Classic Literature. 49 



by Sallust, which had been supposed to be en- 

 tirely lost, undertook the arduous task of restoring 

 it. After taking immense pains to collect all the 

 quotations which had been made from this precious 

 relic, by the ancient grammarians and others, he 

 found himself in possession of more than seven hun- 

 dred fragments, which he laid together with so 

 much skill and patience, as to produce a connected 

 work, by no means unworthy of the celebrated Ro- 

 man whose name it bears. This work was trans- 

 lated into French, and published in 1777, at Dijon, 

 in three volumes quarto, under the following title: 

 Hisloire cle la Republique Romaine dans les conrs 

 du v'u. Siecle, par Salluste, &c. It will be rea- 

 dily supposed, that a production of one of the 

 greatest historians of antiquity* recovered in a 

 manner so extraordinary, excited much of the at- 

 tention of learned men, not only in France, but 

 also throughout the literary world. 



Among the numerous monuments of ancient ge- 

 nius, both in literature and the arts, which were 

 dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum, in the course 

 of the last age, there were many hundred manu- 

 scripts, which excited high expectations among 

 the learned. Of these nearly eighteen hundred 

 manuscripts, chiefly Greek, have been long de- 

 posited in the Museum at Portici, belonging to 

 the King of Naples. But so much trouble and ex- 

 pense have attended all the attempts hitherto made 

 to unrol and decypher them, that the anticipations 

 of the curious have been hitherto but little gratified . 

 It is hoped, however, that better success may at- 

 tend future exertions in this ample field of literary- 

 labour. 7 



g In 1802 it was announced to the public, by a letter from Italy, that 

 a manuscript of some importance had been, a short time before, found in 

 the Museum at Portici. It seems the Prince of Wales lately requested 

 of the Court of Naples to authorise Mr. Haiter, one of his librarians, to 

 examine the manuscripts in that museum, which were dug from Hercuia- 

 VOL. II. H 



