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Our article on Classical, Biblical, and Oriental Manuscripts, is unavoidably postponed till No. XVIII. We need only refer K. to our Literaria Adversaria, which will be continued in our future Numbers. The conclusion of Bibliotheca Gossetiana in our next. L. D. C. on the Letter Gnain has been received. Prolusio Mercurialis will appear in some future No. We have received some articles from an eminent Scholar in Holland, which shall have an early insertion. We shall not lose sight of REISKE's Notes on Sophocles. In some future No. we shall reprint KUSTER'S Historia Critica Homeri, together with some introductory remarks by Professor Wolf. T. Y. on Diacritical points is unavoidably postponed. We have just opened a pacquet from A. F. END OF No. XVII. THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. No. XVIII. JUNE, 1814. REMARKS ON THE MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS UPON AUTHORS, ANCIENT AND MODERN. IN SEVERAL LETTERS TO A FRIEND. O miseros Scriptores, vel potiùs, O! misera scripta tot excellentium Poetarum, Oratorum, Historicorum, et aliorum, nisi frænis, nisi catenis furiosa ista audacia compescatur. Quid enim in illis salvum et incolume tandem manebit? Quid integrum, quid impollutum, posteris nostris relinquetur, si cuilibet quæcunque assequi non potest, ea formare transformareque pro arbitrio conceditur? H. Steph. Ep. p. 333. Hist. Steph. I AM glad to find by yours, that you are resolved to be a fair and equal umpire betwixt the observator and the remarker; and after having made this declaration, that you are inclined to think that I have hitherto made good my allegation; this is no less than giving the spur VOL. IX. CI. JI. NO. XVIII. to a willing horse; for this foretaste of your approbation, added to the sacredness of our correspondence, which of itself would prompt me to go on, makes me do it with a double ardor. MIN. FEL. c. 18. Magnitudinem Dei, qui se putat nosse, minuit: qui non vult minaere, non novit. The observator here is quite sanguine, he will venture to say that this place is corrupted, and unintelligible; and then he adds, it must be thus; Magnitudinem Dei, qui se putat nosse, minuit: qui non vult minuere, novit. Now nothing can be plainer. to me than that it must not be thus. The sense is, whosoever thinks he knows the greatness of God, diminishes it; so that he who would not go about to diminish it, does not pretend to know it; that is, he is of that spirit, which was in Socrates, and best expresses his reverence to the deity, the immensity of the divine nature, together with his own short-sightedness and insufficiency, by avowing his ignorance; and in this regard, it is a virtue intelligendo nihil intelligere; and indeed it is a part of knowledge, a great, and useful part, to know the extent of the human understanding, what is without the reach and compass of the mind, as well as what is within it, ita confessa imperitia summa prudentia est.; Min. Fel. c. 13. So again, c. 19. Octavius mentioning Xenophon's and Aristo's notions of God, much the same with what himself here advances, adds, Uterque majestatem Dei intelligendi desperatione senserunt. And so that prodigious scholar Petr. Petitus left behind him a work entitled, Partem esse humanæ sapientiæ quædam æquo animo nescire velle. Vide Nicasii Epist. ad Grævium. But this sense is confirmed by the context; Universa quacunque sunt, verbo jubet, ratione dispensat, virtute consummat. Hic nec videri potest, visu clarior est, nec comprehendi potest, nec æstimari, (so the manuscript) sensibus major est, infinitus, immensus, et soli sibi, tantus quantus est, notus: Nobis vero ad intellectum pectus angustum est; et ideo sic eum digne æstimamus, dum inæstimabilem dicimus. Eloquar quemadmodum sentio; magnitudinem Dei, qui se putat nosse, minuit: qui non vult minuere, non novit. God is soli sibi notus, and nobis ad intellectum pectus angustum est, whoso thinks he knows him, makes him to be what he is not, comprehensible by us, that is, degrades or diminishes him; and whosoever consequently would not think meanly of God, neither degrade nor diminish him, readily professes not to know him; and this, I say, is much what was said before, et ideo sic eum digne æstimamus, dum inestimabilem dicimus; and it appears that St. Cyprian thought so; for in making use of the passage, he stops here, without going on to what follows. Vide eum de Idol. V'anit. As But the observer's version suits this Interpretation exactly, He who thinks he knows God, knows him not: He who thinks he cannot know him, knows him: For these words reduced somewhat nearer to the standard of the original make directly against himself, and speak just what I would have them, thus; "He who thinks he knows the majesty of God, degrades it: He who would not degrade it, thinks he cannot know it." Again by striking out the non, you lose the Antithesis betwixt qui se putat nosse, and non novit; and the passage quoted above from c. 19. does most evidently require non novit, and not novit: Tertullian too, from whom the author has sketched this whole paragraph, seems to require no less, when he says, that God is in one sense to be known by us, quod vero immensum est, soli sibi notum est. Hoc est quod Deum æstimari facit, dum æstimari non capit, ita eum vis magnitudinis et notum hominibus objicit, et ignotum. Apolog. c. 18. And so much for the sense of the passage. Tertullian was an African, and it is no wonder if Minucius, who, in all probability, was an African too, should follow him: that our author has exscribed him, Havercamp in his preface to Tertullian's Apology gives us a general notice, and Meursius upon this place observes it here in particular: Minucius, having just been asserting the unity of God, goes on as above; Tertullian has it, Quod colimus, Deus unus est, qui totam molem istum cum omni instrumento elementorum, corporum, spirituum, verbo, quo jussit, ratione, qua disposuit, virtute, qua potuit, de nihilo expressit in ornamentum majestatis suæ, unde et Græci nomen mundo xéopov accommodaverunt. [So Tertullian again, c. 21. Jam ediximus Deum universitatem hanc mundi verbo, et ratione, et virtute molitum] invisibilis est, etsi videatur; incomprehensibilis, etsi per gratiam repræsentetur; inestimabilis, etsi humanis sensibus æstimetur, ideo verus, et tantus est. Caeterum quod videri communiter, quod comprehendi, quod æstimari potest, minus est et oculis quibus occupatur, et manibus quibus contaminatur, et sensibus quibus invenitur; quod vero immensum est, soli sibi notum est. Hoc est quod Deum æstimari facit, dum æstimari non capit, ita eum is magnitudinis et notum hominibus objicit, et ignotum. This passage is out of Chap. 17. of the Apology, and is truly sublime, not to say divine: I have given it you at length, partly because it was so well worth your reading, but principally, because I would demonstrate to you the truth of the observation, that our author has actually made use of this most learned father. The passage the observator brings from Arnobius, which he had from Ouzelius, is quite beside his purpose, nor does it serve me. That from Lactantius is quoted in a very unwarrantable manner; he has sadly mangled it; so it runs in the author, Seneca exhortationes suas mirabili sententia terminarit. Magnum, inquit, nescio quid, majusque quam cogitari potest, numen est, cui vivendo operam damus. Huic nos approbemus, nam nihil prodest inclusam esse conscientiam, patemus Deo. Quid verius dici potest ab eo, qui Deum nosset, quam dictum est ab homine vera religionis ignaro? nam et majestatem Dei expressit, majorem esse dicendo, quam ut eam cogitatio mentis humanæ capere posset. Wherein Lactantius and Seneca both assert the incomprehensibility of God; but as that is a point taken for granted on both sides, so this passage affects not the reading either way. In citing the context of Minucius, the observator follows Dr. Davies, who in his turn has expressed Meursius's interpolation; the manuscript reading is as above; Meursius's insertion is founded on the supposed want of a reason for God's being incomprehensible, and on the autho |