34 



Whatever merit Schneider may possess as the editor of a Greek 

 work, his observations on tlie style of the Cynegetics, lay him 

 under the imputation of deficiency in those qualities of taste which 

 have the keenest perception and highest relish of the beauties of 

 classical composition. The erudition of Bentley, though so suc- 

 cessfully employed in rectifying or altering the text of Horace, and 

 other classical writers, by no means qualified him for being an 

 useful editor of Milton. The province of a verbal corrector, and 

 that of a liberal and enlightened critic, are very distinct ; and 

 though I am not prepared to maintain that the very requisites of 

 the one tend to disqualify for the other, it will scarcely be denied 

 that minute and laborious attention to words, is often fatal to the 

 spirit of liberal criticism ; and that a false quantity, or erroneous 

 punctuation, may be detected by the pedant who shall suffer 

 beauties of the very highest order to escape unnoticed. There 

 are critics, indeed, who enjoy the happy talent of uniting a strict 

 observance of all the niceties of style, to the feeling and compre- 

 hension with which the works vmder their judgment were composed; 

 who read with the same spirit as the author wrote, and who, from 

 stooping to tlie correction of a point or accent, rise and accompany 

 the philosopher and poet, in researches the most profound, and 

 in flights the most elevated. But, among those who assume the 

 office of criticising, how few shall we find of this description ? 



Though it is to be regretted that the history of Oppian is not 

 more circumstantial, we may learn from what has been preserved 



Sailing vvitli supreme dominion, 

 Through the azure depths of air : 



The latter of Mihon s thunders when they 



" Bellow'd through the vast and boundless deep." 



