waits upon it in another life, as well as in the present. The immortality of the soul and a state of future rewards and of future punishments are asserted.

NOTES.

three daughters, the Fates, are all described, with the allotment and choice of lives (either in human bodies, or in those of brute animals) permitted to those spirits, who are again to appear on earth; as of Orpheus who chooses that of a swan, Ajax of a lion, Thersites of a monkey, Ulysses that of an obscure private man, &c. their passage over the river Lethe is also mentioned. The whole fable is finely written.

Milton alludes to the spindle of Necessity in his entertainment called the Arcades. Virgil has also imitated many parts of the fable in his sixth Æneid, and Tully in the Somnium Scipionis. See Macrob. L. 1. c. 1.

P. 614. Tov Apμeviov.] It appears from Plutarch that the right reading is 'Apμovcov, the son of Harmonius. Plut. Sympos. L. 9. Probl. 7.

616. Ηλακατην τε και το αγκιστρον. ] Vid. P. Bellonium Lat. Reddit. a C. Clusio, L. 1. c. 46. where he describes the Greek manner of spinning, which seems to be the same exactly that it was of old. "Attractilis herba (quæ ex usu nomen habet) fusi vicem illis præbet; ejus enim caulis rectus est et lævis, tanquam arte expolitus esset. In ejus penuriâ bacillo minimi digiti crassitiem non æquante, æqualis ubique crassitudinis, utuntur, cui ferrum hamuli piscatorii modo efformatum infigunt, ut filum comprehendat, e quo fusus dependeat. Verticillum (opovduλos) solummodo excogitatum est, ad fila commodius ducenda, atque ut fuso pondus addat; dimidiato pyro in binas partes per medium secto simile est, per medium perforatum est: hoc superiori fusi parti infigunt, inferiore fusi parte deorsum propendente."

621. Περιαγειρομενοι. ] Read, Περιαγόμενοι.

THE END OF THE TENTH AND LAST BOOK.

DE LEGIBUS.

ΠΕΡΙ ΝΟΜΩΝ.

Plat. Op. Serrani, Vol. 2. p. 624.

THE persons of the dialogue are Clinias, a Cretan of Gnossus, and two strangers, who are his guests, the one a Lacedæmonian, called Megillus, the other an Athenian, who is not named, but who appears by the character and sentiments, to be Plato himself. (See Diog. Laert. L. 3. sect. 52.)

They are, all three, men far advanced in years, and as they walk1 or repose themselves in the fields under the shade of ancient cypress trees, which grew to a

1 As Cicero had taken Plato for his model in his books de Republicâ, so he had also in those De Legibus. "Visne igitur, ut ille Crete cum Cliniâ et cum Lacedæmonio Megillo æstivo, quemadmodum describit, die in cupressetis Cnossiorum et spatiis sylvestribus crebrò insistens, interdum acquiescens, de institutis rerum publicarum et de optumis Legibus disputat: sic nos inter has procerissimas populos in viridi opacâque ripâ inambulantes, tum autem residentes, quæramus iisdem de rebus aliquid uberius quam forensis usus desiderat." L. 1. c. 5. (N. B. The Gnossians put the cypress tree, which was a principal ornament of their country, on the reverse of their silver coins. See Fulv. Ursinus.) Tully also confines his discourse to the length of a summer's day, in imitation of Plato. See De Legib. L. 2. c. 27. V. Platon. de Legib. L. 3. p. 653. and L. 4. p. 722.

great bulk and beauty in the way, that led from the city of Gnossus to the temple and grotto of Jupiter, (where Minos was believed to have received his laws from the god himself) they enter into conversation on the policy and constitution of the Cretans.

There is no prooemium nor introduction to the dialogue, as there is to most of Plato's writings. I speak of that kind of proœmium usual with Plato, which informs us often of the occasion and of the time of the dialogue, and of the characters of the persons introduced in it. In reality the entire four first books of "the Laws" are but introductory to the main subject, as he tells us himself in the end of the fourth book. p. 722.

DE LEGIBUS.

BOOK I.

HEADS OF THE FIRST DIALOGUE.

P. 625. The institutions of Minos were principally directed to form the citizens to war. The great advantages of a people superiour in military skill over the rest of mankind are stated.1 Every people is naturally in a state of war with its neighbours 2; even

1 Xenophon makes the following observation: Exev@epias οργανα και ευδαιμονιας την πολεμικην επιστημην και μελετην οι θεοι τοις ανθρωποις απεδειξαν τοις αει εγγυτατω των όπλων ουσι, τούτοις και οικειοτατα εστιν & αν βουλωνται. Cyropæd. L. 7. p. 549. See also Ephorus ap. Strab. L. 10. p. 480.

2 Πασαις προς πάσας τας πολεις πολεμος ακηρυκτος κατα φυσιν These are the original expressions in this place.

εστι.

NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT.

P. 625. Ta voσiria.] These assemblies were styled by the Cretans Avopeia (or rather Avôpia, see Aristot. in Polit. L. 2. c. 10.) as they were also by the Lacedæmonians, who changed the name to Pidiria. (Strabo L. 10. p. 488). The manner of conducting them may be seen at large from Dosiadas's history of that country in Athenæus, L. 4. p. 143.

Ib. ATоva.] See Plutarch. in Lycurgo.

Ib. A' Evvatov ETOûS.] See the Minos of Plato, and Strabo. L. 10. p. 476. et L. 16. p. 762.

particular cities, nay private families are in a like situation within themselves, where the better and more rational part are always contending for that superiority, which is their due, over the lower and the less reasonable. An internal war is maintained in the breast of each particular man who labours to subdue himself by establishing the empire of reason over his passions and his desires.

P. 628. A legislator, who makes it the great end of his constitution to form the nation to war, is shewn to be inferiour to him who reconciles the members of it among themselves, and prevents intestine tumults and divisions.

P. 631. The view of the true lawgiver is to train

NOTES.

P. 625. 'H TWV OeTTaλwv.] Vid. Menonem, p. 70. et Herodotum. L. 7. p. 268.

66

Ib. Ηδε γαρ ανωμαλος.] "Quoniam adeo frequentes in Cretâ sunt montes, rara sunt istic campestria.” P. Bellonius, L. 1. c. 5. 'Quoique la Candie soit un riche païs-les deux tiers de ce royaume ne sont que des montagnes seches, pelées, desagréables, escarpées, taillées a plomb, et plus propres pour des chévres que pour des hommes." Tournefort, Lett. 2. p. 109. vol. 1.

Ib. Twv de Tośwv.] Vid. Ephorum ap. Strabonem fusè. L. 10. p. 480. "Cretenses etiam hodie (circ. A.D. 1550.) veterem consuetudinem sequentes naturæ impulsu, Scythico arcu se exercere solent. Quin et ipsi pueri in incunabulis si irascantur et ejulent, ostenso illis arcu aut sagittâ in manus datâ, placantur; propterea ipsos etiam Turcas arcus jaculatione superant." Bellonius, L. 1. c. 5. Which is confirmed by Tournefort, who was there one hundred and fifty years after Belon. See Lett. 2. p. 100. V. 1.

626. Ω θελε. ] Vid. Menonem, p. 99. et Aristot. Eth. Nichom. L. 7. c. 1.

VOL. IV.

T