flank of the rebels: "à latere equestris procella ingruebat,” p. 101. Under the same metaphor Tacitus describes some cavalry as routing the legions of Vetellius: Quod discordes 'dispersasque Vitellii legiones equestri procellâ fudisset, id 'pulcherrimum,' &c. Hist. lib. 3. c. 53. Dr. Whitaker having touched upon a matter of which he was not fully informed, dismisses it with these words: "Tanquam mihi in66 compertum in medio relinquam ;" note, p. 136. In the same manner Tacitus concludes his treatise upon the Germans. He hints at certain fabulous and idle stories, which he will not report, and then adds, Quod ego ut incompertum, in medium relinquam.' De Mor. Ger. in fin.

Not any of these passages are of such importance as to make it incumbent upon the writer who adopts them, to note them every where as quotations, and account for them in the margin of his book. There is not, perhaps, one of them, even the most remarkable, which a man familiar with the Latin Classics (as Dr. Whitaker certainly is) might not write down as his own, without being conscious that it was borrowed from another. Wherefore, this omission is not to be imputed as a fault, but rather esteemed as a saving of useless trouble: a trouble which, I think, the Doctor might have spared still farther; as, where he quotes Apuleius for these words, p. 122, "De cœlo sospitatorem missum." He is relating what befel the young Pretender after his defeat at Culloden, and the phrase is twined very neatly into the thread of his narration. But now, when a man is referred to the original author of a sentence, which is deemed worthy of being quoted, there arises sometimes a curiosity to see upon what occasion he said so or so. Upon looking into Apuleius for this purpose, (Met. lib. 9.) 1 found that the "Sospitator de cœlo missus," the saviour sent from heaven, of whom he speaks, came upon no higher errand than to fetch a pail of water to an ass. I will make no offensive comparisonhere; but if Dr. Whitaker was resolved to tell us, that a deliverer from heaven saved his hero,

it was not prudent to make a reference which would remind us how that sort of deliverers have been employed.

There is another mode of quotation, or reference, used by Dr. Whitaker, which I must beg leave to notice as a fault, though it be the fault of a scholar. The following is an instance of what I mean., Having mentioned the Pretender's landing on one of the Western islands (Raasay), which, at that time, was ravaged and laid waste, he adds this note:

"Haud fortasse abs re fuerit si in memoriam revocemus, post "annum ferme xxx quàm hæc gesta fuerint, Dominum Raasæ, è "belli cladibus populationibusque redivivæ, Johnsono nostrati, - - τον τις και τηλοθι ναιων

Τιμᾶ άνηρ αγαθοδη

"hospitium pergratum ac perbenignum præbuisse." P. 118, note. Suppose now that an unlettered man should enquire what that line and a half of Greek signifies, which follows Dr. Johnson's name: is there some mystery, or profound sense, or any thing else contained in it, which cannot be told, like the rest, in Latin prose? To such a question, the true answer must be, that it is a bit of poetry not unhappily applied, (which is the best that can be said of it); but that there is nothing in it particularly recondite, or poetical: the plain sense being only this, that Dr. Johnson was " one whom a good man, though dwelling afar off, would respect and honour:" which, granting it to be very true, and fit to be said, might yet have been done, without going to a Greek author above two thousand years old, to borrow words for the occasion.

Let me not be understood to censure the introduction of Dr. Johnson's name here, or the praise bestowed upon him: on the contrary, I esteem it a subject for commendation. It is the part of a scholar to seize the opportunities of making honourable mention of scholars and men of genius; and Dr. Whitaker has performed this with propriety, as well in the present case, as in that of the mathematician, Colonel Maclaurin, p. 41; the poet Shenstone, p. 135, and others.

If I insist on these blemishes in Dr. Whitaker's book, I trust that no just cause of offence can be given by the freedom of my criticism; which is designed to point out the false taste that a man may sometimes acquire from the abundance of his learning.

In p. 105, where Dr. Whitaker's is giving an account of those who fell at Culloden, this paragraph occurs:

"E nobilibus viris, superiorísve ordinispræ fectis, præter Marum "[Robertum] Kerr, Marchionis Lothianensis filium, regii amissum 66 eo die ploravere neminem. Juvenis erat corporis pulcherrimâ com66 page insignis, & per pacis desidiam munditiis extra quàm virum "decuerit propensus: idem ex quo militiæ nomen dederat non "solùm manu promptus sed & cujusvis incommodi patiens. Is procurrentibus Macintotiis ingruentem ex adverso montanum "lancea trajecerat, quam, dum è moribundo & undique se contor"quente barbaro, incautus eripere conatur, uno ingentis gladii ictu ipse propè discissus occidit, mortem Hylæ quàm Thersiti* nihilo æquiorem expertus."

To bring this passage into a proper light, and a better view, let us imagine that a person should now come from Spain, and give you a relation of the battle of Talavera: that he should speak particularly of some gallant young officer who was killed there (I grieve to say there were too many); and that, having mentioned his figure, his beauty, his courage, and the circumstances of his death, he should conclude his account with saying, "So Captain N- found that death has no more pity for Hylas than for Thersites." Would not you think the man crazed who should couple his story with so strange and incongruous a reflexion? But if it would be absurd to talk so in English, can it be good sense to write it deliberately in modern Latin? A learned allusion (says the author) is couched under those names of Thersites and Hylas; which, if you do not understand, go to the British Museum, and there, among Townley's collection of marbles, you will

"Vetus inscriptio Juvenis pulcherrimi manibus sacra inque "Museo Touneleiano adservata."

find it out.

The reference is curious; especially, considering that many who read his book may live a hundred miles from London.

Many other objections might be brought against the style and manner of the work; but which are owing principally to the fundamental defect of composing it in Latin. The author has been unsuccessful in attempting to express modern things -by antient technical words; such as, naves longæ, ships of war, onerariæ, merchantmen, or transports, p. 112; pulvinaria, churches, p. 112; vestibulum & conclave, the different parts of a Scotch cabin, p. *17; but more particularly in the names of troops and officers, as primus pilus, p. 23; primi pili centurio, p. 136; ductores ordinum, p. 101; superioris ordinis præfecti, p. 105; 'cohortis propræfectus, legatus legionis, p. 113, &c. What number of our army does he call, Legio; and what name and rank in the British service has the Legatus legionis? His rendering of English terms into Latin is sometimes as imperfect; as Papists, Pontificii, p. 6, 56; nonjurors, nonjurati, p. 60; a duke, dux, p. 41, 66; a Scotch laird, regulus, passim ; gentlemen, generosi, p. 67, 83 a bagpipe, tibia utricularis, p. 32; field-pieces of artillery, tormenta campestria, p. 36, 98, &c. In his computation of time, he reckons after the antient manner, as, vigilia tertia, quarta, &c. p. 95, 96, which is more loose and indefinite than the modern way of counting by hours. But neither is he uniform in that mode of computing; for in several places he ascertains the time in our vulgar method, by the hours of the night or day; as p. 45, 96, 109, &c. He is not more consistent in reckoning by the months: sometimes it is by the ides and the kalends, p. 33, 41, 92; at others, according to the present stile, by the first, second, third day, &c. p. 62, 70.

The same want of uniformity appears in his proper names; he sometimes translates them (i.e. their signification), as Newcastle, Novum Castrum, p. 57; Holyrood-house, Sanctæ Crucis Regia, p. 45; or a part of them, as, Kilmarnock, Cella

Marnoci, p. 53; but more commonly he lets them go without other change than a Latin termination, as, Glenfinninum, p. 30; Dunbarum, p. 47; Strathallanus, p. 67; Falkirkum, Bannockburna, p. 69; which could not be because he was ignorant of their meaning; for he says they are none of them unknown; "non montium, fluviorum, plagarumve nomina (extant) antiquum quiddam et incognitum sonantia ;" p. 14, and certainly the signification of Kil, in Kilmarnock, is not better ascertained than that of glen, deen, strath, kirk, and bourn; and, therefore, the difference in his manner of rendering, must arise from his neglect to preserve a consistency.

In his description of the general rejoicing for the Duke of Cumberland's victory, he has admitted, in more than one instance, the mixture of the antient with the modern, besides other matter not unexceptionable.

"Intereà Dux, ob rempublicam optimè gestam, uno omnium "fermè per Britanniam ore pater patriæ consalutari. Anglia, "tanquam eo die renata, campanarum pulsu personare: grates "D. O. M. ad omnia pulvinaria redditæ; regi venerando gratu“latum effusa multitudo; pro suggestis, jam nullo periculo, Cum"brio devotissimæ voces passim exaudita; jura, relligiones, con"servatæ; fœdissimæque tyrannidis, uno die, unius ductu atque "auspiciis, jugum depulsum." P. 112.

Pulvinaria are properly couches, or cushions: and when antient writers use this phrase, ad omnia pulvinaria supplicatio, or the like, they express a particular custom of idolatrous service in their temples, very different from any rites of Christian worship. Neither our churches, nor any thing contained in them, can be called pulvinaria, unless he will give that appellation to the pulpit, cushions, and ornaments of his suggesta. But of these, and of the clergy who filled them, he speaks with little respect. The latter he contemptuously denominates sacrificuli, p. 40; and of the pulpits he says, they were "validissima quondam apud Scotos clas" siça," p. 68; i.e. chief places to sound an alarm in. Yet why he should insinuate that the ministers did not take part