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of it, that he was endowed with some of the most amiable virtues, 

 particularly filial piety, which forms a most beautiful and inter- 

 esting trait in his character. He was also sincerely attached to 

 the land of his birth, as is demonstrated by some passages in his 

 poems, as well as by the circumstance of his having left all the 

 attractions of the Roman court to return to his native city, where 

 he died. If an author's works may be considered as a fair reflec- 

 tion of his mind, we may contemplate Oppian in this mirror, with 

 improvement and delight. Though not blessed with a belief or 

 knowledge of revelation, he was a firm believer in the equity, 

 wisdom, and goodness of Providence ; as what honest and en- 

 lightened lover of nature is not ? " His admirable lessons of 

 morality on all occasions," says Kennet, " especially that most wise 

 and elegant reflection at the beginning of the second book of the 

 Halieutics, on the weakness of mankind in the smallest matters, 

 without the influence and assistance of heaven, show him to have 

 been one of the most rational and best principled of heathens ; 

 and that his works are able to teach us nobler secrets, than the 

 mysteries of hunting and fishing." He evinces great tenderness of 

 disposition, with just detestation of cruelty ; and paints the influence 

 of natural affection in colours inimitably beautiful. He has 

 been praised for his love of truth, for his exposure of certain vulgar 

 errors, and for a virtue seldom found in a heathen writer, — modesty ; 

 as, when he speaks of a certain fish, with whose trivial name he 

 would not pollute his page, he describes it by a circumlocution. I 

 could wish there had been more room for this part of his eulogy. 

 Regard for the moral virtues is the first and highest praise of every 

 writer. But the genius which is employed in embellishing vice, and 



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