CANADA IN THE BODLEIAN. 373 



if cynical, literature which, while it makes emotion unpardonable, at 

 least makes cant impossible." There was some enthusiasm, however, 

 as we shall see; but it was of a barbaric, piratical cast ; an enthusiasm, 

 too, fortunate enough under the circumstances ; for, it being too late 

 to give heed to Polonius's wise rule, " Beware of entrance to a quarrel," 

 the only thing left to be done was to adopt the residue of his precept — 



" but being in. 



Bear 't, tbat the opposed may beware of tbee." 



From her connection with Hanover through the Georges, England 

 was much mixed up with the internal disputes of Europe ; and so was 

 brought, all the more frequently, into direct collision with her ancient 

 Gallic foe. The national enthusiasm of the era accordingly took the 

 form of hostility to France, and an idolatry of the statesmen who could 

 best devise plans by means of which the commerce and power of France 

 might be destroyed. In church and state, this spirit was rampant, 

 conventionally if not really. In the seats of learning it was carefully 

 cherished in the youth of the land ; and not the least carefully, as our 

 extracts are about to show, by the masters of colleges, by the professors 



and tutors — 



" in the Attic bowers, 



"Where Oxford lifts to heaven her hundred towers." 



It was not, however, while casually examining the volume in the 

 Bodleian that I for the first time had experienced some surprise at 

 suddenly seeing the new amidst the old — Canada and America mixed 

 up with Latium and Hellas. Some years ago I happened to become 

 the possessor of an old copy of the Periegesis of Dionysius. This is a 

 Geography in Greek hexameters, quite Homeric in style, and very plea- 

 sant to read. Its author Dionysius was a Greek of Alexandria, and 

 was employed, Pliny says, by one of the emperors, without specifying 

 distinctly which, to make a survey of the Eastern parts of the world. 

 He is supposed to have lived about the year A.D. 140. For the sake 

 of distinguishing him from other notable persons bearing the same 

 name, he is known from the title of his hook- Periegrsis, as Dioiiysius 

 Periegetes, i. e. the Cicerone, Yalet de place^ or Guide to remarkable 

 localities. 



On turning over the leaves of my old copy of the Perhgesis, for the 

 first time, I was startled at observing a sub-division of the poem headed 

 in good Greek, Ilepi ttjs 'A/AeptKT^s rj Trjs Itti Stjctlv Ii'StK?}? y^s.) ''• f-j 

 ''Concerning America or the West Indies;'" and a few lines down 



