the Change of one Letter, and reads the Words thus: *3 Aetatis cujufque notandi funt tibi mores, Mobilibufq; decor, MATURIS dandus & annis: This Emendation is undeniable. Mobiles anni denore Childhood and Youth; maturi anni denote ripe, and Old-Age. The Author proves it by feveral Paf. fages. You ought, fays Horace, carefully to obferve the Manners peculiar to each Age, and afcribe nothing to Young and Old Men, but what is confi ftent with their Years. Dr. Bentley informs us, That after he had made this Correction, he was agreea-. bly fuprifed to find it confirmed in a Manufcript, wherein those Words, Aliter MATURIS, have been inferted between the Lines, as a various Reading. Laftly, He believes that fome Ancient Scholiafts read this Paffage as he does; and gives good Reafons for it. Here follows another Emendation, no lefs certain than that which I have just now mentioned. Art. Poet. v. 275. & feq. Ignotum Tragica genus inveniffe Camene Dicitur, & plauftris vexiffe poemata Thefpis, This Paffage, fays Dr. Bentley, has been corrupted above these Thousand Years. All the printed and manuscript Copies have the fame Reading. Diomedes the Grammarian *, and Donatus † quote thofe Verses exactly as they are here. But what Senfe fhall we make of these Words, vexiffe plauftris POEMATA? N 3 • Pag. 485. + Prolegom. ad Terentium. Acron Acron tells us, the meaning of them is, that Thelpis writ fo many Plays, that he carried them upon Carts *. Our Author maintains, that Thefpis never writ any Thing; and fays he has fully proved it in his Differtation upon Phalaris's Epiftles. But (continues he) fuppofing that he writ fo many Plays, what Occafion was there to carry them upon Carts ? Did the Actors of that Time read their Plays? Such a Thing was not practifed afterwards, when the Poets published their Tragedies in Writing. Thofe Pieces were hardly written down in the Time of Thefpis, and had they been written, they were left at Home, and acted without Book upon Carts. The Paffage of Horace ought therefore to be read thus : Ignotum Tragite genus inveniffe Camena The Words ought to be conftrued in the following manner: Vexiffe plauftris [eos] qui canerent agerentque poemata, peruniti ora facibus. Thus, Thefpis carried Actors upon Carts, and not Plays, as it is commonly believed. The ignorant Transcribers, not knowing that a Pronoun in the Accufative Cafe is. fometimes understood in a Phrafe, and even that it is an Elegance, took the Words vexiffe qui canerent to be falfe Latin, and changed Qui into QUÆ, which makes a ridiculous Senfe. made by the Ctitieks none have been fo Of all the Emendations, upon the Ancient Authors, much talked of, as that of Dr. Bentley upon the Word Tornatos in the 441ft Verfe of the Ars Poetica. B *Mirum hoc profe&to. Jays Dr. Bentley: poterat que Thefpis, ut poftea Caffius Hetrufcus, capfis librisque propriis comburi ac funerari, quo heres lignà lu. craretur. Quintilio fi quid recitares, Corrige fodes Dr. Bentley obferved about Sixteen Years ago, in his Notes upon Callimachus, that it was no unusual Thing among the Ancients to call good Verfes verfus tornati; but he added that the Poet fhould not have mentioned the Anvil with the turning Wheel in this Place, fince they are very different Things, and have no Affinity one with another. Which moved him to read the Verfe thus: Et male TERNATOS incudi reddere verfus. That is, to use the Author's own Words, Quere"ris, inquit Quintilius, te bis TER QUE fruftra conatum effe verfus iftos lambendo & fingendo me"liores reddere? Tu vero, qui TER male exierunt verfus prorfus abjice: Neque jam limam amplius adhibe ad eos fruftra poliendos, fed incude potius utere formandis & fabricandis novis". Dr. Bentley quoted the following Verses of the fame Poet to confirm his Correction. 66 66 Epift. II. 1. v. 233. Gratus Alexandro regi Magno fuit ille Choerilus, incultis qui verfibus & MALE NATIS, When this Conjecture came out, it was approved by feveral Perfons, and among others by the late Mr. Grævius, as it appears from one of his Letters to N 4 Dr. Dr. Bentley, wherein he calls it, non conjecturamfed certam emendationem; quam qui videat & non probet, cum in his rebus caciorem effe quavis talpa. Dr. Bentley undertakes to vindicate his Emendation, and to confute what has been objected against it. The Readers will find that Excellent Correction fup-: ported by feveral new Proofs. I fhall only mention one. The Author maintains, that the Words Tornatus, Limatus, Politus, Expolitus, Rafus, when ufed metaphorically, do always fignify a Thing that is. perfect in its Kind; and that therefore male tornatus would be as improperly faid, as male bonus, mutile perfectus. Hence it is that we never read in any Ancient Author neither male tornatus, male limatus, nor bene tornatus, bene limatus, in a metaphorical Senfe; for it would be no lefs ridiculous than if one fhould fay bene abfolutus. Dr. Bentley enJarges upon this Obfervation, and fets it in a full Light. To conclude. I fhall obferve that these Notes are written in a lively and elegant Stile, that the Author difcovers no lefs Wit than Sagacity and Er dition, and that his Performance may be looked upon as a Mafter-Piece in point of Critical Learn; ing. See a further Account of this Book, in Art. XXXIX. HE Two following Books have been lately TH printed here one sh 1 3 L' Art de tranfpofer toute forte de Musique, fans être être obligé de connoitre le ton ni le mode; avec des reflexions fur la neceffité de cet ouvrage. Paris 1711. in 12mo. Pagg. 29. Hiftoire Dogmatique de la Religion, fous la Loy écrite, contenant Hiftoire & Explication du Decalogue, des Loix Ceremoniales & politiques, & des Propheties des Ifraelites. Dediée à S. A. R. Monfeigneur le Duc de Lorraine & de Bar, Roy de Ferufalem. Par Meffire Jean Claude Sommier, Prêtre, Docteur en Theologie, Protonotaire Apoftolique, Confeiller, Predicateur ordinaire de S. A. R Monfeigneur le Duc de Lorraine, Curé de Champs. Seconde Partie, Tome I. Paris 1711. in 4to. Pagg. 844. I have mentioned the first Part of this Work in another Volume, T LOND 0 N. HE Latin Tranflation of Mr. Stanley's HiP Story of Philofophy, &c. (mentioned in another Volume of these Memoirs) being come to my Hands, it will not be improper to inform the Readers wherein it differs from the Original. The Latin Title runs thus: Hiftoria Philofophie, vitas, opiniones, refq; geftas & dicta Philofophorum Sete cujufvis complexa, Authore Thoma Stanleio, ex Anglico Sermone in Latinum tranflata, emendata, & variis differtationibus atq; obfervationibus paffim au&ta. Acceffit Vita Autoris. Lipfie, apud Thomam Fritfch. A. M DCC XI. in 4t0. Pagg. 1222. Sold by Paul Vaillant in the Strand. The Tranflator tells us, that he has carefully compared the Paffages of the Ancient Writers alledged by Mr. Stanley, and that he has quoted them more exactly: He adds, That whenever the Author mi ftakes |