obtain that empty commendation, O what a learned man! We ought rather to be content with that more fimple and plain one, O what a good man! If fuch then our duty, fhall I perufe the annals of all nations, in fearch of the man who first wrote verses? Shall I pretend to reckon up, though I have no records, the time between Orpheus and Homer Shall I review the critical remarks of Ariftarchus wherein he takes him to cenfure the verfes of others? and wear out an age in counting fyllables? Shall I for ever be poring over the duft of Geometricians (dd)? Shall I be fo regardless of that wholefome precept, Tempori parce, husband well your time? Muft I know all these things? What then can I pardonably be ignorant of (ee)?

upon

Appian, the Grammarian, who in the time of Caius Cæfar, was carried about all Greece, and was every where honoured with the title of a fecond Homer, faid, that Homer, after he had compofed the Odysses and Iliad, added to the latter, which treats of the Trojan war, the beginning, as it now ftands; and in order to prove this, he alledged, that Homer had defignedly began the first line with two letters that pointed out the number of both books (ff). Such then are the trifles which a man must know, who is ambitious of knowing many things.

But think now, my friend, how much time you may be deprived of by a bad state of health; how mnch must be taken up with neceffary business, public, private, daily; and how much by fleep; measure the days of man; they are not fufficient for fo many things; I am speaking of the liberal studies; but among the philofophers themselves how many things are fuperfluous! and how great is their idle wafle of time! for they also have condefcended to the weighing of fyllables, and to the peculiar ufes of conjunctions and prepofitions, fo as even to envy both the Grammarians and Geometricians: and whatever they found fuperfluous in the schools of these they have traniplanted into their own. Hence it is they knew better how to speak than to live. Learn now, Lucilius, what great mifchief may accrue from too much fubtlety; and how great an enemy it is to truth!

Protagoras

Protagoras (gg) faith, that upon every fubject men may argue indifferently pro and con; even though the fubject be, whether every thing is dif putable on each fide of the question. Naufiphanes (bb) faith that nothing can be faid more to be, than not to be. Parmenides (ii) faith, that all we fee, is nothing upon the whole. Zeno of Elea cuts fhort the question, and affirms, that nothing is. Of much the fame opinion are the Megarenfians (kk), the Eretricians (II), and Academics, who have introduced a new fort of knowledge, to know nothing (mm): now you may fling all thefe into the common stock of those who profefs the liberal arts; as those profeffors teach me a knowledge of little or no profit to me; these philofophers rob me of the hopes of knowing any thing at all: it is better however I think to know what is fuperfluous, than to know nothing. The former holds out no light to direct me in the way to truth, but these quite put out my eyes. If I believe Protagoras, there is nothing in the nature of things but what is doubtful; if Naufiphanes, this one thing only is certain, that nothing is certain: if Parmenides, there is but one thing: if Zenon, there is not even one. What then are we? and what are all things that furround, nourish, and sustain us? The whole nature of things is but a shadow, vain and deceitful. Indeed I cannot easily fay, whether I am more angry at thofe, who would have us to know nothing; or those, who have not left us fo much as this, to know nothing.

* In fome books this Epiftle is ftyled, L. Annæi Seneca Liber de feptem artibus Liberalibus, as if it was a feparate treatife; but long as it is (and indeed there are fome longer) Lipfius perfifts in ranging it among the Epiftles.

+ The Romans called thofe the liberal studies, or fciences, which the Greeks called muna panpara, i. e. certain exercifes, which almost all gentlemen of birth and fortune were used to employ themselves in, not in order to make themselves thorough mafters therein, but only to acquire fuch a fmattering and taste in them, as might become their gentility, and without which they would make but a poor figure in life.. They therefore were first taught Grammar, in order to form a juft expreffion and propriety in fpeech. From hence they paffed on to the reading the Hif torians and Poets: nor was it thought lefs neceffary to inftruct them in Arithmetic, Geometry, Music: fome were likewife taught Painting; they had alfo their feveral (Angelo's or) mafters, to teach them to wrefle, to ride, and to perform other manly exercifes of the body. Concerning thefe ftudies

therefore

therefore Seneca, in this moft excellent Epiftle, pronounceth in general, that not one of them is to be pursued merely upon its own account; and they are only useful forafmuch as they are fubfervient to qualify and prepare the minds of young men, as yet not capable of more weighty or folid matters for the study and acquifition of wisdom; which, and only which, among them all, deferves to be called liberal; as being that alone which is of fufficient force to deliver man, from the vileft of all flavery, even that of fin and luft. M.

Fundamenta, quibus nixatur vita falufque.

Such the foundation, fuch the end

On which the life and health of man depend.

(a) Nullum fufpicio.] This he speaks as a Stoic. So Zeno, (which many object to him) T εγκυκλιον παιδίαν αχρηστον ἀποφαιν.», declares the cycle of literature ufelefs. And principally the Cynics, according to Laertes, decried the fame, apartšvτas ta egnunnia padata. This however is fpeaking comparatively; letters indeed confidered in themfelves are little more than mere amusement, for, fays Seneca (De Brev. Vit. c. 14.) cujus errores minuent! cujus cupiditates premunt, quem fortiorem, quemjuftiorem, quem liberaliorem facient, whose errors will they leffen. whofe paffions will they check, whom will they make mare brave, more just, more liberal? Sed

Non animum metu,

Non mortis laqueis expedient caput. Hor. Od. iii. 24. 8.
-Not all thy wealth fhall fave

Thy mind from fear, or body from the grave. Creech.

But after all, fays Clemens, unless wisdom is protected by the fence of philofophy, and erudition, it will be expofed to the fnares and infults of fophiftry And Justin, Philofophy is a truly great and noble possesfion, venerable in the fight of God, forafmuch as it leadeth us to bim, and fixeth the mind there. Happy and bleffed are they whofe minds are fo fixed!

(b) Quod in æs exit] Muretus fays he knows not what to make of this expreffion: and as to what follows, meritoria artificia, he reads militaria. He might as well, I think, read mercatoria, as being somewhat nearer the original.

(c) Many of the ancients had fuch a veneration for Homer, that they would have it thought, all philofophy, and every tenet of the philofophers flowed originally from him. But Seneca maintains that this very argument proves Homer to be no philofopher, because the first feeds of opinions fo widely different in themfelves, are found fcattered in his works. Muret.

Certainly a Philofopher, fays Lipfius, if there ever was one, Bafil. Пoa μèv i Tomas T 'Oμnga Πᾶσα μὲν ποίησις τῷ Ὁμηςῳ ἀρετῆς ἐστιν ἐπαινες, K. Το λο The whole poetry of Homer is in praife of virtue, unless what is added for the fake of grace and ornament. Vid. Lips. Manud. 1. 7.

(d) For, because Ulyffes fets fo high a value upon his own country, rocky and barren as it was, as not to be diverted from the defire and love of it, by the promise of immortality from Circè and Calypfo; this they interpret, as that by the name of Ithaca you are to understand Virtue, for whose fake alone all other things are to be despised by a wife man. Muret.

But Homer goes ftill further, as if the poffeffion of virtue was nothing, unless it was brought forth into action, as when Patroclus chiding Achilles, calls him Avapen.

Μπ εμε γεν τός γε λάβοι χόλος, ὃν σὺ φυλάσσεις,

Αιναρέτη ---Π1. 16. 30.

May never rage like thine my foul enflave,

O great in vain! unprofitably brave!

Thy country flighted in her laft diftrefs,

What friend, what man, from thee shall hope redress? Pope.

Vid. Plutarch. de Homero, 6. 76.

(e) As when he introduced Ulyffes faying,

Ου γαρ εγωγε τι φημι τέλος χαριέσερον είναι. κ. τ. λ. Οδ. 9. 5.
How fweet the products of a peaceful reign!
The heaven-taught poet and enchanting ftrain!
The well fill'd palace, the perpetual feaft,
A land rejoicing, and a people bleft!
How goodly feems it ever to employ

Man's focial days in union and in joy!

The plenteous board high-beap'd with cakes divine,

And o'er the foaming bowl the laughing wine! Pope.

But particularly the defcription of one of the cities on the fhield of Achilles. Il. 18.
Here facred pomp and genial feaft delight,
And folemn dance, and Hymeneal rite,---
Along the freets the new-made brides are led,
With torches flaming to the nuptial bed:
The youthful dancers, in a circle bound

To the foft flute, and cittern's filver found, &c.

(f) Allowing three forts of good, as comprized in the description of Mercury---

Οἷος δὴ σύδεμας καὶ εἶδος αγηλές,

Πεπνυσαί τε νοον, μακαρων δ' εξ ἐσσὶ τοκήων. Π. ω. 377.

A beauteous youth, majestic and divine,

He feem'd; fair offspring of fome princely line. Pope.

But as the word tria is wanting in fome copies, it may be understood of wealth, profperity, and other good things of life of which Homer fays the Gods are the givers, Sorpas sawr. See Ep. 66. (g) Some fuppofe Homer to be the elder, as Philochorus, Xenophanes, and Plutarch. (Confol. ad Apoll.) Others give the feniority to Hefiod, as Accius, the poet, and Ephorus, the hiftorian. Varro feems to determine it, faying, non effe dubium quin aliquo tempore eodem vixerint; vel Homerum aliquanto antiquiorem, that they lived much about the fame time, (A. M. 3000), or that Homer was fomewhat the elder of the two. Agell. iii. 11. xvii. 21.

(b) Muretus fuppofeth, that Helen was much older than Hecuba, but that she carried her age better, becaufe fhe was the daughter of Jupiter.

(i) Patroclus is generally thought to have been the younger; but fee Politian. Mifcell. c. 45. (k) Some therefore have fancied that he wandered in the Atlantic Ocean. But certainly there is no need to be fcrupulously inquifitive concerning fuch things as are manifefly fabulous. Agellius alludes to this question, (1. 14. c. 6.) where he introduces one of his fervants difputing, whether Ulyffes wandered, ev Ty sow darason n. T. λ. in the Mediterranean, according to Ariftarchus, er in the Ocean, according to Crates.

(1) In like manner Diogenes is faid to have reproved the Grammarians; forafmuch as they were follicitous to know what evils Ulysses suffered, bat were negligent of their own.

(m) Sunt enim qui dicant, eam omnibus porcis feciffe copiam fui, atque ex illo promifcuo coitu natum Pana. At alii hunc ipfum capripedem Deum natum ex Penelopa et Mercurio in hircum converfo, egregiam mulieris pudicitiam! quæ cum fe a virorum confortio puram integramque fervaret, ad hirci, belli videlicet et fuayeolentis animalis concubitu non abhorruerit. Muret.

(2) Undoubtedly in the mind, nec oppreffo corpore amittitur, Auguft. (de liv. Dei. 1. 17. Vis aliena pudicitiam n n excutit, etfi pudorem incutit.

(ο) Diogenes faith of muficians, τις μεσικὲς μὲν ἐν τῇ λυρα χορδάς άρμοζεθαι, ανάρμοστα δὲ EXE TO THs Luxus nor. That they kept the ftrings of their harps in tune, but neglected to tune their fouls to good morals,

(p) Modi flebiles] Softly fweet in Lydian measure. Dryden's Ode,

(9) i. e. if you are happy in having an heir to your mind.

() Effectus rerum omnium aut movent aut notant] Vid. Lipf. Philol. ii. 13. () In Anthologia.

Εἰ μὲν ἦν μαθεῖν, ἃ δὲ παθεῖν,

Και μὴ παθῶν, καλὸν ἦν τὸ μάθεν
Εἰ δὲ δὲ παδῶν, ἃ δ ̓ ἦν μαθείν
Τιδί μαθῶν; χρὴ γὰρ παθεῖν.
It avails nothing, or to know,

Or not, what we must undergo;

Since, for whate'er we must endure,

Sweet patience is the only cure.

(1) Jejuni vomitoris] See Epift. 122.

(4) Philo, og er dinerais ävdeios aponevraι; As the vestibule to a house, and fuburbs to a city, fuch are the liberal arts to virtue; they are the way that leads to it.

(x) Pegmata per fe furgentia] Auguftin de Civ. Dei, c. 24. Ad quàm ftupenda opera industria humana pervenit? quæ in theatro mirabilia fpectantibus audientibus incredibilia facienda et exhibenda molita eft! Crefcebant in fublima Pegmata,

Mobile ponderibus defcendat Pegma reductis.
Inque chori fpeciem fpargentes ardua flammas
Scena rotet, vanos effingat mulciber orbes
Per tabulas impunè vagus: pictæque citato
Ludant igne trabes, et non permiflà moræri

Fida per innocuos errent incendia turres.

Apuleius 1. x. Jamque totâ fuave fragrante caveâ montem illum ligneum terræ vorago decepit. Machinatores fabricarum aftutiâ unius converfionis, multa et varia pariter adminiftrant. Id. Vid. Lipf. de Amphitheatro, c. 22. Philand. in Vitruv. 1. 9. Sueton. in Nero.

(y) It was thought by many of the antients that letters rather hurt than profit the memory; forafmuch as trusting to these, men are lefs diligent in fixing in their minds fuch things as they learn; as Dictionaries, &c. are apt to make schoolboys more carelefs and idle. Whereupon Thamas, king of Egypt, when Theuth the inventor of letters called them an help and fure remedy for the memory, thus refutes him, Και νυν συ πατηρ ὧν γραμμάτων ----κων μνήμης, ἀλλ ̓ ὑπομνήσεις φαρμακον εὗρε ap. Plato in Phædr. The inventor of letters bath found out an help or remedy, not of memory, but of reminifcence. And, Cæf. de Bell. Gallico, l. 6. c. 8. Cæfar tells us that the Druids inftructed their pupils in the Greek tongue; for tvo reasons, first, that their learning might not become common and vulgar; and, 2dly, that scholars might not trust so much to their writings as to their memory; as it happeneth for the most part, that men rely upon the trust of books and papers, and in the mean time omit the benefit of good remembrance.

(z) Negamus, ubi fola principia funt, tempus effe. Non habet tempus æternitas, omne enim tempus ipfa eft. Tertullian. See Epp. i. 49. 117. Lipf. Phyfiol. ii. 24.

(aa) Whence it is, the foul was held by most of the antient philofophers, especially by the Pythagoreans and the Stoics, to be a difcerped part of the divine effence. Cicero represents it, as acknowledged by the best and wifeft men, that our fouls are emanations from the universal mind; and confequently immortal; and this conviction, says he, arises within me, from reflecting, that confidering abe mighty quickness with which the human foul is endowed, its vaft collection of paft, and provision for VOL. II. future

P