The learned Reader may compare this English period with the original, and with the firft fpecimen of the former Tranflation, cited

ESSAYS; Read to a Literary Society; at their weekly Meeting, within the College at Glasgow. 12mo. 2s. Glafgow printed; and fold by Becket in the Strand, London.

HE public is indebted for thefe ingenious Effays to

TMr. MOOR, Greek Profeffor in the Univerfity of

Glafgow. The fubjects of them are curious and entertaining, and the manner in which they are treated, fhews, that the Author is poffeffed of very confiderable talents for criticifm; that he is well acquainted with the best Greek Writers; and has an elegant tafte for polite literature.

In the first Effay, he confiders briefly the influence of Philofophy upon the fine Arts, and introduces it with observing, that it would be of the greatest importance to the happiness of a nation, if the taste for poetry, painting, and mufic,. could be so conducted, that their chief aim fhould always be to cherish and cultivate virtue among the people. Places of public refort and amufement, might thus become the most agreeable and useful schools of education; and the fine arts would receive their utmost improvement, and gain the greateft glory, by being employed to the nobleft purpose, viz. to ftrike the heart, and make it glow with the most generous and manly fentiments: for it is the chief praise of these engaging arts, our Author obferves, that, by the delightful entertainment they prefent to the fenfes, they can gradually fill the imagination, banith every other idca, command the whole attention, awaken the powers of the mind; and thus compofe and prepare the heart for receiving the ftrongest impreffions.

<If, therefore, Philofophy (continues he) had the choice 'what impreffions they fhall make, and the full direction of thefe powerful movers of the human foul, then would the triumph of the fine arts be, indeed, compleat; and what a noble triumph this would be, one may eafily conceive.

Let us imagine, for example, at the famous feast of Alexander, that the hand, the voice, and the words of Timo'theus, had been directed by a Socrates; what a glorious • triumph might Mufic, as we may well fuppofe, have gain⚫ed on fuch an occafion! Timotheus, instead of poffeffing Alexander

* One of the Editors of the noble and correct edition of Homer, lately printed at Glafgow, in four volumes folio: fee our Review, vols. XVII and XX.

Alexander with the brutal madness of revenge, might have infpired him with the divine enthusiasm of benevolence; inftead of making him rufh like a fury to burn a noble city, he might have roufed him, like a Hero, to fome godlike act of goodness. The breaft of the man, who could be made to feel fo tender a pity for the fate of his enemy • the King of Perfia, might have been as easily softened into a generous regret for the mifery he had brought upon the Greeks. Those tears which he fhed for the calamities of Darius, whom he could not recal to life, this great master of the power of mufic might have changed into remorfe for the deftruction of Thebes, and transported the Macedonian into an immediate vow of releafing the Grecians from the bondage in which he then held them; and thus Alexander, inftead of fnatching up a torch, like a Demon from hell, to burn the imperial feat of the Monarchs of Afia, would have arifen, like a God, to proclaim liberty and indepen⚫dence to the most generous-spirited people in the world.'

The Lawgivers and Philofphers of antiquity, we are told, in their plans for the improvement of human happiness, were well aware of the advantages arifing from the fine arts, and did not fail to employ their affiftance. As an inftance of which, our Author proposes, in this Effay, to take notice of what turn Socrates attempted to give to the tafte which he found among his countrymen, for poetry, painting, and mufic, as far as his influence could reach.

He begins with Painting; and obferves, that Socrates himfelf appears to have been the firft who difcerned the fuperior excellency of that ftile in painting which we now call the MANNER of RAPHAEL; in which, to wit, the beauty, grace, and dignity, in the features, air, and attitudes of the figures, befpeak the favour and efteem of the fpectators, as being naturally the external indications of correfponding inward characters and manners. From the fhort converfation of Socrates with Parrhafius, left us by Xenophon, Mr. Moor thinks it evident, that he had, with admirable tafte, perceived, what should be that stile and manner in painting, which would be the best suited to captivate the attention, and raise the admiration of the fpectator; and, at the fame time, ftrike the mind with the finest impreffions; and from hence, he likewife thinks it is certain, that he was well aware of the advantage which Philofophy might make of this fine art, for promoting education and moral inftruction. But how far he had carried his views, in making fuch a philofophical use of painting, or what plans of this kind he had formed, we can

not

not know this being the only conversation of his, now remaining on that fubject.

In the other two imitative arts, Poetry and Mufic, we have more ample proofs remaining, of the endeavours of Socrates, to give the finest turn to the high tafte for these arts among the Athenians, as we have likewife of his remarkable fuccefs; a fuccefs fo illuftrious in its confequences, that they came to make a memorable part of the hiftory of those times, and are, as fuch, related by the Hiftorians. For this purpose, he had entered early into an intimate friendship with the Poet Euripides; who, as he wrote for the theatre, the chief public entertainment at Athens, and of which that people were, in his time, paffionately fond, could have the more immediate and extenfive influence over them. The converfation, advice, and directions of Socrates, feem to have had their full effect upon Euripides; the Poet has entered into the views of the Philofopher through all their extent, and comprehended well the vaft importance of having the great maxims of happiness recommended to mankind by introducing them, thus adorned with all the graces and charms of poetry and mufic. MORALITY, our Author observes, thus conducted to the theatre by Socrates, and brought on the ftage by Euripides, must have made fuch an appearance as Eve ⚫ does in Milton, when introduced to Adam*.

adorn'd

With what all earth, or heaven, could bestow
To make her amiable, on the came,

Led by her heaven-taught votary, tho' unfeen,
And guided by his voice-

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.

Socrates,' continues Mr. Moor, could not well be more ⚫ happy in the choice of a Poet. Euripides had a foul to feel, and a genius to exprefs, whatever is most lovely, and moft • excellent in fentiment and character. He touches with the niceft delicacy, all the finer fprings and movements of the human heart; every tender emotion of love, affection, gratitude, friendship; every delicate occurrence; every thing truly amiable, or polite, in focial life, or hospitable

Our Author can only intend here, that Morality, thus advantageoufly introduced on the Athenian theatre, may be fuppofed to have prefented an amiable ideal beauty to the minds of the audience, analogous to that graceful engaging figure and deportment, which Milton gives Eve, when firft introduced to Adam: though Mr.Moor's manner of expreffing himself might incline an ordinary Reader to imagine, that Morality was introduced in a theatrical Mafque or Perfonage on the Athenian ftage, by Socrates and Euripides.

• inter

intercourfe; witnefs the extreme delicacy of behaviour in Admetus and his fervants, to his gueft Hercules; the friendship of Pylades and Oreftes; the picture of conjugal love in the character of Alceftis; and the ftrong emotions of gratitude in Hercules. But it is needlefs to mention particulars; for it is the great aim of all his poetry, to difplay, in the most amiable dress, all the virtues, all the charities, that render private life most happy; while, again, the public virtues, the love of our country, the paffion for its liberty and independence, appear every where, almost in every drama, in the full vigour and luftre of the Grecian Genius.

Socrates and Euripides had the fatisfaction to fee the good fruits of their joint endeavours. • charmed with the noble fentiments awakened in them by The Athenians were the Poet; they felt, with high delight, the generous emo⚫tions he kindled in their hearts; they looked on him as infpired by a Mufe truely divine; whofe heavenly power they found benignly employed, in promoting their happiness, by bringing their minds to the beft temperament; and by calling forth, and cherishing in their breafts, every human feeling, every amiable affection, every manly fentiment; and thus rendering them, as it were, fully masters of all their • virtue.

6

On this account, Euripides became their favourite Poet; they carried their love and efteem for him to the greatest length; they preferred him even to Sophocles, who had a • brighter and a bolder natural genius, and was mafter of a more copious and much richer flow of poetical fancy. But 'tho' they faw the Mufe of Sophocles mount with a stronger fpring, and foar a loftier pitch, yet they diftinguished a fuperior merit in the Mufe of Euripides; for tho' fhe rose, indeed, on fhorter wings, and was lefs daring in her flight, they perceived the had a nobler aim, a more divine direction. This fine people had a true tafte; they judged of the merit of the two Poets, by the value of the effects their poetry wrought upon the audience. They found the one capti ⚫vate their imaginations; but the other ravished their hearts: they admired the fire of Sophocles; but they admired ftill ⚫ more the feelings of Euripides. They preferred the warmth of fentiment to the glow of fancy; and in that Mufe, who invited them to the moral feaft of the foul, they acknowleged a fuperior Divinity, above her who prefented them with the most inchanting pleasures of the imagination.

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* We doubt this epithet is too fine for any people. Ou

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