13^ THREE LUMINARIES OF THE ROMANS. OOi. ^r 



time the project will be treated with univerfal execra* 

 tion, as a millftone hanging at the neck of public credit} 

 and the new minifter, as a fpecimen of his importance, 

 will immediately abandon the fettlement. But indeed 

 its invaluable inhabitants may Vv^ry pdffibly fave him 

 th»t trouble,' by cuting the throats of their lalk-maftcrs, 

 and embarking on board their (hipping in the bay. Could 

 this revolution be accomplifhed without bloodftied it is 

 in itfelf an event extremely defireable. 



Tumbledown. 



Sketch oj Three Luminaries of the Ro7naus, by the late Sir 



James Foulis of Colinton, baronet. 



To the EDITOR of the B:c. 



X HE book entitled Gulielmi Bellendeni Scoti, Tria Lu- 

 inina Ronianoriim is a very extraordinary performance. 

 Cicero is introduced as if he had fpoken or written the 

 whole from beginning to end. It is divided into fixteen 

 books. In the firft (even is contained a very concife 

 abftracl of the Roman Hiftory, from the foundation 

 of Rome till its 647th year, in which he was born. — 

 Then he becomes more pd^ticular in the account 

 of his own times, and enlarges very fully on all 

 that happened after his lirll appearance in public bufi- 

 nefs. He gives an account of the moft remarkable of 

 his oratiotis, and epiftles, and the occafions on which 

 they were written, as alfo of fuch of his philofophical 

 v.'orks as have come do^yn to us, and of fome other 

 pieces that are now loft, ending with a letter he is fup- 

 pofed to have written to OHavianus, afterwards named 

 Augiiflusy which letter, however, is fuppofed to be 

 fptirious. On the whole, there cannot be a more 

 complete hiftory of the life of Cicero, and of the tu- 

 niukucus times in which he lived, and in part of which 

 ^e was a very conliderablc acior ; and all this is de- 

 livered in the language and words of Cicero himfelf. 



It is very remarkable that Bellenden has copied 

 Cicero fo clofely that I verily believe there is nor an 



