J827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



109 



tvhic/i arc added, Algebraic Demonstra- 

 tions to the second and fifth books ; also 

 Deductions in the first **>, eleventh and 

 twelfth books; with Notes, critical and 

 explamtory. By George Phillips, Queen's 

 College, Cambridge; Parti, Jiooks 1 to 6. 

 Baldwin, London, 1826. When there are so 

 many works on the elements of geometry, 

 which, either by supplying a few links, and 

 thus rendering more continuous the chain of 

 demonstration, or by presenting a more per- 

 spicuous arrangement, are superior to the ele- 

 ments of Euclid ; and when there already 

 exist in our language such excellent editions 

 of that work, we cannot see the reason 

 which could have induced Mr. Phillips to 

 undertake this new translation. He has fol- 

 lowed, it is true, the most modern and ap- 

 proved text of the author ; but, as far as he 

 has hitherto gone, what benefits result from 

 it ? A few deductions are annexed, and al- 

 gebrnic demonstrations to the second and 

 fifth books mere puerilities. The pleonasm 

 in Euclid's definition of an angle, and in that 

 of an isosceles triangle, is overlooked; the 

 fifth postulate is left without note or com- 

 ment, although involving a subject which 

 has engaged the ablest mathematicians ; and 

 the difficulties arising cut of the doctrine of 

 proportion are barely removed by the assis- 

 tance of Dr. Robertson. In his preface, he 

 favours the ridiculous pretensions of the 

 Greeks (quicquid Grcecia mendax audet in 

 historia), whose vanity led them to claim, as 

 of their own invention, whatever could em- 

 bellish the mind or benefit society. Thale?, 

 for example, first teaching the Egyptians 1o 

 measure the height of the pyramids by the 

 extent of their shadows although the con- 

 struction of these pyramids implies some 

 knowledge of the mechanical arts, and their 

 position involves the tracing of a meridian 

 line, and some acquaintance with the projec- 

 tion of shadows, &c. If the Greeks were in 

 every respect so superior to the Egyptians, 

 why was it that in the country of the latter 

 the former uniformly sought to acquire infor- 

 mation. We agree with Sir William Drum- 

 mond in something more than suspecting the 

 originality of the discoveries of Pythagoras, 

 and of the school of which he was the foun- 

 der, and think it as likely that a hecatomb 

 was offered by the philosopher, at least if 

 there be any truth in the report, upon re- 

 membering the demonstration of a truth he 

 had formerly been taught, as for having 

 found out the truth itself. The Greeks, like 

 the Romans, are their own historians ; and, 

 when the instances of their bad faith are 

 confessedly so numerous, we must receive 

 with extreme distrust whatever is advanced 

 on such doubtful authority. 



Greek and English Lexicon, by Rev. J. 

 Groves; 1826. We have now four Greek 

 lexicons ia English, one by Dr. Jones, a 

 second by Dr. Donuegan ; a third, published 

 by Valpy, professedly a translation of Schre- 

 velius's, arid clandestinely a pillaging, more 

 or less, of Dr. Jones, who has been unwise 



enough to throw away his time, temper, and 

 money upon the Chancery Court, and all to 

 no purpose ; for ho\v was he to prove a case 

 like his to the technical specifications re- 

 quired by the Court? and a fourth, the one 

 before us, by Mr. Groves. On the respective 

 merits of these bulky productions, it will not 

 be expected that we should give a detailed, 

 or scarcely a specific opinion ; let it be 

 enough for us to say generally, as we may 

 truly, that, on a cursory glancing over the 

 whole, and an occasional comparing of parts, 

 all of them seem to be respectably exe- 

 cuted, and will prove to be eminently useful in 

 the furthering the attainment of the lan- 

 guage Dr. Jones's the most though in 

 schools the least so. He has the merit of 

 coming first into the field ; but his successors 

 have had the advantage and they have all 

 of them taken that advantage of his pio- 

 neering. He has also, for his own emolu- 

 ment, put too much of what he will call 

 philosophy, first into the arrangement of the 

 words, and next into the deductions and 

 transitions of words from their original to 

 their derivative and associated meanings. All 

 this " philosophy," as the book was intended 

 mainly to circulate in schools, was labour 

 lost, and should have been reserved for the 

 more extended lexicon the indefatigable ver- 

 balist has in view. In his lexicon, words are 

 not to be found in their places alphabetically, 

 but derivatively a serious disadvantage to 

 learners and of no possible advantage to 

 any body else. It requires the clumsy ap- 

 pendix of a second alphabet an index to 

 tell us where the stray sheep are 1o be 

 found like Scapula's. The inflected parts 

 of words, too, Dr. Jones has disdained to 

 insert ; but the absence of them will balk 

 the beginner, and will be sure to exclude 

 his book not merely from schools. It pre- 

 supposes too much. It is to these deficien- 

 cies Dr. Jones should attribute the falling 

 off in the sale of his book, and to the finer 

 tact of his competitors not to the pillagings 

 of Mr. Valpy and his employes. 



Every one of Dr. Jones's successors have 

 stuck close to Schrevelius, and preserved 

 all the inflections we mean the oblique 

 cases of nouns, pronouns, and participles, 

 and the tenses and moods of verbs, the in- 

 sertion of which, indeed, many of them 

 varying so irregularly, and so widely from 

 the " theme," is indispensable for learners. 



Mr. Groves has spared no pains ; but his 

 lexicon is chiefly remarkable for piles of 

 English words, indicating what are deemed 

 to be different meanings more than thirty 

 for such a word as ^^o^at, forty for *x, w > anc ^ 

 still more for other words, whose general 

 sense is equally obvious, and of which the 

 particular sense, when not obvious, must be 

 gathered from the context, and not by re- 

 ferring to clusters of unconnected words, 

 calculated rather to perplex than to inform. 

 In a pretty long preface, Mr. G. has not 

 found room, we see, to mention poor Dr. 

 Jones's name, though it is quite manifest, 



