A COMMENTARY ON ISÆUS. THE ten fpeeches of Ifæus are the most ancient in the world on the interesting subject of legal and testamentary fucceffion to property, except, perhaps, that of Ifocrates on the estate of Thrafylochus in Ægina, which has rather the air of a rhetorical exercise than of a real address to a court of judicature, and tends very little to elucidate the topicks, which it is now my intention to difcufs: next to these in order of time on the fame fubject are two fpeeches of Demofthenes, one against Leochares, and the other against Macartatus; from the fecond of which I have received fo much light, that, if it had not been extant, I fhould not have underftood many passages in my author. It was my first design to fubjoin at full length this very cu rious monument of Athenian jurifprudence; but, as the fpeech confifts chiefly of depofitions and recitals of various laws, which give it very much the resemblance of a well drawn brief, I think it better to fum up the evidence in the cause, with fuch obfervations as will render it perfpicuous, and to illuftrate the whole with a complete pedigree of the family, which will also be useful in explaining other parts of the Attick law. Demofthenes himself had intended, as he tells the court, to draw a genealogical table for their inspection; but, reflecting that those jurymen who fat at a distance would be unable to have a diftinct view of it, he thought it neceffary to explain it by words, which all of them might hear: what Demofthenes chose to omit, I have performed with great care for the convenience of the reader; and here we may take notice of the advantage which justice derives among us in fimilar caufes from the facility of multiplying copies; for, as a number of pedigrees may be printed at an expense not to be confidered in important trials, the court, the jury, and the bar, may easily go along with the leading counfel, and form a perfect idea of the queftion before them. The difficulty, indeed, of explaining a long genealogy by words alone, especially where many of the perfons bear exactly the fame name, together with the number copy of mistakes occafioned by the negligence of ifts, made the speech against Macartatus fo dark and perplexed, that the learned almost gave it up as inexplicable; and, when Oporinus complained to Wolfius that he could not comprehend the whole of his Latin verfion, "Do you," said the translator, "understand the Greek?" "No," faid the other. "Then, replied Wolfius, "we are even; and we fhall, I believe, have &C many companions in our ignorance." The grave editor's remark, that," although the "speech take its title from Macartatus or most happy, yet it makes the interpreter most miser"able, and although it relate to the inheritance " of Hagnias, a name fignificative of purity, yet "the text of it is by no means pure," may fhow with how bad a grace a scholar attempts to be witty. I confefs, that the whole compofition appeared to me more obfcure than the oracles which are cited in it; until I perceived, before I had even feen the Leipzick edition, that the tenth fpeech of Ifæus was delivered in a previous cause concerning the fame eftate; that it was compofed by the great mafter in defence of the very Theopompus, whom his illuftrious pupil afterwards attacked fo vehemently; and that the two fpeeches, though each of them apart was extremely dark, reflected fo ftrong a light on each other, that both became perfectly lu |