and with the latest and worst Mff." Kennicott, Diff. II. P. 480.'

Dr. Walton got leave to import paper, duty-free in 1652; began the work 1653; and published it 1657. It is furprifing he could get through fix fuch volumes in four years; though certainly many printers were employed on it; among others, Mr. Ichabod Dawes of Lowlayton, maternal grandfather to W. Bowyer. But it is plain that, in the re-printed leaf of the Preface, Dr. Walton robs the Protector of the honour of patronizing this work, which was begun in 1653, and published in 1657; three years before the Reftoration, 1660. The licence was granted by the council of state in 1652; and was continued by Oliver, who diffolved the Rump-Parliament in 1653. Dr. Walton was confecrated bishop of Chester, December 2, 1660; and died Nov. 29, 1661.'

The paffage in Dr. Walton's preface, here alluded to, is the following: "Primo autem commemorandi, quorum favore chartam à vectigalibus immunem habuimus, quod quinque abhinc annis, à Concilio fecretiori primo conceffum, poftea à fereniffimo D. Protetore ejufque Concilio, operis promovendi causâ, benignè confirmatum & continuatum erat. Quibus fubjungendi, D. Carolus Ludovicus, princeps Palatin. S. R. I. elector: illuftriffimus D. Guilielmus, &c."

Thus it stood till the Reftoration. Afterwards the paffage was altered in this manner, in a fecond edition of the leaf, "Inter hos effufiore bonitate labores noftros profecuti funt (præter eos quorum favore chartam à vectigalibus immunem habuimus) fereniffimus princeps D. Carolus, &c."

In the remaining part of this Appendix the author points out feveral errors in the Hebrew and Samaritan text, and in Preface, of the English Polyglott.

This work, though not pretended to be a complete history of the origin of printing, gives a more accurate account of it, than any book hitherto published in this kingdom.

XI. Differtatio de Babrio, Fabularum Efopearum Scriptore. Inferuntur Fabule Quædam fopeæ nunquam antehac editæ, ex Cod. MS. Bodleiano. Accedunt Babrii Fragmenta, 8vo. 15. Payne.

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ABRIAS or Babrius was a Greek poet, who turned fop's Fables into fcazons, or choliambics; that is, into verses differing from iambics only in this, that they have an iambic foot in the fifth place, and a fpondee in the fixth, or laft. Suidas frequently quotes him. But the time and country, in which he lived, are unknown, Suidas only fays; Babgias, n

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Βαβριος. μυθες ήτοι μυθιάμβος, εισι γαρ δια χοριάμβων [1. χωλιάμβων] εν βιβλίοις δεκα. ούτος εκ των Αισωπειων μυθων μετέβαλεν από της αυτων λογοποιΐας εις εμμετρα, ήγεν τις χοριαμβος [1. χωλιαμβος]. "Babrias, five Babrius. Verfibus choliam bicis fabularum libros x. fcripfit. Ex Efopo autem fabulas fuas deprompfit, oratione folutâ in ligatam, five versus choliambicos, mutata. Avienus, the fabulift *, seems to intimate, that Babrius was prior to Phædrus, who wrote under the reign of Auguftus or Tiberius. "Quas (fabulas feil. Afopi) Græcis iambis Babrius [al, Gabrias] repetens in duo volumina coar&tavit. Phædrus etiam partem aliquam quinque in libellos refolvit." The author of the prefent Differtation produces a paffage from the Homeric Lexicon of Apollonius, which appears to be a quotation from Babrius. Apollonius is supposed to have lived about the time of Auguftus, or fomething earlier. Babrius therefore must have written before that period. As far as we are able to judge by the fragments, which we have of this work, he appears to have been a valuable writer his reprefentations are natural, his expreffions lively, and his verfification harmonious.

The Differtator informs us, that he has met with a MS. of Elop in the Bodleian library, which contains feveral fables, not, as he apprehends, in any other copy. In these fables, there are many poetical lines, the disjecti membra poetæ, and fome of the fragments of Babrius, preferved by Suidas. From which he infers, that these fables have been turned into profe from the choliambics of that author,

Bentley has endeavoured to prove, that it is very uncertain, whether fop himself left any fables behind him in writing, or not +. Our author thinks, there can be no doubt, but that he did; if so, it is on all hands agreed, that they were written in profe. He farther fuppofes, that many of them are come down to us, at least, in substance; that probably the productions of other writers, upon the same plan, were added to the collection, and paffed indifcriminately under the name of Afop, or Efopic fables; that Babrius's work might also contain fome of his own original compofitions; that from this time the profe collection, as in feveral refpeas inferior, might be neglected, and foffered to fink into oblivion; and that in fubfequent ages, when the beauty of language, and the harmony of numbers, were unregarded, the fables of Babrius

• Avienus in Præf. fab. This writer is fuppofed by Giraldus to have lived about the end of the fourth, and the beginning of the fifth century.

Bentley's Differtation upon the Fables of Efop.

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might

might be again tranfprofed by various writers. By thefe means, he thinks, we may account for the lofs of fome of Efop's fables, which are mentioned by the ancients; and for that diverfity, which is obfervable in the MS. copies, from which the editions of Accurfius, Stephens, and Nevelet, have been printed.

Having laid before the reader the fables, which, as we have already obferved, he found in the Bodleian MS. and which have not appeared in other collections, he remarks, that the author, whoever he was, had undoubtedly Babrius's book before him, and moft probably introduced the verfes of that author into his profe, for want of a copia verborum, or a pro- ́ command of language; in which indeed he appears to have been very deficient.

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The author has fubjoined the fragments of Babrius, with

notes.

The learned reader will be pleafed with this publication; as it appears to be the work of an accurate and judicious critic, and contains an account of a new difcovery in the republic of letters.

XII. Obfervations on feveral Paffages in the Book of Proverbs ; with two Sermons. By Thomas Hunt, D. D. F.R. & A. S.S. 410. 55. Jerved. Rivington.

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Confiderable part of this work was printed off, long before the author's death; but the profeffor being remarkably distrustful of his own judgment, and afraid of the feverity of public criticifm, fufpended the impreffion. Yet as he had frequently declared, that it was his intention to complete this volume, and had acquainted his friend Dr. Kennicott with every article, of which he meant it fhould confift, it was finished under the doctor's fuperintendence.

In the Introduction, the learned author makes fome general remarks on the proper mode of explaining the Book of Proverbs.

• Almost all thefe aphorifins, he fays, are divided into two parts, or verficles, or, as the Greeks call them, hemistics, which, to make the divifion the more confpicuous, are in Grabe's edition of the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX. ranged under each other. These two hemiftics are generally connected by the Hebrew particle vau, which in our language is tranflated and, or but, according as the fubject of the proverb will admit... In both thefe cafes, that is, whether one hemiftic be put by way of confirmation of the other, or by way of oppofition to it, they mutually explain each other. Wherefore, as this is the almoft invariable method of these fentences, it will follow, that when

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ever a tranflation appears to depart from this method, that is, whenever the hemiftics are fo rendered as not to express this dependence on each other, we have great reafon to fufpect, either the truth of fuch tranflation, or the purity of the present text.'

The firft article is a Differtation on Proverbs vii. 22, 23, which was published many years fince, and is now reprinted with fome few alterations.

The paffage in queftion is this: "He goeth after her ftraightway, as an ox goeth to the flaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the ftocks: till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hafteth to the fnare, and knoweth not, that it is for his life."

The defign of Solomon is to reprefent, in a lively manner, the folly, indifcretion, and danger of the young adulterer. Having taken his firft comparison from the ox going to the flaughter, it was more than probable, he would have proceeded to fome other brute animal, and not have introduced the fool and the ftocks, and then have gone to the bird haftening to the fnare of the fowler. To remove this incongruity, the profeffor fuppofes, that inftead of avil, a fool, we should read al, a hart. This he obferves, was evidently the word in the copy, from which the LXX. made their tranflation: for the Greek word in this place is exapos, a bart. The Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic agree with the Septuagint. The word 01 mufar, which is tranflated correction, will, he fays, very properly fignify toils or fnares, and D akas, tranflated Stocks, may be rendered leaping or bounding. He therefore tranflates the fecond comparifon in this manner: 'Or as a hart boundeth into the toils, till a dart ftrike through his liver: fuppofing, that the latter claufe refers to the ancient method of ensnaring and dispatching the hart. See Xenophon's Cynegetics.

This criticifm reftores the text, otherwife miferably confufed, to a proper and elegant fenfe. For here the firft and fecond fimilitudes are of a piece with each other, and make a confiftent fenfe with the third: and the whole is a beautiful gradation; the different degrees of fpeed, by which the ox, the hart, and the bird, are respectively carried on to their deftruction, aptly reprefenting the several advances, by which the young finner goes on to his; fetting out flowly and reluctantly at first, but quickening his pace afterwards, and preffing on with eagerness and confidence, in proportion to the lengths he has gone.

The fecond article is a fermon on these words of Solomon, Prov. xix. 2. Alfo, that the foul be without knowledge, it is not good and he that hafteth with his feet, finneth." The meaning of this text, as our author ftates it, is this: by the foul's being without knowledge, we may understand the two prin

cipal faculties of the mind being without their proper discipline and direction; the understanding without information and inftruction, and the will without prudence and difcretion. And as the want of these qualifications is the fource of all the errors and mifcarriages, which happen to us in our journey through life, the perfon, who has the misfortune to labour under this want, is not without great elegance and profperity, compared to a hafty travaller, who for want either of informing himself of his way at first, or of purfuing it with proper caution and circumspection afterwards, mifies his road, and wanders about in endless perplexity and diftrefs.

To this Differtation and Sermon, the author has added critical remarks on other difficult paffages in the fame book, which he calls Obfervations, rather than Differtations, on account of the fhortness of the greater part of them.

Obferv. I. "Surely in vain the net is fpread, in the fight of any bird." Prov. i. 17. These words our author renders, For in vain is the net ftrewed with grain, in the eyes of any bird,' and explains in this manner: the bird is by Solomon, chap. vii. 23. made ufe of, as a fit image of the young inconfiderate adulterer: fo that the net is laid before his eyes in vain; not because he has the prudence to beware of it, and fo to render the arts of the fowler vair; but because he has the imprudence to fall into it, and fo to render vain what might have been a fufficient notice to him. 42 in this view, he thinks, birds become a proper emblem of the infatuated robbers and murderers, described in the foregoing verses; who being led on by the fpecious baits of large and rich spoils, pursue their wicked courfes with ruin id deftruction staring them in the face; and are fo intent in laying plots for the lives of others, that they never confider the danger, to which they are expofing their own.

Obferv. II. "Delight is not feemly for a fool: much less for a fervant to have rule over princes." xix. 10. Dr. Hunt tranflates this paffage, It is not feemly for a fool to hold the reins of government; much lefs for a fervant to have rule over princes.'-Much less, i. e. in as much as the tyranny and infolence of the one is far more intolerable, than the weakness and incapacity of the other.

Obferv. III. "The defire of a man is his kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar.” xix. 22. Dr. Hunt's tranflation: The defirablenefs of a man is his kindness; but a poor man is better than a man of deceit.' That is, a man is defired, beloved, and courted, for his open, tender, and generous difpofition; but one, who is hypocritical and falfehearted, who makes pretences of friendship, only to deceive or betray his friend, is less worthy of esteem than a poor man,