a communication between the Ocean and the Euxine Sea, and to join the Rhine to the Danube by a canal. 45. At length ERASMUS, that great, injur'd name, (The glory of the priesthood, and the shame!) And drove those holy Vandals off the stage *. IT were to be wifhed, our author had drawn a larger and fuller portrait of this wonderful man, of whom he appears to have been fo fond, as to declare in the Letters †, that he had fome design of writing his life in latin. I call Erafmus a wonderful man, not only on account of the variety, and claffical purity of his works, but of that penetration, that ftrong and acute fenfe, which enabled him to pierce through the absurdities of the times, and expose them with such poignant ridicule, and attic elegance. A work of humour, and of humour directed to expose the priests, in that age, was indeed a prodigy. The irony of the Encomium on Folly has never been excelled. Erafmus, though a * Ver. 694. † Vol. vii. Pag. 232. commentator, commentator, had tafte; and tho' a catholic, had charity. His learning was enlivened with wit; and his orthodoxy was tempered with moderation. He was never dazzled with what was called ERUDITION; or misled by, that blind and undistinguishing veneration which was naturally paid to the antients, on the first discovery of their writings. By his CICERONIANUS, he repreffed the affectation of imitating Tully's manner of expreffion, in every species of compofition. In his ECCLESIASTES, very excellent rules are laid down for preaching. In his DIALOGUES, the superftitions of the Romish church are exposed with all the pleasantry of Lucian: an author, to whom his genius bore great resemblance; and fome of whose dialogues he has tranflated with their original fpirit. Indeed, among the tranflators of Greek authors who flourished at that time, Erafmus feems to have been in all respects the most eminent. To him was the restoration of literature principally owing. More than one prince follicited his friendship, and invited him to their courts. many We We fee in a letter of Erafmus, written in the year 1516, that Francis I. who shared with Leo X. the glory of reviving sciences and arts in Europe, having declared to Petit his confeffor, that he intended to bring into France the most learned men he could find, Petit had charged Budæus, and Cop the royal phyfician, to write to Erafmus, to engage him to fettle in France: that Stephen Poncher, embaffador from the king at Bruffels, preffed him ftill more; but that Erafmus made his excuses, because his catholic majesty Charles V. had retained him in the Low-countries. The life of Erafmus, which deserves the finest pen, has been wretchedly and frigidly written by Knight; although, indeed, the materials he has collected are curious and ufeful. 46. But fee! each mufe in Leo's golden days, Starts from her trance, and trims her wither'd bays: HISTORY has recorded five ages of the world, in which the human mind has ex * Ver. 698. erted erted itself in an extraordinary manner; and in which it's productions in literature and the fine arts have arrived at a perfection, not equalled in other periods. The FIRST, is the age of Philip and Alexander; about which time flourished Socrates, Plato, Demofthenes, Ariftotle, Lyfippus, Apelles, Phidias, Praxiteles, Thucydides, Xenophon, Æfchylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Ariftophanes, Menander, Philemon. The SECOND age, which has never yet been fufficiently taken notice of, was that of Ptolomy Philadelphus, king of Ægypt; in which appeared Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius Rhodius, Theocritus, Callimachus, Eratofthenes, Philichus, Erififtratus the phyfician, Timæus the historian, Cleanthes, Diogenes the painter, and Softrates the architect. This prince, from his love of learning, commanded the Old Testament to be tranflated into Greek. The THIRD age is that of Julius Cæfar, and Auguftus; marked with the illuftrious names of Laberius, Catullus, Lucretius, Cicero, Livy, Varro, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, Phædrus, A a drus, Vitruvius, Diofcorides. The FOURTH age was that of Julius II. and Leo X. which produced, Ariofto, Taffo, Fracaftorius, Sannazarius, Vida, Bembo, Sadolet, Machiavel, Guiccardin, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian. The FIFTH age, is that of Louis XIV. in France, and of king William and queen Anne in England: in which, or thereabouts, are to be found, Corneille, Moliere, Racine, Boileau, Fontaine, Boffuet, Rochefoucault, Pafchal, Bourdaloue, Patru, Malbranche, De Retz, Bruyere, St. Real, Fenelon, Lully, Le Sæur, Pouffin, Le Brun, Puget, Theodon, Gerardon, Edelinck, Nanteuill, * Perrault, Dryden, Tillotfon, Temple, POPE, Addifon, Garth, Congreve, Rowe, Prior, Lee, Swift, Bolingbroke, Atterbury, Boyle, Locke, Newton, Clarke, Kneller, Thornhill, Jervas, Purcell, Mead, Friend. CONCERNING the particular encouragement given by Leo X. to polite literature, and the fine arts, I forbear to enlarge; because a friend *The Architect. of |