UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



(13.,) if the book be divided into chapters or 

 paragraphs, (14.) if the edition be hand- 

 fomely printed, with a good paper and letter, 

 and be correct, (15.) if a work be ornament- 

 ed with plates of any kind, (16.) if it has 

 been crir.iciied, and if the critics have attacked 

 the matter, the ftyle, or the author perfonally, 

 (17.) if the critics have been competent judges 

 or ignorant, if they have been impartial or 

 not, &c. 



IV. The title of clajjic is properly given 

 to thofe Latin books only whofe authors lived 

 in the Auguftan age, and a little before or 

 after it, that is, at the time the Latin tongue 

 was in its greateit purity, and which began to be 

 corrupted after the reign of Tiberius. Thefe 

 writers being read in the clafles at fchools, or 

 colleges, are therefore called claiTic authors , and 

 are regarded as of great authority. It is nor, 

 however, very clearly determined what aurhors 

 ought to be raifed to this rank. Aulugelus, in 

 his Attic Nights, makes the claffics to be Cicero, 

 Caefar, Salluft, Virgil, Horace, &c. There is, 

 however, no determinate rule for this matter , but 

 much depends on the order eftablilhed in each 

 college for the different clafTes. From the ac- 

 count we have here given of this denomination, it 

 is evident, that there are alfo Greek authors who' 

 merit, and who in fact have the title of clafiic 

 given them, fuch as Thucidydes, Xenophon, De- 

 molthenes, Homer, Pindar, &c. For the fame 



reafon. 



