Retrospect of Ft 



JlH the learned acknowledge the liigh 

 importance of this ; but few fulfil the 

 duty with a religious zeal: witness the 

 Musgraves and the Bruncks, and many 

 others, who give with assurance, as read- 

 ings of lMSS.,bad variations, whicli were 

 sent them by careless, ill-paid, ignorant, 

 or unfaithful copyists. 



" Persuaded th:it this labour could not 

 be committed inditferently to all kinds of 

 persons, 1 long supported the weight of 

 this burthen alone. Having neither se- 

 cretary nor reader, 1 held in one hand 

 a printed text, in the oiher a MS., and 

 eKamined them word by word : chese 

 rapid transitions having excessively in. 

 jured my sij^ht, I was obliged to seek as- 

 sistance; but, in order lo render that 

 assistance effectual, it was necessary to 

 have my assistants under my own eye. 

 To effect this, I purchased a house con- 

 tiguous to the CollcRe of France, to 

 which I made a way from ray own cham- 

 bers, and filled it with friends equally 

 zealous and faithful. To be enabled to 

 remunerate them, and pay fur the en- 

 gravings of the medals and specimens of 

 the WSS., &c. a second sacrifice was 

 necessary, and I hesitated no more to 

 make it than I had done for the first. 

 Of the edition with which I was charged, 

 after the societies and the libraries were 

 supplied, the government (under Napo- 

 leon) designed to make me a present of 

 the rest, as an indemnity. This I dis- 

 posed of for a certain sum, in order to 

 pay my assistants. 



" In fulfilling this important, but at 

 the same time most painful, fastidious, 

 and ungrateful task, which seems to im- 

 pose silence on the mind, the imagina- 

 tion, and all the intellectual qualities; 

 I resigned myself to pore over undecy- 

 pherable MSS. in order to snatch from 

 the ravages of time, unique and perish- 

 able monuments, subject to political and 

 physical revolutions, sacrificing to such la- 

 bours my literary taste, my repo9e, my 

 health, my eyes, I was far from courting 

 laurels, which only grow upon the tomb." 

 M. Gail here recounts the attacks of 

 envious hellenists, for rivals he had none. 

 Oar limits forbid us to follow the admi- 

 rable and venerable author in liis just 

 complaints. Vide vol. vii. part 2, p. 4, 

 et seq. 



" Two divisions.each composed of three 

 persons, divided the labour; one read the 

 printed text, the two others listened and 

 followed each upon a MS. ; the moment 

 a variation, evidently defective, was dis- 

 covered, it was transcribed. This done, 



ench Literature. 653 



the labour was far from figished; without 

 mentioning the revisal, and a great num- 

 ber of variations marked as doubtful, 

 which demanded, on my part, frequent 

 journeys to the Imperial Library. As 

 my numerous MSS. demanded numerous 

 collations, it was first necessary to unite 

 them in a body of variations; then exa- 

 mining them, one after another, and 

 comparing them with the received text, 

 and judging them in critical notes. I 

 arrived, at lengih, at a text representing 

 Thucydides and Xenophon, the most 

 faithfully possible." 



This latiour of M. Gail will be duly 

 appreciated by the scholar: he has fixed 

 the text permanently;and every hellenist, 

 possessing in his work the readings of 

 all the celebrated MSS. in the National 

 Library, many of which are now dis- 

 persed, will adopt his text in evpry 

 edition or quotation from Xe.ijphon, 



We must not forget to observe that 

 M, Gail is a philologist, without the 

 mania of giving new readings. Instead of 

 pursuing the line generally adopted, of 

 supposing every thing wrong that the 

 commentator did not understand, and 

 changing it for a reading of his own; 

 M. Gail has sedulously studied his auihor, 

 and thereby discovered the hidden mean, 

 jng of obscure passages; and, instead 

 of pretended corrections, has restored 

 the original text. In the MSS. M. Gail 

 was not always guided by the number 

 of authorities ; thus, in the reading of 

 Thucyd. vii. 31, he adopted the exqui- 

 site reading of a Moscow IMS. ccsromXtiiiy 

 t«» T»)?* Kepxypa?, to the common, but 

 absurd reading, a.'mo'mheav ex. lyiq. To the 

 industry and learning, thtrefore, of M. 

 Gail, the learned world have eternal 

 obligations for having collated, word by 

 word, ten MSS. on the Republic of 

 Sparta, three on tlie treatise entitled 

 Tlifmoocruv, three on the Republic of 

 Athens, three on the Banquet, three on 

 the Praise of Agesilaus, four on ths 

 Hiero, lour on Horsemanship, or on the 

 Commandant of Cavalry, two on the 

 Cyropedia, six on the Grecian History, 

 nine on the Memorable Sayings and 

 Deeds of Socrates, six on the Economics, 

 two on the Apology of Socrates, two on 



* Tlie Ifained Dodwell hit upon this 

 reading merely from consulting the chart ; 

 and, as M. Gail observes, though he has 

 only one MS. in his favour, it is not the 

 case to !iay, Plus case in unv sajie qunin in 

 turba Ooni } 



4 2 the 



