THE

BRITISH CRITIC

For OCTOBER, 1810,

Les efprits médiocres mais mal-faits, fur tout les demi-favans, font les plus fujets à l'opiniâtreté. Il n'y a que les ames fortes qui fachent se dédire, et abandonner un mauvais parti.

LA ROCHEFOUCAULT.

Moderate talents, wrong-headednefs, and half-learning, are always moft obftinate. It requires a ftrong mind to retract, and give up what is untenable.

ART. I. Vetus Teftamentum Græcum, cum variis Lectionibus. Editionem a Roberto Holmes, S.T.P. R.S.S. Decano Wintonienfi, inchoatam continuavit Jacobus Parfons, A.M. Temi Secundi Pars Prima. Folio. E Typographeo Clarendo nianó. 1810.

THAT fo great a work as the first edition of the Septuagint

verfion, which has been founded on a diligent collation of manuscripts, a work worthy of the University and of the country in which it is undertaken, fhould be interrupted by the death of the valuable man, on whose affiduity the labour of the publication principally refted, muft have been matter of fincere regret to every friend of theological learning. They will therefore feel a proportional gratification, in feeing the work refumed, in an uniform manner, after an interruption of only four years.

Y

BRIT. CRIT. VOL, XXXVI. OCT. 1810.

The

The latest account which we have given of the progrefs of this design was at the completion of the first volume, containing the whole of the Pentateuch.* The fubfequent publication of Daniel, according to the texts of Theodotion and the Septuagint, we hefitated to notice, becaufe we did not exactly comprehend how it was defigned to be connected with the general plan; and during our hesitation the worthy Editor died. We confefs ourselves not forry to fee that the work is now refumed, according to the order of the hiftorical books. The first part of the fecond volume, now delivered to the fubfcribers, contains the book of Joshua, printed in a form exactly agreeing with the former volume. The prefent Editor, Mr. Parfons, fpeaks of himfelf with a modefty which gives a happy omen of his fuccefs; and of the circumstances of the work, with a brevity and clearnefs which makes it more eligible to cite his words than to attempt any other narrative.

"Abhinc quadriennium eft ex quo, per mortem viri cele berrimi Roberti Holmes, S. T. P. Ecclefia Wintonienfis Decani, Editio Veteris Teftamenti Græci cum Variis Lectionibus, cujus expectationem eruditis jam diu dederat, in primo ferè operis progreffu, et inter ipfos typothetarum labores, fubito intercidit. lle enim, poftquam è variis Europe regionibus Codicum Manufcriptorum Collationes, et alia numero non exiguo ad rem fuam facientia, fingulari induftria et magnis fumptibus conquifierat, fex duntaxat S. S. Scripturæ Libros in lucem emifit; Pentateuchum fcilicet, et Danielis Prophetiam. Ne igitur in fcriniis lateret apparatus ifte pretiofus, capienda omnino erant confilia ut quæ in fufcepto opere intacta reliquerat vir Egregius, ad finem, fi pote effet perducerentur, et exquirendus aliquis qui ea omnia ad tomi prioris exemplar difponeret, typothetis in manum traderet, et in plagulis etiam corrigendis (quod in tali materie certe non minimum eft) debitam infumeret operam. Atque hoc eft illud quod humaniffimè in fe receperunt Typographei Clarendoniani Curatores, Literarum, et Sacratum præfertim, incremento ftudiofiffimè provi... dentes; fortunatiores quidem fi in Editorem incidiffent qui, ufu diuturniore, et experientia edoctus, tam eorum voluntati quam officio fuo fatisfacere potuiffet."

Befides this, the moft material intimation given by the prefent editor, relates to the fcriptural citations from the Fathers and other Greek writers, referring to the book of Joshua. What he fays is this:

* See Brit. Crit. vol. xxiv. p. 465.

" Quod

"Quod ad Patres et Scriptores Græcos attinet, pæne infinitus corum numerus eft qui per libros Pentateuchi citantur, adeo ut in hac re confilium Editoris affequi, et officio meo prorfus fatisfacere, quovis labore vix potuiffem. Quatenus vero per indicia licebat, fcriptores eofdem, fi non omnes, quamplurimos faltem, ad partes vocavi; quod tamen cum ferius quam oportebat aggreffus fuerim, que mihi ad nondum innotuerant, aut in operis decurfu erant prætermiffa, in Appendicem conjeci."

Thefe intimations denote an editorial care, from which the heft expectations may fairly be derived; and the man who, in the commencement of a tafk fo fingula ly arduous, ingenu oufly owns his difficulties, difappointments, or errors, is the very person whom we naturally may expect, in the progress of time, to make his work as free from faults as poffible. With the fame candour, a few various readings, which had been accidentally omitted in their proper place, are printed on the page, otherwife blank, which faces the first chapter of Jofhua; where, fays the editor," adponendas velim, potiùs quam lectoribus omninò fubtrahendas;" a conduct the more laudable, becaufe the omiffion would not perhaps ever have been detected.

The laudable care thus taken by the prefent editor to follow the fteps of his predeceffor, precludes any further remarks from us, except fuch as are naturally fuggefted by a hearty defire to fee the work continued, and carried to a fatisfactory conclufion. We rejoice that a man has been found to carry on the laborious defign of Dr. Holmes; and we rejoice ftill more to fee in him a man impreffed with a due feeling of the importance of the tafk, and anxious to perform it according to the very best of his abilities. Such difpofitions promife all that the public can defire; may Providence affift and blefs the work. We fhall conclude by addreffing the friends of facred literature, particularly thofe within our own church, in the words of a former very celebrated editor of the Septuagint *.

"Sufcipite defertum à multis literarum patrocinium; imprimis Ecclefie veftræ avitam gloriam, ut hactenus æterna cum veftra laude facitis, ftrenue tuemini, et inter curas Reipublicæ falutares etiam in pofterum bonorum et innocentium, literafque amantium civium præfidium numerate.”

ART. II. Anecdotes of Painters, who have refided or been born in England: with Critical Remarks on their Productions: by Edward Edwards, deceased, late Teacher of Perspective, and Affociate, in the Royal Academy: Intended as a Continuation to the Anecdotes of Painting, by the late Horace, Earl of Orford. 4to. pp. 327. 11. 16 s. Payne, White, &c. 1809.

FEW

EW works have contributed more to the establishment of the English school, than Lord Orford's "Anecdotes of Painting." Although by no means a complete history, or a complete biography of the art, it was the first publication which excited a serious wifh that our country, as it excelled in every other science, fhould not be without that of painting; and it ferved to point out in what we were deficient, how our deficiencies arofe, and by what means they might be fupplied. It fhowed that where there was patronage and tate, there must be genius, which wanted only encouragement and whatever fhare of the merit of that work may be attributed to the oflenible author, he cannot be denied the praife of having prefented Vertue's notices and collections in a form and ftyle peculiarly calculated to be popular, and to engage the attention of that clafs, whofe zeal, patriotifm, and patronage, it was abfolutely neceffary to fecure.

Holding this opinion, we welcomed the prefent undertaking, as having a tendency to preferve the fpirit that has been excited, and to form a record of its fuccefs. Since the period of Lord Orford's labours, a very confiderable space has intervened, including, indeed, nearly the whole of the prefent reign. It is perhaps furprifing that Lord Orford, who furvived the first appearance of his volumes so long, and was not infenfible to the effects they had produced; who had witneffed alfo the rife and much of the progrefs of the English school, should have done fo little to a work which he must have had many opportunities of enlarging. But whether having once difmiffed it, he became indifferent to its fuccefs, or whether he was unwilling to be the critic and hiftorian of contemporary merit, it is certain, that with the exception of a very few notes, he left the copy for the edition to be printed with his other writings in 1797, exactly as it was firft configned to the prefs.

The volume before us is the production of the late Mr. Edwards, a gentleman who, although he did not attain the highest rank in his profeffion, was qualified by foundness of judgment for what he undertook. He was one of the few artifls who have cultivated the art of writing, as well as of

painting,

painting, and appears to be, in a great measure, divefted of the partialities which too frequently throw fufpicion on the opinions of profeffional men. The work, however, as we now have it, is pofthumous, and in a few inftances appears to have fuffered from this circumftance; yet we are informed that he was" latterly chiefly employed in fuperintending the printing of this work, for which he had been collecting ma terials during the greater part of his life; much of it was printed before his death, and the copy for the remainder was completed." Notwithstanding this, had Mr. Edwards lived to revife it, he would probably have pointed out feveral errors, which have escaped thofe into whofe hands the care of the printing afterwards fell.

After a fuccinct and well-written life of Mr. Edwards, follows a PREFACE explaining the nature of the work, and fomething of the hiftory of Lord Orford's volumes. Mr. Edwards feems to characterize that nobleman juftly, when he fays, that "he was by no means adapted in his own person to have acquired [acquire] the original information," (commu nicated by Vertue)" owing to a certain degree of faftidiousnefs in his manners, united with fomething of the confequence of rank, which difqualified him from making those familiar inquiries that would have been neceffary for the attainment of the requifite knowledge."

In the INTRODUCTION, the author gives a sketch of the rife of those focieties to which the arts have been indebted, as the "Antigallican;" the "Dilettanti," and the " Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Com merce," particularly the laft. It began in 1754, and Mr. Edwards gives us the pleafing information (probably new to many of our readers) that in the course of the first twenty years, they expended" the fum of 7,9267, 5s, together with 10 medals of gold, 6 of filver, 17 pallets of gold, and 84, great and fmall, of filver: all of which were bestowed as rewards, in the departments of painting, fculpture, and architecture."-We have also a fhort account of the Duke of Richmond's Gallery, which was opened for ftudents, foon after his Grace's return from his travels, about the beginning of the prefent reign. The origin and foundation of the "Royal Academy," is neceffarily an article of confiderable length and intereft, as it contains copies of documents which it would now be difficult to procure, and is enlivened by many curious facts, relating to the other focieties previoufly attempted on a fimilar plan, the rife of annual exhibi tions, &c. &c.