1807.) 
ether, They leap the fosse that sepa- 
rates them; they mingle, embrace, and 
weep. At the fatal signai which is again 
to render them enemies, the poet re- 
proaches the soldiers of Cxsar for their 
guilty submission to the orders of their 
chief— 
Quid pectora pulsas ? 
Quid, vesane, gemis? Fletus quid fundis 
inanes ? 
Nec te sponte tua sceleri parere fateris ? 
Psque adeone times, quem tu facis ipse ti- 
mendum ? 
Classica dent bellum: sxvos tu neglige 
cantus. 
Signa ferat : cessa: jamjam Civilis Erinnys 
Concidet, & Czsar generum privatus amabit. 
Lib. 4, f. 182. 
While Pompey offers a sacrifice to the 
gods, the poet thus addresses himself to 
Cesar— 
At tu, quos scelerum superog? quag rite vo- 
casti 
Eumenidas, Czsar ? 
regni? 
Infernumque nefas ? et mersos nocte furores ? 
¥mpia tam szeve gesturus bella litasti? 
Lib. 7, 1. 168, 
On the point of describing the battle of 
Phaysalia, strack with horror and dismay, 
he breaks out— 
Stygii que numina 
Sunt nobis nulla profecto 
Numina; cum cxco rapiantur secula casu, 
Mentimur regnare Jovem, Spectabit ab alto 
fEthere Thessalicas, teneat cum fu!mina, 
ceedes ? 
Scilicet ipse petet Pholoen? petet ignibus 
CEten, 
Immeritzeque nemus Rhodopes, pinusque mi- 
nanteis ? 
Cassius hoc potiis feriet caput? Astra Thy- 
estz 
Abstulit, et subitis damnavit noctibus Argos : 
Tot similes fratrum gladios, patrimque ge- 
renti 
Thessaliz dabit illediem? mortalia nulll 
Sunt curata decom 
But it as the fate of Lucan that his 
beauties can never be mentioned, with- 
out their suggesting his blemishes. As 
his principal excellence is a lively and 
glowing genius, which appears sometimes 
in his descriptions, and always in his sen- 
timents, his great defect in both is want 
of moderation. He carries every thing 
to an extreme, He knows not where to 
stop. From an effoit to aggrandise his 
objects, he becomes tumid and unnatu- 
ral ; and it frequently happens that where 
the second line of one of his descriptions 
is sublime, the third, in which he intend- 
«dto rise still higher, is perfectly bom- 
Lyceum of Ancient Literaiure.—The Pharsatia, 
239, 
bast. Lucan lived in an age when the. 
schools of sophists and declaimers had 
begun to corrupt the eloquence and the 
taste of the Romans. He was, unfortu- 
nately, not free from the infection; and. 
too frequently, instead of shewing the ge- 
nius of a poet, he betrays the spirit of a 
declaimer. It was this detect that pro- 
bably produced the observation of Quin- 
tilian, that Lucan’s place was rather 
among the orators than among the poets, 
Oratoribus magis quam Poetis annume- 
randus—But if he was not a poet, where 
is poetry to be found? 
Upon the whole, it may be collected 
from the preceding observations, that Lu- 
can was more remarkable for splendour 
of venius, than for soundness of judgment, 
or correctness of taste. He had more 
strength than tenderness ; greater forsee 
than sweetness. He.will not often beay 
@ comparison with Virgil; but if he 
wanted the purity and clegance of the 
Mantuan bard, he will be found to sur- 
pass him in the energy and boldness of 
his sentiments. Take from the Pharsa- 
ha a few uninteresting episodes, and the 
tediousness of some of its details, and it 
will exhibit beauties sufficient to justify 
the assertion that Lucan was not only g 
poet, but deserves the next place in the 
epos after Homer and Virgil. 
The editions of Lucan are, 
Lucanus, cum notis Grotii, ef selectis 
Variorum, L. Bat. 1669, 8vo. 
Lucanus, cum notis Grotii, cura Bent. 
Jel, a sumptuous edition, printed at 
Strawberry Hill, 1760. 
Lucanus, notis Farnabii. Amst. 1671, 
12mo. 
Lucanus, cura Oudendorpii, a very ex 
cellent edition. L. Bat. 1728, Ato. 
Lucanus, cum Commentario Burmanni, 
a valuable edition. Leid. 1740. 
Lucani Pharsalia, ex optimis exempla- 
ribus emendata; splendidly printed by 
Didot. Paris, 1795. ‘The editor, An- 
tony Augustus Renouard, a learned book- 
seller of Paris, : 
Ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
XONTENSIS wishes to know whe 
ther he can have any legal re- 
dress in an affliction given him by his 
neighbour’s bees. Lest those, whose pros, 
vince it is to declare the law insuch a case, 
may not see or attend to his question, or 
the laws relating to the subject of the 
apiary be not well known, I would refer 
him to Butler’s: Feminine Monarchy; an 
old, scarce, and valuable treatise on bees, 
1G 
