NOTES ON ATHENÆUS, BY GRÆCULUS. No. XXIII. The wit and genius of those old Heathens beguiled me, and as I despaired of raising myself up to their standard upon fair ground, I thought the only chance I had of looking over their heads, was to get upon their shoulders." XENARCHUS in Quinquertio, says, I write a woman's oath in wine, Athen. lib. x. p. 441, E. by which he means just what is signified by the proverb, “in aquâ scribis,”—the in vino veritas has no application. The ancients seem to have understood women thoroughly! Page 443, C. for go rav Keλrwv, read gos. In the same E. we are told that Alexis says elegantly or beautifully (xaλws), you drink and don't vomit. Dalechamp here, however, shews us, with references to Celsus, c. 3. 1. and Plin. c. 53. 11. and cap. S. 26. the superior excellence of the antients in gluttony. After much eating and drinking it was customary to have recourse to an eme tic, either through luxury, that they might have a greater appetite afterwards, or for the benefit of their health to remove the crudities of the stomach. This Alexis seems to have been a very sober poet, for he elsewhere affirms that of all evils drunkenness is the greatest, and most pernicious to mankind. Much wine is the pa rent of much sin. And to proceed: το παροινειν εκ τε μεθύειν γινεται, p. 444. B. from ebriety proceeds madness,* as our bedlams can truly testify. But what is all this? Do men err here through ig norance? No; then every sort of advice or information on the subject is vain, and the whole comes at last to this old maxim, too applicable to man in all his deviations from the line of rectitude: We know the right road, and we take the wrong. Wine, however, has many virtues, and full as many eulogists, who by no means imitate those who preach what they do not practise, and like a finger-post point the way they never travel. Its doubling power has frequently been sung, but it has also an ex nihilo creative faculty, which Athenæus shall describe, p. 445. F. At a Symposium some one, seeing the wife of Anacharsis, said, "O Anacharsis, thou hast married an ugly woman." "So it seems to me," he replied; "therefore, boy, mix me a cup of purer, i. e. stronger wine, that I may make her handsome." Is * See Casaub. p. 738. not this a potent virtue? and can it be credible that wives are sometimes heard to complain of their husbands' drinking? Rather let them join chorus with Ion, the Chian, and sing Twi ayalwr Baσideus ovos, Wine is the king of good things! P. 447. E. It is proposed now by Emylianus to indulge themselves wığı Yeow, with enigmas. Some of them I have given in a former number. There is much in tenui labor here, and not all very well worth the trouble of understanding. At p. 455. A. for Boλe's read βολαις, and όδον for όδος, July 6. P.S. I don't know what proportion of candour there may be in the ingredients of a learned gentleman in the Monthly Magazine, who signs himself B. J. C. but I am free to confess, that however it may have been with me formerly, I now read less than I write : I believe the confession to be far more extraordinary than the case! Such being the fact, I state, with the utmost truth and singleness of heart, that by the merest accident, while in the library of a friend, I took up the Monthly Magazine for July, and at p. 589, found these notes alluded to. Why the title in No. XX. p. 142, was printed Corianne instead of Corianno, is as unworthy of such a writer as B. J. C. to inquire, as it is of me to answer. When he asks, “Why axgoods, which words does not erist, when Casaubon has given the true reading, ançaxodu?” I reply, because my ear prefers the former word, which for brevity's sake here, and to give him much information in little time, I would have him seek in the common Manuale Hederici. But perhaps this may be deemed a mean reference, therefore let him see Aristot. Eth. 4. c. 5. and SCAPULA, where he will be told “pro codem dicitur et angaxoλos." So much for the non-existence of the word angoxolos. Locke very truly says, "We see a little, presume a great deal, and so jump to the conclusion." As to" why not wan Tanaon?" Why? I shall be happy to meet B. J. C. on all the positions he chuses to attack; and when he deals, as I think he can, in something better than queries and assertions, he will find me right glad (for I am unambitious of any thing but truth) to yield the palm, and hail him, as Edward the Confessor was of the common law, "RESTITUTOR" of the text of Athenæus. 'Hdisa yag av moi δοκώ δειν τέτον τον ανθρωπον, ΤΙΣ ΕΣΤΙΝ. Platonis Alcibiad. 11. LAWS; THE NECESSITY OF A DIGEST AND REFORM. "L They are chargeable with fiction, contradiction, immensity, cir cuity, irregularity, and inconsistency, in degrees that necessarily generate uncertainty, and are administered at an expence that is most grie. vously oppressive." See Bacon and Hale. WITH respect to the laws of debtor and creditor, they are such, that many are contented to lose their rights, rather than encounter the difficulties of the contest for recovery; and where is the suitor's encouragement, when after having been at great expence in endeavouring to obtain justice against a litigious adversary, he becomes, perhaps, from the omission of some mere matter of form, entangled in a demurrer, and is thereby obliged to drop his suit, pay costs, and go through the whole proceedings afresh? Or suppose him suing for a just debt, he shall be obliged to spend ten times as much as the debt, before he obtains a verdict; and after he has so far succeeded, is certain of being very considerably out of pocket in carrying that judgment into execution, even supposing the debtor in a situation to pay the original debt, and taxed costs. The law is besides so overloaded with stamp-duties and officefees, that these, together with the fees of counsel and attornies, are sufficient to deter men from seeking redress at all; in the mean time it is doing no more than justice to the attorney, to say that these fees out of pocket make up the bulk of his bill.* Those who are the most jealous of innovation are compelled to admit that some remedy is become necessary, not only to correct the grossness of its abuses, but to simplify the entire system, as well by lopping off antient redundancies, as by an orderly digest, reform, and elucidation of the whole. Our laws are scattered through more than a thousand volumes, where the The profits of the attorney, who is upright and able, are by no means so great as they are supposed to be, and indeed not equal to what they ought to be. The stated ordinary fees, are not now more than they were a century ago, and the heavy disbursements for stamps, admission, certificate, the increase of attornies, and the great difference in the value of money, render his professional emoluments very in. adequate to his labour, unless he has a share in equity business or conveyancing, where fags are more liberal. laborious professor has to collect them at an înfinite expence of time and labour, or to take them on the authority of private compiler's, who had no sanction from the legislature or the courts. In the beginning of the last century, Dr. GLYNN told Judge FINCH with a sneer, that all the common-law-books of the realin might be carried in a wheelbarrow. At that period our printed law-books were inconsiderable, but since Lord Coke's time, they have been astonishingly multiplied-in 1785, ninety-five statutes, and in 1786, one hundred and sixty were added to the statute book. Sua mole ruit. See Lord BACON's remarks on the accumulation of our laws, and on the necessity of a digest, in his great work, de Augmentis Scientiarum.-See also in his Remains, a tract intitled, Certificate touching the Penal Laws. "For if it be true in any proportion, that within these five years of your ma jesty's happy reign, there hath not 500l. benefit come to your majesty by penal laws (the fines of the star-chamber, which are of the highest kind only excepted), and yet nevertheless there has been a charge at least of 50,000l. which hath been laid upon your people, it were more than time, it received a remedy." This representation, probably produced the act of James the First, regu lating informers, the benefits of which are felt to this hour. “The necessity of a digest and reform,” continues Bacon, "is still more necessary in the statute than the common law, for there are a great many ensnaring laws, and if in bad times, they should be awakened, they would grind the subject to powder; there are some penal laws fit to be retained, but their penalty is too great and there is an accumulation of statutes concerning one matter, and so cross and intricate, that the certainty of the law is lost in the heap.” THE GALLANTRY, SPORTS, AND GENIUS OF THE AGE, MR. EDITOR, MUCH has been very well said on " The age we live in," in several of your former numbers. We certainly live at this moment in a state of great comparative mental degradation, and when we look to the amusements and pursuits of our youth, the prospect is by no means hopeful or consoling. I am no inveterate laudator temporis acti, blind to the past, and lynx-eyed with respect to the present; but I distinguish, and I confess it with sorrow, that a youth with less merit, and more frivolity, has in my opinion never disgraced any generation of civilized and enlightened people. Even that gallantry towards the sex, so natural to young men, is stifled; the sports of the flower of the land pitiable and contemptible; and the energies of their minds abject, vain, and unprofitable. In a society of elegant females, we now invariably see the men entirely engaged on their own persons, and contributing to their own amusement, without paying the most distant attention to the ladies, but rather the most marked neglect. Mr. BURKE has said that the age of chivalry is gone—it is true-every vestige of it, even to the meanest species of gallantry. What are their sports? In a time of war, the hopes of the country (for so the young men of fortune and family should be considered) have formed a league in the shape of a four-in-hand club" to expose themselves, unintentionally perhaps, but nevertheless certainly, to every degree of ridicule, and to insure to themselves universal contempt. But were it a period of profound peace, is this the pursuit of those, who aspire after honour, or who even wish to merit the name of gentlemen? A gentle man," says Lord CHESTERFIELD, "always attends even to the choice of his amusements. In sports of exercise he will not be seen at skittles, driving of coaches, &c. for he knows that such an imitation of the mob will indelibly stamp him with vulgarity." 66 In their mental recreations and efforts, they are not a whit more praiseworthy or estimable. It all consists in mimicry, and the exercise of their rational faculties, scarcely excels the genius of a monkey. Every company is pestered with mimics, noble, high-minded youths, who play Punch to entertain the party. What have letters and manners to expect from such disciples! The noble writer already quoted, says, "Mimicry, which is the common and favourite amusement of little low minds, is in the For the information of posterity (credite, posteri) this club is some twenty young men, who dressed in a stable uniform, drive each a barouche in four, in and about town, with a coachman and groom behind in a dickey, and the carriage empty. Twice a week, starting in this manner, they proceed in a line to a public-house about fourteen miles from London, where they dine at an enormous expence, and fine every honourable member who is guilty of using uncoachman-like language ! |