lected concerning the Life of our Author. It will turn out at beft but dark and imperfect, yet opens into two principal views, which may prove of double ufe to a thoughtful and confiderate reader. As a Writer of a refined and polish'd tafte, of a found and penetrating judgment, it will lead him to fuch methods of thinking, as are the innocent and embellishing amusements of life; as a Philofopher of enlarged and generous fentiments, a friend to virtue, a fteddy champion, and an intrepid martyr for liberty, it will teach him, that nothing can be great and glorious, which is not juft and good; and that the dignity of what we utter, and what we act, depends entirely on the dignity of our thoughts, and the inward grandeur and elevation of the foul.

Searching for the particular paffages and incidents of the Life of Longinus, is like travelling now-a-days thro' thofe countries in which

was spent. We meet with nothing but continual fcenes of devaftation and ruin. In one place, a beautiful fpot fmiling through the bounty of nature, yet over-run with weeds and thorns for want of culture, presents itself to view; in another, a pile of ftones lying in the same confusion in which they fell, with here and there a nodding wall; and fometimes a

1

Suidas.
J. Jonfius.

curious pillar ftill erect, excites the forrowful remembrance of what noble edifices and how fine a city once crown'd the place. Tyrants and barbarians are not lefs pernicious to learning and improvement, than to cities and nations. Bare names are preserved and handed down to us, but little more, Who were the

deftroyers of all the reft, we know with regret, but the value of what is destroyed, we can only guess and deplore.

What countryman Longinus was, cannot Dr. Pearce, certainly be discovered. Some fancy him a Syrian, and that he was born at Emifa, because an uncle of his, one Fronto a rhetorician, is called by Suidas an Emifenian. But others, with greater probability, fuppofe him an Athenian. That he was a Grecian, is plain from two paffages in the following Treatise; in one of which he uses this expreffion, If we Grecians; and in the other he expressly calls Demofthenes his countryman. His name was Dionyfius Longinus, to which Suidas makes the addition of Caffius; but that of his father is entirely unknown; a point (it is true) of small importance, fince a fon of excellence and worth, reflects a glory upon, instead of receiving any from, his father. By his mother Frontonis he was allied, after two or three re

* See Sect, XII.

moves,

moves, to the celebrated Plutarch. We are also at a lofs for the employment of his. parents, their station in life, and the beginning of his education; but a Remnant of his own writings informs us, that his youth was spent in travelling with them, which gave him an opportunity to increase his knowledge, and open his mind with that generous enlargement, which men of fenfe and judgment will unavoidably receive, from variety of objects and diverfity of converfation. The improvement of his mind was always uppermoft in his thoughts, and his thirst after knowledge led him to those channels, by which it is convey'd. Wherever men of learning were to be found, he was prefent, and loft no opportunity of forming a familiarity and intimacy with them. Ammonius and Origen, philofophers of no small reputation in that age, were two of those, whom he vifited and heard with the greatest attention. As he was not deficient in vivacity of parts, quickness of apprehenfion, and strength of understanding, the progress of his improvement must needs have been equal to his industry and diligence in feeking after it. He was capable of learning whatever he defired, and no doubt he defired to learn whatever was commendable and useful.

+ Fragment. quintum.

B 3

The

learning, eloquence, and philofophy united. Whilft he taught here, he had, amongst ⚫ others, the famous Porphyry for his pupil. The fyftem of philofophy, which he went upon, was the Academic; for whofe founder, Plato, he had so great a veneration, that he celebrated the anniversary of his birth with the highest folemnity. There is fomething agreeable even in the distant fancy; how delightful then muft those reflexions have been, which could not but arife in the breast of Longinus, that he was explaining and recommending the doctrine of Plato in thofe calm retreats, where he himself had written; that he was teaching his fcholars the eloquence of Demofthenes, on the very fpot perhaps, where he had formerly thundered; and was profeffing Rhetoric in the place, where Cicero had ftudied!

The Mind of our Author was not fo contracted, as to be fit only for a life of stillness and tranquillity. Fine genius, and a true philofophic turn, qualify not only for study and retirement; but will enable their owners to fhine, I will not fay in more honourable, but in more confpicuous views, and to appear on the public ftage of life with dignity and honour. And it was the fortune of Longinus

to

to be drawn from the contemplative fhades of Athens, to mix in more active fcenes, to train up young princes to virtue and glory, to guide the bufy and ambitious paffions of the great to noble ends, to ftruggle for, and at last to die in the cause of liberty.

Pollio.

During the refidence of Longinus at Athens, Trebellius the Valerian had undertaken an emperor expedition against the Perfians, who had revolted from the Roman yoke. He was affifted in it by Odenathus king of Pal myra, who, after the death of Valerian, carried on the war with uncommon fpirit and fuccefs. Gallienus, who fucceeded his father Valerian at Rome, being a prince of a weak and effeminate foul, of the moft diffolute and abandon'd manners, without any fhadow of worth in himself, was willing to get a fupport in the valour of Odenathus, and therefore he made him his partner in empire by the title of Auguftus, and decreed his medals, ftruck in honour of the Perfian victories, to be current coin throughout the Empire. Odenathus, fays an hiftorian, seemed born for the empire of the world, and would probably have risen to it, had he not been taken off, in a career of victory, by the treachery of his own relations. His abilities

were