read and taught by the scholemasters." With fuch abundant circumfpection and folemnity, did these profound and pious politicians, not fufpecting that they were acting in oppofition to their own principles and intentions, exert their endeavours to bring back barbarism, and to obstruct the progress of truth and good fenfe.'

[To be continued.]

Philological Inquiries in Three Parts by James Harris, Esq. [Concluded from vol. LI. p. 407.]

T is with great pleasure we refume the confideration of this work, and accompany the learned and amiable writer through the fecond volume, and third part of his Philological Inquiries. The third part comprehends a general view of the learning and character of the middle age; that is, as Mr. Harris defines it, the interval between the fall of the Western empire in the fifth century, and of the Eaftern in the fifteenth.

This was the age (to ufe his own words) of monkery and legends; of Leonine verfes, (that is of bad Latin put into rhime); of projects to decide truth by plough-fhares and batoons; of crufades to conquer Infidels, and extirpate heretics; of princes depofed, not as Crofus was by Cyrus, but by one who had no armies, and who did not even wear a fword.'

Our author modeftly ftyles this part of his work, a curfory difquifition, illuftrated by a few felett inftances. However curfory, it bears evident marks of a mafterly hand; and will contribute to the improvement of critical knowlege. A good tafte muft certainly be formed by a careful study of the best writers; but some advantages may be derived from obferving the defects of bad ones. This hiftory of the middle age proves, that true genius will produce fine writing, and fine fentiment, amidst the greatest cloud of ignorance, or depravity of taste; and our author teaches us, that real beauties, wherever they are found, are always referable to the genuine principles of criticifm. But Philology is not the only object in view; Mr. Harris directs us from the examples here given to acknowlege

• For the honour of humanity, and of its great and divine Author, who never forfakes it, that fome fparks of intellect were at all times vifible, through the whole of this dark and dreary period.'

Three claffes of men were, during this interval, confpicuous; the Byzantine Greeks, the Saracens or Arabians, and the Latins or Franks, inhabitants of Western Europe. The account of the Byzantine Greeks begins with the following semarks upon the rife of commentators.

• Simplicius and Ammonius were Greek authors, who flourifhed at Athens during the fixth century; for Athens, long after her trophies at Marathon, long after her political fovereignty was no more, still maintained her empire in philofophy and the fine arts.

Philofophy, indeed, when these authors wrote, was finking арасе. The Stoic fyftem, and even the Stoic writings, were the greater part of them loft. Other fects had fhared the fame fate. None fubfifted but the Platonic and the Peripatetic; which, be-. ing both derived from a common fource (that is to fay, the Pythagorean, were at this period blended, and commonly cultivated by the fame perfons.

simplicius and Ammonius, being bred in this fchool, and well initiated in its principles, found no reason, from their education, to make fyftems for themselves; a practice, referable fometimes to real genius, but more often to not knowing, what others have invented before.

• Confcious therefore they could not excel their great predeceffors, they thought, like many others, that the commenting of their works was doing mankind the most effential fervice.

'Twas this, which gave rife, long before their time, to that tribe of commentators, who, in the perfon of Andronicus the Rhodian, began under Auguftus, and who continued, for ages, after, in an orderly fucceffion.'

Mr. Harris continues his narrative of the Byzantine Greeks, with doing great juftice to the characters of Suidas, Stobæus, and Photius, who were really men of confiderable learning and abilities. It is a curious fact, that Michael Pfellus, of the eleventh century, actually commented upon and explained twenty-four comedies of Menander; which fhews, that those excellent compofitions were extant at that period.

And why (demands our author) fhould not the polite Menander have had his admirers in thefe ages, as well as the licentious Ariftophanes? Or rather, why not as well as Sophocles, and Euripides? The fcholia upon these (though fome perhaps may be more ancient) were compiled by critics, who lived long after Pfellus.

• We may add with regard to all these scholiafts (whatever may have been their age) they would never have undergone the labours of compilation and annotation, had they not been encouraged by the tafte of their contemporary countrymen, For who ever published, without hopes of having readers?

The fame may be afferted of the learned bishop of Theffalonica, Euftathius, who lived in the twelfth century. His admiration of Homer must have been almoft enthufiaftic, to carry him through fo complete, fo minute, and fo vaft a commentary, both upon the Iliad and the Odyffey, collected from fuch an immenfe number both of critics and hiftorians,"

Eu

Euftathius, the commentator of Ariftotle, and feveral others, are afterwards mentioned with great commendation. But Mr. Harris particularly dwells upon the defcription given by Nicetas, the Choniate of the ftatues, which were destroyed at Conftantinople by the crufaders,

'Not only because the facts, related by this historian, are little known, but because they tend to prove, that even in those dark ages (as we have too many reafons to call them) there were Greeks ftill extant, who had a taste for the finer arts, and an enthusiastic feeling of their exquifite beauty.'

Nicetas was prefent at the facking of Conftantinople in the year 1205.

The third chapter contains an hiftorical account of Athens, from the time of her Perfian triumphs to that of her becoming fubject to the Turks. This is an interefting chapter; and is written with judgement and accuracy; but we cannot select a detached part without injuftice to the rest, and the whole is too long to lay before our readers.

We have, under the fecond head. a general view, not only of the learning of the Arabians, but of their character, and manners; and a variety of anecdotes are introduced, which are curious in themfelves, and illuftrate or confirm the favourable opinion which Mr. Harris appears to have entertained of this people. He obferves, indeed, that they began ill;` (alJuding to the deftruction of the Alexandrian library by the Caliph Omar) but then by degrees they recurred to their ancient character, which they boasted to imply three capital things, hofpitality, valour, and eloquence. He therefore haftens to the time when the Abaffida reigned, whose dominion lafted for more than five centuries. The former part of this period was the era of the grandeur and the magnificence of the caliphate.

Several extracts are here given from the life of the great Saladin, as written by Bohadin, who was his conftant attendant, It seems the object of our author to prove, from the example of the Arabians, that learning and virtue, elegance of taste, and greatness of mind, naturally flourish at the fame time, and rife and fall together. By way of specimen of the Sentiments and manners of the Arabians at the period when they most cultivated letters, the following ftory is related from Abulpharagius, an Arabian hiftorian of the thirteenth century, whofe works were published in Arabic and Latin by the learned Pococke, at Oxford, A. D. 1663

The caliph, Mottawakkel, had a phyfician belonging to him, who was a Chriftian, named Honain. One day, after fome

other

other incidental converfation, I would have thee, fays the caliph, teach me a prefcription, by which I may take off any enemy I pleafe, and yet at the fame time it fhould never be discovered. Honain, declining to give an answer, and pleading ignorance, was imprifoned.

Being brought again, after a year's interval, into the caliph's prefence, and fill perfifting in his ignorance, though threatened with death, the caliph fmiled upon him and faid, Be of good cheer, we were only willing to try thee, that we might have the greater confidence in thee.

As Honaïn upon this bowed down and kiffed the earth, What hindered thee, fays the caliph, from granting our request, when thou fawet us appear fo ready to perform what we had threatened? Two things, replied Honaïn, my religion, and my profeffon: my religion, which commands me to do good to my enemies; my profeflion, which was purely inftituted for the benefit of mankind. Two noble laws, faid the caliph, and immediately prefented him (according to the Eastern ufage) with rich garments and a fum of money."

When our author proceeds, under the third head, to the Latins or Franks, we find with pleasure the names of many of our countrymen; and we believe that this ifland may justly boast a far greater proportion of learned men than could have been expected, when we confider how few they were at that time in Europe.

Mr. Harris expresses a more favourable opinion of the schoolmen, than is generally entertained of them. They were in their day ridiculously extolled, and perhaps are now too much despised. After mentioning the fchoolmen, he takes notice of John of Salisbury, whom he feems well pleafed to call his countryman; and who appears, by the several extracts given from his works, to have been a man of confiderable science. It is well obferved, that fome knowlege of the fine arts exifted, during the middle age, in Italy and Greece; and that Italy deriving them from Greece, communicated them to the reft of Europe. Mr. Harris in all his works is fond of expreffing his admiration of the Greeks. It is indeed an extraordinary fact, and affords fubject for curious fpeculation, that Greece, at a very remote period, attained an eminence in learning and the arts, in eloquence and in taste, which fucceeding ages have rarely equalled, and never excelled. Europe has twice derived its literature and its politeness from this fource: for we all know the effects which the conqueft of Greece produced in ancient Rome; and the fugitives, who escaped from Conftantinople, after it was taken by Mahomet the Second, were the principal caufe of the refloration of learning. Our author too remarks, A few

A few Greek painters, in the thirteenth century, came from Greece into Italy, and taught their art to Cimabue, a Florentine. Cimabue was the father of Italian painters, and from him came a fucceffion, which at length gave the Raphaels, the Michael Angelo's, &c.

The ftatues, and ruined edifices, with which Italy abounded, and which were all of them by Greek artists, or after Grecian models, taught the Italians the fine arts of fculpture and archi

tecture.'

The degeneracy of the Greeks in modern times prevents our afcribing their ancient fuperiority to natural caufes, If we allow the activity of their genius, and the delicacy of their feelings to have been native advantages, we must attribute the exertions which they made, and the wonderful fuccefs of thofe exertions in the various improvement of the human faculties, to their education and government, to the great occafions, which called forth their talents, and to the spirit of emulation, which was univerfally diffused among them.

The eleventh chapter contains a hiftory of the origin of rhyme, and the progressive deviations from the harmonious fimplicity of the fyllabic measure, (as Mr. Harris ftyles it) which was confined to the purest ages of Greek and Roman poetry.

From the twelfth chapter it appears that the fpirit of adventure, and a zeal to make new discoveries, were not confined to the more enlightened ages; for in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Paul the Venetian, and fir John Mandeville, traversed Afia and fome part of Africa; the former visited China at an earlier period than is generally affigned for the intercourfe of European travellers with that great empire. Next follows the character of fir John Fortefcue, whofe memory was highly revered by our author, both as a scholar and an Englishman. Speaking of the reign of Henry the Sixth, it is obferved,

This was a period, difgraced by unfuccefsful wars abroad, and by fanguinary diforders at home. The king himself met an untimely end, and fo did his hopeful and high fpirited fon, the prince of Wales. Yet did not even thefe times keep one genius from emerging, though plunged by his rank into their most tempeftuous part. By this I mean fir John Fortefcue, chancellor of England, and tutor to the young prince, juft mentioned. As this laft office was a truft of the greatest importance, fo he difcharged it not only with confummate wisdom, but (what was more) with confummate virtue.

6

His tract in praife of the laws of England, is written with the nobleft view that man ever wrote; written to infpire his pupil with a love of the country he was to govern, by fhewing

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