N OTES.. AND OBSERVATION S. SECT. I. I My dear Terentianus.] Who this Terentianus or Pofthumius Terentianus was, to whom the Author ad dreffes this Treatife, is not poffible to be discovered, nor is it of any great Importance. But it appears from fome Paffages in the Sequel of this Work, that he was a young Roman, a Perfon of a bright Genius, an elegant Tafte, and a particular Friend to Longinus. What he fays of him, I'm confident was fpoken with Sincerity more than Complaisance, fince Longinus must have disdained to flatter like a modern Dedicator. 2 Cecilius's Treatife on the Sublime.] Cecilius was a Sicilian Rhetorician. He lived under Auguftus, and was contemporary with Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, with whom he contracted a very clofe Friendship. He is thought to have been the first who wrote on the Sublime. 3 Those who write for the World, or fpeak in public.] I take all this to be implied in the original Word πολιτικοῖς. 4 The 4 The Sublime when feasonably addressed, &c.] This Sentence is inimitably fine in the Original. Dr. Pearce has an ingenious Obfervation upon it. " It is not 66 eafy (fays he) to determine whether the Precepts "of Longinus or his Example be most to be obferv"ed and followed in the course of this Work, fince "his Stile is poffeffed of all the Sublimity of his Subject. Accordingly, in this Paffage, to exprefs "the Power of the Sublime, he has made use of his "Words with all the Art and Propriety imaginable. "Another Writer would have faid apope and 66 66 deixvo, but this had been too dull and languid. "Our Author uses the Preterperfect Tenfe the bet"ter to express the Power and Rapidity, with "which Sublimity of Difcourfe ftrikes the Minds "of its Hearers. It is like Lightning (fays our Author), because you can no more look upon this, "when prefent, than you can upon the Flash of that. "Befides, the Structure of the Words in the Clofe " of the Sentence is admirable. They run along and "are hurried in the Celerity of fhort Vowels. They "represent to the Life the rapid motion either of Lightning or the Sublime. SECT. II. 1 Tho' Nature for the most part challenges, &c.] Thefe Obfervations of Longinus, and the following Lines of Mr. Pope, are a very proper Illuftration for one another. First follow Nature, and your Judgment frame Life, Force, and Beauty must to all impart, With Spirits feeds, with Vigour fills the whole, There are whom Heav'n has bleft with Store of Wit, SECT. Effay on Criticism. III. 1 Making Boreas a Piper] Shakespeare has fallen into the fame kind of Bombast: the Southern Wind Doth play the Trumpet to his Purposes. First Part of Henry IV. 2 Gorgias the Leontine, &c.] Gorgias the Leontine or of Leontium was a Sicilian Rhetorician, and Father of the Sophifts. He was in fuch univerfal Esteem throughout Greece, that a Statue was erected to his Honour in the Temple of Apollo at Delphos of folid Gold, tho' the Custom had been only to gild them. His ftiling Xerxes the Perfian Jupiter, it is thought may be defended from the Custom of the Perfians to falute their Monarch by that high Title. Calling Vultures Liv ing ing Sepulchres, has been more feverely cenfur'd by Hermogenes than Longinus. The Authors of fuch quaint Expreffions, as he fays, deserve themselves to be buried in fuch Tombs. 'Tis certain that Writers of great Reputation have used Allufions of the fame Nature. Dr. Pearce has produced inftances from Ovid and even from Cicero, and obferved further, that Gregory Nazianzen, has ftiled those wild Beafts that devour men, Running Sepulchres. However at best they are but Conceits, with which little Wits in all Ages will be delighted, the great may accidentally flip into, and fuch as Men of true Judgment may overlook, but will hardly commend. 3 Calliftbenes.] He fucceeded Ariftotle in the Tuition of Alexander the Great, and wrote a Hiftory of the Affairs of Greece. 4 Clitarchus] He wrote an Account of the Exploits of Alexander the Great, having attended him in his Expeditions. Demetrius Phalereus, in his Treatife on Elocution, has cenfur'd his fwelling Description of a Wafp. "It feeds, fays he, upon the Mountains, "and flies into hollow Oaks." It feems as if he was speaking of a wild Bull, or the Boar of Erymanthus, and not of fuch a pitiful Creature as a Wasp. And for this Reason, fays Demetrius, the Defcription is cold and difagreeable. 5 Amphicrates.] He was an Athenian Orator. Being banifhed to Seleucia, and requested to fet up a School there, he replied with Arrogance and Difdain, that "The Dish was not large enough for Dolphins." Dr. Pearce. 66 6 Hegefias. 6 Hegefias.] Hegefias was a Magnefian. Cicero in his Orator. c. 226. fays humorously of him, "He is "faulty no lefs in his Thoughts than his Expreffions, "fo that no one who has any Knowledge of him, "need ever be at a Lofs for a Man to call Imper"tinent," One of his frigid Expreffions is ftill remaining. Alexander was born the fame Night that the Temple of Diana at Ephefus, the fineft Edifice in the World, was by a terrible Fire reduced to Ashes. Hegefias in a panegyrical Declamation on Alexander the Great attempted thus to turn that Accident to his Honour. "No wonder, faid he, that Diana's Temple "was confumed by fo terrible a Conflagration: The "Goddess was fo taken up in affifting at Olinthia's "Delivery of Alexander, that fhe had no leisure to "extinguish the Flames which were deftroying her Temple." "The Coldness of this Expression, " fays Plutarch in Alex. is fo exceffively great, that "it feems fufficient of itself to have extinguished the "Fire of the Temple." I wonder Plutarch, who has given fo little Quarter to Hegefias, has himself escaped Cenfure till Dr. Pearce took cognizance of him. "Dullness, fays he, is "fometimes infectious; for while Plutarch is cen"furing Hegefias, he falls into his very Cha "racter." 7. Matris.] Who Matris was I cannot find, but Commentators observe from Athenæus, that he wrote in Profe an Encomium upon Hercules. 8 Theodorus.] Theodorus is thought to have been, born at Gadara, and to have taught at Rhodes. Tiberius Cæfar, according to Quintilian, is reported to |