Suidas.
J. Jonfius.

Dr.
Pearce.

ing in the fame Confufion in which they fell, with here and there a nodding Wall; and fometimes a 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 preferved 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 deftroyed, we can only guess and deplore.

*

What Countryman Longinus was, cannot certainly be discovered. Some fancy him a Syrian, and that he was born at Emisa, because an Uncle of his, one Fronto a Rhetorician, is called by Suidas an Emisenian. But others, with greater probability, suppose him an Athenian. That he was a Grecian, is plain from two Paffages in the following Treatife; in one of which he uses this Ex-preffion, If we Grecians; and in the other he exprefsly 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

* See Sect. XII.

Point (it is true) of fmall importance, fince a Son 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 Removes, to the celebrated Plutarch. We are alfo 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 Senfe and Judgment will unavoidably receive, from variety of Objects and diversity of Conversation. 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 present, and lost 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,

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and Strength of Understanding, the Progres of his Improvement muft needs have been equal to his Industry and Diligence in seeking after it. He was capable of learning whatever he defired, and no doubt he defired to learn whatever was commendable and useful.

The Travels of Longinus ended with his Arrival at Athens, where he fix'd his Refi dence. This City was then, and had been for fome Ages, the Univerfity of the World. It was the conftant Refort of all, who were able to teach, or willing to improve; the grand and lafting Reservoir of Philofophy and Learning, from whence were drawn every Rivulet and Stream, that watered and cultivated the reft of the World. Here our Author pursued the Studies of Humanity and Philosophy with the greatest Application, and foon became the moft remarkable Perfon in a Place fo remarkable as Athens. Here he published his Treatife on the SUBLIME, which raised his Reputation to fuch a height, as no Critic, either before or fince, durft ever afpire to. He was a perfect Mafter of the ancient Writings of Greece, and intimately acquainted, not only with the Works, but the very Genius and Spirit with which they were written, His Co temporaries there had fuch an implicit Faith

in his Judgment, and were fo well convinced of the Perfection of his Tafte, that they appointed him Judge of all the ancient Authors, and learned to diftinguish between the genuine and fpurious Productions of Antiquity, from his Opinions and Sentiments about them. He was looked upon by them as infallible and unerring, and therefore by his Decrees were fine Writing and fine Senfe eftablished, and his Sentence stamped its intrinfic Value upon every Piece. The entrusting any one Perfon with fo delicate a Commiffion is an extraordinary Inftance of Complaifance. It is without a Precedent in every Age before, and unparallell'd in any of the fucceeding, as it is fit it should, till another Longinus fhall arife. But in regard to him, it does honour to those who lodged it in his Hands. For no claffic Writer ever fuffered in Character from an erroneous Censure of Longinus. He was, as I obferved before, a perfect Master of the Stile and peculiar turn of Thought of them all, and could difcern every Beauty or Blemish in every Compofition. In vain might inferior Critics exclaim against this Monopoly of Judgment. Whatever Objections they raised against it, were mere Air and unregarded Sounds. And whatever they blamed, or what

ever they commended, was received or rejected by the Public, only as it met with the Eunapius. Approbation of Longinus, or was confirmed and ratified by his fovereign Decifion.

His ftay at Athens feems to have been of long continuance, and that City perhaps had never enjoyed fo able a Profeffor of fine Learning, Eloquence, and Philosophy united. Whilft he taught here, he had, amongst others, the famous Porphiry for his Pupil. The Syftem of Philofophy, which he went upon, was the Academic, for whofe Founder, Plato, he had fo great a Veneration, that he celebrated the Anniversary of his Birth with the highest Solemnity. There is fomething agreeable even in the diftant Fancy; how delightful then muft thofe Reflections have been, which could not but arife in the Breaft 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 Scholars the Eloquence of Demofthenes, on the very Spot 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 Still

nefs

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