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Scaliger, no doubt, did not talk thus without a little personal feeling in the matter. Montaigne had in his writings assigned to Justus Lipsius the first place in the Empire of Letters; though in this, as in other things, he showed the badness of his taste. When he advances any bold or disputable proposition, he says, "I do not give it as a good one, but as mine;" a matter with which the reader has very little to do; for his object is to know, not what Michael de Montaigne thought, but what he should have thought, in order to think well. He declares, throughout his work, that he is anxious to paint himself as he is, to the public. Before adopting such a design, must he not have had a tolerable persuasion that the original of the portrait was one which deserved to be painted, looked at, studied, imitated by all the world? And could an idea like this spring from any other source than a plentiful supply of self-love?

His style is of a truly singular turn and original character. His lively imagination furnishes him with a profusion of images on every subject, which he groups into that abundance of agreeable metaphors, in which he is unequalled by any other writer. It is his favourite figure; a figure which, according to Aristotle, is the characteristic of a great mind.

LXXXII. VAMPYRes.

There is something evidently singular in the accounts we possess of the Brucolacs* of the

Phlegon de Mirabil. c. 1. Turquie Chretien; de la Croix, liv. 1, c. 25, pp. 116, et seq.; ex Leone Allatro, p. 118.; et Cassiano, p. 119; Etat de l'Eglise Grecque, ch. 25, pp. 78, ct seq; Voyage au Levant, T. 2, ch. 21, p. 328.

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Archipelago. We are told that those, who after a wicked life have died impenitent, appear in different places with the same forms which they bore when alive; that they attack the living, striking some and killing others; sometimes rendering useful services, but constantly causing terror and consternation. The Greeks believe that these bodies are delivered over to the power of the devil, who preserves and animates them, and employs them to torment mankind. Father Richard,* Jesuit Missionary to these islands, about fifty years ago, published an account of the Island of Santerini, or St Irene, the Thera of the ancients, of which the famous Cyrene was a colony. He has a long chapter on the History of the Brucolacs. He tells us, that when the people are infested with these apparitions, they have the bodies disinterred, which are found entire and uncorrupted; that they burn or cut them in pieces, particularly the heart, after which the apparitions cease and the body decays. The word Brucolac comes from the modern Greek gouxos, which signifies mud, and λaxxos, a ditch, because the tombs in which these bodies are placed are generally found full of mud. I do not at present inquire whether the facts there stated are true, or merely a popular error; but it is certain that they are related by so many authors of talent and credit, and by so many ocular witnesses, that we ought at least to decide with caution. It is certain also, that this idea, true or false, is extremely ancient, and that the classical authors are full of it. When the ancients had murdered a person fraudulently, or by

• Relation de Santerini du P. Richard, ch. 18, p. 282.

surprise, they thought that they deprived him of the power of taking vengeance upon them, by cutting off his feet, hands, nose, and ears. (This was called ακρωτηριάζειν.) All these they hung round the neck of the victim, or placed them under his · arm-pits, from which the word μarxaλíle, signifying the same thing, is derived. A strong proof of this is to be found in the Greek Scholia of Sophocles. It was thus that Menelaus treated Deiphobus, the husband of Helen, and it was in this state he was seen by Æneas in the Infernal Regions. (Virg. Æn. VI. 494, et. seq.)

The ancients have treated as a fable the history of Hermotimus of Clazomene, whose soul frequently forsook his body to wander through distant regions, and to acquire information regarding futurity, which, upon its return, he imparted to his contemporaries; but at last his enemies having obtained permission from his wife to burn his body during one of these mental excursions, his soul finding itself on its return deprived of its usual retreat, retired for ever.

Suetonius tells us, that after the violent death of Caligula, his body had been but partially burned and superficially interred; the house in which he was slain, and the gardens where he was burned, were every night haunted by spectres, until the house itself was at last burned, and the last rites properly performed to his remains by the sisters of the deceased. Servius states expressly, that the souls of the dead can find no rest till the body is entirely consumed. The modern Greeks are persuaded that the bodies of excommunicated persons never decay, but swell out like a drum, and sound like one when struck or rolled on the

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ground. These bodies they call Toupi, which in vulgar Greek means CC a Drum."

LXXXIII. LETTER READING.

I never read my letters in the evening before going to bed, or in the afternoon before dinner. Letters generally contain more bad news than good; and in reading them, we call up subjects of inquietude, which disturb our repasts and our repose.

LXXXIV. DELPHIN CLASSICS.

The Commentaries on the ancient Latin authors, which were undertaken, by order of the King, for the use of the Dauphin and public utility, were the invention of the Duke of Montausier alone. He had always loved and cultivated literature; and employed as much leisure in the perusal of the Classics as his military and political career permitted; but he had frequently found himself embarrassed by obscurities, for want of Commentaries, for which he was unable to find room in his limited military equipage. These obscurities were of two kinds,—either they consisted in the text and expression of the author, or they regarded points of mythology or history, the understanding of which depended on a perfect acquaintance with antiquity. He attempted a remedy for both obstacles: he thought that an interpretation in the form of a paraphrase would clear up the obscurities of the text, and that notes, in the form of Commentaries, would explain such matters as were connected with ancient erudition. It were to be wished that, in following out this plan, it had been possible to have met with as many persons profoundly conversant with literature, as it was to meet with authors worthy of the task of interpretation and criticism.

But as it would have been unjust to have withdrawn from their studies and employments men of genius and learning, without some remuneration, the King took this point into consideration, and, upon the representation of the Duke de Montausier, agreed to defray the expense (which, upon a fair calculation, was estimated at about 3 or 400,000 francs) of bringing the plan to perfection. It is highly to the honour of M. Colbert's taste, that he distinguished himself on this occasion, by throwing open the treasury to defray these expenses, with liberality and with a good grace. I was employed in the superintendence of the plan, and I fixed at forty the number of the classical authors who were to compose the collection; but in the search which I had next to make, to find as many able critics to put them into the desired shape, I found much greater difficulty. We were obliged to take such as could be met with, who, of course, differed very much from each other in point of ability. This opportunity, however, suggested to me the idea of giving to each of these authors an index of all the words which the work contained-knowing, as I did, the great advantages derived to literature from the few indexes of the same kind we already possessed. I even carried my views farther, and proposed to melt all these into one, when finished, so as to compose a general index, which should contain, and circumscribe, as it were, the limits of the Latin language. By this method, one would be enabled to find at a glance, and with certainty, the birth, age, usage, signification, fortune, duration, decay, and extinction of each word. Never would the language and antiquities of Rome have received a more effectual

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