ent negligence, impropriety, and 
fe ie cae. We do not consider Mr. 
__ Preston as possessed of a poetical style, 
_ sufficiently individual, uniform, and clas- 
jical ; we sometimes trace the imitation 
f one author,and sometimes of another; 
erent ages are intermixed ; modern 
efinements and sentiments are blended 
with ancient simplicity and severity. 
While we feel ourselves compelled to 
make these deductions (which we shall 
proceed to exemplify) from the praise of 
_ the present work, we are at the same time 
equally ready, in many parts, to con- 
__ €ede to it a considerable degree of merit. 
_ We have said that Mr. Preston does 
Mot appear to us to have always appre- 
ed with accuracy the meaning of 
his author. Some instances, from others 
~ which we have noted, we shall now spe- 
_ eify inthe order in which they occur. 
4 
- 
“(P.5.) “ For Aison’s sister was his youthful 
ett) obride.” 
“he original says, that the sister of 
Iphiclus was the bride of son. 
Inthe same page, the marvellous story 
__ of Ceeneus, as related by Apollonius, 
+ is, that the Centaurs, finding him impe- 
_ netrable to their wounds, oppressed him 
__-with a load of trees, and beat him down, 
& otherwise unhurt, into the earth. The 
F “miracle disappears from Mr. Preston’s 
version of the passage. 
_ *¢ The baffled foes resort to missive war, 
_ And fill the groaning air with weights from 
Pune: ffar, 
darted pine, and oak’s enormous trunk, 
~Orerwhelm'd, but unsubdued, the warrior 
sunk.” 
iS (P. 6.) «O wretched man, how transient is 
meee. thy breath, 
Thevitably doom’d to pain and death! 
On Lybia’s burning sands their tombs remain, 
A scene far distant from their native plain, 
_ As the gay scenes of Phoebus’ dawning light» 
‘From the pale precincts of approaching 
: night.” 
tf 
_ The original of this passage is in part 
obscure, and probably corrupt, but what 
Apollonius says is not a scene far distant 
_ from their native plain, but a scene far 
lis from Colchos, as the west from 
he east; Lybia and Colchos are men- 
oned as the opposite boundaries of the 
iTfonautic course. 
In page 25, a remarkable omission 
 eecurs, Forty-seven verses of the ori- 
ginal, including the song of Orpheus, 
=) Any. Rev. Vor. II. 
PRESTON’S ARGONAUTICS OF APOLLONIUS RHODIVUS, 
433 
are here untranslated, of which no expla- 
nation, so far as we have observed, is 
given, nor any other indication, than 
that the numeration of the verses pro- 
ceeds at once from 758, to 829. 
(P. 61.) «* The men of Trachin still the cus- 
tom hold.” 
Nothing is said in the original respect- 
ing any custom of the Trachinians, in- 
habitants of Greece, but of the Ciani, 
inhabitants of Asia, who still, says the 
poet, prolong the search for Hylas, and 
retain their concern for T'rrachin, where 
the hostages given by their ancestors to 
Hercules were deposited. 
(P. 64.) ‘* As at the ship he question’d their 
descent, ; 
Their place of birth, and whither they were 
ent, 
Apollonius (speaking of Amycus) says 
that he asked none of these questions, as 
indeed appears from Mr. Preston’s suc- 
ceeding translation of his speech. The 
order of the original passage, which is 
rather involved, is the following, umegGa- 
aingty AaTIiCgEy egeosas py xXestw VALUTIAINS 5 or 
veev; the translation, “he haughtily de- 
spised to ask them the occasion of their 
voyage, and. who they were.” 
(P. 88, 89.) The passage of Argo 
through the Symplegades affords a good 
instance of the descriptive powers of 
Apollonius. It does not however ap- 
pear to have been throughout exactly ap- 
prehended by Mr. Preston. The follow- 
ing passage is certainly misconceived, 
and a sense given to the words which 
they will by no means bear. 
“Far as a youthful crew, with labouring 
oars, 
Speed, at a stroke, the vessel from the shores, 
That distance twice their bark the Minye 
send.” 
The literal translation is as follows: 
“as much as the vessel yielded to the 
impulse of the rowers, twice so much it 
was carried back; i. e. by the force of 
the refluent wave.” The interpretation 
which Mr. Preston gives, is indeed 
given by one of the Greek scholiasts, 
but cannot. be extracted from the words 
of the original ; and another of the com- 
mentators, or the same commentator, 
judging better, immediately afterwards 
supplies the true interpretation. The 
arading of the common editions in this 
Tr i 
