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T is now more than two Months fince I had Thoughts of returning you your LONGINUS; but the Attendance of my laborious Province having hitherto prevented my taking down fuch Memorabilia as occurr'd upon my Perufal, I muft beg the Favour of a little longer Forbearance. In the mean Time, having met with Mr. PEARCE's laft Edition, I fhall have

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ANNOTATIONS.

OBS. I. THE various Edi-
tions of LONGI-
NUS gifs. The first
that brought it to light from
MSS. was Francis Robortellus of
Udine in Italy, printing it at
Bafil in 1554.
And in the

very next Year Paulus, Son of Aldus Manutius, knowing Nothing of the former Edition, publifh'd it at Venice from the MS. of Beffarion. According to which Edition of Manutius, Francis Portus of Crete form'd

his,

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have the Pleasure of comparing it with your's published by GABRIEL DE PETRA, and from both will, from Time to Time, as

my Leifure permits, present you with my Extracts, which I'm perfuaded, not for myself, but on the Account of the favourite Critic of the learned World, can't fail of affording you a very pleafing Amusement. And whereas you have frequently been pleafed to express your Opinion of Abridgments, Compendium, Memoria Gratia, quo brevius eo venuftius, I shall do my utmost to give you LONGINUS's Meaning in the moft concife and plain Man

ner.

In Pursuance whereof, I call this my first Letter, and enter immediately upon

ANNOTATIONS.

his, printed by Crifpinus in
1570. Which laft was followed
by most other Editors. But
the first that tranflated it into
Latin, was Gabriel de Petra,
Greek Profeffor of Lausanne,
printing it with the Greek, at
Geneva, 1612: which Edition
was republifh'd with many very
learned Annotations by Gerard
Langbænius, at Oxford, in 1638;
and by Tanaquil Faber, with a
few pleasant ufeful Notes, at
Saumur in France, 1663. It
will be better, fays Mr. Pearce,
to fay Nothing of the Bulloign
Edition, 1642, than to fpeak
ill of it. A long time after,
viz. in 1694, Jacobus Tollius
at Utrecht publish'd it with a
new Latin Verfion, the Greek
Text being amended from MSS.
and Conjectures, with all the

An AB S

foregoing Notes collected and augmented with his own. After which, in 1710, and again in 1718, the judicious Mr. J. Hudfon publifh'd his at Oxford, reducing Tollius's Verfion into fhorter Periods, and omitting his and all other Notes, except what were purely critical. By the Affiftance of all which Editions, together with all the MSS. and other Helps that could be procur'd, the Reverend and Learned Mr. Z. PEARCE has prefented us with the most accurate and beautiful Edition of Longinus, as well in respect to the Greek Text as the Latin Verfion and Notes, the World will perhaps ever fee. The 2d Edition was printed at London by J. Tonfon, in 1732,

An ABSTRACT of

LONGINUS's LIFE.

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IONYSIUS LONGINUS, a Grecian, flourish'd in the Days of AURELIAN the Roman Emperor, about the Year of Christ 278; but who his Father was, and the particular Place of his Birth, is uncertain. His Mother's Name was PHRONTONIS, Sifter of CORNELIUS PHRONTO, Plutarch's Grandfon, a famous Rhetorician at Athens, who, when he died, made LONGINUS his Heir. Certain it is, in his Youth he travel'd with his Parents into divers Countries to improve himself in Literature, and convers'd with the greatest Men of that Age; among whom were AMMONIUS and ORIGEN, as himSelf teftifies in a Fragment of his that happens to be preferv'd. After which, at Athens, he taught Oratory and Philofophy, and had among others the great PORPHYRY for his Scholar; Where in a fhort Time he arrived to fuch Honour and Reputation for bis Ability in Criticism, that he was publickly employ'd to determine which Writings of the Ancients were Genuine and which not: And fuch was the Deference paid to his Judgment, that then, and then only, was the Opinion of others concerning

Authors

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RHETORIC MADE EASY, or Authors Standard, when confirm'd by LONGINUS's. His Fame thus daily increafing, he was at length fent for by ZENOBIA, the famous Queen of the Palmyrenians in Syria, to be the Director of the Studies of her Sons: But The foon perceiving his Skill, not only in Books, but in the Arts of Peace and War, made him her chief Secretary of State. Which Poft prov'd bis Ruin: For ZENOBIA, who, after the Death of her Husband ODENATHUS, had filed herself Queen of the Eaft, and had by LONGINUS's Counsel fought with the utmost Bravery against the Romans for her own and her People's Liberty, being at length besieged in her City Palmyra, and anfwering the Emperor AURELIAN's Letters for Surrender too sharply; that Prince, when he had conquer'd her, was Jo mean as to revenge himself, by putting to

ANNOTATION S. OBS. II. HE Authors phon, Zoilus.

-Befides whom,

THE
LONGINUS in a MS. Fragment preferv'd

praises, cenfures, or mentions
in his Treatife on the Sublime,
are 47. viz. fchylus, Ammo
nius, Amphicrates, Anacreon, 4-
pollonius, Aratus, Archilochus,
Arifteas, Ariftophanes, Ariftotle,
Bacchylides, Cecilius, Callifthe-
nes, Cicero, Clitarchus, Demof-
thenes, Eratofthenes, Eupolis,
Euripides, Gorgias Leontinus,
Hecataus, Hegefias, Herodotus,
Hefiod, Homer, Hyperides, Ion
Chius, Ifocrates, Lycias, Matris,
Mofes, Philiftus, Phrynichus, Pin-
dar, Plato, Sappho, Simonides,
Sophocles, Stefichorus, Theocritus,
Theodorus, Theophraftus, Theopom
pus, Thucydides, Timæus, Xeno-

in the Vatican Library, He mentions our St. PAUL among his principal Orators, thus, Κορωνὶς δ ̓ ἔσω λόγο παντὸς, &c. Let thefe crown the whole of our Difcourfe concerning the Sublime of the Greeks, Demofthenes, Lycias, Æfchines, Ariftides, Ifæus, Timarchus, Ifocrates, Demofthenes Crithinus, and Xenophon, Teds Télos ПIATΛΟΣ ὁ Ταρσεύς, ὅν τινα και

garov onμ @gcisáμevor Soyual avaπosein?l8, Add to thefe PAUL of Tarfus, whom I mention as the chief Supporter of an Opinion not yet fully demonstrated.

death

death many of her Friends, and among the reft LONGINUS, as believing him to have dictated the aforefaid Anfwer: Who by his Eloquence, in this Calamity, comforted his Affcciates, and behaved himself with all imaginable Fortitude, dying as fublimely, as he had wrote.

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FLAVIUS VOPISCUS tells us the Purport of Zenobia's Letter was as follows ZENOBIA Orientis Regina AURELIANO Imperatori Romano.

NEMO adhuc, præter Te, quod pofcis, Literis petiit: Virtute façiendum eft, quicquid in Rebus bellicis eft gerendum. Deditionem meam petis, quafi nefcias Cleopatram Reginam perire maluiffe, quàm in quâlibet vivere Dignitate. Nobis Perfarum Auxilia non defunt, quæ jam fperamus; pro nobis funt Saraceni, pro nobis Armenii. Latrones Syri Exercitum tuum, AURELIANE, vicerunt; quid igitur fi illa venerit Manus, quæ undique fperatur? Pones profectò Supercilium, quo nunc mihi Deditionem, quafi omnifariàm Victor, imperas.

The Subftance of LONGINUS's laft Words to his Affociates were faid to be

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SI Terra non aliud quàm magnus quidam Carcer exiftimari debeat, eum feliciffimum effe v prædico, qui primus in Libertatem vindicetur.

Thus fell the Sublime LONGINUS, the greatest of all Critics, and fuch a One as even bis Contemporaries did not fcruple to name Βιβλιοθήκην τινὰ ἔμψυχον και περιπατῶν Μεσεῖον, A living Library or moving Receptacle of all Arts and Sciences.

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