a fpecimen of a fecond manufcript, and for accompanying st with their learned and interefling differtations.

But if the thanks of the public are juftly due to these gentlemen, for labouring in those departments of literature to which they are attached, how much greater is our debt of gratitude to his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales, by whofe judicious interference, and well-directed liberality, the progrefs of the whole undertaking was carried to the point at which it was thought proper to the further affift. ance of the legiflature." It was not," fay these editors in their dedication, "until large fums had been expended by your Royal Highnefs, and the fuccefs of the execution had juftified the boldnefs of the plan, that pecuniary affiftance was requefted and obtained from Parliament." A liberal attention to the interests of found and claffical literature will always, we truft, be applauded by the British Empire, and fupported by the efforts of its government.

It is faid by Mr. Walpole that the copies of Herculanean MSS. procured by the exertions, and now in the poffeffion of his Royal Highnefs, (though claimed as the property of his Sicilian Majefty,) amount to more than eighty; but it is "much to be regretted that the original papyri from which they had been taken were, by fome inadvertence, left at Naples; and are therefore either deftroyed, or poffeffed by the French. Under thefe circumftances we muft depend very much upon the accuracy of the academicians of Portici, and of Mr. Hayter, under whofe fuperintendence the tranfcripts were made; and we learn with pleasure, from undoubted authority,? that they were extremely fcrupulous in measuring the vacant fpaces which required to be fupplied; and that they inferted no letters or words but fuch as would exactly fill up the chasms, according to the proportions of the original letters. If we fuppofe this rule exactly attended to, as certainly it ought to be, as the only method of reftoring the original words of the author, we fhall have a moft inflexible canon of criticifm for fubftituting other words, in the place of those fupplied by the academicians; fince no word or words can poffibly be admitted but fuch as confift of exactly the fame number of letters, without any spaces or divifions between the words *.

In the published Philodemus, the fupplied letters were diftinguifhed by being printed in red. In the prefent fragment, though they are not fo clearly marked, we are to be

*Thefe MSS. are all in capitals, without any diftinction be tween the words, p. 108.

lieve, on the faith of the reftorers, that the proper number of letters is always fupplied. An equally trong canon is, that when letters are given as actually exifting in the MS., they are not to be cut out or changed, for the fake of an imagined einendation, or of introducing a word more intelligible to the critic. Under these reftrictions, it is fair to endeavour whether we cannot be more fortunate than the academicians, in reftoring the original text; but if thefe rules are difregard. ed, our labour muft evidently be vain. Sir W. Drummond and Mr. Walpole do not feem to have attempted any further emendations; they appear to have thought themselves pledged to fhow what had been done, with refpect to this manufcript; not what they could do, except in the way of collateral illuftration: and in this they have been very fuccefsful. But before we proceed to explain the contents of their volume, we will lay before our readers their statement of what has been done fince the publication of the Philodemus. After deferibing, in fpirited and elegant terms, the high expectations of the learned on the difcovery of the MSS. at Herculaneum, and the proportionable difappointment which was Belt at the dulnefs of the Epicurean tract on Mufic, which feems to have difcouraged the academicians of Portici from proceeding, they thus take up the hiftory.

Things were in this ftate, when his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales proposed to the Neapolitan Government to defray the expences of unrolling, decyphering, and publishing the manuscripts. This offer was accepted by the Court of Naples; and it was confequently judged neceffary by his Royal Highness to felect a proper perfon to fuperintend the undertaking. The reputation of Mr. Hayter, as a claffical fcholar, juftified his appointment to the place which the munificence of the Prince, and his taste for literature had created. This gentleman arrived at Naples in the be ginning of the year 1802, and was nominated one of the directors for the developement of the manufcripts.

"During a period of feveral years, the workmen continued to open a great number of the papyri. Many indeed, of thefe frail fubftances were destroyed, and had crumbled into duft, under the touch of the operator.

"When the French invaded the kingdom of Naples, in the ear 1806, Mr. Hayter was compelled to retire to Sicily. It is certainly to be deeply regretted that all the papyri were left behind. Upon the caufes of this fingular neglect we do not wish

In fome of the corrections, propofed by a very learned and ingenious critic in the Quarterly Review, attention has not been paid to thefe points; as will be fhown hereafter.

to offer any opinion, the more especially as very oppofite accounts have been given by the two parties to whom blame has been imputed. The writer of this preface knows with certainty, that when he arrived at Palermo in 1806, on his fecond miffion to his Sicilian Majefty, he found that all the papyri had been left at Naples, and that the copies of those which had been unrolled were in the poffeffion of the Sicilian Government. How this happened, it would now be fruitlefs to enquire. The English Minifter made feveral applications to the Court of Palermo to have the copies reftored, but without fuccefs, until the month of Auguft, 1807. It was pretended that, according to the original agreement, the MSS. fhould be published in the place where his Sici lian Majefty refided; that feveral Neapolitans had affifted in correcting, fupplying, and tranflating them; that his Sicilian Majefty had never refigned his right to the poffeffion either of the origi nals, or of the copies: and that, as a proof of his right being fully recognized, the copies had been depofited by Mr. Hayter himself, in the Royal Museum at Palermo. It was, however, finally agreed, that the MSS. fhould be given up pro tempore to Mr. Drummond, who immediately replaced them in the hands of Mr. Hayter. In the space of about a year, during which period they remained in the hands of the latter, a fac-fimile of part of one of the copies was engraved, and fome different forms of Greek characters as found in thefe fragments, were printed under his direction.

"From fome circumstances, which took place in the fummer of 1808, and to which we have no pleasure in alluding, a new arrangement became indifpenfable. Mr. Drummond propofed to the Sicilian Government, that the copies fhould be fent to London, where they might be published with advantages, which could not be obtained at Palermo. His propofal was acceded to, and they have been accordingly tranfmitted to England. The manner in which their publication will be conducted, will of courfe depend upon the determination of his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales, in whofe hands they have been depofited; but it may be prefumed that the Republic of letters will not have to lament, that thefe interefting fragments are to be brought to light under the aufpices of a Prince, who has always fhown himself to be the protector of learning and the arts. We venture not to affert, but we believe, that the MSS. will be fubmitted to the infpection of a felect num. ber of learned men, and will be edited under their care, with their annotations and tranflations." P. x.

With refpect to their own work, they fay but few

words.

"The authors have had no other view in giving it to the world, than to call the attention of the English public to fome fub. jects, which the perufal of the MSS., and the ancient state and

fituation

fituation of Herculaneum fuggefted to them, as worthy of being investigated. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has graciously permitted them to infert in their work a copy of one of the MSS. as it has been amended by the academicians of Portici." P. xii.

The differtations which compofe this volume are ten in number; of which fix are by Sir W. Drummond, and four by Mr. Walpole. But of thefe only one is ftrictly on the fubject of the fpecimen here published, and this is the ninth, by Sir W. Drummond, which confifts of the fragment itself and his notes upon it. The reft are on fubjects generally illuftrative of Herculaneum and its antiquities. But, to be more exact, the differtations, as they ftand in the volume, are thefe:

1. On the fize, population, and political state of the ancient City of Herculaneum. By Sir William Drummond, 2. On Campania, in general, and that part of it called Felix, By Mr. Walpole.

3. On the Etymology of Herculaneum.

Drummond.

By Sir W.

4. On fome infcriptions found among the ruins of Herculaneum. By the faine.

5. On the names of places in the Campania Felix, being frequently derived from the Phoenician. By the fame.

6. On the knowledge of the Greek language, and on the fate of the Art of Painting among the Romans, before and about the time of the deftruction of Herculaneum.

Walpole.

By Mr.

7. On the Materials on which the Ancients wrote. By Sir W. Drummond.

8. Palæographical obfervations on the Herculaneum Mufcripts. Written at Palermo, in the year 1807. By Mr. Walpole.

9. On the Manufcript of Herculaneum entitled Hap TWU ewy. By Sir W. Drummond.

10. Infcriptions at Herculaneum; at Stabiæ; excavations at Pompeii; infcription there; fubjects of Pictures at Her culaneum. By Mr. Walpole.

The preface alfo appears to be the production of Sir W. Drummond.

From the fubjects of thefe differtations, it will be at once evident that they are fufficiently connetted with the general fubject of the Herculanenfian manufcripts to form a confiftent and refpectable volume. But as the principal object of curiofity to us, and probably to our readers, is the fecond

H 3

fpecimen

fpecimen of these famous relics, now firft laid before the public, and as we fhall have very much to fay upon it, we Thall content ourselves with teftifying briefly of the differtations that they are creditable to their authors, and evince a very laudable (pirit of refearch. Sir William, like other Etymo-logifts, particularly those who follow the track of Bryant, fometimes goes further than we can feel difpofed to follow him, or can give him our affent; but we are by no means inclined to difcourage fuch attempts. A very curious table. of the comparative forms of the Etrufcan letters, as they are found in various monuments, is fubjoined at the end of the volume, and may be found extremely useful to those who purfue that branch of learning, but is not connected with the Greek fragment, at prefent the chief object of our attention.

In a very learned and acute article, on the fubject of this book, which appeared in the Quarterly Review, publithed in February laft, fpecimens of the fragment are given, with a free tranflation of the whole, and feveral conjectural readings, different from those which have been inferted by the academicians of Portici. As it is impoffible rightly to eftimate either the work of the academicians, or the propofed emendations of the critic, without giving or taking an exact view of the actual ftate of the MS, we have determined to print the whole fragment, diftinguifhing the letters actually remaining in the MS. from those fupplied by conjecture, by printing them in different characters, and interlining the readings propofed to be fubftituted by the Quarterly Reviewer, fome of which are evidently and undeniably right; others, as will be seen at once by this mode of printing, are not confiflent with the ftate of the MS., as reprefented to us in the Herculanenfia. Let us however premife, that in fome inftances there must have been errors either in the original writing, or in the tranfcript, or at least in the prefs work of the prefent book, fince they offer to us words, which are not Greek, as they ftand. On all thefe inftances we fhall fubjoin marginal remarks: and after the text itself, thus printed, we fhall introduce a tranflation rather more literal than that in the Quarterly Review.

* The fupplied letters are in capitals, thofe of the MS. in common fmall letters. We wished to have reverfed it, as the MS. is in capitals, but the number made it inconvenient. The numbers between parentheses mark the beginning of lines.