vetus interpres ideo vertit, adulterantes: quod de sophistis, et hic de falsis doctoribus commode dicitur: elegantia hanc in rem loca observaveram ex Luciano et Max. Tyrio; sed video hæc, et alia insuper, jam præoccupasse cl. Bos, cujus Exercit. vide, coll. cl. Casaubon. ad Theophrast. p. m. 284. quibus addo Ælian V. Η. 12. c. 1. p. 660. γυναικῶν καπηλικῶς τῷ κάλλει χρωμένων: ibid. p. 663. καπηλικῶς ἔχουσι, quod etiam dixit Comicus Plut. Act. 4. Sc. 5. ubi Scholia καπηλικώς explicant πανουργικῶς: cl. Alexand. Protrept. p. 60. οὐ καπηλεύεται ἡ ἀλήθεια, ut hic καπηλεύειν τὸν λόγον, pro quo inf. 4. 2. περιπατεῖν ἐν πανουργίᾳ, καὶ δολοῦν τὸν λόγον dixit: cui opponitur illud Arriani Exp. Al. L. 7. c. 18. p. 298. adóλws ἀδόλως τὴν ἀλήθειαν φράζειν, Hesych. καπηλεύοντες· πραγ paтEvóμevo." J. Alberti's Obss. Philologica, p. 359. But I must defer to another opportunity the discussion about this contested word.

99

It is a curious circumstance that Euripides should say, as he does here, that there was no drug, which was supposed to possess the power of converting love into hatred, when the Herba Promethea is said to have had this power: "It was supposed to spring from the blood of Prometheus, which flowed to the ground, as the vulture preyed upon his liver-this plant was supposed to possess many extraordinary

properties; and was much used in magical rites, and incantations its juice was black, something like that of the crocus, and of the same colour; and by the description given of the root, which was forked, it much resembled the circa, or mandragora:-in an allego rical sense, this herb may signify reason, which subdues the fiery emotions of the soul: a similar sense may be ascribed to the Moly of Homer, the Golden Bough of Virgil, the xpédeuvov, or Fillet, of Ulysses, the Porphyris of Agamemnon: Valerius Flaccus, bk. VII. v. 355. has introduced Medea, as employing this herb in incantations: Propertius talks of a potent herb, which he calls Promethean, the effect of which was to produce antipathy and hatred,

Invidia sumus: num me deus obruit? An que

Secta Prometheis dividit herba jugis:

the mention of these opinions of the ancients, respecting the power of herbs, in charms and incantations, shows that they are not unlike the popular opinions, which prevail very generally, at this day: the reader can hardly avoid recollecting, on this occasion, the beautiful fiction, in the Midsummer's Night-Dream of Shakespeare, respecting the use of the two flowers, one of which had the power of producing love, the other hatred." Preston's Notes and Observations on the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, subjoined to his Translation, Vol. 11. p. 167.

M

JUVENAL ILLUSTRATED.

JUVENAL, in his fifth satire, declaims against the great distinction, which was made in the houses of the great, between the giver of the entertainment, and the parasites, or clients, who were admitted to his table: the Satirist gives a variety of instances, which the reader may consult at his leisure: the object of his satire seems to be not so much to ridicule and stigmatise the custom itself, which was, probably, practised in a moderate degree at the tables of all the great, and which was, like many other Roman customs, imported from the East, as to represent to those contemptible, but numerous persons, whom he is addressing, the disgrace of submitting to such indignities daily, by their own choice: these parasites and clients had never the same enjoyment at their own houses, whereas other people lost nothing of their dignity by occasionally submitting to the custom, because they might, perhaps, have enjoyed the distinction as often themselves at their own table. In the account, which Golam Hossein Khan gives of one Nassyr Daood Aaly-Khan in Mr. Tennant's Indian Recreations (Vol. 1. p. 253. 2d Ed.), the eastern historian says;

"He also contented himself with his legal fees; and this pittance, joined to his portion of the paternal estate, he managed with so much economy, as to enable him to relieve the needy, and to administer comfort to widows and orphans, whom he admitted to his table; without attempting to live on better fare in private by himself." Mr. Tennant then presents us with this curious account of Indian entertainments: "This alludes to the Indian method of giving entertainments; which, if judged by our notions, is strongly marked with indelicacy: the guests all sit upon a square carpet: the master of the feast being placed at the north-side: a number of separate dishes are placed before him; and a different assortment less delicate along the two sides, according to the rank of the guests: towards the farther end of the carpetting, the guests of inferior note are seated, and the dishes are, before them, greatly inferior both in number and quality: this management, so indelicate, according to our ideas, was conspicuous even at the tables of the most illustrious Romans: a different species of bread, and an inferior wine, were served to the guests, from that, used by the giver of the entertainment vide Juv. Sat."

The same custom prevails among the Russians, who have retained many eastern customs, as will appear by

the following extract from the Travels of Dr. Clarke, p. 162. "The curious spectacle presented at their dinners has no parallel in the rest of Europe: the dishes and the wines correspond in gradation with the rank and condition of the guests: those, who sit near the master of the house, are suffered to have no connection with the fare, or the tenants, of the lower end of the table; and nothing would so much distress a Russian prince, as sending for a portion of the soup, or the viands, which are there placed: that, which he intends for the gratification of the favoured few around him, is generally carried to them; nor is it usual to ask for any thing" Again in p. 634. "The etiquette of precedency, so rigorously observed at a Russian table, prevails also in the order of the dishes and bottles arranged for the guests: in barbarous times we had something like it in England: perhaps the custom is not even now quite extinct in Wales; it is preserved in large farm-houses in remote parts of England, where all the family from the master to the lowest menial, sit down to the same table: the choicest dishes are carefully placed at the upper end, and are handed to those guests, who sit near the owner of the mansion, according to the order, in which they sit; afterwards, if any thing remains, it is taken gradually to the rest." If the Russians, as I suppose, have retained this among other Eastern