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cilian plain of Enna. This splendid marriage conferred on her the title of Juno inferna, or Stygia. There is considerable confusion between her attributes, and those of Hecate and Luna. The latter is the same with Diana. All these goddesses preside over sorceries and incantations.

Neptune made up the triumvirate brotherhood, all sons of Saturn. In the division of the father's kingdom, Pluto had the western portion. As the most extravagant fables have some foundation in history or tradition, the apparent descent of the sun and the succession of darkness gave rise to the poetical imagination of gloomy regions, over which this emperor of the west was supposed to bear sway. His Latin name is Dis, which is merely a contraction of dives, analogous to the Greek, Пoũτος and Πλούτων : so that the noble pupil was right in treating Pluto as synonymous with Plutus; and Dr. Pangloss was impertinently pedantic in his correction. Sacrifices and lustrations were performed to him in the month of February, for a reason given by Servius:"Februus autem est Ditis pater, cui eo mense sacrificatur." Cicero makes good use of his character, in its unfavourable point of view, against Verres" Hic dolor erat tantus, ut Verres, alter. Orcus, venisse Ennam, et non Proserpinam asportasse, sed ipsam abripuisse Cererem videretur."Act. ii. lib. 4.

His title of Summanus is supposed to be a contraction of Summus manium.

Reddita, quisquis is est, Summano templa feruntur,
Tum, cum Romanis, Pyrrhe, timendus eras.
Ovid. Fastorum, 6.

ON A SENTIMENT IN CATULLUS.

THOUGH I may have been disposed to apologise for Ausonius, in consideration of the extreme naïveté with which he represents the imperial attempt to be poet as well as patron, and the timid nicety with which he adjusts the balance between the tact of the courtier and the fame of the poet, I again protest against any general indulgence on this head. With respect to expurgatæ editiones, they are objectionable in point of policy, as only tending to inflame curiosity, and render that a matter of research, which might otherwise be glanced over hastily. I am led to revert to the subject, by a most profligate as well as illogical passage in Catullus, a poet too popular not to be dangerous:

Castum esse decet pium poetam

Ipsum; versiculos nihil necesse est:

Qui tum denique habent salem ac leporem,
Si sunt molliculi, ac parum pudici.

This is carrying the doctrine to its utmost extent: that freedom is not only venial, but meritorious and of the first necessity. On what ground the poet's conduct ought to be so decorous, when his very profession compels him to teach licentiousness ex cathedra, it may not be easy to explain.

This abominable sentiment has been often echoed, as for instance, by Martial. We all know the first to be true, but who will believe the last ?

Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.

Again more at full, in his epigram ad Cornelium :

Quid si me jubeas Thalassionem
Verbis dicere non Thalassionis ?
Quis Floralia vestit, et stolatum
Permittit meretricibus pudorem?
Lex hæc carminibus data est jocosis,
Ne possint, nisi pruriant, juvare.
Quare, deposita severitate,
Parcas lusibus et jocis, rogamus;

Nec castrare velis meos libellos.

Lib. i. epig. 36.

Ovid was sure to adopt the tenets of such a school:

Crede mihi distant mores a carmine nostri,
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa mihi.

Tully was of a directly opposite opinion: and though the following precept be more immediately directed against a fault of a different nature, it is equally applicable to the subject in question, both in his opinion and in the nature of things; and it is a subject of congratulation, that the public mind of the present day goes with the more correct doctrine, as evinced by the almost entire banishment of indelicate dramas from the modern stage :-"In primisque provideat, ne sermo vitium aliquod indicet inesse in moribus: quod maxime tum solet evenire, cum studiose de absentibus, detrahendi causa, aut per ridiculum, aut severe, maledice contumelioseque dicitur."-De Officiis, lib. i. So far

is this author from believing that he shall have credit for his deeds whose words are offensive to good morals, that he in effect chimes in with the doctrine of a more holy school: Out of his own mouth shall a man be judged.

EQUIVOQUES AND AMPHIBOLOGIES.

Nullum esse verbum quod non sit ambiguum.—Cic. de Oratore, lib. ii.

THERE is a striking passage on this subject in the

oratio

pro Cocina “An non, cum voluntas, et consilium, et sententia interdicti intelligatur, impudentiam summam, aut stultitiam singularem putabimus, in verborum errore versari: rem, et causam, et utilitatem communem non relinquere solum, sed etiam prodere? An hoc dubium est, quin neque verborum tanta copia sit, non modo in nostra lingua, quæ dicitur esse inops: sed ne in alia quidem ulla, res ut omnes suis certis ac propriis vocabulis nominentur? neque vero quidquam opus sit verbis, cum ea res, cujus causa verba quæsita sint, intelligatur? Quæ lex, quod senatusconsultum, quod magistratus edictum, quod fœdus, aut pactio, quod (ut ad privatas res redeam) testamentum: quæ judicia, aut stipulationes, aut pacti et conventi formula non infirmari aut convelli potest, si ad verba rem deflectere velimus: consilium autem eorum, qui scripserunt, et rationem, et auctoritatem relinquamus? Sermo mehercule et familiaris et quotidianus non cohærebit, si verba inter nos aucupabimur."

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