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Mamurra, a dogmatic philosopher, who never doubted about any thing, except who was his father.—“Nullâ de re unquam præterquam de patre dubitavit.” —In Vit. He was very learned—“Là-dedans, (that is, in his head when it was opened,) le Punique heurte le Persan, l'Hébreu choque l'Arabique, pour ne point parler de la mauvaise intelligence du Latin avec le Grec,” &c. —See L'Histoire de Montmaur, tom. ii. p. 91.

Bombastus was one of the names of that great scholar and quack Paracelsus.—“Philippus Bombastus latet sub splendido tegmine Aureoli Theophrasti Paracelsi,” says Stadelius de circumforaneâ Literatorum vanitate.—He used to fight the devil every night with a broadsword, to the no small terror of his pupil Oporinus, who has recorded the circumstance. (Vide Oporin. Vit. apud Christian. Gryph. Vit. Select. quorundam Eruditissimorum, &c.) Paracelsus had but a poor opinion of Galen:—“My very beard (says he in his Paragrænum) has more learning in it than either Galen or Avicenna.”

The angel, who scolded St. Jerom for reading Cicero, as Gratian tells the story in his “Concordantia discordantium Canonum,” and says, that for this reason bishops were not allowed to read the Classics: “Episcopus Gentilium libros non legat.” —Distinct. 37. But Gratian is notorious for lying —besides, angels, as the illustrious pupil of Pantenus assures us, have got no tongues. Ουχ' ως ημιν τα ωτα, ουτως εκεινοις η γλωττα: ουδ' αν οργανα τις δωη φωνης αγγελοις. —Clem. Alexand. Stromat.

The idea of the Rabbins, respecting the origin of woman, is not a little singular. They think that man was originally formed with a tail, like a monkey, but that the Deity cut off this appendage, and made woman of it. Upon this extra-ordinary supposition the following reflection is founded:—

Scaliger. de Emendat. Tempor.—Dagon was thought by others to be a certain sea-monster, who came every day out of the Red Sea to teach the Syrians husbandry.—See Jaques Gaffarel (Curiosités Inouies, chap. i.), who says he thinks this story of the sea-monster “carries little show of probability with it.”

I wish it were known with any degree of certainty whether the Commentary on Boethius attributed to Thomas Aquinas be really the work of this Angelic Doctor. There are some bold assertions hazarded in it: for instance, he says that Plato kept school in a town called Academia, and that Alcibiades was a very beautiful woman whom some of Aristotle's pupils fell in love with:—“Alcibiades mulier fuit pulcherrima, quam videntes quidam discipuli Aristotelis,” &c. —See Freytag Adparat. Litterar. art. 86. tom. i.

The following compliment was paid to Laurentius Valla, upon his accurate knowledge of the Latin language:—

See for these lines the “Auctorum Censio” of Du Verdier (page 29.).

It is much to be regretted that Martin Luther, with all his talents for reforming, should yet be vulgar enough to laugh at Camerarius for writing to him in Greek. “Master Joachim (says he) has sent me some dates and some raisins, and has also written me two letters in Greek. As soon as I am recovered, I shall answer them in Turkish, that he too may have the pleasure of reading what he does not understand.” “Græca sunt, legi non possunt,” is the ignorant speech attributed to Accursius; but very unjustly:—for, far from asserting that Greek could not be read, that worthy jurisconsult upon the Law 6. D. de Bonor. Possess. expressly says, “Græcæ literæ possunt intelligi et legi.” (Vide Nov. Libror. Rarior. Collection. Fascic. IV.)—Scipio Carteromachus seems to have been of opinion that there is no salvation out of the pale of Greek Literature: “Via prima salutis Graiâ pandetur ab urbe:” and the zeal of Laurentius Rhodomannus cannot be sufficiently admired, when he exhorts his countrymen, “per gloriam Christi, per salutem patriæ, per reipublicæ decus et emolumentum,” to study the Greek language. Nor must we forget Phavorinus, the excellent Bishop of Nocera, who careless of all the usual commendations of a Christian, required no further eulogium on his tomb than “Here lieth a Greek Lexicographer.”

Ο πανυ.—The introduction of this language into English poetry has a good effect, and ought to be more universally adopted. A word or two of Greek in a stanza would serve as ballast to the most “light o' love” verses. Ausonius, among the ancients, may serve as a model:—

Ronsard, the French poet, has enriched his sonnets and odes with many an exquisite morsel from the Lexicon. His “chère Entelechie,” in addressing his mistress, can only be equalled by Cowley's “Antiperistasis.”

Or Glass-Breaker—Morhofius has given an account of this extraordinary man, in a work, published 1682,—“De vitreo scypho fracto,” &c.

Translated almost literally from a passage in Albertus de Secretis, &c.

Alluding to that habitual act of the judgment, by which, notwithstanding the inversion of the image upon the retina, a correct impression of the object is conveyed to the sensorium.

Under this description, I believe “the Devil among the Scholars” may be included. Yet Leibnitz found out the uses of incomprehensibility, when he was appointed secretary to a society of philosophers at Nuremberg, chiefly for his ingenuity in writing a cabalistical letter, not one word of which either they or himself could interpret. See the Eloge Historique de M. de Leibnitz, l'Europe Savante.—People in all ages have loved to be puzzled. We find Cicero thanking Atticus for having sent him a work of Serapion “ex quo (says he) quidem ego (quod inter nos liceat dicere) millesimam partem vix intelligo.” Lib. ii. epist. 4. And we know that Avicen, the learned Arabian, read Aristotle's Metaphysics forty times over for the mere pleasure of being able to inform the world that he could not comprehend one syllable throughout them. (Nicolas Massa in Vit. Avicen.)