In grave Quintilian's (22) copious work we find
The justest rules and clearest method join'd;
Thus useful arms in magazines we place,
All ranged in order, and disposed with grace,
But less to please the eye than arm the hand,
Still fit for use, and ready at command.
Thee, bold Longinus (28) all the Nine inspire
And bless their critic with a poet's fire:

111. Most correct; most easily understood.

118. Earnest; eager and careful; appointed duty.

110

115

119. Excited feeling; judgment; scrupulously exact.

and superior in the science of pleasure; and who, appealing to the cruelty of the prince, to which all his other vices were subservient, bribed a slave to report Petronius as the friend of Scevinus; then committing all his household to prison effectually deprived him of a defence. It chanced that at that time the Emperor made an excursion into Campania, and advanced as far as Cumæ, where Petronius lay, who resolved no longer to endure the suspense of hope and fear. He did not; however, have recourse to instantaneous death, but opening his veins bound them again from time to time. During this process he discoursed with his friends, but not on serious subjects, nor with any view to a reputation for fortitude; and listened not to discussions on the immortality of the soul and the opinions of philosophers, but to light songs and careless verses. Some of his slaves he -emancipated, others he punished; he walked abroad; he took his rest; that his death, although violent, might appear natural. Unlike the generality of the victims of Nero, he did not in his will flatter the prince or Tigellinus, or any of the men in power; but having described the imperial debaucheries, with the names of those who shared them, and every new variety of impurity, he sealed the document, and sent it to Nero; taking care, however, to break the signet-ring, lest it should afterwards prove dangerous to the innocent."

The criticisms of Petronius evince a writer well acquainted, both by taste and study, with the principles of composition; and for these he has obtained the distinguished honour of being placed in the shrine of Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus, by a critic unexcelled by any [I.e., Pope, in the above lines].'History of Roman Literature," Encyclop. Metrop., pp. 154-156.

66

(22) Quintilianus, M. Fabius (i), the most celebrated of Roman Rhetoricians, was born at Calagurris (Calahorra) in Spain, A.D. 40. He completed his education at Rome, and began to practise at the bar about 68. But he was chiefly distinguished as a teacher of eloquence, bearing away the palm in this department from all his rivals, and associating his name, even to a proverb, with pre-eminence in the art. By Domitian he was invested with the insignia and title of consul (consularia ornamenta), and is, moreover, celebrated as the first public instructor, who, in virtue of the endowment by Vespasian, received a regular salary from the imperial exchequer. He is supposed to have died about 118. The great work of Quintilian is a complete system of rhetoric in 12 books, entitled "De Institutione Oratoris, Libri XII." or, sometimes, "Institutiones Oratoriæ," dedicated to his friend Marcellus Victorius, himself a celebrated orator, and a favourite at court. This production bears throughout the impress of a clear, sound judgment, keen discrimination, and pure taste, improved by extensive reading, deep reflection, and long practice."-Smith's smaller Classical Dictionary, “Sub Vocem," p. 349.

(23) Dionysius Longinus, a native of Emesa, in Syria, is known to posterity, not in consequence of his philosophical opinions, of which we have scarcely any extant

An ardent judge, who zealous in his trust,
With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just.
Whose own example strengthens all his laws,
And is himself that great sublime he draws.
Thus long succeeding critics justly reign'd,
Licence repress'd and useful laws ordained;
Learning and Rome alike in empire grew,
And arts still follow'd where her eagles flew;
From the same foes, at last, both felt their doom,
And the same age saw learning fall and Rome.

With tyranny then superstition join'd;
As that the body, this enslaved the mind;
Much was believed, but little understood,
And to be dull was construed to be good:
A second deluge learning thus o'errun

And the monks (24) finish'd what the Goths (25) begun.

120

125

130

memorials, but through his celebrated work on the Sublime; which occasionally fired with all the enthusiasm which the models of better days would naturally excite in a high and noble spirit, continues to charm and to instruct the great educated mass, while the barren speculations of his Platonic contemporary who refused to concede to him the title of philosopher, are confined to the closets of a few learned and meditative men. His private history, too, is of a nature which interests our common feelings in a high degree. After having studied under the most distinguished masters, and visited the most noted seats of literature, and acquired so extensive a fame, by the profundity of his erudition, as to be called the Living Library." He fell a victim to the fury of the Roman soldiery at the downfall, and, perhaps, by the ingratitude of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, whom he had assisted by his instructions and defended by his counsels. From the slight shreds still remaining of his philosophical works it is gratifying to perceive that he rejected the sophistical hypotheses which had transferred the properties of matter to the operations of spirit, and had resolved all mental phenomena into the effects of mere mechanical action.-"Encyclopedia Metrop.," ""Greek and Roman Philolophy and Science-Plotinus and the later Platonists, by J. A. Jeremie, D.D., p. 289.

(24) Monk, from monachos, a solitary, an anchoret, one who secludes himself from the world for religious purposes.

(25) The name Goths appears first in history in the third century, and it was then used by the Roman writers as synonymous with the more ancient one of Getac, a people who lived on the banks of the Lower Danube, near the shores of the Black Sea. They afterwards emigrated to the North, and acquiring great power took an important part in the overthrow of Rome, and, consequently in the destruction of learning.

Literary Notes.

European Philosophy.

PRE-CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY IN ROME.

LUCRETIUS.-CICERO.-HORACE.

GREECE arises in the mind most naturally as the type of freedom and wisdom; Rome as that of power and policy. In so far as regards thought, Rome possesses but a borrowed glory. The light which shone from the Etruscan lamps was Greek. The civilization of Hellas was nurtured by literature, art, and philosophy; that of Rome was maintained by laws, legions, and centralized force. The efficacious strife of various states, all holding the idea of race as the vital bond of their confederation, produced competitive effort and excited vigorous emulation-agreed for glory, as well as gave occasion and opportunity to the uprise of differing thinkers and diverse schools of philosophy. Originality was the intense soul's wish of the Hellenic races. To this sleepless aspiration we owe the brilliant literature, the splendid drama, the thoughtful polity, the refined sculpture, the magnificent architecture, the well-contrived laws, the controversial criticism, and the multiform philosophies of Greece. Order was the prime inspiration of Rome. Supremacy was not her aim only, it has become her tradition. Central might is incompatible with the multiplex and active antagonism of related yet competing states; and in that age of the world's history centralization was civilization. It is a wondrous spectacle which rises into vision as one utters the word Rome. A hundred millions of people of differing races, with various interests, marked by numerous local dissimilarities, under many risks of mismatching customs and institutions, welded together into, if not a concrete, yet an aggregated mass; disciplined into solidification, and held together by the subduing hand of a centralized might which reached from the Capitol to the Western Ocean and the far Euphrates, from the Rhine and the Danube to the deserts of Africa and Arabia, at the same time that it permeated society from palace to hamlet, passing from the imperial will into the sodden soul of the born slave and the agile spirit of the vanquished barbarian. Rome is a unity: a unity of power, law, religion, administration, rights, language, and control; external majesty and internal quiet. Within this vast and complex imperium we see the hardy Alpine mountaineers, the fickle Celtic tribes, the fierce Spaniards, the flexile yet bold Germanic races, the indocile Scythians, the restless Thracians, the learned, luxurious Greeks, the ruder Macedonians, the clans of Isauria, the hordes of Libya, the voluptuous Syrians, the morose Jew, the superstitious hosts of Egypt, the ingenious Phenician, as well as the numerous races of