WRITINGS.

FELTON'S HOMER.

'OMHPOY 'IAIAZ.-The Iliad of Homer, from the Text of WOLF. With English Notes and FLAXMAN's Illustrative Designs. Edited by C. C. FELTON, A. M., College Professor of Greek in Harvard University. Boston: Hilliard, Gray & Co. ; Cambridge Brown, Shattuck & Co. 1833.

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From the American Quarterly Review, Vol. xiv. No. xxvii.

We have examined this volume with great satisfaction. The beauty of the print and the extreme accuracy which prevails throughout, are highly creditable both to the editor and to the accomplished scholar who is at the head of the University press. The book would adorn any library, and will, undoubtedly, from its elegance, be often seen among the motley, but very splendid throng of an American centre-table. The scholar will receive great pleasure from the careful perusal of it. The editor has selected Wolf's text as amended in the Leipzig edition

by Tauchnitz in 1829; this text is too well known to require any comment in this place, and it is only necessary to observe, that the American reprint is worthy of the original. The illustrations from Flaxman form one of the most remarkable and interesting features of the work, and have been extremely well executed by a native artist.

The preface, by Mr. Felton, is brief and unpretending, but contains too much excellent criticism to be passed by unnoticed. Speaking of the object of the work, he says, " My wish has been to lead the young student to read the poem, not in the spirit of a school-boy conning a dull lesson to be construed' and parsed' and forgotten when the hour of recitation is at an end, but in the delightful consciousness that he is employing his mind upon one of the noblest monuments of the genius of man.' Had the same spirit prevailed with numerous other editors of the classics, we should not now see so many instances of professional men abandoning classical studies, and loathing the names of Greek and Latin through very weariness of difficult texts, rendered still more so by snarling notes in an unknown tongue, (we can scarce call it Latin,) written by quarrelling commentators.

We are happy to see that the editor regards the books of the Iliad as "the work of one author, and that author Homer." His view of the work renders it much more interesting, and is, we think, authorized by the innate traits of the poem. The object of the author seems to have been less to describe the war of Troy, than to set forth in becoming terms the

glorious achievements of his hero. Had Homer given the title to his poem, we think it would have been called the Achilleid, and this tends to confirm the explanation of the announcement of the poem referred to in the first note, namely, that the whole plan and design of the work are declared in the first five lines. The poet invokes the muse to sing of the continued wrath of Achilles, which brought down a thousand woes upon the Greeks, and sent the souls of many heroes to Hades," and the will of Jupiter was fulfilled." Now this will of Jupiter is constantly referred to throughout the poem, from the time it is first expressed in answer to the prayer of Thetis. It is, that the Trojan shall prove victorious and destroy many Grecian warriors, in order that the need of Achilles' assistance may be bitterly felt by Agamemnon. Hence all the success of the Trojans is ascribed to Jove, who sits on Mound Ida, and inspires them with ardor and courage; this will is not changed till Achilles returns to battle; and the wrath of the Father of Gods and men is powerfully expressed, when, overcome by the arts of Juno, he sleeps, and awaking, finds that the victorious career of the Trojans has for the moment been checked.

Commencing with this view of the poem, the editor proceeds to state briefly the historical facts. which form the basis of the Iliad, and then gives a beautiful though rapid critique upon the poem. The remarks are perfectly in accordance with the object of the work as declared at first; and the student must be destitute of every spark of classic

enthusiasm, who can read them without going with renewed ardor to the perusal of the poem. The notes are conceived in the same spirit. They are the conversation of a kind friend, who is thoroughly imbued with the early Grecian taste and impressed with the splendor of Homer, who is interested in our advance and wishes to inspire us with the same taste, and open our eyes to the same splendor. One great recommendation they bear on the very face; that is, they are written in English. To print Latin notes and comments upon a work intended for American or English students, appears to us sheer pedantry and affectation; and we hail with joy a classical work which comes explained through the medium of our own tongue, the fittest of modern languages, save the copious German, to do justice to the unrivalled flexibility and the varying grace of the Greek. In the doubtful passages, the editor has generally given us the most approved versions, sometimes adding his own; other difficult words and phrases he has translated very satisfactorily, for he has evidently taken common sense for his guide; a faithful interpreter sadly neglected by the commentators. The larger notes are a continuation or amplification of the critique he has given in the preface; wherever a passage of more than common beauty or power occurs, he points it out with the characteristics; and the closing note for each book is generally a summary with critical remarks upon the whole. Among the most interesting we would enumerate the note at the close of the second book, the one to the 365th line

of book 6th, upon the parting of Hector and Andromache, the note to line 206, book 9th, to line 829, book 14th, and to line 592, book 15th. The note respecting the shield of Achilles, is highly interesting and satisfactory; and the description of the grief of Priam and Andromache in the last note to book 23d, is worthy of the original. We could gladly quote many of the beautiful passages with which the editor has filled his comments, but we will restrict ourselves to the paragraph in which he closes his remarks upon Homer; it is a fair specimen of his style and of the happy spirit of criticism which pervades the work.

"The close of the poem is marked by the utmost simplicity, but it is a simplicity that accords with the elegant spirit of antiquity. The impression it leaves on the mind is deep. We feel that we have been guided through scenes of infinite variety, beauty, pathos, solemnity, from the terrible onset to the mournful ceremonies of the funeral pyre, by a poet who is perfectly familiar with every aspect of life, and every feeling of the heart; and when he takes leave of us, it is with the simple consciousness that his song is over, and his task accomplished."

We cannot but notice the harmony which exists between Mr. Felton's criticism upon the Iliad, and Flaxman's illustrations; each is a commen upon the other. These illustrations add greatly to our interest in reading the poem. So much, indeed, is the pleasure we derive from any work of imagination enhanced by the coöperation of the artist, that it has become fashionable to add this charm to all elegant