ART. XVIII.

CHR. G. HEYNII, Prof. Eloquentia Georgia Augufta, M. Britannia R. à Confiliis Aul. OPUSCULA ACADEMICA, Collecta et Animadverfionibus locupletata i. e. The Academical Difcourfes of CH. G. HEYNE, Profeffor of Eloquence and Poetry at Gottingen, and Aulic Counsellor to his Britannic Majefty, &c. 2 Vols. 8vo. 1785 and 1787. Gottingen.

PRES

ROFESSOR HEYNE's high reputation for true taste and extenfive erudition, ennobled by philofophy, will rather gain than lofe by the publication of thefe elegant, ingenious, and learned difcourfes, though feveral of them are the productions of his earlier years. They were delivered in the univerfity of Gottingen, at different times and on occafion of certain academical folemnities; but as they have an intrinfic merit, that will render them acceptable in all times and in all places, we think the literary public indebted to the author for collecting them together, that they might escape that untimely death. to which fmall treatifes, however valuable, are expofed when feparately published. Many of thefe difcourfes were composed and delivered above twenty years ago; but they have the advantage of coming forth now to light, with a critical review, annexed to each by the author, in which he performs our task with more freedom and severity, than we would have ventured to use. Thus they exhibit at the fame time the excellence of good compofition, and the characters of elegant and judicious criticism.

The fubjects of these discourses are all interefting; they muft, at least, be fo to those who have a tafte for elegant and inftructive erudition. A concife view of their contents will confequently prove acceptable to our readers.

In the first difcourfe of the 1ft volume, our author treats of the influence of morals or moral character, on the perception of that kind of beauty that is the object of the fine arts, and on the habit of delineating and expreffing it. After fome preliminary obfervations on beauty, and the fenfe or faculty by which it is perceived, he fhows how this fenfe and its exertion in the fine arts are improved by morals. Morals contribute to prelerve, in a right and vigorous ftate, all the corporeal and mental powers, and thus are favourable to genius and invention, to judgment, to the pleasures of imagination, and to that noble enthufiafin, that animate the pen of the poet and the pencil of the artift. By producing internal harmony and order, they render even the external beauties of nature more delightful and interefting, than they can be to a mind degraded by vicious puriuits; and they fit us for contemplating, with peculiar advantages, harmony and order in all other objects. They form that calm tenour of

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foul which enables the artift to obferve with precision the motions and forms, even of the impetuous and turbulent paffions. They inspire and nourish that fympathy and benevolence, which give truth and power to the expreffion of all the fine and generous feelings of human nature, and (to omit many other examples of their tendency enumerated by the author) they facilitate the clear and fublime conception of that fupreme beauty that confifts in virtue, which Plato expreffed in his Republic, Cicero in his Orator, Fenelon in his Prince, Richardfon in his Grandifon (whom we wish, however, he had rendered lefs ftiff and formal), and painters and fculptors in their immortal productions.

M. HEYNE is aware of the plaufible objections that may be raifed against the influence he gives to morals on tafte, and picturefque or poetical expreffion. Accordingly, he breaks the force of them, in the courfe of his differtation, by remarks that anticipate regular anfwers; and these remarks give us high ideas of the accurate judgment, the pure tafte, and the fine moral feelings of our refpectable author. When he comes to face the objections more directly, he makes all the conceffions which the objector can defire. He does not deny the influence which a flexible genius, a lively imagination, and imitative powers of great natural vigour, may have in the expreffion, not only of natural but of moral beauty. As virtue has its external lines and features, the vicious artil, by imitation, may delineate them on his canvas, as the hypocrite endeavours to do in his life and manners; but, in both cafes, we have the fhadow rather than the fubftance. There have been fine expreflions of virtuous character drawn by vicious artists, whether painters or poets, the objector will fay. But it is not, here,

eafy to afcertain the fat, nor to appreciate the character: befide, a man though generally vicious and diforderly, may have his virtuous moments; the latent principles of moral goodnefs, which too habitually yield to paffion, may recover their fpring and energy, were it but for a time, and exert a temporary power.

The

We invite fuch readers, as have a tafte for difcuffions of this kind, to perufe, with attention, the differtation before us. With all its imperfections, which its author fees with a feverer eye than he ought to do, it is the most elegant, and the mott philofophical piece that we have feen on the fubject. fubject is nice and difficult, and requires being treated with modefty, precaution, and proper restrictions: Cicero affirmed boldly, that none but the good man can feel and express with power, judgment, and truth, that beauty which is the object of

In his Book De Oratore.

poets,

poets, orators, and artifts: Can feel; this is certain-can exprefs; this is alfo true, but with certain reftrictions. A profligate painter may certainly reprefent the continence of Sipio, in feveral lines, which the mechanifm of his art, and his mimetic powers, will render more or lefs expreffive of what paff d in the mind of that virtuous hero; but we will not be tempted to apply to his picture that line of Virgil;

MENS agitat molem et pulchro SE corpore MISCET.

It is certain, at least, that, with refpect to moral beauty, which is the fupreme charm in manners, affections and the arts, none, ceteris paribus, can exprefs it fo powerfully, and reprefent it with fuch truth, in all its various forms, modifications, and fine touches, as the artist, who has it in himself.-Therefore it follows (and this, perhaps, is the propereft manner of ftating and deciding the queftion), that, other circumftances being equal in the comparifon, the good man will always be the best artist.

We have enlarged fo much our account of this firft discourse, that we can do little more than merely announce the fubjects of thofe that follow.

In

In the second, our author treats of public liberty, and its influence on the improvement of literature and the useful arts. this judicious and learned differtation, Profeffor HEYNE ftates the true notion of public liberty, and deduces its effects from the records of hiftory, as well as from the nature of things. He fhews, among other truths, that democratical liberty, or a popular government, never was, in fact, and is not, in its nature, adapted to be, the foftering parent and nurfe of useful arts and elegant literature.

In the third differtation, we have a very learned and elegant feries of obfervations on the genius and characteristics of the age of the Ptolemies; in which the ftate of literature, philofophy, arts, and manners, during that celebrated period, is accurately reprefented.

The fourth contains an account of the judgments which the kings of Egypt were obliged to undergo after their deceafe. This fact is here critically examined; and it is alto elegantly employed as an introduction to the funeral eulogy of George II. the predeceffor of our prefent worthy fovereign. There are in this learned difcourfe fome very ingenious points of comparison exhibited between the Egyptian fyitem of legiflation and thofe of modern times, to the advantage of the former. M. HEYNE acknowleges, that, in modern times, we have made great improvements in philofophy, literature, and the ufeful arts; but he thinks, that, with respect to the fcience of government and legiflation, we are still nearly in a state of infancy. He attributes the imperfections of modern governments to their hav

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ing been formed originally in periods of barbarifm, ignorance and ferocity, amid fcenes of rapine and carnage, and formed fuddenly on no other principles than thofe of conqueft or felf-defence. This was alfo, as he allows, the cafe of many ancient governments, but not of all; that of Egypt, and those of feveral Afiatic ftates, were derived from the more refpectable principles and habits of focial life, from domestic society, which produced patriarchal government, and afterward republican forms enlightened by the precepts and doctrines of legiflators, who were philofophers.

With respect to the ceremony which is the subject of this differtation, our author looks on it as partly fabulous, not, indeed, invented by Diodorus Siculus, but related by him on the authority of others. M. HEYNE's reflections on this narration are acute and judicious.

The fubject of the fourth differtation is a paffage in the verfes of Simonides, in which the poet affirms, that perfect virtue is beyond the reach of humanity. In the fixth, our author treats of the influence and utility of the fludy of the ancient poets in public and private education. In the feventh, he enquires into the phyfi al caufes of ancient mythology, in the illuftration of which interesting fubject, erudition and philofophy go hand in hand, and throw new rays of light on a branch of ancient hiftory, and theology, that has been equally obfcured by the ftupidity of philo logifts and the refinements of metaphyficians.

In the eighth differtation, the author treats of the wife inflitutions and methods of difcipline, by which the first Grecian legislators contributed to improve human nature, in its ude fate of primitive ignorance and fimplicity. The rife and progrefs of civilization and fociety form, properly, the fubject of this discourse. It was compofed, and delivered, about twenty years ago. Since that time, feveral learned men in Britain and Germany have published not only elaborate but elegant treatifes on this important fubject, to whofe labours, M. HEYNE, in the review of his own difcourfe, pays the tribute of refpect and approbation which they deferve.

The PUBLIC benefits of private frugality, particularly with refpect to population, are demonftrated, with great perfpicuity and acutenefs, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh difcourfes. In the twelfth, the Profeffor infifts on the advantages of a moral kind, which academical difcipline derives from the cul ivation of the liberal arts and Sciences. The utility of the fludy of history is the fubject of the thirteenth difcourfe, which was delivered in 1766, on the establishment of public lectures on this science.

The fourteenth and fifteenth differtations treat of the rights of colonies among the ancients. Thefe were delivered in 1766, and 1767, when, from the circumftances of Great Britain and her colo

colonies, the fubject was peculiarly interefting. Our author has, however, avoided every thing that might look like an application to the politics of modern times, and conducts his enquiry in fuch a manner, as displays an intimate acquaintance with the original monuments of ancient hiftory, together with that philofophical spirit of difcernment, which, not fatisfied with the mere detail of events, examines them in connexion with their caufes and confequences, and with the fentiments and habits of thofe concerning whom they are related.

An enquiry into the origin of the culture of grain and the art of making bread, is the fubject of the fixteenth and feventeenth differtations. And the three remaining difcourfes in this volume are elegant and philofophical panegyrics on deceased curators of the university.

The first fifteen discourses in the fecond volume are devoted to an enquiry into the laws and conftitutions of the ftates of Magna Gracia and Sicily. What we obferved concerning the learned Profeffor's differtation on the rights of the ancient colonies, is equally applicable to thefe, which are valuable, not only as they afford a comprehenfive view of what has been preferved to us of the writers of antiquity on this fubject, but also as they abound with excellent reflections of a philofophical, as well as of an hiftorical and political nature.

In thefe differtations, M. HEYNE has collected the fragments of the laws of Zaleucus and Charondas; on which occafion, he introduces fome remarks on the difpute between Bentley and Boyle, concerning thefe legiflators. He reprefents the former, whose learning and judgment, in other refpects, he highly applauds, as prejudiced by his refentment againft bis antagonist, and as maintaining feveral opinions, rather from a spirit of oppofition to Boyle, than from an impartial inyeftigation of evidence. In this light he confiders Dr. Bentley's denial of the exiftence of Zaleucus, to which he oppofes the authority of Ariftotle, Theophraftus, Scymnus, and Strabo; and endeavours to prove, not only that Zaleucus really lived, but also that he wrote laws for the Locrians, and that the fragments of these, which are tranfmitted to us, are genuine with refpect to their fubftance, though it is probable they may not be expreffed in the very words of the original author. Concerning Charondas, the Profeffor's opinion is, that he was a Catanean, who lived many years before the Thurii had founded their state; that he compofed laws for his own, and feveral other cities of the Chalcidians, and alfo for the Regii; but that his laws were afterward adopted by the Thurii, when they established their republic.

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