han. It stands near the sea, and the adjoining country is the most wild and barren that can be imagined. This singular monument, though presenting little of minute resemblance, exhibits all the general characteristics of Stone-henge; the stones are equally massive, but they are differently ranged; those of Carnac stand singly, and run in lines as well lengthwise as transversely; the distance between each stone in the one way being from twelve to fifteen feet, and in the other, from thirty to thirty-three. The author is of opinion that this marvellous assemblage of stones bore some relation to astronomy; and among the traditions respecting it, he deems that to be the most rational, which ascribes its formation to the annual addition of a stone at the time of the summer solstice: a practice which he compares with the Roman usage of inserting, every year, a nail in the door of the temple of Jupiter, The highest stores of Carnac measure in height from twenty to twenty two feet; they vary considerably in breadth and thickness: but among them is one which is twenty-two feet high, twelve wide, and six in thickness, the weight of which is calculated at 250,000 pounds. The number of stones is made to amount to four thousand: but they are said to have been more numerous formerly, and to have covered upwards of three leagues coastwise.

The aspect of these shapeless masses is stated to be most singular; the assemblage stands alone in a large plain, without trees or shrubs of any kind; they rest on a basis of sand, which presents not a fragment of a stone nor even a pebble; they are in equilibrium, without any thing like a foundation; and many of them are moveable. Engravings of the whole, under different points of view, accompany this volume; and, aided by the descriptions which it contains, they are here said to furnish an accurate representation, though they must necessarily fail in exciting the impression communicated by the original.

M. CAMBRY observes of these rude monuments,-the dolmins, the cromlechs, the erect stones, the high places shaded by venerable oaks, sanctified by the presence of a god which was adored in the silence of the night,-that they were the forerunners of the altars of marble, the elegance of which we admire; of the statues of Phidias, the temples of Pestum and of Sicily, of the Pantheon, of the temple of Theseus, the tomb of Mausolus, the pyramids of Egypt, and the temples of Abyssinia, and of Jupiter Ammon.

In a work dedicated to Bonaparte, it was to be expected that our country and its inhabitants would be made subjects of abuse and invective: but nothing can be more wretched of

that

that kind than the attempts of this writer. He envies us the fame which our island enjoyed in Pagan times as a druidical school, and as the channel through which that discipline passed into Gaul; and he strips it of that distinction, by referring the Britannia mentioned by Cæsar to the modern Brittany, though it is well known that the latter country was never so designated till long after the time of that conqueror. The reasonings are too flimsy, and the authorities too slight, by which he endeavours to support this paradox, to render it necessary to apply criticism to them.

The zeal of the author leads him to undertake a collection of the passages in antient writers which speak of the Druids; but it is by no means complete. Next follows an account of the Celtic monuments which still remain in those countries that were either temporarily or more permanently occupied by that vast population; and he then notices the resemblance between them and those of other rude nations. For the scanty Gallic remains which are to be found in his own country, he accounts by referring to the severe edicts which the kings of the first race issued against idols and their worshippers.

M. CAMBRY's extravagance of hypothesis, and his profound malignity; are strongly exemplified in the following conjecture, which he gravely hazards. Having stated that the Dolmins, which are two stones, each standing endways, supporting a transverse one, were emblematical of treaties between different tribes, he observes; Stone-henge is perhaps the theatre of oaths of fidelity taken in antient times by each tribe of Albion to the antient Bretons of the continent. Each tribe erected its respective Dolmin as a testimony of the stability and eternity of the engagements into which it entered with its lords.' Has his august imperial majesty a mind sufficiently little to receive any delight from these puerile extravagancies ?

In a part of this volume composed by M. JOHANNEAU, he promises to point out in the early numbers of the memoirs of the Celtic Academy, the books which must be studied in order to attain skill in Celtic antiquities. He states that he is anxious to gain proselytes to this pursuit; his devotion to which, he tells us, he acquired from Latour d'Auvergne. It was from the conversations of the latter, which were particuJarly animated, on the importance of this language, which he had learned from his bith, that M.JOHANNEAU was taught its value and utility; as also from his excellent work styled Origines Gauloises, and above all from his Glossaire Breton Polyglotte, printed at Bayonne in 1792, a production superior even to the Origines:

15

• The

The Swedes and Danes,' says the same person, study the language of the Edda, in order the better to know their own and their national history. With the same views, the Germans study the Teutonic, and the English, the Welsh and Anglo Saxon; but we, more frivolous and less zealous for national glory, despise what we neither know nor desire to know. Le Pelletier, Pezron, Gebelin, Latour d'Auvergne, have in vain laboured successfully in this field; their useful and curious writings are little sought or known; our academies make dictionaries without ever consulting the labours of these eminent persons; and much less do they think of studying, like them, the original language of Gaul, whence those meritorious literati have drawn their valuable discoveries.'

If the Latin was the prevailing dialect at the period of the invasion of the Franks, it follows that the modern French is, for the most part, a mixture of that language and the Teutonic; and that the study of the Celtic can only be of limited use in illustrating it. We by no means, however, desire to damp the zeal of the two persons to whom we are indebted for this volume. The pursuit is liberal, and may be in various ways beneficial; and we shall be glad to see them discard their present errors, and attain a degree of proficiency which, without an academy, has been reached in the country which they are so studious to degrade.

ART. XI. Nova Acta Societatis Latina Jenensis. Edidit D. HENR. CAROL. ABR. EICHSTÄDг. Volumen Primum. 8vo. Lipsiæ. 1806. Imported by De Boffe. Price 6s.

THIS first volume of a new Jena Society resembles in point

of merit many which, in the course of our long literary life, we have observed endeavouring to attract public notice, and general patronage: but which, from a want of judgment in the conductors, or of learning in the writers, have soon felt their career checked, and have never reached the goal at which their aspiring hopes led them to suppose that they should cer tainly arrive. Of such failure, the real cause seems to be that the authors are most commonly fonder of writing than of reading; and that they are more ambitious of teaching the world, than of acquiring the stock of knowlege which is necessary for so arduous a duty. In the present instance, therefore, we shall content ourselves with little more than enumerating the articles which the volume contains; since minute criticisms on each would occupy more space than we can allot to these compositions.

De Archyta Tarentio Disquisitio, à C. G. BARDILI.-A jejune essay on the antient philosopher of Tarentum; respecting

whose

whose works, Fabricius has written in his Bibliotheca Græca, Vol. I. p. 493. Edit. Vet.

LUD. FRID. HEINDORFII ad H. C. A. Eichstaedtium Epistola Critica, in Plutonis Theatetum.-Plato's Theætetus offers abund ant opportunities for the genuine critic to display his skill, either by illustration or correction. M. HEINDORF's emendations, however, afford but slight marks of an active and vigilant reader of Plato-sunt mediccria, sunt maia plura. The expression somniandum cum Stephano, p. 21. is coarse, and presumptuous in the extreme, when applied by L. F. HEINDORF to the immortal Henry Stephens.

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PHILIPPI BUTTMANNI Critice Annotationes in locos quosdem Ciceronis These alterations are proposed in passages from Cicero's Epistles ad Famil. 4. 15.-Brutus. 16. 22. 40. 66. 79. 89.-Orat. in Verr.-Pro Lege Manil.-Pro Cluent.-De Lege Agraria.-They are trifling.

FRID. GUL. STURZII de Vecabuli yóns significationibus.-This is an ingenious essay. The writer of it has already appeared before the public, as the editor of the Fragments of Phere· cydes.

De Friderici Sylburgii Vita et Scriptis, Oratio dicta in Electoris Hassiaci Natalitiis, 1803. Marburgi. A GEO. FRID. CREUZERO, Litterarum Græcarum et Eloquentia Professore.--An interesting memoir of a truly profound scholar. We looked in vain, however, for some critical examination of his labours, and some account of his plans, as an editor. His erudition demanded such an investigation. Every scholar must hear with respect the honoured name of Frederick Sylburgius.

De Livii aliquot Codicibus Helmstadiensibus, Scripsit CHRIS. THEOPH. WERNSDORF, Professor Helmstadiensis. These lections are not of high importance: but we are glad to see them published; and we recommend it to Professor WERNSDORF to complete these collations.

G. G. BREDOW, Professoris Historiarum Helmstadiensis in Ciceronis, Sophoclis, Plutarchi aliquot locos, Critica Observationes. In the Electra of Sophocles, edit. Brunckii, Professor BREDow assigns v. 823. 4, 5, 6, to the chorus, 827 to Electra, and leaves the remainder of the Strophe as it stands in Brunck. In the antistrophe, he reads 843

Chorus. Φεῖ δήτ' ὀλου γιὰρ ἐδαμη

844-8. Electra. Ναι, δι, τις αναςπασθείς, i, '.

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We see little ingenuity in this proposed assignment of the verses 823-6 to Electra, and great disingenuousness in not

stating that the old books, and Erfurdt, have so published them The change at the close of the antistrophe is very disputable.In 837, the margin of Turnebus gives you for yas, which will restore the true measure, as a long syllable is demanded.

The metres ought to stand thus:

In V. 5. and 10. Molossus secundam occupat; et in V. 6.

Molossus catabet. tertiam.

The Ionica a Majore may be divided into tetrameters, instead of dimeters.

Some passages in Cicero and Plutarch are also criticized, for which the reader may consult the Acta themselves.

Carmen Sæculare supremo Saculi XVIII. die, dictum a FRIDER. ROTH, D.-This Carmen Seculare is written in Hexameters, and fills above five pages:- but the verses did not merit publication.

Carmen Diogenis Laertii de Eudoxo, Lib. VIII. fin. Metro. suo restitutum. A G. F. GROTELEND, Prorectore Francofurtensis ad Moenum.-It is singular that these Galliambics of Diogenes should have never been rightly arranged by any of the critics. Professor GROTEFEND has exhibited them very nearly according to the laws of that singular measure;