A V I C E N N A. 411 C{ gone through him in any regular courfe of reading,), I " could meet with little or nothing there, hut what is taken " originally from Galen, or what at lealt occurs with a very
- fmall variation in R hazes or Halv Abbas. He in general
" Teems to be fond of multiplying the figns of the diftempers " without any reafon ; a fault too much imitated by our
- ' modern writers of fyftems. He often, indeed, fets down
" feme f~>r ellential fymptoms, which arife merely by acci-
- ' dent, and have no immediate connection with the primary
- ' difeafe itfelf. And to confefs the truth, if one would
" chufe an Arabic fyftem of phyfic, that of Haly feems to
- ' be lefs con fu led and more intelligible, as well as more con-
- fiitenr, than that of Aviccnna."
AURELI-NUS. See COELIUS. AUSONIUS (DECIMUS MAGNUS), one of the beft poets Aufon. In of the fourth century, was the ton of an eminent phyfician, ref - a . d and born at Bourdeaux. Great care was taken of his educa- ' tion, the whole family interefting themfelves in it, either See his becaufe his genius was very promifing, or that the fcheme of t>arenta ' la * his nativity, which had been caft by his grandfather on the mother's fiJe, ltd them to imagine that he would rife to great honour. He made an uncommon progrefs in claflical learn- Aufon. In ing, and at the a^e of thirty was chofen to teach grammar at pref : ad s >'" T> rr ir c nagnum. Isourdeaux. Ke was promoted lome time after to be pro- fellbr of rhetoric, in which office he acquired fo great a repu-ibid. num, tation, that he was ft-nt for to court to be preceptor to Gra-*4- P- l8 7 tian the emperor Valentinian's fon. The rewards and ho- nours conferred on him for the faithful difcharge of his office prove the truth of Juvenal's maxim, that when fortune plcafes ihe can raife a man from a rhetorician to a conful. He wassat.vii.io7/ actually appointed conful by the emperor Gratian, in the year 379, after having filled other confiderable pofts ; for, befides the dignity of queftor, to which he had been nomi- nated by Vakminian, he was made prefecl: of the Prcetorium in Italy and Gaul after that prince's death. His fpeech re- turning thanks to Gratian on his promotion to the conful- fhip is highly commended. The time of his death is uncer- tain ; he was living in 392, and lived to a great as;e. He had ieveral children by his lady, who died young. The emperor Theodofius had a great etieem for Aufonius, and prelTrd him t'o puMifli his poems. There is a great inequality in his pr duclions ; and in his ftyle there is a harfhnds, which was per- Jiaps rather the deie.61 of the times he lived ui, than of his genius.
