without having seen the books of Moses. Eusebius might have produced a passage more remarkable, and more to his purpose, from Plato's Timæus, p. 37, where it is said, that when God saw the world which he had made, begin to live and move, he was greatly pleased. 5 de bév te αυτὸ καὶ ζῶν ἐνενόησε τῶν ἀιδίων θεῶν γεγονὸς ἄγαλμα ὁ γεννήσας Πατήρ, ἠγάσθη τε καὶ ἐυφρανθεὶς Postquam igitur universi Pater atque progenitor opus illud a se creatum animadvertisset et moveri et vivum esse, Deorum immortalium, natum tamen atque creatum simulacrum, mirum in modum gavisus est atque oblectatus illo suo opere.' To which we may add the fable of Jupiter, mentioned by some mythologist, that when he was born, he laughed for seven days together. Socrates, in the Phædo, relates μlov naλov, an elegant history, concerning an earth altogether resplendent and beautiful, adorned with the brightest colours, whose rocks and solid parts were all precious stones, and exhibited oagδιά τε καὶ ἰάσπιδας καὶ σμαράγδους— Eusebius might have also compared this narrative with Isaiah liv. I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy foundations with sapphires, and will make thy gates of carbuncles,' &c. Ezekiel xxviii. In Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz and diamond, the sapphire, the jasper,' &c. Whence Tobit says, xiii. that Jerusalem should be built with 'sapphires, emeralds, precious stones,' &c.; and St. John, Rev. xxi. saw her descend from heaven, thus adorned with every precious stone. And yet I would not venture to affirm that Plato was acquainted with the Scriptures, but leave it as a moot point. XV. 22. We have here a dissertation of Plotinus, in which that philosopher proves very well that the soul is an immaterial, simple, indivisible substance. XV. 62. After an account of the various disagreeing opinions of the learned Pagans, Eusebius concludes with some lines of Timon Phliasius, who wrote satires called Silli, in which he ridiculed the vain and violent contentions of the philosophers. These poems were a species of the burlesque, and consisted of verses taken from Homer, and, with small alterations, accommodated and applied to the subject. Τίς γὰρ τούσδ' ὀλοῇ ἔμιδι ξυνέηκε μάχεσθαι; ó Ἠχους σύνδρομος ὄχλος· ὁ γὰρ σιωπῶσι χολωθείς, Φοιτᾷ δὲ βροτολοιγὸς Ἔρις κενὸν λελακυῖα, Ecquis eos diro pugnæ inflammavit amore? • Dira lues hominum, Contentio, vanaque jactans, These verses are also to be found in Clemens Alex. Strom. v. p. 651, with some variation. v. 2. The first and second syllables of σιωπῶσι coalesce. In Clemens σιγώσι. 4. Φοιτᾷ. Perhaps Φοίτα. But the present tense may be right. κενον. Read xEVECY from Clemens. λελακυΐα, with the second syllable short. Hesiod has Δαιμονίη, τί λέλακας — with the second syllable long. Oper. et Dier. 207. 5. ἔριτος. in Clemens ἔριδος. At least, it should be ἔριστος. But this, though it mend the verse, will not mend the bad sense; for how can "Egis be the sister of herself? Perhaps, Νείκης ανδροφόνοιο κασιγνήτη, καὶ ἑταίρη. As in Homer, Il. A. 441. *Αρεος ανδροφόνοιο κασιγνήτη, ἑτάρη τε. If the rest were like this specimen, the loss of it is not to be regretted. In this sort of wit, in parodies, the moderns have infinitely surpassed the antients, who have, I think, only one ingenious poem of this kind; but that poem hath a fault which spoils all its beauties, and is scandalously obscene. It is no matter whose it is, or where it is to be found. THE END OF THE SECOND VOLUME, CONTAINING THE SECOND AND THIRD VOLUMES OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. |