attire, or appear in one of the less suited vestments of later times, that these references present a novel aspect in the department of classical literature; for it is not often we find an ancient heathen author elucidated by passages taken from Holy Writ. For my own part I cannot just now bring to my recollection the having ever seen a single comparison between an ancient author and the Sacred Writings, drawn by any translator or commentator of our times; while we find abundant parallels instituted by those Oracles, both ancient. and modern, between the ancients, drawn from the writings of the ancients themselves. Yet I cannot see why the trans- lator of an old book, or the commentator upon an ancient author, should not apply the doctrines and precepts of the ancient heathens to the touch-stone of the Divine Word; and thus measure the merit or demerit, the price or worthlessness, in a moral point of view, of those ancient volumes. Surely, the nearer approach any one of those authors makes to the purity of moral, social and natural doctrine which is set forth in God's own Living Volume, the closer must be the approxi- mation he must necessarily make to excellence and perfection, and the more fit must he be to be placed in the hands of enquiring youth, to be by them read and studied. I have. appended these references from two motives; the first was the personal satisfaction which I felt in showing forth the moral beauty of my author; and the second, the sincere desire which I entertain to see classical students employ this test in rating the relative merits of the authors they read in the course of their studies; thus rendering their study of the ancients and their language auxiliary to a knowledge of, and an intimate
