This cannot be excelled. There are, however, one or two little matters that we must remark upon with the same freedom with which we have noticed the occasional oversights of the writers we have already criticised. In No. iii. p. 3, we question whether any good classical authority can be produced for 'O tu qui' in the line, O tu, qui Mortis curas arcana sacerdos.' "O tu,' Tu qui,' and 'O qui' are common enough, but we do not remember seeing the three words in question employed together. O tu quæ' also occur together in No. cxxx. p. 202. No. viii. p. 10: is translated:- A happy lover who has come To look on her that loves him well,' Qui lætus properat nympham visurus amator, Nympham, cui gremium mutuus implet amor.' In 'Gremium' is the lap, not the bosom. A very similar error is sometimes made, conversely, in translating Propertius III. VII. 11 and 12: 'Cynthia non sequitur fasces, non quærit honores, Here'sinus' is sometimes supposed to signify the affectionate feelings of Cynthia's lovers, whereas it really means their 'pockets' or purses.' Verum operi longo fas est obrepere somnum.' Dr. Holden, of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ipswich, has given us an extremely handsome volume as a first instalment of translations into Latin and Greek of his own selections of English passages for that purpose, which are in considerable use at schools and in the Universities, and are well deserving of their popularity. The plan of the work almost necessitates the presence of pieces of unequal merit, against which may be set the fact, that laudatores temporis acti will find the scholars of the past represented in it as well as those of the present day, and will certainly be constrained to admit that the latter are not affected by any degeneracy in point of Latin versification. We proceed to give one or two specimens from the pens of Dr. Holden's contributors. The second translation (p. 25) of one of Wordsworth's most exquisite little poems is very close and graceful. It is by Mr. C. B. Scott, the present Head Master of Westminster School: 'She dwelt amongst the untrodden ways A maid whom there were none to praise, A violet by a mossy stone, She lived unknown, and few could know But she is in her grave, and O! 'Virgo recessus incolebat avios Dilecta; saxum viola muscosum prope At pulera, qualis prima per crepuscula Ignota vixit Lucia; a terrestribus Et nunc sepulcro dormit: at superstiti Ah! vita quam dispar mihi!' In pages 73 and 74 we have no less than three translations of Herrick's Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,' in every one of which either pejor' or 'in pejus' is used to represent the word ' worse' in the lines:— 'That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer; We cannot think that any great difficulty would have been experienced in introducing deterior' or ' in deterius ' in place of the words actually used, and we are surprised that not one of the writers appears to have thought of so obviously close a method of representing the degeneracy of a thing originally good. It is interesting to compare the translations of the commencement of the Lay of the last Minstrel' by Mr. Munro of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Professor Conington of Oxford (pp. 135, 136). Each translator has his points of superiority and inferiority; but it would be difficult to decide to which, on the whole, the palm ought to be assigned, and we think that most people would be very well content to place them in a bracket. Want of space alone prevents us from quoting both pieces at length with the original English. Mr. Clay, of the Cambridge University Press, has given a most exquisite translation into Asclepiads of Shakspeare's 'Orpheus with his lute made trees, There had made a lasting spring. Every thing that heard him play, Hung their heads and then lay by; In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart "Vates Threicius lyrâ Arbusta et rigidum flectere montium Auditis numeris ; vel tumidum mare Demisitque caput; vis ea carminis, Sopire aut placito tradere funeri.' A slight transposition would, in our opinion, have rendered this little piece absolutely perfect. A modified synaphea runs through the Asclepiad system, which is violated by a short vowel at the end of one line preceding a vowel at the commencement of the next. Thus 'Auditis numeris; vel tumidum mare is metrically incorrect, but there is no reason why the words 'mare' and 'minas' should not have been transposed, and we own to a little surprise that this has not been done by so careful and exact a scholar as Dr. Holden. Of Dr. Holden's own performances, as well as those of his cousin, Dr. Holden of Durham, we will only say that they are uniformly good, and we recommend his work most warmly to all who are interested in Latin and Greek versification. Indeed this work appears somewhat opportunely to remind the public that the highest scholarship is not confined to the socalled great' schools, but will more commonly be found in perfection among the head masters of smaller grammar schools. Always excepting Dr. Kennedy, of Shrewsbury, we doubt whether many of the head masters of the great' schools could stand a competition in point of scholarship and power over the Greek and Latin languages with those of Ipswich and Durham. We think that the specimens of both Greek and Latin verse, which we have given will, in the estimation of our readers, fully bear us out in the opinion which we expressed at the outset, that classical scholarship has by no means degenerated in our country. Nay, we will venture the assertion that no country produces so many good and promising scholars annually as our own, although we must admit that other vocations and other paths of life carry them off in too large numbers from their allegiance to the muses of Greece and Rome. A few words we must say, before we conclude, on a phenomenon which has doubtless not escaped the notice of our readers, in one of the works which we have been reviewing, but our remarks on which, on account of its important practical bearing, we have reserved for our final paragraphs. We allude to the mixture of translations from modern with those from ancient languages, which appears in Mr. Gladstone's pages. Although as mere instruments of education the two classical languages may justly claim a superiority, and although our highest interests, as immortal beings, are bound up with the Greek language, yet, if we leave the seclusion of academic shades and cast our eyes on what is actually going on around us in practical life, we must be blind indeed if we fail to discern the vast and increasing proportions assumed by the importance of modern languages. Are our Universities to continue either to ignore this undoubted fact, or by a grudging and niggardly acknowledgment of it, to repel from their bosoms those to whom a mastery over several modern languages is a practical object, beside which almost all other educational questions sink at once into comparative unimportance? Why should not the Universities strike into the path thus indicated by Mr. Gladstone, and by the institution of schools or triposes for honourable competition in modern languages, attract to themselves a class of men, that of all others would be most benefited by a residence within their precincts? Examinations, conducted as those for classical honours are at present, would allow but a trifling advantage to that superficial and merely conversational knowledge which is gained by a residence abroad during boyhood, and modern languages would soon be studied in so exact and scientific a manner, as to produce intellectual and educational results only second to those of the systematic study of the classical languages. ART. III.-1. Report from the Select Committee on the Thames River, together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, &c. London: 1865. 2. Metropolis Water Supply. On the Supply of Water to London from the Sources of the River Severn. By JOHN FREDERIC BATEMAN, C.E., F.R.S. London: 1865. 3. Another Blow for Life. By GEORGE GODWIN, Esq. London: 1865. WE HILE the sources and limits of the supply of some of the prime necessaries of our physical existence have at different times engaged public attention, the distribution of one of the most indispensable of them all, namely, pure water, has been less the subject of inquiry than most others. We have acquired pretty accurate statistics of the amount of our production of coal, and we are continually learning more and more of the quantities remaining for future consumption. We know, too, not a little of our national commissariat, we can estimate our bread-stuffs, our flesh-meats, our fish-supplies, our tea and coffee, and milk, and many other minor articles of daily consumption; but when we arrive at fresh and pure water, we are at once in the domain of general ignorance and conjecture. When the country was but thinly peopled, and when men had all the land before them where to choose their dwellings, for the most part they searched for springs and streams and rivers, before they settled down in any considerable numbers. Even dwellers apart, and especially the founders of convents and religious houses, appear to have sought water before they erected an abode, so that a good spring or well will invariably be found in or near the old convents and castles whose venerable ruins impart interest to so many well-known localities in our land. When, moreover, our towns and cities were inhabited only by comparatively small numbers, water was always and easily obtained from an adjacent river, or from full wells, or copious springs, and often from all these together. In the early times, even of our Metropolis, there was no lack of good water, and little labour in getting it. A few famous springs, conduits, or pumps, and, best of all, the great and then unpolluted river, yielded vastly more than Londoners could need or desire. But in the course of years our rapidly augmenting population threatens to drink up the springs, exhaust the pumps, and diminish the very river which forms a highway for our commerce, and has borne wealth to our enormous Metropolis. It |