SuYERsis Two Essays on The Clouds of Aristophanes, which Mr.
HAMILTON has translated, are not of equal interest with the Essay on The Birds, which the same gentleman formerly pre- sented to the public. The obscurity, or rather the puzzle, that arises to readers at this distance of time, from the dramatis per- sona, being made to consist almost wholly of birds, required some general clue to enable them to make any thing out of it; and, however opinions may differ as to the correctness of the German's views, this at least must be admitted, that his interpretation of the alle- gory makes a distinct and intelligible whole, and explains many of the allusions that, without it, seem objectless and far-fetched. But there is no pervading obscurity in The Clouds. ARISTOPHANES may have charged SOCRATES with ludicrous tricks which he might not have been in the habit of practising, as lie attributed to the teacher certain dogmas and sophistical arts which formed no part of the Socratic system ; but no mortal, save a commentator, would ever have dreamed that the satirist merely attacked the general principles of' education in vogue in his time, without d' meaning any thing personal" to the philosopher, although he names him by name, and doubtless masked the actor with the So- cratic visage. That A Lc }HADES might be ridiculed generally in the character of Phiddipides, is true enough, though there is little pe- culiarly marking him ; but, that the all-accomplished PERICLES should be personated by old Strepsiades, on the strength of an allu- sion or two, is absurd. And this general weakness in the main arguments, is not relieved by any breadth in particular parts, or redeemed by any acumen or nicety displayed in the details.
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