THE NEW YORK No. XIII. JULY, 1840. 1. The Historical Antiquities of the Greeks, with reference to their Political Institutions. By WILLIAM WACHSMUTH, Professor of History in the University of Leipzig. Translated from the German, by EDMUND WOOLRYCH, Esq. Oxford: 1837. D. A. Talboys. 2. A Manual of the Political Antiquities of Greece, historically considered; from the German of CHARLES FREDERICK HERMANN, Professor of the University of Heidelberg. Oxford: 1836. D. A. Talboys. * THE remarks which we had occasion to make in a recent paper, on the great superiority, over all others, of the German philologists of the present day, especially in matters of historical criticism, are most strikingly exemplified in the two works at the head of this article. We take it upon us to assure such of our readers as have a taste for this department of study, that they will be amply repaid for any pains they may be put to in possessing themselves of their contents. The translation of them into English, is but one more proof of the homage now universally done to those great masters of * On the Origin, History, and Influence of Roman Legislation. New York Review, No. 10. an erudition almost without bounds, informed and elevated by the spirit of a philosophy every way worthy of it. These are acquisitions to our langaage that deserve, in point of usefulness, to be placed by the side of the versions of Böckh's "Public Economy of Athens," and of Müller's "Dorians,' both of which have been given to the English world within the last ten or twelve years. The works under review are, indeed, a necessary supplement to those admirable disquisitions, and can be studied with perfect advantage only in connexion with them. We do not think we hazard much in saying, that whoever is not thoroughly familiar with Böckh's masterly view (so far as it goes) of the principles of Athenian government and administration, has yet to learn his elements as a student of history in one of its most interesting branches. It is a work deserving, in our opinion, to be adopted as a text-book in our public schools and colleges, instead of those handed down from an age far less accurately informed in such things than the present. Müller's Dorians, though entitled to high praise, is not, certainly, a monument of such patient and profound research, nor so full of new matter upon an old subject, as the masterpiece just mentioned of his learned master. But those two works, combined with the "Historical Antiquities" of Professor Wachsmuth, and the invaluable manual of Mr. Hermann, will be found, by a philosophic reader, to throw more light upon the genius, constitutions, and history of the two ruling Greek races, than all that has ever been written about them in the English language, from the invention of the art of printing up to the present moment. Nor is it only that they give us more, but that they give us better light upon these subjects-it is not merely that we are enabled to see farther into them, but that we are enabled to see more clearly than we ever did before. Objects hitherto surrounded with a false glare, or distorted by a troubled medium, are now exhibited in their natural shape and color, not to puzzle the curious as anomalies and non-descripts, but to instruct our reason, and to guide our conduct, by confirming the experience of statesmen, and completing the inductions of philosophers. Whatever, for example, may be in some respects the merit of Barthélemy, they whose ideas of Greek history and government have been formed upon the views presented in the "Travels of Anacharsis," have much to unlearn, before they can begin to profit by the lessons of better teachers; and perhaps the first step towards real improvement in such stu dies, would be the purging of our libraries with the salutary sternness of the curate and master Nicholas. The two volumes of which a translation is now offered to the public, form (we are told in the translator's preface) the first part of Professor Wachsmuth's treatise on Grecian Antiquities, of which we are promised the second in two additional volumes as soon as the translation is completed. This work has, it seems, already attained to the dignity of a classic in Germany. Professor Hermann, in his preface, speaks of it in that light, and thus explains the relation which his own labors bear to it: "Hence naturally follows the relation this attempt bears to the great classical work on the same subject, the "Hellenic Antiquities" of Wachsmuth. The present treatise so far entirely agrees with that work, in the main design of combining, in one regularly connected series, all the results of previous antiquarian research, though it would be presumptuous to institute any farther comparison between the two works. If considered merely as a clue through those researches, this work may escape the charge of being superfluous, but must also, in that case, disclaim the merit of the original disquisitions and reflections by which the above mentioned highly gifted and deeply learned inquirer has rendered his work so peculiarly valuable, and of the high finish he has also imparted to its details. Only a few points have been treated more at length than by Wachsmuth, the author's object having, in general, been to furnish an introduction to that author's elaborate work. The careful examiner, however, will not fail to observe, that he is no where dependant upon Wachsmuth, and that his materials and manner of treating them are derived from a diligent study of the original; still, his thanks are due to those who have gone before him, without whose previous labors an undertaking like the present would have been naturally impossible. The author's object has been twofold: to give the philological public a comprehensive survey of the political institutions and internal history of the leading nations of ancient Greece, so far as existing antiquarian remains and the most approved modern investigations have rendered our knowledge of them certain; and at the same time, to supply the want of a satisfactory abstract of a study so generally interesting to the scientific spirit of the age.”—pp. vii., viii. He then proceeds to speak more particularly of his plan. It is to frame a compendium or text-book of the science, comprehending, at once, all the results which have been obtained in what he well describes as the "gigantic progress it has made within the last twenty or thirty years," and the lead ing authorities that support or illustrate them. The work, accordingly, consists of three separate parts-the text-the authorities and the bibliographical information contained in the notes. He goes on to say, that "He has endeavored so to frame the text, as the heart and kernel of the subject, that it may form of itself a connected whole, and be read at pleasure without the notes; whether the reader, etc. He hopes that the labor he has bestowed on the attainment of clearness and pregnant brevity will not pass entirely unnoticed; though he is conscious of having rarely satisfied himself in this particular. However this may be, he has treated the whole subject in a compendious manner, and has himself throughout regarded the text, and wishes it to be regarded and judged of by others, as the principal parts to which the notes are merely supplemental . . . . From the absurd affectation of making a display of extensive reading, he is as free, as from the anxiety to quote nothing unless from actual perusal; and will confidently leave the discerning critic to determine how much he has read and to what purpose. Had Wachsmuth decidedly followed up from the first such a plan of reference as he appears to have conceived in the course of his work, the author would perhaps have modestly kept back his mite; though he believes that the correct bibliographical information this work contains, may of itself prove serviceable to many. For its general accuracy he thinks he may vouch, as well as for that of the quotations, as far as it is possible in a work of such endless labor. He might indeed have spared himself a part of this labor by curtailing the extracts, but it may be doubted whether this would have been to the advantage of a majority of his readers. For the introduction of confirmatory passages from the original texts, he reckons on the thanks of all who, feeling with himself the necessity of actual perusal, together with personal and connected examination of the sources of information, cannot obtain access to the most important of them."-pp. ix., x. This is, so far as regards Professor Hermann himself, all very proper and all very true. and all very true. We happen, by having repeatedly within a few years past travelled over the same ground, to have placed ourselves in a situation to pronounce with some confidence upon his diligence and discrimination, in the search after the original authorities on which he has had occasion to rely. His inquiries have been thorough, and his examination of the texts is as critical, as his application of them to the elucidation of the various points of his subject is, almost without exception, apposite and satisfactory. To a scholar who may not have access to a very good library, this manual will be above all price for that reason alone; although, as these quotations are none of them translated, the use of them is, of course, denied to the mere general reader. For him, however, the author has prepared in his text a body of doctrine and history, so clearly and systematically, and yet so succinctly brought out, that he will find himself compensated in it for the privation just mentioned, by a most ample and valuable store of materials and suggestions for original speculation. That this work is not a mere abridgment of Wachsmuth's, nor, indeed, in any very material degree indebted to or dependant upon it, will be obvious to whoever will be at the pains of comparing them. To say nothing of the notes, which are a clear accession to the facilities hitherto furnished to scholars on this interesting subject, his text breathes a free and original spirit, and Mr. Hermann, if he really thinks as humbly of himself and his work as he professes to do, will be surprised to hear our deliberate declaration, that were we asked whether of the two we would more willingly have dispensed with, we should hesitate long before we named his. The use he has made of Aristotle's Politics, so indispensable to any thing like a comprehensive insight into these matters, or a correct judgment upon them, would alone have recommended him to our most favorable consideration. Not that we mean, or would wish to disparage the great work of Professor Wachsmuth, for which it is surely an honor above the reach of detraction, that it has obtained so high a place in the opinions of the learned in Germany. Yet we shall be permitted to say in all candor, that, for our humble selves, we have not been so much struck with the absolute novelty of the views presented in this first part of the "Historical Antiquities," as by their general correctness, the learning equally exact and extensive with which they are enforced and illustrated, and above all, the lucid and instructive order in which they are arranged. That the author is one who thinks for himself, that his research is indefatigable, and his criticism acute and distinguishing to a fault, cannot be disputed; but we think we discover in him an overweening ambition of originality, even in matters where it can be displayed only in paradox or error, and that he is not suffi * We think an instance of this straining after novelty is to be found in the stress he lays on certain figurative uses of the word vos, v. I. p. 344. While on the subject of words, the sense ascribed to iraipeía (v. II. p. 563, Append.) of an "anti |