Alciphron

, a Greek author, of whom little is known, unless by his “Epistles,” which afford much amusing information respecting the domestic manners of the Greek courtesans, fishermen, and parasites. Dr. Jortin is of opinion that he drew them up for the use of his scholars, to teach them to speak and write Greek with purity and fidelity; but this opinion the English translators have very amply refuted. The best edition of these letters is that of Bergler, Gr. and Lat. with learned notes, Leipsic, 1709, 1715, 12mo, the latter a very rare edition. There is another, Utrecht, 1791, 8vo, and reprinted, with some additions by M. Wagner, Leipsic, 1798, 2 vols. 8vo. M. Bast, a French scholar, has lately found some unpublished letters, and very important variations, among the manuscripts in the imperial library of Paris, and has some intention of publishing them in a new edition of Alciphron. An excellent translation of the Epistles was published, London, 1791, 8vo. The first and second books, and the | eloquent preface, by Mr. Monro, now rector of Easton, in Essex; and the third, with the notes, by the rev. William Beloe, the able translator of Herodotus. ¹