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Then Famine shall devour each blade, and
The locust armies warping, on the bark
Of oaks shall batten, nor the olive boast
Her verdant honours, nor the river roll
His undiminished tide, so oft shall Thirst
Dip her insatiate goblet in the stream:
High o'er their heads a sleet of arrowy shower
And iron clouds shall canopy the globe

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1655

With dreadful shade, veiling the light of heaven:
And now he rushes like the crackling flame
Rolling through ripened corn the ruddy wave;
Till fading, falling, as the Locrian rose

1660

1655.

Of short-lived bloom, a beechen skiff shall hide
The Monarch, trembling like a maid who runs
To sheltering darkness and the silent cave,
Scared by the brazen gleamings of a sword.

Then woes, and wars, and wasting tides of blood,
Shall sweep conflicting armies from the world;
For some in plains shall bow their heads to death,
And some on ridges of the mountain rock,
And some on seas shall sink beneath the wave,
All murdered: nor till then shall grisly War
Sheath his fell sword, and break his iron
Till sprung from Dardan seed from Æacus,
Thesprotian, Chaladræan, forth shall rush
The Lion form, and ranging for revenge

Κύφελλα δ ̓ των τηλόθεν ῥοιζουμένων

Ὑπὲρ κάρα στήσουσι.

car,

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1670

"Clouds of arrows hurled from afar shall stand over their heads." It is remarkable that Lucan has precisely the same expression:

Nubila,

Stant ferrea cœlo

This is not so correct an image as that of Gray,who represents the arrows as a descending sleet,

1657. For the word nijja, which is explained by the Scholiast to signify "the sun," the Commentators would substitute Tirpa, which by some authors is applied to that luminary. It is true that pa is to be met with in no other author, but that is no proof that it was not written by Lycophron, who has not scrupled to use φύλαμος, λάρις, and πτέλας, which are not to be found elsewhere, The word is perhaps of Persian origin; for when mentioning the disasters of a Persian army, our author may be supposed to have given a Persian name to a Persian Deity. "Bér" in the modern Arabic

and Persian languages signifies "a globe:" if adopted by a Greek, he would give a Greek termination to this monosyllable, and I would be the nearest approximation he could make to the sound of it's initial, for B was probably pronounced soft, like our V.

1672. The following verses allude to the predominance of Alexander the Great. By his mother's side he claimed a descent from Eacus and Dardanus.

1673. Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, was an Epirote, for which reason he is called "Thesprotian," from Thesprotia, a district of Epi

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Spring from his lair, and lap his kindred blood:
Round him in fawning blandishment shall cower
And cringe, and crook the hinges of their knees,
The chiefs of ancient Argolis, and yield
Sceptres, and realms, and diadems, and thrones.
But when athwart the empty-vaulted heaven
Six times of years have rolled, War shall repose
His lance, obedient to my Kinsman's voice,
Who rich in spoils of monarchs shall return
With friendly looks, and carollings of love,

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While Peace sits brooding upon seas and land.

1685

Why pour the fruitless strain? to winds, and waves,

Deaf winds, dull waves, and senseless shades of woods
I chauut, and sing mine unavailing song.

Such woes has Lepsieus heaped upon my head,

Steeping my words in incredulity;

1690

The jealous God! for from my virgin couch

I drove him amorous, nor returned his love.

But fate is in my voice, truth on my lips;

What must come, will come; and when rising woes

Burst on his head, when rushing from her seat

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His country falls, nor man nor God can save,

Some wretch shall groan, "From her no falsehood flowed,
True were the shrieks of that ill-omened bird."
Such was her strain; she hurried to her cell

With troubled steps, and took th' astonished soul
With Siren songs and mournful melodies,
Or phrenzied as a moon-struck Bacchanal,
Or furious Sibyl, or Phicéan Sphinx,

1700

rus.

Showed her dark speech, and muttered oracles.

His father was a Macedonian, from which circumstance he is designated as a Chaladræan lion. (See Note on verse 1565.)

1675. The Persians are called his kinsmen, because they derived their origin from Perseus, an ancestor of Hercules, from whom Alexander claimed to be descended.

1680. These verses are perhaps allusive to the peace made with Macedonia (after it's subjugation by the Romans, who were descended from Æneas the kinsman of Cassandra), and incorporation with the Roman Empire. See Preface.

1686. Cassandra, having related the woes which the expedition of Paris must occasion, suddenly checks herself upon reflecting that no one will believe her oracles: she then derives a melancholy consolation from the knowledge that justice will be done her, when vengeance has overtaken the guilty. In the same manner in Eschylus she exclaims,

Καὶ τῶνδ ̓ ὅμοιον εἴ τι μὴ πείθω, τί γάρ ;

Τὸ μέλλον ἥξει, καὶ σὺ μὴν τάχει παρὼν
*Αγαν γ' ἀληθόμαντιν οἰκτείρας ἐρεῖς.

1689. Lepsieus is a name of Apollo.

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1691. For the story of Cassandra, see Note on verse 411.

1703. The Sphinx is called Phicéan, from Phiceum a mountain near Thebes.

1704. "I will shew my dark speech upon the harp." Psalm xlix. 4.

The fourteen last verses are spoken by the Messenger, in his own person.

But I to thee have borne her words, O King,
Her frantic words, for me thou hast ordained
Guard of her cell, and every sound which flows
Fast from her lips I straight relate to thee.
But, oh! may all these woes be turned to joy!
Still may the God who watches o'er thy House
Spread round thy bosom his protecting shield,
And guard with arms divine the Phrygian throne!

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1710

VIRO GRAVISSIMO JOHANNI DAVIES, S.T. P. SIMONDS D'EWES E. A. S. P. D.

IGNOSCAS mihi, Vir doctissime, quòd rariores mei te compellent codicilli; amissâ enim quâ fruebar libertate privatus, publici nec mei juris mancipium existo. In toto vix mihi menstruo horarius literis exarandis vacat: imò sæpius inconatus, sæpissime impransus incedo. In magnis scilicet regni Comitiis justitium planè exulat; unde in ipso Domini natali ultimùm elapso, tribus duntaxat lusimus diebus; atque nos interim totos ferè integros quatuor menses vernaculæ assueti; ceterarum linguarum ne mireris si obliviscamur. Eruditissimos tuos priores mihi tradidit codicillos magister Pugh, multis mihi nominibus charus, præcipuè verò quòd nostræ pararius extitit amicitiæ: posteriores hâc ipsâ nocte læto etiam amplexi sumus animo. Utrosque expectatissima proverbiorum Celticorum interpretatio excepit. Aliquot utinam citeriorum sæculorum de religione et fide Britonum erui poterant monumenta: Homilias, et id genus alia receptam veterum Anglo-Saxonum theologiam testantia etiamnum offendimus; uti et nonnulla in Gildâ Albanio Gilda Badonico Ianonico veteri ante Bedam, utpote qui Pendæ regis Merciorum tempore scripsit. Anonymo et Nennio de religionis inter Britones Christianæ dogmatis sparsim eliciuntur: ex Thaliessini etiam poematiis, ni fallor, theologica plurima colligere potis eris. Unicum tibi, locupletis tuæ messis vice, adagium (omnium gymnasiorum parietibus inscribendum Anglo-Saxonicum remitto, plura oùy collecturus.)

Eala gif ic rædde on geozode, ponne cude nu 1C rum god. O si ego legissem in juventute, tunc cognovissem nunc ego aliquid boni. Communis noster magister, tibi Pugh amicus, quæ de vetustissimis Britannico idiomate exaratis Chronicis in thesauro Cottoniano repertis cum versione Latinâ vel Anglicâ excudendis consulimus referet. Interim vale, Vir doctissime, et tuo me semper fruere.

Londini, Iv. Id. Mart. c1ɔ 10CXL.

56 Biblical Criticism.-On the Hora Pelasgicæ.

BIBLICAL CRITICISM.

There is a change from the present to the future tense, in Matthew vii. 8. and in the parallel place, Luke ii. 10. which scarcely appears to agree with our Lord's design, and excites a suspicion that the Present Tense was originally found in the last clause, as well as in those preceding. The verses to which I refer are the same in both Gospels; "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; FOR every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Griesbach quotes avolyera as a various reading. Schaaf's Syriac Testament exhibits in both places it is opened, although the latin translation gives aperietur in the former place, and aperitur in the latter, Plantin's Syr. Test. in Chaldee characters has л in Matthew and Luke. Dr. Campbell in his translation of the gospels has "it is opened," in both evangelists; but to my great surprise takes no notice in his annotations of this deviation from the received text and version. A French translation of the New Testament, ushered into the world under the eye, and by the authority of the Church of Geneva, presents "et l'on ouvre à celui qui heurte in Matthew, but "et on ouvrira à celui qui heurte" in Luke, Some of your readers may be able to cast more light on this subject,

22

W. N.

July, 1816.

ON THE HORÆ PELASGICÆ,

THE HORE PELASGICE of Dr. MARSH, Bishop of Llandaff, though considered by the publie as adding to his fame, seems to me to be founded in a false assumption. Following the authority of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, he supposes that the Pelasgi derived their name from Pelasgus, a king who had ruled over them; and that being a wandering tribe they spread over Peloponnesus, Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, Euboea, Thessaly, and Thrace. That a tribe, however disposed to wander, should thus pervade every province, while their progress must have been impeded by those who were already in

possession of those places, appears improbable; and the supposition is directly contradicted by Herodotus, who positively asserts that the Pelasgi did not change their place of abode, ovdaμý τw expnos, lib. i. 56. Two persons are said to have existed under the name of Pelasgus; one, the son of Jupiter and Niobe, the other the son of Larissa and Neptune, Dion. Hal. 1. i. c. 17. p. 14. But this account is evidently fabulous; and the circumstance of the last being a son of Neptune or a son of the sea, implies that he was some trans-marine adventurer, called IIλaryòs, from Thayos, on the same principle as Morgan, the celebrated Welshman, was on the continent designated Pelagius,

The Greeks were divided into two bodies, those within the Egean sea, in Greece properly so called, and those on the continent. When it was necessary to speak of the former in contradistinction to the latter, or to any other foreign nation, they were from réλayos called Pelasgi, the term being used not to express a distinct race of the Greeks, but the situation of the Greeks in regard to the sea,

Now this explanation implies three things: namely, that Pelasgia or Pelasgi were in early times general names, designating all Greece and its inhabitants; that the names were used chiefly by foreigners, and originated with them in the same manner as natives of Great Britain are occasionally designated abroad Islanders, though such a designation be seldom used among themselves, or that when a Greek writer, such as Homer or Herodotus, employs it, he employs it to express the Greeks in opposition to some other nation; and lastly, that Pelasgi was the most ancient appellation, and that when superseded by another, a change took place only in the name, not in the tribe. Thus Herodotus, lib. viii. 44. says, that the Athenians were at first Pelasgi, but were not called Athenians till Erectheus succeeded to the throne. When, therefore, we read in Thucydides of a temple in lib. ii. c. 17., or in Herodotus, lib. v. 64, of a wall called Teλaryixò, we are not to conclude with Dr, Marsh, that this wall or temple was built by a distinct tribe of Greeks who once inhabited Athens; but that it was an old wall or temple which still remained, and built by the inhabitants under the ancient name of Pelasgi. These inferences lay aside Bishop Marsh's inquiry as perfectly nugatory; and yet they may for the most be drawn from his own words. pears," says he, p. 7., "from the expression xarà Tùv Erráda τὴν ̔Ελλάδα Tйoav that the Pelasgi once occupied the whole of Greece. Hence, according to Herodotus, Greece in general was originally called Ileλaryia." Again, in the note, he writes, quoting Virgil and Ovid, "The term Pelasgi is frequently used by Latin writers to denote

"It ap

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