wrote libros rerum memoria dignarum, de obscuris Catonis, (by which I suppose is meant the Origines of Cato) Saturnum et Fastos: Tertul lian quotes not Kerrius any where in his apology, so that 'tis no wonder that he should say nothing of Flora, though he mentions Acca Larentia; in a word, if so be that in any of these pieces Verrius mentioned this story, the three writers Minucius, Lactantius, and the scholiast, had it probably from him, and then Verrius is to look to the truth of it, and our authors are all clear. MIN. FEL. c. 32. Deum oculis carnalibus vis videre, cum ipsum animam tuam, qua vivificaris, et loqueris, nec aspicere possis, nec tenere? As before upon Lactantius and Minucius, so here the observator is too hard upon Dr. Davies; who meant, to be sure, that cernere should respect the eye of the mind, and aspicere that of the body; cernere is with him percipere or sentire; Cerno animo sepultam patriam. Cic. Orat. in Catilin. 4. 6. Non ergo ideo nascimur, ut ea, quæ sunt facta, videamus; sed ut ipsum factorem rerum omnium contemplemur, i. e. mente cernamus. Lactant. 3. 9. 13. Erecta mente Deum cernere. 3. 27. 16. and in 3. 27. 14. he speaks de animæ lumine; and Cicero Tusc. Disp. p. 73. Ed. tert. Davisii, and p. 194. with whom also animo videre and animo cernere is common. Id. I would not be thought to say by this, that cernere is the true reading, for tenere has the very same sense as cernere in this case, and denotes percipere, sentire, intelligere, and the like; for as comprehendo is the same with teneo, in the primary sense of tenco, so is teneo the same with comprehendo in the common acceptation of comprehendo; Tertull. c. 17. Lact. 1. 20. 21.-3. 12. 2.-2. 8. 40.-2. 17. ult.— 3. 27. 13. Comprehendere and tenere are joined in Lact. 3. 30. 4. Videri and comprehendi, Minuc. p. 89. Adieu. Sir, LETTER VII. I SHALL present you here with a series of observations, which I take to be either unnecessary, or not his own. Virg. Georg. IV. 516. Nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexêre Hymenai. The Roman, Medicean, and some other old books so represent it; others give nullique, says Pierius. And will not either of these serve our turn, but we must have recourse to a needless conjecture? Whither will this Emendandi cacoethes carry us? Virgil has Hiatus's, but why must these be multiplied, and that against authority? In short, the received reading is every whit as good as animum, or as nulli illi animum, as Lincolniensis most inharmoniously conjectures. MIN. FEL. c. 8. Qui de ultima face collectis imperitioribus, et mulieribus credulis, sexús sui facilitate labentibus, plebem profanæ conjurationis instituunt. Upon which the observator writes, "Perhaps it should be mulierculis, which expresses a greater contempt." Now after having said this, one would really wonder, with what assurance he can urge against Lincolniensis, p. 128. "Since Lydia is very good sense, and is in all the manuscripts, it ought not to be changed for Libya, though Libya were as proper a word." Minucius's passage is good sense already, and cannot be improved but upon a principle fundamentally dangerous both to antiquity and posterity: Lactantius 5. 13. 5. alluding to this cavil of the heathens, and possibly to this very passage of Minucius, says, "Si enim fœminæ sexus infirmitate labantur, &c." where you see he seeks not to exaggerate the matter, by the use of diminutives. VIRG. Æn. I. 267. · At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Iülo As the Eneid now is, I don't find that the observator contends to have any thing struck out; and therefore I shall dismiss this passage with only a wish, that he would often call to mind, that the classic writers were all fallible men, witness Servius's remark on Æn. VII. 674. that we must take them as they are, that is, such as the best manuscripts represent them, unless, what very rarely happens, there be an absolute necessity to the contrary; nothing less than self-evidence or demonstration can, in my way of thinking, support a conjecture against their authority: that he had called it to mind, before he pronounced upon that line in Æn. IV. 633. Tum breviter Barcen nutricem adfata Sichæi, Namque suam patriâ antiquâ cinis ater habebat. Servius manifestly read it in his copy, for he explains patria antiqua: that he had called it to mind, before he went about to new mould that passage, En. VIII. 131. Sed mea me virtus, et sancta oracula Divum, Where Servius justly observes upon mea me virtus, "Hæc arrogatio ad honorem Evandri pertinet;" for if the hero's own virtue assimilated him, or any ways recommended him to the king, an equal honour and compliment redounds to Evander; all alteration is therefore superseded, and much more so, as mea me virtus, what the observator acknowledges, is in character; again, the observator's sagacity here is all borrowed money, for Servius takes notice of the seeming arrogance, by endeavouring to palliate and excuse it; and as to transposing the two half lines, the observator has forgot the two passages himself produces p. 7. where dii and mens sibi conscia recti occur jointly, dii and mores; but I shall here bring the former passage at length; VIRG. Æn. I. 600. grates persolvere dignas Non opis est nostræ, Dido: Di tibi (si qua pios respectant numina, si quid Here the observator offers ferent; the potential mood and the future tense of the indicative are so nearly allied, that they are often put for each other; see Æn. XI. 708. There's a parallel passage in Phædrus 4. 24. 24. quum reliquum posceret; Illi, inquit, reddent, quorum sunt laudis dua. Speaking of the Castors. Here where Burman and Hare would read reddent, Bentley has it reddant; Servius and Donatus both exhibit ferant, and so Homer quoted by Servius, Σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τῶν δ ̓ ἀντὶ χάριν μενοεικέα δοῖεν. Π. Ψ. 650. There was no doubt but the gods would repay the queen, and it became the hero to express his gratitude by wishing it; 'tis very true, what the observator says, that 'tis partly owing to the notes of Servius, that Virgil has come down to us so little corrupted; and 'tis as true, that we ought now to make the same use of this most ancient and learned commentator, and to use him as a shield to ward off those many wounds and gashes, which otherwise these sons of Scriblerus, these Eneidomas tiges would every day inflict. But to go on, VIRG. Æn. V. 495. Tertius Eurytion, tuus, ó clarissime, frater, be suasus. Servius talks of Minervæ persuasione, and Taubman mentions the place in Homer, and so without much acumen he might fancy that it should But jussus he confesses to be better, because it became Virgil to favour the Trojans and their friends, as much as possibly he could: there's no occasion to seek shelter in this artifice; for jussus is better than suasus, because 'tis the reading of the manuscript, and be cause it is synonymous with suasus; what the gods persuade they as it were command, and so of other people; and accordingly Casar joins hortor and jubeo together, " Quod res nulla successerat, posteru die consilium ceperunt ex oppido profugere, hortante et jubente Vercingeto rige," de B. G. 7. 25. thus EAEUw of the Greeks is properly jubere, but as frequently hortari, suadere, rogare, petere. En. VII. 443. Cura tibi Divum effigies, et templa tueri: What is he angry at? Pierius manifestly gives his voice for gerent; so that this is no restoration of his; he claims no thanks, I hope, for bringing the authority from Homer, for Taubman supplied him with that. Æn. VIII. 630. Fecerat et viridi fætam Mavortis in antro Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingud. "Is not mulcere alternos too bold an expression, says the observator, since motion cannot be represented in a picture?" Now here again we are beholden to Servius, who writes, "Non quod in pictur erat, dicit; sed id quod intelligimus factum fuisse." And then he goes on to justify it by En. I. 483. Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora muros. And indeed 'tis an idle question; for in strictness, how could they be represented as playing, v. 632. or moving, as Servius interprets it; as both playing and sucking? eod. These cases are much like to those in Eclog. VI. 62. Tum Phaethontiadas musco circumdat amara Which are called beauties; see Servius on the place. But as the observator seems more especially choked at mulcere alternos, alternus is used by the poets for ambo. And so he may, if he pleases, take mulcere alternos for mulcere ambos; 'tis De la Cerda's observation, and not his, that Cicero has Obstipum caput, et tereti cervice reflexum. VIRG. En. XI. 708. Jam nosces, ventosa ferat cui gloria laudem. Tiberius Donatus makes ventosa a vocative here, as appears by his paraphrase, so that even this remark is none of his. What I have all along said being chiefly on the defensive, I beg leave to give you my thoughts upon an observation of Mr. Huet's. Georg. IV. 511, Qualis populeâ marens Philomela sub umbrâ Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen This very learned man here asks, "Comment se peuvent rencontrer ensemble la nuit et l'ombre du peuplier?" by which you may perceive, he understands umbra literally. If it be so to be understood, the author VOL. IX. NO. XVIII. CI. JI. R then must mean that caused by the moon or the twilight. But Virgil says, the bird sat upon a bough, which cannot easily be reconciled with the literal sense of umbra at all, and so umbra here, as in other cases, is nothing more than cover or protection; populeá sub umbrá, under the shelter of the poplar. And now I don't know that any thing remaius for me to do, but to wait in expectation of your decision betwixt me and the observator. But lest you should retort upon me, that I have likewise penned a critical defence of two Latin authors in English, 'tis necessary, before I dismiss you for good, to observe, that I only follow my leader; that the misjudgment is the observator's, not mine; that the author I have to do with, is an English author, and that it is he who is concerned with the two Latin ones: whom therefore I here finally dismiss, and leave to publish his learned work (as he arrogantly calls it) with what care and dispatch he shall think fit. Your very humble servant and admirer, &c. [Finis.] BIBLICAL CRITICISM. HAVING "attempted to find fault with some of the translations” which Mr. Bellamy "has given of difficult passages in the Hebrew Scriptures," and having thus incurred the displeasure of that Gentleman, I hope you will permit me, through the medium of your Journal, to make a few remarks on his attempt to prove that I have no critical skill in the Hebrew Language.-As I have reason to believe you are inundated with communications procured you by Mr. B.'s papers, I shall, as much as possible, avoid being tedious: and indeed, if I did not consider it a debt of respect due to your readers, and to those learned gentlemen whose names appear in your Journal, I should not trouble you on this occasion. Certainly, if I deserve the character which Mr. B. gives me, you have been very blameable in giving my papers a place among those of so many learned men. I do, however, most cheerfully appeal to those who are skilled in oriental literature for the justice of my former remarks on Mr. B. though I do not entertain the hope of convincing him of his errors. signifies “in the I said in No. X. of your Journal that when place of," it always implies the absence of that in the place of which it stands.-Mr. B. will not allow this to be the case; but surely he ought to have given some better reason than his bare assertion, since every mere English scholar must know that in the two passages quoted, the expression "in the place of," is equivalent to "instead of."-Now, where God uses second means to effect his providential and gracious purposes, there his immediate presence is not; otherwise mediate and immediate are terms of the same signification. Though my notions respecting the divine being are different from Mr. B.'s, I can assure |