The passage, "nobiles regum manus," is evidently imitated from Ovid, "Mota manus procerum est." Statius uses manus in the sense of a set of servants, in his Sylvæ. As a last example of the author, take the following:

Tuque ô magni nata Tonantis
Inclita Pallas, quæ Dardanias
Sæpe petisti cuspide turres :
Te permisto matrona minor
Majorque choro colit, et reserat
Veniente dea templa sacerdos :
Tibi nexilibus turba coronis
Redimita venit.

Agamemnon, Actus 2.

I cannot agree with Mr. Gifford, that Seneca has been "at the Fair of good names, and bought a reasonable commodity of them." On the contrary, I think the critics have sold his name at too low a price; and that the opinion-suckers of the critics often make a market of their shrewdness and discrimination, in lauding the Augustan age at the expense of that which succeeded it, without knowing much about either. The unfavourable opinion of Mr. Gifford himself, however, whose extensive reading and sound judgment both in classical and English literature is scarcely to be matched in the present day, is of far more importance than any thing to be picked up at the Fair. Still, every man has a right to think for himself; and as I, while thinking for myself, think with my before-mentioned friend Mr. Hodgson, I will conclude with transcribing his judgment of Seneca, which is expressed in a much more emphatic manner than any into which I could translate the same opinion. "I think then that Seneca was a deep enquirer into the human heart; that his philo

sophical observations generally arise from true principles; and that he eminently possesses that first characteristic of genius, the power of lively illustration. His language is often, to my taste, delightful; full of figure and metaphor; by turns playful or severe, as his subject varies. It doubtless is sometimes falsely ornamented; but I cannot think he deserves any thing less than predominating praise from a reader whom he has so much amused."

ON AUSONIUS.

JULIUS AUSONIUS was the father of the poet. He was born in the neighbourhood of Bourdeaux, and settled there as a physician. His wife's name was Emilia Æonia, daughter of Cecilius Argicius Arborius, who fled into Aquitain, after a proscription by which he was deprived of his estates in Burgundy. Arborius established himself in the city of Acqs on the Adour, and married a woman of genteel birth but no fortune, whose name was Æmilia Corinthia Maura. By this marriage he had one son and three daughters. The son was Æmilius Magnus Arborius. He gave lectures on rhetoric at Toulouse, and took particular care of the poet's education. One of the daughters was married to Julius Ausonius, and had four sons, of whom the poet was the second. Julius Ausonius was a person of great merit. His conduct was marked by the greatest possible consistency. His professional benevolence was unbounded in the admission of gratuitous patients. His hatred of lawsuits was as remarkable as his medical zeal. He neither increased nor diminished his private fortune: he was harassed neither by envy nor ambition: he held swearing and lying to be kindred vices, and believed that he who would do one would do the other. He avoided private conspiracies and public

broils, and satisfied himself with cultivating honourable friendships. He was married forty-five years, and kept his conjugal faith inviolably. His high qualities are recorded with filial piety by his son, in his Epicedion in Patrem suum Julium Ausonium. He is there made to say of himself:

Judicium de me studui præstare bonorum:
Ipse mihi nunquam, judice me, placui.

Indice me nullus, sed neque teste, perit.

Felicem scivi, non qui, quod vellet, haberet :
Sed qui per fatum non data non cuperet.
Non occursator, non garrulus, obvia cernens,
Valvis et velo condita non adii.

Famam, qua posset vitam lacerare bonorum,
Non finxi: et verum si scierim, tacui.

Deliquisse nihil nunquam laudem esse putavi,
Atque bonos mores legibus antetuli.

He is described as not eloquent in Latin, but sufficiently so in Greek :

Sermone impromptus Latio: verum Attica lingua
Suffecit culti vocibus eloquii.

He had the honours of several high offices conferred on him as a personal compliment, with an exemption from the labour of exercising them in person. He died at the age of ninety years, without having felt any decay.

Curia me duplex, et uterque Senatus habebat
Muneris exsortem, nomine participem.

Ipse nec affectans, nec detrectator honorum,
Præfectus magni nuncupor Illyrici.

X

Nonaginta annos baculo sine, corpore toto
Exegi, cunctis integer officiis.

The following couplet of the above, seems to be an elegiac concentration of a glowing and elegant passage in Horace's ninth ode of the fourth book:

Felicem scivi, non qui, quod vellet, haberet,
Sed qui per fatum non data non cuperet.

Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui Deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti,

Duramque callet pauperiem pati;
Pejusque leto flagitium timet;

Non ille pro caris amicis

Aut patria timidus perire.

Another line bears the appearance of a moral application to a critical remark in the Art of Poetry :

Deliquisse nihil nunquam laudem esse putavi.

Idcircone vager, scribamque licenter; ut omnes
Visuros peccata putem mea, tutus et intra
Spem veniæ cautus? vitavi denique culpam,
Non laudem merui.

Ausonius celebrates his father also in his Parentalia. The preceding passages are in his Idyllia :

Non quia fatorum nimia indulgentia: sed quod
Tam moderata illi vota fuere viro.

Quem sua contendit septem Sapientibus ætas ;
Quorum doctrinam moribus excoluit:

Viveret ut potius, quam diceret arte sophorum,
Quamquam et facundo non rudis ingenio.