1803.] 
( 441) 
~~» 
VARIETIES, ,Lirerary AnD PHILOSOPHICAL; 
Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domeftic and Foreign. 
* * Authentic Communications for this Article will always be thankfully received. 
WORK which muft intereft in a- 
A very high degree all the lovers of 
claffical literature and antiquities, is now, 
we underitand, ina ftate of preparation for 
the prefs. It is the refult ofa tour lately 
made by WiLLiam Ge iL, Efq. in ma- 
ny parts of the Levant, Sicily, Greece, 
Turkey, &c. &c. This Gentleman, hav- 
ing {pent a confiderable time at Aihens, 
proceeded to Conftantinople, vifited the 
‘Troiud wi h Homer in his hand, and. filled 
his port-folio with the moft accurate and 
moit numerous views and plans that have 
hitherto been taken of that celebrited 
{pot. The publication of thefe valuable 
drawings will probably, as we are in- 
formed, decide the controverfy refpe&ting 
Troy, againft Mr. Bryant and the few 
who have adopted his fentiments. 
The long-agitated queition concerning 
the authenticity of Offian’s Poems is now 
in a train of being finally decided. There 
is in the prefs a copy of the Celtic original, 
together with a Latin tranflation, in which 
‘the Celtic word is given in a Latin word 
verbalim as nearly as poffible : too clofe- 
ly, perhaps ; for, from the fpecimen we 
have feen, it appears that the Latin idiom 
is in fo many inftances jacrificed toa 
ftrictiy literal verfion of the Celtic, as to 
be unintelligible. It appears that the 
ground work, or principal fcenes, faéts, 
charaéiers, and imagery, is truly Celtic ; 
but that Mr. Macpherfon has taken very 
great liberty with the original, and that 
by no means, either on the whole, or very 
often, if ever, for the better. Mr. Mac- 
pherfon, who had been long in the habits 
of aichoolmafter, was very well acquaint- 
‘ed with the Bible ; the circumitance of his 
having fe many children to read the Bible 
for {> many years, made the feriptural 
fiyle, and particulariy that of the Poets, 
asthe Pfalms, Haiah, &c. &c. perfectly 
familiar to him, and made it in fome mea- 
furehisown. He feems alfo to have been 
not a little converfant with the beft Hea- 
then poets. Into his Offian he has forced 
every where imagery and phrafeology 
taken from writings facred and profane. 
He has made his Offian a mixture of idi- 
oms. His characters do not wear one 
coftume ; his regiments are not in uniforms, 
but a kind of {peckled clothes. Hebrew, 
Greek, Latin, and Englith idioms inter- 
fperfed-in Macpherfon’s Offian, make ra. 
ther a motley performance ; though it is 
in many places wonderfuliy fublime and 
pathetic. It isa general complaint that the 
fentences in Macpherfon’s Offian are cut fo 
fhort; and fuch an abrupt and farting 
manner, that it is dificult to follow the 
thread cf the narrative. In the original 
no fuch difficulty occurs ; there is lefs 
rant or ftudied {well than in Macpherfon, 
but more circumfantiality of defcription. 
A tranflation was made of a canto in Of 
fian into verfes correfponding as nearly as 
peffible with the original ; in this tranfla- 
tion Offian appears in his true colours, 
without any extraneous ornament, and 
to much greater advantage, than in the 
tranflation of Macpherfon. 
The Letters and other Works of Lady 
Mary WorTLEY MONTAGUE, never 
before publifhed, will certainly make their 
appearance within the fir week of June, 
Profeflor White’s valuable Diateffa- 
ron willshortly appear in an Englith drefs, 
by the Rev. R. WarNeR. The accom- 
paniment of foot notes, hiftorical, geogra- 
phical, &c. and illuttrative of the nume- 
rous allufions to Orienial and Jewifh man- 
ners, cuftoms, principles, and opinions, 
will render the publication fill more ufe- 
ful. <A fecond volume of Sermons, from 
the fame geatleman, we learn, is in the 
prefs. 
Mr, ASTLE’s excellent work on the 
Origin of Writing, isin the prefs, and 
will be fpeedily publithed ; as allo the firft 
volume of theArche>logia,which the An- 
tiqua:ian Scciety have ordered to be re- 
pubiifhed, in order to fupply many of 
their membe:s who are without it. 
A new edition of Dr. WaTkKiNs’s Bio-~ 
graphical Diftionary will immediately be 
put to pre's, and the Author is defirous to 
avail bimlelf of the communications of li- 
terary perfons who may have noticed errors 
or omiffions in his firft edition. The ad- 
ditions, particularly in foreign articles of 
modern date, willbe exceedingly nume- 
rous. It is alfo intended that the type of 
the new edition fhou!d be {maller, and the 
volume more than one hundred pages 
thicker. 
Mr. J. BYERLEY announces for publi- 
cation, in the courfe of the next winter, a 
Topographical Delineation of the Seven 
“. United 
