526 
taining a partial conviction of this ex- 
traordinary faét, may be fatisfied by pe- 
rufing my Introdu@tion to the Parme- 
nides of Plato. 
It may, indeed, be clearly fhown, 
that the moft ancient poets, priefis, and 
philofophers, have delivered one and the 
fame theology, though in different 
modes. The firft of thefe, through fa- 
bulous names, and a more vehement dic- 
tion ; the fecond, through names adapr- 
ed to facred concerns. and a mode of in- 
terpretation, grand and elevated; and 
the third, either through mathematical 
names, or dialectic epithets. Hence we 
thal find, that the ther, Chaos, Phaies, 
and upiter of Grpheus; the father, 
power, byparxis, and tetce beyond of the 
Chaldzans; the monad, duad, tetrad, an. 
decad, of Pythagoras; and the one beize, 
the whole, infinite multitude, and famenefs 
and difference, of Plato, re{pedtively, fig- 
nify the fame divine proceilions from 
the ineffable principle of things. 
I only add, that Fabricius feems to 
have entertained a very high opinion of 
thefe oracles, and to have wifhed to fee 
them in that form in which they are 
now prefented to the Englifh reader. 
For thus he {peaks (Biblioth. Grac, tom. 
1. p. 249): “ Digna autem funt pref- 
tantiffima hee prifce fapientie apofpaf- 
matia, que poft clariffimorum Virorum 
conatus, etlamnum eruditorum induftri- 
am et ingenia exerceant, adeo multa ad- 
Curicus MMS. Copy of Ariftophanes. 
. ESups- 
huc reftant in illismotanda, que ab in- 
terpretibus male accepta, et quia argu- 
mentum de quo agunt paucis perfpeétum ° 
eft, inepta plerifque vel fenfus expertia 
videntur.” 7. ¢. “* Thefe moft excellent 
fragments of ancient wifdom, deferve 
that the indufiry and wit of the learned ~ 
fhould be, even at prefent, exercifed upon 
them; to many things yet remain ‘in ~ 
them to be noted, which being iil-under- 
fiood by interpreters, and becaufe the 
fubjec&t on which they treat is obvions 
but to few, they appear for the moft 
part foolifh, or void of fenfe.” And in 
page z50, he exprefies his with, that 
{ome one would confult the writers from 
which Patricius made his colleétion (a 
great part of which, though unpublifh- 
ed, are to be met with in various. libra- 
ries) and not negligently confider the 
places of the authors, where they are te 
be found. 
But whatever merit there may be in 
the preceding coileétion, long experience 
has taught me to expeét from mere ver=- 
bal critics nothing but impertinent and 
malevolent cenfure, in return for labo- 
rious exertion, and valuable information. 
However, as thefe men may be aptly. 
compared to the mice that nibbled the 
veil of Minerva, I foothe my refent- 
ment with the confoling aflurance of the 
goddefs herfelf (in the Battle of the 
Frogs and Mice) that, 
“© To fuch as thefe, fhe meer imparts her aid.’? 
ES Erratum, which the Reader is requefted to corret with the pen—in page 513, in the Oracles of 
Zoroatter, the tao fir Lines of the firft Column, have, by accident, been tranfpofed. 

A CURIOUS AND INTERESTING ACCOUNT 
: ORE th. 
FRENCH MANUSCRIPT COPY OF ARISTOPHANES, 
WITH ; 
A COPIOUS ANALYSIS OF ITS LEARNED PREFACE, €¢. 
*P HERE has lately appeared ina French 
Journal an interefting notice of two 
manufcripts, one of which contains the 
text, and the othera French tranflation, 
unpublifbed, of the Comedies of Arifto- 
phanes. The firft account of them is fur- 
nifhed by Cuaxrpon LA ROCHETTE, 
_who ftates, that in September, 1792, 
the librarian MERCIER DE Sr. LEGER 
imparted them to him (he having jut 
received them from fome grocer at Paris) 
with full permifiion to extract from them, 
for his own reading, or for the public, 
whatever he fhould judge worthy of no- 
tice. As he found the Preface highly in- 
forming and interefting, he accordingly 
made a confiderable extract from it, 
which he lately tranfmitted to the JMéa- 
gaxin Excyciopédique, partly with a view 
to verify the exiltence of an unpublifhed 
tranflation of Ariftophanes, and partly 
to induce its poffeffor to fubmit the whole, 
of it to public intpeétion. 
The author of this interefting com- 
polition appears to have been D. Lo- 
bineau, who wrote a _ tranflation of 
Polyznus’s Stratagems, publifhed at Pa- 
ris, in 1738, In two volumes, 1z2mo. A 
Iicerary Review of that time (fournal- 
bifiorique, for Nov. 1738) thus notices. 
this lafi-mentioned work : ** The tran{f- 
lation “is excellent, and the care which 
the Benedictine father has taken to cor- 
rect, in his notes, the fault of the text, 
and to prefent the reader with his eriti- 
cal refearches into antiquities, Pahanees, 
. 3 the 
