Yet it must not be diffembled that the fabulous traditions, in which he too much abounds, give the air of romance to his hiftory. Though forming, comparatively, but a fmall part of the work, they affume magnitude and importance, when invidiously detached from it. It thus feems as if this moft inftructive author had written with a view rather to amufe the fancy than to inform the understanding. The lively graces of his diction tend to confirm this fuppofition. His mode of compofition may be regarded as the intermediate fhade between Epic poetry and hiftory. Neither concife, nor vehement, the general character of his ftyle is natural, copious, and flowing; and his manner throughout breathes the foftness of Ionia, rather than the active contention of Athens. In this light Herodotus appeared to the Athenians in the age immediately fucceeding his own. At the Olympic games he had read his work with univerfal applaufe. Thucydides, then a youth, wept mixed tears of wonder and emulation. His father was complimented on the generous ardour of a fon, whofe early inquietude at another's fame marked a character formed for exertions that lead to immortality. But Herodotus had preoccupied the fubjects best adapted to historical compofition; and it was not till the commencement of the memorable war of twenty-feven years, that Thucydides, amidst the dangers which threatened his country, rejoiced in a theme worthy to exercife the genias, and call forth the whole vigour of an historian. From the breaking out of this war, in which he proved an unfortunate actor, he judged that it would be the greateft, the moft obftinate, and important, that had ever been carried on. He began therefore to collect, and treafure up, fuch materials as were neceffary for defcribing it: in the felection, as well as in the diftribution of which, he afterwards difcovered an evident purpofe to rival and furpafs Herodotus. Too much indulgence for fiction had difgraced the narrative of the latter: Thucydides profeffed to be animated purely by the love of truth. "His relation was not intended to delight the ears of an Olympic audience. By a faithful account of the past, he hoped to affift his readers in conjecturing about the future. While human nature remained the fame, his work would have its ufe, being built on fuch principles as rendered it an everlasting poffeffion, not a contentious inftrument of temporary applaufe." The execution correfponded with this noble defign. In his introductory difcourfe he runs over the fabulous ages of Greece, carefully feparating the ore from the drofs. In fpeaking of Thrace, he touches, with proper brevity, on the fable of Tereus and Progne; and in defcribing Sicily, glances at the Cyclops and Leftrigons. But he recedes, as it were, with difguft, from fuch monftrous phantoms, and immediately returns to the main purpose of his history. In order to render it a faithful picture of the times, he profelles to relate not only what was done, but what was faid, by inferting fuch fpeeches of Statefmen and Generals as he had himself heard, or as had been reported to him by others. This valuable part of his work has been imitated by all future hiftorians, till the improvement of military discipline on the one hand, and the cor ruption of manners on the other, rendered such speeches fuperfluous. Eloquence was once an incentive to courage, and an inftrument of government. government. But the time was to arrive when the dead principles of fear and interest should alone predominate. In most countries of Europe, defpotifm has rendered public affemblies a dramatic representation; and in the few where men are not enslaved by a master, they are the flaves of pride, of avarice, and of faction. Thucydides, doubtless, had his model in the fhort and oblique fpeeches of Herodotus; but in this particular he must be acknowledged far to furpafs his pattern. In the diftribution of his fubject, however, he fell fhort of that writer. Thucydides, afpiring at extraordinary accuracy, divides his work by fummers and winters, relating apart the events comprehended in each period of fix months. But this fpace of time is commonly too fhort for events deferving the notice of history, to be begun, carried on, and completed. His narrative, therefore, is continually broken and interrupted: curiofity is raised without being fatisfied, and the reader is tranfported, as by magic, from Athens to Corcyra, from Lefbos to Peloponnefus, from the coaft of Afia to Sicily. Thucydides follows the order of time; Herodotus the connection of events in the language of a great critic, the skill and tafte of Herodotus have reduced a very complicated argument into one regular harmonious whole; the prepofterous induftry of Thucydides has divided a very fimple fubject into many detached parts and fcattered limbs, which it is difficult again to reduce into one body. The fame critic obferves, that Herodotus's hiftory has not only more art and variety, but more gaiety and fplendour. A fettled gloom, doubtless, hangs over the events of the Peloponnefian war: but what is the hiftory of all wars, but a defcription of crimes and calamities! The auftere gravity of Thucydides admirably correfponds with his fubject. His majefty is worthy of Athens, when the commanded a thousand tributary republics. His concise, nervous, and energetic style, his abrupt brevity, and elaborate plainnefs, admirably reprefent the contentions of active life, and the tumult of democratical affemblies. Demofthenes, whom Diony. fius himself extols above all orators, tranfcribed eight times, not the elegant flowing fmoothness of Herodotus, but the fententious, harsh, and often obfcure annals of Thucydides.' The effects of theatrical entertainments, mufic, &c. upon the manners of the Athenians in the period of their decline, are well described: but we must not be too copious in our extracts. In reviewing the ftate of letters and philofophy during this period, Dr. Gillies characterizes the writings of Xenophon and Plato, in a manner which difcovers much good fenfe as well as a correct acquaintance with their works. The fplendid actions of Philip of Macedon, and the astonishing exploits of his fon, are related with a brilliancy of language fuited to the subject. With the diftribution of Alexander's conquefts among his fucceffors, our Author clofes the narrative part of his work. We regret that he has not included within his plan, the brave struggle of the Achæan league, and the great actions and character of Philopæmon. 7 Dr. Dr. Gillies clofes his history with a review of the state of arts, learning, and philofophy, at the time of the death of Alexander; in the courfe of which he gives a fummary of the fyftems of Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus and Pyrrho, for which we must refer to the work: only adding, by way of extract, the Author's account of the writings of Ariftotle. "Ariftotle," fays Lord Bacon," thought, like the Ottoman princes, that he could not reign fecure, unless he destroyed all his brethren ;" nor was his literary ambition more exclufive than exorbitant. He afpired to embrace the whole circle of the arts and fciences, and profefied to explain whatever can be known concerning the moral, as well as the material, world. Not fatisfied with extending his empire to the utmoft verge of intellect, he boldly attempts questions beyond all human knowledge, with the fame confidence that his pupil entered on a battle. But having to contend with enemies more ftubborn than the Perfians, his rathnefs was lefs fuccefsful than that of Alexander. He divided philofophy into contemplative and practical. The contemplative or abftract philofophy, to which he firft gave the name of metaphyfics, is obfcure throughout, often unintelligible, fill moret chimerical, but far lefs agreeable than that of his matter, Plato. It comprehended not only the examination of thofe abilract ideas, existence, fubftance, quality, genus, fpecies, &c. which were fo long and fo ufelessly tortured by the perverfe industry of the fchoolmen, but the general doârines concerning mind or fpirit, particularly the mind of the Deity, The human foul is treated in a feparate work; in which it must be acknowledged, that Ariftotle has made new names, rather than new discoveries; and the doctrine of the immortality is nowhere fo fully elucidated by this philofopher, as it had been by Plato. The natural philofophy of Ariftotle deferves the name of metaphyfic, in the modern fenfe of that word, fince he explained the laws of the univerfe, by comparing abftract ideas, not by obfervation and experience. When he defcends to particulars, he betrays more ignorance concerning the motions and magnitudes of the heavenly bodies, than many of his predeceffors. With the anatomy of man and other animals, he was well acquainted, confidering the grofs errors which generally prevailed in the age in which he lived. Chemistry was not yet invented. Since the introduction of the ideal philofophy, men had ceafed to obferve nature; it could not therefore be expected that they should imitate her operations, and examine her by the test of experiment. In mathematics, Ariftotle appears to have been lefs verfed than his predeceffors, Pythagoras and Plato; although, in the invention of the art of fyllogifm, he difplays a perfeverance of mental energy, which, had it been directed to the mathematical fciences, might have produced the greatest difcoveries. The fcepticism of his contemporary, Pyrrho, and fill more the captious fophiftry of the Eriffics, might naturally engage Ariftotle to examine with more attention than his predeceffors, the nature of truth, and the means of defending it against the attacks of declamation, and the fnares of rubilety. He undertook, therefore, the ar duous duous task, of refolving all reafoning into its primary elements, and of deducing from thence the rules by which every conclufion muft be connected with its premifes, in order to render it legitimate. This bold defign he accomplished; having erected on a fingle axiom, a larger fyftem of abftract truths, all fortified by demonftration, than were ever invented and perfected by any other man. The axiom from which he fets out, and in which the whole terminates, is, that whatever is predicated of a genus, may be predicated of every fpecies and individual contained under it. But the application of this axiom is for the most part fufficiently obvious, without the rules of Ariftotle; whofe logic, how fuccefsful foever it might prove against the fubtleties of the Sophifts and Eriftics, contributes little to the formation of the understanding, and nothing to the judicious obfervation of man or nature, on which all ufeful difcoveries must be founded. • From the general wreck of literature, in which many of Ariftotle's writings perished, had nothing been faved but the works above-mentioned, it must be confeffed that the preceptor of Alexander would not greatly merit the attention of pofterity. In his abftract or metaphyfical philofophy, we can only lament vaft efforts mif-fpent, and great genius mifapplied. But, in his critical and moral, and above all, in his political works, we find the fame penetrating and comprehenfive mind, the fame fubtlety of reafoning, and vigour of intellect, directed to objects of great importance and extenfive utility. The condition of the times in which he lived, and the opportunities peculiar to himself, confpired with the gifts of nature, and the habits of industry, to raise him to that eminence, which was acknowledged by his contemporaries, and admired by pofterity. He was born in the firft year of the ninety-ninth Olympiad, at Stagira, a provincial city of Macedon, and educated at the court of Pella, where his father was King's phyfician. In his early youth, he was fent to Athens, and remained there twenty years an affiduous fcholar of Plato, in a city where literature and the fine arts were cultivated with unexampled fuccefs, and where the philofophic fpirit, though often improperly directed, flourished in the utmost vigour. Selected by the difcernment of Philip, to guide and confirm the promifing difpofitions of his admired fon, he returned to his native country, and continued eight years at the Macedonian court. Whatever benefit accrued to Alexander from the inftructions of Ariftotle, it is certain that the latter derived great advantages from the gratitude of his royal pupil. Of this, feveral proofs have already occurred; and perhaps it may be afcribed to the munificence of Alexander, that his preceptor was enabled to form a library, a work of prodigious expence in that age, and in which he could only be rivalled by the Egyptian and Pergamenian Kings. But the library of Ariftotle was collected for ufe, not merely for oftentation. The last fourteen years of his life he spent mostly at Athens, furrounded with every affiftance which men and books could afford him, for profecuting his philofophical inquiries. The glory of Alexander's name, which then filled the world, enfured tranquility and refpect to the man, whom he diftinguifhed as his friend; but after after the premature death of that illuftrious prote&tor, the invidious jealousy of priests and fophifts inflamed the malignant and superstitious fury of the Athenian populace; and the fame odious paffions which proved fatal to the offenfive virtue of Socrates, fiercely affailed the fame and merit of Ariftotle. To avoid the cruelty of perfecution, he fecretly withdrew himfelf to Chalcis, in Euboea. This measure was fufficiently juftified by a prudent regard to his perfonal fafety; but left his conduct fhould appear unmanly, when contrafted with the firmnefs of Socrates in a fimilar fituation, he condefcended to apologise for his flight, by faying, that he was unwilling to afford the Athenians a fecond opportunity "to fin against philofophy." He feems to have furvived his retreat from Athens only a few months; vexation and regret probably shortened his days.' From the paffages we have felected, our Readers will perceive that the ftyle of this hiftory is, in general, correct and elegant. Some inaccuracies, however, we have noticed in the perusal of the work, a few of which we think it not improper particularly to mention. Again reunited (Vol. I. p. 227.) is a carelefs repetition. Capable to enjoy (Vol. I. p. 382, &c.) fhould be capable of enjoying; we say able to enjoy. Rivality (Vol. I. p. 449.) is a new and unneceffary coinage. He ventured to write Aftyochus (Vol. II. p. 15.) is a provincial vulgarifm. Thofe notions, &c. (Vol. I. p. 380.) fhould be thefe and the like in feveral other places. Such is the afcendant of virtue, &c. (Vol. II. p. 99.) is a mode of expreffion, which deviates fo effentially from the analogy of our language, that no authority can justify it: the word should certainly be written afcendancy. We mention these inaccuracies, rather as a caution to young writers, than with the view of depreciating a work, which, we have no doubt, will be received by the Public, as a valuable philofophical, as well as popular, hiftory of Greece. 32 E. ART. III. An Inquiry into the original State and Formation of the Earth; deduced from Facts and the Laws of Nature. The Second Edition, confiderably enlarged, and illustrated with Plates. By John Whitehurst, F. R. S. 4to. 11. 1s. bound. Bent. 1786. WE E are happy in being able to recal the attention of our Readers to the curious as well as valuable performance before us, which the ingenious Author, in this fecond edition, has enriched with many new obfervations and interesting facts, deduced from a more extenfive view of the operations of nature, particularly in the appearances which the mountains of Wales and the north of Ireland have afforded. Reasoning from natural phenomena, and the laws which, by investigation, we find to be the unalterable modes of nature's operations, was not the fashion of philofophy, at the time when most preceding writers on the formation of the earth attempted to |