SOME CLASSICAL BOOKS.*

ilLASSICAL study is often said, not without much truth, to be rapidly losing the eminent place which, ever since the Renaissance, it has held in. liberal education. But however great its decline in general popularity during the last fifty years, the activity of scholars, has never. been more remark- able, the output of classical literature large; or its quality, we think, more excellent., Book after book issues from the press, each adding to our knowledge, throwing new light on old problems, or giving a deeper insight into antiquity, until the ordinary student is, perhaps, almost overpowered by the very mass of accumulated learning. To study Homer, for instance, to-day needs almost a library, while older folk who still treasure the. Herodotus they thumbed at school will regard the. Comtaentary we have placed first on our list with an admiration which will yet, perhaps, not be untinged with some annoyance. For to those of us who are now grey-headed, Herodotas is still the prince of storytellers, and we do not love to have the illusions of our youth destroyed by commentators. But since he put at the head

of his work the words EA

gipo__roe 'Allauctevacrijos icrropins a.ariSSeAtts iSe, and so became" the Father of History," the genial old gentle- man has too often had to endure the cruel criticism of hie more severe descendants. Thucydides sneers covertly at hie predecessor as one who sought " to please the ear for the moment" by the "charm of fables "; Lucian places him in hell among those who have "composed lies "; and Plutarch wrote a special treatise on his " malignity "—a, slashing piece of work, "of. whose author, as of Croke; it might be said, `Fie meant murder, but only committed suicide." Nor has the modern world been wanting in asperity. No writer has been more attacked by "painful", scholars, and indeed a historian who—to take a notable instance-- with nice exactitude reckons the host of Xerxes at "5,283,220 men," without taking count of "women cooks, concubines, eunuchs,- . . . beasts of burden, cattle, and Indian dogs," and thinks it "no marvel" if they drank some rivers dry, plainly affords an easy victim, to scepticism and ridicule, while amid the immense mass of statements, dealing not only with history but also with geography and ethnography, Which be collects, there is obviously much that is inaccurate. And yet on the whole, as Mr. Wells justly says, "his reputa- tion has survived all attacks; his general equity and candour should never have been questioned," and, to take a particular instance, although Manetho, an. Egyptian priest of the third century B.c., charges him with " making many false statements about Egypt through ignorance," it is well to place on the other side the verdict of Professor Petrie that "the accuracy with which he states what be caw and relates what he heard, and the criticism• he often applies to his materials . . . should prevent us ever discrediting his words unless compelled to do so." And if his historical conscience was at times a loose one, so that he is ready " to repeat what was related," (Atf•yor Xe74tieva), even when " he does not believe it," assuredly we should be grateful that it was so. For had it been stricter he would have lost, we think, that happy gift, " which looks the easiest of all for a, historian, but is, in fact, the rarest."—the gift of " being never dull," while, even from the strictly- historical point of view, his want of discrimination is, perhaps, our gain. His old-world stories are priceless as they stand, for despite the centuries they are still quick with life and the warm blood still flows through them, whereas, had Herodotus been an exact critic. we might have bad only a sort of desiccated skeleton, useful to anatomists but to no one else. As it is, however, we can either chat with him or dissect him as we choose, and to those who wish to examine Herodotus scien- tifically these volumes may be commended without reserve. The two Oxford scholars who have produced them have brought to bear on their task a knowledge which is apparently unlimited. The list of authorities they constantly refer to is immense, while they do not disdain even such references ao : • (1) A Commentary on Herodotus. By W. W. How and J. Wells. 2 vols. Oxford': At the Clarendon Press. [7s. 6d. net each.]—(2) Classical, Pop Ts of 'Ma late .Professor Mortiewr Lamson Burls. Edited by a Committee of his Colleagues. London : H. Frowde. [128. 6d. net.J—(3) The Glory that was Graeae : a Survey of Hellenic Culture and Civilization. By J. C. Stobart. London Sidgwick and Jackson. [30s. net.]—(4) Latin LOW Poems. Translated_ by J. M. Krause. London : Hogan Paul and Co. [Is. 6d. nat.-3—(5) Herbert Kyaastoni a Memoir, with Selections from his Occasional Writings. Edited by E, D. stone. London : Macmillan and Co. [38. 6d. net..]—(6) The. Pub4c Orations .of Dentosthoiss. Translated by A. W. Pickardidge. 2. vols. Oxford : At the Clarendon Frees. [3s. Vd. each net.]

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" For the whole subject, of. letters in Spectator, February 13th and 20th, 1909," and their comments, which relate " almost entirely to the subject-matter," are models of clear and concise statement, larger themes such as " The history of Egypt in relation to Herodotns " being set out in very careful- arta well-ordered' Appendices. But, above all, they handle their

author " as though they loved him." They never do him violence, `and, indeed, do not treat him as anatomists Tint as surgeons. They use the knife, no doubt, and as they do so address many shrewd, illuminating observations to the students round them, but they give us back Herodotus alive,. and healthier for their treatment of him. And• it is so that great critics should ever deal with great writers. •

For briefer mention we have placed next 'on our list two books which are. in striking contrast. The collection of Classical Papers, by the-late Professor Earle, which has been

published by his friends in America as a memorial to .a very distinguished scholar, is a volume which appeals chiefly to the learned. The rendering, indeed, of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address—the modern rival of the Funeral Oration of Pericleit

—into-Greek prose will delight every lover of letteri. 'But- for the most part these Papers. deal with special clifficultiCi of

interpretation or textual criticism which are "caviare to the general," and the fact that some of them are in Latin, it being Professor Earle's practice " to lecture in that language in his.

weekly.Greek seminar for graduate students, at Columbia;" sufficiently indicates their rather severe charaoter, although-at.

times they are fall of living interest, as, for instance, when he discusses the words " My children," with which the (Bdipus Rex- opens, andargues that they are addressed, not to the- sorteof chorus which lately rushed through the stalls at Covent Garden, but to " a. small and ,special delegation of young people" who, while their elders are worshipping the gods, themselves address. their supplications " to tEdipus, as if he were a god," thus.

altering our whole conception of the mise-en-scene, and at least making us think even if he does not convince. On the. other hand, Mr. Stobart's beautiful volume, The- Glory that was= Greece, frankly aims at being popular. The author desires to- put before us " apanorama " of the Hellenic world, " a general and vivid picture of ancient Greek vulture," such as may be derived from his own "almost equal study of its- archaeology, history, and literature." And in attempting a task which in, 266 pages of letterpress cannot possibly be fully performed 'le- is yet fairly successful. He divides his subject into six great periods, and gives a vigorous sketch of each, his first chapter on " Agean Civilization" providing an excellent and clear summary of the discoveries which have recently entirely altered our conception of early-Greek history ; but the volume is one in which the letterpress is, perhaps, subordinate to-the illustrations. These are of- the best, and though pictures of the Vaphio Cups, the. Lion Gate, and the like are apt to weary from continual reproduction, the selection- has been, well made, and affords a pleasant method of studying Greelc. art in its historic development, and the volume is in fact well adapted for public or school libraries in•order to give ordinary readers at least some idea of what is meant by " Hellenism.7 But we have specially placed it beside Professor Ea,rle'S hook because classical study has to-day a curious tendency- to diverge in two opposite directions. On the one hand are popular lectures, photographs, and magic lanterns; on the other are highly technical discussions dealing with archaeology, emendations, subtleties of grammar, or interpretation and the like. And between these two extremes plain simple study. of the classical writers in and for themselves is in some danger of falling to the ground.

Those, however, who chiefly enjoy the classics as literature.- will not be rash if they invest eighfeenpence in Latin Love Poems. Mr. Krause has brought together a charming collec- tion of passages dealing with a theme that ie never old, and has appended a verse translation of his own. To say that he is equal to the task would, obviously be to exaggerate, for to. reproduce the best poetry of a number of the best poets must exceed the power of any single writer, but he is at times very happy, as for instance in this rendering of C81111114 („1.xx.

Nulli as dioit) :— " My Mistress says she will none other wed Than me, Though Jupiterhiniself her suitor high 81sould,he. She says—but words to eager lovers said By woman fair, Are writ in rushing streams or winds that die In air!"

or in this simple version of the immortal_Ocli et amo "I hate, yet love ! You ask how this can be.? I only know its truth and agony."

Such books, however, are less for the reviewer than for the fireside critic, who can praise or blame the various extracts as

his own taste decides; and much the same applies to the Memoir of Dr. Kynaston, edited by Mr. E. D. Stone, along with a selection of his " Occasional Writings." Dr. Kynaston was a well-known type of the old-fashioned scholar. He stroked "the 'Varsity," and was Senior Classic in 1857, became Head of Cheltenham, and subsequently a Canon of Durham, and

'throughout. his quiet career loved, at odd times to try his hand at hymns, Latin and Greek verse, or those classical

leux cresprit which were once much in vogue. He delights 'to accept an invitation to dinner in hendecasyllables, to celebrate a banquet of old oarsmen in hexameters after the -style of Calverley, or to translate such a Greek epigram

418

"A snake once on a Cappadocian Its deadliest venom tried.

Was the man killed ? Dismiss the notion; The snake it was that died."

And, above all, he loves a portentous pun, as in this couplet 41)11 " Women Agitating for the B.A. Degree" :—

"Propria quae maribus mulier sibi munera poscit, tit simili incedat, jure B.A.—ta, gradu."

But his Latin versions of " Crossing the Bar," the song from Maud," Go not, happy Day," or of "Abide with Me" in medieval .rhymes, show real poetic power, and many more than his per- sonal friends will find much to enjoy in this modest volume And, finally, more serious students will welcome a new .translation of the Public Orations of Demosthenes, which has been issued, with short Notes and Introductions, by the

Clarendon Press, and, so far as we have been able to test it, seems to be scholarly and accurate, while the translator's English is everywhere clear and vigorous. But, often as the task has been attemptedpthe great speeches of Demosthenes present, we think, one of the hardest problems in translation. His style is eminently artistic—each word the just one and in its place—and yet appears eminently simple. He is neither -ornate nor profuse, but the opposite of speakers such as Cicero,

-Bossnet, or Gladstone, and yet his utterances have that power —Longinus compares them to "a thunderbolt "—which it needs an orator rather than a scholar to reproduce. John Bright might have accomplished it, and, perhaps, to-day fir. Asquith alone commands the clear, straightforward, and -yet nervous style that is essential. But, however that may be, the substance at least of these speeches may well be studied carefully even to-day. The democracy of Athens had a great ipast. It had in Marathon and Salamis its own Waterloo and

'Trafalgar, and was never weary of being reminded of its .heroic story. But now it had become unworthy of itself. It -gave its vote only to statesmen " who are always asking, What would you like?" What can I do to please you ? '"

dt clamoured for popular measures and perpetual doles from: .the public purse, but it grudged every penny that was spent on ships, and, above all, its citizens repudiated the first duty of citizenship. They refused to give to their country that personal service in its defence without which no State can long remain secure. To the voice of Demosthenes and the -call of their country they preferred the gratuities and flattery of demagogues, and then the storm that had long "hung over .them like a cloud " broke in overwhelming ruin.