of the time as a day-laborer, but his mornings and evenings, for a year after the death of John, were devoted to preparing a sketch of his life, with a selection from his poems, to be published by subscription. This volume appeared in 1840, and met with a very favorable reception; it passed quickly to a second edition, and the attention and sympathy which it excited brought many offers of assistance to its author. But with a jealous feeling of independence and self-respect, he declined them all. When money was sent to him, as was frequently the case, by persons whom he had never seen, it was invariably returned: "I acknowledged the gift and returned it at the same time, thanking my benefactors in the best way I could, assuring them that I was not in want, and that, upon principle, I considered it the duty of every man to provide for his own necessity as far as his ability would go." On one occasion, fifteen pounds were sent to him in an anonymous letter, merely asking him to acknowledge the receipt of it through his publishers; he did so, and informed his unknown benefactor, with thanks, that the money was deposited in the bank, subject to his order. Those who wished to befriend him, therefore, were obliged to confine their efforts to promoting the sale of his books, which aid he gratefully accepted.

In 1841, Mrs. Hill, the wife of the, inspector of prisons in Scotland, who had become interested in his case, procured for him a situation as one of the assistant keepers of the bridewell at Glasgow. He accepted it, thinking that he was to be a sort of moral teacher for the convicts; but after a week's trial, finding that he was expected to perform only the duties of a turnkey, and to associate with very disagreeable persons, he gave up the place, and returned to his former home. Some other attempts to provide him with more agreeable employment were equally unsuccessful. aged aunt lived with him as his sole companion, and he worked in the fields for most of the time, though the improvement in his circumstances gave him more leisure for writing. Early in 1843, he published another collection of stories, called The Scottish Peasant's Fireside, which was moderately successful.

An

This was his last literary labor. While it was passing through the press, he was attacked by fever, and before he had recovered from it, all the symptoms of pulmonary dis

trust.

ease were manifest. He saw that his end was approaching, and prepared himself for it with resignation and religious After lingering for a few months, during which it is a satisfaction to know that he lacked no comforts, but was nursed with care and tenderness, he died, and was interred in the same grave with his brother. Upon one side of the monument which he had himself erected to his brother was put this inscription :

"In the same grave with John, rest the remains of his brother, Alexander Bethune, the last member of a worthy family, who died June 13th, 1843, aged 38. With scarcely any school education, and under the pressure of poverty and the severest toil, he produced several works of much merit, illustrative of the character and manners, and conducive to the improvement, of his own class of society; and was as remarkable for his independence of spirit and private virtues, as for his literary attainments."

We have preferred to tell the simple and touching story of the lives of these two peasants, instead of making any comment upon their writings or characters. The moral of the tale it is easy to read. There are but few persons accustomed to complain of the hardships of their lot who may not learn a lesson of contentment and thankfulness, of industry, energy, and perseverance, from the history of John and Alexander Bethune. We cannot help adding, that there must be something radically wrong in the constitution of that society which offers no greater encouragement for the practice of all the virtues that can adorn an humble station in it than the fate which these poor men experienced. It is not always enough to say, that we must submit to the dispensations of Providence; it is sometimes our duty to inquire if the institutions of man be not at fault. The worst of all forms of tyranny is that which binds a man for ever to that condition of life in which he was born, be it of high or low degree, however he may have merited removal from it by his character or behaviour.

ART. X.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, according to the Text of L. Dindorf: with Notes, for the Use of Colleges. By JOHN J. OWEN, Principal of the Cornelius Institute. New York: Leavitt, Trow, & Co. 1848. 12mo. pp. 683.

MR. OWEN has rendered very valuable services to the classical learning of our country by his former publications, and the best scholars have been prompt to acknowledge them. He has shown an accurate knowledge of philological science, discrimination in the selection of materials, and unwearied industry of research. His Xenophon's Anabasis and his Homer's Odyssey are unsurpassed by any editions of classics published in the United States, in clearness of exposition, carefulness of analysis, and judicious employment of all the subsidiary means of illustration. Mr. Owen has long been known as a practical teacher. of the classics, a very important qualification for those who undertake to edit the classics for the use of schools.

To read Thucydides is a generous task for the young scholar. It will put all his acquirements in Greek philology to the test; but the rich results of the study will more than reward him for his labor. We, therefore, feel no scruple in saying that Mr. Owen has rendered one of the highest services to classical learning by furnishing the colleges with this excellent edition. He has done thus far all that is requisite in aiding the scholar to understand this unrivalled author, and we trust he will go on and complete the task he has so ably commenced. It is true that, in a college course of Greek, three books of Thucydides are as much as will occupy that portion of the time of classes which can usually be given to a single author; and it is the first three books which Mr. Owen has here commented upon and published. These will give a full idea of Thucydides, besides embracing some of his most admirable narrative passages, and the finest of the orations, especially the celebrated Funeral Oration of Pericles, in the second book. The text is that of Dindorf's edition; and in preparing the notes, the best English and German editions have been carefully consulted. The volume is accompanied by an excellent map, copied from that of Greece at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, in Kiepert's invaluable Atlas. The notes are not only ample in philological details, but they are blended with such discussions of the sentiment and spirit of the author, the substance of his reflections, and the

course of his argument, as show that Mr. Owen has studied Thucydides, not only as a critic of language and a grammarian, but with a profound appreciation of his moral and political philosophy.

It should be remarked, that, besides the traits which serve to individualize the manner of Thucydides, making it intensely expressive of his mental and moral idiosyncrasies, he wrote at a time when the Attic style had not yet acquired the facility and flexibility which it soon after received, under the moulding hands of the admirable writers of the period immediately following the Peloponnesian war. With all its earnest significance and impressive grandeur, it retains a character of archaic stiffness and hardness. Compared with the natural grace, which is the highest reach of art, and which is the prevailing attribute of the later Attic style, it bears to this style the same relation that existed between the powerful but somewhat ungainly marbles of Ægina, and the exquisite beauty of the works of Praxiteles, - between the massive austerity of the old Doric pillars, and the airy lightness of the Corinthian colonnade.

He uses every form of brief and pregnant construction which the language admits; and herein lies much of the difficulty of an accurate interpretation of his words. Unless our attention is kept ever on the alert, we are puzzled by an apparent solecism of terms, or contradiction of sense, which resolves itself into a brachylogical usage, enabling the writer to put the greatest possible quantity of meaning into the smallest possible number of words. No doubt this is the source of many of the contradictory interpretations which have been given by commentators on the hard passages. To illustrate our meaning, let us take a single instance; it shall be from the Funeral Oration of Pericles. It is where the speaker, after eulogizing the form of government, the polity (nolia) of Athens, as one not emulating (nóvon) others, but serving as an example, proceeds to remark, Kai ovoμa μὲν διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐς ὀλίγους, ἀλλ ̓ ἐς πλείονας οἰκεῖν δημοκρατία κέκληται. The main idea of this sentence is clear enough; namely, that this polity is called a democracy, because it is the government, not of the few, but of the many. But the difficulty of constructing the words is shown by Mr. Owen's note. He says they hardly seem to admit of any "interpretation wholly free from objections. The two which appear most plausible are, 1. because the government is not administered for the benefit of the few, but of the many (oixɛiv = oixɛiodα); 2. because the administration of the government is not in the hands of the few, but of the many"; and between these two the critics are divided. One of them says, “ ἡ πολιτεία οἰκεῖ ἐς ὀλίγους pro ἡ πολιτεία οὕτως οἰκεῖ (οὕτω

66

διοικεῖται) ὥστε ὀλίγους εἶναι τοὺς διοικοῦντες αὐτὴν positum videtur. We think the real form of the idea which the passage embodies may be pretty well made out by considering it as a brachylogical or pregnant construction, according to which a verb of motion may be constructed with a preposition signifying rest, or a verb of rest with a preposition of motion. The latter is the case here. Oixeiv, to dwell, is easily transferred from citizens, лoliται, to a city, nóis, and from a city to a polity, nohuɛia, by a species of personification. Again, as a polity does not spring up by nature among a whole people, but is either imported from abroad, or comes from some strong intellect, like Solon's, the idea of permanent establishment readily connects itself with the idea of motion, or of coming to, as if from some other place. We conceive that these two ideas are blended, and that they form the brachylogical expression, oixsiv és; but in translat ing it, we cannot give its full import without a periphrasis. Its essential meaning we should thus convey: Its name has been called democracy because it (i. e. the power it confers) resides not with the few (being limited to them), but because it resides with the majority (having passed over to them). The English word reside, applied to political power, seems to be an exact equivalent to the Greek οἰκεῖν.

Our object in this notice, however, is not to go into details, but to sketch the general character of this important work. There are points on which our opinion would differ from that of the respected editor; but the difference would be such as various minds inevitably fall into with respect to critical questions, and such as it would be a gratification to a liberal spirit of scholarship to discuss. We heartily commend the book to the regards of teachers, confident that they will find it richly entitled to the praises we have bestowed. As a proof of the estimation in which it is held, we would mention that it is about to be introduced, as we understand, into the course of studies in Harvard College.

2.- Four Old Plays. Three Interludes: Thersytes, Jack Jugler, and Heywood's Pardoner and Frere: and Jocasta, a Tragedy, by Gascoigne and Kinwelmarsh. With an Introduction and Notes. Cambridge: George Nichols. 1848. 12mo. pp. 288.

THIS volume is beautifully printed and ably edited. It contains four dramatic pieces of great rarity, three being Interludes, and the fourth a Tragedy founded on the Phænissæ of Euripides.