ScHoor. AND Class Books.—Gai Valeri Catv,lli Carmina. Recognouit Joh. P.
Postgate. (Bell and Sons.)—This edition deserves a hearty welcome from all lovers of Catullus. The text has been considered throughout with great care and judgment, that the best readings might be given in doubtful places ; the most important variations in the manuscripts and conjectures are recorded at the foot of each. page ; and several emendations by the editor are included in the work. Many of these are extremely happy, and all worth considering. " Credo, et quo grauis
acquiescat ardor" 9), for "Credo ut cum," seems to give just what is wanted. So does " Et hese pessima sic puella uidit ioco se lepido uouere diuis (xxxvi., 9-10), for " Et hoc pessima se puella, uidit iocose lepide uonere divis " (a combination of emendations by the present editor and others). Casu cuncta, in lxiv., 109, seems a very satisfactory proposal for restoring a difficult line ; and Dr. Postgate has cleverly shown, in his " Catulliana" (Journal of Philology, XVII., pp. 226-267), how this might have been corrupted into the reading of " 0." Most of his corrections are discussed in that article, and those who use the critical edition will find the explanations most interesting and instructive. Dr. Postgate has an ingenious theory about cxv. which seems to give an adequate explanation of that puzzling little poem. His reading in 1. 7 differs from that of Schwabe only in the position of the comma; but this implies a great deal, as is pointed out in a note on p. viii. of the preface; for Dr. Postgate's alter is the key to the whole meaning of the poem, as alluding to Pompey, the "Magnus " and Mamurra's patron, while Schwabe's alter merely marks the distinction between Mamurra himself and his property. We understand that Dr. Postgate is now engaged on a " Corpus " of the Latin poets, and we have reason to look eagerly for its appearance, with this specimen before us.— Pliny's Letters. Books i. and ii. Edited by James Cowan. (Macmillan.)—Mr. Cowan has given us a scholarly and useful edition of these two interesting books. The introduction includes a Life of Pliny and a summary of Mommsen's arguments for his view of the chronology of the letters, besides two of the'inscrip- tions that have been found relating to Pliny. The notes give good explanations of the customs alluded to, phrases used, &c. ; they also frequently remark upon the differences between Pliny's diction and that of Cicero, and discuss the various usages of words. The illustrations from the classics are appropriate and interesting, —generally given in full, and sometimes with explanations or translations of parts of the passages quoted, a form of help which is very useful to the student. We are inclined to doubt that acres in i., 2-4, is rightly rendered by "lively," which would make acres—tristes a contrast, whereas tristes appears to denote an exaggerated form of the quality of the acres, —namely, vigorous directness in speech. In the note on i., 10, 10, Nam id ipsum, " for when have I ever that good fortune," " ever " is presumably a misprint for "even." The difficult passage describing Isieus' method of speaking, in ii., 3, seems to have been studied and annotated with especial care, and Pliny's minute and loving description of his Laurentine villa (ii., 17), is illustrated by a plan, and well explained.—Virgil : Georgic i. Edited by T. E. Page, M.A. (Macmillan's " Elementary Classics.") —This appears to be an excellent little book, as we should expect from the editor. Some of the notes strike us as being above the heads of elementary learners, but still these will find much to help them, while those who are somewhat more advanced, and able to read the Georgics with more profit, could not easily be provided with a better edition. There is a capital intro- duction, which, besides giving a short Life of Virgil, touches on the relation in which Virgil stands to Lucretius and Hesiod. Some of the characteristics and excellences of the Georgics are also pointed out,—e.g., Virgil's fondness for literary epithets, his sense of the dignity of labour, and his way of attributing life and feeling to things inanimate. In the notes, the points that need explanation are clearly and well explained. In places of doubt and difficulty, differences of opinion are often mentioned, and the view to which the editor inclines is always lucidly set forth. The construction of the plough (11. 16944) and the process of weaving (1. 285) are made easily intelligible, figures being given to illustrate the plough. A special feature of the edition which deserves notice consists in the number of illus- trations from English authors, such as add so much to the interest and liveliness of Mr. Page's edition of Horace's Odes. In the present book, the comparison of the Georgics to Millet's " Angelus" struck. us as particularly suggestive. We noticed a few misprints, which are a pity in such a good edition,- e.g., proscisso for proscissio (note on 1. 97), horrae for horrea (L 182) ; and in the Greek quotations, irkerwrat (note on 1. 341) and girya (note on 1. 321) have a strange appearance. But no such small flaws, quas humans Forum cauit nature, can make the book other than a very helpful and suggestive little edition.—Selections from Valerius Maximus. Edited by W. R. Inge. (Rivingtons.)—We must confess to being much inclined to agree with Erasmus's condemnation of the style of Valerius, though Mr. Inge pronounces it too vigorous, except, indeed, that we should never have imagined him a compatriot of Terence. His writings may be interesting to students of language and history, but they do not seem to us suitable for " young boys," and it is for them, Mr. Inge tells us, that the book is intended. Perhaps their prose style is not likely to be corrupted, but at least it will not be at all improved, and a boy taught from Valerius Maximus would have much excuse for holding what Mx. Page calls "the schoolboy theory that a Latin sentence is a sort of puzzle in which all the words have been shaken up and jumbled together." Valerius's feeble rhetoric and involved arrangement of words give a very false idea—and one far from attractive—of what Latin really is. Such a sentence as " Eoque ictu " (the fall of the tortoise on /Eschylus's head) " origo et principium fortioris tragcedite extinc- t= est " (p. 225), is calculated to make us realise forcibly the genius of Tacitus, who could make what he did of this style of writing, but not to impress a beginner with a sense of the direct- ness and vividness of Roman thought. And Mr. Inge's notes, though they contain a good deal of interesting and valuable information, seem to us to give hardly sufficient help to make his author intelligible. Even the editor has apparently been sometimes misled by Valerius's perverse way of expressing himself. Persedisset on p. 9 (1. 15), must surely refer to the aunt who is sitting, not to the niece who is standing, as he appears to understand it. On p. 191, by an unfortunate mistake in the number of the line given in the note, the translation " his motives " seems to refer to the first propositi (where the meaning is " our statement" or "proposition"), instead of the second, and thus a sufficiently puzzling sentence is made still more so. Altogether, we are inclined to think that Valerius, in spite of his popularity in the Middle Ages, is not likely to prove very instructive to beginners in Latin : his stories, no doubt, are short; but Livy is so infinitely superior, both as a narrator and in the matter of style, that where he is more lengthy we need not quarrel with him.—Selections from the Greek Tragedians. Edited by E. D. Stone. (Riving- tons.)—The passages seem, on the whole, well chosen : they are generally such as are interesting, apart from the context, and include some very beautiful things,—e.g., Electra's lament over the supposed ashes of Orestes, and the speech of Ajax to his little son. ./Eschylus is rather poorly represented : there is nothing from the Agamemnon, and we are sorry to miss Prometheus' account of his services to mortals, in favour of which we could have spared Selection 2; but perhaps it was judged too difficult. Antigone's pathetic farewell to life might have found a place in the collection from Sophocles. Euripides has very nearly two- thirds of the book to himself, and we are glad to see that several of the fragments are included. Some of the Euripidean passages, we think, might have been better omitted : a few horrors are only to be expected if the selection is to be at all repre- sentative; but Hercules' madness, Pentheus's murder, and the haunting ghastliness of the messenger's speech from the Medea, seem more than a necessary amount. The notes supply a fair amount of elucidation and comment on the subject-matter, but for the language they seem to be restricted rather too much to the barely necessary, which is apt to be somewhat dull and unsatisfactory. Some points that evidently call for comment are even passed over with merely a translation for the general sense,—for instance, the characteristic Greek expression 1.016eybs Szkrioves (sec. 19, 1. 34) ; the idiomatic use of a sentence with Saris as equivalent to an abstract noun is left quite un- noticed in Fr. 16, 1; while the note on Fr. 10, 4, fails to point out that it is a regular form of speech in Greek. Aepacl, in sec. 26,1.89, is a misprint for Seolia : and in Fr. 16, 1. 44, the note refers to a .different reading from that in the text, a common but annoying blunder. It seems misleading, too, to call npatvorro, in sec. 1, 1. 13, an "imperfect optative," seeing that it is apparently oblique for scpalverat (T6 u‘A.A.or Ltie Kpalverat, Themis would say), and any change of tense for oratio obligiza is very rare in Greek.— Iphigeneia at Aulis. Edited by Clinton E. S. Headlam. (Cam- bridge University Press.)—This is a capital little edition of a characteristic and beautiful play. Mr. Headlam has a keen sense of the excellences of his subject, and his introduction will help others to appreciate the pathos and the character-drawing in the play. The various versions of the story of Iphigeneia, its treat- ment in ancient art, and some criticisms made on Euripides' play, are briefly discussed in the introduction. This is followed by a chronological table, giving in parallel columns the most remarkable occurrences in the field of art and literature, and the principal political events, from the time of JEschylus's first dramatic victory to the death of Euripides and Sophocles. The notes are very good, both clear and scholarly. Wo would especially commend some of those on the language and idioms, e.g., on the " historic or descriptive present" (note on 46 ff.), and on colphroosira, in 187. There is also a very interesting note on the use of the chorus on 1. 1,353, and an additional note at the end of the book on Artemis as moon-goddess and goddess of the chase. The connection of the various choral odes with the action of the play, might perhaps have been more clearly pointed out, though the main idea on which they dwell, the suffering brought on the innocent by the evil deeds of others long ago, is touched upon in the introduction. We should have been glad, too, of comments, or references at least, for some more points of grammar and language,—for instance, the use of the negative in &OE xev, in 1. 1,291, and the meaning of compound adjectives like icripeniol, in 1. 242, where we might have expected to find a reference to Jebb's note on (Ed. Tyr., 846.—Virgil : £neid i. Edited by C. H. Poole, LL.D. (Relfe Brothers.)—The editor apolo- gises for "adding another school-book to those already in use." He pleads the "utility, cheapness, and completeness" of his volume. The vocabulary is useful, special pains having been spent on the etymology ; the notes are insufficient, and sometimes incorrect. Vent is, in " incute vim ventis," may be ablative ; but if it is, the construction needs explanation. Iacet, in " SIMMS ubi /Eacidte tele iacet Hector," is not the historic present. " Swims.= fortis, bravo,' " is not satisfactory. The epithet is the Homeric kv5iiqtwvos. " The remains of the feast removed " is a bald rendering of menses remotw. The pupil will not see what was in the poet's mind. " Tremit artus " and " sinus nodo collecta fluentes " ought not to be mixed up together as coming under the same usage of the accusative. And what are we to make of this curious comment on " Nee tam aversus equos Tyria sol ungit ab urbe,"—" The ancients imagined that a cold climate made the inhabitants unkind " P—Malaehi. By the Yen. T. T. Perowne, D.D. (Cambridge University Press.)— This is a volume of the series entitled " The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges." The editor is inclined to put the prophecy at very nearly the date of Nehemiah, and points out some parallels, which do not, however, seem convincing to us. It is doubtful whether the passage 11, " Judah hath married the daughter of a strange god," refers to the mixed marriages denounced by Nehemiah. It may mean religious declension, as a similar image does in Hosea v., 16. " The Lord God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away," is an interesting anticipation of Christian views of divorce ; but is it necessary to suppose that it was a
putting away of a Jewish for a heathen wife Archdeacon Perowne has given us an interesting and useful little book.
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