perti, those who have themselves been engaged in undertakings equally toilsome and fatiguing, that can conceive "quæ sit operis moles, quæ difficultas, quæ molestia." We ourselves, have a variety of small vexations in our way; but we confess we should not shrink from the reading and review of all the novels which have been written the last twelvemonth, with half the horror with which we should avoid the enormous task which Mr. Anthon has so honourably undertaken and so successfully performed.

In the new edition of Valpy's Greek Grammar, the same spirit of judicious alteration is every where observable. While Valpy's general method has been preserved, the latest and most approved philological observations have been incorporated with the body of the work. The notes of Dr. Valpy have been removed from the bottom of the page, where they are little likely to attract attention, and placed as observations, after the text to which they refer. The additions, which are very numerous, (far exceeding, in extent, what remains of the original work,) are extremely valuable and interesting in themselves, and become more so from the order and clearness of their arrangement. They have been principally selected from the larger grammars of Matthiae, Buttmann, Weller, Golius, and the Port Royal Grammarian; more especially, from the two former. That part of Valpy's book, which contains the etymological speculations of Hemsterhusius on the original formation of the language, is altogether omitted; and of this, we are not in the least disposed to complain. How far the dethronement of the Greek accents, both in this work and the Greek Exercises, will be acceptable to the few who are, on this side of the Atlantic, interested in the maintenance of their authority, we shall not undertake to inquire. Without going so far as to consider them with Gibbon and Mr. Anthon, as "mute and unmeaning marks," we do not think that their presence is much wanted in elementary books; and the saving of time, trouble, and expense, by their exclusion, will easily be understood by any one who takes the trouble to examine (if he can find it in the city) a complete fount of Greek, with all the accented vowels.

The "Greek Exercises of Dr. Neilson" has been remoulded and re-edited by Mr. Anthon, principally with a view to make the "Key" as useless as the "Key" had made the book. Translations, under proper restrictions, may be serviceable to the student, but a "key" is a pestilent mar-study for which nothing can be said. Except in the hands of the solitary student, who of course is under no great temptation to cheat him

i

self, it is the absolute ruin of all effective application. It was well, then, to put a new lock on the Greek exercises, but we fear exceedingly that Mr. Anthon, with all his skill, will not be able to dispose its wards so as to prevent a repetition of the offence. The laziness of the scholar, like love, laughs at locksmiths. We dare say a new key is already manufactured, and Mr. Anthon will very soon have his work to do over again.

Very important modifications have been made in this, as well as in the other works which have undergone Mr. Anthon's editorial corrections. The materials of which the present "Greek Exercises" consist, are more than two thirds new. In place of the old selections, others better adapted to their purposes have been obtained from the purest classic writers, and no small number have been furnished by the Greek Exercises of Bishop Hungerford and Professor Dunbar. The second part of the volume, beginning with the very useful Exercises in Metaphrasis, is altogether new. Mr. Anthon has substituted, with great judgment, prose for poetical translations; and although he is pleased to denominate them "horrida quidem et barbara," we prefer them, for the mere reading, to any but the best of poetical versions. Proper attention has been paid to the subject of the Greek Dialects and Greek Prosody, and the doctrine of the Middle Voice is presented in its least exceptionable shape. In place of the chapter on Ellipses in the original work of Valpy, there are two interesting Appendices, the first of which presents, perhaps, the most rational view possible of the subject, it embraces; and the second gives most of the cases in which an Ellipsis really occurs. With regard to this department of Greek philology, we cannot do better than quote the very sensible remarks of Mr. Anthon's, with whose opinions, in this matter, we heartily coincide :-"The doctrine of Ellipses, in itself very plausible and captivating, has been pushed so far by its advocates, as to exhibit a complete tissue of the most egregious trifling. That there are Ellipses in Greek as well as in every other language, no one will deny. The very effect of the gradual improving of a language is to produce them. But that they exist in every sentence, nay, in almost every clause or phrase of that sentence, is what can never be assented to. Such a doctrine as this, while it serves to exclude from the view of the student the simple and beautiful principles which regulate the operations of one of the noblest of languages, cannot fail to narrow his views of language in general, and keep him continually groping after some visionary ellipsis." Many other alterations and improvements have been made, which we

have not time to notice; but which, we feel assured will not escape the notice of classical instructors, who will find in the variations which have been made, their own advantage and interest consulted, as well as that of their pupils. To these, and to the public generally, we earnestly commend the work we have thus cursorily noticed, with the fullest assurance that their experience will more than confirm our strongest recommendations.

1825.

Art. XXIII.-1. New Moral Tales: selected and translated from the French of Madame de Genlis. By an American. New-York. Wilder & Campbell. 2. National Tales. New-York. W. B. Gilley, Bliss & White, Wilder & Campbell, and J. V. Seaman.

1825.

It is a great relief in this intolerable hot summer, when the weather is warmer than the blood, and hard thinking is either miracle or martyrdom, to have it in our power to turn from the severer exercises of the intellect to the pleasant relaxations of sight-seeing, and novel-reading. We cannot then but feel most grateful to the contrivers of amusements, and to the makers of entertaining books. As gentle stimulants of the imagination, and as pleasant lullers to sleep of the inductiondrawing faculty, we have found great refreshment in the Tales cited above. Those selected and translated from the French of Madame de Genlis, are four in number, two of which are of prosperous termination, and two of very melancholy issue. Louisa de Clermont, is a story of the inauspicious loves of a beautiful French princess, and a generous and honourable French duke. The whole affair is exceedingly French throughout, and gives, we venture to believe, a fair and faithful picture of the manners of the times. Mademoiselle de Clermont, the best of princesses, falls deeply in love with the interesting Duke de Melun, principally, it would seem, because he did not listen when present at her novel-readings. The Duke is seriously disposed to reciprocate her affections, when he discovers that in one instance at least the pleasures of the ball-room had made her forget a charitable engagement. M'lle de Clermont sees the effect of this on the Duke; seeks an interview with him, and after a confession of her fault, raises her eyes to heaven, and forswears dancing for a year. The time comes which is to prove her constancy; the king selects her as his partner at an approaching ball at Versailles. M'lle de C. meets the Duke, and to his ineffable astonishment, assures him that she will keep her resolution. She pretends to have

sprained her foot, and another partner is substituted. This instance of unexampled self-devotion is too much for the Duke to resist. He finds her one day alone, and the following scene

ensues:

"Ah!" exclaimed the Duke, throwing himself on one knee before her, 66 can human reason withstand what I have felt for the last six weeks ?"

This was, at last, speaking out explicitly. But it also was the first time he had ever found himself alone with her he adored, and who was giving him so many extraordinary proofs of her affection. M'lle de Clermont was so agitated, so confused, that she was forced to lean against a table for support. The Duke, on his knees, was in tears. A bustle was heard in the ante-chamber.

"For ever," exclaimed M'lle de Clermont, with excessive emotion. "'Till death," replied the Duke, rising, and drying his eyes. The door opened, and the attendants entered.—pp. 29, 30.

These emphatic and significant expressions become, as it were, the very watch-words of their love. They are made to recur, and to remultiply themselves in a thousand pretty ways. M'lle de C. writes notes about nothing to the Duke, merely that she may print "till death" with her seal upon the wax; in reply to his generous renunciation of her hand, she writes a letter which no damsel of Laconia ever equalled,— "For ever! -Louisa Bourbon-Condé"; and on her bracelets are traced, "For ever!" and "Till death!" in letters of diamond. The lovers then go through a great variety of painful trials, distressing to enumerate. They are obliged to conceal their passion, because the disparity between a princess of the blood royal, and a Duke, whose ancestors had only intermarried however often with the royal family, is absolutely immeasurable. In France such an alliance ne se conçoit pas; it is worse than not groveling in the dirt before the host, which is, else, the enormity par excellence. However, many things are done which cannot be imagined; and, after various sore mischances, M❜lle de C. becomes clandestinely the Duke's wife. The Duke is soon after severely wounded by a stag, is confined to his room, and pronounced by his surgeons to be dangerously ill. M'lle de C., orrather M'me de Melun, is distracted, and resolves, at all events, to see her husband. After several unavailing efforts, she at last reaches the door of his apartment;

"Vainly she seized the handle of the lock; she was unable to turn it. She listened. Profound silence reigned throughout the corridor; it was ominous. Alas! noise and bustle would have frightened her in the same manner. She remained, for a half hour, riveted to the door; the full light of day obliged her, at last, to retreat. She tottered back to her own apartment, threw herself into an arm chair, and waited for her woman to rise. At seven o'clock, she heard some one walk, and a door open; she

ance.

started from a painful reverie-she rose with agitation. A chambermaid, with an air of consternation, entered, and told her that M. de Melun's confidential servant wished to speak to her. M'lle de Clermont shuddered, and answered only by a gesture. The servant made his appearHis looks, his bearing, announced, but too well, the dreadful truth. The Princess fell back into a chair; the paleness of death spread itself over all her features. The servant approached, and presented a letter. The wretched Princess threw herself on her knees to receive it, and rallying the little strength that remained to her, she opened the fatal scroll; it was the first note she had formerly written to her lover, and which contained but this sentence; "For Ever!" But her dying husband, before he uttered the last sigh, had also retraced, on the note, his own declaration: he had added these affecting words:

"I deposit in your hands, all I held most sacred! Farewell, forget not him who loved you 'Till death!"

Such is the purport of the story; but the skill with which Madame de Genlis has filled up and finished the whole affair, cannot be conceived from this rude sketch. It is a faithful picture of love and despair under the ancien régime of Louis the fifteenth; and what gives a zest to the whole is, that Madame de Genlis preserves throughout an air of earnest gravity which makes it hard to believe that she is not seriously appealing to the tenderest sympathies of the reader.

The stories of Rosa, and The Wife, are of a more cheerful character, and furnish, each, a variety of touching incidents and striking scenes,-without which two ingredients a French novel is nothing. The reader is kept ingeniously in doubt about the termination of the stories, but all ends wisely and well; Rosa is transferred to the arms of her lover, and the Wife is restored to the esteem of her husband.

The Funereal Flowers is a tale full of mournful interest. The dark progress and fatal issue of an unlawful passion are feelingly and powerfully portrayed; and bating a little exaggeration, and a little too much scene-making, the materials of the story are skilfully disposed, and the catastrophe strikingly broughtout. We have room for no quotations; but our readers may find them in the book. The translator appears to have executed his part with more attention and success than generally distinguish English versions of French novels. The selections are from the best of Madame de Genlis's untranslated tales; the style, with a few exceptions,* is easy and correct; and pains have plainly been taken to soften and reduce the more unpleasant exaggerations in the language of the original work.

The other volume is the first of a projected Series of Tales, "translated and compiled from the writings of different authors,

* How could that awkward Americanism, page 194, 1. ix. escape the pen of the translator? And again, page 212, l. xxviii.