not the simplicity of Dryden, homely perhaps as it may be thought, greatly preferable to the Ovidian graces of Pope ?* * Melmoth prefers to the original, Pope's translation of the nightpiece which follows the description of the second battle between the Trojans and Greeks. The former are victorious, and drive the Greeks to the fortifications in the front of their ships :-Night puts an end to the battle; the Trojan troops continue in the field, kindle fires, and keep watch under arms. To bring, in the liveliest manner, these fires and their effect before his reader, the poet introduces this celebrated simile: it may be thus literally translated: "As when, in the heavens, the stars around the resplendent moon shine in greatest lustre, and the air is without wind, the watch-towers, the mountain heads, and the woody promontories are visible, and the whole firmament opens itself in its immensity; all the stars of heaven are displayed, and the shepherds rejoice in spirit. Such and so numerous, between the ships and the streams of Xanthus, shone the fires of the Trojans before the walls of Troy. A thousand fires were burning in the field, and at each fire fifty men were seated, by the light of the bickering flame; the horses stood round the chariots, devouring the white barley and oats, and awaited the fair throned morning." Pope thus translates the simile: "As when the moon, refulgent lamp of light, Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light." To the preference which Melmoth claims for the translation of this passage, over the original, an admirer of Homer may reasonably object: he will allow the translation to be a performance of no An excuse for the ornaments, with which Pope has studiously attempted to set off his translation, is furnished by the remark of Dr. Johnson, that "though Virgil "wrote in language of the same general fabric with that "of Homer, in verses of the same measure, and in an age nearer to Homer's time by 1,800 years, yet he found, even then, the state of the world so much altered, and "the demand for elegance * so much increased, that 46 mere nature would be endured no longer; and that, "perhaps, in the multitude of borrowed passages, very "few can be shown which he has not embellished."† It is impossible to deny the general justness of this remark; but may not the Reminiscent be allowed to hint, ordinary poet, but will contend that its pleonasms considerably detract from its merit. Its great defect, however, is its total misrepresentation of the image and sentiment expressed in the original. Homer describes real, quiescent nature; Pope makes her poetical and animated: The moon is the principal object in the translation; the original directs the attention to the stars, to which the poet resembles the fires burning in the Trojan camp, and which form the subject of the comparison. "The flood of glory," which, in the words of the translator, "bursts from all the skies," is represented by him to irradiate all nature. The original more justly, and more picturesquely, limits both the glory and its effects; the former to the glittering of the stars, the latter to their bringing into view the woods, the mountain heads, and the promontories. Is not this its real effect? Would not the scene have been thus painted by Vernêt? At the end of the simile, half of a verse in the original is expanded into two verses; in the last, the translator makes the swains bless the "useful" light is not this epithet both very improper, and singularly contrary to the genius of Homer? If an admirer of Homer were required to prove the general inferiority of Pope's translation, and the nature of that inferiority, could he prove them better than by producing the original and translation of this simile? * Would not "refinement" have been a more proper word? Has he often improved them by these embellishments? that no embellishment should have been admitted by Pope that was contrary to the genius of the original; and to ask, whether many embellishments of this kind have not found their way into the translation? With the translation of Pope, that of Cowper will sustain no comparison. It is literal; and may be thought to bear, on this account, a nearer resemblance to the original. It is true, that, if it be examined word for word, this will appear to be the case; but, if the general effect of any one speech, or any one narrative, be considered, the result will be very different. Let their translations of that part of the first book of the Iliad, which describes the walk of the priest on the shore of the loud-resounding sea, and his address to the chiefs, be compared :which will be found to give the best notion of the exqui. site charm of the original? Even the most orthodox Grecian must give the palm to Pope. Dr. Johnson pronounces his translation to be " a poetical wonder,-a produc❝tion which no age or nation can pretend to equal." Is this exaggerated praise? Dryden's translation of the Eneid stands nearest to it: a poet by profession, in search of poetical imagery, poetical combinations and poetical diction, will perhaps find more of these in Dryden; but general readers will unquestionably give a decided preference to Pope. III. JURISPRUDence. THE Inns of Court completely divorced the Reminiscent from the muses :-in the course of his professional studies he endeavoured to obtain a general elementary knowledge of the Laws and Constitutions of other countries. The few following miscellaneous observations on some of the topics, to which this subject leads, will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to his readers. III. 1. Heirship and Venality of Judicial Offices in France. AN Englishman will hear with surprise, that in France, from the age of Lewis the twelfth, till the revolution, most offices of justice were both hereditary and saleable; he will hear, with greater surprise, that the wisdom of this national provision was a point on which respectable opinions were divided at the first, and continued divided to the last. In the year 1467, offices, which before that time had been simple commissions, revocable at the king's pleasure, were, by an edict of Lewis the eleventh, rendered perpetual and hereditary. This edict gave rise both to the heirship and sale of offices. In 1493, Charles the eighth published an edict, which, while it prohibited the sale by one subject to another, of offices that regarded the administration of justice, was silent on the sale of other offices, and was therefore supposed to legalize their sale. An edict of Lewis the twelfth allowed the sale even of offices of justice. Until 1522, the whole of the money paid for the purchase of them was received by the crown; but in that year, an edict of Francis the first permitted individuals, possessed of such offices, to sell them, on paying a certain proportion of the purchase-money into the royal treasury: this made venality of offices an important article of the French constitution, and an important branch of the royal revenue. In the course of time, it underwent many modifications. For some centuries before the French revolution, it was conducted on the following plan :-When the king established a new court of justice, the edict of its creation fixed the number of the magistrates or judges, and the specific sums to be paid by them for grants of the offices, which they should fill. For these, the candidates petitioned the king; the grants of them were made by letters under the great seal; and, from that time, the offices were hereditary in the family of the grantee.-Where a court was established, the possesssor of any of the offices, of which it was composed, might, in his life-time, and his heirs might, after his decease, dispose of it by sale; or he might direct by will that it should be sold. When the sale of an office took place, the purchaser petitioned the crown for a grant of it; and, when the grant was signed, he paid, besides the price payable to the vender, a sum of money into the royal treasury: the amount of it varied from 1,000 to 2,000 French crowns. The money which he paid into the royal treasury, was, on a subsequent sale of the office, returned to him or his heirs. Thus, the purchaser of an office virtually paid for it no more than the interest which accrued upon the purchase-money from the time of its payment until the return of it on a resale. But great care was exerted to ascertain that the person, to whom the office was granted, should be properly qualified for the discharge of its duties. It was always required that he should have taken |