1800. ] 
flock, are overpaid beyond all reafonable 
proportion ; and thus four or five families 
are left neceffitous, in order to heap fif- 
teen hundred or two thoufand pounds a 
year upon a fingle family, whofe head may 
have ne particular merit, or other claim 
upon the donor, that than of mepoti/m. 
Caft your eyes now upon the humble ftate 
of the curates of thele laft, and -you will 
find, that a common menial fervant is in 
much better circumftances. The=walet of 
ene of thefe beneficed clergymen, with 
his twenty pounds a year, caft-off cloaths, 
and the high-feeding to be'met with in his 
matter’s houfe, is ina fituation to pity the 
curate with feventy-five pounds per an- 
num, without thofe advantages, 
Allow, for the fake of argument, that 
one of thefe poor creatures has fixty pounds 
a year—there are very few that have more, 
and few that have fo much: with this 
_ money he has a hovel to hire to hide his 
headin ; he muft keep a female fervant ; 
he has all the neceflaries of life to purchafe 
at their prefent high prices ; he muft make 
a decent appearance; he has probably a 
horfe to hire to attend a diftant church: 
now, if you make a calculation of thefe 
various expences, and lay them at the 
loweft, you will find his fcanty pittance 
abfolutely infuficient to an{wer thefe de- 
mands. What can the poor creature do, 
but look forward with terror to a jail? 
Unlefs he happens to have high connec- 
tions, the obtaining a living is quite out 
of the quettion. “Thus, with the educa- 
tion and habits of a gentleman, he is ba- 
nifhed at four-and-twenty toa remote vil- 
lage, fhut out from all fociety, and con- 
demned to lead a life of mortification in 
every fenfe of the word, without a profpect 
of future advancement, or the means of 
prefent coynfort. Piéture to yourfelf a 
young man thus fituated; his heart fram- 
ed for friendfhip and affection, his mind 
ardent, and his body ftrong; how willingly 
would he exert both to the utmoft, to pro- 
cure a decent domeftic eftablifhnient ? but 
_ the means are withheld from him, or are 
out of his reach. Trade and mechanical 
employments are forbidden him, at leaft, 
“virtually. The world is overftocked 
with books. If he would teach the lan- 
guages, his remote fituation affords no pu- 
pils; and if it did, he has no place to re- 
ceive them in, or any means of beginning 
fuch an eltabiifhment ;—and thus muft he 
and his miferable brethren drag on a tedi- 
ous hopelefs exiftence, live unnoticed, and 
die unpitied, uniefs the legiflature fhould 
humanely interpofe in their behalf, by paf- 
\ 
Homer’s Ue of the Article. 
535 
fing an aé& to equalife the revenues of the 
church, and reftrict the bifhops from ad- 
mitting fuch numbers into that crowded 
profeffion. Tam, Sir, 
Your’s, &c. 
—— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
CLERICUS. 
T may not perhaps be familiar to-all 
your claffical readers, that in the ear- 
lieft produtions now exifting in the Greek 
language, the occurrence of the article is 
as rare as in thofe of a later date it is fre- 
quent. I think I have even heard it af- 
ferted by a gentleman, whofe pencil has 
embodied the fublimity of Multon, and 
whofe ardent conception of the Homeric 
magnificence and grandeur does not pre- 
vent him from ftooping to examine criti- 
cally the minutize of the poet’s ftyle, that 
not a fingle inftance of the article, ftriétly 
fo called, is to be found in the works of 
the Grecian bard. Having had occafion 
lately to perufe fome parts of the Iliad 
and Odyffey, I, paid attention to this re- 
mark, and found it almoft completely ve- 
rified, very few paflages occurring which 
contained any thing that could be conftru- 
ed into an article; and in moft of thofe, 
where to fuperficial obfervation it might 
feem to exift, being in reality a pronoun, 
and requiring to be tranflated as fuch. 
The inftances, however, which I am about 
to fubjoin, do not appear fo eafy to be ac- 
counted for. .To give them a fort of 
awkward, obfcure, and unneceflary prono- 
minal meaning, would be offering manifett 
violence to the fimplicity and perfpicuity 
of Homer’s ftyle. Again, the extreme ra- 
rity of the article (confidering them as 
fuch) might well authorize the inference 
of its being then totally unknown, for a 
word of that nature, if employed at all, 
muft be employed frequently. Being thus 
equally objectionable as articles or pro- 
nouns, how are we ito regard them? as 
original anomalies, or interpolations of 
fubfequent critics and trantcribers ?- J 
fhould be glad if any of your learned cor- 
ref{pondents would favour us with an opi- 
nion on this fubjeét; and I am, Sir, 
March 18, 1800. .Your’s, &c. N. K. 
Infiances of the Article in Homer. 
/ 
Zl. 1.1. 33.—tl. 674.—iv. 212.—260. 
—310.— 329. — 502.—Vl. 40.—166.—= 
302-—390.—402.—467.—Vil.41.—161, 
Od. 1. 1. 17.26 12 5.210 2390 
329 emell. 21, 
422 Fos 
