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The next thing to be confidered, after knowing what the author fays, is how he fays it ;` this can only be learnt from the original itself, to which I refer the reader, by printing the Latin, line for line, oppofite to the English, and, as the lines are numbered, the eye will readily pafs from the one to the other. The information which has been received from the tranflation, will readily affift in the grammatical conftruction. The third particular, without which the reader would fall very fhort of understanding the author, is, to know what he means; to explain this is the intention of the notes, for many of which, I gratefully acknowledge myfelf chiefly indebted to various learned commentators, but who, having written in Latin, are almost out of the reach of thofe for whom this work is principally intended. Here and there, I have felected fome notes from English writers: this indeed the ftudent might have done for himself; but I hope he will not take it amifs, that I have brought fo many different commentators into one view, and faved much trouble to him, at the expence of my own labour. The rest of the notes, and thofe no inconfiderable number, perhaps the most, are my own, by which, if I have been happy enough to Supply any deficiencies of others, I fhall be glad.

Upon the whole, I am, from long obfervation, moft perfectly convinced, that the early disgust, which, in too many inftances, youth is apt to conceive against laffical learning (fo that the fchool-time is paffed in a

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State of labour and forrow) arifes mostly from the crabbed and difficult methods of inftruction, which are to often impofed upon them; and that, therefore, all attempts to reduce the number of the difficulties, which, like fo many thorns, are laid in their way, and to † render the paths of instruction pleasant and eafy, will encourage and invite their attention, even to the ftudy of the most difficult authors, among the foremost of which we may rank Juvenal and Perfius. Should the prefent publication be found to answer this end, not only to fchool-boys, but to thofe alfo who would be glad to recover fuch a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to encourage the renewal of their acquaintance with the Claffics (whofe writings fo richly contribute to ornament the higher and more polished walks in life, and which none but the ignorant and taftelefs can undervalue) it will afford the Editor an additional fatisfaction. Still more, if it prove useful to foreigners; fuch I mean as are acquainted with the Latin, and wish to be helped in their study of the

*The books that we learn at fchools are generally laid "afide, with this prejudice, that they were the labours as well

as the forrows of our childhood and education; but they are 66 among the best of books-the Greek and Roman authors have a spirit in them, a force both of thought and expreffion, "that later ages have not been able to imitate." NET, Paft. Care, c. vii.

Bp. BUR

+ Quod enim munus reipublicæ afferre majus, meliufve pof fumus, quàm fi docemus atque erudimus juventutem? Cic. de Divin. Lib. ii. z.

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English language, which is now fo much cultivated in many parts of Europe.

The religious reader will obferve, that God, whe "in times past suffered * all the nations (mala ra

and

un, i. e. all the heathen) to walk in their own "ways, nevertheless, left not himself without witness," not only by the outward manifestations of his power goodness, in the works of † creation and providence, but by men also, who, in their several generations, have fo far fhewn the work of the law written in their hearts, as to bear teftimony against the unrighteousness of the world in which they lived. Hence, we find the great apostle of the Gentiles, Acts xvii. 28. quoting a paffage from his countryman, Aratus of Cilicia, against idolatry, or imagining there be gods made with hands. We find the fame apoftle § reproving the vices of lying and gluttony in the Cretans, by a quotation from the Cretan poet Epimenides, whom he calls "a prophet of their own," for they accounted their poets writers of divine oracles.-Let this teach us to distinguish between the ufe and abufe of claffical knowledge-when it tends to inform the judgment, to refine the manners, and to embellish the conversation; when it keeps a due fubordination to that which is divine, makes us truly thankful for the fuperior light of God's infallible word, and teaches us how little can be truly * See Whitby on Acts xiv. 16.

+ Comp. Rom. i. 19, 20, with Acts xiv. 17.

See Rom. ii. 15.

VOL. I.

§ Tit. i. 13.

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