336 



DISCOVERY OP IMPORTANT GREEK MANUSCRIPTS. 



[1855. 



indeed been the common characteristics of the brave navigators who 

 have carried the researches of British adventure far beyond the con- 

 fines of the frozen seas, -which at one time seemed inaccessible even to 

 the skill and courage of British seamen. In the discovery of the double 

 passage from the western waters of the Polar Ocean to the strait which 

 Parry had many years ago reached from the east. Captain M'Clure 

 has had the good fortune to complete the last link in the chain of dis- 

 covery to which many intrepid and persevering enterprises have con- 

 tributed. Few passages in the history of naval enterprise can com- 

 mand a deeper interest than belongs to the position of Captain M'Clure 

 in the autumn of 1851. In the previous autumn he had penetrated 

 to the northern extremity of Prince of Wales' Strait, a channel disco- 

 vered by himself, and had reached at its entrance the frozen waters of 

 Parry's Sound. Baffled by the ice in his attempt to force his ship into 

 those waters by that channel, he attempted another course. With al- 

 most instinctive sagacity he came to the conclusion that the unknown 

 and unexplored land to the west-ward of the Strait through which he 

 had passed, was an island, and that along its northern coast there 

 must be another passage from the open ocean into Melville Sound. 

 He took the bold resolution to retrace his steps to the south-ward, and 

 attempt to reach the same point by sailing rouhd an unexplored tract 

 of land, and braving the perils of a coast navigation, exposed to the 

 pressure of the Polar Ocean. Your committee have already recorded 

 the verification of his bold conjecture and the successful issue of this 

 dai'ing enterprise. Ample and honourable testimony has also been 

 borne to the intrepidity with which he braved, and the judgment with 

 which he met, the perils which attended his attempt ; and your com- 

 mittee cordially unite in the tribute of admiration which this testimony 

 has offered to the combination of prudence and daring which marked 

 his conduct in the adventurous achievement in which he has succeeded. 



Discovery of Important Greek Manuscripts* 



In the winter of 1847, Mr. Harris was sitting in his boat, under the 

 shade of the well-known sycamore, on the western bank of the Nile, at 

 Thebes, ready to start for Nubia, when an Arab brought him a frag- 

 ment of a papyrus roll, which he ventured to open sufficiently to 

 ascertain that it was written in the Greek language, and which he 

 bought before preceding further on his journey. Upon his return 

 to Alexandria, where circumstances were more favourable to the 

 difficult operation of unrolling a fragile papyrus, he discovered that 

 he possessed a fragment of the oration of Hyperides against De- 

 mosthenes, in the matter of Harpalus, and also a very small fragment 

 of another oration, the whole written in extremely legible characters, 

 and of a form or fashion which those learned in Greek MSS. consider 

 to be of the time of the Ptolemies. With these interesting fragments 

 of orations of an orator so celebrated as Hyperides, of whose works 

 nothing is extant but a few quotations in other Greek writers, he em- 

 barked for England. Upon his arrival here, he submitted the precious 

 relics to the inspection of the Council and Members of the Royal 

 Society of Literature, who were unanimous in their judgment as to the 

 importance and genuineness of the MS.; and Mr. Harris immediately 

 set to work, and with his own hand made a lithographic fac-simile of 

 each piece. Of this performance a few copies were printed and dis- 

 tributed among the savans of Europe, — and Mr. Harris returned to 

 Alexandria, whence he has made more than one journey to Thebes in 

 the hope of discovering some other portion of the volume, of which he 

 already had a part. In the same year (1847), another English 

 gentleman, Mr. Joseph Arden, of London, bought at Thebes a 

 papyrus, which he likewise brought to England. Induced by the 

 success of Mr. Harris, 5Ir. Arden submitted his roll to the skilful and 

 experienced hands of Mr. Hogarth ; and upon the completion of the 

 operation of unrolling, the MS. was discovered to be the terminating 

 portion of the very same volume of which Mr. Harris had bought a 

 fragment of the former part in the very same year, and probably of 

 the very same Arabs. No doubt now existed that the volume when 

 entire consisted of a collection of, or a selection, from, the orations of 

 the celebrated Athenian orator Hyperides ; and Jlr. Arden, with a 

 liberality and energy that cannot be too highly commended, forthwith 

 gave to the world a beautiful fac-simile of his portion of the treasure, 

 edited by the Rev. Churchill Babingtou ; and this is the book to which 

 Mr. Harris alludes in another part of his letter. 



The portion of the volume which has fallen into the possession of 

 Mr. Ardeu contains " fifteen continuous columns of the ' Oration for 

 Lycophron,' to which work three of Mr. Harris's fragments appertained ; 



and likewise the ' Oration for Euxenippus, which is quite complete and 

 in beautiful preservation." Whether, as Mr. Babington observes in 

 his Preface to the work, " any more scraps of the ' Oration for 

 Lycophron' or of the ' Oration against Demosthenes' remain to be 

 discovered, either in Thebes or elsewhere, may be doubtful, but is 

 certainly worth the enquiry of learned travellers." The condition, 

 however, of the fragments obtained by Mr. Harris but too significantly 

 indicate the hoplessness of success. The scroll had evidently been 

 more frequently rolled and unrolled in that particular part — namely, 

 the speech of Hyperides in a matter of such peculiar interest as that 

 involving the honour of the most celebrated orator of antiquity — it 

 had been more read and had been more thumbed by ancient fingers 

 than any other speech in the whole volume ; and hence the terrible 

 gap between Mr. Harris's and Mr. Arden's portions. Those who are 

 acquainted with the brittle, friable nature of a roll of papyrus in the 

 dry climate of Thebes, after being buried two thousand years or more, 

 and then coming first into the hands of a ruthless Arab, who, perhaps, 

 had rudely snatched it out of the sarcophagus of the mummied scribe 

 will well understand how dilapidations occur. It frequently happens 

 th^at a single roll, or possibly an entire box, of such fragile treasures 

 is found in the tomb of some ancient philologist or man of learning, 

 and that the possession is immediately disputed by the company of 

 Arabs who may have embarked on the venture. To settle the dispute, 

 when there is not a scroll for each member of the company, an 

 equitable division is made by dividing a papyrus and distributing the 

 portions. Thus, in this volume of Hyperides, I should conceive that it 

 had fallen into two pieces at the place where it had most usually been 

 opened, and where, alas ! it would have been most desirable to have it 

 kept whole ; and that the smaller fragments have been lost amid the 

 dust and rubbish of the excavation, while the two extremities have 

 been made distinct properties, which have been sold, as we have seen, to 

 separate collectors. So, at all events, such matters are managed at 

 Thebes. 



Mr. Plarris mentions fragments of the ' Iliad' which he had pur- 

 chased of some of the Arab disturbers of the dead in the sacred 

 cemetries of Middle Egypt, most probably Saccara. I should be 

 disposed to differ from the inference that these copies were written in 

 Middle Egypt, or that the copies were found at Thebes were written in 

 Upper Egypt ; as I cannot but think it more probable that all Greek 

 manuscripts found in Egypt, in whatsoever part, were wiitten or 

 copied at that great emporium of literature, or the Library of 

 Alexandria, and thence carried into remoter districts by the learned, 

 and, ultimately, as a valuable treasure, buried with them. — Athenmum. 



Joseph Boxomi. 



Tike late ]i]artU<£ua]£e. 



The whole east of France from Valence up to Metz felt very per- 

 ceptibly the shock of an earthquake which, as has been already 

 mentioned, did some slight damage at Lyons on the 25th at noon. At 

 Grenoble three or four distinct oscilliations were felt, which lasted 

 during a period of about 30 seconds. The clock of the cathedral was 

 stopped. At about the same time a strong shock was felt at Lons-le- 

 Saulnier, the oscillations, which followed each other in rapid succession, 

 appearing to be in the direction from east to west. Several of the 

 ceilings of rooms in upper parts of houses were cracked and thrown 

 down. Some minutes before the shocks the cattle on several farms in. 

 this neighbourhood were heard to make that peculiar lowing which de- 

 notes a fear of approaching danger. The shock at Besancon also 

 lasted for about 30 seconds. The furniture in some rooms was displaced, 

 the bells set ringing, and some ceilings cracked. There was no par- 

 ticular atmospheric sign to announce the phenomenon. The weather 

 wet and stormy, and the barometer above " variable." At Baume, in 

 the Doubs, the shock was violent, several chimneys being partly thrown 

 down and others damaged. At Belvoir, in the same department, the 

 shock, which lasted six seconds, was so violent that the houses were felt 

 to rock. Several chimneys were thrown down here, and many walls were 

 much cracked. The "movement was accompanied by a rumbling noise 

 and by a strong smell of sulphur. At Strasbourg the shock was felt 

 in the midst of a violent storm and heavy rain. The clock in the 

 house of the keeper of the cathedra], and situate on the platform of 

 the building, was stopped. The waters in the reservoirs was so 

 agitated as to flow over the edges of the basins. The shock lasted 

 nearly a minute. In the upper part of one of the barracks the soldiers 

 ran out in great haste, imagining the house was about to fall. At 



