hoom with him alle his kyn and his frends and alle the othere of his hows, and makethe hem a grete feste. And whan thei ben at mete, the sone let brynge forthe the hede of his fader and there of he zevethe of the flesche to his most specyalle frendes in stede of Entre Messe or a sukkarke. And of the brayn panne he lettethe make a cuppe and there of drynkethe he, and his othere frendes also, with grete devocioun, in remembraunce of the holy man that the aungeles of God han eten; and that cuppe the sone schalle kepe to drynken of alle his lif' tyme, in remembraunce of his fader."

Another of the islands is represented as being a great kingdom where the king is full rich and mighty; and, amongst the rich men of the country, there is a passing rich man that hath every year an annual rent of three hundred thousand horse charged with corn, rice and different kinds of grain. Now, this wealthy personage leadeth a noble and delicate life; for, says the historian,

"He hathe every day fifty fair damyseles, alle maydens, that serven him everemore at his mete; and whan he is at table, thei bryngen him hys mete at every tyme, 5 and 5 to gedre; and in bryngynge hire servyse thei syngen a song; and after that thei kutten his mete and putten it in his mouth; for he touchethe no thinge, he handlethe nought, but holden evere more his honds before him upon the table. For he hathe so longe nayles that he may

take no thinge, ne handle no thinge. For the noblesse of that contree is to have longe nayles, and to make hem growen alle weys to bend as longe as men may. And there ben manye in that contree that han hire nayles so longe that thei environne alle the hond; and that is a gret noblesse. And the noblesse of the women is for to haven smale feet and littille; and therfore anon as thei ben born, thei leet bynde hire feet so streyte that thei may not growen half as nature wolde. And alle weys theise damyseles, that I spak of

beforn, syngen alle the tyme that this riche man etethe; and whan he eteth no more of his cours, thanne othere 5 and 5 of fair damyseles bryngen him his seconde cours, alle weys syngynge as thei did beforn; and so thei don contynuelly every day to the ende of his mete; and in this manner he ledethe his lif; and so did thei before him that weren his auncestores, and so schalle thei that comen aftre him with outen doynge of ony dedes of armes, but lyven evere more thus in ese as a swyn that is fedde in sty for to ben made fatte."

From the preceding analytical sketches, the archæologist may elicit motives to institute an attentive perusal of SIR JOHN MAUNDEVILLE'S Voiage and Travaile, for the purpose of discriminating such of his facts and observations as have been confirmed by subsequent experience, from the flourishes of fiction wherewithal his venerable chorography is liberally arrayed. With regard to the marvellous stories so readily credited by our author, and the great respect he pays to every relic, as the Editor has judiciously observed, these are not matters of surprize when we consider the enthusiasm of a zealous Roman catholic of the fourteenth century. He was treading on sacred ground, and credited, because he desired to credit, every idle story that came floating before his view. We may grieve over the prostration of a vigorous intellect, in conning the Knighte's grete meraycles; but we need not express astonishment nor employ reprehension, on discovering the credulity of a romantic pilgrim, when we reflect that even his tales of saints and monsters, of bugbears and miracles, were originally the elaborate fabrications of " Ghostly Fathers" to whose charge the secular and religious education of Christendom was then confided. Throughout his "Tretys" are interspersed many practical directions which would prove useful to others afterwards engaged in the same course of peregrination: its extraordinary popularity, indeed, as evinced by the numerous M.S.S. and printed editions of his Travaile, in various languages, most clearly shows that the book was considered both entertaining and instructive: nevertheless, in all its sections, we may discern the ingenuous traveller's powerfulness to detect the detestable contrivances whereby the priesthood laboured, in those days, to paralyze the divinely elastic energies of man's immortal mind.

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REVIEWS OF FOREIGN WORKS LATELY

PUBLISHED ON THE CONTINENT.

Geschichte und System der Platonische Philosophie (History and System of the Platonic Philosophy), by Dr. K. Fr. Hermann. 1st Part. Heidelberg, 1838.

SOME years ago, Mr. Hermann, one of the most distinguished scholars, philosophers, and antiquarians of the day, intimated his intention of publishing a complete system of the Platonic Philosophy. That promise, which had excited in no small degree the curiosity of the literary world on the continent, is in part fulfilled by the appearance of the first volume, divided into three books. Though we must confess that the volume before us, so far from completing the system, on the contrary, suggests new points for inquiry, the novel and original point of view, however, which the author has taken to develope the system, will undoubtedly form a new era in the Platonic literature.

The author's plan is, to connect as close as possible the development of Plato's philosophical views with that of his moral and civil life. He is, therefore, not satisfied with the exhibition of a few detached periods in the life of Plato, but follows him through all the stages of his life, as bearing immediately upon his political and philosophical views. The period in which Plato was born leads to the investigation of the administration of Pericles and its consequences, on which Plato animadverted in unsparing terms. Plato's exclusive intercourse with Socrates, which prevented his becoming acquainted with the other philosophical systems of the day, and the subsequent death of the latter, which opened to his view the fallacious systems of his contemporaries, form a peculiar epoch in his life, not only for his philosophical opinions, but also with regard to his political views, having formed but a poor opinion of the principles of justice as prevalent in his native place, which condemned his righteous teacher to a villainous death. This his indignation induced him to decline serving his country practically, by fulfilling some public office, to which he was entitled by birth and station in social life. The author, on the other hand, points skilfully out all the advantages Plato had derived from his travels in Major Greece, and the reconciliation with his countrymen, the result of his intercourse with Dionysius and other influential characters, which also roused in him the confidence of realising his moral notions.

These are the outlines of the first book, in which an historical development of the life of Plato is most elaborately sketched. There

are, however, general points which we would not take bona fide, and most particularly the assertion of the author that before the death of Socrates Plato had been unacquainted with the other philosophical systems of the day-a circumstance that is replete with very important consequences for the conclusions and inferences developed in the sequel.

The second book exhibits the various systems of the philosophy of the day, their influence upon, and connection with, that of Plato. The general opinion that Plato had reconciled and adopted in his system the different contradictory views of the other philosophers, does not seem satisfactory to our author, who argues, with a great display of erudition, that Plato had merely worked out the materials of various fallacious views into a system of his own, in which he transforms the unity of the Electic school into the principle of form, the perpetual creation of Heraclite into the principle of matter, the creating spirit of Anaxagoras into a primitive cause, and the notion of harmony of Pythagoras into the final end and aim of all the operations of nature in general. In developing the systems of the philosophers just mentioned, the author dwells particularly on the system of the sophists, not only because it preceded more immediately that of Plato, and throws besides great light upon the philosophy of Socrates, but also because the author does not concur in the opinion of those who consider the system of the sophists as a corrupted branch of the vigorous tree of knowledge, but views it rather as the natural fruit of the loose and partial speculations of the preceding philosophers. Whatever the defects and fallacies, the author thinks, of their views may have been, the sophists have the credit of having been the first to single out the reflecting subject, man, as the basis of all philosophical contemplations; but while they spoke of man only in his individual and personal quality, Socrates pointed to the whole sphere of humanity, in his sublime relation to the Deity, as the standard of all objects in nature. The application of the Socratic doctrines, however, to the views of nature by the preceding philosophers, soon led to those partial and incorrect notions, as promulgated by the various so-called-though improperly-Socratic schools, until Plato united them all in the harmonic structure of his system.

The third book contains the chronological arrangment of P.'s writings, illustrative of his system; and is of great importance to those readers who have perused Schleiermacher's divisions on that head. The latter tries to lend to all the writings of P., his detached discourses not even excepted, a certain dialectic method, while Dr. Hermann is opposed to that view for sundry reasons, and thinks it, among others, highly improbable that P. should, in the long career of his authorship, have continually thought and written on a certain fixed plan; he is, therefore, of opinion, that the plan and method of P. underwent the same and simultaneous development as his views, and ripened with them. This the author explains and supports by

such vigorous arguments, as hard and original as they are correct, as to baffle the most strenuous advocates of Schleiermacher's system. After this introduction, the author again resumes the thread of the first two books. The death of Socrates, and P.'s return from his travels, form three periods in P.'s writings, and Dr. H. very ingeniously makes use of three dialogues Lyris, Theactet, and Symposium, to characterise those periods, at the same time that he places Phædrus -contrary to the opinion of Schleiermacher-in a far later period. As to the genuineness of the single dialogues, the author considers as forgeries, beside Axiochus, Demodocus, etc., also the second Alcibiades, the Anterosts, Epinomis, the definitions Klitophon and Theages, while he refutes the arguments advanced against the genuineness of the lesser Hippias, Ion, the first Alcibiades, Charmides, Lysis, and Laches.

Der Christliche Altar, archäologisch und artistisch dargestellt. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Altars und zur Erhaltung älterer Kirchendenkmäler und deren Wiederherstellung. Von C. Heideloff. Mit erklärenden Texte von Jeo. Neumann.—(The Christian Altar, represented archæologically and artistically. A contribution to the History of the early Monuments of the Church, and their Restoration. By C. Heideloff. With an explanatory text by Geo. Numann). With eleven copperplates. Nuremberg, 1838.

HOWEVER short the explanatory remarks and observations may appear concerning the grouped figures contained in the work before us, in general the author has nevertheless most carefully noticed the most important incidents. After a few and brief remarks on the origin and names of altars in general, and on their form and nature, among the Jews and heathens, the author begins his description of the christian altar, from the original form of a simple table of the first century, down to the most complicated structure and adornments of the later ages. The main object of the celebrated artist by the exhibition of the numerous groups of altars, seems to have been to draw the attention of the wardens and trustees of churches to the discord that frequently exists between the architecture of the church and the altar, and to assist them to remedy the evil without being absolutely versed in the minutia of the art. "It often struck me," says the author, “that the colossal altars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were entirely misplaced in churches built in the form of architecture as prevalent in the tenth or fifteenth century. An instance of palpable disharmony of this sort is seen in the Cathedral of Bamberg, which is built in the pure Byzantine style, while the colossal altar, reaching to the very vault of the roof, disfigures the tout ensem