STOP
Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in the World
This article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in
the world by JSTOR.
Known as the Early Journal Content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other
writings published in more than 200 of the oldest leading academic journals. The works date from the
mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.
We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this
resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial
purposes.
Read more about Early Journal Content at http://about.jstor.org/participate-jstor/individuals/early-
journal-content .
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary source objects. JSTOR helps people
discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching
platform, and preserves this content for future generations. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit
organization that also includes Ithaka S+R and Portico. For more information about JSTOR, please
contact support@jstor.org.
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 2 II
never so numerous as the undoubted eminence of the author
would appear to demand.
The fact is, however, that Ovid's commanding position in
the literature of the world is largely due to at least two
aspects of his genius the influence of which is not revealed by
such indicia. One of these is his command of metrical tech-
nique, the other, his ability to tell a story. The former is his
greatest gift to Antiquity, the latter is the basis of his supreme
importance in the aesthetic evolution of the Modern World.
But in both cases what he really did passed into the communal
fund of acquired ability, and the author of it became, as it
were, ' depersonalized '. Hence the ancients forgot their debt
to Ovid, just as we for the most part have finally forgotten
ours. As a metrical artist, however, Ovid takes his place
among the great poets of the world. In this respect he did
for Roman poetry what Cicero had already done for Roman
prose; he found it more or less local, and left it capable of
universal use for an indefinite period. And when at the
Renaissance we moderns at last outgrew the Chanson de
Gestes, which babbled on like a brook through an entire pedi-
gree, and the Roman d'Aventures, the incidents of which could
be predicted in advance, and the Fabliau which, to say the
least, was nothing new, we turned, with rare discrimination, to
the greatest story-teller of the Roman world, we sat at the
feet of the man who, as Mackail well says, ' fixed a certain
ideal of civilized manners for the Latin Empire and for
Modern Europe', and learned from him as best we could
what it is that makes a story immortal and always young.
Kirby Flower Smith.
The Guipuscoan Verb of the Year 1713, found in the Cate-
chism of J. Ochoa de Arin; An Analytical and Quota-
tional Index made by E. S. Dodgson, M. A. An Offprint
of 83 Pages from Numbers 36, 37, 38 and 39 of Herma-
thena. At the University Press, Trinity College, Dublin,
November 19, 1913.
Well known is the exceptional interest which belongs to
Bascological investigation. The Baskish tung, isolated in
classification, is the last specimen of the languages spoken in
Europe before the Aryan invasion ; and is by general consent
set down as one of the most difficult languages in the world,
if not the most difficult. And, whilst the theory of the
212 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY.
Baskish noun is mainly the same as that of another linguistic
family represented in Europe, I mean the Ural-Altaic (i. e.
Hungarian, Finnish, Esthonian, Lapp, and Turkish), the theory
of its verb is peculiar to itself, and is not to be found, we
believe, in any other known language. Indeed, the Baskish
verb is a monument of so complicated a structure that one has
some difficulty at first in forming any idea of it. Yet in the
long run, when we have sounded its mysteries, its vigorous
architecture cannot fail to make its charms felt by us, no less
for its mathematical regularity than by its philological pro-
fundity. But the difficulty abides, and to meet and overcome
this difficulty is the task to which Mr. Dodgson, the only
Bascologue of the Anglo-Saxon race now living, has conse-
crated himself.
His great work, The Analysis of the Baskish Verb, as it
occurs in the New Testament of Leicarraga (printed at La
Rochelle, in 1571, by order of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of
Navarre, and mother of Henri IV) has appeared in numerous
instalments, and is already nearly completed. The author
possesses the last volume in manuscript, and would already
have published it, if the want of material resources had not
hindered him. May we be permitted to express publicly the
hope which he records among the final notes contained in the
work which we are considering : " that it may win the favour
of any wealthy patron of Linguistic Research, of any
Academy, Society, or University, having at heart the Ad-
vancement of Learning and Science, and lead them to provide
the cost of finishing his work, as a reward for the great
sacrifice of time which it has asked from him ".
But besides this opus mains, Mr. Dodgson has busied him-
self with other philological works, such as reimpressions of
old texts, and the like; forty-two separate works already
standing to his credit on the catalog. That which concerns
us now is a Synopsis of the Verb, conceived on the same
plan as that devoted to Leicarraga. It is indeed a small
Guipuscoan — English word-book, dealing with the Catechism
of Don Jose Ochoa de Arin, printed at San Sebastian, in
1713. This catechism is the oldest existing work printed in
the Baskish dialect of Guipuscoa, one of the two literary
dialects of the Spanish Basks, the other being the Biscayan.
It will be seen at once how interesting this work must be,
through its venerable antiquity; and how important the study
of it made by Mr. Dodgson must be for the purpose of com-
paring Guipuscoan with the other dialects. For it is a point to
be noted that the Baskish language is not unitarian, but sub-
divided into a certain number of dialects, with forms varying
in their turn according to the time. In order to find ones
way through this labyrinth, it is indispensable to lay hold of
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 213
an Ariadne clew, and one cannot conceive of a better one than
the publications of our author.
Let us hope that the works of Mr. Dodgson will contribute
to popularise a study no less interesting than unjustly neg-
lected, and that he will find in the sympathy of the learned
world a compensation for the pecuniary and moral sacrifice
which he has felt obliged to make to his Bascological Ideal.
H. Bourgeois.
Brussels, Belgium, December 1, 11513.
