Dicuil was first published by Walckenaer in 1807, at Paris; but Letronne first settled the text after careful collations of manuscripts, and accompanied it with most valuable and scholarlike prolegomena. Among other important passages, the biblical critic will find a most satisfactory explanation of Luke's use of the term Adria, in Acts 27: 27. In 1816 M. Letronne won a prize offered by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres for an essay on the metrical system of the Egyptians, and soon afterwards was elected a member of the Institute, that is to say, of the branch of it known as the Academy just named. Not long after, he was appointed Inspector general of the University, and Inspector of studies in the royal military schools. And by degrees as he acquired reputation by his writings, the learned Societies of Europe enrolled him on their list of members. Thus he enjoyed the high honor of being a foreign member of the Royal Academy at Berlin. In 1817 he published in a thin quarto, having previously communicated it to the Academy of Inscriptions, his considérations générales sur l'évaluation des monnaies Grecques et Romaines,' in which he supported, against a theory of Count G. Garnier, the commonly received views respecting Greek and Roman coins by a force of argument to which archaeology had hardly ever attained. We first were led to this work in 1828, by the very high commendation which Boeckh of Berlin bestowed upon it, who added that Letronne's investigations were entitled to equal respect and confidence with the ablest researches of the German scholars. In the year 1823 he published his 'Recherches pour servir a l'histoire de l'Egypt,' in which, with vast skill and learning, he makes the inscriptions collected by the French expedition and others to tell upon Egyptian history during the sway of the Ptolemies and of the Romans in that country. It was this work which put an end to the opinion then prevailing of the very remote origin of Egyptian astronomy, by showing that the zodiacs—as that of Denderah or Lentyris-originated in the times of the Romans. Many of Letronne's hours, from this time until his death, were consecrated to Egyptian investigations. Soon after the work just mentioned, appeared his ' matériaux pour servir à l'histoire du christianisme en Egypte en Nubie et en Abyssinie.' In the tenth volume of the Memoires of the Academy of Inscriptions he inserted a dissertation on the vocal statue of Memnon. He draws from the inscriptions upon the colossus the conclusions "that the vocal phenomenon began to attract attention after the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, and probably after the statue was broken in two, which probably occurred during an earthquake in the year 27 B. C.; that it ceased under Septimius Severus, when the statue was restored; that the statue was brought into connection with the Greek 1849.] Greek Fragments in Egypt. 605 mythical hero Memnon after the sound began to be heard, and in consequence of the quarter, where the statue was, being called the Memnonium, which is a word of Egyptian origin; and finally, that the sound was produced not by pious fraud, but by some physical cause connected with the great change of temperature at sunrise." A number of dissertations inserted in the memoirs of the same Academy attest to his industry and learning. He was also for many years an important contributor to the Journal de Savans, to the Annales of the Archaeological Institute at Rome, and to the Revue Archaeologique, a work begun but a few years since. In his articles in the first named journal almost every work of note proceeding from German scholars passes under his revision. He also published the fragments of Scymnus and of the description of Greece usually ascribed to Dicaearchus, but which he and Meineke after him assign to Dionysius, son of Calliphon. Another production of his pen was his "Letters on historical wall-painting in the decoration of temples, etc.," in which he united a knowledge of that art, derived from study in his youth under David, to most extensive philological acquisitions. But the great work of M. Letronne, and one which unhappily he left unfinished, was his 'Recueil des Inscriptions Grecques et Latines de l'Egypt,' of which the first volume in quarto appeared in 1842, and the second in 1848. He had prepared also, it is said, all the materials which were to enter into his third volume; by collecting and collating the Greek manuscripts upon papyrus which have been found in Egypt. But death cut him off in the midst of his labors at an age not very advanced, when his sound health offered reason to look for a protracted life. Letronne united caution, sagacity, extensive acquirements, freedom from bias and theory in a rare degree, so as to be perhaps the safest guide in his conclusions of all the archaeologists of the present day. Besides the honors which we have mentioned above, as conferred upon him, he was Professor of History in the College of France, Conservator of the National Library, Keeper (garde général) of the Archives (administrateur) of the College of France, and Director of the School of Chartes. No scholar of our time is believed to have united the characteristics of the French and German mind more happily. T. D. W. Greek Fragments found in Egypt. In the spring of 1847, Mr. A. C. Harris bought from a dealer of antiquities at Thebes of upper Egypt a number of fragments of some Greek author written upon papyrus. On a subsequent visit to Thebes in 1848, 1 In his edition of Scymnus and Dionysius, Berlin, 1846. he was unsuccessful in his endeavors to ascertain the spot from which these manuscripts were taken by the Arab excavators. The fragments were published by him in London upon eleven lithographic plates in August, 1848, and soon arrested the attention of Prof. Boeckh of Berlin, who reedited them in the Halle Allgem. Literatur-zeitung for October, 1848, (Nos. 223-227) and of Prof. Sauppe, the joint editor with Prof. Baiter, of a late edition of the Attic Orators, who likewise republished them in Schneidewin's Philologus, (in the fourth number for 1848). Mr. Harris announced the fragments as pertaining to the oration of Hyperides against Demosthenes, arising out of the affair of Harpalus. And such the greater part of them prove to be. As for the rest, we may embrace what needs to be said respecting these fragments under the following heads. 1. Those which are most entire contain three and even four narrow columns of writing, in letters which may be said to be uncial, somewhat rounded. The way of writing is said by Boeckh to be very similar to that of the fragment of the Iliad (Book 24), which was found in Egypt a number of years since. There are from twenty-seven to twenty-nine lines on a column. The order of the fragments is a matter of conjecture. The two scholars above mentioned have partially agreed in their arrangement, but Sauppe, while he has gone too far in settling that point without sufficient data, has made some discoveries which escaped the observation of Boeckh. In particular he found that the fragments marked VIII. and XIV. by Mr. Harris, continued each other in their first, second and third columns successively, by which means a long passage with but few uncertain works is brought into its proper shape. 2. Eleven of the thirty-two fragments are too small and too much effaced to be of any value. Three of the remaining ones clearly belong to an oration in defence of some person, and one of them to the very prologue, so that they cannot have appertained to the oration of Hyperides above referred to, but may be parts of some other work of the same orator. The other fragments evidently belong to the same composition, and that this was the oration in question is proved by several words or phrases cited by Harpocration as from this oration, and here found in place. 3. In the judgment of Prof. Sauppe the fragments show those characteristics which were ascribed to Hyperides by the ancient critics, such as grace of narrative, dexterity in the use of arguments, wit and comic power, and the opposite of fastidiousness in the choice of words. The strain of these remains reveals not the indignation of a patriot who believes that a wrong has been done to his country, but rather the artful eloquence of a hired advocate who depends less on the power of truth than on readiness and on trickery in representation. 4. The fragments disclose a few particulars respecting the affair of 1849.] Note on the Words "all to," in Judg. 9: 53. 607 Harpalus not known from the oration of Dinarchus or from other sources. From one passage it appears that a party at Athens believed, on the arrival of Harpalus with his money, that the favorable moment had arrived for a contest with Alexander. To this party the author of the fragments seems to have belonged; and perhaps the fact that Demosthenes took a more cautious part was the reason why these men, who had long been political friends, were now so widely separated. Hyperides seems to have been concerned in the process, as one of the ten orators who were appointed by the people to protect the interests of the State before the courts. T. D. W. NOTE ON THE WORDS "ALL TO," IN JUDG. IX. 53. By E. Robinson, D. D., Professor at New York. THE object of this Note is to call attention to an expression in our excellent English version of the Bible, which, in the course of time, has come to be misunderstood probably by most persons. It occurs in Judg. 9: 53, "And a certain woman cast a piece of a mill-stone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull." The question is as to the words "all to," in the last clause of the verse. Most readers, probably, understand this clause as if it read thus: "and all this in order to break his skull." The word "brake" seems often to have been regarded as an antiquated orthography for the present tense "break; and hence the latter has been substituted in several editions of the Bible, enumerated below, so as to read: "and all to break his skull." But this is wrong, and "brake," as a past tense, is right; as appears on turning to the original Hebrew and the ancient versions. HEB. baby, and brake his skull. SEPT. καὶ ἐκλασε τὸ κρανίον αὐτοῦ, and brake his skull, The Hebrew Hiphil form is sometimes held to be intensive, "to break in pieces;" but in this particular verb, Kal is mostly intransitive, and therefore the full sense of the Hiphil is expressed by the transitive idea. This is further shown here by the fact, that Abimelech, after the blow, was able to call on his armour-bearer to thrust him through; and even assigns the reason. Hence the Septuagint and Vulgate properly express the idea without emphasis; unless the confringit of the latter may be so considered. The earlier English versions vary in respect to this clause, e. g. TINDAL (MATTHEWS): and all to hrake hys brayne panne. CRANMER (THE BISHOPS): and all to brake hys brane panne. DOUAY (RHEIMS): and brake his brayne. It thus appears that Coverdale and the Geneva follow the Septuagint; the Douay, the Vulgate; while Tindal and Cranmer (whom the common version follows) have attempted to mark the supposed intensive sense of Hiphil. That is to say, the phrase "al to," or "all to," was in their day employed to express the sense of the more usual "altogether," by which it has been superseded; meaning "wholly, entirely, completely." This position is supported by the following passages; to present which, in a permanent form, is another object of this Note. They have been collected by J. R. Bartlett, Esq., author of the Dictionary of Americanisms, to whose kindness I am indebted for them. The idiom in question has become so entirely obsolete, that probably very few are aware that it ever existed. The English Dictionaries throw no light upon the subject; they do not even notice such a use of the words. But in some of the Provincial Glossaries are found the following definitions; the words being written sometimes with a hyphen and sometimes without. ALL-TO | Entirely, very much. The to seems to have an augmentative power, so ALL TO as to increase the force of the word following. Thus all-to torn means “very much torn."-NARES' Glossary. 4to. Lond. 1822. ALL-TO: Entirely, altogether.-HALLIWELL'S Glossary. 8vo. Lond. 1847. These definitions are sustained by the following extracts from writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. That did with dirt and dust him al-to dash-HARRINGTON's Ariosto, xxxiv. 48. Now, forsooth, as they went together, often al to kissing one another, the knight told her he was brought up among the water nymphs.-PEMBROKE'S Arcadia, p.154. Mercutio's icy hand al to frozen mine.-SHAKSPEARE's Romeo & Juliet,Suppl.I.285. For when her husband forsoke a right woorshipful roume whan it was offred hym, she fell in hand with hym (he told me) and all to rated hym.—SIR THOMAS MORE, Works. p. 1224. When corn is well dried, the manner is to lay it upon some hard, craggie, or stonie ground, then all to beat and belabour it with cudgels, that it may be soft to lie under cattell.-HOLLAND'S Pliny, p. 602. Lond. 1624. "Where with her best nurse, contemplation, She [wisdom] plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, Were all-to ruffled, and sometimes impair'd." MILTON, Comus, i. 376. |
