his study at a certain hour every night. He usually did so at nine o'clock always having a lighted candle in his hand, and closing the door carefully after him. A youthful member of his household whose room was near the study, being just across the passage, observing this constant practice of the President, had his thoughts excited in reference to the cause of so uniform a custom. Accordingly on one occasion, in the indulgence of a juvenile curiosity, he looked into the room sometime after the President had gone in; and to his surprise, saw him upon his knees at a small table, with a candle and open Bible thereon. p. 168, 169.

We here close our extracts from this book. We should be glad, to place upon our pages a good many more facts and anecdotes illustrating the excellence of Washington's character; particularly should we like to give utterance to our views in regard to what we have before intimated as distinguishing the Father of his country above all the great men whom history presents to our contemplation-that perfect proportion and harmony of all the features of his moral and intellectual nature, and that entireness and unity of his character, which was the secret of the repose, dignity, and grandeur, that through his whole life made so strong an impression upon, and gave him such power over, all who approached him. But we have not space for this at present.

We shall only add a word in conclusion, respecting the manner in which Mr. M'Guire has executed his task. We are sorry to be obliged to find fault; but we must in honesty say that we believe the author has done great injury to his subject, by the method he has taken of swelling out the size of his book. Besides inflicting upon the reader a great deal of feeble commonplace of his own, he has broken up the unity and weakened the strength of the impression which his evidence is calculated to produce, by his copious quotations of common-place observation from familiar writers-introducing often long passages which have no earthly title to a place in his book, except that they are didactic remarks or general reflections upon the various moral and religious duties, in the discharge of which the illustrious subject of his work was so exemplary; and the strongest reason that we can conjecture why these quotations are made from these particular authors, is that they happened to be at hand to Mr. M'Guire, just as probably they are at hand to nine-tenths of his readers. Thus, apropos to a citation from Washington's Farewell Address, in which the necessity of religious principle to morality is asserted, Mr. M'Guire, after two or three pages of trite generalities on the subject, edifies his read

ers-who however will be sure to skip them-with fourteen pages of extracts from Robert Hall's sermon on "Modern Infidelity." Dr. Ralph Wardlaw's "Christian Ethics," and Chalmers' sermon on the "Emptiness of Natural Virtue!" Still more laughably he speaks of an ancient copy of Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations," which he informs us "by the indulgence of the present estimable possessor of Mount Vernon, the writer has upon his table; and apropos to the fact that it belonged to Washington's mother, he goes on to give us twenty pages of extracts from the book!! and then winds up with a page or two more in which he amiably indulges himself in the expression of his delight, that Washington should have made such a good book, his "vade mecum," an assumption by the way, that appears to have no other than the same good reason the author gives for his long extract-namely that, the book belonged to Washington's mother!

These are specimens the most aggravated indeed-but still only specimens of the way in which a considarable part of this book is made up. We are sorry it is so. We have great respect for the amiable and estimable author; and he has exposed himself to some laughter. But that is not the worst of it; he has impaired the effect of the various and valuable testimony to the religious character of the illustrious subject of his book, which he has brought together. We earnestly recommend him, in the next edition, to throw out all these impertinences, and to cut the book down one half. It will double its value; render it far more respectable in the eyes of men of the world, and far more likely to be read by all.

ART. X1II.-ANALYTICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. Parallele des Langues de l'Europe et de l'Inde, par F. G. EICHHOFF. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1836. 4to: pp. 499.

We have here decidedly the most learned and interesting work that has appeared from the French press for many years past. The author, a learned native of Germany, at present settled in Paris, and librarian to the Queen, has instituted a comparison in this volume between the Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Lithuanian, Russian, Gaelic, and Cymric languages, and has proved conclusively the affinity existing between them in their roots and grammatical structure. The work gives the death-blow of course to the absurd theory of Dugald Stewart, which has found so many admirers among our American literati. The path which Eichhoff here treads was opened by Colebrook, Wilkins, and Wilson, among the English; by Humboldt, Grimm, Bopp, and Pott, among the Germans; and by Bernouf, among the French. The subject is an extremely curious one. A language is found in the remote East, the origin of which is carried back into the most distant ages, a language remarkable for its energy, its regularity, its richness, but above all for its striking affinity to the tongues of Europe. Its grammar explains all their inflections, its vocabulary reproduces all their roots, while at the same time its harmonic alphabet comprises all the sounds of the human voice.

M. Eichhoff has rendered a most valuable service to the scholars of Europe by this publication; and what renders the work peculiarly useful is the employment of Roman characters in the place of the Sanscrit, so that his volume is accessible to every reader. First, the different alphabets are given with remarks. To these succeed the pronouns and adverbs in the different languages above mentioned. Long vocabularies follow of nouns both simple and compounded; and also of verbal roots, and in every instance affinities are given in various tongues. The elements of declension and conjugation in the different Indo-Germanic tongues close the volume.

This sketch, however, will afford but a feeble idea of the rich and varied contents of the work, and we trust that the day is not far distant when it will be better known to our American scholars by actual perusal. As a specimen of beautiful typography, the volume is worthy, in every respect, of the royal press from which it emanates.

Lexicon Sophocleum, adhibitis veterum interpretum explicationibus, gramaticorum notationibus, recentiorum doctorum, commentariis. Composuit FRIDERICUS ELLENDT, A. M., Lit. Antiq. in Univ. Lit. Regim. P. P. E. 2 vol. 8vo. 1836.

WE hail with pleasure the completion of this most elaborate and useful work, and congratulate the lovers of the Grecian drama upon

the acquisition of what will prove a golden key to the treasures of their favorite Sophocles. A lexicon to the productions of this prince of tragic poets, has always been a great desideratum, with the classical scholar; for Brunck's is only an approximation towards one, and Beatson's is a mere verbal index. Professor Ellendt has, therefore, fairly entitled himself, by the present publication, to the thanks of every scholar. The title of the work is a Lexicon to Sophocles, but our readers will labor under a very erroneous impression if they take this appellation in its literal sense, and suppose that they have here merely an alphabetical arrangement of the terms that occur in the dramas of Sophocles, with a word or two explanatory of their meaning. On the contrary, the true name of the work would seem rather to be, a digest of the several commentaries on the poet in question, in which the results of learned and laborious investigations are briefly and succinctly given, and references at the same time made to collateral authorities. A specimen, however, of the work itself, will best explain our meaning. It has been selected almost at random:

• Ελλας. 1. Terram Graciam significat. Ελλάδος γῆς, Phil. 256. πόλιν σθένου σαν, εἴ τιν' Ελλάδος, μέγα, Oed. Col. 733. ώ τλῆμον “Ελλάς, Τr. 1102. τὸ κλεινὸν Ελλάδος στράτεμα, El. 684. Et sic explicandum τὸ κλεινὸν Ἑλλάδος πρόσχημ ̓ ἀγῶνος, El. 671, in quo exemplo 'EXXádos àyvos conjuncturus erat Brunckius V. Herm. —(2) Adjective de rè Græca qualicunque, oxñμa 'Eλλádos orodñs, Phil. 223. Duo vocabuli exempla reliqua sunt aliquantum dubitabilia, σὔθ ̓ Ἑλλὰς οὔτ ̓ ἄγλωσσος οὔθ ̓ ὅστην ἐλὼ γαῖαν καθαίρων ἱκόμην ἔδρασέ πω, Τrach. 1049, ἄγλωσσος pro βάρβαρος nove dictum esse manifestum, et insequens yatav suadet ut hæc in unum conjungantur, et 'EXλás et ayλwocos unum subjectum habeant y Sed Antiatt.

Bekk. p. 97, 4. scribit: 'EXλás & dvýp. Σοφοκλῆς Αἴαντι Λοκρῷ (vii. 17 D.); itaque etiam illum Trachiniarum locum intelligi et Brunckius vult, advocans diversissima EXAàs aron et similia, in quibus non major in est licentia quam in 'EXλas y, et Hermannus ad Eur. Iph. Taur. 334., qui quod exemplum profert Eur. Phoen. 1513, id Sophocle illi simillimum etiam in eo est, quod synesis yn in utrumque cadit. Diversa contulere Intpp. Gregg. Cor. p. 108, nec in copiis Lobeckii ad Aj. 323, p. 272, quidquam tale extat; Antiatticista autem impudenter mendaci ut novitiorum scriptorum peccata excuset, nihil credo. Jure igitur a Sophocle eam libertatem abjudicat Bemhardy Synt. p. 48., sed. plane immemor doctrinæ de nominibus impari genere componendis a Lobeckio 1. c. inchoata docte, mox eam, ut speramus, absolutissima doctrina exsecuturo.

We are sorry to find, from Professor Ellendt's preface, that favoritism is beginning to show its head within the precincts of German scholarship, and that those pests of all sound learning, "nec ingenio nec doctrina commendati homines," have managed to take very good care of themselves, within the sphere of our author's observation, to the detriment of real but more unobtrusive merit. We hope for the credit of that learning which has hitherto made Germany its abiding place, that the complaints of Professor Ellendt, in this particular, are merely the offspring of what would appear to be his own morbid feelings, and not sober realities. The conclusion of his preface, however, is desponding enough: "Talia quin animum frangant viresque debilitant cum fieri vix possit, lectores oro, ut ignoscant, quod serius, quam promiseram, liber meus in lucem publicam emittitur."

3.-Lexicon Platonicum, sive Vocum Platonicarum Index. Condidit D. FRIDERICUS ASTIUS. Vol. ii. fasc. 1. Zra-Kλivw. Lipsiæ. 1836. In Libraria Weidmanniana.

PROFESSOR AST is already most favorably known by his edition of Plato's works, now in a course of publication; and of which the Lexicon here noticed is to form a part. Ast's Platonic Lexicon resembles a verbal index, much more than Ellendt's Lexicon to Sophocles, mentioned in the preceding article, but this is owing to the circumstance of the editor having reserved for his commentary much that would otherwise have appeared in the present work. To quote the words of the Professor, "Immensi operis ne immensa existeret moles, brevitati ita consului, ut nihil quidem prætermitterem quod ad sermonen Platonicum illustrandum videretur pertinere, rerum autem explanatione locorum similium comparatione variarumque lectionum censura plane abstinerem." This is all, no doubt, very well, yet still we could have wished occasionally to see more of the " explanatio" and somewhat less of the "brevitas." For example; under the head of aixía we might have had the distinction briefly stated between αἰκίας δίκη and ὕβρεως δίκη which Timæus in his Platonic Lexicon has confounded together, a negligence that can find no excuse, although Meier, in his Attische Process, p. 548, has sought to defend it. Under dxiváxns, the remark of Pollux, lib. 1. sect. 138, ought to have been given Περσικόν ξιφιδιόν τι, κ. τ. λ. in order to correct the vulgar error that the dxivάxns was a species of scimetar. So again under doutev, some notice might have been taken of Goettling's inaccuracy (ad Aristot. Polit. 2. 2. p. 316), when he seeks to naturalize oudev, and gives it the force of vel maxime. The change of meaning in dwpodoxos, among later writers, should also have been mentioned, in order to prevent any erroneous application of that meaning to the text of Plato. We would have been pleased also, to see under the head of popos, the error of Timæus distinctly noted, where he says, Ἔφοροι, πέντε μείζους καὶ πέντε ἐλάττους. Mueller's remark (Prolegom. p. 430) places the matter in its true light: "Es ist klar dass die 5 kleinen ephoren bei Timæus blos Gehulfen der Ersteren waren, welche die immer zunehmende Wichtigkeit des Amter noethig machte und nichts fur die ursprungliche Anordnung beweisen."

While on this subject, we cannot refrain from recommending, in addition to Ast's work, the Platonic Lexicon compiled by Mr. Mitchell, the well known translator and editor of Aristophanes. It is executed with great ability, and affords, along with Ast's compilation, a sufficient answer to the complaint of the London editor of the Variorum Plato, that the age Διδύμων τῶν χαλκεντέρων had passed away.