The Life of Zoilus.
one was esteem'd as the very Residence of Wit, the other is describ'd as a Profligate, who wou'd destroy the Temple of Apollo and the Muses, in Order to have his Memory preserv'd by the envious Action. I imagine it may be no ungrateful Undertaking to write some Account of this celebrated Person, from whom so many derive their Character; and I think the Life of a Critick is not unseasonably put before the Works of his Poet, especially when his Censures accompany him. If what he advances be just, he stands here as a Censor; if otherwise, he appears as an Addition to the Poet's Fame, and is placed before him with the Justice of Antiquity in its Sacrifices, when, because such a Beast had offended such a Deity, he was brought annually to l is Altar to be slain upon it.
Zoilus was born at Amphipolis a City of Thrace, during the Time in which the Macedonian Empire flourish'd. Who his Parents were is not certainly known, but if the Appellation of Thracian Slave, which the World apply'd to him, be not meerly an Expression of Contempt, it proves him of mean Extraction. He was a Disciple of one Polycrates a Sophist, who had distinguish'd himself by writing against the great Names of the Ages before him; and who, when he is mention'd as his Master, is said to be particularly famous for a bitter Accusation or Invective against the Memory of Socrates. In this Manner is Zoilus set out to Posterity, like a Plant naturallybane-
