New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-09-28
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

York: Macmillan IL Co.
purely literary work by famous political leader
is less of phenomenon IN England than it would be
IN this country. Mr.. Gladstone, there, exhibits no
exceptional capacity his predecessors in Office Mr.
Disraeli and Lords Derby and RUSSELL have dis
tinguished themselves in the same feld-One of
them, indeed by work which may proftably be
read in connection with this of his rival, We note
the fact as one illustrative of the broader culture OF
English statesmen, and honorable to their tastes
Literature is above the condescensiOn of place ana
power it takes no additional mster from the titles
of those who tread its rugged yet entcing pathson
the contrary it holds forth the promise OF greener
crown than was ever achieved by political success
Mr. Gladstone when he enters the arena OF letters
takes of his robes of Office at the entrance and
stands. like the athletes at the Olympic games
equally naked with his fellOw-authOrs. He cannot
transfer the power won in very different struggle
20 the support of his present ambition. With the
natural admiration which venture like his eTcites
in onr minds-seeing that it is so much more than
we have any fair reason to expect-we shall prOba-
bly, in spite of ourselves, extend TO him greater
measure Of allowance than we should yield to a
scholar who makes the HOmeric question the sole
study of his life but this is o magnanmity which
he cannot claim as right His performance must
be measured according to its own independent merit.
The title of his work seems to US rather fanciful
than appropriate. Strictly, it is not the Youth OF
the World" nor even the Youth of Man, which he
proposes to discuss but rather the Greek people, as
represented in their earliest literature. Such works
as the Had and the Odyssey presuppose long ante
cedent growth, and even the period of their prOduc
ton seems recent, when compared with the con-
jectured historical eras. With this exception, the
plan of the work is simple, clear and wrought out
with the most scrupuOus care. Reversing the usual
process OF authors, who ransack History for the
material of Fiction, he endeavOrs to collect histOr-
zeal and chronological truth from poem in which
fiction and fable component parts. He accepts,
first a Homer and then the testimony of that Homer
concerning the lineage, religion, laws, morals and
manners of the Grecian Of his day. The indus
try which he displays IN developing this purpose
could only spring from inexhaustlble interest III
the subect-an interest so absorbing in fact that 1t
might easily overstep the proper limits of research
and convert its subject into what is vulgary called
"a hobby" But, if this be so in MIR. Gladstones
case il is hobby ridden by daring and competent
nder
From the startingpoint which he selects, the first
question to be settled is naturally the authorship OF
the two great epcs The value of the evidence cannot
be determined until the character of the witness sat
least approximately - established. Mr.. Gladstone
however passes over this point very lightly, leaving
us to infer that he is familiar with the opposite
views vet according TO them no such Importance as
they certainly possess in the of the best classic
scholars. 1t is more than seventy years since
Wolf published his L" PrOlegomena ad Homerum,"
and probably no single question connected with
classical literature has been more thoroughly
discussed since that time. Even those who
hold las who would not wish to y to the
individuality Of Homer, have been forced to accept
so much of VOLTS theory aseribes great changes
snd interpretations to the Rhapsodsts and sets forth
The impossibility of establishing correct earlier
iext than that of Arstarchus lB G. 1907. Becker,
and we believe, almost every other prominent Con-
tinental scholar has adopted the latter view, and
even Hermann who admits single Homer to have
been the author of the primitive Had and Odyssey,
declares that it is impossible to eliminate the
later changes and additions from the original text.
The various recenSions of the poems, to which Mr..
Gladstone refers as evidence of great and gen.
eral anxiety to preserve the pure text, equally
proof of varieties of reading and his assertion that
the strongest argument for the soundness of the
text as well that for the unity of the POEMS
hangs upon internal evidence" unsupported as it is
by special illustration cannot outweigh the decision
Of scholars who have devoted their lives to the
technical features of the question
Nevertheless, since cannot have pre-Aexan-
drian text of Homer il is just WELL for the main
object which Mr.. Gladstone has in view, to accept
Nl(uOul ludI WHICH we nave. Ills pIln-
cipa service is not lessened by the view which he
takes of the authorship of the Poems. They are
sifted line by line and word by word the evidence
each point carefully collocated, and the IaeRRe
supplied by cOnjectuTes almost always notable for
their shrewdness and intelligence. There is great
deal in the volume which is new or at least. pre-
sented in pew aspect and very little which the
student of Homer whether Grecian or not may not
read with profit
Nh Gladstone commences by an endeayor 10 ascer- |
tain the geographical and political value of the Three
Great Appellatives-as he terms the tribal names
ArgeiOi DdRdo, and AchaiOi His arguments are
drawn from the text with great skill; but we can
only give his conclusions that the most properly ma
tional name of the Greeks at the time of Homer was
the Achai0i or Achaians; that more specifically the
DGnaOi indicated the soldiery the Argeoithe people
engaged in tillage, aud the Aehaio Ia narrower use
of the term the chiefs arisOcracy. OF the latter
he says: This class, and the race that formed it,
appear to TO be entitled to a more separate and
concentrated attention than it has as yet received IN
tie investigation of Greek history 1t forms dis
tnct type of Hellenic character the earliest in time
and certainly not the least remarkable in grandeur
or in completeness The Greek OF Homer neither the
Iuan Of Athens the man of Sparta: he is neither
cast in the Dorian nor the Ionian pattern:
be is the Achaan Greek. Simple, and yet shrewd
passionate, and yet selfcontained brave in BATTLE
and gentle in converse; keeny living in the present.
yet with large discourse over the future and the
past as he is in body fuh-limbed and tall so is
he in mind towering and fullformed. His portrait
could never have been drawn but from the life and
disregarding what / conceive to have been the fig
ments Of the first renaissance after the wild and rude
Dorian revolution, l set down Homer himself as
the AcbaIan painter of his own kith and kim
We have not space to follow Mr.. GladstOne'S exam-
nafion of the four othar , o4ioual