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montator Didymus. If the queftion was involved in fo much obfcurity, as to induce the Emperor Adrian to apply to the gods themselves for an explanation, it was not to be expected that all the efforts: of the critics fhould be able to elucidate it. To direct us in this inquiry, we have no certain guide in the Poems themfelves. The city of Smyrna, and the Iland of Chios, appear to prefent the leaft objectionable claims to the honour for which they contended. Of the nume rous candidates, thefe are the only two, whofe pretensions can be seriously examined. Each had its authors to record its title. The inhabitants of Chios relied on the teftimony of Simonides, and Theocritus. They had their Homeride, whom they confidered as the defcendants of Homer, and a temple erected to his memory in the environs of Bcliffus. They could boat the indirect authority of Thucydides, who afcribes to hit the Hymn to Apollo, in which he reprefents bimfelf as the blind map inhabiting Chios. Leo Allatius, who wrote exprefsly on this fubject, after weighing the pretenfions of all the candidates, decides for Chios. But the claim of Smyrna was still better founded. All the profeffed lives of Homer by Herodotus, Plutarch, and Proclus, Concur in reprefenting him as a native of that city. This is confirmed by the general belief afterwards entertained, and expreffed, in the different writings of Cicero, Strabo, and A. Gellius. Indeed fa violent were the Smyrnans in mains, taining this high honour, that it was ne cellary for all, who wished to escape the fate of Zoilus, to give it implicit credit. Bat the claim of Smyrna admits, we think, a ftill clearer proof from the Poems themselves, which abound in metaphorical defcriptions, congenial to a native of Afia. The earth refounding with the march of the army, like the thunders of Jove on the mountain which covered the giant Typhons; the defcription of a wind, blacker than night, hooting along the air with tempetts in its train-of infatiate Difcord beftriding the earth, and lifting its head into the kies; thefe, and many other fuch images, which are to be found in the Iliad, attett their Afiatic origin, and do not accord with what we may prefume to have been the chefter ftyle and feverer manners of the Greeks of that age.

It has been ranch agitated by modern crie ties, whether the art of writing was known in Homer's time, and if not, by what means a Poem of fuck length was originally pres

ferved, and has fince been fo miraculously handed to pofterity, in its present ftate That fuch a Poem could have been ever retained in the memory of man, and thus, by oral tradition alone, be tranfmit ted from one generation to another, it is impoffible to aliert. It is equally difficult to contend, that the Works of Homer were collected together at different times, and in detached portions, and that they were not finally completed till at a very late period, and with very confiderable difficulty. There is a connection through out the Iliad at least, a clear deduction, of events, a lucidus ordo in the arrangement and diftribution of all its parts, that effectually deftroy fuch a fuppofition, and make it no prefumption to fay, that the Poem is nearly fuch as it came from the pen, or dictation of its author. If we adopt the common notion, that Homer was accuftomed to fing or recite his poems in the affemblies of the Greeks, and that the frequency fuch recitals, imprinted them on the memory of his auditors; we are not at liberty to reject other paffages of liis fuppofed Life, equally improbable and uncertain. That fuch a custom was familiar in the earlier ages of Orpheus, Linus, and Mufæus, is poffible, and is confirmed by the fact, that, of thefe poets, the works of the two laft are entirely loft, and of the firft wel have only fome trifling fragments. But in placing Homer at a later period, a period of greater civilization, and when the art of writing was known and culti vated, it is no longer neceffary to refort to fuch tales, to account for the prefer vation of his poems. And if it be urged, that of the twenty-four letters of the Ionic alphabet, only twenty were known in Homer's time, it may be contended: that the four letters afterwards added: by Simonides, were not effential to pro nunciation; two of them being the vowels. Hand, to diftinguish thefe long founds from the fame vowels E and O; the other two were Zand, the founds of which could just as well have been expreffed by

and E, as the S is even till in Eusi glith, French, and Italian, often pronounced like 2, though all thefe langua ges have the character Z to denote its particular found. The want therefore of thefe four letters was no impediment to Homer's knowing the Greek alphabet, as well as we do. And when it is recollected, that he was supposed to be a native of Ionia, a province on the con fines of Perfia, and other eastern nations, where the arts and fciences were earlier

cultivated

cultivated than in Greece, it is reasonable to fuppofe, as far as any hypothefis can now be establifhed, that the Iliad and the Odyffey, the only works which can with any certainty be attributed to him, immes diately, or very foon, received that form in which we now fee them; and were preferved by the admiration of cotem poraries and of fucceeding ages, by mulplied copies and tranfcriptions. It is to this anxiety to preferve unimpaired the writings of Homer, fays the learned Wolfius, that we are indebted for their prefent perfection, while the works of fo many and more recent authors have defcended to us imperfect, or are irrecover ably loft.

fuppofition, that the cd, by which regular
Preterites are formed, is a contraction of
did; thus "I worked," or "workdid;"
and, in confirmation of this, it is ftated,
"he did work," or
that we fay,

"he

worked," but not " he did worked," which would involve an unnecellary tautology equivalent to "he did work did." This is an ingenious remark, and the only ob jection which, it trikes me, militates against it, is the derivation of did itfelffrom do and cd; thus doed, did-It may be ftill farther objected, that the verb does itfelf is a compound of the noun do (for there is fuch a noun) and is; thus do is, does. That the verb of existence enters into it, and into every other verb, I aur not going to deny; neither is the purport

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. of this letter to invalidate Mr. Pick

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N 150, of your valuable. Ma

bourn's hypothefis, with the whole scopeof which I am not acquainted, nor to propofe any one of my own, but merely to

Igazine, is a remark of Mr. Pick- explain what appeared to me to be the

bourn, on Mr. Pytches' affertion, " that
the firft terms of language were nouns,
which were turned into verbs by being
put in action."
This affertion may,
perhaps, be expreffed fomewhat loofely;
but I think the meaning is fufficiently ob-
vious. Before nouns can be turned into
active tranfitive verbs, they must be put
into action, fome way or other; they muft
be endowed with motion. To explain
more fully what I mean, I fhall take two
nouns, fugar, and plough, and by Mr.
Pickbourn's, process, add is to each of
them; thus, jugar is, plough is; do then
thefe expreflions imply any thing equi
valent to the active verbs, ploughs and
fugars. They imply no action, and con-
tain nothing but the fimple affertion of
the existence of two names Is there
not fomething neceffary to give thefe
rames action as verbs? And the obvi-
ating of this want is, what I conceive
Mr. Pytches means, by "putting the
nouns in action." Indeed, in regard to
neuter verbs, Mr. Pickbourn's doctrine
is rather plaufible; for rain is, and rains,
are not very different. But in refpect
to, at any rate, active tranfitive verbs, it

bas, always itened to me more likely,

that the nouns are put into action, by the. verb do, which I imagine to be nearly co-eval with be. Hence, taking the noun plough, and prefixing to it, do, forming "I do plough," I denote the action of ploughing. In time, do might have been omitted, leaving "I plough;" and, from: this circumstance, I apprehend, it arifes, that we have fo many actions expreffed by the fame word, as the noun, or name of the thing. Indeed, it is a common

real import of Mr. Pytches affertion.
I grant, that the principal objection to
Mr. Pickbourn's hypothefts, as far as I
know its nature, dis furmounted by the
ufe of the participle, or, as he appears to
name it, the noun of action; as “John
ploughing is," or "John ploughs;" but
this feems to me to be cutting the knot,
and not untying it; fince it is as arduous?
a talk to invent ploughing, to denote the
name of the action of the inftrument,
plough, as to construct the verb itself.
To conclude, it appears to me that the
verb is enters into all verbs, do included;
and that do enters into all verbs, is ex
cepted, whether tranfitive or intranfitive,
and that it is the verb which infuses into
all of them their energy; which; other-
wife, they would not poffefs. Mr. Pick
bourn's Differtation," I have not feen,
but I have always heard it fpoken of, as
a work of great merit and ingenuity."
Crouch End, Highgate,
December 16, 1806.

1

.1

Your's, &c. **

J. GRANT

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

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I be noticed, that during his illness, and

HAVE good authority, and wish it to

to his death, the abolition of the Slave Trade was moft particularly near to the heart of Mr. Fox.

It was not Henry Kerbe but HenryKirke White, who died at St. John's, Cambridge, on the 19th of October laft.. He was born on the 21st of March, 1785. He is juftly characterized by one of the firft Poet's of this age, as a truly original Poetic penins: Hisapplication to fciengen and literature were almoft unexampled:

and

and his proficiency during his thort career of life, was as moft fully anfwerable. A fever intercepted, as to this world, the fairest and highest promises, and took off this admirable youth in a very few days. His Poems have been printed in a final octavo. His Manufcripts are in his brother's hands, and whatever may be found in a ftate for publication, will, I feel convinced, be laid before the public in a manner worthy of the perfon who has charged himself with this office of affectionate refpect to his memory. To me

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MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS.

THE LATE DUKE OF RICHMOND. "En la Rofe je FLEURIE."

AMIDST the recent changes which pledges to the public; and, Teaving the

have taken place in Europe, we have equally to lament the fall of flourithing ftates and of illuftrious men.

Of those who fought the battles of liberty, in either houfe of Parliament, during the American war, fcarcely one remains. The Earl of Chathamn died at his poft, and was buried at the public expence, ainidft the lamentations even of his enemies. The Earl of Camden with his dying breath gave his affent to that Bill which enables Juries to decide on both law and facts, in cafes of libel, notwithstanding the captious objections of most of those who, like himfelf, had been educated to the profeffion of the law. The Marquis of Lanfdowne, alfo, is no more. He, too, advocated the rights of America; and, even while a Minifter, affented to the propofition of a reform of Parliament thus affording a folitary exception to nearly all thofe who have tafted the fweets of power, and attained the objects of their ambition.-Burke, formidable on account of his talents, and the father, if not the fuperior, of all our modern orators, has alfo paid the great debt of nature; but his latter days were not aufpicious, and the glory of the fetting fun, that burut fo fiercely in the me ridian, was intercepted by a thick cloud. Me accordingly defcended to the grave, thorn of half his honours; and his motives, however plaufible, appeared neceffarily equivocal, because they appeared to be interefted.-Fox, too, has difappeared! Great only when out of place, he has achieved but little as a practical fatefman; and, with the exception of one fingle Act, history will have nothing to record of him as a Minifter.

It will be thus feen, that most of our

The folemn resolution of the two Houfes of Parliament to put an end to the Slave Trade.

few great characters, with a very exceptions, have unfortunately forgotten their interefts of the many to their fate, have but too often taken care of thofe only appertaining to the individual. How far the fubject of the prefent Memoir may be free from, or deferving of, this reproach, will be easily gathered from an attentive furvey of his parliamentary conduct.

The late Charles Lenox poffeffed no He was lefs than three ducal coronets. Duke of Richmond, Earl of March, and Baron of Settrington, in England; Duke of Lenox, Earl of Darnley, Baron Torbolton and Methuen, in Scotland; and Duke of Aubigné in France, as confirmed and registered by the Parliament of Paris in 1777. †

Minifter, perhaps, of our day, who performThe Marquis of Rockingham is the only ed, in place, all he had promifed while out.

+ His defcent, which on one fide was royal, may be briefly traced as follows: The Duchefs of Orleans, fifter of Charles II. having" come to England in the year 1660, brought in her train a Mademoiselle Louife Renée de Pennecourt, of Keroualle, in France. Majefty, proverbially amorous, was immediately captivated with the charms of this lady,

His

whom he foon after created Duchefs of Purtf

mouth, Countefs of Farnham, and Baronels of Petersfield, all in the county of Hants, to enjoy the fame during her natural life, by letters patent, dated at Westminster, on Auguft 19, 1673.

Charles Lenox, fo called after Charles II. and the only for of the Duchefs of Portsmouth, was horn on July 29, 1672; and in the third year of his age, was created by his royal father, Baron of Settrington in the county of York, Earl of March, from the Marches in Wales, and Duke of Richmond in Yorkflure. His Majesty alfo bestowed the eftate and dukedom of Lenox, &c. on him; and, after the demife of his mother, he became entitled to the dukedom and territory or Aubigné in the province of Brittany, by special grant from the French King.

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He was born on the 22d of February, 1735-6. He was the third fon, and feventh child; but his two elder brothers dying while infants, he, of course, became heir both to the titles and fortune. Confiderable attention was paid to his education; but, when he was only fixteen years of age, he fet out on his travels for foreign parts, and remained fome time abroad.

It being determined that, like his father, who had attained a high rank in the army, and was prefent at the battle of Dettingen, he should follow the military profeffion, he accordingly obtained a commillion, and, in June 1756, was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 33d Regiment of Foot. Two years after, he received the command of the 72d; and on March 9, 1761, he attained the rank of a Major General. Pofterior to this, he rofe, by feniority, to be first a Lieu tenant General, and then a Field-Marfhal.

Nor were the fervices of this noble mau confined to the parade at the Horfe Gaurds, or a campaign in St. James's Street; for he carried arms in Germany, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunfwick, and was prefent at the battle of Minden, On this occation he was pofted near the Commander in Chief; and when Lord George Sackville received orders to advance, and charge the French with the British cavalry, he held his watch in his hand, and noted the time exactly between the delivery of the meflage and the execution, or rather non-execution, of the command. He was afterwards fummoned as a witness to the Court-Martial which fat on this officer, but did not happen to be examined.

At the early age of fifteen, his Grace fucceeded his father; and on the 1ft of April, 1757, married Mary, daughter of Charles Bruce, Earl of Aylesbury, by Lady Caroline Campbell, daughter of the late Duke of Argyle,

ment of genius, his Grace bestowed two niedals annually on fuch as had exhibited the two beft models.

At the coronation of his prefent Majefty, (Sept. 22, 1761), the Duke carried the fceptre and the dove, while his fifter, Lady Sarah Lenox, (afterwards Lady Sarah Bunbury, and Lady Sarah Napier, in fuccellion), was one of the ten unmarried daughters of Dukes and Earls, who fupported the train of Queen Charlotte at her nuptials, September 8, 1761.

A little anterior to this, he had been nominated a Lord of the Bedchamber* to George III.; and in 1763, was appointed Lord Lieutenant and Cuftos Rotulorum of the county of Suffex, in the room of Lord Abergavenny: the latter was retained until his death, but he foon after refigned the former of thefe offices.

The Duke of Richmond took his feat in the Houfe of Peers in 1756, immedi ately on his coming of age, and, as we have been given to understand, attached himfelf to the Duke of Newcattle, a nobleman whole family had always been fuppofed friendly to Whig principles, while he himself appears to have been extremely defirous of power. But, although he neither did any good to himfelf nor his country, yet he poffeffed fufficient magnanimity, when he had retired with a broken conftitution and a ruined fortune, to reject a penfion, and to exclaim, with a noble spirit of indignation, “that if he could no longer ferve the ftate, he was, at leaft, determined not to be a burthen to it."

At the commencement of the new reign, the Duke of courfe took part with the favourite who had placed him about the perfon of the young Monarch; and he is faid foon after, with what degree of truth we know not, to have given per fonal offence to his Sovereign, by the manner in which he remontirated, "relative to a point that nearly concerned his own honour, and that of his family †.

He fucceeded

The Duke of Richmond, in 1761, was appointed to this office, through the influence of the Earl of Bute. the Duke of Manchester, and was one of "the additional Lords of the Bedchamber,"

While on the Continent, the Duke of Richmond appears to have inhibed a tate for the fine arts; and there is but little doubt that the encouragement first afforded by him to the British artifts, finally led to the establishment of the pre-appointed at the accefiion of his prefent Mafent Royal Academy. In March 1758, jeity, for the exprets purpofe, as was then he opened a large apartment at his houfe fuppofed, of extending the influence of the in Whitehall, in which was displayed a large collection of original plafter-calls, taken from the best ancient statues and bufts both of Rome and Florence. Every painter, fculptor, or student, was freely adauted; and, for the further encourage

Aug. 1, 1750.

Crown.

+ It has been faid, that a great perfonage paid particular attention to Lady Sarah Lenox, then the most beautiful woman of the Court, and that her brother, with the fpirit becoming a man of honour, remon Arated on the occafion, during an audience in the closet.

In 1765, his Grace, through the recommendation of the Rockingham adminiftration, was nominated ambasador to the Court of Verthilles, as fucceffor to the Earl of Hertford; and is allowed to have conducted himself on that occation, with equal fpirit and propriety. The France of that day, happily for the interefts of this country, was very different from the France of the prefent. By one of the articles of the Peace of Paris, it was fpecially and exprefsly ftipulated, that the demolition of the bafin at Dunkirk thould take place within a certain period. As it was wifhed that this humiliating measure should be carried fully into effect, his Excellency infifted on the fulfilment of it. His conduct on that occafion was particularly gratifying to the people at large, and not difagreeable to the Miniftry who had fucceeded the Cabinet formed by the Earl of Bute; but it is faid to have given offence to thofe who, in the language of that day, were terned the fecret advilers of the Crown,” and the ambafudor was recalled, after flaying about a twelvemonth at Paris. He was fucceeded by a more Compliant plenipotentiary, in the perfon of the late Earl of Rochford; and Mr. Frafer was about the fame time fent to Dunkirk, not to fee the jetties and fluices of that harbour demolished, but to prevent the French King from conftructing

new oues.

On his return home, the Ex-Minifter was nominated to one of the higheft and toft honourable appointments in the kingdom, having on the 23d of May, 1776, fucceeded the prefent Duke of Grafton in the office of Secretary of State for the Southern Department. The functions and duties of that important place were discharged by this nobleman with an equid promptitude and zeal; and, it muft be conceded by all, that no public officer of the itate ever afforded a more regular attendance, or gave a clofer application to public affairs, than the Duke of Richmond, during the time that he prefided over any of the departments committed to his care.

Bat the motley Adminiftration, confifting partly of Whigs and partly of Tonies, of which he was now a member,

• In all probability, there was either a fecret article in the treaty, or a folemn promile exacted, that this claufe fhould never be carried fully into effect. The French Court, indeed, always remonftrated; and when

any of the ftones were removed, care was taken to mark and number them, fo that they might be replaced at pleasure.

could not, as ufual in fnch cafes, agree in any thing beneficial to their country: what is indeed wonderful, they could not even unite in fharing the emoluments of office, and they accordingly retired. The Duke of Richmond, on the 2d of Auguft of the fame year in which he had accepted the feals, accordingly refigned them into the hands of the king; and they were immediately deposited with the Earl of Shelburne, who, in his turn, delivered them up foon after. In fhort, after a variety of changes, Lord North at length aflimed the reins of government; and, by uniting the offices of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Firk Lord of the Treafury in his own perfon, became Prime Minilter. This event proved the commencement of one of thofe long adminiftrations that have invariably proved detrimental to this country; and it was during it that the American war was engendered, and the feeds of a variety of cakunities fown, of which we have since reaped an ample harvefi.

But to return to the Duke of Rich mond. From the period of his laft refig nation, this Nobleman continued uniformly in oppofition during a long feries of years, extending indeed from 1767 to 1782. At the very commencement of the conflict, he deprecated a rupture with oar Colonies; and on the 18th of May, 1770, after an introductory fpeech, propoted eighteen folutions to the Houfe of Peers, which produced one of the most minated debates that ever occurred in Parliament. The mifconduct of Minifiers during the four preceding years, was aid open in terms equally pointed and fevere; and the future feparation of the Trans-Atlantic provinces from the mother-country, was predicted with a degree of confidence and certainty that excites our wonder at the prefent moment.

In January 1775, the Earl of Chathama moved for the removal of the British troops from Bolton, as a prelude to a reconciliation: and after mentioning “that no true Whig would bear the enflaving of America," he prophefied, even then, the fpeedy intervention of France as inevi table. On this occafion he was ably fopported by the fubject of the prefent Memoir, who, after animadverting on the late Acts for eftablishing Courts of Adinichuffet's Bay,obferved, that however finall ralty and altering the Charter of Matiathe minority might be on the prefent occafion, he had feen one as fmall hourly increafe, until it became the majority.

He then recounted the following auec dote, which occurred when the Earl of Bute prefided at the head of the Admi niftration.

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