FRAGMENT. 



229 



the flighteft prognoRics, and the mofl: frivolous 

 predidions, to which he afligned a firft-rate im- 

 portance, the moment that they appeared in any 

 refpefl conneded with the foundation of the Ro- 

 man Empire. 



Rome was indebted, then, to the Arcadians, 

 for her principal reHgious ufages. She was ftill 

 farther indebted to them for others, much more 

 interefting to humanity ; for Plutarch derives one 

 of the etymologies of the name Patricians^ an order 

 eftablifhed by RonnihiSy from the word " Patroci- 

 *' niiimy which means patronage, or protedion ; 

 *' and this word is ufed, to this day, in the fame 

 ** fenfe, becaufe one of the leading men who ac- 

 " companied Evander into Italy was named Pa- 

 *' tronus, who, being a perfon noted for a charader 

 *^ of beneficence, and for granting fupport to the 

 ** poorer and more opprefled clafs of Mankind, 

 *^ communicated his name to that office of hu- 

 *' manity." 



The facrifice and the banquet of Evander, ter- 

 minated in a hymn to the honour of Hercides. I 

 cannot refift the inclination which I feel to infert 

 it here, in order to make it appear, that the fame 

 people who fung fo melodioufly the loves of (hep- 

 herds, wete equally capable of celebrating the vir- 



CL 3 tucs 



