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"Per tunicam fquallentem auro latus haurit

apertum ;

as if the expreffion auro fquallentem were improper, the uncleannefs of filth being oppofite to the fplendid luftre of gold.

As to the word vexaffe, I think this answer may be given. Vexaffe is an important term, and seems to have the fame derivation as vehere, in which there feems implied an external force. He who is hurried along is not mafter of himself. Vexare therefore must doubtless intimate a ftill greater force and impulfe; for he who is carried violently along, and pulled this way and the other, may be properly faid vexari; so the word taxare is stronger and closer than tangere, from which it certainly is formed: Jaltare has a fuller and more extenfive fignification than its original jacere; and quaffare is also more expreffive of violence than quatere. If therefore the term vexari be fometimes vulgarly applied to the annoyance of fmoke, or wind, or dust, there is no reason that the true and genuine meaning of the word fhould be loft, which, by the ancients, who spoke with propriety and force, has been preserved as it ought. M. Cato, in his Oration de Achæis, fays, Quumque Hannibal terram Italiam laceraret atque vexaret." Cato fays, that Italy was vexatam by Hannibal; though it is not poffible to

4 Per tunicam, &c.]-Dryden says this in three lines:
"But armour, fcal'd with gold, was no defence
Against the fated fword which open'd wide
His plated shield, and pierc'd his naked fide.”

imagine

imagine any kind of calamity or cruelty which Italy did not then experience. Cicero, in his fourth oration against Verres, fays, "Quæ ab ifto 5 fic fpoliata atque direpta eft, ut non ab hoste aliquo, qui tamen in bello religionem et confuetudinis jura retineret, fed ut a Barbaris prædonibus vexata effe videatur."

6

Concerning illaudati I have two obfervations to make one is this-No one is of fuch abandoned morals as not fometimes to do or fay what may merit commendation; whence this old verfe has always been confidered as proverbial :-"Sometimes even a gardener has faid a very pertinent thing." But he who always, upon all occasions, is undeferving of praife, he is illaudatus, the worst and bafeft of mankind, just as an absence of every fault makes a man inculpatus. Inculpatus is a term for perfect virtue, so is illaudatus, therefore, the perfection of all

Que ab ifto, &c.]-"Which were fo fpoiled and plundered by him, as not by any enemy, who would have regarded fome kind of reftraint as established by the laws of nations, but as to feem rather furioufly hurried away by Barbarian robbers."

• Sometimes a gardener.]—I do not find this proverb in any of the Greek collections; but it is in that of Erafmus, p. 274. There is a doubt whether it should be read xnwgos, which is a gardener, or μωρος, which is a fool. I have tranflated it a gardener, because the best editions of Gellius preserve that reading; but why the editors, perfift in it cannot easily be faid; fince by reading Πολλακι τοι the fenfe is και μωρος, improved, fince Erafmus found that reading in an old Greek collection, and much approved it. Why fhould a gardener be felected as most unlikely to fay a pertinent thing? It is abfurd. The contrary proverb is Magos μwga λeysi; “a fool fays foolish things."

wickedness.

wickednefs. Thus Homer, when he praises most highly, does it not by fpecifying virtues, but by the negative of vices: as,

"The priest, free from harm, fpake."

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And again,

"Nor had

you feen the king of men appear,. Confus'd, inactive, or furpris'd with fear." Epicurus alfo, in a fimilar manner, defines the greatest pleasure to be the abfence and privation of all pain, in these words :-"The greatest height of pleasure is the privation of all pain." It is by the fame rule that Virgil calls the Stygian lake inamabilis; for as illaudatus is the entire abfence of all praife, fo is inamabilis the total abfence of love. Illaudatus may be vindicated in another way. Laudare, in old language, fignifies to name or call by name; thus in civil pleadings a perfon is faid not to be named but laudari. Illaudatus, therefore, is the fame with illaudabilis, one who is neither worthy of mention nor remembrance, nor indeed ever to be named. Thus anciently it was decreed by the public council of Afia, that his name who had burned the temple of Diana of Ephefus fhould never be mentioned by any one. It remains that we should speak of the third objection on the words" tunicam fquallentem auro." This figni

7 Squallentem.]-Heyne reads fqualentem, and denies its derivation from fquamæ; but rather, he says, à fqualido colore qualis in pifcium at ferpentum cute eft.

fies

fies a quantity and fubftance of gold woven in the form of scales; for the word fquallere comes from the thickness and roughness of the fcales which are visible on the skins of ferpents and fifhes; which others, as well as our poet, have noticed. The latter has these paffages :

"Quem pellis ahenis
In plumam fquamis auro conferta tegebat."

Again,

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Jamque adeo rutilum thoraca indutus ahenis,
Horrebat fquamis.”

Accius, in his Pelops, fays,

"Ejus ferpentis fquamæ fquallido auro et purpura pretextæ."

Whatever, therefore, was fo impressed and crowded with any thing, as by its uncommon appearance to ftrike the gazer with horror, was faid fquallere. Thus in rude and fcaly bodies, the large accumulation of filthiness is called fquallor. By the common and conftant ufe of this fignification in particular, the whole of the word is now fo debased, that the term fquallor is exclufively applied to filthinefs of various kinds.

CHAP.

CHAP. VII.

The duty of children to their parents. Difcuffions from books of philofophy on that subject, wherein it is enquired, whether all the commands of a father are to be obeyed.

T has been a frequent fubject of difpute among philofophers, whether a father is to be obeyed without reserve, in whatever he commands. Upon this question, the Greeks and our countrymen, who have written on duties, have afferted, that there are three opinions, which are to be weighed and examined these they have difcuffed with great

I have before spoken on the subject of paternal authority, as it exifted in the earlier ages of Rome. "Without fear, though not without danger of abuse," fays Mr. Gibbon," the Roman legislators had repofed an unbounded confidence in the fentiments of paternal love, and the oppreffion was tempered by the affurance, that each generation must succeed in its turn to the awful dignity of parent and mafter." The queftion discussed in chapter ii. was rather of a legal, as this is of a moral nature. It is difcuffed at fome length by Seneca, Book III. de Beneficiis, chap. xxxvii. who cites many examples of children, as Eneas and Scipio, who conferred on their parents greater obligations than they received. On this Quintus Carolus remarks, that it is impoffible, for the very power of conferring an obligation on a parent must first be conferred by the parent on the child by the gift of exiftence. On Mr. Paley's pofition, that the rights of parents refult from their duties, parents can have, as he obferves, no natural right over the lives of their children, can exercise no unprofitable feverities, nor can command the commiffion of crimes.

VOL. I.

1

acuteness.

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