It is mainly adapted to the instruction of persons studying professionally the art of architecture, and to the gratification of those elegant antiquaries who are ambitious of a perfect knowledge of the state of the arts in ancient Greece. Picturesque, in the full sense of the term, it could not, for the greater part, have been made, without a great licence of inventive imagination in the delineator; since the principal antiquities to be illustrated, instead of occupying their ground, like those of Athens, in the state of edifices, offering, though partly in ruins, noble images for the pencil, were found sunk and crushed into mere fragments, monumental of the ancient structures. A careful investigation of these relics, with accurate measurements, applications of the ascertained rules of ancient art, and references of comparison to the less demolished works at Athens, enabled the artists to ascertain the forms of the edifices, and authorised the delineation of architectural views of some of them; but to have placed these on a landscape ground, with a pretension to depicture the site, vicinity, and whole ancient effect, would have been too extravagant an indulgence in fiction to be acceptable to the most eager demander of picturesque representations.

Several of the Elevations are, considered merely as pictures, very beautiful: we recollect, for instance, the Northern Front, and the Flank, of the Propylæa of Eleusis, and the Principal Front, and the North-west Angle of the temple of Nemesis, at Rhamnus. All the appropriate beauty of Grecian art is apparent in some of the details of columns, ceilings, and decorations. Dimensions are most minutely noted, by a multitude of numeral figures inserted in the plates; and there can be no difficulty in presuming on their accuracy. In the Sections, great attention is paid to mark the manner of the conjuncture of the parts, and the contrivances, such as plugs, cramps, jointtiles, &c. for securing a firm compaction of the materials. The artists, Messrs. Gandy and Bedford, have very successfully studied to place clearly in view whatever is most important in the architecture, and most explanatory of the principles on which the ancient builders proceeded. The short descriptive letter-press contains several intelligent discriminations and guesses. The engravings are executed in a fine style, by Armstrong, Porter, and Roffe.

As our concern with a work of this nature can extend but little beyond a mere literary announcement, we shall close this general description and recommendation with a few more short extracts from the introductory observations of one or two of the chapters.

Next to the renowned capital, Eleusis, as we have already said, is necessarily the most interesting locality by far in Attica; and the artists appear to have prosecuted their researches with

an energy worthy of the scene. The Propylæa, that is the grand entrance to the first enclosure of the Temple of Ceres, they easily ascertained to have been an exact copy of the Athenian structure.

Almost the only dimension that could not be ascertained, was the height of the columns, not from the want of the several frusta of which they formerly consisted, but from the difficulty of access to them, occasioned by the incumbent blocks of the entablature, and the lacunaria of the ceiling.'

The Inner Vestibule, or gateway affording access to the interior and more sacred enclosure of the great temple, is pronounced to be the most singular of all the buildings of • Eleusis.' And the reason for so describing it, is found in a circumstance which is with probability surmised to have had some relation to the peculiar business of the great temple. A portion of the pavement, (which remains nearly perfect,) is an inclined plane, with grooves in it, intended for wheels or trucks, and considerably worn by such a use. As it appeared' very evident that no carriages could be admitted into the outer enclosure, these grooves are judged to indicate the use of some kind of moveable floor or stage, the management of which might be a commencement of the train of surprising phenomena by which the mystæ were going to be overwhelmed. It is shewn by what mechanical means such a stage might be played in and out, rising and falling, in these grooves. Near the inner front of this building was found the colossal half length of Ceres, brought to England by Dr. Clarke, and 'now deposited in the public library at Cambridge.

The chapter appropriated to the great temple, is introduced by some statements and observations respecting the mysteries, to which a disposition is shown to attribute more good than' such a juggle could ever produce.

The investigation of the remains of the grand structure, was very imperfect, from both the laboriousness and the restricted extent of the excavations which were requisite to bring any considerable portion of it to light.

The devastations of Alaric appeared to have rendered all further developement of the mystery impracticable, by burying the site of the temple beneath its own ponderous ruins. This state of oblivion' was assisted by the operations of the more modern inhabitants of Eleusis, whose wretched habitations overspread the area formerly' comprised within the sacred boundary of the temple. Still, however, the site was marked by the massive blocks of the edifice, which the Eleusinians had not the power of converting to the purposes of the building, and which were visible above the accumulated soil of several centuries.?

• The fragment of one column alone, about four feet in height,

visibly retained its original situation; the soil had accumulated so as to rise two feet above the pavement of the portico on which it stood; from hence it gradually sloped upwards towards the rear, where the accumulation of the ruins and the soil above it was fourteen feet, and had restored the ground to what was its natural form before it was cut away to make an artificial level for the basement of the Temple. Upon this slope, thus formed by the ponderous masses of the building, many of the modern habitations were erected; a circumstance which effectually prevented the investigation necessary to the developement of the entire plan. Along the range of steps in front of the portico, excepting for an interval of about twenty feet, a continued row of cottages had been built; but this did not prevent the artists of the mission from making their excavations, which discovered the pavement, in a state almost perfect, with the positions, clearly defined, of twelve columns, which formerly adorned the front of this celebrated building.'

A variety of laborious researches are related, from the whole collected and compared results of which the artists ventured to make out a general scheme of this most celebrated structure, a scheme certain in many of its parts, and probable in the rest. The original height of the columns of the portico could not be ascertained. The cella was judged to have been 6 nearly a square, of something more than one hundred and 'sixty-six feet.' A very remarkable circumstance was the discovery of a pavement under the cella on a level of several feet below that of the pavement of the portico; an irregularity which, combined with other circumstances, induced a decided belief that this was not the actual floor of the temple, but 'that of a crypt, constructed for some purpose of theatrical decep'tion, which we know to have been practised upon the candidates 'for initiation.' The circumstance that the rock was not cut down smooth, at the side, to the level of this platform, but left rough and protruding, might alone be decisive that this could not be the visible pavement of the cella.

Some future mission of dilettanti may perhaps be able, and may judge it an expense well bestowed, to purchase some of the wretched hovels, and complete at leisure the investigation; from which, however, it is not very probable we should receive any very material aids toward the more perfect knowledge of the economy of the ancient delusions practised in this recess. Whatever in those imposing rites remains still in the dark, will probably be retained in that mystery till--not the relics of the temple, but its hierophants, shall be raised from beneath the ground.

It should be noticed that the typography of the volume is worthy of its association with so much elegance. There are several incorrectnesses of composition, which we wonder to see admitted within the peribolus of so classical and splendid a literary structure.

Art. V. The Life of Philip Melancthon, comprising an Account of the most important Transactions of the Reformation. By Francis Augustus Cox, A. M. Second Edition. 8vo. Price 14s. Gale and Fenner. London. 1817.

AMONG the illustrious characters who suddenly shone forth with brilliant display, at the period of the Reformation, the subject of the present memoir was one of the best and brightest. He was, we think we may say expressly formed by Divine Providence, to be the friend, coadjutor, and counsellor, of the principal leader of the Great Cause. While Luther had eminently the qualities in which Melancthon was deficient, and without which his task could never, humanly speaking, have been accomplished, the latter had precisely the portion of calmness, wisdom, and prudence, which was necessary to assuage the fiery temperament of Luther. That he was sometimes too gentle, too cautious, is, we imagine, undeniable; but, on the other hand, his concessions, though they might have ultimately endangered principle, never, that we recollect, went the length of abandoning it. The intrepid defiance with which Luther threw down the gauntlet in the very face of the Papal power, might have shaken stronger nerves than Melancthon's, and we cannot wonder if. his milder and less martial spirit shrunk from the anticipation of so disproportionate a conflict, and preferred a safer enmity, a more gradual and concealed invasion. Luther's sole deference, was to truth. He searched for it honestly and diligently; and when he had found it, he went the shortest way to its propagation. He set fire at once to the sanctuary of error; careless if, while the whole world was enlightened by the blaze, a few individuals might be scorched by the flame. Melancthon, with equal veneration for truth, had more regard for his own repose, and for the tranquillity of mankind; and would have preferred an easier and more circuitous way of demolishing the edifice of lies.' When, however, the strife had actually begun, Melancthon did not desert his post, but was to Luther a firm support and a faithful "fellow "worker."

Bossuet, in his "Histoire des Variations," a work which required only a purer cause, to make it the very ablest of its kind, has taken great pains to range Melancthon on his own side, in condemning the conduct of the Reformation. He represents him as an amiable, well-judging man, influenced by the decay of discipline in the Catholic Church, (though on the whole approving its doctrine and system,) to assent to the easier measures of the Reformers; and led afterwards, rather by the force of circumstances than of conscience, to mingle himself with their cause. In order to establish this opinion, he has sifted with

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the keenest vigilance, the life and writings of Melancthon, and selected with consummate artifice and dexterity, every document that could make for his purpose. All these materials he has so arranged, as to produce the strongest possible effect; and the mass of evidence thus procured, must appear, not merely to Papists, but to all superficial inquirers, not far short of demonstration. A little fair reflection, however, must effectually rescue Melancthon from the imputation of doubtful principle. In the first place, some of Bossuct's statements are questionable altogether, and others are susceptible of a different interpretation from that which he gives them. But besides this, his principal materials are drawn from Melancthon's letters, in which the Reformer expresses, with the utmost frankness, his feelings, as called forth by recent occurrences. It formed no part of Bossuet's intention, to weigh his evidence in an impartial balance; and be consequently allows nothing for collateral circumstances, nor for transient, though strong impressions. He dissects sentences from their explanatory context, pays no regard to what precedes or follows, but takes whatever suits him, per fas aut nefas, in order to effect his purpose of representing the real and ostensible opinions of Melancthon, as at variance with each other, and of throwing his weight into the scale of that very party, which he constantly and conscientiously opposed. Nothing can be more striking, and setting aside the want of good faith, nothing can be more admirable, than the unrivalled dexterity with which he makes use of the personal character of Erasmus, as a weapon against the Reformation. Erasmus really was to the Papists, what Bossuet makes Melancthon to have been to the Protestants, and consequently he might in the same way, and with greater truth, have been arrayed against them; but Bossuet contrives in the most masterly way imaginable, to mask this weak point, and to place Erasmus in the very front of his battle. This is exceedingly skilful, but to the last degree disingenuous; and it still remains undeniably true, that the Papist Erasmus was a timid dissembler, while the Protestant Melancthon was, allowing for human frailty, immoveable in his fidelity to principle.

Philip Melancthon was born at Bretten, in Saxony, on the 16th February, 1497 his family name was Schwartzerd, (i. e. Black earth, of which his common appellation is a Greek translation. His first tutor seems to have been his maternal grandfather. He studied Latin under John Hungarus, and Greek under Simlerus. After a residence of three years at the university of Heidelberg, he removed to Tubingen, where he took his degree, and gave public lectures. In early life, he had attracted the admiration of the celebrated Capnio; and, while at the last named university, he enjoyed the correspond