perceived the alteration, and consequent destruction of all that to them appeared beautiful and characteristic; while the odium of having substituted fictitious speeches for those of Pericles and his illustrious compeers, or, at least, of having disguised their language in tawdry and irrecognizable garments, would have fallen upon the luckless historian.

It may be remarked, in passing, that the same fondness for close and rapid reasoning, which might leave much to be supplied by the ready intellect of the reader, pervades the truly classical writings of St. Paul. His early instruction at the feet of Gamaliel in the great masters of compressed diction, imparted such a correct taste to his mind, and held it in such severe discipline, that he sometimes only hints at a subject, when its complete developement would furnish innumerable opportunities of eloquent display; and never allows his imagination, rich and splendid as it evidently was, to interrupt for a moment the chaste, sober flow of unadorned reason, with a single unnecessary discursion.

Thucydides probably never returned to Athens. Fond of studious retirement, he preferred the rural quiet of Scapteshyle to a bustling capital; and though included in the general amnesty of Euclides, he died, and was interred, in exile. Xenophon is said to have accidentally acquired possession of the manuscripts of the Thucydidean history; and when it was in his power to suppress them, or appropriate the information they contained to his own private advantage, regardless of the fate of his own works in the mean time, while the public interest was directed to those of such surpassing interest and power, he faithfully published the whole.

Xenophon has been always accounted the third great historian of Greece. He was an Athenian, and flourished about three hundred and eighty-seven years before Christ. He excelled at once in history, philosophy, and military tactics. He was appointed by the younger Cyrus to command ten thousand Greeks, who assisted him in his headstrong expedition against Artaxerxes, his elder brother, and the reigning monarch of Persia. Cyrus was killed at the

pletely routed. Xenophon retreated with his countrymen through a vast extent of hostile territory, and has left on record an authentic history of his memorable campaign, and the events which followed it. He also wrote a moral romance, entitled "The Education of Cyrus," from whom his own patron was descended. He concluded the history of Thucydides, (which that great writer had left incomplete,) in the first two books of his "Hellenics;" and afterwards continued the subject in three others. The "Expedition of Cyrus" is evidently a very much more youthful production than the "Hellenics." Its chief characteristics of style are unaffected elegance and simplicity, and have obtained for him the appellation of the Attic muse, and the Attic bee. If the muses and the graces spoke, it would be in the language of Xenophon. He is a model of perspicuity, and the nice choice and collocation of words; but we look in vain for that splendour and majesty of thought, which animate and dignify the page of Thucydides. An interesting crisis occasionally elevates his diction to momentary eloquence, but it as quickly subsides to its former even balance. The history of his retreat reminds the classical reader of Julius Cæsar's Commentaries. They exhibit the same manly and straight-forward candour, the same purity and natural flow of composition, and both are equally valuable to the politician, the soldier, and the scholar. Cæsar, however, is somewhat the graver and more severe writer, while Xenophon has the advantage in ease and grace. It was by the diligent perusal of his "Expedition," that Scipio and Lucullus arose to eminence in the military art.

Without entering at all into the sweeping denunciation and philippie which Niebuhr, with his wonted slashing and dangerous scepticism, however indicative it may be of intense keenness and subtlety of mind, has thundered against Xenophon, and in which he calls that graceful writer “an old driveller,” indulging in “mawkish σтwμuhμτa,” and "the lisping naiveté of a little girl," it must be acknowledged that his "Hellenics" are not characterised by that sound discrimination, and firm consistency, which

mark his earlier and more finished writings. Political tergiversation was as common at Athens as in Great Britain ; and Xenophon forgot in his old age the admiration which he had formerly lavished on the Athenian government, in what Niebuhr calls "an offensive idolatry of the mummy into which the Spartan constitution had withered.”

Such are some of the characteristics of the three illustrious authors who have written in Greek on Greek affairs. Had the limits of a Magazine permitted it, reference might have been made to Plutarch, Polybius, and Dionysius, who discoursed in the language of Greece, though their treatises are on other subjects. And above all, some observations might not improperly have been introduced upon that new and most valuable kind of history, which Aristotle has comprehended in his work on popular eloquence; history not of singular circumstances or events, but of decisions, feelings, and habits of thinking; and such as will transmit to the latest generations, more forcibly than any other, a concentrated and generalized description of the maxims and sentiments of the Athenian people.

Oxford, May 12th, 1833.

THE PRETENDER.

ACHAICUS.

WHEN the unfortunate Prince Charles Stewart wandered through the Highlands, after the fatal battle of Cullodon, he with a few faithful followers one night took up his abode in a hill in the west of Ross-shire. Captain Furguson, that man of cruelty in the eye of every Highlander devoted to the Prince, had his ship at anchor on the coast, and a party of his men, with two of the natives as guides, searching the country, where circumstances led them to conclude the royal fugitive or some of his adherents were lurking. Upon their nearing the spot, the smell of roast meat assured them that their prey was at hand. Of this they spoke to each other, exulting in the idea of returning to Furguson with the Prince their captive, and securing the £30,000 put upon his head. One of the guides who was

scholar enough to know what they were talking about, communicated the matter to the other, who did not understand them, and expressed his fears that the Prince would be taken. The other, more ready at expedient, and equally anxious for the safety of the royal personage they were in pursuit of, declared he would sooner die than see it; and asked how he should express in English that he saw men creeping on the opposite ridge. This Donald learnt in a twinkling; so, turning about to the English tars who were scrambling on behind, he vociferated with all his might, "De Prince, de Prince; luke, de Prince, running dere! fire, fire! de Prince, de Prince!" In a moment every musket was pointed at the spot to which Donald directed, and an instantaneous volley and shout proved the man's sagacity and Charles's safety. The cave they found, but spoiled roast meat was all the booty waiting their arrival. The Prince and his men took the alarm, abandoned their retreat, and fought their way during a dark and dismal night through moors and rocks wild and savage in the extreme. In the morning they came to a farm belonging to people who lived on an island about a mile distant. But no boat could be had to waft them to Skye; and to secure one, they adopted the only method that offered. They drove the cattle into the corn: this immediately brought a boat from the island; and so soon as the Prince and his men found it landed, and the coast clear, they instantly took possession of it, left its value in money, and in a few hours landed safely in the Isle of Skye.

Bristol.

GEORGE PRYCE.

GAMING.

GAMING for any thing considerable is founded upon avarice; and is a deliberate violation of the tenth commandment; and therefore in this respect, it is perhaps the vice of all others most inexcusable. In crimes of other kinds, surprise, inattention, and violence of passion, although they cannot wholly excuse the committal, yet doubtless they alleviate much of the guilt: but here all these pre

tences are taken away. And men are so far from being under the influence of any of these alleviating circumstances, that nothing is more notorious than their proceeding to the practice of this vice with the utmost caution and coolness of judgment. And we are told, that it is in contests of this kind, as in war: he that hath most presence of mind, and is least embarrassed, is generally most successful.

Besides the deliberate impiety of this vice, it were worth while to consider also the folly of it. For what can be more absurd, than for any man in his senses, without any necessity, to put it to the chance of a die, whether his house, his money, or his estate, shall be his own, or another man's? So that nothing but a desperate state of affairs can ground the least appearance of a reasonable plea for such a practice. And even in that case, if the property of a third person can any way be hazarded by the risk we run, then is great dishonesty added to great imprudence. And therefore suppose there were no impiety in this practice, yet such is the folly and danger of it, that you can scarcely invent a case where it would be pardonable even upon the score of stupidity; unless you could suppose a weak man of wealth, so immensely rich, that losses of that kind could not affect the main of his fortune: but that supposition is impossible; since it is evidenɩ, that no fortune can be so large and inexhaustible as to be able to supply an extravagance of this kind. There is no fund adequate to gaming; nor can you imagine any condition of life so immensely affluent, as may not be exhausted, by an extravagance of this kind, in one hour.

"But men may limit themselves in this extravagance; and resolve never to exceed a certain sum." True, men may easily make such resolutions; but the difficulty is, how to keep them, when losses and ill luck have fretted their spirits, and inflamed their blood, to such a degree, that they have lost the thoughts of every thing but recovery and revenge; and I dare say, if it were possible to make an estimate of such resolutions, not one in ten thousand of them has ever been kept. Nay, is it not madness to expect that