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That writers on science, who are constrained, from the nature of their subject, to confine themselves strictly to the narrow track of truth, should sometimes tread in the footsteps of earlier authors, is perhaps excusable; but that the novelists and poets, who are allowed to range at large over the boundless regions of fancy, and who in many cases, did not think themselves restrained even within the limits of probability, should so often servilely follow their predecessors in a beaten path, betrays an imbecility of imagination truly wonderful. A cavern inhabited by a troop of robbers, to mention no other instance, hath been looked on as such a favourable scene to display distress, that it is introduced into their fictitious narrations by Lucian, who is said to have taken it elsewhere; by Apuleius, by Heliodorus, by Ariosto, by Spenser, and Le Sage. Apuleius hath not only stolen the cave of banditti from Lucian, but openly robbed him of his Ass, and laden it with many additional extravagances: among which, the tale of Cupid and Psyche particularly attracts the attention of the reader by the wildness of its imagery, which bears striking marks of an Oriental origin.

The delicate Cervantes, though well acquainted with the ancients, found their manners in general too coarse to weave into the exquisite texture of his matchless romance, which still delights, even in translation, notwithstanding the characters and customs vary almost as widely as those in Homer from our own. Neither do I recollect that he selected any classical adventure, if we except the encounter with the winebags, which seems to have been suggested by Apuleius. "Cadavera illa jugulatorum hominum erant tres (caprini) utres inflati, variisque secti foraminibus, et, ut vespertinum prælium meum recordabar, his locis hiantes, quibus latrones illos vulneraveram." Metamorphoseon, sive de Asino aureo, 1. iii.

These borrachas had been transformed into the appearance of men by an enchantress; and the stranger, who destroyed them by mistake as thieves, is an ignorant and unwilling actor in an annual ceremony dedicated to a very extraordinary deity of antiquity, the god Laughter (Deo Risui.)

A critic of great eminence hath the following remark on Petronius: "I shall observe, by the way, that the copy of this author, found some years ago, bears many signatures of its spuriousness, and particularly of its being forged by a Frenchman. For we have this expression, ad CASTELLA sese receperunt ;" that is, "to their chateaux, instead of ad VILLAS." Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. I. p. 176.

With due deference, I do not apprehend that this argument

founded on the word castella, is by any means conclusive. Since not to insist on the Norica Castella of Virgit (Georg. iii. ver. 474,) which were probably no more than sheepcotes, the word frequently occurs in Apuleius, particularly in the succeeding passage: "Sed habitus alieni fallacia tectus, villas seu castella solus aggrediens, viaticulum mihi corrasi." lib. vii.

The critic's reproof of Pope, for his compliment to Petronius, is certainly just. The scenes of the private life of the Romans, which that writer exhibits, would be highly pleasing, were we not obliged to wade through much filth, to obtain a view of them.

1789, April.

T. H. W.

Oct. 10.

CII. TURL at Oxford, whence so named. MR. URBAN, EBENEZER BARCLAY, in your Magazine of 1784, asks why a certain narrow street in Oxford is called the TURL? A correspondent conceives this word to be of CELTIC or SAXON origin: and, if CELTIC-not else—(for, if Saxon, he does not presume to interpret it)-and, if the street moreover be on a declivity-but, on no other supposition-gives him to understand that it takes its name from that circumstance; TURL, in the Celtic signifying a descent. He adds indeed that, if again this same street be in the purlieus of OXFORD (for he never saw it, having never been there,) it may signify, but does not say why, the place where the country-people used to alight, as a ford, or entrance into the

town.

Again;-P. Q. from Peshall's History of OXFORD, informs us that the TURL Gate was so called from Peter Thurold, who built and lived near it; and that this gate gave its name to the street.

The truth, Mr. URBAN, is this: TURL is not of Celtic, but of Saxon origin. Thirl, in the Saxon, i. e. our old English language, signifies an orifice or aperture. Hence they had the compounds, Eag-Thirl, Eye-Thirl, the aperture of the Eye; which was also used for a Window as an aperture to look through-Næs-Thirl, Nose-Thirl, whence our Nos-trilNædle-Thirl, the aperture, or as we call it, the eye of the Needle. Hence also it was used to signify any narrow-opening or passage. And hence also it may therefore reasonably

be presumed that the angiport, or narrow passage in question, was called the Thirl, and, by an easy change in the pronunciation, the TURL.

The verb was Thirlian, perforare, terebrare, penetrare-to bore, pierce, or penetrate. And hence our verb, to thrill, of the same import. Thus, thrilling sounds, thrilling sorrows, i. e. sounds or sorrows which penetrate or pierce. In mechanical operations we find it still in use in the word drill, with the simple, and not uncommon, change of the th into d. By the way, this change of the th into d is particularly observable in the Prince of Wales's motto, Ic dien, which was originally written Ic Thien, I serve-I, though a Prince, ama Thane, or a Servant, as being subject to the King. 1789, Nov.

ARCHAUS Surr.

CIII. An Emendation in Milton's Paradise Lost.

MR. URBAN,

Marlborough-street, Jan. 6. I DO not at present recollect, that the subject of the following remarks has been anticipated by any preceding writer. If you are of the same opinion, you may give them a place in your Magazine.

Yours, &c.

J. R-RT-N.

Milton, near the conclusion of his Paradise Lost, has the following lines:

"They looking back, all th' eastern side beheld

Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,

Wav'd over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd and fiery arms.

Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon.
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

"If I might presume," says Mr. Addison, "to offer at the smallest alteration in this divine work, I should think the poem would end better with the passage here quoted, than with the two verses which follow:"

"They, hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way."

"These two verses," continues this excellent critic, though they have their beauty, fall very much below the foregoing passage, and renew, in the mind of the reader, that anguish which was pretty well laid by this considera. tion:"

"The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

Mr. Addison's observation is certainly just. The sentence of expulsion was pronounced with some comfortable intimations.

"Dismiss them not disconsolate,"

said the Almighty, when he gave his orders to Michael;
"Send
Send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace."
Dr. Bentley, in order to remove the foregoing objection,
corrects the two concluding lines in this manner:

"Then, hand in hand, with social steps, their way
Thro' Eden took, with heav'nly comfort chear'd.”

No reader of taste, I presume, would wish to adopt this frigid alteration; and none, I think, would desire to expunge the two beautiful lines with which Milton concludes his poem. They give us a lively and natural representation of the melancholy state of our first parents, and the reluctance with which they left the delightful scenes of Paradise; and as they must necessarily pass through Eden, that is, the province in which Paradise was situated, before they proceeded into what they called the "wild" and "inhospitable world," I would, by all means, preserve that part of the description, altering only one word, for the sake of a better connexion, and invert the order of the four concluding verses in this manner:

"Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon; Then hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.

The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

Or, by placing a period at the end of the first line, the personal pronoun they may be retained; but the former reading, I think, is preferable.

By this alteration, the words of the Poet remain almost entirely unviolated: the beautiful picture of the loving, wandering, lingering, dejected pair, is preserved; they are represented as gradually proceeding from the garden, through the adjoining region, into the world at large; and are finally left, as they ought to be left, under the guidance and protection of Providence.

1791, Jan.

J. R.

MR. URBAN,

CIV. On the Particle UN.

Feb. 12.

THE English language has of late years been so much studied, as to have received great improvement, and also to be more perfectly understood. Most of our writers, consequently, that compose in it, are found to acquit themselves with far more precision, perspicuity, and grammatical accuracy, than formerly they were wont to do. All this must be admitted; but still the use of the preposite particle un, which, I presume, never occurs but in compound words, seems to require some further consideration and elucidation; and I beg leave to submit the following observations concerning this monosyllable to the judgment of the public, through the channel of your Magazine. It is a business of greater importance in my eye, than to many, perhaps, at first sight may appear, as it most materially affects a very large portion of our words, substantives, adjectives, and adverbs, as may be seen by turning into Dr. Johnson's Dictionary.

The particle un, in compound words, implies a thing's being put into a different state or condition from what it was in before, as to undo, untie, unlock, &c.*; or displaced from its former situation, as unthroned, unhorsed, unparadised, &c. But now, Sir, in a very large catalogue of our words, this natural and original idea of un is in a manner, abandoned and lost, by its being confounded with in, and made convertible with it, so as merely to signify not. Thus, for instance, we have unpatient for impatient, Psalm xxxix. 3.; and many will say and write unfunded, for not

Dr. Johnson, v. “un.”

+ Milton.

Knox, Winter Evenings, vol. II.

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