Pinakidia [pp. 573-582]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
581
"Impune quae libet facere id est esse regem," is a
definition of a king to be found in Sallust.
The first collection of the Iliad was by Pisistratus, or
some of the Pisistratida. There were, after this, innumerable editions-but Aristarchus in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, B. C. 150, published from a collection
of all the copies then existing, a new edition,the text
of which has finally prevailed.
Some one after the manner of Santeuil, composed
the following quatrain for the gates of the market to be
erected on the site of the famous Jacobin Club at Paris,
Impia tortorum longas hic turba furores
Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit.
Sospite nunc patria, fracto nunc funeris antro,
Mors ubi dira fuit, vita salusque patent.
A version of the Psalms was published in 1642
William Slatyer, of which this is a specimen:
The righteous shall his sorrow scan
And laugh at himn, and say' Behold!
What hath become of this here man
That on his riches was so bold.'
by
At the bottom of an obelisk which Pius VI was
erecting at great expense near the entrance of the
QCuirinal Palace in 1783, while the people were suffering
for bread, were found written these words,
Signore, di a questa pietra clite divenga pane.
Lord, command that these stones be made bread.
Constantine Koliades wrote a book to prove that
Homer and Ulysses were one and the same-but Joshua
Barnes attributes the authorship of the Iliad to Solomnon.
In E. xviii. 192, of the Iliad, Achilles says none of
the armor of the chieftains will fit him except the shield
of Ajax: how then did his own armor fit Patroclus?
In the reign of Edward VI, Dr. Christopher Tye
turned the Acts of the Apostles into rhyme. They
begin thus,
In the former epistle to thee
Dear friend Theophilus
I have written the veritie
Of the Lord Christ Jesus.
Empedocles professed the system of four elements,
and added thereto two principles which he called'prin.
cipium amicitime and principium contentionis.' What
are these but attraction and repulsion?
The Count Bielfeld's definition of poetry is' L'art
d'exprimer les pensees par la fiction.' The German
terms Dichtkunst, the art of fiction, and Dichten to feign,
which are used for Poetry, and to make verses, are in full
accordance with his definition.
The Germans have epic poems composed in metre of
sixteen and seventeen syllables.
The following Vaudeville is one of the drollest of its
kind:
Quaid un bon vina meuble mon estomac
Je suis plus savant que Balzac
Plus sage que Pibrac.
Mon bras seul faisant l'attaque
De la nation Cossaque
La mettroit au sac.
De Charon Je passerois le lac
En dormant dans sonr bac.
J'irois au fier Eac
Sans que mon coeur fit tic ni tac
Pr6senter du tabac.
On ancient monuments are often found the letters
A. E. R. A. meaning Annus erat Regni Augusti. The
ignorance of copyists may probably have formed of
these letters the single word 2ERA. Would it not be
a better derivation than the Latin 2ES?
The work of John Albert Fabricius, the Hamburg
professor, entitled Bibliotheca Graeca, in which his sole
object is to render an account of the Greek authors extant, occupies fourteen thick volumes in quarto.
The usual derivation of the word Metaphysics is not
to be sustained. Jleta physicam is tortured into meaning
super physicam, and the science is supposed to take its
name from its superiority to physics. The truth is,
that Aristotle's treatise on Morals is next in succession
to his Book of Physics, and this order he considers the
rational order of study. His Ethics consequently commence with the words Mera ra OVGiKa, &c. from which
the word Metaphysics.
The commentators upon Mr. Beckford's Vathek say
that the locusts derive their name from having been so
called by the first English settlers in America. The
word comes evidently from loco tnsto, the havoc they
made wherever they passed leaving the appearance of
a place desolated by fire.
M. Patru was convinced that in all his prose writings
no sentence or part of a sentence could be found so
cadenced as to form a verse. A friend, however immediately pointed out to him the words in his'Plaidoyers'
Septiime plaidoyer pour un jeune Allemand.
Despreaux speaking of the ctesura in French versification, asserts,
Que toujours dans nos verble sens coupant les mots,
Suspende l'hemistiche —en marquiant le repos.
M. Despreaux seems to have forgotten that hemistich
is a composite Greek word signifying a demi-line, and
that consequently his own admired verses have no
meaning at all.
Every one is acquainted with the excellent commencement of the Annals of Tacitus. From this, principally
he has acquired his reputation for concision. It is singular that no notice has ever been taken of the extreme
prolixity of their conclusion.
There is a dissertation upon Hebrew, or Samaritan
medals by Pere Soucier, in which he proves the existence of Hebrew money struck by the Jews upon the
model of the coins current before the captivity. All the
Hebrew medals, however, bearing a head of Moses or
of Christ, are manifestly forgeries.
VOL. 11-74