Contra urbis limen servans, portamque Capenam, Numina, vix hominum voce cienda, vocat. At me vatem habeas-si bella injusta malignos, Ipse cadas quam primum, oro, et sine clade tuorum Lympha sitim pellit, rabidum levat aura calorem, Menage, Antibaillet T. 1. p. 9, 10. quotes a Latin Fable, in 24 Iambics, and a Greek Epigram of 2 lines, written by Salmasius against Cercoëtius, i. e. Petavius, with whom he had one of his squabbles. The Epigram is a translation of Catullus's Mentula conatur,&c. and the fable a paraphrase of the following lines of Jos. Scaliger (Prolegom. ad Canon. Isagog.) against our Lydiat; ἠλιβάτον κατὰ δένδρον ἀνεῤῥιχᾶτο πίθηκος αἰπὺν ἐπεισβαίνειν οὐρανὸν ἐλπόμενος. Τραξάμενος δ' ἄκροιο, καὶ οὐκ ἐπέκεινα παρελθὼν τοῖσι θεασάμενος πρωκτὸν ἔδειξε μόνον. Epitaph on VIGLIUS in the Cathedral of Ghent. Scævola, the great Roman lawyer, being asked what work might be performed on a holy day, said: quod omissum noceret. The son of the President Thuanus, (De Thou) was condemned to death by Cardinal Richelieu, for refusing to betray a secret entrusted to his honor of a conspiracy against the Minister. Hence the occasion of the following distich: O Legum subtile nefas! quibus inter amicos Nolle fidem frustra perdere proditio est! Barthelemi Facio carried his hatred of Laurentius Valla to such a height, that when, on his death-bed, he was informed that his enemy was dead, he said: Ne vel in Elysiis, sine vindice, Valla susurret, Facius haud multos post obit ipse dies. TWEDDELL'S Epigram on Quid Novi, which is enquired after in No. XXV. of the Classical Journal, I should conjecture to have been composed on his way home from a raree show, where he had seen a learned goose, the chess-playing automaton, and a hare performing the manual exercise. Were the world drowned a second time, Deucalion and Pyrrha need not again cast stones behind them to become the parents of a future race; for we have already a new race which can perform human actions. W. S. T. In the Life of Mr. Gibbon, written by himself, and published in his miscellaneous Works, is the following passage: " In the perusal of Livy (xxx. 44.) I had been stopped by a sentence in a speech of Hannibal, which cannot be reconciled, by any torture, with his character or argument. The commentators dissemble or confess their perplexity. It occurred to me that the change of a single letter by substituting otio instead of odio, might restore a clear and consistent sense, but I wished to weigh my emendation in scales less partial than my own; I addressed myself to M. Crevier, the successor of Rollin, and a professor in the university of Paris, who had published a large and valuable edition of Livy; his answer was speedy and polite, he praised my ingenuity, and adopted my conjecture." Gibbon's Misc. i. p. 70, Dublin, 1796. M. Crevier's letter is published in the Appendix, p. 307, and is quite as flattering to Mr. Gibbon as he represents it, "J'adopte toutes vos observations, tous vos raisonnemens; par le changement d'une seule lettre vous substituez à un sens louche et obscur une pensée claire, convenable au caractère de celui qui parle," &c. The sentence in Hannibal's speech is as follows: " tunc flesse decuit, quum ademta nobis arma, incensæ naves, interdictum externis bellis, illo enim vulnere concidimus; nec esse in vos odio vestro consultum ab Romanis credas," &c. Perhaps the old reading, odio, may be defended upon the authority of the following passage in Justin, lib. vi. cap. 6.: "Artaxerxes, rex Persarum, legatos in Græciam mittit, per quos jubet omnes ab armis discedere, qui aliter fecisset, eum se pro hoste habiturum, civitatibus libertatem suaque omnia restituit: quod non Græciæ laboribus assiduisque bellorum internecivis odiis consulens fecit, sed ne," &c. I believe no person would propose to substitute ofiis in this latter passage, and yet the two seem exactly parallel; in both foreign war is interdicted, and the reason of the prohibition is assigned not to be as might at first be imagined odiis consulere, to avoid the exciting or the gratifying those angry passions and deadly hatreds, which as they are the frequent causes of war, so are they to be reckoned among its most fatal effects. Consulere, which signifies merely taking into consideration, may be either in a good or a bad sense; of good to be sought, or evil to be avoided. Hannibal's speech is so striking a passage, that it has been necessarily translated by all the compilers. They in general, as Sir W. Raleigh, Rollin, &c. dissembling their perplexity, omit this sentence altogether. The Universal History, vol. vii. p. 84. translates, "do not imagine that the Romans, out of any particular aversion to you, have formed a scheme for your destruction." This sounds strangely in Hannibal's mouth. But it is remarkable, that Hooke, b. iv. c. 37. translates thus, "do not flatter yourselves that the Romans have consulted your quiet;" evidently correcting it otio. Hooke's first edition was published in 1745, and the second, which only I have seen, in 1756, the same year in which Crevier's letter to Gibbon was written. Could the emendation have reached him so soon? or did he correct it himself without claiming so much credit for it? I have no doubt that Mr. Gibbon did not borrow it from him. I have an edition of Crevier's Livy, Paris, 1768, typis Barbou, which reads odio with an obscure note to explain it. Perhaps it is but a reprint of an older edition. Upon the whole it may seem, 1st, that the correction is unnecessary; 2d, that Hooke has a claim to the merit of it, such as it is, as strong as Mr. Gibbon; and Sdly, that Crevier, who first adopted it, may have subsequently rejected it. W. S. T. THE trial by Ordeal, the favorite offspring of superstition, has been by Fleury, Le Brun, and others, supposed to be derived from the ancients, because Pliny, (l. 8. c. 2.) mentions a family in If Tuscany, upon whom the sacred fire, made in honor of Apollo, had no effect. But M. Howard, with much more appearance of reason, imagines that it originated from the miracles attributed by the Christians to their Saints. (Traités sur les Coutumes AngloNormandes, tom i. p. 577.) However that may be, this mode of trial existed here so early as the reign of Ina; and William the First found it in use in this country, when he mounted the throne. His Normans, attached by early habit to the trial by duel, rejected a mode of decision, which appeared to them as a superstitious formality, though it was still suffered to be resorted to by old and maimed men, and by women. According to the laws of Ina, the accused had the choice of the trial by fire, or that by water. he preferred the former, an iron was prepared that weighed three pounds at the most. No person, except the priest, whose duty it was to preside on the occasion, entered the temple, after the fire destined to heat the iron was kindled. The iron being placed upon the fire, two men posted themselves on each side of the iron to determine upon the degree of heat it ought to possess. As soon as they were agreed upon this point, the same number of men were introduced ab utroque latere, and they also placed themselves at the two extremities of the iron. All these witnesses passed the night fasting, &c.—At day-break, the priest, after sprinkling them with the holy water, and making them drink, presented them with the book of the Evangelists to kiss, and then crossed them. The mass then began. From that moment the fire was no more increased but the iron was left on the embers, until the last collect. That finished, the iron was raised, and the most profound silence was observed, in praying the Deity to manifest the truth. At this instant, the accused took the iron into his hand, and carried it to the distance of nine feet, juxta mensuram pedum ejus. The trial being ended, the hand of the accused was bound up, and the bandage sealed; and, three days after, the hand was examined, to ascertain whether it was or not impure, which Mr. Howard thus explains ce qui doit, je crois, faire entendre que l'on n'étoit pas coupable, quand la main conservoit des marques de brûlure, mais seulement lorsque la brûlure tomboit en supuration (ubi supra.) But, if the accused elect the trial by water, then the water was placed in a vessel, and heated to the highest degree. For inferior crimes, the accused plunged his arm up to the wrist; for crimes of deeper dye, he plunged it up to the elbow. In every other part of the ceremony, the two species of trial by water and fire agreed. (LL. Inæ c. 77.) The Mirror coincides with the text of Glanville, (c. iii. s. 23.) and Lord Hale informs us, "that in all the time of King John, the purgation per ignem et aquam, or the trial by ordeal, continued, as appears by frequent entries upon the rolls: but, it seems to have ceased with this king, for I do not find it in use in "(Hist. Com. Lan. 152.)-pp. 350, 361, 2. In Sophoclis AJACEM Emendationes. any time Hæc emendationum sylloge confecta est e Schedis Viri apud Oxonienses doctrina cumulatissimi. Is, Brunckiana editione nondum visa, has conjecturas paucas margini editionis Johnsonianæ allevit, nonnullis quoque adjectis, quas e libro olim Toupiano, non ante vulgatas, descripserat. 28. TρÉTE: lege véus ex Ald. [ita Brunck.] 44. βούλημα : lege βούλευμα [ita Βr.] 46. ποίαισι τόλμαις ταῖσδε καὶ φρενῶν θράσει : lege τοῦτο [rectius fortasse T de xai: vid. Porson ad Phoen. 1373] 61. óvou: lege Tóvou [ita Schol. pro var. lect.] 80. εἰς δόμους : lege ἐν δόμοις ex Ald. 168. Dawesium p. 224. sequor [ita Br.] 179. T': lege Tv' cum Johnsono. 210. lege TeλEUTAVTOS. 211. lege dougiáλwтov [ita Br.] 215. βάρος : lege πάθος ex Ald. 216. uiv et vulv ita accentu sunt notanda. [Vid. Elmsleium in Præfat. ad Edip. Tyr.] 259. φρόνιμος : lege φρόνιμον ex Ald. 930. lege λoyois e Stobæo. [ita Br.] 379. πάνθ' ὁρῶν: lege πᾶν θροῶν. 392. Taur': lege raul': ex Ald. Si 405, 6. An legendum εἰ τὰ πρὶν φθίνει, φίλοι, τοῖσδ ̓ ὁμοῦ πέλας. δι priora facta contemptui habentur æque ac hæc præsentia. 427. προκεῖται : lege πρόκειμαι : [ita Schol. προκείμενος εἰμι. et Br. tacite.] 443. κάρτος : lege κράτος ex Ald. 448. άav lege ansigtav: [ita MS. D. et sane vera lectio est γνώμης μ' ἀπεῖρξαν : G. Β.] 476. κἀναθεῖσα : lege κἀνεθεῖσα [ita Br.] 515. μov: lege μo ex Ald. 567. xo: lege xov ex Ald. 688-679. lege v cum Kustero, vice μnv. 736 725. lege navlev. ouris ut vitetur Anapæstus in 4ta Sede. [ita Br. tacite pro κἄνθεν· κοὔτις.] 784 779. Tór': lege vel Tour': vel ród [hic postremum Musgr.] 793=782. εἰ δ ̓ ἀπεστερήμεθα lege εἰ δ ̓ ἀφυστερήμεθα [Conjectura sane speciosa et fortasse vera.] 890 881. aypas: lege opas ex Ald. 905=895. Tse: lege Toude [misericordiam propter hunc.] |