The History of the Town and Borough of Uxbridge; containing Copies of interesting Public Documents, and a particular Account of all Charitable Donations, left for the Benefit of the Poor. By George Bedford, A.M. and Thomas Hurry Riches. 8vo. 11. History and Description of the City of York. By W. Hargrove. S vols. Royal 8vo. 11. 16s. TYPOGRAPHY. Annals of Parisian Typography: containing an Account of the earliest Typographical Establishments, and Notices and Illustrations of the most remarkable Productions of the Parisian Gothic Press; compiled principally to show its general character, and its particular influence upon the early English Press. By the Rev. W. P. Gresswell. 8vo. 14s. VOYAGES. Letters from the Continent during the Months of October, November, and December, 1818; including a Visit to Aix-la-Chapelle, and the Left Bank of the Rhine. By the Rev. J. W. Ormsby, A.M. 2s. Narrative of a Voyage to the Spanish Main, in the Ship Two Friends, the Capture of Amelia Island by M‘Gregor's Forces, and their Dislodgment by the American Troops; with Anecdotes illustrative of the Manners and Habits of the Seminole Indians, and a Detail of the Trial and Execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister. 8vo. A Voyage up the Persian Gulph, and a Journey over land from India to England, in 1817; containing an Account of Arabia Felix, Arabia Deserta, Persia, Mesopotamia, the Garden of Eden, Babylon, Bagdad, Koordistan, Armenia, Asia Minor, &c. &c. By Lieutenant W. Heude. 4to. 11. 5s. Journey to Persia in the Suite of the Imperial Russian Embassy in the Year 1817. By Moritz de Kotzebue, Captain on the Staff of the Russian Army, and Knight of the Order of St. Wladimir, and of the Persian Order of the Sun and Lion. A Journey from Moscow to Constantinople; with a continuation of the Route to Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Petra, Damascus, Balbec, Palmyra, &c. in the Years 1817, 1818. By William Macmichael, M.D. F.R.S. 4to. 11. 11s. 6d. Account of the Mission from Cape Coast Castle to the Kingdom of Ashantee. By T. E. Bowdich. 4to. 31. 3s. Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia, and America. By E. D. Clarke, LL.D. Part III. 4to. 41. 14s. 6d. A Tour through Sicily in the Year 1815. By George Russell. 8vo. 1l. 1s. The Personal Narrative of M. de Humboldt's Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the Years 1799-1804. Translated by Helen Maria Williams. Vol. IV. 8vo. 18s. A Voyage of Discovery, made under the Orders of the Admiralty, in his Majesty's ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baffin's Bay, and of inquiring into the probability of a North-west Passage. By Captain John Ross, K. S. R. N., Coinmander of the Expedition. With 32 Maps and Plates. 4to. 31. 13s. 6d. Narrative of the Expedition to Algiers, in the Year 1816, under the Command of the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Exmouth. By Mr. A. Salamé, a Native of Alexandria, and Oriental Interpreter in his Britannic Majesty's Service. Published by Permission. With Plates. 8vo. 15s. The Reports of the Present State of the United States of South America, drawn up by Messrs. Rodney and Graham, Commissioners sent to Buenos Ayres by the Government of North America. With Notes and an Appendix. 8vo. 9s, 6d. London: Printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar. CONTENTS ΤΟ Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Mo- dern, from the German of Frederick Schlegel. II. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Re- gions of the New Continent, during the years 1799- 1804. By Alexander de Humboldt and Aimé Bon- III. Dissertation on the Use and Importance of Unautho- ritative Tradition. By E. Hawkins, M. A. Fellow of IV. 1. Promenade aux Cimetières de Paris, aux Sépultures 2. Description des Catacombes de Paris, précédée d'un Précis Historique sur les Catacombes de tous les Peuples de l'ancien et du nouveau Continent. Par L. Hericart de Thury, Maître des Requêtes, Ingénieur en chef au Corps Royal des Mines, Inspecteur-Géné- ral des Travaux souterrains du Département de la V. 1. The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 58 Geo. III. Vol. VII. Part II. 2. An Analytical Digest of the Reports of Cases decided in the Courts of Common Law and Equity, of Appeal and Nisi Prius, in the Year 1817. By a Barrister, VI. 1. Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la Révolution 3. Réflexions sur les Noirs et les Blancs, la Civilization de l'Afrique, le Royaume d'Hayti, &c. Relation de la Fête de S. M. la Reine d'Hayti, &c. Par le Baron de Vastey, Secrétaire du Roi au Cap Henfy. 1. Laon and Cythna, or the Revolution of the Golden City. A Vision of the Nineteenth Century, in the Stanza of Spenser. By Percy B. Shelley. IX. 1. Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stow- market, Suffolk, Harness and Collar Makers, intended to comprize the most interesting particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table. 2. The Court of Beasts, freely translated from the Ani- THE QUARTERLY REVIEW: APRIL, 1819. ART. I.-Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern, from the German of Frederick Schlegel. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh. 1818. A CONSIDERABLE time has now elapsed since we called the attention of the public to a writer who, in an age fruitful of extraordinary men, seemed to us to hold no humble place among the proudest of his contemporaries. Feelings, however, much too respectable in themselves to be rudely assaulted, existed on the subject, and our opinions were promulgated with the deference due to such feelings. The Schlegels have trod in our steps, but with more boldness-they have placed the great comic poet of his day on a ground high indeed, but which every scholar will allow to be no more than his due; and had they offered any clue for ascertaining the reasons by which Aristophanes and Socrates so rudely jostled against each other, the question as to the merits of the former might have been considered as completely at rest: what they have not done we shall attempt from our own resources to supply; the task may lead us somewhat back in Grecian history, but we presume that a discussion, in which the reputations of two men, the one the wittiest and the other the wisest in Athens, are canvassed, can only be made superfluous or uninteresting by the manner of treating it. After some remarks equally just and forcible on the OLD COMEDY, the merits of the first of these two extraordinary men are admirably characterised by M. Schlegel; and as his remarks form in some measure the groundwork of what we shall have to offer, we shall not hesitate, though at some length, to insert them. "If we would judge of Aristophanes as a writer and as a poet, we must transplant ourselves freely and entirely into the age in which he lived. In the modern ages of Europe it has often been made the subject of reproach against particular nations or periods, that literature in general, but principally the poets and their works, have too exclusively endeavoured to regulate themselves according to the rules of polished society, and, above all, the prejudices of the female sex. Even among those nations, and in those periods which have been most frequently charged with this fault, there has been no want of authors who have loudly lamented that it should be so, and asserted and maintained, with VOL. XXI. NO. XLII. * No. XVII. no no inconsiderable zeal, that the introduction of this far-sought elegance and gallantry, not only into the body of literature as a whole, but even into those departments of it where their presence is most unsuitable, has an evident tendency to make literature tame, uniform, and unmanly. It may be that there is some foundation for this complaint: the whole literature of antiquity, but particularly that of the Greeks, lies open to a reproach of an entirely opposite nature. If our literature has sometimes been too exclusively feminine, theirs was at all times uniformly and exclusively masculine, not unfrequently of a nature far more rough and unpolished than might have been expected, from the general intellectual character and refinement of the ancients.'-p. 55. After some further remarks on the degraded state of female society in Greece, and the baneful effect it had upon Grecian literature, M. Schlegel proceeds to consider more at length the character of the extraordinary man, who has pourtrayed the manners of his own times with such singular success. The glowing mind of the critic throws a warm colouring over his author; but to those who are intimately acquainted with him in the original (and all effective transfusion must, we are persuaded, be given up as hopeless) the encomiums bestowed will not appear fanciful or extravagant. Here, where we are treating of the decline of Grecian manners, and of the writer who has painted that decline the most powerfully and the most clearly-the consideration of this common defect of antiquity has, I imagine, been not improperly introduced. But when this imperfection has once been distinctly recognised as one the reproach of which affects in justice not the individual writers, but rather the collective character, manners, and literature of antiquity; it were absurd to allow ourselves to be any longer so much influenced by it, as to disguise from ourselves the great qualities often found in combination with it in writings which are altogether invaluable to us, both as specimens of poetical art, and as representations of the spoken wit of a very highly refined state of society; to refuse, in one word, to perceive in Aristophanes the great poet which he really is. It is true that the species and form of his writing-if indeed that can be said with propriety to belong to any precise species or form of composition-are things to which we have no parallel in modern letters. All the peculiarities of the Old Comedy may be traced to those deifications of physical powers, which were prevalent among the ancients. Among them, in the festivals dedicated to Bacchus and the other frolicsome deities, every sort of freedom, even the wildest ebullitions of mirth and jollity were not only permitted, but were strictly in character, and formed, in truth, the consecrated ceremonial of the season. The fancy, above all things, a power by its very nature impatient of constraint, the birthright and peculiar possession of the poet, was on these occasions permitted to attempt the most audacious heights, and revel in the wildest world of dreams, loosened for a moment from all those fetters of law, custom, and propriety, which at other times, and in other species of writing, must ever regulate its exertion |