OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 135

those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excell- chap.ed by industry and skill: the Greek authors, LXvrforgotten on the banks of the Ilissus , have beenillustrated on those of the Elbe and the Thames;and Bessarion or Gaza might have envied thesuperior science of the barbarians; the accuracyof Budaeus, the taste of Erasmus , the copious-ness of Stephens, the erudition of Scaliger , thediscernment of Reiske, or of Bentley. On theside of the Latins, the discovery of printing wasa casual advantage; but this useful art has beenapplied by Aldus, and his innumerable succes-sors, to perpetuate and multiply the works ofantiquity.’ A single manuscript imported fromGreece is revived in ten thousand copies; andeach copy is fairer than the original. In thisform Homer and Plato would peruse with moresatisfaction their own writings; and their scho-liasts must resign the prize to the labours of ourwestern editors.

*

Before the revival of classic literature, the bar- use andbarians in Europe were immersed in ignorance ; ancientand their vulgar tongues were marked with the learniD *’

learning. When Aldus was about to publish the Greek scholiasts onSophocles and Euripides , Cave (say they), cave hoc facias, ne barbariistis adjuti domi maneant, et pauciores in Italiam ventitent (Dr.

Knight, in his Life of Erasmus, p. 365, from Beatus Khenauus).

* The press of Aldus Manutus, a Roman, was established at Veniceabout the year 1494; he priuted above sixty considerable works ofGreek literature, almost all for the first time; several containing dif-ferent treatises and authors, aud of several authors two, three, or foureditions (Fabric . Bibliot. Grcec. tom. xiii, p. G05, &c.) Yet his glorymust not tempt us to forget, that the first Greek book, the Grammarof Constantine Lasearis, was printed at Milan, in 1470; and that theFlorence Homer of 1488 displays all the luxury of the typographicalart. Sec the AnnalesTypographic of Mattaire, and the BibliographyInstructive of de Bure, a knowing bookseller of Paris .