heart of his distracted wife. Ever and anon it came, and hoarser than before, and there was an occasional wildness in its note, and now and then a strange and clamorous repetition for a time, as if despair had inspired him with an unnatural energy. But the shouts became gradually shorter,-less audible, and less frequent,-till at last their eagerly listening ears could catch them no longer. "Is he gone?" was the half-whispered question they put to one another, and the smothered responses that were muttered around, but too plainly told how much the fears of all were in unison.

"That

"What was that?" cried his wife in delirious scream,was his whistle I heard !"-She said truly. A shrill whistle, such as that which is given with the fingers in the mouth, rose again over the loud din of the deluge, and the yelling of the storm. He was not yet gone. His voice was but cracked by his frequent exertions to make it heard, and he had now resorted to an easier mode of transmitting to his friends the certainty of his safety. For some time his unhappy wife drew hope from such considerations, but his whistles, as they came more loud and prolonged, pierced the ears of his foreboding friends, like the ill-omened cry of some warning spirit; and, it may be matter of question whether all believed that the sounds they heard were really mortal. Still they came louder and clearer for a brief space; but at last they were heard no more, save in his frantic wife's fancy, who continued to start as if she still heard them, and to wander about, and to listen, when all but herself were satisfied that she could never hear them again.

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'The body of poor Cruickshanks was found in the afternoon of next day, on the Haugh of Dandaleith, some four or five miles below. As it had ever been his uniform practice to wind his watch up at night, and as it was discovered to be nearly full wound when it was taken from his pocket, the fact of his having had self-possession enough to obey his usual custom, under circumstances so terrible, is as unquestionable as it is wonderful. It had stopt at a quarter of an hour past eleven o'clock, which would seem to fix that as the fatal moment when the tree was rent away, for when that happened, his struggles amidst the raging waves of the Spey must have been few and short. When the men, who had so unsuccessfully attempted to save him, were talking over the matter, and agreeing that no human help could have availed him, "I'm thinkin' I could ha' ta'en him oot," said a voice in the circle. All eyes were turned towards the speaker, and a general expression of contempt followed, for it was a boy of the name of John Rainey, a reputed idiot, from the foot of Belrinnes, who spoke. "You!" cried a dozen voices at once, "what would you have done, you wise man ?"—" I wud ha'e tied an empty anker-cask to the end o' a lang lang tow, an' I wud ha'e floated it aff frae near aboot whar the raft was ta'en first awa', an' syne, ye see, as the stream teuk the raft till the tree, maybe she wud ha'e ta'en the cask there too,-an' if Charley Cruickshanks had ance gotten a haud o' the rope,"-He would have finished, but his auditors were gone. They had silently slunk

away in different directions, one man alone having muttered, as he went, something about "wisdom coming out of the mouths of fools."' -pp. 257-265.

These extracts will serve the double purpose of justifying the commendations which we have felt it our duty to bestow on the performance of the northern baronet, and also of stamping on the mind of the reader, a lively impression of the nature, extent, and incidents of the calamitous floods, which committed such havoc in the north-east of Scotland, little more than a year ago. Visitations like this are happily rare in our climate, and it may even be doubted whether there ever occurred in our island a hurricane so fierce and destructive, or which was attended with circumstances so extraordinary. With respect to the damage done to property, whether of a temporary or permanent nature, by sweeping away buildings, animals, and crops, or by the utter destruction of the body of the soil itself, it is difficult to form an accurate estimate; but taking loss of every kind into account, we should be inclined to rate it at little short of a quarter of a million. Fortunately, the waste of human life was far less than might have been expected, considering the suddenness of the calamity, and the terrible force with which the waters descended, particularly along the courses of the Findhorn and Spey; nor, through the provident care and enterprise of the people, was the destruction of domestic animals by any means so extensive or general as we might have anticipated. But still the misery occasioned by these floods has been very great, and hundreds of poor people, who formerly lived in tolerable ease and comfort, having been suddenly deprived of their all, are now in a state of want and beggary. We have only one other remark to make, which is, that the extraordinary results produced by these floods afford a remarkable illustration of the force of running water, and of the changes which it is capable of effecting; for not only did rivers, abandoning their old courses, scoop out for themselves new ones, and buildings of all sorts yield to the fury of the raging currents, but, in some instances, bridges were carried off en masse, and "actually hurried on for some distance down the streams before they went to pieces and sank;" in others they were burst to pieces by a force acting upwards, as if a mine had exploded under them, while detached rocks, of such magnitude that no human force could move them, were rolled onward, sometimes to the extent of several hundred yards, and smaller masses to the distance of miles. These, and many similar facts, are well deserving the attention of the geologist, to whom, indeed, the operations of the Morayshire floods have opened a new and interesting field of study, the cultivation of

which can scarcely fail to be productive of advantage, both in the way of correcting errors, and of making some important additions to the amount of ascertained truths.

ART. VII.-"Euripidis Troades, accedit Seidleri, Matthiæ, et aliorum annotatio selecta. Cui et pauca quædam sua subjecit Editor."

Londini. Apud B. Fellowes. 8vo. 1830.

IT is the usage in most of our schools to confine the attention of a student to a few of the best plays of Euripides; to read them all carefully would require more time than can be spared, and, we may add, more time than they deserve. The Troades is one of those which ought to be included in a school and college course, if the poetical merits of a dramatic piece have any influence in determining the tutor's choice. There are some passages in it, which, in our opinion, are not surpassed, in real beauty and energy, by any thing to be found in the extant Greek drama; for example, the latter part of the address of Cassandra, beginning at line 446. In the second line of this noble passage (στεῖχ ̓ ὅπως τάχιστ' ἐς ᾄδου νυμφίῳ γημώμεθα), the Editor has retained the common punctuation, which is undoubtedly the right one: the words that follow orεix' cannot be separated from one another.

The text which the Editor has adopted is that of Augustus Matthiæ: the few instances in which he has deviated from it are noticed at the foot of the page. These variations are neither numerous nor very important: they are, however, in general, improvements, and some of them had been previously sanctioned by Matthiæ and others.

For púpav in Matthiæ [1. 103] the Editor writes πpúpav, according to the edict of Hermann: no reason is given for it reasons against it might be found.

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In line 700 the Editor has restored owon, for which Matthiæ had inconsiderately written owoɛi in obedience to a canon of Dawes, to which homage is no longer paid. This is not the only example in which Matthiæ would change the subjunctive into the indicative, according to his notion of the usage of où un.-See his Grammar. Trans. vol. ii. pp. 762, 763.

L. 249, for μeve in Matthiæ, we have ueve in the present edition, an obvious and a certain alteration, which Matthiæ, as quoted in the note, recommends.

Again, 1. 468, we have rà un piλa, instead of rà μoí píλa, which Matthiæ retained in his text, though he admits the true reading to be that which the present Editor has introduced..>

In line 552, the Editor has followed Hermann and the Scholiast, in preferring παρ ὕπνῳ to παρ οἴνῳ: in this judgment we do not coincide; nor can the practice of quoting Milton and Virgil (which is apparently done to sanction indirectly the new reading) be reconciled with the rules of sound criticism.

In some of the instances in which the Editor has deviated from the reading of Matthiæ, it is to be regretted that he has not explained his reasons: for instance, 1. 597, the Editor has preferred wólo to the wovo of Matthiæ's text, without stating any of the various readings, or any remark of Matthiæ on it.

It would certainly have added to the value of this edition in the eyes of scholars, if the Editor had noted the various readings in most of the more difficult passages.

The Editor appears also to have been rather too sparing of his own explanation: the notes selected are generally good, but there is hardly sufficient aid for a young student. When the commentators are at variance, or not sufficiently clear, a little additional observation is useful and necessary. L. 1138 the Editor writes ἀροῦμεν δόρυ instead of the αἴρομεν δόρυ of Matthiæ: that the new reading is admissible cannot be denied ; perhaps it is the best; but we are at a loss to conjecture the MS. reading, except it be contained in the aipovμɛv of Ald. Rell.

The note of Matthiæ is not clear enough to a young scholar, to shew him the real meaning of dpovμev dópu, which certainly refers to setting sail. L. 98, Matthiæ doubts if ava can be used as equivalent to avexe, which opinion Hermann, in the same note, maintains; and the Editor appears by his punctuation to adopt the notion of Hermann.

Now it is certainly fair and candid to give the opinions of different commentators, and to render to each the credit due to him. This, we believe, the Editor has done on all occasions, with great scrupulousness, and it is no small merit at the present day, when literary pilfering is so much in vogue. Two or three hard-working men will furnish raw materials enough for a hundred small-ware manufacturers.

In this passage we consider it quite inadmissible to suppose that kepaλny depends on ava: there should be no point after Kepaλny, this word being put in apposition, (according to grammatical language) with the word dépnv. It may be compared with this formula, πλήσσω σὲ τὸν πόδα. In cases of this kind, where critics differ, the Editor should endeavour to guide the opinion of the student.

L. 411. The Editor has adopted the Bloomfieldian canon about the orthography of adverbs like duaxì, auox@ì, &c.: as

far as MS. readings can be depended on, it seems quite impossible to come to so positive a conclusion as the Doctor lays down; and there is nothing in analogy which can decide the question.

In most of the commentaries which appear in this country, there is a want of notes explanatory of the meaning; parallel passages and Scholia in abundance are collected, but very little explanation is given in the form of direct translation of the more difficult passages. This kind of exposition, accompanied with frequent elucidation of syntactical usages, and of the etymological forms of the words, is that which for teachers and learners would prove the most useful. The subject matter too would often appear in a new and clearer light, if more use were made of our present topographical knowledge of Greece, for the illustration of local allusions.

The play under consideration furnishes instances of what might be done in this department, in such names as the Cyclopian walls of Argos, the fountain Pirene, and so forth.

The Editor has not neglected illustrations of this kind, nor the exposition of the more difficult passages, though neither of these divisions is made so complete as would be desired by most students. For a large class of Greek students, Scholia much corrupted, and notes in indifferent Latin, are but feeble aids: it may be said, that scholars are satisfied with this kind of illustration, and that Latin and Greek notes are intended for them. It may be so; but of this we may rest assured, that this is not the way to make scholars, or to contribute to the diffusion and right understanding of the Greek tongue.

The notes, as they stand at present, contain a selection of very useful remarks, but had they been expressed in plain and simple English, their value would have been more than doubled, because they would have been read and understood by a much larger number.