ans.-The conqueft of Macedon, by the Romans.-The deftruction of Carthage.-The deftruction of Corinth.-The • Numantian war.-The Jugurthine war.-The Mithridatic < war.-The civil war, betwixt Marius and Sylla.-The Catiline confpiracy.-The fift triumvirate.-The civil war betwixt Cafar and Pompey.-The fecond triumvirate.-Their war against Brutus and Caffius.-The war betwixt Anthony • and Auguftus. Now all of thefe, tho' they are curious in the detail, and Plutarch has given us most of them with great beauty of • defcription, in the lives of his different heroes; yet they always appear, as if they were covered with a cloud of darknefs, and make but an imperfect impreffion upon the memory, till the lamp of hiftorical chronology has enlightened them. For it is that which fixes them in their proper order of fucceffion; which fills up their different intervals, according to the fcries of time; which gives the precife month and day of each tranfaction; which accompanies them with other cotemporary circumftances; and which connects them altogether, with the periods and established Era of chronology.' After pointing out the abfurdities of fome authors of reputation, in chronological matter, and fhewing briefly where, and about what time, chronology firft role to be a regular fcience, our author proceeds to lay before us the following account of his tables. The tables, fays he, which are now publifhed, are not built upon any new fyftem of chronology; for this is a science which of all others, admits the leaft of any innovations; tho' it has not efcaped the fashionable diffemper of the prefent age, which multiplies new theories and new C opinions, upon every branch of learning. And indeed this fpirit of novelty, which is rather the childhood and fport of imagination, than the maturity of judgment, has become a more defpotic tyrant, over the understandings of men, than all the prejudices of education put together. For tho we may have juftly rejected many of the errors, or the follies of our forefathers, yet thefe can never juftify an attack upon the good fenfe, the learning, the religion, or the experience of paft ages; which have, and which always will outlive, both the vifions of enthufiafm, and the perplexities of metaphyfics. The antient chronology has been digefted in the tables, according to the Hebrew text, and agreeable to the system of archbishop Ufher; tho' it is proper to obferve, that we i don't • don't affume the earlier dates of years, as if they could be demonftrated mathematically. For as we only prefer them, from their being more generally received than any other," • amidst a vast uncertainty of no less than three hundred different opinions, about the exact year of the creation; we therefore chufe to decline any controverfy upon points, where the data are fo few, and the range of hypothefis fo unlimited; where authors boaft of demonftrations, and yet give us nothing more than the play of a prolific imagination. And we may be the eafier fatisfied upon this head, if we confider, that neither religion, nor hiftory, are fundamentally concerned, in precifely fixing the times of fuch remote antiquity. But when we defcend into the fucceeding ages of the world, we hope the periods that have been adopted in the tables, and their collateral events, will be found in general to be built upon the beft authorities, without being fervilely copied from the fyftem of any one particular author. It is unneceflary to give a detail of the errors and omiffions of the other tables of chronology, by way of apology for what are now publifhed. For the complaint against them is rather of a more general nature, that in them all, there is either a want of clearness and method in their plan; or a want of materials in their execution; that they are feldom found applicable to the different books of history, either antient or modern, which indeed ought to be their principal point of view; and that they have rather wanted a commentary themfelves, than helped to illuftrate other authors. And of this there cannot be given a clearer evidence, than the practice of many hiftorians of reputation, who have found it neceffary to add to their writings certain chronological excerpts, • under the form of a table; which, tho' generally very imperfect, are yet a plain proof of their fentiments with regard to the infufficiency of other tables of chronology. The tables of Helvicus, which were publifhed in 1629, are what approach the nearest to the plan of the prefent work, and have been generally preferred by men of learning to all the reft; because they give a more united view of the collateral fucceffion of different kingdoms; whereas the more modern tables of Talent, Marshal, Frefney, and thofe compofed by an anonymous author from Petavius, have all " of them made one great and fundamental mistake. For their chief aim feems to have been pointed, to the contracting hiftory into as little room as they could, by which they < have loft the true connection and union of its parts, which · can can never be preferved without expanding them, according to the feries of fingle years; and we therefore venture to affirm, that this principle is the most eflential, in the texture of a chronological table. For it is in chronology as in mufic, where the harmony does not arife from any fingle note, or from any number of notes, but from their being properly proportioned and tuned to each other; where, without the exact difpofition of time and place, the true unifon ⚫ of concert is broken, and the best mufic may become dif• cord. The improvements that are to be found in the prefent tables, and which are not contained in the plan of Helvicus, may be reduced under different heads. And first, we have added to the æras of time, and to the fucceffion of kings, the principal annals of univerfal hiftory. For thefe two firft will be found to be uninteresting and dry, unless accompanied with the great ftream of remarkable events. And the fixing of thefe events to the precifion of months and days, wherever proper authorities could enable us, will be found to be a very confiderable improvement upon the original plan for it opens to many other collateral circumftances, which ferve to imprefs them much deeper on the memory; and it prevents that great perplexity of confounding time and place, which therefore renders a • minutenefs in thefe articles of a much greater importance than is generally obferved. • The column of ftatesmen and warriors, is a thing hitherto unattempted in any tables of chronology, and will be found to give confiderable light to the column of remarkable • events; because they are the great actors in the public trans actions of the world, and are therefore fo difpofed in the tables, as to be easily connected by the eye with those battles and revolutions, in which they were principally concerned. Monf. le Prefident Henaut feems to have understood the great ufe of this column, as appears from his excellent chronological abridgment of the hiftory of France, where, at the beginning of every reign, he has given us a lift of fuch as were the most eminent in that particular kingdom. In the column of men of learning and genius, as well as in that of the statesmen and warriors, we have made one ufeful improvement; and that is, the adding to each perfon, the year of his death and his age. For by these we may determine the distance and coincidence of a multitude of other circumstances; and the more intimately converfant we are with any branch of history or learning, we fhall be the • more • more fenfible of the usefulness and importance of this ad⚫dition. The engraving of the tables has likewife enabled us to render the whole more diftinct and ufeful than could have • been done by common printing; because the fifty faint hair lines, which run acrofs every plate, contain each of them an united view of the ftate of the world for one year; and lead the eye, by a plain and clear direction, from any particular event, to the year of the reign of the different kings of particular kingdoms; and fo onwards, to the year of the particular æras correfponding to that event; or by reverse, from the year of the æra, and through the intermediate columns to the oppofite page, where the particular event is re⚫gistered. And this is indeed the true reafon, why the common manner of printing was thought to be lefs proper, and we have preferred that of engraving; which from its great expence, made it neceflary to publish by fubfcription; a method which on many other accounts we should most willingly have declined." Thus much may fuffice to give our readers fome notion of the plan of this work; as to the merit of it, few that are acquainted with chronological subjects will expect to find it free from errors: it is, however, as far as we may pretend to judge, by much the moft perfect and ufeful work of the kind that has hitherto appeared. We must not forget to mention the neatness and elegance of the engravings, which confer an additional value upon it, and that the author intends to publifh fome chronological differtations, wherein he propofes to illuftrate the difputed points, to explain the prevailing fyftems of chronology, and to establish the authorities upon which fome of the particular æras depend. ART. XLVI. An Ode to the Duke of Newcastle. By a Shepherd. A 4to. Is. 6d. Millan, &c. N odd fection, as we may term it, of the conftellations prefixed to this performance (which is intended as a compliment to his grace, on the cultivation and benefits of peace) pourtrays our fhepherd's difpofition to deal among the ftars and indeed his afcent, at the outfet, is fo rapid, that he foars above our difcernment in the very firft ftanza. He rifes with all the found and impetuofity of a rocket; but quickly As a head-piece to the first page. ber becomes lefs vifible, for want of the luminous track, which marks the way of that artificial meteor. The Dane repell'd; the Roman war We cannot, with any candour, doubt but the poet had fome extraordinary conception, that produced all thefe efforts, in hist own head; but if that, as Virgil fays of the head of Fame, be concealed among the clouds, the reader, who cannot discover it, must leave the writer, who can, to his own applause. As this ode in general confifts of no particular ftanza in the number of the lines, (fince they are of all fizes, from fours to fourteens and upwards) of no certain meafure in the number or quantity of fyllables in the lines; nor obferves any fettled refpondence or order in the rhymes, it is highly probable, tho' the author has not titled it a Pindaric, he might intend it for what has been called fuch. But if he is, as he fays of himself, ftanza 30, a youth, who Not untaught fublimer things, Calls on the records of old time, From all their stores to fearch, &c. &c. a moderate inspection of Pindar must convince him, that poet is no precedent for fuch licentioufnefs in verfe; for his Strophe and Antiftrophe are always of the fame length, and of the fame numbers, throughout the fame ode: fometimes the epode too is of the fame extent, tho' more frequently fhorter or longer; and where there is any, it conftantly clofes the ode, as the Strophe begins it. And yet, from the different lengths of the Strophe and antiftrophe, compared with that of the epode, in different odes, and the different measures of various lines in each, there is a confiderable variety of numbers in Pindar: tho' the great uniformity and order of them throughout each diftinct ode, makes us wonder at the liberty fome moderns take in calling their most irregular and inharmonious productions after him. Horace may have contributed to this notion among perfons of fome erudition, by his numerifque fertur lege folutis in his ode on the imitation of Pindar. And indeed, as the VOL. XI. Cc La 1 |