aries affure us, that it is one of the most facred Inftitutions amongst the warrior-nations of the free people in North America. Which, because it so exactly resembles the Grecian in all its circumftances, I fhall give, as I find it defcribed by one of their beft writers. "Chacun parmi eux a un "ami à peu pres de fon age, auquel il s'attache, et qui s'attache à lui par "des liens indiffolubles. Deux hommes ainfi unis pour leur intérêt com"mun, doivent tout faire & tout rifquer pour s'entr'aider, & fe fecourir "mutuellement: la mort même, à ce qu'ils croyent, ne les fepare que pour un "tems: ils comptent bien de fe rejoindre dans l'autre monde pour ne fe plus "quitter, perfuadés qu'ils y auront encore befoin l'un de l'autre.-On "ajoute, que ces amis, quand ils fe trouvent eloignés les uns des autres, "s'invoquent reciproquement dans les périls, ou ils fe recontrent; ce "qu'il faut fans doute entendre de leurs genies tutélaires. Les PRESENS "font les noeuds de ces affociations, l'intérêt & le befoin les fortifient; c'est "un fecours fur lequel on peut prefque toujours compter. Quelques uns pretendent qu'ils s'y gliffe du defordre; mais j'ai fujet de croire qu'au moiens "cela n'eft pas general." Journal d'un Voyage dans l'Amerique Septentrionale par le P. de Charlevoix, tome vi. p. 14.

P. 241. [X] One can hardly account for that strange mistake of the Abbé Velly in his elegant History of France, where speaking of these fraternities in arms amongst the Northern Nations (for nature dictates the fame practice to all, in the fame circumftances), he fays-"On n'en trouve "AUCUN VESTIGE chez ces fieres Republiques qui s'etoient attribué l'efprit "et la politeffe à l'exclufion de tout autre Peuple: mais elles font de toute "ancienneté chez les Nations Septentrionales, que la Grece et l'Italie "plutôt civilifées ont juge àpropos de nommer Sauvages et Barbares.” Tom. v. p. 58.

P. 244. [Y] Hence the reader will be able to judge of the delicacy of taste, and accuracy of difcernment, in a late Writer; who, in a book called Elements of Criticism, corrects Virgil's want of judgement in this part of the Eneis, after having given inftances of defects full as notorious, in the Georgics. "An episode in a narrative Poem (fays this Man of Taste) being, in effect, an Acceffory, demands not that strict union with the "principal fubject, which is requifite betwixt a whole and its constituent parts. The relation, however, of Principal and Accessory being pretty intimate, an Episode LOOSELY connected with the principal fubject will

66 never

"never be graceful. I GIVE FOR AN EXAMPLE the defcent of Eneas into "Hell, which employs the Sixth Book of the Æneid. The Reader is NOT "PREPARED for this important event. No CAUSE IS ASSIGNED that can "make it appear NECESSARY, or even natural, to fufpend, for fo long a "time, the principal action," &c. &c. vol. I. p. 38.-The Critic having told us that a ftritt union is not required between the Principal and Acceffory, finds fault with the Acceffory, that no caufe is given to make it appear, that it is NECESSARY to the principal. However, I ought not to be too severe on this great Critic, fince the Obfervation was certainly made on purpose to recommend my interpretation of this defcent into Hell; which fhews, if not the neceffity, yet the infinite grace and beauty of this noble Acceffory, and the close and natural connexion it has with its Principal.

P. 251. [Z] But Servius, in his explanation of the branch, went upon the abfurd fuppofition that Æneas's defcent into hell was the fame with that of Ulyffes, in Homer, a necromantic incantation by facrifice, to call up the shadows of the dead. "Ramus enim neceffe erat, ut & unius caufa "effet interitus, unde & ftatim mortem fubjungit Mifeni: & ad facra "Proferpinæ accedere, nifi fublato ramo non poterat. Inferos autem fub

ire, hoc dicit facra celebrare Proferpinæ." And again, ad ver. 149. "Præterea jacet exanimum tibi corpus amici. Ac fi diceret; Eft & alia op"portunitas descendendi ad inferos, id eft, Proferpinæ facra peragendi. "Duo enim horum facrorum genera fuiffe dicuntur; unum NEKYOMAN"TIÆ, quod Lucanus exfequitur; & aliud scIOMANTIÆ, id eft, divina"tionis per umbras; oxía enim umbra eft, & parliía, vaticinium, quod in "Homero, quem Virgilius fequitur, lectum eft."

P. 252. [AA] The learned Selden, in his comment on the ninth book of Poly-olbion, feems to approve the abfurd conjecture of P. Crinitus, that the golden-bough fignifies miletoe: and would confirm it by that very reason, which abfolutely overthrows it; viz. that Virgil COMPARES it to the misletoe: for it is contrary to all the rules of good writing, whether fimply figurative, or allegoric, to make the comparison to the cover, the contents of the cover ; a COMPARISON neceffarily implying, that the thing, to which another is compared, fhould be different from that other.

P. 268. [BB] The very learned Mr. Dacier translates iv áπoppńrois, dans les Myfteres; and this agreeably to his knowledge of antiquity. For appl was used by the ancients, to fignify not only the grand fecret taught in the Mysteries,

Eee 2

Myfteries, but the Mysteries themfelves; as appears from innumerable places in their writings. Yet the celebrated French tranflator of Puffendorf's Law of Nature and Nations, lib. ii. cap. 4. § 19. note (1), accuses him of not understanding his author: "Mr. Dacier fait dire à Platon que "Pon tenoit tous les jours ces difcours au peuple dans les ceremonies & dans "les Mysteres. Il feroit à fouhaiter qu'il eût allégué quelque autorité pour "etablir un fait fi remarquable. Mais il s'agit ici manifeftement des in"structions fecrétes que les Pythagoriciens donnoient à leurs initiez, & "lefquelles ils decouvroient les raifons les plus abftrufes, & les plus par"ticuliers des dogmes de leur philofophie. Ces inftructions cachées s'appelloient appla-Ce que Platon dit un peu auparavant de Philolaus, απόῤῥηλα "philofophe Pythagoricien, ne permit pas de douter que la raifon, qu'il rapporte içi comme trop abftrufe & difficile à comprendre, ne foit celle que donnoient les Pythagoriciens." He fays, it were to be wished Dacier had fome authority for fo remarkable a fact. He hath this very paffage, which is fufficient; for the word anoppla can mean no other than the Myfteries. But those who want further authority, may have enough of it, in the nature and end of the Mysteries, as explained above.-He fays, "It " is evident, Plato is here talking of the fecret inftructions which the "Pythagoreans gave to their Initiated, in which they discovered their "most abstruse and particular doctrines." This cannot be fo, for a very plain reafon. The philosophy of the Pythagoreans, like that of the other fects, was divided into the exoteric and efoteric; the open, taught to all; and the fecret, taught to a select number. But the impiety of fuicide was in the first clafs, as a doctrine ferviceable to fociety: "Vetatque Pythagoras in"juffu imperatoris, id eft, Dei, de præfidio & ftatione vitæ decedere," fays Tully, in his book Of old age; who, in his Dream of Scipio, written in the exoteric way, condemns fuicide for the very fame reason; but in an epiftle to a particular friend, which certainly was of the esoteric kind, he approves of it; " Ceteri quidem, Pompeius, Lentulus tuus, Scipio, Afra"nius, fœde perierunt. At Cato PRÆCLARE. Jam iftuc quidem, cum "volemus, licebit." lib. ix. ep. 18. It could not be, therefore, that the impiety of fuicide fhould be reckoned amongst the anoppla of philofophy, fince it was one of their popular doctrines. But this will be fuller seen, when we come to speak of the philofophers, in the next book. Mr. Barbeyrac concludes, that, " as Plato had spoken of Philolaus a little before, "it cannot be doubted but that he speaks of the reafon against fuicide,

"as

"as a doctrine of the Pythagorean philofophy." What has been faid above, utterly excludes this interpretation. But though it did not, there is nothing in the context which fhews, Plato thought of Philolaus in this place. It is allowed, this was a doctrine of the Pythagoric school, though not of the esoteric kind. The Mysteries, and that School, held a number of things in common; this has been fhewn, in part, already and when we come to speak of Pythagoras, it will be feen how it happened.

P. 269. [CC] We may well judge it to be fo, when we find it amongst the CHINESE (fee M. Polo. lib. ii. cap. 28.) and the ARABIANS, the two people leaft corrupted by foreign manners, and the vicious cuftoms of more civilized nations. The Arabians, particularly, living much in a state of nature, where mens wants are few, and confequently where there is small temptation to this unnatural crime, yet were become fo prone to it, that' their lawgiver Mahomet found it neceffary to exact an oath of the Arabian women, not to destroy their children. The form of this oath is given us by Gagnier, in his notes on Abel-feda's Life of Mahomet, and it is in thefe words; "-Ne deo rem ullam affocient; ne furentur; ne fornicen“tur; NE LIBEROS SUOS OCCIDANT [metu paupertatis uti habetur, Sur "vi. v. 151.] neque inobedientes fint Apoftolo Dei, in eo quod juftum eft.” p. 41. n. (a).

P. 270. [DD] The Egyptian laws were faid to have been of Ifis's own' appointment. This will fhew us with what judgment and address Ovid has told the tale of Lidgus the Cretan, in his Metamorphofis; (of the nature and art of which Work more will be observed hereaftet.) Lidgus (in the ixth book, fab. 12.) is reprefented as commanding his pregnant wife, Telethufa, to destroy the expected infant, if it proved a female. Yet is this Cretan thus characterized,

Inculpata fuit

vita fidefque

in a word, just such another as Terence's man of univerfal benevolence, (mentioned above) the Author of the famous maxim, bomo fum, bumani nibil a me alienum puto, and of the very fame command of infanticide to his Wife; who for not obeying it is reckoned by him, amongst those, qui neque jus neque bonum atque æquum fciunt. Telethufa, however, as common as fuch a command was, and as indifferent as it was esteemed, is much alarmed with the apprehenfion of falling into the cruel fituation of being

obliged

obliged to execute it. In this distress Ifis appears to her in a dream, promifes her affiftance, and orders her to deceive her husband, and bring up whatever the Gods fhould fend:

Pone graves curas, mandataque falle mariti;

Nec dubita, cum te partu Lucina levârit,

Tollere quicquid erit-

Ovid's moral of his tale is this, "That Egypt had opposed very wife and "humane laws to the horrid practice of INFANTICIDE, now become ge"neral, and continuing unchecked by all other civil inftitutions."

P. 309. [EE]. On what is here faid concerning the Character of Emilianus the most learned Chancellor Mofheim obferves as follows: "Platonicis Chriftianam Religionem aftu fubvertere ftudentibus, APULEIUM non ita pridem addidit vir ingenio æque magnus atque doctrina, Guil. Warburtonus in Demonftratione divinæ Legationis Mofis. Hunc enim in notiffima illa de aureo Afino fabula feu Metamorphofi id egiffe putat, ut Myfteria Deorum fumma virtute ad fanandas & purgandas hominum mentes effe prædita, facrifque Chriftianis idcirco longe anteferenda, demonftraret, hominem nempe imprimis fuperftitiofum, Chriftianifque et publico Sectæ, quam probabat, & privato nomine inimicum. Obfervavit Vir egregius qua eft fagacitate, rerumque veterum peritia, in Apuleio nonnulla nemini ante ipfum obfervata: in quibus id placet maxime, quod LICINIUM EMILIANUM, qui APULEIUM apud Africa Proconful Magia accufaverat CHRISTIANUM fuiffe ex Apologia, quæ extat, accufati, non fine magna veri specie fufpicatur. De confilio vero Fabula de Afino, quod commentationem Myfteriorum et Chriftianæ Religionis contemtionem vir doctiffimus effe conjicit, dubitare mihi liceat, quum nihil afferri videam ex ea, quod difficulter in aliam partem accipi poffit." De rebus Christ. ante Conftant. M. Commentarii Seculum tert. Sect. 21. not. (***) The English of which conclufion amounts to this, "That another interpretation might be given of the Golden Afs." I believe fo. It might be fhewn to contain a process for the difcovery of the Philofopher's Stone. And a certain German Chymift, if I be not mistaken, has extracted this fecret out of the Fable.