Chap. XIII.] Classic Literature. 035 



Almost all the chissics luul \)l\'\\ rcpcati-dly 

 edited prior to the commencement ul' the ci<;h- 

 teenth century. Beside many single works of 

 liigh reputation which pertain to this class, tlicit: 

 are two of a more extensive and celehnited kind 

 belonging to tlie seventeenth eentnry, which arc 

 worthy of notice. These are the Variorum edi- 

 tions, as they are generally called, published in 

 Holland, about the middle of that century, by 

 Gnevius, Gronovius, Schrevelius, and others; and 

 the still more famous editions, In usuni Sereuis- 

 simi Delpliun, published toward the close (jf the 

 same century, under the patronage of Lewis \1\^, 

 and chiefly completed by the labours of iiuet, 

 Bossuet, Montausier, and Rua^us. But these, not- 

 withstanding all their excellence, have n(^t dis- 

 couraged subsequent attempts. The editions which 

 have been given to the public, during the period 

 of this retrospect, are chicHy distinguished by 

 their great typographical elegance ; then- additions 

 to the various readings before collected ; the su- 

 perior taste and delicacy of their conjectural criti- 

 cism ; and their more enlightened and liheral 

 commentaries on the defects, beauties, and mean- 

 ing, of the ancient writers. 



Of the Greek classics, the works oi^ Homer were 



museum, which were dug from Herculaneum, that thoir contents 

 night be ascertained. The authority was granted. Mr. Haiicr 

 entered on the task with great zeal and intclJigeuce j and soon 

 discovered a work of Epicurus, entitled Of the ^'atvrc of Tlun^s, 

 which was known only from the mention made of it by honie 

 writers of antiquity, and which appears to have served as the basij 

 for the poem of Lucretius, on the same subject. At the date of 

 the account a copy of this manuscript was preparing tor the 

 press. 



