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CHAP. XXXVII.

Pallas.

THERE are some scattered memorials of Grecian literature, which have been handed down under the names of obscure writers of uncertain date, and which exhibit an apparent imitation of passages in Scripture. The following epigram may be mentioned as a specimen; it goes under the name of Pallas, and seems to express a sentiment very similar to the fine reflection in Job *, but not equalling it in its solemn conclusion.

Γης επέβην γυμνός, γυμνὸς θ' ὑπὸ γᾶιαν ἄπειμι
Και τι μάτην μοχθῶ, γυμνὸν ὁρᾶν το τέλος.

It is thus translated in Carcani's collection, published at Naples. 1738.

*Job i. 21.

Son nella terra ignudo entrato, e ignudo
Sollo terra n'andrò, dunque all, invano
Di che m'affanno, ignudo il fin vedendo.

A Raccolta di Vari. Epigram.

There are passages also which may serve to illustrate the superiority of sacred instructions over those of heathen morality. Solomon commands us to "cast our bread upon the water," that is to scatter it where there is no hope of return, and assures us that we" shall find it after many days." The learned Jubb has produced from Theognis* and Phocylides + passages in which it is said, that" to do good to unworthy and ungrateful persons is the same as to sow the ocean;" thus inverting, as Lowth has ob served, the precept of the inspired writer, and exemplifying the Apophthegm:

Ista homines dicas, hoc posuisse Deum ‡.

Theog. γνωμολ. ν. 105.

+ Phocyl. v. 142.

See Eccles. xi. 1. and Lowth, Prælect. x. p. 121.

CHAP. XXXVIII.

Preface to the Latin Classics.

BUT little of science can be supposed to have prevailed at Rome in the earlier periods of the republic. A love of military glory occupied the attention of a people struggling with difficulties, and engaged in perpetual warfare. In the interval of repose enjoyed by Numa, he instituted or regulated an order of priesthood, to which was entrusted the care of the public annals, and which recorded the oracular instructions by which the councils of the state. were guided *. These and some songs of triumph +-some sketches of fable-some effusions of untutored eloquence which expressed in unaffected language the feelings of a brave and generous people, composed the chief memorials of the

Dionys. Halicar. Edit. Oxon. lib. ii. 73. p. 127. + Spence's Polymetis. Dial. ii.

time. These productions, probably, were for the greater part destroyed when the city was taken by the Gauls, A. U.C. 360 *.

A taste for literature and philosophy seems to have been first introduced from Greece. Livius Andronicus and Ennius began to promote attention to them about 510 years after the building of Rome, and about the same time L. Fabius Pictor and L. Cincius Alimentus wrote histories of the Roman affairs in Greek. Little, however, of what was really valuable has been preserved †; and though volumes of obsolete poetry remained till the time of Augustus, nothing was found in them of sufficient authority to establish any standard of language. The Latin, used under the regal government, and earlier periods of the consular power, was scarcely understood in the time of Cicero; and the changes and fluctuations, which took place when a taste for learning began to prevail, were so considerable, that the style employed two centuries before the Augustan

• Livii Historia, lib. vii. § 2, et Voss. de Histor. Latin. lib. i.

+ Livy, lib. vii. c. 3. lib. xxi c. 38. Macrob.

Sueton. August.

age, would at this time be scarcely intelligi ble, if we may judge from ancient inscriptions, which commentators have with difficulty explained *.

Literature, however, under the eager encouragement which it received, advanced rapidly to perfection.

By the appointment of Providence, the Augustan age, which was contemporary with that of Christ, was distinguished by an extraordinary constellation of writers, not only of orators, of poets, and of philosophers, (who, while they displayed the highest attainments of human reason, contributed to render the triumph of Christianity more conspicuous and honourable,) but likewise of historians, who recorded almost every circumstance which is calculated to illustrate the difficulties with which it had to contend. There can be little doubt that the remains of Pagan antiquity have been preserved by direction of God, with especial regard to a confirmation of the documents of Revelation: and every transcript of the history, institutions, customs, and opinions of former times, which has been transmitted to us, seems to

• Walton's Prolegom.

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