﻿26 THE AGE OF PETROXIUS ARBITER. 



marked with the same cynicism which disfigures the Roman ; their age, like his, had 

 become shameless. But as the two former were in theu- heart noble, upright, and be- 

 nevolent men, and as in the writings of Diderot genuine nrtue and a tenderness un- 

 known to his contemporaries breathe, so the peculiarity of such a genius can, as it 

 seems, be given to a noble and elevated being only. That deep contempt for the pre- 

 vailing immorality which naturally leads to cynicism, and a heart which beats for every- 

 thing great and glorious, — ■s'irtues which then had no existence, — speak from the 

 pages of the Roman in a language intelligible to every susceptible heart. 



" The age of Louis the Fifteenth, among the South-European nations, and the third 

 century in Rome, have the most remarkable resemblance as to theu- moral enormities 

 and the disgrace of their degeneracy. In both ages, things, having reached a state of 

 foul con-uption and dissolution, were approaching their end. If Diderot lived now, and 

 if Petronius had lived in the fourth century, they would have disdained to describe 

 what is obscene, and also the occasion for doing it Avould have been far less." 



While these views of Niebuhr are deserving of attention, not only because they pro- 

 ceed from so pure-minded and learned a man, but on account of their depth and truth, 

 those of Teufel are not less important, on account of their comprehensiveness, and the 

 clearness with which they are stated. They are contained in his true and admirable 

 description of the work, its scope and character, given in Pauly's Encyclopaidia, Vol. V. 



p. 1404: — 



" The whole plan of the work is that of a novel ; two freedmen, Encolpius and As- 

 cyltus, are enamored of a boy, Giton ; and the adventures which have their origin in 

 this circumstance, or which they encounter severally, the acquaintances which they 

 make (for instance, of Trimalchio and Eumolpus), form the contents at least of that 

 portion of the book which has come down to us. But the book contains in this dress 

 of a narrative descriptions of manners, partly of smgle places (for example, Croton), 

 partly of certain classes (for example, of Trmialchio, a rich upstart, who apes the man- 

 ners of a refined man of the world, but exposes himself most ridiculously ; of Encolpius, 

 a good-natured, cowardly, and licentious Greek ; * of Eumolpus, a vain and tasteless 

 poet, and at the same time a thoroughly demoralized preacher of virtue), all drawn 

 with masterly truthfulness even to the minutest detail. The tone is throughout humor- 

 ous ; the dramatis personce act and speak, even in the most offensive circumstances, 



* The name Encolpius being, of course, a fictitious one, I am at a loss to perceive on what Teufel 

 founds his assertion that the hero is a Greek. His character, his manners, and especially his language,, 

 which Teufel himself mentions, are against this hypothesis. 



