in this mandate, which love would not fuffer him to evade, nor pradence to difobey, and which foon brought Llewelyn to the English court; where falling at the feet of Edward, and yielding himself up to his mercy, that prince ordered him to rife, and, in confideration of his dutiful demeanor, was pleased to pardon his delinquency; at the fame time declaring, that if he again prefumed to rebel, he fhould be punished with the utmost severity *. Relying on the honour of a great monarch, and duped by his artifice, we fee Llewelyn, the brave defcendant of a line of independent princes, become amenable to ufurped power t Having now fucceeded in his views, and, as he thought, rendered Llewelyn docile in the duties of vaffalage, Edward gave him back the hoftages he had lately taken, and alfo delivered up Eleanor de Montford, with the eftate which had been the property of her father . The marriage was celebrated on the thirteenth of October, the expence of which was defrayed by Edward; and, as a mark of his favour, the ceremony was graced by the prefence of the King himfelf and his Queen §. On this occafion, Llewelyn engaged, befides other conceffions, to appear twice in the year before the English parliament. On the very day that the marriage was to be folemnized, and just as Llewelyn and his intended bride were going to mafs, the King commanded that prince to engage in a covenant, never to protect any perfon whatever contrary to his pleasure. The rigid fentiments of duty, put to fo fevere a trial, were too weak to fubdue in the bofom of the Welsh prince the feelings of nature. to the tender paffion of love, and no doubt in fear for his liberty or life, the firmness of the gallant Llewelyn funk under their influence. In this fituation, the enamoured prince figned a covenant, which loofened every tie of confidence, and which might in future give up to the refentment of Edward, the most faithful adherent to his interefts ¶. Alive It is only from a motive of personal dislike that we are able to account for the infult which was offered to Llewelyn, in detaining the lady fo long in the English court, and impeding the views of honourable love. In this part of Edward's character, we fee no traces of heroifm; no refemblance of the courteous manners, which distinguished the better period of the feudal age. As foon as the ceremony was finished, Llewelyn, with his amiable wife, returned into Wales, to foothe the afperity of adverse fortune in the enjoyment of private felicity.' In the course of the hiftory are many interefting articles, for which we must refer to the work; fuch as, an account of the private life and manners of the ancient Welfh; a fummary of the laws of Howel Dha; the fituation and privileges of the Lords Marchers, &c. An Index to the work fhould have been added. Henry de Knyghton de Event. Angl. p. 2462. + Welsh Chron. p. 348. Rymer, vol. ii. p. 125. Henry Henry de Knyghton de Event. de Knyghton de Event. Angl. p. 2462. Welfn Chron. p. 348. ART. (7) ART. II. Dr. Gillies's Hiftory of Ancient Greece, concluded: See our laft Month's Review. F the hiftory of the Peloponnefian war, Dr. Gillies has given a judicious abridgment, following the feries of great events, rather than the exact chronological order of Thucydides. In the course of this narrative, he vindicates the character of Pericles, and maintains, on the authority of Thucydides, that be did not increafe his patrimony from the public exchequer ; and that the cenfures first caft on him by the comic Poets of the times, afterwards copied by Plutarch, and fince transcribed by modern compilers, are mere afperfions. The narration of this war, and of the difturbances and troubles which fucceeded, is closed with a view of the ftate of literature at that period, in the course of which the Author gives the following character of the two hiftorians, Herodotus and Thucydides : In a work no lefs fplendid than important, the father of prophane history had deduced the tranfactions between the Greeks and Barbarians, from the earliest accounts till the conclufion of the Perfian war; a work including the hiftory of many centuries, and comprehending the greatest kingdoms and empires of the ancient world. This extenfive fubject was handled with order and dignity. The episodes were ingeniously interwoven with the principal action. The various parts of the narrative were fo fkilfully combined, that they mutually reflected light on each other. Geography, manners, religion, laws, and arts, entered into the plan of his work; and it is remarkable that the earliest of hiftorians agrees more nearly, as to the defign and form of his undertaking, with the enlightened writers of the prefent century, than any hiftorical author in the long feries of intervening ages. Of His language was the picture of his mind; natural, flowing, perfuafive; lofty on great occafions, affecting in fcenes of diftrefs, perfpicuous in narration, animated in defcription. Yet this admired writer has fometimes inferted reports romantic and incredible. many, indeed, of the fables of Herodotus, as ignorance conceited of its knowledge long affected to call them, fubfequent experience has proved the reality; modern difcoveries and voyages feem purposely directed to vindicate the fame of a writer, whom Cicero dignifies with the appellation of Prince of Hiftorians. Of other wondrous tales which he relates, his own difcernment fhewed him the futility. Whatever is contrary to the analogy of nature he rejects with fcorn. He fpeaks with contempt of the gepodes, and of the one-eyed Arimafpi, and of other ridiculous and abfurd fictions, which have been adopted, however, by fome credulous writers even in the eighteenth century. But Herodotus thought himself bound in duty to relate what he had heard, not always to believe what he related. Having travelled into Egypt and the Eaft, he recounts, with fidelity, the reports current in those remote countries. And his mind being opened and enlarged by an extenfive view of men and manners, he had learned to fet bounds to his difbelief, as well as to his credulity. Yet it must not be diffembled that the fabulous traditions, in which he too much abounds, give the air of romance to his history. Though forming, comparatively, but a fmall part of the work, they affume magnitude and importance, when invidiously detached from it. It thus feems as if this moft inftructive author had written with a view rather to amufe the fancy than to inform the understanding, The lively graces of his diction tend to confirm this fuppofition. His mode of compofition may be regarded as the intermediate fhade between Epic poetry and hiftory. Neither concife, nor vehement, the general character of his ftyle is natural, copious, and flowing; and his manner throughout breathes the foftness of Ionia, rather than the active contention of Athens. . He In this light Herodotus appeared to the Athenians in the age immediately fucceeding his own. At the Olympic games he had read his work with univerfal applaufe. Thucydides, then a youth, wept mixed tears of wonder and emulation. His father was complimented on the generous ardour of a fon, whofe early inquietude at another's fame marked a character formed for exertions that lead to immortality. But Herodotus had preoccupied the subjects beft adapted to historical compofition; and it was not till the commencement of the memorable war of twenty-feven years, that Thucydides, amidst the dangers which threatened his country, rejoiced in a theme worthy to exercife the genius, and call forth the whole vigour of an hiftorian. From the breaking out of this war, in which he proved an unfortunate actor, he judged that it would be the greatest, the most obstinate, and important, that had ever been carried on. began therefore to collect, and treasure up, fuch materials as were neceffary for defcribing it; in the selection, as well as in the diftribution of which, he afterwards difcovered an evident purpofe to rival and furpafs Herodotus. Too much indulgence for fiction had difgraced the narrative of the latter: Thucydides profeffed to be animated purely by the love of truth. "His relation was not intended to delight the ears of an Olympic audience. By a faithful account of the paft, he hoped to affift his readers in conjecturing about the future. While human nature remained the fame, his work would have its ufe, being built on fuch principles as rendered it an everlasting poffeffion, not a contentious inftrument of temporary applaufe." The execution correfponded with this noble defign. In his introductory difcourfe he runs over the fabulous ages of Greece, carefully feparating the ore from the drofs. In fpeaking of Thrace, he touches, with proper brevity, on the fable of Tereus and Progne; and in defcribing Sicily, glances at the Cyclops and Leftrigons. But he recedes, as it were, with difguft, from fuch monftrous phantoms, and immediately returns to the main purpose of his history. In order to render it a faithful picture of the times, he profeffes to relate not only what was done, but what was faid, by inferting fuch speeches of Statefmen and Generals as he had himself heard, or as had been reported to him by others. This valuable part of his work has been imitated by all future hiftorians, till the improvement of military difcipline on the one hand, and the corruption of manners on the other, rendered fuch speeches fuperfluous. Eloquence was once an incentive to courage, and an inftrument of government. government. But the time was to arrive when the dead principles of fear and interest should alone predominate. In most countries of Europe, defpotifm has rendered public affemblies a dramatic reprefentation; and in the few where men are not enslaved by a malter, they are the flaves of pride, of avarice, and of faction. Thucydides, doubtlefs, had his model in the fhort and oblique. fpeeches of Herodotus; but in this particular he must be acknowledged far to furpass his pattern. In the diftribution of his fubject, however, he fell short of that writer. Thucydides, afpiring at extraordinary accuracy, divides his work by fummers and winters, relating apart the events comprehended in each period of fix months. But this fpace of time is commonly too fhort for events deferving the notice of history, to be begun, carried on, and completed. His narrative, therefore, is continually broken and interrupted: curiofity is raised without being fatisfied, and the reader is tranfported, as by magic, from Athens to Corcyra, from Lefbos to Peloponnefus, from the coast of Afia to Sicily. Thucydides follows the order of time; Herodotus the connection of events: in the language of a great critic, the skill and taste of Herodotus have reduced a very complicated argument into one regular harmonious whole; the prepofterous induftry of Thucydides has divided a very fimple fubject into many detached parts and fcattered limbs, which it is difficult again to reduce into one body. The fame critic obferves, that Herodotus's history has not only more art and variety, but more gaiety and fplendour. A fettled gloom, doubtlefs, hangs over the events of the Peloponnefian war but what is the hiftory of all wars, but a defcription of crimes and calamities! The auftere gravity of Thucydides admirably correfponds with his fubject. His majefty is worthy of Athens, when the commanded a thoufand tributary republics. His concife, nervous, and energetic ftyle, his abrupt brevity, and elaborate plainnefs, admirably reprefent the contentions of active life, and the tumult of democratical affemblies. Demofthenes, whom Dionyfius himself extols above all orators, tranfcribed eight times, not the elegant flowing smoothness of Herodotus, but the fententious, harth, and often obfcure annals of Thucydides.' The effects of theatrical entertainments, mufic, &c. upon the manners of the Athenians in the period of their decline, are well defcribed but we must not be too copious in our extracs. In reviewing the ftate of letters and philofophy during this period, Dr. Gillies characterizes the writings of Xenophon and Plato, in a manner which discovers much good fente as well as a correct acquaintance with their works. The fplendid actions of Philip of Macedon, and the astonishing exploits of his fon, are related with a brilliancy of language fuited to the subject. With the diftribution of Alexander's conquefts among his fucceffors, our Author closes the narrative part of his work. We regret that he has not included within his plan, the brave struggle of the Achæan league, and the great actions and character of Philopanon, 7 Dr. Dr. Gillies clofes his history with a review of the state of arts, learning, and philofophy, at the time of the death of Alexander; in the courfe of which he gives a fummary of the fyftems of Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus and Pyrrho, for which we must refer to the work: only adding, by way of extract, the Author's account of the writings of Ariftotle. "Ariftotle," fays Lord Bacon," thought, like the Ottoman princes, that he could not reign fecure, unlefs he destroyed all his brethren;" nor was his literary ambition more exclufive than exorbitant. He afpired to embrace the whole circle of the arts and fciences, and profefed to explain whatever can be known concerning the moral, as well as the material, world. Not fatisfied with extending his empire to the utmoit verge of intellect, he boldly attempts queftions beyond all human knowledge, with the fame confidence that his pupil entered on a battle. But having to contend with enemies more flubborn than the Perfians, his rafhnefs was lefs fuccefsful than that of Alexander. • He divided philofophy into contemplative and practical. The contemplative or abftract philofophy, to which he first gave the name of metaphyfics, is obfcure throughout, often unintelligible, ftill more chimerical, but far lefs agreeable than that of his master, Plato. It comprehended not only the examination of thofe abftract ideas, existence, fubftance, quality, genus, fpecies, &c. which were fo long and fo felessly tortured by the perverfe induftry of the fchoolmen, but the general doctrines concerning mind or fpirit, particularly the mind of the Deity, The human foul is treated in a separate work; in which it must be acknowledged, that Ariftotle has made new names, rather than new discoveries; and the doctrine of the immortality is nowhere fo fully elucidated by this philofopher, as it had been by Plato. The natural philofophy of Ariftotle deferves the name of metaphyfic, in the modern fenfe of that word, fince he explained the laws of the univerfe, by comparing abstract ideas, not by obfervation and experience. When he defcends to particulars, he betrays more ignorance concerning the motions and magnitudes of the heavenly bodies, than many of his predeceffors. With the anatomy of man and other animals, he was well acquainted, confidering the grofs errors which generally prevailed in the age in which he lived. Chemistry was not yet invented. Since the introduction of the ideal philofophy, men had ceafed to observe nature; it could not therefore be expected that they should imitate her operations, and examine her by the teft of experiment. In mathematics, Ariftotle appears to have been lefs verfed than his predeceffors, Pythagoras and Plato; although, in the invention of the art of fyllogifm, he difplays a perfeverance of mental energy, which, had it been directed to the mathematical fciences, might have produced the greateft difcoveries. The fcepticism of his contemporary, Pyrrho, and ftill more the captious fophiftry of the Eriftics, might naturally engage Ariftotle to examine with more attention than his predeceffors, the nature of truth, and the means of defending it against the attacks of declamation, and the fnares of fubtlety. He undertook, therefore, the ar duous |