652 



Retrospect of French Literature. 



liar to the lovers of Greek literature. 

 The Porson of France, in point of learn- 

 ing and critical acumen — his life fur- 

 nishes the most striking contrast to that 

 of our illustrious countryman. His mid- 

 right oil has always been consecrated to 

 the study and development of his fa- 

 vorite language. The Revolution, tl/at 

 motley child of crime and virtue, de- 

 stroyed the learned institutions; and, 

 before she jhou'jjht of re-estahlishuig 

 them under national forms, M. Gail, 

 tremhling for the fate of (Jreek litera- 

 ture, opened, in his o«n house, a gra- 

 tuitous course of Greek to all who wished 

 to study it; and, finding il attended with 

 the happiest results, he continued it, 

 iiotwiihstanding the le-estnhlishment of 

 the seats of learning, (or upwards of 

 TWENTI YEARS. We shall say nothing 

 of the personal and pecuniary sacrifices 

 of M. Gail, in persevering to give gra- 

 tuitous courses to all comer* for twenty 

 •years; wc will only observe that it marks 

 the most ardent passion fur his favorite 

 study, and a noble philanthropy, which 

 nlune would entitle him to the gratitude 

 of posterity. 



M.Gail, at the commencement, found 

 a great obstacle to the success he pro* 

 ihised himself, in the «;int of good ele- 

 mentary books; he accordingly compiled 

 these, but on the same disinterested plan. 

 We are not exactly aware of the number 

 of works published by M. Gail, as ori- 

 Ijinal texts, translations, or treatises on 

 Greek literature; but a volume before 

 us, entitled " Kssays on the Ktfect, Sense, 

 and Value of the DJstnc«f«(terminations) 

 of the Greek, Latin, and French;" bears 

 on the title, 33d volume of the collection 

 —in 8vo. Since which has appeared, his 

 " Tliucydides," in 13 vols. 4to. and 

 " XeBoph(m," in 10 vols. 4to. On look- 

 ing at this list, and considering the im- 

 mense studies which only the two latter 

 works have demanded, we may say of 

 SI. Gail, what Roger Aschani said of 

 Varro, "When I consider how much 

 Varro read, 1 cannot conceive how he 

 had any time to write; and when I con- 

 sider how mucii Varro wrote, I cannot 

 conceive how be had any time to read." 

 On speaking of the pecuniary sacrifices 

 of M. Gail, we ought not to omit his 

 edition of Tliucydides, which was want- 

 ing to French literature, on which he 

 (devoted many valuable years of his life, 

 and incurred a pecuniary loss of 20,000 

 francs. 



In addition to these works, the author 

 proposes to publish, in Greek, Latin, and 



French, Herodotus (now in the pres9% 

 Theocritus, Musxus, Anacreon, and tha 

 Mythology of Lucian ! 



The work now before us merits pecu- 

 liar consideration under several points of 

 view, as — 1, the original text — 2, the 

 Latin version — 3, the French translation 

 — 4, the volume of different readings, or 

 the collation of all the MSS. — 5, the 

 notices on the MSS. and the literary and 

 critical observations on the works of 

 Xenophon — and 6, the volume of maps, 

 charts, plans of battle, &c. 



L The text. The author has gene-- 

 rally followed the texts of Zeuae (Henry 

 Stephens), as the most puie; but it will 

 be seen how greatly he has availed him- 

 self of the resources of the MSS. 



11. The Latin version. It is the old 

 translation, corrected in numerous places 

 by M. Gnil, who tells us, he felt his 

 time might be more usefully employed 

 than in giving a new one: we agree with 

 liiin, but we at the same time regret that, 

 amongst the numerous list of his pupils, 

 he had not selected one or two worthy 

 of their master, to give a new Latin 

 translation, the old one presenting little 

 more than the caput mortuwn oi the 

 Attic Bee. 



HL The French translation. We 

 could, in like manner, have wished that 

 the leisure of M.Gail had permitted hiiu 

 not only to translate what had not been, 

 or had been ill translated, but the whole; 

 this, therefore, has in part the faults of 

 the Latin version, and, with all the care 

 even of M. Gail, this circumstance 

 causes occasionally a marked difference 

 between the text and the Latin and 

 French translations, which ic would, 

 perhaps, be invidious to point out, nhtii 

 we can shew how much belter his time 

 has been employed in 



IV. The collation of all the MSS. in 

 the Royal Library; and, comparing them 

 with the readings, corrections, and emen- 

 dations of the various commentators of 

 this Herculean task, we know not ho«v 

 to speak in sufficient terms of commen- 

 dation. We can compare it only to the 

 labour of Mr. Brigsjs, in compiling the 

 first logarithmic tables. Every MS. of 

 Xenophon was collated, word by word, 

 anil the different readings given by each, 

 carefully marked, collected, and arran- 

 ged ; they are so considerable as lo form 

 a quarto volume of 780 pages. To con- 

 vey some idea of this labour, we will 

 cite the author's own words. 



" I'he first duty of an editor of the 

 ancients, is the collation of the MSS. 



All 



