He is equally perspicuous and instructive: his style is clear and nervous, his descriptions, reflections, speeches, and characters, all shew the hand of a master. But his partiality may be blamed with equal justice, and even some of his most virtuous sentiments and bitter invectives against corruption in public men may be traced rather to party spirit, than to a genuine abhorrence of corruption, which, indeed, in one who had practised it so extensively, could not be expected, unless the result of a penitence we no where read of. His attachment to Cæsar, and his disrespect for Cicero, are two glaring defects in his merit as a faithful historian,

Of Sallust there are many excellent editions. His works were first printed at Venice, in 1470, and reprinted thirty times before the conclusion of that century, but these editions are of great rarity. The best of the more modern are the Aldus of 1521, 8vo, the Variorum of 1690, 8vo, Wasse's excellent edition, printed at Cambridge in 1710, 4to; Cortius's edition, 1724, 4to; Havercamp's, 1742, 2 vols. 4to; the prize edition of Edinburgh, 1755, 12mo; the Bipont, 1779, 8vo; that very accurate one by Mr. Homer, Lond. 1789, 8vo; and one by Harles, 1799, 8vo. The late Dr. Rose of Chiswick, published a very correct translation of Sallust in 1751, 8vo, with Cicero's Four Orations against Catiline; and more recently Sallust has found a translator, and an acute and learned commentator and advocate, in Henry Steuart, LL. D. F. R. S. and S. A. E. who published in 1806, in 2 vols. 4to, "The Works of Sallust. To which are prefixed, two Essays on the Life, literary character, and writings of the historian; with notes historical, biographical, and critical." 1

SALMASIUS, or SAUMAISE (CLAUDE), one of the most learned men of the seventeenth century, and whom Baillet has with great propriety classed among his "Enfans celebres par les etudes," was born at Semur-en-Auxois, in Burgundy. His family was ancient and noble, and his father, an eminent lawyer, and a member of the parliament of Burgundy, was a man of worth and learning. Respecting the time of his birth, all his biographers differ. Peter Burman, who has compared their differences, justly thinks it very strange that so many persons who were his contemporaries and knew him intimately, should not have ascer

1 Life by Dr. Steuart,—and by Dr. Rose,-Dibdin's Classics.

or 1594.

The

'tained the exact dates either of his birth or death. former, however, we presume may be fixed either in 1593 He was educated at first solely by his father, who taught him Latin and Greek with astonishing success. At the age of ten he was able to translate Pindar very correctly, and wrote Greek and Latin verses. At the age of eleven, his father wished to send him for farther education to the Jesuits' college at Dijon, not to board there, but to attend lessons twice a day, and improve them at his lodgings. In this scheme, however, he was disappointed. His mother, who was a protestant, had not only inspired Claude with a hatred of the Jesuits, but encouraged him to write satires against the order, which he did both in Greek and Latin, and entertained indeed throughout life the same aversion to them. Having refused therefore to comply with his father's request in this respect, his mother proposed to send him to Paris, where her secret wish was that he should be confirmed in her religion. This being complied with, he soon formed an acquaintance with Casaubon and some other learned men in that metropolis, who were astonished to find such talents and erudition in a mere boy. During his residence here he conversed much with the clergy of the reformed church, and being at length determined to make an open avowal of his attachment to protestantism, he asked leave of his father to go to Heidelberg, partly that he might apply to the study of the law, but principally that he might be more at his freedom in religious matters. Baillet calls this a trick of his new preceptors, who wished to persuade Salmasius's father that Paris, with respect to the study of the law, was not equal to Heidelberg, where was the celebrated Denis Godefroi, and an excellent library.

Salmasius's father hesitated long about this proposition. As yet he did not know that his son was so far gone in a change of religion, but still did not choose that he should be sent to a place which swarmed with protestants. He therefore wished his son would prefer Toulouse, where were at that time some eminent law professors; but Claude refused, and some unpleasant correspondence took place between the father and the son, as appears by the words in which the former at last granted his permission"Go then, I wish to show how much more I am of an indulgent father than you are of an obedient son." The son indeed in this manifested a little of that conceit and arro

gance which appeared in many instances in his future life, and unmoved by the kindness he had just received, refused to travel by the way of Dijon, as his father desired, but joined some merchants who were going to Francfort fair, and arrived at Heidelberg in Oct. 1606, or rather 1607, when he was only in his fourteenth year. Whatever may be thought of his temper, we need no other proof that he was one of the most extraordinary youths of this age that the world ever knew, than the letters addressed to him at this time by Jungerman and others on topics of philology. They afford an idea of his erudition, says Burman, which could only be heightened by the production of his answers.

To Heidelberg he brought letters of recommendation from Casaubon, which introduced him to Godefroi, Gruter, and Lingelsheim, and his uncommon merit soon improved this into an intimacy. Under Godefroi he applied to the study of civil law with that intenseness with which he applied to every thing, but as he now had an opportunity of indulging his taste for the belles lettres, and was admitted to make researches among the treasures of the Palatine library, he spent much of his time here, abridging himself even of sleep. By such extraordinary diligence, he accumulated a vast fund of general knowledge, but in some measure injured his health, and brought on an illness which lasted above a year, and from which he recovered with difficulty.

With an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Salmasius had an early and strong passion for fame. He commenced author when between sixteen and seventeen years of age, by publishing an edition of "Nili, archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis, de primatu papæ Romani, libri duo, item Barlaam monachus, cum interpretatione Latina: Cl. Salmasii opera et studio, cum ejusdem in utrumque notis," Hanover, 1608, and Heidelberg, 1608 and 1612, 8vo. By this publication against the authority of the pope, he seemed determined to make a more public avowal of his sentiments than he had yet done, and to shew his zeal for the protestants, by consecrating his first labours as an author to their service. In 1609 appeared his edition of "Florus," printed at Paris, 8vo, and dedicated to Gruter, whose notes are given along with those of Salmasius. This was reprinted in 1636, and in 1638, to which last he added "Lucii Ampelii libellus memorialis ad Macrinum," which had never before appeared.

In 1610, he returned home and was admitted an advocate, but had no intention to follow that profession, and preferred literature and criticism as the sole employment of his life, and derived the highest reputation that erudition can confer. Such was his reputation, that he began to be courted by foreign princes and universities. The Venetians thought his residence among them would be such an honour, that they offered him a prodigious stipend; and with this condition, that he should not be obliged to read lectures above three times a year. We are told, that our university of Oxford made some attempts to get him over into England; and it is certain, that the pope made similar overtures, though Salmasius had not only deserted his religion, and renounced his authority, but had actually written against the papacy itself. He withstood, however, allthese solicitations; but at last, in 1632, complied with an invitation from Holland, and went with his wife, whom he had married in 1621, to Leyden. He did not go there to be professor, or honorary professor; but, as Vorstius in his "Funeral Oration" expresses it, "to honour the university by his name, his writings, and his presence."

Upon the death of his father, in 1640, he returned for a time into France; and, on going to Paris, was much caressed by cardinal Richelieu, who used all possible means to detain him, and even offered him his own terms; but could not prevail. The obligation he had to the States of Holland, the love of freedom and independence, and the necessity of a privileged place, in order to publish such things as he was then meditating, were the reasons which enabled him to withstand the cardinal. Salmasius also refused the large pension, which the cardinal offered him, to write his history, because in such a work he thought he must either give offence, or advance many things contrary to his own principles, and to truth. While he was in Burgundy to settle family affairs, the cardinal died, and was succeeded by Mazarin, who, upon our author's return to Paris, honoured him with the same solicitations as his predecessor had done. Salmasius, however, declined his offers, and after about three years absence, returned to Holland: whence, though attempts were afterwards made to draw him back to France, it does not appear that he ever entertained the least thought of removing. In the summer of 1650, he went to Sweden, to pay queen. Christina a visit, with whom he continued till the summer following.

The reception and treatment he met with, as it is described by the writer of his life, is very characteristic of that extraordinary patroness of learned men. "She performed for him all offices," says he, "which could have been expected even from an equal. She ordered him to choose apartments in her palace, for the sake of having him with her, ut lateri adhæreret,' whenever she would. But Salmasius was almost always ill while he stayed in Sweden, the climate being more than his constitution could bear: at which seasons the queen would come to the side of his bed, hold long discourses with him upon subjects of the highest concern, and, without any soul present, but with the doors all shut, would mend his fire, and do other necessary offices for him." She soon, however, changed her mind with regard to Salmasius, and praised his antagonist Milton, with whom his celebrated controversy had now begun. After the murder of Charles I., Charles II., now in Holland, employed Salmasius to write a defence of his father and of monarchy. Salmasius, says Johnson, was at this time a man of skill in languages, knowledge of antiquity, and sagacity of emendatory criticism, almost exceeding all hope of human attainment; and having, by excessive praises, been confirmed in great confidence of himself, though he probably had not much considered the principles of society or the rights of government, undertook the employment without distrust of his own qualifications, and, as his expedition in writing was wonderful, produced in 1649 his "Defensio Regia pro Carolo I. ad Serenissimum Magnæ Britanniæ Regem Carolum II. filium natu majorem, hæredem et successorem legitimum. Sumptibus Regiis, anno 1649." Milton, as we have noticed in his life, was employed, by the Powers then prevailing, to answer this book of Salmasius, and to obviate the prejudices which the reputation of his great abilities and learning might raise against their cause; and he accordingly published in 1651, a Latin work, entitled "Defensio pro Populo Anglicano contra Claudii Salmasii Defensionem Regiam." Of these two works Hobbes declared himself unable to decide whose language was best, or whose arguments were worst, he might have added, or who was most to blame for scurrility and personal abuse. Dr. Johnson remarks, that Salmasius had been so long not only the monarch, but the tyrant of literature, that almost all mankind were delighted to find him defied and insulted by a new name, not yet considered