NEW VOLUMES IN THE "LOEB LIBRARY."*
TRESS new volumes of the " Loeb Library " arc all of first-rate interest. First among them, from the point of view of the general reader, one must undoubtedly place that which contains the Daphnis and Chloe.' Longus's story is certainly the best of all the Greek novels. No other has the same completeness of form. In no other does one find enough charm and atmosphere to condone entirely the frequent lapses into triviality and tastelessness. The Daphnis and Chloe is as full of atmosphere as an epigram of Meleager. The pastoral life in which its rather flimsy love story is set is as sweet and real and timeless as the Sicily of Theoeritus. And Thornley's translation (most skilfully completed by Mr. Edmonds) is a pure delight. Thornley seized on the spirit of his original with a truly Elizabethan exuberance. He was evidently intoxicated with the new draught of classical literature. Such words as "fragor," " carmen," " palmite," " larron," " positure," "lutulent," " flexuous," strike one on every page, sounding a most delightful dissonance among his rustics sipping their "sillabub-piggins," "clocking and twaddling" at their spindles, or listening at their vine-clad porches " a little whittled with wine " to the " pudder " of the rich men's carriages crowding past to a marriage. Mr. Gaselee has less attractive material in The Lore Romances of Partheniusl and the "Nines frag- ment," but he enlivens their rather sterile pages with apt quotations ranging from Tom Jones to the book of Deuteronomy, and contributes also an interesting and valuable little sketch of the history of the Greek novel in which both of these works form important landmarks. Of Mr. Paton's volumes' we need say no more than that they are the first instalment of a scholarly edition of the complete Anthology, which will form a valuable supplement to Professor Mackail's popular selection. Neither the Theophra•tus3 nor the Galen+ is for the general reader. But both are works of first-rate importance in the history of learning, and it is strange to think that neither should ever have been published in English until now. The work of translation in such cases, and particularly in that of the Inquiry into Plants, is one of very great difficulty, but both books are most fortunate in their sponsors, and if neither is likely to be popular, work so scholarly and sympathetic should help, as Dr. Brock expresses the hope that it may, to hasten the reunion of the humanities with modern science.
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