THE CRITICAL REVIEW. For the Month of June, 1779. Dionyfii Longini quæ fuperfunt Græce & Latine. Recenfuit, Notafque fuas atque Animadverfiones adjecit Joannes Toupius. Accedunt Emendationes Davidus Ruhnkenii. Editio altera. 10s. in boards; 8vo. 5s. 6d. in boards. Elmfly. T 410 HE numerous productions of Longinus, and the esteem in which his treatife on the Sublime has been univerfally held, give him an indifputable right to a place among the most illuftrious writers of antiquity. We are therefore happy to congratulate the public on the appearance of a new edition of his valuable remains, by one of the most learned and accurate critics of the prefent age. Dionyfius Caffius Longinus was born about the year 213. or not long afterwards. Some writers fuppofe him to have been a Syrian; others, with more probability, an Athenian. In a fragment of his own, which has been preferved in Porphyry's Life of Plotinus, he informs us, that he spent some part of his younger years in travelling with his parents, which gave him an opportunity of commencing an acquaintance with Ammonius, Origen, Plotinus, Amelius, and other eminent philofophers. On his return to Athens he taught eloquence and philofophy, with the highest applaufe, in that city. After Not the celebrated ecclefiaftical writer; but a Platonic philofo. pher, mentioned by Porphyry, Hierocles, Proclus, and others. VOL. XLVII. June, 17790 Dd he he had continued there many years, he went, upon fome domeftic concerns, to Emeffa in Syria, when he received from the famous Zenobia an invitation to Palmyra, which he ac cepted. His chief employment at the court of this accomplished princefs, was to instruct her in the literature of Greece; ' quo illa magiftro, fays Vopifcus, ufa effe ad Græcas literas dicitur *. In the year 273, when Palmyra furrendered to the emperor Aurelian, Zenobia and Longinus were taken prisoners, and the latter was ungeneroufly put to death, for a spirited letter f which he was faid to have drawn up, and which the queen had fent to Aurelian, in answer to an imperious meffage he had received from him, in the courfe of the fiege. Some of the writings of Longinus are on philofophical, but the greatest part on critical subjects. Commentators have collected the titles of twenty-five or twenty-fix treatifes, none of which, except this on the Sublime, have efcaped from the depredations of time and barbarians. And even this is mangled and imperfect, like the remains of a beautiful picture, that has been rescued from the flames. Here we will beg leave to make a remark, which may be applied to fchylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and a hundred other ancient authors, as well as Longinus, that they have been supposed to have written many more pieces, than they actually compofed, in confequence of the fame productions having been mentioned by different writers, under different titles. This is a fallacy, that we have often fufpected in the Bibliotheca Græca & Latina of the learned Fabricius. But it is an error, which, at prefent, no human fagacity can rectify. The reader, who is defirous of more particular information, with regard to the life and writings of Longinus, will receive ample fatisfaction from the perufal of the learned Schardam's Philological Differtation, which Mr. Toup has prefixed to the prefent edition of the works of this illuftrious critic. The abilities of the learned editor have been long fince known to the literati by his excellent Emendations of Suidas's Lexicon, and his Notes on Theocritus. Thefe publications discover his intimate acquaintance with the Greek language in its full extent, and his fingular penetration in critical refearches. *Vopifc. in Vitâ Aurel. § 30. † Ibid. All of them fuppofed to have been written at Athens, except a piece intitled AAINA☺02; which was probably a funeral oration on Odenatus, the husband of Zenobia, who was affaffinated about the year 267 The The high opinion, which the reader may have formed of this. learned editor, will not be diminished by the prefent publication. He will here fee the valuable remains of Longinus cleared of thofe inelegancies and deformities, which have hi-. therto difguifed him, and in many inftances reftored to their original beauty. In fhort, he will here difcover a critic, who is to Longinus, what Longinus was to Homer. Mr. Toup has, beyond all doubt, eftablished and confirmed the true sense of an expreffion in the beginning of Longinus, which has been generally misunderstood. Το μεν τε Καικιλιες συγγραμμάτιον · ταπεινότερον εφάνη της όλης υποθέσεως. Bishop Pearce by not knowing the true force of the word TаTTELOTEρor, which as Mr. Toup remarks, nunc hoc, nunc illo fenfu gaudet,' was led to correct danc into dans, fuppofing this to be the meaning of Longinus: humilior vilus eft, quàm argumenti vel rei tractatæ materia.' But the obfervation of Dacier is fufficient to overthrow 'his interpreta-, tion. • Comme le fublime n'eft point neceffaire à un rheteur, pour nous donner des regles de cet art, il me femble, que, Longin n'a pu parler icy, de cette pretenduë baffeffe du ftile de Cecilius.' We therefore entirely agree with Mr. Toup in réndering this paffage, Cæcilii liber exilior & jejunior eft vifus,, quam tota res poftularet. Toruм argumentum haud complexus eft.' The following quotation from Photius fufficiently evinces the propriety of the foregoing interpretation. Αλλά ταύτα μεν σοι προς ὑποτυπωσιν διεχαραξα, ΤΗΣ ΜΕΝ ΥΠΟΘΕΣΕΩΣ ΤΑΠΕΙ ΝΟΤΕΡΟΝ, της δε κατ' επισολην χρείας ίσως εκ ενδεέτερον. Hæc ego tibi paucis delineavi, multo quidem jejunius quam argumentum poftularet, ied fatis fortaffe pro modulo atque ufu epiftola.' Phot. Ep. 137. There is a paffage in Athenæus, where the word tatewos is ufed in a fimilar fenfe : τω Ηρακλες ΤΑΠΕΙΝΟΤΕΡΑΝ (μερίδα) apaber having placed a smaller portion before Hercules." Athen. iv. p. 157. Ed. Cafaub. Bishop Pearce has been applauded by thofe, who efteem themselves readers of tafte, for his obfervation upon the following paflage in the fame fedion : παντα διαφορησεν, και την τε έήτορος ευθυς αθρόαν ενεδείξατο δυναμιν. Longinus, fays his lord fhip, ad fublimitatis vim exprimendam, arte quâdam & proprietate verborum hic ufus eft: alius fcriptor dixiffet da Pops & evdesxvutas: fed hoc languidi eft animi. Nofter præteriti temporis verba ufurpat depofnoar et eredeigaro, (quafi jam disjecit & patefecit) quo melius fignificet vim & celeritatem, quibus fublimitas nationis animos audientium ferit,' &c. But, in the first place, the remark is an old one for Faber fays, Ddz Sentis • Sentis artem rhetoris debuit enim dicere diapopes et deinnra. At præceps figura id jam actum reddit, quod etiamnum agitur. Sed unde nata illa eft ? Εκ της φαντασίας fulminis (σxle) quod fæpe citius in terram raptum videas, ́ quam è nube prorumpere videris.' Tollius likewise applauds the remark of Faber, Benè học, fays he, à Fabro observatum. Το γαρ δη γεγονος. δεινότερον τε μελλοντος, η γενόμενα ετι, uti eft apud Demetrium Phalereum de Elocutione,' § zzo. In the next place, they who do not know, that the first aorift is frequently to be rendered by foleo, as it undoubtedly fhould in this paffage, muft either not have been converfant in the Greek authors, or read them in a very negligent and inaccurate manner. Paganus has given us the true fenfe of Longinus. Res omnes fulminis inftar disjicere, & universam ftatim oratoris vim patefacere folet.' Nam iftam, fays Mr. Toup, effe aliquando hujus temporis vim veriffimè monuit eruditiffimus Grævius, Le&t. Hesiod. cap 5. et ante eumμeyas Cafaubonus ad Laertii Chilonem, et Ariftophanis Equites. Ita locutus eft Demofthenes, Olynth. ii. p. 6. Όταν δ' εκ πλεονεξίας και πονηρίας τις άσπης ὗτος ισχυσί, ἡ πρώτη πρόφασις και μικρον ήλαισμα άπαλα ανεχαιτισε και διελυσιν. Cujus loci elegantiam minus adfecuti funt interpretes.' Peri The reader, who wishes to fee other obfervations, with examples, concerning the use of the tense above mentioned, may confult Hoogev. ad Viger. p. 214. Ed. tert. zon. ad Æl. Var. Hift. i. 4. p. 9. Edwards ad Theoc. Idyll. iv. 27. In the fecond fection, bifhop Pearce, by not attending to the general difference between the active and middle voice, has made an emendation, which, we are afraid, cannot be juftified. Inftead of κομισαντο θεωρίαν, he would read νομισαιτο Sewgar. But, fays Mr. Toup, aliud eft ei, aliud μαιζεσθαι. All know the difference between vou in the active, and voμoba in the paffive; but we do not recollect to have met with this word ufed in the middle voice. We therefore agree with Mr. Toup and Boivinus, in giving the preference to ήγησαιτο. We cannot here pass over, without a remark, a word which occurs in the first fection; as none of the critics or lexicographers feem to have been fenfible of the true force of its middle voice : ευ γαρ δὴ ὁ ΑΠΟΦΕΝΑΜΕΝΟΣ, τι θεοῖς ὁμοῖον εχομεν . ... EITE... Who declared his own opinion: whereas aоnvas would have meant the opinion of another perfon. Thus Demofthenes Philipp. i. 5 1. επισχων αν, έως οι πλείτοι των ειωθοτων γνωμην ΑΠΕ ΦΗΝΑΝΤΟ, HNANTO, had declared their own fentiments. Olynth. iii. §. 7. Comp. In a paffage at the end of the third fection Mr. Toup has undoubtedly reftored the true pundtuation είτα προς ουδέν πεπον θοτας ακροατας ασχημονεσιν' εικοτως. This is the true spirit of the paffage; and in this manner it is printed in the edition of Tollius. To the inftances produced by Mr. Toup we may add a well known one in Demofthenes, ὁδε σρατηγος ακολυθεί· ΕΙΚΟΤΩΣ * γαρ εσιν αρχειν μη δίδοντα μισθον. Philipp. i. § 9. The following expreffion in the fourth fection has been the fubject of great contention among the commentators: VETEOBS αν αυλες ήγησαιο και αυλων ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΟΦΘΑΛΜΟΙΣ ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ. Several critics have been fo precipitate as to imagine, that Longinus adopted an erroneous quotation through a failure of memory. But it is not to be fuppofed, that this accurate writer would have charged the incomparable Xenophon, a favourite author, with affectation, if he had not been fure, that his cenfure was well grounded and just. Here Mr. Toup and Ruhnkenius very properly observe, that the fame expreffion occurs in Areteus Cappadox: rade waoxe αμφω τα ειδέα, και ἡ εν τοις οφθαλμοισι παρθενος. De Cauf Morb. vii. p. 34. There is a remarkable paffage in the ninth fection, on which our learned commentator has made no remark; but as we have it now before us, we shall take leave to offer one or two cursory obfervations. Homer, defcribing the rapidity of Juno's horfes, when the defcended from heaven in her chariot, accompanied by Minerva, to repel the fury of Mars, before the walls of Troy, ufes this admirable fimile, Όσσον δ' ηεροειδές ανηρ δεν οφθαλμοισιν, 11. v. 770. Far as a fhepherd, from fome point on high, Pope. Upon this paffage Longinus makes the following remark: Την όρμην αυλων κοσμικῳ διασηματι καταμετρεί, Τις εν εκ αν εικοτως δια την ὑπερβελ ν τε μεγαίες επιφθεγξαντο, ότι, αν δὶς ἑξης εφορμήσωσιν δι των θεων ἱπποι, εκεθ ̓ ἑυρησεσιν εν κοσμῳ τοπον ; which dean Smith has tranflated in this manner : He measures the leap of the horfes by the extent of the world. And who is there, that, confidering the fuperlative magnificence of this thought, would not with good reafon cry out, that if the fteeds of the deity Dd3 were |