1800. Looked into Cicero's Brutus. From the 49th to the 55th ch. Cicero contends that the popular judgment on oratory, though not on poetry, — is always right, and coincident with that of the best judges. One does not see much ground for this distinction; except indeed that the people of Rome were more likely to be conversant

dress for a well-educated man to appear abroad in." I am well aware that this is a very general opinion among literary men, silently acquiesced in by the Doctor's friends, aud tauntingly proclaimed by his enemies; and that opinions often obtain such universal credence, as to pass for demonstrated truths. Nevertheless I am too independent a thinker to receive such opinions without examination, and I am happy to say that the result of my examination is that the charge is NOT WELL-founded. I have read the Preface to the work of Bellenden, paying particular attention to the marginal references. Of these references a very considerable number is to the various rhetorical, oratorical, ethical, philosophical, and epistolary compositions of Cicero; several to Quintilian; many to the Latin and the Greek poets and orators; some to modern writers and philologists; and by far the greater portion of the Latin authorities is more connected with the matter than the style; that is, they were designed rather to vindicate the thoughts than to authenticate the words, though they do at the same time serve for the latter purpose. What could be more natural than that in a Preface, in which Dr. Parr discusses the rhetorical and oratorical merits of certain English senators, he should have recourse to the appropriate language of Cicero and Quintilian, when they are describing the rhetoricians and orators of Greece and Rome? What more blame can be fairly imputed to Dr. Parr for having enlivened his Preface with forcible expressions taken from the Latin poets, than to Cicero, who frequently in his rhetorical, ethical, and philosophical writings diversifies his

with speeches than poems. Parr has professedly drawn much from this piece, in his Preface; and he has taken more than he has acknowledged. PARR: Peringeniosis neque satis doctis hominibus plerumque contingit, ut melius putent se dicere posse, quam scribere. CICERO C. 24. : Videmus alios, quod melius putent dicere se posse, quam

style or illustrates his matter with quotations from and allusions to Ennius, Accius, Pacuvius, Plautus, and other old and unpolished poets? And how is the originality, the beauty, or the energy of Cicero's language affected by such quotations, even if they are numerous? Dr. Parr's style in the Preface is Ciceronian; the whole groundwork is decidedly Ciceronian ; the Roman orator would, in my opinion, have recognised in this Preface a successful imitation of his own language; he, as a great master of composition, would not have considered that the ornaments of the building were so numerous as to hide or destroy the character of the building itself, but so sparingly and tastefully disposed as to exhibit its fine proportions to the eye, and to engage the admiration of the beholder. One fair test for trying the soundness of this vindication is this :-let any intelligent scholar suppose all the marginal references withdrawn, and assume that the language throughout the Preface is original. Could he discern any defects in the style? Would the harlequin's jacket, the gaudy patchwork, the coat of many colours then present itself to his eye? Assuredly he could not discover anything but the energy of one and the same powerful mind displayed in that vehement and glowing language, which was its fittest vehicle ;—he would see no traces of unequal composition, attesting an unfurnished intellect and an unpractised hand, no marks of a pen necessarily dependent on other writers for the supply of matter or diction, but merely using in the way of pleasant allusion, or for the sake of greater force, those thoughts and expressions, which had been treasured in the

scribere; quod peringeniosis hominibus neque satis doctis plerumque contingit. CICERO c. 61. verbatim: Propter expeditam ac profluentem quodam modo celeritatem. PARR: Hæc cui contingant, eum iterum ac sæpius dixerim Attice loqui. CICERO c. 84. Hæc cui contingant, eum scito Attice dicere. CICERO c. 93. Nemo erat qui videretur exqui

memory, and which, if they had not the freshness of youth, had the raciness of antiquity to recommend them. It will be right to quote what Dr. Parr himself says in this Preface p. lxxiii, about the imitation of the ancients in respect to Latin style :

"Imitatio veterum, qualis tandem esse debeat, non est nostrum dijudicare. Suus est cuique in hac re gustus, suum etiam judicium. Verbis fere omnibus, modo perspicua et apta sint, in Latine scribendo locum esse crediderim. Neque enim solæ phrases, aut sola vocabula, (vide Scheller. Append.,) sed totius orationis habitus colorque potissimum spectandi sunt. Habeat igitur, per me licet, ipsa morositas aliquid tum excusationis tum etiam laudis, in μeλetýμaσi concinnandis. Hujusmodi autem in opusculis, arbitror parum referre, utrum scriptores, e quibus verba petita sint, aurea an argentea in ætate linguæ Latinæ floruerint. Quicquid rei cuique, quæ tractanda sit, maxime conveniens fuerit, id demum mihi videtur optimum. Aliorum vero, sive obscuram in verbis conquirendis diligentiam et πepteрyíav, sive aurium sensum fastidiosum et prope kakónλov, is sane ego sum, qui neque acriter improbandum, neque arcte et ambitiose sequendum esse statuam. 'Aurea ex ætate', inquit Cellarius (Cur. Poster. 93,) cum 'pauci scriptores ad nostra tempora pervenerint, nimis pauper 'Latinitas esset, si nihil approbandum sit, quod e Cicerone aut ' æquali non habeamus. Altera quoque ætas, quæ argentea 'dicitur, subvenire nobis debet, nova verba, non minus ele'ganter tamen, et suffragio populi Romani formata superad'dit.'"

sitius - studuisse litteris, nemo, qui philosophiam complexus esset, matrem omnium bene factorum beneque dictorum, · nemo, qui memoriam rerum Romanarum teneret,— nemo, qui laxaret judicum animos, atque a severitate paulisper ad hilaritatem risumque traduceret, nemo, qui delectandi gratia digredi parumper a causa; nemo, qui — judicem - ad fletum posset adducere. PARR: Nemo, quidiligentius litterarum scientia se dederit; nemo, qui philosophiam illam, matrem omnium bene factorum beneque dictorum, coluerit exquisitius ;—nemo, qui rerum et veterum et recentiorum memoriam vel arctius vel copiosius tenuerit ; nemo, qui delectandi gratia jucundius sit a proposito parumper egressus, et a severitate ad risum lenius deduxerit animos audientium; nemo, qui ad fletum -vehementius deflexerit. CICERO c. 96.: Doleo me in vitam paulo serius, tanquam in viam, ingressum, priusquam confectum iter sit, in hanc reipublicæ noctem incidisse. PARR: Antequam in hanc senatus noctem incidimus. In Cicero the metaphor is clear; it is not so in Parr.* I have still attended only to that

On this subject the reader will find some excellent matter in J. L. Mosheim's Præfatio to his edition of Ubert Folieta's Libri tres de Linguæ Latinæ Usu et Præstantia, Hamb. 1723. p. 24. The passage is quoted in the Appendix to my edition of Dr. Lempriere's Classical Dictionary.

If there be, (and assuredly there is,) good sense in these remarks of Dr. Parr, it is idle to charge him with making a harlequin's jacket, patchwork, or a coat of many colours, because he mingles the language of Quintilian and other writers with the language of Cicero. E. H. B.]

* [Mr. Green remarks that he does not understand on what priuciple Dr. Parr sometimes gives, and sometimes withholds his authorities for sentences and expressions ;" but at the

part of the Preface, which gives the character of Burke." P. 219.

"Oct. 9, 1796. It would be difficult to find in the English language, of equal variety and length, four such compositions, as Burke's Speech to the Electors of Bristol ; Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare; Parr's Dedication to Hurd; and Lowth's Letter to Warburton." P. 12.

"Sept. 21, 1799. Received through Lord Chedworth a flattering message from Dr. Parr, in which, not with

same time acknowledges that he had read only a part of the Preface. Let us then hear what Dr. Parr himself says p. Ixxiii. :

"Laborum, qui me diu constrictum tenuerunt, eorum intercapedinem omnem impendere soleo in libris Græcis Latinisque evolvendis. Quare veniam mihi candidus lector facile dabit, si verba aut sententias, quæ mihi inter legendum arriserint, Præfationis hujusce in usus identidem transtulerim. Qui enim Bellendeni hoc opus e tenebris eripiendum esse statuissem, mihi ipsi statuebam id licere facere, quod ab eo viderem multo sæpius esse multoque solertius factitatum. Locos insigniores, qui occurrerint in scriptoribus, quorum sæpe verbis disertis, sæpe totis sententiis, ex professo usus sim, in margine notandos putavi: idque ea mente feci, non ut illa, quæ lectitassem, pueriliter et inepte ostentarem, sed, ut Bellendeni fidem diligentiamque sequerer, et consilii, quo multa laudaverim, vis omnis ac ratio penitus perspicerentur. At si qui sunt, quibus propositum illud meum minus probare possim, eorum captiunculis et sannis occurrere a vitio propius foret, quam a laude.”

Dr. Parr informs us that he has noticed only the locos insigniores; and therefore he has omitted many, which are of a different character. In point of fact the marginal references are rather authorities for the matter, than vouchers for the Latinity. E. H. B.]