE USE. • III. It does not appear to have been engraved by PUBLIC AU THORITY, IV. The Greek and Roman writers, for a long time after the date of this work, complain, that they had no chronological account of the affairs of ancient Greece. V. This Chronicle is not once mentioned by any writer of antiquity. VI. Some of the facts feem to have been taken from authors of a later date. • VII. Parachronisms appear in fome of the epochas, which we can scarcely fuppofe a Greek chronologer, in the cxxix Olympiad, would be liable to commit. VIII. The hiftory of the discovery of the marbles is obscure and unfatisfactory. Laftly, The literary world has been frequently impofed upon, by fpurious books and infcriptions; and therefore we should be extremely cautious, with regard to what we receive under the venerable name of antiquity.' We fhall now ftate, in as narrow a compafs as poffible, the reasons which the Author affigns for thefe DOUBTS. I. The I. The letters, as Selden informs us, are all EXACTLY reprefented by the common Greek types, except II and Z, which in the marble are thus engraved. But thefe forms occur fo frequently, that a forger could be at no lofs to counterfeit them; and the characters have no appearance of antiquity, except this equivocal one. They neither refemble the Sigean, the Nemean, nor the Delian infcriptions, the Sandwich marble, nor the Farnefian pillars. They feem moft to refemble the alphabet of the Marmor Cyzicenum (Montfaucon Palæogr. p. 144.) The fmall letters intermixed (eo) have an air of artifice and affectation. It may be faid that there are feveral archaifms, as Er for EK before A and M, Er for EN before K, EM for EN before II and M. But this infcription is fuppofed to have been engraved in a polite and learned age, when even a ftone-cutter would fcarce be permitted to difgrace a fuperb monument with fuch barbarifms. Neither are thefe archaifms uniformly preferved. And though they appear on other infcriptions, this is not material; fince a forger would, in course, adopt them; not to mention that the authenticity of fuch infcriptions ought to be proved before an appeal is made to their testimony. To this chapter is annexed a specimen of the letters of the infcription, copied from Dr. Chandler's edition. II. It is improbable, that a private citizen of Paros would execute fo expenfive and cumberfome a work. It would coft him more than moft learned Greeks could afford; it might be more commodiously and effectually published by the common mode of writing; it might then have been more eafily corrected and improved by the author, and the mistakes of the tranfcriber might be rectified, which could not be done in an infcription. where the letters too, and numerals, would be liable to various accidents; and laftly, the ancients feem to agree that a manufcript is more likely to be tranfmitted to pofterity than an infcription on marble or brafs. Our Author then goes on to explode, as fpurious, the pillars of Seth, &c. and proves, we think with rather a needless expence of learning, that the common way of writing in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (the fuppofed date of the marble) was NOT ON STONES. III. This Chronicle was, probably, not engraved by PUBLIC AUTHORITY; 1. Becaufe fuch infcriptions begin with thefe forms, "The fenate and the people," or " it pleafed the fenate and the people;" but the Parian Chronicle ufes the first perfon fingular, "I have defcribed preceding times." 2. The facts and dates do not appear to be extracted from public records, nor to contain a regular feries of Kings and Archons, nor are they matters of general importance; but fuch as, 3. the people of Paros would not order to be engraved, as not being interested in them. There were many circumstances worthy of notice in REV. Oct. 1788. A a that that ifland; and among others, Archilochus was a native of it But the author of the Chronicle mentions no part of the history of the Parians; nothing of their battles, treaties, fieges, inftitutions; of their poets, patriots, or warriors. Mr. Robertfon adds, that the infcription feems as abfurd as a monument in England, containing the antiquities of France or Spain; or in Jamaica, containing the revolutions of England; but that a forger would expect a general fyftem of Grecian chronology to be more interesting to the claffic, more valuable to the antiquary, and more PROFITABLE to the compiler, than an hiftory of the isle of Paros. IV. The early part of the Grecian hiftory is involved in confufion and uncertainty. All the Greek and Roman writers complain of the unfettled ftate of chronology in the early periods. of hiftory. The accounts given by Herodotus, of the times that preceded the Olympiads, are inaccurate, and often extravagant and incredible. Xenophon frequently differs from him, and Ctefias from both. Hippias, indeed, is faid to have published a lift of the Olympionice; but it feems to have been only a bare lift of names, and Plutarch mentions it as a work of no authority. Eratofthenes published a lift of the Olympionicæ, and a Chronology; but he was only twelve years old when the Parian Chronicle was engraved; nor do his computations agree with the marble. One hundred years after, Apollodorus wrote, 1. A Bibliotheca, or mythological work, which is ftill extant, though in an imperfect ftate; 2. Chronica, or a fyftem of chronology, beginning at the fiege of Troy. But though the Bibliotheca was written fo long after the (fuppofed) date of the infeription, it contains no traces of a fyftematic chronology. Apollodorus's Chronicle is frequently quoted, while the Parian is totally unnoticed. Our Author goes on to prove, from the ancients, the unfettled ftate of their chronology, and produces the teftimonies of Julius Africanus, Juftin Martyr, Plutarch, Varro, Thucydides, and Diodorus Siculus, to fhew, that before the Olympiads, there was no regular chronology of the Grecian hiftory. Jofephus (c. Apion, I. 3.), fays, that the genealogies of Hefied are corrected by Acufilaus; that Acufilaus is condemned by Hellenicus; Hellenicus accufed of falfhood by Ephorus; Ephorus by Timæus; Timæus by his fucceffors; and Herodotus by all the world. Diodorus, who travelled over great part of Europe and Afia, to collect materials for his work, complains that he could find no PARAPEGMA, on which he could rely, in relating the events that preceded the Trojan war. Either, then, we must fuppofe that the Parian Chronicle did not EXIST in the time of Diodorus; or that Diodorus had not heard of it, which is fcarcely credible; or that he thought it unworthy of credit, which its advocates will hardly admit. Befide, if this chrono 7 logy |