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Untitled Article
rather the exploded text in John ' s first epistle . Some of these had previously been published in the Gentleman ' s Magazine . It is but justice to this work to say , that it
has entirely , and beyond the possibility of revival , determined the question to which it relates , and that it merits the encomium bestowed on it by Gibbon , as the finest piece of criticism which has appeared since the dissertation of Bcntlev on Phalaris . It will
indeed be acknowledged by adequate judges , that the controversy was sufficiently decided even before the publication of Mr . Porson ' s work . But he placed the arguments which had previously been advanced in new and stronger lights ; fortified them by additional evidence : and detected
the new sophisms and artifices to which the advocates of a declining cause had resorted in their distress . These letters abound also with excellent critical remarks , incidentally introduced . They are written with much force and
liveliness . The severity which prevails through them was perhaps merited by the ignorance , and more especially by the want of ingenuousness , winch mark the writer against whom they are directed . This work has become
scarce , and well deserves to be reprinted . Mr . Porson is supposed to have superintended the republication of Heyne ' s Virgil which was
undertaken by some booksellers of London , in 1793 . The preface
certainl y bears strong marks of his style . It was however little ftiore than an office of mere labour which in this instance lie undertook . "Cum in hue editione exciiclcnda , " he observes , u ipse
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correctoris tantum , non editoris partes susceperim , nihil de meo addendum putavi , praeter paueas
quasdam virorum doctorum conjecturas , quas mihi visus est Heynius ideo praeteriisse , quia nesciret . " A few such observations may accordingly be found by the
reader who searches for them 4 C nantes in gurgite vasto . " In 17 . 94 s was printed at
Glasgow , an edition of the text of yEs - chylus , which contains , as might be expected , many admirable emendations of that difficult and not ^ infrequently corrupted poet . It was not published till 1806 , but in 1795 appeared ^ at Glasgow , a very magnificent edition of /
Eschylus , surreptitiously and somewhat incorrectly printed from the text of Mr . Porson . From an article in the Monthly Review , which we believe that we do not
err in ascribing to an intimate friend of the late Professor , and a very competent ^ judge of the subject , it appears that Mr . Porson had made still further preparations for the publication of /
Eschylus than what appeared in the printed edition . " It is to be regretted , " says the learned writer , 6 C that the notes have not appeared , for we have no hesitation in . avowing our decided
opinion , that the corrections already published , admirable and unrivalled as they arc , exhibit only an imperfect specimen of Mr , Porson ' s achievements in
restoring the text of jEsch ylus . " M , R . App . May , 1807 . In 1797 ? Mr . Porson commenced his great work , an edition of Euripides ; In that year appeared the Hecuba , the Orestes succeeded in 179 S , the Ph « enissa ? in 1799 , the " Medea if * 1801 , a se-
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Literary Memoir of the late Professor Porson . 535
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 535, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/11/
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